Network Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Network Engineer
England > South East

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the South East is £466, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 July 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 70 50
Rank change year-on-year -27 -20 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 147 100 197
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.22% 2.89% 3.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.41% 3.19% 4.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 83 118
10th Percentile £250 £325 £350
25th Percentile £368 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.75% - +14.29%
75th Percentile £560 £575 £583
90th Percentile £600 £625 £638
England median daily rate £475 £491 £475
% change year-on-year -3.26% +3.37% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 2 6
10th Percentile - £72.86 £18.06
25th Percentile £76.25 £75.66 £19.48
Median hourly rate £77.50 £83.32 £47.95
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +73.76% -22.67%
75th Percentile £78.75 £87.97 £75.24
90th Percentile - £88.97 £76.12
England median hourly rate £77.50 £53.75 £56.78
% change year-on-year +44.19% -5.34% -8.42%

All Contract IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 6,104 3,136 4,720
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.39% 90.51% 92.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,619 2,036 2,862
10th Percentile £304 £213 £255
25th Percentile £425 £376 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £634
90th Percentile £713 £663 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 696 249 411
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.00 £15.38
25th Percentile £26.53 £15.50 £22.50
Median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +114.71% -56.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £77.50 £60.00 £71.82
90th Percentile £87.98 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £45.56 £26.02 £43.00
% change year-on-year +75.08% -39.49% -1.58%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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 the South East.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the South East

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 30 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in the South East

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the South East

Network Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the South East

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 South East region over the 6 months to 30 July 2026. 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
Thames Valley +10 100 £463 +2.78% 9
Berkshire +4 71 £410 -8.89% 4
Hampshire -56 25 £550 - 10
Buckinghamshire -18 21 £525 +31.25% 2
Isle of Wight - 10 - -
Oxfordshire -15 8 £480 - 4
Surrey -19 5 £450 +5.88% 3
Sussex - 3 £246 -
East Sussex +2 2 £409 +43.42% 2
Kent -2 1 £445 +4.71% 3
Network Engineer
England

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 30 July 2026, 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 South East region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 87 (59.18%) Security Cleared
2 73 (49.66%) Cisco
3 69 (46.94%) Firewall
4 54 (36.73%) WAN
5 53 (36.05%) SC Cleared
6 52 (35.37%) LAN
7 50 (34.01%) Juniper
8 38 (25.85%) VMware
9 37 (25.17%) BGP
9 37 (25.17%) DV Cleared
10 33 (22.45%) OSPF
11 32 (21.77%) DNS
12 31 (21.09%) Network Security
13 30 (20.41%) Palo Alto
14 29 (19.73%) Cisco Certification
14 29 (19.73%) DHCP
15 28 (19.05%) ITIL
15 28 (19.05%) VMware Infrastructure
16 26 (17.69%) High Availability
17 25 (17.01%) VPN
18 24 (16.33%) Windows
19 23 (15.65%) Fortinet
20 20 (13.61%) CCNP
20 20 (13.61%) Cisco ASA
20 20 (13.61%) F5
20 20 (13.61%) Network Monitoring
20 20 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
20 20 (13.61%) SolarWinds
20 20 (13.61%) Wireless
21 19 (12.93%) Load Balancing

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 14 (9.52%) AWS
1 14 (9.52%) Azure
2 5 (3.40%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (0.68%) AWS Direct Connect
3 1 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (0.68%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 69 (46.94%) Firewall
2 54 (36.73%) WAN
3 52 (35.37%) LAN
4 37 (25.17%) BGP
5 33 (22.45%) OSPF
6 32 (21.77%) DNS
7 31 (21.09%) Network Security
8 29 (19.73%) DHCP
9 25 (17.01%) VPN
10 20 (13.61%) Cisco ASA
10 20 (13.61%) Wireless
11 17 (11.56%) Cisco Firepower
11 17 (11.56%) IPsec
11 17 (11.56%) SD-WAN
12 16 (10.88%) Cisco ISE
12 16 (10.88%) VLAN
13 15 (10.20%) Junos
14 14 (9.52%) Wi-Fi
15 13 (8.84%) BIG-IP
15 13 (8.84%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 2 (1.36%) JIRA
2 1 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.68%) Git
2 1 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 17 (11.56%) Social Skills
2 15 (10.20%) Manufacturing
3 9 (6.12%) Aerospace
3 9 (6.12%) Telecoms
4 8 (5.44%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (4.08%) Finance
6 5 (3.40%) Public Sector
6 5 (3.40%) Retail
7 4 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.72%) Military
8 3 (2.04%) Legal
9 1 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (12.24%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 29 (19.73%) Data Centre
2 14 (9.52%) PKI
3 9 (6.12%) Clustering
4 4 (2.72%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (2.04%) Security Posture
5 3 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.36%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.36%) IoT
6 2 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.36%) NHS
7 1 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.68%) BYOD
7 1 (0.68%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.68%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.68%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 24 (16.33%) Windows
2 14 (9.52%) Linux
3 1 (0.68%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.68%) Windows 7
3 1 (0.68%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2008
3 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
3 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (19.05%) ITIL
2 26 (17.69%) High Availability
3 20 (13.61%) Network Monitoring
3 20 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (12.93%) Load Balancing
5 16 (10.88%) Technical Leadership
6 15 (10.20%) Network Virtualisation
7 14 (9.52%) ITSM
8 12 (8.16%) Identity Access Management
8 12 (8.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 12 (8.16%) Security Operations
8 12 (8.16%) Service Management
9 10 (6.80%) Migration
10 9 (6.12%) Network Design
10 9 (6.12%) Observability
10 9 (6.12%) Virtual Environments
11 8 (5.44%) Change Management
11 8 (5.44%) Collaborative Working
12 6 (4.08%) Root Cause Analysis
12 6 (4.08%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.36%) Python
1 2 (1.36%) SQL
Qualifications
1 87 (59.18%) Security Cleared
2 53 (36.05%) SC Cleared
3 37 (25.17%) DV Cleared
4 29 (19.73%) Cisco Certification
5 20 (13.61%) CCNP
6 11 (7.48%) JNCIS
7 10 (6.80%) JNCIP
8 8 (5.44%) JNCIA
9 5 (3.40%) CCSE
9 5 (3.40%) CCSM
10 4 (2.72%) CCNA
10 4 (2.72%) Degree
11 2 (1.36%) CCIE
11 2 (1.36%) Network+ Certification
12 1 (0.68%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.68%) CCIP
12 1 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.76%) SLA
2 6 (4.08%) NIST
3 2 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 28 (19.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (10.88%) VMware NSX
3 9 (6.12%) Active Directory
4 6 (4.08%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (2.04%) Firmware
5 3 (2.04%) vSphere
6 2 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 14 (9.52%) FortiGate
2 5 (3.40%) Ansible
3 4 (2.72%) Cisco CUCM
3 4 (2.72%) Terraform
4 3 (2.04%) Nagios
5 2 (1.36%) Avamar
6 1 (0.68%) CASB
6 1 (0.68%) Grafana
6 1 (0.68%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.68%) SCOM
Vendors
1 73 (49.66%) Cisco
2 50 (34.01%) Juniper
3 38 (25.85%) VMware
4 30 (20.41%) Palo Alto
5 23 (15.65%) Fortinet
6 20 (13.61%) F5
6 20 (13.61%) SolarWinds
7 16 (10.88%) CheckPoint
8 11 (7.48%) Extreme Networks
9 9 (6.12%) ServiceNow
10 8 (5.44%) Splunk
11 7 (4.76%) Aruba
12 4 (2.72%) Becrypt
12 4 (2.72%) Infoblox
12 4 (2.72%) Meraki
12 4 (2.72%) Microsoft
13 3 (2.04%) BT
13 3 (2.04%) Nokia
14 2 (1.36%) Commvault
14 2 (1.36%) NetApp