Updated recently
Last updated:
Quick Answer: Average salary for Cisco certified engineer US: Cisco certified engineers in the US earn roughly $65,000-$85,000 at CCNA level, $95,000-$125,000 at CCNP level and $130,000-$175,000 at CCIE level, with the highest-paid routing and security specialisations at the top. The certification pays through the filter it provides, and the level that matters is the one your target roles name.
Cisco Certification Pay by Level
Cisco’s certification structure is unusual among IT credentials because it maps to a genuine hierarchy with three levels, and because the top level – the CCIE – has an experience requirement built in. That structure makes the pay progression more legible than in most credential families, and it makes the path clearer.
The important thing to understand is that the credential pays through filtering rather than through a premium attached to the certificate. Networking roles are numerous and reasonably well paid, and the certification is widely used as a screen for the mid-level and senior ones. A candidate with the right level of Cisco certification and the right specialisation is in the pool for a better band; the certificate is the filter, and the pay belongs to the role.
| Certification | Level | Typical range | What it filters for | Experience requirement | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCNA | Associate | $65,000-$85,000 | Network support and administration | None, recommended | Entry into networking |
| CCNP Enterprise | Professional | $95,000-$125,000 | Network engineering and design | 3+ years recommended | Network engineers |
| CCNP Security | Professional | $100,000-$130,000 | Security engineering | 3+ years recommended | Security-focused network roles |
| CCNP Data Center | Professional | $100,000-$130,000 | Data centre networking | 3+ years recommended | Data centre engineers |
| CCIE Enterprise | Expert | $130,000-$175,000+ | Network architecture and design authority | 3+ years plus lab | Senior architects |
| CCIE Security | Expert | $135,000-$180,000+ | Security architecture | 3+ years plus lab | Senior security specialists |
| CCIE Service Provider | Expert | $135,000-$175,000+ | Service provider and ISP networks | 3+ years plus lab | Carrier and ISP engineers |
| DevNet Associate | Associate | $60,000-$80,000 | Network automation and development | None | Automation and hybrid work |
That last row is worth noting. Network automation is where the hiring demand has grown fastest, and the DevNet track is a much cheaper way into it than starting with the professional level. It is also a track that gets more expensive to ignore as network work becomes more software-defined.
Average Salary for Cisco Certified Engineer US 2026: What Each Level Pays
The CCNA is the entry point and it filters for the roles that are numerous in every organisation with a network – support, administration, and the first rung of the operations ladder. The pay band for those roles is set by the role rather than by the certificate, and the certificate’s contribution is access. It is a good credential for a candidate without a degree and without network experience, because it substitutes for a degree in a way that most vendor credentials do not.
The CCNP is the professional level and it is where the value is concentrated. It filters for the network engineering band – the roles that design, implement and troubleshoot across an estate rather than operate a segment of it – and it is the level at which a candidate is applying for a job rather than for an entry. A CCNP with three years of hands-on routing and switching experience is a standard entry requirement for those postings, and a candidate without it is often filtered before a human sees the application.
The CCIE is the expert level and it pays the most, for reasons that are structural. It requires a lab practical as well as the written exams, it has an experience prerequisite, and there are far fewer holders – all three of which narrow the pool. The roles it filters for are the ones where a company needs one person who can sign off on a design, and those roles exist in every large organisation and in every service provider.
And the specialisation matters as much as the level. Routing and switching has the largest number of roles and the widest range. Security and data centre specialisations pay slightly more because the demand is stronger and the skill set is rarer. Service provider work pays well and is genuinely global, because carrier networks are an international business.
How to Choose the Right Cisco Track
Start from the postings, because Cisco has so many tracks that choosing from a list of certifications is choosing from a list of possibilities rather than from a market. Read twenty postings for the roles you want in your city, note which appear and how often, and that is your answer. In most markets one of enterprise, security or data centre dominates, and it will not necessarily be the one you find most interesting.
Then check the experience requirement before you book an exam, because the professional and expert levels both have prerequisites and the cost of finding out afterwards is significant. The expert level in particular requires a hands-on lab practical, and that lab is a day of difficult, realistic work – a candidate with a strong written knowledge and no lab experience should plan for it rather than discovering it on the day.
Consider the direction of travel in the field, and this is where network engineers should be paying attention. The work is becoming more software-defined, more automated and more cloud-integrated, and the roles that are growing are the ones that combine networking with programming and with cloud operations. A pure routing and switching path is durable but slower-growing, and the automation skills are what keep a candidate from being commoditised.
How to Move From Certified to Higher-Paid Work
The step from a certified operator to a network engineer is made by owning a piece of the estate rather than working on it. A candidate who has administered a segment can describe what they managed; a candidate who has designed a routing scheme across two sites, or run a migration to a new platform, can describe a design and the trade-offs behind it. That is the difference between the associate band and the professional band, and it is a matter of scope.
The second step is specialisation, and it is easier in networking than in many fields because the domains are genuinely distinct. A candidate who becomes the person the organisation calls about routing, or about firewalls, or about the data centre fabric, becomes difficult to replace, and the market pays for that. The certificate gets you considered; the specialisation is what you are paid for.
The third is the one people skip: document the work. A network engineer who has run a difficult change – a data centre migration, an outage, a large-scale re-addressing project – and written up what happened, what it cost and what changed afterwards is a candidate whose evidence is far stronger than one who lists technologies. Most network engineers do not write anything down, which is why the ones who do stand out so sharply.
How Network Engineering Roles Are Structured
The network function divides into operations, engineering, architecture and management, and the pay follows the same shape. Operations owns the running estate – configuration, monitoring, tickets, change management – and it is the largest number of roles. Engineering owns designs and complex changes across a segment. Architecture owns the estate across sites and the standards everything else follows. Management owns the team, the budget and the relationship with the business.
The second structural point is that network work has become more software-defined, and the roles that are growing are the ones at the intersection of networking and programming. Automation, infrastructure as code, telemetry pipelines, cloud networking and network functions virtualised – these are where the new demand is, and they are the roles where a candidate who can do traditional network engineering plus some programming is paid well.
The third is the specialisation within the domain. Routing and switching, security, data centre, service provider, wireless and campus are different skills with different demand. Service provider work in particular is international in a way most IT work is not – carrier networks are operated across borders, and the people who can work at that level are globally scarce.
What a CCIE Actually Involves
The expert-level exams include a hands-on lab practical, and this is the part that makes them different from everything else in the certification world. It is a full day of realistic, deliberately difficult operational work – building a topology, troubleshooting under pressure, working through a design problem, and being assessed against a rubric by two examiners. Candidates frequently pass the written exams and then find the lab is a different kind of difficulty.
The preparation for that lab is hours of practice on real equipment or a realistic lab environment, and it is a materially larger time investment than the written exams. Candidates who are considering the level should budget for it honestly, and the ones who succeed are usually the ones who have done several full lab simulations before the attempt rather than reading the objectives and hoping.
The payoff is real, though, and it is worth understanding what it actually is. The CCIE signals that a candidate can operate and design at the level a network architect needs, and it is one of the few IT credentials that a hiring manager will treat as evidence of professional judgement rather than of preparation. It also carries a peer-recognition effect – the network engineering community is small enough that holding the expert credential is genuinely visible – and in a market with relatively few people at that level, that has a real effect on opportunities.
A Network Engineer Who Added One Skill and Moved Up Two Bands
A network engineer with a CCNA and five years in a mid-sized company was doing the same work – switch configuration, ticket handling, occasional routing changes – and was close to the top of the band for it. He had a good relationship with his manager and no prospect of moving up within the network team, because the team had one senior engineer and it was not going to be him.
He spent six months learning Python and automation, and built a small tool that reconciled the switch configurations across three sites against a source repository, flagging drift before it caused an outage. It was not a large project, and it took a fraction of the time a certificate course would have.
Within a year he had moved into a platform engineering role at a larger company on a materially higher band, and the piece of work is the first thing mentioned in his interview. The credential he already had was what got him considered; the automation work is what got him hired.
Why This Matters Outside the United States
Cisco certification is globally held and its value is understood by network hiring managers in every market, with the US providing the highest bands.
Cisco certifications are recognised in every market with an enterprise network, and they are among the most widely held IT credentials worldwide, which makes them genuinely portable. The pay bands are local, and in most markets outside North America and Western Europe a Cisco certified engineer earns well relative to the local alternatives, so the credential is often a stronger signal there than it is in the United States. For candidates targeting US roles, the certification is a recognised filter but not a route to a US salary.
How to Read These Numbers
Cisco certification pay figures are typical US ranges for practitioners working in network-focused roles, and they reflect the market for the skills rather than a premium attached to the certificate. Exam fees, requirements and the certification structure change, and should be verified with Cisco directly.
The demand context described – the shift toward automation, software-defined networking and cloud integration – is specific to the current period and is the most likely source of change in these bands over the next few years.
Key Terms Used Above
| Term | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| CCNA | The associate level. Filters for network support and administration roles. |
| CCNP | The professional level. Filters for network engineering and design roles. |
| CCIE | The expert level, including a hands-on lab practical and an experience requirement. |
| Lab practical | A full-day, hands-on examination. The distinguishing feature of the expert level. |
| Network automation | Programmatic management of network infrastructure. The fastest-growing demand. |
| Network functions virtualised | Network functions run as software. A structural change in the role. |
Add one skill that makes you the person who solves a problem for others. The certificate gets you considered; the second skill gets you hired.
Related Reading
If you want the wider context, start with our network engineer salary report, then the full guide, then the full guide. Each of these covers a different part of the same decision.
Training Resources
For a structured path rather than scattered free material, the SkilBrill training programme covers the practical side of this topic with the same framing employers use. For a broader foundation, the related SkilBrill course covers the surrounding concepts so you are not learning this topic in isolation.
FAQ
What is the average salary for a Cisco certified engineer in the US?
CCNA-level engineers typically earn $65,000-$85,000, CCNP-level $95,000-$125,000, and CCIE holders $140,000-$200,000+ depending on specialisation and employer.
Which Cisco certification pays the most?
CCIE, by a wide margin, because it is rare and gate-level. Within the associate and professional tiers, specialisations in security, data centre and network engineering pay best.
Does Cisco certification guarantee a raise?
No. It widens your options and is often a screening requirement, so it changes which jobs you can get. The raise comes from the role and from the specialisation you can prove.
Is Cisco certification still worth it with cloud networking growth?
Yes, because campus, data centre and service provider networks still run on Cisco and the certified population is ageing. It is worth pairing with cloud networking skill, which is where the newer hiring demand is.
