Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for WAN skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited WAN over the 6 months to 9 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 124 136 184
Rank change year-on-year +12 +48 -4
Contract jobs citing WAN 797 1,125 1,345
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.85% 1.94% 1.54%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.54% 15.71% 14.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 451 684 879
10th Percentile £263 £257 £213
25th Percentile £350 £350 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% +5.88%
75th Percentile £650 £588 £550
90th Percentile £738 £657 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £440 £400
% change year-on-year +10.80% +10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 40 49
10th Percentile £13.85 £19.40 £15.40
25th Percentile £19.23 £30.19 £20.00
Median hourly rate £24.50 £61.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.84% +134.62% +31.65%
75th Percentile £40.00 £80.25 £48.45
90th Percentile £75.24 £85.05 £60.92
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.87 £57.33 £22.00
% change year-on-year -56.62% +160.59% +12.82%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

WAN is in the Communications and Computer Networking category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,482 7,160 9,518
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.73% 12.34% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,283 4,630 6,209
10th Percentile £205 £240 £230
25th Percentile £350 £400 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £518 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.49% +3.65% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £606
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £440
% change year-on-year - +7.95% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 419 472 358
10th Percentile £13.50 £9.80 £15.25
25th Percentile £16.58 £10.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £18.50 £28.41
Median % change year-on-year +116.22% -34.88% +5.22%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.00 £50.77
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.95 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.14 £18.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year +149.38% -13.95% -10.42%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing WAN.

Daily rate trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing WAN.

Hourly rate trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +27 744 £500 +8.11% 387
UK excluding London +10 529 £488 +10.80% 288
London +1 217 £500 -4.76% 120
South East +1 167 £438 -2.78% 63
Midlands +26 156 £375 +6.99% 58
Work from Home -44 154 £550 +10.00% 148
West Midlands +23 145 £375 +7.14% 44
South West +18 96 £650 +33.33% 34
North of England -8 73 £438 +16.67% 81
Yorkshire +38 37 £505 +68.33% 25
North West -36 34 £388 -3.13% 51
Scotland +27 19 £688 +35.80% 20
East of England -16 18 £525 +54.41% 30
East Midlands +7 9 £630 +93.85% 14
North East +10 2 £400 +153.97% 5
Wales -3 2 £263 -25.00% 7

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 30 (3.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (1.76%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.63%) IIS
4 3 (0.38%) nginx
4 3 (0.38%) Skype for Business
5 2 (0.25%) Confluence
5 2 (0.25%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.13%) Apache
Applications
1 38 (4.77%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (1.88%) MS Visio
3 8 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.13%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.38%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.13%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
2 1 (0.13%) RMDS
2 1 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 115 (14.43%) Azure
2 68 (8.53%) AWS
3 66 (8.28%) Microsoft 365
4 40 (5.02%) Cloud Computing
4 40 (5.02%) IaaS
5 36 (4.52%) PaaS
6 34 (4.27%) SaaS
7 23 (2.89%) GCP
8 13 (1.63%) Entra ID
9 7 (0.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (0.75%) Cloudflare
10 6 (0.75%) OneDrive
11 5 (0.63%) GitHub
12 3 (0.38%) Google Workspace
12 3 (0.38%) iPaaS
12 3 (0.38%) Mimecast
12 3 (0.38%) Nutanix
12 3 (0.38%) Route 53
12 3 (0.38%) WhatsApp
13 2 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 522 (65.50%) LAN
2 259 (32.50%) Firewall
3 226 (28.36%) VPN
4 196 (24.59%) MPLS
5 181 (22.71%) BGP
6 163 (20.45%) SD-WAN
7 126 (15.81%) Wi-Fi
8 121 (15.18%) Wireless
9 106 (13.30%) IPsec
10 99 (12.42%) DNS
11 89 (11.17%) OSPF
12 78 (9.79%) DHCP
13 75 (9.41%) Network Security
14 62 (7.78%) WLAN
15 58 (7.28%) Junos
16 46 (5.77%) VoIP
17 44 (5.52%) Cisco ASA
18 43 (5.40%) Cisco Nexus
19 41 (5.14%) TCP/IP
20 39 (4.89%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (3.01%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.63%) MySQL
3 3 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.13%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 7 (0.88%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (0.75%) Sonatype Nexus
3 5 (0.63%) JIRA
4 3 (0.38%) Git
5 1 (0.13%) GitLab
5 1 (0.13%) Hudson
5 1 (0.13%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.13%) Katalon Studio
General
1 186 (23.34%) Social Skills
2 118 (14.81%) Public Sector
3 103 (12.92%) Finance
4 63 (7.90%) Telecoms
5 56 (7.03%) Analytical Skills
6 20 (2.51%) Presentation Skills
7 15 (1.88%) Aerospace
8 14 (1.76%) Banking
9 12 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (1.38%) Mandarin Language
11 10 (1.25%) Manufacturing
12 9 (1.13%) Legal
12 9 (1.13%) Military
13 7 (0.88%) Aeronautics
13 7 (0.88%) Back Office
13 7 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 7 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (0.75%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.63%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 230 (28.86%) Network Engineer
2 213 (26.73%) Architect
3 153 (19.20%) Network Architect
4 64 (8.03%) Senior
5 59 (7.40%) WAN Engineer
6 51 (6.40%) Support Engineer
7 42 (5.27%) Network Support
8 38 (4.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 37 (4.64%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 34 (4.27%) Lead
11 33 (4.14%) 2nd Line Support
11 33 (4.14%) Senior Network Engineer
12 31 (3.89%) 3rd Line Support
13 30 (3.76%) Analyst
14 28 (3.51%) Consultant
15 24 (3.01%) 2nd Line Engineer
16 22 (2.76%) Cisco Engineer
16 22 (2.76%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 22 (2.76%) Project Manager
17 21 (2.63%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.51%) Web Services
2 9 (1.13%) Middleware
3 8 (1.00%) LDAP
4 7 (0.88%) EDI
5 6 (0.75%) 802.1X
5 6 (0.75%) JSON
6 5 (0.63%) XML
7 4 (0.50%) .NET
8 3 (0.38%) J2EE
8 3 (0.38%) Jinja
8 3 (0.38%) NETCONF
8 3 (0.38%) RESTful
8 3 (0.38%) XMPP
8 3 (0.38%) YANG
9 2 (0.25%) XSLT
10 1 (0.13%) ARM Templates
10 1 (0.13%) HTML
10 1 (0.13%) LAMP
10 1 (0.13%) libvirt
10 1 (0.13%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 129 (16.19%) Data Centre
2 96 (12.05%) PKI
3 29 (3.64%) Video Conferencing
4 23 (2.89%) Self-Motivation
5 21 (2.63%) Clustering
5 21 (2.63%) Public Cloud
6 20 (2.51%) Driving Licence
7 17 (2.13%) NHS
8 15 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.88%) Operational Technology
9 14 (1.76%) Client/Server
10 13 (1.63%) Management Information System
11 11 (1.38%) CCTV
11 11 (1.38%) Hybrid Cloud
12 9 (1.13%) CMDB
13 6 (0.75%) Replication
14 5 (0.63%) Product Ownership
14 5 (0.63%) SCADA
15 4 (0.50%) Cloud Native
15 4 (0.50%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 164 (20.58%) Windows
2 75 (9.41%) Windows Server
3 65 (8.16%) Linux
4 29 (3.64%) Windows 10
5 26 (3.26%) Mac OS
6 17 (2.13%) Unix
7 16 (2.01%) Windows Server 2012
8 13 (1.63%) Windows Server 2019
9 12 (1.51%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.25%) Android
11 9 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (0.75%) CentOS
12 6 (0.75%) Windows Server 2016
13 5 (0.63%) Windows Server 2008
14 3 (0.38%) Debian
14 3 (0.38%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.25%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.25%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.25%) zOS
16 1 (0.13%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (12.92%) Problem-Solving
2 88 (11.04%) ITIL
2 88 (11.04%) Network Design
3 82 (10.29%) Network Management
4 79 (9.91%) Load Balancing
5 68 (8.53%) Migration
6 66 (8.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 55 (6.90%) Project Management
8 54 (6.78%) Change Management
9 52 (6.52%) Project Delivery
10 51 (6.40%) Network Architecture
11 50 (6.27%) Cybersecurity
12 49 (6.15%) Customer Service
13 45 (5.65%) Customer Requirements
14 44 (5.52%) Technical Leadership
15 43 (5.40%) Business Strategy
16 42 (5.27%) Zero Trust
17 38 (4.77%) Agile
17 38 (4.77%) Stakeholder Management
18 32 (4.02%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 43 (5.40%) PowerShell
2 29 (3.64%) Python
3 17 (2.13%) SQL
4 9 (1.13%) Bash
5 5 (0.63%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (0.50%) Java
7 2 (0.25%) Perl
8 1 (0.13%) Bicep
8 1 (0.13%) C
8 1 (0.13%) C#
8 1 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 325 (40.78%) Security Cleared
2 156 (19.57%) Cisco Certification
3 139 (17.44%) SC Cleared
4 103 (12.92%) CCNP
5 90 (11.29%) Degree
6 85 (10.66%) DV Cleared
7 83 (10.41%) CCNA
8 37 (4.64%) CCIE
9 16 (2.01%) Microsoft Certification
10 15 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
11 14 (1.76%) JNCIA
12 9 (1.13%) CCIE Data Center
12 9 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (1.00%) BC Cleared
13 8 (1.00%) HND
13 8 (1.00%) Network+ Certification
14 6 (0.75%) CCDP
14 6 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
14 6 (0.75%) JNCIS
15 5 (0.63%) CCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (5.40%) SLA
2 23 (2.89%) QA
3 19 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.25%) ISO 9000
4 10 (1.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 9 (1.13%) NCSC
6 4 (0.50%) GDPR
7 3 (0.38%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.13%) COBIT
9 1 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.13%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.13%) NIST
9 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 104 (13.05%) Active Directory
2 84 (10.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (3.89%) Hyper-V
4 26 (3.26%) VMware NSX
5 21 (2.63%) Virtual Servers
5 21 (2.63%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.25%) Firmware
6 10 (1.25%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (1.13%) vSphere
8 8 (1.00%) VMware Workstation
9 5 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.50%) VMware Server
11 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 3 (0.38%) XenApp
12 2 (0.25%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.13%) Ceph
13 1 (0.13%) iptables
13 1 (0.13%) NFS
13 1 (0.13%) Samba
13 1 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 44 (5.52%) SCCM
2 31 (3.89%) FortiGate
3 26 (3.26%) Endace
4 20 (2.51%) Ansible
4 20 (2.51%) Terraform
5 17 (2.13%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (1.25%) Microsoft Clustering
6 10 (1.25%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.13%) Kubernetes
8 8 (1.00%) Failover Clustering
8 8 (1.00%) Jamf Pro
8 8 (1.00%) Nagios
8 8 (1.00%) NetBackup
8 8 (1.00%) SCOM
9 6 (0.75%) Autotask
9 6 (0.75%) VxRail
10 5 (0.63%) Nessus
10 5 (0.63%) OpenView
11 3 (0.38%) AppManager
11 3 (0.38%) OPNET
Vendors
1 382 (47.93%) Cisco
2 212 (26.60%) Juniper
3 118 (14.81%) Microsoft
4 114 (14.30%) VMware
5 98 (12.30%) Palo Alto
6 84 (10.54%) F5
7 63 (7.90%) Fortinet
8 50 (6.27%) CheckPoint
9 46 (5.77%) Aruba
10 43 (5.40%) Meraki
11 31 (3.89%) Citrix
12 24 (3.01%) HP
13 23 (2.89%) Zscaler
14 22 (2.76%) SolarWinds
15 18 (2.26%) Infoblox
16 14 (1.76%) ServiceNow
17 13 (1.63%) Veeam
18 12 (1.51%) Apple
18 12 (1.51%) Dell
18 12 (1.51%) Nokia