Network Engineer Salary – A network engineer is responsible for building and maintaining an organization’s network. It is a critical and complex task. Engineers must always be hardworking and detail oriented when one wrong move can lead to a network outage disaster. Given this tension, it’s probably good that network engineer salaries can rise to ridiculously high levels.
But how high? Let’s look at the data from several sources and see what factors go into a typical network engineer’s salary.
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What Is A Network Engineer Starting Salary?
According to Emsi Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes data from millions of job postings nationwide. And also, network engineers with zero and two years of experience can earn a median salary of $79,000 annually. That rises rapidly with experience, however; those with more than nine years of experience as a network engineer can pull down as much as $129,000 annually.
What Is A Network Engineer’s Average Salary?
Emsi Burning Glass puts the median network engineer salary at $102,194 annually. Meanwhile, Dice’s latest Tech Salary Report places the average network engineer salary at $93,373, an increase of 2 percent between 2020 and 2021; while that’s slightly lower than the average technologist salary of $104,566, the right mix of experience and skills will almost always send paychecks higher.
How Do You Negotiate Salary?
When discussing compensation, it’s all about your track record. So whether you’re writing a network engineer resume while looking for a new job or sitting down with your current manager to negotiate a raise, you should always come prepared with stories and data about how your efforts have improved the company’s (or a past company’s) network.
For example, perhaps you’ve effectively managed teams through multiple network crises. Or maybe you helped oversee the network’s transition from primarily on-premises to virtually all-cloud, saving the company money. Whatever you’ve done. And also frame it in a way that shows your incredible value to the business.
Are Our Network Engineers In Demand?
Emsi Burning Glass states that employers posted some 195,336 jobs last year for network engineers, suggesting high demand. The average time to fill an open position was 43 days. Up there were software developers and other in-demand technology professions.
Is Network Engineering A Dying Career?
Emsi Burning Glass also predicts that the projected growth for network engineers over the next decade is three percent. So as long as organizations need networks of some sort, they’ll need network engineers with the right mix of skills and experience.
Networking Job Types
Before we dive deep into the salary stats and other relevant details, let us look at the types of networking jobs and their roles.
Network Engineer
A network engineer is considered the most versatile and highly talented professional. He has to focus on designing and optimizing, and developing networking infrastructure. With that, he also has to assist with network management matters.
Network Technician
He is the person who has to handle all the tactical upgrades and fix bugs and then troubleshoot any network hardware or software issues.
Network Administrator
The following job title is the network administrator, or we can also say a network operations manager. This individual has to handle most of the maintenance issues. Then he has to monitor the network and overlook its features once it is set up. Similarly, this person is also in charge of giving out different tasks to other individuals.
Network Support Specialist
If a network faces any outage or issue, this person has to offer all kinds of solutions to the user.
Security Engineer of Network
Network security engineers focus on developing technical and regulatory safeguards and securing a network’s components.
Network Engineer Salary in Major Countries
Below you can find the salary details of network engineers in different significant countries.
- In the USA, a network engineer can make an average annual salary of $82,805.
- In Canada, you can make around $78,792 per year as a network engineer.
- Similarly, in England, network engineers make an average annual salary of £50,603.
- As a network engineer in India, you can expect an average annual salary of ₹351,274.
- Network engineers in Korea are making an average annual salary of ₩ 61M
- Next, in the Netherlands, you can make an average annual salary of €48,721 as a network engineer.
- In Australia, network engineers make an average annual salary of AU $78,756.
Salary Based on Experience
Now let us look at the salary details of a network engineer based on experience. First, the more skill you have, the more you earn.
Experience 25th Quartile Median 25th Quartile
9+ years $99,000 $114,000 $128,000
6 to 8 years $92,000 $106,000 $120,000
3 to 5 years $81,000 $97,000 $112,000
0 to 2 years $60,000 $78,000 $97,000
Salary Stats Based on Skills
Now let us look at the salary stats based on a network engineer’s skills.
Skills Salary in 2020
Alcatel-Lucent $105,528
Ansible $123,808
Arista $116,814
Cisco $97,503
Cloud computing $113,901
Containers $126,727
Docker $123,013
IPV6 $100,894
iSCSI $122,322
Juniper $111,308
Salary based on Education
This section contains salary stats based on what Education a person has.
Education 25thQuartile Median 25thQuartile
HighSchool/Vocational Training $59,000 $79,000 $98,000
Associate Degree $58,000 $74,000 $90,000
Associate Degree $85,000 $101,000 $117,000
Along with a degree or diploma, having a certification can boost your career growth and pay. There are multiple certifications available in marketing from different vendors. Understand the difference between CCNA and Network+ and choose the right one.
Market Size
As per the market size of the network engineering industry, this market is expected to grow from USD 34.35 billion (in 2017) to USD 54.69 billion end of 2022. And also, technical advancements in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) are expected to drive the market.
Are Network Engineers High in Demand?
According to the above stats we have just mentioned about network engineers, network engineers are in high demand. However, BLS has only estimated the network engineer employment rate to grow to 6% (from 2016 to 2026).
The above network engineer salary stats and market trends are enough for any reader to understand whether network engineers earn well or are in demand. Thus we can conclude our topic by saying that network engineers can make a great career for themselves.
