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 £485, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 November 2025.

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

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 113 61 71
Rank change year-on-year -52 +10 +53
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 378 555 663
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.22% 3.32% 3.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.47% 3.60% 3.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 271 299 395
10th Percentile £306 £300 £263
25th Percentile £400 £402 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £475 £438
Median % change year-on-year +2.11% +8.57% -0.28%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £525
90th Percentile £623 £625 £595
UK median daily rate £475 £490 £450
% change year-on-year -3.06% +8.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 12 31
10th Percentile £20.75 - £25.00
25th Percentile £22.27 £20.00 £42.00
Median hourly rate £41.50 £21.39 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year +94.04% -66.05% +44.00%
75th Percentile £74.26 £54.06 £66.74
90th Percentile £83.00 £73.00 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £41.50 £63.00
% change year-on-year -15.66% -34.13% +16.67%

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 15,294 15,420 19,586
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.66% 92.19% 93.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,471 8,872 12,986
10th Percentile £206 £220 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
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 1,488 1,063 1,273
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.84 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.00 £19.55 £18.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.25 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.65% -20.79% +85.42%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.75 £73.71 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £36.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -31.10% -17.98% +53.98%

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 8 November 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 8 November 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 8 November 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 -54 117 £500 +3.90% 32
South East -26 100 £500 - 211
North West -41 79 £515 +5.10% 9
Midlands -22 72 £400 -10.11% 44
West Midlands -6 67 £395 -21.00% 29
Scotland +6 45 £425 +6.25% 33
Yorkshire -48 36 £490 +19.03% 17
East of England -8 28 £400 +33.33% 30
South West -36 27 £620 +31.22% 15
Northern Ireland -4 5 £475 +6.74% 4
East Midlands -39 5 £650 +73.33% 13
Wales -13 4 £335 -16.25% 13
North East -11 3 £625 +47.06% 6
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 8 November 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.

1 254 (67.20%) Cisco
2 166 (43.92%) Firewall
3 165 (43.65%) Security Cleared
4 121 (32.01%) Cisco Certification
5 115 (30.42%) SC Cleared
6 104 (27.51%) WAN
7 84 (22.22%) CCNP
8 75 (19.84%) Juniper
9 68 (17.99%) LAN
9 68 (17.99%) Palo Alto
10 67 (17.72%) BGP
10 67 (17.72%) Network Security
10 67 (17.72%) VPN
11 64 (16.93%) DNS
12 61 (16.14%) Cisco ISE
13 60 (15.87%) F5
14 57 (15.08%) CCNA
15 56 (14.81%) Python
16 53 (14.02%) Load Balancing
17 51 (13.49%) Wireless
18 47 (12.43%) SolarWinds
19 43 (11.38%) DV Cleared
20 42 (11.11%) Ansible
21 41 (10.85%) Network Design
22 39 (10.32%) SD-WAN
23 38 (10.05%) Service Management
23 38 (10.05%) TCP/IP
23 38 (10.05%) Wi-Fi
24 37 (9.79%) VMware
25 36 (9.52%) CheckPoint

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%) Confluence
1 8 (2.12%) SharePoint
Applications
1 13 (3.44%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.17%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 28 (7.41%) Azure
2 24 (6.35%) AWS
3 8 (2.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 4 (1.06%) AWS Direct Connect
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon EC2
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon ELB
5 3 (0.79%) Amazon S3
6 2 (0.53%) AWS IoT
6 2 (0.53%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (0.26%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.26%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.26%) GCP
7 1 (0.26%) GitHub
7 1 (0.26%) IaaS
7 1 (0.26%) Lucidchart
7 1 (0.26%) Nutanix
7 1 (0.26%) OCI
7 1 (0.26%) PaaS
7 1 (0.26%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 166 (43.92%) Firewall
2 104 (27.51%) WAN
3 68 (17.99%) LAN
4 67 (17.72%) BGP
4 67 (17.72%) Network Security
4 67 (17.72%) VPN
5 64 (16.93%) DNS
6 61 (16.14%) Cisco ISE
7 51 (13.49%) Wireless
8 39 (10.32%) SD-WAN
9 38 (10.05%) TCP/IP
9 38 (10.05%) Wi-Fi
10 36 (9.52%) Cisco IOS
11 35 (9.26%) Cisco Firepower
11 35 (9.26%) OSPF
12 34 (8.99%) MPLS
13 32 (8.47%) VLAN
14 29 (7.67%) DHCP
15 26 (6.88%) Cisco Nexus
15 26 (6.88%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.26%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 14 (3.70%) JIRA
2 12 (3.17%) Fiddler
3 5 (1.32%) Robot Framework
4 4 (1.06%) GitLab
4 4 (1.06%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.79%) Git
6 1 (0.26%) ClearCase
General
1 63 (16.67%) Social Skills
2 42 (11.11%) Public Sector
3 29 (7.67%) Telecoms
4 26 (6.88%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (5.03%) Banking
6 17 (4.50%) Investment Banking
7 13 (3.44%) Manufacturing
8 11 (2.91%) Finance
9 9 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
10 8 (2.12%) Legal
11 4 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.53%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.26%) Automotive
14 1 (0.26%) Electronics
14 1 (0.26%) Marketing
14 1 (0.26%) Military
14 1 (0.26%) Police
14 1 (0.26%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (5.56%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.65%) RFC 2544
3 7 (1.85%) NETCONF
3 7 (1.85%) RESTCONF
4 1 (0.26%) CSS
4 1 (0.26%) gRPC
4 1 (0.26%) HTML
4 1 (0.26%) Jinja
4 1 (0.26%) JSON
4 1 (0.26%) Node.js
4 1 (0.26%) REST
4 1 (0.26%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 75 (19.84%) Data Centre
2 18 (4.76%) Management Information System
3 14 (3.70%) Onboarding
4 13 (3.44%) PKI
5 11 (2.91%) Fibre Optics
6 10 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (2.12%) Driving Licence
7 8 (2.12%) Operational Technology
8 7 (1.85%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.32%) Cloud Native
9 5 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.06%) SCADA
11 3 (0.79%) IoT
11 3 (0.79%) Virtual Team
12 2 (0.53%) 3D Printing
12 2 (0.53%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (0.53%) Life Science
12 2 (0.53%) NHS
12 2 (0.53%) Product Ownership
12 2 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 33 (8.73%) Windows
2 20 (5.29%) Windows Server
3 12 (3.17%) Linux
4 3 (0.79%) Unix
5 2 (0.53%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.26%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.26%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.26%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (14.02%) Load Balancing
2 41 (10.85%) Network Design
3 38 (10.05%) Service Management
4 31 (8.20%) Migration
4 31 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
5 25 (6.61%) Network Management
6 23 (6.08%) ITSM
7 22 (5.82%) High Availability
8 20 (5.29%) Network Architecture
9 19 (5.03%) Agile
9 19 (5.03%) Cybersecurity
9 19 (5.03%) DevOps
9 19 (5.03%) Network Monitoring
10 18 (4.76%) Incident Response
11 17 (4.50%) Project Delivery
12 15 (3.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 14 (3.70%) Collaborative Working
13 14 (3.70%) Network Segmentation
13 14 (3.70%) Network Virtualisation
14 13 (3.44%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 56 (14.81%) Python
2 16 (4.23%) Bash
3 13 (3.44%) PowerShell
4 9 (2.38%) Perl
5 8 (2.12%) Lisp
6 4 (1.06%) VB
7 3 (0.79%) SQL
8 2 (0.53%) Java
9 1 (0.26%) C
9 1 (0.26%) C++
9 1 (0.26%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.26%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.26%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 165 (43.65%) Security Cleared
2 121 (32.01%) Cisco Certification
3 115 (30.42%) SC Cleared
4 84 (22.22%) CCNP
5 57 (15.08%) CCNA
6 43 (11.38%) DV Cleared
7 22 (5.82%) Degree
8 9 (2.38%) CCIE
9 7 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.59%) CCDP
10 6 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.32%) JNCIA
11 5 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
12 4 (1.06%) JNCIP
13 3 (0.79%) CCSA
13 3 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
14 2 (0.53%) A+ Certification
14 2 (0.53%) CCDA
14 2 (0.53%) JNCIS
14 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (1.85%) QA
2 6 (1.59%) SLA
3 4 (1.06%) GDPR
4 3 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.53%) NCSC
6 1 (0.26%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.26%) GRC
6 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.26%) NIST
6 1 (0.26%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 23 (6.08%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (5.56%) VMware NSX
3 20 (5.29%) Active Directory
4 11 (2.91%) Docker
5 10 (2.65%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (2.38%) Firmware
7 2 (0.53%) Ceph
7 2 (0.53%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.26%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.26%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.26%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (11.11%) Ansible
2 33 (8.73%) FortiGate
3 21 (5.56%) vCenter Server
4 14 (3.70%) Terraform
5 5 (1.32%) Cisco CUCM
5 5 (1.32%) HP ALM
6 4 (1.06%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
7 2 (0.53%) OpenView
7 2 (0.53%) WhatsUp Gold
8 1 (0.26%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.26%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.26%) Grafana
8 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.26%) Nagios
8 1 (0.26%) SCCM
Vendors
1 254 (67.20%) Cisco
2 75 (19.84%) Juniper
3 68 (17.99%) Palo Alto
4 60 (15.87%) F5
5 47 (12.43%) SolarWinds
6 37 (9.79%) VMware
7 36 (9.52%) CheckPoint
8 34 (8.99%) Microsoft
9 30 (7.94%) Fortinet
10 29 (7.67%) Meraki
11 25 (6.61%) Blue Coat
12 21 (5.56%) ServiceNow
13 20 (5.29%) Aruba
14 19 (5.03%) McAfee
15 15 (3.97%) Zscaler
16 11 (2.91%) NetApp
17 9 (2.38%) Nokia
17 9 (2.38%) Remedy
18 8 (2.12%) HP
18 8 (2.12%) LogicMonitor