Principal Network Engineer Job Trends

Principal Network Engineer
UK

The median Principal Network Engineer salary in the UK is £75,900 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 October 2025.

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

6 months to
29 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 670 745 729
Rank change year-on-year +75 -16 +402
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Network Engineer 1 14 4
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.002% 0.021% 0.007%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.002% 0.022% 0.008%
Number of salaries quoted 1 2 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £74,900 - -
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,900 £85,000 -
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% - -
75th Percentile £76,900 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median annual salary - £85,000 -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 44,720 64,937 52,025
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.10% 95.28% 95.58%
Number of salaries quoted 26,871 36,919 40,244
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,000 £42,798
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £93,750 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,750 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.50% -4.76% -

Principal Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Principal Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Principal Network Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

Principal Network Engineer
Top 1 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Network Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 29 October 2025. 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 +73 1 £75,900 -10.71%

Principal Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 21 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 October 2025, Principal 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 Principal Network Engineer in the job title.

1 1 (100.00%) Budgeting
1 1 (100.00%) CCIE
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
1 1 (100.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 1 (100.00%) Incident Management
1 1 (100.00%) Information Security
1 1 (100.00%) LAN
1 1 (100.00%) Load Balancing
1 1 (100.00%) Network Design
1 1 (100.00%) Network Security
1 1 (100.00%) Network Segmentation
1 1 (100.00%) Roadmaps
1 1 (100.00%) SD-WAN
1 1 (100.00%) Service Catalogue
1 1 (100.00%) SFIA
1 1 (100.00%) Technology Roadmap
1 1 (100.00%) Test Planning
1 1 (100.00%) Translating Business Requirements
1 1 (100.00%) WAN
1 1 (100.00%) Wireless

Principal 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:

Communications & Networking
1 1 (100.00%) LAN
1 1 (100.00%) Network Security
1 1 (100.00%) SD-WAN
1 1 (100.00%) WAN
1 1 (100.00%) Wireless
General
1 1 (100.00%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 1 (100.00%) Data Centre
1 1 (100.00%) Management Information System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (100.00%) Budgeting
1 1 (100.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 1 (100.00%) Incident Management
1 1 (100.00%) Information Security
1 1 (100.00%) Load Balancing
1 1 (100.00%) Network Design
1 1 (100.00%) Network Segmentation
1 1 (100.00%) Roadmaps
1 1 (100.00%) Service Catalogue
1 1 (100.00%) SFIA
1 1 (100.00%) Technology Roadmap
1 1 (100.00%) Test Planning
1 1 (100.00%) Translating Business Requirements
Qualifications
1 1 (100.00%) CCIE
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
Vendors
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco