Network Engineer Contract Job Trends

Network Engineer
UK

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the UK is £474, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 March 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 112 91
Rank change year-on-year -51 -21 +61
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 748 732 1,066
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.75% 2.39% 2.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.91% 2.57% 2.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 496 436 625
10th Percentile £300 £313 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £475 £460
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% +3.26% -3.16%
75th Percentile £532 £575 £538
90th Percentile £588 £638 £637
UK excluding London median daily rate £467 £461 £445
% change year-on-year +1.36% +3.54% -1.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 5 34
10th Percentile £20.75 £19.10 £23.55
25th Percentile £33.00 - £33.06
Median hourly rate £56.44 £20.00 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year +182.20% -62.79% -14.99%
75th Percentile £72.27 £38.00 £71.42
90th Percentile £74.26 £43.70 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.44 £20.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year +182.20% -69.69% +6.42%

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 39,253 28,458 41,733
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 92.86% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,589 18,093 27,411
10th Percentile £310 £293 £273
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,404 876 2,465
10th Percentile £14.84 £16.17 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.89 £21.39 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.50 £35.00 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.44% +6.06% -18.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.17 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year +2.06% -1.71% -14.67%

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 7 March 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 7 March 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 7 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
England -46 619 £478 -4.50% 250
UK excluding London -39 471 £467 +1.36% 248
Work from Home -20 218 £425 -10.53% 62
London -58 196 £500 - 67
South East +11 160 £475 -5.00% 71
North of England -59 151 £490 +0.26% 48
North West -22 129 £490 - 24
Midlands -17 85 £429 -4.72% 46
West Midlands +5 80 £413 -6.52% 24
Scotland +19 45 £415 +0.30% 16
East of England -17 29 £400 -0.62% 22
South West -59 24 £506 +7.14% 29
Yorkshire -70 22 £470 +11.90% 19
Wales -2 21 £463 +32.14% 17
East Midlands -44 3 £500 +11.11% 22
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 - 3
North East -13 1 - - 5

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

For the 6 months to 7 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 featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 412 (55.08%) Cisco
2 361 (48.26%) Firewall
3 257 (34.36%) Security Cleared
4 205 (27.41%) WAN
5 202 (27.01%) Cisco Certification
6 185 (24.73%) SC Cleared
7 182 (24.33%) BGP
7 182 (24.33%) Palo Alto
8 180 (24.06%) LAN
9 171 (22.86%) CCNP
10 170 (22.73%) VPN
11 156 (20.86%) Network Security
12 138 (18.45%) F5
13 135 (18.05%) DNS
14 129 (17.25%) OSPF
15 124 (16.58%) Juniper
16 114 (15.24%) Load Balancing
17 110 (14.71%) TCP/IP
18 101 (13.50%) VLAN
19 92 (12.30%) Python
20 88 (11.76%) CCNA
21 86 (11.50%) Problem-Solving
22 82 (10.96%) Wireless
23 79 (10.56%) Azure
24 78 (10.43%) Ansible
24 78 (10.43%) Wi-Fi
25 76 (10.16%) VMware
26 75 (10.03%) DV Cleared
27 73 (9.76%) MPLS
28 72 (9.63%) CheckPoint

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 10 (1.34%) SharePoint
2 7 (0.94%) Confluence
3 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.67%) Apache
4 5 (0.67%) IIS
Applications
1 20 (2.67%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 79 (10.56%) Azure
2 70 (9.36%) AWS
3 42 (5.61%) GCP
4 16 (2.14%) Entra ID
4 16 (2.14%) GitHub
5 15 (2.01%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 10 (1.34%) Microsoft 365
7 8 (1.07%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 8 (1.07%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 8 (1.07%) Nutanix
8 5 (0.67%) AWS Direct Connect
8 5 (0.67%) IaaS
8 5 (0.67%) Mimecast
8 5 (0.67%) SaaS
9 4 (0.53%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.53%) Cohesity
9 4 (0.53%) Google Compute Engine
9 4 (0.53%) PaaS
9 4 (0.53%) Route 53
10 3 (0.40%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 361 (48.26%) Firewall
2 205 (27.41%) WAN
3 182 (24.33%) BGP
4 180 (24.06%) LAN
5 170 (22.73%) VPN
6 156 (20.86%) Network Security
7 135 (18.05%) DNS
8 129 (17.25%) OSPF
9 110 (14.71%) TCP/IP
10 101 (13.50%) VLAN
11 82 (10.96%) Wireless
12 78 (10.43%) Wi-Fi
13 73 (9.76%) MPLS
14 66 (8.82%) Cisco ISE
14 66 (8.82%) SD-WAN
15 63 (8.42%) Cisco Nexus
16 62 (8.29%) SSL
17 53 (7.09%) IPsec
18 52 (6.95%) Wireshark
19 50 (6.68%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.40%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 31 (4.14%) Fiddler
2 20 (2.67%) Git
3 15 (2.01%) Jenkins
3 15 (2.01%) JIRA
4 11 (1.47%) Sonatype Nexus
5 8 (1.07%) GitLab
6 1 (0.13%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.13%) ClearCase
6 1 (0.13%) Jaeger
General
1 139 (18.58%) Social Skills
2 53 (7.09%) Public Sector
3 50 (6.68%) Banking
4 45 (6.02%) Finance
5 44 (5.88%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (5.21%) Investment Banking
6 39 (5.21%) Telecoms
7 35 (4.68%) Analytical Skills
8 22 (2.94%) Manufacturing
9 21 (2.81%) Legal
10 7 (0.94%) Law
10 7 (0.94%) Local Government
11 6 (0.80%) Financial Institution
11 6 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (0.67%) Military
12 5 (0.67%) Retail
13 3 (0.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.40%) Marketing
13 3 (0.40%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (5.48%) 802.1X
2 11 (1.47%) SAML
3 8 (1.07%) LDAP
4 5 (0.67%) RFC 2544
5 4 (0.53%) VML
6 3 (0.40%) CSS
6 3 (0.40%) HTML
6 3 (0.40%) JSON
6 3 (0.40%) Middleware
6 3 (0.40%) REST
7 2 (0.27%) Django
7 2 (0.27%) NETCONF
7 2 (0.27%) OpenTelemetry
7 2 (0.27%) XML
7 2 (0.27%) YANG
8 1 (0.13%) ARM Templates
8 1 (0.13%) AWS CDK
8 1 (0.13%) FIX Protocol
8 1 (0.13%) Loki
8 1 (0.13%) Ultra Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 163 (21.79%) Data Centre
2 25 (3.34%) Data Protection Act
2 25 (3.34%) Management Information System
3 20 (2.67%) Operational Technology
4 18 (2.41%) Onboarding
5 17 (2.27%) PKI
5 17 (2.27%) Security Posture
6 14 (1.87%) Hybrid Cloud
7 13 (1.74%) NHS
8 11 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
9 8 (1.07%) Clustering
9 8 (1.07%) Public Cloud
10 7 (0.94%) Fibre Optics
11 6 (0.80%) Hedge funds
12 5 (0.67%) Cloud Native
12 5 (0.67%) IoT
13 4 (0.53%) CMDB
13 4 (0.53%) Mainframe
13 4 (0.53%) SCADA
13 4 (0.53%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 58 (7.75%) Windows
2 35 (4.68%) Linux
3 24 (3.21%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.53%) CatOS
4 4 (0.53%) Unix
5 3 (0.40%) zOS
6 1 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (15.24%) Load Balancing
2 86 (11.50%) Problem-Solving
3 63 (8.42%) Migration
3 63 (8.42%) Network Design
4 57 (7.62%) High Availability
5 52 (6.95%) Network Monitoring
6 42 (5.61%) Change Management
7 41 (5.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 41 (5.48%) Project Delivery
8 37 (4.95%) ITIL
9 36 (4.81%) Network Architecture
10 34 (4.55%) DevOps
10 34 (4.55%) Network Management
11 33 (4.41%) ITSM
11 33 (4.41%) Stakeholder Management
12 31 (4.14%) Data Protection
12 31 (4.14%) Root Cause Analysis
13 29 (3.88%) Collaborative Working
13 29 (3.88%) Data Loss Prevention
13 29 (3.88%) Malware Detection/Protection
Programming Languages
1 92 (12.30%) Python
2 23 (3.07%) Bash
3 13 (1.74%) PowerShell
4 9 (1.20%) Perl
4 9 (1.20%) SQL
5 8 (1.07%) Lisp
6 3 (0.40%) Java
6 3 (0.40%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.27%) ActionScript
7 2 (0.27%) C++
7 2 (0.27%) Go
8 1 (0.13%) Bicep
8 1 (0.13%) C
8 1 (0.13%) Korn
8 1 (0.13%) PHP
8 1 (0.13%) Ruby
8 1 (0.13%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 257 (34.36%) Security Cleared
2 202 (27.01%) Cisco Certification
3 185 (24.73%) SC Cleared
4 171 (22.86%) CCNP
5 88 (11.76%) CCNA
6 75 (10.03%) DV Cleared
7 32 (4.28%) Degree
8 29 (3.88%) CCIE
9 28 (3.74%) JNCIS
10 22 (2.94%) JNCIA
11 20 (2.67%) JNCIP
12 14 (1.87%) Network+ Certification
13 10 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (0.53%) CISSP
14 4 (0.53%) DBS Check
15 3 (0.40%) AWS Certification
15 3 (0.40%) CCDP
15 3 (0.40%) GIAC
15 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
15 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 10 (1.34%) NIST
2 9 (1.20%) SLA
3 6 (0.80%) GDPR
4 5 (0.67%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.53%) QA
6 3 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
6 3 (0.40%) GRC
7 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.27%) NCSC
7 2 (0.27%) PMO
8 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.13%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 47 (6.28%) VMware Infrastructure
2 44 (5.88%) VMware NSX
3 34 (4.55%) Active Directory
4 30 (4.01%) Firmware
5 8 (1.07%) Docker
6 7 (0.94%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.67%) ProxySG
7 5 (0.67%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.67%) vSphere
8 3 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.27%) KVM
9 2 (0.27%) vCloud
9 2 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.13%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.13%) IAG
10 1 (0.13%) RACF
10 1 (0.13%) RHEV
10 1 (0.13%) Xen
Systems Management
1 78 (10.43%) Ansible
2 53 (7.09%) FortiGate
3 40 (5.35%) Terraform
4 16 (2.14%) vCenter Server
5 12 (1.60%) Grafana
6 11 (1.47%) Prometheus
7 10 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (1.07%) Nagios
9 7 (0.94%) Cisco Prime
10 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.53%) CASB
11 4 (0.53%) Kubernetes
11 4 (0.53%) Tivoli NetView
12 3 (0.40%) Dell DRAC
12 3 (0.40%) SCCM
12 3 (0.40%) SCOrch
13 2 (0.27%) Salt
13 2 (0.27%) WSUS
14 1 (0.13%) ITRS Geneos
14 1 (0.13%) OMEGAMON
Vendors
1 412 (55.08%) Cisco
2 182 (24.33%) Palo Alto
3 138 (18.45%) F5
4 124 (16.58%) Juniper
5 76 (10.16%) VMware
6 72 (9.63%) CheckPoint
7 71 (9.49%) Aruba
8 65 (8.69%) Fortinet
9 57 (7.62%) SolarWinds
10 55 (7.35%) Meraki
11 49 (6.55%) Blue Coat
12 42 (5.61%) McAfee
13 40 (5.35%) Microsoft
14 35 (4.68%) Arista
15 24 (3.21%) NetApp
16 23 (3.07%) ServiceNow
17 22 (2.94%) Splunk
18 18 (2.41%) Ekahau
18 18 (2.41%) Nokia
18 18 (2.41%) Zscaler