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

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 434 352 339
Rank change year-on-year -82 -13 +113
Contract jobs citing Network Design 194 165 251
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.57% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.49% 0.63% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 131 99 126
10th Percentile £400 £357 £363
25th Percentile £469 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% +13.16% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £600
90th Percentile £675 £690 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -9.09% +22.22% -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 39,805 26,361 36,876
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.33% 90.96% 86.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,996 16,941 23,723
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.13% -1.71% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £479 £500
% change year-on-year +2.71% -4.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,368 1,073 2,431
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.41 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.90 £18.38 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.60 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +48.60% -21.64% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.31 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.78 £38.00
% change year-on-year +74.59% -32.17% +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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -94 164 £522 -5.09% 53
UK excluding London -85 113 £500 -9.09% 39
London -54 55 £525 +9.38% 19
Work from Home -43 45 £519 -0.29% 19
South East -47 42 £500 -13.04% 13
North of England -81 29 £555 +11.00% 14
North West -44 21 £540 +8.00% 12
South West -30 14 £533 -0.93% 3
Scotland +14 13 £415 -5.03% 4
East of England -23 7 £525 +31.25% 1
Yorkshire -50 7 £585 +16.90%
Midlands -54 7 £394 -24.35% 4
West Midlands -57 7 £394 -24.35% 4
North East -17 3 £650 +18.18% 2
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 (3.61%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.03%) Confluence
2 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.03%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.52%) Apache
3 1 (0.52%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.52%) CloudStack
3 1 (0.52%) Smallworld
Applications
1 9 (4.64%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.52%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.03%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 50 (25.77%) Azure
2 37 (19.07%) AWS
3 9 (4.64%) OCI
4 6 (3.09%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.58%) GCP
5 5 (2.58%) GitHub
5 5 (2.58%) SaaS
6 4 (2.06%) IaaS
6 4 (2.06%) PaaS
7 2 (1.03%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.03%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.52%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.52%) Datadog
8 1 (0.52%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.52%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.52%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.52%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 76 (39.18%) Firewall
2 69 (35.57%) WAN
3 49 (25.26%) BGP
4 39 (20.10%) LAN
5 38 (19.59%) VPN
6 37 (19.07%) OSPF
7 33 (17.01%) Network Security
8 32 (16.49%) SD-WAN
9 27 (13.92%) VLAN
9 27 (13.92%) Wi-Fi
10 25 (12.89%) MPLS
11 22 (11.34%) 5G
12 20 (10.31%) VXLAN
13 18 (9.28%) TCP/IP
14 16 (8.25%) DNS
15 15 (7.73%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 15 (7.73%) Wireless
16 14 (7.22%) 4G
16 14 (7.22%) Ethernet VPN
16 14 (7.22%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.52%) GIS
Development Applications
1 7 (3.61%) GitLab
2 3 (1.55%) JIRA
3 2 (1.03%) Git
4 1 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 41 (21.13%) Social Skills
2 23 (11.86%) Telecoms
3 19 (9.79%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.76%) Legal
5 16 (8.25%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (7.22%) Finance
7 8 (4.12%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.58%) Police
9 4 (2.06%) Banking
10 3 (1.55%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.55%) Retail
11 2 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (1.03%) Military
11 2 (1.03%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.52%) Aviation
12 1 (0.52%) German Language
12 1 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 62 (31.96%) Network Engineer
2 42 (21.65%) Architect
3 37 (19.07%) Senior
4 30 (15.46%) Network Architect
5 27 (13.92%) Network Specialist
6 24 (12.37%) Designer
7 19 (9.79%) Network Design Specialist
7 19 (9.79%) Network Designer
8 14 (7.22%) Design Engineer
9 13 (6.70%) Network Design Engineer
9 13 (6.70%) Senior Network Engineer
10 11 (5.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 10 (5.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (4.64%) Senior Designer
12 9 (4.64%) Senior Network Designer
12 9 (4.64%) Technical Architect
13 8 (4.12%) Lead
13 8 (4.12%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 6 (3.09%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 6 (3.09%) Senior Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.12%) 802.1X
1 8 (4.12%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.12%) YANG
2 5 (2.58%) REST
3 4 (2.06%) Kafka
4 3 (1.55%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.55%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.03%) Django
6 1 (0.52%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.52%) JSON
6 1 (0.52%) OpenID
6 1 (0.52%) SAML
6 1 (0.52%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 53 (27.32%) Data Centre
2 26 (13.40%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (8.25%) Cloud Native
4 12 (6.19%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.64%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.06%) IoT
6 4 (2.06%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.55%) CCTV
7 3 (1.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.03%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (1.03%) Hedge funds
8 2 (1.03%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.03%) PKI
8 2 (1.03%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.03%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.03%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.52%) Replication
9 1 (0.52%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 10 (5.15%) Windows
2 9 (4.64%) Linux
3 7 (3.61%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.03%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.52%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.52%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (21.13%) Network Architecture
2 30 (15.46%) High Availability
3 27 (13.92%) Load Balancing
3 27 (13.92%) Migration
4 26 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (10.82%) Infrastructure as Code
6 20 (10.31%) Roadmaps
7 19 (9.79%) Zero Trust
8 18 (9.28%) CI/CD
9 16 (8.25%) DevOps
10 14 (7.22%) Project Delivery
10 14 (7.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 14 (7.22%) Stakeholder Management
10 14 (7.22%) Technical Leadership
11 12 (6.19%) Continuous Improvement
11 12 (6.19%) Data Protection
11 12 (6.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 12 (6.19%) Network Segmentation
12 10 (5.15%) Capacity Planning
12 10 (5.15%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 28 (14.43%) Python
2 6 (3.09%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.06%) Bash
4 3 (1.55%) Bicep
5 2 (1.03%) SQL
6 1 (0.52%) Perl
6 1 (0.52%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 73 (37.63%) Security Cleared
2 56 (28.87%) Cisco Certification
3 46 (23.71%) SC Cleared
4 42 (21.65%) CCNP
5 26 (13.40%) DV Cleared
6 22 (11.34%) CCIE
7 16 (8.25%) CCNA
8 10 (5.15%) Degree
9 9 (4.64%) Azure Certification
9 9 (4.64%) JNCIE
9 9 (4.64%) JNCIS
10 7 (3.61%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (2.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (1.55%) RIBA
13 2 (1.03%) BC Cleared
13 2 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (1.03%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.03%) SANS
13 2 (1.03%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.61%) NIST
2 3 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.55%) JSP 440
2 3 (1.55%) NCSC
2 3 (1.55%) SLA
3 2 (1.03%) GDPR
3 2 (1.03%) QA
4 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.52%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.52%) NIST 800
System Software
1 16 (8.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.15%) VMware NSX
3 8 (4.12%) Hyper-V
4 7 (3.61%) Active Directory
5 4 (2.06%) vSphere
6 3 (1.55%) KVM
7 1 (0.52%) Docker
7 1 (0.52%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.52%) Firmware
7 1 (0.52%) NFS
7 1 (0.52%) RHEV
7 1 (0.52%) SRDF
7 1 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.52%) Xen
Systems Management
1 27 (13.92%) Ansible
2 19 (9.79%) Terraform
3 15 (7.73%) FortiGate
4 8 (4.12%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.58%) Nagios
6 2 (1.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.03%) Cisco Prime
6 2 (1.03%) Grafana
6 2 (1.03%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.03%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 2 (1.03%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.03%) SCCM
6 2 (1.03%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.52%) Argo
7 1 (0.52%) Check_MK
7 1 (0.52%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.52%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.52%) Iperf
7 1 (0.52%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.52%) vRealize
Vendors
1 94 (48.45%) Cisco
2 48 (24.74%) Palo Alto
3 30 (15.46%) Juniper
4 29 (14.95%) F5
5 28 (14.43%) Fortinet
6 26 (13.40%) Microsoft
7 22 (11.34%) VMware
8 20 (10.31%) Aruba
9 16 (8.25%) Arista
10 15 (7.73%) Nokia
11 14 (7.22%) Meraki
12 11 (5.67%) Ericsson
13 10 (5.15%) CheckPoint
13 10 (5.15%) Huawei
14 8 (4.12%) SolarWinds
15 6 (3.09%) Zscaler
16 5 (2.58%) Ekahau
17 3 (1.55%) IBM
17 3 (1.55%) McAfee
17 3 (1.55%) NetScout