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 £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 July 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
12 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 83 60 69
Rank change year-on-year -23 +9 +82
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 419 621 737
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.81% 2.99% 3.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.09% 3.23% 3.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 293 385 482
10th Percentile £313 £274 £273
25th Percentile £382 £350 £332
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £463 £425
Median % change year-on-year +2.70% +8.82% -
75th Percentile £575 £538 £520
90th Percentile £625 £625 £575
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 13 22
10th Percentile £21.52 £17.80 £18.88
25th Percentile £22.27 £20.74 £42.69
Median hourly rate £35.00 £52.50 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year -33.33% -15.32% +34.93%
75th Percentile £59.75 £75.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £78.95 £75.24 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £40.00 £62.00
% change year-on-year +25.00% -35.48% +69.86%

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 13,550 19,206 22,112
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.94% 92.35% 94.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,375 11,558 15,190
10th Percentile £216 £213 £232
25th Percentile £363 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% +2.81%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,115 2,340 1,191
10th Percentile £13.50 £12.82 £13.50
25th Percentile £16.84 £16.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £39.55
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% +1.14% +91.57%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.44 £75.67
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £39.55 £43.00
% change year-on-year -33.00% -8.02% +67.45%

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 12 July 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 12 July 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 12 July 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 -6 138 £492 +9.33% 50
South East -22 97 £500 - 74
North West -2 96 £489 +2.89% 23
South West +1 57 £525 +7.69% 34
Midlands -32 56 £434 +15.67% 53
West Midlands -17 42 £350 - 42
Yorkshire +10 40 £492 +15.76% 20
Scotland -2 33 £419 +4.69% 13
East of England +26 31 £400 +33.33% 20
Wales +10 14 £425 +6.25% 11
East Midlands -13 14 £500 +11.11% 11
North East -5 2 £288 -32.35% 7
Northern Ireland -10 2 £575 +20.42% 1
Channel Islands - 2 £445 -
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 12 July 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.

1 323 (77.09%) Cisco
2 220 (52.51%) Firewall
3 183 (43.68%) Security Cleared
4 170 (40.57%) Cisco Certification
5 145 (34.61%) SC Cleared
6 130 (31.03%) WAN
7 119 (28.40%) CCNP
8 111 (26.49%) BGP
9 97 (23.15%) Palo Alto
10 96 (22.91%) LAN
11 94 (22.43%) VPN
12 87 (20.76%) Network Security
13 84 (20.05%) OSPF
14 78 (18.62%) Social Skills
15 77 (18.38%) CCNA
16 75 (17.90%) Data Centre
17 72 (17.18%) Wireless
18 62 (14.80%) Cisco ASA
19 61 (14.56%) Cisco Firepower
20 60 (14.32%) DNS
21 59 (14.08%) CheckPoint
22 57 (13.60%) Juniper
22 57 (13.60%) Problem-Solving
23 56 (13.37%) Wi-Fi
23 56 (13.37%) Network Design
24 55 (13.13%) Cisco Nexus
25 53 (12.65%) IPsec
26 50 (11.93%) MPLS
27 49 (11.69%) F5
28 48 (11.46%) Degree

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 9 (2.15%) Confluence
2 4 (0.95%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 1 (0.24%) Apache
3 1 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2010
3 1 (0.24%) IIS
3 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.24%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.24%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (4.30%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.95%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 38 (9.07%) Azure
2 34 (8.11%) AWS
3 5 (1.19%) Cloudflare
3 5 (1.19%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 3 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
4 3 (0.72%) Cloud Computing
4 3 (0.72%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (0.48%) Akamai
6 1 (0.24%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.24%) Entra ID
6 1 (0.24%) GCP
6 1 (0.24%) GitHub
6 1 (0.24%) IaaS
6 1 (0.24%) Mimecast
6 1 (0.24%) Nutanix
6 1 (0.24%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.24%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 220 (52.51%) Firewall
2 130 (31.03%) WAN
3 111 (26.49%) BGP
4 96 (22.91%) LAN
5 94 (22.43%) VPN
6 87 (20.76%) Network Security
7 84 (20.05%) OSPF
8 72 (17.18%) Wireless
9 62 (14.80%) Cisco ASA
10 61 (14.56%) Cisco Firepower
11 60 (14.32%) DNS
12 56 (13.37%) Wi-Fi
13 55 (13.13%) Cisco Nexus
14 53 (12.65%) IPsec
15 50 (11.93%) MPLS
16 46 (10.98%) Cisco ISE
17 45 (10.74%) SD-WAN
18 43 (10.26%) EIGRP
19 41 (9.79%) DHCP
20 36 (8.59%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.95%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 14 (3.34%) JIRA
2 5 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (0.95%) Robot Framework
4 1 (0.24%) GitLab
General
1 78 (18.62%) Social Skills
2 35 (8.35%) Telecoms
3 32 (7.64%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (7.64%) Public Sector
4 18 (4.30%) Finance
5 11 (2.63%) Manufacturing
6 8 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (1.67%) Legal
8 6 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (0.95%) Advertising
9 4 (0.95%) Banking
10 2 (0.48%) Automotive
10 2 (0.48%) Electronics
10 2 (0.48%) Law
10 2 (0.48%) Military
10 2 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.24%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.24%) Marketing
11 1 (0.24%) Retail
11 1 (0.24%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (6.21%) 802.1X
2 8 (1.91%) NETCONF
2 8 (1.91%) RESTCONF
3 6 (1.43%) RFC 2544
4 5 (1.19%) Spine.js
5 2 (0.48%) HTML
5 2 (0.48%) REST
6 1 (0.24%) CSS
6 1 (0.24%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.24%) Jinja
6 1 (0.24%) JSON
6 1 (0.24%) Node.js
6 1 (0.24%) XML
6 1 (0.24%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 75 (17.90%) Data Centre
2 15 (3.58%) PKI
3 11 (2.63%) Management Information System
4 8 (1.91%) Fibre Optics
4 8 (1.91%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (1.67%) Driving Licence
5 7 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (1.43%) CMDB
6 6 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (1.43%) Onboarding
6 6 (1.43%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.19%) Cloud Native
7 5 (1.19%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (0.72%) NHS
9 3 (0.72%) SCADA
9 3 (0.72%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.48%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 2 (0.48%) Mainframe
10 2 (0.48%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 20 (4.77%) Linux
2 17 (4.06%) Windows
3 14 (3.34%) Unix
4 9 (2.15%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.48%) Embedded Linux
5 2 (0.48%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.48%) zOS
6 1 (0.24%) Android
6 1 (0.24%) CentOS
6 1 (0.24%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.24%) Rocky
6 1 (0.24%) Solaris
6 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (13.60%) Problem-Solving
2 56 (13.37%) Network Design
3 45 (10.74%) Load Balancing
3 45 (10.74%) Network Architecture
4 43 (10.26%) Migration
5 35 (8.35%) Network Management
6 34 (8.11%) Network Monitoring
7 32 (7.64%) Agile
7 32 (7.64%) ITIL
8 25 (5.97%) Computer Science
9 22 (5.25%) Validation
10 21 (5.01%) Service Management
11 20 (4.77%) Change Management
11 20 (4.77%) Continuous Improvement
12 19 (4.53%) Project Management
13 18 (4.30%) High Availability
13 18 (4.30%) Project Delivery
14 16 (3.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 15 (3.58%) Network Virtualisation
15 15 (3.58%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 43 (10.26%) Python
2 9 (2.15%) VB
3 8 (1.91%) PowerShell
4 6 (1.43%) Bash
4 6 (1.43%) Java
4 6 (1.43%) Perl
5 4 (0.95%) PL/SQL
5 4 (0.95%) SQL
6 2 (0.48%) JCL
6 2 (0.48%) REXX
7 1 (0.24%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.24%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 183 (43.68%) Security Cleared
2 170 (40.57%) Cisco Certification
3 145 (34.61%) SC Cleared
4 119 (28.40%) CCNP
5 77 (18.38%) CCNA
6 48 (11.46%) Degree
7 35 (8.35%) DV Cleared
8 23 (5.49%) Computer Science Degree
9 20 (4.77%) CCIE
10 5 (1.19%) ISEB
10 5 (1.19%) ISTQB
10 5 (1.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 5 (1.19%) JNCIA
10 5 (1.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (0.72%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (0.72%) CCSA
11 3 (0.72%) JNCIS
11 3 (0.72%) Network+ Certification
12 2 (0.48%) CCDP
12 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.58%) SLA
2 6 (1.43%) QA
3 3 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.48%) GDPR
4 2 (0.48%) NCSC
5 1 (0.24%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.24%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.24%) NIST
5 1 (0.24%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 21 (5.01%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (2.15%) VMware ESXi
3 7 (1.67%) Active Directory
3 7 (1.67%) Firmware
4 5 (1.19%) VMware NSX
5 3 (0.72%) Ceph
6 2 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.24%) Docker
7 1 (0.24%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.24%) KVM
Systems Management
1 46 (10.98%) Ansible
2 27 (6.44%) FortiGate
3 19 (4.53%) Terraform
4 7 (1.67%) Cisco Prime
4 7 (1.67%) vCenter Server
5 5 (1.19%) Cacti
5 5 (1.19%) Cisco CUCM
5 5 (1.19%) HP ALM
6 3 (0.72%) Nagios
7 2 (0.48%) OpenView
7 2 (0.48%) Tivoli NetView
7 2 (0.48%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.24%) Argo
8 1 (0.24%) CASB
8 1 (0.24%) Grafana
8 1 (0.24%) Iperf
8 1 (0.24%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 323 (77.09%) Cisco
2 97 (23.15%) Palo Alto
3 59 (14.08%) CheckPoint
4 57 (13.60%) Juniper
5 49 (11.69%) F5
6 46 (10.98%) SolarWinds
7 34 (8.11%) Microsoft
8 31 (7.40%) Meraki
9 29 (6.92%) VMware
10 28 (6.68%) Aruba
11 27 (6.44%) Fortinet
12 18 (4.30%) Zscaler
13 17 (4.06%) ServiceNow
14 14 (3.34%) Citrix
15 10 (2.39%) Arista
15 10 (2.39%) HP
16 7 (1.67%) Atlassian
16 7 (1.67%) Infoblox
17 6 (1.43%) Extreme Networks
17 6 (1.43%) Oracle