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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 197 195 164
Rank change year-on-year -2 -31 -52
Permanent jobs citing WAN 320 266 471
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.30% 1.61% 2.04%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.25% 14.89% 13.35%
Number of salaries quoted 193 173 285
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,520 £35,500
25th Percentile £37,750 £40,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% +13.40%
75th Percentile £76,201 £80,000 £70,625
90th Percentile £83,500 £95,000 £84,964
UK median annual salary £55,000 £45,000 £50,500
% change year-on-year +22.22% -10.89% +5.21%

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 2,246 1,787 3,527
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 9.09% 10.84% 15.31%
Number of salaries quoted 1,358 1,016 1,565
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 £70,000 £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% -1.96%

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 25 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 28 (8.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (8.44%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.63%) Confluence
4 1 (0.31%) IIS
Applications
1 6 (1.88%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
1 1 (0.31%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 187 (58.44%) Azure
2 105 (32.81%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (19.69%) Cloud Computing
4 53 (16.56%) Entra ID
5 52 (16.25%) AWS
6 31 (9.69%) Power Platform
7 12 (3.75%) GCP
8 10 (3.13%) OneDrive
9 7 (2.19%) Azure Sentinel
10 6 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
10 6 (1.88%) IaaS
10 6 (1.88%) OCI
10 6 (1.88%) PaaS
10 6 (1.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.56%) SaaS
12 4 (1.25%) AWS Direct Connect
12 4 (1.25%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.94%) Azure DevOps
13 3 (0.94%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 3 (0.94%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 270 (84.38%) LAN
2 159 (49.69%) Firewall
3 83 (25.94%) Network Security
3 83 (25.94%) SD-WAN
4 81 (25.31%) VPN
5 64 (20.00%) DNS
6 61 (19.06%) DHCP
7 56 (17.50%) VLAN
8 52 (16.25%) Wireless
9 51 (15.94%) BGP
9 51 (15.94%) Wi-Fi
10 44 (13.75%) TCP/IP
11 41 (12.81%) WLAN
12 36 (11.25%) OSPF
13 35 (10.94%) MPLS
14 25 (7.81%) Cisco Nexus
15 20 (6.25%) Cisco ISE
16 17 (5.31%) Cisco ASA
17 16 (5.00%) Cisco Firepower
17 16 (5.00%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (3.13%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.31%) GIS
3 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
3 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (1.88%) Git
1 6 (1.88%) JIRA
2 5 (1.56%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (0.63%) GitLab
4 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
General
1 156 (48.75%) Social Skills
2 77 (24.06%) Finance
3 63 (19.69%) Presentation Skills
4 47 (14.69%) Telecoms
5 41 (12.81%) Public Sector
6 32 (10.00%) Law
7 22 (6.88%) Retail
8 18 (5.63%) Marketing
9 17 (5.31%) Banking
10 14 (4.38%) Analytical Skills
11 8 (2.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (2.19%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (1.88%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.94%) Legal
15 2 (0.63%) Automotive
15 2 (0.63%) Electronics
15 2 (0.63%) French Language
15 2 (0.63%) German Language
15 2 (0.63%) Local Government
15 2 (0.63%) Military
Job Titles
1 98 (30.63%) Architect
2 95 (29.69%) Network Engineer
3 58 (18.13%) Systems Architect
4 52 (16.25%) Senior
5 31 (9.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 29 (9.06%) Network Architect
7 25 (7.81%) Senior Network Engineer
8 24 (7.50%) Support Engineer
9 22 (6.88%) IT Support
10 21 (6.56%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 19 (5.94%) Lead
12 18 (5.63%) IT Engineer
13 17 (5.31%) Analyst
14 12 (3.75%) IT Support Engineer
14 12 (3.75%) Network Manager
15 11 (3.44%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 11 (3.44%) 2nd Line Support
15 11 (3.44%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
15 11 (3.44%) Network Support
15 11 (3.44%) Network Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (6.56%) Terraform
2 10 (3.13%) OAuth
2 10 (3.13%) SAML
3 8 (2.50%) 802.1X
4 6 (1.88%) XMPP
5 4 (1.25%) LDAP
5 4 (1.25%) YAML
6 3 (0.94%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.31%) Jinja
7 1 (0.31%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 53 (16.56%) Data Centre
2 27 (8.44%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (5.31%) Onboarding
3 17 (5.31%) Security Posture
4 14 (4.38%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 13 (4.06%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.50%) Driving Licence
7 7 (2.19%) Cloud Native
7 7 (2.19%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (2.19%) Video Conferencing
8 6 (1.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (1.88%) FlexPod
8 6 (1.88%) PKI
8 6 (1.88%) Replication
9 4 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.25%) Clustering
9 4 (1.25%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.25%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.94%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.63%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 57 (17.81%) Windows
2 43 (13.44%) Windows Server
3 12 (3.75%) Linux
4 7 (2.19%) Mac OS
5 5 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (1.56%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.94%) Unix
6 3 (0.94%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.63%) Android
7 2 (0.63%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.31%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (28.13%) Project Delivery
2 77 (24.06%) Network Design
3 74 (23.13%) Infrastructure as Code
4 73 (22.81%) Network Architecture
4 73 (22.81%) Problem-Solving
5 72 (22.50%) Roadmaps
6 65 (20.31%) Cybersecurity
6 65 (20.31%) Logistics
7 64 (20.00%) Technical Architecture
8 63 (19.69%) Information Security
9 60 (18.75%) Containerisation
10 59 (18.44%) Risk Management
11 58 (18.13%) Business Case
11 58 (18.13%) Business Strategy
12 51 (15.94%) Continuous Improvement
13 48 (15.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 38 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
15 34 (10.63%) Mentoring
16 33 (10.31%) IT Strategy
16 33 (10.31%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 31 (9.69%) Python
2 25 (7.81%) PowerShell
3 3 (0.94%) SQL
4 2 (0.63%) Bash
5 1 (0.31%) Bicep
5 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.31%) Ruby
5 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 65 (20.31%) Cisco Certification
2 52 (16.25%) CCNP
3 37 (11.56%) CCNA
4 21 (6.56%) Azure Certification
4 21 (6.56%) Degree
5 20 (6.25%) Security Cleared
6 11 (3.44%) CCIE
7 9 (2.81%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.81%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (2.81%) SC Cleared
8 8 (2.50%) PMP
9 5 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (1.56%) DBS Check
9 5 (1.56%) Network+ Certification
10 4 (1.25%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (1.25%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.94%) CCDP
12 2 (0.63%) A+ Certification
12 2 (0.63%) JNCIE
12 2 (0.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (19.38%) GRC
2 23 (7.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (5.00%) SLA
4 15 (4.69%) NIST
5 11 (3.44%) GDPR
6 7 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.25%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 2 (0.63%) QA
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 14001
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 62 (19.38%) Active Directory
2 37 (11.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (11.25%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.75%) vSphere
5 9 (2.81%) VMware NSX
6 7 (2.19%) Firmware
7 5 (1.56%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.25%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.94%) BitLocker
9 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 2 (0.63%) Docker
10 2 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.31%) KVM
11 1 (0.31%) QEMU
11 1 (0.31%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.31%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (9.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 27 (8.44%) FortiGate
3 24 (7.50%) Ansible
4 14 (4.38%) CASB
5 7 (2.19%) Cisco CUCM
5 7 (2.19%) Grafana
6 6 (1.88%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.25%) Kubernetes
7 4 (1.25%) QRadar
7 4 (1.25%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 4 (1.25%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.94%) Failover Clustering
9 2 (0.63%) SCCM
9 2 (0.63%) WhatsUp Gold
10 1 (0.31%) Check_MK
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco UCCE
10 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.31%) Packer
10 1 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 164 (51.25%) Microsoft
2 139 (43.44%) Cisco
3 62 (19.38%) Palo Alto
4 50 (15.63%) VMware
5 36 (11.25%) Fortinet
6 25 (7.81%) Aruba
7 21 (6.56%) Juniper
8 18 (5.63%) Meraki
9 14 (4.38%) CheckPoint
9 14 (4.38%) SolarWinds
9 14 (4.38%) Zscaler
10 13 (4.06%) Splunk
11 6 (1.88%) Citrix
11 6 (1.88%) Dell
11 6 (1.88%) F5
12 5 (1.56%) Dynatrace
13 4 (1.25%) Acronis
13 4 (1.25%) ArcSight
13 4 (1.25%) N-able
13 4 (1.25%) Netskope