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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 191 182 122
Rank change year-on-year -9 -60 +63
Permanent jobs citing WAN 211 241 805
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.25% 1.88% 2.58%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.21% 14.92% 18.73%
Number of salaries quoted 147 186 674
10th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £29,250
25th Percentile £42,000 £41,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £77,500 £67,138 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,000 £85,000 £84,919
UK median annual salary £50,000 £51,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +8.42% -1.30%

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 1,883 1,615 4,299
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 11.16% 12.59% 13.80%
Number of salaries quoted 952 1,195 3,472
10th Percentile £28,500 £27,000 £30,513
25th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,500 £52,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.71% - -8.53%
75th Percentile £71,250 £68,750 £67,000
90th Percentile £88,750 £85,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £52,500 £47,625
% change year-on-year -19.05% +10.24% -7.52%

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 3 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 (22.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 41 (19.43%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.95%) Apache
3 2 (0.95%) Confluence
3 2 (0.95%) nginx
4 1 (0.47%) IIS
4 1 (0.47%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (5.69%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.90%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.42%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.42%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.95%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 119 (56.40%) Azure
2 81 (38.39%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (28.44%) AWS
4 41 (19.43%) Entra ID
5 18 (8.53%) Google Workspace
6 16 (7.58%) OneDrive
7 13 (6.16%) GCP
8 12 (5.69%) SaaS
9 11 (5.21%) AWS Direct Connect
10 9 (4.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 4 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (1.90%) OCI
12 3 (1.42%) Azure Sentinel
13 2 (0.95%) Dynamics 365
13 2 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
13 2 (0.95%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.95%) SuccessFactors
14 1 (0.47%) Azure DevOps
14 1 (0.47%) IaaS
14 1 (0.47%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 141 (66.82%) LAN
2 101 (47.87%) SD-WAN
3 91 (43.13%) Firewall
4 90 (42.65%) VPN
5 71 (33.65%) DNS
6 61 (28.91%) DHCP
7 58 (27.49%) Wi-Fi
8 56 (26.54%) TCP/IP
9 36 (17.06%) VLAN
10 31 (14.69%) BGP
11 30 (14.22%) MPLS
12 28 (13.27%) Network Security
12 28 (13.27%) WLAN
13 26 (12.32%) Cisco Firepower
14 25 (11.85%) Wireless
15 24 (11.37%) VoIP
16 22 (10.43%) Cisco ASA
17 20 (9.48%) OSPF
18 19 (9.00%) Cisco ISE
19 14 (6.64%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.95%) Power BI
1 2 (0.95%) 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 5 (2.37%) JIRA
General
1 69 (32.70%) Social Skills
2 39 (18.48%) Finance
3 23 (10.90%) Public Sector
4 16 (7.58%) Retail
5 14 (6.64%) Banking
6 13 (6.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (6.16%) Manufacturing
6 13 (6.16%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (5.21%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (5.21%) Telecoms
8 7 (3.32%) Marketing
9 5 (2.37%) Law
9 5 (2.37%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.90%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.42%) Automotive
11 3 (1.42%) Electronics
11 3 (1.42%) Police
12 2 (0.95%) Legal
12 2 (0.95%) Military
12 2 (0.95%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 57 (27.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 50 (23.70%) Network Engineer
3 46 (21.80%) Senior
4 42 (19.91%) IT Engineer
5 29 (13.74%) IT Support
5 29 (13.74%) Support Engineer
6 28 (13.27%) Architect
7 24 (11.37%) IT Support Engineer
8 21 (9.95%) 2nd Line Support
8 21 (9.95%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
8 21 (9.95%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 18 (8.53%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 18 (8.53%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 18 (8.53%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
9 18 (8.53%) Operations Engineer
10 17 (8.06%) Senior Network Engineer
11 12 (5.69%) Network Operations Engineer
12 11 (5.21%) Analyst
13 10 (4.74%) Solutions Architect
13 10 (4.74%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.84%) XMPP
2 3 (1.42%) LDAP
3 2 (0.95%) Web Services
4 1 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 36 (17.06%) Data Centre
2 16 (7.58%) Driving Licence
3 11 (5.21%) Onboarding
4 10 (4.74%) Management Information System
4 10 (4.74%) Self-Motivation
4 10 (4.74%) Video Conferencing
5 8 (3.79%) Enterprise Software
5 8 (3.79%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (3.32%) PKI
6 7 (3.32%) Replication
7 6 (2.84%) FlexPod
7 6 (2.84%) Social Media
8 5 (2.37%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.90%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.90%) iPad
9 4 (1.90%) iPhone
9 4 (1.90%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.42%) CMDB
10 3 (1.42%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.42%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 81 (38.39%) Windows
2 69 (32.70%) Windows Server
3 35 (16.59%) Windows 10
4 22 (10.43%) Linux
5 21 (9.95%) Mac OS
6 18 (8.53%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (7.58%) Windows Server 2012
8 15 (7.11%) Windows Server 2019
9 12 (5.69%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.42%) CentOS
10 3 (1.42%) OpenWrt
11 2 (0.95%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.95%) Unix
12 1 (0.47%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.47%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (37.44%) Problem-Solving
2 62 (29.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 41 (19.43%) ITIL
4 38 (18.01%) Continuous Improvement
5 36 (17.06%) Disaster Recovery
6 29 (13.74%) Zero Trust
7 28 (13.27%) Migration
7 28 (13.27%) Service Delivery
8 27 (12.80%) Mentoring
9 25 (11.85%) Customer Service
10 22 (10.43%) Cloud Security
10 22 (10.43%) Stakeholder Management
11 21 (9.95%) Service Management
12 20 (9.48%) Change Management
13 19 (9.00%) Presales
13 19 (9.00%) Root Cause Analysis
14 18 (8.53%) Kalman Filter
15 16 (7.58%) Project Delivery
16 15 (7.11%) Roadmaps
16 15 (7.11%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 18 (8.53%) Python
2 12 (5.69%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.32%) SQL
4 4 (1.90%) Bash
5 3 (1.42%) C
5 3 (1.42%) C++
6 2 (0.95%) Java
6 2 (0.95%) Perl
7 1 (0.47%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.47%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (17.06%) Cisco Certification
2 25 (11.85%) Security Cleared
3 24 (11.37%) SC Cleared
4 21 (9.95%) CCNP
5 20 (9.48%) Degree
5 20 (9.48%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (8.06%) CCNA
7 11 (5.21%) CCIE
8 10 (4.74%) Azure Certification
8 10 (4.74%) DV Cleared
9 9 (4.27%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (4.27%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (2.84%) DBS Check
11 5 (2.37%) MCSA
12 4 (1.90%) CCSA
12 4 (1.90%) CCSE
12 4 (1.90%) MCSE
12 4 (1.90%) Network+ Certification
13 3 (1.42%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.42%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 13 (6.16%) SLA
2 11 (5.21%) Cyber Essentials
2 11 (5.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 4 (1.90%) QA
4 3 (1.42%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 2 (0.95%) NCSC
6 1 (0.47%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.47%) Basel III
6 1 (0.47%) GRC
6 1 (0.47%) MiFID
6 1 (0.47%) NIST
6 1 (0.47%) PMO
System Software
1 62 (29.38%) Active Directory
2 33 (15.64%) Hyper-V
3 27 (12.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.27%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (3.32%) Virtual Servers
5 7 (3.32%) vSphere
6 6 (2.84%) Firmware
7 5 (2.37%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 3 (1.42%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.47%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.47%) Docker
10 1 (0.47%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 34 (16.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (8.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 17 (8.06%) Ansible
3 15 (7.11%) Terraform
4 13 (6.16%) FortiGate
5 6 (2.84%) Cisco CUCM
5 6 (2.84%) Endace
5 6 (2.84%) Grafana
6 5 (2.37%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (1.90%) PaperCut
8 3 (1.42%) Autotask
8 3 (1.42%) Kubernetes
9 2 (0.95%) Dell DRAC
9 2 (0.95%) OpenView
9 2 (0.95%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (0.95%) Red Hat Spacewalk
9 2 (0.95%) Tivoli
9 2 (0.95%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.47%) SCCM
Vendors
1 95 (45.02%) Cisco
2 87 (41.23%) Microsoft
3 51 (24.17%) Fortinet
4 41 (19.43%) VMware
5 35 (16.59%) Meraki
6 26 (12.32%) Palo Alto
7 18 (8.53%) CheckPoint
7 18 (8.53%) Google
8 14 (6.64%) Juniper
8 14 (6.64%) SolarWinds
9 11 (5.21%) Dynatrace
10 9 (4.27%) ServiceNow
10 9 (4.27%) Splunk
11 7 (3.32%) F5
12 6 (2.84%) Zscaler
13 5 (2.37%) Apple
13 5 (2.37%) Aruba
13 5 (2.37%) NetApp
14 4 (1.90%) Dell
14 4 (1.90%) HP