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 16 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 95 151
Rank change year-on-year -26 +56 -4
Permanent jobs citing WAN 41 70 101
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.77% 2.48% 1.55%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.32% 23.57% 11.31%
Number of salaries quoted 26 59 80
10th Percentile £31,000 £31,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £40,000 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £38,750 £42,500 £51,250
Median % change year-on-year -8.82% -17.07% +7.89%
75th Percentile £66,875 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £76,875 £71,250 £78,750
South East median annual salary £38,750 £47,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year -18.42% +5.56% +3.45%

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 440 297 893
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.29% 10.53% 13.66%
Number of salaries quoted 237 203 687
10th Percentile £26,000 £26,300 £29,150
25th Percentile £31,000 £34,000 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £47,500 £42,920
Median % change year-on-year -15.79% +10.67% +0.99%
75th Percentile £63,750 £62,500 £59,000
90th Percentile £73,000 £75,000 £70,000
South East median annual salary £46,000 £47,500 £46,500
% change year-on-year -3.16% +2.15% +3.33%

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 16 April 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 16 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
Berkshire -3 25 £58,750 +17.50% 7
Oxfordshire -23 10 £34,500 -13.75% 2
Buckinghamshire -18 6 £60,000 +60.00% 3
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
Applications
1 4 (9.76%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 19 (46.34%) Azure
2 13 (31.71%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (19.51%) 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 29 (70.73%) Firewall
1 29 (70.73%) VPN
2 24 (58.54%) LAN
3 21 (51.22%) VoIP
4 15 (36.59%) VLAN
5 13 (31.71%) DECT
5 13 (31.71%) DNS
5 13 (31.71%) DSL
5 13 (31.71%) PBX
5 13 (31.71%) Unified Communications
5 13 (31.71%) Wi-Fi
5 13 (31.71%) Wireshark
6 7 (17.07%) TCP/IP
7 3 (7.32%) HTTP
7 3 (7.32%) Wireless
8 2 (4.88%) BGP
8 2 (4.88%) DHCP
8 2 (4.88%) FTP
8 2 (4.88%) Internet
8 2 (4.88%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.44%) SQL Server
General
1 24 (58.54%) Social Skills
2 13 (31.71%) Marketing
2 13 (31.71%) Telecoms
3 9 (21.95%) Organisational Skills
4 4 (9.76%) Analytical Skills
5 2 (4.88%) Finance
5 2 (4.88%) Retail
6 1 (2.44%) Law
Job Titles
1 13 (31.71%) IT Engineer
2 11 (26.83%) 2nd Line Support
3 10 (24.39%) Senior
4 9 (21.95%) IT Support
4 9 (21.95%) IT Support Engineer
4 9 (21.95%) Support Engineer
5 8 (19.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 8 (19.51%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 4 (9.76%) Architect
6 4 (9.76%) Field Engineer
7 3 (7.32%) Infrastructure Architect
7 3 (7.32%) Senior Architect
7 3 (7.32%) Senior Infrastructure Architect
8 2 (4.88%) Analyst
8 2 (4.88%) Infrastructure Manager
8 2 (4.88%) Presales Engineer
8 2 (4.88%) SOC Analyst
9 1 (2.44%) Network Engineer
9 1 (2.44%) Project Manager
9 1 (2.44%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.88%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 13 (31.71%) Web Conferencing
2 4 (9.76%) Social Media
3 2 (4.88%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (4.88%) Cyber Defence
3 2 (4.88%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 2 (4.88%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (4.88%) Data Centre
3 2 (4.88%) PKI
4 1 (2.44%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 21 (51.22%) Windows
1 21 (51.22%) Windows Server
2 6 (14.63%) Linux
3 5 (12.20%) Mac OS
4 1 (2.44%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (31.71%) Case Management
1 13 (31.71%) Customer Service
1 13 (31.71%) Presales
1 13 (31.71%) Time Management
2 12 (29.27%) Problem-Solving
3 10 (24.39%) Disaster Recovery
3 10 (24.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 8 (19.51%) ITIL
5 6 (14.63%) Performance Tuning
6 5 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (12.20%) Data Protection
6 5 (12.20%) Root Cause Analysis
6 5 (12.20%) Software Deployment
7 4 (9.76%) Network Management
7 4 (9.76%) Stakeholder Management
7 4 (9.76%) Technical Leadership
8 3 (7.32%) Business Continuity
9 2 (4.88%) Incident Management
9 2 (4.88%) Service Management
9 2 (4.88%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 4 (9.76%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.44%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 17 (41.46%) Degree
2 4 (9.76%) DBS Check
3 3 (7.32%) MCSE
3 3 (7.32%) Microsoft 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%) CCNA
5 1 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (2.44%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 1 (2.44%) GDPR
1 1 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 17 (41.46%) Active Directory
2 3 (7.32%) Hyper-V
3 2 (4.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (14.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (9.76%) Jamf Pro
2 4 (9.76%) SmoothWall
3 3 (7.32%) Terraform
4 2 (4.88%) Ansible
4 2 (4.88%) QRadar
5 1 (2.44%) Endace
5 1 (2.44%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 19 (46.34%) Microsoft
2 8 (19.51%) VMware
3 6 (14.63%) Cisco
4 5 (12.20%) Meraki
5 4 (9.76%) Adobe
5 4 (9.76%) Google
6 2 (4.88%) ArcSight
6 2 (4.88%) Splunk
7 1 (2.44%) 3PAR
7 1 (2.44%) F5
7 1 (2.44%) HP
7 1 (2.44%) Juniper
7 1 (2.44%) Palo Alto
7 1 (2.44%) SolarWinds
7 1 (2.44%) Veeam