Network Engineer Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Network Engineer
North West > Cheshire

The median Network Engineer daily rate in Cheshire is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 October 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 51 22 51
Rank change year-on-year -29 +29 -7
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 27 34 4
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 3.93% 6.44% 0.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.41% 6.91% 1.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 9 2
10th Percentile £391 £438 -
25th Percentile £413 £469 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £350
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +50.00% -30.00%
75th Percentile £525 £580 -
90th Percentile £618 £640 -
North West median daily rate £500 £490 £465
% change year-on-year +2.04% +5.38% +5.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £65.75 - -
Median hourly rate £66.50 - -
75th Percentile £67.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £66.50 £48.56 -
% change year-on-year +36.94% - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Cheshire

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Cheshire. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in Cheshire with a recognized job title 612 492 360
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.08% 93.18% 87.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 469 285 224
10th Percentile £275 £323 £265
25th Percentile £358 £375 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £473 £495
Median % change year-on-year -5.40% -4.55% +11.86%
75th Percentile £538 £571 £575
90th Percentile £688 £645 £606
North West median daily rate £450 £476 £500
% change year-on-year -5.46% -4.80% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 25 28
10th Percentile £12.82 £13.49 £16.80
25th Percentile £15.50 £15.36 £20.07
Median hourly rate £25.15 £22.09 £30.54
Median % change year-on-year +13.85% -27.67% +40.22%
75th Percentile £36.06 £35.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £40.00
North West median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £33.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% +6.06% +43.48%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Network Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in Cheshire over the 6 months to 20 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in Cheshire

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire

Network Engineer
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 20 October 2025. 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
Chester -7 12 £463 -11.90% 5
Warrington -8 4 £378 -16.11% 1
Macclesfield - 2 £601 -
Knutsford -15 1 £375 -35.34% 1
Network Engineer
North West

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire

For the 6 months to 20 October 2025, Network Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Cheshire region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 16 (59.26%) Network Security
2 14 (51.85%) Cisco
2 14 (51.85%) F5
3 13 (48.15%) Firewall
4 12 (44.44%) Palo Alto
5 11 (40.74%) CCNP
5 11 (40.74%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (40.74%) Incident Response
6 10 (37.04%) Load Balancing
7 9 (33.33%) VMware
7 9 (33.33%) Zscaler
8 7 (25.93%) Blue Coat
8 7 (25.93%) Intrusion Detection
9 6 (22.22%) DNS
9 6 (22.22%) McAfee
9 6 (22.22%) Python
9 6 (22.22%) TCP/IP
10 5 (18.52%) Infrastructure Automation
10 5 (18.52%) Internet
10 5 (18.52%) SIEM
10 5 (18.52%) WAN
11 4 (14.81%) LAN
11 4 (14.81%) Network Design
11 4 (14.81%) Task Automation
12 3 (11.11%) Ansible
12 3 (11.11%) Architecture Governance
12 3 (11.11%) BGP
12 3 (11.11%) Business Strategy
12 3 (11.11%) DMZ
12 3 (11.11%) F5 BIG-IP GTM

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 1 (3.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (3.70%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 2 (7.41%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 16 (59.26%) Network Security
2 13 (48.15%) Firewall
3 7 (25.93%) Intrusion Detection
4 6 (22.22%) DNS
4 6 (22.22%) TCP/IP
5 5 (18.52%) Internet
5 5 (18.52%) WAN
6 4 (14.81%) LAN
7 3 (11.11%) BGP
7 3 (11.11%) DMZ
7 3 (11.11%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 3 (11.11%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 3 (11.11%) HTTP
7 3 (11.11%) NX-OS
7 3 (11.11%) SSL
7 3 (11.11%) WLAN
8 2 (7.41%) BIG-IP
8 2 (7.41%) Cisco IOS
8 2 (7.41%) SD-WAN
8 2 (7.41%) Wireshark
Development Applications
1 2 (7.41%) Fiddler
General
1 8 (29.63%) Social Skills
2 4 (14.81%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (11.11%) Finance
4 2 (7.41%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (7.41%) Pharmaceutical
5 1 (3.70%) Banking
5 1 (3.70%) Financial Institution
5 1 (3.70%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.70%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 3 (11.11%) Management Information System
2 2 (7.41%) Data Centre
3 1 (3.70%) CMDB
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (40.74%) Incident Response
2 10 (37.04%) Load Balancing
3 5 (18.52%) Infrastructure Automation
3 5 (18.52%) SIEM
4 4 (14.81%) Network Design
4 4 (14.81%) Task Automation
5 3 (11.11%) Architecture Governance
5 3 (11.11%) Business Strategy
5 3 (11.11%) Network Architecture
5 3 (11.11%) Zero Trust
6 2 (7.41%) Data Loss Prevention
6 2 (7.41%) Disaster Recovery
6 2 (7.41%) Malware Detection/Protection
6 2 (7.41%) Penetration Testing
6 2 (7.41%) Vulnerability Assessment
7 1 (3.70%) Change Management
7 1 (3.70%) Incident Management
7 1 (3.70%) ITSM
7 1 (3.70%) Migration
7 1 (3.70%) Security Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (22.22%) Python
2 2 (7.41%) Perl
3 1 (3.70%) Lisp
3 1 (3.70%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 11 (40.74%) CCNP
1 11 (40.74%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (7.41%) CCDP
2 2 (7.41%) CCSA
2 2 (7.41%) Degree
2 2 (7.41%) SC Cleared
2 2 (7.41%) Security Cleared
3 1 (3.70%) CCNA
System Software
1 3 (11.11%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (7.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (11.11%) Ansible
2 1 (3.70%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 14 (51.85%) Cisco
1 14 (51.85%) F5
2 12 (44.44%) Palo Alto
3 9 (33.33%) VMware
3 9 (33.33%) Zscaler
4 7 (25.93%) Blue Coat
5 6 (22.22%) McAfee
6 3 (11.11%) Meraki
7 2 (7.41%) SolarWinds
8 1 (3.70%) Ekahau
8 1 (3.70%) Fortinet