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 5 July 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
5 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 78 59 75
Rank change year-on-year -19 +16 +38
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 36 80 76
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 2.24% 3.00% 2.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.43% 3.24% 2.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 39 33
10th Percentile £280 £333 £253
25th Percentile £370 £416 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £513 £450
Median % change year-on-year -12.20% +13.89% +6.36%
75th Percentile £538 £519 £500
90th Percentile £575 £572 £569
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £450
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 9
10th Percentile - £34.47 £18.50
25th Percentile - £58.44 £24.50
Median hourly rate - £73.50 £66.00
Median % change year-on-year - +11.36% +153.85%
75th Percentile - £75.68 £80.25
90th Percentile - £76.47 £80.40
South East median hourly rate - £47.95 £62.00
% change year-on-year - -22.67% +169.57%

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 1,481 2,467 2,818
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.57% 94.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 898 1,353 1,913
10th Percentile £263 £213 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +2.56%
75th Percentile £600 £608 £606
90th Percentile £675 £688 £695
South East median daily rate £500 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 197 87
10th Percentile £14.20 £15.85 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.13 £19.25 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.90 £47.50 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year -45.47% -1.86% +177.21%
75th Percentile £64.69 £65.00 £66.21
90th Percentile £79.75 £87.46 £76.20
South East median hourly rate £28.00 £50.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year -44.00% - +138.10%

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 5 July 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 5 July 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 -13 32 £450 -12.20% 26
Buckinghamshire +6 2 £400 -27.27% 6
Oxfordshire -5 2 £550 +20.55% 11
Network Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 5 July 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 27 (75.00%) Cisco
2 15 (41.67%) Juniper
2 15 (41.67%) Security Cleared
3 14 (38.89%) Telecoms
4 12 (33.33%) Firewall
4 12 (33.33%) Social Skills
5 11 (30.56%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (27.78%) CCNP
6 10 (27.78%) LAN
6 10 (27.78%) WAN
7 9 (25.00%) SC Cleared
7 9 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
8 8 (22.22%) Unix
8 8 (22.22%) SAN
8 8 (22.22%) MPLS
9 7 (19.44%) VPN
9 7 (19.44%) Linux
9 7 (19.44%) Network Security
10 6 (16.67%) DV Cleared
10 6 (16.67%) Aruba
10 6 (16.67%) Test Strategy
10 6 (16.67%) Wireshark
10 6 (16.67%) DNS
10 6 (16.67%) Microsoft
10 6 (16.67%) OSPF
10 6 (16.67%) BGP
10 6 (16.67%) Data Centre
10 6 (16.67%) Defect Management
11 5 (13.89%) RFC 2544
11 5 (13.89%) ISTQB Foundation Certification

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 (2.78%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.56%) AWS
1 2 (5.56%) Azure
2 1 (2.78%) Cloud Computing
2 1 (2.78%) GCP
2 1 (2.78%) GitHub
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (2.78%) OneDrive
2 1 (2.78%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 12 (33.33%) Firewall
2 10 (27.78%) LAN
2 10 (27.78%) WAN
3 8 (22.22%) MPLS
3 8 (22.22%) SAN
4 7 (19.44%) Network Security
4 7 (19.44%) VPN
5 6 (16.67%) BGP
5 6 (16.67%) DNS
5 6 (16.67%) OSPF
5 6 (16.67%) Wireshark
6 5 (13.89%) ATM
6 5 (13.89%) Ethernet
6 5 (13.89%) Frame Relay
6 5 (13.89%) GPRS
6 5 (13.89%) GSM
6 5 (13.89%) LTE
6 5 (13.89%) SDH
6 5 (13.89%) UMTS
7 4 (11.11%) Spanning Tree
Development Applications
1 1 (2.78%) GitLab
1 1 (2.78%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 14 (38.89%) Telecoms
2 12 (33.33%) Social Skills
3 3 (8.33%) Manufacturing
4 2 (5.56%) Automotive
5 1 (2.78%) Electronics
5 1 (2.78%) Finance
5 1 (2.78%) Marketing
5 1 (2.78%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (13.89%) RFC 2544
2 2 (5.56%) 802.1X
3 1 (2.78%) Jinja
3 1 (2.78%) JSON
3 1 (2.78%) NETCONF
3 1 (2.78%) RESTCONF
3 1 (2.78%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (16.67%) Data Centre
2 5 (13.89%) Fibre Optics
2 5 (13.89%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (5.56%) Embedded Systems
3 2 (5.56%) Management Information System
3 2 (5.56%) Onboarding
3 2 (5.56%) Robotics
3 2 (5.56%) Security Operations Centre
3 2 (5.56%) Self-Driving Car
4 1 (2.78%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (2.78%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 8 (22.22%) Unix
2 7 (19.44%) Linux
3 2 (5.56%) Embedded Linux
4 1 (2.78%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 6 (16.67%) Defect Management
2 6 (16.67%) Test Strategy
3 5 (13.89%) Case Management
3 5 (13.89%) Fault Management
3 5 (13.89%) Network Design
3 5 (13.89%) Project Management
3 5 (13.89%) Regression Testing
3 5 (13.89%) Service Management
3 5 (13.89%) Test Scripting
4 4 (11.11%) Change Management
5 3 (8.33%) Data Loss Prevention
5 3 (8.33%) Disaster Recovery
5 3 (8.33%) Migration
5 3 (8.33%) Runbook
6 2 (5.56%) CI/CD
6 2 (5.56%) Collaborative Working
6 2 (5.56%) Infrastructure Automation
6 2 (5.56%) Security Operations
6 2 (5.56%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 5 (13.89%) Java
2 3 (8.33%) Python
3 1 (2.78%) PowerShell
3 1 (2.78%) VB
Qualifications
1 15 (41.67%) Security Cleared
2 11 (30.56%) Cisco Certification
3 10 (27.78%) CCNP
4 9 (25.00%) SC Cleared
5 6 (16.67%) DV Cleared
6 5 (13.89%) ISEB
6 5 (13.89%) ISTQB
6 5 (13.89%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 3 (8.33%) CCNA
8 2 (5.56%) CCIE
8 2 (5.56%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (5.56%) Degree
9 1 (2.78%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.78%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (2.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 1 (2.78%) NIST
System Software
1 3 (8.33%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 3 (8.33%) Ansible
2 1 (2.78%) Argo
2 1 (2.78%) CASB
2 1 (2.78%) FortiGate
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 27 (75.00%) Cisco
2 15 (41.67%) Juniper
3 6 (16.67%) Aruba
3 6 (16.67%) Microsoft
4 4 (11.11%) Palo Alto
5 3 (8.33%) Dell
5 3 (8.33%) F5
6 2 (5.56%) Fortinet
6 2 (5.56%) Meraki
6 2 (5.56%) Nokia
7 1 (2.78%) AirMagnet
7 1 (2.78%) Blue Coat
7 1 (2.78%) CheckPoint
7 1 (2.78%) Citrix
7 1 (2.78%) Cramer
7 1 (2.78%) Ekahau
7 1 (2.78%) Extreme Networks
7 1 (2.78%) Red Hat
7 1 (2.78%) SolarWinds
7 1 (2.78%) VMware