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 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 263 183
Rank change year-on-year +144 -80 +33
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,054 323 972
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.45% 0.95% 1.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.53% 1.06% 1.52%
Number of salaries quoted 587 265 749
10th Percentile £35,300 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £42,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +5.26% +3.88%
75th Percentile £68,750 £58,750 £56,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +14.29% +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 68,706 30,337 64,063
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.74% 89.40% 94.84%
Number of salaries quoted 47,586 17,385 44,623
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,929 £27,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £33,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year - +1.85% -10.00%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 +129 294 £52,500 - 64
South East +63 248 £55,000 +10.00% 55
Midlands +93 232 £55,500 +15.63% 35
West Midlands +66 151 £58,450 +21.14% 20
North West +106 134 £56,250 +2.27% 35
Yorkshire +41 132 £50,000 -9.09% 21
South West -16 87 £65,000 +18.18% 32
East Midlands +45 81 £50,000 +5.26% 15
East of England +51 77 £55,000 +10.00% 24
Scotland +57 61 £56,250 -15.24% 22
Wales -15 49 £50,000 -2.20% 10
North East -38 28 £65,576 +31.15% 9
Northern Ireland -55 13 £40,000 -23.81% 5
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 July 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.

1 521 (49.43%) Cisco
2 457 (43.36%) Cisco Certification
3 395 (37.48%) Azure
4 384 (36.43%) CCNA
5 374 (35.48%) Microsoft
6 341 (32.35%) Network+ Certification
7 326 (30.93%) Azure Certification
8 324 (30.74%) ForeScout
9 208 (19.73%) Firewall
10 183 (17.36%) WAN
11 163 (15.46%) LAN
12 138 (13.09%) VPN
13 117 (11.10%) Security Cleared
14 110 (10.44%) CCNP
15 107 (10.15%) Network Security
16 86 (8.16%) Wireless
17 85 (8.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 81 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
19 74 (7.02%) Fortinet
20 73 (6.93%) VLAN
21 72 (6.83%) BGP
21 72 (6.83%) SC Cleared
22 71 (6.74%) Wi-Fi
23 63 (5.98%) OSPF
24 58 (5.50%) Python
25 54 (5.12%) SD-WAN
26 52 (4.93%) DNS
27 49 (4.65%) Palo Alto
27 49 (4.65%) Windows
28 48 (4.55%) AWS

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 12 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
1 12 (1.14%) SharePoint
2 4 (0.38%) Confluence
3 1 (0.095%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 4 (0.38%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.57%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 395 (37.48%) Azure
2 48 (4.55%) AWS
3 31 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (1.71%) Azure Sentinel
5 11 (1.04%) Entra ID
6 10 (0.95%) OpenShift
7 9 (0.85%) Cloudflare
7 9 (0.85%) GCP
8 5 (0.47%) Apigee
8 5 (0.47%) Kong
9 4 (0.38%) Mimecast
10 3 (0.28%) OCI
11 2 (0.19%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 1 (0.095%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 208 (19.73%) Firewall
2 183 (17.36%) WAN
3 163 (15.46%) LAN
4 138 (13.09%) VPN
5 107 (10.15%) Network Security
6 86 (8.16%) Wireless
7 73 (6.93%) VLAN
8 72 (6.83%) BGP
9 71 (6.74%) Wi-Fi
10 63 (5.98%) OSPF
11 54 (5.12%) SD-WAN
12 52 (4.93%) DNS
13 47 (4.46%) TCP/IP
14 40 (3.80%) DHCP
14 40 (3.80%) WLAN
15 39 (3.70%) Cisco ASA
16 31 (2.94%) EIGRP
17 24 (2.28%) Cisco Nexus
18 20 (1.90%) MPLS
19 18 (1.71%) Cisco Firepower
Development Applications
1 10 (0.95%) GitLab
2 7 (0.66%) Git
3 4 (0.38%) JIRA
4 1 (0.095%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 405 (38.43%) Social Skills
2 59 (5.60%) Public Sector
3 37 (3.51%) Telecoms
4 36 (3.42%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (1.90%) Law
6 16 (1.52%) Finance
7 14 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (0.76%) Manufacturing
10 6 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.47%) Aerospace
11 5 (0.47%) Back Office
11 5 (0.47%) Retail
12 4 (0.38%) Marketing
12 4 (0.38%) Military
12 4 (0.38%) Police
12 4 (0.38%) Welsh Language
13 3 (0.28%) Banking
14 2 (0.19%) Influencing Skills
15 1 (0.095%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.04%) Jinja
1 11 (1.04%) JSON
1 11 (1.04%) YAML
2 5 (0.47%) 802.1X
2 5 (0.47%) REST
2 5 (0.47%) XML
2 5 (0.47%) YANG
3 4 (0.38%) ModSecurity
4 3 (0.28%) Apache NiFi
4 3 (0.28%) gRPC
4 3 (0.28%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 57 (5.41%) Data Centre
2 35 (3.32%) Driving Licence
3 20 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
4 17 (1.61%) PKI
5 15 (1.42%) Hybrid Cloud
6 11 (1.04%) CCTV
7 10 (0.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 10 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
8 8 (0.76%) Clustering
8 8 (0.76%) Life Science
8 8 (0.76%) Operational Technology
8 8 (0.76%) Security Posture
9 7 (0.66%) Fibre Optics
10 6 (0.57%) Onboarding
11 5 (0.47%) Public Cloud
11 5 (0.47%) Video Conferencing
12 4 (0.38%) CMDB
12 4 (0.38%) Enterprise Cloud
13 3 (0.28%) Enterprise Software
13 3 (0.28%) FlexPod
Operating Systems
1 49 (4.65%) Windows
2 40 (3.80%) Linux
3 29 (2.75%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.47%) Unix
5 1 (0.095%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.095%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.095%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (8.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 81 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
3 47 (4.46%) High Availability
4 43 (4.08%) Continuous Improvement
4 43 (4.08%) Network Monitoring
5 39 (3.70%) Mentoring
6 36 (3.42%) Project Delivery
7 31 (2.94%) ITIL
8 29 (2.75%) Cybersecurity
9 28 (2.66%) Load Balancing
10 27 (2.56%) Customer Service
11 26 (2.47%) Disaster Recovery
11 26 (2.47%) Network Design
12 22 (2.09%) Technical Leadership
13 21 (1.99%) SIEM
14 18 (1.71%) CI/CD
15 17 (1.61%) Root Cause Analysis
16 16 (1.52%) Business Continuity
16 16 (1.52%) Computer Science
16 16 (1.52%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 58 (5.50%) Python
2 24 (2.28%) PowerShell
3 10 (0.95%) SQL
4 9 (0.85%) Bash
5 5 (0.47%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.095%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 457 (43.36%) Cisco Certification
2 384 (36.43%) CCNA
3 341 (32.35%) Network+ Certification
4 326 (30.93%) Azure Certification
5 117 (11.10%) Security Cleared
6 110 (10.44%) CCNP
7 72 (6.83%) SC Cleared
8 45 (4.27%) DV Cleared
9 23 (2.18%) CCIE
10 21 (1.99%) Degree
11 13 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
12 11 (1.04%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.66%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
15 3 (0.28%) AWS Certification
15 3 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
15 3 (0.28%) CISSP
15 3 (0.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 2 (0.19%) HNC
17 1 (0.095%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (1.42%) SLA
2 11 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (0.95%) GDPR
4 9 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 7 (0.66%) NIST
6 4 (0.38%) PMO
6 4 (0.38%) QA
7 3 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.095%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.095%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.095%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.095%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 40 (3.80%) VMware Infrastructure
2 30 (2.85%) Active Directory
3 28 (2.66%) Hyper-V
4 15 (1.42%) VMware NSX
5 13 (1.23%) vSphere
6 9 (0.85%) Firmware
7 8 (0.76%) KVM
8 4 (0.38%) ProxySG
9 3 (0.28%) Docker
10 2 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 25 (2.37%) Ansible
2 22 (2.09%) Terraform
3 16 (1.52%) FortiGate
4 11 (1.04%) Proxmox
5 8 (0.76%) Graylog
5 8 (0.76%) ZABBIX
6 7 (0.66%) Failover Clustering
6 7 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.57%) Grafana
7 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
8 3 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
8 3 (0.28%) Nagios
9 2 (0.19%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.19%) Dell DRAC
9 2 (0.19%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.095%) Cilium
10 1 (0.095%) Istio
10 1 (0.095%) Kubernetes
10 1 (0.095%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.095%) vRealize
Vendors
1 521 (49.43%) Cisco
2 374 (35.48%) Microsoft
3 324 (30.74%) ForeScout
4 74 (7.02%) Fortinet
5 49 (4.65%) Palo Alto
6 48 (4.55%) VMware
7 37 (3.51%) Aruba
8 23 (2.18%) F5
8 23 (2.18%) Juniper
9 15 (1.42%) CheckPoint
9 15 (1.42%) SolarWinds
10 14 (1.33%) Veeam
11 12 (1.14%) Meraki
12 10 (0.95%) Red Hat
13 9 (0.85%) Dell
13 9 (0.85%) Zscaler
14 8 (0.76%) Avaya
14 8 (0.76%) HP
15 7 (0.66%) Infoblox
15 7 (0.66%) ServiceNow