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

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 341 313
Rank change year-on-year -96 -28 +158
Contract jobs citing Network Design 183 189 297
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.43% 0.63% 0.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.70% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 114 155
10th Percentile £398 £374 £363
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £600
90th Percentile £675 £684 £683
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £531 £475
% change year-on-year -5.88% +11.84% +0.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 7
10th Percentile £72.88 - £23.85
25th Percentile £73.40 - £45.12
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
75th Percentile - - £67.99
90th Percentile - - £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - -5.74%

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 36,580 27,136 38,678
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.31% 90.25% 86.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,208 17,123 25,158
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £611 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.94% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,181 914 2,335
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £28.50 £32.50 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year -12.31% +1.20% -8.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £76.25 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.46 £31.64 £31.50
% change year-on-year -19.54% +0.44% -10.00%

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 8 March 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
Top 16 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 8 March 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 -80 161 £500 -5.88% 44
UK excluding London -85 102 £500 -5.88% 33
London -34 69 £475 -5.00% 14
Work from Home -52 36 £450 -10.00% 21
South East -46 35 £500 -13.04% 9
West Midlands -42 19 £400 -8.57% 3
Midlands -55 19 £400 -8.57% 3
North of England -76 19 £537 +7.40% 8
North West -45 15 £525 +5.00% 7
South West -21 11 £490 -6.22% 8
Scotland +16 10 £650 +36.84% 1
East of England -23 5 £425 -8.11% 6
Yorkshire -63 4 £663 +35.90%
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -
North East -10 1 - - 1
Wales -12 1 - -

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 2 (1.09%) Confluence
1 2 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.09%) OpenStack
1 2 (1.09%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (4.37%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.73%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.09%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.55%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 48 (26.23%) Azure
2 33 (18.03%) AWS
3 12 (6.56%) GCP
4 6 (3.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 6 (3.28%) PaaS
5 4 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
5 4 (2.19%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.64%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (1.64%) IaaS
6 3 (1.64%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.09%) GitHub
7 2 (1.09%) IBM Watson
8 1 (0.55%) Akamai
8 1 (0.55%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.55%) AWS IoT
8 1 (0.55%) Cloudflare
8 1 (0.55%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.55%) Google Ads
8 1 (0.55%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.55%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 77 (42.08%) WAN
2 73 (39.89%) Firewall
3 45 (24.59%) LAN
4 42 (22.95%) BGP
5 41 (22.40%) Network Security
5 41 (22.40%) VPN
6 34 (18.58%) MPLS
7 31 (16.94%) SD-WAN
8 30 (16.39%) VLAN
9 29 (15.85%) Wi-Fi
10 25 (13.66%) TCP/IP
11 19 (10.38%) OSPF
12 18 (9.84%) 5G
13 16 (8.74%) Radio Access Network
14 15 (8.20%) IPsec
15 14 (7.65%) 4G
15 14 (7.65%) Cisco ISE
15 14 (7.65%) DNS
15 14 (7.65%) Wireless
16 13 (7.10%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.64%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.73%) Git
2 3 (1.64%) JIRA
3 1 (0.55%) GitLab
3 1 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 50 (27.32%) Social Skills
2 33 (18.03%) Telecoms
3 24 (13.11%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (10.93%) Public Sector
5 16 (8.74%) Finance
6 15 (8.20%) Legal
7 8 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.28%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.19%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.64%) Aviation
10 3 (1.64%) Police
11 2 (1.09%) Banking
11 2 (1.09%) Electronics
11 2 (1.09%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.55%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.55%) Local Government
12 1 (0.55%) Marketing
12 1 (0.55%) Military
12 1 (0.55%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 63 (34.43%) Network Engineer
2 53 (28.96%) Architect
3 42 (22.95%) Network Architect
4 20 (10.93%) Senior
5 19 (10.38%) Network Specialist
6 16 (8.74%) Design Engineer
7 15 (8.20%) Network Design Engineer
7 15 (8.20%) Network Design Specialist
8 9 (4.92%) Designer
8 9 (4.92%) Network Designer
8 9 (4.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 9 (4.92%) Senior Designer
8 9 (4.92%) Senior Network Designer
8 9 (4.92%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (4.37%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
10 7 (3.83%) Consultant
10 7 (3.83%) Network Security Architect
10 7 (3.83%) Security Architect
10 7 (3.83%) Senior Network Engineer
11 6 (3.28%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.01%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.83%) NETCONF
2 7 (3.83%) YANG
3 4 (2.19%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.19%) OpenID
3 4 (2.19%) RESTCONF
3 4 (2.19%) SAML
4 2 (1.09%) Django
4 2 (1.09%) REST
5 1 (0.55%) JSON
5 1 (0.55%) Kafka
5 1 (0.55%) Middleware
5 1 (0.55%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (24.04%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (5.46%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (4.92%) IoT
5 7 (3.83%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.73%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.73%) PKI
6 5 (2.73%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.19%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (2.19%) NB-IoT
7 4 (2.19%) SCADA
8 3 (1.64%) CCTV
8 3 (1.64%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.64%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.64%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (1.64%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.09%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.09%) Product Ownership
9 2 (1.09%) Security Posture
9 2 (1.09%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 11 (6.01%) Windows
2 6 (3.28%) Linux
3 5 (2.73%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.09%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (20.22%) Network Architecture
2 27 (14.75%) Load Balancing
3 26 (14.21%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (10.93%) Migration
5 19 (10.38%) High Availability
5 19 (10.38%) Roadmaps
6 17 (9.29%) Cybersecurity
7 16 (8.74%) Security Architecture
8 15 (8.20%) Network Management
8 15 (8.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 14 (7.65%) Data Protection
10 13 (7.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 12 (6.56%) ITIL
11 12 (6.56%) Root Cause Analysis
12 11 (6.01%) Mentoring
12 11 (6.01%) Zero Trust
13 10 (5.46%) DevOps
13 10 (5.46%) Infrastructure as Code
13 10 (5.46%) Network Segmentation
13 10 (5.46%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 26 (14.21%) Python
2 7 (3.83%) PowerShell
2 7 (3.83%) SQL
3 5 (2.73%) Bash
4 3 (1.64%) Perl
5 1 (0.55%) Bicep
5 1 (0.55%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 70 (38.25%) Security Cleared
2 52 (28.42%) Cisco Certification
3 43 (23.50%) SC Cleared
4 41 (22.40%) CCNP
5 28 (15.30%) DV Cleared
6 24 (13.11%) CCIE
7 18 (9.84%) Degree
8 14 (7.65%) CCNA
9 12 (6.56%) JNCIS
10 10 (5.46%) CISSP
11 9 (4.92%) AWS Certification
12 8 (4.37%) JNCIE
13 6 (3.28%) Azure Certification
13 6 (3.28%) JNCIP
14 5 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
15 4 (2.19%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 4 (2.19%) CCSP
16 3 (1.64%) CCIE Security
16 3 (1.64%) RIBA
17 2 (1.09%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.01%) NIST
2 10 (5.46%) GDPR
3 8 (4.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (2.73%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.64%) JSP 440
6 2 (1.09%) NCSC
7 1 (0.55%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.55%) DO-160
7 1 (0.55%) QA
7 1 (0.55%) SLA
System Software
1 10 (5.46%) VMware Infrastructure
1 10 (5.46%) VMware NSX
2 7 (3.83%) Active Directory
3 4 (2.19%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.09%) Firmware
4 2 (1.09%) KVM
5 1 (0.55%) Docker
5 1 (0.55%) RHEV
5 1 (0.55%) Xen
Systems Management
1 20 (10.93%) Ansible
2 18 (9.84%) FortiGate
3 12 (6.56%) Terraform
4 5 (2.73%) Nagios
5 2 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (1.09%) McAfee ePO
5 2 (1.09%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.55%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.55%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.55%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.55%) Grafana
6 1 (0.55%) Iperf
6 1 (0.55%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.55%) Nmap
6 1 (0.55%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.55%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.55%) SCCM
Vendors
1 89 (48.63%) Cisco
2 47 (25.68%) Palo Alto
3 37 (20.22%) Juniper
4 26 (14.21%) Fortinet
5 25 (13.66%) F5
5 25 (13.66%) Microsoft
6 24 (13.11%) Meraki
7 13 (7.10%) VMware
8 12 (6.56%) Nokia
9 11 (6.01%) CheckPoint
10 10 (5.46%) Aruba
10 10 (5.46%) SolarWinds
11 7 (3.83%) Arista
11 7 (3.83%) Ericsson
12 4 (2.19%) Actix
12 4 (2.19%) Ekahau
13 3 (1.64%) McAfee
13 3 (1.64%) NetScout
14 2 (1.09%) Forcepoint
14 2 (1.09%) Huawei