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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 84 62
Rank change year-on-year -26 -22 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 610 419 618
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.26% 2.82% 2.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.46% 3.10% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 293 381
10th Percentile £303 £313 £273
25th Percentile £400 £382 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% +2.15% +9.41%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £538
90th Percentile £600 £625 £625
UK median daily rate £472 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -0.63% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 7 13
10th Percentile £28.70 £21.52 £17.80
25th Percentile £65.94 £22.27 £20.74
Median hourly rate £73.50 £35.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +110.00% -33.33% -15.32%
75th Percentile £78.75 £59.75 £75.00
90th Percentile £84.04 £78.95 £75.24
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.00% +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 24,810 13,513 19,149
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.08% 90.92% 92.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,161 8,377 11,512
10th Percentile £303 £216 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £597
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,863 1,115 2,331
10th Percentile £15.15 £13.50 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.77 £16.89 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +6.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £26.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +64.87% -33.75% -5.88%

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 13 July 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 13 July 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 13 July 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 -16 216 £486 -1.31% 87
North West -4 158 £480 -1.74% 40
South East -31 148 £463 -7.50% 79
Midlands -2 116 £444 +2.31% 41
West Midlands -6 109 £438 +25.00% 16
Scotland +22 69 £413 -1.49% 26
South West -42 45 £550 +4.76% 41
Yorkshire -48 45 £450 -8.54% 34
East of England -10 42 £450 +12.50% 28
Wales -3 25 £425 - 12
North East -23 13 £600 +108.70% 13
East Midlands -24 4 £475 -5.00% 25
Northern Ireland +2 2 £468 -18.70% 7
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 July 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.

1 333 (54.59%) Cisco
2 273 (44.75%) Firewall
3 202 (33.11%) Security Cleared
4 185 (30.33%) LAN
5 181 (29.67%) WAN
6 165 (27.05%) Cisco Certification
7 150 (24.59%) VPN
8 140 (22.95%) Network Security
9 139 (22.79%) DNS
10 138 (22.62%) BGP
10 138 (22.62%) SC Cleared
11 129 (21.15%) F5
12 120 (19.67%) Wireless
13 119 (19.51%) CCNP
14 113 (18.52%) Load Balancing
15 109 (17.87%) Palo Alto
16 94 (15.41%) OSPF
17 82 (13.44%) VMware
18 80 (13.11%) CCNA
19 74 (12.13%) Juniper
20 73 (11.97%) Wi-Fi
21 70 (11.48%) VLAN
22 69 (11.31%) TCP/IP
23 66 (10.82%) DV Cleared
23 66 (10.82%) SD-WAN
24 64 (10.49%) High Availability
25 60 (9.84%) VMware Infrastructure
26 58 (9.51%) Migration
27 56 (9.18%) Problem-Solving
28 54 (8.85%) 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 3 (0.49%) SAS
2 2 (0.33%) Confluence
2 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.16%) CMS
3 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (2.30%) MS Visio
2 9 (1.48%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 53 (8.69%) Azure
2 42 (6.89%) AWS
3 25 (4.10%) GCP
4 17 (2.79%) GitHub
5 7 (1.15%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 7 (1.15%) IaaS
5 7 (1.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (0.98%) Azure Sentinel
7 4 (0.66%) AWS Direct Connect
7 4 (0.66%) Cloudflare
7 4 (0.66%) Entra ID
7 4 (0.66%) Google Compute Engine
7 4 (0.66%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (0.66%) Nutanix
8 3 (0.49%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (0.49%) Catchpoint
8 3 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (0.49%) OCI
8 3 (0.49%) Route 53
9 2 (0.33%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 273 (44.75%) Firewall
2 185 (30.33%) LAN
3 181 (29.67%) WAN
4 150 (24.59%) VPN
5 140 (22.95%) Network Security
6 139 (22.79%) DNS
7 138 (22.62%) BGP
8 120 (19.67%) Wireless
9 94 (15.41%) OSPF
10 73 (11.97%) Wi-Fi
11 70 (11.48%) VLAN
12 69 (11.31%) TCP/IP
13 66 (10.82%) SD-WAN
14 54 (8.85%) BIG-IP
15 49 (8.03%) Cisco Nexus
16 45 (7.38%) DHCP
16 45 (7.38%) SSL
17 44 (7.21%) Multicast
18 43 (7.05%) Cisco ISE
19 42 (6.89%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.16%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 21 (3.44%) Fiddler
2 19 (3.11%) JIRA
3 18 (2.95%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.64%) Git
5 6 (0.98%) GitLab
5 6 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.33%) Browser DevTools
General
1 80 (13.11%) Social Skills
2 40 (6.56%) Banking
3 35 (5.74%) Investment Banking
4 31 (5.08%) Analytical Skills
4 31 (5.08%) Public Sector
5 30 (4.92%) Telecoms
6 21 (3.44%) Documentation Skills
7 19 (3.11%) Finance
7 19 (3.11%) Manufacturing
8 12 (1.97%) Legal
9 9 (1.48%) Aerospace
10 8 (1.31%) Police
11 6 (0.98%) Retail
12 5 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.82%) Military
13 3 (0.49%) Law
13 3 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.16%) Advertising
14 1 (0.16%) Back Office
14 1 (0.16%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (5.74%) 802.1X
2 9 (1.48%) SAML
3 7 (1.15%) LDAP
4 4 (0.66%) NETCONF
5 3 (0.49%) REST
6 2 (0.33%) Java RMI
6 2 (0.33%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.16%) Django
7 1 (0.16%) Jinja
7 1 (0.16%) ModSecurity
7 1 (0.16%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 102 (16.72%) Data Centre
2 23 (3.77%) PKI
3 21 (3.44%) Management Information System
4 13 (2.13%) Hybrid Cloud
5 12 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (1.80%) Cloud Native
6 11 (1.80%) NHS
6 11 (1.80%) Operational Technology
7 10 (1.64%) Onboarding
7 10 (1.64%) Security Posture
8 9 (1.48%) Clustering
9 7 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (0.98%) Driving Licence
11 5 (0.82%) Public Cloud
12 3 (0.49%) Fibre Optics
12 3 (0.49%) SCADA
13 2 (0.33%) CCTV
13 2 (0.33%) Enterprise Cloud
13 2 (0.33%) Legacy Systems
13 2 (0.33%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 52 (8.52%) Windows
2 31 (5.08%) Linux
3 9 (1.48%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.66%) Unix
5 1 (0.16%) CatOS
5 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.16%) Solaris
5 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.16%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.16%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
5 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (18.52%) Load Balancing
2 64 (10.49%) High Availability
3 58 (9.51%) Migration
4 56 (9.18%) Problem-Solving
5 53 (8.69%) ITIL
6 47 (7.70%) Network Monitoring
7 39 (6.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 36 (5.90%) Project Delivery
9 33 (5.41%) Change Management
9 33 (5.41%) Network Design
10 32 (5.25%) Technical Leadership
11 29 (4.75%) Continuous Improvement
12 28 (4.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 28 (4.59%) Validation
13 27 (4.43%) Service Management
14 25 (4.10%) CI/CD
14 25 (4.10%) ITSM
14 25 (4.10%) Network Architecture
14 25 (4.10%) Network Management
15 23 (3.77%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 45 (7.38%) Python
2 7 (1.15%) ActionScript
3 6 (0.98%) SQL
4 5 (0.82%) PowerShell
5 4 (0.66%) Bash
6 2 (0.33%) Perl
7 1 (0.16%) Groovy
7 1 (0.16%) PHP
Qualifications
1 202 (33.11%) Security Cleared
2 165 (27.05%) Cisco Certification
3 138 (22.62%) SC Cleared
4 119 (19.51%) CCNP
5 80 (13.11%) CCNA
6 66 (10.82%) DV Cleared
7 23 (3.77%) CCIE
8 22 (3.61%) Degree
9 14 (2.30%) JNCIS
10 11 (1.80%) JNCIA
11 10 (1.64%) JNCIP
11 10 (1.64%) Network+ Certification
12 6 (0.98%) CCSE
13 5 (0.82%) CCIE Wireless
13 5 (0.82%) CCSM
13 5 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
13 5 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (0.82%) Server+ Certification
14 4 (0.66%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.66%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (2.13%) SLA
2 9 (1.48%) QA
3 8 (1.31%) Disclosure Scotland
3 8 (1.31%) NIST
4 4 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.49%) GDPR
6 2 (0.33%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.33%) NCSC
6 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.16%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.16%) GRC
7 1 (0.16%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 60 (9.84%) VMware Infrastructure
2 33 (5.41%) VMware NSX
3 28 (4.59%) Firmware
4 21 (3.44%) Active Directory
5 13 (2.13%) vSphere
6 11 (1.80%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.66%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.16%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.16%) Docker
9 1 (0.16%) FreeRADIUS
9 1 (0.16%) KVM
9 1 (0.16%) Snort
9 1 (0.16%) Squid
9 1 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 39 (6.39%) Ansible
2 31 (5.08%) Terraform
3 29 (4.75%) FortiGate
4 6 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.82%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.66%) Cisco Prime
7 3 (0.49%) Nagios
8 2 (0.33%) Avamar
8 2 (0.33%) CASB
8 2 (0.33%) Cisco CUCM
8 2 (0.33%) WSUS
9 1 (0.16%) Grafana
9 1 (0.16%) Iperf
9 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.16%) Packer
9 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.16%) SCOM
9 1 (0.16%) SolarWinds Orion
9 1 (0.16%) Suricata
9 1 (0.16%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 333 (54.59%) Cisco
2 129 (21.15%) F5
3 109 (17.87%) Palo Alto
4 82 (13.44%) VMware
5 74 (12.13%) Juniper
6 53 (8.69%) Fortinet
7 52 (8.52%) CheckPoint
8 41 (6.72%) Aruba
9 32 (5.25%) Microsoft
10 31 (5.08%) SolarWinds
11 24 (3.93%) McAfee
12 23 (3.77%) Blue Coat
13 21 (3.44%) Meraki
14 20 (3.28%) Google
14 20 (3.28%) ServiceNow
15 19 (3.11%) NetApp
16 17 (2.79%) Extreme Networks
17 16 (2.62%) Arista
17 16 (2.62%) Splunk
18 15 (2.46%) Ekahau