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

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 195 205 164
Rank change year-on-year +10 -41 -49
Permanent jobs citing WAN 322 252 489
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 1.33% 1.55% 2.10%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.22% 13.97% 13.17%
Number of salaries quoted 193 170 299
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £37,750 £39,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - +15.10%
75th Percentile £76,201 £79,313 £72,500
90th Percentile £83,500 £95,000 £84,964
UK median annual salary £55,000 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +22.22% -10.00% +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 2,265 1,804 3,712
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 9.32% 11.10% 15.90%
Number of salaries quoted 1,343 1,043 1,607
10th Percentile £29,000 £25,087 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £73,750 £69,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £82,500
UK median annual salary £48,500 £40,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +21.25% -20.00% -0.50%

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 17 September 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 28 (8.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (8.39%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.62%) Confluence
4 1 (0.31%) IIS
4 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (1.86%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 188 (58.39%) Azure
2 104 (32.30%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (19.57%) Cloud Computing
4 55 (17.08%) AWS
5 52 (16.15%) Entra ID
6 31 (9.63%) Power Platform
7 15 (4.66%) GCP
8 10 (3.11%) OneDrive
9 8 (2.48%) OCI
10 7 (2.17%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.86%) IaaS
11 6 (1.86%) PaaS
11 6 (1.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 5 (1.55%) Azure Monitor
12 5 (1.55%) SaaS
13 4 (1.24%) AWS Direct Connect
13 4 (1.24%) Mimecast
14 2 (0.62%) Azure DevOps
14 2 (0.62%) Datadog
14 2 (0.62%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 271 (84.16%) LAN
2 163 (50.62%) Firewall
3 86 (26.71%) SD-WAN
4 83 (25.78%) VPN
5 82 (25.47%) Network Security
6 66 (20.50%) DNS
7 62 (19.25%) DHCP
8 57 (17.70%) VLAN
9 50 (15.53%) BGP
9 50 (15.53%) Wi-Fi
9 50 (15.53%) Wireless
10 45 (13.98%) TCP/IP
11 39 (12.11%) WLAN
12 37 (11.49%) MPLS
13 34 (10.56%) OSPF
14 25 (7.76%) Cisco Nexus
15 20 (6.21%) Cisco ISE
16 17 (5.28%) Cisco ASA
17 16 (4.97%) VXLAN
18 15 (4.66%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (3.11%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.31%) GIS
3 1 (0.31%) InfluxDB
3 1 (0.31%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.31%) MySQL
3 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
3 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (1.86%) Git
1 6 (1.86%) JIRA
2 5 (1.55%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (0.62%) GitLab
4 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
General
1 157 (48.76%) Social Skills
2 78 (24.22%) Finance
3 64 (19.88%) Presentation Skills
4 48 (14.91%) Telecoms
5 40 (12.42%) Public Sector
6 32 (9.94%) Law
7 22 (6.83%) Retail
8 19 (5.90%) Banking
9 18 (5.59%) Marketing
10 14 (4.35%) Analytical Skills
11 9 (2.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (2.17%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (1.86%) Manufacturing
14 4 (1.24%) Legal
15 3 (0.93%) Electronics
16 2 (0.62%) Automotive
16 2 (0.62%) French Language
16 2 (0.62%) German Language
16 2 (0.62%) Local Government
16 2 (0.62%) Military
Job Titles
1 102 (31.68%) Architect
2 91 (28.26%) Network Engineer
3 58 (18.01%) Systems Architect
4 52 (16.15%) Senior
5 34 (10.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 31 (9.63%) Network Architect
7 24 (7.45%) Support Engineer
8 23 (7.14%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 23 (7.14%) Senior Network Engineer
9 22 (6.83%) IT Support
10 18 (5.59%) IT Engineer
10 18 (5.59%) Lead
11 17 (5.28%) Analyst
12 12 (3.73%) IT Support Engineer
12 12 (3.73%) Network Manager
13 11 (3.42%) 2nd Line Support
13 11 (3.42%) IT Manager
13 11 (3.42%) Network Support
13 11 (3.42%) Network Support Engineer
13 11 (3.42%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (7.14%) Terraform
2 10 (3.11%) OAuth
2 10 (3.11%) SAML
3 7 (2.17%) 802.1X
4 6 (1.86%) XMPP
5 4 (1.24%) LDAP
5 4 (1.24%) YAML
6 3 (0.93%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.31%) Jinja
7 1 (0.31%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 54 (16.77%) Data Centre
2 26 (8.07%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (5.28%) Onboarding
3 17 (5.28%) Security Posture
4 14 (4.35%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 13 (4.04%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.48%) Driving Licence
7 7 (2.17%) Cloud Native
7 7 (2.17%) PKI
7 7 (2.17%) Video Conferencing
8 6 (1.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (1.86%) FlexPod
8 6 (1.86%) Replication
9 4 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.24%) Clustering
9 4 (1.24%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.93%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.62%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 58 (18.01%) Windows
2 45 (13.98%) Windows Server
3 14 (4.35%) Linux
4 7 (2.17%) Mac OS
5 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.24%) Unix
7 2 (0.62%) Android
7 2 (0.62%) CentOS
7 2 (0.62%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.62%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (28.57%) Project Delivery
2 75 (23.29%) Infrastructure as Code
2 75 (23.29%) Network Architecture
3 74 (22.98%) Network Design
4 72 (22.36%) Problem-Solving
4 72 (22.36%) Roadmaps
5 65 (20.19%) Cybersecurity
5 65 (20.19%) Logistics
6 64 (19.88%) Technical Architecture
7 63 (19.57%) Information Security
8 60 (18.63%) Containerisation
9 58 (18.01%) Business Case
9 58 (18.01%) Business Strategy
9 58 (18.01%) Risk Management
10 50 (15.53%) Continuous Improvement
11 49 (15.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 39 (12.11%) Stakeholder Management
13 35 (10.87%) ITIL
14 33 (10.25%) IT Strategy
14 33 (10.25%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 33 (10.25%) Python
2 26 (8.07%) PowerShell
3 3 (0.93%) SQL
4 2 (0.62%) Bash
5 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.31%) Ruby
5 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 66 (20.50%) Cisco Certification
2 52 (16.15%) CCNP
3 35 (10.87%) CCNA
4 23 (7.14%) Degree
5 22 (6.83%) Azure Certification
6 20 (6.21%) Security Cleared
7 13 (4.04%) CCIE
8 11 (3.42%) DV Cleared
9 10 (3.11%) SC Cleared
10 9 (2.80%) Microsoft Certification
11 8 (2.48%) PMP
12 6 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
14 4 (1.24%) AWS Certification
14 4 (1.24%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (1.24%) DBS Check
14 4 (1.24%) JNCIE
14 4 (1.24%) PMI Certification
15 3 (0.93%) CCDP
15 3 (0.93%) CCIE Security
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (19.25%) GRC
2 23 (7.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (4.97%) SLA
4 15 (4.66%) NIST
5 11 (3.42%) GDPR
6 7 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.24%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 2 (0.62%) QA
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 14001
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 63 (19.57%) Active Directory
2 39 (12.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (11.49%) Hyper-V
4 13 (4.04%) vSphere
5 10 (3.11%) VMware NSX
6 7 (2.17%) Firmware
7 6 (1.86%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.24%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.93%) BitLocker
9 3 (0.93%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 2 (0.62%) Docker
10 2 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.31%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.31%) KVM
11 1 (0.31%) QEMU
11 1 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.31%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.31%) Xen
Systems Management
1 28 (8.70%) Ansible
1 28 (8.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 27 (8.39%) FortiGate
3 14 (4.35%) CASB
4 6 (1.86%) Cisco CUCM
4 6 (1.86%) Grafana
4 6 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (1.55%) Kubernetes
5 5 (1.55%) vCenter Server
6 4 (1.24%) QRadar
6 4 (1.24%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 3 (0.93%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.62%) SCCM
8 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
9 1 (0.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.31%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
9 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.31%) Packer
9 1 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 164 (50.93%) Microsoft
2 140 (43.48%) Cisco
3 66 (20.50%) Palo Alto
4 53 (16.46%) VMware
5 39 (12.11%) Fortinet
6 23 (7.14%) Aruba
7 21 (6.52%) Meraki
8 20 (6.21%) Juniper
9 16 (4.97%) CheckPoint
10 15 (4.66%) Zscaler
11 14 (4.35%) Splunk
12 13 (4.04%) SolarWinds
13 6 (1.86%) Citrix
13 6 (1.86%) Dell
13 6 (1.86%) F5
14 5 (1.55%) Netskope
15 4 (1.24%) Acronis
15 4 (1.24%) ArcSight
15 4 (1.24%) Dynatrace
15 4 (1.24%) SonicWALL