Hybrid/Remote WAN Job Trends

Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for remote or hybrid work requiring WAN skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 191 207 131
Rank change year-on-year +16 -76 +44
Permanent jobs citing WAN 235 257 768
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.27% 1.77% 2.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.71% 14.75% 15.10%
Number of salaries quoted 166 187 613
10th Percentile £31,625 £31,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £77,500 £66,150 £70,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £88,500 £84,919
UK median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 2,006 1,742 5,086
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.87% 11.98% 15.62%
Number of salaries quoted 969 1,190 3,368
10th Percentile £30,000 £25,313 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £32,125 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,417 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.83% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,750 £86,250 £80,000
UK median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.00%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing WAN and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

WAN job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

WAN
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing WAN.

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing WAN

WAN
Salary Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing WAN over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

WAN salary histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

WAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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 44 (18.72%) Microsoft Exchange
2 41 (17.45%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.85%) Apache
3 2 (0.85%) Confluence
3 2 (0.85%) nginx
4 1 (0.43%) IIS
4 1 (0.43%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (5.11%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.70%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.28%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.28%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 2 (0.85%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.43%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 135 (57.45%) Azure
2 84 (35.74%) Microsoft 365
3 73 (31.06%) AWS
4 43 (18.30%) Entra ID
5 16 (6.81%) GCP
6 15 (6.38%) AWS Direct Connect
6 15 (6.38%) OneDrive
6 15 (6.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (5.96%) Google Workspace
7 14 (5.96%) SaaS
8 6 (2.55%) OCI
9 5 (2.13%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (1.70%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.85%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.85%) SuccessFactors
12 1 (0.43%) Azure DevOps
12 1 (0.43%) IaaS
12 1 (0.43%) OpenShift
12 1 (0.43%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 167 (71.06%) LAN
2 115 (48.94%) Firewall
3 112 (47.66%) SD-WAN
4 98 (41.70%) VPN
5 71 (30.21%) DNS
6 57 (24.26%) DHCP
7 56 (23.83%) TCP/IP
8 54 (22.98%) Wi-Fi
9 41 (17.45%) MPLS
10 40 (17.02%) BGP
10 40 (17.02%) WLAN
11 38 (16.17%) VLAN
12 34 (14.47%) Cisco Firepower
12 34 (14.47%) Network Security
13 31 (13.19%) Cisco ISE
14 30 (12.77%) Wireless
15 29 (12.34%) Cisco ASA
16 27 (11.49%) OSPF
17 20 (8.51%) VoIP
18 19 (8.09%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.85%) Power BI
1 2 (0.85%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.43%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.43%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.43%) MySQL
2 1 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.43%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.43%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (0.85%) JIRA
2 1 (0.43%) Jenkins
General
1 71 (30.21%) Social Skills
2 43 (18.30%) Finance
3 37 (15.74%) Public Sector
4 18 (7.66%) Retail
5 17 (7.23%) Banking
6 16 (6.81%) Telecoms
7 15 (6.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (5.53%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (4.68%) Marketing
10 10 (4.26%) Manufacturing
11 6 (2.55%) Analytical Skills
11 6 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (2.13%) Law
13 4 (1.70%) Electronics
14 3 (1.28%) Police
15 2 (0.85%) Legal
15 2 (0.85%) Military
15 2 (0.85%) Retail Banking
16 1 (0.43%) Aerospace
16 1 (0.43%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 64 (27.23%) Network Engineer
2 56 (23.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 48 (20.43%) Senior
4 40 (17.02%) IT Engineer
5 39 (16.60%) Architect
6 32 (13.62%) Support Engineer
7 28 (11.91%) IT Support
8 23 (9.79%) IT Support Engineer
8 23 (9.79%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 21 (8.94%) 2nd Line Support
10 19 (8.09%) Network Architect
11 18 (7.66%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 18 (7.66%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 17 (7.23%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
12 17 (7.23%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
12 17 (7.23%) Operations Engineer
13 16 (6.81%) Senior Network Engineer
14 15 (6.38%) Solutions Architect
15 14 (5.96%) Network Manager
16 11 (4.68%) Network Operations Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.83%) XMPP
2 4 (1.70%) LDAP
3 2 (0.85%) 802.1X
3 2 (0.85%) ARM Templates
3 2 (0.85%) Web Services
4 1 (0.43%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 44 (18.72%) Data Centre
2 18 (7.66%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (6.38%) Driving Licence
4 12 (5.11%) Onboarding
4 12 (5.11%) Video Conferencing
5 11 (4.68%) PKI
6 10 (4.26%) Management Information System
7 9 (3.83%) FlexPod
8 8 (3.40%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (3.40%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (2.98%) Replication
10 6 (2.55%) Social Media
11 5 (2.13%) Cloud Native
11 5 (2.13%) Product Ownership
12 4 (1.70%) Public Cloud
13 3 (1.28%) iPad
13 3 (1.28%) iPhone
13 3 (1.28%) Mobile App
13 3 (1.28%) Private Cloud
13 3 (1.28%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 76 (32.34%) Windows
2 62 (26.38%) Windows Server
3 30 (12.77%) Windows 10
4 23 (9.79%) Linux
5 20 (8.51%) Mac OS
6 13 (5.53%) Windows Server 2012
6 13 (5.53%) Windows Server 2016
7 12 (5.11%) Windows Server 2019
8 11 (4.68%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.70%) CentOS
9 4 (1.70%) Unix
10 2 (0.85%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.85%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.43%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.43%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.43%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (31.06%) Problem-Solving
2 64 (27.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 43 (18.30%) Disaster Recovery
4 37 (15.74%) ITIL
5 36 (15.32%) Continuous Improvement
6 32 (13.62%) Zero Trust
7 30 (12.77%) Mentoring
8 29 (12.34%) Service Delivery
9 26 (11.06%) Migration
10 25 (10.64%) Stakeholder Management
11 24 (10.21%) Presales
12 23 (9.79%) Cloud Security
13 22 (9.36%) Cybersecurity
13 22 (9.36%) Service Management
14 20 (8.51%) Network Architecture
14 20 (8.51%) Technical Leadership
15 19 (8.09%) Roadmaps
15 19 (8.09%) Root Cause Analysis
16 18 (7.66%) Customer Service
17 17 (7.23%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (9.79%) Python
2 11 (4.68%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.70%) SQL
4 3 (1.28%) Bash
5 2 (0.85%) Java
5 2 (0.85%) Perl
6 1 (0.43%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.43%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 39 (16.60%) Cisco Certification
2 29 (12.34%) Security Cleared
3 27 (11.49%) CCNP
4 25 (10.64%) SC Cleared
5 19 (8.09%) CCNA
5 19 (8.09%) Degree
6 17 (7.23%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (5.53%) CCIE
8 12 (5.11%) DV Cleared
9 11 (4.68%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (4.26%) Azure Certification
11 9 (3.83%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (2.13%) CCSA
12 5 (2.13%) CCSE
12 5 (2.13%) DBS Check
13 4 (1.70%) MCSA
14 3 (1.28%) JNCIE
14 3 (1.28%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.28%) MCSE
14 3 (1.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (5.96%) SLA
3 10 (4.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 10 (4.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.70%) QA
5 3 (1.28%) GDPR
5 3 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 3 (1.28%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.85%) NIST
7 1 (0.43%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.43%) Basel III
7 1 (0.43%) MiFID
7 1 (0.43%) NCSC
System Software
1 59 (25.11%) Active Directory
2 31 (13.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (10.21%) Hyper-V
4 11 (4.68%) vSphere
5 7 (2.98%) Firmware
5 7 (2.98%) Virtual Servers
6 6 (2.55%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.13%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.70%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (1.70%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.85%) Docker
10 1 (0.43%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.43%) KVM
10 1 (0.43%) QEMU
10 1 (0.43%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.43%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.43%) Xen
Systems Management
1 27 (11.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (10.64%) Ansible
3 18 (7.66%) FortiGate
4 17 (7.23%) Terraform
5 14 (5.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 9 (3.83%) Cisco CUCM
6 9 (3.83%) Grafana
7 6 (2.55%) Endace
8 5 (2.13%) vCenter Server
9 4 (1.70%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (1.70%) Kubernetes
9 4 (1.70%) PaperCut
10 2 (0.85%) Autotask
10 2 (0.85%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.85%) OpenView
10 2 (0.85%) QRadar
10 2 (0.85%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.85%) Red Hat Spacewalk
10 2 (0.85%) SCCM
10 2 (0.85%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 114 (48.51%) Cisco
2 89 (37.87%) Microsoft
3 55 (23.40%) Fortinet
4 42 (17.87%) VMware
5 41 (17.45%) Meraki
6 38 (16.17%) Palo Alto
7 22 (9.36%) CheckPoint
7 22 (9.36%) SolarWinds
8 19 (8.09%) Juniper
9 15 (6.38%) Dynatrace
9 15 (6.38%) Splunk
10 14 (5.96%) Google
11 10 (4.26%) ServiceNow
12 7 (2.98%) F5
12 7 (2.98%) Zscaler
13 6 (2.55%) NetApp
14 5 (2.13%) Aruba
14 5 (2.13%) Dell
14 5 (2.13%) Red Hat
15 4 (1.70%) ArcSight