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 22 February 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 160 200
Rank change year-on-year -72 +40 +43
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 394 586 732
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.80% 1.85% 1.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.88% 2.03% 1.52%
Number of salaries quoted 295 386 629
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,750 £31,000
25th Percentile £41,875 £43,762 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +11.58% -
75th Percentile £62,250 £59,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £66,250 £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 44,944 28,922 48,210
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.34% 91.34% 94.94%
Number of salaries quoted 28,221 14,360 37,272
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,000 £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 22 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 22 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 -63 130 £52,500 -2.78% 84
Midlands +14 82 £55,000 +7.31% 41
North of England -67 78 £45,000 -5.26% 52
West Midlands +24 63 £56,900 +11.02% 21
North West -38 40 £45,000 -5.26% 29
South West -38 35 £50,000 - 45
Scotland +9 33 £45,000 -12.95% 33
East of England +23 28 £60,000 +15.38% 20
Yorkshire -37 23 £45,000 -10.00% 16
East Midlands -17 19 £55,000 -4.35% 20
North East -22 15 £50,000 +12.36% 7
Wales -24 5 £50,000 +14.94% 14
Northern Ireland - 4 £57,500 - 5
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 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.

1 187 (47.46%) Cisco
2 141 (35.79%) Firewall
3 116 (29.44%) WAN
4 99 (25.13%) LAN
5 93 (23.60%) Cisco Certification
6 81 (20.56%) Security Cleared
7 76 (19.29%) CCNP
8 68 (17.26%) Azure
9 61 (15.48%) VPN
10 58 (14.72%) BGP
10 58 (14.72%) SD-WAN
11 57 (14.47%) Network Security
12 56 (14.21%) Wireless
13 53 (13.45%) Palo Alto
14 52 (13.20%) Fortinet
14 52 (13.20%) SC Cleared
15 50 (12.69%) SolarWinds
16 45 (11.42%) Juniper
17 43 (10.91%) CheckPoint
17 43 (10.91%) Network Monitoring
18 42 (10.66%) VLAN
19 40 (10.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 37 (9.39%) CCNA
20 37 (9.39%) Microsoft
21 36 (9.14%) OSPF
22 35 (8.88%) DV Cleared
23 34 (8.63%) Meraki
24 33 (8.38%) Cisco ASA
25 32 (8.12%) F5
26 31 (7.87%) 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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.25%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.28%) MS Visio
2 7 (1.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 68 (17.26%) Azure
2 28 (7.11%) AWS
3 14 (3.55%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (2.28%) Entra ID
5 8 (2.03%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (1.78%) GCP
7 4 (1.02%) OpenShift
8 3 (0.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (0.51%) Apigee
9 2 (0.51%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (0.51%) GitHub
9 2 (0.51%) Kong
10 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Purview
10 1 (0.25%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.25%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 141 (35.79%) Firewall
2 116 (29.44%) WAN
3 99 (25.13%) LAN
4 61 (15.48%) VPN
5 58 (14.72%) BGP
5 58 (14.72%) SD-WAN
6 57 (14.47%) Network Security
7 56 (14.21%) Wireless
8 42 (10.66%) VLAN
9 36 (9.14%) OSPF
10 33 (8.38%) Cisco ASA
11 29 (7.36%) Cisco ISE
12 26 (6.60%) EIGRP
13 24 (6.09%) Wi-Fi
14 23 (5.84%) MPLS
14 23 (5.84%) Wireshark
15 22 (5.58%) Cisco Firepower
16 20 (5.08%) Cisco IOS
17 18 (4.57%) DNS
17 18 (4.57%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.51%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (1.27%) Git
2 4 (1.02%) GitLab
3 2 (0.51%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.51%) JIRA
4 1 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 67 (17.01%) Social Skills
2 30 (7.61%) Public Sector
3 25 (6.35%) Telecoms
4 20 (5.08%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (5.08%) Finance
5 12 (3.05%) Law
6 11 (2.79%) Retail
7 8 (2.03%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.52%) Police
10 5 (1.27%) Automotive
11 4 (1.02%) Banking
11 4 (1.02%) Marketing
11 4 (1.02%) Military
12 3 (0.76%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.76%) Fire and Rescue
13 2 (0.51%) Advertising
13 2 (0.51%) Legal
13 2 (0.51%) Welsh Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (1.78%) Jinja
2 5 (1.27%) YANG
3 4 (1.02%) JSON
3 4 (1.02%) REST
3 4 (1.02%) YAML
4 3 (0.76%) NETCONF
5 2 (0.51%) Apache NiFi
5 2 (0.51%) XML
6 1 (0.25%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.25%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 51 (12.94%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.05%) Management Information System
3 11 (2.79%) Driving Licence
3 11 (2.79%) PKI
4 8 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (1.78%) Security Posture
6 5 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.27%) Public Cloud
7 4 (1.02%) CCTV
7 4 (1.02%) CMDB
7 4 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.02%) Private Cloud
7 4 (1.02%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.76%) iPad
8 3 (0.76%) SCADA
8 3 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (0.76%) Social Media
9 2 (0.51%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.51%) Cloud Native
9 2 (0.51%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 30 (7.61%) Windows
2 16 (4.06%) Windows Server
3 15 (3.81%) Linux
4 5 (1.27%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.76%) Android
6 2 (0.51%) Unix
7 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (10.91%) Network Monitoring
2 40 (10.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 31 (7.87%) ITSM
4 30 (7.61%) Load Balancing
4 30 (7.61%) Network Design
5 29 (7.36%) Change Management
5 29 (7.36%) Customer Service
6 28 (7.11%) Problem-Solving
6 28 (7.11%) Service Management
7 27 (6.85%) Cybersecurity
8 22 (5.58%) Network Virtualisation
8 22 (5.58%) Problem Management
9 21 (5.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 21 (5.33%) ITIL
10 20 (5.08%) Network Management
11 16 (4.06%) Asset Management
11 16 (4.06%) High Availability
12 15 (3.81%) Capacity Planning
12 15 (3.81%) Root Cause Analysis
13 14 (3.55%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 25 (6.35%) Python
2 6 (1.52%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.51%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.25%) SQL
Qualifications
1 93 (23.60%) Cisco Certification
2 81 (20.56%) Security Cleared
3 76 (19.29%) CCNP
4 52 (13.20%) SC Cleared
5 37 (9.39%) CCNA
6 35 (8.88%) DV Cleared
7 18 (4.57%) CCIE
8 12 (3.05%) Degree
9 8 (2.03%) JNCIS
10 7 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (1.52%) Azure Certification
12 4 (1.02%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.76%) DBS Check
14 1 (0.25%) CCIE Data Center
14 1 (0.25%) CCIE Security
14 1 (0.25%) CCSP
14 1 (0.25%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.25%) JNCIA
14 1 (0.25%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 6 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (1.52%) PMO
3 5 (1.27%) QA
4 4 (1.02%) GDPR
5 1 (0.25%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.25%) NIST
5 1 (0.25%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (4.82%) Active Directory
1 19 (4.82%) VMware NSX
2 18 (4.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.05%) Firmware
4 6 (1.52%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.52%) ProxySG
5 3 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.25%) iptables
6 1 (0.25%) KVM
6 1 (0.25%) RHEV
6 1 (0.25%) Xen
Systems Management
1 16 (4.06%) FortiGate
2 11 (2.79%) vCenter Server
3 10 (2.54%) Terraform
4 8 (2.03%) Ansible
5 7 (1.78%) Nagios
6 3 (0.76%) Dell DRAC
6 3 (0.76%) Grafana
6 3 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.76%) SCCM
7 2 (0.51%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.25%) OpenView
8 1 (0.25%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.25%) vRealize
Vendors
1 187 (47.46%) Cisco
2 53 (13.45%) Palo Alto
3 52 (13.20%) Fortinet
4 50 (12.69%) SolarWinds
5 45 (11.42%) Juniper
6 43 (10.91%) CheckPoint
7 37 (9.39%) Microsoft
8 34 (8.63%) Meraki
9 32 (8.12%) F5
10 29 (7.36%) VMware
11 12 (3.05%) ServiceNow
11 12 (3.05%) Zscaler
12 11 (2.79%) CrowdStrike
13 10 (2.54%) Aruba
13 10 (2.54%) Blue Coat
13 10 (2.54%) Broadcom
13 10 (2.54%) Infoblox
14 8 (2.03%) Dell
15 7 (1.78%) Avaya
15 7 (1.78%) Splunk