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 £473, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 August 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 70 50
Rank change year-on-year -43 -20 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 131 97 185
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.95% 2.74% 3.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.12% 3.04% 4.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 83 107
10th Percentile £250 £305 £330
25th Percentile £377 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.50% - +17.65%
75th Percentile £560 £575 £600
90th Percentile £600 £614 £638
England median daily rate £480 £485 £488
% change year-on-year -1.03% -0.51% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 2 6
10th Percentile £59.94 £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 £57.50 £56.78
% change year-on-year +34.78% +1.27% -1.53%

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 6,190 3,196 4,477
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 90.44% 92.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,653 2,062 2,740
10th Percentile £305 £205 £250
25th Percentile £425 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £634
90th Percentile £715 £663 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 741 277 369
10th Percentile £15.72 £13.75 £16.00
25th Percentile £26.00 £15.50 £27.00
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +108.75% -56.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £71.43 £57.50 £73.75
90th Percentile £86.61 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +7.40%

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 19 August 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 19 August 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 19 August 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 +4 87 £463 +2.78% 18
Berkshire +5 58 £405 -10.00% 6
Hampshire -61 23 £550 +10.00% 16
Buckinghamshire -16 21 £525 +31.25% 7
Isle of Wight - 10 - -
Oxfordshire -24 8 £480 - 6
Surrey -20 5 £450 +5.88% 6
Sussex - 3 £246 -
East Sussex +1 2 £409 +43.42% 3
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 19 August 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 71 (54.20%) Security Cleared
2 62 (47.33%) Cisco
3 57 (43.51%) Firewall
4 46 (35.11%) SC Cleared
5 44 (33.59%) WAN
6 42 (32.06%) LAN
7 39 (29.77%) Juniper
8 38 (29.01%) VMware
9 28 (21.37%) BGP
9 28 (21.37%) DNS
9 28 (21.37%) DV Cleared
9 28 (21.37%) Palo Alto
9 28 (21.37%) VMware Infrastructure
10 27 (20.61%) Network Security
11 25 (19.08%) DHCP
11 25 (19.08%) ITIL
12 24 (18.32%) OSPF
13 23 (17.56%) Cisco Certification
14 22 (16.79%) Fortinet
15 21 (16.03%) VPN
16 20 (15.27%) Cisco ASA
17 19 (14.50%) Network Monitoring
17 19 (14.50%) SD-WAN
17 19 (14.50%) Wireless
18 18 (13.74%) High Availability
18 18 (13.74%) Windows
19 17 (12.98%) Cisco Firepower
19 17 (12.98%) VLAN
20 16 (12.21%) SolarWinds
20 16 (12.21%) Technical Leadership

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 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 13 (9.92%) AWS
1 13 (9.92%) Azure
2 5 (3.82%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (0.76%) AWS Direct Connect
3 1 (0.76%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (0.76%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 57 (43.51%) Firewall
2 44 (33.59%) WAN
3 42 (32.06%) LAN
4 28 (21.37%) BGP
4 28 (21.37%) DNS
5 27 (20.61%) Network Security
6 25 (19.08%) DHCP
7 24 (18.32%) OSPF
8 21 (16.03%) VPN
9 20 (15.27%) Cisco ASA
10 19 (14.50%) SD-WAN
10 19 (14.50%) Wireless
11 17 (12.98%) Cisco Firepower
11 17 (12.98%) VLAN
12 15 (11.45%) IPsec
13 14 (10.69%) Wi-Fi
14 11 (8.40%) Cisco Nexus
14 11 (8.40%) NGFW
14 11 (8.40%) SSL
15 10 (7.63%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.76%) GIS
Development Applications
1 1 (0.76%) Browser DevTools
1 1 (0.76%) Git
1 1 (0.76%) JIRA
General
1 16 (12.21%) Manufacturing
2 15 (11.45%) Social Skills
3 9 (6.87%) Aerospace
4 8 (6.11%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (4.58%) Finance
5 6 (4.58%) Telecoms
6 5 (3.82%) Retail
7 4 (3.05%) Public Sector
8 3 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.29%) Legal
9 1 (0.76%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (9.92%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 20 (15.27%) Data Centre
2 10 (7.63%) PKI
3 4 (3.05%) Fibre Optics
4 3 (2.29%) Clustering
4 3 (2.29%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (2.29%) Security Posture
5 2 (1.53%) CMDB
5 2 (1.53%) Driving Licence
5 2 (1.53%) IoT
5 2 (1.53%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.53%) NHS
5 2 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.76%) BYOD
6 1 (0.76%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.76%) Life Science
6 1 (0.76%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (0.76%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 18 (13.74%) Windows
2 11 (8.40%) Linux
3 1 (0.76%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.76%) Windows 7
3 1 (0.76%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2008
3 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2012
3 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (19.08%) ITIL
2 19 (14.50%) Network Monitoring
3 18 (13.74%) High Availability
4 16 (12.21%) Technical Leadership
5 15 (11.45%) Network Virtualisation
5 15 (11.45%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (10.69%) Load Balancing
7 12 (9.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 12 (9.16%) Security Operations
8 10 (7.63%) Change Management
8 10 (7.63%) ITSM
8 10 (7.63%) Migration
9 9 (6.87%) Virtual Environments
10 7 (5.34%) Identity Access Management
10 7 (5.34%) Network Design
10 7 (5.34%) Service Management
10 7 (5.34%) Validation
11 6 (4.58%) Capacity Planning
11 6 (4.58%) Collaborative Working
12 5 (3.82%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 3 (2.29%) Python
1 3 (2.29%) SQL
Qualifications
1 71 (54.20%) Security Cleared
2 46 (35.11%) SC Cleared
3 28 (21.37%) DV Cleared
4 23 (17.56%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (11.45%) CCNP
6 7 (5.34%) JNCIS
7 6 (4.58%) JNCIP
8 5 (3.82%) CCNA
8 5 (3.82%) CCSE
8 5 (3.82%) CCSM
9 4 (3.05%) Degree
9 4 (3.05%) JNCIA
10 2 (1.53%) CCIE
11 1 (0.76%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.76%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.76%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (5.34%) SLA
2 6 (4.58%) NIST
3 2 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.76%) QA
System Software
1 28 (21.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (11.45%) VMware NSX
3 8 (6.11%) Active Directory
4 6 (4.58%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (2.29%) vSphere
6 2 (1.53%) Firmware
6 2 (1.53%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 9 (6.87%) FortiGate
2 4 (3.05%) Cisco CUCM
2 4 (3.05%) Nagios
3 3 (2.29%) Ansible
4 2 (1.53%) Avamar
4 2 (1.53%) Terraform
5 1 (0.76%) CASB
5 1 (0.76%) Grafana
5 1 (0.76%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.76%) SCOM
Vendors
1 62 (47.33%) Cisco
2 39 (29.77%) Juniper
3 38 (29.01%) VMware
4 28 (21.37%) Palo Alto
5 22 (16.79%) Fortinet
6 16 (12.21%) SolarWinds
7 15 (11.45%) F5
8 14 (10.69%) CheckPoint
9 11 (8.40%) ServiceNow
10 7 (5.34%) Extreme Networks
11 6 (4.58%) Aruba
11 6 (4.58%) Meraki
12 4 (3.05%) Becrypt
12 4 (3.05%) Infoblox
12 4 (3.05%) Microsoft
13 3 (2.29%) NetScout
13 3 (2.29%) Nokia
13 3 (2.29%) SevOne
13 3 (2.29%) Splunk
14 2 (1.53%) Veeam