SD-WAN Contracts

Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring SD-WAN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SD-WAN over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 353 371 390
Rank change year-on-year +18 +19 +93
Contract jobs citing SD-WAN 171 238 355
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.58% 0.55% 0.59%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.57% 4.22% 4.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 126 147 229
10th Percentile £338 £200 £313
25th Percentile £413 £395 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £495
Median % change year-on-year - +1.01% -1.00%
75th Percentile £585 £595 £588
90th Percentile £669 £738 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -6.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 8 5
10th Percentile £60.13 £23.95 £29.30
25th Percentile £69.69 £26.69 £32.75
Median hourly rate £75.00 £31.25 £92.50
Median % change year-on-year +140.00% -66.22% +236.36%
75th Percentile - £47.81 £101.25
90th Percentile - £91.50 £102.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £75.00 £60.00 £92.50
% change year-on-year +25.00% -35.14% +255.77%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

SD-WAN falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 3,739 5,643 7,361
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.79% 12.94% 12.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,297 3,382 4,789
10th Percentile £213 £205 £235
25th Percentile £363 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £495 £519
Median % change year-on-year -1.52% -4.53% +3.70%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £675 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -2.63% - +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 423 478
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.57 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.35 £10.63
Median hourly rate £32.50 £38.50 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.58% +102.63% -31.84%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.59 £45.88 £18.50
% change year-on-year -46.41% +148.00% -13.95%

SD-WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing SD-WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for SD-WAN in the UK

SD-WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SD-WAN.

Daily rate trend for SD-WAN in the UK

SD-WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SD-WAN over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SD-WAN in the UK

SD-WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SD-WAN.

Hourly rate trend for SD-WAN in the UK

SD-WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SD-WAN over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SD-WAN in the UK

SD-WAN
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SD-WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 2025. 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 +8 148 £500 -4.76% 123
UK excluding London +21 86 £475 -5.00% 82
London +37 76 £500 -4.76% 48
Work from Home +29 53 £500 -6.98% 76
South East +39 26 £475 -16.59% 23
North of England +13 16 £475 +9.83% 21
North West 0 13 £463 +6.94% 10
Midlands +9 12 £456 -29.81% 15
Scotland +16 11 £444 -11.25% 6
West Midlands -1 10 £438 -32.69% 9
South West +38 8 £600 -11.11% 8
Wales - 7 £290 -
East of England +27 6 £400 -23.81% 5
Yorkshire +11 2 £513 -15.98% 9
East Midlands - 2 £475 - 4

SD-WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (2.34%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (2.34%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.17%) Camunda
3 1 (0.58%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (1.17%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.58%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (2.34%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 67 (39.18%) Azure
2 56 (32.75%) AWS
3 12 (7.02%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (4.09%) Entra ID
5 6 (3.51%) GCP
6 5 (2.92%) Cloud Computing
6 5 (2.92%) OneDrive
7 3 (1.75%) Akamai
7 3 (1.75%) Mimecast
8 2 (1.17%) AWS CloudFormation
8 2 (1.17%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.17%) Cloudflare
8 2 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
8 2 (1.17%) Nutanix
8 2 (1.17%) Serverless
8 2 (1.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.58%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 149 (87.13%) WAN
2 107 (62.57%) Firewall
3 59 (34.50%) LAN
4 58 (33.92%) Network Security
4 58 (33.92%) VPN
5 52 (30.41%) BGP
6 44 (25.73%) OSPF
6 44 (25.73%) Wireless
7 40 (23.39%) MPLS
8 26 (15.20%) DNS
9 22 (12.87%) Wi-Fi
10 21 (12.28%) Cisco Nexus
11 19 (11.11%) IPsec
12 17 (9.94%) EIGRP
12 17 (9.94%) VLAN
13 15 (8.77%) Cisco ISE
14 14 (8.19%) DHCP
15 13 (7.60%) WLAN
16 12 (7.02%) Cisco ASA
16 12 (7.02%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.17%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 3 (1.75%) JIRA
2 2 (1.17%) Git
2 2 (1.17%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 53 (30.99%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.53%) Finance
3 17 (9.94%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (6.43%) Telecoms
5 9 (5.26%) Public Sector
6 8 (4.68%) Legal
7 6 (3.51%) Law
7 6 (3.51%) Manufacturing
7 6 (3.51%) Retail
8 5 (2.92%) Billing
9 4 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (2.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.75%) Banking
10 3 (1.75%) Military
10 3 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (1.17%) Local Government
12 1 (0.58%) Dutch Language
12 1 (0.58%) French Language
12 1 (0.58%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 61 (35.67%) Network Engineer
2 38 (22.22%) Architect
3 25 (14.62%) Senior
4 16 (9.36%) Network Architect
5 13 (7.60%) Project Manager
6 12 (7.02%) Consultant
6 12 (7.02%) Senior Network Engineer
7 9 (5.26%) Security Architect
8 8 (4.68%) Lead
8 8 (4.68%) Network Consultant
9 7 (4.09%) Network Security Engineer
9 7 (4.09%) Security Engineer
10 6 (3.51%) Cisco Engineer
10 6 (3.51%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 6 (3.51%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (3.51%) WAN Specialist
11 5 (2.92%) Technical Architect
11 5 (2.92%) Telecoms Engineer
12 4 (2.34%) IT Project Manager
12 4 (2.34%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.26%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.17%) NETCONF
2 2 (1.17%) RESTful
3 1 (0.58%) HTML
3 1 (0.58%) XML
3 1 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 26 (15.20%) Data Centre
2 10 (5.85%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (5.26%) Security Posture
4 7 (4.09%) Data Protection Act
5 5 (2.92%) Public Cloud
6 4 (2.34%) PKI
6 4 (2.34%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.75%) CMDB
7 3 (1.75%) IVR
7 3 (1.75%) Virtual Team
8 2 (1.17%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.17%) IoT
8 2 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.17%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.17%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 2 (1.17%) TM Forum
9 1 (0.58%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 1 (0.58%) NB-IoT
9 1 (0.58%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 10 (5.85%) Windows
2 4 (2.34%) Linux
2 4 (2.34%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.17%) Unix
4 1 (0.58%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (14.62%) Network Monitoring
2 25 (14.62%) Stakeholder Management
3 21 (12.28%) ITIL
3 21 (12.28%) Network Design
4 19 (11.11%) Project Management
5 18 (10.53%) Roadmaps
6 16 (9.36%) Migration
7 14 (8.19%) Infrastructure as Code
7 14 (8.19%) Network Architecture
8 13 (7.60%) High Availability
8 13 (7.60%) Network Management
8 13 (7.60%) Security Architecture
9 12 (7.02%) Computer Science
10 11 (6.43%) Agile
10 11 (6.43%) Change Management
10 11 (6.43%) TOGAF
11 10 (5.85%) CI/CD
11 10 (5.85%) Cybersecurity
11 10 (5.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 8 (4.68%) Python
2 4 (2.34%) PowerShell
2 4 (2.34%) SQL
3 1 (0.58%) Bash
Qualifications
1 48 (28.07%) Cisco Certification
2 43 (25.15%) CCNP
3 23 (13.45%) Security Cleared
4 20 (11.70%) SC Cleared
5 16 (9.36%) Degree
6 11 (6.43%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (5.85%) CCIE
7 10 (5.85%) CCNA
8 5 (2.92%) CCSA
9 4 (2.34%) CISM
9 4 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (1.75%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.75%) CISA
10 3 (1.75%) DV Cleared
10 3 (1.75%) JNCIE
10 3 (1.75%) JNCIP
10 3 (1.75%) MCSE
10 3 (1.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (1.17%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.17%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.26%) NIST
2 5 (2.92%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (2.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (2.92%) NCSC
3 4 (2.34%) GRC
4 3 (1.75%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.58%) GDPR
5 1 (0.58%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.58%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (9.94%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (7.60%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.92%) Firmware
3 5 (2.92%) VMware NSX
4 3 (1.75%) Hyper-V
4 3 (1.75%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (0.58%) vSphere
5 1 (0.58%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 18 (10.53%) Terraform
2 17 (9.94%) FortiGate
3 7 (4.09%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (3.51%) Ansible
5 4 (2.34%) Cacti
5 4 (2.34%) Cisco Prime
5 4 (2.34%) SCCM
6 3 (1.75%) CA Spectrum
6 3 (1.75%) CASB
7 2 (1.17%) OPNET
8 1 (0.58%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 101 (59.06%) Cisco
2 59 (34.50%) Palo Alto
3 37 (21.64%) Fortinet
4 23 (13.45%) F5
5 22 (12.87%) Microsoft
6 21 (12.28%) SolarWinds
7 20 (11.70%) Juniper
8 19 (11.11%) Meraki
9 18 (10.53%) VMware
10 17 (9.94%) Aruba
11 10 (5.85%) CheckPoint
12 7 (4.09%) Zscaler
13 6 (3.51%) Infoblox
13 6 (3.51%) ServiceNow
14 4 (2.34%) BMC
14 4 (2.34%) Huawei
14 4 (2.34%) Remedy
15 3 (1.75%) BT
15 3 (1.75%) Google
15 3 (1.75%) HP