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 16 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 552 473 486
Rank change year-on-year -79 +13 +73
Contract jobs citing WLAN 86 47 87
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.16% 0.20%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.87% 1.27% 1.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 28 54
10th Percentile £190 £324 £220
25th Percentile £322 £325 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £406 £469
Median % change year-on-year +10.77% -13.33% -3.55%
75th Percentile £540 £497 £706
90th Percentile £623 £569 £859
UK excluding London median daily rate £440 £325 £588
% change year-on-year +35.38% -44.68% +34.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £18.50 - £23.92
Median hourly rate £19.00 - £24.87
75th Percentile £19.50 - £25.83
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.00 - £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 4,587 3,698 5,394
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.55% 12.69% 12.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,836 2,280 3,215
10th Percentile £263 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -0.51% -5.68%
75th Percentile £588 £591 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £458 £475
% change year-on-year +3.83% -3.68% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 247 164 417
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.04 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £37.50 £31.79 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.96% -20.53% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.88 £57.80 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £24.66 £46.14
% change year-on-year +71.33% -46.55% +156.31%

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 16 May 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 16 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 16 May 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 -81 77 £450 +9.09% 36
UK excluding London -62 66 £440 +35.38% 35
Work from Home -4 24 £448 -8.21% 19
Midlands -48 20 £200 -37.50% 8
North of England -57 17 £575 +76.92% 9
South East - 14 £440 - 7
West Midlands - 14 £450 - 6
London -71 12 £515 +21.18% 12
North West -33 9 £575 +76.92% 4
East of England -29 8 £200 -50.00% 2
Yorkshire -50 7 £450 - 3
East Midlands -20 6 £200 -37.50% 2
Scotland -2 4 £393 +33.62% 1
North East - 3 - - 2
South West -40 2 £356 -44.12% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 -

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 3 (3.49%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (2.33%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 24 (27.91%) Azure
2 17 (19.77%) AWS
3 10 (11.63%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (9.30%) OCI
4 8 (9.30%) SaaS
5 3 (3.49%) GCP
6 1 (1.16%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.16%) Google Ads
6 1 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 74 (86.05%) LAN
2 60 (69.77%) WAN
3 38 (44.19%) SD-WAN
4 36 (41.86%) Wireless
5 33 (38.37%) Firewall
6 24 (27.91%) BGP
6 24 (27.91%) OSPF
7 23 (26.74%) Wi-Fi
8 19 (22.09%) Network Security
9 17 (19.77%) VLAN
10 15 (17.44%) VPN
11 10 (11.63%) BIG-IP
11 10 (11.63%) Cisco ISE
11 10 (11.63%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 10 (11.63%) Internet
12 9 (10.47%) VXLAN
13 8 (9.30%) Cisco Nexus
13 8 (9.30%) DNS
13 8 (9.30%) TCP/IP
14 7 (8.14%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.16%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 6 (6.98%) GitLab
1 6 (6.98%) JIRA
2 1 (1.16%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 15 (17.44%) Public Sector
2 14 (16.28%) Social Skills
3 5 (5.81%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (5.81%) Telecoms
4 4 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (3.49%) Retail
6 2 (2.33%) Local Government
7 1 (1.16%) Billing
7 1 (1.16%) Finance
7 1 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.16%) Legal
7 1 (1.16%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.16%) Military
Job Titles
1 39 (45.35%) Network Engineer
2 13 (15.12%) Senior
3 10 (11.63%) Architect
3 10 (11.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 8 (9.30%) IT Engineer
4 8 (9.30%) IT Support
4 8 (9.30%) IT Support Engineer
4 8 (9.30%) Network Architect
4 8 (9.30%) Support Engineer
5 7 (8.14%) Lead
6 6 (6.98%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 6 (6.98%) Senior Network Engineer
6 6 (6.98%) Wireless Engineer
7 5 (5.81%) Cisco Engineer
7 5 (5.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 5 (5.81%) WAN Engineer
7 5 (5.81%) Wireless Network Engineer
8 4 (4.65%) Administrator
8 4 (4.65%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 3 (3.49%) Network Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (11.63%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.16%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 18 (20.93%) Data Centre
2 7 (8.14%) Onboarding
2 7 (8.14%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (6.98%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (6.98%) Virtual Team
4 5 (5.81%) Cloud Native
5 4 (4.65%) Operational Technology
6 2 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.16%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.16%) Distributed Architecture
7 1 (1.16%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.16%) iSeries
7 1 (1.16%) Public Cloud
7 1 (1.16%) SCADA
7 1 (1.16%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 11 (12.79%) Windows
2 3 (3.49%) Linux
3 2 (2.33%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.16%) Solaris
4 1 (1.16%) Unix
4 1 (1.16%) Windows Server 2003
4 1 (1.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (22.09%) High Availability
2 15 (17.44%) Network Architecture
3 12 (13.95%) Network Design
4 11 (12.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 11 (12.79%) Zero Trust
5 10 (11.63%) Load Balancing
6 9 (10.47%) ITSM
7 8 (9.30%) ITIL
7 8 (9.30%) Network Management
8 7 (8.14%) CI/CD
8 7 (8.14%) Collaborative Working
8 7 (8.14%) Infrastructure as Code
8 7 (8.14%) Network Monitoring
8 7 (8.14%) Problem-Solving
8 7 (8.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 7 (8.14%) Technical Leadership
9 6 (6.98%) Analytics
9 6 (6.98%) Customer Service
9 6 (6.98%) Network Segmentation
9 6 (6.98%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 13 (15.12%) Python
2 1 (1.16%) C
2 1 (1.16%) Perl
2 1 (1.16%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 31 (36.05%) Cisco Certification
2 28 (32.56%) CCNP
3 27 (31.40%) Security Cleared
4 24 (27.91%) SC Cleared
5 19 (22.09%) CCIE
6 5 (5.81%) Network+ Certification
7 4 (4.65%) CWNA
8 3 (3.49%) CCIE Wireless
8 3 (3.49%) CCNA
8 3 (3.49%) CWDP
8 3 (3.49%) CWNE
8 3 (3.49%) CWSP
9 2 (2.33%) Degree
9 2 (2.33%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (1.16%) CCSE
10 1 (1.16%) CCSP
10 1 (1.16%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (1.16%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.33%) GDPR
2 1 (1.16%) Disclosure Scotland
2 1 (1.16%) PMO
System Software
1 8 (9.30%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.33%) Virtual Servers
3 1 (1.16%) Firmware
3 1 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (16.28%) Ansible
2 9 (10.47%) Terraform
3 6 (6.98%) Nagios
4 5 (5.81%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.16%) Backup Exec
5 1 (1.16%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.16%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 48 (55.81%) Cisco
2 26 (30.23%) Aruba
3 19 (22.09%) Palo Alto
4 14 (16.28%) Juniper
5 11 (12.79%) F5
6 10 (11.63%) Ekahau
6 10 (11.63%) Fortinet
6 10 (11.63%) Meraki
7 7 (8.14%) Arista
7 7 (8.14%) SolarWinds
8 6 (6.98%) ServiceNow
9 5 (5.81%) Microsoft
10 4 (4.65%) Extreme Networks
11 3 (3.49%) CheckPoint
12 2 (2.33%) VMware
13 1 (1.16%) Huawei
13 1 (1.16%) Mitel
13 1 (1.16%) NetScout
13 1 (1.16%) Symantec
13 1 (1.16%) Veeam