Hybrid/Remote Network Design Contract Job Trends

Network Design
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for remote or hybrid contract work requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 239 244
Rank change year-on-year -48 +5 +113
Contract jobs citing Network Design 37 63 124
As % of all contract jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.35% 0.59% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.39% 0.66% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 32 83
10th Percentile £364 £428 £425
25th Percentile £413 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £516 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.15% -10.22% +21.05%
75th Percentile £591 £550 £627
90th Percentile £730 £675 £638
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £565
% change year-on-year -4.76% -7.08% +18.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 3
10th Percentile - - £23.45
25th Percentile - - £23.75
Median hourly rate - - £24.50
75th Percentile - - £31.40
90th Percentile - - £35.38
UK median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - -5.74%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 9,586 9,593 14,689
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 89.72% 90.13% 88.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,271 6,127 9,858
10th Percentile £333 £330 £335
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £730
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 379 182 501
10th Percentile £15.75 £18.29 £15.25
25th Percentile £25.00 £24.63 £22.11
Median hourly rate £50.00 £38.25 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.72% -19.47% -17.39%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.01 £66.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £82.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year -22.62% -1.71% +1.74%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Design and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Network Design job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Network Design over the 6 months to 10 February 2026.

Network Design daily rate histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Network Design

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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:

Business Applications
1 2 (5.41%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 10 (27.03%) Azure
2 9 (24.32%) AWS
3 4 (10.81%) GCP
4 2 (5.41%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (2.70%) Akamai
5 1 (2.70%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (2.70%) Cloudflare
5 1 (2.70%) IaaS
5 1 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (2.70%) PaaS
5 1 (2.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 22 (59.46%) Firewall
2 17 (45.95%) WAN
3 13 (35.14%) LAN
4 11 (29.73%) VPN
5 10 (27.03%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (24.32%) SD-WAN
7 8 (21.62%) MPLS
8 7 (18.92%) Network Security
8 7 (18.92%) VLAN
9 6 (16.22%) BGP
9 6 (16.22%) Wireless
10 5 (13.51%) DNS
10 5 (13.51%) OSPF
11 4 (10.81%) Cisco ISE
11 4 (10.81%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (10.81%) SSL
12 3 (8.11%) Cisco ASA
12 3 (8.11%) DWDM
12 3 (8.11%) Internet
12 3 (8.11%) IPsec
Development Applications
1 1 (2.70%) GitLab
1 1 (2.70%) JIRA
1 1 (2.70%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 12 (32.43%) Social Skills
2 10 (27.03%) Telecoms
3 4 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (8.11%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (8.11%) Influencing Skills
4 3 (8.11%) Manufacturing
5 2 (5.41%) Finance
5 2 (5.41%) Presentation Skills
5 2 (5.41%) Public Sector
6 1 (2.70%) Aerospace
6 1 (2.70%) Aviation
6 1 (2.70%) Electronics
6 1 (2.70%) Law
6 1 (2.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 15 (40.54%) Network Engineer
2 11 (29.73%) Architect
3 8 (21.62%) Lead
3 8 (21.62%) Network Architect
4 6 (16.22%) Senior
5 4 (10.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 3 (8.11%) Network Specialist
6 3 (8.11%) Senior Network Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Administrator
7 2 (5.41%) Cisco Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Design Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Network Design Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Network Security Architect
7 2 (5.41%) Security Architect
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Architect
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Network Architect
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Network Specialist
8 1 (2.70%) Senior Firewall Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.41%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 11 (29.73%) Data Centre
2 6 (16.22%) Data Protection Act
3 4 (10.81%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (5.41%) Management Information System
4 2 (5.41%) Operational Technology
4 2 (5.41%) SCADA
5 1 (2.70%) Cloud Native
5 1 (2.70%) Cyber Security Posture
5 1 (2.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 1 (2.70%) FPGA
5 1 (2.70%) Life Science
5 1 (2.70%) Onboarding
5 1 (2.70%) PKI
5 1 (2.70%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 2 (5.41%) Linux
1 2 (5.41%) Windows
2 1 (2.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (40.54%) Network Architecture
2 8 (21.62%) High Availability
2 8 (21.62%) Load Balancing
3 7 (18.92%) Data Protection
4 6 (16.22%) Network Monitoring
5 5 (13.51%) ITIL
5 5 (13.51%) Network Management
5 5 (13.51%) Problem-Solving
6 4 (10.81%) Roadmaps
6 4 (10.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 4 (10.81%) Technical Leadership
7 3 (8.11%) Computer Science
7 3 (8.11%) Cybersecurity
7 3 (8.11%) IT Governance
7 3 (8.11%) Mentoring
7 3 (8.11%) Migration
7 3 (8.11%) Network Segmentation
7 3 (8.11%) Performance Monitoring
7 3 (8.11%) Performance Tuning
7 3 (8.11%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 3 (8.11%) Python
2 2 (5.41%) SQL
3 1 (2.70%) Bash
3 1 (2.70%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 16 (43.24%) Cisco Certification
2 13 (35.14%) CCNP
3 11 (29.73%) Security Cleared
4 10 (27.03%) SC Cleared
5 8 (21.62%) CCIE
6 6 (16.22%) Degree
7 5 (13.51%) Azure Certification
8 4 (10.81%) AWS Certification
8 4 (10.81%) CISSP
9 3 (8.11%) CCNA
10 2 (5.41%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (5.41%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (5.41%) PMI Certification
10 2 (5.41%) PMP
10 2 (5.41%) Project+ Certification
11 1 (2.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (2.70%) BC Cleared
11 1 (2.70%) CCSE
11 1 (2.70%) DV Cleared
11 1 (2.70%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (8.11%) GDPR
2 1 (2.70%) Def Stans
2 1 (2.70%) Disclosure Scotland
2 1 (2.70%) DO-160
2 1 (2.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (2.70%) NCSC
2 1 (2.70%) NIST
2 1 (2.70%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 2 (5.41%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (2.70%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.70%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (16.22%) Ansible
1 6 (16.22%) Terraform
2 2 (5.41%) Cisco Prime
2 2 (5.41%) FortiGate
3 1 (2.70%) Host Intrusion Detection System
3 1 (2.70%) Iperf
3 1 (2.70%) Nagios
3 1 (2.70%) Nmap
Vendors
1 22 (59.46%) Cisco
2 13 (35.14%) Fortinet
2 13 (35.14%) Palo Alto
3 8 (21.62%) Juniper
4 7 (18.92%) CheckPoint
4 7 (18.92%) Meraki
5 6 (16.22%) F5
6 5 (13.51%) Microsoft
7 3 (8.11%) Aruba
7 3 (8.11%) SolarWinds
8 2 (5.41%) McAfee
8 2 (5.41%) VMware
9 1 (2.70%) BT
9 1 (2.70%) Ekahau
9 1 (2.70%) EMC
9 1 (2.70%) Infoblox
9 1 (2.70%) Keysight
9 1 (2.70%) Oracle
9 1 (2.70%) Tufin
9 1 (2.70%) Veeam