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 £52,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 January 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 159 185
Rank change year-on-year -73 +26 +70
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 358 625 668
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.81% 1.76% 1.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.90% 1.90% 1.70%
Number of salaries quoted 279 398 580
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £43,125 £43,250 £37,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +11.58% -
75th Percentile £60,000 £59,875 £54,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £65,272 £62,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £49,250
% change year-on-year - +11.68% -1.50%

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 39,872 32,821 39,254
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.53% 92.29% 95.29%
Number of salaries quoted 24,506 15,917 30,150
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,768
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -4.94%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -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 January 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 January 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 -57 121 £52,500 -4.55% 91
Midlands +19 75 £55,000 +8.64% 32
North of England -51 69 £45,000 -5.26% 64
West Midlands +18 59 £54,068 +6.80% 24
North West -31 35 £45,000 -5.26% 31
South West -23 32 £51,500 +21.18% 38
Scotland -4 30 £45,000 -10.00% 27
East of England +23 23 £58,750 -4.69% 32
Yorkshire -21 21 £45,000 -10.00% 21
East Midlands -2 16 £55,000 +18.92% 8
North East -14 13 £50,000 +18.34% 15
Northern Ireland - 6 £57,500 - 4
Wales -21 2 £43,750 -0.57% 11
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 January 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.

1 185 (51.68%) Cisco
2 139 (38.83%) Firewall
3 109 (30.45%) WAN
4 95 (26.54%) LAN
5 94 (26.26%) Cisco Certification
6 75 (20.95%) CCNP
6 75 (20.95%) Security Cleared
7 67 (18.72%) Azure
8 61 (17.04%) BGP
9 59 (16.48%) VPN
10 56 (15.64%) SD-WAN
11 54 (15.08%) Network Security
12 53 (14.80%) Juniper
13 51 (14.25%) Wireless
14 50 (13.97%) Palo Alto
14 50 (13.97%) SolarWinds
15 49 (13.69%) Fortinet
16 46 (12.85%) SC Cleared
17 45 (12.57%) Microsoft
18 44 (12.29%) Network Monitoring
19 43 (12.01%) CheckPoint
20 40 (11.17%) CCNA
21 39 (10.89%) DV Cleared
22 38 (10.61%) OSPF
22 38 (10.61%) Problem-Solving
23 37 (10.34%) VLAN
24 36 (10.06%) Meraki
25 32 (8.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
26 31 (8.66%) Cisco ASA
26 31 (8.66%) ITSM

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 17 (4.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.79%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 67 (18.72%) Azure
2 22 (6.15%) AWS
3 11 (3.07%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (2.23%) Azure Sentinel
4 8 (2.23%) GCP
5 7 (1.96%) Entra ID
6 3 (0.84%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.84%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (0.56%) GitHub
8 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.28%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 139 (38.83%) Firewall
2 109 (30.45%) WAN
3 95 (26.54%) LAN
4 61 (17.04%) BGP
5 59 (16.48%) VPN
6 56 (15.64%) SD-WAN
7 54 (15.08%) Network Security
8 51 (14.25%) Wireless
9 38 (10.61%) OSPF
10 37 (10.34%) VLAN
11 31 (8.66%) Cisco ASA
12 27 (7.54%) Cisco ISE
13 25 (6.98%) EIGRP
13 25 (6.98%) MPLS
13 25 (6.98%) Wi-Fi
14 22 (6.15%) Cisco Firepower
14 22 (6.15%) Wireshark
15 21 (5.87%) IPsec
16 20 (5.59%) Cisco IOS
17 18 (5.03%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.79%) GIS
Development Applications
1 3 (0.84%) Git
2 2 (0.56%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.56%) JIRA
3 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 65 (18.16%) Social Skills
2 26 (7.26%) Finance
2 26 (7.26%) Public Sector
3 22 (6.15%) Telecoms
4 15 (4.19%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (3.07%) Retail
6 10 (2.79%) Fire and Rescue
6 10 (2.79%) Law
6 10 (2.79%) Legal
7 9 (2.51%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.68%) Automotive
8 6 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.12%) Banking
10 4 (1.12%) Marketing
10 4 (1.12%) Police
11 3 (0.84%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.56%) Advertising
12 2 (0.56%) Military
13 1 (0.28%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.84%) Jinja
1 3 (0.84%) NETCONF
1 3 (0.84%) REST
1 3 (0.84%) YANG
2 2 (0.56%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (0.28%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.28%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 50 (13.97%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.35%) Management Information System
3 11 (3.07%) PKI
4 10 (2.79%) Driving Licence
4 10 (2.79%) SCADA
5 8 (2.23%) Security Posture
6 6 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (1.68%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.12%) CCTV
8 4 (1.12%) CMDB
8 4 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.12%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.84%) Cloud Native
9 3 (0.84%) iPad
9 3 (0.84%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.84%) Social Media
10 2 (0.56%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.56%) Video Conferencing
10 2 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (6.98%) Windows
2 14 (3.91%) Windows Server
3 9 (2.51%) Linux
4 5 (1.40%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.84%) Android
6 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (12.29%) Network Monitoring
2 38 (10.61%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (8.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 31 (8.66%) ITSM
5 30 (8.38%) Network Design
6 28 (7.82%) Change Management
7 27 (7.54%) Customer Service
7 27 (7.54%) Service Management
8 26 (7.26%) Load Balancing
9 23 (6.42%) ITIL
9 23 (6.42%) Network Virtualisation
10 21 (5.87%) Cybersecurity
11 20 (5.59%) Continuous Improvement
11 20 (5.59%) Network Management
11 20 (5.59%) Problem Management
12 19 (5.31%) High Availability
13 16 (4.47%) Asset Management
13 16 (4.47%) Mentoring
14 15 (4.19%) Capacity Planning
15 14 (3.91%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 19 (5.31%) Python
2 6 (1.68%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.56%) Bash
Qualifications
1 94 (26.26%) Cisco Certification
2 75 (20.95%) CCNP
2 75 (20.95%) Security Cleared
3 46 (12.85%) SC Cleared
4 40 (11.17%) CCNA
5 39 (10.89%) DV Cleared
6 16 (4.47%) CCIE
7 11 (3.07%) Degree
8 10 (2.79%) JNCIS
9 8 (2.23%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.12%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.84%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.56%) CCSP
12 2 (0.56%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.56%) JNCIA
13 1 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
13 1 (0.28%) CCIE Data Center
13 1 (0.28%) CCIE Security
13 1 (0.28%) CISSP
13 1 (0.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 5 (1.40%) QA
3 4 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.12%) PMO
4 3 (0.84%) GDPR
5 2 (0.56%) SLA
6 1 (0.28%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 20 (5.59%) VMware NSX
2 19 (5.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.75%) Active Directory
4 13 (3.63%) Firmware
5 4 (1.12%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.12%) ProxySG
6 2 (0.56%) KVM
6 2 (0.56%) RHEV
6 2 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.56%) Xen
7 1 (0.28%) iptables
7 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (5.03%) FortiGate
2 11 (3.07%) Terraform
2 11 (3.07%) vCenter Server
3 9 (2.51%) Ansible
4 8 (2.23%) Nagios
5 4 (1.12%) Dell DRAC
6 3 (0.84%) Grafana
6 3 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.84%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.84%) Proxmox
6 3 (0.84%) SCCM
7 1 (0.28%) vRealize
7 1 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 185 (51.68%) Cisco
2 53 (14.80%) Juniper
3 50 (13.97%) Palo Alto
3 50 (13.97%) SolarWinds
4 49 (13.69%) Fortinet
5 45 (12.57%) Microsoft
6 43 (12.01%) CheckPoint
7 36 (10.06%) Meraki
8 31 (8.66%) VMware
9 30 (8.38%) F5
10 12 (3.35%) Zscaler
11 11 (3.07%) Aruba
12 10 (2.79%) Broadcom
12 10 (2.79%) ServiceNow
13 9 (2.51%) Dell
14 8 (2.23%) Blue Coat
14 8 (2.23%) Infoblox
15 7 (1.96%) Avaya
15 7 (1.96%) CrowdStrike
15 7 (1.96%) Splunk