WAN Job Trends in the North of England

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring WAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 134 88
Rank change year-on-year -50 -46 +39
Permanent jobs citing WAN 146 141 438
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 0.84% 2.06% 2.66%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.27% 12.40% 21.65%
Number of salaries quoted 124 122 362
10th Percentile £25,875 £25,800 £25,050
25th Percentile £29,000 £33,813 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £44,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.37% +11.76% -5.56%
75th Percentile £54,063 £61,250 £58,750
90th Percentile £68,375 £75,000 £76,250
England median annual salary £50,000 £51,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +8.42% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North of England

WAN 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 2,772 1,137 2,023
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 15.95% 16.62% 12.26%
Number of salaries quoted 799 656 1,660
10th Percentile £25,800 £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 £52,188 £60,313 £61,250
90th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £72,500
England median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.00%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

WAN job vacancy trend in the North of England

WAN
Salary Trend in the North of England

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

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

WAN
Salary Histogram in the North of England

Salary distribution for jobs citing WAN in the North of England over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Salary histogram for WAN in the North of England

WAN
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 WAN within the North of England region over the 6 months to 18 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 -37 68 £50,000 - 16
Yorkshire -52 67 £33,500 -10.67% 17
North East -27 11 £42,500 +25.00% 7
WAN
England

WAN
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 49 (33.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (19.86%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.74%) IIS
Applications
1 15 (10.27%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (7.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (5.48%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 65 (44.52%) Azure
2 62 (42.47%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (16.44%) Entra ID
4 16 (10.96%) AWS
5 13 (8.90%) Google Workspace
6 4 (2.74%) Microsoft Purview
7 3 (2.05%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (2.05%) OneDrive
7 3 (2.05%) Power Platform
8 2 (1.37%) IaaS
8 2 (1.37%) Mimecast
8 2 (1.37%) PaaS
9 1 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.68%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (0.68%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 129 (88.36%) LAN
2 83 (56.85%) Firewall
3 48 (32.88%) VPN
4 42 (28.77%) DNS
5 41 (28.08%) DHCP
6 40 (27.40%) SD-WAN
7 36 (24.66%) VLAN
8 28 (19.18%) Wireless
9 20 (13.70%) Network Security
10 18 (12.33%) Wi-Fi
11 17 (11.64%) BGP
11 17 (11.64%) TCP/IP
12 14 (9.59%) Cisco ISE
12 14 (9.59%) WLAN
13 13 (8.90%) VoIP
14 12 (8.22%) OSPF
15 11 (7.53%) Cisco Wireless
16 10 (6.85%) Cisco ASA
17 8 (5.48%) WAAS
17 8 (5.48%) Wireless Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.74%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (2.74%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 4 (2.74%) GitLab
2 1 (0.68%) Git
General
1 47 (32.19%) Social Skills
2 19 (13.01%) Presentation Skills
3 14 (9.59%) Organisational Skills
4 13 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (7.53%) Public Sector
6 8 (5.48%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.42%) Advertising
7 5 (3.42%) Law
8 3 (2.05%) Aerospace
8 3 (2.05%) Automotive
8 3 (2.05%) Finance
8 3 (2.05%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.37%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.68%) Legal
Job Titles
1 45 (30.82%) IT Support
2 37 (25.34%) Senior
3 33 (22.60%) Network Engineer
4 30 (20.55%) IT Engineer
5 28 (19.18%) Support Engineer
6 26 (17.81%) IT Support Engineer
7 21 (14.38%) LAN Engineer
8 20 (13.70%) Cisco Engineer
9 19 (13.01%) Firewall Engineer
9 19 (13.01%) Juniper Engineer
9 19 (13.01%) LAN/WAN Engineer
9 19 (13.01%) Presales Engineer
9 19 (13.01%) Senior Network Engineer
9 19 (13.01%) WAN Engineer
10 15 (10.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 15 (10.27%) Support Technician
11 14 (9.59%) 2nd Line Support
12 12 (8.22%) IT Support Technician
12 12 (8.22%) IT Technician
13 11 (7.53%) 1st Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.74%) OpenTelemetry
2 1 (0.68%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 20 (13.70%) Data Centre
2 16 (10.96%) Driving Licence
3 15 (10.27%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (3.42%) Social Media
5 4 (2.74%) PKI
5 4 (2.74%) Replication
6 3 (2.05%) Cyber Security Posture
6 3 (2.05%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.37%) Video Conferencing
8 1 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.68%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.68%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 1 (0.68%) NHS
8 1 (0.68%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.68%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 78 (53.42%) Windows
2 63 (43.15%) Windows Server
3 24 (16.44%) Windows 10
4 11 (7.53%) Android
4 11 (7.53%) Windows Server 2016
5 10 (6.85%) Windows 7
5 10 (6.85%) Windows 8
6 8 (5.48%) Linux
7 7 (4.79%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (3.42%) Apple iOS
9 4 (2.74%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (2.05%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.68%) CentOS
11 1 (0.68%) CoreOS
11 1 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (35.62%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (30.14%) ITIL
3 35 (23.97%) Customer Service
4 26 (17.81%) Service Delivery
5 21 (14.38%) Presales
5 21 (14.38%) Root Cause Analysis
6 18 (12.33%) Cybersecurity
7 16 (10.96%) Disaster Recovery
7 16 (10.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 15 (10.27%) Kalman Filter
9 14 (9.59%) Proactive Maintenance
9 14 (9.59%) Service Management
10 13 (8.90%) ITSM
10 13 (8.90%) Knowledge Transfer
11 11 (7.53%) Continuous Improvement
11 11 (7.53%) Project Delivery
11 11 (7.53%) Time Management
12 10 (6.85%) Load Balancing
12 10 (6.85%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 10 (6.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 13 (8.90%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.16%) Python
3 1 (0.68%) Bash
3 1 (0.68%) Bicep
3 1 (0.68%) SQL
Qualifications
1 51 (34.93%) Cisco Certification
2 36 (24.66%) CCNA
3 22 (15.07%) Degree
4 19 (13.01%) CCNP
4 19 (13.01%) JNCIA
5 11 (7.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 9 (6.16%) CCIE
6 9 (6.16%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (6.16%) Security Cleared
7 7 (4.79%) DBS Check
8 6 (4.11%) A+ Certification
8 6 (4.11%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (4.11%) Network+ Certification
9 5 (3.42%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (3.42%) SC Cleared
10 4 (2.74%) DV Cleared
10 4 (2.74%) MCSA
10 4 (2.74%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (1.37%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.37%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.48%) PMO
2 6 (4.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.05%) GDPR
3 3 (2.05%) SLA
4 2 (1.37%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.68%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 76 (52.05%) Active Directory
2 33 (22.60%) Hyper-V
2 33 (22.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (6.85%) VMware Workstation
4 8 (5.48%) ProxySG
5 6 (4.11%) vSphere
6 5 (3.42%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (2.74%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.74%) VMware NSX
8 3 (2.05%) Firmware
8 3 (2.05%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.68%) Docker
Systems Management
1 25 (17.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (8.22%) SCCM
3 10 (6.85%) Autotask
4 8 (5.48%) WSUS
5 7 (4.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 7 (4.79%) FortiGate
6 5 (3.42%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (2.74%) Ansible
7 4 (2.74%) VxRail
8 2 (1.37%) Kubernetes
9 1 (0.68%) Kibana
9 1 (0.68%) McAfee ePO
9 1 (0.68%) SCVMM
9 1 (0.68%) SmoothWall
9 1 (0.68%) Terraform
Vendors
1 79 (54.11%) Microsoft
2 63 (43.15%) Cisco
3 36 (24.66%) Fortinet
4 34 (23.29%) VMware
5 26 (17.81%) Aruba
6 25 (17.12%) Juniper
7 13 (8.90%) Google
7 13 (8.90%) Meraki
8 12 (8.22%) CheckPoint
9 11 (7.53%) Veeam
10 10 (6.85%) ESET
10 10 (6.85%) ServiceNow
11 8 (5.48%) Blue Coat
11 8 (5.48%) F5
11 8 (5.48%) Infoblox
11 8 (5.48%) Motorola
11 8 (5.48%) SolarWinds
12 7 (4.79%) Apple
13 4 (2.74%) Commvault
13 4 (2.74%) HP