UK Salary Guide 2024

Our 2024 UK Salary Guide and Market Report provides the latest salaries and market commentary for the following specialisms within the telecommunications recruitment market:

• Wireless Network Infrastructure;
• Open RAN & Disaggregated Networks;
• Cloud, Edge & Network Virtualization; 
• Transport, Optical & IP Networks; 
• Wireless Network Design, Testing & Optimisation; 
• Technology Sales & Professional Services. 

The salaries within this report are displayed as annual earnings in GBP and are based on data collected from speaking with our candidates and clients, as well as market sentiment. I hope you find this report a useful guide and should you have any questions, please contact myself or one of my colleagues.  By means of introducing the report, please find below a section of it. I hope you find this report a useful guide and should you have any questions, please contact Philip Jones.

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE HERE

WIRELESS NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE

Like other sectors, the Wireless Network Infrastructure sector in the UK experienced a challenging 2023, following increased hiring post-covid hiring in latter 2021, and 2022. We noticed a reduction in new vacancies across both our permanent and contract divisions year on year, with projects feeling the pinch of inflation and higher interest rates. 

Promisingly, we saw an increase in business levels during Q4 2023 - no doubt this was a result of confidence returning to the market with the easing of inflationary pressures – and projects are carrying momentum into 2024 with promising signs of a busy year ahead. There continues to be healthy competition in the UK operator market as they all aggressively compete to provide customers with increased download speeds, and also to be able to call themselves “the best 5G provider in the UK”. Latest assessments are that 77% of the UK population now has access to a 5G signal, up from 68% the previous year.

The UK Government continue to pursue the ambition to push 5G coverage across the entire UK by 2030. 4G is still expected to be in high demand, but the aim to deliver standalone 5G connectivity that is not reliant on 4G requires a significant upgrade of current infrastructure. We continue to see a strong demand for roles which require customer management skills; such as Technical Project Manager, Roll-out Implementation Manager, and Solution Architect, we expect this demand to increase in 2024.

OPEN RAN & DISAGGREGATED NETWORKS

Across the globe, 2023 was a challenging year for Open RAN vendors and the UK market was no different. Despite this, research firm Dell’Oro predicts that Open RAN will comprise 15-20% of Global RAN by 2027. Open RAN presently comprises single digit percentage of the market. 

Compared to the rest of the world, European operators continue to be optimistic with Open RAN targets, but this is not being backed up with delivery just yet due to a cautious approach to physically deploying Open RAN. Instead, there continues to be a focus on building out 5G using traditional RAN. The baseline forecast, which assumes more delays in Europe, is for the European Open RAN market to surpass $1B (USD) by 2027 and eventually become one of the leading Open RAN/RAN markets. The UK Government still have ambitions to boost deployments so that 35% of the UK’s mobile network traffic is carried over Open RAN by 2030. The UK’s Diversification Strategy was backed by a £250 million investment into Open RAN and R&D, which will continue to run until 2025. 

We still see a strong demand in recruitment for PHY Layer Engineers, Pre-Sales Engineers/Managers, and Technical Project Managers. The demand for Open RAN talent remains strong with there continuing to be a shortage of skilled resources in the UK labour market. We have assisted many companies in resolving this challenge through the UK government skilled worker VISA programme by bringing in talent from overseas

CLOUD, EDGE & NETWORK VIRTUALIZATION

We saw the Cloud and Network Virtualization sector hold firm in 2023 as Cloud Core projects continued. The demand for NFV/VNF design engineers with customer liaison experience continues to be very high as projects progress within the UK and parts of Northern Europe. Southern Europe also commenced project roll-outs in 2023, and several projects are gearing up for commencement in 2024. With more projects ongoing the need for wider talent in this area has also increased. We continue to see a high rate of remote working adoption in this sector with companies realising the need for access to the services of highly specialised candidates who are based in all corners of the world. Embracing remote working has offered access to better talent and with reduced costs. We have seen a high demand for the following roles: Technical Project Managers, NFVi Designers/Solution Architects, Network Test and Integration Engineers.