Principal Network Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Principal Network Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Principal Network Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 332 - 458
Rank change year-on-year - - -
Contract jobs requiring a Principal Network Engineer 4 0 4
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.031% - 0.017%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.034% - 0.018%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 0 4
10th Percentile £495 - -
25th Percentile £501 - £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 - £425
75th Percentile £538 - £485
90th Percentile - - £572
UK median daily rate £500 - £425
% change year-on-year - - -15.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,767 19,240 22,667
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.63% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,552 11,748 15,893
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,243 1,165
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.45
25th Percentile £17.61 £15.75 £18.09
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%
75th Percentile £64.50 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Principal Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Principal Network Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Principal Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Network Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Principal Network Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Principal Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Network Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Network Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 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
North West - 2 £525 - 1
South East - 2 £500 - 1
South West - 2 £525 -
North of England - 2 £525 - 1
Principal Network Engineer
UK

Principal Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Principal 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 UK excluding London region featuring Principal Network Engineer in the job title.

1 4 (100.00%) Cisco
1 4 (100.00%) MPLS
2 3 (75.00%) Network Monitoring
2 3 (75.00%) Cisco Firepower
2 3 (75.00%) OSPF
2 3 (75.00%) BGP
2 3 (75.00%) Migration
2 3 (75.00%) IPv6
2 3 (75.00%) CCIE
2 3 (75.00%) Cisco Certification
2 3 (75.00%) Broadband
2 3 (75.00%) VPN
3 2 (50.00%) Nagios
3 2 (50.00%) Multicast
3 2 (50.00%) SolarWinds
4 1 (25.00%) Network Design
4 1 (25.00%) Degree
4 1 (25.00%) Network Security
4 1 (25.00%) Network Architecture
4 1 (25.00%) 4G
4 1 (25.00%) Radio Access Network
4 1 (25.00%) Mentoring
4 1 (25.00%) 5G
4 1 (25.00%) Project Delivery
4 1 (25.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (25.00%) Telecoms
4 1 (25.00%) 2G
4 1 (25.00%) 3G
4 1 (25.00%) SLA
4 1 (25.00%) Ethernet

Principal Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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:

Communications & Networking
1 4 (100.00%) MPLS
2 3 (75.00%) BGP
2 3 (75.00%) Broadband
2 3 (75.00%) Cisco Firepower
2 3 (75.00%) IPv6
2 3 (75.00%) OSPF
2 3 (75.00%) VPN
3 2 (50.00%) Multicast
4 1 (25.00%) 2G
4 1 (25.00%) 3G
4 1 (25.00%) 4G
4 1 (25.00%) 5G
4 1 (25.00%) Ethernet
4 1 (25.00%) Network Security
4 1 (25.00%) Radio Access Network
4 1 (25.00%) TCP/IP
General
1 1 (25.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 1 (25.00%) Telecoms
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (75.00%) Migration
1 3 (75.00%) Network Monitoring
2 1 (25.00%) Mentoring
2 1 (25.00%) Network Architecture
2 1 (25.00%) Network Design
2 1 (25.00%) Project Delivery
Qualifications
1 3 (75.00%) CCIE
1 3 (75.00%) Cisco Certification
2 1 (25.00%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (25.00%) SLA
Systems Management
1 2 (50.00%) Nagios
Vendors
1 4 (100.00%) Cisco
2 2 (50.00%) SolarWinds