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 11 January 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 63 63
Rank change year-on-year -48 0 +58
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 378 472 618
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.10% 3.40% 3.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.32% 3.68% 3.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 264 257 336
10th Percentile £306 £300 £269
25th Percentile £400 £399 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £458 £440
Median % change year-on-year +3.83% +3.98% -2.22%
75th Percentile £526 £538 £519
90th Percentile £586 £600 £626
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 7 34
10th Percentile £20.40 £19.40 £24.65
25th Percentile £44.86 - £42.50
Median hourly rate £56.44 £20.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +182.20% -69.69% +119.64%
75th Percentile £74.26 £20.28 £71.42
90th Percentile £77.33 £42.34 £74.80
UK median hourly rate £52.58 £20.19 £64.49
% change year-on-year +160.46% -68.70% +19.43%

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 16,300 12,814 18,240
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.49% 92.26% 93.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,001 7,586 11,730
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 1,644 696 1,388
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.22 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.51 £44.78
Median % change year-on-year -20.18% -29.63% +65.05%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.20 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 +3 136 £500 - 116
North of England -65 116 £500 +10.01% 66
North West -35 99 £500 +2.04% 30
Midlands -38 54 £380 -12.64% 52
West Midlands -11 50 £380 -15.08% 32
Scotland +14 47 £425 +6.25% 14
East of England -18 21 £400 +45.45% 69
South West -43 18 £475 +1.60% 48
Yorkshire -78 15 £435 +6.75% 25
Wales -10 8 £550 +57.14% 23
Northern Ireland -3 3 £475 +6.74% 12
North East -7 3 £625 +28.21% 14
East Midlands -40 3 £650 +73.33% 20
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 11 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.

1 248 (65.61%) Cisco
2 186 (49.21%) Firewall
3 181 (47.88%) Security Cleared
4 129 (34.13%) SC Cleared
5 111 (29.37%) Cisco Certification
5 111 (29.37%) WAN
6 105 (27.78%) Palo Alto
7 92 (24.34%) CCNP
8 84 (22.22%) LAN
9 76 (20.11%) VPN
10 75 (19.84%) BGP
11 71 (18.78%) Juniper
12 69 (18.25%) Network Security
13 65 (17.20%) DNS
14 62 (16.40%) F5
15 59 (15.61%) Load Balancing
16 57 (15.08%) CCNA
17 55 (14.55%) TCP/IP
18 52 (13.76%) DV Cleared
19 48 (12.70%) Cisco ISE
20 47 (12.43%) OSPF
21 46 (12.17%) CheckPoint
22 45 (11.90%) Python
22 45 (11.90%) SolarWinds
22 45 (11.90%) VLAN
23 44 (11.64%) VMware
23 44 (11.64%) Wireless
24 42 (11.11%) Network Design
25 41 (10.85%) Windows
26 39 (10.32%) Meraki

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 (2.12%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.59%) Confluence
3 5 (1.32%) Apache
3 5 (1.32%) IIS
Applications
1 16 (4.23%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 26 (6.88%) AWS
1 26 (6.88%) Azure
2 7 (1.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
3 6 (1.59%) Entra ID
4 5 (1.32%) Nutanix
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon EC2
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon ELB
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon S3
5 3 (0.79%) GCP
5 3 (0.79%) IaaS
5 3 (0.79%) Mimecast
5 3 (0.79%) PaaS
5 3 (0.79%) SaaS
6 2 (0.53%) AWS IoT
6 2 (0.53%) Google Ads
7 1 (0.26%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (0.26%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (0.26%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 186 (49.21%) Firewall
2 111 (29.37%) WAN
3 84 (22.22%) LAN
4 76 (20.11%) VPN
5 75 (19.84%) BGP
6 69 (18.25%) Network Security
7 65 (17.20%) DNS
8 55 (14.55%) TCP/IP
9 48 (12.70%) Cisco ISE
10 47 (12.43%) OSPF
11 45 (11.90%) VLAN
12 44 (11.64%) Wireless
13 38 (10.05%) SSL
13 38 (10.05%) Wi-Fi
14 37 (9.79%) Cisco IOS
15 36 (9.52%) IPsec
16 34 (8.99%) SD-WAN
17 32 (8.47%) MPLS
18 30 (7.94%) Wireshark
19 28 (7.41%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.26%) Oracle Database
1 1 (0.26%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 22 (5.82%) Fiddler
2 7 (1.85%) JIRA
3 4 (1.06%) GitLab
3 4 (1.06%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
4 3 (0.79%) Git
5 1 (0.26%) ClearCase
5 1 (0.26%) Robot Framework
General
1 68 (17.99%) Social Skills
2 42 (11.11%) Public Sector
3 27 (7.14%) Banking
4 26 (6.88%) Documentation Skills
5 25 (6.61%) Investment Banking
6 21 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
7 19 (5.03%) Telecoms
8 18 (4.76%) Manufacturing
9 9 (2.38%) Finance
10 8 (2.12%) Legal
11 3 (0.79%) Electronics
11 3 (0.79%) Marketing
12 2 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.53%) Military
12 2 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.26%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.26%) French Language
13 1 (0.26%) Police
13 1 (0.26%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (6.35%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.06%) RFC 2544
3 3 (0.79%) LDAP
3 3 (0.79%) SAML
4 1 (0.26%) gRPC
4 1 (0.26%) Jinja
4 1 (0.26%) JSON
4 1 (0.26%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 85 (22.49%) Data Centre
2 19 (5.03%) Management Information System
3 12 (3.17%) Onboarding
4 11 (2.91%) Operational Technology
5 9 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
5 9 (2.38%) PKI
5 9 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (1.85%) Security Posture
7 5 (1.32%) Fibre Optics
7 5 (1.32%) NHS
8 4 (1.06%) Driving Licence
8 4 (1.06%) IoT
9 3 (0.79%) 3D Printing
9 3 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (0.79%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (0.79%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (0.79%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.53%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (0.53%) Product Ownership
10 2 (0.53%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 41 (10.85%) Windows
2 25 (6.61%) Windows Server
3 17 (4.50%) Linux
4 2 (0.53%) CatOS
5 1 (0.26%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.26%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.26%) Unix
5 1 (0.26%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.26%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.26%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (15.61%) Load Balancing
2 42 (11.11%) Network Design
3 31 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (7.67%) Network Monitoring
5 28 (7.41%) Network Management
5 28 (7.41%) Project Delivery
6 27 (7.14%) Migration
7 26 (6.88%) Cybersecurity
7 26 (6.88%) High Availability
8 25 (6.61%) ITSM
9 24 (6.35%) Service Management
10 23 (6.08%) Network Architecture
11 20 (5.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 18 (4.76%) Collaborative Working
12 18 (4.76%) Data Loss Prevention
12 18 (4.76%) Malware Detection/Protection
13 17 (4.50%) Change Management
13 17 (4.50%) Knowledge Transfer
14 16 (4.23%) Incident Response
14 16 (4.23%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 45 (11.90%) Python
2 15 (3.97%) Bash
3 10 (2.65%) Perl
4 8 (2.12%) Lisp
4 8 (2.12%) PowerShell
5 4 (1.06%) SQL
6 1 (0.26%) C
6 1 (0.26%) C++
6 1 (0.26%) Java
6 1 (0.26%) Ruby
6 1 (0.26%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 181 (47.88%) Security Cleared
2 129 (34.13%) SC Cleared
3 111 (29.37%) Cisco Certification
4 92 (24.34%) CCNP
5 57 (15.08%) CCNA
6 52 (13.76%) DV Cleared
7 13 (3.44%) Degree
8 9 (2.38%) CCIE
9 8 (2.12%) JNCIS
9 8 (2.12%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (1.59%) CCDP
10 6 (1.59%) JNCIA
10 6 (1.59%) JNCIP
11 5 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
14 1 (0.26%) BC Cleared
14 1 (0.26%) CCIE Collaboration
14 1 (0.26%) CCIE Data Center
14 1 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (1.06%) SLA
2 2 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (0.53%) GDPR
2 2 (0.53%) NIST
2 2 (0.53%) PCI DSS
2 2 (0.53%) QA
3 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.26%) GRC
3 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 1 (0.26%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.26%) PMO
System Software
1 36 (9.52%) VMware NSX
2 28 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 28 (7.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.76%) Firmware
4 11 (2.91%) Docker
5 5 (1.32%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.53%) vCloud
7 1 (0.26%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.26%) KVM
7 1 (0.26%) ProxySG
7 1 (0.26%) RHEV
7 1 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.26%) vSphere
7 1 (0.26%) Xen
Systems Management
1 36 (9.52%) Ansible
2 26 (6.88%) FortiGate
3 23 (6.08%) vCenter Server
4 10 (2.65%) Terraform
5 4 (1.06%) Kubernetes
5 4 (1.06%) Nagios
6 3 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.79%) WhatsUp Gold
7 2 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
7 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.26%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.26%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.26%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.26%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (0.26%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.26%) SCCM
8 1 (0.26%) SCOM
8 1 (0.26%) WSUS
Vendors
1 248 (65.61%) Cisco
2 105 (27.78%) Palo Alto
3 71 (18.78%) Juniper
4 62 (16.40%) F5
5 46 (12.17%) CheckPoint
6 45 (11.90%) SolarWinds
7 44 (11.64%) VMware
8 39 (10.32%) Meraki
9 37 (9.79%) Aruba
10 35 (9.26%) Blue Coat
11 30 (7.94%) McAfee
12 28 (7.41%) Fortinet
13 23 (6.08%) Microsoft
14 17 (4.50%) NetApp
15 12 (3.17%) ServiceNow
16 10 (2.65%) Nokia
17 9 (2.38%) Remedy
18 8 (2.12%) Ekahau
19 7 (1.85%) Zscaler
20 5 (1.32%) Broadcom