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 10 April 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 89 58
Rank change year-on-year -20 -31 +34
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 534 373 685
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.31% 2.95% 3.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.51% 3.19% 3.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 349 250 420
10th Percentile £303 £300 £281
25th Percentile £401 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% - -
75th Percentile £538 £565 £519
90th Percentile £588 £613 £625
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £460
% change year-on-year - +3.26% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 2 16
10th Percentile £49.49 £23.53 £17.81
25th Percentile £63.55 £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 £73.40 £57.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +27.65% +43.75% -39.39%

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 21,273 11,684 19,386
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 92.33% 92.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,620 7,609 11,994
10th Percentile £263 £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 £599
90th Percentile £675 £656 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,326 768 2,156
10th Percentile £14.46 £14.34 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.51 £15.61
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.20 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.87% -13.71% -17.38%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.13 £75.73 £72.39
UK median hourly rate £40.54 £31.58 £35.00
% change year-on-year +28.37% -9.77% -21.81%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 +5 177 £480 -2.04% 72
North of England -46 160 £475 - 53
North West -12 137 £478 +0.53% 31
Midlands +4 102 £438 +2.94% 53
West Midlands +9 95 £429 +55.91% 31
South West -28 42 £525 +11.11% 31
Scotland +13 39 £415 +3.75% 19
East of England -12 38 £450 -10.00% 25
Wales -9 25 £425 +9.68% 10
Yorkshire -55 23 £450 -2.70% 16
East Midlands -45 3 £500 +11.11% 22
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 - 5
North East -18 1 - - 6
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 10 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.

1 308 (57.68%) Cisco
2 252 (47.19%) Firewall
3 225 (42.13%) Security Cleared
4 161 (30.15%) SC Cleared
5 158 (29.59%) WAN
6 150 (28.09%) Cisco Certification
6 150 (28.09%) LAN
7 130 (24.34%) BGP
8 124 (23.22%) CCNP
9 123 (23.03%) VPN
10 122 (22.85%) DNS
11 120 (22.47%) Palo Alto
12 106 (19.85%) F5
13 102 (19.10%) Load Balancing
14 101 (18.91%) Network Security
15 91 (17.04%) OSPF
16 85 (15.92%) Juniper
17 76 (14.23%) TCP/IP
18 75 (14.04%) VMware
19 72 (13.48%) DV Cleared
20 69 (12.92%) CCNA
21 66 (12.36%) VLAN
21 66 (12.36%) Wireless
22 56 (10.49%) Aruba
22 56 (10.49%) VMware Infrastructure
23 54 (10.11%) BIG-IP
23 54 (10.11%) Wi-Fi
24 52 (9.74%) Cisco ISE
25 51 (9.55%) SD-WAN
26 50 (9.36%) CheckPoint

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 2 (0.37%) 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%) Microsoft 365
9 2 (0.37%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 252 (47.19%) Firewall
2 158 (29.59%) WAN
3 150 (28.09%) LAN
4 130 (24.34%) BGP
5 123 (23.03%) VPN
6 122 (22.85%) DNS
7 101 (18.91%) Network Security
8 91 (17.04%) OSPF
9 76 (14.23%) TCP/IP
10 66 (12.36%) VLAN
10 66 (12.36%) Wireless
11 54 (10.11%) BIG-IP
11 54 (10.11%) Wi-Fi
12 52 (9.74%) 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 77 (14.42%) Social Skills
2 42 (7.87%) Banking
3 39 (7.30%) Investment Banking
4 34 (6.37%) Public Sector
5 32 (5.99%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (4.31%) Telecoms
7 22 (4.12%) Manufacturing
8 20 (3.75%) Analytical Skills
9 12 (2.25%) Finance
10 11 (2.06%) Legal
11 6 (1.12%) 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%) Inclusion and Diversity
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
11 4 (0.75%) IoT
12 3 (0.56%) 3D Printing
12 3 (0.56%) Cloud Native
12 3 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (0.56%) Wiki
13 2 (0.37%) Enterprise Cloud
13 2 (0.37%) Product Ownership
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 50 (9.36%) High Availability
3 44 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
4 41 (7.68%) ITIL
5 40 (7.49%) Network Monitoring
6 39 (7.30%) Migration
6 39 (7.30%) Network Design
7 30 (5.62%) Data Loss Prevention
7 30 (5.62%) Malware Detection/Protection
8 29 (5.43%) Collaborative Working
9 27 (5.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 27 (5.06%) ITSM
9 27 (5.06%) Network Architecture
10 26 (4.87%) Change Management
11 25 (4.68%) Service Management
12 23 (4.31%) Network Management
12 23 (4.31%) Project Delivery
12 23 (4.31%) Validation
13 20 (3.75%) Cybersecurity
13 20 (3.75%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 44 (8.24%) Python
2 10 (1.87%) Bash
3 7 (1.31%) Perl
3 7 (1.31%) SQL
4 6 (1.12%) PowerShell
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%) Azure Certification
13 3 (0.56%) CCIE Wireless
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%) GDPR
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%) 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
1 308 (57.68%) Cisco
2 120 (22.47%) Palo Alto
3 106 (19.85%) F5
4 85 (15.92%) Juniper
5 75 (14.04%) VMware
6 56 (10.49%) Aruba
7 50 (9.36%) CheckPoint
8 39 (7.30%) SolarWinds
9 34 (6.37%) Blue Coat
9 34 (6.37%) Fortinet
9 34 (6.37%) McAfee
10 32 (5.99%) Meraki
11 25 (4.68%) Microsoft
12 22 (4.12%) NetApp
13 19 (3.56%) ServiceNow
14 17 (3.18%) Ekahau
15 15 (2.81%) Google
16 12 (2.25%) Extreme Networks
17 11 (2.06%) Splunk
18 10 (1.87%) Arista