Network Design Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Network Design
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 101 97
Rank change year-on-year -8 -4 +56
Contract jobs citing Network Design 26 5 15
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.15% 0.32% 0.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.34% 0.36% 1.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 5 7
10th Percentile £373 - -
25th Percentile - £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £521 £450
Median % change year-on-year -23.15% +15.67% +9.09%
75th Percentile £525 £725 £525
90th Percentile £576 £770 £530
England median daily rate £500 £521 £577
% change year-on-year -3.94% -9.71% +28.11%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West Midlands

Network Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,944 1,372 1,507
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 85.71% 86.95% 85.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,228 851 1,002
10th Percentile £263 £225 £275
25th Percentile £403 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £612 £600
90th Percentile £675 £725 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 47 61
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.70 £14.87
25th Percentile £16.22 £16.51 £17.75
Median hourly rate £20.25 £21.59 £28.25
Median % change year-on-year -6.21% -23.58% +66.81%
75th Percentile £27.21 £34.38 £51.25
90th Percentile £35.60 £52.50 £68.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £42.50
% change year-on-year -27.63% -18.24% +21.43%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Network Design job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in the West Midlands

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Network Design

Network Design
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 11 January 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
Coventry -3 12 £505 +15.43% 1
Birmingham -1 8 £400 -23.15% 5
Warwickshire -9 3 £363 -51.67% 3
Solihull - 1 £425 -
Staffordshire - 1 £550 - 1
Network Design
England

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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:

Cloud Services
1 7 (26.92%) AWS
1 7 (26.92%) Azure
2 6 (23.08%) GCP
3 3 (11.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
3 3 (11.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 2 (7.69%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 18 (69.23%) WAN
2 17 (65.38%) Firewall
3 16 (61.54%) VPN
4 13 (50.00%) MPLS
5 12 (46.15%) BGP
6 10 (38.46%) SD-WAN
7 9 (34.62%) Network Security
8 8 (30.77%) IPsec
9 7 (26.92%) LAN
10 6 (23.08%) DNS
10 6 (23.08%) WLAN
11 5 (19.23%) NGFW
12 4 (15.38%) IPv4
12 4 (15.38%) IPv6
12 4 (15.38%) OSPF
12 4 (15.38%) VLAN
12 4 (15.38%) VXLAN
12 4 (15.38%) Wireless
13 3 (11.54%) DHCP
13 3 (11.54%) EIGRP
General
1 7 (26.92%) Social Skills
2 4 (15.38%) Analytical Skills
2 4 (15.38%) Public Sector
3 3 (11.54%) Influencing Skills
4 2 (7.69%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (7.69%) Telecoms
5 1 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 14 (53.85%) Architect
2 13 (50.00%) Network Architect
3 8 (30.77%) 3rd Line Engineer
3 8 (30.77%) 3rd Line Support
3 8 (30.77%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
3 8 (30.77%) Support Engineer
4 5 (19.23%) Solutions Architect
5 3 (11.54%) Network Engineer
6 2 (7.69%) Administrator
6 2 (7.69%) Lead
6 2 (7.69%) Network Security Architect
6 2 (7.69%) Security Architect
7 1 (3.85%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
7 1 (3.85%) Network Support
7 1 (3.85%) Network Support Engineer
7 1 (3.85%) Network Technical Architect
7 1 (3.85%) Technical Architect
7 1 (3.85%) Technical Solutions Architect
7 1 (3.85%) WAN Engineer
7 1 (3.85%) Wireless Architect
Miscellaneous
1 8 (30.77%) PKI
2 7 (26.92%) Data Centre
3 6 (23.08%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (23.08%) Operational Technology
4 2 (7.69%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (7.69%) SCADA
5 1 (3.85%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (50.00%) Load Balancing
2 12 (46.15%) Network Architecture
3 9 (34.62%) Zero Trust
4 8 (30.77%) Roadmaps
5 6 (23.08%) ITIL
5 6 (23.08%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (19.23%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (19.23%) Data Protection
6 5 (19.23%) Mentoring
6 5 (19.23%) Security Architecture
6 5 (19.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (15.38%) Enterprise Architecture
7 4 (15.38%) Incident Response
7 4 (15.38%) Performance Monitoring
7 4 (15.38%) Strategic Thinking
7 4 (15.38%) TOGAF
8 3 (11.54%) Business Strategy
8 3 (11.54%) IT Strategy
8 3 (11.54%) Network Segmentation
8 3 (11.54%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 4 (15.38%) Python
Qualifications
1 12 (46.15%) Security Cleared
2 10 (38.46%) SC Cleared
3 9 (34.62%) CCIE
3 9 (34.62%) CCNP
3 9 (34.62%) Cisco Certification
4 6 (23.08%) CISSP
5 4 (15.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 4 (15.38%) AWS Certification
5 4 (15.38%) CCSP
5 4 (15.38%) Degree
6 3 (11.54%) Azure Certification
6 3 (11.54%) CCIE Security
7 2 (7.69%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (7.69%) JNCIE
7 2 (7.69%) JNCIP
8 1 (3.85%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (23.08%) GDPR
2 4 (15.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (15.38%) NIST
2 4 (15.38%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 3 (11.54%) VMware Infrastructure
1 3 (11.54%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (23.08%) Ansible
1 6 (23.08%) Terraform
2 3 (11.54%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 13 (50.00%) Juniper
2 10 (38.46%) Cisco
3 9 (34.62%) Palo Alto
4 6 (23.08%) Fortinet
5 5 (19.23%) F5
6 4 (15.38%) Meraki
7 3 (11.54%) CheckPoint
7 3 (11.54%) SolarWinds
7 3 (11.54%) VMware
8 2 (7.69%) Forcepoint