Network Engineer Job Trends in the South East

Network Engineer
England > South East

The median Network Engineer salary in the South East is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 May 2026.

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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 123 152
Rank change year-on-year +15 +29 +16
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 222 176 296
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 1.54% 2.28% 1.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.63% 2.70% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 132 173 257
10th Percentile £28,200 £41,250 £32,800
25th Percentile £42,000 £46,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +7.14% +3.16%
75th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £63,050 £65,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £52,500 £49,000
% change year-on-year +14.29% +7.14% -2.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 13,648 6,523 15,383
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.96% 84.47% 93.87%
Number of salaries quoted 9,315 3,593 11,238
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,500 £35,813
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% +7.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £58,000 £53,847
% change year-on-year -5.17% +7.71% -11.44%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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 South East.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

Network Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the South East

Network Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 15 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in the South East

Network Engineer
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 15 May 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
Hampshire -41 80 £62,500 +19.05% 20
Thames Valley +33 50 £56,000 +5.53% 21
Kent +14 46 £30,000 -40.00% 2
Surrey -2 34 £50,000 +42.86% 6
Berkshire +13 23 £47,500 -9.52% 10
Buckinghamshire +3 18 £60,000 +11.63% 9
Oxfordshire +4 9 £57,500 -36.11% 2
East Sussex -12 6 - - 1
West Sussex - 6 - - 1
Network Engineer
England

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 15 May 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 South East region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 106 (47.75%) Cisco
2 79 (35.59%) Azure
2 79 (35.59%) Cisco Certification
3 69 (31.08%) CCNA
3 69 (31.08%) Microsoft
4 63 (28.38%) Network+ Certification
5 60 (27.03%) Azure Certification
5 60 (27.03%) ForeScout
6 46 (20.72%) Firewall
7 38 (17.12%) Security Cleared
8 26 (11.71%) DV Cleared
9 24 (10.81%) WAN
10 20 (9.01%) Fortinet
10 20 (9.01%) LAN
11 19 (8.56%) Network Security
11 19 (8.56%) VPN
12 18 (8.11%) Linux
13 17 (7.66%) BGP
13 17 (7.66%) Python
14 16 (7.21%) CCNP
14 16 (7.21%) Juniper
15 15 (6.76%) SC Cleared
16 14 (6.31%) VMware
17 13 (5.86%) VMware NSX
18 12 (5.41%) AWS
18 12 (5.41%) Cisco ASA
18 12 (5.41%) OSPF
19 10 (4.50%) API Management
19 10 (4.50%) CI/CD
19 10 (4.50%) Containerisation

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 2 (0.90%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 79 (35.59%) Azure
2 12 (5.41%) AWS
3 10 (4.50%) OpenShift
4 5 (2.25%) Apigee
4 5 (2.25%) Azure Sentinel
4 5 (2.25%) Kong
5 4 (1.80%) Cloudflare
5 4 (1.80%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.45%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 46 (20.72%) Firewall
2 24 (10.81%) WAN
3 20 (9.01%) LAN
4 19 (8.56%) Network Security
4 19 (8.56%) VPN
5 17 (7.66%) BGP
6 12 (5.41%) Cisco ASA
6 12 (5.41%) OSPF
7 9 (4.05%) Cisco Firepower
7 9 (4.05%) Cisco IOS
8 8 (3.60%) Cisco ISE
8 8 (3.60%) Wireless
9 7 (3.15%) Junos
9 7 (3.15%) TCP/IP
9 7 (3.15%) VoIP
10 6 (2.70%) NX-OS
10 6 (2.70%) SD-WAN
10 6 (2.70%) VLAN
11 5 (2.25%) DHCP
11 5 (2.25%) DNS
Development Applications
1 10 (4.50%) GitLab
2 5 (2.25%) Git
3 2 (0.90%) JIRA
General
1 85 (38.29%) Social Skills
2 17 (7.66%) Telecoms
3 8 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (2.25%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (2.25%) Public Sector
4 5 (2.25%) Retail
5 4 (1.80%) Banking
5 4 (1.80%) Finance
5 4 (1.80%) Marketing
6 2 (0.90%) Police
7 1 (0.45%) Digital Health
7 1 (0.45%) Electronics
7 1 (0.45%) Law
7 1 (0.45%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.45%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.50%) Jinja
1 10 (4.50%) JSON
1 10 (4.50%) YAML
2 5 (2.25%) REST
2 5 (2.25%) XML
2 5 (2.25%) YANG
3 4 (1.80%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 11 (4.95%) Data Centre
1 11 (4.95%) PKI
2 8 (3.60%) Self-Motivation
3 5 (2.25%) Driving Licence
4 4 (1.80%) Security Posture
5 2 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.45%) CCTV
6 1 (0.45%) Fibre Optics
6 1 (0.45%) FMCG
6 1 (0.45%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.45%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (0.45%) Private Cloud
6 1 (0.45%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 18 (8.11%) Linux
2 7 (3.15%) Windows
3 5 (2.25%) Unix
4 1 (0.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (4.50%) API Management
1 10 (4.50%) CI/CD
1 10 (4.50%) Containerisation
1 10 (4.50%) ITIL
1 10 (4.50%) ITSM
1 10 (4.50%) Task Automation
2 9 (4.05%) Infrastructure as Code
2 9 (4.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 9 (4.05%) Service Management
3 8 (3.60%) Zero Trust
4 7 (3.15%) Change Management
4 7 (3.15%) Problem Management
4 7 (3.15%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (2.70%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (2.25%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (2.25%) Network Architecture
6 5 (2.25%) Network Design
6 5 (2.25%) Project Delivery
6 5 (2.25%) SIEM
6 5 (2.25%) Webhook
Programming Languages
1 17 (7.66%) Python
2 5 (2.25%) JavaScript
3 4 (1.80%) Bash
3 4 (1.80%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 79 (35.59%) Cisco Certification
2 69 (31.08%) CCNA
3 63 (28.38%) Network+ Certification
4 60 (27.03%) Azure Certification
5 38 (17.12%) Security Cleared
6 26 (11.71%) DV Cleared
7 16 (7.21%) CCNP
8 15 (6.76%) SC Cleared
9 2 (0.90%) CCIE
9 2 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (0.90%) Degree
10 1 (0.45%) CCIE Security
10 1 (0.45%) CCSE
10 1 (0.45%) CCSM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (1.80%) SLA
2 1 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.45%) NIST
System Software
1 13 (5.86%) VMware NSX
2 10 (4.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.15%) Firmware
4 4 (1.80%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.80%) KVM
5 3 (1.35%) Docker
6 1 (0.45%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 6 (2.70%) vCenter Server
2 5 (2.25%) Ansible
2 5 (2.25%) FortiGate
2 5 (2.25%) Terraform
3 4 (1.80%) Graylog
3 4 (1.80%) Proxmox
3 4 (1.80%) ZABBIX
4 1 (0.45%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.45%) OpenView
4 1 (0.45%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 106 (47.75%) Cisco
2 69 (31.08%) Microsoft
3 60 (27.03%) ForeScout
4 20 (9.01%) Fortinet
5 16 (7.21%) Juniper
6 14 (6.31%) VMware
7 10 (4.50%) Red Hat
8 7 (3.15%) Palo Alto
8 7 (3.15%) SolarWinds
9 6 (2.70%) Broadcom
9 6 (2.70%) F5
10 5 (2.25%) CheckPoint
10 5 (2.25%) Meraki
11 4 (1.80%) Mellanox
11 4 (1.80%) NVIDIA
11 4 (1.80%) Veeam
12 3 (1.35%) CA Agile Central
13 2 (0.90%) HP
13 2 (0.90%) Huawei
13 2 (0.90%) IBM