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 6 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 120 111
Rank change year-on-year -25 -9 -6
Permanent jobs citing WAN 62 86 92
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.82% 2.24% 1.97%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.47% 15.17% 13.92%
Number of salaries quoted 52 79 45
10th Percentile £31,250 £22,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £28,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,000 £36,000 £44,175
Median % change year-on-year +41.67% -18.51% -11.65%
75th Percentile £65,938 £44,375 £57,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £79,500 £67,500
South East median annual salary £52,500 £38,875 £50,000
% change year-on-year +35.05% -22.25% +7.53%

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 497 567 661
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 6.60% 14.80% 14.15%
Number of salaries quoted 367 257 295
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £61,250 £63,750 £66,750
90th Percentile £72,500 £71,350 £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 6 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 6 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 -30 24 £52,500 +26.51% 10
Berkshire -19 22 £45,000 +47.54% 17
Buckinghamshire 0 16 £50,000 +38.89% 12
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 (12.90%) SharePoint
2 7 (11.29%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (8.06%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.61%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 29 (46.77%) Azure
2 16 (25.81%) AWS
3 12 (19.35%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (9.68%) Entra ID
5 1 (1.61%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (1.61%) Azure Stack
5 1 (1.61%) GCP
5 1 (1.61%) IaaS
5 1 (1.61%) Mimecast
5 1 (1.61%) OneDrive
5 1 (1.61%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 44 (70.97%) LAN
2 43 (69.35%) VPN
3 37 (59.68%) Firewall
3 37 (59.68%) Network Security
4 33 (53.23%) SD-WAN
5 31 (50.00%) VLAN
6 29 (46.77%) DNS
7 28 (45.16%) DHCP
8 23 (37.10%) Wi-Fi
9 21 (33.87%) Wireless
10 18 (29.03%) TCP/IP
11 14 (22.58%) BGP
12 12 (19.35%) IPsec
12 12 (19.35%) SSL
13 11 (17.74%) FTP
13 11 (17.74%) HTTP
14 10 (16.13%) ICMP
14 10 (16.13%) MPLS
14 10 (16.13%) SNMP
14 10 (16.13%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.23%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.61%) JIRA
General
1 22 (35.48%) Social Skills
2 9 (14.52%) Documentation Skills
3 6 (9.68%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (8.06%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (6.45%) Telecoms
6 3 (4.84%) Retail
7 2 (3.23%) Finance
7 2 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (3.23%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.61%) Automotive
8 1 (1.61%) Billing
8 1 (1.61%) Law
8 1 (1.61%) Legal
8 1 (1.61%) Legal Technology
8 1 (1.61%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 15 (24.19%) Architect
1 15 (24.19%) Network Architect
2 10 (16.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 10 (16.13%) IT Support
2 10 (16.13%) Network Engineer
2 10 (16.13%) Network Security Architect
2 10 (16.13%) Security Architect
3 9 (14.52%) Senior
4 8 (12.90%) IT Engineer
5 6 (9.68%) IT Support Engineer
5 6 (9.68%) Support Engineer
6 5 (8.06%) Consultant
6 5 (8.06%) Network Consultant
6 5 (8.06%) Senior Architect
6 5 (8.06%) Senior Network Architect
7 4 (6.45%) Lead
7 4 (6.45%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 3 (4.84%) Analyst
8 3 (4.84%) Presales Consultant
9 2 (3.23%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (16.13%) OAuth
1 10 (16.13%) SAML
2 1 (1.61%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (17.74%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 6 (9.68%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (8.06%) Data Centre
3 5 (8.06%) Private Cloud
3 5 (8.06%) Security Posture
4 4 (6.45%) Driving Licence
5 2 (3.23%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (1.61%) Cyber Defence
6 1 (1.61%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.61%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 16 (25.81%) Windows
2 10 (16.13%) Windows Server
3 4 (6.45%) Android
3 4 (6.45%) Windows 10
4 3 (4.84%) Apple iOS
5 2 (3.23%) Linux
6 1 (1.61%) Mac OS
6 1 (1.61%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (1.61%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (33.87%) Cybersecurity
2 17 (27.42%) Continuous Improvement
2 17 (27.42%) Problem-Solving
3 14 (22.58%) Disaster Recovery
4 11 (17.74%) Stakeholder Management
4 11 (17.74%) Technical Leadership
5 10 (16.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 10 (16.13%) MITRE ATT&CK
5 10 (16.13%) Network Segmentation
6 9 (14.52%) Mentoring
6 9 (14.52%) Presales
7 7 (11.29%) Customer Service
7 7 (11.29%) Network Monitoring
8 6 (9.68%) Business Continuity
8 6 (9.68%) Cloud Security
8 6 (9.68%) High Availability
8 6 (9.68%) Network Architecture
8 6 (9.68%) Risk Management
9 5 (8.06%) Enterprise Architecture
9 5 (8.06%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 6 (9.68%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 16 (25.81%) Cisco Certification
2 13 (20.97%) CCNP
3 11 (17.74%) CCNA
4 6 (9.68%) Degree
4 6 (9.68%) Security Cleared
5 5 (8.06%) DV Cleared
5 5 (8.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 4 (6.45%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (6.45%) Network+ Certification
7 3 (4.84%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.61%) A+ Certification
8 1 (1.61%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.61%) DBS Check
8 1 (1.61%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (20.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (16.13%) NIST
3 5 (8.06%) GDPR
3 5 (8.06%) NCSC
4 3 (4.84%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (3.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (1.61%) QA
System Software
1 18 (29.03%) Active Directory
2 11 (17.74%) Hyper-V
3 5 (8.06%) VMware NSX
4 3 (4.84%) Firmware
4 3 (4.84%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (3.23%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (1.61%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (1.61%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 14 (22.58%) FortiGate
2 10 (16.13%) CASB
3 8 (12.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.61%) Autotask
4 1 (1.61%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.61%) N-central
4 1 (1.61%) QRadar
Vendors
1 42 (67.74%) Microsoft
2 38 (61.29%) Cisco
3 24 (38.71%) Palo Alto
4 23 (37.10%) Fortinet
5 12 (19.35%) Aruba
5 12 (19.35%) VMware
6 7 (11.29%) Juniper
7 6 (9.68%) Meraki
8 4 (6.45%) Apple
8 4 (6.45%) BT
8 4 (6.45%) Ruckus Wireless
9 3 (4.84%) Adobe
10 2 (3.23%) Brocade
10 2 (3.23%) WatchGuard
11 1 (1.61%) EMC
11 1 (1.61%) Infoblox
11 1 (1.61%) NETGEAR
11 1 (1.61%) SonicWALL
11 1 (1.61%) Splunk
11 1 (1.61%) Veeam