VPN Job Trends in the North of England

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring VPN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 190 33 176
Rank change year-on-year -157 +143 +29
Permanent jobs citing VPN 129 491 222
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 0.74% 7.08% 1.34%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.65% 40.31% 10.98%
Number of salaries quoted 96 82 181
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,375 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £32,000 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,500 £40,000 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.75% +5.26% -15.56%
75th Percentile £46,188 £56,161 £50,250
90th Percentile £60,625 £75,000 £65,000
England median annual salary £43,000 £50,000 £46,500
% change year-on-year -14.00% +7.53% -7.00%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North of England

VPN falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the North of England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 2,776 1,218 2,022
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 15.91% 17.55% 12.25%
Number of salaries quoted 800 656 1,658
10th Percentile £25,838 £25,087 £25,875
25th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% -5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £52,500 £61,250 £61,250
90th Percentile £65,090 £75,000 £72,500
England median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.00%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing VPN relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

VPN job vacancy trend in the North of England

VPN
Salary Trend in the North of England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing VPN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing VPN

VPN
Salary Histogram in the North of England

Salary distribution for jobs citing VPN in the North of England over the 6 months to 19 April 2026.

Salary histogram for VPN in the North of England

VPN
Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing VPN within the North of England region over the 6 months to 19 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North West -128 69 £31,000 -8.82% 23
Yorkshire -60 44 £37,750 -15.55% 14
North East -30 16 £45,000 +24.14% 6
VPN
England

VPN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 30 (23.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (21.71%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.78%) IIS
Applications
1 17 (13.18%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (6.20%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.55%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 3 (2.33%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 84 (65.12%) Microsoft 365
2 64 (49.61%) Azure
3 48 (37.21%) Entra ID
4 17 (13.18%) AWS
5 8 (6.20%) Azure Sentinel
5 8 (6.20%) IaaS
6 5 (3.88%) OneDrive
7 4 (3.10%) GCP
7 4 (3.10%) Power Platform
8 3 (2.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 3 (2.33%) GitHub
8 3 (2.33%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (2.33%) PaaS
9 2 (1.55%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.78%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.78%) Azure Monitor
10 1 (0.78%) OpenShift
10 1 (0.78%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 96 (74.42%) Firewall
2 62 (48.06%) VLAN
3 59 (45.74%) DNS
4 58 (44.96%) DHCP
5 48 (37.21%) WAN
6 44 (34.11%) LAN
7 29 (22.48%) Wireless
8 24 (18.60%) TCP/IP
9 20 (15.50%) Network Security
10 18 (13.95%) BGP
11 17 (13.18%) SD-WAN
11 17 (13.18%) VoIP
12 16 (12.40%) Wi-Fi
13 13 (10.08%) OSPF
14 10 (7.75%) Cisco ASA
15 9 (6.98%) SNMP
16 8 (6.20%) EIGRP
16 8 (6.20%) MPLS
16 8 (6.20%) WAAS
16 8 (6.20%) Wireless Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (8.53%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.10%) MySQL
3 3 (2.33%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.78%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (3.88%) GitLab
1 5 (3.88%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
2 2 (1.55%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.78%) Bitbucket
General
1 61 (47.29%) Social Skills
2 16 (12.40%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (8.53%) Retail
4 9 (6.98%) Manufacturing
5 8 (6.20%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (3.88%) Advertising
6 5 (3.88%) Law
6 5 (3.88%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (3.88%) Public Sector
7 4 (3.10%) Finance
8 3 (2.33%) Aerospace
8 3 (2.33%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.55%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.78%) Electronics
10 1 (0.78%) German Language
10 1 (0.78%) Legal
10 1 (0.78%) Marketing
10 1 (0.78%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 46 (35.66%) IT Support
2 38 (29.46%) IT Engineer
2 38 (29.46%) Support Engineer
3 33 (25.58%) 2nd Line Support
4 30 (23.26%) IT Support Engineer
5 27 (20.93%) Senior
6 21 (16.28%) Network Engineer
7 17 (13.18%) 1st/2nd Line Support
8 15 (11.63%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 15 (11.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 14 (10.85%) Senior Network Engineer
9 14 (10.85%) Support Technician
10 12 (9.30%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
11 11 (8.53%) Help Desk Support
12 9 (6.98%) Desktop Support
13 8 (6.20%) 1st/2nd Line Help Desk Support
13 8 (6.20%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
13 8 (6.20%) 2nd Line Support Technician
13 8 (6.20%) IT Support Technician
13 8 (6.20%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.88%) FreeSWITCH
2 4 (3.10%) OpenTelemetry
3 3 (2.33%) .NET
4 1 (0.78%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.78%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 40 (31.01%) Driving Licence
2 15 (11.63%) Data Centre
3 10 (7.75%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (6.20%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (5.43%) Onboarding
6 6 (4.65%) PKI
7 3 (2.33%) Cyber Security Posture
7 3 (2.33%) iPad
8 2 (1.55%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.55%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.78%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.78%) Cyberattack
9 1 (0.78%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.78%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 87 (67.44%) Windows
2 62 (48.06%) Windows Server
3 20 (15.50%) Windows 10
4 19 (14.73%) Linux
5 12 (9.30%) Apple iOS
6 6 (4.65%) Android
6 6 (4.65%) Mac OS
6 6 (4.65%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (4.65%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (3.88%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (31.01%) Problem-Solving
2 34 (26.36%) Customer Service
3 21 (16.28%) ITIL
4 20 (15.50%) Cybersecurity
4 20 (15.50%) Mentoring
4 20 (15.50%) Remote Monitoring and Management
5 19 (14.73%) Service Delivery
6 17 (13.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 16 (12.40%) Project Delivery
8 15 (11.63%) Disaster Recovery
8 15 (11.63%) Root Cause Analysis
8 15 (11.63%) Time Management
9 13 (10.08%) Process Improvement
10 11 (8.53%) Continuous Improvement
10 11 (8.53%) Migration
10 11 (8.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 10 (7.75%) Kalman Filter
11 10 (7.75%) Load Balancing
11 10 (7.75%) Proactive Maintenance
12 9 (6.98%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 17 (13.18%) PowerShell
1 17 (13.18%) Python
2 9 (6.98%) SQL
3 6 (4.65%) Bash
4 3 (2.33%) Bicep
5 1 (0.78%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 21 (16.28%) Cisco Certification
2 14 (10.85%) Degree
3 13 (10.08%) CCNP
4 9 (6.98%) Security Cleared
5 8 (6.20%) Azure Certification
5 8 (6.20%) CCIE
5 8 (6.20%) CCNA
5 8 (6.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (6.20%) Network+ Certification
6 5 (3.88%) SC Cleared
7 4 (3.10%) AWS Certification
7 4 (3.10%) DV Cleared
8 3 (2.33%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.78%) CISM
9 1 (0.78%) CISSP
9 1 (0.78%) CREST Certified
9 1 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.78%) LPIC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (10.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (9.30%) Cyber Essentials
3 11 (8.53%) SLA
4 8 (6.20%) PMO
5 5 (3.88%) GDPR
6 3 (2.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (1.55%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.78%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.78%) NIST
System Software
1 80 (62.02%) Active Directory
2 29 (22.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (20.93%) Hyper-V
4 8 (6.20%) ProxySG
5 6 (4.65%) vSphere
6 5 (3.88%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (3.10%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (3.10%) VMware NSX
8 3 (2.33%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.78%) Docker
9 1 (0.78%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 36 (27.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (6.20%) FortiGate
3 6 (4.65%) Terraform
4 5 (3.88%) Ansible
5 4 (3.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (3.10%) WSUS
6 3 (2.33%) Kubernetes
6 3 (2.33%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.55%) SCCM
8 1 (0.78%) Fluentd
8 1 (0.78%) Kibana
8 1 (0.78%) Plesk
Vendors
1 89 (68.99%) Microsoft
2 31 (24.03%) VMware
3 25 (19.38%) Cisco
4 12 (9.30%) ServiceNow
5 10 (7.75%) CheckPoint
6 9 (6.98%) SolarWinds
7 8 (6.20%) Blue Coat
7 8 (6.20%) F5
7 8 (6.20%) Fortinet
7 8 (6.20%) Infoblox
7 8 (6.20%) Motorola
8 5 (3.88%) Apple
8 5 (3.88%) Datto
8 5 (3.88%) Splunk
9 3 (2.33%) Freshdesk
9 3 (2.33%) Palo Alto
9 3 (2.33%) SonicWALL
9 3 (2.33%) Veeam
10 2 (1.55%) Aruba
10 2 (1.55%) WatchGuard