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 17 April 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 201 197
Rank change year-on-year +49 -4 +48
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 721 373 961
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.16% 1.41% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.25% 1.60% 1.51%
Number of salaries quoted 346 339 812
10th Percentile £32,662 £36,250 £29,019
25th Percentile £44,250 £45,375 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.80% +8.42% +1.06%
75th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £54,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £66,250 £63,750
UK median annual salary £56,900 £53,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year +7.36% +8.16% -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 57,889 23,347 63,521
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.86% 88.44% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 36,888 14,537 46,793
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,750 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +12.15% -10.83%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 -42 188 £50,000 -5.66% 66
North of England +51 175 £50,000 +5.26% 65
Midlands +44 160 £55,000 +11.24% 52
West Midlands +35 107 £55,500 +11.25% 32
North West +35 77 £50,000 -5.44% 39
Yorkshire -15 72 £45,000 +6.26% 21
South West -8 71 £50,000 -10.91% 19
East Midlands -3 53 £55,000 +29.41% 20
East of England +8 50 £61,250 +22.50% 35
Scotland +13 47 £45,000 -16.67% 20
Wales -11 27 £75,000 +74.42% 11
North East -17 26 £52,500 +28.05% 5
Northern Ireland - 9 £45,162 - 5
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 April 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.

1 431 (59.78%) Cisco
2 354 (49.10%) Cisco Certification
3 337 (46.74%) Azure
4 302 (41.89%) Microsoft
5 296 (41.05%) CCNA
6 275 (38.14%) Network+ Certification
7 274 (38.00%) Azure Certification
8 270 (37.45%) ForeScout
9 131 (18.17%) Firewall
10 112 (15.53%) WAN
11 89 (12.34%) LAN
12 78 (10.82%) Security Cleared
13 70 (9.71%) CCNP
14 62 (8.60%) VPN
15 61 (8.46%) Network Security
16 57 (7.91%) BGP
17 56 (7.77%) Wireless
18 51 (7.07%) VLAN
19 49 (6.80%) Fortinet
20 47 (6.52%) AWS
20 47 (6.52%) SD-WAN
21 46 (6.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
22 44 (6.10%) Python
22 44 (6.10%) SC Cleared
23 38 (5.27%) DV Cleared
23 38 (5.27%) OSPF
24 37 (5.13%) Cisco ASA
24 37 (5.13%) SolarWinds
25 36 (4.99%) Palo Alto
26 35 (4.85%) Juniper

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 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (0.55%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (1.25%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 337 (46.74%) Azure
2 47 (6.52%) AWS
3 19 (2.64%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (1.94%) Azure Sentinel
5 10 (1.39%) OpenShift
6 9 (1.25%) GCP
7 7 (0.97%) Entra ID
8 5 (0.69%) Apigee
8 5 (0.69%) Kong
9 3 (0.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 3 (0.42%) Mimecast
10 2 (0.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.28%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 131 (18.17%) Firewall
2 112 (15.53%) WAN
3 89 (12.34%) LAN
4 62 (8.60%) VPN
5 61 (8.46%) Network Security
6 57 (7.91%) BGP
7 56 (7.77%) Wireless
8 51 (7.07%) VLAN
9 47 (6.52%) SD-WAN
10 38 (5.27%) OSPF
11 37 (5.13%) Cisco ASA
12 27 (3.74%) Wi-Fi
13 25 (3.47%) EIGRP
14 24 (3.33%) Cisco Firepower
15 23 (3.19%) Cisco ISE
16 22 (3.05%) MPLS
17 20 (2.77%) Cisco Nexus
18 19 (2.64%) DNS
19 17 (2.36%) TCP/IP
20 15 (2.08%) DHCP
Development Applications
1 10 (1.39%) GitLab
2 8 (1.11%) Git
3 2 (0.28%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.28%) JIRA
3 2 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 323 (44.80%) Social Skills
2 36 (4.99%) Public Sector
3 32 (4.44%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (3.61%) Telecoms
5 17 (2.36%) Law
6 15 (2.08%) Retail
7 13 (1.80%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.11%) Marketing
10 7 (0.97%) Banking
10 7 (0.97%) Finance
10 7 (0.97%) Police
11 6 (0.83%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (0.55%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.55%) Welsh Language
13 3 (0.42%) Military
14 2 (0.28%) Back Office
14 2 (0.28%) Influencing Skills
15 1 (0.14%) Electronics
15 1 (0.14%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.80%) Jinja
2 10 (1.39%) JSON
2 10 (1.39%) YAML
3 8 (1.11%) YANG
4 5 (0.69%) REST
4 5 (0.69%) XML
5 4 (0.55%) ModSecurity
6 3 (0.42%) 802.1X
6 3 (0.42%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.42%) XMPP
7 2 (0.28%) Apache NiFi
8 1 (0.14%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 41 (5.69%) Data Centre
2 10 (1.39%) PKI
3 8 (1.11%) Driving Licence
3 8 (1.11%) Security Posture
4 7 (0.97%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (0.97%) Operational Technology
4 7 (0.97%) Public Cloud
4 7 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (0.83%) CMDB
6 4 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (0.55%) Fibre Optics
6 4 (0.55%) Private Cloud
6 4 (0.55%) Product Ownership
6 4 (0.55%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (0.42%) FlexPod
7 3 (0.42%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (0.42%) Onboarding
7 3 (0.42%) Social Media
8 2 (0.28%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 21 (2.91%) Linux
1 21 (2.91%) Windows
2 11 (1.53%) Windows Server
3 5 (0.69%) Unix
4 1 (0.14%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (6.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 34 (4.72%) Network Monitoring
3 33 (4.58%) Problem-Solving
4 32 (4.44%) Service Management
5 28 (3.88%) ITSM
6 27 (3.74%) Cybersecurity
7 24 (3.33%) Continuous Improvement
8 23 (3.19%) Network Design
9 22 (3.05%) Customer Service
10 21 (2.91%) ITIL
10 21 (2.91%) Load Balancing
11 20 (2.77%) Project Delivery
12 19 (2.64%) High Availability
13 17 (2.36%) Change Management
13 17 (2.36%) Root Cause Analysis
14 16 (2.22%) CI/CD
15 15 (2.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 14 (1.94%) Computer Science
17 13 (1.80%) Collaborative Working
17 13 (1.80%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 44 (6.10%) Python
2 9 (1.25%) PowerShell
3 5 (0.69%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.28%) SQL
5 1 (0.14%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 354 (49.10%) Cisco Certification
2 296 (41.05%) CCNA
3 275 (38.14%) Network+ Certification
4 274 (38.00%) Azure Certification
5 78 (10.82%) Security Cleared
6 70 (9.71%) CCNP
7 44 (6.10%) SC Cleared
8 38 (5.27%) DV Cleared
9 24 (3.33%) CCIE
10 18 (2.50%) Degree
11 14 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (0.55%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.28%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.28%) CCIE Data Center
13 2 (0.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 1 (0.14%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.14%) CCSP
14 1 (0.14%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.14%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 10 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.11%) PMO
4 6 (0.83%) NIST
4 6 (0.83%) QA
5 4 (0.55%) GDPR
5 4 (0.55%) SLA
6 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 22 (3.05%) VMware NSX
2 20 (2.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (2.36%) Active Directory
4 12 (1.66%) Firmware
5 8 (1.11%) ProxySG
6 5 (0.69%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.14%) Docker
8 1 (0.14%) iptables
Systems Management
1 16 (2.22%) Ansible
2 11 (1.53%) Terraform
3 9 (1.25%) vCenter Server
4 7 (0.97%) FortiGate
4 7 (0.97%) Grafana
5 3 (0.42%) Cisco CUCM
5 3 (0.42%) Nagios
5 3 (0.42%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.28%) vRealize
7 1 (0.14%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.14%) Dell DRAC
7 1 (0.14%) OpenView
7 1 (0.14%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.14%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 431 (59.78%) Cisco
2 302 (41.89%) Microsoft
3 270 (37.45%) ForeScout
4 49 (6.80%) Fortinet
5 37 (5.13%) SolarWinds
6 36 (4.99%) Palo Alto
7 35 (4.85%) Juniper
8 31 (4.30%) VMware
9 29 (4.02%) CheckPoint
10 28 (3.88%) F5
11 18 (2.50%) Meraki
12 13 (1.80%) Zscaler
13 12 (1.66%) Aruba
13 12 (1.66%) Avaya
13 12 (1.66%) Infoblox
14 11 (1.53%) ServiceNow
15 10 (1.39%) Blue Coat
15 10 (1.39%) Red Hat
16 9 (1.25%) Broadcom
16 9 (1.25%) Splunk