Software-Defined Networking Contracts

Software-Defined Networking
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Software-Defined Networking skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Software-Defined Networking 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 488 558 680
Rank change year-on-year +70 +122 +105
Contract jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 32 24 38
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.11% 0.055% 0.064%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.86% 0.43% 0.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 13 24
10th Percentile £513 £356 £450
25th Percentile £538 £413 £538
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £525 £650
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -19.23% +10.92%
75th Percentile £746 £600 £681
90th Percentile £775 £705 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £600 £595
% change year-on-year -10.00% +0.84% +25.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 6
10th Percentile - - £51.63
25th Percentile - - £54.52
Median hourly rate - - £57.33
75th Percentile - - £59.18
90th Percentile - - £60.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £57.33
% change year-on-year - - +18.77%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Software-Defined Networking 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%

Software-Defined Networking
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Software-Defined Networking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Software-Defined Networking in the UK

Software-Defined Networking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software-Defined Networking.

Daily rate trend for Software-Defined Networking in the UK

Software-Defined Networking
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software-Defined Networking over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software-Defined Networking in the UK

Software-Defined Networking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software-Defined Networking.

Hourly rate trend for Software-Defined Networking in the UK

Software-Defined Networking
Top 10 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 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 +60 26 £600 +14.29% 35
London +46 15 £743 +74.71% 16
UK excluding London +59 12 £540 -10.00% 27
Work from Home +47 11 £475 -19.66% 26
North of England +19 5 £535 -10.83% 6
North West +17 5 £535 -10.83% 4
South East +44 4 £600 - 15
South West +42 2 £530 -11.67% 3
Scotland - 1 - - 3
East of England - 1 £540 - 1

Software-Defined Networking
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:

Cloud Services
1 7 (21.88%) Azure
2 5 (15.63%) AWS
2 5 (15.63%) GCP
3 2 (6.25%) IaaS
4 1 (3.13%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 16 (50.00%) Firewall
1 16 (50.00%) Network Security
2 11 (34.38%) BGP
3 10 (31.25%) OSPF
3 10 (31.25%) VPN
4 7 (21.88%) Wireless
5 6 (18.75%) Cisco ASA
6 5 (15.63%) EIGRP
6 5 (15.63%) LAN
6 5 (15.63%) MPLS
6 5 (15.63%) WAN
7 4 (12.50%) Cisco Wireless
8 3 (9.38%) Cisco Nexus
8 3 (9.38%) SD-WAN
8 3 (9.38%) VXLAN
8 3 (9.38%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (6.25%) DWDM
9 2 (6.25%) Ethernet
9 2 (6.25%) Ethernet VPN
9 2 (6.25%) Internet
Development Applications
1 1 (3.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 8 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 5 (15.63%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (15.63%) Legal
3 4 (12.50%) Finance
4 3 (9.38%) Telecoms
5 1 (3.13%) Advertising
5 1 (3.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (3.13%) Marketing
5 1 (3.13%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 17 (53.13%) Architect
2 11 (34.38%) Network Architect
3 5 (15.63%) Consultant
3 5 (15.63%) Network Engineer
3 5 (15.63%) Senior
4 4 (12.50%) VMware Consultant
5 3 (9.38%) Cisco Architect
5 3 (9.38%) Cisco Network Architect
5 3 (9.38%) Senior Network Engineer
5 3 (9.38%) Software Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Cisco Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Infrastructure Architect
6 2 (6.25%) Infrastructure Specialist
6 2 (6.25%) Principal Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Principal Software Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Senior Cisco Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Software Architect
6 2 (6.25%) VMware Architect
6 2 (6.25%) VMware Specialist
Miscellaneous
1 12 (37.50%) Data Centre
2 4 (12.50%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (6.25%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (3.13%) Fibre Optics
4 1 (3.13%) Greenfield Project
4 1 (3.13%) Legacy Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (25.00%) Network Design
2 6 (18.75%) Proactive Monitoring
2 6 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
3 5 (15.63%) Low Latency
4 4 (12.50%) Containerisation
4 4 (12.50%) DevOps
4 4 (12.50%) Disaster Recovery
4 4 (12.50%) High Availability
4 4 (12.50%) ITIL
4 4 (12.50%) Knowledge Transfer
4 4 (12.50%) Migration
4 4 (12.50%) Network Architecture
4 4 (12.50%) Project Delivery
4 4 (12.50%) Runbook
4 4 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (12.50%) Threat Detection
4 4 (12.50%) Use Case
4 4 (12.50%) Validation
5 3 (9.38%) Project Management
5 3 (9.38%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (46.88%) Python
2 3 (9.38%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 16 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 10 (31.25%) SC Cleared
3 7 (21.88%) CCNP
3 7 (21.88%) Cisco Certification
4 6 (18.75%) VCAP
5 5 (15.63%) CCIE
5 5 (15.63%) DV Cleared
6 4 (12.50%) Degree
7 2 (6.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (3.13%) CCIE Data Center
8 1 (3.13%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (3.13%) NIST
1 1 (3.13%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 9 (28.13%) VMware NSX
2 4 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (6.25%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 10 (31.25%) Ansible
2 6 (18.75%) vRealize
3 4 (12.50%) Kubernetes
3 4 (12.50%) PowerCLI
4 2 (6.25%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 1 (3.13%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (3.13%) Terraform
Vendors
1 21 (65.63%) Cisco
2 9 (28.13%) Palo Alto
2 9 (28.13%) VMware
3 5 (15.63%) Google
4 4 (12.50%) CheckPoint
4 4 (12.50%) Fortinet
4 4 (12.50%) Juniper
5 3 (9.38%) Arista
5 3 (9.38%) Aruba
5 3 (9.38%) F5
5 3 (9.38%) IBM
5 3 (9.38%) Solace
5 3 (9.38%) TIBCO
6 2 (6.25%) BT
6 2 (6.25%) HP
6 2 (6.25%) Meraki
6 2 (6.25%) Microsoft
6 2 (6.25%) SolarWinds
7 1 (3.13%) FireEye
7 1 (3.13%) ServiceNow