Network Design Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Network Design
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Network Design skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 485 371 518
Rank change year-on-year -114 +147 +18
Permanent jobs citing Network Design 130 193 213
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.18% 0.57% 0.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.26% 0.65% 0.36%
Number of salaries quoted 72 98 141
10th Percentile £42,500 £47,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £51,250 £52,125 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £63,750 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% +13.64% -4.35%
75th Percentile £70,000 £78,563 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £95,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £65,000 £62,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year +4.00% +8.70% -8.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Network Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 50,249 29,752 58,902
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.69% 88.49% 80.20%
Number of salaries quoted 35,358 15,903 40,637
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,254 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -8.72%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Network Design relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Network Design job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Network Design
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Design.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Design

Network Design
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Design in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 11 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Design in the UK excluding London

Network Design
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 11 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
North of England -78 32 £65,000 -13.33% 13
Northern Ireland -32 30 - - 1
South East -42 28 £70,000 +10.67% 11
North West +8 26 £60,000 +4.35% 9
Midlands -46 26 £55,000 -5.33% 3
West Midlands -25 25 £55,000 -5.33% 2
South West -71 8 £42,500 -24.27% 10
East of England -12 6 £82,500 +13.79% 2
Yorkshire -85 6 £65,000 -23.53% 4
Scotland 0 1 £40,000 -57.89%
East Midlands -36 1 £62,500 - 1
Network Design
UK

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 6 (4.62%) SharePoint
2 4 (3.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (3.08%) PowerFactory
Applications
1 4 (3.08%) AutoCAD
1 4 (3.08%) CATIA
1 4 (3.08%) Revit
Cloud Services
1 39 (30.00%) Azure
2 36 (27.69%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (24.62%) Cloud Computing
4 31 (23.85%) Power Platform
5 5 (3.85%) Entra ID
6 3 (2.31%) AWS
7 1 (0.77%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (0.77%) Datadog
7 1 (0.77%) dbt
7 1 (0.77%) GCP
7 1 (0.77%) IaaS
7 1 (0.77%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 56 (43.08%) WAN
2 55 (42.31%) LAN
3 32 (24.62%) Firewall
4 26 (20.00%) VPN
5 25 (19.23%) Network Security
6 19 (14.62%) Wireless
7 14 (10.77%) BGP
8 13 (10.00%) Cisco ISE
8 13 (10.00%) SD-WAN
9 9 (6.92%) Cisco Firepower
9 9 (6.92%) WLAN
10 8 (6.15%) MPLS
10 8 (6.15%) OSPF
10 8 (6.15%) SNMP
11 7 (5.38%) VLAN
12 5 (3.85%) Cisco Nexus
12 5 (3.85%) HTTP
12 5 (3.85%) Software-Defined Networking
12 5 (3.85%) Unified Communications
12 5 (3.85%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.77%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (0.77%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 4 (3.08%) JIRA
1 4 (3.08%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (0.77%) Git
General
1 49 (37.69%) Finance
2 47 (36.15%) Social Skills
3 33 (25.38%) Law
4 31 (23.85%) Presentation Skills
5 12 (9.23%) Telecoms
6 9 (6.92%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (4.62%) Public Sector
8 4 (3.08%) Aerospace
8 4 (3.08%) Marketing
9 3 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.54%) Military
10 2 (1.54%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.77%) Digital Health
11 1 (0.77%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 47 (36.15%) Architect
2 31 (23.85%) Systems Architect
3 29 (22.31%) Network Engineer
4 14 (10.77%) Consultant
4 14 (10.77%) Network Consultant
5 11 (8.46%) Network Manager
6 10 (7.69%) Designer
6 10 (7.69%) Network Designer
7 8 (6.15%) Systems Engineer
8 7 (5.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 7 (5.38%) Principal Engineer
9 6 (4.62%) Cisco Engineer
9 6 (4.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 6 (4.62%) LAN Engineer
10 5 (3.85%) Cisco Consultant
10 5 (3.85%) Cisco Network Consultant
10 5 (3.85%) IT Engineer
10 5 (3.85%) Juniper Consultant
10 5 (3.85%) Juniper Engineer
11 4 (3.08%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.08%) Flash
2 3 (2.31%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (9.23%) Data Centre
2 6 (4.62%) Driving Licence
3 5 (3.85%) PKI
4 4 (3.08%) Acoustics
4 4 (3.08%) Augmented Reality
5 3 (2.31%) IoT
5 3 (2.31%) NB-IoT
6 2 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (1.54%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.54%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.77%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.77%) CMDB
7 1 (0.77%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.77%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 13 (10.00%) Windows
2 8 (6.15%) Linux
2 8 (6.15%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (30.77%) Network Architecture
2 37 (28.46%) Project Delivery
2 37 (28.46%) Roadmaps
3 36 (27.69%) Infrastructure as Code
3 36 (27.69%) Logistics
4 35 (26.92%) Risk Management
5 32 (24.62%) Technical Architecture
6 31 (23.85%) Architecture Roadmap
6 31 (23.85%) Business Case
6 31 (23.85%) Business Strategy
6 31 (23.85%) Containerisation
6 31 (23.85%) Enterprise Architecture
6 31 (23.85%) Information Security
6 31 (23.85%) IT Strategy
6 31 (23.85%) Technology Strategy
7 16 (12.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 15 (11.54%) Technical Leadership
9 14 (10.77%) Mentoring
10 11 (8.46%) Agile
11 10 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 6 (4.62%) Python
2 1 (0.77%) Bash
2 1 (0.77%) Bicep
2 1 (0.77%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 30 (23.08%) Security Cleared
2 24 (18.46%) Cisco Certification
3 19 (14.62%) CCNP
3 19 (14.62%) DV Cleared
4 15 (11.54%) CCNA
5 14 (10.77%) Degree
5 14 (10.77%) SC Cleared
6 6 (4.62%) DBS Check
7 4 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (0.77%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.77%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.77%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.77%) CCIE
9 1 (0.77%) CWNA
9 1 (0.77%) JNCIP
9 1 (0.77%) RIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (26.92%) GRC
2 4 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 12207
2 4 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 15288
3 3 (2.31%) SLA
4 2 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.77%) GDPR
System Software
1 7 (5.38%) VMware NSX
2 5 (3.85%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.08%) Docker
4 1 (0.77%) Firmware
4 1 (0.77%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 6 (4.62%) vRealize
2 5 (3.85%) Endace
3 4 (3.08%) Kubernetes
3 4 (3.08%) Terraform
4 3 (2.31%) FortiGate
5 2 (1.54%) Ansible
6 1 (0.77%) Grafana
6 1 (0.77%) Nagios
Vendors
1 53 (40.77%) Cisco
2 37 (28.46%) Microsoft
3 26 (20.00%) Fortinet
4 19 (14.62%) Aruba
5 17 (13.08%) Juniper
6 8 (6.15%) F5
6 8 (6.15%) VMware
7 4 (3.08%) Apple
7 4 (3.08%) DIgSILENT
7 4 (3.08%) HP
7 4 (3.08%) IBM
8 3 (2.31%) CheckPoint
9 2 (1.54%) Ruckus Wireless
9 2 (1.54%) WatchGuard
10 1 (0.77%) Arista
10 1 (0.77%) Databricks
10 1 (0.77%) Dell
10 1 (0.77%) EMC
10 1 (0.77%) Meraki
10 1 (0.77%) Palo Alto