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 15 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 94 143
Rank change year-on-year -37 +49 -14
Permanent jobs citing WAN 47 100 107
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.81% 2.96% 1.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.80% 17.86% 11.19%
Number of salaries quoted 37 88 74
10th Percentile £31,000 £22,750 £35,825
25th Percentile £41,250 £29,875 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £40,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +43.75% -20.00% -
75th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £67,375
90th Percentile £73,750 £79,875 £77,250
South East median annual salary £47,750 £41,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.06% -17.00% +14.94%

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 435 560 956
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.49% 16.57% 13.16%
Number of salaries quoted 311 255 683
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £44,175
Median % change year-on-year - +1.87% -1.83%
75th Percentile £65,625 £63,125 £59,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £76,250 £70,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% +4.40%

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 15 June 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 15 June 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 19 £42,500 +6.25% 6
Berkshire -22 19 £57,500 +21.05% 5
Buckinghamshire -11 9 £60,000 +33.33% 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 (2.13%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 25 (53.19%) Azure
2 13 (27.66%) AWS
3 11 (23.40%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (14.89%) Entra ID
5 6 (12.77%) GCP
6 3 (6.38%) Google Workspace
7 1 (2.13%) IaaS
7 1 (2.13%) Mimecast
7 1 (2.13%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 39 (82.98%) VPN
2 33 (70.21%) Firewall
3 30 (63.83%) LAN
4 23 (48.94%) DNS
5 21 (44.68%) VLAN
6 17 (36.17%) Network Security
6 17 (36.17%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (27.66%) SD-WAN
8 12 (25.53%) DHCP
9 11 (23.40%) VoIP
10 10 (21.28%) HTTP
11 9 (19.15%) FTP
11 9 (19.15%) TCP/IP
12 8 (17.02%) BGP
12 8 (17.02%) MPLS
12 8 (17.02%) SNMP
12 8 (17.02%) Unified Communications
12 8 (17.02%) Wireless
13 7 (14.89%) SSH
13 7 (14.89%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.13%) SQL Server
General
1 16 (34.04%) Social Skills
2 10 (21.28%) Organisational Skills
3 7 (14.89%) Marketing
3 7 (14.89%) Telecoms
4 5 (10.64%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (8.51%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (8.51%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (6.38%) Finance
7 2 (4.26%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 11 (23.40%) Architect
2 10 (21.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 10 (21.28%) Senior
3 9 (19.15%) IT Engineer
3 9 (19.15%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 8 (17.02%) Network Architect
5 7 (14.89%) 2nd Line Support
5 7 (14.89%) Network Security Architect
5 7 (14.89%) Security Architect
6 5 (10.64%) IT Support
6 5 (10.64%) IT Support Engineer
6 5 (10.64%) Support Engineer
7 4 (8.51%) Consultant
7 4 (8.51%) Network Consultant
8 3 (6.38%) Analyst
8 3 (6.38%) Field Engineer
8 3 (6.38%) Infrastructure Architect
8 3 (6.38%) Network Engineer
8 3 (6.38%) Senior Architect
8 3 (6.38%) Senior Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (14.89%) OAuth
1 7 (14.89%) SAML
2 2 (4.26%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 9 (19.15%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 7 (14.89%) Web Conferencing
3 3 (6.38%) Security Posture
3 3 (6.38%) Social Media
4 2 (4.26%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (4.26%) Cyber Defence
4 2 (4.26%) Cyber Threat
4 2 (4.26%) PKI
5 1 (2.13%) Data Centre
5 1 (2.13%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 17 (36.17%) Windows
1 17 (36.17%) Windows Server
2 7 (14.89%) Linux
3 5 (10.64%) Mac OS
4 1 (2.13%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (31.91%) Problem-Solving
2 13 (27.66%) Disaster Recovery
3 12 (25.53%) Cybersecurity
4 11 (23.40%) Presales
5 10 (21.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 9 (19.15%) Continuous Improvement
6 9 (19.15%) Technical Leadership
7 8 (17.02%) Customer Service
8 7 (14.89%) Case Management
8 7 (14.89%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 7 (14.89%) Network Segmentation
8 7 (14.89%) Stakeholder Management
8 7 (14.89%) Time Management
9 6 (12.77%) ITIL
9 6 (12.77%) Performance Tuning
10 5 (10.64%) Customer Requirements
10 5 (10.64%) Mentoring
10 5 (10.64%) Root Cause Analysis
10 5 (10.64%) Software Deployment
11 4 (8.51%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 4 (8.51%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.13%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 12 (25.53%) Degree
2 6 (12.77%) CCNA
2 6 (12.77%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (6.38%) CCNP
3 3 (6.38%) DBS Check
3 3 (6.38%) MCSE
3 3 (6.38%) Microsoft Certification
3 3 (6.38%) Network+ Certification
4 2 (4.26%) Security Cleared
4 2 (4.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 1 (2.13%) Azure Certification
5 1 (2.13%) CCIE
5 1 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (19.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (14.89%) NIST
3 2 (4.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (4.26%) GDPR
4 1 (2.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 14 (29.79%) Active Directory
2 5 (10.64%) Hyper-V
3 3 (6.38%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 7 (14.89%) CASB
1 7 (14.89%) FortiGate
2 5 (10.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (6.38%) Jamf Pro
3 3 (6.38%) SmoothWall
4 2 (4.26%) QRadar
5 1 (2.13%) Endace
5 1 (2.13%) Terraform
Vendors
1 26 (55.32%) Microsoft
2 20 (42.55%) Cisco
3 15 (31.91%) Palo Alto
4 10 (21.28%) Aruba
5 9 (19.15%) Fortinet
5 9 (19.15%) VMware
6 5 (10.64%) Juniper
7 3 (6.38%) Google
7 3 (6.38%) Meraki
8 2 (4.26%) ArcSight
8 2 (4.26%) Ruckus Wireless
8 2 (4.26%) Splunk
8 2 (4.26%) WatchGuard
9 1 (2.13%) 3PAR
9 1 (2.13%) EMC
9 1 (2.13%) F5
9 1 (2.13%) HP
9 1 (2.13%) SolarWinds
9 1 (2.13%) Veeam