Network Design Contract Job Trends

Network Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 369 333
Rank change year-on-year -68 -36 +121
Contract jobs citing Network Design 214 156 262
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.54% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.59% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 99 131
10th Percentile £394 £362 £363
25th Percentile £459 £431 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £594
90th Percentile £675 £690 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -7.27% +22.22% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 2
10th Percentile £30.25 - £24.43
25th Percentile £40.94 £66.25 £26.19
Median hourly rate £65.50 £67.50 £29.25
Median % change year-on-year -2.96% +130.77% -58.21%
75th Percentile £72.28 £68.75 £32.19
90th Percentile £76.27 - £33.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.00 - £35.00
% change year-on-year - - -50.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Network Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 41,610 26,282 36,757
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.67% 91.03% 85.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,026 16,812 23,631
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,481 1,100 2,513
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.30 £27.97 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.26% -23.38% -1.35%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £73.88 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -33.82% +8.57%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Network Design job vacancy trend in the UK

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design over the 6 months to 30 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design

Network Design
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Design over the 6 months to 30 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the UK over the 6 months to 30 May 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -82 180 £519 -5.64% 36
UK excluding London -75 120 £510 -7.27% 35
London -42 63 £525 +9.38% 10
Work from Home -48 58 £519 +1.17% 14
South East -56 44 £500 -13.04% 13
North of England -82 32 £575 +15.00% 8
North West -55 21 £575 +21.05% 6
Scotland +7 15 £425 +6.52% 5
South West -28 15 £565 -11.72% 5
Yorkshire -60 10 £519 +3.80% 1
Midlands -60 8 £425 -18.35% 3
West Midlands -68 8 £425 -18.35% 3
East of England - 6 £525 - 1
North East -20 5 £650 +18.18% 1
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 8 (3.74%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.40%) Confluence
3 2 (0.93%) Apache
3 2 (0.93%) CloudStack
3 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.93%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.47%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.47%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (3.74%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (2.34%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.93%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.47%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.47%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (0.93%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 63 (29.44%) Azure
2 49 (22.90%) AWS
3 13 (6.07%) OCI
4 9 (4.21%) GCP
5 8 (3.74%) SaaS
6 7 (3.27%) GitHub
7 6 (2.80%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 6 (2.80%) IaaS
8 5 (2.34%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.34%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.40%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.40%) PaaS
10 2 (0.93%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.93%) Datadog
10 2 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.93%) IBM Watson
10 2 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (0.93%) Nutanix
10 2 (0.93%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 89 (41.59%) Firewall
2 74 (34.58%) WAN
3 59 (27.57%) BGP
4 48 (22.43%) OSPF
5 40 (18.69%) VPN
6 38 (17.76%) Network Security
7 37 (17.29%) LAN
7 37 (17.29%) SD-WAN
8 30 (14.02%) VLAN
9 29 (13.55%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (13.08%) VXLAN
11 23 (10.75%) 5G
11 23 (10.75%) MPLS
12 21 (9.81%) Ethernet VPN
13 20 (9.35%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 18 (8.41%) DNS
15 16 (7.48%) 4G
15 16 (7.48%) BIG-IP
15 16 (7.48%) Radio Access Network
16 15 (7.01%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.47%) GIS
Development Applications
1 11 (5.14%) GitLab
2 5 (2.34%) JIRA
3 3 (1.40%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.93%) Git
5 1 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 45 (21.03%) Social Skills
2 26 (12.15%) Telecoms
3 21 (9.81%) Public Sector
4 19 (8.88%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (7.94%) Legal
6 14 (6.54%) Finance
7 10 (4.67%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.87%) Banking
8 4 (1.87%) Police
9 3 (1.40%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.40%) Retail
10 2 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.93%) Military
10 2 (0.93%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.47%) Aviation
11 1 (0.47%) German Language
11 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 63 (29.44%) Network Engineer
2 49 (22.90%) Architect
3 47 (21.96%) Senior
4 32 (14.95%) Network Architect
5 31 (14.49%) Network Specialist
6 26 (12.15%) Designer
7 21 (9.81%) Network Design Specialist
8 20 (9.35%) Network Designer
9 17 (7.94%) Senior Network Engineer
10 15 (7.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (6.07%) Design Engineer
12 12 (5.61%) Network Design Engineer
12 12 (5.61%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 9 (4.21%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 9 (4.21%) Security Architect
13 9 (4.21%) Senior Designer
13 9 (4.21%) Senior Network Designer
13 9 (4.21%) Technical Architect
14 8 (3.74%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
14 8 (3.74%) Senior Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.74%) NETCONF
1 8 (3.74%) YANG
2 7 (3.27%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.80%) REST
4 4 (1.87%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (1.87%) Kafka
5 2 (0.93%) Django
5 2 (0.93%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (0.93%) OpenConfig
5 2 (0.93%) RESTCONF
6 1 (0.47%) JSON
6 1 (0.47%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (28.50%) Data Centre
2 33 (15.42%) Hybrid Cloud
3 25 (11.68%) Cloud Native
4 14 (6.54%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.21%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.87%) CMDB
6 4 (1.87%) IoT
6 4 (1.87%) Operational Technology
6 4 (1.87%) PKI
6 4 (1.87%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.40%) CCTV
7 3 (1.40%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.40%) Public Cloud
8 2 (0.93%) EMC VMAX
8 2 (0.93%) EMC VNX
8 2 (0.93%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (0.93%) Hedge funds
8 2 (0.93%) Private Cloud
8 2 (0.93%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.94%) Linux
1 17 (7.94%) Windows
2 12 (5.61%) Windows Server
3 6 (2.80%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.87%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.93%) Data ONTAP
5 2 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (19.63%) Network Architecture
2 35 (16.36%) High Availability
3 33 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
4 31 (14.49%) Infrastructure as Code
4 31 (14.49%) Migration
5 29 (13.55%) Load Balancing
6 28 (13.08%) Zero Trust
7 27 (12.62%) DevOps
8 25 (11.68%) Roadmaps
9 24 (11.21%) CI/CD
10 19 (8.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 19 (8.88%) Project Delivery
11 18 (8.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 18 (8.41%) Stakeholder Management
12 16 (7.48%) Technical Leadership
12 16 (7.48%) Validation
13 14 (6.54%) Continuous Improvement
13 14 (6.54%) Network Segmentation
13 14 (6.54%) Security Architecture
14 13 (6.07%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 37 (17.29%) Python
2 10 (4.67%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.27%) Bicep
4 5 (2.34%) Bash
5 2 (0.93%) SQL
6 1 (0.47%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 77 (35.98%) Security Cleared
2 57 (26.64%) Cisco Certification
3 49 (22.90%) SC Cleared
4 43 (20.09%) CCNP
5 23 (10.75%) DV Cleared
6 20 (9.35%) CCIE
7 14 (6.54%) CCNA
8 12 (5.61%) Degree
9 11 (5.14%) Azure Certification
10 10 (4.67%) AWS Certification
11 9 (4.21%) JNCIE
12 6 (2.80%) JNCIS
12 6 (2.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (2.34%) CISSP
14 3 (1.40%) CEH
14 3 (1.40%) CISM
14 3 (1.40%) RIBA
15 2 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
15 2 (0.93%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.61%) NIST
2 5 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.40%) JSP 440
3 3 (1.40%) NCSC
3 3 (1.40%) SLA
4 2 (0.93%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.93%) NIST 800
4 2 (0.93%) QA
4 2 (0.93%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.47%) GDPR
System Software
1 20 (9.35%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (5.61%) VMware NSX
3 10 (4.67%) Hyper-V
4 9 (4.21%) Active Directory
5 6 (2.80%) vSphere
6 3 (1.40%) KVM
7 2 (0.93%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (0.93%) NFS
7 2 (0.93%) SRDF
7 2 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.47%) Docker
8 1 (0.47%) Firmware
8 1 (0.47%) RHEV
8 1 (0.47%) Xen
Systems Management
1 35 (16.36%) Ansible
2 29 (13.55%) Terraform
3 15 (7.01%) FortiGate
4 10 (4.67%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.34%) Nagios
6 4 (1.87%) Grafana
6 4 (1.87%) Prometheus
7 3 (1.40%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.93%) Argo
8 2 (0.93%) Check_MK
8 2 (0.93%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (0.93%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.93%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.93%) McAfee ePO
8 2 (0.93%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.93%) Network Intrusion Detection System
8 2 (0.93%) SCCM
8 2 (0.93%) SnapMirror
8 2 (0.93%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 95 (44.39%) Cisco
2 51 (23.83%) Palo Alto
3 33 (15.42%) F5
4 32 (14.95%) Fortinet
5 28 (13.08%) Microsoft
6 27 (12.62%) VMware
7 25 (11.68%) Aruba
7 25 (11.68%) Juniper
8 18 (8.41%) Arista
8 18 (8.41%) Nokia
9 14 (6.54%) CheckPoint
10 13 (6.07%) Ericsson
11 12 (5.61%) Huawei
12 11 (5.14%) Meraki
12 11 (5.14%) SolarWinds
13 7 (3.27%) Splunk
14 6 (2.80%) Zscaler
15 5 (2.34%) Ekahau
16 4 (1.87%) CrowdStrike
16 4 (1.87%) Okta