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 21 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 436 362 334
Rank change year-on-year -74 -28 +120
Contract jobs citing Network Design 197 164 253
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.56% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.62% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 99 125
10th Percentile £392 £362 £363
25th Percentile £463 £431 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.19% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £600
90th Percentile £675 £690 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £538 £450
% change year-on-year -6.98% +19.44% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 1
10th Percentile £27.85 - -
25th Percentile £33.25 £66.25 £23.25
Median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £23.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.63% +187.23% -66.43%
75th Percentile £71.76 £68.75 £23.75
90th Percentile £72.23 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.00 - -

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 40,694 26,498 36,630
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.34% 91.04% 86.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,533 17,004 23,615
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,389 1,106 2,441
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.35 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.13 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.79% -23.29% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.50 £59.98 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -80 165 £519 -5.68% 50
UK excluding London -92 117 £500 -6.98% 42
London -46 54 £525 +9.38% 16
Work from Home -51 46 £519 -0.29% 20
South East -51 42 £500 -13.04% 21
North of England -75 30 £575 +15.00% 8
North West -47 21 £555 +16.84% 7
Scotland +7 15 £400 +0.25% 6
South West -30 14 £533 -7.39% 3
West Midlands -56 8 £425 -18.35% 3
Midlands -56 8 £425 -18.35% 3
East of England -18 7 £525 +31.25% 1
Yorkshire -50 7 £585 +16.90%
North East -20 4 £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 7 (3.55%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.02%) Apache
2 2 (1.02%) CloudStack
2 2 (1.02%) Confluence
2 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.02%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.51%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.51%) Smallworld
Applications
1 9 (4.57%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.54%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.03%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.51%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.51%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.02%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 53 (26.90%) Azure
2 40 (20.30%) AWS
3 11 (5.58%) OCI
4 6 (3.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 6 (3.05%) SaaS
5 5 (2.54%) GCP
5 5 (2.54%) GitHub
5 5 (2.54%) IaaS
6 4 (2.03%) PaaS
7 2 (1.02%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
7 2 (1.02%) Nutanix
8 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.51%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.51%) Datadog
8 1 (0.51%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.51%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.51%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.51%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 80 (40.61%) Firewall
2 71 (36.04%) WAN
3 52 (26.40%) BGP
4 40 (20.30%) OSPF
5 38 (19.29%) VPN
6 37 (18.78%) LAN
7 34 (17.26%) SD-WAN
8 32 (16.24%) Network Security
9 29 (14.72%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (14.21%) VLAN
11 23 (11.68%) VXLAN
12 22 (11.17%) 5G
12 22 (11.17%) MPLS
13 18 (9.14%) TCP/IP
14 17 (8.63%) Ethernet VPN
14 17 (8.63%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 16 (8.12%) DNS
16 15 (7.61%) 4G
16 15 (7.61%) Radio Access Network
16 15 (7.61%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.51%) GIS
Development Applications
1 9 (4.57%) GitLab
2 3 (1.52%) JIRA
3 2 (1.02%) Git
4 1 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 40 (20.30%) Social Skills
2 23 (11.68%) Telecoms
3 19 (9.64%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.63%) Legal
5 16 (8.12%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (7.11%) Finance
7 8 (4.06%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.03%) Banking
8 4 (2.03%) Police
9 3 (1.52%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.52%) Retail
10 2 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.02%) Military
10 2 (1.02%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.51%) Aviation
11 1 (0.51%) German Language
11 1 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 61 (30.96%) Network Engineer
2 41 (20.81%) Architect
3 38 (19.29%) Senior
4 29 (14.72%) Network Architect
5 28 (14.21%) Network Specialist
6 25 (12.69%) Designer
7 20 (10.15%) Network Design Specialist
7 20 (10.15%) Network Designer
8 13 (6.60%) Design Engineer
8 13 (6.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 13 (6.60%) Senior Network Engineer
9 12 (6.09%) Network Design Engineer
10 10 (5.08%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 10 (5.08%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (4.57%) Senior Designer
11 9 (4.57%) Senior Network Designer
11 9 (4.57%) Technical Architect
12 8 (4.06%) Lead
13 6 (3.05%) Consultant
13 6 (3.05%) Senior Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.06%) 802.1X
1 8 (4.06%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.06%) YANG
2 5 (2.54%) REST
3 4 (2.03%) Kafka
4 3 (1.52%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.52%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.02%) Django
5 2 (1.02%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.51%) JSON
6 1 (0.51%) OpenID
6 1 (0.51%) SAML
6 1 (0.51%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 56 (28.43%) Data Centre
2 29 (14.72%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (8.63%) Cloud Native
4 12 (6.09%) Management Information System
5 8 (4.06%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.03%) IoT
6 4 (2.03%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.52%) CCTV
7 3 (1.52%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.52%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (1.02%) Hedge funds
8 2 (1.02%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.02%) PKI
8 2 (1.02%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.02%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.51%) Distributed Architecture
9 1 (0.51%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 11 (5.58%) Windows
2 10 (5.08%) Linux
3 8 (4.06%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.02%) Ubuntu
4 2 (1.02%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.51%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (21.32%) Network Architecture
2 31 (15.74%) High Availability
3 29 (14.72%) Migration
4 28 (14.21%) Load Balancing
5 27 (13.71%) Problem-Solving
6 23 (11.68%) Infrastructure as Code
7 21 (10.66%) Zero Trust
8 20 (10.15%) CI/CD
8 20 (10.15%) Roadmaps
9 18 (9.14%) DevOps
10 16 (8.12%) Project Delivery
11 15 (7.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 14 (7.11%) Stakeholder Management
13 13 (6.60%) Technical Leadership
14 12 (6.09%) Continuous Improvement
14 12 (6.09%) Network Segmentation
14 12 (6.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 12 (6.09%) Validation
15 11 (5.58%) Capacity Planning
15 11 (5.58%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 30 (15.23%) Python
2 6 (3.05%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.03%) Bash
4 3 (1.52%) Bicep
5 2 (1.02%) SQL
6 1 (0.51%) Perl
6 1 (0.51%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 69 (35.03%) Security Cleared
2 57 (28.93%) Cisco Certification
3 45 (22.84%) SC Cleared
4 43 (21.83%) CCNP
5 23 (11.68%) DV Cleared
6 21 (10.66%) CCIE
7 16 (8.12%) CCNA
8 10 (5.08%) Azure Certification
8 10 (5.08%) Degree
9 9 (4.57%) JNCIE
10 8 (4.06%) AWS Certification
10 8 (4.06%) JNCIS
11 5 (2.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (1.52%) RIBA
13 2 (1.02%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (1.02%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.02%) SANS
13 2 (1.02%) VCAP
13 2 (1.02%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.55%) NIST
2 3 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.52%) JSP 440
2 3 (1.52%) NCSC
2 3 (1.52%) SLA
3 2 (1.02%) GDPR
3 2 (1.02%) QA
4 1 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.51%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.51%) NIST 800
System Software
1 17 (8.63%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.08%) VMware NSX
3 9 (4.57%) Hyper-V
4 7 (3.55%) Active Directory
5 5 (2.54%) vSphere
6 3 (1.52%) KVM
7 1 (0.51%) Docker
7 1 (0.51%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.51%) Firmware
7 1 (0.51%) NFS
7 1 (0.51%) RHEV
7 1 (0.51%) SRDF
7 1 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.51%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (14.72%) Ansible
2 21 (10.66%) Terraform
3 15 (7.61%) FortiGate
4 9 (4.57%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.54%) Nagios
6 3 (1.52%) Grafana
6 3 (1.52%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.02%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.02%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (1.02%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.02%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 2 (1.02%) SCCM
7 2 (1.02%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.51%) EMC NetWorker
8 1 (0.51%) Iperf
8 1 (0.51%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.51%) Nmap
8 1 (0.51%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.51%) vRealize
Vendors
1 95 (48.22%) Cisco
2 50 (25.38%) Palo Alto
3 30 (15.23%) F5
4 29 (14.72%) Fortinet
5 28 (14.21%) Juniper
6 26 (13.20%) Microsoft
7 24 (12.18%) VMware
8 22 (11.17%) Aruba
9 18 (9.14%) Arista
10 16 (8.12%) Nokia
11 14 (7.11%) Meraki
12 12 (6.09%) Ericsson
13 11 (5.58%) Huawei
14 10 (5.08%) CheckPoint
15 8 (4.06%) SolarWinds
16 6 (3.05%) Zscaler
17 5 (2.54%) Ekahau
18 3 (1.52%) IBM
18 3 (1.52%) NetScout
18 3 (1.52%) Veeam