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 15 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 190 199 166
Rank change year-on-year +9 -33 -53
Permanent jobs citing WAN 323 251 487
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.35% 1.55% 2.10%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.43% 13.95% 13.25%
Number of salaries quoted 194 169 304
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,500 £35,375
25th Percentile £38,063 £39,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.64% - +15.79%
75th Percentile £76,201 £77,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £83,750 £95,000 £84,964
UK median annual salary £55,000 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +22.22% -10.00% +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 2,238 1,799 3,676
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 9.34% 11.11% 15.86%
Number of salaries quoted 1,329 1,040 1,614
10th Percentile £29,000 £25,087 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £73,750 £68,813 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £82,500
UK median annual salary £48,500 £40,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +21.25% -20.00% -1.93%

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 15 September 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 27 (8.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (8.05%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.62%) Confluence
4 1 (0.31%) IIS
4 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (1.86%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 187 (57.89%) Azure
2 104 (32.20%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (19.20%) Cloud Computing
4 56 (17.34%) AWS
5 51 (15.79%) Entra ID
6 31 (9.60%) Power Platform
7 15 (4.64%) GCP
8 9 (2.79%) OneDrive
9 8 (2.48%) OCI
10 7 (2.17%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.86%) IaaS
11 6 (1.86%) PaaS
11 6 (1.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 5 (1.55%) Azure Monitor
12 5 (1.55%) SaaS
13 4 (1.24%) AWS Direct Connect
13 4 (1.24%) Mimecast
14 2 (0.62%) Azure DevOps
14 2 (0.62%) Azure Key Vault
14 2 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 271 (83.90%) LAN
2 164 (50.77%) Firewall
3 88 (27.24%) SD-WAN
4 82 (25.39%) Network Security
4 82 (25.39%) VPN
5 64 (19.81%) DNS
6 60 (18.58%) DHCP
7 57 (17.65%) VLAN
8 50 (15.48%) BGP
8 50 (15.48%) Wireless
9 49 (15.17%) Wi-Fi
10 45 (13.93%) TCP/IP
11 38 (11.76%) MPLS
11 38 (11.76%) WLAN
12 34 (10.53%) OSPF
13 25 (7.74%) Cisco Nexus
14 20 (6.19%) Cisco ISE
15 18 (5.57%) Cisco ASA
16 16 (4.95%) VXLAN
17 15 (4.64%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (3.10%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.31%) InfluxDB
3 1 (0.31%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.31%) MySQL
3 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
3 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (1.86%) Git
1 6 (1.86%) JIRA
2 5 (1.55%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (0.62%) GitLab
4 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
General
1 157 (48.61%) Social Skills
2 78 (24.15%) Finance
3 64 (19.81%) Presentation Skills
4 49 (15.17%) Telecoms
5 41 (12.69%) Public Sector
6 32 (9.91%) Law
7 22 (6.81%) Retail
8 20 (6.19%) Banking
9 19 (5.88%) Marketing
10 14 (4.33%) Analytical Skills
11 8 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (2.17%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (1.86%) Manufacturing
14 4 (1.24%) Legal
15 3 (0.93%) Electronics
16 2 (0.62%) Automotive
16 2 (0.62%) French Language
16 2 (0.62%) German Language
16 2 (0.62%) Local Government
16 2 (0.62%) Military
Job Titles
1 104 (32.20%) Architect
2 91 (28.17%) Network Engineer
3 58 (17.96%) Systems Architect
4 53 (16.41%) Senior
5 35 (10.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 31 (9.60%) Network Architect
7 23 (7.12%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 23 (7.12%) Senior Network Engineer
7 23 (7.12%) Support Engineer
8 21 (6.50%) IT Support
9 18 (5.57%) Lead
10 17 (5.26%) Analyst
10 17 (5.26%) IT Engineer
11 12 (3.72%) Network Manager
11 12 (3.72%) Solutions Architect
12 11 (3.41%) 2nd Line Support
12 11 (3.41%) IT Support Engineer
12 11 (3.41%) Network Support
12 11 (3.41%) Network Support Engineer
12 11 (3.41%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (7.43%) Terraform
2 10 (3.10%) OAuth
2 10 (3.10%) SAML
3 7 (2.17%) 802.1X
3 7 (2.17%) XMPP
4 4 (1.24%) LDAP
4 4 (1.24%) YAML
5 3 (0.93%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.31%) Jinja
6 1 (0.31%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 54 (16.72%) Data Centre
2 27 (8.36%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (5.26%) Onboarding
3 17 (5.26%) Security Posture
4 14 (4.33%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 13 (4.02%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.48%) Driving Licence
6 8 (2.48%) Video Conferencing
7 7 (2.17%) Cloud Native
7 7 (2.17%) FlexPod
7 7 (2.17%) PKI
7 7 (2.17%) Replication
8 6 (1.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.24%) Clustering
9 4 (1.24%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.93%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.62%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 58 (17.96%) Windows
2 46 (14.24%) Windows Server
3 15 (4.64%) Linux
4 7 (2.17%) Mac OS
5 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.24%) Unix
7 2 (0.62%) Android
7 2 (0.62%) CentOS
7 2 (0.62%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.62%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (28.17%) Project Delivery
2 76 (23.53%) Infrastructure as Code
3 75 (23.22%) Network Architecture
4 74 (22.91%) Network Design
5 72 (22.29%) Roadmaps
6 71 (21.98%) Problem-Solving
7 65 (20.12%) Cybersecurity
8 64 (19.81%) Logistics
8 64 (19.81%) Technical Architecture
9 63 (19.50%) Information Security
10 60 (18.58%) Containerisation
11 58 (17.96%) Business Case
11 58 (17.96%) Business Strategy
11 58 (17.96%) Risk Management
12 50 (15.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 49 (15.17%) Continuous Improvement
14 39 (12.07%) Stakeholder Management
15 35 (10.84%) ITIL
16 33 (10.22%) IT Strategy
16 33 (10.22%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 34 (10.53%) Python
2 25 (7.74%) PowerShell
3 3 (0.93%) SQL
4 2 (0.62%) Bash
5 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.31%) Ruby
5 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 67 (20.74%) Cisco Certification
2 52 (16.10%) CCNP
3 35 (10.84%) CCNA
4 24 (7.43%) Degree
5 22 (6.81%) Azure Certification
6 20 (6.19%) Security Cleared
7 13 (4.02%) CCIE
8 11 (3.41%) DV Cleared
9 10 (3.10%) SC Cleared
10 9 (2.79%) Microsoft Certification
11 8 (2.48%) PMP
12 6 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
14 4 (1.24%) AWS Certification
14 4 (1.24%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (1.24%) DBS Check
14 4 (1.24%) JNCIE
14 4 (1.24%) PMI Certification
15 3 (0.93%) CCIE Security
15 3 (0.93%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (19.20%) GRC
2 23 (7.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (4.95%) SLA
4 15 (4.64%) NIST
5 11 (3.41%) GDPR
6 7 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.24%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 2 (0.62%) QA
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 14001
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 62 (19.20%) Active Directory
2 40 (12.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (11.46%) Hyper-V
4 14 (4.33%) vSphere
5 10 (3.10%) VMware NSX
6 7 (2.17%) Firmware
7 6 (1.86%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (1.55%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 3 (0.93%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.62%) Docker
11 2 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.31%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.31%) KVM
12 1 (0.31%) QEMU
12 1 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.31%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.31%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (8.98%) Ansible
2 28 (8.67%) Microsoft Intune
3 27 (8.36%) FortiGate
4 14 (4.33%) CASB
5 7 (2.17%) Cisco CUCM
5 7 (2.17%) Grafana
6 6 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.55%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.55%) vCenter Server
8 4 (1.24%) QRadar
8 4 (1.24%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.93%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.62%) SCCM
10 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
11 1 (0.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.31%) Check_MK
11 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
11 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
11 1 (0.31%) Packer
11 1 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 164 (50.77%) Microsoft
2 143 (44.27%) Cisco
3 68 (21.05%) Palo Alto
4 54 (16.72%) VMware
5 40 (12.38%) Fortinet
6 23 (7.12%) Aruba
6 23 (7.12%) Meraki
7 20 (6.19%) Juniper
8 16 (4.95%) CheckPoint
8 16 (4.95%) Zscaler
9 15 (4.64%) Splunk
10 13 (4.02%) SolarWinds
11 6 (1.86%) Citrix
11 6 (1.86%) Dell
11 6 (1.86%) F5
11 6 (1.86%) Netskope
12 4 (1.24%) Dynatrace
12 4 (1.24%) N-able
12 4 (1.24%) NetApp
12 4 (1.24%) SonicWALL