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 7 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 190 198 128
Rank change year-on-year +8 -70 +50
Permanent jobs citing WAN 229 248 788
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.25% 1.74% 2.42%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.47% 15.11% 15.34%
Number of salaries quoted 161 192 632
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £31,280
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £39,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -4.76% -0.28%
75th Percentile £77,500 £66,563 £67,625
90th Percentile £87,500 £87,375 £84,802
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 1,997 1,641 5,138
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.88% 11.52% 15.79%
Number of salaries quoted 964 1,192 3,414
10th Percentile £29,750 £25,331 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,750 £85,000 £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 7 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 46 (20.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 41 (17.90%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.87%) Apache
3 2 (0.87%) Confluence
3 2 (0.87%) nginx
4 1 (0.44%) IIS
4 1 (0.44%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (5.24%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.75%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.31%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.31%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 2 (0.87%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.44%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 135 (58.95%) Azure
2 85 (37.12%) Microsoft 365
3 73 (31.88%) AWS
4 43 (18.78%) Entra ID
5 16 (6.99%) GCP
5 16 (6.99%) OneDrive
6 15 (6.55%) AWS Direct Connect
6 15 (6.55%) Google Workspace
6 15 (6.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (6.11%) SaaS
8 6 (2.62%) Azure Monitor
8 6 (2.62%) OCI
9 4 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.87%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
10 2 (0.87%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.87%) SuccessFactors
11 1 (0.44%) Azure DevOps
11 1 (0.44%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 160 (69.87%) LAN
2 109 (47.60%) Firewall
3 108 (47.16%) SD-WAN
4 97 (42.36%) VPN
5 72 (31.44%) DNS
6 59 (25.76%) DHCP
7 57 (24.89%) TCP/IP
8 55 (24.02%) Wi-Fi
9 40 (17.47%) MPLS
10 38 (16.59%) VLAN
11 37 (16.16%) BGP
11 37 (16.16%) WLAN
12 33 (14.41%) Cisco Firepower
12 33 (14.41%) Network Security
13 29 (12.66%) Cisco ISE
13 29 (12.66%) Wireless
14 28 (12.23%) Cisco ASA
15 24 (10.48%) OSPF
16 22 (9.61%) VoIP
17 17 (7.42%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.87%) Power BI
1 2 (0.87%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.44%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.44%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.44%) MySQL
2 1 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.44%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 3 (1.31%) JIRA
2 1 (0.44%) Jenkins
General
1 68 (29.69%) Social Skills
2 44 (19.21%) Finance
3 34 (14.85%) Public Sector
4 17 (7.42%) Retail
5 16 (6.99%) Banking
6 14 (6.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 14 (6.11%) Organisational Skills
6 14 (6.11%) Telecoms
7 11 (4.80%) Manufacturing
8 9 (3.93%) Marketing
9 8 (3.49%) Analytical Skills
10 6 (2.62%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (2.18%) Law
12 4 (1.75%) Electronics
13 3 (1.31%) Police
14 2 (0.87%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.87%) Legal
14 2 (0.87%) Military
14 2 (0.87%) Retail Banking
15 1 (0.44%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 63 (27.51%) Network Engineer
2 59 (25.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 51 (22.27%) Senior
4 40 (17.47%) IT Engineer
5 35 (15.28%) Architect
6 31 (13.54%) Support Engineer
7 28 (12.23%) IT Support
8 26 (11.35%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 23 (10.04%) IT Support Engineer
10 21 (9.17%) 2nd Line Support
11 20 (8.73%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
12 18 (7.86%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 18 (7.86%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 18 (7.86%) Senior Network Engineer
13 17 (7.42%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
13 17 (7.42%) Operations Engineer
14 15 (6.55%) Network Architect
15 13 (5.68%) Solutions Architect
16 12 (5.24%) Analyst
16 12 (5.24%) Network Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.49%) XMPP
2 4 (1.75%) LDAP
3 2 (0.87%) ARM Templates
3 2 (0.87%) Web Services
4 1 (0.44%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.44%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 43 (18.78%) Data Centre
2 16 (6.99%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (6.55%) Driving Licence
4 12 (5.24%) Onboarding
4 12 (5.24%) Video Conferencing
5 11 (4.80%) PKI
6 10 (4.37%) Management Information System
7 9 (3.93%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (3.49%) FlexPod
9 7 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (2.62%) Replication
10 6 (2.62%) Social Media
11 5 (2.18%) Product Ownership
12 4 (1.75%) Cloud Native
12 4 (1.75%) iPad
12 4 (1.75%) iPhone
12 4 (1.75%) Mobile App
12 4 (1.75%) Public Cloud
13 3 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
13 3 (1.31%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 79 (34.50%) Windows
2 66 (28.82%) Windows Server
3 33 (14.41%) Windows 10
4 23 (10.04%) Linux
5 20 (8.73%) Mac OS
6 15 (6.55%) Windows Server 2016
7 14 (6.11%) Windows Server 2012
8 13 (5.68%) Windows Server 2019
9 12 (5.24%) Apple iOS
10 4 (1.75%) CentOS
10 4 (1.75%) Unix
11 2 (0.87%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.87%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.44%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.44%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.44%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (31.88%) Problem-Solving
2 67 (29.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 42 (18.34%) Disaster Recovery
4 40 (17.47%) ITIL
5 37 (16.16%) Continuous Improvement
6 33 (14.41%) Zero Trust
7 29 (12.66%) Service Delivery
8 27 (11.79%) Mentoring
9 24 (10.48%) Migration
9 24 (10.48%) Stakeholder Management
10 23 (10.04%) Cloud Security
10 23 (10.04%) Presales
11 22 (9.61%) Service Management
12 21 (9.17%) Customer Service
12 21 (9.17%) Cybersecurity
13 20 (8.73%) Roadmaps
13 20 (8.73%) Root Cause Analysis
13 20 (8.73%) Technical Leadership
14 19 (8.30%) Change Management
15 18 (7.86%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 22 (9.61%) Python
2 11 (4.80%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.75%) SQL
4 3 (1.31%) Bash
5 2 (0.87%) Java
5 2 (0.87%) Perl
6 1 (0.44%) C
6 1 (0.44%) C++
6 1 (0.44%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.44%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 40 (17.47%) Cisco Certification
2 30 (13.10%) Security Cleared
3 26 (11.35%) SC Cleared
4 24 (10.48%) CCNP
5 20 (8.73%) Degree
6 19 (8.30%) CCNA
7 18 (7.86%) Microsoft Certification
8 13 (5.68%) Azure Certification
9 12 (5.24%) CCIE
9 12 (5.24%) DV Cleared
10 11 (4.80%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (3.93%) BPSS Clearance
12 6 (2.62%) DBS Check
13 5 (2.18%) CCSA
13 5 (2.18%) CCSE
13 5 (2.18%) MCSA
14 3 (1.31%) JNCIE
14 3 (1.31%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.31%) MCSE
14 3 (1.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (6.11%) SLA
3 10 (4.37%) Cyber Essentials
3 10 (4.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.75%) QA
5 3 (1.31%) GDPR
5 3 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 3 (1.31%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.87%) NIST
7 1 (0.44%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.44%) Basel III
7 1 (0.44%) MiFID
7 1 (0.44%) NCSC
System Software
1 63 (27.51%) Active Directory
2 30 (13.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (11.35%) Hyper-V
4 10 (4.37%) vSphere
5 7 (3.06%) Firmware
6 6 (2.62%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (2.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.18%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (2.18%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.75%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.87%) Docker
10 1 (0.44%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.44%) KVM
10 1 (0.44%) QEMU
10 1 (0.44%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.44%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (12.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (10.48%) Ansible
3 16 (6.99%) FortiGate
3 16 (6.99%) Terraform
4 15 (6.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 8 (3.49%) Cisco CUCM
5 8 (3.49%) Grafana
6 6 (2.62%) Endace
7 5 (2.18%) Jamf Pro
7 5 (2.18%) vCenter Server
8 4 (1.75%) Kubernetes
8 4 (1.75%) PaperCut
9 2 (0.87%) Autotask
9 2 (0.87%) Dell DRAC
9 2 (0.87%) OpenView
9 2 (0.87%) QRadar
9 2 (0.87%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (0.87%) Red Hat Spacewalk
9 2 (0.87%) SCCM
9 2 (0.87%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 112 (48.91%) Cisco
2 90 (39.30%) Microsoft
3 56 (24.45%) Fortinet
4 44 (19.21%) VMware
5 42 (18.34%) Meraki
6 35 (15.28%) Palo Alto
7 22 (9.61%) CheckPoint
7 22 (9.61%) SolarWinds
8 19 (8.30%) Juniper
9 15 (6.55%) Dynatrace
9 15 (6.55%) Google
10 14 (6.11%) Splunk
11 10 (4.37%) ServiceNow
12 7 (3.06%) F5
12 7 (3.06%) Zscaler
13 5 (2.18%) Apple
13 5 (2.18%) Aruba
13 5 (2.18%) Dell
13 5 (2.18%) NetApp
13 5 (2.18%) Red Hat