WLAN Contract Job Trends

Wireless LAN (WLAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring WLAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 564 474 501
Rank change year-on-year -90 +27 +77
Contract jobs citing WLAN 61 45 99
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.14% 0.15% 0.22%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.37% 1.19% 1.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 32 61
10th Percentile £190 £321 £338
25th Percentile £303 £363 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £425 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.35% -15.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £538 £497 £775
90th Percentile £638 £569 £875
UK excluding London median daily rate £403 £400 £550
% change year-on-year +0.63% -27.27% +29.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £23.92
Median hourly rate - - £24.87
75th Percentile - - £25.83
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £24.87
% change year-on-year - - -24.64%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

WLAN 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 4,466 3,766 5,915
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.00% 12.97% 13.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,866 2,332 3,562
10th Percentile £224 £213 £205
25th Percentile £380 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% +3.16% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £473 £475
% change year-on-year +0.53% -0.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 148 408
10th Percentile £15.56 £14.99 £13.96
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.46 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +19.83% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.38 £62.50
90th Percentile £76.50 £75.00 £67.84
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £31.79 £44.00
% change year-on-year +53.26% -27.75% +137.84%

WLAN
Job Vacancy Trend

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

WLAN job vacancy trend in the UK

WLAN
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

WLAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WLAN over the 6 months to 1 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for WLAN in the UK

WLAN
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

WLAN
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WLAN within the UK over the 6 months to 1 April 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 -93 55 £435 -0.57% 42
UK excluding London -69 48 £403 +0.63% 41
Midlands -51 22 £200 -23.08% 6
Work from Home -29 19 £430 -26.81% 10
West Midlands - 16 £475 - 6
South East -42 11 £443 -6.74% 10
London -75 11 £530 +17.78% 8
East Midlands -28 6 £200 -23.08%
East of England -28 5 £200 -54.29% 7
Scotland +8 3 £270 -8.09% 3
North of England -77 3 £537 +58.96% 16
South West -25 2 £413 -35.29% 1
North West -45 2 £537 +65.08% 8
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 -
Yorkshire -58 1 - - 7

WLAN
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 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (1.64%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (3.28%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 18 (29.51%) Azure
2 15 (24.59%) AWS
3 9 (14.75%) GCP
4 8 (13.11%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (6.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (6.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 3 (4.92%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (1.64%) Entra ID
7 1 (1.64%) Google Ads
7 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 59 (96.72%) LAN
2 40 (65.57%) WAN
3 27 (44.26%) Wireless
4 25 (40.98%) Firewall
5 24 (39.34%) SD-WAN
6 21 (34.43%) BGP
7 20 (32.79%) OSPF
8 19 (31.15%) VPN
9 17 (27.87%) VLAN
10 15 (24.59%) Network Security
11 13 (21.31%) Wi-Fi
12 12 (19.67%) DNS
13 11 (18.03%) DHCP
14 10 (16.39%) Internet
15 9 (14.75%) Cisco ISE
15 9 (14.75%) MPLS
16 8 (13.11%) TCP/IP
17 6 (9.84%) 5G
17 6 (9.84%) Cisco ASA
18 5 (8.20%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.64%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 6 (9.84%) JIRA
2 1 (1.64%) Git
General
1 15 (24.59%) Social Skills
2 10 (16.39%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (16.39%) Public Sector
3 5 (8.20%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (6.56%) Influencing Skills
5 3 (4.92%) Telecoms
6 2 (3.28%) Finance
6 2 (3.28%) Local Government
6 2 (3.28%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (3.28%) Retail
7 1 (1.64%) Billing
7 1 (1.64%) Financial Institution
7 1 (1.64%) French Language
7 1 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.64%) Legal
7 1 (1.64%) Military
Job Titles
1 28 (45.90%) Network Engineer
2 13 (21.31%) Architect
3 12 (19.67%) Network Architect
4 6 (9.84%) IT Engineer
4 6 (9.84%) IT Support
4 6 (9.84%) IT Support Engineer
4 6 (9.84%) Lead
4 6 (9.84%) Support Engineer
5 5 (8.20%) Wireless Engineer
6 4 (6.56%) Administrator
6 4 (6.56%) Senior
6 4 (6.56%) Solutions Architect
6 4 (6.56%) Wireless Network Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) Cisco Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) Data Centre Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) Data Network Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (9.84%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.64%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 11 (18.03%) Data Centre
2 7 (11.48%) Onboarding
3 6 (9.84%) Virtual Team
4 4 (6.56%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.64%) Cyber Defence
5 1 (1.64%) Distributed Architecture
5 1 (1.64%) Fat Client
5 1 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (1.64%) iSeries
5 1 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.64%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.64%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.64%) PKI
5 1 (1.64%) Public Cloud
5 1 (1.64%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.64%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 7 (11.48%) Windows
2 1 (1.64%) Linux
2 1 (1.64%) Solaris
2 1 (1.64%) Unix
2 1 (1.64%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (22.95%) Network Architecture
2 12 (19.67%) Network Design
3 9 (14.75%) Zero Trust
4 8 (13.11%) Incident Response
4 8 (13.11%) ITIL
4 8 (13.11%) Network Monitoring
4 8 (13.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 7 (11.48%) Cybersecurity
5 7 (11.48%) ITSM
5 7 (11.48%) Load Balancing
5 7 (11.48%) Network Management
5 7 (11.48%) Stakeholder Management
5 7 (11.48%) Technical Leadership
6 6 (9.84%) Customer Service
6 6 (9.84%) High Availability
6 6 (9.84%) Mentoring
6 6 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
6 6 (9.84%) Roadmaps
7 5 (8.20%) Capacity Planning
7 5 (8.20%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 9 (14.75%) Python
2 2 (3.28%) Perl
3 1 (1.64%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 32 (52.46%) Cisco Certification
2 30 (49.18%) CCNP
3 22 (36.07%) CCIE
4 20 (32.79%) Security Cleared
5 17 (27.87%) SC Cleared
6 5 (8.20%) AWS Certification
6 5 (8.20%) CCSP
6 5 (8.20%) CISSP
6 5 (8.20%) Network+ Certification
7 4 (6.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 4 (6.56%) Degree
8 3 (4.92%) Azure Certification
8 3 (4.92%) CCIE Security
9 2 (3.28%) CCIE Wireless
9 2 (3.28%) CCNA
9 2 (3.28%) CWDP
9 2 (3.28%) CWNA
9 2 (3.28%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (3.28%) JNCIE
9 2 (3.28%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (13.11%) GDPR
2 6 (9.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (9.84%) NIST
3 5 (8.20%) PCI DSS
4 1 (1.64%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 7 (11.48%) Active Directory
2 5 (8.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (6.56%) VMware NSX
4 1 (1.64%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 11 (18.03%) Ansible
2 8 (13.11%) Terraform
3 5 (8.20%) Nagios
4 2 (3.28%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.64%) Grafana
5 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.64%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 38 (62.30%) Cisco
2 15 (24.59%) Palo Alto
3 13 (21.31%) Aruba
3 13 (21.31%) Juniper
4 11 (18.03%) Fortinet
4 11 (18.03%) SolarWinds
5 9 (14.75%) Meraki
6 7 (11.48%) Ekahau
6 7 (11.48%) F5
7 6 (9.84%) ServiceNow
8 5 (8.20%) VMware
9 4 (6.56%) Extreme Networks
10 3 (4.92%) CheckPoint
10 3 (4.92%) Microsoft
11 2 (3.28%) Arista
11 2 (3.28%) Forcepoint
11 2 (3.28%) LogicMonitor
12 1 (1.64%) Google
12 1 (1.64%) Mitel
12 1 (1.64%) Oracle