MPLS Contracts in the Thames Valley

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley requiring MPLS skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited MPLS over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 63 103 119
Rank change year-on-year +40 +16 +13
Contract jobs citing MPLS 40 41 26
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 2.69% 1.55% 0.92%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.00% 7.21% 5.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 13 8
10th Percentile £375 £208 £350
25th Percentile £442 £263 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £345 £475
Median % change year-on-year +30.43% -27.37% -5.00%
75th Percentile £579 £400 £518
90th Percentile £623 £480 £575
South East median daily rate £450 £375 £438
% change year-on-year +20.00% -14.29% -4.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 1
10th Percentile - £19.08 -
25th Percentile £18.50 £19.94 £18.50
Median hourly rate £19.00 £21.75 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.64% +14.47% -26.92%
75th Percentile £19.50 £23.44 £19.50
90th Percentile - £24.23 -
South East median hourly rate £19.00 £21.75 £19.00
% change year-on-year -12.64% +14.47% -26.92%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

MPLS falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 250 569 443
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 16.82% 21.54% 15.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 280 271
10th Percentile £230 £205 £300
25th Percentile £363 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +4.57%
75th Percentile £538 £591 £573
90th Percentile £600 £639 £650
South East median daily rate £475 £488 £481
% change year-on-year -2.56% +1.44% +6.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 48 15
10th Percentile - £17.36 £18.90
25th Percentile - £23.36 £22.25
Median hourly rate £14.20 £65.00 £66.00
Median % change year-on-year -78.15% -1.52% +288.24%
75th Percentile £22.09 £85.65 £80.25
90th Percentile £31.44 £87.48 £81.22
South East median hourly rate £52.44 £57.35 £52.50
% change year-on-year -8.57% +9.24% +144.19%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the Thames Valley

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MPLS in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the Thames Valley

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 12 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the Thames Valley

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MPLS in the Thames Valley.

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the Thames Valley

MPLS
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 12 May 2025. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire +19 31 £450 +30.43% 15
Buckinghamshire +22 8 £574 - 2
Oxfordshire - 1 - - 5
MPLS
South East

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (2.50%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 12 (30.00%) AWS
2 11 (27.50%) Azure
3 5 (12.50%) GCP
4 4 (10.00%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (2.50%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 25 (62.50%) VPN
1 25 (62.50%) WAN
2 24 (60.00%) Ethernet
3 19 (47.50%) LAN
4 18 (45.00%) SDH
5 17 (42.50%) SAN
6 16 (40.00%) ATM
6 16 (40.00%) Frame Relay
6 16 (40.00%) GPRS
6 16 (40.00%) GSM
6 16 (40.00%) LTE
6 16 (40.00%) UMTS
6 16 (40.00%) Wireshark
7 13 (32.50%) BGP
8 12 (30.00%) TCP/IP
9 9 (22.50%) Firewall
10 8 (20.00%) Network Security
10 8 (20.00%) OSPF
10 8 (20.00%) SD-WAN
10 8 (20.00%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.50%) MongoDB
1 1 (2.50%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (10.00%) Robot Framework
2 1 (2.50%) GitLab
2 1 (2.50%) JIRA
General
1 27 (67.50%) Telecoms
2 24 (60.00%) Social Skills
3 6 (15.00%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (7.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (2.50%) Billing
5 1 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (2.50%) Law
5 1 (2.50%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 16 (40.00%) IP Engineer
2 15 (37.50%) Test Engineer
3 12 (30.00%) Network Engineer
4 6 (15.00%) Architect
4 6 (15.00%) IP Network Engineer
5 4 (10.00%) Automation Tester
5 4 (10.00%) Senior
5 4 (10.00%) Technical Architect
5 4 (10.00%) Telecoms Tester
5 4 (10.00%) Tester
6 3 (7.50%) Analyst
6 3 (7.50%) Designer
6 3 (7.50%) IP Designer
6 3 (7.50%) Senior Architect
6 3 (7.50%) Senior Technical Architect
7 2 (5.00%) Consultant
7 2 (5.00%) IP Network Consultant
7 2 (5.00%) Network Analyst
7 2 (5.00%) Network Consultant
7 2 (5.00%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.50%) JSON
1 1 (2.50%) NETCONF
1 1 (2.50%) REST
1 1 (2.50%) RESTCONF
1 1 (2.50%) SOAP
1 1 (2.50%) XML
1 1 (2.50%) YAML
1 1 (2.50%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 20 (50.00%) Self-Motivation
2 5 (12.50%) Cloud Native
2 5 (12.50%) Public Cloud
3 4 (10.00%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (7.50%) PKI
5 2 (5.00%) SCADA
5 2 (5.00%) Security Operations Centre
6 1 (2.50%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (2.50%) IoT
6 1 (2.50%) Management Information System
6 1 (2.50%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 17 (42.50%) Linux
1 17 (42.50%) Unix
2 1 (2.50%) CentOS
2 1 (2.50%) Mac OS
2 1 (2.50%) Windows
2 1 (2.50%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (55.00%) Problem-Solving
2 20 (50.00%) Test Strategy
3 17 (42.50%) Regression Testing
4 16 (40.00%) Fault Management
4 16 (40.00%) Project Management
5 7 (17.50%) Containerisation
6 6 (15.00%) Migration
6 6 (15.00%) Network Architecture
7 5 (12.50%) DevSecOps
7 5 (12.50%) ITIL
7 5 (12.50%) Network Design
7 5 (12.50%) Test Automation
7 5 (12.50%) TOGAF
8 4 (10.00%) CI/CD
8 4 (10.00%) Network Management
9 3 (7.50%) Adaptive Security
9 3 (7.50%) Infrastructure as Code
9 3 (7.50%) IT Strategy
9 3 (7.50%) Network Monitoring
9 3 (7.50%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 16 (40.00%) Java
2 5 (12.50%) Python
3 2 (5.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (60.00%) Cisco Certification
2 23 (57.50%) CCNP
3 16 (40.00%) ISEB
3 16 (40.00%) ISTQB
3 16 (40.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 8 (20.00%) Security Cleared
5 7 (17.50%) SC Cleared
6 6 (15.00%) Degree
7 4 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (7.50%) CCNA
8 3 (7.50%) MCSE
8 3 (7.50%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 2 (5.00%) CCIE
10 1 (2.50%) A+ Certification
10 1 (2.50%) AWS Certification
10 1 (2.50%) BC Cleared
10 1 (2.50%) CCDP
10 1 (2.50%) CCIP
10 1 (2.50%) DV Cleared
10 1 (2.50%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (10.00%) Cyber Essentials
1 4 (10.00%) NCSC
1 4 (10.00%) NIST
2 1 (2.50%) PCI DSS
2 1 (2.50%) QA
2 1 (2.50%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (15.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (12.50%) Docker
2 5 (12.50%) VMware NSX
3 1 (2.50%) Active Directory
3 1 (2.50%) Hyper-V
3 1 (2.50%) vSphere
3 1 (2.50%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 5 (12.50%) Kubernetes
2 4 (10.00%) Ansible
3 1 (2.50%) SCCM
Vendors
1 30 (75.00%) Cisco
2 21 (52.50%) Microsoft
3 17 (42.50%) Juniper
4 8 (20.00%) Palo Alto
5 6 (15.00%) VMware
6 3 (7.50%) Aruba
7 1 (2.50%) ADVA
7 1 (2.50%) Alcatel-Lucent
7 1 (2.50%) Citrix
7 1 (2.50%) F5
7 1 (2.50%) Google