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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 86 123
Rank change year-on-year -46 +37 -1
Permanent jobs citing WAN 51 112 108
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.83% 3.09% 1.64%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.36% 19.08% 11.93%
Number of salaries quoted 39 100 73
10th Percentile £31,000 £22,750 £35,800
25th Percentile £44,375 £28,250 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £41,500 £45,096
Median % change year-on-year +38.55% -7.97% -13.69%
75th Percentile £71,250 £65,000 £67,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £79,125 £70,000
South East median annual salary £52,500 £41,500 £48,500
% change year-on-year +26.51% -14.43% +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 449 587 905
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.30% 16.20% 13.75%
Number of salaries quoted 323 283 629
10th Percentile £28,100 £25,750 £28,450
25th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,166 £45,000 £44,175
Median % change year-on-year +4.81% +1.87% -7.00%
75th Percentile £66,875 £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% +4.11%

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 13 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 13 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 -19 22 £52,500 +28.05% 6
Berkshire -23 17 £57,500 +55.41% 6
Buckinghamshire -14 12 £60,000 - 4
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 (3.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.96%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 29 (56.86%) Azure
2 19 (37.25%) AWS
3 9 (17.65%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (15.69%) Entra ID
5 6 (11.76%) GCP
6 1 (1.96%) IaaS
6 1 (1.96%) Mimecast
6 1 (1.96%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 46 (90.20%) VPN
2 37 (72.55%) Firewall
3 34 (66.67%) LAN
4 28 (54.90%) DNS
5 27 (52.94%) Network Security
6 24 (47.06%) VLAN
7 21 (41.18%) SD-WAN
8 18 (35.29%) Wi-Fi
9 17 (33.33%) DHCP
10 13 (25.49%) HTTP
11 12 (23.53%) BGP
11 12 (23.53%) FTP
12 11 (21.57%) MPLS
12 11 (21.57%) SNMP
13 10 (19.61%) ICMP
13 10 (19.61%) IPsec
13 10 (19.61%) SSH
13 10 (19.61%) SSL
13 10 (19.61%) TCP/IP
13 10 (19.61%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.96%) SQL Server
General
1 17 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 7 (13.73%) Organisational Skills
3 6 (11.76%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (9.80%) Marketing
4 5 (9.80%) Presentation Skills
4 5 (9.80%) Telecoms
5 3 (5.88%) Finance
6 2 (3.92%) Public Sector
7 1 (1.96%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 17 (33.33%) Architect
2 14 (27.45%) Network Architect
3 12 (23.53%) Senior
4 10 (19.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 10 (19.61%) Network Security Architect
4 10 (19.61%) Security Architect
5 9 (17.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 7 (13.73%) IT Engineer
7 6 (11.76%) IT Support
7 6 (11.76%) IT Support Engineer
7 6 (11.76%) Senior Architect
7 6 (11.76%) Support Engineer
8 5 (9.80%) 2nd Line Support
8 5 (9.80%) Consultant
8 5 (9.80%) Network Consultant
9 4 (7.84%) Analyst
9 4 (7.84%) Network Engineer
10 3 (5.88%) Infrastructure Architect
10 3 (5.88%) Presales Consultant
10 3 (5.88%) Senior Network 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 5 (9.80%) Web Conferencing
3 4 (7.84%) Hybrid Cloud
3 4 (7.84%) Security Posture
4 3 (5.88%) Data Centre
4 3 (5.88%) Private Cloud
5 2 (3.92%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.92%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (3.92%) Cyber Threat
5 2 (3.92%) PKI
6 1 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 15 (29.41%) Windows
2 14 (27.45%) Windows Server
3 8 (15.69%) Linux
4 6 (11.76%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (33.33%) Cybersecurity
2 16 (31.37%) Problem-Solving
3 14 (27.45%) Continuous Improvement
3 14 (27.45%) Disaster Recovery
4 13 (25.49%) Technical Leadership
5 11 (21.57%) Stakeholder Management
6 10 (19.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 10 (19.61%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 10 (19.61%) Network Segmentation
6 10 (19.61%) Presales
7 6 (11.76%) Customer Requirements
7 6 (11.76%) Mentoring
7 6 (11.76%) Performance Tuning
8 5 (9.80%) Business Continuity
8 5 (9.80%) Case Management
8 5 (9.80%) Commercial Awareness
8 5 (9.80%) High Availability
8 5 (9.80%) Incident Response
8 5 (9.80%) Software Deployment
8 5 (9.80%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (9.80%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.96%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 11 (21.57%) Cisco Certification
2 10 (19.61%) Degree
3 8 (15.69%) CCNA
3 8 (15.69%) CCNP
4 5 (9.80%) Security Cleared
4 5 (9.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 3 (5.88%) DV Cleared
5 3 (5.88%) MCSE
5 3 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (5.88%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.96%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.96%) CCIE
6 1 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (23.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (19.61%) NIST
3 3 (5.88%) NCSC
4 2 (3.92%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (3.92%) GDPR
5 1 (1.96%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 12 (23.53%) Active Directory
2 6 (11.76%) Hyper-V
3 3 (5.88%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (5.88%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 11 (21.57%) FortiGate
2 10 (19.61%) CASB
3 3 (5.88%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (3.92%) QRadar
5 1 (1.96%) Endace
5 1 (1.96%) Terraform
Vendors
1 35 (68.63%) Microsoft
2 27 (52.94%) Cisco
3 23 (45.10%) Palo Alto
4 13 (25.49%) VMware
5 12 (23.53%) Aruba
5 12 (23.53%) Fortinet
6 6 (11.76%) Juniper
7 2 (3.92%) ArcSight
7 2 (3.92%) Ruckus Wireless
7 2 (3.92%) Splunk
7 2 (3.92%) WatchGuard
8 1 (1.96%) 3PAR
8 1 (1.96%) EMC
8 1 (1.96%) F5
8 1 (1.96%) HP
8 1 (1.96%) Meraki
8 1 (1.96%) SolarWinds
8 1 (1.96%) Veeam