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 8 February 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 154 204
Rank change year-on-year -74 +50 +52
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 369 616 738
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.80% 1.84% 1.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.88% 2.00% 1.56%
Number of salaries quoted 281 394 641
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,325 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £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 £62,000 £59,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £65,272 £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 42,162 30,817 47,172
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.88% 91.86% 95.11%
Number of salaries quoted 26,077 14,965 36,726
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,220 £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 £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% -8.33%

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 8 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 8 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 -65 125 £52,500 -4.55% 71
North of England -59 74 £45,000 -5.26% 47
Midlands +8 71 £55,000 +7.31% 36
West Midlands +10 55 £55,500 +8.29% 28
North West -23 39 £45,000 -5.26% 29
South West -15 37 £51,500 +18.39% 27
Scotland -8 29 £45,000 -10.00% 29
East of England +23 25 £58,750 +3.39% 18
Yorkshire -33 22 £45,000 -21.74% 12
East Midlands -14 16 £55,000 - 8
North East -16 13 £50,000 +12.36% 6
Northern Ireland - 6 £57,500 - 2
Wales -23 2 £43,750 -0.57% 10
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 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.

1 185 (50.14%) Cisco
2 136 (36.86%) Firewall
3 110 (29.81%) WAN
4 95 (25.75%) LAN
5 93 (25.20%) Cisco Certification
6 78 (21.14%) Security Cleared
7 75 (20.33%) CCNP
8 64 (17.34%) Azure
9 60 (16.26%) BGP
10 59 (15.99%) VPN
11 57 (15.45%) SD-WAN
12 53 (14.36%) Network Security
13 51 (13.82%) Wireless
14 50 (13.55%) Juniper
14 50 (13.55%) Palo Alto
14 50 (13.55%) SolarWinds
15 48 (13.01%) Fortinet
16 47 (12.74%) SC Cleared
17 44 (11.92%) Network Monitoring
18 40 (10.84%) CCNA
18 40 (10.84%) CheckPoint
19 39 (10.57%) DV Cleared
19 39 (10.57%) Microsoft
20 38 (10.30%) VLAN
21 37 (10.03%) OSPF
22 34 (9.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
22 34 (9.21%) Meraki
23 33 (8.94%) Problem-Solving
24 32 (8.67%) Cisco ASA
24 32 (8.67%) VMware

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 11 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.44%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.81%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 64 (17.34%) Azure
2 23 (6.23%) AWS
3 12 (3.25%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (1.90%) Azure Sentinel
4 7 (1.90%) Entra ID
4 7 (1.90%) GCP
5 3 (0.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 3 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (0.54%) GitHub
7 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (0.27%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 136 (36.86%) Firewall
2 110 (29.81%) WAN
3 95 (25.75%) LAN
4 60 (16.26%) BGP
5 59 (15.99%) VPN
6 57 (15.45%) SD-WAN
7 53 (14.36%) Network Security
8 51 (13.82%) Wireless
9 38 (10.30%) VLAN
10 37 (10.03%) OSPF
11 32 (8.67%) Cisco ASA
12 28 (7.59%) Cisco ISE
13 25 (6.78%) EIGRP
14 24 (6.50%) Wi-Fi
15 23 (6.23%) Wireshark
16 22 (5.96%) Cisco Firepower
16 22 (5.96%) MPLS
17 20 (5.42%) Cisco IOS
17 20 (5.42%) IPsec
18 19 (5.15%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.36%) GIS
Development Applications
1 3 (0.81%) Git
2 2 (0.54%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.54%) JIRA
3 1 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 65 (17.62%) Social Skills
2 27 (7.32%) Public Sector
3 22 (5.96%) Finance
4 21 (5.69%) Telecoms
5 16 (4.34%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (2.98%) Law
6 11 (2.98%) Retail
7 8 (2.17%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.63%) Automotive
8 6 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.36%) Fire and Rescue
9 5 (1.36%) Legal
10 4 (1.08%) Banking
10 4 (1.08%) Marketing
10 4 (1.08%) Police
11 3 (0.81%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.81%) Military
12 2 (0.54%) Advertising
13 1 (0.27%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.81%) Jinja
1 3 (0.81%) NETCONF
1 3 (0.81%) REST
1 3 (0.81%) YANG
2 2 (0.54%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (0.27%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.27%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 50 (13.55%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.25%) Management Information System
3 11 (2.98%) Driving Licence
3 11 (2.98%) PKI
4 7 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (1.90%) Security Posture
5 6 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.36%) Public Cloud
6 5 (1.36%) SCADA
7 4 (1.08%) CCTV
7 4 (1.08%) CMDB
7 4 (1.08%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.08%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.81%) Cloud Native
8 3 (0.81%) iPad
8 3 (0.81%) Private Cloud
8 3 (0.81%) Social Media
9 2 (0.54%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.54%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (0.54%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.05%) Windows
2 14 (3.79%) Windows Server
3 10 (2.71%) Linux
4 5 (1.36%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.81%) Android
6 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (11.92%) Network Monitoring
2 34 (9.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 33 (8.94%) Problem-Solving
4 31 (8.40%) Network Design
5 30 (8.13%) ITSM
6 28 (7.59%) Change Management
7 27 (7.32%) Customer Service
7 27 (7.32%) Service Management
8 26 (7.05%) Load Balancing
9 24 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
10 23 (6.23%) Network Virtualisation
11 22 (5.96%) Network Management
12 21 (5.69%) ITIL
12 21 (5.69%) Problem Management
13 20 (5.42%) Continuous Improvement
14 18 (4.88%) High Availability
15 16 (4.34%) Asset Management
15 16 (4.34%) Mentoring
16 15 (4.07%) Capacity Planning
17 14 (3.79%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 18 (4.88%) Python
2 6 (1.63%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.27%) Bash
Qualifications
1 93 (25.20%) Cisco Certification
2 78 (21.14%) Security Cleared
3 75 (20.33%) CCNP
4 47 (12.74%) SC Cleared
5 40 (10.84%) CCNA
6 39 (10.57%) DV Cleared
7 15 (4.07%) CCIE
8 10 (2.71%) Degree
8 10 (2.71%) JNCIS
9 7 (1.90%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.81%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (0.81%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.54%) JNCIA
13 1 (0.27%) CCIE Data Center
13 1 (0.27%) CCIE Security
13 1 (0.27%) CCSP
13 1 (0.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 1 (0.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 5 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (1.36%) QA
3 4 (1.08%) GDPR
3 4 (1.08%) PMO
4 2 (0.54%) SLA
5 1 (0.27%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 20 (5.42%) VMware NSX
2 19 (5.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.61%) Active Directory
4 13 (3.52%) Firmware
5 4 (1.08%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.08%) ProxySG
6 3 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.54%) KVM
7 2 (0.54%) RHEV
7 2 (0.54%) Xen
8 1 (0.27%) iptables
8 1 (0.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (4.88%) FortiGate
2 11 (2.98%) Terraform
2 11 (2.98%) vCenter Server
3 8 (2.17%) Ansible
3 8 (2.17%) Nagios
4 4 (1.08%) Dell DRAC
5 3 (0.81%) Grafana
5 3 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.81%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.81%) Proxmox
5 3 (0.81%) SCCM
6 1 (0.27%) vRealize
6 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 185 (50.14%) Cisco
2 50 (13.55%) Juniper
2 50 (13.55%) Palo Alto
2 50 (13.55%) SolarWinds
3 48 (13.01%) Fortinet
4 40 (10.84%) CheckPoint
5 39 (10.57%) Microsoft
6 34 (9.21%) Meraki
7 32 (8.67%) VMware
8 30 (8.13%) F5
9 12 (3.25%) Aruba
9 12 (3.25%) Zscaler
10 10 (2.71%) Broadcom
10 10 (2.71%) CrowdStrike
10 10 (2.71%) Dell
10 10 (2.71%) ServiceNow
11 8 (2.17%) Blue Coat
11 8 (2.17%) Infoblox
12 7 (1.90%) Splunk
13 6 (1.63%) Avaya