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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 136 93 124
Rank change year-on-year -43 +31 -3
Permanent jobs citing WAN 54 108 107
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.86% 2.99% 1.73%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.92% 18.49% 12.54%
Number of salaries quoted 41 96 71
10th Percentile £36,250 £22,750 £35,750
25th Percentile £47,500 £28,250 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £40,250 £45,096
Median % change year-on-year +42.86% -10.75% -13.69%
75th Percentile £73,750 £60,000 £67,250
90th Percentile - £77,500 £70,000
South East median annual salary £52,500 £40,250 £49,250
% change year-on-year +30.43% -18.27% +9.44%

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 453 584 853
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.24% 16.16% 13.77%
Number of salaries quoted 333 279 586
10th Percentile £28,050 £25,750 £29,521
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,166 £45,000 £44,982
Median % change year-on-year +4.81% +0.04% -5.30%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £59,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £75,000 £71,250
South East median annual salary £47,500 £42,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% +2.15%

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 20 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 20 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 -26 22 £52,500 +28.05% 4
Berkshire -29 18 £57,500 +55.41% 3
Buckinghamshire -5 14 £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 (3.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.85%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 32 (59.26%) Azure
2 21 (38.89%) AWS
3 9 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (12.96%) Entra ID
5 6 (11.11%) GCP
6 1 (1.85%) Azure Stack
6 1 (1.85%) IaaS
6 1 (1.85%) Mimecast
6 1 (1.85%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 47 (87.04%) VPN
2 38 (70.37%) Firewall
3 37 (68.52%) LAN
4 30 (55.56%) Network Security
5 29 (53.70%) DNS
6 25 (46.30%) SD-WAN
6 25 (46.30%) VLAN
7 19 (35.19%) DHCP
8 18 (33.33%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (24.07%) BGP
9 13 (24.07%) HTTP
10 12 (22.22%) FTP
11 11 (20.37%) MPLS
11 11 (20.37%) SNMP
11 11 (20.37%) TCP/IP
11 11 (20.37%) Wireless
12 10 (18.52%) ICMP
12 10 (18.52%) IPsec
12 10 (18.52%) SSH
12 10 (18.52%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.85%) JIRA
General
1 17 (31.48%) Social Skills
2 7 (12.96%) Documentation Skills
3 6 (11.11%) Organisational Skills
4 5 (9.26%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (9.26%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (7.41%) Marketing
5 4 (7.41%) Telecoms
6 3 (5.56%) Finance
7 2 (3.70%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.85%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 19 (35.19%) Architect
2 16 (29.63%) Network Architect
3 14 (25.93%) Senior
4 10 (18.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 10 (18.52%) Network Security Architect
4 10 (18.52%) Security Architect
5 9 (16.67%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (14.81%) Senior Architect
7 6 (11.11%) IT Engineer
7 6 (11.11%) IT Support
8 5 (9.26%) Consultant
8 5 (9.26%) IT Support Engineer
8 5 (9.26%) Network Consultant
8 5 (9.26%) Network Engineer
8 5 (9.26%) Senior Network Architect
8 5 (9.26%) Support Engineer
9 4 (7.41%) 2nd Line Support
9 4 (7.41%) Analyst
10 3 (5.56%) Infrastructure Architect
10 3 (5.56%) Presales Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (18.52%) OAuth
1 10 (18.52%) SAML
2 2 (3.70%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 12 (22.22%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 6 (11.11%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (9.26%) Data Centre
3 5 (9.26%) Private Cloud
4 4 (7.41%) Security Posture
4 4 (7.41%) Web Conferencing
5 2 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.70%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (3.70%) Cyber Threat
5 2 (3.70%) PKI
6 1 (1.85%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 15 (27.78%) Windows
2 13 (24.07%) Windows Server
3 7 (12.96%) Linux
4 5 (9.26%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.85%) Android
5 1 (1.85%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.85%) Windows 10
5 1 (1.85%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 17 (31.48%) Cybersecurity
3 15 (27.78%) Problem-Solving
3 15 (27.78%) Technical Leadership
4 14 (25.93%) Disaster Recovery
5 13 (24.07%) Stakeholder Management
6 10 (18.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 10 (18.52%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 10 (18.52%) Network Segmentation
7 9 (16.67%) Presales
8 7 (12.96%) Mentoring
9 6 (11.11%) Customer Requirements
9 6 (11.11%) Network Architecture
9 6 (11.11%) Performance Tuning
10 5 (9.26%) Business Continuity
10 5 (9.26%) Commercial Awareness
10 5 (9.26%) Enterprise Architecture
10 5 (9.26%) High Availability
10 5 (9.26%) Risk Management
10 5 (9.26%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 5 (9.26%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.85%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 15 (27.78%) Cisco Certification
2 11 (20.37%) CCNP
3 10 (18.52%) CCNA
3 10 (18.52%) Degree
4 7 (12.96%) Security Cleared
4 7 (12.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 5 (9.26%) DV Cleared
6 4 (7.41%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (5.56%) MCSE
7 3 (5.56%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (1.85%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.85%) CCIE
8 1 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (22.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (18.52%) NIST
3 5 (9.26%) NCSC
4 2 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (3.70%) GDPR
5 1 (1.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (1.85%) QA
System Software
1 12 (22.22%) Active Directory
2 6 (11.11%) Hyper-V
3 5 (9.26%) VMware NSX
4 3 (5.56%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (22.22%) FortiGate
2 10 (18.52%) CASB
3 3 (5.56%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (3.70%) QRadar
5 1 (1.85%) Endace
5 1 (1.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 38 (70.37%) Microsoft
2 31 (57.41%) Cisco
3 25 (46.30%) Palo Alto
4 15 (27.78%) VMware
5 14 (25.93%) Fortinet
6 12 (22.22%) Aruba
7 6 (11.11%) Juniper
8 2 (3.70%) ArcSight
8 2 (3.70%) Ruckus Wireless
8 2 (3.70%) Splunk
8 2 (3.70%) WatchGuard
9 1 (1.85%) 3PAR
9 1 (1.85%) EMC
9 1 (1.85%) F5
9 1 (1.85%) HP
9 1 (1.85%) Meraki
9 1 (1.85%) SolarWinds
9 1 (1.85%) Veeam