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 24 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 127 115 101
Rank change year-on-year -12 -14 +72
Permanent jobs citing WAN 72 85 85
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 1.88% 1.94% 2.48%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.74% 14.94% 14.91%
Number of salaries quoted 67 42 71
10th Percentile £22,750 £35,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £28,125 £36,875 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £45,048 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.09% -6.15% -8.57%
75th Percentile £44,375 £55,094 £55,000
90th Percentile £66,000 £67,500 £61,250
South East median annual salary £41,500 £51,000 £46,500
% change year-on-year -18.63% +9.68% -8.82%

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 524 569 570
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 13.68% 12.99% 16.64%
Number of salaries quoted 247 269 437
10th Percentile £27,800 £31,250 £28,150
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £52,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.46% -0.95% +5.00%
75th Percentile £63,750 £67,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £80,000 £77,000
South East median annual salary £42,500 £53,050 £50,000
% change year-on-year -19.89% +6.10% +1.73%

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 24 October 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 24 October 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 -9 42 £36,000 -19.26% 81
Oxfordshire +23 26 £41,500 -7.97% 6
Buckinghamshire -7 7 £60,000 +45.45% 40
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 12 (16.67%) Exchange Server 2013
1 12 (16.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (8.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 14 (19.44%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.39%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 33 (45.83%) Azure
2 20 (27.78%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (26.39%) AWS
4 8 (11.11%) Entra ID
5 5 (6.94%) Mimecast
6 4 (5.56%) GCP
7 2 (2.78%) Azure AI
7 2 (2.78%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (2.78%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 2 (2.78%) Azure Key Vault
7 2 (2.78%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (2.78%) Azure Service Bus
7 2 (2.78%) IaaS
7 2 (2.78%) PaaS
7 2 (2.78%) Power Automate
7 2 (2.78%) Power Platform
7 2 (2.78%) SaaS
8 1 (1.39%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (1.39%) Google Workspace
8 1 (1.39%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 63 (87.50%) LAN
2 24 (33.33%) Firewall
3 21 (29.17%) Wi-Fi
4 16 (22.22%) Internet
4 16 (22.22%) VPN
5 13 (18.06%) DNS
5 13 (18.06%) VLAN
6 12 (16.67%) SAN
7 9 (12.50%) SD-WAN
8 8 (11.11%) Wireless
9 6 (8.33%) DHCP
9 6 (8.33%) TCP/IP
9 6 (8.33%) VoIP
10 5 (6.94%) Network Security
11 3 (4.17%) WLAN
12 2 (2.78%) 5G
12 2 (2.78%) 802.11
12 2 (2.78%) Junos
13 1 (1.39%) Software-Defined Networking
13 1 (1.39%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.78%) Data Lake
1 2 (2.78%) MySQL
1 2 (2.78%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.78%) Git
General
1 29 (40.28%) Social Skills
2 8 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (9.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 5 (6.94%) Telecoms
5 2 (2.78%) Finance
5 2 (2.78%) Games
5 2 (2.78%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.39%) Marketing
6 1 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
6 1 (1.39%) Retail
Job Titles
1 18 (25.00%) 3rd Line Support
2 13 (18.06%) IT Support
2 13 (18.06%) Support Technician
3 12 (16.67%) 3rd Line Support Technician
4 11 (15.28%) Analyst
5 10 (13.89%) Support Analyst
6 9 (12.50%) Trainee
6 9 (12.50%) Trainee IT Support
7 6 (8.33%) 2nd Line Support
7 6 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 6 (8.33%) Lead
7 6 (8.33%) Senior
8 5 (6.94%) 1st Line Support
8 5 (6.94%) 1st Line Support Analyst
8 5 (6.94%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
8 5 (6.94%) Architect
8 5 (6.94%) Junior
9 4 (5.56%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (4.17%) Network Architect
10 3 (4.17%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.78%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (16.67%) Replication
2 6 (8.33%) CCTV
3 5 (6.94%) Analytical Mindset
3 5 (6.94%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (5.56%) Data Centre
4 4 (5.56%) Driving Licence
4 4 (5.56%) Social Media
5 2 (2.78%) BYOD
5 2 (2.78%) IoT
5 2 (2.78%) NHS
6 1 (1.39%) CMDB
6 1 (1.39%) FMCG
6 1 (1.39%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.39%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.39%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (1.39%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 49 (68.06%) Windows
2 16 (22.22%) Windows Server
3 5 (6.94%) Android
3 5 (6.94%) Apple iOS
3 5 (6.94%) Mac OS
4 4 (5.56%) Linux
5 1 (1.39%) Windows 10
5 1 (1.39%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (44.44%) ITIL
2 15 (20.83%) Migration
3 14 (19.44%) Agile
4 13 (18.06%) Business Continuity
4 13 (18.06%) Problem-Solving
5 12 (16.67%) Information Security
5 12 (16.67%) Knowledge Transfer
6 8 (11.11%) Customer Service
6 8 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
7 7 (9.72%) DevOps
7 7 (9.72%) Disaster Recovery
7 7 (9.72%) Infrastructure as Code
8 6 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 6 (8.33%) Network Virtualisation
8 6 (8.33%) Roadmaps
9 5 (6.94%) Strategic Planning
10 4 (5.56%) AI
10 4 (5.56%) Business Strategy
10 4 (5.56%) GTM Strategy
10 4 (5.56%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 4 (5.56%) Python
2 3 (4.17%) PowerShell
2 3 (4.17%) SQL
3 2 (2.78%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 7 (9.72%) Cisco Certification
2 6 (8.33%) DBS Check
2 6 (8.33%) MCP
2 6 (8.33%) SC Cleared
2 6 (8.33%) Security Cleared
3 5 (6.94%) A+ Certification
3 5 (6.94%) CCNA
3 5 (6.94%) MCSE
3 5 (6.94%) Microsoft Certification
4 4 (5.56%) CCNP
4 4 (5.56%) Degree
4 4 (5.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 3 (4.17%) Azure Certification
6 2 (2.78%) JNCIA
7 1 (1.39%) CCIE
7 1 (1.39%) CEH
7 1 (1.39%) CISA
7 1 (1.39%) CISSP
7 1 (1.39%) HND
7 1 (1.39%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (18.06%) Cyber Essentials
1 13 (18.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (16.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (1.39%) GDPR
3 1 (1.39%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (26.39%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (18.06%) Hyper-V
3 9 (12.50%) Active Directory
4 3 (4.17%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (1.39%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (1.39%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 24 (33.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (16.67%) SCCM
3 6 (8.33%) Terraform
4 5 (6.94%) Ansible
5 2 (2.78%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (1.39%) SmoothWall
6 1 (1.39%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 42 (58.33%) Microsoft
2 23 (31.94%) VMware
3 13 (18.06%) Cisco
4 12 (16.67%) arcserve
5 10 (13.89%) Sophos
6 6 (8.33%) HP
7 5 (6.94%) Aruba
7 5 (6.94%) Barracuda Networks
7 5 (6.94%) Datto
7 5 (6.94%) Dell
7 5 (6.94%) Palo Alto
7 5 (6.94%) Ubiquiti
7 5 (6.94%) WatchGuard
8 4 (5.56%) Fortinet
8 4 (5.56%) Mellanox
8 4 (5.56%) Meraki
8 4 (5.56%) NVIDIA
9 3 (4.17%) Juniper
10 2 (2.78%) Databricks
10 2 (2.78%) Ruckus Wireless