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 £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 September 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 104 62
Rank change year-on-year 0 -42 +1
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 638 358 560
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.29% 2.34% 3.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.50% 2.60% 3.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 363 258 319
10th Percentile £303 £300 £283
25th Percentile £400 £380 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% - +11.76%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £550
90th Percentile £600 £638 £634
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £490
% change year-on-year - -3.06% +8.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 9 15
10th Percentile £28.50 £21.77 £19.10
25th Percentile £68.50 £22.50 £20.09
Median hourly rate £75.75 £41.50 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +82.53% -14.54% -19.07%
75th Percentile £91.00 £76.25 £75.00
90th Percentile £92.53 £84.33 £75.24
UK median hourly rate £73.50 £53.75 £46.78
% change year-on-year +36.74% +14.90% -22.03%

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 25,515 13,775 16,596
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.55% 89.96% 92.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,276 8,433 9,830
10th Percentile £303 £213 £225
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,153 1,242 1,529
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.25 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.17 £19.25
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +12.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £71.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

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 7 September 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 7 September 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 7 September 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
North of England +15 250 £492 +0.97% 56
North West +21 173 £499 +4.72% 27
South East -47 112 £470 -6.00% 42
Midlands -22 101 £475 +21.79% 49
West Midlands -20 89 £475 +31.03% 29
Scotland +11 80 £400 -5.88% 19
Yorkshire -10 64 £450 -8.07% 21
South West -17 60 £550 -11.29% 46
East of England -3 43 £453 +19.47% 38
Wales +14 36 £363 -19.44% 13
North East -29 13 £600 - 9
East Midlands -14 10 £500 -16.67% 20
Northern Ireland +1 2 £488 -7.14% 5
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 7 September 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.

1 360 (56.43%) Cisco
2 238 (37.30%) Firewall
3 193 (30.25%) Security Cleared
4 183 (28.68%) WAN
5 175 (27.43%) LAN
6 155 (24.29%) Cisco Certification
7 144 (22.57%) Network Security
7 144 (22.57%) VPN
8 143 (22.41%) Wireless
9 133 (20.85%) BGP
10 128 (20.06%) SC Cleared
11 124 (19.44%) DNS
12 118 (18.50%) Palo Alto
13 112 (17.55%) CCNP
13 112 (17.55%) F5
14 93 (14.58%) Load Balancing
15 91 (14.26%) OSPF
16 85 (13.32%) Wi-Fi
17 75 (11.76%) VMware
18 74 (11.60%) CCNA
19 73 (11.44%) VLAN
20 69 (10.82%) SD-WAN
21 65 (10.19%) Problem-Solving
21 65 (10.19%) TCP/IP
22 62 (9.72%) DV Cleared
23 60 (9.40%) Cisco ASA
24 59 (9.25%) VMware Infrastructure
25 57 (8.93%) CheckPoint
25 57 (8.93%) Fortinet
26 56 (8.78%) Azure

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 8 (1.25%) SAS
2 1 (0.16%) CMS
2 1 (0.16%) Confluence
2 1 (0.16%) FactoryTalk
2 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (2.04%) MS Visio
2 6 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 56 (8.78%) Azure
2 48 (7.52%) AWS
3 26 (4.08%) GCP
4 19 (2.98%) GitHub
5 8 (1.25%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (1.10%) AWS Direct Connect
6 7 (1.10%) IaaS
7 6 (0.94%) Azure Sentinel
7 6 (0.94%) Nutanix
7 6 (0.94%) OCI
8 5 (0.78%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 5 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
9 4 (0.63%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.63%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 4 (0.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 3 (0.47%) Cloudflare
10 3 (0.47%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.31%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.31%) Google Compute Engine
11 2 (0.31%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 238 (37.30%) Firewall
2 183 (28.68%) WAN
3 175 (27.43%) LAN
4 144 (22.57%) Network Security
4 144 (22.57%) VPN
5 143 (22.41%) Wireless
6 133 (20.85%) BGP
7 124 (19.44%) DNS
8 91 (14.26%) OSPF
9 85 (13.32%) Wi-Fi
10 73 (11.44%) VLAN
11 69 (10.82%) SD-WAN
12 65 (10.19%) TCP/IP
13 60 (9.40%) Cisco ASA
14 49 (7.68%) Cisco Firepower
14 49 (7.68%) Cisco Nexus
15 46 (7.21%) DHCP
16 44 (6.90%) MPLS
17 43 (6.74%) IPsec
18 41 (6.43%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.16%) GIS
1 1 (0.16%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 18 (2.82%) Jenkins
2 16 (2.51%) Git
3 14 (2.19%) Fiddler
4 13 (2.04%) JIRA
5 10 (1.57%) GitLab
6 2 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.16%) Browser DevTools
General
1 81 (12.70%) Social Skills
2 40 (6.27%) Analytical Skills
2 40 (6.27%) Public Sector
2 40 (6.27%) Telecoms
3 37 (5.80%) Banking
4 28 (4.39%) Investment Banking
5 27 (4.23%) Finance
6 19 (2.98%) Manufacturing
7 15 (2.35%) Documentation Skills
8 12 (1.88%) Legal
9 9 (1.41%) Aerospace
9 9 (1.41%) Police
10 6 (0.94%) Retail
11 4 (0.63%) Military
12 3 (0.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.47%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.31%) Law
13 2 (0.31%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.16%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (5.64%) Terraform
2 25 (3.92%) 802.1X
3 8 (1.25%) NETCONF
3 8 (1.25%) REST
4 7 (1.10%) SAML
5 3 (0.47%) Java RMI
5 3 (0.47%) JSON
5 3 (0.47%) LDAP
5 3 (0.47%) YAML
6 1 (0.16%) Jinja
6 1 (0.16%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.16%) RESTCONF
6 1 (0.16%) XML
6 1 (0.16%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 87 (13.64%) Data Centre
2 21 (3.29%) PKI
3 20 (3.13%) Driving Licence
3 20 (3.13%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (2.66%) Management Information System
5 14 (2.19%) Cloud Native
6 12 (1.88%) Onboarding
7 11 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (1.57%) Operational Technology
9 8 (1.25%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.10%) Public Cloud
11 6 (0.94%) Fibre Optics
12 5 (0.78%) Private Cloud
12 5 (0.78%) SCADA
12 5 (0.78%) Security Posture
13 4 (0.63%) CMDB
13 4 (0.63%) NHS
14 3 (0.47%) Distributed Systems
15 2 (0.31%) Legacy Systems
15 2 (0.31%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 42 (6.58%) Windows
2 31 (4.86%) Linux
3 6 (0.94%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.78%) Unix
5 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.16%) Solaris
5 1 (0.16%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.16%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
5 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (14.58%) Load Balancing
2 65 (10.19%) Problem-Solving
3 56 (8.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 56 (8.78%) ITIL
4 54 (8.46%) Migration
5 53 (8.31%) High Availability
6 49 (7.68%) Project Delivery
7 47 (7.37%) Network Monitoring
8 41 (6.43%) Change Management
9 38 (5.96%) Validation
10 35 (5.49%) Network Design
11 34 (5.33%) Continuous Improvement
12 33 (5.17%) Technical Leadership
13 30 (4.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 29 (4.55%) Network Management
15 26 (4.08%) CI/CD
16 24 (3.76%) Incident Management
16 24 (3.76%) Infrastructure as Code
17 23 (3.61%) Network Segmentation
17 23 (3.61%) Network Virtualisation
Programming Languages
1 46 (7.21%) Python
2 10 (1.57%) Bash
2 10 (1.57%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.10%) ActionScript
4 3 (0.47%) C++
4 3 (0.47%) SQL
5 2 (0.31%) Perl
5 2 (0.31%) Search Processing Language
6 1 (0.16%) Go
6 1 (0.16%) Groovy
6 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 193 (30.25%) Security Cleared
2 155 (24.29%) Cisco Certification
3 128 (20.06%) SC Cleared
4 112 (17.55%) CCNP
5 74 (11.60%) CCNA
6 62 (9.72%) DV Cleared
7 23 (3.61%) CCIE
8 18 (2.82%) Degree
9 8 (1.25%) CISSP
10 6 (0.94%) CCSE
10 6 (0.94%) JNCIS
10 6 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
11 5 (0.78%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.78%) CCSM
11 5 (0.78%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.78%) JNCIA
12 4 (0.63%) CCIE Wireless
12 4 (0.63%) CWNA
13 3 (0.47%) Azure Certification
13 3 (0.47%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (2.51%) SLA
2 11 (1.72%) QA
3 9 (1.41%) NIST
4 7 (1.10%) Disclosure Scotland
5 4 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.31%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.31%) GDPR
6 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 1 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 59 (9.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 27 (4.23%) VMware NSX
3 25 (3.92%) Firmware
4 18 (2.82%) Active Directory
5 10 (1.57%) vSphere
6 9 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.78%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.47%) FreeRADIUS
9 2 (0.31%) Docker
9 2 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.16%) Snort
10 1 (0.16%) Squid
Systems Management
1 38 (5.96%) Ansible
2 21 (3.29%) FortiGate
3 12 (1.88%) Kubernetes
4 6 (0.94%) Cisco Prime
5 5 (0.78%) Cisco CUCM
6 4 (0.63%) Nagios
6 4 (0.63%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.47%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.31%) Avamar
8 2 (0.31%) Grafana
8 2 (0.31%) Puppet
8 2 (0.31%) SolarWinds Orion
9 1 (0.16%) Argo
9 1 (0.16%) CASB
9 1 (0.16%) Cilium
9 1 (0.16%) Iperf
9 1 (0.16%) Istio
9 1 (0.16%) Packer
9 1 (0.16%) Suricata
Vendors
1 360 (56.43%) Cisco
2 118 (18.50%) Palo Alto
3 112 (17.55%) F5
4 75 (11.76%) VMware
5 57 (8.93%) CheckPoint
5 57 (8.93%) Fortinet
6 47 (7.37%) Juniper
7 38 (5.96%) Meraki
8 34 (5.33%) Aruba
9 33 (5.17%) Microsoft
10 29 (4.55%) SolarWinds
11 22 (3.45%) Nokia
12 21 (3.29%) ServiceNow
13 19 (2.98%) Blue Coat
14 18 (2.82%) McAfee
15 16 (2.51%) NetApp
16 15 (2.35%) Google
17 12 (1.88%) Arista
17 12 (1.88%) Zscaler
18 11 (1.72%) Ekahau