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 7 April 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 81 57
Rank change year-on-year -26 -24 +37
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 531 376 681
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.31% 2.96% 3.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.51% 3.21% 3.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 250 416
10th Percentile £303 £300 £284
25th Percentile £401 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% - -
75th Percentile £538 £573 £519
90th Percentile £588 £613 £625
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £460
% change year-on-year - +3.26% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 2 16
10th Percentile £48.33 £23.53 £17.81
25th Percentile £60.00 £31.06 £24.44
Median hourly rate £73.40 £45.75 £66.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.44% -31.20% +6.20%
75th Percentile £78.75 £62.06 £73.75
90th Percentile - £70.58 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £72.54 £57.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +26.16% +43.75% -39.39%

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 21,155 11,723 19,330
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.03% 92.40% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,528 7,642 11,972
10th Percentile £263 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £585 £598
90th Percentile £675 £656 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,322 762 2,126
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.43 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £18.51 £15.50
Median hourly rate £41.62 £30.93 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +34.55% -11.63% -17.38%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.23 £75.48 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £31.76 £34.00
% change year-on-year +25.94% -6.59% -23.65%

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 7 April 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 7 April 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 7 April 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 +2 176 £480 -4.00% 72
North of England -48 159 £478 +0.53% 53
North West -12 138 £479 +0.92% 31
Midlands -7 101 £438 +2.94% 53
West Midlands +13 94 £429 +55.91% 31
South West -30 42 £525 +11.11% 31
Scotland +12 40 £415 +3.75% 19
East of England -13 37 £460 -8.00% 25
Wales -6 25 £425 +9.68% 10
Yorkshire -57 21 £450 -2.70% 16
East Midlands -45 3 £500 +11.11% 22
Northern Ireland - 2 £468 - 5
North East -16 1 - - 6
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 7 April 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.

1 305 (57.44%) Cisco
2 250 (47.08%) Firewall
3 223 (42.00%) Security Cleared
4 159 (29.94%) SC Cleared
5 154 (29.00%) WAN
6 147 (27.68%) Cisco Certification
7 146 (27.50%) LAN
8 128 (24.11%) BGP
9 122 (22.98%) DNS
9 122 (22.98%) VPN
10 121 (22.79%) CCNP
11 118 (22.22%) Palo Alto
12 105 (19.77%) F5
13 103 (19.40%) Load Balancing
14 100 (18.83%) Network Security
15 89 (16.76%) OSPF
16 85 (16.01%) Juniper
17 76 (14.31%) TCP/IP
17 76 (14.31%) VMware
18 72 (13.56%) DV Cleared
19 69 (12.99%) CCNA
20 66 (12.43%) VLAN
21 63 (11.86%) Wireless
22 55 (10.36%) Aruba
22 55 (10.36%) VMware Infrastructure
23 53 (9.98%) BIG-IP
24 52 (9.79%) Wi-Fi
25 51 (9.60%) Cisco ISE
26 50 (9.42%) CheckPoint
26 50 (9.42%) High Availability

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 7 (1.32%) Confluence
2 5 (0.94%) Apache
2 5 (0.94%) IIS
3 4 (0.75%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (2.64%) MS Visio
2 7 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 43 (8.10%) AWS
2 41 (7.72%) Azure
3 19 (3.58%) GCP
4 11 (2.07%) GitHub
5 8 (1.51%) Entra ID
5 8 (1.51%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (1.13%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 5 (0.94%) Nutanix
8 4 (0.75%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.56%) AWS Direct Connect
9 3 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (0.56%) Catchpoint
9 3 (0.56%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (0.56%) Google Ads
9 3 (0.56%) Google Compute Engine
9 3 (0.56%) Route 53
9 3 (0.56%) SaaS
10 2 (0.38%) Amazon EKS
10 2 (0.38%) AWS IoT
Communications & Networking
1 250 (47.08%) Firewall
2 154 (29.00%) WAN
3 146 (27.50%) LAN
4 128 (24.11%) BGP
5 122 (22.98%) DNS
5 122 (22.98%) VPN
6 100 (18.83%) Network Security
7 89 (16.76%) OSPF
8 76 (14.31%) TCP/IP
9 66 (12.43%) VLAN
10 63 (11.86%) Wireless
11 53 (9.98%) BIG-IP
12 52 (9.79%) Wi-Fi
13 51 (9.60%) Cisco ISE
14 48 (9.04%) SD-WAN
15 44 (8.29%) IPsec
15 44 (8.29%) SSL
15 44 (8.29%) Wireshark
16 43 (8.10%) DHCP
17 37 (6.97%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database
1 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
1 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (5.65%) Fiddler
2 17 (3.20%) JIRA
3 8 (1.51%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.32%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.94%) Git
6 4 (0.75%) GitLab
7 2 (0.38%) Browser DevTools
8 1 (0.19%) ClearCase
General
1 76 (14.31%) Social Skills
2 42 (7.91%) Banking
3 39 (7.34%) Investment Banking
4 34 (6.40%) Public Sector
5 32 (6.03%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (4.14%) Telecoms
7 21 (3.95%) Manufacturing
8 20 (3.77%) Analytical Skills
9 13 (2.45%) Finance
10 11 (2.07%) Legal
11 5 (0.94%) Aerospace
11 5 (0.94%) Law
12 4 (0.75%) Military
12 4 (0.75%) Police
13 2 (0.38%) Electronics
13 2 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.38%) Marketing
13 2 (0.38%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.38%) Retail
14 1 (0.19%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (6.21%) 802.1X
2 8 (1.51%) LDAP
3 7 (1.32%) SAML
4 2 (0.38%) REST
4 2 (0.38%) RFC 2544
5 1 (0.19%) Django
5 1 (0.19%) Jinja
5 1 (0.19%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 110 (20.72%) Data Centre
2 23 (4.33%) Management Information System
3 15 (2.82%) PKI
4 12 (2.26%) NHS
4 12 (2.26%) Operational Technology
5 10 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
5 10 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
6 9 (1.69%) Clustering
7 8 (1.51%) Security Posture
8 7 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (1.32%) Onboarding
9 5 (0.94%) Public Cloud
10 4 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (0.75%) IoT
11 3 (0.56%) 3D Printing
11 3 (0.56%) Cloud Native
11 3 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.56%) Wiki
12 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Cloud
12 2 (0.38%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 49 (9.23%) Windows
2 26 (4.90%) Linux
3 16 (3.01%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.56%) CatOS
5 2 (0.38%) Unix
6 1 (0.19%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.19%) Solaris
6 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (19.40%) Load Balancing
2 50 (9.42%) High Availability
3 44 (8.29%) Problem-Solving
4 41 (7.72%) ITIL
5 40 (7.53%) Network Monitoring
6 39 (7.34%) Migration
6 39 (7.34%) Network Design
7 30 (5.65%) Data Loss Prevention
7 30 (5.65%) Malware Detection/Protection
8 29 (5.46%) Collaborative Working
9 27 (5.08%) ITSM
9 27 (5.08%) Network Architecture
10 26 (4.90%) Change Management
10 26 (4.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 25 (4.71%) Service Management
12 23 (4.33%) Project Delivery
13 22 (4.14%) Network Management
13 22 (4.14%) Validation
14 20 (3.77%) Cybersecurity
15 19 (3.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 44 (8.29%) Python
2 10 (1.88%) Bash
3 8 (1.51%) SQL
4 7 (1.32%) Perl
5 6 (1.13%) PowerShell
6 4 (0.75%) Lisp
7 1 (0.19%) C
7 1 (0.19%) C++
7 1 (0.19%) Java
7 1 (0.19%) PHP
7 1 (0.19%) Ruby
7 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 223 (42.00%) Security Cleared
2 159 (29.94%) SC Cleared
3 147 (27.68%) Cisco Certification
4 121 (22.79%) CCNP
5 72 (13.56%) DV Cleared
6 69 (12.99%) CCNA
7 21 (3.95%) Degree
8 20 (3.77%) JNCIS
9 17 (3.20%) CCIE
10 16 (3.01%) JNCIA
11 11 (2.07%) JNCIP
11 11 (2.07%) Network+ Certification
12 6 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.56%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.56%) Azure Certification
13 3 (0.56%) CCSE
14 2 (0.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.38%) CCDP
14 2 (0.38%) ISTQB
14 2 (0.38%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (0.94%) SLA
2 4 (0.75%) NIST
3 3 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
3 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.56%) PCI DSS
3 3 (0.56%) QA
4 2 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.38%) GDPR
4 2 (0.38%) NCSC
4 2 (0.38%) PMO
5 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.19%) GRC
5 1 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
System Software
1 55 (10.36%) VMware Infrastructure
2 41 (7.72%) VMware NSX
3 28 (5.27%) Firmware
4 23 (4.33%) Active Directory
5 6 (1.13%) vSphere
6 5 (0.94%) Docker
7 4 (0.75%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.38%) KVM
8 2 (0.38%) vCloud
9 1 (0.19%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.19%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.19%) RHEV
9 1 (0.19%) Snort
9 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 40 (7.53%) Ansible
2 29 (5.46%) FortiGate
3 25 (4.71%) Terraform
4 8 (1.51%) vCenter Server
5 7 (1.32%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.13%) Nagios
7 5 (0.94%) Cisco Prime
7 5 (0.94%) Kubernetes
8 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.38%) WSUS
10 1 (0.19%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.19%) CASB
10 1 (0.19%) Iperf
10 1 (0.19%) Nessus
10 1 (0.19%) Norton AntiVirus
10 1 (0.19%) Proxmox
10 1 (0.19%) SCOM
10 1 (0.19%) Suricata
10 1 (0.19%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 305 (57.44%) Cisco
2 118 (22.22%) Palo Alto
3 105 (19.77%) F5
4 85 (16.01%) Juniper
5 76 (14.31%) VMware
6 55 (10.36%) Aruba
7 50 (9.42%) CheckPoint
8 39 (7.34%) SolarWinds
9 35 (6.59%) Blue Coat
9 35 (6.59%) McAfee
10 33 (6.21%) Fortinet
11 31 (5.84%) Meraki
12 25 (4.71%) Microsoft
13 23 (4.33%) NetApp
14 19 (3.58%) ServiceNow
15 15 (2.82%) Ekahau
15 15 (2.82%) Google
16 12 (2.26%) Extreme Networks
17 11 (2.07%) Splunk
18 10 (1.88%) Arista