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 7 October 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 289 150
Rank change year-on-year +144 -139 +13
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,033 279 845
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.19% 0.80% 1.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.29% 0.90% 1.71%
Number of salaries quoted 682 208 504
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,784 £32,650
25th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% +5.85%
75th Percentile £65,000 £59,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £65,750 £65,000
UK median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% +1.85% +8.00%

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 80,230 31,106 49,383
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.80% 89.53% 95.34%
Number of salaries quoted 55,581 17,332 27,492
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,250 £39,390
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £46,750 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -6.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £58,750 £54,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.80% -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 7 October 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 7 October 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 +109 279 £55,000 +1.85% 123
South East +87 236 £55,000 +4.76% 143
Midlands +77 209 £60,000 +22.45% 104
North West +82 138 £57,500 +8.49% 59
West Midlands +28 133 £60,000 +33.33% 61
South West +5 116 £60,000 +9.09% 78
Yorkshire +48 112 £50,000 -37.50% 44
East of England +41 97 £55,000 +10.00% 83
East Midlands +33 76 £60,000 +9.09% 43
Scotland +42 59 £55,000 +2.33% 34
Wales -40 33 £50,000 +0.50% 28
North East -56 29 £55,000 +10.00% 20
Northern Ireland -80 8 £40,000 -30.43% 17
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 7 October 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.

1 406 (39.30%) Cisco
2 312 (30.20%) Cisco Certification
3 229 (22.17%) Azure
4 228 (22.07%) CCNA
5 223 (21.59%) Microsoft
6 221 (21.39%) Firewall
7 198 (19.17%) WAN
8 192 (18.59%) LAN
9 177 (17.13%) Network+ Certification
10 164 (15.88%) Azure Certification
11 162 (15.68%) ForeScout
12 155 (15.00%) VPN
13 136 (13.17%) Security Cleared
14 132 (12.78%) Network Security
15 121 (11.71%) CCNP
16 112 (10.84%) Wireless
17 102 (9.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 99 (9.58%) Fortinet
19 96 (9.29%) BGP
20 93 (9.00%) Wi-Fi
21 88 (8.52%) OSPF
22 83 (8.03%) Problem-Solving
23 71 (6.87%) Aruba
23 71 (6.87%) VLAN
24 70 (6.78%) DNS
24 70 (6.78%) DV Cleared
25 57 (5.52%) TCP/IP
26 56 (5.42%) Windows
27 55 (5.32%) Python
27 55 (5.32%) SC Cleared

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 13 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.16%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.39%) Confluence
4 1 (0.097%) nginx
4 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (0.097%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.58%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 229 (22.17%) Azure
2 39 (3.78%) AWS
3 35 (3.39%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
5 11 (1.06%) Entra ID
6 10 (0.97%) GCP
7 9 (0.87%) Cloudflare
8 4 (0.39%) OCI
9 3 (0.29%) Mimecast
10 2 (0.19%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 1 (0.097%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 221 (21.39%) Firewall
2 198 (19.17%) WAN
3 192 (18.59%) LAN
4 155 (15.00%) VPN
5 132 (12.78%) Network Security
6 112 (10.84%) Wireless
7 96 (9.29%) BGP
8 93 (9.00%) Wi-Fi
9 88 (8.52%) OSPF
10 71 (6.87%) VLAN
11 70 (6.78%) DNS
12 57 (5.52%) TCP/IP
13 50 (4.84%) DHCP
13 50 (4.84%) SD-WAN
14 49 (4.74%) WLAN
15 42 (4.07%) EIGRP
16 34 (3.29%) Cisco ASA
16 34 (3.29%) Cisco Nexus
17 30 (2.90%) Cisco Firepower
18 23 (2.23%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.097%) GIS
Development Applications
1 8 (0.77%) Git
2 6 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (0.39%) JIRA
4 1 (0.097%) GitLab
General
1 248 (24.01%) Social Skills
2 60 (5.81%) Public Sector
3 46 (4.45%) Telecoms
4 34 (3.29%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (2.42%) Finance
6 13 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
7 12 (1.16%) Law
7 12 (1.16%) Retail
8 11 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (0.97%) Marketing
10 9 (0.87%) Banking
11 8 (0.77%) Military
12 7 (0.68%) Aerospace
13 5 (0.48%) Back Office
13 5 (0.48%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.097%) Digital Health
14 1 (0.097%) Electronics
14 1 (0.097%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.10%) Terraform
2 7 (0.68%) YAML
3 5 (0.48%) 802.1X
3 5 (0.48%) Apache NiFi
4 3 (0.29%) Jinja
4 3 (0.29%) JSON
4 3 (0.29%) XMPP
5 2 (0.19%) gRPC
5 2 (0.19%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.097%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 65 (6.29%) Data Centre
2 42 (4.07%) Driving Licence
3 18 (1.74%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (1.65%) PKI
5 14 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
6 12 (1.16%) Onboarding
7 11 (1.06%) CCTV
8 10 (0.97%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 7 (0.68%) Clustering
9 7 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
10 6 (0.58%) Life Science
10 6 (0.58%) Security Posture
11 5 (0.48%) Cloud Native
11 5 (0.48%) CMDB
11 5 (0.48%) Fibre Optics
11 5 (0.48%) Video Conferencing
12 4 (0.39%) Public Cloud
13 3 (0.29%) Enterprise Cloud
13 3 (0.29%) FlexPod
13 3 (0.29%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 56 (5.42%) Windows
2 37 (3.58%) Windows Server
3 34 (3.29%) Linux
4 2 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.097%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.097%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.097%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.097%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (9.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 83 (8.03%) Problem-Solving
3 49 (4.74%) High Availability
4 48 (4.65%) Continuous Improvement
5 47 (4.55%) Mentoring
6 46 (4.45%) Network Design
7 41 (3.97%) Disaster Recovery
7 41 (3.97%) Network Monitoring
8 40 (3.87%) Cybersecurity
9 37 (3.58%) Project Delivery
10 31 (3.00%) DevOps
11 30 (2.90%) Customer Service
12 28 (2.71%) ITIL
13 27 (2.61%) SIEM
14 26 (2.52%) Business Continuity
14 26 (2.52%) Migration
14 26 (2.52%) Root Cause Analysis
15 25 (2.42%) Load Balancing
15 25 (2.42%) Technical Leadership
16 24 (2.32%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 55 (5.32%) Python
2 21 (2.03%) PowerShell
3 9 (0.87%) Bash
3 9 (0.87%) SQL
4 2 (0.19%) Go
5 1 (0.097%) Bicep
5 1 (0.097%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 312 (30.20%) Cisco Certification
2 228 (22.07%) CCNA
3 177 (17.13%) Network+ Certification
4 164 (15.88%) Azure Certification
5 136 (13.17%) Security Cleared
6 121 (11.71%) CCNP
7 70 (6.78%) DV Cleared
8 55 (5.32%) SC Cleared
9 19 (1.84%) Degree
10 16 (1.55%) DBS Check
11 15 (1.45%) CCIE
12 6 (0.58%) JNCIP
13 4 (0.39%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 4 (0.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
14 3 (0.29%) CCDP
14 3 (0.29%) CISSP
15 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (1.84%) SLA
2 12 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (0.97%) GDPR
4 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
4 5 (0.48%) QA
5 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 3 (0.29%) NIST
7 2 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.097%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.097%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.097%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.097%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 45 (4.36%) VMware Infrastructure
2 34 (3.29%) Active Directory
3 31 (3.00%) Hyper-V
4 18 (1.74%) VMware NSX
5 16 (1.55%) vSphere
6 12 (1.16%) Firmware
7 9 (0.87%) KVM
8 3 (0.29%) Docker
9 2 (0.19%) iptables
10 1 (0.097%) FreeRADIUS
10 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.097%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.097%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 36 (3.48%) Ansible
2 35 (3.39%) FortiGate
3 13 (1.26%) Proxmox
4 11 (1.06%) Stealthwatch
5 9 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (0.87%) ZABBIX
6 8 (0.77%) Graylog
7 7 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
8 6 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (0.48%) Grafana
9 5 (0.48%) Kubernetes
10 4 (0.39%) Cisco CUCM
11 3 (0.29%) Nagios
12 2 (0.19%) Autotask
12 2 (0.19%) Cisco Prime
12 2 (0.19%) Dell DRAC
12 2 (0.19%) Prometheus
13 1 (0.097%) Cilium
13 1 (0.097%) Cisco UCCE
13 1 (0.097%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 406 (39.30%) Cisco
2 223 (21.59%) Microsoft
3 162 (15.68%) ForeScout
4 99 (9.58%) Fortinet
5 71 (6.87%) Aruba
6 54 (5.23%) VMware
7 50 (4.84%) Palo Alto
8 32 (3.10%) Juniper
9 22 (2.13%) F5
9 22 (2.13%) Meraki
10 14 (1.36%) SolarWinds
11 13 (1.26%) Veeam
12 12 (1.16%) Dell
13 11 (1.06%) Infoblox
14 9 (0.87%) CheckPoint
14 9 (0.87%) Qualys
15 8 (0.77%) Arista
15 8 (0.77%) Avaya
15 8 (0.77%) ServiceNow
16 7 (0.68%) HP