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 30 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 199 157 109
Rank change year-on-year -42 -48 +57
Contract jobs citing WAN 512 597 1,034
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.65% 2.26%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.01% 13.52% 16.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 339 365 618
10th Percentile £213 £243 £250
25th Percentile £325 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +8.25%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £638
90th Percentile £650 £674 £739
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £425 £461
% change year-on-year -5.88% -7.86% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 19 36
10th Percentile £13.98 £18.41 £19.13
25th Percentile £15.50 £26.83 £22.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £42.50 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.41% +73.47% +7.69%
75th Percentile £35.00 £75.00 £69.62
90th Percentile £69.00 - £75.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.50 £70.00 £23.00
% change year-on-year -66.43% +204.35% +4.55%

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 3,935 4,416 6,351
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.98% 12.18% 13.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,551 2,538 3,939
10th Percentile £205 £220 £210
25th Percentile £351 £368 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £610
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 171 344
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.26 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.34 £23.05 £22.75
Median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.70
Median % change year-on-year -17.07% -26.39% +32.62%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +25.53%

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 30 November 2025.

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 30 November 2025.

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 30 November 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 -55 422 £450 -10.00% 261
UK excluding London -48 291 £400 -5.88% 260
London +11 172 £525 -4.42% 74
Work from Home -30 116 £500 -6.76% 87
Midlands -22 78 £400 +6.67% 31
West Midlands +3 74 £400 -4.76% 20
North of England -64 72 £400 -9.09% 38
North West -27 52 £388 -13.89% 17
South East -48 51 £443 -11.50% 111
Scotland +40 43 £313 -21.88% 17
East of England -26 23 £340 -38.74% 36
Yorkshire -58 18 £393 +60.20% 20
South West -21 13 £500 +19.05% 27
Wales +3 7 £250 -35.48% 8
East Midlands -38 4 £315 -16.00% 10
Channel Islands - 4 £743 -
Northern Ireland -6 2 £600 - 2
North East -8 2 £550 +57.14% 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 23 (4.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (4.30%) SharePoint
3 12 (2.34%) OpenStack
4 8 (1.56%) Confluence
5 6 (1.17%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.39%) Apache
6 2 (0.39%) nginx
7 1 (0.20%) CICS
7 1 (0.20%) IIS
7 1 (0.20%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.20%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 35 (6.84%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (2.54%) MS Visio
3 12 (2.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.20%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 118 (23.05%) Azure
2 75 (14.65%) AWS
3 39 (7.62%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (5.47%) Entra ID
5 26 (5.08%) GCP
6 13 (2.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 13 (2.54%) GitHub
7 12 (2.34%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (2.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 6 (1.17%) Azure Monitor
9 6 (1.17%) OneDrive
9 6 (1.17%) OpenShift
9 6 (1.17%) SaaS
10 5 (0.98%) AWS Direct Connect
10 5 (0.98%) Cloud Computing
10 5 (0.98%) IaaS
10 5 (0.98%) PaaS
11 4 (0.78%) Microsoft Purview
12 3 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
12 3 (0.59%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 308 (60.16%) LAN
2 242 (47.27%) Firewall
3 185 (36.13%) SD-WAN
4 169 (33.01%) VPN
5 118 (23.05%) BGP
6 99 (19.34%) MPLS
7 95 (18.55%) Wi-Fi
8 87 (16.99%) Network Security
9 85 (16.60%) DNS
10 81 (15.82%) OSPF
10 81 (15.82%) Wireless
11 67 (13.09%) TCP/IP
12 64 (12.50%) VLAN
13 63 (12.30%) DHCP
14 58 (11.33%) IPsec
15 42 (8.20%) Cisco Nexus
16 35 (6.84%) Cisco ISE
17 33 (6.45%) WLAN
18 31 (6.05%) EIGRP
19 28 (5.47%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.78%) MS Access
2 2 (0.39%) MySQL
2 2 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (0.39%) RDBMS
2 2 (0.39%) Relational Database
2 2 (0.39%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.20%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.20%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.20%) Power BI
3 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 11 (2.15%) JIRA
2 7 (1.37%) GitLab
3 6 (1.17%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.98%) Git
4 5 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.39%) Bitbucket
General
1 133 (25.98%) Social Skills
2 59 (11.52%) Public Sector
3 52 (10.16%) Telecoms
4 45 (8.79%) Finance
5 36 (7.03%) Analytical Skills
6 28 (5.47%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (3.13%) Manufacturing
8 12 (2.34%) Local Government
9 9 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.37%) Banking
11 7 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.17%) Spanish Language
13 5 (0.98%) Legal
13 5 (0.98%) Retail
14 4 (0.78%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.78%) Military
15 3 (0.59%) French Language
15 3 (0.59%) Law
Job Titles
1 167 (32.62%) Network Engineer
2 102 (19.92%) Architect
3 66 (12.89%) Network Architect
4 42 (8.20%) Senior
5 41 (8.01%) Support Engineer
6 28 (5.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 27 (5.27%) Security Engineer
8 25 (4.88%) Analyst
8 25 (4.88%) Senior Network Engineer
9 23 (4.49%) 2nd Line Support
9 23 (4.49%) WAN Engineer
10 22 (4.30%) Project Manager
10 22 (4.30%) Solutions Architect
11 21 (4.10%) Consultant
12 19 (3.71%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 19 (3.71%) Field Engineer
12 19 (3.71%) Network Security Engineer
12 19 (3.71%) Technical Architect
13 18 (3.52%) 3rd Line Support
13 18 (3.52%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (5.86%) 802.1X
2 11 (2.15%) Middleware
3 9 (1.76%) NETCONF
3 9 (1.76%) YANG
4 6 (1.17%) REST
5 3 (0.59%) EDI
5 3 (0.59%) Jinja
5 3 (0.59%) LDAP
5 3 (0.59%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.39%) ARM Templates
6 2 (0.39%) LAMP
6 2 (0.39%) OpenConfig
6 2 (0.39%) VML
7 1 (0.20%) Java RMI
7 1 (0.20%) JSON
7 1 (0.20%) LAPP Stack
7 1 (0.20%) libvirt
7 1 (0.20%) Node.js
7 1 (0.20%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.20%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 127 (24.80%) Data Centre
2 35 (6.84%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (5.27%) PKI
4 22 (4.30%) Driving Licence
5 19 (3.71%) Cloud Native
6 18 (3.52%) Public Cloud
7 13 (2.54%) CMDB
8 10 (1.95%) Management Information System
8 10 (1.95%) Onboarding
8 10 (1.95%) Operational Technology
8 10 (1.95%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.76%) NHS
9 9 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
10 8 (1.56%) Replication
11 7 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (1.17%) SCADA
13 5 (0.98%) Security Posture
14 4 (0.78%) CCTV
14 4 (0.78%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 87 (16.99%) Windows
2 31 (6.05%) Windows Server
3 25 (4.88%) Windows 10
4 24 (4.69%) Linux
5 9 (1.76%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
7 7 (1.37%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.78%) Android
8 4 (0.78%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.20%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.20%) MVS
10 1 (0.20%) Solaris
10 1 (0.20%) SUSE
10 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.20%) Unix
10 1 (0.20%) VMS
10 1 (0.20%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.20%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (17.97%) Network Design
2 77 (15.04%) Network Architecture
3 76 (14.84%) Migration
4 70 (13.67%) Problem-Solving
5 52 (10.16%) ITIL
5 52 (10.16%) Load Balancing
6 42 (8.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 40 (7.81%) Change Management
7 40 (7.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 38 (7.42%) Cybersecurity
9 37 (7.23%) Network Monitoring
10 35 (6.84%) Project Delivery
11 33 (6.45%) Zero Trust
12 31 (6.05%) Network Management
12 31 (6.05%) Roadmaps
12 31 (6.05%) Service Management
13 29 (5.66%) High Availability
13 29 (5.66%) Network Virtualisation
14 28 (5.47%) Customer Service
14 28 (5.47%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 54 (10.55%) Python
2 21 (4.10%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.37%) Bicep
4 6 (1.17%) Perl
4 6 (1.17%) VBScript
5 5 (0.98%) SQL
5 5 (0.98%) VB
6 4 (0.78%) Bash
7 1 (0.20%) Go
7 1 (0.20%) Java
7 1 (0.20%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 144 (28.13%) Security Cleared
2 124 (24.22%) Cisco Certification
3 110 (21.48%) SC Cleared
4 90 (17.58%) CCNP
5 50 (9.77%) CCIE
6 36 (7.03%) CCNA
7 34 (6.64%) Degree
8 31 (6.05%) DV Cleared
9 21 (4.10%) JNCIE
10 12 (2.34%) AWS Certification
11 10 (1.95%) Azure Certification
12 9 (1.76%) CISSP
12 9 (1.76%) JNCIP
13 8 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (1.37%) CCSA
14 7 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
14 7 (1.37%) Network+ Certification
15 6 (1.17%) CCDP
15 6 (1.17%) ECDL
16 5 (0.98%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.91%) SLA
2 19 (3.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (2.15%) NIST
4 9 (1.76%) GDPR
4 9 (1.76%) PCI DSS
5 5 (0.98%) PMO
6 4 (0.78%) QA
7 3 (0.59%) NCSC
8 2 (0.39%) GRC
9 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.20%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.20%) MiFID
9 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 69 (13.48%) Active Directory
2 30 (5.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.71%) VMware NSX
4 14 (2.73%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (2.54%) Hyper-V
6 11 (2.15%) Firmware
7 6 (1.17%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.98%) BitLocker
8 5 (0.98%) vSphere
9 2 (0.39%) KVM
9 2 (0.39%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.39%) NFS
9 2 (0.39%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.20%) Ceph
10 1 (0.20%) iptables
10 1 (0.20%) Samba
10 1 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.20%) Xen
Systems Management
1 53 (10.35%) Ansible
2 34 (6.64%) Terraform
3 23 (4.49%) SCCM
4 17 (3.32%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.73%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (2.15%) CASB
7 7 (1.37%) SCOrch
8 4 (0.78%) CA Spectrum
8 4 (0.78%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.59%) Cisco Prime
9 3 (0.59%) HAProxy
9 3 (0.59%) OpenView
9 3 (0.59%) SCOM
9 3 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.39%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.39%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.39%) Grafana
10 2 (0.39%) HP ALM
10 2 (0.39%) Nagios
10 2 (0.39%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 235 (45.90%) Cisco
2 92 (17.97%) Palo Alto
3 87 (16.99%) Juniper
3 87 (16.99%) Microsoft
4 71 (13.87%) Fortinet
5 58 (11.33%) F5
5 58 (11.33%) Meraki
6 52 (10.16%) VMware
7 42 (8.20%) CheckPoint
8 34 (6.64%) SolarWinds
9 26 (5.08%) Aruba
10 19 (3.71%) ServiceNow
11 17 (3.32%) Zscaler
12 14 (2.73%) Blue Coat
13 12 (2.34%) Citrix
14 9 (1.76%) HP
15 8 (1.56%) Arista
15 8 (1.56%) Infoblox
15 8 (1.56%) Remedy
16 7 (1.37%) Nokia