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 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 371 319 362
Rank change year-on-year -52 +43 +104
Contract jobs citing SD-WAN 225 229 249
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.61% 0.67% 0.57%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.65% 5.29% 4.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 161 160 149
10th Percentile £325 £383 £310
25th Percentile £400 £419 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.88% -0.48% +10.53%
75th Percentile £550 £613 £630
90th Percentile £618 £638 £739
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £475 £513
% change year-on-year -7.89% -7.32% +13.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 8 11
10th Percentile - £61.28 £27.50
25th Percentile £100.50 £74.06 £29.38
Median hourly rate £103.00 £75.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +37.33% +130.77% +13.04%
75th Percentile £105.50 - £37.02
90th Percentile - - £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £103.00 £75.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +37.33% +130.77% +12.07%

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 3,984 4,330 6,063
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.81% 12.71% 13.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,595 2,535 3,742
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 152 333
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.26 £21.46 £22.75
Median hourly rate £34.00 £37.25 £56.40
Median % change year-on-year -8.72% -33.95% +37.46%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.38 £75.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £37.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +13.33% -33.62% +25.53%

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 20 December 2025.

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 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 SD-WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 20 December 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 -60 186 £450 -14.29% 75
London +9 107 £450 -15.49% 40
UK excluding London -58 90 £438 -7.89% 61
Work from Home -9 63 £450 -10.00% 38
Midlands -42 25 £503 +34.00% 7
West Midlands -27 24 £503 +18.24% 7
South East -36 21 £459 -21.36% 24
North of England -49 16 £435 +3.45% 11
Scotland +18 13 £425 -15.00% 5
North West -20 8 £375 -25.56% 7
Yorkshire -53 8 £435 +6.62% 4
South West -10 6 £613 +13.95% 7
East of England -33 5 £298 -46.76% 4
Wales +5 3 £368 - 5
Northern Ireland - 1 £600 - 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 9 (4.00%) Confluence
1 9 (4.00%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.44%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (1.78%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 63 (28.00%) Azure
2 51 (22.67%) AWS
3 21 (9.33%) GCP
4 11 (4.89%) Entra ID
5 9 (4.00%) Azure DevOps
5 9 (4.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 9 (4.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 8 (3.56%) GitHub
6 8 (3.56%) Microsoft 365
7 5 (2.22%) AWS Direct Connect
8 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (1.33%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.89%) Akamai
9 2 (0.89%) AWS IoT
9 2 (0.89%) IaaS
9 2 (0.89%) Power Platform
9 2 (0.89%) ShareGate
10 1 (0.44%) PaaS
10 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.44%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 187 (83.11%) WAN
2 136 (60.44%) Firewall
3 106 (47.11%) LAN
4 77 (34.22%) VPN
5 56 (24.89%) Wi-Fi
6 54 (24.00%) Network Security
7 52 (23.11%) BGP
8 48 (21.33%) OSPF
9 44 (19.56%) Cisco Nexus
10 38 (16.89%) MPLS
11 32 (14.22%) DNS
11 32 (14.22%) Wireless
12 26 (11.56%) VLAN
13 24 (10.67%) DHCP
14 21 (9.33%) EIGRP
15 20 (8.89%) Cisco ASA
16 19 (8.44%) WLAN
17 18 (8.00%) Cisco ISE
18 15 (6.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 13 (5.78%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.89%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (3.56%) JIRA
2 5 (2.22%) GitLab
2 5 (2.22%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.78%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.89%) Git
General
1 50 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 29 (12.89%) Telecoms
3 27 (12.00%) Public Sector
4 20 (8.89%) Finance
5 17 (7.56%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.22%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.78%) Legal
9 3 (1.33%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.89%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.89%) Law
10 2 (0.89%) Local Government
10 2 (0.89%) Police
11 1 (0.44%) Automotive
11 1 (0.44%) Fire and Rescue
11 1 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.44%) Marketing
11 1 (0.44%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 74 (32.89%) Network Engineer
2 73 (32.44%) Architect
3 55 (24.44%) Network Architect
4 30 (13.33%) Senior
5 19 (8.44%) Senior Network Engineer
6 18 (8.00%) Consultant
7 17 (7.56%) Solutions Architect
8 14 (6.22%) Lead
9 11 (4.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (4.89%) Network Consultant
9 11 (4.89%) Network Design Architect
10 10 (4.44%) Project Manager
10 10 (4.44%) Security Architect
10 10 (4.44%) WAN Engineer
11 9 (4.00%) Technical Architect
12 8 (3.56%) Network Manager
12 8 (3.56%) Security Engineer
12 8 (3.56%) Test Engineer
13 7 (3.11%) Network Security Architect
13 7 (3.11%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.22%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.33%) ADO
3 2 (0.89%) Jinja
4 1 (0.44%) Node.js
4 1 (0.44%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (19.11%) Data Centre
2 18 (8.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 13 (5.78%) Operational Technology
4 10 (4.44%) Cloud Native
5 7 (3.11%) Onboarding
5 7 (3.11%) Public Cloud
6 5 (2.22%) IoT
7 4 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.33%) 3D Printing
8 3 (1.33%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.89%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.89%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.89%) SCADA
9 2 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.89%) TM Forum
9 2 (0.89%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.44%) CMDB
10 1 (0.44%) FMCG
10 1 (0.44%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 25 (11.11%) Windows
2 5 (2.22%) Windows Server
3 4 (1.78%) Linux
4 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (17.33%) Migration
1 39 (17.33%) Network Design
2 37 (16.44%) Network Architecture
2 37 (16.44%) Zero Trust
3 33 (14.67%) ITIL
4 32 (14.22%) Stakeholder Management
5 26 (11.56%) Roadmaps
6 24 (10.67%) Network Monitoring
7 22 (9.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 20 (8.89%) Agile
9 19 (8.44%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (8.44%) Project Delivery
10 18 (8.00%) Cybersecurity
11 16 (7.11%) Change Management
12 15 (6.67%) DevOps
12 15 (6.67%) High Availability
12 15 (6.67%) Load Balancing
12 15 (6.67%) Technical Leadership
12 15 (6.67%) Test Automation
13 14 (6.22%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 35 (15.56%) Python
2 7 (3.11%) Bash
3 6 (2.67%) PowerShell
4 2 (0.89%) Bicep
5 1 (0.44%) Perl
5 1 (0.44%) Ruby
5 1 (0.44%) SQL
Qualifications
1 66 (29.33%) Cisco Certification
2 55 (24.44%) CCNP
3 42 (18.67%) Security Cleared
4 33 (14.67%) SC Cleared
5 32 (14.22%) CCIE
6 17 (7.56%) CCNA
7 8 (3.56%) CCSA
7 8 (3.56%) Degree
8 7 (3.11%) CISSP
9 6 (2.67%) Azure Certification
9 6 (2.67%) CCIE Security
9 6 (2.67%) JNCIE
9 6 (2.67%) JNCIP
10 5 (2.22%) CCSE
11 4 (1.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (1.78%) AWS Certification
11 4 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.78%) CCSP
11 4 (1.78%) DV Cleared
11 4 (1.78%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (5.78%) SLA
3 11 (4.89%) NIST
4 9 (4.00%) PCI DSS
5 7 (3.11%) GDPR
6 4 (1.78%) NCSC
7 3 (1.33%) GRC
8 1 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.44%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.44%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.44%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.44%) PMO
8 1 (0.44%) QA
8 1 (0.44%) RMADS
8 1 (0.44%) SOC 2
System Software
1 15 (6.67%) Active Directory
2 9 (4.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.11%) Firmware
4 5 (2.22%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.89%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.89%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 38 (16.89%) Ansible
2 26 (11.56%) Terraform
3 8 (3.56%) FortiGate
4 6 (2.67%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.78%) CA Spectrum
6 3 (1.33%) CASB
6 3 (1.33%) SCCM
7 2 (0.89%) Grafana
7 2 (0.89%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.44%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.44%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 140 (62.22%) Cisco
2 77 (34.22%) Fortinet
3 55 (24.44%) Palo Alto
4 37 (16.44%) Meraki
5 34 (15.11%) Juniper
6 26 (11.56%) F5
7 24 (10.67%) Microsoft
8 23 (10.22%) CheckPoint
9 21 (9.33%) Zscaler
10 16 (7.11%) Aruba
10 16 (7.11%) SolarWinds
11 13 (5.78%) VMware
12 7 (3.11%) Nokia
12 7 (3.11%) ServiceNow
13 5 (2.22%) Arista
14 4 (1.78%) Infoblox
14 4 (1.78%) Remedy
15 3 (1.33%) Citrix
15 3 (1.33%) Qualys
15 3 (1.33%) Tenable