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 29 June 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 82 62
Rank change year-on-year -21 -20 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 604 391 633
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.31% 2.84% 2.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.51% 3.12% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 375 269 392
10th Percentile £303 £300 £273
25th Percentile £400 £382 £357
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £464
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% +2.43% +6.00%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £538
90th Percentile £600 £625 £625
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 5 13
10th Percentile £28.20 £22.22 £17.80
25th Percentile £58.13 £22.50 £20.74
Median hourly rate £73.00 £35.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +108.57% -33.33% -15.32%
75th Percentile £78.75 £43.25 £75.00
90th Percentile - £63.05 £75.24
UK median hourly rate £72.54 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +45.08% +25.00% -35.48%

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 24,042 12,532 19,574
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.97% 91.15% 92.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,723 7,830 11,709
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,784 998 2,462
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.49 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.64 £15.99
Median hourly rate £44.75 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +77.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.54
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -14.50%

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 29 June 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 29 June 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 29 June 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 -13 206 £490 -0.41% 58
South East -17 156 £463 -7.50% 64
North West +1 154 £494 -1.25% 29
Midlands +1 116 £444 +3.20% 42
West Midlands +9 109 £438 +59.09% 20
Scotland +26 68 £415 -0.90% 19
East of England -9 42 £438 +14.38% 33
South West -48 41 £550 +4.76% 31
Yorkshire -46 39 £450 -8.54% 21
Wales -7 25 £425 - 9
North East -25 13 £600 +108.70% 8
East Midlands -21 4 £475 +5.56% 22
Northern Ireland +1 2 £468 -18.70% 11
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 June 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.

1 329 (54.47%) Cisco
2 264 (43.71%) Firewall
3 208 (34.44%) Security Cleared
4 178 (29.47%) LAN
5 177 (29.30%) WAN
6 169 (27.98%) Cisco Certification
7 146 (24.17%) SC Cleared
8 139 (23.01%) VPN
9 137 (22.68%) DNS
10 134 (22.19%) Network Security
11 126 (20.86%) BGP
12 123 (20.36%) CCNP
12 123 (20.36%) F5
13 115 (19.04%) Load Balancing
14 111 (18.38%) Wireless
15 106 (17.55%) Palo Alto
16 85 (14.07%) CCNA
17 81 (13.41%) OSPF
17 81 (13.41%) VMware
18 72 (11.92%) Juniper
19 69 (11.42%) Wi-Fi
20 68 (11.26%) SD-WAN
21 67 (11.09%) VLAN
22 65 (10.76%) DV Cleared
22 65 (10.76%) High Availability
23 64 (10.60%) TCP/IP
24 59 (9.77%) Migration
24 59 (9.77%) VMware Infrastructure
25 56 (9.27%) Windows
26 55 (9.11%) BIG-IP

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 4 (0.66%) Confluence
2 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.17%) Apache
3 1 (0.17%) CMS
3 1 (0.17%) IIS
3 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (2.32%) MS Visio
2 8 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (7.95%) Azure
2 40 (6.62%) AWS
3 24 (3.97%) GCP
4 17 (2.81%) GitHub
5 9 (1.49%) IaaS
6 7 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (1.16%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 7 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 5 (0.83%) Entra ID
8 4 (0.66%) AWS Direct Connect
8 4 (0.66%) Google Compute Engine
8 4 (0.66%) Nutanix
8 4 (0.66%) SaaS
9 3 (0.50%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (0.50%) Catchpoint
9 3 (0.50%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (0.50%) OCI
9 3 (0.50%) Route 53
10 2 (0.33%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (0.33%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 264 (43.71%) Firewall
2 178 (29.47%) LAN
3 177 (29.30%) WAN
4 139 (23.01%) VPN
5 137 (22.68%) DNS
6 134 (22.19%) Network Security
7 126 (20.86%) BGP
8 111 (18.38%) Wireless
9 81 (13.41%) OSPF
10 69 (11.42%) Wi-Fi
11 68 (11.26%) SD-WAN
12 67 (11.09%) VLAN
13 64 (10.60%) TCP/IP
14 55 (9.11%) BIG-IP
15 50 (8.28%) Cisco Nexus
16 46 (7.62%) SSL
17 43 (7.12%) DHCP
18 42 (6.95%) MPLS
18 42 (6.95%) Multicast
19 40 (6.62%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 22 (3.64%) Fiddler
1 22 (3.64%) JIRA
2 18 (2.98%) Jenkins
3 10 (1.66%) Git
4 6 (0.99%) GitLab
4 6 (0.99%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.33%) Browser DevTools
General
1 79 (13.08%) Social Skills
2 40 (6.62%) Banking
3 35 (5.79%) Investment Banking
4 29 (4.80%) Telecoms
5 28 (4.64%) Analytical Skills
6 26 (4.30%) Public Sector
7 23 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (3.48%) Manufacturing
9 18 (2.98%) Finance
10 14 (2.32%) Legal
11 9 (1.49%) Aerospace
12 6 (0.99%) Retail
13 5 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.83%) Law
13 5 (0.83%) Military
13 5 (0.83%) Police
14 3 (0.50%) Organisational Skills
15 1 (0.17%) Back Office
15 1 (0.17%) Pharmaceutical
15 1 (0.17%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (5.96%) 802.1X
2 7 (1.16%) LDAP
3 6 (0.99%) SAML
4 3 (0.50%) REST
5 2 (0.33%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.17%) Django
6 1 (0.17%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.17%) Jinja
6 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.17%) NETCONF
6 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 106 (17.55%) Data Centre
2 21 (3.48%) Management Information System
3 20 (3.31%) PKI
4 13 (2.15%) Hybrid Cloud
5 12 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (1.99%) Onboarding
5 12 (1.99%) Security Posture
6 11 (1.82%) Cloud Native
6 11 (1.82%) Operational Technology
7 10 (1.66%) NHS
8 9 (1.49%) Clustering
9 6 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (0.83%) Public Cloud
11 3 (0.50%) Driving Licence
11 3 (0.50%) Fibre Optics
11 3 (0.50%) SCADA
12 2 (0.33%) CCTV
12 2 (0.33%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (0.33%) Video Conferencing
12 2 (0.33%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 56 (9.27%) Windows
2 33 (5.46%) Linux
3 11 (1.82%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.66%) Unix
5 1 (0.17%) CatOS
5 1 (0.17%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.17%) Solaris
5 1 (0.17%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.17%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
5 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (19.04%) Load Balancing
2 65 (10.76%) High Availability
3 59 (9.77%) Migration
4 53 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
5 50 (8.28%) Network Monitoring
6 46 (7.62%) ITIL
7 41 (6.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 38 (6.29%) Project Delivery
9 31 (5.13%) Network Design
10 29 (4.80%) Change Management
10 29 (4.80%) Technical Leadership
11 28 (4.64%) Continuous Improvement
12 26 (4.30%) ITSM
12 26 (4.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 26 (4.30%) Validation
13 25 (4.14%) Service Management
14 24 (3.97%) CI/CD
14 24 (3.97%) Network Management
15 23 (3.81%) Data Loss Prevention
15 23 (3.81%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 43 (7.12%) Python
2 7 (1.16%) ActionScript
3 6 (0.99%) SQL
4 5 (0.83%) PowerShell
5 4 (0.66%) Bash
6 2 (0.33%) Perl
7 1 (0.17%) Groovy
7 1 (0.17%) PHP
Qualifications
1 208 (34.44%) Security Cleared
2 169 (27.98%) Cisco Certification
3 146 (24.17%) SC Cleared
4 123 (20.36%) CCNP
5 85 (14.07%) CCNA
6 65 (10.76%) DV Cleared
7 23 (3.81%) Degree
8 22 (3.64%) CCIE
9 13 (2.15%) JNCIS
10 12 (1.99%) JNCIA
11 10 (1.66%) Network+ Certification
12 9 (1.49%) JNCIP
13 6 (0.99%) CCSE
14 5 (0.83%) CCIE Wireless
14 5 (0.83%) CCSM
14 5 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
14 5 (0.83%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (0.83%) Server+ Certification
15 4 (0.66%) AWS Certification
15 4 (0.66%) CWDP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (2.15%) SLA
2 10 (1.66%) QA
3 8 (1.32%) Disclosure Scotland
3 8 (1.32%) NIST
4 3 (0.50%) GDPR
5 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.33%) JSP 440
5 2 (0.33%) NCSC
5 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.17%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.17%) GRC
6 1 (0.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.17%) PMO
System Software
1 59 (9.77%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (5.30%) VMware NSX
3 27 (4.47%) Firmware
4 22 (3.64%) Active Directory
5 11 (1.82%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.66%) vSphere
7 4 (0.66%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.33%) vCloud
8 2 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.17%) Docker
9 1 (0.17%) FreeRADIUS
9 1 (0.17%) KVM
9 1 (0.17%) Snort
9 1 (0.17%) Squid
9 1 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 36 (5.96%) Ansible
2 29 (4.80%) FortiGate
3 28 (4.64%) Terraform
4 6 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.83%) Cisco Prime
5 5 (0.83%) Kubernetes
6 2 (0.33%) Avamar
6 2 (0.33%) CASB
6 2 (0.33%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.33%) Nagios
6 2 (0.33%) WSUS
7 1 (0.17%) Grafana
7 1 (0.17%) Iperf
7 1 (0.17%) Packer
7 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.17%) Puppet
7 1 (0.17%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (0.17%) Suricata
7 1 (0.17%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 329 (54.47%) Cisco
2 123 (20.36%) F5
3 106 (17.55%) Palo Alto
4 81 (13.41%) VMware
5 72 (11.92%) Juniper
6 50 (8.28%) Fortinet
7 46 (7.62%) Aruba
8 43 (7.12%) CheckPoint
9 33 (5.46%) Microsoft
10 32 (5.30%) SolarWinds
11 25 (4.14%) McAfee
12 24 (3.97%) Blue Coat
13 21 (3.48%) ServiceNow
14 20 (3.31%) Google
15 19 (3.15%) Meraki
15 19 (3.15%) NetApp
16 17 (2.81%) Extreme Networks
17 16 (2.65%) Arista
17 16 (2.65%) Splunk
18 14 (2.32%) Ekahau