SDH Contracts

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring SDH skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SDH over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 492 554 690
Rank change year-on-year +62 +136 +135
Contract jobs citing SDH 28 28 28
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.096% 0.064% 0.047%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.75% 0.50% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 14 18
10th Percentile £308 £434 £371
25th Percentile £325 £519 £376
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £625 £450
Median % change year-on-year -28.00% +38.89% +28.57%
75th Percentile - £688 £500
90th Percentile £503 - £591
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £650 £450
% change year-on-year -30.77% +44.44% +28.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 7 2
10th Percentile - £19.55 £20.00
25th Percentile - £23.75 £20.75
Median hourly rate - £30.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year - +33.33% -18.18%
75th Percentile - £33.13 £24.25
90th Percentile - £33.75 £25.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £30.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year - +33.33% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

SDH 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 3,722 5,629 7,357
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.71% 12.92% 12.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,285 3,368 4,786
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 £465 £481 £475
% change year-on-year -3.38% +1.32% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 177 423 478
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.57 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.35 £10.63
Median hourly rate £29.00 £40.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.50% +110.53% -32.74%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.18 £45.88 £18.50
% change year-on-year -47.30% +148.00% -13.95%

SDH
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing SDH as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for SDH in the UK

SDH
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for SDH in the UK

SDH
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDH over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SDH in the UK

SDH
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for SDH in the UK

SDH
Top 8 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDH within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +56 25 £450 -30.77% 7
UK excluding London +64 23 £450 -30.77% 7
South East +57 19 £450 - 1
London +38 5 £319 -36.25% 3
Scotland +15 3 £325 -35.00% 2
Work from Home +29 2 £438 -35.19%
Midlands +21 1 £510 +36.00% 2
West Midlands +13 1 £510 +36.00% 2

SDH
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:

Communications & Networking
1 23 (82.14%) MPLS
2 21 (75.00%) Ethernet
3 20 (71.43%) WAN
4 19 (67.86%) LAN
4 19 (67.86%) VPN
5 18 (64.29%) ATM
5 18 (64.29%) Frame Relay
6 16 (57.14%) GPRS
6 16 (57.14%) GSM
6 16 (57.14%) LTE
6 16 (57.14%) SAN
6 16 (57.14%) UMTS
6 16 (57.14%) Wireshark
7 4 (14.29%) VoIP
8 3 (10.71%) BGP
8 3 (10.71%) EIGRP
8 3 (10.71%) OSPF
9 1 (3.57%) DWDM
9 1 (3.57%) SONET
9 1 (3.57%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (7.14%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 1 (3.57%) GitLab
1 1 (3.57%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 23 (82.14%) Telecoms
2 20 (71.43%) Social Skills
3 3 (10.71%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (7.14%) Electronics
5 1 (3.57%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 15 (53.57%) IP Engineer
2 14 (50.00%) Test Engineer
3 8 (28.57%) Network Engineer
4 5 (17.86%) IP Network Engineer
5 4 (14.29%) Consultant
6 2 (7.14%) Analyst
6 2 (7.14%) Architect
6 2 (7.14%) Field Engineer
6 2 (7.14%) IP Consultant
6 2 (7.14%) IP Network Consultant
6 2 (7.14%) Network Analyst
6 2 (7.14%) Network Architect
6 2 (7.14%) Network Consultant
6 2 (7.14%) OSS Consultant
6 2 (7.14%) Senior
6 2 (7.14%) Telecoms Engineer
7 1 (3.57%) Fault Management Consultant
7 1 (3.57%) Migration Engineer
7 1 (3.57%) Network Infrastructure Analyst
7 1 (3.57%) Network Migration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.57%) Java RMI
1 1 (3.57%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 16 (57.14%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (10.71%) Driving Licence
2 3 (10.71%) SCADA
3 2 (7.14%) Clustering
3 2 (7.14%) Data Centre
3 2 (7.14%) Fibre Optics
4 1 (3.57%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 18 (64.29%) Linux
2 16 (57.14%) Unix
3 2 (7.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (7.14%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (71.43%) Problem-Solving
2 18 (64.29%) Fault Management
2 18 (64.29%) Project Management
3 16 (57.14%) Regression Testing
3 16 (57.14%) Test Strategy
4 4 (14.29%) Root Cause Analysis
4 4 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management
5 3 (10.71%) Network Management
5 3 (10.71%) Project Delivery
6 2 (7.14%) Analytics
6 2 (7.14%) Customer Service
6 2 (7.14%) Data Enrichment
6 2 (7.14%) Disaster Recovery
6 2 (7.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 2 (7.14%) ITIL
6 2 (7.14%) Migration
6 2 (7.14%) Network Monitoring
6 2 (7.14%) Process Management
6 2 (7.14%) Server Management
6 2 (7.14%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 16 (57.14%) Java
2 2 (7.14%) Perl
Qualifications
1 18 (64.29%) CCNP
1 18 (64.29%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (57.14%) ISEB
2 16 (57.14%) ISTQB
2 16 (57.14%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 6 (21.43%) SC Cleared
3 6 (21.43%) Security Cleared
4 4 (14.29%) HNC
5 2 (7.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (7.14%) CCNA
5 2 (7.14%) Degree
6 1 (3.57%) BC Cleared
6 1 (3.57%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.57%) QA
1 1 (3.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
1 1 (3.57%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (3.57%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 1 (3.57%) Nagios
1 1 (3.57%) OpenView
1 1 (3.57%) OPNET
1 1 (3.57%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 20 (71.43%) Cisco
2 17 (60.71%) Juniper
3 16 (57.14%) Microsoft
4 5 (17.86%) Nokia
5 2 (7.14%) EMC
5 2 (7.14%) Oracle
5 2 (7.14%) Splunk
6 1 (3.57%) Ericsson
6 1 (3.57%) Hitachi
6 1 (3.57%) HP
6 1 (3.57%) Nortel
6 1 (3.57%) Virgin Media