WAN Job Trends in the West Midlands

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring WAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 37 69
Rank change year-on-year -70 +32 +58
Permanent jobs citing WAN 81 172 281
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 1.06% 5.67% 3.27%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.95% 38.05% 26.74%
Number of salaries quoted 61 121 215
10th Percentile £31,250 £27,750 £24,696
25th Percentile £51,250 £29,250 £29,600
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,500 £46,000 £41,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.65% +12.20% -4.09%
75th Percentile £66,250 £53,633 £52,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £65,750
England median annual salary £53,500 £48,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +11.46% +1.05% +1.06%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
West Midlands

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 West Midlands.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 369 452 1,051
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 4.85% 14.90% 12.23%
Number of salaries quoted 304 321 772
10th Percentile £27,750 £28,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £30,125 £32,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £47,500 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +11.76% -5.56%
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £56,950
90th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £68,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing WAN relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

WAN job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

WAN
Salary Trend in the West Midlands

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing WAN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing WAN

WAN
Salary Histogram in the West Midlands

Salary distribution for jobs citing WAN in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 14 June 2026.

Salary histogram for WAN in the West Midlands

WAN
Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 14 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
Warwickshire +9 34 £55,500 +12.25% 2
Worcestershire -12 24 £62,500 +104.92% 3
Staffordshire -9 5 £47,933 +36.95% 2
Birmingham -88 5 £70,000 +40.00% 4
Herefordshire - 5 £52,500 -
Coventry -19 3 £75,000 - 3
Solihull +12 1 - - 3
WAN
England

WAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 15 (18.52%) SharePoint
2 8 (9.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (2.47%) Confluence
4 1 (1.23%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (6.17%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.23%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 41 (50.62%) Azure
2 21 (25.93%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (19.75%) AWS
4 15 (18.52%) Entra ID
5 14 (17.28%) Azure Sentinel
6 5 (6.17%) OneDrive
7 2 (2.47%) Google Workspace
8 1 (1.23%) Azure AKS
8 1 (1.23%) IaaS
8 1 (1.23%) PaaS
8 1 (1.23%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (70.37%) LAN
2 37 (45.68%) Firewall
3 33 (40.74%) SD-WAN
4 30 (37.04%) VPN
5 23 (28.40%) VLAN
6 20 (24.69%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (14.81%) Wireless
8 9 (11.11%) BGP
8 9 (11.11%) EIGRP
8 9 (11.11%) OSPF
9 8 (9.88%) DHCP
9 8 (9.88%) DNS
10 7 (8.64%) Cisco ASA
11 6 (7.41%) Network Security
11 6 (7.41%) TCP/IP
12 5 (6.17%) Wireshark
13 4 (4.94%) WLAN
14 3 (3.70%) Cisco ISE
15 2 (2.47%) DMVPN
15 2 (2.47%) Remote Desktop
Development Applications
1 1 (1.23%) Carbide.c++
General
1 14 (17.28%) Social Skills
2 12 (14.81%) Public Sector
3 10 (12.35%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (7.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 5 (6.17%) Law
5 5 (6.17%) Telecoms
6 3 (3.70%) Finance
7 2 (2.47%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.23%) Aerospace
8 1 (1.23%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 37 (45.68%) Network Engineer
2 20 (24.69%) Support Engineer
3 16 (19.75%) Senior
4 14 (17.28%) IT Engineer
4 14 (17.28%) Senior Network Engineer
5 12 (14.81%) Technical Engineer
5 12 (14.81%) Technical Support
5 12 (14.81%) Technical Support Engineer
6 8 (9.88%) IT Support
6 8 (9.88%) IT Support Engineer
7 6 (7.41%) Cisco Engineer
7 6 (7.41%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 6 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (6.17%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
8 5 (6.17%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (6.17%) Operations Engineer
9 4 (4.94%) Firewall Engineer
9 4 (4.94%) Senior Cisco Engineer
9 4 (4.94%) Senior Firewall Engineer
9 4 (4.94%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.23%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 15 (18.52%) Data Centre
2 12 (14.81%) Driving Licence
3 4 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (3.70%) Security Posture
5 2 (2.47%) Management Information System
5 2 (2.47%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.47%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.23%) Clustering
6 1 (1.23%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.23%) Public Cloud
6 1 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 21 (25.93%) Windows
2 5 (6.17%) Windows 10
2 5 (6.17%) Windows Server
3 4 (4.94%) Android
3 4 (4.94%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 25 (30.86%) Problem-Solving
3 21 (25.93%) Network Monitoring
4 18 (22.22%) ITSM
5 14 (17.28%) SIEM
6 12 (14.81%) ITIL
6 12 (14.81%) Proactive Monitoring
6 12 (14.81%) Service Delivery
6 12 (14.81%) Service Management
7 11 (13.58%) Supplier Management
8 9 (11.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 9 (11.11%) Migration
8 9 (11.11%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (9.88%) Disaster Recovery
9 8 (9.88%) Impact Analysis
10 7 (8.64%) Customer Service
10 7 (8.64%) Digital Strategy
10 7 (8.64%) Root Cause Analysis
11 6 (7.41%) Network Architecture
11 6 (7.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 7 (8.64%) Python
2 4 (4.94%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 16 (19.75%) Security Cleared
2 15 (18.52%) Degree
3 14 (17.28%) SC Cleared
4 12 (14.81%) Microsoft Certification
5 11 (13.58%) CCNP
5 11 (13.58%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (6.17%) A+ Certification
6 5 (6.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (6.17%) MCITP
7 4 (4.94%) Azure Certification
8 2 (2.47%) CompTIA Security+
8 2 (2.47%) DBS Check
8 2 (2.47%) MCSE
9 1 (1.23%) CCIE
9 1 (1.23%) CISSP
9 1 (1.23%) IISP
9 1 (1.23%) ISACA
9 1 (1.23%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (17.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 12 (14.81%) SLA
3 9 (11.11%) Cyber Essentials
3 9 (11.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (8.64%) QA
5 5 (6.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (2.47%) NIST
6 2 (2.47%) PCI DSS
7 1 (1.23%) ISO 14001
7 1 (1.23%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 15 (18.52%) Active Directory
2 14 (17.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (2.47%) vSphere
4 1 (1.23%) BitLocker
4 1 (1.23%) Firmware
4 1 (1.23%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 12 (14.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (2.47%) SCCM
3 1 (1.23%) FortiGate
3 1 (1.23%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.23%) Terraform
Vendors
1 57 (70.37%) Cisco
2 27 (33.33%) Microsoft
3 15 (18.52%) Meraki
4 14 (17.28%) SolarWinds
4 14 (17.28%) VMware
4 14 (17.28%) Zscaler
5 13 (16.05%) Avaya
5 13 (16.05%) Juniper
6 12 (14.81%) Dell
6 12 (14.81%) McAfee
7 5 (6.17%) Fortinet
8 4 (4.94%) MobileIron
9 2 (2.47%) Aruba
9 2 (2.47%) Google
9 2 (2.47%) Veeam
10 1 (1.23%) Ekahau
10 1 (1.23%) Starlink