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 24 April 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 91 58
Rank change year-on-year -14 -33 +26
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 536 351 672
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.28% 2.74% 3.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.48% 2.96% 3.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 240 411
10th Percentile £301 £300 £275
25th Percentile £400 £363 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +2.92% - -
75th Percentile £538 £565 £519
90th Percentile £588 £613 £634
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £460
% change year-on-year - +3.26% -3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 2 18
10th Percentile £49.49 £23.53 £17.41
25th Percentile £63.55 £31.06 £24.31
Median hourly rate £77.50 £45.75 £66.50
Median % change year-on-year +69.40% -31.20% +7.26%
75th Percentile £78.75 £62.06 £73.75
90th Percentile - £70.58 £75.24
UK median hourly rate £75.02 £57.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +30.47% +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 21,623 11,844 19,243
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.04% 92.34% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,725 7,620 11,846
10th Percentile £275 £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 £575 £598
90th Percentile £679 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,394 815 2,208
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.13 £15.63
Median hourly rate £44.00 £28.75 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.04% -23.33% -11.76%
75th Percentile £65.88 £65.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £29.23 £35.50
% change year-on-year +45.40% -17.66% -21.11%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 +7 180 £475 -5.00% 59
North of England -47 146 £474 +0.58% 54
North West -22 120 £475 - 33
Midlands +12 105 £438 +2.94% 37
West Midlands +17 98 £429 +55.91% 23
Scotland +21 44 £413 +3.13% 13
East of England -6 42 £455 -11.22% 23
South West -31 42 £529 +11.96% 14
Yorkshire -49 26 £450 -2.70% 12
Wales -8 25 £425 +13.33% 9
East Midlands -45 3 £500 +11.11% 14
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 - 3
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 24 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.

1 309 (57.65%) Cisco
2 250 (46.64%) Firewall
3 215 (40.11%) Security Cleared
4 160 (29.85%) LAN
5 159 (29.66%) WAN
6 155 (28.92%) Cisco Certification
7 153 (28.54%) SC Cleared
8 131 (24.44%) BGP
9 126 (23.51%) CCNP
9 126 (23.51%) DNS
10 124 (23.13%) VPN
11 120 (22.39%) Palo Alto
12 113 (21.08%) F5
13 106 (19.78%) Network Security
14 96 (17.91%) Load Balancing
15 94 (17.54%) OSPF
16 79 (14.74%) Juniper
17 74 (13.81%) CCNA
17 74 (13.81%) Wireless
18 72 (13.43%) DV Cleared
18 72 (13.43%) VMware
19 71 (13.25%) TCP/IP
20 69 (12.87%) VLAN
21 54 (10.07%) Aruba
21 54 (10.07%) CheckPoint
21 54 (10.07%) SD-WAN
22 53 (9.89%) BIG-IP
22 53 (9.89%) VMware Infrastructure
23 52 (9.70%) High Availability
24 49 (9.14%) Wi-Fi

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 (0.93%) Apache
2 5 (0.93%) IIS
3 2 (0.37%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.19%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (2.43%) 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 44 (8.21%) AWS
2 40 (7.46%) Azure
3 20 (3.73%) GCP
4 10 (1.87%) GitHub
5 8 (1.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 7 (1.31%) Entra ID
7 6 (1.12%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 6 (1.12%) Nutanix
8 4 (0.75%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (0.75%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.56%) AWS Direct Connect
9 3 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (0.56%) Catchpoint
9 3 (0.56%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (0.56%) Google Ads
9 3 (0.56%) Google Compute Engine
9 3 (0.56%) Route 53
9 3 (0.56%) SaaS
10 2 (0.37%) AWS IoT
10 2 (0.37%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 250 (46.64%) Firewall
2 160 (29.85%) LAN
3 159 (29.66%) WAN
4 131 (24.44%) BGP
5 126 (23.51%) DNS
6 124 (23.13%) VPN
7 106 (19.78%) Network Security
8 94 (17.54%) OSPF
9 74 (13.81%) Wireless
10 71 (13.25%) TCP/IP
11 69 (12.87%) VLAN
12 54 (10.07%) SD-WAN
13 53 (9.89%) BIG-IP
14 49 (9.14%) Wi-Fi
15 47 (8.77%) IPsec
16 46 (8.58%) DHCP
17 45 (8.40%) Cisco Nexus
18 44 (8.21%) Cisco ISE
19 43 (8.02%) SSL
19 43 (8.02%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
1 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 28 (5.22%) Fiddler
2 17 (3.17%) JIRA
3 9 (1.68%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
5 6 (1.12%) Git
6 4 (0.75%) GitLab
7 2 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
General
1 78 (14.55%) Social Skills
2 40 (7.46%) Banking
3 37 (6.90%) Investment Banking
4 32 (5.97%) Documentation Skills
5 31 (5.78%) Public Sector
6 24 (4.48%) Manufacturing
7 22 (4.10%) Telecoms
8 20 (3.73%) Analytical Skills
9 10 (1.87%) Finance
10 9 (1.68%) Legal
11 8 (1.49%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.93%) Law
13 4 (0.75%) Military
13 4 (0.75%) Police
14 3 (0.56%) Influencing Skills
15 2 (0.37%) Electronics
15 2 (0.37%) Marketing
15 2 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.37%) Retail
16 1 (0.19%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (5.60%) 802.1X
2 9 (1.68%) LDAP
3 8 (1.49%) 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
1 109 (20.34%) Data Centre
2 22 (4.10%) Management Information System
3 15 (2.80%) PKI
4 12 (2.24%) NHS
4 12 (2.24%) Operational Technology
5 11 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
6 10 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (1.68%) Clustering
7 9 (1.68%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (1.49%) Security Posture
9 7 (1.31%) Onboarding
10 5 (0.93%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.75%) Cloud Native
11 4 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (0.56%) 3D Printing
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%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 48 (8.96%) Windows
2 25 (4.66%) Linux
3 14 (2.61%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.75%) Unix
5 3 (0.56%) CatOS
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 96 (17.91%) Load Balancing
2 52 (9.70%) High Availability
3 45 (8.40%) Problem-Solving
4 42 (7.84%) Network Monitoring
5 40 (7.46%) ITIL
6 39 (7.28%) Migration
7 33 (6.16%) Network Design
8 32 (5.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 28 (5.22%) Data Loss Prevention
9 28 (5.22%) Malware Detection/Protection
10 25 (4.66%) Change Management
10 25 (4.66%) Collaborative Working
10 25 (4.66%) ITSM
11 24 (4.48%) Network Management
11 24 (4.48%) Project Delivery
12 23 (4.29%) Validation
13 22 (4.10%) Service Management
14 21 (3.92%) Network Architecture
14 21 (3.92%) Technical Leadership
15 19 (3.54%) Network Virtualisation
Programming Languages
1 34 (6.34%) Python
2 6 (1.12%) SQL
3 4 (0.75%) Bash
4 2 (0.37%) Lisp
5 1 (0.19%) Perl
5 1 (0.19%) PHP
5 1 (0.19%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 215 (40.11%) Security Cleared
2 155 (28.92%) Cisco Certification
3 153 (28.54%) SC Cleared
4 126 (23.51%) CCNP
5 74 (13.81%) CCNA
6 72 (13.43%) DV Cleared
7 21 (3.92%) Degree
8 20 (3.73%) JNCIS
9 17 (3.17%) CCIE
10 16 (2.99%) JNCIA
11 11 (2.05%) JNCIP
11 11 (2.05%) 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%) CCSE
13 3 (0.56%) CWNA
13 3 (0.56%) CWNE
13 3 (0.56%) CWSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (1.12%) QA
1 6 (1.12%) SLA
2 5 (0.93%) Disclosure Scotland
3 4 (0.75%) NIST
4 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.56%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 2 (0.37%) NCSC
5 2 (0.37%) PMO
6 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.19%) GDPR
6 1 (0.19%) GRC
6 1 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
System Software
1 53 (9.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 39 (7.28%) VMware NSX
3 27 (5.04%) Firmware
4 19 (3.54%) Active Directory
5 6 (1.12%) vSphere
6 5 (0.93%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.37%) KVM
7 2 (0.37%) vCloud
8 1 (0.19%) Citrix Presentation Server
8 1 (0.19%) Docker
8 1 (0.19%) RHEV
8 1 (0.19%) Snort
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 38 (7.09%) Ansible
2 27 (5.04%) FortiGate
3 26 (4.85%) Terraform
4 8 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.12%) Nagios
5 6 (1.12%) vCenter Server
6 5 (0.93%) Cisco Prime
6 5 (0.93%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.37%) WSUS
9 1 (0.19%) Avamar
9 1 (0.19%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.19%) CASB
9 1 (0.19%) Iperf
9 1 (0.19%) Nessus
9 1 (0.19%) Norton AntiVirus
9 1 (0.19%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.19%) SCOM
9 1 (0.19%) Suricata
9 1 (0.19%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 309 (57.65%) Cisco
2 120 (22.39%) Palo Alto
3 113 (21.08%) F5
4 79 (14.74%) Juniper
5 72 (13.43%) VMware
6 54 (10.07%) Aruba
6 54 (10.07%) CheckPoint
7 38 (7.09%) SolarWinds
8 36 (6.72%) Fortinet
9 31 (5.78%) McAfee
10 30 (5.60%) Blue Coat
11 26 (4.85%) Meraki
12 24 (4.48%) Microsoft
13 21 (3.92%) NetApp
14 18 (3.36%) ServiceNow
15 15 (2.80%) Ekahau
15 15 (2.80%) Google
16 12 (2.24%) Extreme Networks
17 11 (2.05%) Splunk
18 10 (1.87%) Arista