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 5 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 183 173 125
Rank change year-on-year -10 -48 -9
Contract jobs citing WAN 756 509 785
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.46% 1.60% 1.81%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.33% 13.08% 14.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 491 327 441
10th Percentile £305 £238 £263
25th Percentile £400 £360 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +4.05%
75th Percentile £582 £583 £638
90th Percentile £675 £675 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £498 £434 £475
% change year-on-year +14.70% -8.68% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 19 40
10th Percentile £17.74 £22.07 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £28.00 £19.59
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.00 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -10.93% +20.63% -53.66%
75th Percentile £42.38 £41.63 £40.25
90th Percentile £76.05 £63.03 £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 4,931 3,892 5,422
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.53% 12.26% 12.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,000 2,378 3,197
10th Percentile £250 £231 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -0.30%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +3.51% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 307 182 429
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £19.34 £23.17 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £44.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.58% -1.11% +102.16%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £73.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £36.57 £47.50
% change year-on-year -28.91% -23.01% +94.08%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -19 641 £500 +4.71% 263
UK excluding London -9 463 £498 +14.70% 224
London -49 213 £515 -3.92% 80
Work from Home +3 182 £510 +2.00% 113
South East +18 167 £520 +15.56% 58
North of England -29 114 £500 +17.65% 54
North West -25 67 £537 +43.20% 27
Midlands -50 58 £378 -5.63% 45
Scotland +11 57 £475 +10.14% 19
West Midlands -61 45 £340 -15.00% 32
Yorkshire -28 42 £450 -5.76% 24
East of England -7 41 £450 +5.26% 12
South West -32 23 £556 +23.56% 23
North East -28 11 £650 +73.33% 5
East Midlands -12 8 £475 -5.00% 13
Wales -22 7 £468 +133.75% 5
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 - 12
Channel Islands -2 1 £575 -22.56%

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 30 (3.97%) Microsoft Exchange
2 25 (3.31%) SharePoint
3 18 (2.38%) Confluence
4 11 (1.46%) OpenStack
5 7 (0.93%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.26%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.26%) IIS
7 1 (0.13%) CMS
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 29 (3.84%) MS Visio
2 19 (2.51%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (2.25%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.32%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.40%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 222 (29.37%) Azure
2 119 (15.74%) AWS
3 73 (9.66%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (6.35%) Entra ID
5 36 (4.76%) SaaS
6 32 (4.23%) GCP
7 26 (3.44%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 23 (3.04%) OCI
9 18 (2.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 15 (1.98%) OneDrive
11 14 (1.85%) Azure Sentinel
11 14 (1.85%) PaaS
12 13 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (1.72%) Serverless
13 11 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
13 11 (1.46%) AWS Direct Connect
14 9 (1.19%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (1.06%) Power Platform
16 7 (0.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 7 (0.93%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 491 (64.95%) LAN
2 395 (52.25%) Firewall
3 287 (37.96%) SD-WAN
4 246 (32.54%) BGP
5 204 (26.98%) VPN
6 184 (24.34%) OSPF
7 172 (22.75%) Network Security
8 147 (19.44%) DNS
9 136 (17.99%) MPLS
10 128 (16.93%) Wi-Fi
11 115 (15.21%) Wireless
12 91 (12.04%) DHCP
13 90 (11.90%) VLAN
14 83 (10.98%) TCP/IP
15 79 (10.45%) VXLAN
16 69 (9.13%) IPsec
17 64 (8.47%) BIG-IP
17 64 (8.47%) WLAN
18 61 (8.07%) Ethernet VPN
19 54 (7.14%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.06%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.66%) Data Lake
3 3 (0.40%) NoSQL
3 3 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.26%) Apache Cassandra
4 2 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.26%) Flink
4 2 (0.26%) InfluxDB
4 2 (0.26%) MongoDB
4 2 (0.26%) MySQL
4 2 (0.26%) TimescaleDB
5 1 (0.13%) Power BI
5 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 34 (4.50%) JIRA
2 21 (2.78%) GitLab
3 14 (1.85%) Git
4 7 (0.93%) Sonatype Nexus
5 6 (0.79%) Jenkins
6 5 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
7 3 (0.40%) Chocolatey
8 2 (0.26%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.26%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.13%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.13%) MSI
9 1 (0.13%) Subversion
9 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio
General
1 173 (22.88%) Social Skills
2 72 (9.52%) Finance
2 72 (9.52%) Telecoms
3 71 (9.39%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (8.47%) Public Sector
5 45 (5.95%) Legal
6 29 (3.84%) Documentation Skills
7 19 (2.51%) Financial Institution
8 14 (1.85%) Manufacturing
8 14 (1.85%) Retail
9 11 (1.46%) Banking
9 11 (1.46%) Military
10 10 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.19%) Billing
11 9 (1.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.06%) Law
13 7 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (0.79%) Police
15 3 (0.40%) German Language
15 3 (0.40%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 291 (38.49%) Network Engineer
2 122 (16.14%) Architect
3 105 (13.89%) Senior
4 72 (9.52%) Network Architect
5 46 (6.08%) Senior Network Engineer
6 41 (5.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 33 (4.37%) Cisco Engineer
8 32 (4.23%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 30 (3.97%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 29 (3.84%) Lead
11 26 (3.44%) Support Engineer
12 25 (3.31%) Project Manager
12 25 (3.31%) Security Engineer
13 23 (3.04%) IT Support
14 22 (2.91%) Consultant
14 22 (2.91%) Network Manager
14 22 (2.91%) Technical Architect
15 20 (2.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 19 (2.51%) IT Engineer
17 18 (2.38%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (7.14%) 802.1X
2 16 (2.12%) SAML
3 15 (1.98%) REST
4 11 (1.46%) NETCONF
4 11 (1.46%) YANG
5 10 (1.32%) LDAP
5 10 (1.32%) Microsoft Graph
6 4 (0.53%) Django
6 4 (0.53%) Jinja
6 4 (0.53%) Middleware
6 4 (0.53%) OpenConfig
6 4 (0.53%) RESTCONF
7 3 (0.40%) ARM Templates
8 2 (0.26%) AWS CDK
8 2 (0.26%) Java RMI
8 2 (0.26%) JSON
8 2 (0.26%) Kafka
8 2 (0.26%) OpenAPI
8 2 (0.26%) RabbitMQ
8 2 (0.26%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 200 (26.46%) Data Centre
2 55 (7.28%) Hybrid Cloud
3 37 (4.89%) PKI
4 27 (3.57%) Cloud Native
4 27 (3.57%) Clustering
5 22 (2.91%) Security Posture
6 19 (2.51%) Driving Licence
7 16 (2.12%) Onboarding
7 16 (2.12%) Operational Technology
7 16 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
8 12 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
8 12 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
9 11 (1.46%) IoT
9 11 (1.46%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.32%) Private Cloud
11 9 (1.19%) SCADA
11 9 (1.19%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.06%) NHS
13 7 (0.93%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 183 (24.21%) Windows
2 60 (7.94%) Windows Server
3 49 (6.48%) Linux
4 20 (2.65%) Windows Server 2019
5 17 (2.25%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.32%) Android
7 8 (1.06%) VMS
8 7 (0.93%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.93%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.66%) Unix
10 5 (0.66%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.53%) Windows 7
12 3 (0.40%) CatOS
13 1 (0.13%) CentOS
13 1 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (14.29%) Load Balancing
2 107 (14.15%) ITIL
3 106 (14.02%) High Availability
4 103 (13.62%) Problem-Solving
5 85 (11.24%) Zero Trust
6 77 (10.19%) Migration
7 73 (9.66%) Network Architecture
7 73 (9.66%) Stakeholder Management
8 72 (9.52%) Network Design
9 70 (9.26%) Infrastructure as Code
10 64 (8.47%) Project Delivery
10 64 (8.47%) Roadmaps
11 61 (8.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 59 (7.80%) Change Management
13 57 (7.54%) Agile
14 54 (7.14%) Network Monitoring
15 52 (6.88%) Technical Leadership
16 50 (6.61%) DevOps
17 47 (6.22%) CI/CD
17 47 (6.22%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 117 (15.48%) Python
2 59 (7.80%) PowerShell
3 20 (2.65%) SQL
4 13 (1.72%) Bash
5 5 (0.66%) VBScript
6 4 (0.53%) C++
6 4 (0.53%) Java
6 4 (0.53%) VB
7 2 (0.26%) C
7 2 (0.26%) Groovy
7 2 (0.26%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.26%) Perl
8 1 (0.13%) Bicep
8 1 (0.13%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.13%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 234 (30.95%) Security Cleared
2 219 (28.97%) Cisco Certification
3 157 (20.77%) SC Cleared
4 143 (18.92%) CCNP
5 77 (10.19%) CCNA
6 68 (8.99%) DV Cleared
7 57 (7.54%) CCIE
8 53 (7.01%) Degree
9 19 (2.51%) PMP
10 14 (1.85%) Azure Certification
10 14 (1.85%) JNCIE
11 13 (1.72%) AWS Certification
11 13 (1.72%) JNCIP
11 13 (1.72%) PMI Certification
12 12 (1.59%) JNCIS
13 11 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
13 11 (1.46%) JNCIA
14 10 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
15 8 (1.06%) CISSP
16 7 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.91%) SLA
2 18 (2.38%) QA
3 15 (1.98%) NIST
4 12 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 12 (1.59%) NCSC
5 5 (0.66%) GDPR
5 5 (0.66%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.53%) PMO
7 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 2 (0.26%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.13%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.13%) DICOM
8 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.13%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 106 (14.02%) Active Directory
2 75 (9.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (4.76%) VMware NSX
4 21 (2.78%) vSphere
5 18 (2.38%) Virtual Machines
6 16 (2.12%) Firmware
7 14 (1.85%) Hyper-V
8 11 (1.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.53%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.26%) NFS
11 2 (0.26%) Squid
11 2 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
12 1 (0.13%) Docker
12 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.13%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.13%) Samba
Systems Management
1 96 (12.70%) Ansible
2 85 (11.24%) Terraform
3 80 (10.58%) FortiGate
4 24 (3.17%) Microsoft Intune
5 22 (2.91%) Grafana
6 20 (2.65%) Prometheus
7 17 (2.25%) Single Sign-On
8 15 (1.98%) SCCM
9 8 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
10 6 (0.79%) Kubernetes
11 5 (0.66%) Cisco Prime
11 5 (0.66%) Nagios
11 5 (0.66%) Puppet
12 4 (0.53%) CASB
12 4 (0.53%) Packer
12 4 (0.53%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.53%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 3 (0.40%) Cisco CUCM
13 3 (0.40%) Endace
13 3 (0.40%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 378 (50.00%) Cisco
2 170 (22.49%) Palo Alto
3 155 (20.50%) Microsoft
4 122 (16.14%) F5
5 106 (14.02%) Fortinet
6 95 (12.57%) Juniper
7 94 (12.43%) VMware
8 83 (10.98%) Aruba
9 69 (9.13%) SolarWinds
10 60 (7.94%) CheckPoint
11 59 (7.80%) Arista
12 50 (6.61%) Zscaler
13 38 (5.03%) Meraki
13 38 (5.03%) ServiceNow
14 36 (4.76%) Splunk
15 28 (3.70%) Extreme Networks
16 17 (2.25%) Dell
17 13 (1.72%) Ekahau
18 9 (1.19%) Citrix
18 9 (1.19%) Nokia