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 4 April 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 197 185 200
Rank change year-on-year -12 +15 +46
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 532 394 914
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.92% 1.52% 1.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.99% 1.71% 1.50%
Number of salaries quoted 328 356 781
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £29,125
25th Percentile £42,500 £45,563 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,193 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% +9.88% +0.56%
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 53,523 23,047 60,930
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 89.19% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 34,376 14,482 45,239
10th Percentile £28,500 £29,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,640 £68,114 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £54,650
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.79% -8.92%

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 4 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 4 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 -53 162 £50,000 -5.66% 72
North of England -5 124 £45,000 -5.26% 53
Midlands +11 114 £55,250 +10.75% 53
West Midlands +23 84 £56,900 +11.02% 31
North West +9 61 £50,000 -4.76% 31
South West -19 48 £50,000 -10.91% 31
Yorkshire -37 42 £45,000 +0.67% 16
Scotland -8 33 £45,000 -16.67% 19
East of England -11 32 £65,000 +30.00% 25
East Midlands -22 30 £55,000 +33.33% 22
North East -10 21 £50,000 +12.36% 6
Wales -23 16 £62,500 +45.35% 10
Northern Ireland - 6 £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 4 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.

1 265 (49.81%) Cisco
2 188 (35.34%) Cisco Certification
3 168 (31.58%) Azure
4 134 (25.19%) CCNA
4 134 (25.19%) Microsoft
5 128 (24.06%) Firewall
6 113 (21.24%) Network+ Certification
7 111 (20.86%) Azure Certification
8 108 (20.30%) ForeScout
9 106 (19.92%) WAN
10 84 (15.79%) LAN
11 73 (13.72%) Security Cleared
12 67 (12.59%) CCNP
13 57 (10.71%) VPN
14 56 (10.53%) Network Security
15 54 (10.15%) BGP
16 51 (9.59%) Fortinet
17 50 (9.40%) Wireless
18 48 (9.02%) VLAN
19 45 (8.46%) SD-WAN
20 43 (8.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
21 42 (7.89%) SC Cleared
22 40 (7.52%) AWS
23 39 (7.33%) Python
24 36 (6.77%) SolarWinds
25 35 (6.58%) OSPF
26 34 (6.39%) DV Cleared
26 34 (6.39%) Juniper
26 34 (6.39%) Palo Alto
27 33 (6.20%) Cisco ASA

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 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (0.38%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (1.69%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 168 (31.58%) Azure
2 40 (7.52%) AWS
3 12 (2.26%) Azure Sentinel
3 12 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (1.88%) OpenShift
5 8 (1.50%) GCP
6 5 (0.94%) Apigee
6 5 (0.94%) Entra ID
6 5 (0.94%) Kong
7 3 (0.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 2 (0.38%) GitHub
8 2 (0.38%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 128 (24.06%) Firewall
2 106 (19.92%) WAN
3 84 (15.79%) LAN
4 57 (10.71%) VPN
5 56 (10.53%) Network Security
6 54 (10.15%) BGP
7 50 (9.40%) Wireless
8 48 (9.02%) VLAN
9 45 (8.46%) SD-WAN
10 35 (6.58%) OSPF
11 33 (6.20%) Cisco ASA
12 25 (4.70%) Cisco ISE
12 25 (4.70%) EIGRP
13 23 (4.32%) Wi-Fi
14 21 (3.95%) Cisco Firepower
14 21 (3.95%) Cisco Nexus
15 19 (3.57%) MPLS
16 17 (3.20%) DNS
17 15 (2.82%) TCP/IP
18 14 (2.63%) Cisco IOS
Development Applications
1 10 (1.88%) GitLab
2 8 (1.50%) Git
3 2 (0.38%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.38%) JIRA
4 1 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 160 (30.08%) Social Skills
2 32 (6.02%) Public Sector
3 30 (5.64%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (3.95%) Telecoms
5 16 (3.01%) Law
6 13 (2.44%) Retail
7 11 (2.07%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (1.32%) Police
9 6 (1.13%) Finance
10 5 (0.94%) Banking
10 5 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (0.94%) Marketing
11 4 (0.75%) Welsh Language
12 3 (0.56%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.56%) Military
13 2 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.19%) Advertising
14 1 (0.19%) Fire and Rescue
14 1 (0.19%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.44%) Jinja
2 10 (1.88%) JSON
2 10 (1.88%) YAML
3 8 (1.50%) YANG
4 5 (0.94%) REST
4 5 (0.94%) XML
5 3 (0.56%) ModSecurity
5 3 (0.56%) NETCONF
6 2 (0.38%) 802.1X
6 2 (0.38%) Apache NiFi
7 1 (0.19%) gRPC
7 1 (0.19%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 39 (7.33%) Data Centre
2 10 (1.88%) Driving Licence
2 10 (1.88%) PKI
3 8 (1.50%) Security Posture
4 7 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (1.13%) Public Cloud
6 5 (0.94%) CMDB
6 5 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (0.94%) Operational Technology
7 4 (0.75%) CCTV
7 4 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (0.75%) Fibre Optics
7 4 (0.75%) Private Cloud
7 4 (0.75%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (0.56%) Social Media
9 2 (0.38%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.38%) Life Science
9 2 (0.38%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 22 (4.14%) Windows
2 20 (3.76%) Linux
3 12 (2.26%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.94%) Unix
5 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (8.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 31 (5.83%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (5.83%) Service Management
3 29 (5.45%) Network Monitoring
4 26 (4.89%) ITSM
5 23 (4.32%) Continuous Improvement
5 23 (4.32%) Customer Service
6 22 (4.14%) Cybersecurity
6 22 (4.14%) Network Design
7 21 (3.95%) Load Balancing
8 18 (3.38%) Change Management
8 18 (3.38%) High Availability
8 18 (3.38%) ITIL
9 16 (3.01%) CI/CD
9 16 (3.01%) Project Delivery
9 16 (3.01%) Root Cause Analysis
10 15 (2.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 13 (2.44%) Computer Science
12 12 (2.26%) Collaborative Working
12 12 (2.26%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 39 (7.33%) Python
2 8 (1.50%) PowerShell
3 5 (0.94%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.19%) SQL
Qualifications
1 188 (35.34%) Cisco Certification
2 134 (25.19%) CCNA
3 113 (21.24%) Network+ Certification
4 111 (20.86%) Azure Certification
5 73 (13.72%) Security Cleared
6 67 (12.59%) CCNP
7 42 (7.89%) SC Cleared
8 34 (6.39%) DV Cleared
9 21 (3.95%) CCIE
10 16 (3.01%) Degree
11 13 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.75%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.38%) JNCIS
14 1 (0.19%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.19%) CCSE
14 1 (0.19%) CCSM
14 1 (0.19%) CCSP
14 1 (0.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.19%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 9 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.50%) PMO
4 7 (1.32%) QA
5 5 (0.94%) NIST
6 4 (0.75%) GDPR
7 3 (0.56%) SLA
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 19 (3.57%) VMware NSX
2 16 (3.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (2.82%) Active Directory
4 12 (2.26%) Firmware
5 8 (1.50%) ProxySG
6 4 (0.75%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.19%) iptables
Systems Management
1 12 (2.26%) Ansible
2 10 (1.88%) FortiGate
2 10 (1.88%) Terraform
3 9 (1.69%) vCenter Server
4 5 (0.94%) Grafana
5 3 (0.56%) Nagios
5 3 (0.56%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.19%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.19%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.19%) OpenView
6 1 (0.19%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.19%) Tivoli
6 1 (0.19%) vRealize
Vendors
1 265 (49.81%) Cisco
2 134 (25.19%) Microsoft
3 108 (20.30%) ForeScout
4 51 (9.59%) Fortinet
5 36 (6.77%) SolarWinds
6 34 (6.39%) Juniper
6 34 (6.39%) Palo Alto
7 31 (5.83%) F5
8 29 (5.45%) CheckPoint
9 26 (4.89%) VMware
10 19 (3.57%) Meraki
11 12 (2.26%) Infoblox
12 11 (2.07%) ServiceNow
12 11 (2.07%) Zscaler
13 10 (1.88%) Avaya
13 10 (1.88%) Blue Coat
13 10 (1.88%) Red Hat
14 9 (1.69%) Aruba
14 9 (1.69%) Broadcom
15 8 (1.50%) Motorola