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 31 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 104 131
Rank change year-on-year -29 +27 +20
Permanent jobs citing WAN 39 74 85
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.92% 2.21% 1.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.54% 15.91% 13.62%
Number of salaries quoted 26 43 76
10th Percentile £31,250 £35,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £42,500 £46,250
Median % change year-on-year -15.29% -8.11% -9.04%
75th Percentile £61,563 £50,000 £54,063
90th Percentile £76,875 £67,500 £66,250
South East median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +29.41% -10.53%

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 370 465 624
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.70% 13.86% 12.38%
Number of salaries quoted 195 208 526
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,850 £29,500
25th Percentile £30,750 £37,500 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £53,750 £63,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £92,000 £75,000
South East median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +15.79% +2.15%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 -17 28 £52,500 +5.00% 10
Oxfordshire +3 10 £35,000 -12.50% 1
Buckinghamshire +1 2 £48,000 +12.94% 4
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 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (2.56%) Exchange Server 2013
2 1 (2.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.56%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 16 (41.03%) Azure
2 13 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
3 5 (12.82%) Google Workspace
4 4 (10.26%) AWS
4 4 (10.26%) Entra ID
5 3 (7.69%) Mimecast
6 1 (2.56%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 24 (61.54%) VoIP
2 23 (58.97%) LAN
3 20 (51.28%) Firewall
3 20 (51.28%) VPN
4 15 (38.46%) Wi-Fi
5 13 (33.33%) VLAN
6 11 (28.21%) DECT
6 11 (28.21%) DSL
6 11 (28.21%) PBX
6 11 (28.21%) Unified Communications
6 11 (28.21%) Wireshark
7 8 (20.51%) Wireless
8 7 (17.95%) DNS
9 4 (10.26%) DHCP
9 4 (10.26%) Network Security
10 3 (7.69%) TCP/IP
10 3 (7.69%) WLAN
11 2 (5.13%) 802.11
11 2 (5.13%) BGP
11 2 (5.13%) Internet
General
1 23 (58.97%) Social Skills
2 13 (33.33%) Telecoms
3 11 (28.21%) Marketing
4 7 (17.95%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (5.13%) Analytical Skills
5 2 (5.13%) Games
5 2 (5.13%) Manufacturing
5 2 (5.13%) Retail
6 1 (2.56%) Law
6 1 (2.56%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 11 (28.21%) IT Engineer
2 9 (23.08%) 2nd Line Support
3 7 (17.95%) Support Engineer
4 6 (15.38%) IT Support
4 6 (15.38%) IT Support Engineer
4 6 (15.38%) Senior
5 5 (12.82%) Field Engineer
6 4 (10.26%) 3rd Line Support
7 3 (7.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Infrastructure Manager
8 2 (5.13%) Junior
8 2 (5.13%) Network Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Presales Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Senior Systems Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Systems Engineer
9 1 (2.56%) Architect
9 1 (2.56%) Project Manager
9 1 (2.56%) Senior Manager
9 1 (2.56%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.13%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 11 (28.21%) Web Conferencing
2 5 (12.82%) Social Media
3 4 (10.26%) CCTV
4 3 (7.69%) Driving Licence
5 2 (5.13%) BYOD
5 2 (5.13%) Data Centre
5 2 (5.13%) IoT
5 2 (5.13%) PKI
6 1 (2.56%) CMDB
6 1 (2.56%) FMCG
6 1 (2.56%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 18 (46.15%) Windows
2 14 (35.90%) Windows Server
3 4 (10.26%) Mac OS
4 3 (7.69%) Linux
5 2 (5.13%) Android
5 2 (5.13%) Apple iOS
6 1 (2.56%) Windows 10
6 1 (2.56%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (33.33%) Presales
2 12 (30.77%) Customer Service
3 11 (28.21%) Case Management
3 11 (28.21%) Time Management
4 10 (25.64%) Problem-Solving
5 9 (23.08%) ITIL
6 6 (15.38%) Data Protection
7 5 (12.82%) Disaster Recovery
7 5 (12.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 5 (12.82%) Network Management
7 5 (12.82%) Root Cause Analysis
8 4 (10.26%) Continuous Improvement
9 3 (7.69%) Business Continuity
9 3 (7.69%) Decision-Making
9 3 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
10 2 (5.13%) Infrastructure as Code
10 2 (5.13%) Migration
10 2 (5.13%) Procure-to-Pay
10 2 (5.13%) Service Management
10 2 (5.13%) Software Deployment
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.26%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.56%) Bicep
2 1 (2.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 14 (35.90%) Degree
2 5 (12.82%) DBS Check
3 2 (5.13%) CCNA
3 2 (5.13%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (5.13%) MCSE
3 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Certification
4 1 (2.56%) Azure Certification
4 1 (2.56%) CCIE
4 1 (2.56%) HND
4 1 (2.56%) MCSA
4 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
4 1 (2.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.56%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (2.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 1 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 18 (46.15%) Active Directory
2 5 (12.82%) Hyper-V
2 5 (12.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (2.56%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (2.56%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 10 (25.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (12.82%) Jamf Pro
2 5 (12.82%) SmoothWall
3 4 (10.26%) Terraform
4 2 (5.13%) Ansible
5 1 (2.56%) Endace
5 1 (2.56%) FortiGate
5 1 (2.56%) SCCM
Vendors
1 15 (38.46%) Microsoft
2 7 (17.95%) Cisco
3 6 (15.38%) Meraki
3 6 (15.38%) VMware
4 5 (12.82%) Google
5 4 (10.26%) Adobe
6 3 (7.69%) HP
7 2 (5.13%) Barracuda Networks
7 2 (5.13%) Dell
7 2 (5.13%) Ruckus Wireless
7 2 (5.13%) Sophos
7 2 (5.13%) Ubiquiti
8 1 (2.56%) 3PAR
8 1 (2.56%) arcserve
8 1 (2.56%) F5
8 1 (2.56%) Juniper
8 1 (2.56%) Palo Alto
8 1 (2.56%) SolarWinds
8 1 (2.56%) Veeam