Network Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Network Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 April 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 88 56 85
Rank change year-on-year -32 +29 +65
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 350 671 695
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.73% 3.23% 2.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.96% 3.48% 3.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 239 411 465
10th Percentile £300 £275 £278
25th Percentile £363 £335 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year - - +8.43%
75th Percentile £565 £525 £525
90th Percentile £614 £634 £595
UK median daily rate £475 £460 £475
% change year-on-year +3.26% -3.16% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 18 22
10th Percentile £23.53 £17.41 £23.31
25th Percentile £31.06 £24.31 £50.34
Median hourly rate £45.75 £66.50 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.20% +7.26% +47.22%
75th Percentile £62.06 £73.75 £66.00
90th Percentile £70.58 £75.24 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £40.00 £63.23
% change year-on-year +43.75% -36.74% +85.97%

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 11,827 19,258 22,774
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.67% 94.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,607 11,835 15,954
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £594
90th Percentile £651 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £517 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.52% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 821 2,214 1,200
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.13 £15.66 £18.12
Median hourly rate £28.75 £37.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.33% -11.76% +117.95%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.07 £35.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -18.11% -21.11% +95.65%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Network Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Network Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Network Engineer 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 25 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Network Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Network Engineer 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 25 April 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 25 April 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 +5 130 £475 +9.83% 34
North West +9 103 £483 +9.66% 15
South East -35 86 £500 - 58
South West -19 42 £473 -3.08% 33
Scotland +24 32 £400 - 15
Midlands -29 30 £425 +21.43% 28
Yorkshire +13 24 £463 +125.61% 12
Wales +23 22 £375 -16.67% 4
West Midlands -47 16 £275 -21.43% 21
East of England +15 15 £513 +46.43% 11
East Midlands +12 14 £450 +2.86% 7
North East -8 3 £325 -16.13% 7
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -
Network Engineer
UK

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 25 April 2025, Network Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 264 (75.43%) Cisco
2 196 (56.00%) Firewall
3 155 (44.29%) Security Cleared
4 129 (36.86%) SC Cleared
5 124 (35.43%) Cisco Certification
6 111 (31.71%) WAN
7 106 (30.29%) BGP
8 100 (28.57%) Palo Alto
9 95 (27.14%) VPN
10 89 (25.43%) OSPF
11 87 (24.86%) CCNP
12 82 (23.43%) Wireless
13 79 (22.57%) LAN
14 76 (21.71%) Network Security
15 68 (19.43%) Cisco ASA
16 66 (18.86%) Social Skills
17 60 (17.14%) CCNA
18 59 (16.86%) Cisco Firepower
19 57 (16.29%) IPsec
20 55 (15.71%) Problem-Solving
21 53 (15.14%) CheckPoint
22 50 (14.29%) Wi-Fi
22 50 (14.29%) Data Centre
23 48 (13.71%) Network Design
23 48 (13.71%) Load Balancing
24 46 (13.14%) Network Architecture
25 45 (12.86%) EIGRP
26 43 (12.29%) Juniper
27 42 (12.00%) MPLS
28 41 (11.71%) DNS

Network Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (1.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 2 (0.57%) Confluence
3 1 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
3 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.00%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 35 (10.00%) Azure
2 29 (8.29%) AWS
3 5 (1.43%) Cloud Computing
3 5 (1.43%) Cloudflare
4 3 (0.86%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (0.57%) Akamai
5 2 (0.57%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (0.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 1 (0.29%) GCP
6 1 (0.29%) GitHub
6 1 (0.29%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.29%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 196 (56.00%) Firewall
2 111 (31.71%) WAN
3 106 (30.29%) BGP
4 95 (27.14%) VPN
5 89 (25.43%) OSPF
6 82 (23.43%) Wireless
7 79 (22.57%) LAN
8 76 (21.71%) Network Security
9 68 (19.43%) Cisco ASA
10 59 (16.86%) Cisco Firepower
11 57 (16.29%) IPsec
12 50 (14.29%) Wi-Fi
13 45 (12.86%) EIGRP
14 42 (12.00%) MPLS
15 41 (11.71%) DNS
16 40 (11.43%) Cisco Nexus
17 37 (10.57%) HSRP
18 36 (10.29%) TCP/IP
19 35 (10.00%) SD-WAN
20 33 (9.43%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.14%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.29%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.29%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.29%) NoSQL
2 1 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 4 (1.14%) JIRA
1 4 (1.14%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (0.57%) GitLab
General
1 66 (18.86%) Social Skills
2 38 (10.86%) Public Sector
3 23 (6.57%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (6.29%) Telecoms
5 17 (4.86%) Finance
6 8 (2.29%) Manufacturing
7 6 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (1.43%) Advertising
8 5 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.43%) Electronics
8 5 (1.43%) Legal
9 4 (1.14%) Banking
9 4 (1.14%) Marketing
10 2 (0.57%) Automotive
10 2 (0.57%) Back Office
10 2 (0.57%) Law
10 2 (0.57%) Military
11 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Retail
11 1 (0.29%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (7.43%) 802.1X
2 5 (1.43%) Spine.js
3 2 (0.57%) JSON
3 2 (0.57%) NETCONF
3 2 (0.57%) REST
3 2 (0.57%) RESTCONF
3 2 (0.57%) XML
3 2 (0.57%) YAML
4 1 (0.29%) HTML
4 1 (0.29%) Java RMI
4 1 (0.29%) Jinja
4 1 (0.29%) SOAP
4 1 (0.29%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 50 (14.29%) Data Centre
2 8 (2.29%) PKI
2 8 (2.29%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (2.00%) Management Information System
3 7 (2.00%) NHS
3 7 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (1.71%) Driving Licence
5 5 (1.43%) CMDB
5 5 (1.43%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (1.43%) Public Cloud
6 4 (1.14%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (0.86%) Embedded Systems
7 3 (0.86%) Fibre Optics
7 3 (0.86%) Operational Technology
8 2 (0.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (0.57%) Mainframe
8 2 (0.57%) Robotics
8 2 (0.57%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.57%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 25 (7.14%) Linux
2 17 (4.86%) Unix
3 14 (4.00%) Windows
4 6 (1.71%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.86%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.57%) CentOS
6 2 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.57%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.57%) zOS
7 1 (0.29%) Android
7 1 (0.29%) Rocky
7 1 (0.29%) Solaris
7 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (15.71%) Problem-Solving
2 48 (13.71%) Load Balancing
2 48 (13.71%) Network Design
3 46 (13.14%) Network Architecture
4 39 (11.14%) Migration
5 36 (10.29%) Network Management
6 28 (8.00%) Network Monitoring
7 24 (6.86%) Agile
7 24 (6.86%) ITIL
8 21 (6.00%) Change Management
9 20 (5.71%) Project Delivery
10 19 (5.43%) Computer Science
10 19 (5.43%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (4.57%) ITSM
12 15 (4.29%) Validation
13 14 (4.00%) Impact Assessments
14 12 (3.43%) Project Management
15 11 (3.14%) High Availability
15 11 (3.14%) Problem Management
15 11 (3.14%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 31 (8.86%) Python
2 10 (2.86%) Perl
3 6 (1.71%) VB
4 5 (1.43%) SQL
5 4 (1.14%) Bash
5 4 (1.14%) Java
5 4 (1.14%) PL/SQL
6 3 (0.86%) PowerShell
7 2 (0.57%) JCL
7 2 (0.57%) REXX
8 1 (0.29%) Go
Qualifications
1 155 (44.29%) Security Cleared
2 129 (36.86%) SC Cleared
3 124 (35.43%) Cisco Certification
4 87 (24.86%) CCNP
5 60 (17.14%) CCNA
6 34 (9.71%) Degree
7 27 (7.71%) DV Cleared
8 22 (6.29%) CCIE
9 20 (5.71%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.43%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 4 (1.14%) ISEB
11 4 (1.14%) ISTQB
11 4 (1.14%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 3 (0.86%) DBS Check
12 3 (0.86%) JNCIP
13 2 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.57%) CCDP
13 2 (0.57%) HP APS
13 2 (0.57%) JNCIA
13 2 (0.57%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.00%) SLA
2 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.57%) PCI DSS
2 2 (0.57%) QA
3 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.29%) GDPR
3 1 (0.29%) NIST
3 1 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 15 (4.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (2.00%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.00%) VMware NSX
3 5 (1.43%) Firmware
4 2 (0.57%) Docker
4 2 (0.57%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.29%) Ceph
5 1 (0.29%) KVM
Systems Management
1 28 (8.00%) Ansible
2 21 (6.00%) FortiGate
3 12 (3.43%) Terraform
4 8 (2.29%) Cisco Prime
5 5 (1.43%) Cacti
5 5 (1.43%) vCenter Server
6 3 (0.86%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.57%) Nagios
7 2 (0.57%) Tivoli NetView
7 2 (0.57%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.29%) Argo
8 1 (0.29%) CASB
8 1 (0.29%) Iperf
8 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.29%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 264 (75.43%) Cisco
2 100 (28.57%) Palo Alto
3 53 (15.14%) CheckPoint
4 43 (12.29%) Juniper
5 37 (10.57%) SolarWinds
6 31 (8.86%) F5
6 31 (8.86%) Meraki
7 24 (6.86%) Aruba
7 24 (6.86%) Fortinet
8 21 (6.00%) Microsoft
8 21 (6.00%) VMware
9 13 (3.71%) Citrix
10 11 (3.14%) Zscaler
11 10 (2.86%) Infoblox
12 8 (2.29%) Extreme Networks
13 6 (1.71%) Arista
14 5 (1.43%) HP
14 5 (1.43%) Oracle
14 5 (1.43%) ServiceNow
15 4 (1.14%) SAP