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 1 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 110 121
Rank change year-on-year -29 +11 -3
Permanent jobs citing WAN 51 102 84
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.74% 2.61% 1.66%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.09% 17.26% 13.27%
Number of salaries quoted 42 95 47
10th Percentile £41,250 £22,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £28,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £40,000 £44,175
Median % change year-on-year +43.75% -9.45% -13.38%
75th Percentile £72,500 £56,125 £58,750
90th Percentile £73,750 £77,750 £70,000
South East median annual salary £51,500 £41,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +25.61% -18.00% +11.11%

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 460 591 633
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 6.65% 15.15% 12.52%
Number of salaries quoted 361 284 392
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,075 £31,250
25th Percentile £33,750 £34,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% 0.00%
75th Percentile £63,750 £63,750 £62,813
90th Percentile £72,500 £73,075 £80,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £41,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +14.46% -17.00% +1.01%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 -39 20 £72,500 +74.70%
Berkshire -18 16 £57,500 +59.72% 11
Buckinghamshire +2 15 £55,000 +22.22% 8
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 3 (5.88%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (5.88%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 29 (56.86%) Azure
2 19 (37.25%) AWS
3 7 (13.73%) Microsoft 365
4 5 (9.80%) Entra ID
5 4 (7.84%) GCP
6 1 (1.96%) Azure Stack
6 1 (1.96%) IaaS
6 1 (1.96%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 40 (78.43%) VPN
2 35 (68.63%) LAN
3 34 (66.67%) Network Security
4 32 (62.75%) Firewall
5 30 (58.82%) SD-WAN
6 26 (50.98%) DNS
7 24 (47.06%) VLAN
8 22 (43.14%) DHCP
9 18 (35.29%) Wi-Fi
10 14 (27.45%) Wireless
11 13 (25.49%) BGP
12 12 (23.53%) FTP
12 12 (23.53%) HTTP
12 12 (23.53%) TCP/IP
13 10 (19.61%) ICMP
13 10 (19.61%) Internet
13 10 (19.61%) IPsec
13 10 (19.61%) SNMP
13 10 (19.61%) SSH
13 10 (19.61%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.92%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.96%) JIRA
General
1 11 (21.57%) Social Skills
2 8 (15.69%) Documentation Skills
3 7 (13.73%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (9.80%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (7.84%) Telecoms
6 3 (5.88%) Finance
7 2 (3.92%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (3.92%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.96%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.96%) Retail
Job Titles
1 17 (33.33%) Architect
2 15 (29.41%) Network Architect
3 12 (23.53%) Senior
4 11 (21.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 10 (19.61%) Network Security Architect
5 10 (19.61%) Security Architect
6 7 (13.73%) Network Engineer
6 7 (13.73%) Senior Architect
6 7 (13.73%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 5 (9.80%) Consultant
7 5 (9.80%) Network Consultant
7 5 (9.80%) Senior Network Architect
8 4 (7.84%) Analyst
9 3 (5.88%) Lead
9 3 (5.88%) Presales Consultant
10 2 (3.92%) IT Engineer
10 2 (3.92%) IT Support
10 2 (3.92%) Network Analyst
10 2 (3.92%) Network Manager
10 2 (3.92%) Senior Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (19.61%) OAuth
1 10 (19.61%) SAML
2 2 (3.92%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 12 (23.53%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 6 (11.76%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (9.80%) Data Centre
3 5 (9.80%) Private Cloud
4 4 (7.84%) Security Posture
5 2 (3.92%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.92%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (3.92%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (1.96%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 11 (21.57%) Windows
2 9 (17.65%) Windows Server
3 2 (3.92%) Linux
3 2 (3.92%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.96%) Android
4 1 (1.96%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.96%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (1.96%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (37.25%) Cybersecurity
2 17 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
3 14 (27.45%) Disaster Recovery
4 12 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (23.53%) Stakeholder Management
4 12 (23.53%) Technical Leadership
5 11 (21.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 10 (19.61%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 10 (19.61%) Network Segmentation
7 9 (17.65%) Presales
8 8 (15.69%) Mentoring
9 6 (11.76%) High Availability
9 6 (11.76%) Network Architecture
10 5 (9.80%) Business Continuity
10 5 (9.80%) Commercial Awareness
10 5 (9.80%) Customer Requirements
10 5 (9.80%) Enterprise Architecture
10 5 (9.80%) Network Monitoring
10 5 (9.80%) Risk Management
10 5 (9.80%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 6 (11.76%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 15 (29.41%) Cisco Certification
2 12 (23.53%) CCNP
3 10 (19.61%) CCNA
4 7 (13.73%) Security Cleared
5 6 (11.76%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 5 (9.80%) Degree
6 5 (9.80%) DV Cleared
6 5 (9.80%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (5.88%) Azure Certification
7 3 (5.88%) Network+ Certification
8 2 (3.92%) MCSE
9 1 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (23.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (19.61%) NIST
3 5 (9.80%) NCSC
4 2 (3.92%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (3.92%) GDPR
5 1 (1.96%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (1.96%) QA
System Software
1 10 (19.61%) Active Directory
2 8 (15.69%) Hyper-V
3 5 (9.80%) VMware NSX
4 3 (5.88%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (3.92%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (1.96%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 13 (25.49%) FortiGate
2 10 (19.61%) CASB
3 5 (9.80%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (3.92%) QRadar
Vendors
1 35 (68.63%) Microsoft
2 33 (64.71%) Cisco
3 24 (47.06%) Palo Alto
4 17 (33.33%) Fortinet
5 15 (29.41%) VMware
6 12 (23.53%) Aruba
7 6 (11.76%) Juniper
8 4 (7.84%) BT
9 3 (5.88%) Meraki
9 3 (5.88%) Ruckus Wireless
10 2 (3.92%) ArcSight
10 2 (3.92%) Splunk
10 2 (3.92%) WatchGuard
11 1 (1.96%) Apple
11 1 (1.96%) Brocade
11 1 (1.96%) EMC