Network Engineer Job Trends

Network Engineer
UK

The median Network Engineer salary in the UK is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 27 July 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 291 199
Rank change year-on-year +144 -92 +48
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,375 490 1,221
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.36% 0.99% 1.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.44% 1.10% 1.46%
Number of salaries quoted 824 371 960
10th Percentile £37,500 £38,631 £31,250
25th Percentile £47,500 £45,625 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% +2.04% +6.52%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 UK with a recognized job title 95,592 44,533 83,697
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.36% 90.08% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 65,383 26,478 58,009
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Network Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Network Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer over the 6 months to 27 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in the UK

Network Engineer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 27 July 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
England +140 1,229 £60,000 +14.29% 260
UK excluding London +165 1,068 £55,000 +10.00% 223
North of England +126 296 £52,500 - 60
London +61 274 £70,000 +3.70% 87
South East +81 251 £55,000 +10.00% 50
Midlands +102 236 £55,500 +15.63% 31
Work from Home +72 216 £65,576 +14.35% 58
West Midlands +65 153 £58,450 +21.77% 15
North West +100 134 £57,500 +4.55% 31
Yorkshire +43 132 £50,000 -9.09% 21
South West -16 88 £65,000 +16.99% 29
East Midlands +44 83 £50,000 +5.26% 16
East of England +48 79 £55,000 +10.00% 20
Scotland +59 63 £55,000 -17.13% 22
Wales -13 49 £50,000 -2.20% 10
North East -39 30 £65,576 +31.15% 8
Northern Ireland -55 13 £40,000 -23.81% 3

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

For the 6 months to 27 July 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 featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 699 (50.84%) Cisco
2 560 (40.73%) Cisco Certification
3 494 (35.93%) Azure
4 431 (31.35%) Microsoft
5 429 (31.20%) CCNA
6 351 (25.53%) Firewall
7 349 (25.38%) Network+ Certification
8 347 (25.24%) Azure Certification
9 345 (25.09%) ForeScout
10 296 (21.53%) WAN
11 234 (17.02%) VPN
12 233 (16.95%) LAN
13 216 (15.71%) Network Security
14 198 (14.40%) CCNP
15 154 (11.20%) BGP
16 148 (10.76%) Security Cleared
17 146 (10.62%) Wireless
18 142 (10.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 135 (9.82%) Palo Alto
19 135 (9.82%) SD-WAN
20 130 (9.45%) OSPF
21 120 (8.73%) Fortinet
22 117 (8.51%) Wi-Fi
23 115 (8.36%) Problem-Solving
24 113 (8.22%) VLAN
25 106 (7.71%) Python
26 105 (7.64%) DNS
27 103 (7.49%) AWS
28 90 (6.55%) High Availability
28 90 (6.55%) Network Monitoring

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 18 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
1 18 (1.31%) SharePoint
2 7 (0.51%) Confluence
3 1 (0.073%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 25 (1.82%) MS Visio
2 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (0.44%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 494 (35.93%) Azure
2 103 (7.49%) AWS
3 43 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (1.38%) Azure Sentinel
5 18 (1.31%) Entra ID
6 17 (1.24%) GCP
7 15 (1.09%) Datadog
8 12 (0.87%) OpenShift
9 11 (0.80%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 10 (0.73%) Cloudflare
11 9 (0.65%) Azure Monitor
11 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
12 8 (0.58%) SaaS
12 8 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 6 (0.44%) Apigee
13 6 (0.44%) Kong
13 6 (0.44%) Mimecast
13 6 (0.44%) OneDrive
14 5 (0.36%) AWS Direct Connect
15 4 (0.29%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 351 (25.53%) Firewall
2 296 (21.53%) WAN
3 234 (17.02%) VPN
4 233 (16.95%) LAN
5 216 (15.71%) Network Security
6 154 (11.20%) BGP
7 146 (10.62%) Wireless
8 135 (9.82%) SD-WAN
9 130 (9.45%) OSPF
10 117 (8.51%) Wi-Fi
11 113 (8.22%) VLAN
12 105 (7.64%) DNS
13 89 (6.47%) TCP/IP
14 68 (4.95%) DHCP
15 59 (4.29%) Cisco ISE
15 59 (4.29%) WLAN
16 57 (4.15%) Cisco ASA
17 49 (3.56%) EIGRP
18 42 (3.05%) MPLS
19 41 (2.98%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.22%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (0.95%) GitLab
2 10 (0.73%) Git
3 5 (0.36%) JIRA
4 3 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 482 (35.05%) Social Skills
2 68 (4.95%) Finance
3 62 (4.51%) Public Sector
4 55 (4.00%) Telecoms
5 50 (3.64%) Analytical Skills
6 27 (1.96%) Law
7 21 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 15 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (0.87%) Banking
10 11 (0.80%) Retail
11 9 (0.65%) Manufacturing
11 9 (0.65%) Marketing
12 8 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (0.58%) Retail Banking
13 6 (0.44%) Aerospace
13 6 (0.44%) Digital Health
14 5 (0.36%) Back Office
15 4 (0.29%) Mandarin Language
15 4 (0.29%) Police
15 4 (0.29%) Welsh Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (1.09%) 802.1X
2 14 (1.02%) Jinja
3 13 (0.95%) JSON
3 13 (0.95%) YAML
4 8 (0.58%) REST
5 6 (0.44%) XML
5 6 (0.44%) YANG
6 4 (0.29%) gRPC
6 4 (0.29%) ModSecurity
7 3 (0.22%) Apache NiFi
7 3 (0.22%) SAML
7 3 (0.22%) XMPP
8 2 (0.15%) OpenID
9 1 (0.073%) JWT
9 1 (0.073%) LDAP
9 1 (0.073%) OAuth
9 1 (0.073%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 131 (9.53%) Data Centre
2 39 (2.84%) Driving Licence
3 36 (2.62%) PKI
4 31 (2.25%) Security Posture
5 25 (1.82%) Hybrid Cloud
5 25 (1.82%) Onboarding
6 22 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (1.02%) Management Information System
8 13 (0.95%) CCTV
8 13 (0.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 11 (0.80%) Life Science
10 10 (0.73%) Linux Command Line
10 10 (0.73%) Operational Technology
11 8 (0.58%) Clustering
11 8 (0.58%) Fibre Optics
11 8 (0.58%) Public Cloud
12 5 (0.36%) CMDB
12 5 (0.36%) Video Conferencing
13 4 (0.29%) Enterprise Cloud
14 3 (0.22%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 71 (5.16%) Windows
2 64 (4.65%) Linux
3 35 (2.55%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.65%) Unix
5 1 (0.073%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (10.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 115 (8.36%) Problem-Solving
3 90 (6.55%) High Availability
3 90 (6.55%) Network Monitoring
4 73 (5.31%) Continuous Improvement
5 59 (4.29%) Network Design
5 59 (4.29%) Project Delivery
6 56 (4.07%) Mentoring
7 54 (3.93%) ITIL
7 54 (3.93%) Load Balancing
8 47 (3.42%) Disaster Recovery
9 46 (3.35%) Cybersecurity
10 40 (2.91%) Computer Science
10 40 (2.91%) Zero Trust
11 39 (2.84%) Technical Leadership
12 38 (2.76%) Network Architecture
13 37 (2.69%) Business Continuity
14 35 (2.55%) Infrastructure as Code
15 30 (2.18%) Change Management
16 29 (2.11%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 106 (7.71%) Python
2 33 (2.40%) PowerShell
3 14 (1.02%) Bash
4 12 (0.87%) SQL
5 6 (0.44%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.36%) Bicep
7 1 (0.073%) C
7 1 (0.073%) Go
7 1 (0.073%) Java
Qualifications
1 560 (40.73%) Cisco Certification
2 429 (31.20%) CCNA
3 349 (25.38%) Network+ Certification
4 347 (25.24%) Azure Certification
5 198 (14.40%) CCNP
6 148 (10.76%) Security Cleared
7 89 (6.47%) SC Cleared
8 50 (3.64%) CCIE
8 50 (3.64%) Degree
9 48 (3.49%) DV Cleared
10 27 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (1.09%) DBS Check
12 8 (0.58%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.58%) JNCIP
13 5 (0.36%) CCSE
14 4 (0.29%) CCSA
14 4 (0.29%) CISSP
14 4 (0.29%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (0.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 3 (0.22%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (2.25%) NIST
2 23 (1.67%) SLA
3 22 (1.60%) QA
4 21 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 18 (1.31%) GDPR
6 15 (1.09%) PCI DSS
7 9 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 8 (0.58%) PMO
9 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.073%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.073%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.073%) ISO 14001
10 1 (0.073%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.073%) NCSC
System Software
1 46 (3.35%) VMware Infrastructure
2 39 (2.84%) Active Directory
3 33 (2.40%) Hyper-V
4 20 (1.45%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.02%) vSphere
6 11 (0.80%) Firmware
7 9 (0.65%) ProxySG
8 8 (0.58%) KVM
9 3 (0.22%) Docker
9 3 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.073%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 56 (4.07%) Ansible
2 46 (3.35%) FortiGate
3 39 (2.84%) Terraform
4 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
5 11 (0.80%) Cisco Prime
5 11 (0.80%) Proxmox
6 8 (0.58%) Grafana
6 8 (0.58%) Graylog
6 8 (0.58%) ZABBIX
7 7 (0.51%) Check_MK
7 7 (0.51%) Failover Clustering
8 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Clustering
8 6 (0.44%) Nagios
9 3 (0.22%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.22%) Kubernetes
9 3 (0.22%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.15%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.15%) OpenView
10 2 (0.15%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.15%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 699 (50.84%) Cisco
2 431 (31.35%) Microsoft
3 345 (25.09%) ForeScout
4 135 (9.82%) Palo Alto
5 120 (8.73%) Fortinet
6 63 (4.58%) F5
6 63 (4.58%) VMware
7 61 (4.44%) Meraki
8 59 (4.29%) SolarWinds
9 49 (3.56%) Aruba
10 44 (3.20%) Juniper
11 40 (2.91%) Arista
12 38 (2.76%) CheckPoint
13 35 (2.55%) Zscaler
14 27 (1.96%) Infoblox
15 20 (1.45%) HP
16 19 (1.38%) Splunk
17 16 (1.16%) ServiceNow
17 16 (1.16%) SevOne
18 14 (1.02%) Veeam