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 £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 May 2026.

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

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 65 70 36
Rank change year-on-year +5 -34 +34
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 188 83 261
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.21% 2.78% 4.74%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.49% 3.03% 5.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 142 65 146
10th Percentile £303 £325 £331
25th Percentile £400 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £555
90th Percentile £575 £625 £700
England median daily rate £475 £490 £470
% change year-on-year -3.06% +4.26% +4.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 1 6
10th Percentile £56.44 - £21.38
25th Percentile £72.06 £18.50 £24.31
Median hourly rate £77.50 £19.00 £49.25
Median % change year-on-year +307.89% -61.42% -23.05%
75th Percentile £78.75 £19.50 £75.24
90th Percentile - - £76.12
England median hourly rate £77.50 £57.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +34.78% +43.75% -36.74%

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 5,387 2,737 5,080
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 91.72% 92.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,360 1,815 3,059
10th Percentile £300 £248 £213
25th Percentile £413 £395 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% - -
75th Percentile £613 £600 £619
90th Percentile £706 £663 £688
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 503 161 479
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.78
25th Percentile £25.08 £20.00 £18.32
Median hourly rate £55.00 £34.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.42% -27.37% -0.61%
75th Percentile £82.25 £63.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £47.00 £30.40 £36.58
% change year-on-year +54.61% -16.88% -17.86%

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 8 May 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 8 May 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 8 May 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 95 £463 -2.63% 21
Berkshire +14 74 £430 -4.44% 12
Hampshire -13 54 £500 -1.48% 17
Kent +7 18 £439 +3.24% 4
Buckinghamshire -23 15 £525 +31.25% 6
Isle of Wight - 10 - -
Oxfordshire -17 6 £480 -12.73% 3
West Sussex -13 4 £400 +3.23%
East Sussex - 3 £400 -
Surrey -18 2 £475 +31.03% 8
Sussex -3 1 £418 -
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 8 May 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.

1 130 (69.15%) Security Cleared
2 99 (52.66%) Cisco
3 89 (47.34%) SC Cleared
4 82 (43.62%) Firewall
5 73 (38.83%) LAN
6 68 (36.17%) WAN
7 62 (32.98%) BGP
7 62 (32.98%) Juniper
8 56 (29.79%) OSPF
9 51 (27.13%) Cisco Certification
10 45 (23.94%) DV Cleared
11 44 (23.40%) CCNP
12 37 (19.68%) Palo Alto
13 30 (15.96%) IPsec
13 30 (15.96%) VPN
14 27 (14.36%) Network Security
14 27 (14.36%) VMware
15 26 (13.83%) Aruba
16 24 (12.77%) DHCP
16 24 (12.77%) DNS
16 24 (12.77%) High Availability
17 23 (12.23%) CheckPoint
17 23 (12.23%) Junos
18 22 (11.70%) F5
19 21 (11.17%) VMware Infrastructure
20 20 (10.64%) Cisco ISE
20 20 (10.64%) SolarWinds
21 19 (10.11%) ITIL
21 19 (10.11%) Wireless
22 17 (9.04%) AWS

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 1 (0.53%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 17 (9.04%) AWS
2 15 (7.98%) Azure
3 3 (1.60%) Azure Sentinel
4 2 (1.06%) GCP
4 2 (1.06%) Google Ads
4 2 (1.06%) IaaS
4 2 (1.06%) PaaS
4 2 (1.06%) SaaS
5 1 (0.53%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (0.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 82 (43.62%) Firewall
2 73 (38.83%) LAN
3 68 (36.17%) WAN
4 62 (32.98%) BGP
5 56 (29.79%) OSPF
6 30 (15.96%) IPsec
6 30 (15.96%) VPN
7 27 (14.36%) Network Security
8 24 (12.77%) DHCP
8 24 (12.77%) DNS
9 23 (12.23%) Junos
10 20 (10.64%) Cisco ISE
11 19 (10.11%) Wireless
12 17 (9.04%) Ethernet VPN
12 17 (9.04%) Structured Cabling
13 16 (8.51%) VLAN
14 15 (7.98%) TCP/IP
15 14 (7.45%) Cisco Nexus
16 13 (6.91%) BIG-IP
16 13 (6.91%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.53%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.06%) JIRA
2 1 (0.53%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 30 (15.96%) Social Skills
2 25 (13.30%) Manufacturing
3 24 (12.77%) Documentation Skills
4 12 (6.38%) Telecoms
5 10 (5.32%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (4.79%) Aerospace
6 9 (4.79%) Public Sector
7 6 (3.19%) Finance
8 4 (2.13%) Military
9 3 (1.60%) Legal
9 3 (1.60%) Retail
10 2 (1.06%) Electronics
10 2 (1.06%) Marketing
11 1 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.53%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.91%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 49 (26.06%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.38%) PKI
3 9 (4.79%) Clustering
4 4 (2.13%) NHS
4 4 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.60%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.53%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.53%) BYOD
7 1 (0.53%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.53%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.53%) Life Science
7 1 (0.53%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 17 (9.04%) Windows
2 10 (5.32%) Linux
3 1 (0.53%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (12.77%) High Availability
2 19 (10.11%) ITIL
3 17 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
4 16 (8.51%) Collaborative Working
4 16 (8.51%) ITSM
4 16 (8.51%) Load Balancing
4 16 (8.51%) Network Monitoring
5 14 (7.45%) Network Virtualisation
6 12 (6.38%) Identity Access Management
6 12 (6.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 12 (6.38%) Network Design
6 12 (6.38%) Service Management
7 11 (5.85%) Customer Requirements
8 8 (4.26%) Observability
8 8 (4.26%) Technical Leadership
9 7 (3.72%) Change Management
9 7 (3.72%) Project Delivery
10 6 (3.19%) Capacity Planning
10 6 (3.19%) Infrastructure Automation
10 6 (3.19%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 3 (1.60%) SQL
2 2 (1.06%) Python
Qualifications
1 130 (69.15%) Security Cleared
2 89 (47.34%) SC Cleared
3 51 (27.13%) Cisco Certification
4 45 (23.94%) DV Cleared
5 44 (23.40%) CCNP
6 17 (9.04%) JNCIS
7 14 (7.45%) CCNA
8 12 (6.38%) JNCIA
9 11 (5.85%) JNCIP
10 10 (5.32%) Degree
11 6 (3.19%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (1.60%) CCSE
12 3 (1.60%) CCSM
13 2 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
14 1 (0.53%) CCIP
14 1 (0.53%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (2.66%) SLA
2 1 (0.53%) JSP 440
2 1 (0.53%) NIST
System Software
1 21 (11.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (7.45%) VMware NSX
3 5 (2.66%) Firmware
4 4 (2.13%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (1.60%) Active Directory
6 2 (1.06%) vCloud
6 2 (1.06%) vSphere
7 1 (0.53%) KVM
7 1 (0.53%) RHEV
7 1 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.53%) Xen
Systems Management
1 12 (6.38%) FortiGate
2 7 (3.72%) Ansible
3 6 (3.19%) Nagios
4 5 (2.66%) Terraform
5 4 (2.13%) vCenter Server
6 1 (0.53%) Avamar
6 1 (0.53%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.53%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (0.53%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.53%) SCOM
6 1 (0.53%) WhatsUp Gold
6 1 (0.53%) WSUS
Vendors
1 99 (52.66%) Cisco
2 62 (32.98%) Juniper
3 37 (19.68%) Palo Alto
4 27 (14.36%) VMware
5 26 (13.83%) Aruba
6 23 (12.23%) CheckPoint
7 22 (11.70%) F5
8 20 (10.64%) SolarWinds
9 16 (8.51%) Fortinet
10 10 (5.32%) Extreme Networks
11 8 (4.26%) Splunk
12 7 (3.72%) Meraki
13 4 (2.13%) Broadcom
13 4 (2.13%) Mellanox
13 4 (2.13%) Microsoft
13 4 (2.13%) NVIDIA
13 4 (2.13%) ServiceNow
14 3 (1.60%) Infoblox
14 3 (1.60%) Nokia
15 2 (1.06%) Pegasus