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 6 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 95 134
Rank change year-on-year -35 +39 -5
Permanent jobs citing WAN 49 111 113
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.80% 3.12% 1.64%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.89% 19.14% 12.16%
Number of salaries quoted 37 99 78
10th Percentile £31,000 £22,750 £34,400
25th Percentile £41,250 £28,250 £37,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £41,500 £45,096
Median % change year-on-year +38.55% -7.97% -14.10%
75th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £66,875
90th Percentile £73,750 £79,500 £71,125
South East median annual salary £49,500 £41,000 £48,500
% change year-on-year +20.73% -15.46% +7.78%

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 450 580 929
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.39% 16.32% 13.48%
Number of salaries quoted 322 279 651
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,750 £28,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £35,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £44,089
Median % change year-on-year - +2.07% -3.63%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £59,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £75,000 £70,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £42,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% +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 6 July 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 6 July 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 -27 20 £50,000 +24.22% 5
Berkshire -36 18 £57,500 +44.65% 4
Buckinghamshire -6 11 £60,000 - 7
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 (4.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (2.04%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 27 (55.10%) Azure
2 18 (36.73%) AWS
3 9 (18.37%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (16.33%) Entra ID
5 6 (12.24%) GCP
6 1 (2.04%) IaaS
6 1 (2.04%) Mimecast
6 1 (2.04%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 44 (89.80%) VPN
2 36 (73.47%) Firewall
3 32 (65.31%) LAN
4 26 (53.06%) DNS
5 24 (48.98%) Network Security
6 23 (46.94%) VLAN
7 18 (36.73%) SD-WAN
7 18 (36.73%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (30.61%) DHCP
9 12 (24.49%) HTTP
10 11 (22.45%) FTP
11 10 (20.41%) BGP
11 10 (20.41%) MPLS
11 10 (20.41%) SNMP
12 9 (18.37%) ICMP
12 9 (18.37%) IPsec
12 9 (18.37%) SSH
12 9 (18.37%) SSL
12 9 (18.37%) TCP/IP
12 9 (18.37%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.04%) SQL Server
General
1 17 (34.69%) Social Skills
2 7 (14.29%) Organisational Skills
3 6 (12.24%) Marketing
3 6 (12.24%) Telecoms
4 5 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (10.20%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (10.20%) Presentation Skills
5 3 (6.12%) Finance
6 2 (4.08%) Public Sector
7 1 (2.04%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 15 (30.61%) Architect
2 12 (24.49%) Network Architect
3 11 (22.45%) Senior
4 10 (20.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 9 (18.37%) Network Security Architect
5 9 (18.37%) Security Architect
5 9 (18.37%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 7 (14.29%) IT Engineer
7 6 (12.24%) 2nd Line Support
7 6 (12.24%) IT Support
7 6 (12.24%) IT Support Engineer
7 6 (12.24%) Support Engineer
8 5 (10.20%) Consultant
8 5 (10.20%) Network Consultant
8 5 (10.20%) Senior Architect
9 4 (8.16%) Analyst
10 3 (6.12%) Infrastructure Architect
10 3 (6.12%) Network Engineer
10 3 (6.12%) Presales Consultant
10 3 (6.12%) Senior Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (18.37%) OAuth
1 9 (18.37%) SAML
2 2 (4.08%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (22.45%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 6 (12.24%) Web Conferencing
3 4 (8.16%) Security Posture
4 3 (6.12%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (4.08%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (4.08%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (4.08%) Cyber Threat
5 2 (4.08%) Data Centre
5 2 (4.08%) PKI
5 2 (4.08%) Private Cloud
6 1 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 15 (30.61%) Windows
2 14 (28.57%) Windows Server
3 8 (16.33%) Linux
4 6 (12.24%) Mac OS
5 1 (2.04%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (32.65%) Cybersecurity
1 16 (32.65%) Problem-Solving
2 14 (28.57%) Disaster Recovery
3 12 (24.49%) Continuous Improvement
3 12 (24.49%) Technical Leadership
4 11 (22.45%) Presales
5 10 (20.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 10 (20.41%) Stakeholder Management
6 9 (18.37%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 9 (18.37%) Network Segmentation
7 6 (12.24%) Case Management
7 6 (12.24%) Customer Requirements
7 6 (12.24%) Mentoring
7 6 (12.24%) Performance Tuning
7 6 (12.24%) Time Management
8 5 (10.20%) Business Continuity
8 5 (10.20%) Customer Service
8 5 (10.20%) High Availability
8 5 (10.20%) Incident Response
8 5 (10.20%) Software Deployment
Programming Languages
1 5 (10.20%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.04%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 11 (22.45%) Degree
2 9 (18.37%) Cisco Certification
3 7 (14.29%) CCNA
4 6 (12.24%) CCNP
5 4 (8.16%) Security Cleared
5 4 (8.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 3 (6.12%) MCSE
6 3 (6.12%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (6.12%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (4.08%) DV Cleared
8 1 (2.04%) Azure Certification
8 1 (2.04%) CCIE
8 1 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (22.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (18.37%) NIST
3 2 (4.08%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (4.08%) GDPR
3 2 (4.08%) NCSC
4 1 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 12 (24.49%) Active Directory
2 6 (12.24%) Hyper-V
3 3 (6.12%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (4.08%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 9 (18.37%) CASB
1 9 (18.37%) FortiGate
2 3 (6.12%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (4.08%) QRadar
4 1 (2.04%) Endace
4 1 (2.04%) Terraform
Vendors
1 32 (65.31%) Microsoft
2 24 (48.98%) Cisco
3 21 (42.86%) Palo Alto
4 12 (24.49%) Aruba
4 12 (24.49%) VMware
5 11 (22.45%) Fortinet
6 6 (12.24%) Juniper
7 2 (4.08%) ArcSight
7 2 (4.08%) Ruckus Wireless
7 2 (4.08%) Splunk
7 2 (4.08%) WatchGuard
8 1 (2.04%) 3PAR
8 1 (2.04%) EMC
8 1 (2.04%) F5
8 1 (2.04%) HP
8 1 (2.04%) Meraki
8 1 (2.04%) SolarWinds
8 1 (2.04%) Veeam