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 £54,068 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 April 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 199 202
Rank change year-on-year +47 +3 +46
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 729 374 954
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.16% 1.42% 1.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.25% 1.60% 1.50%
Number of salaries quoted 352 341 808
10th Percentile £32,942 £36,250 £29,213
25th Percentile £43,438 £45,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,068 £51,800 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.38% +9.05% +1.06%
75th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £55,000
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 58,327 23,372 63,521
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.89% 88.45% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 37,179 14,549 46,771
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 18 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 18 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 -38 189 £50,000 -5.66% 70
North of England +49 177 £50,000 +5.26% 65
Midlands +58 161 £55,000 +11.24% 55
West Midlands +37 108 £55,500 +11.25% 35
North West +32 78 £50,000 -5.44% 38
Yorkshire -21 73 £45,000 +6.26% 21
South West -13 71 £50,000 -10.91% 18
East Midlands -5 53 £55,000 +29.41% 20
East of England +1 52 £60,000 +20.00% 33
Scotland +13 48 £45,000 -16.67% 23
Wales -8 28 £75,000 +74.42% 13
North East -12 26 £52,500 +17.98% 6
Northern Ireland - 9 £45,162 - 4
Network Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 433 (59.40%) Cisco
2 356 (48.83%) Cisco Certification
3 338 (46.36%) Azure
4 303 (41.56%) Microsoft
5 297 (40.74%) CCNA
6 275 (37.72%) Network+ Certification
7 274 (37.59%) Azure Certification
8 270 (37.04%) ForeScout
9 133 (18.24%) Firewall
10 114 (15.64%) WAN
11 91 (12.48%) LAN
12 79 (10.84%) Security Cleared
13 72 (9.88%) CCNP
14 65 (8.92%) VPN
15 63 (8.64%) Network Security
16 58 (7.96%) BGP
17 56 (7.68%) Wireless
18 51 (7.00%) VLAN
19 50 (6.86%) Fortinet
20 47 (6.45%) AWS
20 47 (6.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 47 (6.45%) SD-WAN
21 45 (6.17%) Python
22 44 (6.04%) SC Cleared
23 39 (5.35%) DV Cleared
23 39 (5.35%) OSPF
24 37 (5.08%) Cisco ASA
24 37 (5.08%) SolarWinds
25 36 (4.94%) Palo Alto
26 35 (4.80%) 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 (1.23%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 338 (46.36%) Azure
2 47 (6.45%) AWS
3 20 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (1.92%) Azure Sentinel
5 10 (1.37%) OpenShift
6 9 (1.23%) GCP
7 8 (1.10%) Entra ID
8 5 (0.69%) Apigee
8 5 (0.69%) Kong
9 3 (0.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 3 (0.41%) Mimecast
10 2 (0.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.27%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 133 (18.24%) Firewall
2 114 (15.64%) WAN
3 91 (12.48%) LAN
4 65 (8.92%) VPN
5 63 (8.64%) Network Security
6 58 (7.96%) BGP
7 56 (7.68%) Wireless
8 51 (7.00%) VLAN
9 47 (6.45%) SD-WAN
10 39 (5.35%) OSPF
11 37 (5.08%) Cisco ASA
12 27 (3.70%) Wi-Fi
13 25 (3.43%) EIGRP
14 24 (3.29%) Cisco Firepower
15 23 (3.16%) Cisco ISE
15 23 (3.16%) MPLS
16 21 (2.88%) DNS
17 20 (2.74%) Cisco Nexus
18 19 (2.61%) TCP/IP
19 17 (2.33%) DHCP
Development Applications
1 10 (1.37%) GitLab
2 8 (1.10%) Git
3 2 (0.27%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.27%) JIRA
3 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 324 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 36 (4.94%) Public Sector
3 32 (4.39%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (3.70%) Telecoms
5 17 (2.33%) Law
6 15 (2.06%) Retail
7 14 (1.92%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.10%) Marketing
10 7 (0.96%) Banking
10 7 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (0.96%) Finance
10 7 (0.96%) Police
11 4 (0.55%) Aerospace
11 4 (0.55%) Welsh Language
12 3 (0.41%) Back Office
12 3 (0.41%) Military
13 2 (0.27%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.14%) Advertising
14 1 (0.14%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.78%) Jinja
2 10 (1.37%) JSON
2 10 (1.37%) YAML
3 8 (1.10%) YANG
4 5 (0.69%) REST
4 5 (0.69%) XML
5 4 (0.55%) 802.1X
5 4 (0.55%) ModSecurity
6 3 (0.41%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.41%) XMPP
7 2 (0.27%) Apache NiFi
8 1 (0.14%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 41 (5.62%) Data Centre
2 11 (1.51%) PKI
3 8 (1.10%) Driving Licence
3 8 (1.10%) Operational Technology
3 8 (1.10%) Security Posture
4 7 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (0.96%) Public Cloud
4 7 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (0.82%) 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 (0.41%) FlexPod
7 3 (0.41%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (0.41%) Onboarding
7 3 (0.41%) Social Media
8 2 (0.27%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.16%) Windows
2 22 (3.02%) Linux
3 12 (1.65%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.69%) Unix
5 1 (0.14%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (6.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 34 (4.66%) Network Monitoring
2 34 (4.66%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (4.39%) Service Management
4 28 (3.84%) ITSM
5 27 (3.70%) Cybersecurity
6 24 (3.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 24 (3.29%) Network Design
7 22 (3.02%) Customer Service
7 22 (3.02%) ITIL
8 21 (2.88%) Load Balancing
9 20 (2.74%) Project Delivery
10 19 (2.61%) High Availability
11 18 (2.47%) Root Cause Analysis
12 17 (2.33%) Change Management
13 16 (2.19%) CI/CD
14 15 (2.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 14 (1.92%) Computer Science
16 13 (1.78%) Collaborative Working
16 13 (1.78%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 45 (6.17%) Python
2 10 (1.37%) PowerShell
3 5 (0.69%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.27%) SQL
5 1 (0.14%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 356 (48.83%) Cisco Certification
2 297 (40.74%) CCNA
3 275 (37.72%) Network+ Certification
4 274 (37.59%) Azure Certification
5 79 (10.84%) Security Cleared
6 72 (9.88%) CCNP
7 44 (6.04%) SC Cleared
8 39 (5.35%) DV Cleared
9 25 (3.43%) CCIE
10 18 (2.47%) Degree
11 14 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (0.55%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.27%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.27%) CCIE Data Center
13 2 (0.27%) JNCIP
13 2 (0.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 1 (0.14%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.14%) CCSP
14 1 (0.14%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 10 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.10%) PMO
4 6 (0.82%) NIST
4 6 (0.82%) QA
5 5 (0.69%) SLA
6 4 (0.55%) GDPR
7 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 22 (3.02%) VMware NSX
2 21 (2.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.47%) Active Directory
4 12 (1.65%) Firmware
5 8 (1.10%) ProxySG
6 5 (0.69%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.27%) Docker
9 1 (0.14%) iptables
9 1 (0.14%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (2.19%) Ansible
2 11 (1.51%) Terraform
3 9 (1.23%) vCenter Server
4 8 (1.10%) FortiGate
5 7 (0.96%) Grafana
6 3 (0.41%) Cisco CUCM
6 3 (0.41%) Nagios
6 3 (0.41%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.27%) vRealize
8 1 (0.14%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.14%) Dell DRAC
8 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.14%) OpenView
8 1 (0.14%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.14%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 433 (59.40%) Cisco
2 303 (41.56%) Microsoft
3 270 (37.04%) ForeScout
4 50 (6.86%) Fortinet
5 37 (5.08%) SolarWinds
6 36 (4.94%) Palo Alto
7 35 (4.80%) Juniper
8 32 (4.39%) VMware
9 29 (3.98%) CheckPoint
10 28 (3.84%) F5
11 19 (2.61%) Meraki
12 13 (1.78%) Zscaler
13 12 (1.65%) Aruba
13 12 (1.65%) Avaya
13 12 (1.65%) Infoblox
14 11 (1.51%) ServiceNow
15 10 (1.37%) Blue Coat
15 10 (1.37%) Red Hat
16 9 (1.23%) Broadcom
16 9 (1.23%) Splunk