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 £54,034 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 27 March 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 214 180 206
Rank change year-on-year -34 +26 +45
Permanent jobs requiring a Network Engineer 459 408 892
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.82% 1.59% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.89% 1.78% 1.51%
Number of salaries quoted 310 361 766
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £29,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £45,000 £37,050
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,034 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +2.92% +10.53% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £53,750
90th Percentile £75,000 £66,250 £62,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £53,250 £49,000
% change year-on-year +7.98% +8.67% -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 51,406 22,909 59,074
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 89.45% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 32,737 14,188 44,201
10th Percentile £28,250 £29,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,614 £63,750
90th Percentile £81,250 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -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 27 March 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 27 March 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 -60 150 £50,000 -5.66% 72
North of England -11 101 £45,000 -5.26% 53
Midlands +12 94 £55,500 +12.25% 53
West Midlands +23 72 £60,000 +18.65% 31
North West +3 51 £45,000 -14.29% 31
South West -33 40 £50,000 -10.91% 31
Scotland -10 32 £45,000 -10.79% 19
Yorkshire -52 31 £45,000 +6.26% 16
East of England -12 27 £65,000 +30.00% 25
East Midlands -33 22 £55,000 +33.33% 22
North East -20 19 £50,000 +12.36% 6
Wales -25 12 £50,000 +16.28% 10
Northern Ireland - 5 £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 27 March 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.

1 213 (46.41%) Cisco
2 134 (29.19%) Cisco Certification
3 127 (27.67%) Firewall
4 114 (24.84%) Azure
5 101 (22.00%) WAN
6 82 (17.86%) LAN
7 81 (17.65%) CCNA
8 79 (17.21%) Microsoft
9 69 (15.03%) Security Cleared
10 67 (14.60%) CCNP
11 59 (12.85%) Network+ Certification
12 58 (12.64%) Azure Certification
13 55 (11.98%) Network Security
13 55 (11.98%) VPN
14 54 (11.76%) ForeScout
15 52 (11.33%) Wireless
16 50 (10.89%) BGP
17 49 (10.68%) Fortinet
18 45 (9.80%) SD-WAN
19 43 (9.37%) VLAN
20 40 (8.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 40 (8.71%) SC Cleared
21 38 (8.28%) Juniper
21 38 (8.28%) SolarWinds
22 37 (8.06%) AWS
22 37 (8.06%) Palo Alto
22 37 (8.06%) Python
23 33 (7.19%) OSPF
24 32 (6.97%) CheckPoint
25 31 (6.75%) DV Cleared

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 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (0.44%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (1.96%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 114 (24.84%) Azure
2 37 (8.06%) AWS
3 11 (2.40%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (2.18%) Azure Sentinel
4 10 (2.18%) OpenShift
5 8 (1.74%) GCP
6 5 (1.09%) Apigee
6 5 (1.09%) Entra ID
6 5 (1.09%) Kong
7 3 (0.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 2 (0.44%) GitHub
8 2 (0.44%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 127 (27.67%) Firewall
2 101 (22.00%) WAN
3 82 (17.86%) LAN
4 55 (11.98%) Network Security
4 55 (11.98%) VPN
5 52 (11.33%) Wireless
6 50 (10.89%) BGP
7 45 (9.80%) SD-WAN
8 43 (9.37%) VLAN
9 33 (7.19%) OSPF
10 30 (6.54%) Cisco ASA
11 27 (5.88%) Cisco ISE
12 25 (5.45%) EIGRP
13 23 (5.01%) Wi-Fi
14 21 (4.58%) Cisco Nexus
15 20 (4.36%) Cisco Firepower
16 17 (3.70%) MPLS
17 16 (3.49%) DNS
18 15 (3.27%) Cisco IOS
19 13 (2.83%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 10 (2.18%) GitLab
2 8 (1.74%) Git
3 2 (0.44%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.44%) JIRA
4 1 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 110 (23.97%) Social Skills
2 29 (6.32%) Analytical Skills
3 27 (5.88%) Public Sector
4 21 (4.58%) Telecoms
5 13 (2.83%) Law
6 12 (2.61%) Retail
7 10 (2.18%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.96%) Finance
9 7 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.53%) Police
10 5 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.87%) Banking
11 4 (0.87%) Marketing
11 4 (0.87%) Welsh Language
12 3 (0.65%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.65%) Military
13 2 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.22%) Advertising
14 1 (0.22%) Fire and Rescue
14 1 (0.22%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.83%) Jinja
2 10 (2.18%) JSON
2 10 (2.18%) YAML
3 8 (1.74%) YANG
4 5 (1.09%) REST
4 5 (1.09%) XML
5 3 (0.65%) NETCONF
6 2 (0.44%) 802.1X
6 2 (0.44%) Apache NiFi
6 2 (0.44%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 39 (8.50%) Data Centre
2 10 (2.18%) PKI
3 9 (1.96%) Driving Licence
4 8 (1.74%) Security Posture
5 7 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (1.31%) Public Cloud
7 4 (0.87%) CCTV
7 4 (0.87%) CMDB
7 4 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (0.87%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (0.87%) Operational Technology
7 4 (0.87%) Private Cloud
7 4 (0.87%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.65%) Fibre Optics
8 3 (0.65%) Management Information System
8 3 (0.65%) Social Media
9 2 (0.44%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.44%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (0.44%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 23 (5.01%) Windows
2 19 (4.14%) Linux
3 13 (2.83%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.09%) Unix
5 1 (0.22%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (8.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 31 (6.75%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (6.32%) Network Monitoring
3 29 (6.32%) Service Management
4 26 (5.66%) Customer Service
5 25 (5.45%) ITSM
6 24 (5.23%) Load Balancing
7 23 (5.01%) Network Design
8 21 (4.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 21 (4.58%) Cybersecurity
9 20 (4.36%) Change Management
10 16 (3.49%) CI/CD
10 16 (3.49%) High Availability
10 16 (3.49%) ITIL
10 16 (3.49%) Root Cause Analysis
11 15 (3.27%) Project Delivery
12 14 (3.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 13 (2.83%) Collaborative Working
13 13 (2.83%) Problem Management
14 12 (2.61%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 37 (8.06%) Python
2 7 (1.53%) PowerShell
3 5 (1.09%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.22%) SQL
Qualifications
1 134 (29.19%) Cisco Certification
2 81 (17.65%) CCNA
3 69 (15.03%) Security Cleared
4 67 (14.60%) CCNP
5 59 (12.85%) Network+ Certification
6 58 (12.64%) Azure Certification
7 40 (8.71%) SC Cleared
8 31 (6.75%) DV Cleared
9 20 (4.36%) CCIE
10 14 (3.05%) Degree
11 12 (2.61%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.87%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.44%) JNCIS
14 1 (0.22%) CCIE Data Center
14 1 (0.22%) CCIE Security
14 1 (0.22%) CCSE
14 1 (0.22%) CCSM
14 1 (0.22%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.22%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 8 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (1.74%) PMO
3 6 (1.31%) QA
4 4 (0.87%) GDPR
4 4 (0.87%) NIST
5 2 (0.44%) SLA
6 1 (0.22%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 19 (4.14%) VMware NSX
2 16 (3.49%) Active Directory
3 15 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (2.40%) Firmware
5 8 (1.74%) ProxySG
6 4 (0.87%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.87%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.22%) iptables
Systems Management
1 10 (2.18%) Ansible
1 10 (2.18%) FortiGate
1 10 (2.18%) Terraform
1 10 (2.18%) vCenter Server
2 3 (0.65%) Grafana
2 3 (0.65%) Prometheus
3 2 (0.44%) Nagios
4 1 (0.22%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.22%) OpenView
4 1 (0.22%) Proxmox
4 1 (0.22%) Tivoli
4 1 (0.22%) vRealize
Vendors
1 213 (46.41%) Cisco
2 79 (17.21%) Microsoft
3 54 (11.76%) ForeScout
4 49 (10.68%) Fortinet
5 38 (8.28%) Juniper
5 38 (8.28%) SolarWinds
6 37 (8.06%) Palo Alto
7 32 (6.97%) CheckPoint
8 31 (6.75%) F5
9 25 (5.45%) VMware
10 23 (5.01%) Meraki
11 12 (2.61%) Infoblox
12 11 (2.40%) ServiceNow
13 10 (2.18%) Blue Coat
13 10 (2.18%) Red Hat
13 10 (2.18%) Zscaler
14 9 (1.96%) Broadcom
15 8 (1.74%) Aruba
15 8 (1.74%) Avaya
15 8 (1.74%) Motorola