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 15 February 2026.

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

 6 months to
15 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 127 112 115
Rank change year-on-year -15 +3 +77
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 16 46 63
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 0.46% 1.82% 1.73%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.52% 1.93% 1.83%
Number of salaries quoted 14 17 59
10th Percentile £46,700 £32,700 £31,250
25th Percentile £52,813 £40,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £45,000 £41,250
Median % change year-on-year +50.00% +9.09% -17.50%
75th Percentile £68,750 £51,500 £52,500
90th Percentile - £59,000 £56,000
North West median annual salary £45,000 £47,500 £41,375
% change year-on-year -5.26% +14.80% -4.89%

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 3,106 2,381 3,450
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.90% 94.15% 94.81%
Number of salaries quoted 2,089 1,195 2,884
10th Percentile £30,000 £35,250 £29,010
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,875 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.79%
75th Percentile £72,500 £73,750 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £87,500 £82,500
North West median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

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 15 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in Manchester

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

For the 6 months to 15 February 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 14 (87.50%) Cisco
2 12 (75.00%) WAN
3 11 (68.75%) LAN
3 11 (68.75%) SD-WAN
4 9 (56.25%) Cisco ISE
5 8 (50.00%) Firewall
6 5 (31.25%) VPN
7 3 (18.75%) CCNP
7 3 (18.75%) CheckPoint
7 3 (18.75%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (18.75%) Cisco Firepower
7 3 (18.75%) Fortinet
7 3 (18.75%) Network Architecture
7 3 (18.75%) Palo Alto
7 3 (18.75%) SC Cleared
7 3 (18.75%) Security Cleared
7 3 (18.75%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (18.75%) Wireless
8 2 (12.50%) BGP
8 2 (12.50%) CCNA
8 2 (12.50%) CI/CD
8 2 (12.50%) Cisco ASA
8 2 (12.50%) EIGRP
8 2 (12.50%) GCP
8 2 (12.50%) GitHub
8 2 (12.50%) HSRP
8 2 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code
8 2 (12.50%) IPsec
8 2 (12.50%) Jenkins
8 2 (12.50%) Juniper

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 2 (12.50%) GCP
1 2 (12.50%) GitHub
2 1 (6.25%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 12 (75.00%) WAN
2 11 (68.75%) LAN
2 11 (68.75%) SD-WAN
3 9 (56.25%) Cisco ISE
4 8 (50.00%) Firewall
5 5 (31.25%) VPN
6 3 (18.75%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (18.75%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (18.75%) Wireless
7 2 (12.50%) BGP
7 2 (12.50%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (12.50%) EIGRP
7 2 (12.50%) HSRP
7 2 (12.50%) IPsec
7 2 (12.50%) Network Security
7 2 (12.50%) OSPF
8 1 (6.25%) DHCP
8 1 (6.25%) DNS
8 1 (6.25%) VLAN
8 1 (6.25%) WLAN
Development Applications
1 2 (12.50%) Jenkins
General
1 2 (12.50%) Law
2 1 (6.25%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 1 (6.25%) Data Centre
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (18.75%) Network Architecture
2 2 (12.50%) CI/CD
2 2 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code
2 2 (12.50%) Migration
3 1 (6.25%) Cloud Security
3 1 (6.25%) Infrastructure Automation
3 1 (6.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 1 (6.25%) ITIL
3 1 (6.25%) Load Balancing
3 1 (6.25%) Mentoring
3 1 (6.25%) Network Design
3 1 (6.25%) Network Segmentation
3 1 (6.25%) Root Cause Analysis
3 1 (6.25%) Stakeholder Management
3 1 (6.25%) Tech Ops
3 1 (6.25%) Thought Leadership
3 1 (6.25%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 2 (12.50%) Python
Qualifications
1 3 (18.75%) CCNP
1 3 (18.75%) Cisco Certification
1 3 (18.75%) SC Cleared
1 3 (18.75%) Security Cleared
2 2 (12.50%) CCNA
3 1 (6.25%) CCIE
Systems Management
1 2 (12.50%) Terraform
Vendors
1 14 (87.50%) Cisco
2 3 (18.75%) CheckPoint
2 3 (18.75%) Fortinet
2 3 (18.75%) Palo Alto
3 2 (12.50%) Juniper
4 1 (6.25%) Aruba
4 1 (6.25%) Ekahau
4 1 (6.25%) Extreme Networks
4 1 (6.25%) Microsoft
4 1 (6.25%) VMware
Network Engineer jobs