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 £466, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 September 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
15 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 105 60 64
Rank change year-on-year -45 +4 +82
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 343 557 721
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.25% 3.14% 3.32%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.51% 3.40% 3.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 248 303 453
10th Percentile £300 £288 £263
25th Percentile £377 £400 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £490 £425
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +15.29% -
75th Percentile £561 £550 £520
90th Percentile £638 £634 £575
UK median daily rate £475 £495 £450
% change year-on-year -4.04% +10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 16 28
10th Percentile £21.65 £19.25 £38.63
25th Percentile £22.38 £20.00 £49.06
Median hourly rate £38.25 £35.48 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.81% -42.77% +39.33%
75th Percentile £71.19 £75.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £84.99 £75.24 £72.90
UK median hourly rate £41.50 £45.00 £61.00
% change year-on-year -7.78% -26.23% +12.96%

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 13,685 16,394 20,459
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.84% 92.29% 94.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,409 9,572 13,662
10th Percentile £213 £220 £225
25th Percentile £361 £376 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.35%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £653 £681 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,240 1,451 1,194
10th Percentile £13.27 £14.41 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.17 £19.50 £17.76
Median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
Median % change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%
75th Percentile £51.65 £66.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.24 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
% change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%

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
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 15 September 2025.

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 -48 99 £485 -0.77% 49
South East -24 87 £500 -2.44% 80
Midlands -17 63 £385 -9.41% 39
North West -38 62 £475 -3.06% 17
West Midlands +4 56 £378 -13.22% 22
Scotland -5 39 £425 +13.33% 18
Yorkshire -30 34 £490 +17.95% 21
South West -9 31 £598 +17.73% 14
East of England +14 26 £383 +27.50% 13
East Midlands -23 7 £600 +60.00% 16
Northern Ireland -6 4 £525 +17.98% 4
North East -2 3 £600 +41.18% 13
Wales -14 1 - - 3
Channel Islands - 1 £440 -
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 September 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.

1 246 (71.72%) Cisco
2 159 (46.36%) Firewall
2 159 (46.36%) Security Cleared
3 123 (35.86%) Cisco Certification
4 112 (32.65%) SC Cleared
5 107 (31.20%) WAN
6 83 (24.20%) CCNP
7 74 (21.57%) BGP
8 73 (21.28%) Juniper
8 73 (21.28%) VPN
9 72 (20.99%) Palo Alto
10 71 (20.70%) LAN
11 69 (20.12%) Network Security
12 62 (18.08%) Data Centre
13 59 (17.20%) Social Skills
13 59 (17.20%) CCNA
14 50 (14.58%) Wireless
15 48 (13.99%) DNS
15 48 (13.99%) SolarWinds
16 47 (13.70%) OSPF
17 42 (12.24%) CheckPoint
17 42 (12.24%) Cisco ISE
17 42 (12.24%) F5
18 41 (11.95%) Public Sector
19 40 (11.66%) MPLS
19 40 (11.66%) Python
19 40 (11.66%) Network Design
20 39 (11.37%) DV Cleared
21 38 (11.08%) Wi-Fi
21 38 (11.08%) Cisco Firepower

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 8 (2.33%) Confluence
2 1 (0.29%) Apache
2 1 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
2 1 (0.29%) IIS
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 15 (4.37%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.17%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.87%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 21 (6.12%) Azure
2 17 (4.96%) AWS
3 6 (1.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 4 (1.17%) AWS Direct Connect
5 2 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 2 (0.58%) Amazon EC2
5 2 (0.58%) Amazon ELB
5 2 (0.58%) Amazon S3
5 2 (0.58%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.29%) Akamai
6 1 (0.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.29%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (0.29%) Entra ID
6 1 (0.29%) GitHub
6 1 (0.29%) IaaS
6 1 (0.29%) Lucidchart
6 1 (0.29%) Mimecast
6 1 (0.29%) Nutanix
6 1 (0.29%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.29%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 159 (46.36%) Firewall
2 107 (31.20%) WAN
3 74 (21.57%) BGP
4 73 (21.28%) VPN
5 71 (20.70%) LAN
6 69 (20.12%) Network Security
7 50 (14.58%) Wireless
8 48 (13.99%) DNS
9 47 (13.70%) OSPF
10 42 (12.24%) Cisco ISE
11 40 (11.66%) MPLS
12 38 (11.08%) Cisco Firepower
12 38 (11.08%) Wi-Fi
13 35 (10.20%) IPsec
14 31 (9.04%) SD-WAN
15 28 (8.16%) Cisco IOS
16 27 (7.87%) Cisco Nexus
16 27 (7.87%) TCP/IP
17 25 (7.29%) DHCP
17 25 (7.29%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 14 (4.08%) JIRA
2 5 (1.46%) Robot Framework
3 4 (1.17%) GitLab
4 3 (0.87%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.58%) Fiddler
5 2 (0.58%) Git
5 2 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 59 (17.20%) Social Skills
2 41 (11.95%) Public Sector
3 31 (9.04%) Telecoms
4 25 (7.29%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (3.21%) Manufacturing
6 7 (2.04%) Finance
7 6 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.75%) Legal
8 4 (1.17%) Banking
8 4 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (0.58%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.58%) Law
9 2 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.29%) Automotive
10 1 (0.29%) Electronics
10 1 (0.29%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.29%) Military
10 1 (0.29%) Police
10 1 (0.29%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.96%) 802.1X
2 8 (2.33%) RFC 2544
3 7 (2.04%) NETCONF
3 7 (2.04%) RESTCONF
4 1 (0.29%) CSS
4 1 (0.29%) gRPC
4 1 (0.29%) HTML
4 1 (0.29%) Java RMI
4 1 (0.29%) Jinja
4 1 (0.29%) JSON
4 1 (0.29%) Node.js
4 1 (0.29%) REST
4 1 (0.29%) YAML
4 1 (0.29%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 62 (18.08%) Data Centre
2 18 (5.25%) PKI
3 16 (4.66%) Management Information System
4 12 (3.50%) Onboarding
5 10 (2.92%) Fibre Optics
6 9 (2.62%) Driving Licence
7 8 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.75%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.46%) Cloud Native
10 5 (1.46%) CMDB
10 5 (1.46%) SCADA
11 4 (1.17%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.17%) Operational Technology
11 4 (1.17%) Video Conferencing
12 2 (0.58%) Handset
12 2 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (0.58%) Life Science
12 2 (0.58%) NHS
12 2 (0.58%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 24 (7.00%) Windows
2 15 (4.37%) Linux
3 13 (3.79%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.92%) Unix
5 2 (0.58%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.58%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.29%) Android
6 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.29%) Solaris
6 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.29%) Windows 8
6 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (11.66%) Network Design
2 33 (9.62%) Load Balancing
3 32 (9.33%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (8.16%) Service Management
5 27 (7.87%) Migration
6 25 (7.29%) Network Monitoring
7 24 (7.00%) Network Management
8 22 (6.41%) ITIL
8 22 (6.41%) Network Architecture
9 20 (5.83%) Agile
10 18 (5.25%) DevOps
11 17 (4.96%) High Availability
12 16 (4.66%) Project Management
13 15 (4.37%) Cybersecurity
13 15 (4.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 14 (4.08%) ITSM
15 13 (3.79%) Project Delivery
15 13 (3.79%) SIEM
16 12 (3.50%) CI/CD
16 12 (3.50%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 40 (11.66%) Python
2 9 (2.62%) Bash
3 7 (2.04%) PowerShell
4 6 (1.75%) Java
5 5 (1.46%) VB
6 4 (1.17%) Perl
7 1 (0.29%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.29%) Kotlin
7 1 (0.29%) SQL
Qualifications
1 159 (46.36%) Security Cleared
2 123 (35.86%) Cisco Certification
3 112 (32.65%) SC Cleared
4 83 (24.20%) CCNP
5 59 (17.20%) CCNA
6 39 (11.37%) DV Cleared
7 31 (9.04%) Degree
8 9 (2.62%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (2.04%) CCIE
10 5 (1.46%) CCDP
10 5 (1.46%) ISEB
10 5 (1.46%) ISTQB
10 5 (1.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 4 (1.17%) JNCIA
12 3 (0.87%) CCSA
12 3 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.87%) JNCIP
12 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.04%) QA
1 7 (2.04%) SLA
2 4 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (0.87%) GDPR
4 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.58%) NCSC
5 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.29%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.29%) GRC
5 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 1 (0.29%) NIST
5 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (3.50%) Active Directory
1 12 (3.50%) VMware NSX
2 10 (2.92%) VMware ESXi
2 10 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.75%) Docker
4 5 (1.46%) Firmware
5 3 (0.87%) Ceph
6 2 (0.58%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (10.79%) Ansible
2 24 (7.00%) FortiGate
3 17 (4.96%) Terraform
4 12 (3.50%) vCenter Server
5 6 (1.75%) Cisco Prime
6 5 (1.46%) Cisco CUCM
6 5 (1.46%) HP ALM
7 4 (1.17%) Kubernetes
8 2 (0.58%) OpenView
8 2 (0.58%) WhatsUp Gold
9 1 (0.29%) Argo
9 1 (0.29%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.29%) Grafana
9 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.29%) Nagios
9 1 (0.29%) SCCM
Vendors
1 246 (71.72%) Cisco
2 73 (21.28%) Juniper
3 72 (20.99%) Palo Alto
4 48 (13.99%) SolarWinds
5 42 (12.24%) CheckPoint
5 42 (12.24%) F5
6 37 (10.79%) Microsoft
7 27 (7.87%) Fortinet
8 26 (7.58%) Meraki
9 23 (6.71%) Aruba
10 17 (4.96%) VMware
11 16 (4.66%) ServiceNow
12 14 (4.08%) Zscaler
13 9 (2.62%) HP
14 8 (2.33%) Blue Coat
15 7 (2.04%) Atlassian
15 7 (2.04%) LogicMonitor
15 7 (2.04%) Nokia
16 5 (1.46%) Citrix
16 5 (1.46%) Micro Focus