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 11 August 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 297 171
Rank change year-on-year +175 -126 +17
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,107 298 888
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.44% 0.86% 1.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.52% 0.96% 1.56%
Number of salaries quoted 634 242 664
10th Percentile £35,000 £35,100 £31,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £39,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,945 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.96% +3.97% +4.26%
75th Percentile £66,250 £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 72,831 30,931 56,883
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.43% 89.45% 94.97%
Number of salaries quoted 50,336 17,816 37,495
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £28,498
25th Percentile £38,750 £32,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £48,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% -3.00% -6.54%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +0.91% - -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 11 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 11 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 +117 303 £50,000 -9.09% 83
South East +85 266 £55,000 +10.00% 57
Midlands +79 243 £55,000 +22.22% 44
West Midlands +52 156 £56,900 +26.44% 19
North West +100 137 £56,250 -2.17% 44
Yorkshire +58 135 £48,300 -19.50% 28
South West -21 91 £72,500 +29.19% 48
East Midlands +52 87 £50,000 +5.26% 25
East of England +37 79 £55,000 +10.00% 28
Scotland +63 70 £55,000 +1.85% 21
Wales -16 49 £50,000 -2.20% 17
North East -44 31 £52,788 +5.58% 11
Northern Ireland -62 13 £36,412 -36.67% 4
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 535 (48.33%) Cisco
2 464 (41.92%) Cisco Certification
3 396 (35.77%) Azure
4 383 (34.60%) CCNA
5 376 (33.97%) Microsoft
6 342 (30.89%) Network+ Certification
7 326 (29.45%) Azure Certification
8 324 (29.27%) ForeScout
9 228 (20.60%) Firewall
10 190 (17.16%) WAN
11 172 (15.54%) LAN
12 151 (13.64%) VPN
13 123 (11.11%) Security Cleared
14 117 (10.57%) Network Security
15 113 (10.21%) CCNP
16 102 (9.21%) Wireless
17 92 (8.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 87 (7.86%) Fortinet
19 85 (7.68%) Problem-Solving
20 81 (7.32%) BGP
20 81 (7.32%) Wi-Fi
21 74 (6.68%) VLAN
22 72 (6.50%) OSPF
22 72 (6.50%) SC Cleared
23 66 (5.96%) Python
24 57 (5.15%) DNS
25 53 (4.79%) Windows
26 52 (4.70%) Palo Alto
26 52 (4.70%) VMware
27 51 (4.61%) 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 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
1 12 (1.08%) SharePoint
2 4 (0.36%) Confluence
3 1 (0.090%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 4 (0.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.54%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 396 (35.77%) Azure
2 50 (4.52%) AWS
3 33 (2.98%) Microsoft 365
4 17 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
5 11 (0.99%) Entra ID
6 10 (0.90%) OpenShift
7 9 (0.81%) Cloudflare
7 9 (0.81%) GCP
8 5 (0.45%) Apigee
8 5 (0.45%) Kong
8 5 (0.45%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.27%) OCI
10 2 (0.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 1 (0.090%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 228 (20.60%) Firewall
2 190 (17.16%) WAN
3 172 (15.54%) LAN
4 151 (13.64%) VPN
5 117 (10.57%) Network Security
6 102 (9.21%) Wireless
7 81 (7.32%) BGP
7 81 (7.32%) Wi-Fi
8 74 (6.68%) VLAN
9 72 (6.50%) OSPF
10 57 (5.15%) DNS
11 51 (4.61%) SD-WAN
12 50 (4.52%) TCP/IP
13 42 (3.79%) DHCP
13 42 (3.79%) WLAN
14 39 (3.52%) Cisco ASA
15 33 (2.98%) EIGRP
16 27 (2.44%) Cisco Nexus
17 24 (2.17%) Cisco Firepower
18 21 (1.90%) MPLS
Development Applications
1 10 (0.90%) GitLab
2 9 (0.81%) Git
3 4 (0.36%) JIRA
4 1 (0.090%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 413 (37.31%) Social Skills
2 58 (5.24%) Public Sector
3 45 (4.07%) Telecoms
4 39 (3.52%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (1.63%) Finance
5 18 (1.63%) Law
6 15 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (0.72%) Manufacturing
9 6 (0.54%) Retail
10 5 (0.45%) Aerospace
10 5 (0.45%) Back Office
10 5 (0.45%) Marketing
11 4 (0.36%) Banking
11 4 (0.36%) Police
11 4 (0.36%) Welsh Language
12 3 (0.27%) Military
13 2 (0.18%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.090%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.17%) Jinja
1 13 (1.17%) JSON
1 13 (1.17%) YAML
2 5 (0.45%) 802.1X
2 5 (0.45%) REST
2 5 (0.45%) XML
2 5 (0.45%) YANG
3 4 (0.36%) ModSecurity
3 4 (0.36%) XMPP
4 3 (0.27%) Apache NiFi
4 3 (0.27%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 59 (5.33%) Data Centre
2 40 (3.61%) Driving Licence
3 19 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
4 17 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (1.54%) PKI
5 11 (0.99%) CCTV
6 10 (0.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 10 (0.90%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (0.81%) Onboarding
8 8 (0.72%) Clustering
8 8 (0.72%) Fibre Optics
8 8 (0.72%) Life Science
8 8 (0.72%) Operational Technology
9 7 (0.63%) Security Posture
10 6 (0.54%) CMDB
10 6 (0.54%) Video Conferencing
11 5 (0.45%) Cloud Native
11 5 (0.45%) Public Cloud
12 4 (0.36%) Enterprise Cloud
12 4 (0.36%) FlexPod
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.79%) Windows
2 45 (4.07%) Linux
3 32 (2.89%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.45%) Unix
5 2 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.090%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.090%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.090%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (8.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 85 (7.68%) Problem-Solving
3 49 (4.43%) Continuous Improvement
3 49 (4.43%) High Availability
4 44 (3.97%) Network Monitoring
5 41 (3.70%) Mentoring
6 40 (3.61%) Project Delivery
7 36 (3.25%) ITIL
8 33 (2.98%) Disaster Recovery
9 32 (2.89%) Customer Service
10 31 (2.80%) Cybersecurity
11 29 (2.62%) Network Design
12 28 (2.53%) Load Balancing
13 25 (2.26%) SIEM
14 24 (2.17%) Technical Leadership
15 21 (1.90%) Root Cause Analysis
16 20 (1.81%) Business Continuity
16 20 (1.81%) CI/CD
16 20 (1.81%) Infrastructure as Code
17 19 (1.72%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 66 (5.96%) Python
2 26 (2.35%) PowerShell
3 10 (0.90%) SQL
4 9 (0.81%) Bash
5 5 (0.45%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.18%) Go
7 1 (0.090%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 464 (41.92%) Cisco Certification
2 383 (34.60%) CCNA
3 342 (30.89%) Network+ Certification
4 326 (29.45%) Azure Certification
5 123 (11.11%) Security Cleared
6 113 (10.21%) CCNP
7 72 (6.50%) SC Cleared
8 49 (4.43%) DV Cleared
9 21 (1.90%) CCIE
9 21 (1.90%) Degree
10 12 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (1.08%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.63%) JNCIP
12 4 (0.36%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (0.27%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.27%) CISSP
13 3 (0.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 2 (0.18%) CCDP
14 2 (0.18%) HNC
15 1 (0.090%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (1.54%) SLA
2 14 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (0.99%) GDPR
4 8 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (0.72%) NIST
5 5 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (0.36%) QA
7 3 (0.27%) PMO
8 2 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.090%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.090%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.090%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 44 (3.97%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (2.80%) Active Directory
3 29 (2.62%) Hyper-V
4 17 (1.54%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.26%) vSphere
6 12 (1.08%) Firmware
7 9 (0.81%) KVM
8 3 (0.27%) Docker
8 3 (0.27%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.18%) iptables
9 2 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.090%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.090%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 31 (2.80%) Ansible
2 27 (2.44%) Terraform
3 24 (2.17%) FortiGate
4 13 (1.17%) Proxmox
5 9 (0.81%) ZABBIX
6 8 (0.72%) Graylog
6 8 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
7 7 (0.63%) Grafana
8 6 (0.54%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (0.45%) Kubernetes
9 5 (0.45%) Stealthwatch
10 4 (0.36%) Cisco CUCM
11 3 (0.27%) Nagios
12 2 (0.18%) Cisco Prime
12 2 (0.18%) Dell DRAC
12 2 (0.18%) Prometheus
13 1 (0.090%) Cilium
13 1 (0.090%) Istio
13 1 (0.090%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 535 (48.33%) Cisco
2 376 (33.97%) Microsoft
3 324 (29.27%) ForeScout
4 87 (7.86%) Fortinet
5 52 (4.70%) Palo Alto
5 52 (4.70%) VMware
6 45 (4.07%) Aruba
7 30 (2.71%) Juniper
8 27 (2.44%) F5
9 17 (1.54%) CheckPoint
9 17 (1.54%) SolarWinds
10 15 (1.36%) Meraki
11 14 (1.26%) Veeam
12 10 (0.90%) Dell
12 10 (0.90%) Red Hat
13 9 (0.81%) Avaya
13 9 (0.81%) HP
13 9 (0.81%) ServiceNow
14 8 (0.72%) Infoblox
14 8 (0.72%) Zscaler