SD-WAN Contract Job Trends

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

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring SD-WAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 355 366
Rank change year-on-year -24 +11 +29
Contract jobs citing SD-WAN 265 170 242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.58% 0.55%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.86% 4.51% 4.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 122 150
10th Percentile £335 £329 £261
25th Percentile £406 £413 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £481
Median % change year-on-year - +3.90% -1.28%
75th Percentile £650 £585 £597
90th Percentile £691 £650 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 8
10th Percentile - £60.13 £23.95
25th Percentile £42.13 £69.69 £26.69
Median hourly rate £42.25 £75.00 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year -43.67% +140.00% -50.40%
75th Percentile £42.38 - £47.81
90th Percentile - - £91.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £75.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -43.67% +25.00% -35.14%

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 4,519 3,771 5,852
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.87% 12.90% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,852 2,341 3,526
10th Percentile £231 £213 £205
25th Percentile £398 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £485
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% +1.14% -6.74%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £468 £475
% change year-on-year +1.60% -1.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 164 421
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.41 £21.35 £17.72
Median hourly rate £42.71 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.88% -6.25% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.50 £61.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.00 £28.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year +92.86% -38.97% +148.00%

SD-WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SD-WAN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

SD-WAN job vacancy trend in the UK

SD-WAN
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SD-WAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SD-WAN

SD-WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SD-WAN over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SD-WAN in the UK

SD-WAN
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SD-WAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SD-WAN

SD-WAN
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 SD-WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 11 April 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 -40 206 £500 - 70
UK excluding London -39 146 £475 - 47
London -64 83 £550 +10.00% 26
Work from Home -5 82 £500 +5.26% 27
South East -26 55 £494 -5.95% 12
Scotland +25 30 £500 +12.68% 2
Midlands -46 30 £450 +2.86% 12
West Midlands -48 24 £475 +8.57% 10
North of England -58 23 £450 -5.26% 10
North West -24 16 £449 -0.28% 5
Yorkshire -46 7 £450 -12.20% 5
East of England -32 4 £500 +25.00% 9
Wales -13 2 £335 +15.52% 1
South West -36 2 £531 -11.46% 4
East Midlands -40 2 - - 2
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 1

SD-WAN
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 8 (3.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (2.64%) Confluence
3 6 (2.26%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
1 5 (1.89%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 92 (34.72%) Azure
2 37 (13.96%) AWS
3 20 (7.55%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (7.17%) Entra ID
5 17 (6.42%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 16 (6.04%) GCP
7 14 (5.28%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (3.40%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (3.02%) SaaS
10 6 (2.26%) AWS Direct Connect
11 5 (1.89%) IaaS
11 5 (1.89%) OCI
11 5 (1.89%) PaaS
12 4 (1.51%) GitHub
13 3 (1.13%) Azure AKS
13 3 (1.13%) Azure Sentinel
13 3 (1.13%) OneDrive
14 2 (0.75%) Amazon EKS
14 2 (0.75%) AWS Control Tower
14 2 (0.75%) AWS IoT
Communications & Networking
1 250 (94.34%) WAN
2 133 (50.19%) Firewall
3 123 (46.42%) LAN
4 100 (37.74%) VPN
5 71 (26.79%) Network Security
6 66 (24.91%) BGP
7 64 (24.15%) MPLS
8 63 (23.77%) OSPF
9 39 (14.72%) Wi-Fi
9 39 (14.72%) Wireless
10 36 (13.58%) VLAN
11 33 (12.45%) Internet
12 31 (11.70%) WLAN
13 27 (10.19%) DNS
14 24 (9.06%) Cisco Nexus
15 20 (7.55%) Cisco ASA
16 19 (7.17%) Cisco ISE
16 19 (7.17%) EIGRP
16 19 (7.17%) TCP/IP
16 19 (7.17%) VXLAN
Development Applications
1 15 (5.66%) JIRA
2 5 (1.89%) Git
3 3 (1.13%) Browser DevTools
4 2 (0.75%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.38%) GitLab
5 1 (0.38%) Jenkins
General
1 43 (16.23%) Finance
2 41 (15.47%) Social Skills
3 33 (12.45%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (12.08%) Legal
5 27 (10.19%) Telecoms
6 23 (8.68%) Public Sector
7 12 (4.53%) Law
8 6 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.26%) Financial Institution
9 4 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.51%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.13%) Billing
10 3 (1.13%) Local Government
10 3 (1.13%) Police
10 3 (1.13%) Retail
11 2 (0.75%) Banking
11 2 (0.75%) German Language
11 2 (0.75%) Marketing
11 2 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 80 (30.19%) Network Engineer
2 78 (29.43%) Architect
3 48 (18.11%) Network Architect
4 28 (10.57%) Senior
5 25 (9.43%) Lead
5 25 (9.43%) Solutions Architect
6 19 (7.17%) Network Manager
7 14 (5.28%) Project Manager
8 13 (4.91%) Senior Network Engineer
9 11 (4.15%) Consultant
10 10 (3.77%) Network Project Manager
10 10 (3.77%) Security Engineer
11 9 (3.40%) Infrastructure Manager
11 9 (3.40%) Security Architect
12 8 (3.02%) Network Security Engineer
12 8 (3.02%) Test Engineer
13 7 (2.64%) Technical Architect
13 7 (2.64%) WAN Engineer
14 6 (2.26%) Network Consultant
14 6 (2.26%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (4.91%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.51%) ADO
2 4 (1.51%) Jinja
3 3 (1.13%) SAML
4 2 (0.75%) ARM Templates
4 2 (0.75%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 50 (18.87%) Data Centre
2 13 (4.91%) Hybrid Cloud
2 13 (4.91%) Operational Technology
3 11 (4.15%) Onboarding
4 8 (3.02%) Security Posture
5 7 (2.64%) IoT
6 6 (2.26%) Cloud Native
7 5 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.89%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.13%) 3D Printing
8 3 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.13%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.13%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.13%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.13%) Wiki
9 2 (0.75%) CESG
9 2 (0.75%) PKI
9 2 (0.75%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 39 (14.72%) Windows
2 9 (3.40%) Windows Server
3 7 (2.64%) Linux
3 7 (2.64%) VMS
4 3 (1.13%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.38%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (21.13%) ITIL
2 52 (19.62%) Migration
3 44 (16.60%) Stakeholder Management
4 43 (16.23%) Zero Trust
5 38 (14.34%) Roadmaps
6 37 (13.96%) Change Management
7 36 (13.58%) Problem-Solving
8 31 (11.70%) Network Design
9 30 (11.32%) Agile
9 30 (11.32%) Load Balancing
9 30 (11.32%) Network Architecture
10 28 (10.57%) High Availability
11 27 (10.19%) Network Monitoring
12 25 (9.43%) Technical Leadership
13 22 (8.30%) DevOps
13 22 (8.30%) Project Management
14 21 (7.92%) Network Segmentation
14 21 (7.92%) Project Delivery
15 20 (7.55%) Continuous Improvement
15 20 (7.55%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 25 (9.43%) Python
2 6 (2.26%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.51%) Bash
4 3 (1.13%) SQL
5 1 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.38%) Perl
5 1 (0.38%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 65 (24.53%) Cisco Certification
2 56 (21.13%) CCNP
3 51 (19.25%) Security Cleared
4 41 (15.47%) SC Cleared
5 38 (14.34%) CCIE
6 15 (5.66%) CCNA
7 13 (4.91%) DV Cleared
8 11 (4.15%) PMP
9 10 (3.77%) Azure Certification
10 8 (3.02%) AWS Certification
11 7 (2.64%) ITIL Certification
11 7 (2.64%) PMI Certification
12 6 (2.26%) Degree
13 5 (1.89%) CCIE Security
13 5 (1.89%) CCSP
13 5 (1.89%) JNCIE
13 5 (1.89%) JNCIP
14 4 (1.51%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (1.51%) CCDP
14 4 (1.51%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (6.79%) SLA
2 16 (6.04%) NIST
3 13 (4.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (3.77%) GDPR
5 9 (3.40%) NCSC
6 6 (2.26%) PCI DSS
7 5 (1.89%) QA
8 4 (1.51%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.75%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.75%) RMADS
10 1 (0.38%) GRC
10 1 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.38%) PMO
10 1 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 28 (10.57%) Active Directory
2 14 (5.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (4.15%) VMware NSX
4 5 (1.89%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.13%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.75%) Firmware
6 2 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.38%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.38%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 33 (12.45%) FortiGate
2 28 (10.57%) Ansible
3 25 (9.43%) Terraform
4 6 (2.26%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.13%) Kubernetes
5 3 (1.13%) SCCM
5 3 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.75%) CASB
6 2 (0.75%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.38%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.38%) Grafana
Vendors
1 151 (56.98%) Cisco
2 73 (27.55%) Palo Alto
3 59 (22.26%) Fortinet
4 44 (16.60%) Aruba
4 44 (16.60%) Microsoft
5 29 (10.94%) Juniper
6 28 (10.57%) F5
6 28 (10.57%) Zscaler
7 25 (9.43%) Meraki
8 18 (6.79%) VMware
9 17 (6.42%) CheckPoint
9 17 (6.42%) SolarWinds
10 15 (5.66%) ServiceNow
11 12 (4.53%) Ekahau
12 10 (3.77%) Arista
13 5 (1.89%) SAP
14 4 (1.51%) BiZZdesign
14 4 (1.51%) Oracle
14 4 (1.51%) Remedy
15 3 (1.13%) Starlink