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 £474, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 March 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 74 60
Rank change year-on-year -36 -14 +39
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 493 412 668
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.27% 3.24% 3.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.48% 3.50% 3.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 326 264 393
10th Percentile £300 £313 £276
25th Percentile £400 £393 £333
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £470 £440
Median % change year-on-year +0.85% +6.82% -2.22%
75th Percentile £535 £565 £519
90th Percentile £581 £613 £626
UK median daily rate £475 £477 £450
% change year-on-year -0.42% +6.00% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 2 21
10th Percentile £20.58 £23.53 £20.25
25th Percentile £47.76 £31.06 £24.50
Median hourly rate £63.89 £45.75 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.64% -27.38% +1.61%
75th Percentile £72.54 £62.06 £73.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £70.58 -
UK median hourly rate £56.44 £50.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +12.88% +17.65% -32.79%

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 19,851 11,762 19,556
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.55% 92.58% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,786 7,572 12,166
10th Percentile £255 £213 £213
25th Percentile £393 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £591
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,150 701 2,083
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.12 £15.51
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.04 £75.25 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.49% - -23.29%

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 18 March 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 18 March 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 18 March 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 0 168 £500 - 69
North of England -43 158 £481 -1.79% 44
North West -17 137 £481 -1.79% 26
Midlands -12 86 £438 -0.57% 45
West Midlands +2 81 £420 -1.18% 24
Scotland +19 43 £413 - 15
East of England -8 31 £413 -21.43% 22
South West -46 30 £510 +7.94% 24
Wales -7 23 £425 +15.25% 13
Yorkshire -64 21 £440 -4.86% 13
East Midlands -52 3 £500 +11.11% 21
North East -12 1 - - 5
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 4
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 18 March 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.

1 292 (59.23%) Cisco
2 236 (47.87%) Firewall
3 209 (42.39%) Security Cleared
4 145 (29.41%) SC Cleared
5 144 (29.21%) Cisco Certification
6 140 (28.40%) WAN
7 131 (26.57%) LAN
8 121 (24.54%) BGP
9 119 (24.14%) CCNP
10 114 (23.12%) Palo Alto
11 112 (22.72%) VPN
12 110 (22.31%) DNS
13 97 (19.68%) F5
14 94 (19.07%) Load Balancing
15 91 (18.46%) Network Security
16 85 (17.24%) Juniper
17 84 (17.04%) OSPF
18 74 (15.01%) VMware
19 72 (14.60%) TCP/IP
20 68 (13.79%) CCNA
20 68 (13.79%) DV Cleared
21 61 (12.37%) VLAN
22 59 (11.97%) Wireless
23 56 (11.36%) Cisco ISE
24 52 (10.55%) BIG-IP
25 51 (10.34%) Aruba
26 50 (10.14%) VMware Infrastructure
27 47 (9.53%) CheckPoint
27 47 (9.53%) High Availability
27 47 (9.53%) 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 (1.62%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.22%) Confluence
3 5 (1.01%) Apache
3 5 (1.01%) IIS
4 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 18 (3.65%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 41 (8.32%) AWS
2 40 (8.11%) Azure
3 15 (3.04%) GCP
4 8 (1.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 7 (1.42%) Entra ID
6 6 (1.22%) GitHub
6 6 (1.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 5 (1.01%) Nutanix
8 4 (0.81%) SaaS
9 3 (0.61%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 3 (0.61%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (0.61%) Catchpoint
9 3 (0.61%) Google Ads
9 3 (0.61%) Google Compute Engine
9 3 (0.61%) IaaS
9 3 (0.61%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.61%) PaaS
10 2 (0.41%) Amazon EKS
10 2 (0.41%) AWS Direct Connect
10 2 (0.41%) AWS IoT
Communications & Networking
1 236 (47.87%) Firewall
2 140 (28.40%) WAN
3 131 (26.57%) LAN
4 121 (24.54%) BGP
5 112 (22.72%) VPN
6 110 (22.31%) DNS
7 91 (18.46%) Network Security
8 84 (17.04%) OSPF
9 72 (14.60%) TCP/IP
10 61 (12.37%) VLAN
11 59 (11.97%) Wireless
12 56 (11.36%) Cisco ISE
13 52 (10.55%) BIG-IP
14 44 (8.92%) Wi-Fi
14 44 (8.92%) Wireshark
15 43 (8.72%) SSL
16 42 (8.52%) IPsec
17 41 (8.32%) SD-WAN
18 39 (7.91%) DHCP
19 36 (7.30%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.20%) Oracle Database
1 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (6.09%) Fiddler
2 12 (2.43%) JIRA
3 8 (1.62%) Jenkins
3 8 (1.62%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (0.81%) Git
5 3 (0.61%) GitLab
6 1 (0.20%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.20%) ClearCase
General
1 77 (15.62%) Social Skills
2 41 (8.32%) Banking
3 38 (7.71%) Investment Banking
4 35 (7.10%) Documentation Skills
5 34 (6.90%) Public Sector
6 23 (4.67%) Telecoms
7 18 (3.65%) Manufacturing
8 16 (3.25%) Analytical Skills
9 14 (2.84%) Finance
10 11 (2.23%) Legal
11 4 (0.81%) Military
12 3 (0.61%) Electronics
12 3 (0.61%) Law
12 3 (0.61%) Marketing
13 2 (0.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.41%) Police
13 2 (0.41%) Retail
14 1 (0.20%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (6.69%) 802.1X
2 8 (1.62%) LDAP
3 6 (1.22%) SAML
4 3 (0.61%) RFC 2544
5 1 (0.20%) Django
5 1 (0.20%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 110 (22.31%) Data Centre
2 22 (4.46%) Management Information System
3 15 (3.04%) PKI
4 13 (2.64%) NHS
5 12 (2.43%) Operational Technology
6 11 (2.23%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (1.83%) Clustering
7 9 (1.83%) Security Posture
7 9 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
8 7 (1.42%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (1.01%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.81%) IoT
12 3 (0.61%) 3D Printing
12 3 (0.61%) Cloud Native
12 3 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (0.61%) Fibre Optics
12 3 (0.61%) Linux Command Line
13 2 (0.41%) Product Ownership
13 2 (0.41%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 47 (9.53%) Windows
2 22 (4.46%) Linux
3 19 (3.85%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.61%) CatOS
5 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (19.07%) Load Balancing
2 47 (9.53%) High Availability
3 41 (8.32%) Problem-Solving
4 39 (7.91%) Network Monitoring
5 37 (7.51%) Network Design
6 36 (7.30%) ITIL
7 33 (6.69%) Migration
8 30 (6.09%) Data Loss Prevention
8 30 (6.09%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 29 (5.88%) ITSM
10 28 (5.68%) Collaborative Working
10 28 (5.68%) Service Management
11 26 (5.27%) Network Architecture
12 23 (4.67%) Project Delivery
13 21 (4.26%) Cybersecurity
14 20 (4.06%) Change Management
15 19 (3.85%) Network Management
15 19 (3.85%) Validation
16 18 (3.65%) Network Segmentation
16 18 (3.65%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 46 (9.33%) Python
2 10 (2.03%) Bash
3 8 (1.62%) Lisp
3 8 (1.62%) SQL
4 7 (1.42%) Perl
5 6 (1.22%) PowerShell
6 1 (0.20%) C
6 1 (0.20%) C++
6 1 (0.20%) Java
6 1 (0.20%) PHP
6 1 (0.20%) Ruby
6 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 209 (42.39%) Security Cleared
2 145 (29.41%) SC Cleared
3 144 (29.21%) Cisco Certification
4 119 (24.14%) CCNP
5 68 (13.79%) CCNA
5 68 (13.79%) DV Cleared
6 20 (4.06%) Degree
6 20 (4.06%) JNCIS
7 17 (3.45%) JNCIA
8 15 (3.04%) CCIE
9 12 (2.43%) JNCIP
10 11 (2.23%) Network+ Certification
11 6 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.61%) CCSE
13 2 (0.41%) CCDP
13 2 (0.41%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.41%) ISTQB
13 2 (0.41%) MCSE
13 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.41%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (1.22%) SLA
2 4 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (0.81%) NIST
3 3 (0.61%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.41%) GDPR
4 2 (0.41%) NCSC
4 2 (0.41%) PMO
4 2 (0.41%) QA
5 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.20%) GRC
5 1 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.20%) JSP 440
System Software
1 50 (10.14%) VMware Infrastructure
2 41 (8.32%) VMware NSX
3 27 (5.48%) Firmware
4 26 (5.27%) Active Directory
5 6 (1.22%) Docker
6 4 (0.81%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.81%) vSphere
7 2 (0.41%) KVM
7 2 (0.41%) vCloud
8 1 (0.20%) Citrix Presentation Server
8 1 (0.20%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.20%) RHEV
8 1 (0.20%) Snort
8 1 (0.20%) Xen
Systems Management
1 41 (8.32%) Ansible
2 32 (6.49%) FortiGate
3 21 (4.26%) Terraform
4 14 (2.84%) vCenter Server
5 6 (1.22%) Nagios
5 6 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.81%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.81%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.41%) Dell DRAC
8 2 (0.41%) WSUS
9 1 (0.20%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.20%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.20%) CASB
9 1 (0.20%) Nessus
9 1 (0.20%) Norton AntiVirus
9 1 (0.20%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.20%) SCOM
9 1 (0.20%) Suricata
9 1 (0.20%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 292 (59.23%) Cisco
2 114 (23.12%) Palo Alto
3 97 (19.68%) F5
4 85 (17.24%) Juniper
5 74 (15.01%) VMware
6 51 (10.34%) Aruba
7 47 (9.53%) CheckPoint
8 42 (8.52%) SolarWinds
9 38 (7.71%) Blue Coat
9 38 (7.71%) McAfee
10 31 (6.29%) Meraki
11 28 (5.68%) Fortinet
12 26 (5.27%) Microsoft
13 21 (4.26%) NetApp
14 19 (3.85%) ServiceNow
15 17 (3.45%) Ekahau
16 12 (2.43%) Google
17 11 (2.23%) Extreme Networks
18 10 (2.03%) Arista
18 10 (2.03%) Splunk