WAN Contract Job Trends

Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring WAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 195 171 132
Rank change year-on-year -24 -39 -18
Contract jobs citing WAN 740 523 751
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.40% 1.59% 1.80%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.80% 13.14% 14.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 481 337 424
10th Percentile £300 £238 £263
25th Percentile £400 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.74% -5.00% +3.09%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £638
90th Percentile £648 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £436 £475
% change year-on-year +12.32% -8.16% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 18 35
10th Percentile £16.25 £26.03 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £29.00 £18.27
Median hourly rate £24.61 £30.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.97% -20.00% -31.82%
75th Percentile £42.38 £42.44 £43.13
90th Percentile £75.37 £63.92 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -25.00% -20.00% -10.45%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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 4,999 3,981 5,202
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.14% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,017 2,427 3,100
10th Percentile £238 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £594 £600
90th Percentile £669 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.84% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 327 193 395
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.00 £16.58
Median hourly rate £26.00 £47.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.26% +18.75% -11.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.80 £72.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.44 £42.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -37.79% -7.37% -19.74%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

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

WAN job vacancy trend in the UK

WAN
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 20 July 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 -30 630 £500 +5.26% 196
UK excluding London -13 458 £490 +12.32% 165
London -53 203 £520 +4.00% 64
Work from Home -1 173 £520 +4.00% 67
South East +11 170 £520 +15.56% 59
North of England -36 111 £498 +24.22% 40
North West -35 63 £528 +62.46% 19
Midlands -41 55 £378 -13.71% 25
Scotland +4 53 £406 -7.14% 17
Yorkshire -28 43 £450 -3.33% 19
East of England +12 41 £425 +13.33% 8
West Midlands -71 39 £378 -11.18% 18
South West -41 26 £550 +22.22% 18
East Midlands -6 11 £275 -47.62% 7
North East -27 11 £650 +225.00% 4
Wales -20 7 £468 +133.75% 2
Channel Islands -1 1 £575 -22.56%
Northern Ireland - 1 £550 - 1

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 22 (2.97%) SharePoint
2 21 (2.84%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.30%) Confluence
4 13 (1.76%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.41%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.27%) IIS
7 1 (0.14%) CMS
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 27 (3.65%) MS Visio
2 18 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (2.30%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.22%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 202 (27.30%) Azure
2 115 (15.54%) AWS
3 68 (9.19%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (6.49%) Entra ID
5 34 (4.59%) SaaS
6 31 (4.19%) GCP
7 25 (3.38%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 23 (3.11%) OCI
9 16 (2.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 14 (1.89%) PaaS
11 13 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (1.76%) Azure Sentinel
11 13 (1.76%) OneDrive
11 13 (1.76%) Serverless
12 9 (1.22%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (1.22%) AWS Direct Connect
12 9 (1.22%) Azure Monitor
13 8 (1.08%) Power Platform
14 7 (0.95%) PowerApps
15 6 (0.81%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 491 (66.35%) LAN
2 391 (52.84%) Firewall
3 258 (34.86%) SD-WAN
4 248 (33.51%) BGP
5 194 (26.22%) VPN
6 179 (24.19%) Network Security
7 178 (24.05%) OSPF
8 146 (19.73%) MPLS
9 135 (18.24%) DNS
10 128 (17.30%) Wi-Fi
11 119 (16.08%) Wireless
12 87 (11.76%) VLAN
13 86 (11.62%) TCP/IP
14 84 (11.35%) DHCP
15 78 (10.54%) VXLAN
16 75 (10.14%) IPsec
17 63 (8.51%) WLAN
18 62 (8.38%) Ethernet VPN
19 57 (7.70%) BIG-IP
20 51 (6.89%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.08%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.68%) Data Lake
3 3 (0.41%) NoSQL
3 3 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.27%) Apache Cassandra
4 2 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.27%) Flink
4 2 (0.27%) InfluxDB
4 2 (0.27%) MongoDB
4 2 (0.27%) MySQL
4 2 (0.27%) TimescaleDB
5 1 (0.14%) Power BI
5 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 31 (4.19%) JIRA
2 21 (2.84%) GitLab
3 14 (1.89%) Git
4 6 (0.81%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.81%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.27%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.14%) Chocolatey
7 1 (0.14%) Fiddler
7 1 (0.14%) MSI
7 1 (0.14%) Subversion
7 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
General
1 175 (23.65%) Social Skills
2 88 (11.89%) Telecoms
3 71 (9.59%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (8.92%) Public Sector
5 57 (7.70%) Finance
6 31 (4.19%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (3.11%) Legal
8 19 (2.57%) Financial Institution
9 14 (1.89%) Manufacturing
9 14 (1.89%) Retail
10 13 (1.76%) Banking
11 12 (1.62%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.22%) Billing
13 8 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (1.08%) Military
14 7 (0.95%) Law
15 6 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
16 5 (0.68%) Police
17 4 (0.54%) Local Government
18 3 (0.41%) German Language
Job Titles
1 294 (39.73%) Network Engineer
2 111 (15.00%) Senior
3 104 (14.05%) Architect
4 66 (8.92%) Network Architect
5 49 (6.62%) Senior Network Engineer
6 40 (5.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 34 (4.59%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 33 (4.46%) Cisco Engineer
9 30 (4.05%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 30 (4.05%) Consultant
10 27 (3.65%) IT Support
10 27 (3.65%) Security Engineer
10 27 (3.65%) Support Engineer
11 24 (3.24%) Lead
11 24 (3.24%) Project Manager
12 20 (2.70%) IT Engineer
12 20 (2.70%) Network Manager
12 20 (2.70%) Network Security Engineer
12 20 (2.70%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 19 (2.57%) Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (7.70%) 802.1X
2 15 (2.03%) REST
3 13 (1.76%) NETCONF
3 13 (1.76%) SAML
3 13 (1.76%) YANG
4 10 (1.35%) Microsoft Graph
5 7 (0.95%) LDAP
6 6 (0.81%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.81%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.54%) Django
7 4 (0.54%) Jinja
7 4 (0.54%) Middleware
8 3 (0.41%) ARM Templates
9 2 (0.27%) GraphQL
9 2 (0.27%) gRPC
9 2 (0.27%) JSON
9 2 (0.27%) Kafka
9 2 (0.27%) OpenAPI
9 2 (0.27%) RFC 2544
9 2 (0.27%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 198 (26.76%) Data Centre
2 54 (7.30%) Hybrid Cloud
3 36 (4.86%) PKI
4 31 (4.19%) Driving Licence
5 27 (3.65%) Clustering
6 25 (3.38%) Cloud Native
7 20 (2.70%) Security Posture
8 16 (2.16%) Operational Technology
8 16 (2.16%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (2.03%) Onboarding
10 14 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
11 13 (1.76%) IoT
12 12 (1.62%) Private Cloud
12 12 (1.62%) Public Cloud
13 11 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
14 10 (1.35%) NHS
15 9 (1.22%) Virtual Team
16 7 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
16 7 (0.95%) SCADA
17 6 (0.81%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 163 (22.03%) Windows
2 50 (6.76%) Windows Server
3 47 (6.35%) Linux
4 15 (2.03%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (1.62%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.35%) Android
7 8 (1.08%) VMS
8 7 (0.95%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.95%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.81%) Unix
10 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.14%) CatOS
11 1 (0.14%) CentOS
11 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
2 108 (14.59%) Load Balancing
3 106 (14.32%) High Availability
4 103 (13.92%) ITIL
5 86 (11.62%) Zero Trust
6 73 (9.86%) Migration
7 72 (9.73%) Stakeholder Management
8 70 (9.46%) Network Architecture
9 69 (9.32%) Network Design
10 67 (9.05%) Infrastructure as Code
11 66 (8.92%) Project Delivery
12 63 (8.51%) Roadmaps
13 60 (8.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 57 (7.70%) Change Management
15 53 (7.16%) Agile
16 51 (6.89%) Network Monitoring
17 49 (6.62%) DevOps
18 47 (6.35%) Technical Leadership
19 45 (6.08%) Identity Access Management
20 44 (5.95%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 115 (15.54%) Python
2 49 (6.62%) PowerShell
3 19 (2.57%) SQL
4 12 (1.62%) Bash
5 4 (0.54%) C++
5 4 (0.54%) Java
6 2 (0.27%) C
6 2 (0.27%) Groovy
6 2 (0.27%) Perl
7 1 (0.14%) Bicep
7 1 (0.14%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.14%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 235 (31.76%) Security Cleared
2 213 (28.78%) Cisco Certification
3 146 (19.73%) SC Cleared
4 135 (18.24%) CCNP
5 79 (10.68%) CCNA
6 75 (10.14%) DV Cleared
7 54 (7.30%) CCIE
8 49 (6.62%) Degree
9 18 (2.43%) PMP
10 14 (1.89%) Azure Certification
10 14 (1.89%) JNCIE
10 14 (1.89%) JNCIP
10 14 (1.89%) JNCIS
11 13 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
12 12 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
12 12 (1.62%) PMI Certification
13 10 (1.35%) AWS Certification
14 9 (1.22%) JNCIA
15 8 (1.08%) CISSP
15 8 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (2.70%) SLA
2 17 (2.30%) NIST
3 16 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.03%) QA
5 11 (1.49%) NCSC
6 5 (0.68%) GDPR
6 5 (0.68%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.54%) PMO
8 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.14%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.14%) DICOM
9 1 (0.14%) GRC
9 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.14%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.14%) NIST 800
System Software
1 89 (12.03%) Active Directory
2 66 (8.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (4.73%) VMware NSX
4 17 (2.30%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (2.16%) Firmware
5 16 (2.16%) vSphere
6 13 (1.76%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.08%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.27%) NFS
9 2 (0.27%) Squid
9 2 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.14%) Docker
10 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.14%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.14%) Samba
Systems Management
1 93 (12.57%) Ansible
2 78 (10.54%) Terraform
3 71 (9.59%) FortiGate
4 23 (3.11%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (2.70%) Grafana
6 18 (2.43%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (1.22%) SCCM
9 8 (1.08%) Jamf Pro
10 6 (0.81%) Kubernetes
11 5 (0.68%) Nagios
11 5 (0.68%) Puppet
12 4 (0.54%) CASB
12 4 (0.54%) Cisco CUCM
12 4 (0.54%) Cisco Prime
12 4 (0.54%) Packer
12 4 (0.54%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.54%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 3 (0.41%) vCenter Server
14 2 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 364 (49.19%) Cisco
2 173 (23.38%) Palo Alto
3 145 (19.59%) Microsoft
4 119 (16.08%) F5
5 108 (14.59%) Fortinet
6 98 (13.24%) Juniper
7 85 (11.49%) VMware
8 79 (10.68%) Aruba
9 68 (9.19%) SolarWinds
10 58 (7.84%) Arista
11 56 (7.57%) CheckPoint
12 48 (6.49%) Zscaler
13 37 (5.00%) Meraki
13 37 (5.00%) Splunk
14 28 (3.78%) Extreme Networks
15 27 (3.65%) ServiceNow
16 14 (1.89%) Nokia
17 13 (1.76%) Ekahau
18 12 (1.62%) Dell
19 10 (1.35%) Infoblox