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

 6 months to
18 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 194 189 122
Rank change year-on-year -5 -67 +56
Permanent jobs citing WAN 217 250 778
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.29% 1.85% 2.59%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.02% 14.71% 19.53%
Number of salaries quoted 148 187 669
10th Percentile £35,699 £32,000 £29,250
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 £65,603
90th Percentile £89,125 £85,000 £84,919
UK median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £48,500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +8.25% -3.00%

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 1,805 1,699 3,983
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 10.70% 12.59% 13.26%
Number of salaries quoted 955 1,183 3,462
10th Percentile £28,250 £27,750 £30,750
25th Percentile £33,375 £37,419 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,445 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -11.92% +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £72,500 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,750 £85,000 £81,250
UK median annual salary £42,000 £53,000 £48,500
% change year-on-year -20.75% +9.28% -7.62%

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 18 March 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 50 (23.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 42 (19.35%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.92%) Apache
3 2 (0.92%) Confluence
3 2 (0.92%) IIS
3 2 (0.92%) nginx
Applications
1 12 (5.53%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.84%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.38%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.38%) SOLIDWORKS
4 2 (0.92%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.92%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 127 (58.53%) Azure
2 79 (36.41%) Microsoft 365
3 57 (26.27%) AWS
4 42 (19.35%) Entra ID
5 18 (8.29%) Google Workspace
6 16 (7.37%) OneDrive
7 12 (5.53%) AWS Direct Connect
7 12 (5.53%) SaaS
8 11 (5.07%) GCP
9 9 (4.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 4 (1.84%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (1.38%) IaaS
12 2 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (0.92%) Azure Sentinel
12 2 (0.92%) Azure Storage
12 2 (0.92%) Dynamics 365
12 2 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
12 2 (0.92%) PaaS
12 2 (0.92%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.92%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 141 (64.98%) LAN
2 114 (52.53%) SD-WAN
3 94 (43.32%) Firewall
4 92 (42.40%) VPN
5 67 (30.88%) DNS
6 63 (29.03%) Wi-Fi
7 59 (27.19%) DHCP
8 56 (25.81%) TCP/IP
9 33 (15.21%) VLAN
10 31 (14.29%) BGP
10 31 (14.29%) MPLS
10 31 (14.29%) Wireless
11 30 (13.82%) WLAN
12 27 (12.44%) Network Security
12 27 (12.44%) VoIP
13 24 (11.06%) Cisco Firepower
14 22 (10.14%) Cisco ASA
14 22 (10.14%) OSPF
15 20 (9.22%) Cisco ISE
16 16 (7.37%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.92%) Power BI
2 1 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.46%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (2.30%) JIRA
General
1 76 (35.02%) Social Skills
2 46 (21.20%) Finance
3 18 (8.29%) Public Sector
4 16 (7.37%) Telecoms
5 15 (6.91%) Retail
6 13 (5.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (5.99%) Manufacturing
7 12 (5.53%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (5.53%) Banking
8 11 (5.07%) Organisational Skills
9 6 (2.76%) Law
10 5 (2.30%) Marketing
11 4 (1.84%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (1.38%) Aerospace
12 3 (1.38%) Automotive
12 3 (1.38%) Police
13 2 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (0.92%) Military
13 2 (0.92%) Retail Banking
14 1 (0.46%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 61 (28.11%) Network Engineer
2 54 (24.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 43 (19.82%) Senior
4 42 (19.35%) IT Engineer
5 29 (13.36%) IT Support
5 29 (13.36%) Support Engineer
6 25 (11.52%) Architect
7 24 (11.06%) IT Support Engineer
8 23 (10.60%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
9 21 (9.68%) 2nd Line Support
10 20 (9.22%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
10 20 (9.22%) Operations Engineer
11 18 (8.29%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 18 (8.29%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
11 18 (8.29%) Senior Network Engineer
12 17 (7.83%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 14 (6.45%) Network Operations Engineer
14 12 (5.53%) Cisco Engineer
14 12 (5.53%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 10 (4.61%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.84%) XMPP
2 2 (0.92%) JSON
2 2 (0.92%) LDAP
2 2 (0.92%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 46 (21.20%) Data Centre
2 18 (8.29%) Management Information System
3 17 (7.83%) Driving Licence
4 10 (4.61%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (4.15%) Onboarding
6 8 (3.69%) Video Conferencing
7 7 (3.23%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (3.23%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (2.76%) Cloud Native
8 6 (2.76%) Replication
8 6 (2.76%) Social Media
9 5 (2.30%) PKI
10 4 (1.84%) CMDB
10 4 (1.84%) FlexPod
10 4 (1.84%) GNSS
10 4 (1.84%) iPad
10 4 (1.84%) iPhone
10 4 (1.84%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.84%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.84%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 81 (37.33%) Windows
2 67 (30.88%) Windows Server
3 35 (16.13%) Windows 10
4 21 (9.68%) Mac OS
5 19 (8.76%) Linux
6 18 (8.29%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (7.37%) Windows Server 2012
7 16 (7.37%) Windows Server 2019
8 12 (5.53%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.38%) OpenWrt
10 2 (0.92%) CentOS
10 2 (0.92%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.46%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.46%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.46%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (36.87%) Problem-Solving
2 57 (26.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 39 (17.97%) Disaster Recovery
3 39 (17.97%) ITIL
4 35 (16.13%) Continuous Improvement
5 33 (15.21%) Customer Service
6 30 (13.82%) Change Management
6 30 (13.82%) Migration
7 29 (13.36%) Mentoring
7 29 (13.36%) Service Delivery
7 29 (13.36%) Zero Trust
8 23 (10.60%) Cloud Security
8 23 (10.60%) Stakeholder Management
9 21 (9.68%) Problem Management
10 20 (9.22%) Kalman Filter
10 20 (9.22%) Service Management
11 19 (8.76%) Presales
12 18 (8.29%) Root Cause Analysis
13 16 (7.37%) Runbook
14 15 (6.91%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 16 (7.37%) Python
2 12 (5.53%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.23%) SQL
4 4 (1.84%) Bash
5 3 (1.38%) C
5 3 (1.38%) C++
6 2 (0.92%) Java
6 2 (0.92%) Perl
Qualifications
1 38 (17.51%) Cisco Certification
2 24 (11.06%) CCNP
3 23 (10.60%) Security Cleared
4 22 (10.14%) SC Cleared
5 20 (9.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (8.76%) Degree
7 18 (8.29%) CCNA
8 11 (5.07%) Azure Certification
8 11 (5.07%) CCIE
9 9 (4.15%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (3.69%) DV Cleared
11 6 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (2.76%) DBS Check
12 5 (2.30%) MCSA
13 4 (1.84%) AWS Certification
13 4 (1.84%) Master's Degree
13 4 (1.84%) MCSE
13 4 (1.84%) Network+ Certification
14 3 (1.38%) PMP
14 3 (1.38%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 14 (6.45%) SLA
2 12 (5.53%) Cyber Essentials
2 12 (5.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 3 (1.38%) NCSC
3 3 (1.38%) NIST
3 3 (1.38%) PCI DSS
3 3 (1.38%) QA
4 2 (0.92%) GRC
5 1 (0.46%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.46%) Basel III
5 1 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.46%) MiFID
5 1 (0.46%) PMO
System Software
1 60 (27.65%) Active Directory
2 33 (15.21%) Hyper-V
3 25 (11.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.15%) Firmware
4 9 (4.15%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (3.23%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (2.30%) vSphere
7 4 (1.84%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 2 (0.92%) Docker
8 2 (0.92%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 36 (16.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (7.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 15 (6.91%) Terraform
4 14 (6.45%) FortiGate
5 12 (5.53%) Ansible
6 6 (2.76%) Endace
7 5 (2.30%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (1.84%) Autotask
8 4 (1.84%) Cisco CUCM
8 4 (1.84%) Grafana
8 4 (1.84%) PaperCut
9 3 (1.38%) Dell DRAC
9 3 (1.38%) Kubernetes
9 3 (1.38%) OpenView
9 3 (1.38%) Tivoli
10 2 (0.92%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.92%) Red Hat Spacewalk
11 1 (0.46%) Kibana
11 1 (0.46%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 105 (48.39%) Cisco
2 85 (39.17%) Microsoft
3 51 (23.50%) Fortinet
4 41 (18.89%) Meraki
5 38 (17.51%) VMware
6 30 (13.82%) Palo Alto
7 28 (12.90%) CheckPoint
8 23 (10.60%) SolarWinds
9 19 (8.76%) Google
10 13 (5.99%) Juniper
11 11 (5.07%) Dynatrace
12 9 (4.15%) ServiceNow
13 8 (3.69%) F5
14 5 (2.30%) Apple
14 5 (2.30%) Aruba
14 5 (2.30%) Dell
14 5 (2.30%) HP
14 5 (2.30%) Zscaler
15 4 (1.84%) NetApp
15 4 (1.84%) Splunk
54 hybrid/remote WAN jobs