Network Engineer Job Trends in Manchester

Network Engineer
North West > Manchester

The median Network Engineer salary in Manchester is £67,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 2 April 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 130 119
Rank change year-on-year +5 -11 +65
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 29 11 85
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 0.66% 0.54% 1.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.72% 0.58% 1.94%
Number of salaries quoted 23 9 77
10th Percentile £50,000 £37,100 £31,250
25th Percentile £53,125 £40,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £55,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +22.73% +37.50% -20.00%
75th Percentile £78,750 £58,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £61,250 £61,000
North West median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +23.53% -9.57%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Manchester

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in Manchester. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in Manchester with a recognized job title 4,006 1,907 4,375
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.70% 94.22% 95.03%
Number of salaries quoted 2,858 1,266 3,573
10th Percentile £30,000 £33,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £40,988
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £88,250 £82,500
North West median annual salary £50,000 £54,897 £50,000
% change year-on-year -8.92% +9.79% -9.09%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Network Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in Manchester

Network Engineer
Salary Trend in Manchester

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in Manchester.

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in Manchester

Network Engineer
Salary Histogram in Manchester

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in Manchester over the 6 months to 2 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in Manchester

Network Engineer
Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 2 April 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Salford - 2 £50,000 - 3
Network Engineer
North West

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

For the 6 months to 2 April 2026, Network Engineer 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 permanent job ads across the Manchester region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 16 (55.17%) Cisco
2 13 (44.83%) WAN
3 12 (41.38%) LAN
4 11 (37.93%) SD-WAN
5 10 (34.48%) Wireless
6 9 (31.03%) Firewall
7 8 (27.59%) Cisco ISE
7 8 (27.59%) VPN
8 7 (24.14%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (13.79%) CCNA
9 4 (13.79%) CCNP
9 4 (13.79%) Fortinet
9 4 (13.79%) Network Architecture
9 4 (13.79%) Network Security
10 3 (10.34%) Azure
10 3 (10.34%) CI/CD
10 3 (10.34%) Cisco Firepower
10 3 (10.34%) GCP
10 3 (10.34%) Infrastructure as Code
10 3 (10.34%) ITIL
10 3 (10.34%) Microsoft
10 3 (10.34%) Migration
10 3 (10.34%) Python
10 3 (10.34%) Terraform
10 3 (10.34%) VLAN
11 2 (6.90%) Aruba
11 2 (6.90%) Azure Certification
11 2 (6.90%) BGP
11 2 (6.90%) CheckPoint
11 2 (6.90%) ForeScout

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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:

Cloud Services
1 3 (10.34%) Azure
1 3 (10.34%) GCP
2 2 (6.90%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 13 (44.83%) WAN
2 12 (41.38%) LAN
3 11 (37.93%) SD-WAN
4 10 (34.48%) Wireless
5 9 (31.03%) Firewall
6 8 (27.59%) Cisco ISE
6 8 (27.59%) VPN
7 4 (13.79%) Network Security
8 3 (10.34%) Cisco Firepower
8 3 (10.34%) VLAN
9 2 (6.90%) BGP
9 2 (6.90%) MPLS
9 2 (6.90%) NGN
9 2 (6.90%) OSPF
9 2 (6.90%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (6.90%) WLAN
10 1 (3.45%) Broadband
10 1 (3.45%) DHCP
10 1 (3.45%) DNS
10 1 (3.45%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 2 (6.90%) Jenkins
General
1 3 (10.34%) Law
2 2 (6.90%) Public Sector
2 2 (6.90%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.45%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 2 (6.90%) Data Centre
2 1 (3.45%) Enterprise Cloud
2 1 (3.45%) Public Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (13.79%) Network Architecture
2 3 (10.34%) CI/CD
2 3 (10.34%) Infrastructure as Code
2 3 (10.34%) ITIL
2 3 (10.34%) Migration
3 2 (6.90%) Infrastructure Automation
3 2 (6.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 2 (6.90%) Load Balancing
3 2 (6.90%) Mentoring
3 2 (6.90%) Network Segmentation
3 2 (6.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 1 (3.45%) Anomaly Detection
4 1 (3.45%) Continuous Improvement
4 1 (3.45%) Low Latency
4 1 (3.45%) Machine Learning
4 1 (3.45%) Network Management
4 1 (3.45%) Network Monitoring
4 1 (3.45%) Performance Metrics
4 1 (3.45%) Root Cause Analysis
4 1 (3.45%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (10.34%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (24.14%) Cisco Certification
2 4 (13.79%) CCNA
2 4 (13.79%) CCNP
3 2 (6.90%) Azure Certification
3 2 (6.90%) Network+ Certification
3 2 (6.90%) SC Cleared
3 2 (6.90%) Security Cleared
4 1 (3.45%) CCIE
4 1 (3.45%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.45%) SLA
Systems Management
1 3 (10.34%) Terraform
2 1 (3.45%) Grafana
2 1 (3.45%) Nagios
Vendors
1 16 (55.17%) Cisco
2 4 (13.79%) Fortinet
3 3 (10.34%) Microsoft
4 2 (6.90%) Aruba
4 2 (6.90%) CheckPoint
4 2 (6.90%) ForeScout
4 2 (6.90%) Juniper
4 2 (6.90%) Palo Alto
5 1 (3.45%) Ekahau
5 1 (3.45%) Extreme Networks
5 1 (3.45%) Google
5 1 (3.45%) VMware