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 £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 September 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 292 157
Rank change year-on-year +171 -135 +24
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,174 275 846
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.37% 0.81% 1.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.47% 0.90% 1.66%
Number of salaries quoted 675 214 526
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,933 £31,404
25th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £49,995
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.01% +5.84%
75th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
UK median annual salary £56,900 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.45% +4.76% +5.00%

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 79,733 30,447 50,940
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.25% 89.28% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 55,193 17,292 29,426
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,946 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £59,250 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.73% - -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 23 September 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 23 September 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
North of England +121 323 £55,000 +1.85% 118
South East +106 266 £55,000 +4.76% 118
Midlands +77 244 £56,900 +16.12% 99
North West +91 151 £57,500 +13.86% 65
West Midlands +48 151 £55,250 +22.78% 65
Yorkshire +57 138 £50,000 -33.33% 37
South West +8 125 £60,000 +9.09% 82
East of England +40 99 £55,000 +10.00% 88
East Midlands +47 93 £60,000 +9.09% 34
Scotland +62 70 £55,000 +1.85% 32
Wales -40 42 £50,000 +0.50% 21
North East -52 34 £55,000 +10.00% 16
Northern Ireland -78 12 £36,412 -36.67% 15
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 September 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.

1 563 (47.96%) Cisco
2 470 (40.03%) Cisco Certification
3 392 (33.39%) Azure
4 386 (32.88%) CCNA
5 381 (32.45%) Microsoft
6 340 (28.96%) Network+ Certification
7 326 (27.77%) Azure Certification
8 324 (27.60%) ForeScout
9 222 (18.91%) Firewall
10 199 (16.95%) WAN
11 186 (15.84%) LAN
12 154 (13.12%) VPN
13 139 (11.84%) Security Cleared
14 127 (10.82%) Network Security
15 117 (9.97%) CCNP
16 109 (9.28%) Wireless
17 99 (8.43%) Fortinet
18 97 (8.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 96 (8.18%) BGP
20 86 (7.33%) OSPF
20 86 (7.33%) Wi-Fi
21 83 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
22 77 (6.56%) VLAN
23 70 (5.96%) DV Cleared
24 69 (5.88%) Aruba
25 67 (5.71%) DNS
26 59 (5.03%) SC Cleared
27 58 (4.94%) TCP/IP
28 57 (4.86%) Python
29 53 (4.51%) SD-WAN

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 11 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
1 11 (0.94%) SharePoint
2 4 (0.34%) Confluence
3 1 (0.085%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (0.085%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.51%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 392 (33.39%) Azure
2 44 (3.75%) AWS
3 33 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (1.36%) Azure Sentinel
5 10 (0.85%) GCP
6 9 (0.77%) Cloudflare
6 9 (0.77%) Entra ID
7 4 (0.34%) OCI
8 3 (0.26%) Mimecast
9 2 (0.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.085%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 222 (18.91%) Firewall
2 199 (16.95%) WAN
3 186 (15.84%) LAN
4 154 (13.12%) VPN
5 127 (10.82%) Network Security
6 109 (9.28%) Wireless
7 96 (8.18%) BGP
8 86 (7.33%) OSPF
8 86 (7.33%) Wi-Fi
9 77 (6.56%) VLAN
10 67 (5.71%) DNS
11 58 (4.94%) TCP/IP
12 53 (4.51%) SD-WAN
13 48 (4.09%) DHCP
14 45 (3.83%) WLAN
15 38 (3.24%) EIGRP
16 35 (2.98%) Cisco ASA
17 34 (2.90%) Cisco Nexus
18 30 (2.56%) Cisco Firepower
19 23 (1.96%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.085%) GIS
Development Applications
1 8 (0.68%) Git
2 6 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (0.34%) JIRA
General
1 409 (34.84%) Social Skills
2 63 (5.37%) Public Sector
3 48 (4.09%) Telecoms
4 36 (3.07%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (2.13%) Finance
6 15 (1.28%) Law
7 13 (1.11%) Retail
8 12 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (0.94%) Marketing
9 11 (0.94%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (0.85%) Banking
10 10 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (0.60%) Aerospace
11 7 (0.60%) Manufacturing
12 6 (0.51%) Back Office
13 5 (0.43%) Military
14 2 (0.17%) Influencing Skills
15 1 (0.085%) Digital Health
15 1 (0.085%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.81%) Terraform
2 7 (0.60%) YAML
3 5 (0.43%) 802.1X
3 5 (0.43%) Apache NiFi
4 4 (0.34%) XMPP
5 3 (0.26%) gRPC
5 3 (0.26%) Jinja
5 3 (0.26%) JSON
5 3 (0.26%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.085%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 65 (5.54%) Data Centre
2 45 (3.83%) Driving Licence
3 19 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (1.45%) PKI
5 14 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
6 12 (1.02%) Onboarding
7 11 (0.94%) CCTV
8 10 (0.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 9 (0.77%) Linux Command Line
10 8 (0.68%) Fibre Optics
11 7 (0.60%) Clustering
11 7 (0.60%) Life Science
12 6 (0.51%) CMDB
12 6 (0.51%) Security Posture
12 6 (0.51%) Video Conferencing
13 5 (0.43%) Cloud Native
13 5 (0.43%) Operational Technology
14 4 (0.34%) FlexPod
14 4 (0.34%) Public Cloud
15 3 (0.26%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.51%) Windows
2 36 (3.07%) Linux
3 34 (2.90%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.085%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.085%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (8.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 83 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
3 51 (4.34%) Continuous Improvement
4 49 (4.17%) High Availability
5 45 (3.83%) Network Monitoring
6 43 (3.66%) Mentoring
6 43 (3.66%) Network Design
7 39 (3.32%) Cybersecurity
7 39 (3.32%) Disaster Recovery
8 37 (3.15%) Project Delivery
9 30 (2.56%) ITIL
10 27 (2.30%) Customer Service
11 26 (2.21%) SIEM
12 25 (2.13%) Business Continuity
12 25 (2.13%) Load Balancing
12 25 (2.13%) Migration
12 25 (2.13%) Technical Leadership
13 24 (2.04%) Change Management
13 24 (2.04%) Root Cause Analysis
14 23 (1.96%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 57 (4.86%) Python
2 22 (1.87%) PowerShell
3 9 (0.77%) Bash
3 9 (0.77%) SQL
4 2 (0.17%) Go
5 1 (0.085%) Bicep
5 1 (0.085%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 470 (40.03%) Cisco Certification
2 386 (32.88%) CCNA
3 340 (28.96%) Network+ Certification
4 326 (27.77%) Azure Certification
5 139 (11.84%) Security Cleared
6 117 (9.97%) CCNP
7 70 (5.96%) DV Cleared
8 59 (5.03%) SC Cleared
9 19 (1.62%) Degree
10 16 (1.36%) CCIE
11 14 (1.19%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.51%) JNCIP
13 5 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (0.34%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (0.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 3 (0.26%) AWS Certification
15 3 (0.26%) CCDP
15 3 (0.26%) CISSP
16 2 (0.17%) HNC
16 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (1.53%) SLA
2 12 (1.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (0.85%) GDPR
4 8 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 6 (0.51%) QA
6 5 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.34%) NIST
8 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.085%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.085%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.085%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.085%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 44 (3.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (2.64%) Active Directory
3 29 (2.47%) Hyper-V
4 19 (1.62%) VMware NSX
5 15 (1.28%) vSphere
6 13 (1.11%) Firmware
7 9 (0.77%) KVM
8 3 (0.26%) Docker
9 2 (0.17%) iptables
10 1 (0.085%) FreeRADIUS
10 1 (0.085%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.085%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.085%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 38 (3.24%) Ansible
2 34 (2.90%) FortiGate
3 13 (1.11%) Proxmox
4 11 (0.94%) Stealthwatch
5 9 (0.77%) ZABBIX
6 8 (0.68%) Graylog
6 8 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
7 7 (0.60%) Grafana
8 6 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (0.43%) Cisco CUCM
9 5 (0.43%) Kubernetes
10 4 (0.34%) Nagios
11 2 (0.17%) Cisco Prime
11 2 (0.17%) Dell DRAC
11 2 (0.17%) Prometheus
12 1 (0.085%) Autotask
12 1 (0.085%) Cilium
12 1 (0.085%) Istio
12 1 (0.085%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 563 (47.96%) Cisco
2 381 (32.45%) Microsoft
3 324 (27.60%) ForeScout
4 99 (8.43%) Fortinet
5 69 (5.88%) Aruba
6 53 (4.51%) VMware
7 50 (4.26%) Palo Alto
8 30 (2.56%) Juniper
9 23 (1.96%) Meraki
10 21 (1.79%) F5
11 18 (1.53%) SolarWinds
12 13 (1.11%) Veeam
13 12 (1.02%) Dell
14 11 (0.94%) Avaya
15 9 (0.77%) Infoblox
15 9 (0.77%) Qualys
15 9 (0.77%) Zscaler
16 8 (0.68%) CheckPoint
16 8 (0.68%) HP
16 8 (0.68%) ServiceNow