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 1 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 127 95 150
Rank change year-on-year -32 +55 -22
Permanent jobs citing WAN 41 97 100
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.72% 2.85% 1.45%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.19% 17.93% 10.67%
Number of salaries quoted 30 85 71
10th Percentile £31,000 £22,750 £35,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £31,250 £38,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £40,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +35.80% -19.00% -
75th Percentile £67,500 £65,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £81,000 £78,750
South East median annual salary £45,000 £41,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +8.43% -17.00% +11.11%

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 446 541 937
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.87% 15.92% 13.62%
Number of salaries quoted 296 235 684
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% - -
75th Percentile £65,000 £60,000 £59,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £76,250 £70,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% +5.56%

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 1 June 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 1 June 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
Berkshire -24 17 £57,500 +21.05% 7
Oxfordshire -19 15 £35,000 -12.50% 8
Buckinghamshire -10 9 £60,000 +33.33% 2
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 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 22 (53.66%) Azure
2 12 (29.27%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (21.95%) AWS
4 7 (17.07%) Entra ID
5 6 (14.63%) GCP
6 4 (9.76%) Google Workspace
7 1 (2.44%) IaaS
7 1 (2.44%) Mimecast
7 1 (2.44%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (80.49%) VPN
2 29 (70.73%) Firewall
3 26 (63.41%) LAN
4 18 (43.90%) DNS
5 17 (41.46%) VLAN
6 14 (34.15%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (29.27%) VoIP
8 9 (21.95%) Network Security
8 9 (21.95%) TCP/IP
9 8 (19.51%) DECT
9 8 (19.51%) DSL
9 8 (19.51%) PBX
9 8 (19.51%) SD-WAN
9 8 (19.51%) Unified Communications
9 8 (19.51%) Wireshark
10 7 (17.07%) DHCP
10 7 (17.07%) HTTP
11 6 (14.63%) FTP
12 5 (12.20%) MPLS
12 5 (12.20%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.44%) SQL Server
General
1 14 (34.15%) Social Skills
2 11 (26.83%) Organisational Skills
3 8 (19.51%) Marketing
3 8 (19.51%) Telecoms
4 4 (9.76%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (7.32%) Finance
6 2 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (4.88%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (4.88%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 10 (24.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 10 (24.39%) IT Engineer
1 10 (24.39%) Senior
2 9 (21.95%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
3 8 (19.51%) 2nd Line Support
3 8 (19.51%) Architect
4 5 (12.20%) IT Support
4 5 (12.20%) IT Support Engineer
4 5 (12.20%) Network Architect
4 5 (12.20%) Support Engineer
5 4 (9.76%) Field Engineer
5 4 (9.76%) Network Security Architect
5 4 (9.76%) Security Architect
6 3 (7.32%) Infrastructure Architect
6 3 (7.32%) Senior Architect
6 3 (7.32%) Senior Infrastructure Architect
7 2 (4.88%) Analyst
7 2 (4.88%) Consultant
7 2 (4.88%) Network Consultant
7 2 (4.88%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (9.76%) OAuth
1 4 (9.76%) SAML
2 2 (4.88%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 8 (19.51%) Web Conferencing
2 6 (14.63%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 4 (9.76%) Social Media
4 2 (4.88%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (4.88%) Cyber Defence
4 2 (4.88%) Cyber Threat
4 2 (4.88%) PKI
5 1 (2.44%) Data Centre
5 1 (2.44%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (2.44%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 18 (43.90%) Windows
1 18 (43.90%) Windows Server
2 7 (17.07%) Linux
3 5 (12.20%) Mac OS
4 1 (2.44%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (29.27%) Problem-Solving
2 10 (24.39%) Disaster Recovery
2 10 (24.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 10 (24.39%) Presales
3 9 (21.95%) Customer Service
4 8 (19.51%) Case Management
4 8 (19.51%) Time Management
5 7 (17.07%) Cybersecurity
5 7 (17.07%) ITIL
5 7 (17.07%) Technical Leadership
6 6 (14.63%) Continuous Improvement
6 6 (14.63%) Performance Tuning
6 6 (14.63%) Root Cause Analysis
7 5 (12.20%) Data Protection
7 5 (12.20%) Software Deployment
7 5 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
8 4 (9.76%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 4 (9.76%) Network Management
8 4 (9.76%) Network Segmentation
9 3 (7.32%) Customer Requirements
Programming Languages
1 4 (9.76%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.44%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 12 (29.27%) Degree
2 4 (9.76%) CCNA
2 4 (9.76%) Cisco Certification
2 4 (9.76%) DBS Check
3 3 (7.32%) MCSE
3 3 (7.32%) Microsoft Certification
3 3 (7.32%) Network+ Certification
4 2 (4.88%) Security Cleared
4 2 (4.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 1 (2.44%) Azure Certification
5 1 (2.44%) CCIE
5 1 (2.44%) CCNP
5 1 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (14.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (9.76%) NIST
3 2 (4.88%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (4.88%) GDPR
4 1 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 13 (31.71%) Active Directory
2 3 (7.32%) Hyper-V
2 3 (7.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (14.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (9.76%) CASB
2 4 (9.76%) FortiGate
2 4 (9.76%) Jamf Pro
2 4 (9.76%) SmoothWall
3 2 (4.88%) QRadar
4 1 (2.44%) Endace
4 1 (2.44%) Terraform
Vendors
1 21 (51.22%) Microsoft
2 14 (34.15%) Cisco
3 8 (19.51%) Palo Alto
4 7 (17.07%) VMware
5 6 (14.63%) Aruba
6 5 (12.20%) Fortinet
7 4 (9.76%) Google
7 4 (9.76%) Meraki
8 3 (7.32%) Juniper
9 2 (4.88%) ArcSight
9 2 (4.88%) Ruckus Wireless
9 2 (4.88%) Splunk
9 2 (4.88%) WatchGuard
10 1 (2.44%) 3PAR
10 1 (2.44%) EMC
10 1 (2.44%) F5
10 1 (2.44%) HP
10 1 (2.44%) SolarWinds
10 1 (2.44%) Veeam