Network Engineer Contract Job Trends

Network Engineer
UK

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the UK is £470, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 September 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
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 159 97 111
Rank change year-on-year -62 +14 +86
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 599 912 1,121
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.82% 2.38% 2.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.00% 2.57% 2.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 386 531 723
10th Percentile £307 £300 £273
25th Percentile £400 £405 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £495 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +10.00% -
75th Percentile £573 £578 £538
90th Percentile £638 £638 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £455 £490 £425
% change year-on-year -7.14% +15.29% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 20 38
10th Percentile £22.12 £19.85 £30.38
25th Percentile £32.50 £20.00 £40.85
Median hourly rate £41.50 £45.00 £61.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.78% -26.23% +12.96%
75th Percentile £67.25 £67.50 £66.00
90th Percentile £80.15 £75.24 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £35.48 £62.00
% change year-on-year +7.81% -42.77% +39.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 29,996 35,551 46,729
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.07% 92.96% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,952 21,923 31,999
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £621 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,570 1,683 1,490
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.88
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -2.01% +68.77%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -44.11% +5.88% +93.18%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Network Engineer 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 17 September 2025.

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 17 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Engineer in the UK

Network Engineer
Top 18 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 17 September 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
England -58 512 £475 -5.00% 240
UK excluding London -48 349 £455 -7.14% 220
London -23 194 £475 -5.00% 70
Work from Home -67 169 £450 -8.16% 101
North of England -46 102 £485 +0.78% 53
South East -29 88 £500 -2.44% 76
Midlands -14 66 £385 -9.41% 44
North West -39 65 £475 -3.06% 20
West Midlands +6 59 £378 -13.22% 23
Scotland -6 40 £425 +13.33% 21
Yorkshire -28 34 £490 +20.12% 23
South West -14 31 £598 +17.73% 17
East of England +7 26 £383 +33.04% 13
East Midlands -26 7 £600 +60.00% 21
Northern Ireland -4 4 £525 +17.98% 4
North East -4 3 £600 +41.18% 12
Wales -12 1 - - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £440 -

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 September 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 featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 390 (65.11%) Cisco
2 302 (50.42%) Firewall
3 201 (33.56%) Cisco Certification
4 194 (32.39%) Security Cleared
5 172 (28.71%) WAN
6 163 (27.21%) BGP
7 145 (24.21%) CCNP
8 144 (24.04%) SC Cleared
9 128 (21.37%) OSPF
10 126 (21.04%) Network Security
11 125 (20.87%) Palo Alto
12 124 (20.70%) Juniper
13 123 (20.53%) Social Skills
14 122 (20.37%) Python
15 120 (20.03%) Ansible
16 115 (19.20%) Data Centre
17 114 (19.03%) VPN
18 113 (18.86%) LAN
19 92 (15.36%) DNS
20 88 (14.69%) F5
21 84 (14.02%) CheckPoint
22 83 (13.86%) Wireless
22 83 (13.86%) AWS
23 77 (12.85%) Fortinet
23 77 (12.85%) MPLS
24 76 (12.69%) CCNA
24 76 (12.69%) SD-WAN
25 75 (12.52%) SolarWinds
26 71 (11.85%) Migration
27 66 (11.02%) Cisco Nexus

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 9 (1.50%) Confluence
2 4 (0.67%) nginx
3 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.33%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.17%) Apache
5 1 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.17%) IIS
5 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (2.67%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (1.00%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 83 (13.86%) AWS
2 61 (10.18%) Azure
3 10 (1.67%) Akamai
3 10 (1.67%) GCP
4 8 (1.34%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 8 (1.34%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 5 (0.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 5 (0.83%) Amazon S3
5 5 (0.83%) AWS Direct Connect
6 4 (0.67%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (0.50%) Amazon EC2
7 3 (0.50%) Amazon ELB
7 3 (0.50%) GitHub
8 2 (0.33%) AWS Lambda
8 2 (0.33%) Cohesity
8 2 (0.33%) Entra ID
8 2 (0.33%) Nutanix
8 2 (0.33%) OpenShift
8 2 (0.33%) Route 53
8 2 (0.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 302 (50.42%) Firewall
2 172 (28.71%) WAN
3 163 (27.21%) BGP
4 128 (21.37%) OSPF
5 126 (21.04%) Network Security
6 114 (19.03%) VPN
7 113 (18.86%) LAN
8 92 (15.36%) DNS
9 83 (13.86%) Wireless
10 77 (12.85%) MPLS
11 76 (12.69%) SD-WAN
12 66 (11.02%) Cisco Nexus
13 62 (10.35%) Wi-Fi
14 60 (10.02%) Cisco ISE
14 60 (10.02%) IPsec
15 59 (9.85%) TCP/IP
16 51 (8.51%) VLAN
17 46 (7.68%) Cisco Firepower
18 43 (7.18%) Cisco ASA
18 43 (7.18%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
1 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (0.17%) Redis
Development Applications
1 15 (2.50%) JIRA
2 13 (2.17%) Git
3 12 (2.00%) GitLab
3 12 (2.00%) Sonatype Nexus
4 8 (1.34%) Jenkins
5 7 (1.17%) Robot Framework
6 4 (0.67%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.33%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.17%) Mercurial
8 1 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.17%) Subversion
General
1 123 (20.53%) Social Skills
2 62 (10.35%) Finance
3 53 (8.85%) Public Sector
4 47 (7.85%) Telecoms
5 33 (5.51%) Analytical Skills
6 17 (2.84%) Manufacturing
7 16 (2.67%) Banking
8 12 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (1.67%) Legal
10 8 (1.34%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.34%) Law
11 6 (1.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.83%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.83%) Local Government
13 4 (0.67%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.50%) Military
14 3 (0.50%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.33%) Aerospace
15 2 (0.33%) Electronics
15 2 (0.33%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (4.34%) 802.1X
2 11 (1.84%) RFC 2544
3 7 (1.17%) ADO
3 7 (1.17%) NETCONF
3 7 (1.17%) RESTCONF
4 5 (0.83%) Jinja
4 5 (0.83%) REST
5 4 (0.67%) JSON
6 3 (0.50%) SAML
7 2 (0.33%) gRPC
7 2 (0.33%) Middleware
7 2 (0.33%) Node.js
8 1 (0.17%) CSS
8 1 (0.17%) HTML
8 1 (0.17%) Java RMI
8 1 (0.17%) RabbitMQ
8 1 (0.17%) WF
8 1 (0.17%) XML
8 1 (0.17%) YAML
8 1 (0.17%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 115 (19.20%) Data Centre
2 25 (4.17%) PKI
3 24 (4.01%) Onboarding
4 20 (3.34%) Management Information System
5 17 (2.84%) Hedge funds
6 16 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (2.34%) Fibre Optics
8 12 (2.00%) Security Posture
9 9 (1.50%) Driving Licence
9 9 (1.50%) Operational Technology
10 8 (1.34%) Private Cloud
10 8 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (1.17%) Anti-Spyware
11 7 (1.17%) CMDB
11 7 (1.17%) SCADA
12 6 (1.00%) Cloud Native
12 6 (1.00%) Hybrid Cloud
13 4 (0.67%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 4 (0.67%) Life Science
13 4 (0.67%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 37 (6.18%) Windows
2 33 (5.51%) Linux
3 16 (2.67%) Windows Server
4 14 (2.34%) Unix
5 3 (0.50%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.33%) Amazon Linux
6 2 (0.33%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.17%) Android
7 1 (0.17%) CatOS
7 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.17%) Solaris
7 1 (0.17%) VMS
7 1 (0.17%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.17%) Windows 8
7 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (11.85%) Migration
2 61 (10.18%) Load Balancing
3 60 (10.02%) Network Monitoring
4 58 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
5 57 (9.52%) Network Design
6 43 (7.18%) ITIL
7 40 (6.68%) Network Architecture
8 39 (6.51%) High Availability
9 38 (6.34%) DevOps
10 35 (5.84%) Agile
10 35 (5.84%) Service Management
11 32 (5.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 32 (5.34%) Network Management
12 27 (4.51%) Infrastructure as Code
13 26 (4.34%) Validation
14 24 (4.01%) Network Segmentation
15 23 (3.84%) Kalman Filter
16 22 (3.67%) Change Management
16 22 (3.67%) Project Delivery
17 21 (3.51%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 122 (20.37%) Python
2 23 (3.84%) Bash
3 14 (2.34%) Perl
4 10 (1.67%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.17%) C++
5 7 (1.17%) Java
6 5 (0.83%) VB
7 2 (0.33%) Go
7 2 (0.33%) SQL
8 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.17%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.17%) Lisp
8 1 (0.17%) PHP
Qualifications
1 201 (33.56%) Cisco Certification
2 194 (32.39%) Security Cleared
3 145 (24.21%) CCNP
4 144 (24.04%) SC Cleared
5 76 (12.69%) CCNA
6 47 (7.85%) Degree
7 43 (7.18%) DV Cleared
8 23 (3.84%) CCIE
9 18 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
10 16 (2.67%) JNCIA
11 10 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
12 9 (1.50%) JNCIS
13 5 (0.83%) CCDP
13 5 (0.83%) CCSA
13 5 (0.83%) ISEB
13 5 (0.83%) ISTQB
13 5 (0.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 5 (0.83%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.67%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (1.84%) SLA
2 7 (1.17%) QA
3 6 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (0.67%) GDPR
4 4 (0.67%) NIST
4 4 (0.67%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.50%) GRC
6 2 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 2 (0.33%) NCSC
6 2 (0.33%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.17%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.17%) Def Stans
System Software
1 22 (3.67%) Active Directory
2 19 (3.17%) Firmware
3 17 (2.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (2.84%) VMware NSX
4 12 (2.00%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (1.50%) Docker
6 6 (1.00%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.50%) Ceph
9 2 (0.33%) KVM
10 1 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.17%) iptables
10 1 (0.17%) RACF
10 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 120 (20.03%) Ansible
2 46 (7.68%) FortiGate
3 45 (7.51%) Terraform
4 13 (2.17%) vCenter Server
5 10 (1.67%) Cisco Prime
6 8 (1.34%) Kubernetes
7 6 (1.00%) Nagios
8 5 (0.83%) Cisco CUCM
8 5 (0.83%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.50%) CASB
9 3 (0.50%) OpenView
9 3 (0.50%) SCCM
9 3 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.33%) CA Spectrum
10 2 (0.33%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.33%) Icinga
10 2 (0.33%) Kibana
10 2 (0.33%) Packer
10 2 (0.33%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.33%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 390 (65.11%) Cisco
2 125 (20.87%) Palo Alto
3 124 (20.70%) Juniper
4 88 (14.69%) F5
5 84 (14.02%) CheckPoint
6 77 (12.85%) Fortinet
7 75 (12.52%) SolarWinds
8 59 (9.85%) Arista
9 53 (8.85%) Microsoft
10 48 (8.01%) Meraki
11 33 (5.51%) Aruba
12 32 (5.34%) VMware
13 27 (4.51%) Zscaler
14 22 (3.67%) ServiceNow
15 19 (3.17%) Infoblox
16 13 (2.17%) Blue Coat
17 12 (2.00%) HP
18 9 (1.50%) LogicMonitor
18 9 (1.50%) Nokia
18 9 (1.50%) Splunk