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 £460, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 May 2026.

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

6 months to
31 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 87 60
Rank change year-on-year -10 -27 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 590 381 634
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.36% 2.93% 3.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.57% 3.20% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 259 391
10th Percentile £303 £310 £275
25th Percentile £400 £380 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £466 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% +3.44% +2.86%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £525
90th Percentile £600 £625 £634
UK median daily rate £474 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -0.21% - +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 4 13
10th Percentile £53.99 £22.17 £15.60
25th Percentile £56.44 £22.38 £20.74
Median hourly rate £75.25 £28.75 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +161.74% -60.34% +16.94%
75th Percentile £78.75 £47.19 £73.75
90th Percentile - £64.63 £75.24
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £53.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year +35.81% +34.38% -36.12%

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 22,995 11,910 19,149
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.87% 91.74% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,245 7,593 11,598
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £402 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £680 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,650 854 2,392
10th Percentile £14.68 £13.80 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £16.98 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.69 £26.28 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.25% -34.30% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.24 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £37.50
% change year-on-year +50.82% -24.85% -16.67%

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 31 May 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 31 May 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 31 May 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 0 181 £463 -7.50% 57
North of England -34 179 £474 -3.66% 32
North West -13 137 £474 -5.16% 14
Midlands +11 113 £425 +3.03% 24
West Midlands +16 106 £425 +54.55% 13
Scotland +13 51 £415 +3.75% 21
East of England -7 45 £438 +11.82% 14
South West -40 44 £533 +4.00% 17
Yorkshire -60 31 £450 -8.54% 12
Wales -9 26 £425 +21.43% 9
North East -14 11 £600 +108.70% 6
East Midlands -35 3 £488 +8.33% 11
Northern Ireland +6 2 £468 -18.70% 3
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 31 May 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.

1 332 (56.27%) Cisco
2 272 (46.10%) Firewall
3 226 (38.31%) Security Cleared
4 176 (29.83%) LAN
5 174 (29.49%) WAN
6 171 (28.98%) Cisco Certification
7 165 (27.97%) SC Cleared
8 142 (24.07%) DNS
9 135 (22.88%) VPN
10 133 (22.54%) CCNP
11 130 (22.03%) F5
12 129 (21.86%) BGP
13 128 (21.69%) Palo Alto
14 127 (21.53%) Network Security
15 114 (19.32%) Load Balancing
16 91 (15.42%) Wireless
17 90 (15.25%) OSPF
18 88 (14.92%) VMware
19 81 (13.73%) CCNA
20 76 (12.88%) VLAN
21 74 (12.54%) Juniper
22 69 (11.69%) DV Cleared
23 68 (11.53%) TCP/IP
24 65 (11.02%) SD-WAN
25 64 (10.85%) VMware Infrastructure
25 64 (10.85%) Wi-Fi
26 62 (10.51%) High Availability
27 59 (10.00%) BIG-IP
28 58 (9.83%) Network Monitoring
28 58 (9.83%) 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 6 (1.02%) Confluence
2 3 (0.51%) Apache
2 3 (0.51%) IIS
3 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.17%) CMS
4 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (2.71%) MS Visio
2 8 (1.36%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 52 (8.81%) Azure
2 43 (7.29%) AWS
3 23 (3.90%) GCP
4 14 (2.37%) GitHub
5 9 (1.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 7 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (1.19%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 6 (1.02%) IaaS
8 5 (0.85%) Entra ID
8 5 (0.85%) Nutanix
9 4 (0.68%) Google Compute Engine
9 4 (0.68%) SaaS
10 3 (0.51%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (0.51%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (0.51%) Catchpoint
10 3 (0.51%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (0.51%) OCI
10 3 (0.51%) Route 53
11 2 (0.34%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.34%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 272 (46.10%) Firewall
2 176 (29.83%) LAN
3 174 (29.49%) WAN
4 142 (24.07%) DNS
5 135 (22.88%) VPN
6 129 (21.86%) BGP
7 127 (21.53%) Network Security
8 91 (15.42%) Wireless
9 90 (15.25%) OSPF
10 76 (12.88%) VLAN
11 68 (11.53%) TCP/IP
12 65 (11.02%) SD-WAN
13 64 (10.85%) Wi-Fi
14 59 (10.00%) BIG-IP
15 53 (8.98%) Cisco Nexus
16 50 (8.47%) IPsec
17 49 (8.31%) SSL
18 48 (8.14%) DHCP
19 41 (6.95%) Wireshark
20 39 (6.61%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
1 1 (0.17%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 26 (4.41%) Fiddler
2 21 (3.56%) JIRA
3 15 (2.54%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.53%) Git
5 7 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (1.02%) GitLab
7 2 (0.34%) Browser DevTools
General
1 77 (13.05%) Social Skills
2 38 (6.44%) Banking
3 36 (6.10%) Investment Banking
4 29 (4.92%) Documentation Skills
5 26 (4.41%) Manufacturing
5 26 (4.41%) Telecoms
6 25 (4.24%) Public Sector
7 22 (3.73%) Analytical Skills
8 14 (2.37%) Finance
9 10 (1.69%) Legal
10 9 (1.53%) Aerospace
11 6 (1.02%) Military
11 6 (1.02%) Retail
12 5 (0.85%) Law
12 5 (0.85%) Police
13 3 (0.51%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.17%) Back Office
14 1 (0.17%) Electronics
14 1 (0.17%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.17%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (5.93%) 802.1X
2 10 (1.69%) LDAP
3 9 (1.53%) SAML
4 3 (0.51%) REST
5 2 (0.34%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.17%) Django
6 1 (0.17%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.17%) Jinja
6 1 (0.17%) NETCONF
6 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 119 (20.17%) Data Centre
2 22 (3.73%) Management Information System
3 19 (3.22%) PKI
4 12 (2.03%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
5 11 (1.86%) Hybrid Cloud
6 10 (1.69%) Operational Technology
7 9 (1.53%) Clustering
7 9 (1.53%) NHS
7 9 (1.53%) Onboarding
7 9 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
8 7 (1.19%) Cloud Native
9 5 (0.85%) Public Cloud
10 4 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.51%) Fibre Optics
11 3 (0.51%) SCADA
11 3 (0.51%) Wiki
12 2 (0.34%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (0.34%) Life Science
12 2 (0.34%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 58 (9.83%) Windows
2 36 (6.10%) Linux
3 13 (2.20%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.68%) Unix
5 3 (0.51%) CatOS
6 1 (0.17%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.17%) Solaris
6 1 (0.17%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.17%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
6 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (19.32%) Load Balancing
2 62 (10.51%) High Availability
3 58 (9.83%) Network Monitoring
4 53 (8.98%) Migration
5 49 (8.31%) Problem-Solving
6 45 (7.63%) ITIL
7 42 (7.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 39 (6.61%) Project Delivery
9 32 (5.42%) Network Design
10 27 (4.58%) Data Loss Prevention
10 27 (4.58%) ITSM
10 27 (4.58%) Network Management
10 27 (4.58%) Technical Leadership
11 26 (4.41%) Malware Detection/Protection
12 25 (4.24%) Change Management
12 25 (4.24%) Validation
13 24 (4.07%) Service Management
14 22 (3.73%) Network Architecture
15 21 (3.56%) Agile
15 21 (3.56%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 39 (6.61%) Python
2 7 (1.19%) SQL
3 4 (0.68%) ActionScript
3 4 (0.68%) Bash
4 3 (0.51%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.17%) Groovy
5 1 (0.17%) Perl
5 1 (0.17%) PHP
Qualifications
1 226 (38.31%) Security Cleared
2 171 (28.98%) Cisco Certification
3 165 (27.97%) SC Cleared
4 133 (22.54%) CCNP
5 81 (13.73%) CCNA
6 69 (11.69%) DV Cleared
7 24 (4.07%) Degree
8 18 (3.05%) CCIE
9 15 (2.54%) JNCIA
9 15 (2.54%) JNCIS
10 14 (2.37%) Network+ Certification
11 10 (1.69%) JNCIP
12 7 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (1.02%) CCSE
14 5 (0.85%) CCSM
14 5 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
14 5 (0.85%) Server+ Certification
15 4 (0.68%) CCIE Wireless
15 4 (0.68%) CWDP
15 4 (0.68%) CWNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.03%) SLA
2 10 (1.69%) QA
3 9 (1.53%) NIST
4 8 (1.36%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (0.51%) JSP 440
5 3 (0.51%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.34%) NCSC
6 2 (0.34%) PMO
7 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.17%) GDPR
7 1 (0.17%) GRC
7 1 (0.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 64 (10.85%) VMware Infrastructure
2 39 (6.61%) VMware NSX
3 26 (4.41%) Firmware
4 24 (4.07%) Active Directory
5 9 (1.53%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.19%) vSphere
7 4 (0.68%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.34%) KVM
8 2 (0.34%) vCloud
8 2 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.17%) Docker
9 1 (0.17%) FreeRADIUS
9 1 (0.17%) RHEV
9 1 (0.17%) Snort
9 1 (0.17%) Squid
9 1 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.17%) Xen
Systems Management
1 40 (6.78%) Ansible
2 29 (4.92%) FortiGate
2 29 (4.92%) Terraform
3 9 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (1.02%) Nagios
5 5 (0.85%) Cisco Prime
5 5 (0.85%) Kubernetes
6 3 (0.51%) WSUS
7 2 (0.34%) Avamar
7 2 (0.34%) CASB
7 2 (0.34%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.34%) SCOM
7 2 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.17%) Iperf
8 1 (0.17%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.17%) Puppet
8 1 (0.17%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.17%) Suricata
8 1 (0.17%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 332 (56.27%) Cisco
2 130 (22.03%) F5
3 128 (21.69%) Palo Alto
4 88 (14.92%) VMware
5 74 (12.54%) Juniper
6 56 (9.49%) Aruba
7 53 (8.98%) CheckPoint
8 42 (7.12%) Fortinet
9 38 (6.44%) SolarWinds
10 32 (5.42%) Microsoft
11 29 (4.92%) McAfee
12 28 (4.75%) Blue Coat
13 22 (3.73%) ServiceNow
14 21 (3.56%) Meraki
15 20 (3.39%) NetApp
16 19 (3.22%) Google
17 17 (2.88%) Extreme Networks
18 14 (2.37%) Ekahau
19 13 (2.20%) Splunk
20 12 (2.03%) Arista