WAN Contracts

Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring WAN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited WAN over the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 170 128 118
Rank change year-on-year -42 -10 +58
Contract jobs citing WAN 503 783 1,223
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.61% 1.80% 2.19%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.93% 14.41% 17.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 323 439 731
10th Percentile £239 £263 £263
25th Percentile £360 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £481
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +4.05% +6.79%
75th Percentile £583 £638 £600
90th Percentile £675 £713 £723
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £475 £425
% change year-on-year -7.89% +11.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 40 47
10th Percentile £22.07 £14.00 £17.10
25th Percentile £28.00 £19.59 £21.61
Median hourly rate £30.00 £24.87 £57.33
Median % change year-on-year +20.63% -56.62% +120.50%
75th Percentile £41.63 £40.25 £77.87
90th Percentile £63.03 £75.00 £84.27
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £37.50 £43.75
% change year-on-year -20.00% -14.29% +94.44%

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 3,890 5,433 7,167
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.42% 12.50% 12.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,342 3,208 4,616
10th Percentile £230 £213 £240
25th Percentile £363 £350 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £506
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -1.19% +1.20%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £675 £688 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -4.08% +3.16% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 188 428 433
10th Percentile £14.54 £13.86 £9.80
25th Percentile £20.81 £17.69 £10.63
Median hourly rate £42.00 £45.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +114.29% -27.74%
75th Percentile £60.41 £63.75 £62.55
90th Percentile £76.50 £73.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.32 £47.50 £22.00
% change year-on-year -36.17% +115.91% -2.22%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Top 17 Contract 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 3 July 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 -46 436 £475 -5.00% 622
UK excluding London -43 282 £438 -7.89% 420
London +17 180 £536 +4.84% 254
Work from Home +4 120 £500 -7.41% 269
North of England 0 68 £425 - 109
South East -28 68 £450 -10.00% 103
Midlands -46 50 £400 +6.67% 84
North West +20 48 £400 +3.23% 48
West Midlands -38 45 £400 +6.67% 54
Scotland +18 33 £431 -21.59% 33
South West -14 32 £450 -30.77% 33
East of England +21 18 £428 -22.97% 52
Yorkshire -17 16 £478 -4.50% 48
Wales +12 12 £200 -31.91% 9
East Midlands -6 5 £500 +5.26% 30
Channel Islands - 4 £743 -
North East +2 3 £375 +25.00% 15

WAN
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:

Application Platforms
1 23 (4.57%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.99%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.80%) Confluence
3 4 (0.80%) Skype for Business
4 2 (0.40%) Camunda
4 2 (0.40%) nginx
5 1 (0.20%) Apache
5 1 (0.20%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
5 1 (0.20%) IIS
Applications
1 38 (7.55%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (2.19%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.20%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.39%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 121 (24.06%) Azure
2 84 (16.70%) AWS
3 53 (10.54%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (6.56%) Entra ID
5 11 (2.19%) GCP
6 10 (1.99%) OneDrive
7 8 (1.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 7 (1.39%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 6 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.19%) Azure Monitor
9 6 (1.19%) Cloudflare
10 5 (0.99%) GitHub
10 5 (0.99%) SaaS
11 4 (0.80%) IaaS
11 4 (0.80%) Mimecast
11 4 (0.80%) PaaS
12 3 (0.60%) Amazon EC2
12 3 (0.60%) Cloud Computing
12 3 (0.60%) Route 53
12 3 (0.60%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 322 (64.02%) LAN
2 259 (51.49%) Firewall
3 182 (36.18%) VPN
4 167 (33.20%) SD-WAN
5 114 (22.66%) BGP
6 104 (20.68%) Wireless
7 101 (20.08%) Network Security
8 92 (18.29%) MPLS
8 92 (18.29%) OSPF
9 89 (17.69%) DNS
9 89 (17.69%) Wi-Fi
10 64 (12.72%) DHCP
11 57 (11.33%) TCP/IP
12 56 (11.13%) Cisco Nexus
13 51 (10.14%) VLAN
14 43 (8.55%) IPsec
15 42 (8.35%) EIGRP
16 36 (7.16%) WLAN
17 35 (6.96%) Cisco ISE
18 32 (6.36%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.19%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.40%) Data Lake
2 2 (0.40%) MySQL
2 2 (0.40%) RDBMS
2 2 (0.40%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 13 (2.58%) Sonatype Nexus
2 8 (1.59%) JIRA
3 6 (1.19%) GitLab
4 3 (0.60%) Git
5 2 (0.40%) Bitbucket
General
1 148 (29.42%) Social Skills
2 67 (13.32%) Finance
3 38 (7.55%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (7.55%) Telecoms
4 34 (6.76%) Public Sector
5 20 (3.98%) Documentation Skills
5 20 (3.98%) Legal
6 16 (3.18%) Banking
7 15 (2.98%) Manufacturing
8 8 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.59%) Law
9 7 (1.39%) Local Government
9 7 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (1.39%) Retail
10 6 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (0.99%) Electronics
11 5 (0.99%) Games
12 4 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.60%) Aviation
14 2 (0.40%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 193 (38.37%) Network Engineer
2 77 (15.31%) Architect
3 44 (8.75%) Network Architect
4 37 (7.36%) Support Engineer
5 35 (6.96%) Senior
6 24 (4.77%) Analyst
7 23 (4.57%) Senior Network Engineer
8 21 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 19 (3.78%) Field Engineer
9 19 (3.78%) Implementation Engineer
9 19 (3.78%) Technical Architect
9 19 (3.78%) Test Engineer
10 18 (3.58%) IP Engineer
10 18 (3.58%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 17 (3.38%) Cisco Engineer
11 17 (3.38%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 17 (3.38%) Project Manager
12 16 (3.18%) 2nd Line Support
12 16 (3.18%) Consultant
12 16 (3.18%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (5.17%) 802.1X
2 12 (2.39%) Middleware
3 5 (0.99%) JSON
4 4 (0.80%) XML
5 3 (0.60%) EDI
6 2 (0.40%) .NET
6 2 (0.40%) .NET Framework
6 2 (0.40%) LDAP
6 2 (0.40%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.20%) ADO
7 1 (0.20%) HTML
7 1 (0.20%) Java RMI
7 1 (0.20%) Jinja
7 1 (0.20%) LAMP
7 1 (0.20%) NETCONF
7 1 (0.20%) RESTCONF
7 1 (0.20%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 108 (21.47%) Data Centre
2 22 (4.37%) Self-Motivation
3 18 (3.58%) Public Cloud
4 16 (3.18%) Virtual Team
5 14 (2.78%) PKI
6 11 (2.19%) Driving Licence
6 11 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
7 10 (1.99%) Cloud Native
8 9 (1.79%) Onboarding
8 9 (1.79%) Security Posture
8 9 (1.79%) Video Conferencing
9 8 (1.59%) CMDB
10 7 (1.39%) CCTV
10 7 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (1.39%) Management Information System
11 6 (1.19%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 6 (1.19%) SCADA
12 5 (0.99%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 92 (18.29%) Windows
2 51 (10.14%) Linux
3 23 (4.57%) Windows Server
4 21 (4.17%) Windows 10
5 15 (2.98%) Unix
6 11 (2.19%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.39%) Windows 7
8 6 (1.19%) Android
9 4 (0.80%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.20%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.20%) CentOS
11 1 (0.20%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.20%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (17.89%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (13.12%) Migration
3 64 (12.72%) ITIL
4 61 (12.13%) Network Design
5 60 (11.93%) Network Architecture
6 59 (11.73%) Network Monitoring
7 48 (9.54%) Project Management
8 41 (8.15%) Change Management
9 39 (7.75%) High Availability
10 38 (7.55%) Load Balancing
11 37 (7.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 36 (7.16%) Network Management
13 33 (6.56%) Customer Service
14 28 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
15 25 (4.97%) Agile
15 25 (4.97%) Computer Science
15 25 (4.97%) Service Management
16 24 (4.77%) Roadmaps
16 24 (4.77%) Zero Trust
17 23 (4.57%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 40 (7.95%) Python
2 23 (4.57%) PowerShell
3 15 (2.98%) Java
4 10 (1.99%) SQL
5 4 (0.80%) Bash
5 4 (0.80%) Bicep
5 4 (0.80%) VB
5 4 (0.80%) VBScript
6 3 (0.60%) C#
6 3 (0.60%) Perl
7 1 (0.20%) C
7 1 (0.20%) Go
Qualifications
1 155 (30.82%) Cisco Certification
2 120 (23.86%) Security Cleared
3 117 (23.26%) CCNP
4 95 (18.89%) SC Cleared
5 56 (11.13%) CCNA
6 47 (9.34%) Degree
7 30 (5.96%) CCIE
8 20 (3.98%) Computer Science Degree
9 17 (3.38%) DV Cleared
10 15 (2.98%) ISTQB
10 15 (2.98%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 14 (2.78%) ISEB
11 14 (2.78%) JNCIA
12 11 (2.19%) CCSA
12 11 (2.19%) JNCIS
13 10 (1.99%) AWS Certification
14 8 (1.59%) Microsoft Certification
15 7 (1.39%) Azure Certification
16 5 (0.99%) A+ Certification
17 4 (0.80%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.98%) SLA
2 11 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (2.19%) QA
3 8 (1.59%) NIST
4 5 (0.99%) GRC
5 4 (0.80%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.60%) GDPR
6 3 (0.60%) NCSC
7 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.20%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.20%) GxP
7 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 71 (14.12%) Active Directory
2 29 (5.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (2.98%) Firmware
4 9 (1.79%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (1.59%) Hyper-V
6 7 (1.39%) VMware NSX
7 5 (0.99%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.80%) BitLocker
9 3 (0.60%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 2 (0.40%) vSphere
11 1 (0.20%) Docker
11 1 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.20%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.20%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 45 (8.95%) Ansible
2 26 (5.17%) Terraform
3 25 (4.97%) SCCM
4 18 (3.58%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (1.99%) Cisco Prime
7 8 (1.59%) CA Spectrum
8 7 (1.39%) CASB
9 5 (0.99%) HP ALM
9 5 (0.99%) OpenView
10 4 (0.80%) AppManager
10 4 (0.80%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (0.80%) SCOM
11 3 (0.60%) HAProxy
11 3 (0.60%) Nagios
11 3 (0.60%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.60%) SCOrch
11 3 (0.60%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 2 (0.40%) Icinga
12 2 (0.40%) XenMobile
Vendors
1 269 (53.48%) Cisco
2 108 (21.47%) Microsoft
3 94 (18.69%) Palo Alto
4 76 (15.11%) Juniper
5 53 (10.54%) Fortinet
6 49 (9.74%) F5
7 48 (9.54%) Meraki
8 41 (8.15%) SolarWinds
9 38 (7.55%) VMware
10 34 (6.76%) CheckPoint
11 26 (5.17%) Aruba
12 23 (4.57%) ServiceNow
13 19 (3.78%) Arista
14 16 (3.18%) Remedy
14 16 (3.18%) Zscaler
15 14 (2.78%) Citrix
16 13 (2.58%) HP
17 9 (1.79%) MuleSoft
18 7 (1.39%) Peregrine
19 6 (1.19%) Apple