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 £460, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 March 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 74 74 61
Rank change year-on-year 0 -13 +10
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 66 36 92
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 2.66% 2.20% 3.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.92% 2.37% 3.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 53 20 58
10th Percentile £300 £346 £335
25th Percentile £313 £415 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% - -
75th Percentile £550 £543 £519
90th Percentile £575 £576 £590
South East median daily rate £495 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.00% - +5.26%
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 2,258 1,517 2,592
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.67% 93.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,483 908 1,535
10th Percentile £280 £250 £205
25th Percentile £400 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £503 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +0.60% -
75th Percentile £588 £620 £600
90th Percentile £650 £663 £662
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 161 47 189
10th Percentile £16.35 £21.58 £15.85
25th Percentile £19.44 £41.25 £19.25
Median hourly rate £38.63 £56.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.92% +28.97% +12.94%
75th Percentile £84.00 £65.17 £62.47
90th Percentile £97.50 £76.18 £72.33
South East median hourly rate £35.00 £46.30 £42.50
% change year-on-year -24.41% +8.94% -5.56%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +5 57 £456 +3.05% 24
Buckinghamshire -14 5 £560 +14.87% 7
Oxfordshire -12 4 £438 -20.45% 2
Network Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 1 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 55 (83.33%) Security Cleared
2 45 (68.18%) Cisco
3 38 (57.58%) SC Cleared
4 32 (48.48%) Juniper
5 29 (43.94%) Firewall
6 19 (28.79%) LAN
7 18 (27.27%) BGP
8 17 (25.76%) DV Cleared
8 17 (25.76%) WAN
9 16 (24.24%) OSPF
10 15 (22.73%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (21.21%) Collaborative Working
12 13 (19.70%) DHCP
12 13 (19.70%) DNS
12 13 (19.70%) SolarWinds
13 11 (16.67%) F5
13 11 (16.67%) High Availability
14 10 (15.15%) CCNP
14 10 (15.15%) Ethernet VPN
14 10 (15.15%) Problem-Solving
14 10 (15.15%) VXLAN
15 9 (13.64%) Cisco ISE
15 9 (13.64%) Service Management
15 9 (13.64%) Windows
15 9 (13.64%) WLAN
16 8 (12.12%) Azure
16 8 (12.12%) Cisco Nexus
16 8 (12.12%) FortiGate
16 8 (12.12%) ITIL
16 8 (12.12%) JNCIP

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 8 (12.12%) Azure
2 7 (10.61%) AWS
3 2 (3.03%) IaaS
3 2 (3.03%) PaaS
3 2 (3.03%) SaaS
4 1 (1.52%) GCP
4 1 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (43.94%) Firewall
2 19 (28.79%) LAN
3 18 (27.27%) BGP
4 17 (25.76%) WAN
5 16 (24.24%) OSPF
6 13 (19.70%) DHCP
6 13 (19.70%) DNS
7 10 (15.15%) Ethernet VPN
7 10 (15.15%) VXLAN
8 9 (13.64%) Cisco ISE
8 9 (13.64%) WLAN
9 8 (12.12%) Cisco Nexus
9 8 (12.12%) Junos
9 8 (12.12%) Network Security
9 8 (12.12%) VPN
10 7 (10.61%) BIG-IP
11 6 (9.09%) VLAN
12 5 (7.58%) TCP/IP
12 5 (7.58%) Wireless
13 4 (6.06%) Broadband
Development Applications
1 1 (1.52%) GitLab
1 1 (1.52%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.52%) JIRA
1 1 (1.52%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 18 (27.27%) Social Skills
2 9 (13.64%) Telecoms
3 5 (7.58%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (6.06%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (4.55%) Public Sector
6 2 (3.03%) Military
7 1 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.52%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (10.61%) 802.1X
2 2 (3.03%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 19 (28.79%) Data Centre
2 8 (12.12%) Clustering
3 6 (9.09%) PKI
4 4 (6.06%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (3.03%) Fibre Optics
6 1 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.52%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.52%) Life Science
6 1 (1.52%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.52%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.52%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 9 (13.64%) Windows
2 2 (3.03%) Linux
3 1 (1.52%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (21.21%) Collaborative Working
2 11 (16.67%) High Availability
3 10 (15.15%) Problem-Solving
4 9 (13.64%) Service Management
5 8 (12.12%) ITIL
6 7 (10.61%) Identity Access Management
6 7 (10.61%) ITSM
6 7 (10.61%) Load Balancing
7 6 (9.09%) Observability
8 5 (7.58%) Incident Management
8 5 (7.58%) Incident Response
8 5 (7.58%) Network Design
8 5 (7.58%) Network Management
9 4 (6.06%) Availability Management
9 4 (6.06%) Network Monitoring
10 2 (3.03%) Case Management
10 2 (3.03%) Change Management
10 2 (3.03%) Knowledge Transfer
10 2 (3.03%) Migration
10 2 (3.03%) Performance Analysis
Programming Languages
1 1 (1.52%) Bash
1 1 (1.52%) PowerShell
1 1 (1.52%) Python
Qualifications
1 55 (83.33%) Security Cleared
2 38 (57.58%) SC Cleared
3 17 (25.76%) DV Cleared
4 15 (22.73%) Cisco Certification
5 10 (15.15%) CCNP
6 8 (12.12%) JNCIP
7 7 (10.61%) JNCIA
7 7 (10.61%) JNCIS
7 7 (10.61%) Network+ Certification
8 4 (6.06%) CCNA
9 1 (1.52%) BC Cleared
9 1 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.52%) CCIP
9 1 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (1.52%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (3.03%) QA
2 1 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.52%) NIST
2 1 (1.52%) SLA
System Software
1 4 (6.06%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (3.03%) vCloud
2 2 (3.03%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.52%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.52%) Docker
3 1 (1.52%) Firmware
3 1 (1.52%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 8 (12.12%) FortiGate
2 5 (7.58%) Nagios
3 1 (1.52%) Amdocs OSS
3 1 (1.52%) Ansible
3 1 (1.52%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.52%) Terraform
Vendors
1 45 (68.18%) Cisco
2 32 (48.48%) Juniper
3 13 (19.70%) SolarWinds
4 11 (16.67%) F5
5 8 (12.12%) Palo Alto
6 7 (10.61%) Splunk
7 6 (9.09%) Extreme Networks
8 5 (7.58%) Fortinet
9 4 (6.06%) Aruba
9 4 (6.06%) VMware
10 3 (4.55%) CheckPoint
10 3 (4.55%) Meraki
11 2 (3.03%) Nokia
12 1 (1.52%) BT
12 1 (1.52%) Ciena
12 1 (1.52%) Cramer
12 1 (1.52%) Infoblox
12 1 (1.52%) Microsoft
12 1 (1.52%) NetScout
12 1 (1.52%) Zscaler