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 2 August 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 79 67
Rank change year-on-year +9 -12 +1
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 102 37 61
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 3.10% 2.21% 2.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.36% 2.39% 2.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 28 24
10th Percentile £215 £280 £350
25th Percentile £368 £355 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -8.63% +10.99%
75th Percentile £538 £509 £555
90th Percentile £579 £558 £596
South East median daily rate £466 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -6.75% - +15.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 4
10th Percentile £50.23 £72.86 £34.47
25th Percentile £53.19 £75.66 £58.44
Median hourly rate £58.25 £83.32 £73.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.08% +13.36% +11.36%
75th Percentile £65.19 £87.97 £75.68
90th Percentile £69.27 £88.97 £76.47
South East median hourly rate £77.50 £83.32 £47.95
% change year-on-year -6.98% +73.76% -22.67%

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 3,040 1,547 2,164
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.36% 91.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,884 932 1,232
10th Percentile £319 £293 £255
25th Percentile £420 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £507
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.28% +1.30%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £613
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 303 105 130
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.20 £16.00
25th Percentile £25.93 £15.13 £22.50
Median hourly rate £60.00 £25.15 £57.19
Median % change year-on-year +138.57% -56.03% +22.47%
75th Percentile £85.43 £63.75 £70.06
90th Percentile £102.42 £87.17 £87.50
South East median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £57.35
% change year-on-year +108.75% -56.15% +14.70%

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 2 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 2 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Engineer 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 2 August 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 +9 73 £410 -8.89% 4
Buckinghamshire -20 21 £525 +31.25% 2
Oxfordshire -15 8 £480 - 7
Network Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 2 August 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 61 (59.80%) Security Cleared
2 58 (56.86%) Cisco
3 49 (48.04%) Firewall
4 40 (39.22%) LAN
5 39 (38.24%) Juniper
6 38 (37.25%) WAN
7 34 (33.33%) SC Cleared
8 30 (29.41%) DNS
9 29 (28.43%) BGP
10 28 (27.45%) DHCP
10 28 (27.45%) OSPF
11 27 (26.47%) Network Security
12 26 (25.49%) DV Cleared
12 26 (25.49%) ITIL
13 24 (23.53%) Palo Alto
14 23 (22.55%) VMware
15 21 (20.59%) Cisco Certification
15 21 (20.59%) High Availability
15 21 (20.59%) Windows
16 20 (19.61%) SolarWinds
17 19 (18.63%) Cisco ASA
18 18 (17.65%) F5
18 18 (17.65%) VMware Infrastructure
19 17 (16.67%) Cisco Firepower
19 17 (16.67%) Network Monitoring
20 16 (15.69%) 802.1X
20 16 (15.69%) VPN
21 15 (14.71%) IPsec
21 15 (14.71%) Load Balancing
21 15 (14.71%) 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 (12.75%) AWS
1 13 (12.75%) Azure
2 5 (4.90%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (0.98%) AWS Direct Connect
3 1 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (0.98%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 49 (48.04%) Firewall
2 40 (39.22%) LAN
3 38 (37.25%) WAN
4 30 (29.41%) DNS
5 29 (28.43%) BGP
6 28 (27.45%) DHCP
6 28 (27.45%) OSPF
7 27 (26.47%) Network Security
8 19 (18.63%) Cisco ASA
9 17 (16.67%) Cisco Firepower
10 16 (15.69%) VPN
11 15 (14.71%) IPsec
11 15 (14.71%) Wireless
12 14 (13.73%) Cisco ISE
12 14 (13.73%) Junos
12 14 (13.73%) VLAN
13 13 (12.75%) BIG-IP
14 12 (11.76%) Cisco Nexus
15 11 (10.78%) SD-WAN
15 11 (10.78%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 2 (1.96%) JIRA
2 1 (0.98%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.98%) Git
2 1 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 9 (8.82%) Telecoms
2 8 (7.84%) Social Skills
3 7 (6.86%) Manufacturing
4 6 (5.88%) Finance
5 5 (4.90%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (4.90%) Retail
6 2 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.96%) Military
6 2 (1.96%) Public Sector
7 1 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (15.69%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 23 (22.55%) Data Centre
2 14 (13.73%) PKI
3 9 (8.82%) Clustering
4 4 (3.92%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (2.94%) Security Posture
5 3 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.96%) CMDB
6 2 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.98%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.98%) Life Science
7 1 (0.98%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.98%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 21 (20.59%) Windows
2 11 (10.78%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (25.49%) ITIL
2 21 (20.59%) High Availability
3 17 (16.67%) Network Monitoring
4 15 (14.71%) Load Balancing
4 15 (14.71%) Problem-Solving
5 14 (13.73%) Technical Leadership
6 13 (12.75%) ITSM
7 12 (11.76%) Security Operations
7 12 (11.76%) Service Management
8 10 (9.80%) Change Management
8 10 (9.80%) Network Virtualisation
9 9 (8.82%) Virtual Environments
10 8 (7.84%) Collaborative Working
10 8 (7.84%) Identity Access Management
10 8 (7.84%) Migration
10 8 (7.84%) Network Design
10 8 (7.84%) Observability
11 6 (5.88%) Incident Management
12 5 (4.90%) Network Management
12 5 (4.90%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.96%) Python
1 2 (1.96%) SQL
Qualifications
1 61 (59.80%) Security Cleared
2 34 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 26 (25.49%) DV Cleared
4 21 (20.59%) Cisco Certification
5 12 (11.76%) CCNP
6 8 (7.84%) JNCIA
6 8 (7.84%) JNCIP
6 8 (7.84%) JNCIS
7 5 (4.90%) CCSE
7 5 (4.90%) CCSM
8 3 (2.94%) CCNA
9 2 (1.96%) CCIE
9 2 (1.96%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.98%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.98%) CCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.88%) NIST
2 5 (4.90%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (17.65%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (7.84%) Active Directory
2 8 (7.84%) VMware NSX
3 5 (4.90%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (2.94%) Firmware
5 1 (0.98%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 11 (10.78%) FortiGate
2 5 (4.90%) Nagios
3 4 (3.92%) Cisco CUCM
4 2 (1.96%) Ansible
4 2 (1.96%) Avamar
5 1 (0.98%) CASB
5 1 (0.98%) Grafana
5 1 (0.98%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.98%) Terraform
Vendors
1 58 (56.86%) Cisco
2 39 (38.24%) Juniper
3 24 (23.53%) Palo Alto
4 23 (22.55%) VMware
5 20 (19.61%) SolarWinds
6 18 (17.65%) F5
7 14 (13.73%) Fortinet
8 11 (10.78%) CheckPoint
8 11 (10.78%) Extreme Networks
9 10 (9.80%) ServiceNow
10 8 (7.84%) Splunk
11 4 (3.92%) Aruba
11 4 (3.92%) Becrypt
11 4 (3.92%) Infoblox
12 3 (2.94%) Meraki
12 3 (2.94%) NetScout
12 3 (2.94%) Nokia
12 3 (2.94%) SevOne
13 2 (1.96%) Blue Coat
13 2 (1.96%) Zscaler