VPN Job Trends in the South West

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring VPN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 80 171
Rank change year-on-year -63 +91 -14
Permanent jobs citing VPN 60 80 114
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 0.82% 3.02% 1.31%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.77% 23.19% 9.74%
Number of salaries quoted 51 66 100
10th Percentile £30,625 £31,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £34,375 £34,750 £27,429
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £47,500 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +26.67% +4.17%
75th Percentile £52,500 £59,375 £49,063
90th Percentile £62,500 £82,500 £61,250
England median annual salary £42,500 £50,000 £46,500
% change year-on-year -15.00% +7.53% -7.00%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South West

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 South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 557 345 1,171
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 7.64% 13.02% 13.50%
Number of salaries quoted 324 258 949
10th Percentile £25,655 £29,750 £26,500
25th Percentile £29,500 £32,125 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,000 £47,500 £48,750
Median % change year-on-year -28.42% -2.56% +8.33%
75th Percentile £50,000 £63,750 £57,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £67,500
England median annual salary £43,500 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -13.00% +5.26% -5.00%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

VPN job vacancy trend in the South West

VPN
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing VPN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing VPN

VPN
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing VPN in the South West over the 6 months to 17 April 2026.

Salary histogram for VPN in the South West

VPN
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing VPN within the South West region over the 6 months to 17 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
Wiltshire -5 15 £52,500 +6.54% 1
Gloucestershire -13 14 £42,500 -26.09% 4
Bristol -18 13 £47,500 -45.71% 3
Devon -14 8 £32,500 - 2
Cornwall -10 6 £31,250 -2.34%
Dorset -36 2 - - 1
Somerset -46 2 £90,000 +125.00% 2
VPN
England

VPN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 16 (26.67%) SharePoint
2 7 (11.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (6.67%) Confluence
3 4 (6.67%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (15.00%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.67%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 2 (3.33%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 34 (56.67%) Azure
1 34 (56.67%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (36.67%) Entra ID
3 14 (23.33%) AWS
4 11 (18.33%) OneDrive
5 4 (6.67%) GCP
5 4 (6.67%) Google Workspace
6 2 (3.33%) Azure AKS
6 2 (3.33%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (3.33%) IaaS
6 2 (3.33%) OCI
6 2 (3.33%) OpenShift
6 2 (3.33%) PaaS
7 1 (1.67%) Azure Storage
7 1 (1.67%) Google Analytics
7 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.67%) Mimecast
7 1 (1.67%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (55.00%) Firewall
2 29 (48.33%) WAN
3 28 (46.67%) DNS
4 26 (43.33%) LAN
5 24 (40.00%) DHCP
6 21 (35.00%) Wi-Fi
7 18 (30.00%) VLAN
8 12 (20.00%) Network Security
9 10 (16.67%) TCP/IP
10 9 (15.00%) IPsec
11 6 (10.00%) BGP
12 5 (8.33%) SD-WAN
13 3 (5.00%) DMZ
13 3 (5.00%) MPLS
13 3 (5.00%) OSPF
13 3 (5.00%) SSL
14 2 (3.33%) Cisco ASA
14 2 (3.33%) NAS
14 2 (3.33%) NGFW
14 2 (3.33%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.33%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 4 (6.67%) JIRA
General
1 30 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 10 (16.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 5 (8.33%) Documentation Skills
3 5 (8.33%) Manufacturing
4 4 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (5.00%) Billing
6 2 (3.33%) Advertising
6 2 (3.33%) Finance
7 1 (1.67%) Electronics
7 1 (1.67%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.67%) Publishing
7 1 (1.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 17 (28.33%) Support Engineer
2 16 (26.67%) IT Engineer
3 14 (23.33%) IT Support
4 12 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 9 (15.00%) 2nd Line Support
5 9 (15.00%) IT Support Engineer
6 8 (13.33%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 6 (10.00%) Analyst
7 6 (10.00%) Network Engineer
7 6 (10.00%) Support Analyst
8 5 (8.33%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
8 5 (8.33%) Infrastructure Support
8 5 (8.33%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 5 (8.33%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (8.33%) Senior
8 5 (8.33%) Service Desk Engineer
9 4 (6.67%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
9 4 (6.67%) Desktop Support
9 4 (6.67%) IT Analyst
9 4 (6.67%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.33%) Apache NiFi
2 1 (1.67%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 9 (15.00%) Driving Licence
2 7 (11.67%) Mobile App
3 6 (10.00%) Security Posture
4 4 (6.67%) Client/Server
4 4 (6.67%) IoT
4 4 (6.67%) Video\Live Streaming
5 3 (5.00%) iPad
5 3 (5.00%) iPhone
6 2 (3.33%) Cyberattack
6 2 (3.33%) Data Centre
6 2 (3.33%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (3.33%) e-Learning
6 2 (3.33%) Management Information System
6 2 (3.33%) Replication
6 2 (3.33%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (3.33%) YubiKey
7 1 (1.67%) CCTV
7 1 (1.67%) Derivative
7 1 (1.67%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (1.67%) Podcast
Operating Systems
1 34 (56.67%) Windows
2 20 (33.33%) Windows Server
3 7 (11.67%) Windows 10
4 5 (8.33%) Apple iOS
4 5 (8.33%) Linux
5 3 (5.00%) VMS
5 3 (5.00%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (5.00%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (3.33%) Android
7 1 (1.67%) Debian
7 1 (1.67%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 16 (26.67%) Customer Service
3 15 (25.00%) ITIL
4 12 (20.00%) Cybersecurity
4 12 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 8 (13.33%) Cloud Security
6 7 (11.67%) Incident Response
7 6 (10.00%) Disaster Recovery
7 6 (10.00%) High Availability
7 6 (10.00%) ITSM
7 6 (10.00%) Mobile Device Management
7 6 (10.00%) User Experience
8 5 (8.33%) Agile
8 5 (8.33%) Data Loss Prevention
8 5 (8.33%) Penetration Testing
9 4 (6.67%) AI
9 4 (6.67%) Migration
9 4 (6.67%) Network Architecture
9 4 (6.67%) Patch Management
9 4 (6.67%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 8 (13.33%) PowerShell
2 6 (10.00%) SQL
3 5 (8.33%) Bash
4 4 (6.67%) JavaScript
4 4 (6.67%) Python
Qualifications
1 12 (20.00%) Security Cleared
2 7 (11.67%) SC Cleared
3 6 (10.00%) CCNP
3 6 (10.00%) Cisco Certification
3 6 (10.00%) DV Cleared
3 6 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
4 5 (8.33%) Azure Certification
4 5 (8.33%) Degree
4 5 (8.33%) Network+ Certification
5 3 (5.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 3 (5.00%) CCNA
5 3 (5.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (5.00%) Master's Degree
6 2 (3.33%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (1.67%) A+ Certification
7 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (20.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (16.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (13.33%) GDPR
4 3 (5.00%) NIST
5 2 (3.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (3.33%) SOC 2
System Software
1 32 (53.33%) Active Directory
2 15 (25.00%) Hyper-V
3 7 (11.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (5.00%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (5.00%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (3.33%) VMware NSX
6 1 (1.67%) iptables
6 1 (1.67%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 17 (28.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (8.33%) Terraform
3 4 (6.67%) Ansible
4 3 (5.00%) FortiGate
4 3 (5.00%) Jamf Pro
4 3 (5.00%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (3.33%) WSUS
6 1 (1.67%) Kubernetes
6 1 (1.67%) Proxmox
6 1 (1.67%) SCCM
Vendors
1 33 (55.00%) Microsoft
2 20 (33.33%) VMware
3 11 (18.33%) Cisco
4 6 (10.00%) Fortinet
4 6 (10.00%) Palo Alto
5 5 (8.33%) Dell
5 5 (8.33%) Google
6 3 (5.00%) Apple
6 3 (5.00%) CrowdStrike
6 3 (5.00%) Okta
7 2 (3.33%) Citrix
7 2 (3.33%) F5
7 2 (3.33%) Infoblox
7 2 (3.33%) Meraki
7 2 (3.33%) Remedy
7 2 (3.33%) ServiceNow
7 2 (3.33%) Tenable
8 1 (1.67%) MikroTik
8 1 (1.67%) Red Hat
8 1 (1.67%) Sophos