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 18 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 117 117 109
Rank change year-on-year 0 -8 +38
Permanent jobs citing WAN 63 80 84
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 1.76% 1.85% 2.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.80% 15.04% 15.05%
Number of salaries quoted 56 40 73
10th Percentile £25,500 £35,000 £35,650
25th Percentile £28,250 £38,125 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £45,048 £48,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.09% -7.12% -4.90%
75th Percentile £57,813 £53,031 £53,750
90th Percentile £66,250 £67,500 £62,250
South East median annual salary £41,500 £53,625 £43,000
% change year-on-year -22.61% +24.71% -14.00%

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 354 532 558
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 9.90% 12.31% 16.43%
Number of salaries quoted 234 249 428
10th Percentile £27,250 £31,250 £28,290
25th Percentile £31,406 £38,750 £35,300
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £52,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% - +6.06%
75th Percentile £62,993 £67,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £84,000 £77,500
South East median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% +2.75%

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 18 November 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 18 November 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 -6 38 £36,000 -18.51% 64
Oxfordshire +30 21 £41,500 -7.97% 9
Buckinghamshire +14 7 £60,000 +45.45% 44
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 10 (15.87%) Exchange Server 2013
1 10 (15.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (7.94%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (17.46%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.59%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 28 (44.44%) Azure
2 18 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (25.40%) AWS
4 5 (7.94%) Entra ID
4 5 (7.94%) Mimecast
5 4 (6.35%) GCP
6 1 (1.59%) Google Workspace
6 1 (1.59%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 55 (87.30%) LAN
2 23 (36.51%) Firewall
3 22 (34.92%) Wi-Fi
4 19 (30.16%) VPN
5 15 (23.81%) VLAN
6 13 (20.63%) VoIP
7 10 (15.87%) Internet
7 10 (15.87%) SAN
8 9 (14.29%) DNS
8 9 (14.29%) Wireless
9 6 (9.52%) DHCP
10 5 (7.94%) DECT
10 5 (7.94%) DSL
10 5 (7.94%) Network Security
10 5 (7.94%) PBX
10 5 (7.94%) TCP/IP
10 5 (7.94%) Unified Communications
10 5 (7.94%) Wireshark
11 4 (6.35%) SD-WAN
12 3 (4.76%) WLAN
General
1 33 (52.38%) Social Skills
2 9 (14.29%) Telecoms
3 6 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (7.94%) Marketing
5 2 (3.17%) Finance
5 2 (3.17%) Games
5 2 (3.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (3.17%) Manufacturing
5 2 (3.17%) Retail
6 1 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.59%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 16 (25.40%) 3rd Line Support
2 11 (17.46%) Support Technician
3 10 (15.87%) 3rd Line Support Technician
3 10 (15.87%) IT Support
4 9 (14.29%) Analyst
4 9 (14.29%) Support Analyst
5 7 (11.11%) 2nd Line Support
6 6 (9.52%) Senior
6 6 (9.52%) Trainee
6 6 (9.52%) Trainee IT Support
7 5 (7.94%) 1st Line Support
7 5 (7.94%) 1st Line Support Analyst
7 5 (7.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 5 (7.94%) Junior
8 4 (6.35%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
8 4 (6.35%) IT Engineer
8 4 (6.35%) Lead
8 4 (6.35%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 4 (6.35%) Support Engineer
9 3 (4.76%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.17%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 10 (15.87%) Replication
2 6 (9.52%) CCTV
3 5 (7.94%) Analytical Mindset
3 5 (7.94%) Web Conferencing
4 4 (6.35%) Driving Licence
5 3 (4.76%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (3.17%) BYOD
6 2 (3.17%) Data Centre
6 2 (3.17%) IoT
7 1 (1.59%) CMDB
7 1 (1.59%) FMCG
7 1 (1.59%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (1.59%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 40 (63.49%) Windows
2 16 (25.40%) Windows Server
3 5 (7.94%) Android
3 5 (7.94%) Apple iOS
3 5 (7.94%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.59%) Linux
4 1 (1.59%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (39.68%) ITIL
2 16 (25.40%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (17.46%) Business Continuity
4 10 (15.87%) Agile
4 10 (15.87%) Customer Service
4 10 (15.87%) Information Security
4 10 (15.87%) Knowledge Transfer
4 10 (15.87%) Migration
5 7 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
5 7 (11.11%) Presales
6 6 (9.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 5 (7.94%) Case Management
7 5 (7.94%) Continuous Improvement
7 5 (7.94%) Cybersecurity
7 5 (7.94%) DevOps
7 5 (7.94%) Time Management
8 4 (6.35%) Infrastructure as Code
8 4 (6.35%) Performance Tuning
8 4 (6.35%) Software Testing
8 4 (6.35%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 2 (3.17%) PowerShell
1 2 (3.17%) Python
2 1 (1.59%) SQL
Qualifications
1 8 (12.70%) Degree
2 7 (11.11%) Cisco Certification
3 5 (7.94%) A+ Certification
3 5 (7.94%) CCNA
3 5 (7.94%) MCP
3 5 (7.94%) MCSE
3 5 (7.94%) Microsoft Certification
4 4 (6.35%) CCNP
4 4 (6.35%) SC Cleared
4 4 (6.35%) Security Cleared
4 4 (6.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 2 (3.17%) JNCIA
6 1 (1.59%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.59%) CCIE
6 1 (1.59%) CISSP
6 1 (1.59%) DBS Check
6 1 (1.59%) HND
6 1 (1.59%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (17.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (15.87%) Cyber Essentials
2 10 (15.87%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (1.59%) GDPR
System Software
1 16 (25.40%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (19.05%) Active Directory
2 12 (19.05%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.59%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.59%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 21 (33.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (15.87%) SCCM
3 5 (7.94%) Terraform
4 4 (6.35%) Ansible
5 1 (1.59%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (1.59%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 35 (55.56%) Microsoft
2 20 (31.75%) VMware
3 10 (15.87%) arcserve
4 9 (14.29%) Cisco
4 9 (14.29%) Sophos
5 6 (9.52%) HP
6 5 (7.94%) Barracuda Networks
6 5 (7.94%) Dell
6 5 (7.94%) Ubiquiti
7 4 (6.35%) Datto
7 4 (6.35%) WatchGuard
8 3 (4.76%) Adobe
8 3 (4.76%) Aruba
8 3 (4.76%) Juniper
8 3 (4.76%) Palo Alto
9 2 (3.17%) Fortinet
9 2 (3.17%) Mellanox
9 2 (3.17%) NVIDIA
9 2 (3.17%) Ruckus Wireless
10 1 (1.59%) Google