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 10 December 2025.

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

6 months to
10 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 79 59 84
Rank change year-on-year -20 +25 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 119 143 139
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.81% 3.61% 2.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.11% 3.89% 2.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 89 68
10th Percentile £340 £268 £199
25th Percentile £434 £413 £332
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £431
Median % change year-on-year - +15.94% -4.17%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £541
90th Percentile £588 £628 £600
England median daily rate £500 £490 £450
% change year-on-year +2.04% +8.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 8
10th Percentile £29.34 £17.80 £23.05
25th Percentile £44.86 £18.06 £24.44
Median hourly rate £56.44 £19.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year +197.05% -56.82% +87.23%
75th Percentile £83.00 £20.95 £70.47
90th Percentile £86.98 £21.82 £72.90
England median hourly rate £52.58 £20.19 £63.00
% change year-on-year +160.46% -67.96% +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 3,822 3,679 4,920
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.10% 92.88% 94.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,456 2,271 3,215
10th Percentile £213 £238 £208
25th Percentile £400 £400 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £513
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -0.49% +2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £675 £681 £688
England median daily rate £507 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -3.38% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 375 169 245
10th Percentile £13.75 £18.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.17 £24.18 £24.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £52.50 £51.42
Median % change year-on-year -52.38% +2.10% +38.49%
75th Percentile £57.50 £69.69 £66.25
90th Percentile £81.00 £75.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +36.36%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -7 63 £500 -9.09% 16
Thames Valley -20 36 £500 +5.26% 18
Berkshire -11 27 £550 +27.91% 13
Kent +2 10 £419 +168.36% 30
Oxfordshire -7 8 £425 -19.05% 4
West Sussex -9 7 £425 -5.56% 3
Surrey -23 2 £513 - 16
Buckinghamshire -8 1 - - 2
East Sussex - 1 £285 - 1
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 10 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 84 (70.59%) Security Cleared
2 80 (67.23%) Cisco
3 52 (43.70%) Juniper
4 50 (42.02%) Firewall
5 42 (35.29%) DV Cleared
6 41 (34.45%) SC Cleared
7 28 (23.53%) Cisco Certification
7 28 (23.53%) Junos
8 27 (22.69%) Cisco IOS
9 26 (21.85%) SolarWinds
10 24 (20.17%) BGP
10 24 (20.17%) Cisco Firepower
10 24 (20.17%) vCenter Server
11 23 (19.33%) CCNP
12 22 (18.49%) Cisco ISE
12 22 (18.49%) ITSM
12 22 (18.49%) Service Management
12 22 (18.49%) VMware NSX
13 21 (17.65%) Palo Alto
14 20 (16.81%) LAN
14 20 (16.81%) OSPF
14 20 (16.81%) Windows
15 18 (15.13%) WAN
15 18 (15.13%) Windows Server
16 17 (14.29%) Active Directory
17 16 (13.45%) CCNA
17 16 (13.45%) VPN
18 14 (11.76%) CheckPoint
18 14 (11.76%) Collaborative Working
19 13 (10.92%) Fortinet

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 (0.84%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 9 (7.56%) AWS
2 7 (5.88%) Azure
3 2 (1.68%) Google Ads
4 1 (0.84%) GCP
4 1 (0.84%) Lucidchart
4 1 (0.84%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 50 (42.02%) Firewall
2 28 (23.53%) Junos
3 27 (22.69%) Cisco IOS
4 24 (20.17%) BGP
4 24 (20.17%) Cisco Firepower
5 22 (18.49%) Cisco ISE
6 20 (16.81%) LAN
6 20 (16.81%) OSPF
7 18 (15.13%) WAN
8 16 (13.45%) VPN
9 12 (10.08%) Network Security
10 11 (9.24%) IPsec
10 11 (9.24%) MPLS
11 10 (8.40%) Wireless
12 8 (6.72%) VLAN
13 6 (5.04%) Structured Cabling
14 5 (4.20%) DNS
14 5 (4.20%) Wi-Fi
15 4 (3.36%) DHCP
15 4 (3.36%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.84%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.68%) JIRA
2 1 (0.84%) GitLab
2 1 (0.84%) Jenkins
General
1 31 (26.05%) Social Skills
2 14 (11.76%) Public Sector
3 9 (7.56%) Documentation Skills
3 9 (7.56%) Telecoms
4 6 (5.04%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (5.04%) Manufacturing
5 3 (2.52%) Finance
5 3 (2.52%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (1.68%) Electronics
6 2 (1.68%) Marketing
6 2 (1.68%) Military
6 2 (1.68%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.84%) Legal
7 1 (0.84%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.36%) RFC 2544
2 1 (0.84%) CSS
2 1 (0.84%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (11.76%) Data Centre
2 5 (4.20%) Driving Licence
3 4 (3.36%) Fibre Optics
3 4 (3.36%) Onboarding
3 4 (3.36%) PKI
4 3 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (2.52%) NHS
5 2 (1.68%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.84%) Clustering
6 1 (0.84%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.84%) Operational Technology
6 1 (0.84%) SCADA
6 1 (0.84%) Security Operations Centre
6 1 (0.84%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 20 (16.81%) Windows
2 18 (15.13%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.68%) Linux
3 2 (1.68%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.84%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (18.49%) ITSM
1 22 (18.49%) Service Management
2 14 (11.76%) Collaborative Working
3 12 (10.08%) Problem-Solving
4 10 (8.40%) Network Design
5 8 (6.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 7 (5.88%) Network Virtualisation
7 6 (5.04%) Change Control
7 6 (5.04%) Change Management
7 6 (5.04%) Network Segmentation
8 5 (4.20%) High Availability
8 5 (4.20%) Load Balancing
8 5 (4.20%) Network Management
8 5 (4.20%) Project Delivery
8 5 (4.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 5 (4.20%) Validation
9 4 (3.36%) Case Management
9 4 (3.36%) Continuous Improvement
9 4 (3.36%) Network Monitoring
9 4 (3.36%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 7 (5.88%) Python
2 2 (1.68%) SQL
2 2 (1.68%) VB
3 1 (0.84%) Bash
3 1 (0.84%) Java
3 1 (0.84%) JavaScript
3 1 (0.84%) Kotlin
3 1 (0.84%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 84 (70.59%) Security Cleared
2 42 (35.29%) DV Cleared
3 41 (34.45%) SC Cleared
4 28 (23.53%) Cisco Certification
5 23 (19.33%) CCNP
6 16 (13.45%) CCNA
7 7 (5.88%) Degree
8 6 (5.04%) JNCIS
9 5 (4.20%) JNCIA
10 3 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (2.52%) JNCIP
11 2 (1.68%) A+ Certification
11 2 (1.68%) CCDA
11 2 (1.68%) CCDP
11 2 (1.68%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (1.68%) Network+ Certification
12 1 (0.84%) CEH
12 1 (0.84%) CISSP
12 1 (0.84%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.84%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.68%) GDPR
1 2 (1.68%) QA
1 2 (1.68%) SLA
2 1 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.84%) JSP 440
2 1 (0.84%) NIST
System Software
1 22 (18.49%) VMware NSX
2 17 (14.29%) Active Directory
3 5 (4.20%) Firmware
4 4 (3.36%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.68%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.84%) Docker
Systems Management
1 24 (20.17%) vCenter Server
2 9 (7.56%) FortiGate
3 6 (5.04%) Ansible
4 3 (2.52%) Terraform
5 2 (1.68%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.84%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (0.84%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.84%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.84%) Grafana
6 1 (0.84%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.84%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (0.84%) SCOM
6 1 (0.84%) WhatsUp Gold
6 1 (0.84%) WSUS
Vendors
1 80 (67.23%) Cisco
2 52 (43.70%) Juniper
3 26 (21.85%) SolarWinds
4 21 (17.65%) Palo Alto
5 14 (11.76%) CheckPoint
6 13 (10.92%) Fortinet
7 11 (9.24%) Aruba
8 7 (5.88%) VMware
9 6 (5.04%) F5
9 6 (5.04%) Microsoft
9 6 (5.04%) Nokia
10 4 (3.36%) Broadcom
10 4 (3.36%) Meraki
11 3 (2.52%) Zscaler
12 2 (1.68%) Citrix
12 2 (1.68%) Dell
12 2 (1.68%) McAfee
12 2 (1.68%) Pegasus
12 2 (1.68%) SAP
12 2 (1.68%) ServiceNow