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 £488, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 March 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 63 54
Rank change year-on-year -6 -9 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 79 37 90
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 2.91% 2.43% 3.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.19% 2.59% 3.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 22 56
10th Percentile £300 £329 £335
25th Percentile £368 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £488 £506
Median % change year-on-year - -3.70% +1.25%
75th Percentile £558 £538 £519
90th Percentile £575 £575 £593
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 4
10th Percentile £24.17 - £24.33
25th Percentile £31.92 £18.50 £24.44
Median hourly rate £45.67 £19.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +140.34% -24.00% -25.37%
75th Percentile £59.25 £19.50 £36.63
90th Percentile £66.90 - £56.65
South East median hourly rate £56.44 £19.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year +197.05% -24.00% -25.37%

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 2,474 1,426 2,617
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.02% 93.51% 93.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,611 882 1,532
10th Percentile £280 £270 £210
25th Percentile £401 £409 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £594 £627 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £663
South East median daily rate £503 £505 £500
% change year-on-year -0.45% +1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 51 190
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.42 £15.85
25th Percentile £20.79 £23.50 £19.25
Median hourly rate £59.50 £48.00 £43.25
Median % change year-on-year +23.96% +10.98% +29.10%
75th Percentile £85.50 £65.17 £62.35
90th Percentile £95.00 £75.50 £71.81
South East median hourly rate £38.63 £42.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -9.11% +6.25% -11.11%

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 18 March 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 18 March 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 18 March 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 +16 65 £456 +3.05% 15
Buckinghamshire -20 11 £538 +22.86% 9
Oxfordshire -14 3 £450 -18.18% 4
Network Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 18 March 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 64 (81.01%) Security Cleared
2 52 (65.82%) Cisco
3 43 (54.43%) SC Cleared
4 39 (49.37%) Juniper
5 34 (43.04%) Firewall
6 26 (32.91%) LAN
7 25 (31.65%) BGP
7 25 (31.65%) WAN
8 23 (29.11%) OSPF
9 22 (27.85%) DV Cleared
10 17 (21.52%) High Availability
11 16 (20.25%) Cisco Certification
11 16 (20.25%) Collaborative Working
11 16 (20.25%) DHCP
11 16 (20.25%) DNS
11 16 (20.25%) F5
12 15 (18.99%) ITIL
13 14 (17.72%) Azure
13 14 (17.72%) Cisco ISE
13 14 (17.72%) Network Security
13 14 (17.72%) Palo Alto
13 14 (17.72%) SolarWinds
14 13 (16.46%) AWS
15 12 (15.19%) BIG-IP
15 12 (15.19%) Service Management
15 12 (15.19%) Windows
16 11 (13.92%) Ethernet VPN
16 11 (13.92%) ITSM
16 11 (13.92%) Junos
16 11 (13.92%) 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 14 (17.72%) Azure
2 13 (16.46%) AWS
3 2 (2.53%) Azure Sentinel
3 2 (2.53%) IaaS
3 2 (2.53%) PaaS
3 2 (2.53%) SaaS
4 1 (1.27%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (1.27%) GCP
4 1 (1.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 34 (43.04%) Firewall
2 26 (32.91%) LAN
3 25 (31.65%) BGP
3 25 (31.65%) WAN
4 23 (29.11%) OSPF
5 16 (20.25%) DHCP
5 16 (20.25%) DNS
6 14 (17.72%) Cisco ISE
6 14 (17.72%) Network Security
7 12 (15.19%) BIG-IP
8 11 (13.92%) Ethernet VPN
8 11 (13.92%) Junos
8 11 (13.92%) TCP/IP
8 11 (13.92%) VXLAN
9 9 (11.39%) Cisco Nexus
9 9 (11.39%) VPN
9 9 (11.39%) WLAN
10 8 (10.13%) VLAN
10 8 (10.13%) Wireless
11 7 (8.86%) Cisco ASA
Development Applications
1 2 (2.53%) JIRA
2 1 (1.27%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (1.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 18 (22.78%) Social Skills
2 8 (10.13%) Telecoms
3 6 (7.59%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (5.06%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (5.06%) Public Sector
5 3 (3.80%) Finance
6 2 (2.53%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.53%) Military
6 2 (2.53%) Retail
7 1 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (11.39%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 19 (24.05%) Data Centre
2 9 (11.39%) Clustering
3 7 (8.86%) PKI
4 3 (3.80%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.27%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.27%) Life Science
5 1 (1.27%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 12 (15.19%) Windows
2 3 (3.80%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (21.52%) High Availability
2 16 (20.25%) Collaborative Working
3 15 (18.99%) ITIL
4 12 (15.19%) Service Management
5 11 (13.92%) ITSM
5 11 (13.92%) Problem-Solving
6 10 (12.66%) Load Balancing
7 9 (11.39%) Network Monitoring
8 8 (10.13%) Identity Access Management
9 7 (8.86%) Observability
10 5 (6.33%) Incident Management
10 5 (6.33%) Network Design
10 5 (6.33%) Technical Leadership
11 4 (5.06%) Availability Management
11 4 (5.06%) Incident Response
11 4 (5.06%) Migration
11 4 (5.06%) Network Management
11 4 (5.06%) Network Virtualisation
11 4 (5.06%) Security Operations
11 4 (5.06%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 2 (2.53%) SQL
2 1 (1.27%) Python
Qualifications
1 64 (81.01%) Security Cleared
2 43 (54.43%) SC Cleared
3 22 (27.85%) DV Cleared
4 16 (20.25%) Cisco Certification
5 10 (12.66%) CCNP
6 8 (10.13%) JNCIA
6 8 (10.13%) JNCIP
6 8 (10.13%) JNCIS
7 6 (7.59%) Network+ Certification
8 2 (2.53%) CCNA
8 2 (2.53%) CCSE
8 2 (2.53%) CCSM
9 1 (1.27%) BC Cleared
9 1 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.27%) CCIP
9 1 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (1.27%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.80%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (11.39%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (2.53%) vCloud
2 2 (2.53%) VMware ESXi
2 2 (2.53%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.27%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.27%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 9 (11.39%) FortiGate
2 5 (6.33%) Nagios
3 1 (1.27%) Amdocs OSS
3 1 (1.27%) Ansible
Vendors
1 52 (65.82%) Cisco
2 39 (49.37%) Juniper
3 16 (20.25%) F5
4 14 (17.72%) Palo Alto
4 14 (17.72%) SolarWinds
5 9 (11.39%) VMware
6 8 (10.13%) Fortinet
6 8 (10.13%) Splunk
7 7 (8.86%) Extreme Networks
8 5 (6.33%) Aruba
8 5 (6.33%) CheckPoint
9 3 (3.80%) Meraki
10 2 (2.53%) Microsoft
10 2 (2.53%) Nokia
10 2 (2.53%) ServiceNow
11 1 (1.27%) BT
11 1 (1.27%) Cramer
11 1 (1.27%) HP
11 1 (1.27%) Infoblox
11 1 (1.27%) NetScout