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 2 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
2 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 80 58 96
Rank change year-on-year -22 +38 +50
Contract jobs requiring a Network Engineer 381 680 662
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 3.01% 3.23% 2.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.26% 3.49% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 414 454
10th Percentile £300 £277 £288
25th Percentile £382 £335 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year - - +12.43%
75th Percentile £575 £519 £525
90th Percentile £613 £625 £600
UK median daily rate £475 £450 £473
% change year-on-year +5.56% -4.91% +5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 17 16
10th Percentile £23.53 £18.39 £20.38
25th Percentile £31.06 £24.50 £42.88
Median hourly rate £45.75 £63.00 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.38% +1.61% +44.23%
75th Percentile £62.06 £73.75 £79.09
90th Percentile £70.58 £74.35 £80.63
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 11,686 19,496 23,714
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 92.71% 94.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,619 12,106 16,646
10th Percentile £213 £213 £219
25th Percentile £363 £363 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% +5.26%
75th Percentile £584 £597 £594
90th Percentile £656 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -1.05% -3.58% +3.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 748 2,111 1,262
10th Percentile £14.84 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £19.00 £15.50 £17.72
Median hourly rate £31.76 £33.00 £41.91
Median % change year-on-year -3.76% -21.25% +115.12%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £72.33 £73.67
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £32.90 £43.86
% change year-on-year -1.20% -25.00% +93.69%

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
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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +16 146 £483 +11.25% 55
North West +5 119 £483 +6.04% 30
South East -22 93 £500 - 97
South West -19 46 £473 -3.08% 21
Scotland +22 33 £413 -1.79% 16
Midlands -33 32 £425 +21.43% 36
Yorkshire +19 25 £463 +42.31% 16
Wales +28 23 £388 -13.89% 10
East Midlands +12 16 £450 +5.88% 13
West Midlands -40 16 £275 -21.43% 22
East of England +3 15 £500 +37.93% 31
North East -15 2 £438 +12.90% 9
Channel Islands - 1 £450 - 1
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 279 (73.23%) Cisco
2 215 (56.43%) Firewall
3 172 (45.14%) Security Cleared
4 140 (36.75%) SC Cleared
5 128 (33.60%) Cisco Certification
6 115 (30.18%) BGP
7 113 (29.66%) WAN
8 104 (27.30%) Palo Alto
9 101 (26.51%) VPN
10 98 (25.72%) OSPF
11 88 (23.10%) Wireless
12 87 (22.83%) CCNP
13 85 (22.31%) Network Security
14 83 (21.78%) LAN
15 76 (19.95%) Cisco ASA
16 69 (18.11%) CCNA
16 69 (18.11%) Cisco Firepower
17 63 (16.54%) Social Skills
18 62 (16.27%) IPsec
19 59 (15.49%) Load Balancing
20 55 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
21 54 (14.17%) Wi-Fi
21 54 (14.17%) CheckPoint
22 50 (13.12%) DNS
22 50 (13.12%) SolarWinds
23 49 (12.86%) Network Design
24 48 (12.60%) Juniper
25 47 (12.34%) EIGRP
26 45 (11.81%) Data Centre
27 44 (11.55%) Network Architecture

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 (1.05%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 2 (0.52%) Confluence
2 2 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (0.52%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2010
3 1 (0.26%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.36%) Microsoft Office
1 9 (2.36%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 42 (11.02%) Azure
2 36 (9.45%) AWS
3 5 (1.31%) Cloud Computing
3 5 (1.31%) Cloudflare
4 3 (0.79%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (0.52%) Akamai
5 2 (0.52%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (0.52%) GCP
5 2 (0.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 1 (0.26%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 215 (56.43%) Firewall
2 115 (30.18%) BGP
3 113 (29.66%) WAN
4 101 (26.51%) VPN
5 98 (25.72%) OSPF
6 88 (23.10%) Wireless
7 85 (22.31%) Network Security
8 83 (21.78%) LAN
9 76 (19.95%) Cisco ASA
10 69 (18.11%) Cisco Firepower
11 62 (16.27%) IPsec
12 54 (14.17%) Wi-Fi
13 50 (13.12%) DNS
14 47 (12.34%) EIGRP
15 43 (11.29%) Cisco ISE
16 39 (10.24%) DHCP
16 39 (10.24%) HSRP
16 39 (10.24%) MPLS
17 38 (9.97%) Cisco Nexus
18 37 (9.71%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.05%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.26%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.26%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
2 1 (0.26%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 7 (1.84%) JIRA
2 5 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.26%) GitLab
3 1 (0.26%) Hudson
General
1 63 (16.54%) Social Skills
2 43 (11.29%) Public Sector
3 27 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (5.51%) Telecoms
5 19 (4.99%) Finance
6 8 (2.10%) Manufacturing
7 6 (1.57%) Advertising
7 6 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.57%) Legal
8 5 (1.31%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.05%) Electronics
9 4 (1.05%) Marketing
10 3 (0.79%) Banking
11 2 (0.52%) Automotive
11 2 (0.52%) Back Office
11 2 (0.52%) Military
12 1 (0.26%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.26%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.26%) Retail
12 1 (0.26%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (6.30%) 802.1X
2 5 (1.31%) Spine.js
3 2 (0.52%) JSON
3 2 (0.52%) NETCONF
3 2 (0.52%) REST
3 2 (0.52%) RESTCONF
3 2 (0.52%) XML
4 1 (0.26%) HTML
4 1 (0.26%) Jinja
4 1 (0.26%) SOAP
4 1 (0.26%) YAML
4 1 (0.26%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 45 (11.81%) Data Centre
2 8 (2.10%) PKI
3 7 (1.84%) NHS
4 6 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (1.57%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (1.31%) Management Information System
5 5 (1.31%) Public Cloud
6 4 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.05%) Driving Licence
6 4 (1.05%) Embedded Systems
6 4 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (0.79%) CMDB
7 3 (0.79%) Operational Technology
8 2 (0.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (0.52%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (0.52%) Mainframe
8 2 (0.52%) Robotics
8 2 (0.52%) Self-Driving Car
8 2 (0.52%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 22 (5.77%) Linux
2 18 (4.72%) Windows
3 15 (3.94%) Unix
4 7 (1.84%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.05%) Embedded Linux
5 4 (1.05%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.52%) CentOS
6 2 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.52%) Windows 7
6 2 (0.52%) zOS
7 1 (0.26%) Android
7 1 (0.26%) Rocky
7 1 (0.26%) Solaris
7 1 (0.26%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (15.49%) Load Balancing
2 55 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
3 49 (12.86%) Network Design
4 44 (11.55%) Migration
4 44 (11.55%) Network Architecture
5 42 (11.02%) Network Management
6 33 (8.66%) Agile
7 25 (6.56%) ITIL
7 25 (6.56%) ITSM
8 24 (6.30%) Network Monitoring
9 22 (5.77%) Project Delivery
10 20 (5.25%) Change Management
10 20 (5.25%) Continuous Improvement
11 19 (4.99%) Computer Science
12 16 (4.20%) Validation
13 15 (3.94%) Project Management
14 13 (3.41%) Impact Assessments
15 12 (3.15%) Platform Engineering
16 11 (2.89%) Preventative Maintenance
16 11 (2.89%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 37 (9.71%) Python
2 12 (3.15%) Perl
3 7 (1.84%) VB
4 5 (1.31%) PowerShell
4 5 (1.31%) SQL
5 4 (1.05%) Bash
5 4 (1.05%) PL/SQL
6 2 (0.52%) JCL
6 2 (0.52%) REXX
7 1 (0.26%) C
7 1 (0.26%) C++
7 1 (0.26%) Go
7 1 (0.26%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.26%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 172 (45.14%) Security Cleared
2 140 (36.75%) SC Cleared
3 128 (33.60%) Cisco Certification
4 87 (22.83%) CCNP
5 69 (18.11%) CCNA
6 32 (8.40%) Degree
7 30 (7.87%) DV Cleared
8 24 (6.30%) CCIE
9 20 (5.25%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (0.79%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.79%) JNCIA
11 3 (0.79%) JNCIP
12 2 (0.52%) CCDP
12 2 (0.52%) HP APS
12 2 (0.52%) JNCIS
13 1 (0.26%) A+ Certification
13 1 (0.26%) CCIP
13 1 (0.26%) CISSP
13 1 (0.26%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.41%) SLA
2 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.52%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.26%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.26%) GDPR
3 1 (0.26%) NIST
3 1 (0.26%) QA
3 1 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 16 (4.20%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (2.36%) Active Directory
3 7 (1.84%) VMware NSX
4 5 (1.31%) Firmware
5 3 (0.79%) Docker
6 2 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.26%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.26%) KVM
Systems Management
1 30 (7.87%) Ansible
2 24 (6.30%) FortiGate
3 9 (2.36%) Terraform
4 6 (1.57%) Cisco Prime
4 6 (1.57%) vCenter Server
5 5 (1.31%) Cacti
6 4 (1.05%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.52%) Nagios
7 2 (0.52%) SCCM
7 2 (0.52%) Tivoli NetView
7 2 (0.52%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.26%) CASB
8 1 (0.26%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.26%) Iperf
8 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.26%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 279 (73.23%) Cisco
2 104 (27.30%) Palo Alto
3 54 (14.17%) CheckPoint
4 50 (13.12%) SolarWinds
5 48 (12.60%) Juniper
6 38 (9.97%) F5
7 34 (8.92%) Fortinet
8 31 (8.14%) Meraki
9 25 (6.56%) Aruba
10 21 (5.51%) VMware
11 20 (5.25%) Citrix
12 18 (4.72%) Microsoft
13 14 (3.67%) Infoblox
14 11 (2.89%) Zscaler
15 8 (2.10%) Extreme Networks
16 7 (1.84%) Arista
16 7 (1.84%) Nokia
16 7 (1.84%) Splunk
17 5 (1.31%) HP
17 5 (1.31%) Oracle