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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 187 198 135
Rank change year-on-year +11 -63 -13
Permanent jobs citing WAN 325 271 573
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.42% 1.64% 2.31%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.78% 13.98% 15.08%
Number of salaries quoted 200 201 400
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 £76,938 £70,000 £70,000
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 1,939 3,800
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.30% 11.76% 15.35%
Number of salaries quoted 1,322 1,173 1,961
10th Percentile £29,083 £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 £87,375 £85,000 £80,000
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 19 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 (8.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (7.38%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.31%) Confluence
3 1 (0.31%) IIS
3 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
Applications
1 8 (2.46%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.92%) 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
1 187 (57.54%) Azure
2 104 (32.00%) Microsoft 365
3 65 (20.00%) AWS
4 62 (19.08%) Cloud Computing
5 45 (13.85%) Entra ID
6 31 (9.54%) Power Platform
7 19 (5.85%) GCP
8 9 (2.77%) OneDrive
9 7 (2.15%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (2.15%) OCI
10 6 (1.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.54%) IaaS
11 5 (1.54%) PaaS
11 5 (1.54%) SaaS
12 4 (1.23%) AWS Direct Connect
12 4 (1.23%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.92%) Azure Monitor
13 3 (0.92%) Google Workspace
14 2 (0.62%) Datadog
14 2 (0.62%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 277 (85.23%) LAN
2 163 (50.15%) Firewall
3 90 (27.69%) SD-WAN
4 86 (26.46%) VPN
5 83 (25.54%) Network Security
6 66 (20.31%) DNS
7 60 (18.46%) DHCP
8 57 (17.54%) VLAN
9 51 (15.69%) Wireless
10 50 (15.38%) BGP
10 50 (15.38%) Wi-Fi
11 44 (13.54%) TCP/IP
12 42 (12.92%) MPLS
13 40 (12.31%) WLAN
14 32 (9.85%) OSPF
15 22 (6.77%) Cisco ISE
16 20 (6.15%) Cisco ASA
16 20 (6.15%) Cisco Firepower
16 20 (6.15%) Cisco Nexus
17 17 (5.23%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.46%) 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 (0.92%) 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 (47.69%) Social Skills
2 80 (24.62%) Finance
3 66 (20.31%) Presentation Skills
4 47 (14.46%) Telecoms
5 40 (12.31%) Public Sector
6 31 (9.54%) Law
7 19 (5.85%) Banking
8 18 (5.54%) Retail
9 17 (5.23%) Marketing
10 12 (3.69%) Analytical Skills
11 9 (2.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (2.46%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (1.23%) Electronics
13 4 (1.23%) Manufacturing
13 4 (1.23%) Military
14 3 (0.92%) Legal
15 2 (0.62%) French Language
15 2 (0.62%) German Language
15 2 (0.62%) Local Government
16 1 (0.31%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 109 (33.54%) Architect
2 87 (26.77%) Network Engineer
3 58 (17.85%) Systems Architect
4 51 (15.69%) Senior
5 36 (11.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 32 (9.85%) Network Architect
7 25 (7.69%) Support Engineer
8 23 (7.08%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 22 (6.77%) IT Support
10 21 (6.46%) Senior Network Engineer
11 18 (5.54%) IT Engineer
12 17 (5.23%) Analyst
13 15 (4.62%) Lead
14 14 (4.31%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 14 (4.31%) 2nd Line Support
14 14 (4.31%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
14 14 (4.31%) IT Support Engineer
14 14 (4.31%) Solutions Architect
15 13 (4.00%) Network Manager
16 11 (3.38%) Network Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (3.08%) OAuth
1 10 (3.08%) SAML
2 9 (2.77%) XMPP
3 7 (2.15%) 802.1X
4 4 (1.23%) LDAP
5 3 (0.92%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.31%) Jinja
6 1 (0.31%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 44 (13.54%) Data Centre
2 26 (8.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (5.23%) Onboarding
4 16 (4.92%) Security Posture
5 14 (4.31%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 10 (3.08%) Video Conferencing
7 9 (2.77%) FlexPod
7 9 (2.77%) Replication
8 8 (2.46%) PKI
8 8 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (2.15%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 4 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (1.23%) Clustering
11 4 (1.23%) Cyber Defence
11 4 (1.23%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (1.23%) Driving Licence
11 4 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.62%) Client/Server
12 2 (0.62%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 62 (19.08%) Windows
2 51 (15.69%) Windows Server
3 18 (5.54%) Linux
4 10 (3.08%) Mac OS
5 8 (2.46%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (2.46%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.23%) Unix
7 3 (0.92%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.92%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.62%) CentOS
8 2 (0.62%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (27.38%) Project Delivery
2 76 (23.38%) Infrastructure as Code
2 76 (23.38%) Network Architecture
2 76 (23.38%) Roadmaps
3 70 (21.54%) Problem-Solving
4 68 (20.92%) Network Design
5 64 (19.69%) Logistics
5 64 (19.69%) Technical Architecture
6 62 (19.08%) Information Security
7 59 (18.15%) Containerisation
7 59 (18.15%) Risk Management
8 58 (17.85%) Business Case
8 58 (17.85%) Business Strategy
9 57 (17.54%) Cybersecurity
10 50 (15.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 47 (14.46%) Continuous Improvement
12 43 (13.23%) Stakeholder Management
13 35 (10.77%) Mentoring
14 34 (10.46%) Presales
15 33 (10.15%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 32 (9.85%) Python
2 22 (6.77%) 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 (21.54%) Cisco Certification
2 53 (16.31%) CCNP
3 34 (10.46%) CCNA
4 25 (7.69%) Security Cleared
5 22 (6.77%) Azure Certification
6 21 (6.46%) Degree
7 18 (5.54%) CCIE
8 15 (4.62%) SC Cleared
9 14 (4.31%) DV Cleared
10 8 (2.46%) Microsoft Certification
11 7 (2.15%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (1.54%) PMP
13 4 (1.23%) AWS Certification
13 4 (1.23%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (1.23%) DBS Check
13 4 (1.23%) JNCIE
14 3 (0.92%) CCIE Security
14 3 (0.92%) CCSE
14 3 (0.92%) JNCIP
14 3 (0.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (19.08%) GRC
2 24 (7.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (4.92%) NIST
3 16 (4.92%) SLA
4 11 (3.38%) GDPR
5 7 (2.15%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.23%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.92%) 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 (18.46%) Active Directory
2 41 (12.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (12.31%) Hyper-V
4 16 (4.92%) vSphere
5 10 (3.08%) VMware NSX
6 7 (2.15%) Firmware
6 7 (2.15%) Virtual Servers
7 6 (1.85%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 6 (1.85%) 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 29 (8.92%) FortiGate
2 27 (8.31%) Ansible
3 22 (6.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (5.85%) Terraform
5 14 (4.31%) CASB
6 9 (2.77%) Cisco CUCM
6 9 (2.77%) Grafana
7 5 (1.54%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.54%) vCenter Server
8 4 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.23%) QRadar
8 4 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.23%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.92%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.62%) OpenView
10 2 (0.62%) SCCM
10 2 (0.62%) Tivoli
10 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
11 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
11 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 164 (50.46%) Microsoft
2 141 (43.38%) Cisco
3 71 (21.85%) Palo Alto
4 57 (17.54%) VMware
5 41 (12.62%) Fortinet
6 24 (7.38%) Aruba
6 24 (7.38%) Meraki
7 21 (6.46%) Juniper
8 17 (5.23%) Splunk
8 17 (5.23%) Zscaler
9 16 (4.92%) CheckPoint
10 13 (4.00%) SolarWinds
11 7 (2.15%) F5
11 7 (2.15%) Netskope
12 6 (1.85%) ArcSight
12 6 (1.85%) NetApp
13 5 (1.54%) Citrix
13 5 (1.54%) Dell
13 5 (1.54%) HP
14 4 (1.23%) EMC