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 15 November 2025.

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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 76 61 80
Rank change year-on-year -15 +19 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 111 145 143
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.79% 3.50% 2.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.10% 3.78% 2.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 90 77
10th Percentile £300 £290 £195
25th Percentile £413 £419 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year - +17.65% -5.56%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £538
90th Percentile £606 £626 £600
England median daily rate £500 £490 £450
% change year-on-year +2.04% +8.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 9
10th Percentile £29.40 £18.10 £19.90
25th Percentile £45.00 £18.82 £24.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £20.08 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year +283.56% -68.13% +168.09%
75th Percentile £86.32 £21.27 £71.90
90th Percentile £88.30 £21.95 £75.60
England median hourly rate £35.00 £21.39 £64.49
% change year-on-year +63.65% -66.84% +92.51%

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 3,577 3,840 5,087
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.76% 92.71% 94.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,311 2,305 3,358
10th Percentile £205 £246 £210
25th Percentile £382 £400 £385
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 £669 £688 £688
England median daily rate £510 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -2.86% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 352 215 248
10th Percentile £13.50 £17.98 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.91 £27.00 £23.12
Median hourly rate £20.79 £57.54 £51.66
Median % change year-on-year -63.87% +11.38% +37.76%
75th Percentile £51.13 £71.57 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.16 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -37.13% -11.11% +50.00%

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 15 November 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 15 November 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 15 November 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 -13 52 £500 -9.09% 23
Thames Valley -9 45 £475 - 14
Berkshire +8 36 £500 +16.28% 7
Oxfordshire -6 8 £425 -15.84% 3
West Sussex -5 7 £425 -5.56% 5
Kent -7 3 £400 +154.64% 12
Surrey -21 2 £513 -2.38% 8
Buckinghamshire -2 1 - - 4
East Sussex - 1 £285 - 1
Middlesex - 1 £500 - 2
Network Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 15 November 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 79 (71.17%) Cisco
2 77 (69.37%) Security Cleared
3 49 (44.14%) Juniper
4 48 (43.24%) Firewall
5 39 (35.14%) SC Cleared
6 37 (33.33%) DV Cleared
7 28 (25.23%) Service Management
8 25 (22.52%) Cisco IOS
8 25 (22.52%) Junos
9 24 (21.62%) Cisco Firepower
9 24 (21.62%) SolarWinds
10 23 (20.72%) vCenter Server
11 22 (19.82%) Cisco ISE
12 20 (18.02%) Cisco Certification
12 20 (18.02%) ITSM
12 20 (18.02%) VMware NSX
13 19 (17.12%) Windows
14 18 (16.22%) BGP
15 17 (15.32%) OSPF
15 17 (15.32%) Windows Server
16 16 (14.41%) Active Directory
17 14 (12.61%) CCNP
17 14 (12.61%) Fortinet
17 14 (12.61%) Palo Alto
18 13 (11.71%) CCNA
19 12 (10.81%) Collaborative Working
19 12 (10.81%) LAN
19 12 (10.81%) VPN
20 11 (9.91%) FortiGate
20 11 (9.91%) Network Security

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 (0.90%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 9 (8.11%) AWS
2 8 (7.21%) Azure
3 1 (0.90%) Lucidchart
3 1 (0.90%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 48 (43.24%) Firewall
2 25 (22.52%) Cisco IOS
2 25 (22.52%) Junos
3 24 (21.62%) Cisco Firepower
4 22 (19.82%) Cisco ISE
5 18 (16.22%) BGP
6 17 (15.32%) OSPF
7 12 (10.81%) LAN
7 12 (10.81%) VPN
8 11 (9.91%) Network Security
8 11 (9.91%) WAN
9 10 (9.01%) VLAN
10 9 (8.11%) Wireless
11 7 (6.31%) DNS
11 7 (6.31%) MPLS
12 5 (4.50%) Wi-Fi
13 4 (3.60%) CATAPAN
13 4 (3.60%) Cisco Nexus
13 4 (3.60%) DHCP
14 3 (2.70%) SD-WAN
Development Applications
1 2 (1.80%) JIRA
2 1 (0.90%) GitLab
2 1 (0.90%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.90%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 24 (21.62%) Social Skills
2 13 (11.71%) Public Sector
3 12 (10.81%) Telecoms
4 5 (4.50%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (3.60%) Finance
6 3 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (2.70%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.80%) Electronics
7 2 (1.80%) Marketing
7 2 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.80%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.90%) Legal
8 1 (0.90%) Military
8 1 (0.90%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (9.01%) RFC 2544
2 1 (0.90%) CSS
2 1 (0.90%) HTML
2 1 (0.90%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 15 (13.51%) Data Centre
2 10 (9.01%) Fibre Optics
3 5 (4.50%) Driving Licence
4 4 (3.60%) Data Protection Act
4 4 (3.60%) Onboarding
5 3 (2.70%) Management Information System
5 3 (2.70%) NHS
6 2 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.80%) PKI
7 1 (0.90%) Clustering
7 1 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.90%) Life Science
7 1 (0.90%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.90%) SCADA
7 1 (0.90%) Security Operations Centre
7 1 (0.90%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 19 (17.12%) Windows
2 17 (15.32%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.80%) Linux
3 2 (1.80%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.90%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (25.23%) Service Management
2 20 (18.02%) ITSM
3 12 (10.81%) Collaborative Working
4 11 (9.91%) Problem-Solving
5 10 (9.01%) Case Management
5 10 (9.01%) Defect Management
5 10 (9.01%) Test Scripting
6 9 (8.11%) Disaster Recovery
7 8 (7.21%) Network Design
8 7 (6.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 7 (6.31%) Load Balancing
9 6 (5.41%) Agile
9 6 (5.41%) Change Control
9 6 (5.41%) Network Segmentation
9 6 (5.41%) Network Virtualisation
10 5 (4.50%) Change Management
10 5 (4.50%) High Availability
10 5 (4.50%) Network Management
10 5 (4.50%) Validation
11 4 (3.60%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 10 (9.01%) Python
2 4 (3.60%) VB
3 1 (0.90%) Bash
3 1 (0.90%) Java
3 1 (0.90%) JavaScript
3 1 (0.90%) Kotlin
3 1 (0.90%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.90%) SQL
Qualifications
1 77 (69.37%) Security Cleared
2 39 (35.14%) SC Cleared
3 37 (33.33%) DV Cleared
4 20 (18.02%) Cisco Certification
5 14 (12.61%) CCNP
6 13 (11.71%) CCNA
7 5 (4.50%) JNCIA
8 3 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (2.70%) Degree
8 3 (2.70%) JNCIP
8 3 (2.70%) JNCIS
9 2 (1.80%) A+ Certification
9 2 (1.80%) CCDA
9 2 (1.80%) CCDP
9 2 (1.80%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (1.80%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.90%) BC Cleared
10 1 (0.90%) CEH
10 1 (0.90%) CISSP
10 1 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.60%) SLA
2 2 (1.80%) GDPR
2 2 (1.80%) QA
3 1 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.90%) NIST
System Software
1 20 (18.02%) VMware NSX
2 16 (14.41%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.60%) Firmware
4 3 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.80%) Ceph
5 2 (1.80%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.80%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.90%) Docker
Systems Management
1 23 (20.72%) vCenter Server
2 11 (9.91%) FortiGate
3 9 (8.11%) Ansible
4 6 (5.41%) Terraform
5 2 (1.80%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.90%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (0.90%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.90%) Grafana
6 1 (0.90%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 79 (71.17%) Cisco
2 49 (44.14%) Juniper
3 24 (21.62%) SolarWinds
4 14 (12.61%) Fortinet
4 14 (12.61%) Palo Alto
5 8 (7.21%) CheckPoint
5 8 (7.21%) F5
5 8 (7.21%) VMware
6 6 (5.41%) Aruba
6 6 (5.41%) Nokia
7 5 (4.50%) Microsoft
8 4 (3.60%) Citrix
8 4 (3.60%) Dell
8 4 (3.60%) Meraki
9 3 (2.70%) ServiceNow
9 3 (2.70%) Zscaler
10 2 (1.80%) Broadcom
10 2 (1.80%) Cramer
10 2 (1.80%) SAP
11 1 (0.90%) HP