Network Engineer Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 April 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 90 57
Rank change year-on-year -17 -33 +34
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 534 364 677
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.30% 2.87% 3.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.50% 3.11% 3.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 348 248 414
10th Percentile £303 £300 £283
25th Percentile £401 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% - -
75th Percentile £538 £568 £519
90th Percentile £588 £613 £633
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 2 16
10th Percentile £50.65 £23.53 £17.81
25th Percentile £67.11 £31.06 £24.44
Median hourly rate £74.26 £45.75 £66.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.32% -31.20% +7.26%
75th Percentile £78.75 £62.06 £73.75
90th Percentile - £70.58 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £57.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +29.15% +43.75% -36.74%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 21,330 11,712 19,341
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.99% 92.21% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,626 7,602 11,956
10th Percentile £265 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £585 £598
90th Percentile £675 £656 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.82% -0.98% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,340 780 2,161
10th Percentile £14.41 £14.20 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.50 £15.50
Median hourly rate £42.38 £30.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.25% -14.29% -16.97%
75th Percentile £65.25 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.58 £72.90
UK median hourly rate £41.26 £31.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +30.97% -10.00% -21.40%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 13 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 13 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the UK excluding London 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East +9 177 £480 -2.04% 67
North of England -40 160 £475 - 65
North West -17 136 £479 +0.92% 37
Midlands 0 103 £438 +2.94% 53
West Midlands +9 96 £438 +59.09% 32
South West -31 41 £525 +11.11% 22
Scotland +10 39 £415 +3.75% 23
East of England -16 38 £450 -10.00% 36
Wales -8 25 £425 +9.68% 11
Yorkshire -59 24 £450 -2.70% 23
East Midlands -46 3 £500 +11.11% 21
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 - 7
North East -18 1 - - 5
South Coast - 1 £575 -
Network Engineer
UK

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 13 April 2026, Network Engineer contract 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 contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 307 (57.49%) Cisco
2 253 (47.38%) Firewall
3 225 (42.13%) Security Cleared
4 161 (30.15%) SC Cleared
5 158 (29.59%) WAN
6 151 (28.28%) LAN
7 150 (28.09%) Cisco Certification
8 130 (24.34%) BGP
9 124 (23.22%) CCNP
10 122 (22.85%) DNS
10 122 (22.85%) VPN
11 121 (22.66%) Palo Alto
12 106 (19.85%) F5
13 102 (19.10%) Load Balancing
13 102 (19.10%) Network Security
14 91 (17.04%) OSPF
15 84 (15.73%) Juniper
16 76 (14.23%) TCP/IP
17 75 (14.04%) VMware
18 72 (13.48%) DV Cleared
19 69 (12.92%) CCNA
20 67 (12.55%) Wireless
21 66 (12.36%) VLAN
22 56 (10.49%) VMware Infrastructure
23 55 (10.30%) Aruba
24 54 (10.11%) BIG-IP
24 54 (10.11%) Wi-Fi
25 53 (9.93%) Cisco ISE
26 51 (9.55%) High Availability
26 51 (9.55%) SD-WAN

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 7 (1.31%) Confluence
2 5 (0.94%) Apache
2 5 (0.94%) IIS
3 4 (0.75%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (2.62%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 43 (8.05%) AWS
2 41 (7.68%) Azure
3 19 (3.56%) GCP
4 10 (1.87%) GitHub
5 8 (1.50%) Entra ID
5 8 (1.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (1.12%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 4 (0.75%) Mimecast
7 4 (0.75%) Nutanix
8 3 (0.56%) AWS Direct Connect
8 3 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (0.56%) Catchpoint
8 3 (0.56%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (0.56%) Google Ads
8 3 (0.56%) Google Compute Engine
8 3 (0.56%) Route 53
8 3 (0.56%) SaaS
9 2 (0.37%) Amazon EKS
9 2 (0.37%) AWS IoT
Communications & Networking
1 253 (47.38%) Firewall
2 158 (29.59%) WAN
3 151 (28.28%) LAN
4 130 (24.34%) BGP
5 122 (22.85%) DNS
5 122 (22.85%) VPN
6 102 (19.10%) Network Security
7 91 (17.04%) OSPF
8 76 (14.23%) TCP/IP
9 67 (12.55%) Wireless
10 66 (12.36%) VLAN
11 54 (10.11%) BIG-IP
11 54 (10.11%) Wi-Fi
12 53 (9.93%) Cisco ISE
13 51 (9.55%) SD-WAN
14 45 (8.43%) SSL
15 44 (8.24%) IPsec
15 44 (8.24%) Wireshark
16 43 (8.05%) DHCP
17 39 (7.30%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
1 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (5.62%) Fiddler
2 17 (3.18%) JIRA
3 8 (1.50%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.94%) Git
6 4 (0.75%) GitLab
7 2 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
General
1 76 (14.23%) Social Skills
2 42 (7.87%) Banking
3 39 (7.30%) Investment Banking
4 33 (6.18%) Public Sector
5 32 (5.99%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (4.31%) Manufacturing
7 22 (4.12%) Telecoms
8 20 (3.75%) Analytical Skills
9 12 (2.25%) Finance
10 11 (2.06%) Legal
11 7 (1.31%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.94%) Law
13 4 (0.75%) Military
13 4 (0.75%) Police
14 2 (0.37%) Electronics
14 2 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.37%) Marketing
14 2 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.37%) Retail
15 1 (0.19%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (6.74%) 802.1X
2 8 (1.50%) LDAP
3 7 (1.31%) SAML
4 2 (0.37%) REST
4 2 (0.37%) RFC 2544
5 1 (0.19%) Django
5 1 (0.19%) Jinja
5 1 (0.19%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 112 (20.97%) Data Centre
2 23 (4.31%) Management Information System
3 15 (2.81%) PKI
4 12 (2.25%) NHS
5 11 (2.06%) Operational Technology
6 10 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
6 10 (1.87%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (1.69%) Clustering
8 8 (1.50%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (1.50%) Security Posture
9 7 (1.31%) Onboarding
10 5 (0.94%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (0.56%) 3D Printing
12 3 (0.56%) Cloud Native
12 3 (0.56%) IoT
12 3 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (0.56%) Wiki
13 2 (0.37%) Enterprise Cloud
13 2 (0.37%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 48 (8.99%) Windows
2 25 (4.68%) Linux
3 16 (3.00%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.56%) CatOS
5 2 (0.37%) Unix
6 1 (0.19%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.19%) Solaris
6 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (19.10%) Load Balancing
2 51 (9.55%) High Availability
3 44 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (7.49%) ITIL
4 40 (7.49%) Network Monitoring
5 38 (7.12%) Network Design
6 37 (6.93%) Migration
7 30 (5.62%) Data Loss Prevention
7 30 (5.62%) Malware Detection/Protection
8 28 (5.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 27 (5.06%) Collaborative Working
9 27 (5.06%) ITSM
9 27 (5.06%) Network Architecture
10 25 (4.68%) Change Management
10 25 (4.68%) Service Management
11 24 (4.49%) Network Management
12 23 (4.31%) Project Delivery
13 22 (4.12%) Validation
14 20 (3.75%) Cybersecurity
14 20 (3.75%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 43 (8.05%) Python
2 10 (1.87%) Bash
3 7 (1.31%) Perl
4 6 (1.12%) PowerShell
4 6 (1.12%) SQL
5 4 (0.75%) Lisp
6 1 (0.19%) PHP
6 1 (0.19%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 225 (42.13%) Security Cleared
2 161 (30.15%) SC Cleared
3 150 (28.09%) Cisco Certification
4 124 (23.22%) CCNP
5 72 (13.48%) DV Cleared
6 69 (12.92%) CCNA
7 22 (4.12%) Degree
8 20 (3.75%) JNCIS
9 18 (3.37%) CCIE
10 16 (3.00%) JNCIA
11 11 (2.06%) JNCIP
11 11 (2.06%) Network+ Certification
12 7 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.56%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.56%) CCIE Wireless
13 3 (0.56%) CCSE
13 3 (0.56%) CWDP
13 3 (0.56%) CWNA
13 3 (0.56%) CWNE
13 3 (0.56%) CWSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (0.94%) SLA
2 4 (0.75%) NIST
3 3 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
3 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.56%) PCI DSS
3 3 (0.56%) QA
4 2 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.37%) NCSC
4 2 (0.37%) PMO
5 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.19%) GDPR
5 1 (0.19%) GRC
5 1 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
System Software
1 56 (10.49%) VMware Infrastructure
2 41 (7.68%) VMware NSX
3 28 (5.24%) Firmware
4 23 (4.31%) Active Directory
5 6 (1.12%) vSphere
6 5 (0.94%) Docker
7 4 (0.75%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.37%) KVM
8 2 (0.37%) vCloud
9 1 (0.19%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.19%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.19%) RHEV
9 1 (0.19%) Snort
9 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 40 (7.49%) Ansible
2 30 (5.62%) FortiGate
3 25 (4.68%) Terraform
4 8 (1.50%) vCenter Server
5 7 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.12%) Nagios
7 5 (0.94%) Cisco Prime
7 5 (0.94%) Kubernetes
8 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.37%) WSUS
10 1 (0.19%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.19%) CASB
10 1 (0.19%) Iperf
10 1 (0.19%) Nessus
10 1 (0.19%) Norton AntiVirus
10 1 (0.19%) Proxmox
10 1 (0.19%) SCOM
10 1 (0.19%) Suricata
10 1 (0.19%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 307 (57.49%) Cisco
2 121 (22.66%) Palo Alto
3 106 (19.85%) F5
4 84 (15.73%) Juniper
5 75 (14.04%) VMware
6 55 (10.30%) Aruba
7 50 (9.36%) CheckPoint
8 39 (7.30%) SolarWinds
9 34 (6.37%) Blue Coat
9 34 (6.37%) McAfee
10 33 (6.18%) Fortinet
11 32 (5.99%) Meraki
12 25 (4.68%) Microsoft
13 22 (4.12%) NetApp
14 19 (3.56%) ServiceNow
15 17 (3.18%) Ekahau
16 15 (2.81%) Google
17 12 (2.25%) Extreme Networks
18 11 (2.06%) Splunk
19 10 (1.87%) Arista