Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for WAN skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited WAN over the 6 months to 16 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
16 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 127 129 187
Rank change year-on-year +2 +58 -9
Contract jobs citing WAN 775 1,134 1,344
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.82% 1.99% 1.54%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.38% 16.01% 14.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 435 689 882
10th Percentile £254 £258 £223
25th Percentile £350 £350 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% +5.56% +5.88%
75th Percentile £650 £588 £550
90th Percentile £733 £663 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £400
% change year-on-year +11.76% +6.24% +0.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 41 55
10th Percentile £13.63 £18.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.88 £27.00 £19.88
Median hourly rate £24.87 £60.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -58.55% +71.43% +75.00%
75th Percentile £40.00 £80.25 £51.11
90th Percentile £75.24 £85.05 £60.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.87 £57.33 £22.50
% change year-on-year -56.62% +154.80% +13.92%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

WAN is in the Communications and Computer Networking category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,388 7,085 9,546
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.66% 12.44% 10.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,213 4,577 6,232
10th Percentile £205 £235 £234
25th Percentile £350 £400 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.68% +3.90% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £611
90th Percentile £694 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 417 464 367
10th Percentile £13.50 £9.80 £15.25
25th Percentile £16.30 £10.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £18.50 £28.41
Median % change year-on-year +116.22% -34.88% +7.21%
75th Percentile £63.75 £59.85 £50.89
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £65.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.88 £17.75 £21.50
% change year-on-year +158.48% -17.44% -8.51%

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 16 May 2024.

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 16 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Top 16 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 16 May 2024. 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 +16 724 £488 +5.41% 364
UK excluding London +8 508 £475 +11.76% 273
London +5 216 £500 -5.66% 115
South East 0 165 £425 -5.56% 47
Work from Home -56 148 £550 +10.00% 142
Midlands +24 147 £375 +7.07% 56
West Midlands +25 137 £375 +7.14% 41
South West +10 92 £650 +33.33% 33
North of England -24 69 £400 +6.67% 85
Yorkshire +32 37 £463 +48.00% 27
North West -47 30 £350 -17.65% 53
East of England -14 18 £525 +55.56% 28
Scotland +13 15 £550 +10.00% 16
East Midlands -3 9 £630 +96.88% 15
Wales -2 4 £263 -22.22% 10
North East +9 2 £400 +30.61% 5

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 25 (3.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (1.68%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.26%) Confluence
3 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
3 2 (0.26%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.13%) Apache
4 1 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 36 (4.65%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (1.81%) MS Visio
4 8 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.13%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.13%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
2 1 (0.13%) RMDS
2 1 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 109 (14.06%) Azure
2 63 (8.13%) AWS
3 59 (7.61%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (4.90%) Cloud Computing
4 38 (4.90%) IaaS
5 36 (4.65%) PaaS
6 34 (4.39%) SaaS
7 22 (2.84%) GCP
8 10 (1.29%) Entra ID
9 6 (0.77%) Cloudflare
10 5 (0.65%) GitHub
10 5 (0.65%) OneDrive
10 5 (0.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 4 (0.52%) WhatsApp
12 3 (0.39%) Google Workspace
12 3 (0.39%) iPaaS
12 3 (0.39%) Mimecast
12 3 (0.39%) Nutanix
13 2 (0.26%) Azure Key Vault
13 2 (0.26%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 506 (65.29%) LAN
2 248 (32.00%) Firewall
3 217 (28.00%) VPN
4 192 (24.77%) MPLS
5 175 (22.58%) BGP
6 161 (20.77%) SD-WAN
7 124 (16.00%) Wi-Fi
8 114 (14.71%) Wireless
9 102 (13.16%) IPsec
10 95 (12.26%) DNS
11 87 (11.23%) OSPF
12 77 (9.94%) DHCP
13 71 (9.16%) Network Security
14 58 (7.48%) Junos
14 58 (7.48%) WLAN
15 42 (5.42%) Cisco ASA
15 42 (5.42%) VoIP
16 41 (5.29%) Cisco Nexus
17 39 (5.03%) TCP/IP
18 38 (4.90%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (2.32%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.26%) MySQL
3 1 (0.13%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.13%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 7 (0.90%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
3 5 (0.65%) JIRA
4 3 (0.39%) Git
5 1 (0.13%) GitLab
5 1 (0.13%) Hudson
5 1 (0.13%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.13%) Katalon Studio
General
1 180 (23.23%) Social Skills
2 110 (14.19%) Public Sector
3 102 (13.16%) Finance
4 61 (7.87%) Telecoms
5 51 (6.58%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (2.32%) Presentation Skills
7 15 (1.94%) Aerospace
8 14 (1.81%) Banking
9 12 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (1.42%) Mandarin Language
11 9 (1.16%) Legal
11 9 (1.16%) Manufacturing
11 9 (1.16%) Military
12 8 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 7 (0.90%) Aeronautics
13 7 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (0.77%) Back Office
14 6 (0.77%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.77%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.65%) Retail
Job Titles
1 220 (28.39%) Network Engineer
2 206 (26.58%) Architect
3 153 (19.74%) Network Architect
4 63 (8.13%) Senior
5 55 (7.10%) WAN Engineer
6 49 (6.32%) Support Engineer
7 41 (5.29%) Network Support
8 37 (4.77%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 36 (4.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 32 (4.13%) 2nd Line Support
10 32 (4.13%) Senior Network Engineer
11 31 (4.00%) 3rd Line Support
11 31 (4.00%) Consultant
12 30 (3.87%) Analyst
13 28 (3.61%) Lead
14 23 (2.97%) Project Manager
15 21 (2.71%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 21 (2.71%) Cisco Engineer
15 21 (2.71%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 21 (2.71%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.55%) Web Services
2 9 (1.16%) Middleware
3 6 (0.77%) 802.1X
3 6 (0.77%) JSON
3 6 (0.77%) LDAP
4 5 (0.65%) XML
5 4 (0.52%) .NET
5 4 (0.52%) EDI
6 3 (0.39%) J2EE
6 3 (0.39%) Jinja
6 3 (0.39%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.39%) RESTful
6 3 (0.39%) XMPP
6 3 (0.39%) YANG
7 2 (0.26%) XSLT
8 1 (0.13%) HTML
8 1 (0.13%) Kafka
8 1 (0.13%) LAMP
8 1 (0.13%) libvirt
8 1 (0.13%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 127 (16.39%) Data Centre
2 92 (11.87%) PKI
3 25 (3.23%) Video Conferencing
4 21 (2.71%) Clustering
5 20 (2.58%) Public Cloud
6 19 (2.45%) Driving Licence
6 19 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
7 16 (2.06%) NHS
8 15 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.94%) Operational Technology
9 13 (1.68%) Client/Server
10 12 (1.55%) Management Information System
11 11 (1.42%) Hybrid Cloud
12 9 (1.16%) CMDB
13 8 (1.03%) CCTV
14 6 (0.77%) Replication
15 5 (0.65%) Product Ownership
15 5 (0.65%) SCADA
16 4 (0.52%) Cloud Native
16 4 (0.52%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 150 (19.35%) Windows
2 66 (8.52%) Windows Server
3 61 (7.87%) Linux
4 28 (3.61%) Windows 10
5 23 (2.97%) Mac OS
6 17 (2.19%) Unix
7 13 (1.68%) Windows Server 2012
8 10 (1.29%) Windows Server 2019
9 8 (1.03%) Android
9 8 (1.03%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (0.90%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.52%) CentOS
13 3 (0.39%) Debian
13 3 (0.39%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.26%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
14 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.26%) zOS
15 1 (0.13%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (12.52%) Problem-Solving
2 88 (11.35%) Network Design
3 84 (10.84%) ITIL
4 81 (10.45%) Network Management
5 72 (9.29%) Load Balancing
6 62 (8.00%) Migration
7 61 (7.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 56 (7.23%) Project Management
9 53 (6.84%) Project Delivery
10 52 (6.71%) Change Management
11 51 (6.58%) Network Architecture
12 49 (6.32%) Cybersecurity
13 47 (6.06%) Customer Service
14 45 (5.81%) Customer Requirements
15 43 (5.55%) Business Strategy
16 42 (5.42%) Zero Trust
17 38 (4.90%) Stakeholder Management
17 38 (4.90%) Technical Leadership
18 37 (4.77%) Agile
19 31 (4.00%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 39 (5.03%) PowerShell
2 27 (3.48%) Python
3 14 (1.81%) SQL
4 6 (0.77%) Bash
5 5 (0.65%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (0.52%) Java
7 2 (0.26%) Perl
8 1 (0.13%) Bicep
8 1 (0.13%) C
8 1 (0.13%) C#
8 1 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 313 (40.39%) Security Cleared
2 150 (19.35%) Cisco Certification
3 128 (16.52%) SC Cleared
4 97 (12.52%) CCNP
5 88 (11.35%) Degree
6 86 (11.10%) DV Cleared
7 77 (9.94%) CCNA
8 39 (5.03%) CCIE
9 15 (1.94%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (1.81%) JNCIA
11 13 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.16%) CCIE Data Center
14 8 (1.03%) HND
14 8 (1.03%) Network+ Certification
15 6 (0.77%) BC Cleared
15 6 (0.77%) JNCIS
16 5 (0.65%) AWS Certification
16 5 (0.65%) CCSA
16 5 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (5.16%) SLA
2 21 (2.71%) QA
3 18 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.29%) ISO 9000
4 10 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 8 (1.03%) NCSC
6 4 (0.52%) GDPR
7 3 (0.39%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.13%) COBIT
9 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.13%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.13%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.13%) NIST
9 1 (0.13%) PMO
9 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 89 (11.48%) Active Directory
2 81 (10.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (3.61%) Hyper-V
4 26 (3.35%) VMware NSX
5 21 (2.71%) Virtual Servers
6 17 (2.19%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (1.29%) Firmware
7 10 (1.29%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (1.03%) VMware Workstation
8 8 (1.03%) vSphere
9 5 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.52%) VMware Server
11 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 3 (0.39%) XenApp
12 2 (0.26%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.13%) Ceph
13 1 (0.13%) Docker
13 1 (0.13%) KVM
13 1 (0.13%) NFS
13 1 (0.13%) Samba
Systems Management
1 35 (4.52%) SCCM
2 29 (3.74%) FortiGate
3 26 (3.35%) Endace
4 19 (2.45%) Ansible
5 18 (2.32%) Terraform
6 13 (1.68%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (1.29%) Microsoft Clustering
7 10 (1.29%) vCenter Server
8 9 (1.16%) Kubernetes
9 8 (1.03%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
9 8 (1.03%) Nagios
9 8 (1.03%) NetBackup
9 8 (1.03%) SCOM
10 6 (0.77%) Autotask
10 6 (0.77%) VxRail
11 5 (0.65%) Nessus
11 5 (0.65%) OpenView
12 3 (0.39%) AppManager
12 3 (0.39%) OPNET
Vendors
1 374 (48.26%) Cisco
2 207 (26.71%) Juniper
3 112 (14.45%) Microsoft
4 105 (13.55%) VMware
5 97 (12.52%) Palo Alto
6 81 (10.45%) F5
7 62 (8.00%) Fortinet
8 50 (6.45%) CheckPoint
9 44 (5.68%) Aruba
9 44 (5.68%) Meraki
10 29 (3.74%) Citrix
11 23 (2.97%) Zscaler
12 20 (2.58%) HP
12 20 (2.58%) SolarWinds
13 18 (2.32%) Infoblox
14 13 (1.68%) Dell
14 13 (1.68%) ServiceNow
15 12 (1.55%) Google
16 11 (1.42%) 3Com
16 11 (1.42%) Apple