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 7 June 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 53 69 53
Rank change year-on-year +16 -16 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 109 34 96
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 3.62% 2.32% 3.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.96% 2.50% 3.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 84 25 53
10th Percentile £300 £270 £338
25th Percentile £329 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -12.20% +10.81%
75th Percentile £538 £510 £519
90th Percentile £575 £560 £743
South East median daily rate £463 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -7.50% - +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 5
10th Percentile - - £20.90
25th Percentile £70.67 - £24.50
Median hourly rate £71.33 - £73.50
75th Percentile £72.00 - £75.24
90th Percentile - - £76.29
South East median hourly rate £77.50 - £73.50
% change year-on-year - - +14.84%

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 2,751 1,360 2,468
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.30% 92.64% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,763 858 1,373
10th Percentile £310 £286 £213
25th Percentile £412 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
South East median daily rate £520 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +4.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 67 197
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.20 £15.85
25th Percentile £25.05 £15.13 £19.25
Median hourly rate £65.67 £32.05 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +104.88% -32.53% -3.06%
75th Percentile £85.50 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £104.05 £78.50 £87.46
South East median hourly rate £50.00 £32.50 £48.40
% change year-on-year +53.85% -32.85% -3.20%

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 7 June 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 7 June 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 +14 82 £411 -8.61% 5
Buckinghamshire -22 21 £523 +30.63% 7
Oxfordshire -24 6 £480 -12.73% 4
Network Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 7 June 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 75 (68.81%) Security Cleared
2 65 (59.63%) Cisco
3 49 (44.95%) SC Cleared
4 48 (44.04%) Firewall
5 43 (39.45%) LAN
6 42 (38.53%) Juniper
7 37 (33.94%) WAN
8 30 (27.52%) BGP
9 28 (25.69%) OSPF
10 27 (24.77%) DV Cleared
11 24 (22.02%) DHCP
11 24 (22.02%) DNS
11 24 (22.02%) Network Security
12 22 (20.18%) ITIL
12 22 (20.18%) Palo Alto
13 21 (19.27%) Cisco Certification
14 19 (17.43%) F5
15 18 (16.51%) High Availability
15 18 (16.51%) VMware
15 18 (16.51%) Windows
16 17 (15.60%) SolarWinds
17 16 (14.68%) AWS
17 16 (14.68%) Azure
17 16 (14.68%) Cisco Nexus
17 16 (14.68%) Network Monitoring
17 16 (14.68%) VMware Infrastructure
18 15 (13.76%) CCNP
18 15 (13.76%) Load Balancing
18 15 (13.76%) Wireless
19 14 (12.84%) Cisco ASA

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 16 (14.68%) AWS
1 16 (14.68%) Azure
2 5 (4.59%) Azure Sentinel
3 2 (1.83%) IaaS
3 2 (1.83%) PaaS
3 2 (1.83%) SaaS
4 1 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (0.92%) GCP
4 1 (0.92%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 48 (44.04%) Firewall
2 43 (39.45%) LAN
3 37 (33.94%) WAN
4 30 (27.52%) BGP
5 28 (25.69%) OSPF
6 24 (22.02%) DHCP
6 24 (22.02%) DNS
6 24 (22.02%) Network Security
7 16 (14.68%) Cisco Nexus
8 15 (13.76%) Wireless
9 14 (12.84%) Cisco ASA
9 14 (12.84%) Cisco ISE
9 14 (12.84%) VPN
10 13 (11.93%) BIG-IP
10 13 (11.93%) Cisco Firepower
10 13 (11.93%) TCP/IP
10 13 (11.93%) VLAN
11 12 (11.01%) Junos
11 12 (11.01%) VXLAN
12 11 (10.09%) Ethernet VPN
Development Applications
1 2 (1.83%) JIRA
2 1 (0.92%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.92%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 14 (12.84%) Social Skills
2 8 (7.34%) Analytical Skills
2 8 (7.34%) Telecoms
3 6 (5.50%) Finance
3 6 (5.50%) Manufacturing
4 5 (4.59%) Retail
5 4 (3.67%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.83%) Military
6 2 (1.83%) Public Sector
7 1 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (11.93%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 29 (26.61%) Data Centre
2 11 (10.09%) PKI
3 9 (8.26%) Clustering
4 5 (4.59%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (2.75%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.92%) Fibre Optics
7 1 (0.92%) Life Science
7 1 (0.92%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 18 (16.51%) Windows
2 10 (9.17%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (20.18%) ITIL
2 18 (16.51%) High Availability
3 16 (14.68%) Network Monitoring
4 15 (13.76%) Load Balancing
5 14 (12.84%) Problem-Solving
6 13 (11.93%) ITSM
7 12 (11.01%) Collaborative Working
7 12 (11.01%) Service Management
8 10 (9.17%) Technical Leadership
9 8 (7.34%) Identity Access Management
9 8 (7.34%) Network Design
10 7 (6.42%) Migration
10 7 (6.42%) Network Virtualisation
10 7 (6.42%) Observability
11 6 (5.50%) Security Operations
11 6 (5.50%) Virtual Environments
12 5 (4.59%) Change Management
12 5 (4.59%) Incident Management
12 5 (4.59%) Presales
12 5 (4.59%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.83%) Python
1 2 (1.83%) SQL
Qualifications
1 75 (68.81%) Security Cleared
2 49 (44.95%) SC Cleared
3 27 (24.77%) DV Cleared
4 21 (19.27%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (13.76%) CCNP
6 8 (7.34%) JNCIA
6 8 (7.34%) JNCIP
6 8 (7.34%) JNCIS
7 6 (5.50%) Network+ Certification
8 5 (4.59%) CCSE
8 5 (4.59%) CCSM
9 2 (1.83%) CCIE
10 1 (0.92%) CCIP
10 1 (0.92%) CCNA
10 1 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.92%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.59%) NIST
1 5 (4.59%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (14.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (5.50%) VMware NSX
3 5 (4.59%) Active Directory
3 5 (4.59%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (2.75%) Firmware
5 2 (1.83%) vCloud
6 1 (0.92%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 12 (11.01%) FortiGate
2 5 (4.59%) Nagios
3 2 (1.83%) Avamar
4 1 (0.92%) Ansible
4 1 (0.92%) CASB
4 1 (0.92%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 65 (59.63%) Cisco
2 42 (38.53%) Juniper
3 22 (20.18%) Palo Alto
4 19 (17.43%) F5
5 18 (16.51%) VMware
6 17 (15.60%) SolarWinds
7 13 (11.93%) Fortinet
8 11 (10.09%) Extreme Networks
9 8 (7.34%) ServiceNow
9 8 (7.34%) Splunk
10 7 (6.42%) Aruba
10 7 (6.42%) CheckPoint
11 4 (3.67%) Nokia
12 3 (2.75%) Becrypt
12 3 (2.75%) Infoblox
12 3 (2.75%) Meraki
13 1 (0.92%) BT
13 1 (0.92%) Cramer
13 1 (0.92%) HP
13 1 (0.92%) Microsoft