LAN Job Trends

Local Area Network (LAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring LAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 229 166 140
Rank change year-on-year -63 -26 +94
Permanent jobs citing LAN 694 798 1,797
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.93% 1.85% 2.12%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.82% 13.82% 15.84%
Number of salaries quoted 505 610 1,545
10th Percentile £29,000 £30,225 £26,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £36,250 £32,996
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £47,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - - +3.32%
75th Percentile £67,750 £65,000 £57,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £72,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £44,850 £42,500
% change year-on-year -10.81% +5.53% +0.59%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

LAN 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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 10,175 5,775 11,345
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 13.64% 13.39% 13.39%
Number of salaries quoted 4,041 3,694 9,244
10th Percentile £26,250 £29,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,313 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £53,000 £48,500
Median % change year-on-year -22.64% +9.28% -7.62%
75th Percentile £65,000 £71,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £87,500 £79,175
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £48,507 £43,500
% change year-on-year -27.85% +11.51% -3.33%

LAN
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing LAN relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

LAN job vacancy trend in the UK

LAN
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing LAN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing LAN

LAN
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing LAN over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Salary histogram for LAN in the UK

LAN
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing LAN within the UK over the 6 months to 16 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
England -65 625 £50,000 +5.26% 156
UK excluding London -79 448 £40,000 -10.81% 149
London +9 208 £58,750 +6.82% 29
Work from Home -10 161 £52,500 +5.00% 35
North of England -66 128 £47,500 +11.76% 38
South East -22 92 £37,500 -6.25% 58
Midlands -45 86 £52,500 +5.00% 21
West Midlands -33 68 £52,500 +5.00% 17
Yorkshire -52 61 £33,000 -12.00% 18
North West -51 56 £50,000 +5.26% 17
South West -34 53 £32,500 -27.78% 11
Scotland +3 41 £33,500 -25.56% 4
East of England -35 37 £43,000 -21.82% 17
East Midlands -41 18 £43,000 -31.20% 4
North East -24 11 £65,000 +53.85% 5
Northern Ireland -24 8 £31,500 +13.31%
Wales -17 5 £40,000 -23.81% 7

LAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 112 (16.14%) Microsoft Exchange
2 90 (12.97%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.29%) Apache
3 2 (0.29%) Confluence
3 2 (0.29%) IIS
3 2 (0.29%) nginx
Applications
1 60 (8.65%) Microsoft Office
2 27 (3.89%) MS Visio
3 11 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.43%) AutoCAD
4 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.43%) SOLIDWORKS
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 5 (0.72%) Dynamics NAV
2 3 (0.43%) Exchequer
3 1 (0.14%) Carpe Diem
3 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 284 (40.92%) Azure
2 238 (34.29%) Microsoft 365
3 121 (17.44%) AWS
4 90 (12.97%) Entra ID
5 39 (5.62%) Google Workspace
6 29 (4.18%) GCP
6 29 (4.18%) OneDrive
7 17 (2.45%) SaaS
8 10 (1.44%) AWS Direct Connect
8 10 (1.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 9 (1.30%) IaaS
9 9 (1.30%) PaaS
10 5 (0.72%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (0.72%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (0.72%) Slack
11 4 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 3 (0.43%) Google Docs
12 3 (0.43%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 2 (0.29%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 594 (85.59%) WAN
2 351 (50.58%) Firewall
3 248 (35.73%) VPN
4 216 (31.12%) Wi-Fi
5 149 (21.47%) DNS
6 144 (20.75%) SD-WAN
7 126 (18.16%) VLAN
7 126 (18.16%) Wireless
8 123 (17.72%) DHCP
9 122 (17.58%) TCP/IP
10 96 (13.83%) Network Security
11 95 (13.69%) VoIP
12 79 (11.38%) WLAN
13 75 (10.81%) BGP
14 69 (9.94%) OSPF
15 60 (8.65%) Cisco ASA
16 52 (7.49%) MPLS
17 45 (6.48%) Cisco ISE
18 42 (6.05%) Cisco Firepower
19 38 (5.48%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (2.88%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
2 2 (0.29%) Power BI
3 1 (0.14%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.14%) MySQL
3 1 (0.14%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.14%) SAP HANA
3 1 (0.14%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 13 (1.87%) JIRA
2 12 (1.73%) Git
3 4 (0.58%) GitLab
General
1 269 (38.76%) Social Skills
2 77 (11.10%) Finance
3 68 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
4 47 (6.77%) Organisational Skills
5 44 (6.34%) Telecoms
6 39 (5.62%) Retail
7 36 (5.19%) Public Sector
8 34 (4.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 28 (4.03%) Presentation Skills
10 25 (3.60%) Banking
11 20 (2.88%) Manufacturing
12 14 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.59%) Law
14 10 (1.44%) Retail Banking
15 9 (1.30%) Marketing
16 8 (1.15%) Back Office
17 5 (0.72%) Electronics
18 4 (0.58%) Legal
18 4 (0.58%) Military
18 4 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 167 (24.06%) Network Engineer
2 158 (22.77%) IT Support
3 144 (20.75%) Support Engineer
4 129 (18.59%) Senior
5 121 (17.44%) IT Engineer
6 93 (13.40%) IT Support Engineer
7 68 (9.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 68 (9.80%) Senior Network Engineer
8 60 (8.65%) 2nd Line Support
9 54 (7.78%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 50 (7.20%) Cisco Engineer
11 45 (6.48%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 41 (5.91%) Support Technician
13 40 (5.76%) WAN Engineer
14 38 (5.48%) Firewall Engineer
14 38 (5.48%) LAN Engineer
15 36 (5.19%) LAN/WAN Engineer
16 31 (4.47%) Architect
17 30 (4.32%) Technical Support
18 29 (4.18%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.44%) REST
2 9 (1.30%) 802.1X
3 5 (0.72%) WebSockets
4 4 (0.58%) OpenTelemetry
4 4 (0.58%) XMPP
5 3 (0.43%) EDI
5 3 (0.43%) JSON
5 3 (0.43%) Middleware
6 2 (0.29%) LDAP
7 1 (0.14%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 152 (21.90%) Data Centre
2 51 (7.35%) Driving Licence
2 51 (7.35%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (4.32%) Management Information System
4 19 (2.74%) Onboarding
5 17 (2.45%) Social Media
6 16 (2.31%) Replication
7 15 (2.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 15 (2.16%) Hybrid Cloud
8 14 (2.02%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (1.59%) Video Conferencing
10 10 (1.44%) EPoS
11 8 (1.15%) Product Ownership
11 8 (1.15%) Public Cloud
12 6 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (0.86%) e-Learning
12 6 (0.86%) Enterprise Storage
12 6 (0.86%) PKI
12 6 (0.86%) Security Posture
12 6 (0.86%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 330 (47.55%) Windows
2 175 (25.22%) Windows Server
3 88 (12.68%) Windows 10
4 48 (6.92%) Linux
5 46 (6.63%) Mac OS
6 43 (6.20%) Windows Server 2016
7 34 (4.90%) Windows Server 2019
8 26 (3.75%) Android
9 22 (3.17%) Windows Server 2012
10 16 (2.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 13 (1.87%) Apple iOS
12 6 (0.86%) CentOS
12 6 (0.86%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.43%) CoreOS
14 2 (0.29%) Oracle Linux
15 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.14%) Unix
15 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2003
15 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 204 (29.39%) Problem-Solving
2 154 (22.19%) Customer Service
3 140 (20.17%) ITIL
4 84 (12.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 75 (10.81%) Continuous Improvement
5 75 (10.81%) Service Delivery
6 66 (9.51%) Cybersecurity
7 64 (9.22%) Disaster Recovery
8 58 (8.36%) Root Cause Analysis
9 54 (7.78%) High Availability
10 50 (7.20%) Project Delivery
11 49 (7.06%) Computer Science
12 48 (6.92%) Load Balancing
13 45 (6.48%) Presales
14 42 (6.05%) Kalman Filter
15 41 (5.91%) ITSM
16 40 (5.76%) Network Monitoring
17 37 (5.33%) Process Improvement
18 36 (5.19%) Change Management
18 36 (5.19%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (9.94%) Python
2 62 (8.93%) PowerShell
3 14 (2.02%) Bash
4 13 (1.87%) SQL
5 5 (0.72%) Google Apps Script
6 2 (0.29%) Java
6 2 (0.29%) Perl
7 1 (0.14%) Korn
7 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 203 (29.25%) Cisco Certification
2 140 (20.17%) CCNP
3 117 (16.86%) Degree
4 100 (14.41%) CCNA
5 78 (11.24%) Security Cleared
6 61 (8.79%) CCIE
7 60 (8.65%) SC Cleared
8 48 (6.92%) Microsoft Certification
9 46 (6.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 34 (4.90%) DBS Check
11 21 (3.03%) JNCIA
12 20 (2.88%) DV Cleared
13 18 (2.59%) CCSA
13 18 (2.59%) CCSE
14 13 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
14 13 (1.87%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (1.73%) MCSA
16 11 (1.59%) Azure Certification
17 10 (1.44%) Master's Degree
17 10 (1.44%) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (6.63%) SLA
2 30 (4.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (3.17%) Cyber Essentials
4 17 (2.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 16 (2.31%) PMO
6 11 (1.59%) GDPR
7 10 (1.44%) NIST
8 7 (1.01%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.72%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.43%) ISO 9001
10 3 (0.43%) QA
10 3 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.29%) Basel III
11 2 (0.29%) GRC
11 2 (0.29%) MiFID
11 2 (0.29%) NCSC
System Software
1 231 (33.29%) Active Directory
2 80 (11.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 74 (10.66%) Hyper-V
4 19 (2.74%) vSphere
5 14 (2.02%) ProxySG
6 12 (1.73%) Firmware
7 10 (1.44%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (1.30%) BitLocker
8 9 (1.30%) VMware NSX
9 5 (0.72%) Virtual Servers
9 5 (0.72%) XenApp
10 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 4 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.43%) KVM
11 3 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.14%) Docker
12 1 (0.14%) NLBS
12 1 (0.14%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 87 (12.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 50 (7.20%) FortiGate
3 46 (6.63%) Ansible
4 28 (4.03%) Terraform
5 23 (3.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 20 (2.88%) Jamf Pro
7 16 (2.31%) SCCM
8 9 (1.30%) Grafana
9 8 (1.15%) Check_MK
9 8 (1.15%) Cisco CUCM
10 7 (1.01%) PaperCut
10 7 (1.01%) SmoothWall
11 6 (0.86%) Kubernetes
11 6 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.86%) WSUS
12 5 (0.72%) Nagios
12 5 (0.72%) VxRail
13 4 (0.58%) Autotask
13 4 (0.58%) McAfee ePO
13 4 (0.58%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 311 (44.81%) Cisco
2 272 (39.19%) Microsoft
3 126 (18.16%) Fortinet
4 106 (15.27%) VMware
5 97 (13.98%) Meraki
6 78 (11.24%) CheckPoint
7 71 (10.23%) SolarWinds
8 63 (9.08%) Juniper
8 63 (9.08%) Palo Alto
9 46 (6.63%) Google
10 39 (5.62%) ServiceNow
11 36 (5.19%) Aruba
12 30 (4.32%) Dell
12 30 (4.32%) F5
13 27 (3.89%) Apple
14 20 (2.88%) Veeam
15 18 (2.59%) McAfee
16 17 (2.45%) Blue Coat
16 17 (2.45%) Citrix
17 16 (2.31%) Red Hat