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 9 April 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 182 190 197
Rank change year-on-year +8 +7 +46
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 592 389 935
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.99% 1.51% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.69% 1.51%
Number of salaries quoted 333 354 793
10th Percentile £30,200 £36,250 £29,250
25th Percentile £43,750 £45,188 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,943 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +9.35% +1.06%
75th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £54,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £66,250 £62,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £53,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year +8.49% +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 55,383 22,982 61,876
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 88.98% 94.68%
Number of salaries quoted 35,514 14,529 45,814
10th Percentile £29,000 £29,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,500 £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 £66,438 £68,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -10.00%

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 9 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 9 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 -44 172 £50,000 -5.66% 72
North of England -2 141 £45,500 -4.21% 53
Midlands +28 128 £55,000 +8.76% 53
West Midlands +25 91 £55,500 +8.29% 31
North West +10 66 £50,000 -4.76% 31
South West -13 54 £50,000 -10.91% 31
Yorkshire -33 52 £45,000 +0.67% 16
Scotland +14 37 £45,000 -16.67% 19
East of England -9 37 £65,000 +30.00% 25
East Midlands -25 37 £55,000 +29.41% 22
North East -18 23 £50,000 +12.36% 6
Wales -20 20 £75,000 +74.42% 10
Northern Ireland - 7 £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 9 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.

1 317 (53.55%) Cisco
2 242 (40.88%) Cisco Certification
3 222 (37.50%) Azure
4 189 (31.93%) Microsoft
5 188 (31.76%) CCNA
6 167 (28.21%) Network+ Certification
7 165 (27.87%) Azure Certification
8 162 (27.36%) ForeScout
9 128 (21.62%) Firewall
10 107 (18.07%) WAN
11 85 (14.36%) LAN
12 73 (12.33%) Security Cleared
13 66 (11.15%) CCNP
14 59 (9.97%) VPN
15 56 (9.46%) Network Security
16 55 (9.29%) BGP
17 51 (8.61%) Wireless
18 49 (8.28%) Fortinet
19 47 (7.94%) VLAN
20 44 (7.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 44 (7.43%) SD-WAN
21 42 (7.09%) SC Cleared
22 40 (6.76%) AWS
22 40 (6.76%) Python
23 35 (5.91%) DV Cleared
23 35 (5.91%) OSPF
23 35 (5.91%) SolarWinds
24 34 (5.74%) Cisco ASA
24 34 (5.74%) Juniper
25 33 (5.57%) 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 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (0.34%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (1.52%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 222 (37.50%) Azure
2 40 (6.76%) AWS
3 13 (2.20%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (2.03%) Azure Sentinel
5 10 (1.69%) OpenShift
6 8 (1.35%) GCP
7 5 (0.84%) Apigee
7 5 (0.84%) Entra ID
7 5 (0.84%) Kong
8 3 (0.51%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (0.34%) GitHub
9 2 (0.34%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 128 (21.62%) Firewall
2 107 (18.07%) WAN
3 85 (14.36%) LAN
4 59 (9.97%) VPN
5 56 (9.46%) Network Security
6 55 (9.29%) BGP
7 51 (8.61%) Wireless
8 47 (7.94%) VLAN
9 44 (7.43%) SD-WAN
10 35 (5.91%) OSPF
11 34 (5.74%) Cisco ASA
12 24 (4.05%) Cisco ISE
12 24 (4.05%) EIGRP
12 24 (4.05%) Wi-Fi
13 22 (3.72%) Cisco Firepower
14 20 (3.38%) Cisco Nexus
14 20 (3.38%) MPLS
15 18 (3.04%) DNS
16 15 (2.53%) TCP/IP
17 14 (2.36%) Cisco IOS
Development Applications
1 10 (1.69%) GitLab
2 8 (1.35%) Git
3 2 (0.34%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.34%) JIRA
4 1 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 214 (36.15%) Social Skills
2 32 (5.41%) Public Sector
3 31 (5.24%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (3.55%) Telecoms
5 16 (2.70%) Law
6 13 (2.20%) Retail
7 11 (1.86%) Manufacturing
8 8 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.18%) Police
10 6 (1.01%) Finance
11 5 (0.84%) Banking
11 5 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (0.84%) Marketing
12 4 (0.68%) Welsh Language
13 3 (0.51%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.51%) Military
14 2 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
15 1 (0.17%) Advertising
15 1 (0.17%) Electronics
15 1 (0.17%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.20%) Jinja
2 10 (1.69%) JSON
2 10 (1.69%) YAML
3 8 (1.35%) YANG
4 5 (0.84%) REST
4 5 (0.84%) XML
5 4 (0.68%) ModSecurity
6 3 (0.51%) NETCONF
7 2 (0.34%) 802.1X
7 2 (0.34%) Apache NiFi
8 1 (0.17%) gRPC
8 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 40 (6.76%) Data Centre
2 10 (1.69%) Driving Licence
2 10 (1.69%) PKI
3 8 (1.35%) Security Posture
4 7 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (1.01%) CMDB
5 6 (1.01%) Public Cloud
6 5 (0.84%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (0.84%) Operational Technology
7 4 (0.68%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (0.68%) Fibre Optics
7 4 (0.68%) Private Cloud
7 4 (0.68%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.51%) CCTV
8 3 (0.51%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (0.51%) Social Media
9 2 (0.34%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.34%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (0.34%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 22 (3.72%) Windows
2 20 (3.38%) Linux
3 12 (2.03%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.84%) Unix
5 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (7.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 31 (5.24%) Service Management
3 30 (5.07%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (4.90%) Network Monitoring
5 26 (4.39%) ITSM
6 23 (3.89%) Continuous Improvement
6 23 (3.89%) Cybersecurity
7 22 (3.72%) Customer Service
7 22 (3.72%) Network Design
8 21 (3.55%) Load Balancing
9 20 (3.38%) ITIL
10 18 (3.04%) Change Management
10 18 (3.04%) High Availability
11 17 (2.87%) Project Delivery
12 16 (2.70%) CI/CD
12 16 (2.70%) Root Cause Analysis
13 15 (2.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 14 (2.36%) Computer Science
15 12 (2.03%) Containerisation
15 12 (2.03%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 40 (6.76%) Python
2 9 (1.52%) PowerShell
3 5 (0.84%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.17%) SQL
Qualifications
1 242 (40.88%) Cisco Certification
2 188 (31.76%) CCNA
3 167 (28.21%) Network+ Certification
4 165 (27.87%) Azure Certification
5 73 (12.33%) Security Cleared
6 66 (11.15%) CCNP
7 42 (7.09%) SC Cleared
8 35 (5.91%) DV Cleared
9 22 (3.72%) CCIE
10 18 (3.04%) Degree
11 14 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.68%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.34%) JNCIS
14 1 (0.17%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.17%) CCSE
14 1 (0.17%) CCSP
14 1 (0.17%) DBS Check
14 1 (0.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.17%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 10 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.35%) PMO
4 6 (1.01%) NIST
4 6 (1.01%) QA
5 4 (0.68%) GDPR
6 3 (0.51%) SLA
7 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 20 (3.38%) VMware NSX
2 17 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (2.53%) Active Directory
4 12 (2.03%) Firmware
5 8 (1.35%) ProxySG
6 4 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.17%) iptables
Systems Management
1 13 (2.20%) Ansible
2 10 (1.69%) Terraform
3 9 (1.52%) FortiGate
3 9 (1.52%) vCenter Server
4 5 (0.84%) Grafana
5 3 (0.51%) Nagios
5 3 (0.51%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.17%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.17%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.17%) OpenView
6 1 (0.17%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.17%) Tivoli
6 1 (0.17%) vRealize
Vendors
1 317 (53.55%) Cisco
2 189 (31.93%) Microsoft
3 162 (27.36%) ForeScout
4 49 (8.28%) Fortinet
5 35 (5.91%) SolarWinds
6 34 (5.74%) Juniper
7 33 (5.57%) Palo Alto
8 29 (4.90%) CheckPoint
8 29 (4.90%) F5
9 27 (4.56%) VMware
10 18 (3.04%) Meraki
11 12 (2.03%) Infoblox
12 11 (1.86%) ServiceNow
12 11 (1.86%) Zscaler
13 10 (1.69%) Aruba
13 10 (1.69%) Avaya
13 10 (1.69%) Blue Coat
13 10 (1.69%) Red Hat
14 9 (1.52%) Broadcom
15 8 (1.35%) Motorola