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 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 231 164 171
Rank change year-on-year -67 +7 +83
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 331 617 619
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.78% 1.72% 1.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.86% 1.85% 1.88%
Number of salaries quoted 262 390 530
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £44,063 £43,375 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +11.58% -
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £63,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -

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 38,388 33,377 32,893
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.52% 92.91% 95.32%
Number of salaries quoted 23,454 16,215 24,936
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,609 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.96% +5.22% -5.25%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 14 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 14 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 -57 115 £52,500 -4.55% 83
Midlands +18 73 £55,000 +8.64% 35
North of England -64 59 £45,000 -5.26% 66
West Midlands +15 57 £52,000 +4.00% 27
Scotland +8 30 £45,000 -10.00% 16
North West -30 30 £45,000 -5.26% 35
South West -23 25 £54,000 +27.06% 28
East of England +25 21 £60,000 -5.25% 40
Yorkshire -23 17 £45,000 -10.00% 20
East Midlands -4 16 £55,000 - 8
North East -3 12 £48,000 +13.61% 14
Northern Ireland - 6 £57,500 - 8
Wales -18 2 £43,750 -0.57% 18
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 174 (52.57%) Cisco
2 130 (39.27%) Firewall
3 99 (29.91%) WAN
4 89 (26.89%) LAN
5 87 (26.28%) Cisco Certification
6 71 (21.45%) Security Cleared
7 69 (20.85%) CCNP
8 65 (19.64%) Azure
9 59 (17.82%) BGP
10 53 (16.01%) VPN
11 52 (15.71%) Network Security
12 51 (15.41%) SD-WAN
13 50 (15.11%) Juniper
13 50 (15.11%) SolarWinds
14 49 (14.80%) Wireless
15 48 (14.50%) Palo Alto
16 47 (14.20%) Fortinet
17 46 (13.90%) SC Cleared
18 45 (13.60%) Microsoft
19 42 (12.69%) Problem-Solving
20 41 (12.39%) CheckPoint
20 41 (12.39%) Network Monitoring
21 37 (11.18%) CCNA
21 37 (11.18%) Meraki
21 37 (11.18%) OSPF
22 34 (10.27%) DV Cleared
22 34 (10.27%) VLAN
23 32 (9.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
24 31 (9.37%) Cisco ASA
25 30 (9.06%) 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 19 (5.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (3.02%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.91%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 65 (19.64%) Azure
2 19 (5.74%) AWS
3 10 (3.02%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (2.11%) Azure Sentinel
4 7 (2.11%) Entra ID
5 6 (1.81%) GCP
6 3 (0.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 3 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.30%) GitHub
7 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (0.30%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 130 (39.27%) Firewall
2 99 (29.91%) WAN
3 89 (26.89%) LAN
4 59 (17.82%) BGP
5 53 (16.01%) VPN
6 52 (15.71%) Network Security
7 51 (15.41%) SD-WAN
8 49 (14.80%) Wireless
9 37 (11.18%) OSPF
10 34 (10.27%) VLAN
11 31 (9.37%) Cisco ASA
12 26 (7.85%) MPLS
13 25 (7.55%) Wi-Fi
14 24 (7.25%) EIGRP
15 22 (6.65%) Wireshark
16 21 (6.34%) Cisco Firepower
16 21 (6.34%) Cisco ISE
16 21 (6.34%) IPsec
17 19 (5.74%) Cisco IOS
18 17 (5.14%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.63%) GIS
Development Applications
1 3 (0.91%) Git
2 2 (0.60%) JIRA
3 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
General
1 62 (18.73%) Social Skills
2 27 (8.16%) Finance
3 22 (6.65%) Public Sector
3 22 (6.65%) Telecoms
4 14 (4.23%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (3.63%) Fire and Rescue
5 12 (3.63%) Legal
6 11 (3.32%) Retail
7 9 (2.72%) Manufacturing
8 8 (2.42%) Law
9 6 (1.81%) Automotive
9 6 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.21%) Banking
10 4 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.21%) Marketing
10 4 (1.21%) Police
11 2 (0.60%) Advertising
11 2 (0.60%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.30%) Electronics
12 1 (0.30%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.91%) Jinja
1 3 (0.91%) NETCONF
1 3 (0.91%) REST
1 3 (0.91%) YANG
2 1 (0.30%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.30%) Apache NiFi
2 1 (0.30%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 45 (13.60%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.63%) Management Information System
2 12 (3.63%) SCADA
3 10 (3.02%) PKI
4 9 (2.72%) Driving Licence
5 8 (2.42%) Security Posture
6 6 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (1.81%) Public Cloud
7 4 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.21%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.21%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.91%) CCTV
8 3 (0.91%) Cloud Native
8 3 (0.91%) CMDB
8 3 (0.91%) iPad
8 3 (0.91%) Private Cloud
8 3 (0.91%) Social Media
8 3 (0.91%) Virtual Team
9 2 (0.60%) FMCG
9 2 (0.60%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 22 (6.65%) Windows
2 14 (4.23%) Windows Server
3 7 (2.11%) Linux
4 5 (1.51%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.91%) Android
6 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (12.69%) Problem-Solving
2 41 (12.39%) Network Monitoring
3 32 (9.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 28 (8.46%) Customer Service
4 28 (8.46%) ITSM
5 27 (8.16%) Change Management
6 26 (7.85%) Network Design
7 25 (7.55%) Load Balancing
7 25 (7.55%) Service Management
8 23 (6.95%) ITIL
8 23 (6.95%) Network Virtualisation
9 19 (5.74%) Network Management
10 18 (5.44%) Cybersecurity
10 18 (5.44%) High Availability
10 18 (5.44%) Problem Management
11 17 (5.14%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (4.53%) Asset Management
13 14 (4.23%) Capacity Planning
13 14 (4.23%) Incident Management
13 14 (4.23%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 18 (5.44%) Python
2 8 (2.42%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.60%) Bash
Qualifications
1 87 (26.28%) Cisco Certification
2 71 (21.45%) Security Cleared
3 69 (20.85%) CCNP
4 46 (13.90%) SC Cleared
5 37 (11.18%) CCNA
6 34 (10.27%) DV Cleared
7 13 (3.93%) CCIE
8 11 (3.32%) Degree
9 10 (3.02%) JNCIS
10 9 (2.72%) Azure Certification
11 4 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.91%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.60%) CCSP
13 2 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.60%) JNCIA
14 1 (0.30%) CCIE Security
14 1 (0.30%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 4 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (1.21%) PMO
2 4 (1.21%) QA
3 3 (0.91%) SLA
4 2 (0.60%) GDPR
5 1 (0.30%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 19 (5.74%) VMware Infrastructure
2 17 (5.14%) VMware NSX
3 16 (4.83%) Active Directory
4 13 (3.93%) Firmware
5 4 (1.21%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.21%) ProxySG
6 2 (0.60%) KVM
6 2 (0.60%) RHEV
6 2 (0.60%) Xen
7 1 (0.30%) iptables
7 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 17 (5.14%) FortiGate
2 10 (3.02%) vCenter Server
3 9 (2.72%) Terraform
4 8 (2.42%) Ansible
5 7 (2.11%) Nagios
6 4 (1.21%) Dell DRAC
7 3 (0.91%) Grafana
7 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.91%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.91%) Proxmox
7 3 (0.91%) SCCM
8 1 (0.30%) VxRail
Vendors
1 174 (52.57%) Cisco
2 50 (15.11%) Juniper
2 50 (15.11%) SolarWinds
3 48 (14.50%) Palo Alto
4 47 (14.20%) Fortinet
5 45 (13.60%) Microsoft
6 41 (12.39%) CheckPoint
7 37 (11.18%) Meraki
8 30 (9.06%) VMware
9 28 (8.46%) F5
10 11 (3.32%) Zscaler
11 10 (3.02%) Aruba
11 10 (3.02%) ServiceNow
12 9 (2.72%) Broadcom
13 7 (2.11%) Blue Coat
13 7 (2.11%) Dell
13 7 (2.11%) Splunk
14 6 (1.81%) Avaya
14 6 (1.81%) Infoblox
15 5 (1.51%) HP