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

6 months to
13 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 183 121
Rank change year-on-year -17 -62 +67
Permanent jobs citing WAN 215 241 815
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.23% 1.84% 2.57%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.25% 14.51% 18.10%
Number of salaries quoted 153 187 672
10th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £77,500 £68,125 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £85,000 £84,919
UK median annual salary £50,000 £50,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -0.99% +6.32% -

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 1,911 1,661 4,504
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.94% 12.68% 14.19%
Number of salaries quoted 962 1,210 3,473
10th Percentile £29,000 £26,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £35,000 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £72,500 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,750 £85,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £51,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -17.48% +8.42% -6.86%

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 13 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 (22.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 41 (19.07%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.93%) Apache
3 2 (0.93%) Confluence
3 2 (0.93%) nginx
4 1 (0.47%) IIS
4 1 (0.47%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (5.58%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.86%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.40%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.40%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.93%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 122 (56.74%) Azure
2 84 (39.07%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (28.37%) AWS
4 42 (19.53%) Entra ID
5 18 (8.37%) Google Workspace
6 16 (7.44%) OneDrive
7 13 (6.05%) GCP
8 12 (5.58%) SaaS
9 11 (5.12%) AWS Direct Connect
10 9 (4.19%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (2.33%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (1.86%) OCI
13 3 (1.40%) Azure Sentinel
14 2 (0.93%) Dynamics 365
14 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Purview
14 2 (0.93%) Power Platform
14 2 (0.93%) SuccessFactors
15 1 (0.47%) IaaS
15 1 (0.47%) OpenShift
15 1 (0.47%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 144 (66.98%) LAN
2 100 (46.51%) SD-WAN
3 93 (43.26%) Firewall
3 93 (43.26%) VPN
4 76 (35.35%) DNS
5 64 (29.77%) DHCP
6 57 (26.51%) TCP/IP
6 57 (26.51%) Wi-Fi
7 37 (17.21%) VLAN
8 33 (15.35%) BGP
9 32 (14.88%) MPLS
10 28 (13.02%) Network Security
11 27 (12.56%) WLAN
12 26 (12.09%) Cisco Firepower
13 25 (11.63%) Wireless
14 23 (10.70%) VoIP
15 21 (9.77%) Cisco ASA
16 20 (9.30%) OSPF
17 19 (8.84%) Cisco ISE
18 13 (6.05%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.93%) Power BI
1 2 (0.93%) 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 4 (1.86%) JIRA
2 1 (0.47%) Jenkins
General
1 69 (32.09%) Social Skills
2 40 (18.60%) Finance
3 25 (11.63%) Public Sector
4 16 (7.44%) Retail
5 14 (6.51%) Organisational Skills
6 13 (6.05%) Banking
6 13 (6.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (6.05%) Manufacturing
7 11 (5.12%) Telecoms
8 9 (4.19%) Analytical Skills
9 7 (3.26%) Marketing
10 6 (2.79%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (2.33%) Law
12 4 (1.86%) Aerospace
12 4 (1.86%) Electronics
13 3 (1.40%) Automotive
13 3 (1.40%) Police
14 2 (0.93%) Legal
14 2 (0.93%) Military
14 2 (0.93%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 61 (28.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 50 (23.26%) Senior
3 49 (22.79%) Network Engineer
4 42 (19.53%) IT Engineer
5 29 (13.49%) IT Support
5 29 (13.49%) Support Engineer
6 27 (12.56%) Architect
7 25 (11.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 24 (11.16%) IT Support Engineer
9 21 (9.77%) 2nd Line Support
10 20 (9.30%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
11 18 (8.37%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 18 (8.37%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 17 (7.91%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
12 17 (7.91%) Operations Engineer
12 17 (7.91%) Senior Network Engineer
13 12 (5.58%) Analyst
14 11 (5.12%) Network Operations Engineer
14 11 (5.12%) Support Analyst
15 10 (4.65%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.79%) XMPP
2 3 (1.40%) LDAP
3 2 (0.93%) Web Services
4 1 (0.47%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 36 (16.74%) Data Centre
2 16 (7.44%) Driving Licence
3 11 (5.12%) Onboarding
4 10 (4.65%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (4.65%) Management Information System
4 10 (4.65%) Video Conferencing
5 9 (4.19%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (4.19%) PKI
5 9 (4.19%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (3.26%) Replication
7 6 (2.79%) FlexPod
7 6 (2.79%) Social Media
8 5 (2.33%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.86%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.86%) iPad
9 4 (1.86%) iPhone
9 4 (1.86%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.40%) CMDB
10 3 (1.40%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.40%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 86 (40.00%) Windows
2 72 (33.49%) Windows Server
3 35 (16.28%) Windows 10
4 25 (11.63%) Linux
5 21 (9.77%) Mac OS
6 18 (8.37%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (7.44%) Windows Server 2012
8 15 (6.98%) Windows Server 2019
9 12 (5.58%) Apple iOS
10 4 (1.86%) CentOS
10 4 (1.86%) Unix
11 2 (0.93%) OpenWrt
11 2 (0.93%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.93%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.47%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.47%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (36.28%) Problem-Solving
2 67 (31.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 44 (20.47%) ITIL
4 38 (17.67%) Disaster Recovery
5 37 (17.21%) Continuous Improvement
6 29 (13.49%) Mentoring
6 29 (13.49%) Zero Trust
7 28 (13.02%) Migration
7 28 (13.02%) Service Delivery
8 24 (11.16%) Customer Service
9 23 (10.70%) Cloud Security
10 22 (10.23%) Service Management
10 22 (10.23%) Stakeholder Management
11 19 (8.84%) Change Management
11 19 (8.84%) Presales
11 19 (8.84%) Root Cause Analysis
12 17 (7.91%) Kalman Filter
13 16 (7.44%) Roadmaps
14 15 (6.98%) Project Delivery
15 14 (6.51%) Cost Management
Programming Languages
1 19 (8.84%) Python
2 15 (6.98%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.26%) SQL
4 4 (1.86%) Bash
5 2 (0.93%) C
5 2 (0.93%) C++
5 2 (0.93%) Java
5 2 (0.93%) Perl
6 1 (0.47%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.47%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 37 (17.21%) Cisco Certification
2 27 (12.56%) Security Cleared
3 26 (12.09%) SC Cleared
4 22 (10.23%) CCNP
5 21 (9.77%) Degree
6 20 (9.30%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (8.37%) CCNA
8 12 (5.58%) DV Cleared
9 11 (5.12%) Azure Certification
9 11 (5.12%) CCIE
9 11 (5.12%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (4.19%) BPSS Clearance
11 6 (2.79%) DBS Check
12 5 (2.33%) MCSA
13 4 (1.86%) CCSA
13 4 (1.86%) CCSE
13 4 (1.86%) Network+ Certification
14 3 (1.40%) Master's Degree
14 3 (1.40%) MCSE
14 3 (1.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (6.05%) SLA
3 11 (5.12%) Cyber Essentials
3 11 (5.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.86%) QA
5 3 (1.40%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.93%) GDPR
6 2 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 2 (0.93%) NCSC
6 2 (0.93%) NIST
7 1 (0.47%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.47%) Basel III
7 1 (0.47%) GRC
7 1 (0.47%) MiFID
7 1 (0.47%) PMO
System Software
1 66 (30.70%) Active Directory
2 33 (15.35%) Hyper-V
3 31 (14.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (4.65%) vSphere
5 9 (4.19%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (3.26%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (2.33%) Firmware
7 5 (2.33%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.33%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.86%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.93%) Docker
10 1 (0.47%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.47%) KVM
10 1 (0.47%) QEMU
10 1 (0.47%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.47%) Xen
Systems Management
1 34 (15.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (9.30%) Ansible
3 17 (7.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 16 (7.44%) Terraform
5 14 (6.51%) FortiGate
6 6 (2.79%) Cisco CUCM
6 6 (2.79%) Endace
6 6 (2.79%) Grafana
7 5 (2.33%) Jamf Pro
7 5 (2.33%) vCenter Server
8 4 (1.86%) Kubernetes
8 4 (1.86%) PaperCut
9 3 (1.40%) Autotask
10 2 (0.93%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.93%) OpenView
10 2 (0.93%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.93%) Red Hat Spacewalk
10 2 (0.93%) SCCM
10 2 (0.93%) Tivoli
11 1 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 94 (43.72%) Cisco
2 91 (42.33%) Microsoft
3 50 (23.26%) Fortinet
4 45 (20.93%) VMware
5 35 (16.28%) Meraki
6 26 (12.09%) Palo Alto
7 18 (8.37%) Google
8 17 (7.91%) CheckPoint
9 15 (6.98%) SolarWinds
10 14 (6.51%) Juniper
11 11 (5.12%) Dynatrace
11 11 (5.12%) Splunk
12 10 (4.65%) ServiceNow
13 7 (3.26%) F5
14 6 (2.79%) Zscaler
15 5 (2.33%) Apple
15 5 (2.33%) Aruba
15 5 (2.33%) Dell
15 5 (2.33%) NetApp
15 5 (2.33%) Red Hat