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 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 64 65
Rank change year-on-year -53 +1 +53
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 394 490 618
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.15% 3.40% 3.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.38% 3.69% 3.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 266 341
10th Percentile £308 £300 £263
25th Percentile £400 £400 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £461 £440
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% +4.72% -2.22%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £525
90th Percentile £588 £600 £631
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 8 33
10th Percentile £20.58 £19.55 £24.60
25th Percentile £47.76 - £42.50
Median hourly rate £61.47 £20.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +207.35% -69.69% +160.89%
75th Percentile £74.26 £29.17 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.66 £61.00 £74.95
UK median hourly rate £56.44 £20.38 £64.49
% change year-on-year +177.01% -68.41% +35.77%

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 16,552 13,292 18,225
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.37% 92.34% 93.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,214 7,875 11,830
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
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 1,639 745 1,302
10th Percentile £13.95 £15.28 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.60 £20.26 £18.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £46.09
Median % change year-on-year -20.81% -31.09% +78.99%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.25 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £26.11 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.66% -27.78% +41.02%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -6 138 £500 - 123
North of England -63 119 £500 +7.93% 56
North West -33 100 £500 +2.04% 25
Midlands -31 61 £390 -10.34% 42
West Midlands -16 56 £380 -15.56% 26
Scotland +20 47 £425 +6.25% 12
East of England -16 26 £475 +72.73% 35
South West -40 18 £475 +0.53% 52
Yorkshire -83 17 £435 +6.75% 24
Wales -11 8 £550 +57.14% 10
East Midlands -38 4 £650 +73.33% 16
Northern Ireland -6 3 £475 +6.74% 5
North East -6 3 £625 +28.21% 10
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 2 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.

1 257 (65.23%) Cisco
2 192 (48.73%) Firewall
3 189 (47.97%) Security Cleared
4 134 (34.01%) SC Cleared
5 119 (30.20%) Cisco Certification
6 114 (28.93%) WAN
7 108 (27.41%) Palo Alto
8 99 (25.13%) CCNP
9 87 (22.08%) LAN
10 80 (20.30%) VPN
11 77 (19.54%) BGP
12 75 (19.04%) Juniper
13 67 (17.01%) DNS
14 65 (16.50%) Network Security
15 62 (15.74%) F5
16 60 (15.23%) CCNA
17 59 (14.97%) Load Balancing
18 57 (14.47%) TCP/IP
19 51 (12.94%) DV Cleared
20 50 (12.69%) CheckPoint
20 50 (12.69%) OSPF
21 48 (12.18%) Cisco ISE
22 46 (11.68%) Python
22 46 (11.68%) VLAN
23 45 (11.42%) SolarWinds
23 45 (11.42%) Wireless
24 43 (10.91%) Network Design
25 42 (10.66%) VMware
26 40 (10.15%) Wi-Fi
26 40 (10.15%) 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 (2.03%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.27%) Apache
2 5 (1.27%) Confluence
2 5 (1.27%) IIS
Applications
1 16 (4.06%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 26 (6.60%) AWS
1 26 (6.60%) Azure
2 8 (2.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
3 6 (1.52%) Entra ID
4 5 (1.27%) Nutanix
5 3 (0.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 3 (0.76%) Amazon EC2
5 3 (0.76%) Amazon ELB
5 3 (0.76%) Amazon S3
5 3 (0.76%) GCP
5 3 (0.76%) Mimecast
6 2 (0.51%) AWS Direct Connect
6 2 (0.51%) AWS IoT
6 2 (0.51%) Google Ads
7 1 (0.25%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.25%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (0.25%) GitHub
7 1 (0.25%) Lucidchart
7 1 (0.25%) PaaS
7 1 (0.25%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 192 (48.73%) Firewall
2 114 (28.93%) WAN
3 87 (22.08%) LAN
4 80 (20.30%) VPN
5 77 (19.54%) BGP
6 67 (17.01%) DNS
7 65 (16.50%) Network Security
8 57 (14.47%) TCP/IP
9 50 (12.69%) OSPF
10 48 (12.18%) Cisco ISE
11 46 (11.68%) VLAN
12 45 (11.42%) Wireless
13 40 (10.15%) Wi-Fi
14 38 (9.64%) SSL
15 37 (9.39%) Cisco IOS
15 37 (9.39%) IPsec
16 36 (9.14%) MPLS
16 36 (9.14%) SD-WAN
17 30 (7.61%) Wireshark
18 29 (7.36%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.25%) Oracle Database
1 1 (0.25%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 22 (5.58%) Fiddler
2 7 (1.78%) JIRA
3 4 (1.02%) GitLab
3 4 (1.02%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
4 3 (0.76%) Git
5 1 (0.25%) ClearCase
5 1 (0.25%) Robot Framework
General
1 73 (18.53%) Social Skills
2 45 (11.42%) Public Sector
3 27 (6.85%) Banking
3 27 (6.85%) Documentation Skills
4 25 (6.35%) Investment Banking
5 22 (5.58%) Analytical Skills
6 19 (4.82%) Telecoms
7 18 (4.57%) Manufacturing
8 10 (2.54%) Finance
9 8 (2.03%) Legal
10 3 (0.76%) Electronics
10 3 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.76%) Marketing
10 3 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.51%) Military
11 2 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.25%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.25%) Automotive
12 1 (0.25%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.25%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (6.09%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.02%) RFC 2544
3 3 (0.76%) LDAP
3 3 (0.76%) SAML
4 1 (0.25%) gRPC
4 1 (0.25%) Jinja
4 1 (0.25%) JSON
4 1 (0.25%) Node.js
4 1 (0.25%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 82 (20.81%) Data Centre
2 19 (4.82%) Management Information System
3 15 (3.81%) Onboarding
4 11 (2.79%) Operational Technology
5 10 (2.54%) PKI
6 9 (2.28%) Data Protection Act
6 9 (2.28%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.78%) Security Posture
8 5 (1.27%) Fibre Optics
8 5 (1.27%) NHS
9 4 (1.02%) Driving Licence
9 4 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.02%) IoT
9 4 (1.02%) SCADA
10 3 (0.76%) 3D Printing
10 3 (0.76%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (0.76%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.51%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.51%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 40 (10.15%) Windows
2 24 (6.09%) Windows Server
3 16 (4.06%) Linux
4 2 (0.51%) CatOS
4 2 (0.51%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.25%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.25%) Unix
5 1 (0.25%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.25%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.25%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (14.97%) Load Balancing
2 43 (10.91%) Network Design
3 34 (8.63%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (7.61%) Migration
5 29 (7.36%) Network Management
5 29 (7.36%) Network Monitoring
6 28 (7.11%) High Availability
7 27 (6.85%) Project Delivery
8 26 (6.60%) Cybersecurity
8 26 (6.60%) ITSM
9 25 (6.35%) Service Management
10 23 (5.84%) Network Architecture
11 21 (5.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 18 (4.57%) Collaborative Working
12 18 (4.57%) Data Loss Prevention
12 18 (4.57%) Malware Detection/Protection
12 18 (4.57%) Network Segmentation
13 17 (4.31%) Change Management
14 16 (4.06%) Incident Response
15 15 (3.81%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 46 (11.68%) Python
2 15 (3.81%) Bash
3 10 (2.54%) Perl
4 8 (2.03%) Lisp
4 8 (2.03%) PowerShell
5 4 (1.02%) SQL
6 1 (0.25%) C
6 1 (0.25%) C++
6 1 (0.25%) Java
6 1 (0.25%) Ruby
6 1 (0.25%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 189 (47.97%) Security Cleared
2 134 (34.01%) SC Cleared
3 119 (30.20%) Cisco Certification
4 99 (25.13%) CCNP
5 60 (15.23%) CCNA
6 51 (12.94%) DV Cleared
7 16 (4.06%) Degree
8 9 (2.28%) CCIE
9 8 (2.03%) JNCIA
9 8 (2.03%) JNCIS
9 8 (2.03%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (1.78%) CCDP
11 6 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
11 6 (1.52%) JNCIP
12 3 (0.76%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.51%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.51%) CCDA
13 2 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Certification
14 1 (0.25%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (1.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (1.02%) SLA
2 3 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (0.76%) GDPR
3 2 (0.51%) NIST
3 2 (0.51%) PCI DSS
3 2 (0.51%) QA
4 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.25%) GRC
4 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 1 (0.25%) JSP 440
4 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 34 (8.63%) VMware NSX
2 27 (6.85%) Active Directory
3 26 (6.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (4.57%) Firmware
5 11 (2.79%) Docker
6 5 (1.27%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.25%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.25%) KVM
8 1 (0.25%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.25%) RHEV
8 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.25%) vSphere
8 1 (0.25%) Xen
Systems Management
1 37 (9.39%) Ansible
2 30 (7.61%) FortiGate
3 24 (6.09%) vCenter Server
4 11 (2.79%) Terraform
5 4 (1.02%) Kubernetes
5 4 (1.02%) Nagios
6 3 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.76%) WhatsUp Gold
7 2 (0.51%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.51%) Dell DRAC
8 1 (0.25%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.25%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.25%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.25%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (0.25%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.25%) SCCM
8 1 (0.25%) SCOM
8 1 (0.25%) WSUS
Vendors
1 257 (65.23%) Cisco
2 108 (27.41%) Palo Alto
3 75 (19.04%) Juniper
4 62 (15.74%) F5
5 50 (12.69%) CheckPoint
6 45 (11.42%) SolarWinds
7 42 (10.66%) VMware
8 39 (9.90%) Aruba
8 39 (9.90%) Meraki
9 35 (8.88%) Blue Coat
10 32 (8.12%) Fortinet
11 30 (7.61%) McAfee
12 23 (5.84%) Microsoft
13 17 (4.31%) NetApp
14 13 (3.30%) ServiceNow
15 10 (2.54%) Nokia
16 9 (2.28%) Remedy
17 8 (2.03%) Ekahau
17 8 (2.03%) Zscaler
18 5 (1.27%) Broadcom