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 17 February 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 107 89
Rank change year-on-year -58 -18 +71
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 667 737 1,057
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.66% 2.42% 2.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.81% 2.60% 2.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 445 428 615
10th Percentile £296 £313 £300
25th Percentile £400 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £477 £460
Median % change year-on-year -0.47% +3.75% -1.08%
75th Percentile £525 £575 £540
90th Percentile £585 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £468 £450
% change year-on-year +1.50% +3.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 8 42
10th Percentile £21.98 £19.55 £24.28
25th Percentile £33.00 - £38.22
Median hourly rate £52.58 £20.00 £64.49
Median % change year-on-year +162.90% -68.99% +4.02%
75th Percentile £72.13 £24.92 £73.75
90th Percentile £74.09 £40.85 £76.25
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 36,852 28,308 41,589
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.64% 92.93% 93.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,166 17,490 27,344
10th Percentile £304 £288 £275
25th Percentile £406 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +0.53% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,249 802 2,323
10th Percentile £14.59 £16.25 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.30
Median hourly rate £30.00 £34.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% -2.86% -6.67%
75th Percentile £61.57 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -8.92% -7.14% -

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 17 February 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 17 February 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 17 February 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 -62 557 £475 -5.00% 256
UK excluding London -53 417 £475 +1.50% 243
Work from Home -35 205 £425 -10.95% 85
London -59 180 £500 - 81
South East +4 144 £500 - 80
North of England -66 130 £481 - 43
North West -30 111 £481 -1.79% 30
Midlands -18 73 £438 -2.78% 32
West Midlands -1 68 £400 -9.35% 22
Scotland +4 41 £418 +0.60% 29
East of England -20 27 £363 +31.82% 21
South West -61 21 £500 +5.82% 30
Yorkshire -66 19 £500 +53.85% 10
Wales -9 15 £550 +62.96% 9
East Midlands -36 3 £575 +27.78% 10
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 - 3
North East -13 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 17 February 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.

1 383 (57.42%) Cisco
2 321 (48.13%) Firewall
3 239 (35.83%) Security Cleared
4 183 (27.44%) Cisco Certification
4 183 (27.44%) WAN
5 172 (25.79%) SC Cleared
6 169 (25.34%) Palo Alto
7 164 (24.59%) LAN
8 159 (23.84%) BGP
8 159 (23.84%) CCNP
9 145 (21.74%) Network Security
10 141 (21.14%) VPN
11 120 (17.99%) DNS
12 116 (17.39%) F5
13 112 (16.79%) OSPF
14 106 (15.89%) Juniper
15 100 (14.99%) TCP/IP
16 95 (14.24%) Load Balancing
17 94 (14.09%) Python
18 88 (13.19%) VLAN
19 82 (12.29%) Ansible
20 81 (12.14%) CCNA
21 79 (11.84%) Problem-Solving
22 73 (10.94%) CheckPoint
23 72 (10.79%) VMware
24 71 (10.64%) Wireless
25 70 (10.49%) DV Cleared
26 69 (10.34%) MPLS
26 69 (10.34%) SolarWinds
27 67 (10.04%) Wi-Fi

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 (1.50%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.20%) Confluence
3 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.75%) Apache
4 5 (0.75%) IIS
Applications
1 20 (3.00%) MS Visio
2 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.45%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 66 (9.90%) Azure
2 64 (9.60%) AWS
3 29 (4.35%) GCP
4 13 (1.95%) Entra ID
4 13 (1.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 10 (1.50%) Microsoft 365
6 8 (1.20%) GitHub
7 7 (1.05%) Nutanix
8 6 (0.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 5 (0.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 5 (0.75%) Amazon EC2
9 5 (0.75%) Amazon ELB
9 5 (0.75%) Amazon S3
9 5 (0.75%) IaaS
9 5 (0.75%) Mimecast
9 5 (0.75%) SaaS
10 4 (0.60%) AWS Direct Connect
10 4 (0.60%) Cohesity
10 4 (0.60%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 4 (0.60%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 321 (48.13%) Firewall
2 183 (27.44%) WAN
3 164 (24.59%) LAN
4 159 (23.84%) BGP
5 145 (21.74%) Network Security
6 141 (21.14%) VPN
7 120 (17.99%) DNS
8 112 (16.79%) OSPF
9 100 (14.99%) TCP/IP
10 88 (13.19%) VLAN
11 71 (10.64%) Wireless
12 69 (10.34%) MPLS
13 67 (10.04%) Wi-Fi
14 65 (9.75%) Cisco ISE
15 61 (9.15%) SSL
16 59 (8.85%) Cisco Nexus
17 58 (8.70%) SD-WAN
18 50 (7.50%) IPsec
19 47 (7.05%) Wireshark
20 45 (6.75%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.45%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.15%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 29 (4.35%) Fiddler
2 18 (2.70%) Git
3 14 (2.10%) JIRA
4 12 (1.80%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (1.65%) Jenkins
6 10 (1.50%) GitLab
7 1 (0.15%) ClearCase
7 1 (0.15%) Jaeger
7 1 (0.15%) Robot Framework
General
1 130 (19.49%) Social Skills
2 53 (7.95%) Public Sector
3 40 (6.00%) Banking
3 40 (6.00%) Documentation Skills
3 40 (6.00%) Finance
4 35 (5.25%) Telecoms
5 34 (5.10%) Investment Banking
6 33 (4.95%) Analytical Skills
7 22 (3.30%) Manufacturing
8 17 (2.55%) Legal
9 8 (1.20%) Local Government
10 6 (0.90%) Law
10 6 (0.90%) Military
11 5 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.75%) Retail
12 4 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.45%) Electronics
13 3 (0.45%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.45%) Marketing
13 3 (0.45%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.50%) 802.1X
2 9 (1.35%) SAML
3 8 (1.20%) LDAP
4 5 (0.75%) RFC 2544
5 4 (0.60%) JSON
5 4 (0.60%) Middleware
5 4 (0.60%) VML
6 3 (0.45%) CSS
6 3 (0.45%) HTML
6 3 (0.45%) YANG
7 2 (0.30%) Django
7 2 (0.30%) NETCONF
7 2 (0.30%) REST
7 2 (0.30%) XML
8 1 (0.15%) ARM Templates
8 1 (0.15%) FIX Protocol
8 1 (0.15%) gRPC
8 1 (0.15%) Loki
8 1 (0.15%) OpenTelemetry
8 1 (0.15%) Ultra Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 151 (22.64%) Data Centre
2 23 (3.45%) Data Protection Act
2 23 (3.45%) Management Information System
3 19 (2.85%) Operational Technology
3 19 (2.85%) PKI
4 18 (2.70%) Onboarding
5 14 (2.10%) Security Posture
6 12 (1.80%) NHS
7 11 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
7 11 (1.65%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (1.20%) Hedge funds
8 8 (1.20%) Public Cloud
9 7 (1.05%) Clustering
9 7 (1.05%) Fibre Optics
10 5 (0.75%) Driving Licence
10 5 (0.75%) IoT
10 5 (0.75%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.60%) CMDB
11 4 (0.60%) Mainframe
12 3 (0.45%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 56 (8.40%) Windows
2 32 (4.80%) Linux
3 30 (4.50%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.60%) CatOS
4 4 (0.60%) Unix
5 3 (0.45%) zOS
6 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (14.24%) Load Balancing
2 79 (11.84%) Problem-Solving
3 60 (9.00%) Network Design
4 53 (7.95%) Migration
5 51 (7.65%) High Availability
5 51 (7.65%) Network Monitoring
6 43 (6.45%) Project Delivery
7 42 (6.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 37 (5.55%) Network Architecture
9 34 (5.10%) ITSM
10 33 (4.95%) Change Management
10 33 (4.95%) Network Management
11 32 (4.80%) Stakeholder Management
12 31 (4.65%) DevOps
13 29 (4.35%) Cybersecurity
14 27 (4.05%) Collaborative Working
14 27 (4.05%) ITIL
14 27 (4.05%) Service Management
15 26 (3.90%) Data Loss Prevention
15 26 (3.90%) Malware Detection/Protection
Programming Languages
1 94 (14.09%) Python
2 25 (3.75%) Bash
3 13 (1.95%) PowerShell
4 12 (1.80%) Perl
5 8 (1.20%) Lisp
6 5 (0.75%) C++
6 5 (0.75%) SQL
7 3 (0.45%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.30%) Java
9 1 (0.15%) ActionScript
9 1 (0.15%) Bicep
9 1 (0.15%) C
9 1 (0.15%) Go
9 1 (0.15%) Korn
9 1 (0.15%) PHP
9 1 (0.15%) Ruby
9 1 (0.15%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 239 (35.83%) Security Cleared
2 183 (27.44%) Cisco Certification
3 172 (25.79%) SC Cleared
4 159 (23.84%) CCNP
5 81 (12.14%) CCNA
6 70 (10.49%) DV Cleared
7 28 (4.20%) JNCIS
8 27 (4.05%) CCIE
9 25 (3.75%) Degree
10 22 (3.30%) JNCIA
11 17 (2.55%) JNCIP
12 10 (1.50%) Network+ Certification
13 6 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (0.75%) CISSP
15 4 (0.60%) DBS Check
16 3 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
16 3 (0.45%) CCDP
16 3 (0.45%) CompTIA Security+
16 3 (0.45%) GIAC
16 3 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 10 (1.50%) NIST
2 7 (1.05%) PCI DSS
3 6 (0.90%) GDPR
3 6 (0.90%) SLA
4 3 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (0.45%) GRC
4 3 (0.45%) QA
5 2 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.30%) NCSC
5 2 (0.30%) PMO
6 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 1 (0.15%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
System Software
1 50 (7.50%) VMware NSX
2 43 (6.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (5.85%) Active Directory
4 29 (4.35%) Firmware
5 11 (1.65%) Hyper-V
6 10 (1.50%) Docker
7 5 (0.75%) ProxySG
7 5 (0.75%) vSphere
8 4 (0.60%) KVM
9 3 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.30%) vCloud
10 2 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.15%) Citrix Presentation Server
11 1 (0.15%) RACF
11 1 (0.15%) RHEV
11 1 (0.15%) Xen
Systems Management
1 82 (12.29%) Ansible
2 49 (7.35%) FortiGate
3 35 (5.25%) Terraform
4 22 (3.30%) vCenter Server
5 10 (1.50%) Grafana
5 10 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (1.35%) Prometheus
7 7 (1.05%) Cisco Prime
8 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (0.90%) Nagios
9 5 (0.75%) Kubernetes
10 4 (0.60%) CASB
10 4 (0.60%) Tivoli NetView
11 3 (0.45%) Dell DRAC
11 3 (0.45%) SCCM
11 3 (0.45%) SCOrch
12 2 (0.30%) Salt
12 2 (0.30%) WSUS
13 1 (0.15%) ITRS Geneos
13 1 (0.15%) OMEGAMON
Vendors
1 383 (57.42%) Cisco
2 169 (25.34%) Palo Alto
3 116 (17.39%) F5
4 106 (15.89%) Juniper
5 73 (10.94%) CheckPoint
6 72 (10.79%) VMware
7 69 (10.34%) SolarWinds
8 63 (9.45%) Aruba
8 63 (9.45%) Fortinet
9 53 (7.95%) Meraki
10 46 (6.90%) Blue Coat
11 40 (6.00%) McAfee
12 37 (5.55%) Microsoft
13 33 (4.95%) Arista
14 22 (3.30%) NetApp
15 19 (2.85%) ServiceNow
15 19 (2.85%) Splunk
16 18 (2.70%) Nokia
17 16 (2.40%) Zscaler
18 12 (1.80%) Ekahau