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 13 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 452 373 331
Rank change year-on-year -79 -42 +64
Contract jobs citing Network Design 213 186 247
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.56% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.62% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 128 135
10th Percentile £375 £400 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £645
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £512 £465
% change year-on-year -2.30% +10.05% -7.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 4
10th Percentile £32.65 £56.13 £26.25
25th Percentile £50.31 £57.81 £31.88
Median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% +11.36% -21.43%
75th Percentile £74.75 £65.31 £75.00
90th Percentile £83.76 £67.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +30.91% - -21.43%

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 45,250 29,801 33,299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.81% 90.48% 85.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,843 18,616 21,279
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £423 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,819 1,703 1,838
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.75 £17.31 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -39.40% -1.55%
75th Percentile £68.00 £47.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.38 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +13.33%

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 13 August 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 13 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 14 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 13 August 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 -74 186 £525 +0.96% 88
UK excluding London -111 115 £500 -2.30% 58
London -62 65 £525 +10.53% 40
Work from Home -42 64 £469 -20.21% 39
South East -66 39 £511 -11.09% 15
North of England -60 33 £575 +21.05% 15
North West -47 25 £575 +21.05% 4
South West -42 15 £495 -22.66% 5
Scotland -3 14 £380 -16.48% 5
West Midlands -50 10 £425 - 6
Midlands -60 10 £425 - 11
East of England -15 7 £525 +0.96% 2
Yorkshire -36 7 £519 -9.74% 9
North East - 7 £650 - 2

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 12 (5.63%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.41%) Apache
2 3 (1.41%) CloudStack
3 2 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.94%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.47%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.47%) Confluence
4 1 (0.47%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (4.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 10 (4.69%) MS Visio
2 9 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (3.76%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.41%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.47%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.47%) CPLEX
5 1 (0.47%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 59 (27.70%) Azure
2 56 (26.29%) AWS
3 15 (7.04%) OCI
4 10 (4.69%) GCP
4 10 (4.69%) GitHub
4 10 (4.69%) SaaS
5 7 (3.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 7 (3.29%) OpenShift
6 6 (2.82%) IaaS
7 5 (2.35%) Nutanix
8 4 (1.88%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.88%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.41%) AWS Control Tower
10 2 (0.94%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.94%) Datadog
10 2 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.94%) PaaS
11 1 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.47%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 94 (44.13%) Firewall
2 72 (33.80%) BGP
3 62 (29.11%) WAN
4 58 (27.23%) OSPF
5 38 (17.84%) VPN
6 37 (17.37%) VLAN
7 36 (16.90%) Network Security
8 33 (15.49%) LAN
8 33 (15.49%) VXLAN
9 30 (14.08%) 5G
9 30 (14.08%) SD-WAN
9 30 (14.08%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (12.68%) 4G
11 25 (11.74%) Ethernet VPN
11 25 (11.74%) MPLS
12 23 (10.80%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 22 (10.33%) Radio Access Network
14 18 (8.45%) BIG-IP
15 17 (7.98%) Wireless
16 15 (7.04%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.41%) Metadata
2 1 (0.47%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.10%) GitLab
2 3 (1.41%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.94%) JIRA
4 1 (0.47%) Git
General
1 48 (22.54%) Social Skills
2 33 (15.49%) Telecoms
3 22 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (9.86%) Public Sector
5 10 (4.69%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (4.23%) Legal
7 7 (3.29%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.29%) Retail
8 5 (2.35%) Finance
9 3 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.41%) Police
10 2 (0.94%) Banking
10 2 (0.94%) Billing
10 2 (0.94%) Military
11 1 (0.47%) Aviation
11 1 (0.47%) German Language
11 1 (0.47%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.47%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 72 (33.80%) Network Engineer
2 47 (22.07%) Architect
3 45 (21.13%) Senior
4 34 (15.96%) Network Specialist
5 28 (13.15%) Network Architect
6 24 (11.27%) Senior Network Engineer
7 22 (10.33%) Network Design Specialist
8 19 (8.92%) Designer
9 16 (7.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (6.10%) Design Engineer
10 13 (6.10%) Network Designer
10 13 (6.10%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 10 (4.69%) Security Architect
11 10 (4.69%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 10 (4.69%) Senior Network Specialist
12 9 (4.23%) Network Design Engineer
13 7 (3.29%) Lead
14 6 (2.82%) IP Architect
14 6 (2.82%) Network Security Architect
14 6 (2.82%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.16%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.16%) YANG
2 8 (3.76%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.82%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.82%) REST
3 6 (2.82%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.88%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (1.88%) Kafka
5 3 (1.41%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.47%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 66 (30.99%) Data Centre
2 44 (20.66%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (12.68%) Cloud Native
4 11 (5.16%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.23%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (3.76%) Public Cloud
7 6 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.82%) Operational Technology
8 5 (2.35%) IoT
8 5 (2.35%) PKI
8 5 (2.35%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.88%) CMDB
9 4 (1.88%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.41%) Data Fabric
10 3 (1.41%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.41%) SCADA
11 2 (0.94%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.94%) Handset
11 2 (0.94%) Onboarding
11 2 (0.94%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.04%) Linux
2 13 (6.10%) Windows
3 10 (4.69%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.76%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.88%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.94%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (0.94%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (19.25%) Network Architecture
2 38 (17.84%) High Availability
3 37 (17.37%) Zero Trust
4 34 (15.96%) Problem-Solving
5 33 (15.49%) Infrastructure as Code
5 33 (15.49%) Project Delivery
6 32 (15.02%) Migration
7 31 (14.55%) Stakeholder Management
8 28 (13.15%) DevOps
9 27 (12.68%) Load Balancing
9 27 (12.68%) Roadmaps
10 26 (12.21%) Validation
11 24 (11.27%) Technical Leadership
12 23 (10.80%) CI/CD
12 23 (10.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 21 (9.86%) Continuous Improvement
14 18 (8.45%) Capacity Planning
15 17 (7.98%) Cybersecurity
15 17 (7.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 13 (6.10%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.19%) Python
2 7 (3.29%) PowerShell
3 6 (2.82%) Bicep
4 2 (0.94%) Bash
5 1 (0.47%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 67 (31.46%) Security Cleared
2 56 (26.29%) Cisco Certification
3 44 (20.66%) SC Cleared
4 41 (19.25%) CCNP
5 20 (9.39%) CCIE
6 15 (7.04%) DV Cleared
7 13 (6.10%) JNCIE
8 12 (5.63%) CCNA
9 11 (5.16%) Degree
10 9 (4.23%) AWS Certification
10 9 (4.23%) Azure Certification
11 7 (3.29%) CISSP
12 6 (2.82%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (1.88%) CISM
15 2 (0.94%) ISSAP
15 2 (0.94%) NCDA
15 2 (0.94%) NCIE
15 2 (0.94%) VCAP
15 2 (0.94%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.23%) NIST
2 4 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.41%) GxP
3 3 (1.41%) NIST 800
3 3 (1.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.94%) GDPR
4 2 (0.94%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.94%) NCSC
4 2 (0.94%) QA
4 2 (0.94%) SLA
4 2 (0.94%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 20 (9.39%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (5.16%) Hyper-V
3 10 (4.69%) vSphere
4 9 (4.23%) VMware NSX
5 6 (2.82%) Active Directory
6 3 (1.41%) Firmware
6 3 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (0.94%) FreeRADIUS
7 2 (0.94%) NFS
7 2 (0.94%) SRDF
8 1 (0.47%) Docker
8 1 (0.47%) KVM
Systems Management
1 45 (21.13%) Ansible
2 40 (18.78%) Terraform
3 12 (5.63%) Kubernetes
4 9 (4.23%) FortiGate
5 6 (2.82%) Grafana
5 6 (2.82%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.41%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.41%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.94%) Argo
7 2 (0.94%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.94%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.94%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (0.94%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (0.94%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.94%) SnapMirror
7 2 (0.94%) SnapVault
7 2 (0.94%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.47%) QRadar
8 1 (0.47%) Suricata
8 1 (0.47%) vRealize
Vendors
1 90 (42.25%) Cisco
2 53 (24.88%) Palo Alto
3 42 (19.72%) F5
3 42 (19.72%) Fortinet
4 26 (12.21%) Juniper
4 26 (12.21%) Microsoft
5 25 (11.74%) VMware
6 22 (10.33%) Aruba
7 21 (9.86%) Nokia
8 20 (9.39%) Arista
9 18 (8.45%) Ericsson
10 14 (6.57%) CheckPoint
11 13 (6.10%) Huawei
12 12 (5.63%) Zscaler
13 9 (4.23%) Splunk
14 8 (3.76%) Meraki
15 7 (3.29%) SolarWinds
16 6 (2.82%) ServiceNow
17 5 (2.35%) Google
17 5 (2.35%) Veeam