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 18 February 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 227 158 205
Rank change year-on-year -69 +47 +51
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 388 605 723
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.80% 1.87% 1.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.88% 2.05% 1.52%
Number of salaries quoted 292 389 624
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,900 £31,075
25th Percentile £42,188 £43,750 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +11.58% -
75th Percentile £61,250 £59,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £66,250 £60,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year - +12.24% -2.00%

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 44,049 29,556 47,666
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.20% 91.48% 95.01%
Number of salaries quoted 27,551 14,399 36,952
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £69,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,966 £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 18 February 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 18 February 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 -58 132 £52,500 -2.78% 89
North of England -72 78 £45,000 -5.26% 59
Midlands +14 76 £55,000 +7.31% 39
West Midlands +17 60 £55,500 +8.29% 21
North West -32 40 £45,000 -8.63% 35
South West -20 36 £50,000 +5.26% 41
Scotland 0 33 £45,000 -14.29% 36
East of England +18 25 £57,500 +1.19% 31
Yorkshire -32 23 £45,000 -10.00% 15
East Midlands -14 16 £55,000 - 18
North East -17 15 £50,000 +12.36% 10
Northern Ireland - 5 £45,625 - 5
Wales -25 3 £50,000 +14.94% 12
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 February 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.

1 188 (48.45%) Cisco
2 142 (36.60%) Firewall
3 115 (29.64%) WAN
4 97 (25.00%) LAN
5 94 (24.23%) Cisco Certification
6 83 (21.39%) Security Cleared
7 77 (19.85%) CCNP
8 68 (17.53%) Azure
9 62 (15.98%) BGP
9 62 (15.98%) VPN
10 60 (15.46%) Network Security
11 59 (15.21%) SD-WAN
12 55 (14.18%) Wireless
13 54 (13.92%) Palo Alto
14 53 (13.66%) Fortinet
14 53 (13.66%) SC Cleared
15 52 (13.40%) SolarWinds
16 48 (12.37%) Juniper
17 44 (11.34%) CheckPoint
18 43 (11.08%) Network Monitoring
19 42 (10.82%) VLAN
20 39 (10.05%) OSPF
21 38 (9.79%) CCNA
21 38 (9.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
22 37 (9.54%) DV Cleared
23 35 (9.02%) Microsoft
24 34 (8.76%) Cisco ASA
24 34 (8.76%) Meraki
25 32 (8.25%) F5
26 31 (7.99%) 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 10 (2.58%) MS Visio
2 8 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.77%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 68 (17.53%) Azure
2 27 (6.96%) AWS
3 12 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (2.06%) Azure Sentinel
5 7 (1.80%) Entra ID
5 7 (1.80%) GCP
6 3 (0.77%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.77%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (0.52%) GitHub
7 2 (0.52%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.26%) Apigee
8 1 (0.26%) Kong
8 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.26%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 142 (36.60%) Firewall
2 115 (29.64%) WAN
3 97 (25.00%) LAN
4 62 (15.98%) BGP
4 62 (15.98%) VPN
5 60 (15.46%) Network Security
6 59 (15.21%) SD-WAN
7 55 (14.18%) Wireless
8 42 (10.82%) VLAN
9 39 (10.05%) OSPF
10 34 (8.76%) Cisco ASA
11 28 (7.22%) Cisco ISE
12 27 (6.96%) EIGRP
13 24 (6.19%) Cisco Firepower
14 23 (5.93%) Wi-Fi
14 23 (5.93%) Wireshark
15 22 (5.67%) MPLS
16 20 (5.15%) Cisco IOS
16 20 (5.15%) IPsec
17 18 (4.64%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.77%) GIS
Development Applications
1 4 (1.03%) Git
2 2 (0.52%) GitLab
2 2 (0.52%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.52%) JIRA
3 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 65 (16.75%) Social Skills
2 28 (7.22%) Public Sector
3 23 (5.93%) Telecoms
4 21 (5.41%) Finance
5 18 (4.64%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (2.84%) Law
6 11 (2.84%) Retail
7 8 (2.06%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (1.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.29%) Automotive
9 5 (1.29%) Police
10 4 (1.03%) Banking
10 4 (1.03%) Marketing
11 3 (0.77%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.77%) Fire and Rescue
11 3 (0.77%) Legal
11 3 (0.77%) Military
12 2 (0.52%) Advertising
13 1 (0.26%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.29%) Jinja
2 4 (1.03%) REST
2 4 (1.03%) YANG
3 3 (0.77%) NETCONF
4 2 (0.52%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (0.52%) JSON
4 2 (0.52%) YAML
5 1 (0.26%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.26%) LDAP
5 1 (0.26%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 53 (13.66%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.09%) Management Information System
3 11 (2.84%) Driving Licence
3 11 (2.84%) PKI
4 8 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (1.80%) Security Posture
6 6 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.29%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.03%) CCTV
8 4 (1.03%) CMDB
8 4 (1.03%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.03%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.77%) Cloud Native
9 3 (0.77%) iPad
9 3 (0.77%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.77%) SCADA
9 3 (0.77%) Social Media
10 2 (0.52%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.52%) Cyber Defence
10 2 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 29 (7.47%) Windows
2 15 (3.87%) Windows Server
3 13 (3.35%) Linux
4 5 (1.29%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.77%) Android
6 1 (0.26%) Unix
6 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (11.08%) Network Monitoring
2 38 (9.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 31 (7.99%) ITSM
3 31 (7.99%) Network Design
4 30 (7.73%) Load Balancing
5 29 (7.47%) Change Management
5 29 (7.47%) Problem-Solving
6 28 (7.22%) Service Management
7 27 (6.96%) Customer Service
8 25 (6.44%) Cybersecurity
9 23 (5.93%) Network Virtualisation
10 22 (5.67%) ITIL
10 22 (5.67%) Problem Management
11 21 (5.41%) Network Management
12 20 (5.15%) Continuous Improvement
13 17 (4.38%) High Availability
14 16 (4.12%) Asset Management
14 16 (4.12%) Root Cause Analysis
15 15 (3.87%) Capacity Planning
15 15 (3.87%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 22 (5.67%) Python
2 6 (1.55%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.26%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 94 (24.23%) Cisco Certification
2 83 (21.39%) Security Cleared
3 77 (19.85%) CCNP
4 53 (13.66%) SC Cleared
5 38 (9.79%) CCNA
6 37 (9.54%) DV Cleared
7 17 (4.38%) CCIE
8 11 (2.84%) Degree
9 10 (2.58%) JNCIS
10 7 (1.80%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.55%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.77%) DBS Check
14 2 (0.52%) JNCIA
15 1 (0.26%) CCIE Data Center
15 1 (0.26%) CCIE Security
15 1 (0.26%) CCSP
15 1 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.26%) JNCIP
15 1 (0.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 6 (1.55%) PMO
3 5 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.29%) QA
4 4 (1.03%) GDPR
5 2 (0.52%) SLA
6 1 (0.26%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 19 (4.90%) VMware Infrastructure
1 19 (4.90%) VMware NSX
2 16 (4.12%) Active Directory
3 13 (3.35%) Firmware
4 6 (1.55%) ProxySG
5 4 (1.03%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.77%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.52%) KVM
7 2 (0.52%) RHEV
7 2 (0.52%) Xen
8 1 (0.26%) iptables
Systems Management
1 18 (4.64%) FortiGate
2 11 (2.84%) Terraform
2 11 (2.84%) vCenter Server
3 8 (2.06%) Ansible
3 8 (2.06%) Nagios
4 4 (1.03%) Dell DRAC
5 3 (0.77%) Grafana
5 3 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.77%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.77%) Proxmox
5 3 (0.77%) SCCM
6 1 (0.26%) vRealize
Vendors
1 188 (48.45%) Cisco
2 54 (13.92%) Palo Alto
3 53 (13.66%) Fortinet
4 52 (13.40%) SolarWinds
5 48 (12.37%) Juniper
6 44 (11.34%) CheckPoint
7 35 (9.02%) Microsoft
8 34 (8.76%) Meraki
9 32 (8.25%) F5
10 30 (7.73%) VMware
11 13 (3.35%) Zscaler
12 12 (3.09%) ServiceNow
13 11 (2.84%) Aruba
13 11 (2.84%) CrowdStrike
14 10 (2.58%) Blue Coat
14 10 (2.58%) Broadcom
14 10 (2.58%) Infoblox
15 9 (2.32%) Dell
16 7 (1.80%) Avaya
16 7 (1.80%) Splunk