Network Engineer Job Trends in the North West

Network Engineer
England > North West

The median Network Engineer salary in the North West is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 13 April 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 164 153
Rank change year-on-year +18 -11 -1
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 72 23 126
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.75% 0.62% 1.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.83% 0.70% 1.48%
Number of salaries quoted 46 20 115
10th Percentile £18,000 £40,500 £31,900
25th Percentile £32,125 £46,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,875 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.44% +24.41% -9.57%
75th Percentile £68,750 £57,500 £56,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £61,875 £65,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £53,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year +8.49% +8.16% -2.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 the North West with a recognized job title 8,637 3,299 8,509
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.01% 89.57% 94.91%
Number of salaries quoted 5,526 2,192 6,836
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £39,563 £40,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,500 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.01% +9.59% -8.90%
75th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £54,650
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.79% -9.29%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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 the North West.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the North West

Network Engineer
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the North West

Network Engineer
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 13 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in the North West

Network Engineer
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the North West region over the 6 months to 13 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
Manchester +4 34 £67,500 +37.06% 22
Merseyside -9 14 £18,000 -66.20% 5
Lancashire +7 12 £50,000 -9.09% 8
Cheshire -37 9 £45,000 -5.26% 1
Cumbria -14 3 £53,000 -3.64%
Network Engineer
England

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 13 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 North West region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 33 (45.83%) Cisco
2 24 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
3 20 (27.78%) CCNA
4 17 (23.61%) Azure
4 17 (23.61%) Microsoft
4 17 (23.61%) Network+ Certification
5 16 (22.22%) Azure Certification
5 16 (22.22%) ForeScout
6 15 (20.83%) WAN
7 13 (18.06%) Firewall
7 13 (18.06%) LAN
7 13 (18.06%) Wireless
8 12 (16.67%) Network Security
9 10 (13.89%) SD-WAN
10 9 (12.50%) VPN
11 7 (9.72%) Cisco ISE
11 7 (9.72%) Security Operations
12 5 (6.94%) CCNP
12 5 (6.94%) Cisco Firepower
12 5 (6.94%) Palo Alto
12 5 (6.94%) VLAN
12 5 (6.94%) Wi-Fi
13 4 (5.56%) Aruba
13 4 (5.56%) BGP
13 4 (5.56%) CheckPoint
13 4 (5.56%) Fortinet
13 4 (5.56%) ITIL
13 4 (5.56%) Network Architecture
13 4 (5.56%) OSPF
13 4 (5.56%) SC Cleared

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 17 (23.61%) Azure
2 3 (4.17%) GCP
3 2 (2.78%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 15 (20.83%) WAN
2 13 (18.06%) Firewall
2 13 (18.06%) LAN
2 13 (18.06%) Wireless
3 12 (16.67%) Network Security
4 10 (13.89%) SD-WAN
5 9 (12.50%) VPN
6 7 (9.72%) Cisco ISE
7 5 (6.94%) Cisco Firepower
7 5 (6.94%) VLAN
7 5 (6.94%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (5.56%) BGP
8 4 (5.56%) OSPF
9 3 (4.17%) Cisco ASA
10 2 (2.78%) MPLS
10 2 (2.78%) NGN
10 2 (2.78%) TCP/IP
10 2 (2.78%) WLAN
11 1 (1.39%) Broadband
11 1 (1.39%) DNS
Development Applications
1 2 (2.78%) Jenkins
General
1 17 (23.61%) Social Skills
2 3 (4.17%) Law
2 3 (4.17%) Public Sector
3 1 (1.39%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.39%) 802.1X
1 1 (1.39%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 3 (4.17%) Data Centre
2 1 (1.39%) CCTV
2 1 (1.39%) Enterprise Cloud
2 1 (1.39%) EPoS
2 1 (1.39%) Public Cloud
2 1 (1.39%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (9.72%) Security Operations
2 4 (5.56%) ITIL
2 4 (5.56%) Network Architecture
3 3 (4.17%) CI/CD
3 3 (4.17%) Infrastructure as Code
3 3 (4.17%) Mentoring
3 3 (4.17%) Migration
3 3 (4.17%) Network Monitoring
4 2 (2.78%) Change Management
4 2 (2.78%) Information Management
4 2 (2.78%) Infrastructure Automation
4 2 (2.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (2.78%) Load Balancing
4 2 (2.78%) Network Management
4 2 (2.78%) Network Segmentation
4 2 (2.78%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (2.78%) Root Cause Analysis
4 2 (2.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 2 (2.78%) Technical Leadership
5 1 (1.39%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 3 (4.17%) Python
Qualifications
1 24 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
2 20 (27.78%) CCNA
3 17 (23.61%) Network+ Certification
4 16 (22.22%) Azure Certification
5 5 (6.94%) CCNP
6 4 (5.56%) SC Cleared
6 4 (5.56%) Security Cleared
7 3 (4.17%) Degree
8 1 (1.39%) A+ Certification
8 1 (1.39%) CCIE
8 1 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.39%) QA
1 1 (1.39%) SLA
Systems Management
1 3 (4.17%) Terraform
2 1 (1.39%) Grafana
2 1 (1.39%) Nagios
Vendors
1 33 (45.83%) Cisco
2 17 (23.61%) Microsoft
3 16 (22.22%) ForeScout
4 5 (6.94%) Palo Alto
5 4 (5.56%) Aruba
5 4 (5.56%) CheckPoint
5 4 (5.56%) Fortinet
6 2 (2.78%) Ekahau
6 2 (2.78%) Juniper
7 1 (1.39%) Extreme Networks
7 1 (1.39%) Google
7 1 (1.39%) VMware