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 3 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 121 118 105
Rank change year-on-year -3 -13 +46
Permanent jobs citing WAN 54 78 78
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 1.43% 1.93% 2.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.38% 14.89% 15.03%
Number of salaries quoted 47 41 70
10th Percentile £22,900 £35,000 £35,490
25th Percentile £30,250 £38,750 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £44,175 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.51% +3.94% -17.87%
75th Percentile £51,000 £48,750 £53,750
90th Percentile £66,000 £63,750 £60,250
South East median annual salary £41,500 £50,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year -17.00% +17.65% -15.00%

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 351 524 519
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 9.28% 13.00% 15.96%
Number of salaries quoted 218 249 393
10th Percentile £27,250 £31,250 £30,650
25th Percentile £31,250 £38,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% +6.82%
75th Percentile £62,500 £65,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £83,500 £77,500
South East median annual salary £45,000 £54,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -17.43% +9.00% +3.90%

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 3 December 2025.

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 3 December 2025. 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 -11 34 £32,500 -26.43% 19
Oxfordshire +17 17 £41,500 -6.93% 5
Buckinghamshire +15 6 £48,000 +16.36% 1
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 8 (14.81%) Exchange Server 2013
1 8 (14.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (5.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (22.22%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.85%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 24 (44.44%) Azure
2 15 (27.78%) Microsoft 365
3 14 (25.93%) AWS
4 5 (9.26%) Mimecast
5 3 (5.56%) Entra ID
5 3 (5.56%) GCP
6 1 (1.85%) Google Workspace
6 1 (1.85%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 46 (85.19%) LAN
2 21 (38.89%) Firewall
3 19 (35.19%) Wi-Fi
4 18 (33.33%) VPN
5 14 (25.93%) VoIP
6 13 (24.07%) VLAN
7 10 (18.52%) Wireless
8 9 (16.67%) Internet
9 8 (14.81%) DNS
9 8 (14.81%) SAN
10 6 (11.11%) DHCP
11 5 (9.26%) DECT
11 5 (9.26%) DSL
11 5 (9.26%) Network Security
11 5 (9.26%) PBX
11 5 (9.26%) Unified Communications
11 5 (9.26%) Wireshark
12 3 (5.56%) SD-WAN
12 3 (5.56%) TCP/IP
12 3 (5.56%) WLAN
General
1 28 (51.85%) Social Skills
2 9 (16.67%) Telecoms
3 5 (9.26%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (9.26%) Marketing
4 2 (3.70%) Finance
4 2 (3.70%) Games
4 2 (3.70%) Manufacturing
4 2 (3.70%) Retail
5 1 (1.85%) Law
5 1 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (1.85%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 14 (25.93%) 3rd Line Support
2 11 (20.37%) IT Support
3 9 (16.67%) Support Technician
4 8 (14.81%) 3rd Line Support Technician
5 6 (11.11%) Senior
5 6 (11.11%) Trainee
5 6 (11.11%) Trainee IT Support
6 5 (9.26%) 2nd Line Support
6 5 (9.26%) Analyst
6 5 (9.26%) IT Engineer
6 5 (9.26%) Junior
6 5 (9.26%) Support Analyst
6 5 (9.26%) Support Engineer
7 4 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (7.41%) IT Support Engineer
8 3 (5.56%) 1st Line Support
8 3 (5.56%) 1st Line Support Analyst
8 3 (5.56%) Infrastructure Manager
8 3 (5.56%) Network Architect
8 3 (5.56%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.70%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 8 (14.81%) Replication
2 6 (11.11%) CCTV
3 5 (9.26%) Driving Licence
3 5 (9.26%) Web Conferencing
4 3 (5.56%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.70%) BYOD
5 2 (3.70%) IoT
6 1 (1.85%) CMDB
6 1 (1.85%) Data Centre
6 1 (1.85%) FMCG
6 1 (1.85%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.85%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.85%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 34 (62.96%) Windows
2 15 (27.78%) Windows Server
3 5 (9.26%) Android
3 5 (9.26%) Apple iOS
3 5 (9.26%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.85%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (40.74%) ITIL
2 13 (24.07%) Problem-Solving
3 10 (18.52%) Business Continuity
4 9 (16.67%) Customer Service
4 9 (16.67%) Migration
5 8 (14.81%) Agile
5 8 (14.81%) Information Security
5 8 (14.81%) Knowledge Transfer
6 7 (12.96%) Disaster Recovery
6 7 (12.96%) Presales
7 6 (11.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 5 (9.26%) Case Management
8 5 (9.26%) Continuous Improvement
8 5 (9.26%) Time Management
9 4 (7.41%) Software Testing
10 3 (5.56%) DevOps
10 3 (5.56%) Infrastructure as Code
10 3 (5.56%) Performance Tuning
10 3 (5.56%) Technical Leadership
11 2 (3.70%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 3 (5.56%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.85%) SQL
Qualifications
1 8 (14.81%) Degree
2 5 (9.26%) Cisco Certification
3 4 (7.41%) CCNP
3 4 (7.41%) MCSE
3 4 (7.41%) Microsoft Certification
4 3 (5.56%) A+ Certification
4 3 (5.56%) CCNA
4 3 (5.56%) MCP
4 3 (5.56%) SC Cleared
4 3 (5.56%) Security Cleared
4 3 (5.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 2 (3.70%) JNCIA
6 1 (1.85%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.85%) CCIE
6 1 (1.85%) CISSP
6 1 (1.85%) DBS Check
6 1 (1.85%) HND
6 1 (1.85%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (16.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (14.81%) Cyber Essentials
2 8 (14.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (1.85%) GDPR
System Software
1 15 (27.78%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (25.93%) Active Directory
3 11 (20.37%) Hyper-V
4 1 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (1.85%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 17 (31.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (14.81%) SCCM
3 4 (7.41%) Terraform
4 3 (5.56%) Ansible
5 1 (1.85%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.85%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (1.85%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 33 (61.11%) Microsoft
2 18 (33.33%) VMware
3 8 (14.81%) arcserve
4 7 (12.96%) Sophos
5 6 (11.11%) Cisco
5 6 (11.11%) HP
6 5 (9.26%) Barracuda Networks
6 5 (9.26%) Dell
6 5 (9.26%) Ubiquiti
7 4 (7.41%) Adobe
8 3 (5.56%) Juniper
9 2 (3.70%) Datto
9 2 (3.70%) Meraki
9 2 (3.70%) Ruckus Wireless
9 2 (3.70%) WatchGuard
10 1 (1.85%) Aruba
10 1 (1.85%) Google
10 1 (1.85%) Oracle
10 1 (1.85%) Palo Alto