VPN Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring VPN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 159 124
Rank change year-on-year +55 -35 -14
Permanent jobs citing VPN 109 40 68
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 1.44% 1.06% 1.51%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.08% 7.48% 11.09%
Number of salaries quoted 88 35 25
10th Percentile £35,125 £33,650 £26,350
25th Percentile £40,563 £43,125 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £44,089
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +30.42% -11.82%
75th Percentile £61,250 £65,625 £56,125
90th Percentile £73,750 £87,000 £69,000
South East median annual salary £48,250 £48,580 £47,500
% change year-on-year -0.68% +2.27% +2.15%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 517 535 613
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 6.81% 14.12% 13.64%
Number of salaries quoted 369 260 275
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,475 £31,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year - -11.76% -2.86%
75th Percentile £62,000 £63,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £72,500 £70,125 £80,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £42,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +11.76% -19.05% +5.00%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

VPN job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

VPN
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VPN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VPN

VPN
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing VPN in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Salary histogram for VPN in the Thames Valley

VPN
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing VPN within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Oxfordshire +4 54 £52,000 -5.45% 12
Berkshire +17 35 £45,000 -21.74% 3
Buckinghamshire +7 20 £60,000 - 7
VPN
South East

VPN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 31 (28.44%) SharePoint
2 22 (20.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (3.67%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 6 (5.50%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 67 (61.47%) Azure
2 47 (43.12%) Microsoft 365
3 34 (31.19%) Entra ID
4 25 (22.94%) AWS
5 19 (17.43%) Google Workspace
6 11 (10.09%) Azure Sentinel
7 8 (7.34%) Cloudflare
8 7 (6.42%) Power Automate
9 3 (2.75%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (2.75%) Azure Key Vault
9 3 (2.75%) GCP
10 2 (1.83%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.83%) PaaS
11 1 (0.92%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 84 (77.06%) Firewall
2 71 (65.14%) DNS
3 61 (55.96%) DHCP
3 61 (55.96%) VLAN
4 45 (41.28%) WAN
5 42 (38.53%) Wi-Fi
6 41 (37.61%) Network Security
6 41 (37.61%) TCP/IP
7 34 (31.19%) LAN
7 34 (31.19%) Wireless
8 27 (24.77%) SD-WAN
9 23 (21.10%) SSL
10 18 (16.51%) HTTP
11 15 (13.76%) BGP
12 12 (11.01%) IPsec
13 11 (10.09%) SSH
13 11 (10.09%) VoIP
14 10 (9.17%) FTP
14 10 (9.17%) MPLS
14 10 (9.17%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.75%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (1.83%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (3.67%) JIRA
General
1 37 (33.94%) Social Skills
2 12 (11.01%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (9.17%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (4.59%) Presentation Skills
5 3 (2.75%) Public Sector
6 2 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (1.83%) Retail
7 1 (0.92%) Digital Health
7 1 (0.92%) Military
Job Titles
1 32 (29.36%) IT Engineer
2 30 (27.52%) IT Support
3 29 (26.61%) Network Engineer
4 28 (25.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 26 (23.85%) IT Support Engineer
5 26 (23.85%) Support Engineer
6 24 (22.02%) Senior
7 15 (13.76%) Architect
7 15 (13.76%) Network Architect
8 11 (10.09%) Analyst
8 11 (10.09%) Senior IT Engineer
8 11 (10.09%) Senior IT Support
8 11 (10.09%) Senior Support Engineer
9 10 (9.17%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (9.17%) Network Security Architect
9 10 (9.17%) Security Architect
10 8 (7.34%) Security Engineer
11 7 (6.42%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
11 7 (6.42%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
11 7 (6.42%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (9.17%) OAuth
1 10 (9.17%) SAML
2 4 (3.67%) Terraform
3 2 (1.83%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.92%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (11.93%) Driving Licence
1 13 (11.93%) Onboarding
2 10 (9.17%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 9 (8.26%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (7.34%) Cyber Defence
4 8 (7.34%) Cyber Threat
4 8 (7.34%) PKI
4 8 (7.34%) Replication
5 6 (5.50%) Analytical Mindset
5 6 (5.50%) CCTV
5 6 (5.50%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (4.59%) Data Centre
6 5 (4.59%) Private Cloud
7 4 (3.67%) Security Posture
8 3 (2.75%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.83%) ARM Cortex
9 2 (1.83%) IoT
9 2 (1.83%) Robotics
10 1 (0.92%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 55 (50.46%) Windows
2 28 (25.69%) Linux
3 24 (22.02%) Windows Server
4 11 (10.09%) macOS
5 10 (9.17%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (7.34%) Rocky
6 8 (7.34%) Ubuntu
7 4 (3.67%) Windows 10
8 2 (1.83%) Android
8 2 (1.83%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.83%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.92%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (35.78%) Cybersecurity
2 38 (34.86%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (29.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 30 (27.52%) Disaster Recovery
5 29 (26.61%) Customer Service
6 21 (19.27%) Continuous Improvement
7 18 (16.51%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 17 (15.60%) SIEM
9 16 (14.68%) Project Delivery
10 14 (12.84%) ITIL
10 14 (12.84%) Technical Leadership
11 13 (11.93%) Incident Response
11 13 (11.93%) Kalman Filter
11 13 (11.93%) Mentoring
11 13 (11.93%) Zero Trust
12 11 (10.09%) Data Privacy
12 11 (10.09%) Mobile Device Management
12 11 (10.09%) Threat Detection
13 10 (9.17%) Network Segmentation
13 10 (9.17%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 41 (37.61%) PowerShell
2 17 (15.60%) Python
3 10 (9.17%) Bash
4 7 (6.42%) Search Processing Language
5 5 (4.59%) Bicep
6 3 (2.75%) SQL
7 2 (1.83%) Go
7 2 (1.83%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 24 (22.02%) Cisco Certification
2 18 (16.51%) CCNP
3 17 (15.60%) Degree
3 17 (15.60%) Microsoft Certification
4 16 (14.68%) CCNA
5 15 (13.76%) Security Cleared
6 13 (11.93%) Network+ Certification
7 12 (11.01%) CompTIA Security+
8 11 (10.09%) DBS Check
9 8 (7.34%) CREST Certified
9 8 (7.34%) GCIA
9 8 (7.34%) GCIH
9 8 (7.34%) GIAC
9 8 (7.34%) SC Cleared
10 7 (6.42%) DV Cleared
10 7 (6.42%) GCED
10 7 (6.42%) SANS
11 6 (5.50%) OSCP
12 5 (4.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 3 (2.75%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (16.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 12 (11.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (10.09%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 11 (10.09%) NIST
4 9 (8.26%) GDPR
5 5 (4.59%) NCSC
System Software
1 47 (43.12%) Active Directory
2 36 (33.03%) Hyper-V
3 28 (25.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (7.34%) KVM
5 7 (6.42%) vSphere
6 6 (5.50%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (5.50%) VMware NSX
7 4 (3.67%) Firmware
8 2 (1.83%) iptables
Systems Management
1 28 (25.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (16.51%) FortiGate
3 11 (10.09%) Jamf Pro
4 10 (9.17%) CASB
5 8 (7.34%) Graylog
5 8 (7.34%) Kibana
5 8 (7.34%) Proxmox
5 8 (7.34%) ZABBIX
6 3 (2.75%) Stealthwatch
7 2 (1.83%) Ansible
7 2 (1.83%) SCCM
Vendors
1 89 (81.65%) Microsoft
2 52 (47.71%) Cisco
3 45 (41.28%) VMware
4 27 (24.77%) Veeam
5 26 (23.85%) Fortinet
6 24 (22.02%) Palo Alto
7 19 (17.43%) Google
8 16 (14.68%) Apple
9 12 (11.01%) Aruba
10 11 (10.09%) Datto
10 11 (10.09%) SonicWALL
11 10 (9.17%) CrowdStrike
12 8 (7.34%) Dell
12 8 (7.34%) Splunk
13 7 (6.42%) Carbon Black
13 7 (6.42%) Juniper
13 7 (6.42%) Meraki
14 4 (3.67%) IBM
14 4 (3.67%) Ruckus Wireless
15 2 (1.83%) WatchGuard