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 30 January 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 223 155 188
Rank change year-on-year -68 +33 +64
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 364 623 705
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.81% 1.79% 1.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.90% 1.94% 1.62%
Number of salaries quoted 280 394 617
10th Percentile £29,800 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £43,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +11.58% -
75th Percentile £60,250 £59,000 £53,750
90th Percentile £70,000 £65,272 £60,650
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 40,667 32,051 43,423
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.60% 92.25% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 25,085 15,459 33,679
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -4.76%
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% -8.71%

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 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 30 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 -58 122 £52,500 -4.55% 74
North of England -48 72 £45,000 -5.26% 55
Midlands +11 71 £55,000 +7.31% 28
West Midlands +10 55 £55,000 +8.64% 22
North West -21 38 £45,000 -5.26% 29
South West -13 36 £50,000 +17.65% 35
Scotland -7 30 £45,000 -10.00% 29
East of England +28 24 £58,750 -4.69% 23
Yorkshire -25 21 £45,000 -16.28% 19
East Midlands -7 16 £55,000 - 6
North East -14 13 £50,000 +12.36% 9
Northern Ireland - 7 £57,500 - 1
Wales -25 2 £43,750 -0.57% 8
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 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 (50.82%) Cisco
2 140 (38.46%) Firewall
3 110 (30.22%) WAN
4 95 (26.10%) Cisco Certification
4 95 (26.10%) LAN
5 77 (21.15%) Security Cleared
6 76 (20.88%) CCNP
7 66 (18.13%) Azure
8 61 (16.76%) BGP
9 60 (16.48%) VPN
10 57 (15.66%) SD-WAN
11 54 (14.84%) Network Security
12 51 (14.01%) Juniper
12 51 (14.01%) Palo Alto
12 51 (14.01%) Wireless
13 50 (13.74%) SolarWinds
14 49 (13.46%) Fortinet
15 47 (12.91%) SC Cleared
16 44 (12.09%) Network Monitoring
17 43 (11.81%) CheckPoint
17 43 (11.81%) Microsoft
18 41 (11.26%) CCNA
19 39 (10.71%) DV Cleared
20 38 (10.44%) OSPF
20 38 (10.44%) VLAN
21 35 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
22 34 (9.34%) Meraki
23 33 (9.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
24 32 (8.79%) VMware
25 31 (8.52%) Cisco ASA

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 14 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.75%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.82%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 66 (18.13%) Azure
2 23 (6.32%) AWS
3 12 (3.30%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (2.20%) Azure Sentinel
4 8 (2.20%) GCP
5 7 (1.92%) Entra ID
6 3 (0.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.82%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (0.55%) GitHub
8 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.27%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 140 (38.46%) Firewall
2 110 (30.22%) WAN
3 95 (26.10%) LAN
4 61 (16.76%) BGP
5 60 (16.48%) VPN
6 57 (15.66%) SD-WAN
7 54 (14.84%) Network Security
8 51 (14.01%) Wireless
9 38 (10.44%) OSPF
9 38 (10.44%) VLAN
10 31 (8.52%) Cisco ASA
11 28 (7.69%) Cisco ISE
12 25 (6.87%) EIGRP
13 24 (6.59%) MPLS
13 24 (6.59%) Wi-Fi
14 22 (6.04%) Cisco Firepower
14 22 (6.04%) Wireshark
15 21 (5.77%) IPsec
16 20 (5.49%) Cisco IOS
17 19 (5.22%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.92%) GIS
Development Applications
1 3 (0.82%) Git
2 2 (0.55%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.55%) JIRA
3 1 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 66 (18.13%) Social Skills
2 27 (7.42%) Public Sector
3 23 (6.32%) Finance
4 21 (5.77%) Telecoms
5 15 (4.12%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.02%) Retail
7 10 (2.75%) Law
8 9 (2.47%) Manufacturing
9 7 (1.92%) Fire and Rescue
9 7 (1.92%) Legal
10 6 (1.65%) Automotive
10 6 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.10%) Banking
12 4 (1.10%) Marketing
12 4 (1.10%) Police
13 3 (0.82%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.82%) Military
14 2 (0.55%) Advertising
15 1 (0.27%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.82%) Jinja
1 3 (0.82%) NETCONF
1 3 (0.82%) REST
1 3 (0.82%) YANG
2 2 (0.55%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (0.27%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.27%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 51 (14.01%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.30%) Management Information System
3 11 (3.02%) PKI
4 10 (2.75%) Driving Licence
5 9 (2.47%) Security Posture
6 7 (1.92%) SCADA
7 6 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.65%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.10%) CCTV
8 4 (1.10%) CMDB
8 4 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.10%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.82%) Cloud Native
9 3 (0.82%) iPad
9 3 (0.82%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.82%) Social Media
10 2 (0.55%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.55%) EPoS
10 2 (0.55%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.14%) Windows
2 14 (3.85%) Windows Server
3 10 (2.75%) Linux
4 5 (1.37%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.82%) Android
6 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (12.09%) Network Monitoring
2 35 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (9.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 30 (8.24%) ITSM
4 30 (8.24%) Network Design
5 28 (7.69%) Change Management
6 27 (7.42%) Customer Service
6 27 (7.42%) Load Balancing
6 27 (7.42%) Service Management
7 23 (6.32%) Cybersecurity
7 23 (6.32%) ITIL
7 23 (6.32%) Network Virtualisation
8 21 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
8 21 (5.77%) Network Management
9 20 (5.49%) Problem Management
10 18 (4.95%) High Availability
11 17 (4.67%) Mentoring
12 16 (4.40%) Asset Management
13 15 (4.12%) Capacity Planning
14 14 (3.85%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 18 (4.95%) Python
2 6 (1.65%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.27%) Bash
Qualifications
1 95 (26.10%) Cisco Certification
2 77 (21.15%) Security Cleared
3 76 (20.88%) CCNP
4 47 (12.91%) SC Cleared
5 41 (11.26%) CCNA
6 39 (10.71%) DV Cleared
7 16 (4.40%) CCIE
8 10 (2.75%) Degree
8 10 (2.75%) JNCIS
9 8 (2.20%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.82%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (0.55%) CCSP
12 2 (0.55%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.55%) JNCIA
13 1 (0.27%) CCIE Data Center
13 1 (0.27%) CCIE Security
13 1 (0.27%) CISSP
13 1 (0.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 5 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (1.37%) QA
3 4 (1.10%) GDPR
3 4 (1.10%) PMO
4 2 (0.55%) SLA
5 1 (0.27%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 20 (5.49%) VMware NSX
2 19 (5.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.67%) Active Directory
4 13 (3.57%) Firmware
5 4 (1.10%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.10%) ProxySG
6 3 (0.82%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.55%) KVM
7 2 (0.55%) RHEV
7 2 (0.55%) Xen
8 1 (0.27%) iptables
8 1 (0.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 19 (5.22%) FortiGate
2 11 (3.02%) Terraform
2 11 (3.02%) vCenter Server
3 9 (2.47%) Ansible
4 8 (2.20%) Nagios
5 4 (1.10%) Dell DRAC
6 3 (0.82%) Grafana
6 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.82%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.82%) Proxmox
6 3 (0.82%) SCCM
7 1 (0.27%) vRealize
7 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 185 (50.82%) Cisco
2 51 (14.01%) Juniper
2 51 (14.01%) Palo Alto
3 50 (13.74%) SolarWinds
4 49 (13.46%) Fortinet
5 43 (11.81%) CheckPoint
5 43 (11.81%) Microsoft
6 34 (9.34%) Meraki
7 32 (8.79%) VMware
8 30 (8.24%) F5
9 12 (3.30%) Aruba
9 12 (3.30%) Zscaler
10 10 (2.75%) Broadcom
10 10 (2.75%) Dell
10 10 (2.75%) ServiceNow
11 9 (2.47%) CrowdStrike
12 8 (2.20%) Blue Coat
12 8 (2.20%) Infoblox
13 7 (1.92%) Splunk
14 6 (1.65%) Avaya