Principal Network Engineer Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Principal Network Engineer
UK > Work from Home

The median Principal Network Engineer daily rate for remote or hybrid work is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 292 - 476
Rank change year-on-year - - +155
Contract jobs requiring a Principal Network Engineer 12 0 1
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.12% - 0.004%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% - 0.004%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 0 1
10th Percentile £478 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 - £629
75th Percentile £532 - -
90th Percentile £538 - -
UK median daily rate £500 - £425
% change year-on-year - - -15.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Work from Home

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies with WFH or hybrid options. 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 Work from Home with a recognized job title 9,288 14,354 24,650
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.77% 93.54% 95.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,350 9,595 17,415
10th Percentile £337 £325 £360
25th Percentile £414 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.69% +2.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £763 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 228 579 565
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.38 £18.50
25th Percentile £18.19 £23.39 £26.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £44.74 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.06% -18.65% +57.14%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Principal Network Engineer
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options which featured Principal Network Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Principal Network Engineer trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

Principal Network Engineer
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing Principal Network Engineer.

Principal Network Engineer daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

Principal Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Job Vacancies with WFH Options

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Principal 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 jobs with a WFH option featuring Principal Network Engineer in the job title.

1 12 (100.00%) Cisco
2 11 (91.67%) Migration
2 11 (91.67%) VPN
2 11 (91.67%) SolarWinds
2 11 (91.67%) Network Monitoring
3 9 (75.00%) MPLS
3 9 (75.00%) Firewall
4 8 (66.67%) OSPF
4 8 (66.67%) BGP
4 8 (66.67%) Broadband
4 8 (66.67%) IPv6
4 8 (66.67%) CCIE
4 8 (66.67%) Cisco Certification
4 8 (66.67%) Multicast
4 8 (66.67%) ZABBIX
5 6 (50.00%) Cisco Firepower
5 6 (50.00%) Project Delivery
6 5 (41.67%) GPON
6 5 (41.67%) CCIE Service Provider
6 5 (41.67%) Nokia
6 5 (41.67%) Network Security
7 4 (33.33%) ITIL
8 3 (25.00%) Cisco ISE
8 3 (25.00%) Network Segmentation
8 3 (25.00%) Cisco ASA
8 3 (25.00%) Nagios
8 3 (25.00%) TACACS
8 3 (25.00%) IPsec
9 2 (16.67%) Network Design
10 1 (8.33%) Degree

Principal Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options 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:

Communications & Networking
1 11 (91.67%) VPN
2 9 (75.00%) Firewall
2 9 (75.00%) MPLS
3 8 (66.67%) BGP
3 8 (66.67%) Broadband
3 8 (66.67%) IPv6
3 8 (66.67%) Multicast
3 8 (66.67%) OSPF
4 6 (50.00%) Cisco Firepower
5 5 (41.67%) GPON
5 5 (41.67%) Network Security
6 3 (25.00%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (25.00%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (25.00%) IPsec
6 3 (25.00%) TACACS
7 1 (8.33%) 4G
7 1 (8.33%) 5G
7 1 (8.33%) Ethernet
7 1 (8.33%) Radio Access Network
7 1 (8.33%) TCP/IP
General
1 1 (8.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 1 (8.33%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 1 (8.33%) Data Centre
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (91.67%) Migration
1 11 (91.67%) Network Monitoring
2 6 (50.00%) Project Delivery
3 4 (33.33%) ITIL
4 3 (25.00%) Network Segmentation
5 2 (16.67%) Network Design
6 1 (8.33%) Collaborative Working
6 1 (8.33%) Network Architecture
Qualifications
1 8 (66.67%) CCIE
1 8 (66.67%) Cisco Certification
2 5 (41.67%) CCIE Service Provider
3 1 (8.33%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (8.33%) SLA
Systems Management
1 8 (66.67%) ZABBIX
2 3 (25.00%) Nagios
Vendors
1 12 (100.00%) Cisco
2 11 (91.67%) SolarWinds
3 5 (41.67%) Nokia