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 April 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 208 207
Rank change year-on-year +76 -1 +35
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 811 370 949
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.27% 1.38% 1.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.36% 1.56% 1.49%
Number of salaries quoted 374 337 804
10th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.80% +8.42% +4.97%
75th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £65,272 £63,750
UK median annual salary £56,900 £53,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year +7.36% +8.16% -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 59,451 23,663 63,760
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.07% 88.46% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 37,824 14,715 46,813
10th Percentile £29,250 £28,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £76,990
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%

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 April 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 April 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 -24 202 £50,000 -5.66% 71
North of England +61 200 £50,000 +7.53% 63
Midlands +57 180 £55,000 +11.24% 47
West Midlands +43 120 £55,500 +11.25% 25
North West +40 87 £50,000 -6.10% 36
Yorkshire +4 85 £45,000 +6.26% 18
South West -4 81 £56,550 +0.76% 18
East Midlands +1 60 £55,000 +29.41% 22
East of England +3 57 £60,000 +20.00% 28
Scotland +20 52 £45,000 -14.20% 19
Wales +3 35 £62,500 +45.35% 12
North East -23 28 £52,500 +17.98% 9
Northern Ireland - 11 £50,000 - 3
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 April 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.

1 491 (60.54%) Cisco
2 411 (50.68%) Cisco Certification
3 394 (48.58%) Azure
4 358 (44.14%) Microsoft
5 351 (43.28%) CCNA
6 329 (40.57%) Network+ Certification
7 328 (40.44%) Azure Certification
8 324 (39.95%) ForeScout
9 139 (17.14%) Firewall
10 124 (15.29%) WAN
11 97 (11.96%) LAN
12 88 (10.85%) Security Cleared
13 74 (9.12%) CCNP
14 71 (8.75%) VPN
15 65 (8.01%) Network Security
16 59 (7.27%) BGP
17 57 (7.03%) Wireless
18 54 (6.66%) VLAN
19 52 (6.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 51 (6.29%) SD-WAN
21 50 (6.17%) Fortinet
22 49 (6.04%) AWS
23 48 (5.92%) SC Cleared
24 45 (5.55%) DV Cleared
24 45 (5.55%) Python
25 39 (4.81%) OSPF
25 39 (4.81%) SolarWinds
26 37 (4.56%) Cisco ASA
26 37 (4.56%) Palo Alto
26 37 (4.56%) VMware

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 5 (0.62%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (0.62%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.12%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 9 (1.11%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 394 (48.58%) Azure
2 49 (6.04%) AWS
3 21 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (1.97%) Azure Sentinel
5 10 (1.23%) OpenShift
6 9 (1.11%) GCP
7 8 (0.99%) Entra ID
8 5 (0.62%) Apigee
8 5 (0.62%) Kong
9 3 (0.37%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 3 (0.37%) Mimecast
10 2 (0.25%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.25%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 139 (17.14%) Firewall
2 124 (15.29%) WAN
3 97 (11.96%) LAN
4 71 (8.75%) VPN
5 65 (8.01%) Network Security
6 59 (7.27%) BGP
7 57 (7.03%) Wireless
8 54 (6.66%) VLAN
9 51 (6.29%) SD-WAN
10 39 (4.81%) OSPF
11 37 (4.56%) Cisco ASA
12 27 (3.33%) Wi-Fi
13 24 (2.96%) Cisco Firepower
13 24 (2.96%) EIGRP
14 23 (2.84%) DNS
15 22 (2.71%) Cisco ISE
15 22 (2.71%) MPLS
16 20 (2.47%) TCP/IP
17 19 (2.34%) Cisco Nexus
18 18 (2.22%) DHCP
Development Applications
1 10 (1.23%) GitLab
2 8 (0.99%) Git
3 2 (0.25%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.25%) JIRA
3 2 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 376 (46.36%) Social Skills
2 42 (5.18%) Public Sector
3 33 (4.07%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (3.33%) Telecoms
5 17 (2.10%) Law
6 15 (1.85%) Retail
7 14 (1.73%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (0.99%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (0.99%) Finance
9 8 (0.99%) Marketing
10 7 (0.86%) Banking
10 7 (0.86%) Police
11 4 (0.49%) Aerospace
11 4 (0.49%) Welsh Language
12 3 (0.37%) Back Office
12 3 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.37%) Military
13 1 (0.12%) Advertising
13 1 (0.12%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.60%) Jinja
2 10 (1.23%) JSON
2 10 (1.23%) YAML
3 8 (0.99%) YANG
4 5 (0.62%) REST
4 5 (0.62%) XML
5 4 (0.49%) 802.1X
5 4 (0.49%) ModSecurity
6 3 (0.37%) Apache NiFi
6 3 (0.37%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.37%) XMPP
7 1 (0.12%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 44 (5.43%) Data Centre
2 12 (1.48%) PKI
3 10 (1.23%) Driving Licence
3 10 (1.23%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (0.99%) Operational Technology
4 8 (0.99%) Security Posture
5 7 (0.86%) Public Cloud
5 7 (0.86%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (0.74%) CMDB
7 5 (0.62%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (0.49%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (0.49%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (0.49%) Fibre Optics
8 4 (0.49%) Private Cloud
8 4 (0.49%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.37%) FlexPod
9 3 (0.37%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (0.37%) Onboarding
9 3 (0.37%) Social Media
10 2 (0.25%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 24 (2.96%) Windows
2 23 (2.84%) Linux
3 13 (1.60%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.62%) Unix
5 1 (0.12%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (6.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 36 (4.44%) Network Monitoring
3 34 (4.19%) Problem-Solving
4 33 (4.07%) Service Management
5 30 (3.70%) ITSM
6 28 (3.45%) Cybersecurity
7 25 (3.08%) Continuous Improvement
8 24 (2.96%) Network Design
9 23 (2.84%) Load Balancing
10 21 (2.59%) High Availability
10 21 (2.59%) ITIL
10 21 (2.59%) Project Delivery
11 20 (2.47%) Customer Service
12 18 (2.22%) Root Cause Analysis
13 16 (1.97%) Change Management
13 16 (1.97%) CI/CD
14 14 (1.73%) Computer Science
14 14 (1.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 13 (1.60%) Infrastructure as Code
15 13 (1.60%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 45 (5.55%) Python
2 10 (1.23%) PowerShell
3 5 (0.62%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.25%) SQL
5 1 (0.12%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 411 (50.68%) Cisco Certification
2 351 (43.28%) CCNA
3 329 (40.57%) Network+ Certification
4 328 (40.44%) Azure Certification
5 88 (10.85%) Security Cleared
6 74 (9.12%) CCNP
7 48 (5.92%) SC Cleared
8 45 (5.55%) DV Cleared
9 25 (3.08%) CCIE
10 17 (2.10%) Degree
11 14 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (0.49%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.37%) JNCIP
14 2 (0.25%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.25%) CCIE Data Center
14 2 (0.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 1 (0.12%) CCIE Security
15 1 (0.12%) CCSM
15 1 (0.12%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 9 (1.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (0.99%) PMO
4 7 (0.86%) QA
5 6 (0.74%) NIST
6 5 (0.62%) SLA
7 4 (0.49%) GDPR
System Software
1 25 (3.08%) VMware NSX
2 24 (2.96%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.22%) Active Directory
4 13 (1.60%) Firmware
5 8 (0.99%) ProxySG
6 5 (0.62%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.25%) Docker
8 2 (0.25%) vSphere
9 1 (0.12%) iptables
Systems Management
1 17 (2.10%) Ansible
2 12 (1.48%) Terraform
3 9 (1.11%) FortiGate
3 9 (1.11%) vCenter Server
4 7 (0.86%) Grafana
5 3 (0.37%) Cisco CUCM
5 3 (0.37%) Nagios
5 3 (0.37%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.25%) vRealize
7 1 (0.12%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.12%) Dell DRAC
7 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.12%) OpenView
7 1 (0.12%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 491 (60.54%) Cisco
2 358 (44.14%) Microsoft
3 324 (39.95%) ForeScout
4 50 (6.17%) Fortinet
5 39 (4.81%) SolarWinds
6 37 (4.56%) Palo Alto
6 37 (4.56%) VMware
7 34 (4.19%) Juniper
8 29 (3.58%) CheckPoint
8 29 (3.58%) F5
9 17 (2.10%) Meraki
10 15 (1.85%) Zscaler
11 14 (1.73%) Avaya
12 13 (1.60%) Infoblox
13 12 (1.48%) Aruba
14 11 (1.36%) ServiceNow
15 10 (1.23%) Blue Coat
15 10 (1.23%) Red Hat
16 9 (1.11%) Broadcom
16 9 (1.11%) Splunk