Network Engineer Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Network Engineer salary in the UK excluding London is £52,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 February 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 227 155 200
Rank change year-on-year -72 +45 +49
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 381 611 729
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.80% 1.87% 1.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.87% 2.04% 1.53%
Number of salaries quoted 289 395 629
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £43,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -
75th Percentile £62,000 £59,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £65,272 £60,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year - +12.24% -2.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 43,601 29,910 47,587
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.12% 91.64% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 27,244 14,607 36,920
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%

Network Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Network Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Network Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Network Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 15 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Engineer in the UK excluding London

Network Engineer
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 15 February 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -59 131 £52,500 -4.55% 79
North of England -57 76 £45,000 -5.26% 36
Midlands +6 72 £55,000 +7.31% 29
West Midlands +15 56 £55,500 +8.29% 19
North West -30 40 £45,000 -5.26% 25
South West -28 36 £50,000 +11.11% 27
Scotland -5 33 £45,000 -12.20% 25
East of England +21 25 £57,500 +1.19% 19
Yorkshire -32 22 £45,000 -16.28% 9
East Midlands -9 16 £55,000 - 10
North East -15 14 £50,000 +12.36% 2
Northern Ireland - 5 £45,625 - 3
Wales -24 3 £50,000 +13.64% 7
Network Engineer
UK

Network Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 15 February 2026, Network Engineer 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 permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Network Engineer in the job title.

1 186 (48.82%) Cisco
2 140 (36.75%) Firewall
3 113 (29.66%) WAN
4 95 (24.93%) LAN
5 92 (24.15%) Cisco Certification
6 81 (21.26%) Security Cleared
7 75 (19.69%) CCNP
8 67 (17.59%) Azure
9 61 (16.01%) BGP
9 61 (16.01%) VPN
10 59 (15.49%) SD-WAN
11 58 (15.22%) Network Security
12 54 (14.17%) Palo Alto
13 53 (13.91%) Wireless
14 52 (13.65%) Fortinet
15 51 (13.39%) SC Cleared
15 51 (13.39%) SolarWinds
16 48 (12.60%) Juniper
17 44 (11.55%) Network Monitoring
18 43 (11.29%) CheckPoint
19 41 (10.76%) VLAN
20 38 (9.97%) CCNA
20 38 (9.97%) OSPF
21 37 (9.71%) DV Cleared
22 36 (9.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
22 36 (9.45%) Microsoft
23 34 (8.92%) Meraki
24 33 (8.66%) Cisco ASA
25 31 (8.14%) F5
25 31 (8.14%) ITSM

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:

Applications
1 9 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (2.36%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.79%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 67 (17.59%) Azure
2 26 (6.82%) AWS
3 12 (3.15%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (2.10%) Azure Sentinel
5 7 (1.84%) Entra ID
5 7 (1.84%) GCP
6 3 (0.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.79%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (0.52%) GitHub
7 2 (0.52%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.26%) Apigee
8 1 (0.26%) Kong
8 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.26%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 140 (36.75%) Firewall
2 113 (29.66%) WAN
3 95 (24.93%) LAN
4 61 (16.01%) BGP
4 61 (16.01%) VPN
5 59 (15.49%) SD-WAN
6 58 (15.22%) Network Security
7 53 (13.91%) Wireless
8 41 (10.76%) VLAN
9 38 (9.97%) OSPF
10 33 (8.66%) Cisco ASA
11 28 (7.35%) Cisco ISE
12 26 (6.82%) EIGRP
13 24 (6.30%) Cisco Firepower
14 23 (6.04%) Wi-Fi
14 23 (6.04%) Wireshark
15 22 (5.77%) MPLS
16 20 (5.25%) Cisco IOS
16 20 (5.25%) IPsec
17 18 (4.72%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.05%) GIS
Development Applications
1 4 (1.05%) Git
2 2 (0.52%) GitLab
2 2 (0.52%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.52%) JIRA
3 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 65 (17.06%) Social Skills
2 28 (7.35%) Public Sector
3 23 (6.04%) Telecoms
4 22 (5.77%) Finance
5 17 (4.46%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (2.89%) Law
6 11 (2.89%) Retail
7 8 (2.10%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.57%) Automotive
10 5 (1.31%) Police
11 4 (1.05%) Banking
11 4 (1.05%) Fire and Rescue
11 4 (1.05%) Legal
11 4 (1.05%) Marketing
12 3 (0.79%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.79%) Military
13 2 (0.52%) Advertising
14 1 (0.26%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.31%) Jinja
2 4 (1.05%) REST
2 4 (1.05%) YANG
3 3 (0.79%) NETCONF
4 2 (0.52%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (0.52%) JSON
4 2 (0.52%) YAML
5 1 (0.26%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.26%) LDAP
5 1 (0.26%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 52 (13.65%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.15%) Management Information System
3 11 (2.89%) Driving Licence
3 11 (2.89%) PKI
4 8 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (1.84%) Security Posture
6 6 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.31%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.05%) CCTV
8 4 (1.05%) CMDB
8 4 (1.05%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.05%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.05%) SCADA
9 3 (0.79%) Cloud Native
9 3 (0.79%) iPad
9 3 (0.79%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.79%) Social Media
10 2 (0.52%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.52%) Cyber Defence
10 2 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 28 (7.35%) Windows
2 15 (3.94%) Windows Server
3 13 (3.41%) Linux
4 5 (1.31%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.79%) Android
6 1 (0.26%) Unix
6 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (11.55%) Network Monitoring
2 36 (9.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 31 (8.14%) ITSM
3 31 (8.14%) Network Design
4 30 (7.87%) Problem-Solving
5 29 (7.61%) Change Management
5 29 (7.61%) Load Balancing
6 28 (7.35%) Service Management
7 27 (7.09%) Customer Service
8 25 (6.56%) Cybersecurity
9 23 (6.04%) Network Virtualisation
10 22 (5.77%) ITIL
10 22 (5.77%) Network Management
10 22 (5.77%) Problem Management
11 20 (5.25%) Continuous Improvement
12 17 (4.46%) High Availability
13 16 (4.20%) Asset Management
13 16 (4.20%) Mentoring
14 15 (3.94%) Capacity Planning
14 15 (3.94%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 21 (5.51%) Python
2 6 (1.57%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.26%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 92 (24.15%) Cisco Certification
2 81 (21.26%) Security Cleared
3 75 (19.69%) CCNP
4 51 (13.39%) SC Cleared
5 38 (9.97%) CCNA
6 37 (9.71%) DV Cleared
7 16 (4.20%) CCIE
8 10 (2.62%) Degree
8 10 (2.62%) JNCIS
9 7 (1.84%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (1.05%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (0.79%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.52%) JNCIA
14 1 (0.26%) CCIE Data Center
14 1 (0.26%) CCIE Security
14 1 (0.26%) CCSP
14 1 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.26%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 5 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (1.31%) PMO
2 5 (1.31%) QA
3 4 (1.05%) GDPR
4 2 (0.52%) SLA
5 1 (0.26%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 19 (4.99%) VMware Infrastructure
1 19 (4.99%) VMware NSX
2 16 (4.20%) Active Directory
3 13 (3.41%) Firmware
4 5 (1.31%) ProxySG
5 4 (1.05%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.52%) KVM
7 2 (0.52%) RHEV
7 2 (0.52%) Xen
8 1 (0.26%) iptables
Systems Management
1 18 (4.72%) FortiGate
2 11 (2.89%) Terraform
2 11 (2.89%) vCenter Server
3 8 (2.10%) Ansible
3 8 (2.10%) Nagios
4 4 (1.05%) Dell DRAC
5 3 (0.79%) Grafana
5 3 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.79%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.79%) Proxmox
5 3 (0.79%) SCCM
6 1 (0.26%) vRealize
Vendors
1 186 (48.82%) Cisco
2 54 (14.17%) Palo Alto
3 52 (13.65%) Fortinet
4 51 (13.39%) SolarWinds
5 48 (12.60%) Juniper
6 43 (11.29%) CheckPoint
7 36 (9.45%) Microsoft
8 34 (8.92%) Meraki
9 31 (8.14%) F5
10 30 (7.87%) VMware
11 13 (3.41%) Zscaler
12 11 (2.89%) Aruba
12 11 (2.89%) CrowdStrike
12 11 (2.89%) ServiceNow
13 10 (2.62%) Broadcom
14 9 (2.36%) Blue Coat
14 9 (2.36%) Dell
14 9 (2.36%) Infoblox
15 7 (1.84%) Avaya
15 7 (1.84%) Splunk