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

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 191 193 129
Rank change year-on-year +2 -64 +49
Permanent jobs citing WAN 233 259 774
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.27% 1.80% 2.38%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.69% 15.69% 15.19%
Number of salaries quoted 163 188 619
10th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -4.76% -0.28%
75th Percentile £77,500 £66,563 £69,250
90th Percentile £87,500 £88,250 £84,919
UK median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year - +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 1,993 1,651 5,097
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.87% 11.49% 15.68%
Number of salaries quoted 958 1,190 3,379
10th Percentile £30,000 £25,313 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,242 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.48% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,750 £86,250 £80,000
UK median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.00%

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 9 May 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 44 (18.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 40 (17.17%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.86%) Apache
3 2 (0.86%) Confluence
3 2 (0.86%) nginx
4 1 (0.43%) IIS
4 1 (0.43%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (5.15%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.72%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.29%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.29%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 2 (0.86%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.43%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 136 (58.37%) Azure
2 85 (36.48%) Microsoft 365
3 74 (31.76%) AWS
4 43 (18.45%) Entra ID
5 16 (6.87%) GCP
5 16 (6.87%) OneDrive
6 15 (6.44%) AWS Direct Connect
6 15 (6.44%) Google Workspace
6 15 (6.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (6.01%) SaaS
8 6 (2.58%) Azure Monitor
8 6 (2.58%) OCI
9 4 (1.72%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.86%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (0.86%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.86%) SuccessFactors
11 1 (0.43%) Azure DevOps
11 1 (0.43%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.43%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.43%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 164 (70.39%) LAN
2 113 (48.50%) Firewall
3 112 (48.07%) SD-WAN
4 98 (42.06%) VPN
5 71 (30.47%) DNS
6 57 (24.46%) DHCP
7 56 (24.03%) TCP/IP
8 55 (23.61%) Wi-Fi
9 41 (17.60%) MPLS
10 40 (17.17%) WLAN
11 39 (16.74%) BGP
12 38 (16.31%) VLAN
13 34 (14.59%) Cisco Firepower
13 34 (14.59%) Network Security
14 31 (13.30%) Cisco ISE
14 31 (13.30%) Wireless
15 29 (12.45%) Cisco ASA
16 26 (11.16%) OSPF
17 21 (9.01%) VoIP
18 18 (7.73%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.86%) Power BI
1 2 (0.86%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.43%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.43%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.43%) MySQL
2 1 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.43%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.43%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (0.86%) JIRA
2 1 (0.43%) Jenkins
General
1 69 (29.61%) Social Skills
2 44 (18.88%) Finance
3 37 (15.88%) Public Sector
4 18 (7.73%) Retail
5 17 (7.30%) Banking
6 16 (6.87%) Telecoms
7 15 (6.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (5.58%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (4.72%) Marketing
10 10 (4.29%) Manufacturing
11 6 (2.58%) Analytical Skills
11 6 (2.58%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (2.15%) Law
13 4 (1.72%) Electronics
14 3 (1.29%) Police
15 2 (0.86%) Legal
15 2 (0.86%) Military
15 2 (0.86%) Retail Banking
16 1 (0.43%) Fire and Rescue
16 1 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 65 (27.90%) Network Engineer
2 57 (24.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 50 (21.46%) Senior
4 40 (17.17%) IT Engineer
5 37 (15.88%) Architect
6 32 (13.73%) Support Engineer
7 27 (11.59%) IT Support
8 24 (10.30%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 23 (9.87%) IT Support Engineer
10 21 (9.01%) 2nd Line Support
11 18 (7.73%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 18 (7.73%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
11 18 (7.73%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
12 17 (7.30%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
12 17 (7.30%) Network Architect
12 17 (7.30%) Operations Engineer
12 17 (7.30%) Senior Network Engineer
13 14 (6.01%) Solutions Architect
14 12 (5.15%) Analyst
14 12 (5.15%) Network Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.86%) XMPP
2 4 (1.72%) LDAP
3 2 (0.86%) 802.1X
3 2 (0.86%) ARM Templates
3 2 (0.86%) Web Services
4 1 (0.43%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 43 (18.45%) Data Centre
2 18 (7.73%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (6.44%) Driving Licence
4 13 (5.58%) Onboarding
4 13 (5.58%) Video Conferencing
5 11 (4.72%) PKI
6 10 (4.29%) Management Information System
7 9 (3.86%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (3.86%) FlexPod
8 8 (3.43%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (3.00%) Replication
10 6 (2.58%) Social Media
11 5 (2.15%) Cloud Native
11 5 (2.15%) Product Ownership
12 4 (1.72%) iPad
12 4 (1.72%) iPhone
12 4 (1.72%) Mobile App
12 4 (1.72%) Public Cloud
13 3 (1.29%) Private Cloud
13 3 (1.29%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 77 (33.05%) Windows
2 64 (27.47%) Windows Server
3 32 (13.73%) Windows 10
4 23 (9.87%) Linux
5 20 (8.58%) Mac OS
6 14 (6.01%) Windows Server 2012
6 14 (6.01%) Windows Server 2016
7 13 (5.58%) Windows Server 2019
8 12 (5.15%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.72%) CentOS
9 4 (1.72%) Unix
10 2 (0.86%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.86%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.43%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.43%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.43%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (30.90%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (27.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 43 (18.45%) Disaster Recovery
4 38 (16.31%) ITIL
5 35 (15.02%) Continuous Improvement
6 33 (14.16%) Zero Trust
7 29 (12.45%) Service Delivery
8 28 (12.02%) Mentoring
9 26 (11.16%) Stakeholder Management
10 25 (10.73%) Migration
11 23 (9.87%) Cloud Security
11 23 (9.87%) Presales
12 22 (9.44%) Service Management
13 21 (9.01%) Cybersecurity
14 20 (8.58%) Roadmaps
14 20 (8.58%) Root Cause Analysis
14 20 (8.58%) Technical Leadership
15 19 (8.15%) Customer Service
15 19 (8.15%) Network Architecture
16 18 (7.73%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (9.87%) Python
2 11 (4.72%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.72%) SQL
4 3 (1.29%) Bash
5 2 (0.86%) Java
5 2 (0.86%) Perl
6 1 (0.43%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.43%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 40 (17.17%) Cisco Certification
2 30 (12.88%) Security Cleared
3 26 (11.16%) CCNP
3 26 (11.16%) SC Cleared
4 19 (8.15%) CCNA
4 19 (8.15%) Degree
5 17 (7.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (5.58%) CCIE
7 12 (5.15%) DV Cleared
8 11 (4.72%) Azure Certification
8 11 (4.72%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (3.86%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (2.15%) CCSA
10 5 (2.15%) CCSE
10 5 (2.15%) DBS Check
11 4 (1.72%) MCSA
12 3 (1.29%) JNCIE
12 3 (1.29%) JNCIP
12 3 (1.29%) MCSE
12 3 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (6.01%) SLA
3 10 (4.29%) Cyber Essentials
3 10 (4.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.72%) QA
5 3 (1.29%) GDPR
5 3 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 3 (1.29%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.86%) NIST
7 1 (0.43%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.43%) Basel III
7 1 (0.43%) MiFID
7 1 (0.43%) NCSC
System Software
1 60 (25.75%) Active Directory
2 31 (13.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (10.73%) Hyper-V
4 11 (4.72%) vSphere
5 7 (3.00%) Firmware
5 7 (3.00%) Virtual Servers
6 6 (2.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (2.15%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.72%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.86%) Docker
10 1 (0.43%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.43%) KVM
10 1 (0.43%) QEMU
10 1 (0.43%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.43%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.43%) Xen
Systems Management
1 28 (12.02%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (10.73%) Ansible
3 18 (7.73%) FortiGate
4 17 (7.30%) Terraform
5 15 (6.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 9 (3.86%) Cisco CUCM
6 9 (3.86%) Grafana
7 6 (2.58%) Endace
8 5 (2.15%) vCenter Server
9 4 (1.72%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (1.72%) Kubernetes
9 4 (1.72%) PaperCut
10 2 (0.86%) Autotask
10 2 (0.86%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.86%) OpenView
10 2 (0.86%) QRadar
10 2 (0.86%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.86%) Red Hat Spacewalk
10 2 (0.86%) SCCM
10 2 (0.86%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 114 (48.93%) Cisco
2 90 (38.63%) Microsoft
3 56 (24.03%) Fortinet
4 43 (18.45%) VMware
5 41 (17.60%) Meraki
6 38 (16.31%) Palo Alto
7 22 (9.44%) CheckPoint
7 22 (9.44%) SolarWinds
8 19 (8.15%) Juniper
9 15 (6.44%) Dynatrace
9 15 (6.44%) Google
9 15 (6.44%) Splunk
10 10 (4.29%) ServiceNow
11 7 (3.00%) F5
11 7 (3.00%) Zscaler
12 6 (2.58%) NetApp
13 5 (2.15%) Aruba
13 5 (2.15%) Dell
13 5 (2.15%) Red Hat
14 4 (1.72%) ArcSight