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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 189 192 143
Rank change year-on-year +3 -49 -15
Permanent jobs citing WAN 323 270 576
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.41% 1.63% 2.33%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.69% 13.94% 15.10%
Number of salaries quoted 198 197 398
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,000 £33,833
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 £76,613 £70,000 £69,688
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 1,937 3,815
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.27% 11.69% 15.43%
Number of salaries quoted 1,329 1,166 1,952
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 £86,500 £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 21 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
1 185 (57.28%) Azure
2 104 (32.20%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (19.81%) 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
1 276 (85.45%) LAN
2 161 (49.85%) Firewall
3 87 (26.93%) SD-WAN
4 84 (26.01%) VPN
5 81 (25.08%) Network Security
6 67 (20.74%) DNS
7 61 (18.89%) DHCP
8 57 (17.65%) VLAN
9 50 (15.48%) Wireless
10 49 (15.17%) BGP
10 49 (15.17%) Wi-Fi
11 43 (13.31%) TCP/IP
12 41 (12.69%) MPLS
13 39 (12.07%) WLAN
14 32 (9.91%) OSPF
15 21 (6.50%) Cisco ISE
16 20 (6.19%) Cisco ASA
16 20 (6.19%) Cisco Nexus
17 19 (5.88%) Cisco Firepower
18 16 (4.95%) Unified Communications
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 4 (1.24%) JIRA
2 3 (0.93%) Git
3 2 (0.62%) GitLab
3 2 (0.62%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
General
1 153 (47.37%) Social Skills
2 80 (24.77%) Finance
3 66 (20.43%) Presentation Skills
4 48 (14.86%) Telecoms
5 40 (12.38%) Public Sector
6 31 (9.60%) Law
7 20 (6.19%) Banking
8 19 (5.88%) Retail
9 18 (5.57%) 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
13 3 (0.93%) Legal
13 3 (0.93%) Military
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 51 (15.79%) 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 21 (6.50%) 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 12 (3.72%) Network Manager
16 11 (3.41%) Network Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (6.19%) 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
7 1 (0.31%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 46 (14.24%) Data Centre
2 26 (8.05%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (5.26%) Onboarding
4 15 (4.64%) 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
7 9 (2.79%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (2.48%) PKI
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 61 (18.89%) Windows
2 51 (15.79%) Windows Server
3 17 (5.26%) 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 90 (27.86%) Project Delivery
2 76 (23.53%) Infrastructure as Code
3 75 (23.22%) Network Architecture
3 75 (23.22%) Roadmaps
4 70 (21.67%) Network Design
4 70 (21.67%) Problem-Solving
5 64 (19.81%) Logistics
5 64 (19.81%) Technical Architecture
6 62 (19.20%) Information Security
7 59 (18.27%) Containerisation
7 59 (18.27%) Risk Management
8 58 (17.96%) Business Case
8 58 (17.96%) Business Strategy
8 58 (17.96%) Cybersecurity
9 50 (15.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 47 (14.55%) Continuous Improvement
11 42 (13.00%) Stakeholder Management
12 34 (10.53%) ITIL
12 34 (10.53%) Mentoring
13 33 (10.22%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 33 (10.22%) 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 69 (21.36%) Cisco Certification
2 52 (16.10%) CCNP
3 34 (10.53%) CCNA
4 24 (7.43%) Security Cleared
5 21 (6.50%) Azure Certification
6 20 (6.19%) Degree
7 16 (4.95%) CCIE
8 14 (4.33%) DV Cleared
8 14 (4.33%) SC Cleared
9 8 (2.48%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.86%) PMP
11 4 (1.24%) AWS Certification
11 4 (1.24%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (1.24%) DBS Check
11 4 (1.24%) JNCIE
12 3 (0.93%) CCSA
12 3 (0.93%) CCSE
12 3 (0.93%) JNCIP
12 3 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (19.20%) GRC
2 23 (7.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (4.95%) SLA
4 15 (4.64%) NIST
5 11 (3.41%) GDPR
6 7 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.24%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 2 (0.62%) QA
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 14001
10 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%) Ansible
1 28 (8.67%) FortiGate
2 22 (6.81%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (4.33%) CASB
4 9 (2.79%) Cisco CUCM
4 9 (2.79%) Grafana
5 5 (1.55%) Kubernetes
5 5 (1.55%) vCenter Server
6 4 (1.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (1.24%) QRadar
6 4 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (1.24%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 3 (0.93%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.62%) SCCM
8 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
9 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
9 1 (0.31%) OpenView
9 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.31%) Puppet
9 1 (0.31%) Tivoli
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%) NetApp
13 5 (1.55%) ArcSight
13 5 (1.55%) Citrix
13 5 (1.55%) Dell
14 4 (1.24%) Acronis
14 4 (1.24%) Dynatrace