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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 193 216 131
Rank change year-on-year +23 -85 +35
Permanent jobs citing WAN 250 238 774
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.30% 1.63% 2.35%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.82% 12.71% 15.32%
Number of salaries quoted 182 167 609
10th Percentile £32,026 £31,000 £33,300
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% -
75th Percentile £78,000 £63,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £87,250 £85,000 £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 2,115 1,872 5,051
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 11.04% 12.84% 15.34%
Number of salaries quoted 1,055 1,117 3,324
10th Percentile £29,750 £25,087 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £86,461 £80,000
UK median annual salary £45,250 £47,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -4.74% - -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 28 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 45 (18.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 37 (14.80%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.80%) Confluence
4 1 (0.40%) IIS
4 1 (0.40%) OpenStack
Applications
1 13 (5.20%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.60%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.20%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.20%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 2 (0.80%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 136 (54.40%) Azure
2 82 (32.80%) Microsoft 365
3 72 (28.80%) AWS
4 44 (17.60%) Entra ID
5 16 (6.40%) GCP
6 15 (6.00%) AWS Direct Connect
6 15 (6.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (5.60%) Google Workspace
7 14 (5.60%) SaaS
8 12 (4.80%) OneDrive
9 6 (2.40%) Azure Sentinel
10 4 (1.60%) OCI
11 3 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (1.20%) IaaS
11 3 (1.20%) PaaS
12 2 (0.80%) Datadog
12 2 (0.80%) Dynamics 365
12 2 (0.80%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.80%) SuccessFactors
13 1 (0.40%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 178 (71.20%) LAN
2 123 (49.20%) Firewall
3 114 (45.60%) SD-WAN
4 101 (40.40%) VPN
5 76 (30.40%) DNS
6 62 (24.80%) DHCP
7 56 (22.40%) TCP/IP
8 52 (20.80%) Wi-Fi
9 46 (18.40%) WLAN
10 44 (17.60%) MPLS
11 43 (17.20%) BGP
12 41 (16.40%) Network Security
13 37 (14.80%) VLAN
14 34 (13.60%) Cisco Firepower
15 33 (13.20%) Cisco ISE
16 30 (12.00%) Wireless
17 29 (11.60%) OSPF
18 27 (10.80%) Cisco ASA
19 22 (8.80%) VoIP
20 20 (8.00%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.80%) Power BI
1 2 (0.80%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.40%) InfluxDB
2 1 (0.40%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.40%) MySQL
2 1 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.40%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.40%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 3 (1.20%) JIRA
2 1 (0.40%) Jenkins
General
1 76 (30.40%) Social Skills
2 41 (16.40%) Finance
3 38 (15.20%) Public Sector
4 19 (7.60%) Telecoms
5 18 (7.20%) Retail
6 16 (6.40%) Banking
7 15 (6.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 11 (4.40%) Marketing
8 11 (4.40%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (3.20%) Analytical Skills
10 6 (2.40%) Manufacturing
10 6 (2.40%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.60%) Electronics
11 4 (1.60%) Legal
12 3 (1.20%) Law
12 3 (1.20%) Police
13 2 (0.80%) Local Government
13 2 (0.80%) Military
13 2 (0.80%) Retail Banking
14 1 (0.40%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 69 (27.60%) Network Engineer
2 55 (22.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 49 (19.60%) Architect
4 45 (18.00%) Senior
5 41 (16.40%) IT Engineer
6 33 (13.20%) Support Engineer
7 29 (11.60%) IT Support
8 28 (11.20%) Network Architect
9 24 (9.60%) IT Support Engineer
9 24 (9.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 21 (8.40%) 2nd Line Support
11 19 (7.60%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 19 (7.60%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 17 (6.80%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
12 17 (6.80%) Operations Engineer
12 17 (6.80%) Solutions Architect
13 16 (6.40%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
14 15 (6.00%) Network Manager
15 14 (5.60%) Senior Network Engineer
16 11 (4.40%) Network Operations Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.60%) XMPP
2 4 (1.60%) 802.1X
3 3 (1.20%) LDAP
3 3 (1.20%) OAuth
3 3 (1.20%) SAML
4 2 (0.80%) ARM Templates
4 2 (0.80%) Web Services
5 1 (0.40%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 46 (18.40%) Data Centre
2 20 (8.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (4.80%) Driving Licence
4 11 (4.40%) PKI
5 10 (4.00%) Management Information System
5 10 (4.00%) Onboarding
5 10 (4.00%) Video Conferencing
6 9 (3.60%) FlexPod
6 9 (3.60%) Replication
7 8 (3.20%) Cloud Native
7 8 (3.20%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (2.40%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 6 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (2.40%) Security Posture
9 5 (2.00%) Product Ownership
10 4 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.60%) Public Cloud
10 4 (1.60%) Social Media
10 4 (1.60%) Virtual Team
11 3 (1.20%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 71 (28.40%) Windows
2 59 (23.60%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.00%) Windows 10
4 23 (9.20%) Linux
5 22 (8.80%) Mac OS
6 13 (5.20%) Windows Server 2012
6 13 (5.20%) Windows Server 2016
7 12 (4.80%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (3.60%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.60%) Unix
10 2 (0.80%) CentOS
10 2 (0.80%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.40%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.40%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (30.00%) Problem-Solving
2 63 (25.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 45 (18.00%) Disaster Recovery
4 37 (14.80%) Continuous Improvement
5 35 (14.00%) ITIL
6 33 (13.20%) Mentoring
6 33 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 31 (12.40%) Zero Trust
8 29 (11.60%) Service Delivery
9 28 (11.20%) Cybersecurity
9 28 (11.20%) Presales
10 23 (9.20%) Migration
10 23 (9.20%) Service Management
11 22 (8.80%) Network Architecture
12 21 (8.40%) Cloud Security
12 21 (8.40%) Technical Leadership
13 19 (7.60%) Roadmaps
14 18 (7.20%) Network Segmentation
15 17 (6.80%) Collaborative Culture
16 16 (6.40%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 20 (8.00%) Python
2 12 (4.80%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.60%) SQL
4 1 (0.40%) Bash
4 1 (0.40%) PL/SQL
4 1 (0.40%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 44 (17.60%) Cisco Certification
2 32 (12.80%) CCNP
3 30 (12.00%) Security Cleared
4 24 (9.60%) SC Cleared
5 23 (9.20%) CCNA
6 18 (7.20%) Degree
7 17 (6.80%) CCIE
8 16 (6.40%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (5.20%) DV Cleared
10 9 (3.60%) Azure Certification
10 9 (3.60%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (3.60%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (2.00%) CCSA
11 5 (2.00%) CCSE
12 4 (1.60%) JNCIE
13 3 (1.20%) CCIE Security
13 3 (1.20%) JNCIP
13 3 (1.20%) MCSE
13 3 (1.20%) PMP
13 3 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (5.60%) SLA
3 11 (4.40%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (4.00%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 5 (2.00%) NIST
6 4 (1.60%) QA
7 3 (1.20%) GDPR
7 3 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 3 (1.20%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.40%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.40%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.40%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.40%) NCSC
System Software
1 65 (26.00%) Active Directory
2 34 (13.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (10.00%) Hyper-V
4 13 (5.20%) vSphere
5 7 (2.80%) Firmware
5 7 (2.80%) Virtual Servers
6 6 (2.40%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.00%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.80%) Docker
9 2 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.40%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.40%) KVM
10 1 (0.40%) QEMU
10 1 (0.40%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.40%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.40%) Xen
Systems Management
1 23 (9.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (8.80%) Ansible
3 21 (8.40%) FortiGate
4 16 (6.40%) Terraform
5 14 (5.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 9 (3.60%) Cisco CUCM
6 9 (3.60%) Grafana
7 5 (2.00%) Endace
7 5 (2.00%) vCenter Server
8 4 (1.60%) Kubernetes
9 3 (1.20%) CASB
9 3 (1.20%) QRadar
10 2 (0.80%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.80%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.80%) OpenView
10 2 (0.80%) PaperCut
10 2 (0.80%) SCCM
10 2 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.80%) Tivoli
10 2 (0.80%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 125 (50.00%) Cisco
2 97 (38.80%) Microsoft
3 56 (22.40%) Fortinet
4 44 (17.60%) Palo Alto
4 44 (17.60%) VMware
5 41 (16.40%) Meraki
6 23 (9.20%) Juniper
6 23 (9.20%) SolarWinds
7 22 (8.80%) CheckPoint
8 16 (6.40%) Splunk
9 15 (6.00%) Dynatrace
10 14 (5.60%) Google
11 10 (4.00%) ServiceNow
12 8 (3.20%) F5
13 7 (2.80%) Aruba
13 7 (2.80%) Zscaler
14 6 (2.40%) NetApp
15 5 (2.00%) ArcSight
16 4 (1.60%) EMC
16 4 (1.60%) Huawei