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 29 September 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 168 94
Rank change year-on-year +36 -74 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,131 579 943
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.07% 1.78% 2.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.25% 1.95% 2.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 657 381 543
10th Percentile £306 £313 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year - -4.04% +10.00%
75th Percentile £540 £563 £588
90th Percentile £620 £638 £649
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £466 £475
% change year-on-year -0.54% -2.00% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 12 20
10th Percentile £8.00 £22.08 £19.85
25th Percentile £56.56 £30.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £73.00 £34.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.59% -23.33% -27.42%
75th Percentile £78.75 £60.88 £67.50
90th Percentile £92.53 £81.43 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £38.25 £35.48
% change year-on-year +90.85% +7.81% -46.23%

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 50,372 29,667 35,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 91.00% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,736 18,751 21,351
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,923 1,598 1,565
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.61 £74.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.69% -2.82%

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 29 September 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 29 September 2026.

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 29 September 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 +14 920 £475 -0.26% 672
UK excluding London +8 655 £463 -0.54% 453
London +18 342 £475 -2.06% 241
North of England +19 248 £498 +2.10% 106
Work from Home -20 225 £474 +5.33% 242
North West +26 167 £500 +4.99% 60
Midlands -7 108 £475 +18.75% 79
South East -58 96 £463 -7.50% 85
West Midlands -16 88 £475 +23.38% 51
Scotland +8 82 £400 -5.88% 28
Yorkshire -7 68 £450 -8.07% 31
East of England +3 60 £420 +9.80% 64
South West -9 60 £550 -11.29% 64
Wales +18 36 £363 - 18
East Midlands -4 19 £500 -23.08% 28
North East -30 13 £600 - 15
Northern Ireland +1 3 £425 -10.53% 12
Channel Islands -2 2 £600 +36.36% 2

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

For the 6 months to 29 September 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.

1 609 (53.85%) Cisco
2 441 (38.99%) Firewall
3 303 (26.79%) WAN
4 253 (22.37%) BGP
5 250 (22.10%) Security Cleared
6 249 (22.02%) Network Security
7 239 (21.13%) LAN
8 233 (20.60%) VPN
9 228 (20.16%) Cisco Certification
10 220 (19.45%) Palo Alto
11 214 (18.92%) Wireless
12 178 (15.74%) CCNP
13 165 (14.59%) DNS
14 164 (14.50%) OSPF
14 164 (14.50%) SC Cleared
15 155 (13.70%) Fortinet
16 150 (13.26%) Python
17 148 (13.09%) VLAN
18 147 (13.00%) F5
19 134 (11.85%) Migration
20 130 (11.49%) Azure
21 125 (11.05%) Load Balancing
22 115 (10.17%) Problem-Solving
23 114 (10.08%) Wi-Fi
24 113 (9.99%) SD-WAN
25 110 (9.73%) TCP/IP
26 103 (9.11%) Ansible
27 96 (8.49%) Project Delivery
28 94 (8.31%) Terraform
29 90 (7.96%) 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 10 (0.88%) Confluence
2 8 (0.71%) SAS
3 6 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.53%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.18%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.088%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.088%) CMS
5 1 (0.088%) FactoryTalk
5 1 (0.088%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (1.24%) MS Visio
2 11 (0.97%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.088%) SAP MDG
1 1 (0.088%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 130 (11.49%) Azure
2 84 (7.43%) AWS
3 42 (3.71%) GCP
4 37 (3.27%) GitHub
5 26 (2.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 17 (1.50%) Microsoft 365
7 16 (1.41%) AWS Direct Connect
7 16 (1.41%) Entra ID
8 12 (1.06%) IaaS
9 11 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
10 8 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (0.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 6 (0.53%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (0.53%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 6 (0.53%) Nutanix
11 6 (0.53%) OCI
12 5 (0.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 5 (0.44%) AWS Lambda
12 5 (0.44%) Datadog
12 5 (0.44%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 441 (38.99%) Firewall
2 303 (26.79%) WAN
3 253 (22.37%) BGP
4 249 (22.02%) Network Security
5 239 (21.13%) LAN
6 233 (20.60%) VPN
7 214 (18.92%) Wireless
8 165 (14.59%) DNS
9 164 (14.50%) OSPF
10 148 (13.09%) VLAN
11 114 (10.08%) Wi-Fi
12 113 (9.99%) SD-WAN
13 110 (9.73%) TCP/IP
14 85 (7.52%) MPLS
15 75 (6.63%) DHCP
16 74 (6.54%) Multicast
17 73 (6.45%) Cisco ISE
18 71 (6.28%) Cisco Nexus
19 66 (5.84%) Cisco ASA
20 57 (5.04%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.53%) GIS
2 3 (0.27%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.088%) BigQuery
3 1 (0.088%) ClickHouse
3 1 (0.088%) Metadata
3 1 (0.088%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 37 (3.27%) Git
2 26 (2.30%) JIRA
3 24 (2.12%) Jenkins
4 13 (1.15%) GitLab
5 12 (1.06%) Fiddler
6 7 (0.62%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.18%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.088%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.088%) Browser DevTools
8 1 (0.088%) Postman
General
1 136 (12.02%) Social Skills
2 94 (8.31%) Finance
3 70 (6.19%) Telecoms
4 69 (6.10%) Analytical Skills
5 65 (5.75%) Banking
6 51 (4.51%) Public Sector
7 31 (2.74%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (1.95%) Legal
10 19 (1.68%) Retail
11 17 (1.50%) Manufacturing
12 9 (0.80%) Aerospace
12 9 (0.80%) Financial Institution
13 8 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
14 7 (0.62%) Police
15 6 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 5 (0.44%) Organisational Skills
17 4 (0.35%) Automotive
17 4 (0.35%) Local Government
17 4 (0.35%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (8.31%) Terraform
2 44 (3.89%) 802.1X
3 23 (2.03%) REST
4 13 (1.15%) NETCONF
5 11 (0.97%) JSON
6 10 (0.88%) YAML
7 7 (0.62%) SAML
8 5 (0.44%) XML
9 4 (0.35%) YANG
10 3 (0.27%) Java RMI
11 2 (0.18%) eBPF
11 2 (0.18%) Jinja
11 2 (0.18%) LDAP
11 2 (0.18%) ModSecurity
11 2 (0.18%) RESTCONF
11 2 (0.18%) RFC 2544
12 1 (0.088%) BAPI
12 1 (0.088%) Middleware
12 1 (0.088%) SAP ALE
12 1 (0.088%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 199 (17.60%) Data Centre
2 39 (3.45%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (2.39%) PKI
4 26 (2.30%) Onboarding
5 25 (2.21%) Driving Licence
6 23 (2.03%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.03%) Operational Technology
7 19 (1.68%) Management Information System
8 18 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (1.33%) IoT
9 15 (1.33%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.06%) Public Cloud
11 10 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
11 10 (0.88%) SCADA
12 9 (0.80%) Fibre Optics
13 8 (0.71%) Digital Signage
14 7 (0.62%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 7 (0.62%) Distributed Systems
14 7 (0.62%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 72 (6.37%) Windows
2 57 (5.04%) Linux
3 19 (1.68%) Windows Server
4 11 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.44%) Ubuntu
5 5 (0.44%) VMS
5 5 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
5 5 (0.44%) zOS
6 4 (0.35%) Unix
7 3 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.088%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.088%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.088%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (11.85%) Migration
2 125 (11.05%) Load Balancing
3 115 (10.17%) Problem-Solving
4 96 (8.49%) Project Delivery
5 86 (7.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 80 (7.07%) Network Design
7 78 (6.90%) Infrastructure as Code
8 77 (6.81%) Validation
9 73 (6.45%) High Availability
10 70 (6.19%) ITIL
11 62 (5.48%) Zero Trust
12 59 (5.22%) Change Management
13 55 (4.86%) Network Monitoring
14 53 (4.69%) CI/CD
15 50 (4.42%) Stakeholder Management
16 46 (4.07%) Continuous Improvement
17 44 (3.89%) DevOps
17 44 (3.89%) Network Segmentation
18 43 (3.80%) Technical Leadership
19 37 (3.27%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 150 (13.26%) Python
2 32 (2.83%) Bash
3 27 (2.39%) PowerShell
4 9 (0.80%) ActionScript
5 8 (0.71%) SQL
6 6 (0.53%) C++
7 3 (0.27%) C
7 3 (0.27%) Java
7 3 (0.27%) Perl
8 2 (0.18%) Go
8 2 (0.18%) Groovy
8 2 (0.18%) Search Processing Language
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.088%) Bicep
9 1 (0.088%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 250 (22.10%) Security Cleared
2 228 (20.16%) Cisco Certification
3 178 (15.74%) CCNP
4 164 (14.50%) SC Cleared
5 88 (7.78%) CCNA
6 78 (6.90%) DV Cleared
7 47 (4.16%) CCIE
8 31 (2.74%) Degree
9 15 (1.33%) CISSP
10 10 (0.88%) JNCIS
11 9 (0.80%) JNCIP
11 9 (0.80%) Network+ Certification
12 8 (0.71%) CCSE
13 6 (0.53%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (0.53%) CCIE Security
13 6 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (0.53%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.44%) CCSA
15 4 (0.35%) CWNA
15 4 (0.35%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (2.12%) SLA
2 16 (1.41%) NIST
3 15 (1.33%) QA
4 12 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (0.71%) PCI DSS
6 5 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
7 3 (0.27%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.18%) GDPR
8 2 (0.18%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.18%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.088%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.088%) GRC
9 1 (0.088%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 60 (5.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 37 (3.27%) Active Directory
3 31 (2.74%) Firmware
4 26 (2.30%) VMware NSX
5 17 (1.50%) vSphere
6 9 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (0.71%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.44%) FreeRADIUS
8 5 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.35%) Docker
10 3 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.18%) Squid
12 1 (0.088%) iptables
12 1 (0.088%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 103 (9.11%) Ansible
2 66 (5.84%) FortiGate
3 28 (2.48%) Kubernetes
4 15 (1.33%) Cisco Prime
5 11 (0.97%) Nagios
6 9 (0.80%) Istio
7 7 (0.62%) Grafana
7 7 (0.62%) Progress Chef
8 6 (0.53%) Cisco CUCM
8 6 (0.53%) Puppet
9 5 (0.44%) Cilium
9 5 (0.44%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.35%) Packer
10 4 (0.35%) systemd
10 4 (0.35%) vRealize
11 3 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.27%) TrustSec
12 2 (0.18%) SCCM
12 2 (0.18%) SCOM
Vendors
1 609 (53.85%) Cisco
2 220 (19.45%) Palo Alto
3 155 (13.70%) Fortinet
4 147 (13.00%) F5
5 90 (7.96%) VMware
6 83 (7.34%) Juniper
7 81 (7.16%) Meraki
8 80 (7.07%) CheckPoint
9 77 (6.81%) Arista
10 59 (5.22%) Microsoft
11 57 (5.04%) Aruba
12 52 (4.60%) Zscaler
13 43 (3.80%) SolarWinds
14 27 (2.39%) Nokia
15 24 (2.12%) ServiceNow
16 23 (2.03%) Blue Coat
17 21 (1.86%) Google
18 20 (1.77%) Infoblox
19 17 (1.50%) NetApp
20 15 (1.33%) McAfee