Network Engineer Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Network Engineer salary in the Thames Valley is £47,166 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 October 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 180 92
Rank change year-on-year +29 -88 +46
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 61 16 114
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.81% 0.42% 2.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.87% 0.46% 2.60%
Number of salaries quoted 46 15 70
10th Percentile £30,000 £47,750 £39,125
25th Percentile £44,813 £51,250 £41,380
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,166 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.24% +10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £58,125 £58,750
90th Percentile £64,375 £61,100 £67,500
South East median annual salary £55,000 £52,500 £54,000
% change year-on-year +4.76% -2.78% +13.68%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. 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 Thames Valley with a recognized job title 7,028 3,473 4,390
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.20% 91.61% 95.75%
Number of salaries quoted 4,984 1,600 2,251
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £31,125
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -12.84% -0.91%
75th Percentile £72,500 £65,313 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,250 £83,750
South East median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -4.55%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in the Thames Valley

Network Engineer
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 11 October 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
Oxfordshire -9 30 £45,500 -17.27% 4
Buckinghamshire - 17 £60,000 - 12
Berkshire +4 14 £35,000 -34.88% 17
Network Engineer
South East

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 11 October 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 Thames Valley region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 32 (52.46%) Firewall
2 29 (47.54%) Cisco
2 29 (47.54%) VPN
3 28 (45.90%) Microsoft
4 23 (37.70%) Azure
4 23 (37.70%) Network Security
5 22 (36.07%) Fortinet
6 21 (34.43%) Wi-Fi
6 21 (34.43%) Wireless
7 20 (32.79%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (29.51%) DNS
9 17 (27.87%) CCNA
10 16 (26.23%) DHCP
10 16 (26.23%) FortiGate
10 16 (26.23%) Python
11 15 (24.59%) VLAN
12 14 (22.95%) Hyper-V
12 14 (22.95%) PowerShell
12 14 (22.95%) VMware
12 14 (22.95%) VMware Infrastructure
13 12 (19.67%) LAN
13 12 (19.67%) WAN
14 11 (18.03%) Cisco Firepower
14 11 (18.03%) Cisco ISE
14 11 (18.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 11 (18.03%) Network+ Certification
14 11 (18.03%) Problem-Solving
14 11 (18.03%) Stealthwatch
15 10 (16.39%) Linux
15 10 (16.39%) TCP/IP

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 6 (9.84%) SharePoint
2 4 (6.56%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 6 (9.84%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 23 (37.70%) Azure
2 9 (14.75%) AWS
3 8 (13.11%) Azure Sentinel
3 8 (13.11%) Cloudflare
3 8 (13.11%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.64%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 32 (52.46%) Firewall
2 29 (47.54%) VPN
3 23 (37.70%) Network Security
4 21 (34.43%) Wi-Fi
4 21 (34.43%) Wireless
5 18 (29.51%) DNS
6 16 (26.23%) DHCP
7 15 (24.59%) VLAN
8 12 (19.67%) LAN
8 12 (19.67%) WAN
9 11 (18.03%) Cisco Firepower
9 11 (18.03%) Cisco ISE
10 10 (16.39%) TCP/IP
11 7 (11.48%) OSPF
11 7 (11.48%) SD-WAN
12 5 (8.20%) BGP
13 4 (6.56%) IPv4
13 4 (6.56%) IPv6
14 3 (4.92%) Ethernet
14 3 (4.92%) WLAN
Development Applications
1 4 (6.56%) JIRA
General
1 21 (34.43%) Social Skills
2 5 (8.20%) Documentation Skills
3 3 (4.92%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (4.92%) Public Sector
3 3 (4.92%) Telecoms
4 2 (3.28%) Organisational Skills
4 2 (3.28%) Retail
5 1 (1.64%) Digital Health
Miscellaneous
1 8 (13.11%) PKI
2 7 (11.48%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (9.84%) CCTV
4 3 (4.92%) Virtual Team
5 2 (3.28%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (3.28%) IoT
5 2 (3.28%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 10 (16.39%) Linux
2 8 (13.11%) Windows
3 2 (3.28%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (18.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 11 (18.03%) Problem-Solving
2 9 (14.75%) Disaster Recovery
2 9 (14.75%) Network Monitoring
3 8 (13.11%) ITIL
3 8 (13.11%) SIEM
3 8 (13.11%) Vulnerability Management
3 8 (13.11%) Vulnerability Scanning
3 8 (13.11%) Zero Trust
4 7 (11.48%) Continuous Improvement
5 6 (9.84%) Customer Service
5 6 (9.84%) Data Protection
5 6 (9.84%) Infrastructure Management
5 6 (9.84%) Time Management
6 4 (6.56%) Mentoring
6 4 (6.56%) Project Delivery
6 4 (6.56%) Technical Leadership
7 3 (4.92%) Customer Engagement
7 3 (4.92%) Network Design
7 3 (4.92%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 16 (26.23%) Python
2 14 (22.95%) PowerShell
3 8 (13.11%) Bash
4 2 (3.28%) Go
Qualifications
1 20 (32.79%) Cisco Certification
2 17 (27.87%) CCNA
3 11 (18.03%) Network+ Certification
4 9 (14.75%) Azure Certification
4 9 (14.75%) CCNP
5 2 (3.28%) Degree
6 1 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (9.84%) GDPR
System Software
1 14 (22.95%) Hyper-V
1 14 (22.95%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (13.11%) KVM
3 6 (9.84%) Active Directory
3 6 (9.84%) vSphere
4 2 (3.28%) iptables
Systems Management
1 16 (26.23%) FortiGate
2 11 (18.03%) Stealthwatch
3 8 (13.11%) Graylog
3 8 (13.11%) Proxmox
3 8 (13.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 29 (47.54%) Cisco
2 28 (45.90%) Microsoft
3 22 (36.07%) Fortinet
4 14 (22.95%) VMware
5 9 (14.75%) ForeScout
6 8 (13.11%) Veeam
7 4 (6.56%) IBM
7 4 (6.56%) Ruckus Wireless
8 3 (4.92%) Starlink
9 2 (3.28%) Aruba
9 2 (3.28%) Brocade
9 2 (3.28%) Infoblox
9 2 (3.28%) Juniper
9 2 (3.28%) Meraki
9 2 (3.28%) WatchGuard
10 1 (1.64%) Extreme Networks