WAN Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Wide Area Network (WAN)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring WAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 114 115
Rank change year-on-year -26 +1 -8
Permanent jobs citing WAN 67 85 90
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.89% 2.24% 1.99%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.01% 15.92% 14.08%
Number of salaries quoted 54 78 44
10th Percentile £31,250 £22,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £40,313 £28,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,000 £37,000 £44,175
Median % change year-on-year +37.84% -16.24% -10.30%
75th Percentile £67,188 £45,000 £56,469
90th Percentile £73,750 £70,875 £67,500
South East median annual salary £52,500 £41,000 £51,000
% change year-on-year +28.05% -19.61% +9.68%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 515 534 639
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 6.82% 14.09% 14.12%
Number of salaries quoted 369 259 278
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,450 £31,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £51,500
Median % change year-on-year - -12.62% -1.90%
75th Percentile £62,000 £63,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £72,500 £70,250 £80,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £42,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +11.76% -19.05% +5.00%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

WAN job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

WAN
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing WAN

WAN
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing WAN in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 13 October 2026.

Salary histogram for WAN in the Thames Valley

WAN
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 WAN within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 13 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 -41 27 £52,500 +26.51% 4
Berkshire -16 25 £45,000 +45.16% 12
Buckinghamshire 0 16 £50,000 -16.67% 10
WAN
South East

WAN
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 9 (13.43%) SharePoint
2 8 (11.94%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (7.46%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 29 (43.28%) Azure
2 15 (22.39%) AWS
3 13 (19.40%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (8.96%) Entra ID
5 2 (2.99%) Mimecast
5 2 (2.99%) OneDrive
6 1 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (1.49%) Azure Stack
Communications & Networking
1 49 (73.13%) LAN
2 45 (67.16%) VPN
3 41 (61.19%) Firewall
4 39 (58.21%) Network Security
5 35 (52.24%) VLAN
6 34 (50.75%) SD-WAN
7 31 (46.27%) DHCP
7 31 (46.27%) DNS
8 25 (37.31%) Wi-Fi
8 25 (37.31%) Wireless
9 22 (32.84%) TCP/IP
10 15 (22.39%) BGP
11 12 (17.91%) IPsec
11 12 (17.91%) SSL
12 11 (16.42%) FTP
12 11 (16.42%) HTTP
13 10 (14.93%) ICMP
13 10 (14.93%) MPLS
13 10 (14.93%) SNMP
13 10 (14.93%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.49%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.49%) JIRA
General
1 28 (41.79%) Social Skills
2 10 (14.93%) Documentation Skills
3 6 (8.96%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (7.46%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (5.97%) Telecoms
6 3 (4.48%) Public Sector
6 3 (4.48%) Retail
7 2 (2.99%) Finance
7 2 (2.99%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.49%) Automotive
8 1 (1.49%) Billing
8 1 (1.49%) Electronics
8 1 (1.49%) Law
8 1 (1.49%) Legal
8 1 (1.49%) Legal Technology
8 1 (1.49%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 15 (22.39%) Architect
1 15 (22.39%) Network Architect
2 13 (19.40%) IT Support
3 12 (17.91%) Network Engineer
4 10 (14.93%) IT Engineer
4 10 (14.93%) Network Security Architect
4 10 (14.93%) Security Architect
4 10 (14.93%) Senior
5 9 (13.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (11.94%) IT Support Engineer
6 8 (11.94%) Support Engineer
7 5 (7.46%) Consultant
7 5 (7.46%) Lead
7 5 (7.46%) Network Consultant
7 5 (7.46%) Senior Architect
7 5 (7.46%) Senior Network Architect
8 3 (4.48%) Analyst
8 3 (4.48%) Presales Consultant
8 3 (4.48%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 3 (4.48%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (14.93%) OAuth
1 10 (14.93%) SAML
2 1 (1.49%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (16.42%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 6 (8.96%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (7.46%) Data Centre
3 5 (7.46%) Driving Licence
3 5 (7.46%) Private Cloud
3 5 (7.46%) Security Posture
4 2 (2.99%) Cyber Threat
5 1 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.49%) Cyber Defence
5 1 (1.49%) IoT
5 1 (1.49%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.49%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.49%) Smart City
Operating Systems
1 18 (26.87%) Windows
2 9 (13.43%) Windows Server
3 4 (5.97%) Android
3 4 (5.97%) Windows 10
4 3 (4.48%) Apple iOS
4 3 (4.48%) Linux
5 1 (1.49%) macOS
5 1 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.49%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (32.84%) Cybersecurity
2 19 (28.36%) Problem-Solving
3 18 (26.87%) Continuous Improvement
4 14 (20.90%) Disaster Recovery
5 12 (17.91%) Mentoring
5 12 (17.91%) Technical Leadership
6 10 (14.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 10 (14.93%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 10 (14.93%) Network Segmentation
6 10 (14.93%) Stakeholder Management
7 9 (13.43%) Customer Service
7 9 (13.43%) Network Monitoring
7 9 (13.43%) Presales
8 6 (8.96%) Cloud Security
8 6 (8.96%) Network Architecture
8 6 (8.96%) Risk Management
9 5 (7.46%) High Availability
9 5 (7.46%) Migration
9 5 (7.46%) Root Cause Analysis
9 5 (7.46%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 5 (7.46%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 17 (25.37%) Cisco Certification
2 14 (20.90%) CCNP
3 12 (17.91%) CCNA
4 6 (8.96%) Security Cleared
5 5 (7.46%) Degree
5 5 (7.46%) DV Cleared
5 5 (7.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 3 (4.48%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (4.48%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (2.99%) Azure Certification
7 2 (2.99%) DBS Check
8 1 (1.49%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (19.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (14.93%) NIST
3 6 (8.96%) GDPR
4 5 (7.46%) NCSC
5 2 (2.99%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (1.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (1.49%) QA
System Software
1 18 (26.87%) Active Directory
2 13 (19.40%) Hyper-V
3 6 (8.96%) VMware NSX
4 5 (7.46%) Firmware
5 3 (4.48%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (2.99%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (2.99%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (2.99%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (1.49%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 15 (22.39%) FortiGate
2 10 (14.93%) CASB
3 9 (13.43%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (2.99%) Autotask
4 2 (2.99%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (2.99%) N-central
5 1 (1.49%) QRadar
Vendors
1 43 (64.18%) Microsoft
2 41 (61.19%) Cisco
3 27 (40.30%) Fortinet
4 24 (35.82%) Palo Alto
5 12 (17.91%) Aruba
5 12 (17.91%) VMware
6 8 (11.94%) Meraki
7 7 (10.45%) Juniper
8 6 (8.96%) Apple
9 4 (5.97%) BT
9 4 (5.97%) Ruckus Wireless
10 3 (4.48%) Adobe
11 2 (2.99%) Brocade
11 2 (2.99%) Datto
11 2 (2.99%) Infoblox
11 2 (2.99%) WatchGuard
12 1 (1.49%) Extreme Networks
12 1 (1.49%) iManage
12 1 (1.49%) LogicMonitor
12 1 (1.49%) Tenable