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

 6 months to
15 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 179 195 127
Rank change year-on-year +16 -68 +17
Permanent jobs citing WAN 319 272 753
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.49% 1.65% 2.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.52% 13.88% 15.78%
Number of salaries quoted 204 196 566
10th Percentile £31,553 £28,000 £33,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £50,000 £53,750
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -6.98% +7.50%
75th Percentile £77,500 £67,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £84,625 £88,750 £84,919
UK median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% - -

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 1,959 4,771
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 11.05% 11.88% 14.95%
Number of salaries quoted 1,277 1,198 2,988
10th Percentile £29,750 £25,087 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £39,750
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 £67,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £85,000 £80,375
UK median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -7.50%

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 July 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 37 (11.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (9.72%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.31%) IIS
3 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
Applications
1 9 (2.82%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.94%) AutoCAD
3 3 (0.94%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.94%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
1 1 (0.31%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 191 (59.87%) Azure
2 116 (36.36%) Microsoft 365
3 71 (22.26%) AWS
4 54 (16.93%) Cloud Computing
5 51 (15.99%) Entra ID
6 32 (10.03%) Power Platform
7 16 (5.02%) GCP
8 10 (3.13%) AWS Direct Connect
8 10 (3.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 9 (2.82%) OneDrive
9 9 (2.82%) SaaS
10 8 (2.51%) Google Workspace
11 6 (1.88%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (1.57%) OCI
13 3 (0.94%) Azure Monitor
13 3 (0.94%) IaaS
13 3 (0.94%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.94%) PaaS
14 2 (0.63%) Azure AKS
14 2 (0.63%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 262 (82.13%) LAN
2 156 (48.90%) Firewall
3 104 (32.60%) VPN
4 97 (30.41%) SD-WAN
5 83 (26.02%) DNS
6 70 (21.94%) DHCP
7 65 (20.38%) Network Security
8 57 (17.87%) Wi-Fi
9 54 (16.93%) TCP/IP
10 51 (15.99%) MPLS
11 49 (15.36%) BGP
12 47 (14.73%) VLAN
13 40 (12.54%) WLAN
14 39 (12.23%) Wireless
15 29 (9.09%) Cisco Firepower
16 28 (8.78%) OSPF
17 27 (8.46%) Cisco ISE
18 22 (6.90%) Cisco ASA
19 21 (6.58%) IPsec
20 20 (6.27%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.57%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.31%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.31%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.31%) MySQL
2 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.31%) Power BI
2 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 3 (0.94%) JIRA
2 1 (0.31%) GitLab
2 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
General
1 146 (45.77%) Social Skills
2 83 (26.02%) Finance
3 57 (17.87%) Presentation Skills
4 40 (12.54%) Telecoms
5 37 (11.60%) Public Sector
6 33 (10.34%) Law
7 18 (5.64%) Banking
8 15 (4.70%) Marketing
8 15 (4.70%) Retail
9 13 (4.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (3.76%) Analytical Skills
11 9 (2.82%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.25%) Electronics
12 4 (1.25%) Military
13 3 (0.94%) Legal
13 3 (0.94%) Manufacturing
14 2 (0.63%) Local Government
14 2 (0.63%) Retail Banking
15 1 (0.31%) Dutch Language
15 1 (0.31%) French Language
Job Titles
1 107 (33.54%) Architect
2 72 (22.57%) Network Engineer
3 51 (15.99%) Systems Architect
4 50 (15.67%) Senior
5 49 (15.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 36 (11.29%) IT Engineer
7 33 (10.34%) Network Architect
8 31 (9.72%) Support Engineer
9 30 (9.40%) IT Support
10 24 (7.52%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 23 (7.21%) IT Support Engineer
12 18 (5.64%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 18 (5.64%) 2nd Line Support
12 18 (5.64%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 16 (5.02%) Analyst
13 16 (5.02%) Senior Network Engineer
13 16 (5.02%) Solutions Architect
14 13 (4.08%) Network Manager
15 12 (3.76%) Lead
16 11 (3.45%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (3.13%) OAuth
1 10 (3.13%) SAML
2 9 (2.82%) XMPP
3 4 (1.25%) 802.1X
3 4 (1.25%) LDAP
4 3 (0.94%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.31%) JSON
5 1 (0.31%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 45 (14.11%) Data Centre
2 24 (7.52%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (4.70%) Security Posture
4 14 (4.39%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 13 (4.08%) Onboarding
6 12 (3.76%) PKI
7 10 (3.13%) Driving Licence
7 10 (3.13%) Video Conferencing
8 9 (2.82%) FlexPod
8 9 (2.82%) Replication
9 8 (2.51%) Cloud Native
10 7 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
12 4 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (1.25%) Clustering
12 4 (1.25%) Cyber Defence
12 4 (1.25%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (1.25%) Management Information System
13 3 (0.94%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 3 (0.94%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 72 (22.57%) Windows
2 60 (18.81%) Windows Server
3 22 (6.90%) Linux
4 19 (5.96%) Mac OS
5 13 (4.08%) Windows Server 2016
6 12 (3.76%) Windows 10
6 12 (3.76%) Windows Server 2019
7 8 (2.51%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (1.25%) Unix
9 3 (0.94%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.63%) CentOS
10 2 (0.63%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.31%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.31%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (25.08%) Problem-Solving
2 78 (24.45%) Project Delivery
3 71 (22.26%) Network Architecture
4 67 (21.00%) Infrastructure as Code
5 66 (20.69%) Roadmaps
6 65 (20.38%) Network Design
7 62 (19.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 57 (17.87%) Technical Architecture
9 56 (17.55%) Logistics
10 54 (16.93%) Information Security
11 53 (16.61%) Risk Management
12 52 (16.30%) Business Case
12 52 (16.30%) Business Strategy
12 52 (16.30%) Containerisation
13 47 (14.73%) Cybersecurity
14 42 (13.17%) Continuous Improvement
15 41 (12.85%) Stakeholder Management
16 39 (12.23%) Disaster Recovery
17 32 (10.03%) Presales
18 31 (9.72%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 29 (9.09%) Python
2 20 (6.27%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.63%) Bash
3 2 (0.63%) SQL
4 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
4 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 60 (18.81%) Cisco Certification
2 48 (15.05%) CCNP
3 35 (10.97%) CCNA
4 31 (9.72%) Security Cleared
5 24 (7.52%) SC Cleared
6 22 (6.90%) Degree
7 18 (5.64%) CCIE
8 17 (5.33%) Azure Certification
9 15 (4.70%) DV Cleared
10 13 (4.08%) Microsoft Certification
11 9 (2.82%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
13 5 (1.57%) CCSA
13 5 (1.57%) CCSE
13 5 (1.57%) PMP
14 4 (1.25%) DBS Check
14 4 (1.25%) JNCIE
15 3 (0.94%) AWS Certification
15 3 (0.94%) CCIE Security
15 3 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (15.99%) GRC
2 24 (7.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (3.76%) NIST
4 10 (3.13%) SLA
5 9 (2.82%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (1.25%) GDPR
8 3 (0.94%) QA
9 2 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 14001
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 68 (21.32%) Active Directory
2 39 (12.23%) Hyper-V
2 39 (12.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (4.70%) vSphere
4 8 (2.51%) VMware NSX
5 7 (2.19%) Virtual Servers
6 6 (1.88%) Firmware
6 6 (1.88%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 6 (1.88%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.31%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 1 (0.31%) Docker
7 1 (0.31%) KVM
7 1 (0.31%) QEMU
7 1 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.31%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.31%) Xen
Systems Management
1 26 (8.15%) Ansible
1 26 (8.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (7.84%) FortiGate
3 17 (5.33%) Terraform
4 10 (3.13%) CASB
5 9 (2.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 9 (2.82%) Cisco CUCM
5 9 (2.82%) Grafana
6 5 (1.57%) Endace
6 5 (1.57%) vCenter Server
7 4 (1.25%) Kubernetes
7 4 (1.25%) QRadar
8 3 (0.94%) Failover Clustering
8 3 (0.94%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 2 (0.63%) OpenView
9 2 (0.63%) SCCM
9 2 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.63%) Tivoli
9 2 (0.63%) WhatsUp Gold
10 1 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 167 (52.35%) Microsoft
2 135 (42.32%) Cisco
3 63 (19.75%) Palo Alto
4 54 (16.93%) VMware
5 51 (15.99%) Fortinet
6 36 (11.29%) Meraki
7 23 (7.21%) Juniper
8 19 (5.96%) CheckPoint
8 19 (5.96%) SolarWinds
9 17 (5.33%) Splunk
10 16 (5.02%) Aruba
11 12 (3.76%) F5
12 11 (3.45%) Zscaler
13 10 (3.13%) Dynatrace
14 8 (2.51%) Google
15 6 (1.88%) ArcSight
15 6 (1.88%) NetApp
16 5 (1.57%) Citrix
16 5 (1.57%) ServiceNow
17 4 (1.25%) EMC
166 hybrid/remote WAN jobs