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

6 months to
6 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 192 185 121
Rank change year-on-year -7 -64 +63
Permanent jobs citing WAN 213 239 801
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.25% 1.85% 2.55%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.26% 14.76% 18.15%
Number of salaries quoted 150 186 671
10th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £29,250
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +19.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £77,500 £66,050 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,625 £85,000 £84,919
UK median annual salary £50,000 £51,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +8.42% -

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 1,892 1,619 4,413
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 11.12% 12.56% 14.07%
Number of salaries quoted 959 1,197 3,455
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,650 £30,850
25th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,445 £52,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.72% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £71,250 £68,750 £67,000
90th Percentile £88,750 £85,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £52,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -19.05% +10.53% -7.22%

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 6 April 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 48 (22.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 41 (19.25%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.94%) Apache
3 2 (0.94%) Confluence
3 2 (0.94%) nginx
4 1 (0.47%) IIS
4 1 (0.47%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (5.63%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.88%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.41%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.41%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.94%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 119 (55.87%) Azure
2 81 (38.03%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (28.17%) AWS
4 41 (19.25%) Entra ID
5 18 (8.45%) Google Workspace
6 16 (7.51%) OneDrive
7 13 (6.10%) GCP
8 12 (5.63%) SaaS
9 11 (5.16%) AWS Direct Connect
10 9 (4.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 4 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (1.88%) OCI
12 3 (1.41%) Azure Sentinel
13 2 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
13 2 (0.94%) Microsoft Purview
13 2 (0.94%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.94%) SuccessFactors
14 1 (0.47%) Azure DevOps
14 1 (0.47%) OpenShift
14 1 (0.47%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 143 (67.14%) LAN
2 100 (46.95%) SD-WAN
3 92 (43.19%) Firewall
3 92 (43.19%) VPN
4 73 (34.27%) DNS
5 63 (29.58%) DHCP
6 58 (27.23%) Wi-Fi
7 57 (26.76%) TCP/IP
8 37 (17.37%) VLAN
9 32 (15.02%) BGP
10 31 (14.55%) MPLS
11 28 (13.15%) Network Security
11 28 (13.15%) WLAN
12 26 (12.21%) Cisco Firepower
13 25 (11.74%) Wireless
14 24 (11.27%) VoIP
15 22 (10.33%) Cisco ASA
16 20 (9.39%) OSPF
17 19 (8.92%) Cisco ISE
18 14 (6.57%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.94%) Power BI
1 2 (0.94%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.47%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.47%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.47%) MySQL
2 1 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.47%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.47%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 5 (2.35%) JIRA
2 1 (0.47%) Jenkins
General
1 70 (32.86%) Social Skills
2 40 (18.78%) Finance
3 24 (11.27%) Public Sector
4 16 (7.51%) Retail
5 14 (6.57%) Banking
5 14 (6.57%) Organisational Skills
6 13 (6.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (6.10%) Manufacturing
7 11 (5.16%) Telecoms
8 10 (4.69%) Analytical Skills
9 7 (3.29%) Marketing
10 6 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (2.35%) Law
12 4 (1.88%) Aerospace
12 4 (1.88%) Electronics
13 3 (1.41%) Automotive
13 3 (1.41%) Police
14 2 (0.94%) Legal
14 2 (0.94%) Military
14 2 (0.94%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 59 (27.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 50 (23.47%) Network Engineer
3 47 (22.07%) Senior
4 42 (19.72%) IT Engineer
5 29 (13.62%) IT Support
5 29 (13.62%) Support Engineer
6 28 (13.15%) Architect
7 24 (11.27%) IT Support Engineer
8 22 (10.33%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 21 (9.86%) 2nd Line Support
9 21 (9.86%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
10 18 (8.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 18 (8.45%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
10 18 (8.45%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
10 18 (8.45%) Operations Engineer
11 17 (7.98%) Senior Network Engineer
12 12 (5.63%) Network Operations Engineer
13 11 (5.16%) Analyst
14 10 (4.69%) Solutions Architect
14 10 (4.69%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.82%) XMPP
2 3 (1.41%) LDAP
3 2 (0.94%) Web Services
4 1 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 36 (16.90%) Data Centre
2 16 (7.51%) Driving Licence
3 11 (5.16%) Onboarding
4 10 (4.69%) Management Information System
4 10 (4.69%) Self-Motivation
4 10 (4.69%) Video Conferencing
5 8 (3.76%) Enterprise Software
5 8 (3.76%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (3.76%) PKI
6 7 (3.29%) Replication
7 6 (2.82%) FlexPod
7 6 (2.82%) Social Media
8 5 (2.35%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.88%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.88%) iPad
9 4 (1.88%) iPhone
9 4 (1.88%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.41%) CMDB
10 3 (1.41%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 83 (38.97%) Windows
2 70 (32.86%) Windows Server
3 35 (16.43%) Windows 10
4 24 (11.27%) Linux
5 21 (9.86%) Mac OS
6 18 (8.45%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (7.51%) Windows Server 2012
8 15 (7.04%) Windows Server 2019
9 12 (5.63%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.41%) CentOS
10 3 (1.41%) OpenWrt
10 3 (1.41%) Unix
11 2 (0.94%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.47%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.47%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.47%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (36.62%) Problem-Solving
2 64 (30.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 42 (19.72%) ITIL
4 39 (18.31%) Continuous Improvement
5 36 (16.90%) Disaster Recovery
6 29 (13.62%) Zero Trust
7 28 (13.15%) Mentoring
7 28 (13.15%) Migration
7 28 (13.15%) Service Delivery
8 25 (11.74%) Customer Service
9 22 (10.33%) Cloud Security
10 21 (9.86%) Service Management
10 21 (9.86%) Stakeholder Management
11 20 (9.39%) Change Management
12 19 (8.92%) Presales
12 19 (8.92%) Root Cause Analysis
13 18 (8.45%) Kalman Filter
14 15 (7.04%) Project Delivery
14 15 (7.04%) Roadmaps
14 15 (7.04%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 18 (8.45%) Python
2 13 (6.10%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.29%) SQL
4 4 (1.88%) Bash
5 3 (1.41%) C
5 3 (1.41%) C++
6 2 (0.94%) Java
6 2 (0.94%) Perl
7 1 (0.47%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.47%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (16.90%) Cisco Certification
2 26 (12.21%) Security Cleared
3 25 (11.74%) SC Cleared
4 21 (9.86%) CCNP
5 20 (9.39%) Degree
5 20 (9.39%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (7.98%) CCNA
7 11 (5.16%) CCIE
7 11 (5.16%) DV Cleared
8 10 (4.69%) Azure Certification
8 10 (4.69%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (4.23%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (2.82%) DBS Check
11 5 (2.35%) MCSA
12 4 (1.88%) CCSA
12 4 (1.88%) CCSE
12 4 (1.88%) MCSE
12 4 (1.88%) Network+ Certification
13 3 (1.41%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 13 (6.10%) SLA
2 11 (5.16%) Cyber Essentials
2 11 (5.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 4 (1.88%) QA
4 3 (1.41%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 2 (0.94%) NCSC
6 1 (0.47%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.47%) Basel III
6 1 (0.47%) GRC
6 1 (0.47%) MiFID
6 1 (0.47%) NIST
6 1 (0.47%) PMO
System Software
1 63 (29.58%) Active Directory
2 33 (15.49%) Hyper-V
3 29 (13.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.23%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (3.76%) vSphere
6 7 (3.29%) Virtual Servers
7 6 (2.82%) Firmware
8 5 (2.35%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 4 (1.88%) VMware NSX
10 3 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.94%) Docker
12 1 (0.47%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.47%) KVM
12 1 (0.47%) QEMU
12 1 (0.47%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.47%) Xen
Systems Management
1 34 (15.96%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (8.92%) Ansible
3 17 (7.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 15 (7.04%) Terraform
5 13 (6.10%) FortiGate
6 6 (2.82%) Cisco CUCM
6 6 (2.82%) Endace
6 6 (2.82%) Grafana
7 5 (2.35%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (1.88%) Kubernetes
8 4 (1.88%) PaperCut
9 3 (1.41%) Autotask
9 3 (1.41%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.94%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.94%) OpenView
10 2 (0.94%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.94%) Red Hat Spacewalk
10 2 (0.94%) Tivoli
11 1 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
11 1 (0.47%) SCCM
Vendors
1 95 (44.60%) Cisco
2 88 (41.31%) Microsoft
3 51 (23.94%) Fortinet
4 43 (20.19%) VMware
5 35 (16.43%) Meraki
6 26 (12.21%) Palo Alto
7 18 (8.45%) CheckPoint
7 18 (8.45%) Google
8 14 (6.57%) Juniper
8 14 (6.57%) SolarWinds
9 11 (5.16%) Dynatrace
10 10 (4.69%) Splunk
11 9 (4.23%) ServiceNow
12 7 (3.29%) F5
13 6 (2.82%) Zscaler
14 5 (2.35%) Apple
14 5 (2.35%) Aruba
14 5 (2.35%) NetApp
15 4 (1.88%) HP
15 4 (1.88%) Red Hat