Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies requiring WAN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the annual salaries offered in vacancies that cited WAN over the 6 months leading up to 26 July 2024, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jul 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 138 148 261
Rank change year-on-year +10 +113 -41
Permanent jobs citing WAN 1,705 1,973 2,833
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 1.89% 2.45% 1.62%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.31% 15.21% 12.50%
Number of salaries quoted 1,270 1,457 2,280
10th Percentile £28,725 £30,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £78,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% +2.27%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 11,133 12,974 22,658
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 12.32% 16.08% 12.93%
Number of salaries quoted 7,152 7,381 12,357
10th Percentile £26,750 £28,500 £28,250
25th Percentile £33,500 £36,250 £38,367
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,000 £51,573 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.99% -1.77% +5.00%
75th Percentile £63,750 £70,083 £70,750
90th Percentile £78,750 £86,250 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year - -5.26% +5.56%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing WAN.

Salary trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 26 July 2024.

Salary histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Top 19 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 26 July 2024. 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 +11 1,545 £50,000 +5.26% 220
UK excluding London -6 1,229 £45,000 +5.88% 220
Work from Home +16 655 £55,000 +10.00% 91
London -16 396 £60,000 +4.35% 36
North of England +18 331 £45,000 -2.17% 59
Midlands +7 257 £39,250 -1.88% 29
South East -6 250 £50,000 +11.11% 54
West Midlands +31 199 £37,500 -11.76% 22
South West -6 188 £45,000 +6.51% 24
North West +2 178 £48,500 +3.19% 31
Yorkshire +67 143 £53,750 +19.44% 21
East of England +17 129 £45,000 +7.78% 30
Scotland -66 68 £50,000 +20.48% 10
East Midlands -55 52 £44,750 +19.33% 7
Wales +6 29 £40,250 -5.29% 8
North East -21 27 £40,000 -5.88% 9
Northern Ireland -3 4 £37,500 -6.25% 15
Isle of Man - 2 - -
Channel Islands - 1 - -

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 196 (11.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 175 (10.26%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.35%) IIS
4 22 (1.29%) SharePoint 2013
5 21 (1.23%) SharePoint 2010
6 9 (0.53%) Skype for Business
7 8 (0.47%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.35%) Apache
8 6 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2010
9 5 (0.29%) CMS
9 5 (0.29%) Confluence
9 5 (0.29%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
10 4 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
11 2 (0.12%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.12%) nginx
12 1 (0.059%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
12 1 (0.059%) Site Server
Applications
1 123 (7.21%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (1.17%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
2 3 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
3 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
3 2 (0.12%) Shopify
4 1 (0.059%) Epicor Tropos
4 1 (0.059%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.059%) Sage 300 ERP
Cloud Services
1 685 (40.18%) Azure
2 561 (32.90%) Microsoft 365
3 227 (13.31%) AWS
4 185 (10.85%) Entra ID
5 87 (5.10%) SaaS
6 86 (5.04%) IaaS
7 79 (4.63%) GCP
8 76 (4.46%) PaaS
9 54 (3.17%) OneDrive
10 37 (2.17%) Cloud Computing
11 27 (1.58%) Mimecast
11 27 (1.58%) Power Platform
12 23 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
13 21 (1.23%) Azure Sentinel
13 21 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
14 20 (1.17%) Nutanix
15 17 (1.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 16 (0.94%) GitHub
17 11 (0.65%) AWS Direct Connect
17 11 (0.65%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 1,211 (71.03%) LAN
2 778 (45.63%) Firewall
3 533 (31.26%) SD-WAN
4 418 (24.52%) VPN
5 328 (19.24%) DNS
6 313 (18.36%) Wireless
7 299 (17.54%) Wi-Fi
8 255 (14.96%) DHCP
9 249 (14.60%) TCP/IP
10 230 (13.49%) MPLS
11 205 (12.02%) Network Security
12 193 (11.32%) VLAN
13 156 (9.15%) BGP
14 146 (8.56%) WLAN
15 127 (7.45%) OSPF
16 107 (6.28%) Internet
17 103 (6.04%) SAN
18 98 (5.75%) VoIP
19 93 (5.45%) IPsec
20 71 (4.16%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.22%) SQL Server
2 22 (1.29%) MySQL
3 14 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
4 13 (0.76%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (0.76%) Power BI
5 12 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.53%) DB2
6 9 (0.53%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.29%) InfluxDB
7 5 (0.29%) MariaDB
8 3 (0.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.12%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.12%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.059%) Crystal Reports
10 1 (0.059%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.059%) PowerPivot
10 1 (0.059%) RDBMS
10 1 (0.059%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 17 (1.00%) JIRA
2 16 (0.94%) Jenkins
3 11 (0.65%) Git
4 8 (0.47%) GitLab
5 7 (0.41%) Katalon Studio
6 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.18%) Axure RP
8 1 (0.059%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.059%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 499 (29.27%) Social Skills
2 165 (9.68%) Analytical Skills
3 149 (8.74%) Finance
4 87 (5.10%) Telecoms
5 75 (4.40%) Retail
6 62 (3.64%) Law
7 49 (2.87%) Organisational Skills
8 46 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.46%) Presentation Skills
10 39 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
11 34 (1.99%) Legal
12 33 (1.94%) Manufacturing
13 26 (1.52%) Electronics
14 21 (1.23%) Aerospace
14 21 (1.23%) Public Sector
15 17 (1.00%) Banking
16 16 (0.94%) Games
17 14 (0.82%) Marketing
18 13 (0.76%) Police
19 11 (0.65%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 348 (20.41%) Network Engineer
2 284 (16.66%) Senior
3 225 (13.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 192 (11.26%) Analyst
5 156 (9.15%) Architect
6 140 (8.21%) Support Engineer
7 124 (7.27%) IT Support
8 111 (6.51%) Lead
9 105 (6.16%) IT Engineer
10 92 (5.40%) Senior Network Engineer
11 87 (5.10%) Consultant
12 80 (4.69%) 2nd Line Support
13 77 (4.52%) Support Analyst
14 70 (4.11%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 65 (3.81%) IT Manager
16 64 (3.75%) Security Architect
17 62 (3.64%) IT Analyst
18 59 (3.46%) Senior Architect
19 58 (3.40%) 3rd Line Engineer
20 52 (3.05%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.99%) 802.1X
2 27 (1.58%) LDAP
3 25 (1.47%) HTML
4 12 (0.70%) SAML
4 12 (0.70%) YAML
5 10 (0.59%) XMPP
6 8 (0.47%) WebSphere MQ
7 7 (0.41%) Web Services
7 7 (0.41%) XML
8 6 (0.35%) EDI
9 4 (0.23%) ARM Templates
9 4 (0.23%) pytest
10 2 (0.12%) Azure Blueprints
10 2 (0.12%) REST
10 2 (0.12%) ServiceStack
10 2 (0.12%) Software Packaging
10 2 (0.12%) TAPI
10 2 (0.12%) WebRTC
10 2 (0.12%) X-Windows
11 1 (0.059%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 302 (17.71%) Data Centre
2 124 (7.27%) Management Information System
3 75 (4.40%) Driving Licence
4 62 (3.64%) Public Cloud
5 58 (3.40%) PKI
6 56 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.76%) IoT
7 30 (1.76%) Video Conferencing
8 29 (1.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 28 (1.64%) Clustering
10 24 (1.41%) Onboarding
11 23 (1.35%) Hybrid Cloud
12 20 (1.17%) Client/Server
13 19 (1.11%) Security Posture
14 18 (1.06%) Cloud Native
14 18 (1.06%) PMI
15 16 (0.94%) GNSS
15 16 (0.94%) Replication
16 15 (0.88%) FPGA
17 14 (0.82%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 666 (39.06%) Windows
2 366 (21.47%) Windows Server
3 194 (11.38%) Linux
4 173 (10.15%) Windows 10
5 92 (5.40%) Windows Server 2019
6 76 (4.46%) Windows Server 2016
7 65 (3.81%) Android
8 46 (2.70%) VMS
9 45 (2.64%) Apple iOS
10 43 (2.52%) Windows Server 2012
11 35 (2.05%) Ubuntu
12 33 (1.94%) Mac OS
13 31 (1.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 27 (1.58%) CentOS
15 25 (1.47%) Unix
16 20 (1.17%) Windows 7
17 18 (1.06%) Windows Server 2008
18 6 (0.35%) Debian
18 6 (0.35%) VyOS
18 6 (0.35%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (17.36%) Problem-Solving
2 293 (17.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 290 (17.01%) ITIL
4 237 (13.90%) Cybersecurity
5 199 (11.67%) Customer Service
6 153 (8.97%) Project Delivery
6 153 (8.97%) Project Management
7 129 (7.57%) Mentoring
8 125 (7.33%) Presales
9 119 (6.98%) Agile
10 115 (6.74%) Service Delivery
11 108 (6.33%) Disaster Recovery
12 105 (6.16%) Time Management
13 100 (5.87%) Roadmaps
14 87 (5.10%) Information Security
15 86 (5.04%) Computer Science
16 83 (4.87%) Network Management
17 80 (4.69%) Change Management
17 80 (4.69%) DevOps
18 76 (4.46%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 151 (8.86%) PowerShell
2 105 (6.16%) SQL
3 83 (4.87%) Python
4 36 (2.11%) Bash
5 25 (1.47%) Perl
6 21 (1.23%) Java
7 16 (0.94%) C++
8 15 (0.88%) MATLAB
9 11 (0.65%) PHP
10 8 (0.47%) C
10 8 (0.47%) Tcl
10 8 (0.47%) VB
11 7 (0.41%) C#
12 5 (0.29%) Bicep
13 3 (0.18%) JavaScript
14 2 (0.12%) Korn
14 2 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.12%) T-SQL
15 1 (0.059%) Go
15 1 (0.059%) VBA
Qualifications
1 352 (20.65%) Cisco Certification
2 291 (17.07%) Degree
3 221 (12.96%) CCNA
4 214 (12.55%) Security Cleared
5 198 (11.61%) CCNP
6 108 (6.33%) SC Cleared
7 73 (4.28%) DV Cleared
8 72 (4.22%) Microsoft Certification
9 69 (4.05%) CCIE
10 53 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
11 50 (2.93%) Azure Certification
12 46 (2.70%) CISSP
13 41 (2.40%) MCSE
14 37 (2.17%) DBS Check
15 28 (1.64%) AWS Certification
16 27 (1.58%) PMI Certification
17 26 (1.52%) CISM
18 25 (1.47%) JNCIA
19 24 (1.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
19 24 (1.41%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (6.57%) SLA
2 46 (2.70%) Cyber Essentials
3 45 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 43 (2.52%) NIST
5 39 (2.29%) GDPR
6 15 (0.88%) PMO
7 8 (0.47%) NCSC
7 8 (0.47%) PCI DSS
7 8 (0.47%) QA
8 6 (0.35%) Accessibility
8 6 (0.35%) COSHH
9 5 (0.29%) COBIT
9 5 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 5 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 3 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.18%) JTAG
10 3 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.059%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.059%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.059%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 586 (34.37%) Active Directory
2 323 (18.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 209 (12.26%) Hyper-V
4 60 (3.52%) vSphere
5 49 (2.87%) VMware ESXi
6 45 (2.64%) VMware NSX
7 35 (2.05%) Docker
8 30 (1.76%) Firmware
9 29 (1.70%) Virtual Machines
10 25 (1.47%) XenDesktop
11 23 (1.35%) XenApp
12 21 (1.23%) Virtual Desktop
13 10 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
14 8 (0.47%) Embedded Firmware
15 7 (0.41%) VMware Workstation
16 5 (0.29%) Citrix Hypervisor
17 4 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
17 4 (0.23%) NFS
17 4 (0.23%) pfSense
17 4 (0.23%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 191 (11.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 90 (5.28%) Ansible
3 87 (5.10%) Terraform
4 86 (5.04%) SCCM
5 83 (4.87%) FortiGate
6 45 (2.64%) WSUS
7 44 (2.58%) Kubernetes
8 38 (2.23%) Single Sign-On
9 36 (2.11%) Stealthwatch
10 22 (1.29%) vCenter Server
11 17 (1.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 17 (1.00%) CASB
11 17 (1.00%) Puppet
12 16 (0.94%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.88%) VxRail
14 12 (0.70%) Autotask
15 11 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
16 9 (0.53%) Progress Chef
17 8 (0.47%) Nessus
17 8 (0.47%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 720 (42.23%) Microsoft
2 656 (38.48%) Cisco
3 467 (27.39%) VMware
4 225 (13.20%) Meraki
5 189 (11.09%) Fortinet
6 160 (9.38%) Juniper
7 122 (7.16%) Palo Alto
8 108 (6.33%) HP
9 84 (4.93%) Apple
9 84 (4.93%) Aruba
10 76 (4.46%) Dell
11 75 (4.40%) Citrix
12 73 (4.28%) SolarWinds
12 73 (4.28%) Veeam
13 69 (4.05%) CheckPoint
14 53 (3.11%) Adobe
15 48 (2.82%) Ruckus Wireless
16 47 (2.76%) Google
17 39 (2.29%) F5
18 33 (1.94%) NetApp