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 citing WAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 10 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	145	119	110
Rank change year-on-year	-26	-9	-2
Permanent jobs citing WAN	73	63	81
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley	0.93%	1.79%	1.88%
As % of the Communications & Networking category	12.33%	18.48%	15.03%
Number of salaries quoted	59	56	40
10^th Percentile	£31,250	£22,875	£35,000
25^th Percentile	£41,250	£28,250	£38,125
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£52,500	£36,000	£45,048
Median % change year-on-year	+45.83%	-20.09%	-6.64%
75^th Percentile	£70,625	£46,813	£53,031
90^th Percentile	£73,750	£65,000	£67,500
South East median annual salary	£55,000	£41,500	£52,500
% change year-on-year	+32.53%	-20.95%	+16.67%

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 citing communications or computer networking skills in the Thames Valley.

	6 months to 10 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Permanent vacancies citing communications or computer networking skills	592	341	539
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley	7.52%	9.69%	12.53%
Number of salaries quoted	367	242	253
10^th Percentile	£29,300	£27,250	£31,250
25^th Percentile	£33,400	£31,406	£38,750
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£45,000	£45,000	£52,500
Median % change year-on-year	-	-14.29%	-
75^th Percentile	£61,250	£63,602	£67,500
90^th Percentile	£73,750	£70,000	£82,500
South East median annual salary	£47,500	£43,500	£55,000
% change year-on-year	+9.20%	-20.91%	+10.00%

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 Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

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 10 November 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 10 November 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Salary Past 6 Months	Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
Berkshire	-27	27	£50,000	+38.89%	11
Oxfordshire	-45	27	£52,500	+35.48%	13
Buckinghamshire	0	20	£55,000	-8.33%	11
WAN South East

WAN Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 10 November 2026, job vacancies citing WAN also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the Thames Valley region citing WAN.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	LAN	68.5%	50
2	Microsoft	64.4%	47
3	VPN	61.6%	45
4	Firewall	58.9%	43
5	Cisco	57.5%	42
6	Network Security	56.2%	41
7	VLAN	50.7%	37
8	SD-WAN	49.3%	36
9	DHCP	45.2%	33
9	DNS	45.2%	33
11	Azure	43.8%	32
12	Fortinet	38.4%	28
13	Wireless	35.6%	26
14	Wi-Fi	34.2%	25
15	Palo Alto	32.9%	24
16	Cybersecurity	31.5%	23
17	TCP/IP	30.1%	22
18	Active Directory	26.0%	19
18	Problem-Solving	26.0%	19
20	Cisco Certification	24.7%	18
20	Windows	24.7%	18
22	Continuous Improvement	23.3%	17
23	AWS	20.5%	15
23	BGP	20.5%	15
23	CCNP	20.5%	15
23	FortiGate	20.5%	15
23	Microsoft 365	20.5%	15
28	Disaster Recovery	19.2%	14
28	ISO/IEC 27001	19.2%	14
28	VMware	19.2%	14

WAN Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Communications & Networking

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	LAN	68.5%	50
2	VPN	61.6%	45
3	Firewall	58.9%	43
4	Network Security	56.2%	41
5	VLAN	50.7%	37
6	SD-WAN	49.3%	36
7	DHCP	45.2%	33
7	DNS	45.2%	33
9	Wireless	35.6%	26
10	Wi-Fi	34.2%	25
11	TCP/IP	30.1%	22
12	BGP	20.5%	15
13	IPsec	16.4%	12
13	SSL	16.4%	12
15	FTP	13.7%	10
15	HTTP	13.7%	10
15	ICMP	13.7%	10
15	MPLS	13.7%	10
15	SNMP	13.7%	10
15	SSH	13.7%	10