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 14 May 2026.

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

6 months to
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 78 46
Rank change year-on-year +17 -32 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 97 29 106
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 3.27% 1.98% 4.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.59% 2.14% 4.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 20 55
10th Percentile £300 £374 £335
25th Percentile £313 £439 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £463 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -9.76% +13.89%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £519
90th Percentile £575 £575 £716
South East median daily rate £463 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -7.50% - +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 6
10th Percentile - - £21.38
25th Percentile £70.67 £18.50 £24.31
Median hourly rate £71.33 £19.00 £49.25
Median % change year-on-year +275.42% -61.42% -31.84%
75th Percentile £72.00 £19.50 £75.24
90th Percentile - - £76.12
South East median hourly rate £77.50 £19.00 £49.25
% change year-on-year +307.89% -61.42% -23.05%

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 2,703 1,356 2,437
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.19% 92.56% 92.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,760 843 1,403
10th Percentile £303 £263 £205
25th Percentile £405 £405 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.15% - -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £675
South East median daily rate £515 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +3.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 56 185
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.20 £15.63
25th Percentile £24.25 £16.94 £19.25
Median hourly rate £76.80 £46.30 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.87% +2.89% -7.02%
75th Percentile £86.00 £66.09 £62.50
90th Percentile £97.50 £78.60 £85.49
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +69.23% -31.58% -

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 14 May 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 14 May 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 +18 75 £411 -8.61% 10
Buckinghamshire -24 16 £525 +31.25% 9
Oxfordshire -15 6 £480 -12.73% 3
Network Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 14 May 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 70 (72.16%) Security Cleared
2 56 (57.73%) Cisco
3 48 (49.48%) SC Cleared
4 43 (44.33%) Firewall
5 41 (42.27%) Juniper
6 36 (37.11%) LAN
7 30 (30.93%) WAN
8 29 (29.90%) BGP
9 27 (27.84%) OSPF
10 23 (23.71%) DV Cleared
11 21 (21.65%) DHCP
11 21 (21.65%) DNS
12 20 (20.62%) Network Security
13 19 (19.59%) Cisco Certification
13 19 (19.59%) F5
14 18 (18.56%) ITIL
15 17 (17.53%) High Availability
15 17 (17.53%) Palo Alto
16 15 (15.46%) AWS
16 15 (15.46%) Azure
16 15 (15.46%) Cisco Nexus
16 15 (15.46%) Windows
17 14 (14.43%) Cisco ISE
17 14 (14.43%) Load Balancing
17 14 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
17 14 (14.43%) SolarWinds
17 14 (14.43%) VMware
17 14 (14.43%) Wireless
18 13 (13.40%) BIG-IP
18 13 (13.40%) CCNP

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 15 (15.46%) AWS
1 15 (15.46%) Azure
2 4 (4.12%) Azure Sentinel
3 2 (2.06%) IaaS
3 2 (2.06%) PaaS
3 2 (2.06%) SaaS
4 1 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (1.03%) GCP
4 1 (1.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 43 (44.33%) Firewall
2 36 (37.11%) LAN
3 30 (30.93%) WAN
4 29 (29.90%) BGP
5 27 (27.84%) OSPF
6 21 (21.65%) DHCP
6 21 (21.65%) DNS
7 20 (20.62%) Network Security
8 15 (15.46%) Cisco Nexus
9 14 (14.43%) Cisco ISE
9 14 (14.43%) Wireless
10 13 (13.40%) BIG-IP
10 13 (13.40%) TCP/IP
10 13 (13.40%) VLAN
11 12 (12.37%) Junos
11 12 (12.37%) VXLAN
12 11 (11.34%) Ethernet VPN
12 11 (11.34%) VPN
12 11 (11.34%) WLAN
13 10 (10.31%) Cisco ASA
Development Applications
1 2 (2.06%) JIRA
2 1 (1.03%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 14 (14.43%) Social Skills
2 9 (9.28%) Telecoms
3 8 (8.25%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (5.15%) Finance
5 4 (4.12%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (4.12%) Manufacturing
5 4 (4.12%) Retail
6 2 (2.06%) Military
6 2 (2.06%) Public Sector
7 1 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (11.34%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 27 (27.84%) Data Centre
2 9 (9.28%) Clustering
3 8 (8.25%) PKI
4 5 (5.15%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.03%) Life Science
6 1 (1.03%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.03%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 15 (15.46%) Windows
2 6 (6.19%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (18.56%) ITIL
2 17 (17.53%) High Availability
3 14 (14.43%) Load Balancing
3 14 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (12.37%) ITSM
4 12 (12.37%) Network Monitoring
4 12 (12.37%) Service Management
5 11 (11.34%) Collaborative Working
6 8 (8.25%) Identity Access Management
7 7 (7.22%) Observability
7 7 (7.22%) Technical Leadership
8 6 (6.19%) Network Design
9 5 (5.15%) Incident Management
9 5 (5.15%) Migration
9 5 (5.15%) Network Virtualisation
10 4 (4.12%) Incident Response
10 4 (4.12%) Network Management
10 4 (4.12%) Presales
10 4 (4.12%) Security Operations
10 4 (4.12%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 2 (2.06%) SQL
2 1 (1.03%) Python
Qualifications
1 70 (72.16%) Security Cleared
2 48 (49.48%) SC Cleared
3 23 (23.71%) DV Cleared
4 19 (19.59%) Cisco Certification
5 13 (13.40%) CCNP
6 8 (8.25%) JNCIA
6 8 (8.25%) JNCIP
6 8 (8.25%) JNCIS
7 6 (6.19%) Network+ Certification
8 4 (4.12%) CCSE
8 4 (4.12%) CCSM
9 1 (1.03%) CCIE
9 1 (1.03%) CCIP
9 1 (1.03%) CCNA
9 1 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (1.03%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.12%) SLA
2 1 (1.03%) NIST
System Software
1 12 (12.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (4.12%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (3.09%) VMware NSX
4 2 (2.06%) Active Directory
4 2 (2.06%) Firmware
4 2 (2.06%) vCloud
5 1 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 12 (12.37%) FortiGate
2 5 (5.15%) Nagios
3 2 (2.06%) Avamar
4 1 (1.03%) Ansible
Vendors
1 56 (57.73%) Cisco
2 41 (42.27%) Juniper
3 19 (19.59%) F5
4 17 (17.53%) Palo Alto
5 14 (14.43%) SolarWinds
5 14 (14.43%) VMware
6 12 (12.37%) Fortinet
7 10 (10.31%) Extreme Networks
8 8 (8.25%) Splunk
9 6 (6.19%) Aruba
9 6 (6.19%) CheckPoint
10 4 (4.12%) ServiceNow
11 3 (3.09%) Infoblox
11 3 (3.09%) Meraki
11 3 (3.09%) Nokia
12 1 (1.03%) Becrypt
12 1 (1.03%) BT
12 1 (1.03%) HP
12 1 (1.03%) Microsoft
12 1 (1.03%) NetScout