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 £53,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 31 December 2025.

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

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 248 163 162
Rank change year-on-year -85 -1 +89
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 306 634 612
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.73% 1.69% 2.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.81% 1.82% 2.10%
Number of salaries quoted 240 403 530
10th Percentile £34,688 £36,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,000 £53,000 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year - +10.42% +1.05%
75th Percentile £60,250 £60,625 £55,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £63,875
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -

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 37,904 34,869 29,181
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.34% 93.17% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 22,945 17,378 22,098
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £34,750 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £66,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% 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 31 December 2025.

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 31 December 2025. 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 -67 108 £52,500 -4.55% 79
Midlands +15 70 £55,000 +10.00% 35
West Midlands +18 55 £49,500 -1.00% 31
North of England -76 44 £46,750 -1.58% 49
Scotland +4 26 £45,000 -12.20% 12
South West -17 26 £55,560 +30.73% 16
North West -34 23 £46,250 -7.50% 20
East of England +23 21 £60,000 -5.25% 23
East Midlands -7 15 £55,000 - 4
North East -5 12 £50,000 +18.34% 11
Yorkshire -24 9 £45,000 - 21
Northern Ireland - 6 £57,500 - 10
Wales -17 4 £43,750 -0.57% 11
Isle of Man +10 1 £60,000 +53.85%
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 31 December 2025, 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.

1 176 (57.52%) Cisco
2 127 (41.50%) Firewall
3 96 (31.37%) WAN
4 87 (28.43%) LAN
5 84 (27.45%) Cisco Certification
6 71 (23.20%) Security Cleared
7 70 (22.88%) Azure
8 65 (21.24%) CCNP
9 50 (16.34%) BGP
9 50 (16.34%) Network Security
9 50 (16.34%) SD-WAN
10 49 (16.01%) Fortinet
10 49 (16.01%) Palo Alto
10 49 (16.01%) VPN
11 48 (15.69%) Juniper
12 47 (15.36%) Microsoft
12 47 (15.36%) Wireless
13 46 (15.03%) SC Cleared
13 46 (15.03%) SolarWinds
14 42 (13.73%) Meraki
15 41 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
16 40 (13.07%) CheckPoint
17 39 (12.75%) Network Monitoring
18 38 (12.42%) CCNA
19 36 (11.76%) DV Cleared
20 35 (11.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
21 33 (10.78%) OSPF
22 32 (10.46%) VLAN
23 28 (9.15%) VMware
24 27 (8.82%) Change Management

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:

Applications
1 21 (6.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.61%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.98%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 70 (22.88%) Azure
2 16 (5.23%) AWS
3 12 (3.92%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (2.29%) Entra ID
5 5 (1.63%) Azure Sentinel
5 5 (1.63%) GCP
6 3 (0.98%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (0.65%) Nutanix
8 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 127 (41.50%) Firewall
2 96 (31.37%) WAN
3 87 (28.43%) LAN
4 50 (16.34%) BGP
4 50 (16.34%) Network Security
4 50 (16.34%) SD-WAN
5 49 (16.01%) VPN
6 47 (15.36%) Wireless
7 33 (10.78%) OSPF
8 32 (10.46%) VLAN
9 27 (8.82%) Wi-Fi
10 26 (8.50%) Cisco ASA
11 23 (7.52%) Cisco Firepower
11 23 (7.52%) MPLS
12 22 (7.19%) Cisco ISE
13 21 (6.86%) EIGRP
13 21 (6.86%) IPsec
13 21 (6.86%) Wireshark
14 17 (5.56%) Cisco IOS
15 16 (5.23%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (4.58%) GIS
Development Applications
1 2 (0.65%) JIRA
General
1 55 (17.97%) Social Skills
2 28 (9.15%) Finance
3 17 (5.56%) Telecoms
4 15 (4.90%) Public Sector
5 14 (4.58%) Fire and Rescue
5 14 (4.58%) Legal
6 10 (3.27%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (2.94%) Manufacturing
7 9 (2.94%) Retail
8 6 (1.96%) Automotive
8 6 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.96%) Law
9 4 (1.31%) Police
10 2 (0.65%) Advertising
10 2 (0.65%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.65%) Banking
10 2 (0.65%) Marketing
11 1 (0.33%) Electronics
11 1 (0.33%) Military
11 1 (0.33%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.98%) 802.1X
1 3 (0.98%) REST
2 1 (0.33%) Apache NiFi
2 1 (0.33%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.07%) Data Centre
2 14 (4.58%) SCADA
3 13 (4.25%) Management Information System
4 11 (3.59%) Driving Licence
5 10 (3.27%) PKI
6 6 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (1.96%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.63%) Security Posture
7 5 (1.63%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.31%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (0.98%) CCTV
9 3 (0.98%) Cloud Native
9 3 (0.98%) CMDB
9 3 (0.98%) iPad
9 3 (0.98%) Private Cloud
10 2 (0.65%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.65%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 21 (6.86%) Windows
2 14 (4.58%) Windows Server
3 6 (1.96%) Linux
4 5 (1.63%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.98%) Android
6 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
2 39 (12.75%) Network Monitoring
3 35 (11.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 27 (8.82%) Change Management
5 26 (8.50%) Customer Service
5 26 (8.50%) ITSM
6 24 (7.84%) Load Balancing
6 24 (7.84%) Network Design
6 24 (7.84%) Service Management
7 23 (7.52%) Network Virtualisation
8 22 (7.19%) ITIL
9 18 (5.88%) Network Management
10 16 (5.23%) Asset Management
10 16 (5.23%) Continuous Improvement
10 16 (5.23%) High Availability
10 16 (5.23%) Incident Management
11 15 (4.90%) Cybersecurity
11 15 (4.90%) Problem Management
12 14 (4.58%) Mentoring
12 14 (4.58%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 12 (3.92%) Python
2 8 (2.61%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.65%) Bash
4 1 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 84 (27.45%) Cisco Certification
2 71 (23.20%) Security Cleared
3 65 (21.24%) CCNP
4 46 (15.03%) SC Cleared
5 38 (12.42%) CCNA
6 36 (11.76%) DV Cleared
7 11 (3.59%) Degree
8 10 (3.27%) CCIE
8 10 (3.27%) JNCIS
9 9 (2.94%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.98%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.65%) CCSP
11 2 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 2 (0.65%) JNCIA
12 1 (0.33%) CCIE Security
12 1 (0.33%) CISSP
12 1 (0.33%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 3 (0.98%) QA
3 3 (0.98%) SLA
4 2 (0.65%) PMO
5 1 (0.33%) GDPR
5 1 (0.33%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 17 (5.56%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (4.90%) Active Directory
2 15 (4.90%) Firmware
2 15 (4.90%) VMware NSX
3 4 (1.31%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.65%) KVM
4 2 (0.65%) ProxySG
4 2 (0.65%) RHEV
4 2 (0.65%) Xen
5 1 (0.33%) iptables
5 1 (0.33%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (5.88%) FortiGate
2 10 (3.27%) vCenter Server
3 9 (2.94%) Ansible
3 9 (2.94%) Terraform
4 7 (2.29%) Nagios
5 4 (1.31%) Dell DRAC
6 3 (0.98%) Grafana
6 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.98%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.98%) Proxmox
6 3 (0.98%) SCCM
7 1 (0.33%) VxRail
Vendors
1 176 (57.52%) Cisco
2 49 (16.01%) Fortinet
2 49 (16.01%) Palo Alto
3 48 (15.69%) Juniper
4 47 (15.36%) Microsoft
5 46 (15.03%) SolarWinds
6 42 (13.73%) Meraki
7 40 (13.07%) CheckPoint
8 28 (9.15%) VMware
9 27 (8.82%) F5
10 11 (3.59%) Aruba
11 9 (2.94%) Broadcom
11 9 (2.94%) Zscaler
12 8 (2.61%) ServiceNow
13 7 (2.29%) Splunk
14 6 (1.96%) Dell
15 5 (1.63%) Blue Coat
15 5 (1.63%) HP
16 4 (1.31%) Avaya
16 4 (1.31%) Infoblox