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 10 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 94 142
Rank change year-on-year -26 +48 +7
Permanent jobs citing WAN 39 71 95
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.85% 2.52% 1.58%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.65% 17.27% 12.60%
Number of salaries quoted 26 48 86
10th Percentile £31,000 £35,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £40,000 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £42,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -17.65% -19.05% +10.53%
75th Percentile £63,250 £50,000 £58,750
90th Percentile £76,875 £71,875 £69,375
South East median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -10.00% +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 404 411 754
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.83% 14.56% 12.57%
Number of salaries quoted 212 210 632
10th Percentile £26,000 £27,500 £28,025
25th Percentile £30,500 £37,250 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £39,500 £50,000 £43,370
Median % change year-on-year -21.00% +15.29% -3.62%
75th Percentile £57,500 £64,688 £59,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £90,200 £70,000
South East median annual salary £45,000 £53,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -15.09% +11.58% +5.56%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 -22 26 £57,500 +15.00% 9
Oxfordshire -10 10 £34,500 -13.75% 2
Buckinghamshire -6 3 £60,000 +60.00% 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 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (2.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.56%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 18 (46.15%) Azure
2 15 (38.46%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (17.95%) Entra ID
4 5 (12.82%) AWS
4 5 (12.82%) Google Workspace
5 3 (7.69%) GCP
6 1 (2.56%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 26 (66.67%) Firewall
2 25 (64.10%) VPN
3 24 (61.54%) VoIP
4 21 (53.85%) LAN
5 14 (35.90%) VLAN
5 14 (35.90%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (33.33%) DECT
6 13 (33.33%) DSL
6 13 (33.33%) PBX
6 13 (33.33%) Unified Communications
6 13 (33.33%) Wireshark
7 10 (25.64%) DNS
8 6 (15.38%) TCP/IP
9 4 (10.26%) Wireless
10 2 (5.13%) BGP
10 2 (5.13%) DHCP
10 2 (5.13%) Network Security
10 2 (5.13%) SD-WAN
11 1 (2.56%) Ethernet
11 1 (2.56%) HTTP
General
1 25 (64.10%) Social Skills
2 13 (33.33%) Marketing
2 13 (33.33%) Telecoms
3 10 (25.64%) Organisational Skills
4 2 (5.13%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (5.13%) Retail
5 1 (2.56%) Law
5 1 (2.56%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 14 (35.90%) IT Engineer
2 11 (28.21%) 2nd Line Support
3 10 (25.64%) Support Engineer
4 9 (23.08%) IT Support
4 9 (23.08%) IT Support Engineer
5 6 (15.38%) Senior
6 5 (12.82%) Field Engineer
6 5 (12.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (10.26%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Infrastructure Manager
8 2 (5.13%) Network Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) Presales Engineer
9 1 (2.56%) 2nd/3rd Line Support
9 1 (2.56%) 2nd/3rd Line Support Engineer
9 1 (2.56%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 1 (2.56%) Azure Engineer
9 1 (2.56%) Data Centre Project Manager
9 1 (2.56%) Project Manager
9 1 (2.56%) Senior Manager
Miscellaneous
1 13 (33.33%) Web Conferencing
2 5 (12.82%) Social Media
3 2 (5.13%) Data Centre
3 2 (5.13%) PKI
4 1 (2.56%) CMDB
4 1 (2.56%) Driving Licence
4 1 (2.56%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 20 (51.28%) Windows
2 18 (46.15%) Windows Server
3 6 (15.38%) Linux
4 5 (12.82%) Mac OS
5 1 (2.56%) Windows 10
5 1 (2.56%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (38.46%) Customer Service
2 13 (33.33%) Case Management
2 13 (33.33%) Presales
2 13 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 13 (33.33%) Time Management
3 8 (20.51%) ITIL
4 7 (17.95%) Disaster Recovery
4 7 (17.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 6 (15.38%) Data Protection
6 5 (12.82%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (12.82%) Network Management
6 5 (12.82%) Root Cause Analysis
6 5 (12.82%) Software Deployment
7 4 (10.26%) Technical Leadership
8 3 (7.69%) Performance Tuning
9 2 (5.13%) Business Continuity
9 2 (5.13%) Capacity Planning
9 2 (5.13%) Infrastructure as Code
9 2 (5.13%) Service Management
10 1 (2.56%) Infrastructure Automation
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.26%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.56%) Bicep
2 1 (2.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 16 (41.03%) Degree
2 5 (12.82%) DBS Check
3 3 (7.69%) MCSE
3 3 (7.69%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (5.13%) CCNA
4 2 (5.13%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (5.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 1 (2.56%) Azure Certification
5 1 (2.56%) CCIE
5 1 (2.56%) HND
5 1 (2.56%) MCSA
5 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
System Software
1 19 (48.72%) Active Directory
2 4 (10.26%) Hyper-V
3 2 (5.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (2.56%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (2.56%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 7 (17.95%) 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
Vendors
1 17 (43.59%) Microsoft
2 7 (17.95%) Cisco
3 6 (15.38%) Meraki
4 5 (12.82%) Google
4 5 (12.82%) VMware
5 4 (10.26%) Adobe
6 1 (2.56%) 3PAR
6 1 (2.56%) F5
6 1 (2.56%) HP
6 1 (2.56%) Juniper
6 1 (2.56%) Palo Alto
6 1 (2.56%) SolarWinds
6 1 (2.56%) Veeam