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 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 76 47
Rank change year-on-year -19 -29 +25
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 152 94 217
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.33% 2.77% 3.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.53% 3.06% 4.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 78 125
10th Percentile £303 £318 £330
25th Percentile £380 £416 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £560 £575 £575
90th Percentile £598 £615 £638
England median daily rate £475 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -3.06% +3.16% +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 £73.50 £53.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year +36.74% +34.38% -35.48%

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 6,012 3,076 5,086
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.50% 92.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,592 1,987 3,024
10th Percentile £304 £213 £250
25th Percentile £425 £375 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £619 £600 £630
90th Percentile £706 £663 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 653 238 473
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.14 £13.05
25th Percentile £26.25 £15.50 £19.25
Median hourly rate £52.43 £27.88 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year +88.04% -49.19% +9.75%
75th Percentile £78.75 £62.24 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.75 £80.00
England median hourly rate £45.56 £27.70 £40.00
% change year-on-year +64.46% -30.75% -6.98%

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 17 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 17 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 +6 99 £463 +2.78% 16
Berkshire +2 72 £410 -8.89% 5
Hampshire -49 29 £538 +4.37% 14
Buckinghamshire -17 21 £525 +31.25% 5
Isle of Wight - 10 - -
Oxfordshire -22 6 £480 - 6
Surrey -18 5 £450 +5.88% 11
Kent 0 3 £445 +4.71% 2
Sussex - 3 £246 -
East Sussex +2 2 £409 +43.42% 2
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 17 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 95 (62.50%) Security Cleared
2 77 (50.66%) Cisco
3 73 (48.03%) Firewall
4 60 (39.47%) SC Cleared
5 58 (38.16%) WAN
6 57 (37.50%) LAN
7 51 (33.55%) Juniper
8 39 (25.66%) BGP
9 38 (25.00%) DV Cleared
10 37 (24.34%) VMware
11 36 (23.68%) OSPF
12 33 (21.71%) Network Security
12 33 (21.71%) Palo Alto
13 32 (21.05%) Cisco Certification
14 31 (20.39%) DNS
15 28 (18.42%) DHCP
15 28 (18.42%) VMware Infrastructure
16 27 (17.76%) ITIL
17 26 (17.11%) VPN
18 25 (16.45%) High Availability
19 24 (15.79%) CCNP
19 24 (15.79%) Windows
20 23 (15.13%) Fortinet
21 20 (13.16%) Cisco ASA
21 20 (13.16%) F5
21 20 (13.16%) IPsec
21 20 (13.16%) Problem-Solving
22 19 (12.50%) Load Balancing
22 19 (12.50%) Network Monitoring
22 19 (12.50%) SolarWinds

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 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 14 (9.21%) AWS
1 14 (9.21%) Azure
2 5 (3.29%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (0.66%) AWS Direct Connect
3 1 (0.66%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (0.66%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 73 (48.03%) Firewall
2 58 (38.16%) WAN
3 57 (37.50%) LAN
4 39 (25.66%) BGP
5 36 (23.68%) OSPF
6 33 (21.71%) Network Security
7 31 (20.39%) DNS
8 28 (18.42%) DHCP
9 26 (17.11%) VPN
10 20 (13.16%) Cisco ASA
10 20 (13.16%) IPsec
11 19 (12.50%) Wireless
12 17 (11.18%) Cisco Firepower
13 16 (10.53%) Cisco ISE
13 16 (10.53%) SD-WAN
14 15 (9.87%) Junos
14 15 (9.87%) VLAN
15 14 (9.21%) Wi-Fi
16 13 (8.55%) BIG-IP
16 13 (8.55%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 2 (1.32%) JIRA
2 1 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.66%) Git
2 1 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 17 (11.18%) Manufacturing
1 17 (11.18%) Social Skills
2 9 (5.92%) Aerospace
2 9 (5.92%) Telecoms
3 8 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.61%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.95%) Finance
6 5 (3.29%) Public Sector
6 5 (3.29%) Retail
7 4 (2.63%) Military
8 3 (1.97%) Legal
9 1 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (11.84%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 32 (21.05%) Data Centre
2 14 (9.21%) PKI
3 9 (5.92%) Clustering
4 4 (2.63%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (1.97%) Security Posture
5 3 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.32%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.32%) IoT
6 2 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.32%) NHS
7 1 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.66%) BYOD
7 1 (0.66%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.66%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.66%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 24 (15.79%) Windows
2 14 (9.21%) Linux
3 1 (0.66%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.66%) Windows 7
3 1 (0.66%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.66%) Windows Server 2008
3 1 (0.66%) Windows Server 2012
3 1 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (17.76%) ITIL
2 25 (16.45%) High Availability
3 20 (13.16%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (12.50%) Load Balancing
4 19 (12.50%) Network Monitoring
5 16 (10.53%) Technical Leadership
6 15 (9.87%) Network Virtualisation
7 14 (9.21%) ITSM
8 12 (7.89%) Identity Access Management
8 12 (7.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 12 (7.89%) Security Operations
8 12 (7.89%) Service Management
9 10 (6.58%) Migration
10 9 (5.92%) Collaborative Working
10 9 (5.92%) Network Design
10 9 (5.92%) Observability
10 9 (5.92%) Virtual Environments
11 8 (5.26%) Change Management
12 6 (3.95%) Root Cause Analysis
12 6 (3.95%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.32%) Python
1 2 (1.32%) SQL
Qualifications
1 95 (62.50%) Security Cleared
2 60 (39.47%) SC Cleared
3 38 (25.00%) DV Cleared
4 32 (21.05%) Cisco Certification
5 24 (15.79%) CCNP
6 11 (7.24%) JNCIS
7 10 (6.58%) JNCIP
8 8 (5.26%) JNCIA
9 5 (3.29%) CCSE
9 5 (3.29%) CCSM
9 5 (3.29%) Degree
10 4 (2.63%) CCNA
11 2 (1.32%) CCIE
11 2 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
12 1 (0.66%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.66%) CCIP
12 1 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.61%) SLA
2 6 (3.95%) NIST
3 2 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 28 (18.42%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (10.53%) VMware NSX
3 9 (5.92%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.95%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (1.97%) Firmware
5 3 (1.97%) vSphere
6 2 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.66%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 14 (9.21%) FortiGate
2 5 (3.29%) Ansible
3 4 (2.63%) Cisco CUCM
3 4 (2.63%) Terraform
4 2 (1.32%) Avamar
4 2 (1.32%) Nagios
5 1 (0.66%) CASB
5 1 (0.66%) Grafana
5 1 (0.66%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.66%) SCOM
Vendors
1 77 (50.66%) Cisco
2 51 (33.55%) Juniper
3 37 (24.34%) VMware
4 33 (21.71%) Palo Alto
5 23 (15.13%) Fortinet
6 20 (13.16%) F5
7 19 (12.50%) SolarWinds
8 18 (11.84%) CheckPoint
9 11 (7.24%) Extreme Networks
10 10 (6.58%) Aruba
11 9 (5.92%) ServiceNow
12 8 (5.26%) Splunk
13 4 (2.63%) Becrypt
13 4 (2.63%) Infoblox
13 4 (2.63%) Microsoft
14 3 (1.97%) BT
14 3 (1.97%) Meraki
14 3 (1.97%) Nokia
15 2 (1.32%) Tufin
15 2 (1.32%) Veeam