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 4 August 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 285 172
Rank change year-on-year +164 -113 +28
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,084 308 894
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.44% 0.89% 1.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.52% 1.00% 1.57%
Number of salaries quoted 611 250 671
10th Percentile £35,000 £35,900 £31,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £39,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +2.04% +4.26%
75th Percentile £67,500 £58,750 £57,500
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 71,120 30,840 56,998
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.66% 89.61% 94.92%
Number of salaries quoted 49,141 17,770 38,038
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £28,119
25th Percentile £38,750 £32,500 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -6.54%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £79,600
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - - -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 4 August 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 4 August 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 +126 300 £50,000 -7.41% 73
South East +87 257 £55,000 +10.00% 59
Midlands +91 241 £55,250 +16.32% 42
West Midlands +53 155 £56,900 +18.54% 17
North West +106 134 £56,250 +2.27% 39
Yorkshire +49 134 £50,000 -13.04% 25
South West -14 87 £65,000 +16.99% 42
East Midlands +58 86 £51,250 +7.89% 25
East of England +41 79 £55,000 +10.00% 25
Scotland +54 66 £55,000 -17.13% 17
Wales -8 49 £50,000 -2.20% 10
North East -38 32 £52,788 +5.58% 9
Northern Ireland -66 12 £40,000 -23.81% 6
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 August 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.

1 531 (48.99%) Cisco
2 462 (42.62%) Cisco Certification
3 398 (36.72%) Azure
4 382 (35.24%) CCNA
5 377 (34.78%) Microsoft
6 342 (31.55%) Network+ Certification
7 326 (30.07%) Azure Certification
8 324 (29.89%) ForeScout
9 224 (20.66%) Firewall
10 188 (17.34%) WAN
11 169 (15.59%) LAN
12 147 (13.56%) VPN
13 121 (11.16%) Security Cleared
14 113 (10.42%) CCNP
14 113 (10.42%) Network Security
15 99 (9.13%) Wireless
16 91 (8.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 85 (7.84%) Problem-Solving
18 84 (7.75%) Fortinet
19 82 (7.56%) BGP
20 77 (7.10%) Wi-Fi
21 76 (7.01%) VLAN
22 73 (6.73%) OSPF
23 72 (6.64%) SC Cleared
24 64 (5.90%) Python
25 56 (5.17%) DNS
26 53 (4.89%) Windows
27 52 (4.80%) AWS
27 52 (4.80%) Palo Alto
27 52 (4.80%) 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 12 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 12 (1.11%) SharePoint
2 4 (0.37%) Confluence
3 1 (0.092%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (0.46%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.55%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 398 (36.72%) Azure
2 52 (4.80%) AWS
3 33 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (1.66%) Azure Sentinel
5 11 (1.01%) Entra ID
6 10 (0.92%) OpenShift
7 9 (0.83%) Cloudflare
7 9 (0.83%) GCP
8 5 (0.46%) Apigee
8 5 (0.46%) Kong
9 4 (0.37%) Mimecast
10 3 (0.28%) OCI
11 2 (0.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 1 (0.092%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 224 (20.66%) Firewall
2 188 (17.34%) WAN
3 169 (15.59%) LAN
4 147 (13.56%) VPN
5 113 (10.42%) Network Security
6 99 (9.13%) Wireless
7 82 (7.56%) BGP
8 77 (7.10%) Wi-Fi
9 76 (7.01%) VLAN
10 73 (6.73%) OSPF
11 56 (5.17%) DNS
12 52 (4.80%) SD-WAN
13 49 (4.52%) TCP/IP
14 42 (3.87%) DHCP
14 42 (3.87%) WLAN
15 39 (3.60%) Cisco ASA
16 34 (3.14%) EIGRP
17 26 (2.40%) Cisco Nexus
18 22 (2.03%) Cisco Firepower
19 21 (1.94%) MPLS
Development Applications
1 10 (0.92%) GitLab
2 9 (0.83%) Git
3 4 (0.37%) JIRA
4 1 (0.092%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 411 (37.92%) Social Skills
2 57 (5.26%) Public Sector
3 43 (3.97%) Telecoms
4 40 (3.69%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (1.66%) Finance
5 18 (1.66%) Law
6 15 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (1.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 10 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (0.74%) Manufacturing
10 6 (0.55%) Retail
11 5 (0.46%) Aerospace
11 5 (0.46%) Back Office
11 5 (0.46%) Marketing
12 4 (0.37%) Banking
12 4 (0.37%) Police
12 4 (0.37%) Welsh Language
13 3 (0.28%) Military
14 2 (0.18%) Influencing Skills
15 1 (0.092%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.20%) Jinja
1 13 (1.20%) JSON
1 13 (1.20%) YAML
2 5 (0.46%) 802.1X
2 5 (0.46%) REST
2 5 (0.46%) XML
2 5 (0.46%) YANG
3 4 (0.37%) ModSecurity
3 4 (0.37%) XMPP
4 3 (0.28%) Apache NiFi
4 3 (0.28%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 59 (5.44%) Data Centre
2 38 (3.51%) Driving Licence
3 20 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
4 17 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (1.57%) PKI
5 11 (1.01%) CCTV
6 10 (0.92%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 10 (0.92%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (0.83%) Onboarding
8 8 (0.74%) Clustering
8 8 (0.74%) Fibre Optics
8 8 (0.74%) Life Science
8 8 (0.74%) Operational Technology
9 7 (0.65%) Security Posture
10 6 (0.55%) CMDB
10 6 (0.55%) Video Conferencing
11 5 (0.46%) Public Cloud
12 4 (0.37%) Cloud Native
12 4 (0.37%) Enterprise Cloud
12 4 (0.37%) FlexPod
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.89%) Windows
2 44 (4.06%) Linux
3 32 (2.95%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.46%) Unix
5 1 (0.092%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.092%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (8.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 85 (7.84%) Problem-Solving
3 48 (4.43%) Continuous Improvement
3 48 (4.43%) High Availability
4 46 (4.24%) Network Monitoring
5 40 (3.69%) Mentoring
6 39 (3.60%) Project Delivery
7 34 (3.14%) ITIL
8 31 (2.86%) Customer Service
8 31 (2.86%) Cybersecurity
8 31 (2.86%) Disaster Recovery
9 29 (2.68%) Load Balancing
10 26 (2.40%) Network Design
11 23 (2.12%) SIEM
11 23 (2.12%) Technical Leadership
12 21 (1.94%) Root Cause Analysis
13 20 (1.85%) CI/CD
13 20 (1.85%) Infrastructure as Code
14 19 (1.75%) Business Continuity
15 18 (1.66%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 64 (5.90%) Python
2 24 (2.21%) PowerShell
3 10 (0.92%) SQL
4 9 (0.83%) Bash
5 5 (0.46%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.092%) Bicep
6 1 (0.092%) Go
Qualifications
1 462 (42.62%) Cisco Certification
2 382 (35.24%) CCNA
3 342 (31.55%) Network+ Certification
4 326 (30.07%) Azure Certification
5 121 (11.16%) Security Cleared
6 113 (10.42%) CCNP
7 72 (6.64%) SC Cleared
8 48 (4.43%) DV Cleared
9 22 (2.03%) CCIE
9 22 (2.03%) Degree
10 13 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
11 12 (1.11%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.65%) JNCIP
13 4 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
14 3 (0.28%) AWS Certification
14 3 (0.28%) CISSP
14 3 (0.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 2 (0.18%) CCDP
15 2 (0.18%) HNC
16 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (1.57%) SLA
2 13 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (0.92%) GDPR
4 9 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 7 (0.65%) NIST
6 5 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.37%) PMO
7 4 (0.37%) QA
8 2 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.092%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.092%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.092%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 44 (4.06%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (2.86%) Active Directory
3 29 (2.68%) Hyper-V
4 17 (1.57%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.29%) vSphere
6 12 (1.11%) Firmware
7 9 (0.83%) KVM
8 4 (0.37%) ProxySG
9 3 (0.28%) Docker
10 2 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.092%) iptables
11 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.092%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 31 (2.86%) Ansible
2 26 (2.40%) Terraform
3 22 (2.03%) FortiGate
4 13 (1.20%) Proxmox
5 9 (0.83%) ZABBIX
6 8 (0.74%) Graylog
6 8 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
7 7 (0.65%) Grafana
8 6 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
9 4 (0.37%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (0.37%) Kubernetes
10 3 (0.28%) Nagios
10 3 (0.28%) Stealthwatch
11 2 (0.18%) Cisco Prime
11 2 (0.18%) Dell DRAC
11 2 (0.18%) Prometheus
12 1 (0.092%) Cilium
12 1 (0.092%) Istio
12 1 (0.092%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 531 (48.99%) Cisco
2 377 (34.78%) Microsoft
3 324 (29.89%) ForeScout
4 84 (7.75%) Fortinet
5 52 (4.80%) Palo Alto
5 52 (4.80%) VMware
6 43 (3.97%) Aruba
7 30 (2.77%) Juniper
8 27 (2.49%) F5
9 19 (1.75%) SolarWinds
10 16 (1.48%) CheckPoint
11 15 (1.38%) Meraki
12 14 (1.29%) Veeam
13 10 (0.92%) Avaya
13 10 (0.92%) Dell
13 10 (0.92%) Red Hat
13 10 (0.92%) ServiceNow
14 9 (0.83%) HP
14 9 (0.83%) Infoblox
14 9 (0.83%) Zscaler