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 20 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 193 205 141
Rank change year-on-year +12 -64 -17
Permanent jobs citing WAN 323 269 573
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.41% 1.62% 2.32%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.69% 13.89% 15.08%
Number of salaries quoted 199 199 399
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £39,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £50,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -7.41% +8.00%
75th Percentile £77,125 £70,000 £69,375
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £42,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +29.41% -15.00% +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 2,359 1,936 3,799
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.29% 11.69% 15.40%
Number of salaries quoted 1,326 1,171 1,957
10th Percentile £29,000 £25,087 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -8.70%
75th Percentile £73,750 £67,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £86,875 £85,000 £81,250
UK median annual salary £47,500 £41,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.85% -18.00% -3.85%

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 20 August 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 28 (8.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (7.43%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.31%) Confluence
3 1 (0.31%) IIS
3 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
Applications
1 8 (2.48%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.62%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.62%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.62%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 186 (57.59%) Azure
2 104 (32.20%) Microsoft 365
3 65 (20.12%) AWS
4 62 (19.20%) Cloud Computing
5 45 (13.93%) Entra ID
6 31 (9.60%) Power Platform
7 19 (5.88%) GCP
8 9 (2.79%) OneDrive
9 7 (2.17%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (2.17%) OCI
10 6 (1.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.55%) IaaS
11 5 (1.55%) PaaS
11 5 (1.55%) SaaS
12 4 (1.24%) AWS Direct Connect
12 4 (1.24%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.93%) Azure Monitor
13 3 (0.93%) Google Workspace
14 2 (0.62%) Datadog
14 2 (0.62%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 275 (85.14%) LAN
2 161 (49.85%) Firewall
3 88 (27.24%) SD-WAN
4 85 (26.32%) VPN
5 81 (25.08%) Network Security
6 66 (20.43%) DNS
7 60 (18.58%) DHCP
8 56 (17.34%) VLAN
9 50 (15.48%) Wireless
10 49 (15.17%) Wi-Fi
11 48 (14.86%) BGP
12 43 (13.31%) TCP/IP
13 42 (13.00%) MPLS
14 39 (12.07%) WLAN
15 31 (9.60%) OSPF
16 21 (6.50%) Cisco ISE
17 20 (6.19%) Cisco ASA
17 20 (6.19%) Cisco Firepower
18 19 (5.88%) Cisco Nexus
19 17 (5.26%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.48%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
2 1 (0.31%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.31%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.31%) MySQL
2 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 3 (0.93%) JIRA
2 2 (0.62%) Git
2 2 (0.62%) GitLab
3 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 155 (47.99%) Social Skills
2 80 (24.77%) Finance
3 66 (20.43%) Presentation Skills
4 47 (14.55%) Telecoms
5 40 (12.38%) Public Sector
6 31 (9.60%) Law
7 19 (5.88%) Banking
8 18 (5.57%) Retail
9 17 (5.26%) Marketing
10 12 (3.72%) Analytical Skills
11 8 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (2.48%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.24%) Electronics
12 4 (1.24%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.24%) Military
13 3 (0.93%) Legal
14 2 (0.62%) French Language
14 2 (0.62%) German Language
14 2 (0.62%) Local Government
15 1 (0.31%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 109 (33.75%) Architect
2 86 (26.63%) Network Engineer
3 58 (17.96%) Systems Architect
4 50 (15.48%) Senior
5 36 (11.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 32 (9.91%) Network Architect
7 25 (7.74%) Support Engineer
8 23 (7.12%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 22 (6.81%) IT Support
10 20 (6.19%) Senior Network Engineer
11 18 (5.57%) IT Engineer
12 17 (5.26%) Analyst
13 15 (4.64%) Lead
14 14 (4.33%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 14 (4.33%) 2nd Line Support
14 14 (4.33%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
14 14 (4.33%) IT Support Engineer
14 14 (4.33%) Solutions Architect
15 13 (4.02%) Network Manager
16 11 (3.41%) Network Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.88%) Terraform
2 10 (3.10%) OAuth
2 10 (3.10%) SAML
3 9 (2.79%) XMPP
4 7 (2.17%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.24%) LDAP
6 3 (0.93%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.31%) Jinja
7 1 (0.31%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 44 (13.62%) Data Centre
2 26 (8.05%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (5.26%) Onboarding
4 16 (4.95%) Security Posture
5 14 (4.33%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 10 (3.10%) Video Conferencing
7 9 (2.79%) FlexPod
7 9 (2.79%) Replication
8 8 (2.48%) PKI
8 8 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (2.17%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 4 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (1.24%) Clustering
11 4 (1.24%) Cyber Defence
11 4 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (1.24%) Driving Licence
11 4 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.62%) Client/Server
12 2 (0.62%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 62 (19.20%) Windows
2 51 (15.79%) Windows Server
3 18 (5.57%) Linux
4 10 (3.10%) Mac OS
5 8 (2.48%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (2.48%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.24%) Unix
7 3 (0.93%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.93%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.62%) CentOS
8 2 (0.62%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (27.55%) Project Delivery
2 76 (23.53%) Infrastructure as Code
2 76 (23.53%) Roadmaps
3 75 (23.22%) Network Architecture
4 70 (21.67%) Problem-Solving
5 68 (21.05%) Network Design
6 64 (19.81%) Logistics
6 64 (19.81%) Technical Architecture
7 62 (19.20%) Information Security
8 59 (18.27%) Containerisation
8 59 (18.27%) Risk Management
9 58 (17.96%) Business Case
9 58 (17.96%) Business Strategy
10 57 (17.65%) Cybersecurity
11 50 (15.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 47 (14.55%) Continuous Improvement
13 43 (13.31%) Stakeholder Management
14 35 (10.84%) Mentoring
15 34 (10.53%) Presales
16 33 (10.22%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 32 (9.91%) Python
2 22 (6.81%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.62%) Bash
4 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
4 1 (0.31%) Ruby
4 1 (0.31%) SQL
4 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 70 (21.67%) Cisco Certification
2 53 (16.41%) CCNP
3 34 (10.53%) CCNA
4 25 (7.74%) Security Cleared
5 21 (6.50%) Azure Certification
5 21 (6.50%) Degree
6 18 (5.57%) CCIE
7 15 (4.64%) SC Cleared
8 14 (4.33%) DV Cleared
9 8 (2.48%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.55%) PMP
12 4 (1.24%) AWS Certification
12 4 (1.24%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (1.24%) DBS Check
12 4 (1.24%) JNCIE
13 3 (0.93%) CCIE Security
13 3 (0.93%) CCSE
13 3 (0.93%) JNCIP
13 3 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (19.20%) GRC
2 24 (7.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (4.95%) NIST
3 16 (4.95%) SLA
4 11 (3.41%) GDPR
5 7 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.24%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 2 (0.62%) QA
9 1 (0.31%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 60 (18.58%) Active Directory
2 41 (12.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (12.38%) Hyper-V
4 16 (4.95%) vSphere
5 10 (3.10%) VMware NSX
6 7 (2.17%) Firmware
6 7 (2.17%) Virtual Servers
7 6 (1.86%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 6 (1.86%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.31%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 1 (0.31%) Docker
8 1 (0.31%) KVM
8 1 (0.31%) QEMU
8 1 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.31%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.31%) Xen
Systems Management
1 28 (8.67%) FortiGate
2 27 (8.36%) Ansible
3 22 (6.81%) Microsoft Intune
4 14 (4.33%) CASB
5 9 (2.79%) Cisco CUCM
5 9 (2.79%) Grafana
6 5 (1.55%) Kubernetes
6 5 (1.55%) vCenter Server
7 4 (1.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (1.24%) QRadar
7 4 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.24%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 3 (0.93%) Failover Clustering
9 2 (0.62%) OpenView
9 2 (0.62%) SCCM
9 2 (0.62%) Tivoli
9 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 164 (50.77%) Microsoft
2 139 (43.03%) Cisco
3 70 (21.67%) Palo Alto
4 57 (17.65%) VMware
5 40 (12.38%) Fortinet
6 24 (7.43%) Aruba
6 24 (7.43%) Meraki
7 21 (6.50%) Juniper
8 17 (5.26%) Splunk
8 17 (5.26%) Zscaler
9 16 (4.95%) CheckPoint
10 13 (4.02%) SolarWinds
11 7 (2.17%) F5
11 7 (2.17%) Netskope
12 6 (1.86%) ArcSight
12 6 (1.86%) NetApp
13 5 (1.55%) Citrix
13 5 (1.55%) Dell
13 5 (1.55%) HP
14 4 (1.24%) EMC