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 £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 58 73
Rank change year-on-year -5 +15 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 137 123 150
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.11% 3.44% 3.04%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.43% 3.70% 3.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 77 76
10th Percentile £340 £300 £250
25th Percentile £431 £413 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -1.30%
75th Percentile £538 £563 £571
90th Percentile £584 £625 £709
England median daily rate £500 £490 £450
% change year-on-year +2.04% +8.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 8
10th Percentile £31.93 - £23.05
25th Percentile £47.76 £18.50 £24.44
Median hourly rate £56.44 £19.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year +197.05% -56.82% +87.23%
75th Percentile £76.36 £19.50 £70.47
90th Percentile £86.32 - £72.90
England median hourly rate £52.58 £20.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year +162.90% -69.69% +112.84%

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 3,990 3,320 4,610
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.54% 92.76% 93.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,602 2,076 2,987
10th Percentile £222 £238 £205
25th Percentile £400 £400 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £505 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +1.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £620 £610
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 355 124 253
10th Percentile £13.75 £18.56 £16.30
25th Percentile £16.50 £24.18 £27.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.82% -22.73% +46.67%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.59 £66.25
90th Percentile £85.40 £71.70 £76.53
England median hourly rate £27.21 £35.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year -22.26% -23.71% +40.01%

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 1 January 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Engineer 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 1 January 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
Hampshire -9 69 £500 -4.76% 10
Thames Valley -17 43 £500 +5.26% 26
Berkshire -10 30 £513 +13.89% 18
Kent +7 14 £438 -2.78% 15
Oxfordshire -4 9 £425 -26.09% 5
West Sussex -6 8 £425 -5.56% 3
Buckinghamshire -4 4 £560 +14.87% 4
Surrey -26 2 £513 -2.38% 11
East Sussex - 1 £275 - 1
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 January 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 98 (71.53%) Security Cleared
2 90 (65.69%) Cisco
3 62 (45.26%) Firewall
4 55 (40.15%) SC Cleared
5 53 (38.69%) Juniper
6 42 (30.66%) DV Cleared
7 37 (27.01%) Cisco Certification
8 34 (24.82%) BGP
8 34 (24.82%) CCNP
9 32 (23.36%) LAN
10 31 (22.63%) WAN
11 30 (21.90%) OSPF
11 30 (21.90%) SolarWinds
12 29 (21.17%) Palo Alto
13 27 (19.71%) Junos
14 25 (18.25%) Cisco IOS
15 24 (17.52%) vCenter Server
15 24 (17.52%) VPN
16 22 (16.06%) ITSM
16 22 (16.06%) Service Management
16 22 (16.06%) VMware NSX
17 21 (15.33%) Cisco Firepower
18 20 (14.60%) Cisco ISE
18 20 (14.60%) Windows
19 19 (13.87%) Aruba
19 19 (13.87%) Network Security
20 18 (13.14%) CheckPoint
20 18 (13.14%) Windows Server
21 17 (12.41%) Active Directory
21 17 (12.41%) CCNA

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:

Applications
1 2 (1.46%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 11 (8.03%) AWS
2 8 (5.84%) Azure
3 2 (1.46%) GCP
3 2 (1.46%) Google Ads
4 1 (0.73%) Lucidchart
4 1 (0.73%) Nutanix
4 1 (0.73%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 62 (45.26%) Firewall
2 34 (24.82%) BGP
3 32 (23.36%) LAN
4 31 (22.63%) WAN
5 30 (21.90%) OSPF
6 27 (19.71%) Junos
7 25 (18.25%) Cisco IOS
8 24 (17.52%) VPN
9 21 (15.33%) Cisco Firepower
10 20 (14.60%) Cisco ISE
11 19 (13.87%) Network Security
12 15 (10.95%) IPsec
13 12 (8.76%) VLAN
13 12 (8.76%) Wireless
14 11 (8.03%) MPLS
15 10 (7.30%) Structured Cabling
16 8 (5.84%) DNS
17 7 (5.11%) DHCP
18 6 (4.38%) TCP/IP
18 6 (4.38%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.73%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.46%) JIRA
2 1 (0.73%) GitLab
2 1 (0.73%) Jenkins
General
1 36 (26.28%) Social Skills
2 17 (12.41%) Documentation Skills
3 16 (11.68%) Public Sector
4 10 (7.30%) Manufacturing
4 10 (7.30%) Telecoms
5 9 (6.57%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (2.92%) Finance
7 3 (2.19%) Electronics
7 3 (2.19%) Marketing
7 3 (2.19%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.46%) Military
8 2 (1.46%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.73%) Legal
9 1 (0.73%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.92%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 20 (14.60%) Data Centre
2 4 (2.92%) Fibre Optics
2 4 (2.92%) NHS
2 4 (2.92%) PKI
3 3 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (2.19%) Driving Licence
3 3 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
3 3 (2.19%) Onboarding
4 2 (1.46%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (1.46%) Management Information System
4 2 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.73%) Clustering
5 1 (0.73%) Life Science
5 1 (0.73%) Operational Technology
5 1 (0.73%) SCADA
5 1 (0.73%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (0.73%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 20 (14.60%) Windows
2 18 (13.14%) Windows Server
3 4 (2.92%) Linux
4 2 (1.46%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (16.06%) ITSM
1 22 (16.06%) Service Management
2 13 (9.49%) Collaborative Working
3 12 (8.76%) Network Design
4 10 (7.30%) Problem-Solving
5 8 (5.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 8 (5.84%) Network Monitoring
6 7 (5.11%) High Availability
6 7 (5.11%) Network Segmentation
6 7 (5.11%) Network Virtualisation
7 6 (4.38%) Change Control
7 6 (4.38%) Change Management
7 6 (4.38%) Customer Requirements
7 6 (4.38%) Incident Response
7 6 (4.38%) Network Management
7 6 (4.38%) Project Delivery
8 5 (3.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 5 (3.65%) Validation
9 4 (2.92%) Continuous Improvement
9 4 (2.92%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 4 (2.92%) Python
2 2 (1.46%) SQL
3 1 (0.73%) Bash
3 1 (0.73%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 98 (71.53%) Security Cleared
2 55 (40.15%) SC Cleared
3 42 (30.66%) DV Cleared
4 37 (27.01%) Cisco Certification
5 34 (24.82%) CCNP
6 17 (12.41%) CCNA
7 9 (6.57%) Degree
8 8 (5.84%) JNCIS
9 7 (5.11%) JNCIA
10 5 (3.65%) Network+ Certification
11 4 (2.92%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.46%) A+ Certification
12 2 (1.46%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (1.46%) CCDA
12 2 (1.46%) CCDP
12 2 (1.46%) Microsoft Certification
13 1 (0.73%) BC Cleared
13 1 (0.73%) CISSP
13 1 (0.73%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.46%) GDPR
1 2 (1.46%) QA
1 2 (1.46%) SLA
2 1 (0.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.73%) JSP 440
2 1 (0.73%) NIST
System Software
1 22 (16.06%) VMware NSX
2 17 (12.41%) Active Directory
3 5 (3.65%) Firmware
3 5 (3.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.46%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.46%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.73%) Docker
5 1 (0.73%) KVM
5 1 (0.73%) RHEV
5 1 (0.73%) Xen
Systems Management
1 24 (17.52%) vCenter Server
2 7 (5.11%) FortiGate
3 6 (4.38%) Ansible
4 4 (2.92%) Nagios
5 3 (2.19%) Terraform
6 2 (1.46%) Dell DRAC
7 1 (0.73%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.73%) Backup Exec
7 1 (0.73%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.73%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.73%) Norton AntiVirus
7 1 (0.73%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.73%) SCOM
7 1 (0.73%) WhatsUp Gold
7 1 (0.73%) WSUS
Vendors
1 90 (65.69%) Cisco
2 53 (38.69%) Juniper
3 30 (21.90%) SolarWinds
4 29 (21.17%) Palo Alto
5 19 (13.87%) Aruba
6 18 (13.14%) CheckPoint
7 14 (10.22%) Fortinet
8 8 (5.84%) F5
8 8 (5.84%) VMware
9 7 (5.11%) Meraki
10 6 (4.38%) Microsoft
11 5 (3.65%) Nokia
12 4 (2.92%) Broadcom
13 3 (2.19%) SAP
13 3 (2.19%) Zscaler
14 2 (1.46%) Dell
14 2 (1.46%) McAfee
14 2 (1.46%) NVIDIA
14 2 (1.46%) Pegasus
14 2 (1.46%) ServiceNow