Network Engineer Contracts in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the Thames Valley is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 71 48 71
Rank change year-on-year -23 +23 +52
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 33 103 77
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 2.26% 3.93% 2.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.45% 4.24% 2.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 55 39
10th Percentile £333 £335 £313
25th Percentile £391 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £513 £475
Median % change year-on-year -12.20% +7.89% +6.99%
75th Percentile £524 £519 £560
90th Percentile £568 £716 £580
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £450
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 7
10th Percentile - £20.90 £47.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.50 £66.00
Median hourly rate £19.00 £73.50 £76.99
Median % change year-on-year -74.15% -4.54% +196.12%
75th Percentile £19.50 £75.24 £80.25
90th Percentile - £76.29 £80.55
South East median hourly rate £19.00 £73.50 £66.00
% change year-on-year -74.15% +11.36% +186.96%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 1,348 2,430 2,685
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.27% 92.64% 94.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 852 1,384 1,842
10th Percentile £275 £213 £300
25th Percentile £400 £371 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.26%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 184 79
10th Percentile £14.20 £15.59 £17.11
25th Percentile £15.16 £19.25 £21.33
Median hourly rate £32.05 £45.00 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year -28.78% -7.02% +176.57%
75th Percentile £64.96 £62.13 £66.21
90th Percentile £77.02 £85.53 £79.19
South East median hourly rate £32.50 £47.50 £49.50
% change year-on-year -31.58% -4.04% +147.50%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings that featured Network Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for Network Engineer in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Network Engineer in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for Network Engineer 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 24 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Network Engineer in the Thames Valley.

Hourly rate trend 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 24 May 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
Berkshire -20 27 £450 -12.20% 87
Buckinghamshire +8 4 £400 -27.27% 31
Oxfordshire 0 2 £550 +25.71% 20
Network Engineer
South East

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 24 May 2025, Network Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Thames Valley region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 25 (75.76%) Cisco
2 14 (42.42%) Juniper
2 14 (42.42%) Telecoms
3 12 (36.36%) Firewall
3 12 (36.36%) Social Skills
4 11 (33.33%) MPLS
4 11 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
4 11 (33.33%) WAN
4 11 (33.33%) LAN
5 10 (30.30%) CCNP
5 10 (30.30%) Security Cleared
6 9 (27.27%) Network Security
6 9 (27.27%) VPN
6 9 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
7 8 (24.24%) SAN
8 7 (21.21%) OSPF
8 7 (21.21%) BGP
8 7 (21.21%) Ethernet
8 7 (21.21%) Unix
8 7 (21.21%) Linux
9 6 (18.18%) DNS
9 6 (18.18%) Microsoft
9 6 (18.18%) Wireshark
9 6 (18.18%) Aruba
10 5 (15.15%) Test Strategy
10 5 (15.15%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 5 (15.15%) DV Cleared
10 5 (15.15%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (15.15%) Network Design
10 5 (15.15%) Wireless

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (3.03%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (6.06%) AWS
1 2 (6.06%) Azure
1 2 (6.06%) Cloud Computing
2 1 (3.03%) GCP
2 1 (3.03%) GitHub
2 1 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (3.03%) OneDrive
2 1 (3.03%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 12 (36.36%) Firewall
2 11 (33.33%) LAN
2 11 (33.33%) MPLS
2 11 (33.33%) WAN
3 9 (27.27%) Network Security
3 9 (27.27%) VPN
4 8 (24.24%) SAN
5 7 (21.21%) BGP
5 7 (21.21%) Ethernet
5 7 (21.21%) OSPF
6 6 (18.18%) DNS
6 6 (18.18%) Wireshark
7 5 (15.15%) ATM
7 5 (15.15%) Frame Relay
7 5 (15.15%) GPRS
7 5 (15.15%) GSM
7 5 (15.15%) LTE
7 5 (15.15%) SDH
7 5 (15.15%) UMTS
7 5 (15.15%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (3.03%) GitLab
1 1 (3.03%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 14 (42.42%) Telecoms
2 12 (36.36%) Social Skills
3 3 (9.09%) Manufacturing
4 2 (6.06%) Automotive
5 1 (3.03%) Electronics
5 1 (3.03%) Finance
5 1 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (3.03%) Marketing
5 1 (3.03%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.06%) 802.1X
1 2 (6.06%) RFC 2544
2 1 (3.03%) Jinja
2 1 (3.03%) JSON
2 1 (3.03%) NETCONF
2 1 (3.03%) RESTCONF
2 1 (3.03%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 5 (15.15%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (9.09%) Data Centre
3 2 (6.06%) Embedded Systems
3 2 (6.06%) Fibre Optics
3 2 (6.06%) Management Information System
3 2 (6.06%) Robotics
3 2 (6.06%) Security Operations Centre
3 2 (6.06%) Self-Driving Car
4 1 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (3.03%) IoT
4 1 (3.03%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 7 (21.21%) Linux
1 7 (21.21%) Unix
2 2 (6.06%) Embedded Linux
3 1 (3.03%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (15.15%) Fault Management
2 5 (15.15%) Migration
2 5 (15.15%) Network Design
2 5 (15.15%) Project Management
2 5 (15.15%) Regression Testing
2 5 (15.15%) Test Strategy
3 4 (12.12%) Change Management
4 3 (9.09%) Data Loss Prevention
4 3 (9.09%) Defect Management
4 3 (9.09%) Project Delivery
4 3 (9.09%) Runbook
5 2 (6.06%) Case Management
5 2 (6.06%) CI/CD
5 2 (6.06%) DevOps
5 2 (6.06%) Infrastructure Automation
5 2 (6.06%) Infrastructure Management
5 2 (6.06%) Mentoring
5 2 (6.06%) Network Monitoring
5 2 (6.06%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 5 (15.15%) Java
2 3 (9.09%) Python
3 1 (3.03%) PowerShell
3 1 (3.03%) VB
Qualifications
1 11 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
2 10 (30.30%) CCNP
2 10 (30.30%) Security Cleared
3 5 (15.15%) DV Cleared
3 5 (15.15%) ISEB
3 5 (15.15%) ISTQB
3 5 (15.15%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 5 (15.15%) SC Cleared
4 3 (9.09%) CCIE
4 3 (9.09%) Degree
5 2 (6.06%) CCNA
5 2 (6.06%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (3.03%) BC Cleared
6 1 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (3.03%) CCDP
6 1 (3.03%) CCIP
6 1 (3.03%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 1 (3.03%) NIST
1 1 (3.03%) QA
1 1 (3.03%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (9.09%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 3 (9.09%) Ansible
2 1 (3.03%) Argo
2 1 (3.03%) CASB
2 1 (3.03%) FortiGate
2 1 (3.03%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 25 (75.76%) Cisco
2 14 (42.42%) Juniper
3 6 (18.18%) Aruba
3 6 (18.18%) Microsoft
4 4 (12.12%) Palo Alto
5 3 (9.09%) Dell
5 3 (9.09%) F5
6 2 (6.06%) Fortinet
7 1 (3.03%) AirMagnet
7 1 (3.03%) Alcatel-Lucent
7 1 (3.03%) Blue Coat
7 1 (3.03%) CheckPoint
7 1 (3.03%) Citrix
7 1 (3.03%) Ekahau
7 1 (3.03%) Extreme Networks
7 1 (3.03%) HP
7 1 (3.03%) Meraki
7 1 (3.03%) Red Hat
7 1 (3.03%) SAP
7 1 (3.03%) SolarWinds