Network Engineer Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the Thames Valley is £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 July 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 74 60
Rank change year-on-year +3 -14 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 99 39 74
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 3.04% 2.33% 2.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.30% 2.53% 3.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 28 36
10th Percentile £265 £285 £350
25th Percentile £368 £372 £417
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -12.20% +13.89%
75th Percentile £547 £538 £541
90th Percentile £586 £575 £577
South East median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 4
10th Percentile - £72.86 £34.47
25th Percentile £70.67 £75.66 £58.44
Median hourly rate £71.33 £83.32 £73.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.39% +13.36% +5.37%
75th Percentile £72.00 £87.97 £75.68
90th Percentile - £88.97 £76.47
South East median hourly rate £77.50 £83.32 £47.95
% change year-on-year -6.98% +73.76% -25.08%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. 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 Thames Valley with a recognized job title 3,003 1,544 2,393
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.23% 92.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,870 934 1,319
10th Percentile £313 £286 £242
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 289 101 178
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.20 £15.74
25th Percentile £25.00 £15.13 £19.25
Median hourly rate £60.00 £25.30 £48.29
Median % change year-on-year +137.15% -47.61% +3.40%
75th Percentile £85.50 £67.50 £69.45
90th Percentile £103.80 £87.25 £87.47
South East median hourly rate £52.43 £27.63 £54.88
% change year-on-year +89.74% -49.65% +9.75%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 19 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 19 July 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
Berkshire +7 72 £410 -8.89% 5
Buckinghamshire -13 21 £525 +31.25% 5
Oxfordshire -19 6 £480 - 8
Network Engineer
South East

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 19 July 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 Thames Valley region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 63 (63.64%) Security Cleared
2 56 (56.57%) Cisco
3 50 (50.51%) Firewall
4 40 (40.40%) Juniper
4 40 (40.40%) LAN
5 37 (37.37%) WAN
6 35 (35.35%) SC Cleared
7 28 (28.28%) Network Security
8 27 (27.27%) DNS
8 27 (27.27%) DV Cleared
9 26 (26.26%) BGP
10 25 (25.25%) DHCP
10 25 (25.25%) OSPF
10 25 (25.25%) Palo Alto
11 23 (23.23%) ITIL
12 21 (21.21%) Windows
13 20 (20.20%) High Availability
13 20 (20.20%) VMware
14 19 (19.19%) Cisco ASA
15 18 (18.18%) Cisco Certification
15 18 (18.18%) F5
16 17 (17.17%) Cisco Firepower
16 17 (17.17%) SolarWinds
16 17 (17.17%) VMware Infrastructure
17 16 (16.16%) 802.1X
17 16 (16.16%) Network Monitoring
17 16 (16.16%) VPN
18 15 (15.15%) IPsec
18 15 (15.15%) Load Balancing
18 15 (15.15%) Problem-Solving

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Cloud Services
1 13 (13.13%) AWS
1 13 (13.13%) Azure
2 5 (5.05%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (1.01%) AWS Direct Connect
3 1 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (1.01%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 50 (50.51%) Firewall
2 40 (40.40%) LAN
3 37 (37.37%) WAN
4 28 (28.28%) Network Security
5 27 (27.27%) DNS
6 26 (26.26%) BGP
7 25 (25.25%) DHCP
7 25 (25.25%) OSPF
8 19 (19.19%) Cisco ASA
9 17 (17.17%) Cisco Firepower
10 16 (16.16%) VPN
11 15 (15.15%) IPsec
12 14 (14.14%) Cisco ISE
12 14 (14.14%) Junos
12 14 (14.14%) Wireless
13 13 (13.13%) BIG-IP
14 12 (12.12%) Cisco Nexus
15 11 (11.11%) SSL
15 11 (11.11%) VLAN
15 11 (11.11%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 2 (2.02%) JIRA
2 1 (1.01%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (1.01%) Git
2 1 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 9 (9.09%) Telecoms
2 8 (8.08%) Social Skills
3 6 (6.06%) Finance
3 6 (6.06%) Manufacturing
4 5 (5.05%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (5.05%) Retail
5 2 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (2.02%) Military
5 2 (2.02%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (16.16%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 23 (23.23%) Data Centre
2 14 (14.14%) PKI
3 9 (9.09%) Clustering
4 4 (4.04%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (3.03%) Security Posture
5 3 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (2.02%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.01%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (1.01%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 21 (21.21%) Windows
2 11 (11.11%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (23.23%) ITIL
2 20 (20.20%) High Availability
3 16 (16.16%) Network Monitoring
4 15 (15.15%) Load Balancing
4 15 (15.15%) Problem-Solving
5 14 (14.14%) Technical Leadership
6 13 (13.13%) ITSM
7 12 (12.12%) Security Operations
7 12 (12.12%) Service Management
8 10 (10.10%) Network Virtualisation
9 9 (9.09%) Collaborative Working
9 9 (9.09%) Virtual Environments
10 8 (8.08%) Change Management
10 8 (8.08%) Identity Access Management
10 8 (8.08%) Migration
10 8 (8.08%) Network Design
10 8 (8.08%) Observability
11 5 (5.05%) Presales
11 5 (5.05%) Root Cause Analysis
11 5 (5.05%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 2 (2.02%) Python
1 2 (2.02%) SQL
Qualifications
1 63 (63.64%) Security Cleared
2 35 (35.35%) SC Cleared
3 27 (27.27%) DV Cleared
4 18 (18.18%) Cisco Certification
5 12 (12.12%) CCNP
6 8 (8.08%) JNCIA
6 8 (8.08%) JNCIP
6 8 (8.08%) JNCIS
7 5 (5.05%) CCSE
7 5 (5.05%) CCSM
8 2 (2.02%) CCIE
8 2 (2.02%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (1.01%) AWS Certification
9 1 (1.01%) CCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (6.06%) NIST
2 5 (5.05%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (17.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (8.08%) Active Directory
2 8 (8.08%) VMware NSX
3 5 (5.05%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (3.03%) Firmware
5 1 (1.01%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 11 (11.11%) FortiGate
2 4 (4.04%) Cisco CUCM
3 2 (2.02%) Ansible
3 2 (2.02%) Avamar
3 2 (2.02%) Nagios
4 1 (1.01%) CASB
4 1 (1.01%) Grafana
4 1 (1.01%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.01%) Terraform
Vendors
1 56 (56.57%) Cisco
2 40 (40.40%) Juniper
3 25 (25.25%) Palo Alto
4 20 (20.20%) VMware
5 18 (18.18%) F5
6 17 (17.17%) SolarWinds
7 14 (14.14%) Fortinet
8 11 (11.11%) CheckPoint
8 11 (11.11%) Extreme Networks
9 8 (8.08%) ServiceNow
9 8 (8.08%) Splunk
10 4 (4.04%) Aruba
10 4 (4.04%) Becrypt
10 4 (4.04%) Infoblox
11 3 (3.03%) Nokia
12 2 (2.02%) Blue Coat
12 2 (2.02%) Tufin
12 2 (2.02%) Zscaler
13 1 (1.01%) Arista
13 1 (1.01%) Ekahau