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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 193 205 136
Rank change year-on-year +12 -69 +24
Permanent jobs citing WAN 250 263 780
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.29% 1.77% 2.31%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.77% 13.84% 15.34%
Number of salaries quoted 183 185 602
10th Percentile £32,052 £29,050 £34,750
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £50,000 £54,250
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -7.83% +3.33%
75th Percentile £78,000 £66,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £89,000 £84,919
UK median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +5.00% +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 2,124 1,900 5,085
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.98% 12.76% 15.07%
Number of salaries quoted 1,072 1,142 3,315
10th Percentile £30,000 £25,087 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £80,000
UK median annual salary £47,000 £47,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -1.05% - -5.94%

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 June 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 (17.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 35 (14.00%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.80%) Confluence
4 1 (0.40%) IIS
4 1 (0.40%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (4.80%) 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 81 (32.40%) Microsoft 365
3 72 (28.80%) AWS
4 45 (18.00%) Entra ID
5 17 (6.80%) GCP
6 14 (5.60%) AWS Direct Connect
6 14 (5.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (5.20%) Google Workspace
7 13 (5.20%) SaaS
8 11 (4.40%) OneDrive
9 6 (2.40%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (2.00%) OCI
11 3 (1.20%) IaaS
11 3 (1.20%) PaaS
12 2 (0.80%) Azure AKS
12 2 (0.80%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (0.80%) Datadog
12 2 (0.80%) Dynamics 365
12 2 (0.80%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.80%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 179 (71.60%) LAN
2 125 (50.00%) Firewall
3 114 (45.60%) SD-WAN
4 103 (41.20%) VPN
5 78 (31.20%) DNS
6 64 (25.60%) DHCP
7 55 (22.00%) TCP/IP
8 49 (19.60%) Wi-Fi
9 46 (18.40%) BGP
9 46 (18.40%) MPLS
10 45 (18.00%) Network Security
11 43 (17.20%) WLAN
12 38 (15.20%) VLAN
13 33 (13.20%) Cisco Firepower
14 32 (12.80%) Cisco ISE
15 30 (12.00%) Wireless
16 29 (11.60%) OSPF
17 26 (10.40%) Cisco ASA
18 21 (8.40%) IPsec
18 21 (8.40%) VoIP
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%) GitLab
2 1 (0.40%) Jenkins
General
1 81 (32.40%) Social Skills
2 38 (15.20%) Finance
2 38 (15.20%) Public Sector
3 22 (8.80%) Telecoms
4 16 (6.40%) Retail
5 15 (6.00%) Banking
5 15 (6.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (4.40%) Marketing
6 11 (4.40%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (3.20%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (2.40%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (1.60%) Electronics
9 4 (1.60%) Legal
10 3 (1.20%) Law
11 2 (0.80%) Local Government
11 2 (0.80%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.80%) Military
11 2 (0.80%) Police
11 2 (0.80%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.40%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 68 (27.20%) Network Engineer
2 54 (21.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 52 (20.80%) Architect
4 45 (18.00%) Senior
5 41 (16.40%) IT Engineer
6 32 (12.80%) Support Engineer
7 30 (12.00%) Network Architect
8 27 (10.80%) IT Support
9 24 (9.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (9.20%) IT Support Engineer
11 20 (8.00%) 2nd Line Support
12 19 (7.60%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 19 (7.60%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 17 (6.80%) Solutions Architect
14 16 (6.40%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
14 16 (6.40%) Operations Engineer
15 15 (6.00%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
16 14 (5.60%) Network Manager
17 13 (5.20%) Senior Network Engineer
18 10 (4.00%) Network Operations Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.60%) XMPP
2 5 (2.00%) OAuth
2 5 (2.00%) SAML
3 4 (1.60%) 802.1X
4 3 (1.20%) LDAP
5 2 (0.80%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.80%) Web Services
6 1 (0.40%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 44 (17.60%) Data Centre
2 21 (8.40%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (4.80%) Driving Licence
4 11 (4.40%) PKI
5 10 (4.00%) Onboarding
6 9 (3.60%) Cloud Native
6 9 (3.60%) FlexPod
6 9 (3.60%) Replication
6 9 (3.60%) Video Conferencing
7 8 (3.20%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 8 (3.20%) Management Information System
8 7 (2.80%) Security Posture
9 6 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (1.60%) Product Ownership
11 4 (1.60%) Public Cloud
11 4 (1.60%) Social Media
11 4 (1.60%) Virtual Team
12 3 (1.20%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 68 (27.20%) Windows
2 56 (22.40%) Windows Server
3 23 (9.20%) Linux
3 23 (9.20%) Windows 10
4 22 (8.80%) Mac OS
5 12 (4.80%) Windows Server 2012
5 12 (4.80%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (4.40%) Windows Server 2019
7 8 (3.20%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.60%) Unix
9 2 (0.80%) CentOS
9 2 (0.80%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.40%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.40%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (28.40%) Problem-Solving
2 62 (24.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 44 (17.60%) Disaster Recovery
4 37 (14.80%) Continuous Improvement
5 34 (13.60%) Stakeholder Management
6 33 (13.20%) ITIL
6 33 (13.20%) Mentoring
7 31 (12.40%) Cybersecurity
8 29 (11.60%) Zero Trust
9 28 (11.20%) Presales
9 28 (11.20%) Service Delivery
10 24 (9.60%) Migration
11 22 (8.80%) Service Management
11 22 (8.80%) Technical Leadership
12 21 (8.40%) Cloud Security
12 21 (8.40%) Network Architecture
13 19 (7.60%) Collaborative Culture
13 19 (7.60%) Network Segmentation
14 18 (7.20%) Roadmaps
15 17 (6.80%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 22 (8.80%) Python
2 14 (5.60%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.60%) SQL
4 2 (0.80%) Bash
5 1 (0.40%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.40%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 45 (18.00%) Cisco Certification
2 33 (13.20%) CCNP
3 31 (12.40%) Security Cleared
4 25 (10.00%) SC Cleared
5 23 (9.20%) CCNA
6 18 (7.20%) Degree
7 17 (6.80%) CCIE
8 15 (6.00%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (5.20%) DV Cleared
10 11 (4.40%) Azure Certification
11 9 (3.60%) BPSS Clearance
11 9 (3.60%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (2.00%) CCSA
12 5 (2.00%) CCSE
13 4 (1.60%) JNCIE
14 3 (1.20%) AWS Certification
14 3 (1.20%) CCIE Security
14 3 (1.20%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.20%) PMP
14 3 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (9.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (5.20%) SLA
3 12 (4.80%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (4.00%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 7 (2.80%) 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%) 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 24 (9.60%) Hyper-V
4 13 (5.20%) vSphere
5 7 (2.80%) Virtual Servers
6 6 (2.40%) Firmware
6 6 (2.40%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.00%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.80%) Docker
10 1 (0.40%) BitLocker
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%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.40%) Xen
Systems Management
1 23 (9.20%) Ansible
1 23 (9.20%) FortiGate
1 23 (9.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (6.80%) Terraform
3 13 (5.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 9 (3.60%) Cisco CUCM
4 9 (3.60%) Grafana
5 5 (2.00%) CASB
5 5 (2.00%) Endace
5 5 (2.00%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.00%) vCenter Server
6 3 (1.20%) QRadar
7 2 (0.80%) Autotask
7 2 (0.80%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.80%) OpenView
7 2 (0.80%) PaperCut
7 2 (0.80%) SCCM
7 2 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.80%) Tivoli
7 2 (0.80%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 126 (50.40%) Cisco
2 101 (40.40%) Microsoft
3 57 (22.80%) Fortinet
4 48 (19.20%) Palo Alto
5 44 (17.60%) VMware
6 41 (16.40%) Meraki
7 23 (9.20%) Juniper
7 23 (9.20%) SolarWinds
8 20 (8.00%) CheckPoint
9 16 (6.40%) Splunk
10 14 (5.60%) Dynatrace
11 13 (5.20%) Google
12 9 (3.60%) ServiceNow
13 8 (3.20%) Aruba
13 8 (3.20%) F5
14 7 (2.80%) Zscaler
15 6 (2.40%) NetApp
16 5 (2.00%) ArcSight
17 4 (1.60%) EMC
17 4 (1.60%) Huawei