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 25 December 2025.

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

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 74 55 80
Rank change year-on-year -19 +25 +8
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 134 131 137
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.03% 3.55% 2.75%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.35% 3.83% 2.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 83 65
10th Percentile £340 £300 £220
25th Percentile £433 £413 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £538 £569 £553
90th Percentile £588 £625 £650
England median daily rate £498 £488 £461
% change year-on-year +2.05% +5.69% +2.50%
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 £63.00
% change year-on-year +162.90% -68.25% +103.23%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 3,996 3,424 4,672
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.28% 92.84% 93.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,592 2,151 3,028
10th Percentile £220 £235 £205
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £505 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +1.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £607
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £508 £525 £528
% change year-on-year -3.33% -0.47% -4.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 365 125 244
10th Percentile £13.75 £18.94 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.50 £24.50 £26.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.88 £54.78
Median % change year-on-year -41.35% -21.72% +46.80%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £83.90 £73.01 £76.53
England median hourly rate £26.30 £35.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -25.92% -22.62% +41.17%

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 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
Hampshire -6 70 £500 -4.76% 11
Thames Valley -19 41 £475 - 33
Berkshire -16 30 £513 +17.82% 21
Kent +7 11 £438 -2.78% 25
Oxfordshire -6 9 £425 -19.05% 7
West Sussex -5 8 £425 -5.56% 3
Buckinghamshire -4 2 £560 +14.87% 5
Surrey -28 2 £513 - 6
East Sussex - 2 £280 - 2
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 25 December 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 South East region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 94 (70.15%) Security Cleared
2 86 (64.18%) Cisco
3 58 (43.28%) Firewall
4 54 (40.30%) Juniper
5 52 (38.81%) SC Cleared
6 41 (30.60%) DV Cleared
7 35 (26.12%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (23.13%) BGP
8 31 (23.13%) CCNP
9 30 (22.39%) LAN
9 30 (22.39%) SolarWinds
10 28 (20.90%) Junos
10 28 (20.90%) WAN
11 27 (20.15%) OSPF
12 26 (19.40%) Cisco IOS
13 24 (17.91%) Palo Alto
13 24 (17.91%) vCenter Server
13 24 (17.91%) VPN
14 22 (16.42%) Cisco Firepower
14 22 (16.42%) ITSM
14 22 (16.42%) Service Management
14 22 (16.42%) VMware NSX
15 21 (15.67%) Cisco ISE
16 20 (14.93%) Windows
17 19 (14.18%) Network Security
18 18 (13.43%) Windows Server
19 17 (12.69%) Active Directory
19 17 (12.69%) CCNA
20 15 (11.19%) CheckPoint
21 14 (10.45%) Aruba

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 (1.49%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 12 (8.96%) AWS
2 9 (6.72%) Azure
3 2 (1.49%) GCP
3 2 (1.49%) Google Ads
4 1 (0.75%) Lucidchart
4 1 (0.75%) Nutanix
4 1 (0.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 58 (43.28%) Firewall
2 31 (23.13%) BGP
3 30 (22.39%) LAN
4 28 (20.90%) Junos
4 28 (20.90%) WAN
5 27 (20.15%) OSPF
6 26 (19.40%) Cisco IOS
7 24 (17.91%) VPN
8 22 (16.42%) Cisco Firepower
9 21 (15.67%) Cisco ISE
10 19 (14.18%) Network Security
11 12 (8.96%) IPsec
11 12 (8.96%) VLAN
11 12 (8.96%) Wireless
12 11 (8.21%) MPLS
13 8 (5.97%) DNS
14 7 (5.22%) DHCP
14 7 (5.22%) Structured Cabling
15 6 (4.48%) TCP/IP
15 6 (4.48%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.75%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.49%) JIRA
2 1 (0.75%) GitLab
2 1 (0.75%) Jenkins
General
1 36 (26.87%) Social Skills
2 16 (11.94%) Public Sector
3 14 (10.45%) Documentation Skills
4 10 (7.46%) Telecoms
5 9 (6.72%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (5.97%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.99%) Finance
8 3 (2.24%) Electronics
8 3 (2.24%) Marketing
8 3 (2.24%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.49%) Military
9 2 (1.49%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.75%) Legal
10 1 (0.75%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.99%) RFC 2544
2 1 (0.75%) CSS
2 1 (0.75%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (12.69%) Data Centre
2 4 (2.99%) Fibre Optics
2 4 (2.99%) NHS
2 4 (2.99%) PKI
3 3 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (2.24%) Driving Licence
3 3 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
3 3 (2.24%) Onboarding
4 2 (1.49%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (1.49%) Management Information System
4 2 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.75%) Clustering
5 1 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (0.75%) Life Science
5 1 (0.75%) Operational Technology
5 1 (0.75%) SCADA
5 1 (0.75%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (0.75%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 20 (14.93%) Windows
2 18 (13.43%) Windows Server
3 4 (2.99%) Linux
4 2 (1.49%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (16.42%) ITSM
1 22 (16.42%) Service Management
2 13 (9.70%) Collaborative Working
3 12 (8.96%) Network Design
4 11 (8.21%) Problem-Solving
5 8 (5.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 8 (5.97%) Network Monitoring
6 7 (5.22%) High Availability
6 7 (5.22%) Network Segmentation
6 7 (5.22%) Network Virtualisation
7 6 (4.48%) Change Control
7 6 (4.48%) Change Management
7 6 (4.48%) Incident Response
7 6 (4.48%) Network Management
8 5 (3.73%) Project Delivery
8 5 (3.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 5 (3.73%) Validation
9 4 (2.99%) Continuous Improvement
9 4 (2.99%) Customer Requirements
9 4 (2.99%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 6 (4.48%) Python
2 2 (1.49%) SQL
3 1 (0.75%) Bash
3 1 (0.75%) Java
3 1 (0.75%) JavaScript
3 1 (0.75%) Kotlin
3 1 (0.75%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.75%) VB
Qualifications
1 94 (70.15%) Security Cleared
2 52 (38.81%) SC Cleared
3 41 (30.60%) DV Cleared
4 35 (26.12%) Cisco Certification
5 31 (23.13%) CCNP
6 17 (12.69%) CCNA
7 8 (5.97%) Degree
7 8 (5.97%) JNCIS
8 7 (5.22%) JNCIA
9 6 (4.48%) Network+ Certification
10 4 (2.99%) JNCIP
11 2 (1.49%) A+ Certification
11 2 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.49%) CCDA
11 2 (1.49%) CCDP
11 2 (1.49%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.75%) BC Cleared
12 1 (0.75%) CISSP
12 1 (0.75%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.49%) GDPR
1 2 (1.49%) QA
1 2 (1.49%) SLA
2 1 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.75%) JSP 440
2 1 (0.75%) NIST
System Software
1 22 (16.42%) VMware NSX
2 17 (12.69%) Active Directory
3 5 (3.73%) Firmware
3 5 (3.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.49%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.49%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.75%) Docker
5 1 (0.75%) KVM
5 1 (0.75%) RHEV
5 1 (0.75%) Xen
Systems Management
1 24 (17.91%) vCenter Server
2 8 (5.97%) FortiGate
3 7 (5.22%) Ansible
4 4 (2.99%) Nagios
4 4 (2.99%) Terraform
5 2 (1.49%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.75%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (0.75%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.75%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.75%) Grafana
6 1 (0.75%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.75%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (0.75%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.75%) SCOM
6 1 (0.75%) WhatsUp Gold
6 1 (0.75%) WSUS
Vendors
1 86 (64.18%) Cisco
2 54 (40.30%) Juniper
3 30 (22.39%) SolarWinds
4 24 (17.91%) Palo Alto
5 15 (11.19%) CheckPoint
6 14 (10.45%) Aruba
6 14 (10.45%) Fortinet
7 8 (5.97%) VMware
8 7 (5.22%) F5
9 6 (4.48%) Microsoft
9 6 (4.48%) Nokia
10 5 (3.73%) Meraki
11 4 (2.99%) Broadcom
12 3 (2.24%) SAP
12 3 (2.24%) Zscaler
13 2 (1.49%) Cramer
13 2 (1.49%) Dell
13 2 (1.49%) McAfee
13 2 (1.49%) Mellanox
13 2 (1.49%) Pegasus