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 5 October 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 112 61
Rank change year-on-year +3 -51 +5
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 649 349 569
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.31% 2.22% 3.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.54% 2.49% 3.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 343 251 299
10th Percentile £303 £300 £275
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% -3.06% +15.29%
75th Percentile £535 £550 £550
90th Percentile £600 £630 £635
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -0.07% -5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 9 14
10th Percentile £8.00 £20.40 £18.95
25th Percentile £59.69 £22.03 £20.00
Median hourly rate £73.00 £35.00 £21.39
Median % change year-on-year +108.57% +63.65% -65.78%
75th Percentile £78.75 £67.25 £54.69
90th Percentile £92.53 £84.33 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £34.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year +114.71% -18.07% -33.06%

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 25,556 14,028 16,193
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.04% 89.40% 92.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,829 8,610 9,219
10th Percentile £300 £210 £219
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £669 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,458 1,324 1,293
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.70
25th Percentile £19.33 £16.30 £19.59
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.04 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.69% -41.77% -2.05%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £66.33
90th Percentile £78.51 £69.65 £74.30
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +65.94% -40.82% -4.49%

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 5 October 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 5 October 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 5 October 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 +21 246 £498 +1.63% 124
North West +23 166 £500 +2.30% 60
Midlands -13 103 £475 +18.75% 100
South East -56 94 £463 -7.50% 140
West Midlands -25 84 £475 +23.38% 59
Scotland +21 83 £400 -8.57% 36
Yorkshire -3 67 £450 -7.64% 43
East of England +8 60 £400 +4.58% 89
South West -8 59 £535 -13.71% 82
Wales +21 37 £363 - 29
East Midlands +3 19 £500 -23.08% 41
North East -28 13 £600 - 21
Northern Ireland +1 2 £425 -10.53% 16
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 +36.36%
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 5 October 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.

1 350 (53.93%) Cisco
2 231 (35.59%) Firewall
3 187 (28.81%) Security Cleared
4 175 (26.96%) WAN
5 173 (26.66%) LAN
6 151 (23.27%) Cisco Certification
7 148 (22.80%) Network Security
8 142 (21.88%) Wireless
9 139 (21.42%) VPN
10 131 (20.18%) BGP
11 112 (17.26%) CCNP
12 111 (17.10%) DNS
12 111 (17.10%) Palo Alto
12 111 (17.10%) SC Cleared
13 93 (14.33%) F5
13 93 (14.33%) OSPF
14 85 (13.10%) Load Balancing
15 78 (12.02%) Problem-Solving
15 78 (12.02%) Wi-Fi
16 72 (11.09%) VLAN
17 71 (10.94%) CCNA
18 69 (10.63%) DV Cleared
19 68 (10.48%) TCP/IP
20 66 (10.17%) SD-WAN
20 66 (10.17%) VMware
21 61 (9.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
22 60 (9.24%) Fortinet
23 59 (9.09%) Python
24 53 (8.17%) Migration
25 52 (8.01%) 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 8 (1.23%) SAS
2 4 (0.62%) Confluence
3 1 (0.15%) CMS
3 1 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
3 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 12 (1.85%) MS Visio
2 5 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 49 (7.55%) Azure
2 42 (6.47%) AWS
3 28 (4.31%) GCP
4 17 (2.62%) GitHub
5 9 (1.39%) IaaS
6 7 (1.08%) AWS Direct Connect
6 7 (1.08%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (0.92%) Entra ID
7 6 (0.92%) Nutanix
7 6 (0.92%) OCI
8 5 (0.77%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.62%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (0.46%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (0.46%) Cloudflare
10 3 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (0.31%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 1 (0.15%) AWS Lambda
12 1 (0.15%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.15%) IBM Watson
12 1 (0.15%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 231 (35.59%) Firewall
2 175 (26.96%) WAN
3 173 (26.66%) LAN
4 148 (22.80%) Network Security
5 142 (21.88%) Wireless
6 139 (21.42%) VPN
7 131 (20.18%) BGP
8 111 (17.10%) DNS
9 93 (14.33%) OSPF
10 78 (12.02%) Wi-Fi
11 72 (11.09%) VLAN
12 68 (10.48%) TCP/IP
13 66 (10.17%) SD-WAN
14 51 (7.86%) Cisco ASA
15 49 (7.55%) MPLS
16 46 (7.09%) DHCP
17 45 (6.93%) Cisco Nexus
17 45 (6.93%) SSL
18 42 (6.47%) Cisco Firepower
19 40 (6.16%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.77%) GIS
2 1 (0.15%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 18 (2.77%) Git
2 17 (2.62%) Jenkins
3 13 (2.00%) JIRA
4 11 (1.69%) Fiddler
5 7 (1.08%) GitLab
6 2 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.15%) Artifactory
General
1 86 (13.25%) Social Skills
2 40 (6.16%) Telecoms
3 38 (5.86%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (5.86%) Public Sector
4 37 (5.70%) Banking
5 30 (4.62%) Finance
6 25 (3.85%) Investment Banking
7 16 (2.47%) Manufacturing
8 15 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
9 13 (2.00%) Legal
10 8 (1.23%) Aerospace
11 6 (0.92%) Police
12 5 (0.77%) Military
13 4 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.62%) Retail
14 3 (0.46%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.31%) Pharmaceutical
16 1 (0.15%) Financial Institution
16 1 (0.15%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (5.70%) Terraform
2 26 (4.01%) 802.1X
3 10 (1.54%) REST
4 8 (1.23%) NETCONF
5 5 (0.77%) JSON
5 5 (0.77%) SAML
5 5 (0.77%) XML
5 5 (0.77%) YAML
6 3 (0.46%) Java RMI
7 2 (0.31%) LDAP
7 2 (0.31%) ModSecurity
8 1 (0.15%) RESTCONF
8 1 (0.15%) XMPP
8 1 (0.15%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 93 (14.33%) Data Centre
2 21 (3.24%) Driving Licence
3 20 (3.08%) PKI
4 19 (2.93%) Hybrid Cloud
5 18 (2.77%) Management Information System
5 18 (2.77%) Operational Technology
6 17 (2.62%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.62%) Self-Motivation
7 12 (1.85%) Cloud Native
8 10 (1.54%) SCADA
9 9 (1.39%) Security Posture
10 8 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.23%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.08%) Fibre Optics
11 7 (1.08%) Video Conferencing
12 5 (0.77%) CMDB
12 5 (0.77%) Private Cloud
13 4 (0.62%) Cyber Defence
13 4 (0.62%) Cyber Threat
13 4 (0.62%) Handset
Operating Systems
1 42 (6.47%) Windows
2 37 (5.70%) Linux
3 13 (2.00%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.62%) Unix
6 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.15%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
6 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (13.10%) Load Balancing
2 78 (12.02%) Problem-Solving
3 61 (9.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 53 (8.17%) Migration
5 51 (7.86%) ITIL
5 51 (7.86%) Project Delivery
6 45 (6.93%) Network Design
7 44 (6.78%) Network Monitoring
8 41 (6.32%) High Availability
9 38 (5.86%) Continuous Improvement
9 38 (5.86%) Validation
10 33 (5.08%) Change Management
11 30 (4.62%) Infrastructure as Code
12 29 (4.47%) Network Management
13 28 (4.31%) CI/CD
13 28 (4.31%) Network Segmentation
13 28 (4.31%) Technical Leadership
13 28 (4.31%) Zero Trust
14 24 (3.70%) Network Architecture
14 24 (3.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 59 (9.09%) Python
2 18 (2.77%) PowerShell
3 15 (2.31%) Bash
4 9 (1.39%) ActionScript
5 6 (0.92%) SQL
6 3 (0.46%) C++
6 3 (0.46%) Perl
7 2 (0.31%) Search Processing Language
8 1 (0.15%) Go
8 1 (0.15%) Groovy
8 1 (0.15%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 187 (28.81%) Security Cleared
2 151 (23.27%) Cisco Certification
3 112 (17.26%) CCNP
4 111 (17.10%) SC Cleared
5 71 (10.94%) CCNA
6 69 (10.63%) DV Cleared
7 24 (3.70%) CCIE
8 21 (3.24%) Degree
9 8 (1.23%) CISSP
10 6 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (0.92%) Network+ Certification
11 5 (0.77%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.62%) CCIE Wireless
12 4 (0.62%) CCSE
12 4 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.62%) CWNA
12 4 (0.62%) JNCIS
13 3 (0.46%) CWNE
13 3 (0.46%) CWSP
13 3 (0.46%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.16%) SLA
2 13 (2.00%) NIST
2 13 (2.00%) QA
3 7 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (0.77%) Disclosure Scotland
4 5 (0.77%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.46%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.31%) GDPR
6 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.31%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 48 (7.40%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (3.70%) Active Directory
3 23 (3.54%) Firmware
4 21 (3.24%) VMware NSX
5 17 (2.62%) vSphere
6 7 (1.08%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.92%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.77%) FreeRADIUS
9 2 (0.31%) Docker
9 2 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.15%) Squid
Systems Management
1 46 (7.09%) Ansible
2 21 (3.24%) FortiGate
3 12 (1.85%) Nagios
4 10 (1.54%) Kubernetes
5 7 (1.08%) Progress Chef
6 5 (0.77%) Cisco CUCM
6 5 (0.77%) Cisco Prime
6 5 (0.77%) Grafana
6 5 (0.77%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.31%) Avamar
7 2 (0.31%) Puppet
7 2 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.31%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.15%) CASB
8 1 (0.15%) Cilium
8 1 (0.15%) Istio
8 1 (0.15%) Packer
8 1 (0.15%) SCOM
8 1 (0.15%) TrustSec
8 1 (0.15%) WSUS
Vendors
1 350 (53.93%) Cisco
2 111 (17.10%) Palo Alto
3 93 (14.33%) F5
4 66 (10.17%) VMware
5 60 (9.24%) Fortinet
6 52 (8.01%) CheckPoint
7 42 (6.47%) Meraki
8 41 (6.32%) Juniper
9 37 (5.70%) Microsoft
10 36 (5.55%) SolarWinds
11 30 (4.62%) Aruba
12 22 (3.39%) Nokia
13 18 (2.77%) Arista
13 18 (2.77%) ServiceNow
14 16 (2.47%) Blue Coat
15 14 (2.16%) McAfee
16 13 (2.00%) NetApp
17 12 (1.85%) Zscaler
18 11 (1.69%) Google
18 11 (1.69%) Infoblox