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 27 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 93 143
Rank change year-on-year -35 +50 -3
Permanent jobs citing WAN 40 76 92
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.90% 2.47% 1.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.31% 17.47% 13.41%
Number of salaries quoted 26 45 82
10th Percentile £31,000 £35,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £40,000 £37,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £42,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -17.65% -19.05% +10.53%
75th Percentile £62,500 £50,000 £58,750
90th Percentile £76,875 £67,500 £69,875
South East median annual salary £48,500 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -3.00% +5.26% -

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 388 435 686
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.73% 14.12% 12.60%
Number of salaries quoted 201 192 572
10th Percentile £26,000 £27,500 £28,535
25th Percentile £30,500 £38,750 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £50,000 £46,750
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +6.95% +3.89%
75th Percentile £53,750 £63,750 £59,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £92,000 £70,000
South East median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +15.79% +3.83%

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 27 February 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 27 February 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 -18 28 £55,000 +10.00% 12
Oxfordshire -10 10 £34,500 -13.75% 2
Buckinghamshire -3 2 £62,500 +108.33% 3
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 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (2.50%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.50%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 17 (42.50%) Azure
2 15 (37.50%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (17.50%) Entra ID
4 5 (12.50%) Google Workspace
5 4 (10.00%) AWS
6 2 (5.00%) GCP
7 1 (2.50%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 25 (62.50%) Firewall
1 25 (62.50%) VoIP
2 24 (60.00%) VPN
3 22 (55.00%) LAN
4 15 (37.50%) Wi-Fi
5 14 (35.00%) VLAN
6 13 (32.50%) DECT
6 13 (32.50%) DSL
6 13 (32.50%) PBX
6 13 (32.50%) Unified Communications
6 13 (32.50%) Wireshark
7 9 (22.50%) DNS
8 6 (15.00%) TCP/IP
9 5 (12.50%) Wireless
10 3 (7.50%) Network Security
11 2 (5.00%) BGP
11 2 (5.00%) DHCP
11 2 (5.00%) SD-WAN
11 2 (5.00%) WLAN
12 1 (2.50%) Cisco Firepower
General
1 26 (65.00%) Social Skills
2 14 (35.00%) Telecoms
3 13 (32.50%) Marketing
4 10 (25.00%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
5 2 (5.00%) Retail
6 1 (2.50%) Games
6 1 (2.50%) Law
6 1 (2.50%) Manufacturing
6 1 (2.50%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 14 (35.00%) IT Engineer
2 11 (27.50%) 2nd Line Support
3 10 (25.00%) Support Engineer
4 9 (22.50%) IT Support
4 9 (22.50%) IT Support Engineer
5 6 (15.00%) Senior
6 5 (12.50%) Field Engineer
7 4 (10.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 3 (7.50%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 2 (5.00%) Infrastructure Manager
9 2 (5.00%) Network Engineer
9 2 (5.00%) Presales Engineer
10 1 (2.50%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
10 1 (2.50%) Architect
10 1 (2.50%) Azure Engineer
10 1 (2.50%) Data Centre Project Manager
10 1 (2.50%) Project Manager
10 1 (2.50%) Senior Manager
10 1 (2.50%) Senior Systems Engineer
10 1 (2.50%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.50%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 13 (32.50%) Web Conferencing
2 5 (12.50%) Social Media
3 2 (5.00%) CCTV
3 2 (5.00%) Data Centre
3 2 (5.00%) Driving Licence
3 2 (5.00%) PKI
4 1 (2.50%) BYOD
4 1 (2.50%) CMDB
4 1 (2.50%) FMCG
4 1 (2.50%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 19 (47.50%) Windows
2 17 (42.50%) Windows Server
3 6 (15.00%) Linux
4 5 (12.50%) Mac OS
5 1 (2.50%) Windows 10
5 1 (2.50%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (37.50%) Customer Service
2 14 (35.00%) Presales
3 13 (32.50%) Case Management
3 13 (32.50%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (32.50%) Time Management
4 8 (20.00%) ITIL
5 6 (15.00%) Data Protection
5 6 (15.00%) Disaster Recovery
5 6 (15.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 5 (12.50%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (12.50%) Network Management
6 5 (12.50%) Root Cause Analysis
6 5 (12.50%) Software Deployment
7 4 (10.00%) Technical Leadership
8 2 (5.00%) Business Continuity
8 2 (5.00%) Capacity Planning
8 2 (5.00%) Decision-Making
8 2 (5.00%) Infrastructure as Code
8 2 (5.00%) Performance Tuning
8 2 (5.00%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.00%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.50%) Bicep
2 1 (2.50%) SQL
Qualifications
1 16 (40.00%) Degree
2 5 (12.50%) DBS Check
3 3 (7.50%) MCSE
3 3 (7.50%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (5.00%) CCNA
4 2 (5.00%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (5.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 1 (2.50%) Azure Certification
5 1 (2.50%) CCIE
5 1 (2.50%) HND
5 1 (2.50%) MCSA
5 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
System Software
1 19 (47.50%) Active Directory
2 4 (10.00%) Hyper-V
3 2 (5.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (2.50%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (2.50%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 7 (17.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (12.50%) Jamf Pro
2 5 (12.50%) SmoothWall
3 4 (10.00%) Terraform
4 2 (5.00%) Ansible
5 1 (2.50%) Endace
5 1 (2.50%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 16 (40.00%) Microsoft
2 7 (17.50%) Cisco
3 6 (15.00%) Meraki
4 5 (12.50%) Google
5 4 (10.00%) Adobe
5 4 (10.00%) VMware
6 1 (2.50%) 3PAR
6 1 (2.50%) F5
6 1 (2.50%) HP
6 1 (2.50%) Juniper
6 1 (2.50%) Palo Alto
6 1 (2.50%) Ruckus Wireless
6 1 (2.50%) SolarWinds
6 1 (2.50%) Veeam