Network Engineer salary by region
| Region | Typical annual pay |
|---|---|
| United StatesNational range; SF/NYC skew higher. | $85,000 – $135,000 |
| United KingdomNational range; London skews higher. | £55,000 – £85,000 |
| European UnionVaries widely by country. | €65,000 – €105,000 |
Ranges are directional benchmarks for budgeting, not offers. Actual pay depends on location, company stage, and the candidate’s track record.
What moves a Network Engineer’s salary
Seniority is the biggest lever (mid–senior is the common band for this role), followed by the depth of these skills:
- 5+ years configuring routers, switches, and firewalls (Cisco, Ubiquiti, or Fortinet)
- Hands-on experience with VPN, DNS, DHCP, and TCP/IP networking fundamentals
- Proficiency managing cloud networking (AWS VPC or Azure virtual networks)
- Active Directory or identity management for 100+ user environments
- Incident response: ability to diagnose and resolve outages with minimal guidance
- Security compliance basics: understand PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or SOC 2 requirements relevant to your sector
Why companies pay for a Network Engineer
As SMBs expand, a single IT generalist can't manage increasingly complex networks. You're hired to prevent downtime, secure remote access, and support hybrid work without breaking the budget.
Hiring a Network Engineer? Skip the $5,000 recruiter fee.
Penroll writes the job post, publishes it, and ranks every applicant’s CV into a shortlist — strengths, red flags, and who to interview first. 25 free credits, no card.