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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 434 344 330
Rank change year-on-year -90 -14 +142
Contract jobs citing Network Design 189 186 292
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.63% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.52% 0.70% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 111 152
10th Percentile £400 £363 £363
25th Percentile £425 £444 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% +2.63%
75th Percentile £588 £619 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £682
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 7
10th Percentile £38.74 - £23.85
25th Percentile £60.47 - £45.12
Median hourly rate £73.40 - £65.98
75th Percentile £74.26 - £67.99
90th Percentile - - £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.40 - £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 36,632 26,629 38,749
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.08% 90.34% 86.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,216 16,983 25,185
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 £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.84% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,179 898 2,347
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.57 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £29.61 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.89% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £64.75 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.68 £76.53 £71.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £32.00 £31.80
% change year-on-year -17.02% +0.63% -9.14%

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 11 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Design over the 6 months to 11 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

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 11 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 -88 165 £500 -6.98% 44
UK excluding London -84 104 £500 -4.76% 32
London -25 71 £495 -1.00% 13
Work from Home -44 38 £463 -8.64% 17
South East -44 36 £500 -13.04% 6
West Midlands -43 19 £400 -8.57% 3
Midlands -54 19 £400 -8.57% 3
North of England -84 19 £537 +7.40% 13
North West -48 15 £525 +5.00% 11
South West -22 11 £490 -6.22% 5
Scotland +24 10 £650 +36.84% 1
East of England -20 6 £425 -8.11% 6
Yorkshire -70 4 £663 +35.90% 1
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -
Wales -10 1 - -
North East -13 1 - - 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 (1.06%) Confluence
1 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.06%) OpenStack
1 2 (1.06%) Skype for Business
2 1 (0.53%) ArcGIS
2 1 (0.53%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.23%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.65%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.53%) Autodesk Inventor
4 1 (0.53%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 48 (25.40%) Azure
2 34 (17.99%) AWS
3 12 (6.35%) GCP
4 6 (3.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 6 (3.17%) PaaS
5 4 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
5 4 (2.12%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.59%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (1.59%) IaaS
6 3 (1.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.06%) GitHub
7 2 (1.06%) IBM Watson
8 1 (0.53%) Akamai
8 1 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.53%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.53%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.53%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.53%) Google Ads
8 1 (0.53%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.53%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 78 (41.27%) WAN
2 73 (38.62%) Firewall
3 46 (24.34%) LAN
4 43 (22.75%) BGP
5 42 (22.22%) Network Security
6 41 (21.69%) VPN
7 34 (17.99%) MPLS
8 32 (16.93%) SD-WAN
9 30 (15.87%) VLAN
9 30 (15.87%) Wi-Fi
10 25 (13.23%) TCP/IP
11 20 (10.58%) 5G
11 20 (10.58%) OSPF
12 17 (8.99%) Radio Access Network
13 16 (8.47%) IPsec
14 15 (7.94%) 4G
14 15 (7.94%) Wireless
15 14 (7.41%) Cisco ISE
15 14 (7.41%) DNS
16 13 (6.88%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.12%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.65%) Git
2 3 (1.59%) JIRA
3 1 (0.53%) GitLab
3 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 49 (25.93%) Social Skills
2 34 (17.99%) Telecoms
3 25 (13.23%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (10.58%) Public Sector
5 16 (8.47%) Finance
6 15 (7.94%) Legal
7 10 (5.29%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.17%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (2.65%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.59%) Aviation
10 3 (1.59%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.59%) Police
11 2 (1.06%) Banking
11 2 (1.06%) Electronics
11 2 (1.06%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.53%) German Language
12 1 (0.53%) Local Government
12 1 (0.53%) Marketing
12 1 (0.53%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 64 (33.86%) Network Engineer
2 54 (28.57%) Architect
3 42 (22.22%) Network Architect
4 21 (11.11%) Network Specialist
5 20 (10.58%) Senior
6 17 (8.99%) Network Design Specialist
7 16 (8.47%) Design Engineer
8 15 (7.94%) Network Design Engineer
9 10 (5.29%) Designer
9 10 (5.29%) Network Designer
10 9 (4.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 9 (4.76%) Senior Designer
10 9 (4.76%) Senior Network Designer
10 9 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
11 8 (4.23%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 7 (3.70%) Consultant
12 7 (3.70%) Network Security Architect
12 7 (3.70%) Security Architect
12 7 (3.70%) Senior Network Engineer
12 7 (3.70%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (6.35%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.70%) NETCONF
2 7 (3.70%) YANG
3 4 (2.12%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.12%) OpenID
3 4 (2.12%) RESTCONF
3 4 (2.12%) SAML
4 2 (1.06%) Django
4 2 (1.06%) Kafka
4 2 (1.06%) REST
5 1 (0.53%) JSON
5 1 (0.53%) Middleware
5 1 (0.53%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 45 (23.81%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.35%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (5.29%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (4.76%) IoT
5 8 (4.23%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.65%) PKI
6 5 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.12%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (2.12%) NB-IoT
7 4 (2.12%) Operational Technology
8 3 (1.59%) CCTV
8 3 (1.59%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.59%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.59%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (1.59%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.59%) SCADA
9 2 (1.06%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.06%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.06%) Security Posture
9 2 (1.06%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 11 (5.82%) Windows
2 6 (3.17%) Linux
3 5 (2.65%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.06%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (20.11%) Network Architecture
2 28 (14.81%) Load Balancing
3 27 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (10.58%) High Availability
4 20 (10.58%) Migration
4 20 (10.58%) Roadmaps
5 16 (8.47%) Cybersecurity
5 16 (8.47%) Security Architecture
5 16 (8.47%) Stakeholder Management
6 15 (7.94%) Network Management
7 14 (7.41%) Data Protection
7 14 (7.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 12 (6.35%) ITIL
8 12 (6.35%) Root Cause Analysis
9 11 (5.82%) Infrastructure as Code
9 11 (5.82%) Mentoring
9 11 (5.82%) TOGAF
9 11 (5.82%) Zero Trust
10 10 (5.29%) DevOps
10 10 (5.29%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 26 (13.76%) Python
2 7 (3.70%) PowerShell
2 7 (3.70%) SQL
3 5 (2.65%) Bash
4 3 (1.59%) Perl
5 1 (0.53%) Bicep
5 1 (0.53%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 72 (38.10%) Security Cleared
2 51 (26.98%) Cisco Certification
3 45 (23.81%) SC Cleared
4 40 (21.16%) CCNP
5 28 (14.81%) DV Cleared
6 24 (12.70%) CCIE
7 18 (9.52%) Degree
8 14 (7.41%) CCNA
9 12 (6.35%) JNCIS
10 9 (4.76%) AWS Certification
10 9 (4.76%) CISSP
11 8 (4.23%) JNCIE
12 7 (3.70%) Azure Certification
13 6 (3.17%) JNCIP
14 5 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
15 4 (2.12%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 4 (2.12%) CCSP
16 3 (1.59%) CCIE Security
16 3 (1.59%) RIBA
17 2 (1.06%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.29%) GDPR
1 10 (5.29%) NIST
2 7 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.65%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.59%) JSP 440
5 2 (1.06%) NCSC
5 2 (1.06%) SLA
6 1 (0.53%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.53%) DO-160
6 1 (0.53%) QA
System Software
1 11 (5.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.29%) VMware NSX
3 7 (3.70%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.12%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.06%) Firmware
5 2 (1.06%) KVM
6 1 (0.53%) Docker
6 1 (0.53%) RHEV
6 1 (0.53%) Xen
Systems Management
1 21 (11.11%) Ansible
2 18 (9.52%) FortiGate
3 13 (6.88%) Terraform
4 5 (2.65%) Nagios
5 2 (1.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (1.06%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.06%) McAfee ePO
5 2 (1.06%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.53%) Grafana
6 1 (0.53%) Iperf
6 1 (0.53%) Nmap
6 1 (0.53%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.53%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.53%) SCCM
Vendors
1 89 (47.09%) Cisco
2 47 (24.87%) Palo Alto
3 37 (19.58%) Juniper
4 27 (14.29%) Microsoft
5 26 (13.76%) Fortinet
6 25 (13.23%) F5
7 24 (12.70%) Meraki
8 14 (7.41%) VMware
9 12 (6.35%) Nokia
10 11 (5.82%) Aruba
10 11 (5.82%) CheckPoint
11 10 (5.29%) SolarWinds
12 7 (3.70%) Arista
12 7 (3.70%) Ericsson
13 5 (2.65%) Ekahau
14 3 (1.59%) Actix
14 3 (1.59%) Huawei
14 3 (1.59%) McAfee
14 3 (1.59%) NetScout
15 2 (1.06%) Forcepoint