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 13 August 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 132 97
Rank change year-on-year 0 -35 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,080 692 915
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.02% 2.10% 2.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.19% 2.30% 2.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 672 443 568
10th Percentile £313 £325 £300
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 £612 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -0.07% - +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 12 14
10th Percentile £31.18 £22.08 £17.89
25th Percentile £65.94 £30.00 £21.16
Median hourly rate £77.50 £53.75 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year +44.19% - -11.89%
75th Percentile £91.00 £70.63 £75.00
90th Percentile £92.53 £82.33 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £38.25 £52.50
% change year-on-year +102.61% -27.14% -15.32%

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 49,387 30,089 36,178
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.36% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,655 19,063 23,293
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £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 £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,474 1,522 2,032
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.18
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.26 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.31 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.21% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.11 £45.00
% change year-on-year +73.66% -44.20% +25.00%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -12 885 £475 -2.96% 436
UK excluding London -12 635 £475 -0.07% 323
London -36 308 £490 +1.55% 184
North of England +2 234 £500 +2.15% 81
Work from Home -25 227 £463 - 96
North West +15 167 £500 +5.26% 42
South East -27 142 £466 -6.75% 63
Midlands -11 106 £475 +18.75% 51
West Midlands -1 99 £475 +33.80% 23
Scotland +30 81 £400 -11.11% 27
South West -25 55 £550 - 46
Yorkshire -28 54 £463 -6.00% 29
East of England -6 42 £470 +17.50% 35
Wales +2 23 £425 -3.41% 19
North East -33 13 £600 +29.73% 11
East Midlands -23 5 £475 -15.56% 28
Northern Ireland +5 1 £550 -4.35% 7

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

For the 6 months to 13 August 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.

1 583 (53.98%) Cisco
2 461 (42.69%) Firewall
3 304 (28.15%) WAN
4 260 (24.07%) BGP
4 260 (24.07%) Security Cleared
5 245 (22.69%) LAN
6 242 (22.41%) VPN
7 240 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
7 240 (22.22%) Network Security
8 222 (20.56%) Palo Alto
9 195 (18.06%) Wireless
10 186 (17.22%) F5
11 184 (17.04%) DNS
12 178 (16.48%) CCNP
13 172 (15.93%) OSPF
14 165 (15.28%) SC Cleared
15 160 (14.81%) Fortinet
16 147 (13.61%) VLAN
17 146 (13.52%) Load Balancing
18 145 (13.43%) Azure
19 130 (12.04%) Migration
20 119 (11.02%) Python
21 117 (10.83%) Juniper
21 117 (10.83%) SD-WAN
22 109 (10.09%) TCP/IP
23 107 (9.91%) Wi-Fi
24 101 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
25 98 (9.07%) High Availability
26 96 (8.89%) CCNA
26 96 (8.89%) VMware

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 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (0.46%) Confluence
3 4 (0.37%) SAS
3 4 (0.37%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.093%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.093%) CMS
4 1 (0.093%) FactoryTalk
4 1 (0.093%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.093%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (1.48%) MS Visio
2 12 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 145 (13.43%) Azure
2 85 (7.87%) AWS
3 52 (4.81%) GCP
4 41 (3.80%) GitHub
5 23 (2.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 15 (1.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (1.30%) Microsoft 365
8 13 (1.20%) Entra ID
9 12 (1.11%) AWS Direct Connect
9 12 (1.11%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 11 (1.02%) AWS CloudFormation
11 10 (0.93%) IaaS
12 9 (0.83%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (0.65%) Nutanix
14 6 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (0.56%) Cloudflare
14 6 (0.56%) Google Compute Engine
14 6 (0.56%) OCI
15 5 (0.46%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 461 (42.69%) Firewall
2 304 (28.15%) WAN
3 260 (24.07%) BGP
4 245 (22.69%) LAN
5 242 (22.41%) VPN
6 240 (22.22%) Network Security
7 195 (18.06%) Wireless
8 184 (17.04%) DNS
9 172 (15.93%) OSPF
10 147 (13.61%) VLAN
11 117 (10.83%) SD-WAN
12 109 (10.09%) TCP/IP
13 107 (9.91%) Wi-Fi
14 79 (7.31%) Cisco ISE
15 77 (7.13%) DHCP
16 74 (6.85%) Cisco Nexus
16 74 (6.85%) Multicast
17 73 (6.76%) MPLS
18 65 (6.02%) Cisco ASA
18 65 (6.02%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.28%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.19%) GIS
3 1 (0.093%) ClickHouse
3 1 (0.093%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.093%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 33 (3.06%) Jenkins
2 27 (2.50%) Git
3 24 (2.22%) JIRA
4 16 (1.48%) Fiddler
5 13 (1.20%) GitLab
6 7 (0.65%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.19%) Browser DevTools
General
1 141 (13.06%) Social Skills
2 73 (6.76%) Finance
3 60 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (5.46%) Banking
5 54 (5.00%) Public Sector
6 52 (4.81%) Telecoms
7 35 (3.24%) Investment Banking
8 31 (2.87%) Documentation Skills
9 24 (2.22%) Legal
10 22 (2.04%) Retail
11 18 (1.67%) Manufacturing
12 9 (0.83%) Aerospace
12 9 (0.83%) Financial Institution
12 9 (0.83%) Police
13 7 (0.65%) Law
13 7 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
14 6 (0.56%) Military
15 5 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
16 4 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 4 (0.37%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (5.09%) 802.1X
2 12 (1.11%) REST
3 10 (0.93%) SAML
4 8 (0.74%) NETCONF
5 3 (0.28%) Java RMI
5 3 (0.28%) LDAP
6 2 (0.19%) eBPF
6 2 (0.19%) Jinja
6 2 (0.19%) JSON
6 2 (0.19%) YAML
7 1 (0.093%) AWS CDK
7 1 (0.093%) ModSecurity
7 1 (0.093%) OpenTelemetry
7 1 (0.093%) RESTCONF
7 1 (0.093%) XML
7 1 (0.093%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 184 (17.04%) Data Centre
2 40 (3.70%) Hybrid Cloud
3 31 (2.87%) PKI
4 24 (2.22%) Cloud Native
5 21 (1.94%) Management Information System
6 19 (1.76%) Driving Licence
7 17 (1.57%) Onboarding
8 16 (1.48%) Operational Technology
8 16 (1.48%) Security Posture
9 14 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (0.93%) Linux Command Line
11 9 (0.83%) Clustering
11 9 (0.83%) IoT
11 9 (0.83%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (0.74%) CCTV
12 8 (0.74%) Public Cloud
13 7 (0.65%) Distributed Systems
13 7 (0.65%) Enterprise Cloud
13 7 (0.65%) NHS
14 6 (0.56%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 71 (6.57%) Windows
2 47 (4.35%) Linux
3 13 (1.20%) Windows Server
4 6 (0.56%) VMS
5 5 (0.46%) Ubuntu
5 5 (0.46%) Unix
5 5 (0.46%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.093%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.093%) Solaris
9 1 (0.093%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.093%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.093%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.093%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (13.52%) Load Balancing
2 130 (12.04%) Migration
3 101 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
4 98 (9.07%) High Availability
5 90 (8.33%) Project Delivery
6 80 (7.41%) ITIL
7 72 (6.67%) Network Design
8 71 (6.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 69 (6.39%) Change Management
10 67 (6.20%) Infrastructure as Code
11 64 (5.93%) Validation
12 63 (5.83%) Network Monitoring
13 46 (4.26%) Technical Leadership
14 45 (4.17%) Continuous Improvement
14 45 (4.17%) Zero Trust
15 43 (3.98%) CI/CD
15 43 (3.98%) DevOps
16 37 (3.43%) ITSM
16 37 (3.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 36 (3.33%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 119 (11.02%) Python
2 21 (1.94%) Bash
3 13 (1.20%) PowerShell
4 9 (0.83%) ActionScript
4 9 (0.83%) SQL
5 5 (0.46%) C++
6 3 (0.28%) C
6 3 (0.28%) Java
7 2 (0.19%) Bicep
7 2 (0.19%) Groovy
7 2 (0.19%) Perl
8 1 (0.093%) Go
8 1 (0.093%) Lisp
8 1 (0.093%) Search Processing Language
8 1 (0.093%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 260 (24.07%) Security Cleared
2 240 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
3 178 (16.48%) CCNP
4 165 (15.28%) SC Cleared
5 96 (8.89%) CCNA
6 91 (8.43%) DV Cleared
7 45 (4.17%) CCIE
8 37 (3.43%) Degree
9 19 (1.76%) JNCIS
10 16 (1.48%) JNCIP
11 13 (1.20%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (1.11%) JNCIA
13 10 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (0.74%) CCSE
14 8 (0.74%) CISSP
15 6 (0.56%) Azure Certification
15 6 (0.56%) DBS Check
16 5 (0.46%) CCIE Wireless
16 5 (0.46%) CCSM
16 5 (0.46%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (2.22%) SLA
2 11 (1.02%) QA
3 9 (0.83%) NIST
4 8 (0.74%) Disclosure Scotland
5 5 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.19%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.19%) GDPR
6 2 (0.19%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.19%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.093%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.093%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.093%) GRC
7 1 (0.093%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 1 (0.093%) NIST 800
System Software
1 74 (6.85%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (2.96%) Firmware
3 30 (2.78%) Active Directory
4 29 (2.69%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (1.20%) vSphere
7 7 (0.65%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.37%) Docker
9 4 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
10 3 (0.28%) FreeRADIUS
11 2 (0.19%) Squid
12 1 (0.093%) Citrix Presentation Server
12 1 (0.093%) IAG
12 1 (0.093%) iptables
12 1 (0.093%) Snort
12 1 (0.093%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 95 (8.80%) Terraform
2 87 (8.06%) Ansible
3 83 (7.69%) FortiGate
4 19 (1.76%) Kubernetes
5 15 (1.39%) Cisco Prime
6 7 (0.65%) Grafana
7 6 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
7 6 (0.56%) Nagios
7 6 (0.56%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.46%) Istio
8 5 (0.46%) Puppet
8 5 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.37%) Packer
9 4 (0.37%) systemd
10 3 (0.28%) TrustSec
11 2 (0.19%) SCCM
11 2 (0.19%) SCOM
11 2 (0.19%) SolarWinds Orion
11 2 (0.19%) WSUS
Vendors
1 583 (53.98%) Cisco
2 222 (20.56%) Palo Alto
3 186 (17.22%) F5
4 160 (14.81%) Fortinet
5 117 (10.83%) Juniper
6 96 (8.89%) VMware
7 78 (7.22%) CheckPoint
8 68 (6.30%) Arista
9 66 (6.11%) Aruba
10 56 (5.19%) Microsoft
11 52 (4.81%) Meraki
12 45 (4.17%) Zscaler
13 44 (4.07%) SolarWinds
14 37 (3.43%) Google
15 31 (2.87%) Infoblox
16 26 (2.41%) Blue Coat
17 25 (2.31%) ServiceNow
18 20 (1.85%) McAfee
18 20 (1.85%) NetApp
18 20 (1.85%) Nokia