WAN Job Trends in the South East

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring WAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 142 141
Rank change year-on-year +12 -1 -31
Permanent jobs citing WAN 237 183 231
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 1.30% 2.01% 1.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.30% 14.13% 11.35%
Number of salaries quoted 181 167 130
10th Percentile £28,250 £22,900 £30,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £28,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,500 £40,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +28.75% -20.00% +7.53%
75th Percentile £68,750 £58,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £77,100 £67,050
England median annual salary £55,000 £42,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +29.41% -15.00% +5.26%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South East

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 South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 1,454 1,295 2,036
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 7.99% 14.24% 15.66%
Number of salaries quoted 1,139 766 1,015
10th Percentile £28,250 £25,500 £28,000
25th Percentile £32,750 £30,500 £36,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £41,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.46% -17.00% -
75th Percentile £67,500 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £70,000 £73,750
England median annual salary £47,500 £41,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +14.46% -17.00% -3.85%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

WAN job vacancy trend in the South East

WAN
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing WAN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing WAN

WAN
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing WAN in the South East over the 6 months to 10 September 2026.

Salary histogram for WAN in the South East

WAN
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the South East region over the 6 months to 10 September 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
Hampshire -15 72 £60,000 +9.09% 18
Surrey +28 66 £65,000 +52.94% 8
Thames Valley -30 54 £55,000 +42.86% 16
Oxfordshire -41 20 £72,500 +74.70% 2
Buckinghamshire 0 17 £52,500 +9.38% 5
Kent -12 17 £31,500 -18.97% 3
Berkshire -13 17 £53,000 +63.08% 9
East Sussex -24 12 £27,750 +2.78% 1
Sussex - 9 - -
West Sussex -14 5 £47,500 - 5
Middlesex - 2 £65,000 -
WAN
England

WAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 22 (9.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (7.59%) SharePoint
3 10 (4.22%) Skype for Business
4 2 (0.84%) Apache
5 1 (0.42%) Confluence
5 1 (0.42%) JBoss
5 1 (0.42%) WebLogic
Applications
1 6 (2.53%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.84%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 72 (30.38%) Azure
2 49 (20.68%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (13.50%) AWS
4 13 (5.49%) Entra ID
5 7 (2.95%) GCP
5 7 (2.95%) Google Workspace
5 7 (2.95%) Mimecast
6 4 (1.69%) Cloud Computing
7 3 (1.27%) Amazon EC2
7 3 (1.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 3 (1.27%) Azure Key Vault
7 3 (1.27%) GitHub
7 3 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (1.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (0.84%) Azure AKS
9 1 (0.42%) Anthropic Claude
9 1 (0.42%) Azure Stack
9 1 (0.42%) IaaS
9 1 (0.42%) iPaaS
9 1 (0.42%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 203 (85.65%) LAN
2 160 (67.51%) Firewall
3 97 (40.93%) VPN
4 66 (27.85%) VLAN
5 60 (25.32%) Network Security
6 57 (24.05%) Wi-Fi
7 46 (19.41%) SD-WAN
8 44 (18.57%) TCP/IP
9 43 (18.14%) DNS
10 42 (17.72%) Internet
11 41 (17.30%) Wireless
12 39 (16.46%) DHCP
13 37 (15.61%) Cisco Nexus
14 31 (13.08%) BGP
15 20 (8.44%) VoIP
16 18 (7.59%) NGFW
17 16 (6.75%) FTP
17 16 (6.75%) HTTP
18 15 (6.33%) OSPF
18 15 (6.33%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.91%) SQL Server
2 4 (1.69%) MySQL
3 2 (0.84%) Oracle Database
3 2 (0.84%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (2.53%) JIRA
2 4 (1.69%) Bitbucket
3 3 (1.27%) Git
3 3 (1.27%) GitLab
4 2 (0.84%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.42%) Artifactory
General
1 57 (24.05%) Social Skills
2 19 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (5.91%) Telecoms
4 11 (4.64%) Documentation Skills
4 11 (4.64%) Finance
5 10 (4.22%) Presentation Skills
6 9 (3.80%) Military
6 9 (3.80%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (2.53%) Aerospace
8 4 (1.69%) Back Office
8 4 (1.69%) Electronics
8 4 (1.69%) Retail
9 3 (1.27%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.42%) Automotive
10 1 (0.42%) Billing
10 1 (0.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.42%) Law
10 1 (0.42%) Legal
10 1 (0.42%) Legal Technology
10 1 (0.42%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 64 (27.00%) Network Engineer
2 60 (25.32%) Senior
3 43 (18.14%) Analyst
4 25 (10.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 25 (10.55%) IT Support
5 22 (9.28%) Senior Analyst
6 20 (8.44%) Architect
6 20 (8.44%) Security Analyst
6 20 (8.44%) Senior Security Analyst
7 19 (8.02%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 19 (8.02%) IT Engineer
7 19 (8.02%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
7 19 (8.02%) Support Engineer
8 18 (7.59%) Senior Network Engineer
9 17 (7.17%) Network Analyst
9 17 (7.17%) Network Architect
10 16 (6.75%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 15 (6.33%) IT Support Engineer
11 15 (6.33%) Network Security Analyst
11 15 (6.33%) Senior Network Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.64%) Terraform
2 10 (4.22%) OAuth
2 10 (4.22%) SAML
3 6 (2.53%) LDAP
4 5 (2.11%) .NET
5 4 (1.69%) Node.js
5 4 (1.69%) React
6 2 (0.84%) Jest
6 2 (0.84%) LAMP
6 2 (0.84%) ModSecurity
6 2 (0.84%) pytest
7 1 (0.42%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.42%) Kafka
7 1 (0.42%) Middleware
7 1 (0.42%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 19 (8.02%) Driving Licence
2 16 (6.75%) Data Centre
3 12 (5.06%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 12 (5.06%) Security Posture
4 10 (4.22%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (3.38%) EPoS
6 7 (2.95%) Smartphone
7 6 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (2.11%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.69%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.69%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (1.69%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.69%) PKI
9 4 (1.69%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.27%) Client/Server
10 3 (1.27%) Clustering
11 2 (0.84%) Management Information System
11 2 (0.84%) Replication
11 2 (0.84%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 68 (28.69%) Windows
2 49 (20.68%) Windows Server
3 22 (9.28%) Linux
4 17 (7.17%) Windows Server 2016
5 10 (4.22%) Windows 10
6 7 (2.95%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (1.69%) Debian
7 4 (1.69%) Ubuntu
8 3 (1.27%) AIX
9 2 (0.84%) Android
10 1 (0.42%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.42%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (27.43%) Cybersecurity
2 55 (23.21%) Disaster Recovery
3 52 (21.94%) Problem-Solving
4 39 (16.46%) Continuous Improvement
4 39 (16.46%) SIEM
5 37 (15.61%) Business Continuity
6 36 (15.19%) Stakeholder Management
7 35 (14.77%) Security Operations
7 35 (14.77%) Vulnerability Management
8 33 (13.92%) ITIL
9 29 (12.24%) Incident Management
10 27 (11.39%) Data Security
10 27 (11.39%) Network Load Balancing
11 25 (10.55%) Customer Service
11 25 (10.55%) Penetration Testing
12 24 (10.13%) BCP
12 24 (10.13%) Business Continuity Planning
12 24 (10.13%) Mentoring
12 24 (10.13%) Threat Detection
13 18 (7.59%) Presales
Programming Languages
1 21 (8.86%) PowerShell
2 12 (5.06%) Ruby
3 10 (4.22%) Python
4 6 (2.53%) SQL
5 5 (2.11%) Bash
5 5 (2.11%) C#
6 4 (1.69%) C++
6 4 (1.69%) Perl
6 4 (1.69%) PHP
Qualifications
1 62 (26.16%) Security Cleared
2 59 (24.89%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (16.46%) DV Cleared
4 37 (15.61%) SC Cleared
5 31 (13.08%) CCNP
6 30 (12.66%) CCNA
7 21 (8.86%) Microsoft Certification
8 20 (8.44%) Degree
9 15 (6.33%) Azure Certification
10 11 (4.64%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (2.53%) Network+ Certification
11 6 (2.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 5 (2.11%) CISSP
12 5 (2.11%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (2.11%) HNC
13 4 (1.69%) AWS Certification
13 4 (1.69%) DBS Check
13 4 (1.69%) HND
14 3 (1.27%) CompTIA CySA+
15 2 (0.84%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (4.64%) NIST
3 9 (3.80%) SLA
4 7 (2.95%) GDPR
5 5 (2.11%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (2.11%) NCSC
6 4 (1.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (1.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.42%) QA
System Software
1 49 (20.68%) Active Directory
2 42 (17.72%) Hyper-V
3 39 (16.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (3.80%) Firmware
4 9 (3.80%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (3.38%) VMware NSX
6 5 (2.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 23 (9.70%) FortiGate
2 12 (5.06%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.22%) CASB
4 8 (3.38%) Ansible
5 6 (2.53%) QRadar
6 4 (1.69%) Failover Clustering
6 4 (1.69%) Kubernetes
7 3 (1.27%) Netcool
7 3 (1.27%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.84%) Dell DRAC
8 2 (0.84%) Packer
8 2 (0.84%) SCCM
8 2 (0.84%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
9 1 (0.42%) Cilium
9 1 (0.42%) Istio
Vendors
1 105 (44.30%) Microsoft
2 101 (42.62%) Cisco
3 63 (26.58%) VMware
4 58 (24.47%) Palo Alto
5 46 (19.41%) Aruba
6 31 (13.08%) Qualys
7 26 (10.97%) Fortinet
8 10 (4.22%) HP
9 9 (3.80%) Google
10 7 (2.95%) Dell
10 7 (2.95%) Juniper
11 6 (2.53%) Mellanox
11 6 (2.53%) NVIDIA
11 6 (2.53%) Splunk
12 5 (2.11%) Citrix
12 5 (2.11%) Oracle
12 5 (2.11%) Symantec
13 4 (1.69%) Acronis
13 4 (1.69%) BT
13 4 (1.69%) N-able