Network Engineer Contract Job Trends

Network Engineer
UK

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 July 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 131 95
Rank change year-on-year -6 -36 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,061 721 955
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.01% 2.19% 2.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.17% 2.39% 2.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 453 596
10th Percentile £313 £325 £286
25th Percentile £413 £400 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.56%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £550
90th Percentile £617 £638 £634
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £475
% change year-on-year -2.13% +2.11% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 12 15
10th Percentile £29.00 £22.08 £17.98
25th Percentile £69.08 £30.00 £21.57
Median hourly rate £77.50 £53.75 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +44.19% +10.69% -21.68%
75th Percentile £86.03 £70.63 £70.00
90th Percentile £92.53 £82.33 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £38.25 £50.53
% change year-on-year +102.61% -24.30% -18.50%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 48,898 30,175 37,360
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.56% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,518 19,205 24,201
10th Percentile £329 £284 £300
25th Percentile £423 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,323 1,465 2,247
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.71 £13.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.32
Median hourly rate £43.00 £25.15 £42.03
Median % change year-on-year +70.97% -40.16% -2.26%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.72%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Network Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer over the 6 months to 27 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in the UK

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Engineer over the 6 months to 27 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Engineer in the UK

Network Engineer
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 27 July 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
England -13 873 £475 -3.46% 260
UK excluding London -18 619 £475 -2.13% 223
London -24 302 £475 - 87
Work from Home -37 229 £463 -2.63% 58
North of England -8 219 £500 +1.63% 60
North West -5 159 £500 -4.76% 31
South East -23 150 £463 -7.50% 50
Midlands -7 104 £475 +9.51% 31
West Midlands 0 98 £475 +35.71% 15
Scotland +31 73 £400 -7.25% 22
South West -34 56 £550 +1.38% 29
Yorkshire -41 47 £450 -8.54% 21
East of England -5 42 £470 +17.50% 20
Wales -4 21 £425 -5.56% 10
North East -30 13 £600 +84.62% 8
East Midlands -22 3 £475 -13.64% 16
Northern Ireland +1 1 £550 -4.35% 3

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 July 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 featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 568 (53.53%) Cisco
2 469 (44.20%) Firewall
3 296 (27.90%) WAN
4 268 (25.26%) Security Cleared
5 257 (24.22%) BGP
6 245 (23.09%) Cisco Certification
6 245 (23.09%) LAN
6 245 (23.09%) Network Security
7 241 (22.71%) VPN
8 224 (21.11%) Palo Alto
9 189 (17.81%) CCNP
10 188 (17.72%) Wireless
11 187 (17.62%) F5
12 184 (17.34%) DNS
13 176 (16.59%) OSPF
13 176 (16.59%) SC Cleared
14 161 (15.17%) Fortinet
15 147 (13.85%) Load Balancing
16 145 (13.67%) VLAN
17 143 (13.48%) Azure
18 126 (11.88%) Migration
19 123 (11.59%) Juniper
20 119 (11.22%) Python
21 112 (10.56%) TCP/IP
22 109 (10.27%) SD-WAN
23 103 (9.71%) Wi-Fi
24 99 (9.33%) Problem-Solving
25 96 (9.05%) CCNA
25 96 (9.05%) High Availability
26 95 (8.95%) Terraform

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Application Platforms
1 6 (0.57%) Confluence
2 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.28%) SAS
3 3 (0.28%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.094%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.094%) CMS
4 1 (0.094%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.094%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (1.32%) MS Visio
2 11 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 143 (13.48%) Azure
2 88 (8.29%) AWS
3 57 (5.37%) GCP
4 42 (3.96%) GitHub
5 20 (1.89%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 16 (1.51%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (1.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 13 (1.23%) Microsoft 365
8 12 (1.13%) Entra ID
9 11 (1.04%) AWS CloudFormation
9 11 (1.04%) AWS Direct Connect
10 10 (0.94%) IaaS
11 8 (0.75%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (0.66%) Nutanix
13 6 (0.57%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (0.57%) Azure Sentinel
13 6 (0.57%) Cloudflare
13 6 (0.57%) Google Compute Engine
13 6 (0.57%) OCI
14 5 (0.47%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 469 (44.20%) Firewall
2 296 (27.90%) WAN
3 257 (24.22%) BGP
4 245 (23.09%) LAN
4 245 (23.09%) Network Security
5 241 (22.71%) VPN
6 188 (17.72%) Wireless
7 184 (17.34%) DNS
8 176 (16.59%) OSPF
9 145 (13.67%) VLAN
10 112 (10.56%) TCP/IP
11 109 (10.27%) SD-WAN
12 103 (9.71%) Wi-Fi
13 78 (7.35%) Cisco ISE
14 76 (7.16%) Multicast
15 73 (6.88%) DHCP
16 72 (6.79%) MPLS
17 71 (6.69%) Cisco Nexus
18 63 (5.94%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 61 (5.75%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.19%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.094%) ClickHouse
2 1 (0.094%) GIS
2 1 (0.094%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.094%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 32 (3.02%) Jenkins
2 28 (2.64%) JIRA
3 26 (2.45%) Git
4 17 (1.60%) Fiddler
5 12 (1.13%) GitLab
6 6 (0.57%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.19%) Browser DevTools
General
1 143 (13.48%) Social Skills
2 72 (6.79%) Finance
3 60 (5.66%) Banking
4 56 (5.28%) Analytical Skills
5 47 (4.43%) Public Sector
5 47 (4.43%) Telecoms
6 34 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
6 34 (3.20%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.07%) Retail
8 20 (1.89%) Legal
9 19 (1.79%) Manufacturing
10 9 (0.85%) Aerospace
10 9 (0.85%) Police
11 7 (0.66%) Financial Institution
11 7 (0.66%) Law
11 7 (0.66%) Military
12 6 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.47%) Local Government
13 5 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.38%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (4.81%) 802.1X
2 11 (1.04%) REST
3 10 (0.94%) SAML
4 6 (0.57%) NETCONF
5 5 (0.47%) LDAP
6 3 (0.28%) Java RMI
7 2 (0.19%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.19%) eBPF
7 2 (0.19%) Jinja
7 2 (0.19%) JSON
7 2 (0.19%) RFC 2544
8 1 (0.094%) CSS
8 1 (0.094%) HTML
8 1 (0.094%) ModSecurity
8 1 (0.094%) OpenTelemetry
8 1 (0.094%) XMPP
8 1 (0.094%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 190 (17.91%) Data Centre
2 35 (3.30%) Hybrid Cloud
3 32 (3.02%) PKI
4 21 (1.98%) Cloud Native
4 21 (1.98%) Management Information System
5 19 (1.79%) Security Posture
6 16 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
6 16 (1.51%) Onboarding
7 15 (1.41%) Driving Licence
7 15 (1.41%) Operational Technology
8 10 (0.94%) Linux Command Line
8 10 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (0.85%) Clustering
9 9 (0.85%) IoT
10 8 (0.75%) CCTV
11 7 (0.66%) Enterprise Cloud
11 7 (0.66%) NHS
11 7 (0.66%) Public Cloud
12 6 (0.57%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 6 (0.57%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 72 (6.79%) Windows
2 48 (4.52%) Linux
3 11 (1.04%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.66%) Unix
5 6 (0.57%) VMS
6 5 (0.47%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.094%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.094%) Solaris
10 1 (0.094%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.094%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.094%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.094%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (13.85%) Load Balancing
2 126 (11.88%) Migration
3 99 (9.33%) Problem-Solving
4 96 (9.05%) High Availability
5 88 (8.29%) Project Delivery
6 74 (6.97%) ITIL
7 70 (6.60%) Change Management
8 69 (6.50%) Network Design
9 66 (6.22%) Infrastructure as Code
10 63 (5.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 63 (5.94%) Validation
11 61 (5.75%) Network Monitoring
12 47 (4.43%) Zero Trust
13 45 (4.24%) Continuous Improvement
13 45 (4.24%) DevOps
14 43 (4.05%) Technical Leadership
15 42 (3.96%) CI/CD
16 38 (3.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 37 (3.49%) ITSM
18 35 (3.30%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 119 (11.22%) Python
2 21 (1.98%) Bash
3 13 (1.23%) PowerShell
4 9 (0.85%) ActionScript
5 8 (0.75%) SQL
6 4 (0.38%) C++
7 3 (0.28%) Bicep
7 3 (0.28%) C
7 3 (0.28%) Java
8 2 (0.19%) Groovy
8 2 (0.19%) Perl
9 1 (0.094%) Go
9 1 (0.094%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.094%) Lisp
9 1 (0.094%) PHP
9 1 (0.094%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 268 (25.26%) Security Cleared
2 245 (23.09%) Cisco Certification
3 189 (17.81%) CCNP
4 176 (16.59%) SC Cleared
5 96 (9.05%) CCNA
6 93 (8.77%) DV Cleared
7 42 (3.96%) CCIE
8 38 (3.58%) Degree
9 18 (1.70%) JNCIS
10 16 (1.51%) JNCIP
11 13 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
12 11 (1.04%) JNCIA
13 10 (0.94%) CISSP
14 9 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
15 8 (0.75%) CCSE
16 6 (0.57%) Azure Certification
16 6 (0.57%) CompTIA Security+
17 5 (0.47%) AWS Certification
17 5 (0.47%) CCIE Wireless
17 5 (0.47%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (1.89%) SLA
2 12 (1.13%) NIST
3 10 (0.94%) QA
4 9 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (0.75%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.38%) GDPR
6 4 (0.38%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
7 3 (0.28%) GRC
8 2 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.19%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.19%) NCSC
9 1 (0.094%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.094%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.094%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.094%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 70 (6.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (2.92%) Firmware
2 31 (2.92%) VMware NSX
3 30 (2.83%) Active Directory
4 16 (1.51%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (1.23%) vSphere
6 6 (0.57%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.38%) Docker
8 4 (0.38%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.19%) FreeRADIUS
9 2 (0.19%) Squid
10 1 (0.094%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.094%) IAG
10 1 (0.094%) iptables
10 1 (0.094%) KVM
10 1 (0.094%) Snort
10 1 (0.094%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 95 (8.95%) Terraform
2 88 (8.29%) Ansible
3 79 (7.45%) FortiGate
4 16 (1.51%) Kubernetes
5 13 (1.23%) Cisco Prime
6 9 (0.85%) Grafana
7 7 (0.66%) Prometheus
8 6 (0.57%) Cisco CUCM
9 5 (0.47%) Puppet
9 5 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.38%) Istio
10 4 (0.38%) Packer
11 3 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.28%) Nagios
11 3 (0.28%) systemd
12 2 (0.19%) CASB
12 2 (0.19%) Nessus
12 2 (0.19%) SCCM
12 2 (0.19%) SCOM
12 2 (0.19%) WSUS
Vendors
1 568 (53.53%) Cisco
2 224 (21.11%) Palo Alto
3 187 (17.62%) F5
4 161 (15.17%) Fortinet
5 123 (11.59%) Juniper
6 92 (8.67%) VMware
7 76 (7.16%) CheckPoint
8 69 (6.50%) Aruba
9 68 (6.41%) Arista
10 51 (4.81%) Meraki
10 51 (4.81%) Microsoft
11 46 (4.34%) Zscaler
12 38 (3.58%) SolarWinds
13 36 (3.39%) Google
14 32 (3.02%) Infoblox
15 28 (2.64%) Blue Coat
16 26 (2.45%) ServiceNow
17 21 (1.98%) McAfee
18 19 (1.79%) Ekahau
18 19 (1.79%) Extreme Networks