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 20 October 2025.

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

6 months to
20 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 53 78
Rank change year-on-year -28 +25 +39
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 97 151 154
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.68% 3.56% 2.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.00% 3.86% 2.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 85 84
10th Percentile £296 £278 £195
25th Percentile £422 £413 £273
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year - +17.65% -5.08%
75th Percentile £569 £588 £538
90th Percentile £613 £638 £594
England median daily rate £490 £493 £450
% change year-on-year -0.61% +9.44% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 7
10th Percentile £29.40 £17.80 £19.55
25th Percentile £45.00 £18.06 £22.38
Median hourly rate £77.00 £19.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +305.26% -24.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £86.32 £20.95 £73.57
90th Percentile £88.30 £21.82 £75.95
England median hourly rate £34.00 £20.38 £62.50
% change year-on-year +66.87% -67.40% +135.14%

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 3,235 3,911 5,218
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.44% 92.22% 94.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,097 2,340 3,515
10th Percentile £204 £250 £209
25th Percentile £375 £400 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £508 £510
Median % change year-on-year -1.57% -0.39% +2.00%
75th Percentile £598 £625 £614
90th Percentile £663 £688 £700
England median daily rate £511 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.73% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 306 232 259
10th Percentile £13.00 £16.00 £15.90
25th Percentile £15.65 £27.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £20.77 £58.17 £51.90
Median % change year-on-year -64.30% +12.09% +64.61%
75th Percentile £50.00 £74.03 £67.63
90th Percentile £71.13 £75.38 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year -41.51% -6.28% +58.75%

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 20 October 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 20 October 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 20 October 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 -12 45 £500 -8.26% 9
Thames Valley -6 43 £450 -5.26% 15
Berkshire +2 36 £475 +5.56% 10
Oxfordshire -8 6 £425 -12.37% 5
West Sussex - 5 £475 - 2
Surrey -23 2 £513 - 4
Buckinghamshire 0 1 - - 1
East Sussex - 1 £285 - 1
Middlesex - 1 £500 -
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 20 October 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 71 (73.20%) Cisco
2 66 (68.04%) Security Cleared
3 45 (46.39%) Juniper
4 41 (42.27%) Firewall
5 35 (36.08%) SC Cleared
6 30 (30.93%) DV Cleared
7 26 (26.80%) Service Management
8 22 (22.68%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (21.65%) Cisco Firepower
9 21 (21.65%) Cisco IOS
10 20 (20.62%) Junos
11 19 (19.59%) Cisco ISE
11 19 (19.59%) SolarWinds
11 19 (19.59%) vCenter Server
12 17 (17.53%) Windows
13 16 (16.49%) CCNP
13 16 (16.49%) ITSM
13 16 (16.49%) LAN
13 16 (16.49%) VMware NSX
14 15 (15.46%) Windows Server
15 14 (14.43%) Active Directory
15 14 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
15 14 (14.43%) WAN
16 13 (13.40%) CCNA
17 12 (12.37%) FortiGate
17 12 (12.37%) Fortinet
17 12 (12.37%) VPN
18 11 (11.34%) Azure
19 10 (10.31%) BGP
19 10 (10.31%) Case Management

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 (1.03%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 11 (11.34%) Azure
2 9 (9.28%) AWS
3 1 (1.03%) Lucidchart
3 1 (1.03%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 41 (42.27%) Firewall
2 21 (21.65%) Cisco Firepower
2 21 (21.65%) Cisco IOS
3 20 (20.62%) Junos
4 19 (19.59%) Cisco ISE
5 16 (16.49%) LAN
6 14 (14.43%) WAN
7 12 (12.37%) VPN
8 10 (10.31%) BGP
8 10 (10.31%) OSPF
8 10 (10.31%) VLAN
9 8 (8.25%) Network Security
9 8 (8.25%) Wireless
10 6 (6.19%) DNS
10 6 (6.19%) MPLS
11 5 (5.15%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (4.12%) Cisco Nexus
12 4 (4.12%) Internet
12 4 (4.12%) SAN
12 4 (4.12%) SDH
Development Applications
1 2 (2.06%) JIRA
2 1 (1.03%) GitLab
2 1 (1.03%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 21 (21.65%) Social Skills
2 13 (13.40%) Telecoms
3 10 (10.31%) Public Sector
4 4 (4.12%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (3.09%) Finance
6 2 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.06%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.06%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.03%) Electronics
7 1 (1.03%) Legal
7 1 (1.03%) Marketing
7 1 (1.03%) Military
7 1 (1.03%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (10.31%) RFC 2544
2 1 (1.03%) CSS
2 1 (1.03%) HTML
2 1 (1.03%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 15 (15.46%) Data Centre
2 10 (10.31%) Fibre Optics
3 4 (4.12%) Data Protection Act
3 4 (4.12%) Driving Licence
3 4 (4.12%) Onboarding
4 3 (3.09%) Management Information System
4 3 (3.09%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.03%) Clustering
6 1 (1.03%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.03%) Life Science
6 1 (1.03%) NHS
6 1 (1.03%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.03%) SCADA
6 1 (1.03%) Security Operations Centre
6 1 (1.03%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 17 (17.53%) Windows
2 15 (15.46%) Windows Server
3 4 (4.12%) Linux
4 3 (3.09%) Unix
5 2 (2.06%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (26.80%) Service Management
2 16 (16.49%) ITSM
3 14 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
4 10 (10.31%) Case Management
4 10 (10.31%) Defect Management
4 10 (10.31%) Test Scripting
5 9 (9.28%) Collaborative Working
5 9 (9.28%) Disaster Recovery
6 8 (8.25%) Load Balancing
6 8 (8.25%) Network Design
7 7 (7.22%) Agile
7 7 (7.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 6 (6.19%) Change Control
9 5 (5.15%) Incident Management
9 5 (5.15%) Migration
9 5 (5.15%) Network Management
9 5 (5.15%) Network Segmentation
9 5 (5.15%) Project Management
10 4 (4.12%) Continuous Improvement
10 4 (4.12%) Network Virtualisation
Programming Languages
1 9 (9.28%) Python
2 5 (5.15%) VB
3 3 (3.09%) Java
4 1 (1.03%) Bash
4 1 (1.03%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.03%) Kotlin
4 1 (1.03%) PowerShell
4 1 (1.03%) SQL
Qualifications
1 66 (68.04%) Security Cleared
2 35 (36.08%) SC Cleared
3 30 (30.93%) DV Cleared
4 22 (22.68%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (16.49%) CCNP
6 13 (13.40%) CCNA
7 4 (4.12%) JNCIA
8 3 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (3.09%) Degree
9 2 (2.06%) A+ Certification
9 2 (2.06%) CCDA
9 2 (2.06%) CCDP
9 2 (2.06%) ISEB
9 2 (2.06%) ISTQB
9 2 (2.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (2.06%) JNCIP
9 2 (2.06%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (2.06%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (1.03%) CISSP
10 1 (1.03%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.15%) SLA
2 2 (2.06%) GDPR
2 2 (2.06%) QA
3 1 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.03%) NIST
System Software
1 16 (16.49%) VMware NSX
2 14 (14.43%) Active Directory
3 3 (3.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (2.06%) Ceph
4 2 (2.06%) Firmware
4 2 (2.06%) Hyper-V
4 2 (2.06%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (1.03%) Docker
Systems Management
1 19 (19.59%) vCenter Server
2 12 (12.37%) FortiGate
3 8 (8.25%) Ansible
4 7 (7.22%) Terraform
5 2 (2.06%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (1.03%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (1.03%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (1.03%) Grafana
6 1 (1.03%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 71 (73.20%) Cisco
2 45 (46.39%) Juniper
3 19 (19.59%) SolarWinds
4 12 (12.37%) Fortinet
5 9 (9.28%) F5
5 9 (9.28%) Palo Alto
6 8 (8.25%) VMware
7 7 (7.22%) CheckPoint
8 6 (6.19%) Aruba
9 5 (5.15%) Citrix
9 5 (5.15%) Microsoft
10 4 (4.12%) Dell
10 4 (4.12%) Nokia
11 3 (3.09%) ServiceNow
11 3 (3.09%) Zscaler
12 2 (2.06%) Cramer
12 2 (2.06%) Meraki
13 1 (1.03%) Ciena
13 1 (1.03%) FireEye
13 1 (1.03%) Tanium