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 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 71 38
Rank change year-on-year -11 -33 +25
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 156 89 244
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.51% 2.91% 4.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.74% 3.20% 4.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 74 141
10th Percentile £303 £308 £329
25th Percentile £368 £409 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% -2.44% +13.89%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £556
90th Percentile £575 £623 £650
England median daily rate £475 £492 £475
% change year-on-year -3.46% +3.58% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 0 6
10th Percentile - - £18.06
25th Percentile £76.25 - £19.48
Median hourly rate £77.50 - £47.95
75th Percentile £78.75 - £75.24
90th Percentile - - £76.12
England median hourly rate £73.00 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.00% +25.00% -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 5,701 2,784 5,260
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.66% 90.95% 92.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,434 1,814 3,092
10th Percentile £303 £216 £250
25th Percentile £417 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.06% +2.10%
75th Percentile £614 £600 £625
90th Percentile £701 £660 £688
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 594 205 545
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £12.88
25th Percentile £25.37 £15.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £50.00 £30.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.93% -39.00% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £62.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £28.18 £39.78
% change year-on-year +59.69% -29.15% -8.17%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 +10 102 £463 +2.78% 12
Berkshire +8 76 £400 -11.11% 3
Hampshire -44 28 £525 +1.94% 9
Buckinghamshire -22 20 £520 +30.00% 6
Isle of Wight - 10 - -
Kent +2 6 £444 +4.41% 2
Oxfordshire -25 6 £480 -12.73% 3
Surrey -19 5 £450 +5.88% 11
East Sussex -1 2 £409 +43.42% 4
West Sussex -19 1 - - 2
Sussex - 1 £418 - 1
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 26 June 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.

1 102 (65.38%) Security Cleared
2 81 (51.92%) Cisco
3 71 (45.51%) SC Cleared
4 67 (42.95%) Firewall
5 58 (37.18%) LAN
6 56 (35.90%) WAN
7 47 (30.13%) Juniper
8 43 (27.56%) BGP
9 39 (25.00%) OSPF
10 36 (23.08%) DV Cleared
11 35 (22.44%) Cisco Certification
11 35 (22.44%) VMware
12 30 (19.23%) Palo Alto
13 27 (17.31%) CCNP
13 27 (17.31%) VMware Infrastructure
14 26 (16.67%) DNS
14 26 (16.67%) Network Security
15 25 (16.03%) DHCP
16 24 (15.38%) ITIL
17 23 (14.74%) High Availability
18 21 (13.46%) Fortinet
18 21 (13.46%) VPN
18 21 (13.46%) Windows
19 20 (12.82%) F5
20 19 (12.18%) Load Balancing
21 18 (11.54%) IPsec
21 18 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
22 17 (10.90%) CheckPoint
22 17 (10.90%) Wireless
23 16 (10.26%) 802.1X

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 (0.64%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 14 (8.97%) AWS
1 14 (8.97%) Azure
2 5 (3.21%) Azure Sentinel
3 2 (1.28%) IaaS
3 2 (1.28%) PaaS
3 2 (1.28%) SaaS
4 1 (0.64%) AWS Direct Connect
4 1 (0.64%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (0.64%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 67 (42.95%) Firewall
2 58 (37.18%) LAN
3 56 (35.90%) WAN
4 43 (27.56%) BGP
5 39 (25.00%) OSPF
6 26 (16.67%) DNS
6 26 (16.67%) Network Security
7 25 (16.03%) DHCP
8 21 (13.46%) VPN
9 18 (11.54%) IPsec
10 17 (10.90%) Wireless
11 16 (10.26%) Cisco ISE
11 16 (10.26%) Cisco Nexus
11 16 (10.26%) SD-WAN
12 15 (9.62%) Cisco ASA
12 15 (9.62%) VLAN
13 14 (8.97%) Ethernet VPN
13 14 (8.97%) Wi-Fi
14 13 (8.33%) Cisco Firepower
14 13 (8.33%) VXLAN
Development Applications
1 2 (1.28%) JIRA
2 1 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.64%) Git
2 1 (0.64%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 19 (12.18%) Manufacturing
2 18 (11.54%) Social Skills
3 10 (6.41%) Documentation Skills
4 9 (5.77%) Aerospace
5 7 (4.49%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.49%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.85%) Finance
7 5 (3.21%) Retail
8 4 (2.56%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.92%) Legal
9 3 (1.92%) Military
10 1 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (10.26%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 42 (26.92%) Data Centre
2 11 (7.05%) PKI
3 9 (5.77%) Clustering
4 4 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (1.92%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.28%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.64%) BYOD
7 1 (0.64%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.64%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.64%) Fibre Optics
7 1 (0.64%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.64%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.64%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 21 (13.46%) Windows
2 13 (8.33%) Linux
3 1 (0.64%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.64%) Windows 7
3 1 (0.64%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2008
3 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2012
3 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (15.38%) ITIL
2 23 (14.74%) High Availability
3 19 (12.18%) Load Balancing
4 18 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
5 16 (10.26%) Network Monitoring
6 14 (8.97%) ITSM
7 12 (7.69%) Identity Access Management
7 12 (7.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 12 (7.69%) Network Virtualisation
7 12 (7.69%) Service Management
7 12 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
8 11 (7.05%) Collaborative Working
9 9 (5.77%) Migration
9 9 (5.77%) Network Design
9 9 (5.77%) Observability
10 6 (3.85%) Capacity Planning
10 6 (3.85%) Infrastructure Automation
10 6 (3.85%) Network Architecture
10 6 (3.85%) Project Delivery
10 6 (3.85%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.28%) Python
1 2 (1.28%) SQL
Qualifications
1 102 (65.38%) Security Cleared
2 71 (45.51%) SC Cleared
3 36 (23.08%) DV Cleared
4 35 (22.44%) Cisco Certification
5 27 (17.31%) CCNP
6 10 (6.41%) JNCIS
7 9 (5.77%) JNCIA
7 9 (5.77%) JNCIP
8 6 (3.85%) Degree
9 5 (3.21%) CCNA
9 5 (3.21%) CCSE
9 5 (3.21%) CCSM
10 2 (1.28%) CCIE
10 2 (1.28%) Network+ Certification
11 1 (0.64%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.64%) CCIP
11 1 (0.64%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.64%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.64%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.49%) SLA
2 5 (3.21%) NIST
System Software
1 27 (17.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (8.97%) VMware NSX
3 6 (3.85%) Active Directory
3 6 (3.85%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (1.92%) Firmware
4 3 (1.92%) vSphere
5 2 (1.28%) vCloud
5 2 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.64%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 14 (8.97%) FortiGate
2 5 (3.21%) Ansible
3 4 (2.56%) Terraform
4 2 (1.28%) Avamar
4 2 (1.28%) Nagios
5 1 (0.64%) CASB
5 1 (0.64%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.64%) Grafana
5 1 (0.64%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.64%) SCOM
Vendors
1 81 (51.92%) Cisco
2 47 (30.13%) Juniper
3 35 (22.44%) VMware
4 30 (19.23%) Palo Alto
5 21 (13.46%) Fortinet
6 20 (12.82%) F5
7 17 (10.90%) CheckPoint
8 16 (10.26%) SolarWinds
9 15 (9.62%) Aruba
10 11 (7.05%) Extreme Networks
11 9 (5.77%) ServiceNow
12 8 (5.13%) Splunk
13 5 (3.21%) Meraki
14 4 (2.56%) Microsoft
15 3 (1.92%) Becrypt
15 3 (1.92%) BT
15 3 (1.92%) Infoblox
15 3 (1.92%) Nokia
16 2 (1.28%) NVIDIA
16 2 (1.28%) Xerox