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 28 January 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 67 61
Rank change year-on-year -48 -6 +54
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 410 455 653
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.15% 3.33% 3.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.37% 3.60% 3.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 278 245 371
10th Percentile £300 £285 £295
25th Percentile £391 £389 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £438
Median % change year-on-year +5.44% +2.86% -2.78%
75th Percentile £524 £538 £519
90th Percentile £575 £588 £626
UK median daily rate £475 £477 £450
% change year-on-year -0.42% +6.00% -2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 7 32
10th Percentile £20.23 £19.40 £24.55
25th Percentile £38.83 - £42.50
Median hourly rate £56.44 £20.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +182.20% -69.69% +96.96%
75th Percentile £69.00 £20.28 £72.36
90th Percentile £74.26 £42.34 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £20.19 £62.50
% change year-on-year +141.34% -67.70% +3.31%

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 17,306 12,622 19,122
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.71% 92.47% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,576 7,457 12,114
10th Percentile £213 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £373
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £477 £495
Median % change year-on-year -0.42% -3.64% -1.00%
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 1,774 670 1,753
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.25 £13.08
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £30.98 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.23% -22.56% +33.33%
75th Percentile £61.18 £64.01 £63.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year -8.92% -13.33% +7.14%

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 28 January 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 28 January 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 28 January 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 -8 135 £500 - 79
North of England -68 125 £500 +7.93% 63
North West -34 109 £500 +2.04% 31
Midlands -21 71 £380 -10.59% 24
West Midlands +6 66 £380 -10.59% 18
Scotland +21 50 £425 +6.25% 26
East of England -11 26 £363 +31.82% 26
South West -54 18 £475 +2.70% 39
Yorkshire -72 15 £440 +20.14% 22
Wales -9 12 £550 +69.23% 10
East Midlands -47 4 £575 +53.33% 6
Northern Ireland - 4 £475 - 3
North East -14 2 £600 +23.08% 12
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 28 January 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.

1 264 (64.39%) Cisco
2 199 (48.54%) Firewall
3 187 (45.61%) Security Cleared
4 136 (33.17%) SC Cleared
5 121 (29.51%) WAN
6 115 (28.05%) Cisco Certification
7 106 (25.85%) Palo Alto
8 99 (24.15%) LAN
9 96 (23.41%) CCNP
10 86 (20.98%) VPN
11 82 (20.00%) BGP
12 78 (19.02%) Network Security
13 77 (18.78%) DNS
14 75 (18.29%) Juniper
15 73 (17.80%) F5
16 67 (16.34%) Load Balancing
17 61 (14.88%) TCP/IP
18 59 (14.39%) CCNA
19 53 (12.93%) VMware
20 52 (12.68%) Python
21 50 (12.20%) Cisco ISE
21 50 (12.20%) DV Cleared
21 50 (12.20%) OSPF
21 50 (12.20%) SolarWinds
21 50 (12.20%) Wireless
22 49 (11.95%) CheckPoint
23 44 (10.73%) Ansible
23 44 (10.73%) SSL
23 44 (10.73%) VMware NSX
23 44 (10.73%) Windows

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 (1.95%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.46%) Confluence
3 5 (1.22%) Apache
3 5 (1.22%) IIS
Applications
1 20 (4.88%) MS Visio
2 7 (1.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.49%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 27 (6.59%) AWS
1 27 (6.59%) Azure
2 7 (1.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
3 6 (1.46%) Entra ID
4 5 (1.22%) Nutanix
5 4 (0.98%) GCP
6 3 (0.73%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.73%) Amazon EC2
6 3 (0.73%) Amazon ELB
6 3 (0.73%) Amazon S3
6 3 (0.73%) Catchpoint
6 3 (0.73%) IaaS
6 3 (0.73%) Mimecast
6 3 (0.73%) PaaS
6 3 (0.73%) SaaS
7 2 (0.49%) AWS IoT
7 2 (0.49%) Google Ads
8 1 (0.24%) AWS Direct Connect
8 1 (0.24%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.24%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 199 (48.54%) Firewall
2 121 (29.51%) WAN
3 99 (24.15%) LAN
4 86 (20.98%) VPN
5 82 (20.00%) BGP
6 78 (19.02%) Network Security
7 77 (18.78%) DNS
8 61 (14.88%) TCP/IP
9 50 (12.20%) Cisco ISE
9 50 (12.20%) OSPF
9 50 (12.20%) Wireless
10 44 (10.73%) SSL
11 43 (10.49%) VLAN
12 42 (10.24%) Wi-Fi
13 40 (9.76%) IPsec
14 37 (9.02%) SD-WAN
15 36 (8.78%) MPLS
16 35 (8.54%) Cisco IOS
16 35 (8.54%) Wireshark
17 33 (8.05%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.24%) Oracle Database
1 1 (0.24%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 26 (6.34%) Fiddler
2 9 (2.20%) Sonatype Nexus
3 7 (1.71%) JIRA
4 4 (0.98%) GitLab
4 4 (0.98%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.73%) Git
6 1 (0.24%) ClearCase
6 1 (0.24%) Robot Framework
General
1 71 (17.32%) Social Skills
2 45 (10.98%) Public Sector
3 31 (7.56%) Banking
4 29 (7.07%) Investment Banking
5 27 (6.59%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (5.61%) Telecoms
7 19 (4.63%) Analytical Skills
8 18 (4.39%) Manufacturing
9 10 (2.44%) Finance
10 9 (2.20%) Legal
11 3 (0.73%) Electronics
11 3 (0.73%) Marketing
12 2 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.49%) Law
12 2 (0.49%) Military
12 2 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.24%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.24%) Automotive
13 1 (0.24%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.24%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (6.34%) 802.1X
2 5 (1.22%) LDAP
2 5 (1.22%) SAML
3 4 (0.98%) RFC 2544
4 1 (0.24%) Django
4 1 (0.24%) gRPC
4 1 (0.24%) Jinja
4 1 (0.24%) JSON
4 1 (0.24%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 101 (24.63%) Data Centre
2 19 (4.63%) Management Information System
3 12 (2.93%) NHS
3 12 (2.93%) Onboarding
4 10 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
4 10 (2.44%) Operational Technology
4 10 (2.44%) PKI
4 10 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (1.95%) Security Posture
6 5 (1.22%) Fibre Optics
6 5 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (0.98%) Driving Licence
7 4 (0.98%) IoT
8 3 (0.73%) 3D Printing
8 3 (0.73%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (0.73%) Virtual Team
9 2 (0.49%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (0.49%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.49%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.49%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 44 (10.73%) Windows
2 28 (6.83%) Windows Server
3 17 (4.15%) Linux
4 3 (0.73%) CatOS
5 1 (0.24%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.24%) Unix
5 1 (0.24%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.24%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.24%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (16.34%) Load Balancing
2 39 (9.51%) Network Design
3 35 (8.54%) Network Monitoring
4 34 (8.29%) Problem-Solving
5 29 (7.07%) Cybersecurity
5 29 (7.07%) High Availability
5 29 (7.07%) Migration
6 27 (6.59%) Project Delivery
7 26 (6.34%) Network Architecture
7 26 (6.34%) Network Management
8 25 (6.10%) ITSM
9 22 (5.37%) Collaborative Working
9 22 (5.37%) Data Loss Prevention
9 22 (5.37%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 22 (5.37%) Service Management
10 18 (4.39%) Agile
10 18 (4.39%) Change Management
10 18 (4.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 17 (4.15%) Knowledge Transfer
12 15 (3.66%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 52 (12.68%) Python
2 12 (2.93%) Bash
3 10 (2.44%) Perl
4 8 (1.95%) Lisp
4 8 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 4 (0.98%) SQL
6 1 (0.24%) C
6 1 (0.24%) C++
6 1 (0.24%) Java
6 1 (0.24%) Ruby
6 1 (0.24%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 187 (45.61%) Security Cleared
2 136 (33.17%) SC Cleared
3 115 (28.05%) Cisco Certification
4 96 (23.41%) CCNP
5 59 (14.39%) CCNA
6 50 (12.20%) DV Cleared
7 13 (3.17%) CCIE
7 13 (3.17%) Degree
8 11 (2.68%) JNCIS
9 8 (1.95%) JNCIA
9 8 (1.95%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (1.71%) JNCIP
11 5 (1.22%) CCDP
12 4 (0.98%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.73%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
14 2 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.24%) CCIE Collaboration
15 1 (0.24%) CCIE Data Center
15 1 (0.24%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (0.98%) SLA
2 3 (0.73%) QA
3 2 (0.49%) NIST
3 2 (0.49%) PCI DSS
3 2 (0.49%) PMO
4 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.24%) GDPR
4 1 (0.24%) GRC
4 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 1 (0.24%) JSP 440
System Software
1 44 (10.73%) VMware NSX
2 32 (7.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (7.56%) Active Directory
4 20 (4.88%) Firmware
5 11 (2.68%) Docker
6 5 (1.22%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.98%) vSphere
8 2 (0.49%) vCloud
9 1 (0.24%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.24%) KVM
9 1 (0.24%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.24%) RHEV
9 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.24%) Xen
Systems Management
1 44 (10.73%) Ansible
2 22 (5.37%) FortiGate
2 22 (5.37%) vCenter Server
3 12 (2.93%) Terraform
4 5 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.98%) Kubernetes
5 4 (0.98%) Nagios
6 3 (0.73%) Cisco Prime
6 3 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.73%) WhatsUp Gold
7 2 (0.49%) Dell DRAC
8 1 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.24%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.24%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.24%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (0.24%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.24%) SCCM
8 1 (0.24%) SCOM
8 1 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 264 (64.39%) Cisco
2 106 (25.85%) Palo Alto
3 75 (18.29%) Juniper
4 73 (17.80%) F5
5 53 (12.93%) VMware
6 50 (12.20%) SolarWinds
7 49 (11.95%) CheckPoint
8 39 (9.51%) Aruba
8 39 (9.51%) Blue Coat
8 39 (9.51%) Meraki
9 34 (8.29%) McAfee
10 26 (6.34%) Fortinet
10 26 (6.34%) Microsoft
11 19 (4.63%) NetApp
12 12 (2.93%) ServiceNow
13 10 (2.44%) Arista
13 10 (2.44%) Ekahau
14 9 (2.20%) Remedy
15 7 (1.71%) Nokia
16 5 (1.22%) Zscaler