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 £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 May 2026.

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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 72 36
Rank change year-on-year +6 -36 +32
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 182 86 257
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.04% 2.94% 4.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.31% 3.23% 4.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 68 147
10th Percentile £303 £325 £331
25th Percentile £392 £425 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £538 £566 £554
90th Percentile £575 £625 £700
England median daily rate £475 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -3.06% +3.16% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 0 5
10th Percentile £56.44 - £20.90
25th Percentile £72.06 - £24.50
Median hourly rate £77.50 - £73.50
75th Percentile £78.75 - £75.24
90th Percentile - - £76.29
England median hourly rate £77.50 £53.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year +44.19% +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 5,493 2,666 5,149
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.70% 91.27% 92.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,377 1,792 3,079
10th Percentile £300 £220 £229
25th Percentile £413 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - -
75th Percentile £613 £600 £624
90th Percentile £700 £650 £688
England median daily rate £515 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.91% -1.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 539 163 509
10th Percentile £15.08 £14.20 £12.85
25th Percentile £24.25 £17.23 £18.32
Median hourly rate £50.00 £33.89 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year +47.56% -29.41% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80.15 £63.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £45.00 £29.07 £37.50
% change year-on-year +54.80% -22.48% -16.67%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +7 107 £463 +2.78% 17
Berkshire +13 81 £419 -6.94% 10
Hampshire -29 42 £500 - 11
Buckinghamshire -22 20 £525 +31.25% 3
Kent +5 13 £438 +2.94% 8
Isle of Wight - 10 - -
Oxfordshire -21 6 £480 -12.73% 4
Surrey -18 3 £475 +11.76% 10
East Sussex - 3 £400 - 1
West Sussex -19 2 - - 1
Sussex - 1 £418 -
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 123 (67.58%) Security Cleared
2 96 (52.75%) Cisco
3 89 (48.90%) SC Cleared
4 82 (45.05%) Firewall
5 74 (40.66%) LAN
6 73 (40.11%) WAN
7 55 (30.22%) Juniper
8 54 (29.67%) BGP
9 52 (28.57%) OSPF
10 49 (26.92%) Cisco Certification
11 41 (22.53%) CCNP
12 38 (20.88%) DV Cleared
13 37 (20.33%) Palo Alto
13 37 (20.33%) VMware
14 31 (17.03%) Network Security
15 29 (15.93%) DNS
15 29 (15.93%) VMware Infrastructure
16 28 (15.38%) DHCP
16 28 (15.38%) VPN
17 25 (13.74%) IPsec
17 25 (13.74%) ITIL
18 24 (13.19%) High Availability
19 23 (12.64%) Aruba
19 23 (12.64%) F5
20 22 (12.09%) CheckPoint
20 22 (12.09%) Windows
21 21 (11.54%) Network Monitoring
21 21 (11.54%) SolarWinds
22 19 (10.44%) Fortinet
22 19 (10.44%) Load Balancing

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 (0.55%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.55%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 17 (9.34%) AWS
2 16 (8.79%) Azure
3 5 (2.75%) Azure Sentinel
4 2 (1.10%) IaaS
4 2 (1.10%) PaaS
4 2 (1.10%) SaaS
5 1 (0.55%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (0.55%) GCP
5 1 (0.55%) Google Ads
5 1 (0.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 82 (45.05%) Firewall
2 74 (40.66%) LAN
3 73 (40.11%) WAN
4 54 (29.67%) BGP
5 52 (28.57%) OSPF
6 31 (17.03%) Network Security
7 29 (15.93%) DNS
8 28 (15.38%) DHCP
8 28 (15.38%) VPN
9 25 (13.74%) IPsec
10 19 (10.44%) Wireless
11 18 (9.89%) VLAN
12 17 (9.34%) Cisco ISE
12 17 (9.34%) Cisco Nexus
12 17 (9.34%) Ethernet VPN
13 15 (8.24%) Cisco ASA
13 15 (8.24%) Junos
13 15 (8.24%) SD-WAN
13 15 (8.24%) TCP/IP
13 15 (8.24%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.55%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.10%) JIRA
2 1 (0.55%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 24 (13.19%) Manufacturing
1 24 (13.19%) Social Skills
2 19 (10.44%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (5.49%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (5.49%) Telecoms
4 9 (4.95%) Aerospace
5 7 (3.85%) Finance
6 6 (3.30%) Public Sector
7 5 (2.75%) Retail
8 4 (2.20%) Military
9 3 (1.65%) Legal
10 1 (0.55%) Electronics
10 1 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.55%) Marketing
10 1 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (8.24%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 51 (28.02%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.59%) PKI
3 9 (4.95%) Clustering
4 5 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.65%) Linux Command Line
5 3 (1.65%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.10%) NHS
7 1 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.55%) BYOD
7 1 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.55%) Fibre Optics
7 1 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.55%) Life Science
7 1 (0.55%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 22 (12.09%) Windows
2 15 (8.24%) Linux
3 2 (1.10%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.55%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.55%) Windows 7
4 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (13.74%) ITIL
2 24 (13.19%) High Availability
3 21 (11.54%) Network Monitoring
4 19 (10.44%) Load Balancing
5 18 (9.89%) Problem-Solving
6 15 (8.24%) ITSM
7 13 (7.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 13 (7.14%) Network Virtualisation
8 12 (6.59%) Collaborative Working
8 12 (6.59%) Identity Access Management
8 12 (6.59%) Service Management
8 12 (6.59%) Technical Leadership
9 10 (5.49%) Network Design
10 9 (4.95%) Customer Requirements
11 8 (4.40%) Migration
11 8 (4.40%) Observability
11 8 (4.40%) Project Delivery
12 7 (3.85%) Virtual Environments
13 6 (3.30%) Network Architecture
13 6 (3.30%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 3 (1.65%) SQL
2 1 (0.55%) Python
Qualifications
1 123 (67.58%) Security Cleared
2 89 (48.90%) SC Cleared
3 49 (26.92%) Cisco Certification
4 41 (22.53%) CCNP
5 38 (20.88%) DV Cleared
6 12 (6.59%) JNCIS
7 11 (6.04%) JNCIA
8 10 (5.49%) JNCIP
9 9 (4.95%) CCNA
9 9 (4.95%) Degree
10 6 (3.30%) Network+ Certification
11 5 (2.75%) CCSE
11 5 (2.75%) CCSM
12 2 (1.10%) CCIE
12 2 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
13 1 (0.55%) CCIP
13 1 (0.55%) DBS Check
13 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.85%) SLA
2 5 (2.75%) NIST
3 1 (0.55%) JSP 440
System Software
1 29 (15.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (8.24%) VMware NSX
3 7 (3.85%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.30%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (2.20%) Firmware
6 3 (1.65%) vSphere
7 2 (1.10%) vCloud
7 2 (1.10%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.55%) KVM
8 1 (0.55%) RHEV
8 1 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.55%) Xen
Systems Management
1 13 (7.14%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.30%) Ansible
2 6 (3.30%) Nagios
3 5 (2.75%) Terraform
4 2 (1.10%) Avamar
4 2 (1.10%) SCOM
5 1 (0.55%) Backup Exec
5 1 (0.55%) CASB
5 1 (0.55%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.55%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.55%) Proxmox
5 1 (0.55%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.55%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (0.55%) WSUS
Vendors
1 96 (52.75%) Cisco
2 55 (30.22%) Juniper
3 37 (20.33%) Palo Alto
3 37 (20.33%) VMware
4 23 (12.64%) Aruba
4 23 (12.64%) F5
5 22 (12.09%) CheckPoint
6 21 (11.54%) SolarWinds
7 19 (10.44%) Fortinet
8 11 (6.04%) Extreme Networks
9 9 (4.95%) ServiceNow
10 8 (4.40%) Splunk
11 7 (3.85%) Meraki
12 5 (2.75%) Microsoft
13 4 (2.20%) Mellanox
13 4 (2.20%) NVIDIA
14 3 (1.65%) Becrypt
14 3 (1.65%) BT
14 3 (1.65%) Infoblox
14 3 (1.65%) Nokia