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 17 October 2025.

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

6 months to
17 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 112 60 67
Rank change year-on-year -52 +7 +71
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 355 572 679
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.22% 3.32% 3.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.47% 3.60% 3.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 255 296 412
10th Percentile £306 £293 £263
25th Percentile £400 £400 £348
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £425
Median % change year-on-year - +11.76% -0.87%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £521
90th Percentile £627 £625 £575
UK median daily rate £475 £490 £450
% change year-on-year -3.06% +8.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 14 27
10th Percentile £20.40 £18.95 £24.80
25th Percentile £22.03 £20.00 £41.18
Median hourly rate £35.00 £21.39 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +63.65% -67.58% +148.23%
75th Percentile £67.25 £54.69 -
90th Percentile £84.33 £75.00 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £41.50 £61.25
% change year-on-year -18.07% -32.24% +13.43%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 14,359 15,885 19,996
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.66% 92.20% 94.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,821 9,035 13,340
10th Percentile £209 £220 £220
25th Percentile £363 £372 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £491 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.26% -1.80% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,365 1,192 1,260
10th Percentile £13.58 £14.73 £14.16
25th Percentile £16.50 £19.59 £18.00
Median hourly rate £24.62 £41.53 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -40.72% -6.67% +97.78%
75th Percentile £50.00 £66.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £41.27 £45.00
% change year-on-year -39.05% -8.30% +69.56%

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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025. 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 -57 104 £492 +0.41% 50
South East -25 96 £500 - 67
Midlands -25 68 £400 -8.05% 28
North West -50 67 £500 +2.04% 26
West Midlands -5 62 £390 -22.00% 22
Scotland +1 40 £425 +6.25% 18
Yorkshire -42 35 £490 +20.12% 14
South West -12 30 £620 +30.53% 18
East of England -3 27 £383 +27.50% 15
East Midlands -33 6 £650 +73.33% 6
Northern Ireland -5 5 £475 +6.74%
North East -7 2 £625 +47.06% 10
Wales -15 1 - - 3
Channel Islands - 1 £440 -
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 October 2025, 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.

1 243 (68.45%) Cisco
2 157 (44.23%) Firewall
2 157 (44.23%) Security Cleared
3 115 (32.39%) Cisco Certification
4 108 (30.42%) SC Cleared
5 96 (27.04%) WAN
6 80 (22.54%) CCNP
7 75 (21.13%) Juniper
8 70 (19.72%) VPN
9 67 (18.87%) LAN
10 62 (17.46%) BGP
10 62 (17.46%) Network Security
10 62 (17.46%) Palo Alto
11 59 (16.62%) F5
12 58 (16.34%) DNS
13 54 (15.21%) Cisco ISE
13 54 (15.21%) Python
14 53 (14.93%) CCNA
15 49 (13.80%) Load Balancing
16 47 (13.24%) SolarWinds
16 47 (13.24%) Wireless
17 43 (12.11%) Ansible
18 41 (11.55%) DV Cleared
19 38 (10.70%) Network Design
20 35 (9.86%) Cisco Firepower
20 35 (9.86%) Cisco IOS
20 35 (9.86%) MPLS
20 35 (9.86%) Wi-Fi
21 34 (9.58%) CheckPoint
21 34 (9.58%) 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 8 (2.25%) Confluence
2 5 (1.41%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.28%) Apache
3 1 (0.28%) IIS
Applications
1 13 (3.66%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.54%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 26 (7.32%) Azure
2 20 (5.63%) AWS
3 8 (2.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 4 (1.13%) AWS Direct Connect
5 3 (0.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 3 (0.85%) Amazon EC2
5 3 (0.85%) Amazon ELB
5 3 (0.85%) Amazon S3
6 2 (0.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 2 (0.56%) IaaS
6 2 (0.56%) Nutanix
7 1 (0.28%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.28%) GitHub
7 1 (0.28%) Lucidchart
7 1 (0.28%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.28%) PaaS
7 1 (0.28%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 157 (44.23%) Firewall
2 96 (27.04%) WAN
3 70 (19.72%) VPN
4 67 (18.87%) LAN
5 62 (17.46%) BGP
5 62 (17.46%) Network Security
6 58 (16.34%) DNS
7 54 (15.21%) Cisco ISE
8 47 (13.24%) Wireless
9 35 (9.86%) Cisco Firepower
9 35 (9.86%) Cisco IOS
9 35 (9.86%) MPLS
9 35 (9.86%) Wi-Fi
10 34 (9.58%) SD-WAN
11 33 (9.30%) OSPF
11 33 (9.30%) TCP/IP
12 30 (8.45%) Cisco Nexus
13 28 (7.89%) VLAN
14 26 (7.32%) DHCP
14 26 (7.32%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 14 (3.94%) JIRA
2 9 (2.54%) Fiddler
3 5 (1.41%) Robot Framework
4 4 (1.13%) GitLab
4 4 (1.13%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.13%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.85%) Git
6 1 (0.28%) ClearCase
General
1 61 (17.18%) Social Skills
2 39 (10.99%) Public Sector
3 31 (8.73%) Telecoms
4 24 (6.76%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (3.38%) Banking
5 12 (3.38%) Manufacturing
6 11 (3.10%) Investment Banking
7 10 (2.82%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (2.54%) Finance
9 6 (1.69%) Legal
10 4 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.56%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.28%) Automotive
12 1 (0.28%) Electronics
12 1 (0.28%) Marketing
12 1 (0.28%) Military
12 1 (0.28%) Police
12 1 (0.28%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.35%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.82%) RFC 2544
3 7 (1.97%) NETCONF
3 7 (1.97%) RESTCONF
4 1 (0.28%) CSS
4 1 (0.28%) gRPC
4 1 (0.28%) HTML
4 1 (0.28%) Jinja
4 1 (0.28%) JSON
4 1 (0.28%) Node.js
4 1 (0.28%) REST
4 1 (0.28%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 63 (17.75%) Data Centre
2 15 (4.23%) Management Information System
3 14 (3.94%) Onboarding
3 14 (3.94%) PKI
4 11 (3.10%) Fibre Optics
5 9 (2.54%) Data Protection Act
6 7 (1.97%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.69%) Security Posture
8 5 (1.41%) Cloud Native
8 5 (1.41%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.41%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (1.13%) SCADA
10 3 (0.85%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.56%) Legacy Systems
11 2 (0.56%) Life Science
11 2 (0.56%) NHS
12 1 (0.28%) CMDB
12 1 (0.28%) Enterprise Software
12 1 (0.28%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 32 (9.01%) Windows
2 18 (5.07%) Windows Server
3 14 (3.94%) Linux
4 5 (1.41%) Unix
5 2 (0.56%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.28%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.28%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.28%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (13.80%) Load Balancing
2 38 (10.70%) Network Design
3 34 (9.58%) Service Management
4 30 (8.45%) Migration
4 30 (8.45%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (6.76%) Network Management
6 22 (6.20%) High Availability
6 22 (6.20%) Network Monitoring
7 20 (5.63%) Agile
8 19 (5.35%) Network Architecture
9 18 (5.07%) DevOps
9 18 (5.07%) Incident Response
9 18 (5.07%) ITSM
10 16 (4.51%) Cybersecurity
10 16 (4.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 16 (4.51%) Project Delivery
11 13 (3.66%) Disaster Recovery
11 13 (3.66%) ITIL
11 13 (3.66%) SIEM
11 13 (3.66%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 54 (15.21%) Python
2 14 (3.94%) Bash
3 11 (3.10%) PowerShell
4 7 (1.97%) Perl
5 5 (1.41%) Lisp
5 5 (1.41%) VB
6 4 (1.13%) Java
7 3 (0.85%) SQL
8 1 (0.28%) C
8 1 (0.28%) C++
8 1 (0.28%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.28%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.28%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 157 (44.23%) Security Cleared
2 115 (32.39%) Cisco Certification
3 108 (30.42%) SC Cleared
4 80 (22.54%) CCNP
5 53 (14.93%) CCNA
6 41 (11.55%) DV Cleared
7 21 (5.92%) Degree
8 8 (2.25%) CCIE
9 7 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.41%) CCDP
11 5 (1.41%) JNCIA
12 4 (1.13%) JNCIP
13 3 (0.85%) CCSA
13 3 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (0.85%) Network+ Certification
14 2 (0.56%) A+ Certification
14 2 (0.56%) CCDA
14 2 (0.56%) ISEB
14 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (1.97%) QA
2 6 (1.69%) SLA
3 4 (1.13%) GDPR
4 3 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.56%) NCSC
6 1 (0.28%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.28%) GRC
6 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.28%) NIST
6 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 20 (5.63%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (5.35%) VMware NSX
3 17 (4.79%) Active Directory
4 11 (3.10%) Docker
5 10 (2.82%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.97%) Firmware
7 3 (0.85%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.56%) Ceph
9 1 (0.28%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 43 (12.11%) Ansible
2 27 (7.61%) FortiGate
3 19 (5.35%) vCenter Server
4 15 (4.23%) Terraform
5 5 (1.41%) Cisco CUCM
5 5 (1.41%) HP ALM
6 4 (1.13%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (1.13%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.56%) Dell DRAC
7 2 (0.56%) OpenView
7 2 (0.56%) WhatsUp Gold
8 1 (0.28%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.28%) Grafana
8 1 (0.28%) Nagios
8 1 (0.28%) SCCM
Vendors
1 243 (68.45%) Cisco
2 75 (21.13%) Juniper
3 62 (17.46%) Palo Alto
4 59 (16.62%) F5
5 47 (13.24%) SolarWinds
6 34 (9.58%) CheckPoint
6 34 (9.58%) VMware
7 32 (9.01%) Microsoft
8 26 (7.32%) Fortinet
8 26 (7.32%) Meraki
9 24 (6.76%) Aruba
10 21 (5.92%) Blue Coat
11 17 (4.79%) ServiceNow
12 15 (4.23%) McAfee
12 15 (4.23%) Zscaler
13 10 (2.82%) HP
14 8 (2.25%) LogicMonitor
14 8 (2.25%) NetApp
14 8 (2.25%) Nokia
15 7 (1.97%) Atlassian