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 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 269 194
Rank change year-on-year +153 -75 +30
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,020 316 1,063
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.47% 1.00% 1.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.55% 1.13% 1.46%
Number of salaries quoted 550 266 832
10th Percentile £36,203 £35,500 £30,075
25th Percentile £45,000 £41,563 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £47,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +6.38% +4.44%
75th Percentile £68,438 £58,323 £55,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £66,250 £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 65,661 28,006 72,671
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.59% 88.96% 94.83%
Number of salaries quoted 45,558 15,556 51,953
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £26,750
25th Percentile £37,500 £33,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% - -6.54%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,253 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £56,673 £52,500
% change year-on-year -2.95% +7.95% -12.50%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 +109 284 £50,000 -5.44% 61
South East +54 238 £56,500 +13.00% 61
Midlands +97 226 £56,900 +17.93% 36
West Midlands +75 154 £58,450 +19.29% 14
North West +110 136 £52,500 -1.41% 26
Yorkshire +39 120 £50,000 -9.09% 26
South West -7 95 £60,000 +9.09% 25
East Midlands +36 72 £53,750 +13.16% 22
East of England +36 70 £50,000 - 29
Scotland +52 53 £54,000 -18.63% 17
Wales -7 49 £50,000 +0.50% 9
North East -32 28 £55,000 +11.39% 9
Northern Ireland -20 12 £36,412 -30.64% 5
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 June 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.

1 517 (50.69%) Cisco
2 449 (44.02%) Cisco Certification
3 399 (39.12%) Azure
4 380 (37.25%) CCNA
5 369 (36.18%) Microsoft
6 337 (33.04%) Network+ Certification
7 326 (31.96%) Azure Certification
8 324 (31.76%) ForeScout
9 200 (19.61%) Firewall
10 171 (16.76%) WAN
11 148 (14.51%) LAN
12 131 (12.84%) VPN
13 123 (12.06%) Security Cleared
14 105 (10.29%) Network Security
15 104 (10.20%) CCNP
16 79 (7.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 76 (7.45%) SC Cleared
18 74 (7.25%) Wireless
19 73 (7.16%) Fortinet
20 71 (6.96%) BGP
20 71 (6.96%) Problem-Solving
21 67 (6.57%) VLAN
22 59 (5.78%) Python
23 58 (5.69%) OSPF
24 57 (5.59%) SD-WAN
25 54 (5.29%) AWS
26 50 (4.90%) VMware
27 47 (4.61%) DV Cleared
27 47 (4.61%) High Availability
28 44 (4.31%) Network Monitoring

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 10 (0.98%) SharePoint
2 9 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.39%) Confluence
4 1 (0.098%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 6 (0.59%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 399 (39.12%) Azure
2 54 (5.29%) AWS
3 27 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
4 22 (2.16%) Azure Sentinel
5 11 (1.08%) GCP
6 10 (0.98%) OpenShift
7 9 (0.88%) Cloudflare
7 9 (0.88%) Entra ID
8 5 (0.49%) Apigee
8 5 (0.49%) Kong
9 4 (0.39%) Mimecast
10 2 (0.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.20%) GitHub
10 2 (0.20%) OCI
11 1 (0.098%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 200 (19.61%) Firewall
2 171 (16.76%) WAN
3 148 (14.51%) LAN
4 131 (12.84%) VPN
5 105 (10.29%) Network Security
6 74 (7.25%) Wireless
7 71 (6.96%) BGP
8 67 (6.57%) VLAN
9 58 (5.69%) OSPF
10 57 (5.59%) SD-WAN
11 43 (4.22%) TCP/IP
12 42 (4.12%) DNS
13 41 (4.02%) Cisco ASA
13 41 (4.02%) Wi-Fi
14 35 (3.43%) WLAN
15 33 (3.24%) DHCP
16 27 (2.65%) EIGRP
17 23 (2.25%) MPLS
18 21 (2.06%) Cisco Firepower
18 21 (2.06%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 10 (0.98%) GitLab
2 8 (0.78%) Git
3 4 (0.39%) JIRA
4 2 (0.20%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 404 (39.61%) Social Skills
2 65 (6.37%) Public Sector
3 41 (4.02%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (3.92%) Telecoms
5 19 (1.86%) Law
6 16 (1.57%) Finance
7 14 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (1.18%) Manufacturing
9 11 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (0.69%) Retail
11 6 (0.59%) Marketing
12 5 (0.49%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.49%) Back Office
12 5 (0.49%) Banking
12 5 (0.49%) Military
13 4 (0.39%) Police
13 4 (0.39%) Welsh Language
14 3 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.20%) Influencing Skills
16 1 (0.098%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.27%) Jinja
2 10 (0.98%) JSON
2 10 (0.98%) YAML
3 8 (0.78%) YANG
4 5 (0.49%) 802.1X
4 5 (0.49%) REST
4 5 (0.49%) XML
5 4 (0.39%) ModSecurity
6 3 (0.29%) Apache NiFi
6 3 (0.29%) gRPC
6 3 (0.29%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.29%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 64 (6.27%) Data Centre
2 26 (2.55%) Driving Licence
3 20 (1.96%) PKI
4 17 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
5 15 (1.47%) Hybrid Cloud
6 10 (0.98%) Security Posture
7 8 (0.78%) Operational Technology
8 7 (0.69%) CCTV
8 7 (0.69%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 7 (0.69%) Linux Command Line
9 6 (0.59%) CMDB
9 6 (0.59%) Public Cloud
10 5 (0.49%) Clustering
10 5 (0.49%) Fibre Optics
10 5 (0.49%) Life Science
10 5 (0.49%) Onboarding
10 5 (0.49%) Video Conferencing
11 4 (0.39%) Enterprise Cloud
11 4 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (0.29%) FlexPod
Operating Systems
1 43 (4.22%) Windows
2 38 (3.73%) Linux
3 19 (1.86%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.49%) Unix
5 1 (0.098%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (7.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 71 (6.96%) Problem-Solving
3 47 (4.61%) High Availability
4 44 (4.31%) Network Monitoring
5 43 (4.22%) Continuous Improvement
6 34 (3.33%) Mentoring
7 33 (3.24%) Cybersecurity
7 33 (3.24%) ITIL
7 33 (3.24%) Project Delivery
8 32 (3.14%) Network Design
9 28 (2.75%) Load Balancing
10 26 (2.55%) Customer Service
11 22 (2.16%) ITSM
11 22 (2.16%) Technical Leadership
12 21 (2.06%) Disaster Recovery
12 21 (2.06%) Service Management
13 20 (1.96%) CI/CD
13 20 (1.96%) Infrastructure as Code
13 20 (1.96%) Root Cause Analysis
14 19 (1.86%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 59 (5.78%) Python
2 21 (2.06%) PowerShell
3 8 (0.78%) Bash
4 6 (0.59%) SQL
5 5 (0.49%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.098%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 449 (44.02%) Cisco Certification
2 380 (37.25%) CCNA
3 337 (33.04%) Network+ Certification
4 326 (31.96%) Azure Certification
5 123 (12.06%) Security Cleared
6 104 (10.20%) CCNP
7 76 (7.45%) SC Cleared
8 47 (4.61%) DV Cleared
9 30 (2.94%) CCIE
10 22 (2.16%) Degree
11 15 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (0.78%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.69%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.39%) BPSS Clearance
14 4 (0.39%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (0.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
15 3 (0.29%) CISSP
16 2 (0.20%) CCIE Data Center
17 1 (0.098%) CompTIA CySA+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
1 14 (1.37%) SLA
2 12 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (0.88%) GDPR
4 7 (0.69%) NIST
4 7 (0.69%) QA
5 6 (0.59%) PMO
6 2 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.098%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.098%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.098%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 40 (3.92%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (2.35%) Active Directory
3 21 (2.06%) Hyper-V
3 21 (2.06%) VMware NSX
4 11 (1.08%) Firmware
4 11 (1.08%) vSphere
5 8 (0.78%) KVM
6 6 (0.59%) ProxySG
7 4 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 22 (2.16%) Ansible
1 22 (2.16%) Terraform
2 13 (1.27%) FortiGate
3 9 (0.88%) Proxmox
4 8 (0.78%) Graylog
4 8 (0.78%) ZABBIX
5 6 (0.59%) Grafana
6 5 (0.49%) Nagios
7 4 (0.39%) Failover Clustering
8 3 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
8 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Clustering
8 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.29%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.20%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.20%) Dell DRAC
9 2 (0.20%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.20%) vRealize
10 1 (0.098%) OpenView
10 1 (0.098%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 517 (50.69%) Cisco
2 369 (36.18%) Microsoft
3 324 (31.76%) ForeScout
4 73 (7.16%) Fortinet
5 50 (4.90%) VMware
6 44 (4.31%) Palo Alto
7 28 (2.75%) Aruba
8 27 (2.65%) Juniper
9 25 (2.45%) F5
10 24 (2.35%) SolarWinds
11 21 (2.06%) CheckPoint
12 14 (1.37%) Veeam
13 13 (1.27%) Zscaler
14 12 (1.18%) Avaya
14 12 (1.18%) Meraki
15 11 (1.08%) Dell
16 10 (0.98%) Infoblox
16 10 (0.98%) Red Hat
17 8 (0.78%) HP
17 8 (0.78%) ServiceNow