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 25 August 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 292 164
Rank change year-on-year +166 -128 +25
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 1,105 289 905
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.39% 0.83% 1.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.48% 0.93% 1.59%
Number of salaries quoted 630 236 660
10th Percentile £35,000 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,943 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.01% +6.52%
75th Percentile £65,938 £58,750 £57,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +13.21% +6.00% -

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 74,850 31,070 57,020
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.23% 89.40% 95.08%
Number of salaries quoted 51,898 17,899 36,723
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £28,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,520 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.74% -4.96% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% - -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 25 August 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 25 August 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 +115 304 £50,000 -9.09% 49
South East +99 269 £55,000 +4.76% 34
Midlands +90 235 £55,000 +22.22% 36
West Midlands +43 149 £55,000 +22.22% 20
North West +92 140 £57,500 +4.55% 26
Yorkshire +48 134 £48,300 -27.09% 18
South West -6 98 £65,000 +18.18% 35
East Midlands +48 86 £55,000 +13.43% 16
East of England +42 80 £55,000 +10.00% 25
Scotland +59 67 £55,000 +1.85% 13
Wales -26 46 £50,000 -2.20% 13
North East -42 30 £52,788 +5.58% 6
Northern Ireland -72 13 £36,412 -36.67% 4
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 August 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.

1 538 (48.69%) Cisco
2 460 (41.63%) Cisco Certification
3 394 (35.66%) Azure
4 382 (34.57%) CCNA
5 374 (33.85%) Microsoft
6 343 (31.04%) Network+ Certification
7 326 (29.50%) Azure Certification
8 324 (29.32%) ForeScout
9 222 (20.09%) Firewall
10 190 (17.19%) WAN
11 172 (15.57%) LAN
12 150 (13.57%) VPN
13 122 (11.04%) Security Cleared
14 121 (10.95%) Network Security
15 109 (9.86%) CCNP
16 103 (9.32%) Wireless
17 91 (8.24%) Fortinet
18 90 (8.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 87 (7.87%) BGP
20 85 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
21 80 (7.24%) Wi-Fi
22 78 (7.06%) OSPF
23 76 (6.88%) VLAN
24 64 (5.79%) Python
24 64 (5.79%) SC Cleared
25 59 (5.34%) DNS
26 56 (5.07%) DV Cleared
27 55 (4.98%) Aruba
28 52 (4.71%) TCP/IP
29 51 (4.62%) Palo Alto

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 11 (1.00%) SharePoint
2 10 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.36%) Confluence
4 1 (0.090%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.54%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 394 (35.66%) Azure
2 49 (4.43%) AWS
3 31 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
4 17 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
5 10 (0.90%) GCP
6 9 (0.81%) Cloudflare
6 9 (0.81%) Entra ID
7 6 (0.54%) OpenShift
8 4 (0.36%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.27%) Apigee
9 3 (0.27%) Kong
9 3 (0.27%) OCI
10 2 (0.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 1 (0.090%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 222 (20.09%) Firewall
2 190 (17.19%) WAN
3 172 (15.57%) LAN
4 150 (13.57%) VPN
5 121 (10.95%) Network Security
6 103 (9.32%) Wireless
7 87 (7.87%) BGP
8 80 (7.24%) Wi-Fi
9 78 (7.06%) OSPF
10 76 (6.88%) VLAN
11 59 (5.34%) DNS
12 52 (4.71%) TCP/IP
13 51 (4.62%) SD-WAN
14 44 (3.98%) DHCP
15 41 (3.71%) WLAN
16 36 (3.26%) Cisco ASA
17 32 (2.90%) EIGRP
18 31 (2.81%) Cisco Nexus
19 27 (2.44%) Cisco Firepower
20 20 (1.81%) Internet
Development Applications
1 8 (0.72%) Git
2 6 (0.54%) GitLab
3 4 (0.36%) JIRA
4 3 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 411 (37.19%) Social Skills
2 58 (5.25%) Public Sector
3 45 (4.07%) Telecoms
4 38 (3.44%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (1.63%) Finance
6 17 (1.54%) Law
7 13 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (0.90%) Retail
10 8 (0.72%) Manufacturing
10 8 (0.72%) Marketing
11 7 (0.63%) Banking
12 5 (0.45%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.45%) Back Office
13 2 (0.18%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.18%) Military
13 2 (0.18%) Police
13 2 (0.18%) Welsh Language
14 1 (0.090%) Digital Health
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (2.62%) Terraform
2 10 (0.90%) YAML
3 9 (0.81%) Jinja
3 9 (0.81%) JSON
4 6 (0.54%) 802.1X
5 4 (0.36%) ModSecurity
5 4 (0.36%) XMPP
6 3 (0.27%) Apache NiFi
6 3 (0.27%) gRPC
6 3 (0.27%) REST
6 3 (0.27%) XML
6 3 (0.27%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 61 (5.52%) Data Centre
2 40 (3.62%) Driving Licence
3 18 (1.63%) Hybrid Cloud
3 18 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
4 17 (1.54%) PKI
5 11 (1.00%) CCTV
6 10 (0.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 10 (0.90%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (0.81%) Onboarding
8 8 (0.72%) Fibre Optics
8 8 (0.72%) Life Science
9 7 (0.63%) Clustering
9 7 (0.63%) Operational Technology
9 7 (0.63%) Security Posture
10 6 (0.54%) CMDB
10 6 (0.54%) Video Conferencing
11 5 (0.45%) Cloud Native
11 5 (0.45%) Public Cloud
12 4 (0.36%) Enterprise Cloud
12 4 (0.36%) FlexPod
Operating Systems
1 48 (4.34%) Windows
2 40 (3.62%) Linux
3 30 (2.71%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.27%) Unix
5 2 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.090%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.090%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.090%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (8.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 85 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
3 49 (4.43%) High Availability
4 48 (4.34%) Continuous Improvement
5 44 (3.98%) Network Monitoring
6 43 (3.89%) Mentoring
7 39 (3.53%) Project Delivery
8 34 (3.08%) Cybersecurity
8 34 (3.08%) Disaster Recovery
8 34 (3.08%) ITIL
9 32 (2.90%) Network Design
10 29 (2.62%) Customer Service
11 26 (2.35%) SIEM
12 25 (2.26%) Load Balancing
12 25 (2.26%) Technical Leadership
13 22 (1.99%) Root Cause Analysis
14 21 (1.90%) Business Continuity
14 21 (1.90%) Vulnerability Management
15 20 (1.81%) Change Management
15 20 (1.81%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 64 (5.79%) Python
2 26 (2.35%) PowerShell
3 9 (0.81%) Bash
3 9 (0.81%) SQL
4 3 (0.27%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.18%) Go
6 1 (0.090%) Bicep
6 1 (0.090%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 460 (41.63%) Cisco Certification
2 382 (34.57%) CCNA
3 343 (31.04%) Network+ Certification
4 326 (29.50%) Azure Certification
5 122 (11.04%) Security Cleared
6 109 (9.86%) CCNP
7 64 (5.79%) SC Cleared
8 56 (5.07%) DV Cleared
9 20 (1.81%) Degree
10 19 (1.72%) CCIE
11 12 (1.09%) DBS Check
12 10 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (0.54%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.36%) CompTIA Security+
15 3 (0.27%) AWS Certification
15 3 (0.27%) CCDP
15 3 (0.27%) CISSP
15 3 (0.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 2 (0.18%) HNC
17 1 (0.090%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (1.63%) SLA
2 13 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (1.00%) GDPR
4 8 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 7 (0.63%) NIST
6 5 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.36%) QA
8 2 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.18%) PMO
9 1 (0.090%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.090%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.090%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 43 (3.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (2.53%) Active Directory
3 27 (2.44%) Hyper-V
4 18 (1.63%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.27%) vSphere
6 12 (1.09%) Firmware
7 9 (0.81%) KVM
8 3 (0.27%) Docker
9 2 (0.18%) iptables
9 2 (0.18%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.090%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.090%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 34 (3.08%) Ansible
2 30 (2.71%) FortiGate
3 13 (1.18%) Proxmox
4 9 (0.81%) Stealthwatch
4 9 (0.81%) ZABBIX
5 8 (0.72%) Graylog
5 8 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
6 7 (0.63%) Grafana
7 6 (0.54%) Microsoft Clustering
8 5 (0.45%) Kubernetes
9 4 (0.36%) Cisco CUCM
10 3 (0.27%) Nagios
11 2 (0.18%) Cisco Prime
11 2 (0.18%) Dell DRAC
11 2 (0.18%) Prometheus
12 1 (0.090%) Cilium
12 1 (0.090%) Istio
12 1 (0.090%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.090%) vRealize
Vendors
1 538 (48.69%) Cisco
2 374 (33.85%) Microsoft
3 324 (29.32%) ForeScout
4 91 (8.24%) Fortinet
5 55 (4.98%) Aruba
6 51 (4.62%) Palo Alto
6 51 (4.62%) VMware
7 29 (2.62%) Juniper
8 22 (1.99%) F5
9 16 (1.45%) Meraki
9 16 (1.45%) SolarWinds
10 13 (1.18%) Veeam
11 12 (1.09%) CheckPoint
12 10 (0.90%) Dell
13 9 (0.81%) Avaya
14 8 (0.72%) HP
14 8 (0.72%) ServiceNow
14 8 (0.72%) Zscaler
15 7 (0.63%) Arista
15 7 (0.63%) Qualys