MPLS Contracts in the UK excluding London

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London 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 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 266 206 300
Rank change year-on-year -60 +94 +66
Contract jobs citing MPLS 89 192 141
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.63% 0.91% 0.62%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.16% 5.83% 3.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 97 57
10th Percentile £303 £263 £263
25th Percentile £400 £325 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £375 £400
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -6.25% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £525 £486
90th Percentile £638 £675 £600
UK median daily rate £500 £405 £500
% change year-on-year +23.46% -19.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 14 12
10th Percentile - £14.00 £12.65
25th Percentile - £17.84 £17.38
Median hourly rate - £40.00 £40.16
Median % change year-on-year - -0.40% +67.33%
75th Percentile - - £62.31
90th Percentile - - £63.23
UK median hourly rate £38.75 £25.00 £58.66
% change year-on-year +55.00% -57.38% +125.62%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 2,138 3,293 3,537
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.11% 15.54% 15.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,263 1,857 2,206
10th Percentile £200 £203 £210
25th Percentile £325 £350 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.08% +3.16% +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £586
90th Percentile £638 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £480 £500 £506
% change year-on-year -4.00% -1.19% +1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 368 287
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.50 £9.80
25th Percentile £16.30 £17.69 £10.63
Median hourly rate £30.32 £47.50 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.17% +115.91% -2.22%
75th Percentile £64.38 £65.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £81.80 £75.00 £75.27
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £45.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year -6.67% +114.29% -27.74%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 3 July 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
South East +10 30 £450 +12.50% 38
North of England +20 27 £475 -5.00% 22
North West +21 23 £475 -15.56% 11
South West +37 18 £625 -3.85% 9
West Midlands -56 15 £350 -6.67% 18
Midlands -63 15 £350 -6.67% 29
Yorkshire +5 3 £350 -30.00% 10
Scotland -4 3 £425 +6.25% 13
North East 0 1 £550 +29.41% 1
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -
East of England - 1 - - 8
MPLS
UK

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 7 (7.87%) Confluence
2 4 (4.49%) OpenStack
3 2 (2.25%) Camunda
4 1 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (1.12%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (8.99%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.12%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (1.12%) MS Visio
2 1 (1.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (4.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (2.25%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 20 (22.47%) AWS
2 15 (16.85%) Azure
3 7 (7.87%) GCP
4 4 (4.49%) Cloudflare
5 2 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.12%) Akamai
Communications & Networking
1 54 (60.67%) VPN
2 52 (58.43%) WAN
3 45 (50.56%) BGP
4 29 (32.58%) LAN
5 27 (30.34%) Firewall
6 26 (29.21%) IPsec
7 23 (25.84%) OSPF
8 18 (20.22%) Ethernet
8 18 (20.22%) SD-WAN
8 18 (20.22%) Wireshark
9 17 (19.10%) LTE
10 16 (17.98%) SDH
11 15 (16.85%) SAN
12 14 (15.73%) ATM
12 14 (15.73%) Frame Relay
12 14 (15.73%) GPRS
12 14 (15.73%) GSM
12 14 (15.73%) Network Security
12 14 (15.73%) UMTS
13 13 (14.61%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.12%) MongoDB
1 1 (1.12%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 9 (10.11%) JIRA
2 1 (1.12%) GitLab
General
1 36 (40.45%) Social Skills
2 27 (30.34%) Telecoms
3 18 (20.22%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (6.74%) Public Sector
5 5 (5.62%) Legal
6 2 (2.25%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (2.25%) Law
6 2 (2.25%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.12%) Banking
7 1 (1.12%) Billing
7 1 (1.12%) Electronics
7 1 (1.12%) Finance
7 1 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (1.12%) Retail
7 1 (1.12%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 46 (51.69%) Network Engineer
2 17 (19.10%) IP Engineer
3 12 (13.48%) Test Engineer
4 10 (11.24%) Architect
5 8 (8.99%) Designer
5 8 (8.99%) Network Designer
5 8 (8.99%) Support Engineer
6 7 (7.87%) 2nd Line Engineer
6 7 (7.87%) 2nd Line Support
6 7 (7.87%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
6 7 (7.87%) Network Architect
7 6 (6.74%) IP Network Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) 2nd Line Network Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) Cisco Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) Network Support
8 5 (5.62%) Network Support Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) Senior
9 4 (4.49%) Cloud Engineer
9 4 (4.49%) Cloud Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (8.99%) NETCONF
1 8 (8.99%) RESTCONF
2 2 (2.25%) 802.1X
2 2 (2.25%) XML
3 1 (1.12%) HTML
3 1 (1.12%) Java RMI
3 1 (1.12%) JSON
3 1 (1.12%) REST
3 1 (1.12%) SOAP
3 1 (1.12%) YAML
3 1 (1.12%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 16 (17.98%) PKI
2 14 (15.73%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (8.99%) Hybrid Cloud
4 6 (6.74%) Cloud Native
4 6 (6.74%) Data Centre
5 5 (5.62%) Operational Technology
6 4 (4.49%) Public Cloud
7 3 (3.37%) Management Information System
7 3 (3.37%) SCADA
7 3 (3.37%) TM Forum
8 2 (2.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (2.25%) Security Operations Centre
8 2 (2.25%) Security Posture
9 1 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.12%) Driving Licence
9 1 (1.12%) Fibre Optics
9 1 (1.12%) NHS
9 1 (1.12%) Onboarding
9 1 (1.12%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 15 (16.85%) Linux
1 15 (16.85%) Unix
2 2 (2.25%) Windows
3 1 (1.12%) CentOS
3 1 (1.12%) Mac OS
3 1 (1.12%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (29.21%) Problem-Solving
2 18 (20.22%) Network Design
2 18 (20.22%) Project Management
3 17 (19.10%) Fault Management
4 16 (17.98%) Network Architecture
5 14 (15.73%) Regression Testing
5 14 (15.73%) Test Strategy
6 13 (14.61%) ITIL
7 12 (13.48%) Network Monitoring
7 12 (13.48%) Roadmaps
8 10 (11.24%) Migration
9 9 (10.11%) Change Management
9 9 (10.11%) Service Design
9 9 (10.11%) Service Management
9 9 (10.11%) Validation
10 8 (8.99%) Network Virtualisation
10 8 (8.99%) NsoIT
10 8 (8.99%) System Testing
10 8 (8.99%) TOGAF
11 7 (7.87%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 14 (15.73%) Java
2 13 (14.61%) Python
3 2 (2.25%) SQL
4 1 (1.12%) Perl
4 1 (1.12%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 51 (57.30%) Cisco Certification
2 41 (46.07%) CCNP
3 27 (30.34%) Security Cleared
4 24 (26.97%) SC Cleared
5 17 (19.10%) CCIE
5 17 (19.10%) Degree
6 14 (15.73%) ISEB
6 14 (15.73%) ISTQB
6 14 (15.73%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 6 (6.74%) JNCIE
7 6 (6.74%) Master's Degree
8 5 (5.62%) CCNA
9 4 (4.49%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (3.37%) AWS Certification
10 3 (3.37%) Azure Certification
11 2 (2.25%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (2.25%) DV Cleared
11 2 (2.25%) JNCIP
11 2 (2.25%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (2.25%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.25%) Government Security Classifications
1 2 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 2 (2.25%) OASIS TOSCA
2 1 (1.12%) PCI DSS
2 1 (1.12%) QA
2 1 (1.12%) SLA
System Software
1 8 (8.99%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (7.87%) VMware ESXi
3 5 (5.62%) Docker
4 1 (1.12%) Active Directory
4 1 (1.12%) Hyper-V
4 1 (1.12%) vSphere
4 1 (1.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 14 (15.73%) Ansible
2 4 (4.49%) Kubernetes
3 2 (2.25%) Amdocs OSS
3 2 (2.25%) Cisco CUCM
3 2 (2.25%) Cisco Prime
3 2 (2.25%) Nagios
3 2 (2.25%) ZABBIX
4 1 (1.12%) SCCM
Vendors
1 68 (76.40%) Cisco
2 27 (30.34%) Juniper
3 17 (19.10%) Microsoft
4 16 (17.98%) Fortinet
5 11 (12.36%) F5
6 9 (10.11%) Palo Alto
7 8 (8.99%) VMware
8 7 (7.87%) Aruba
8 7 (7.87%) Atlassian
8 7 (7.87%) SolarWinds
9 6 (6.74%) Citrix
9 6 (6.74%) Huawei
9 6 (6.74%) Meraki
10 5 (5.62%) Nokia
10 5 (5.62%) Zscaler
11 4 (4.49%) BMC
11 4 (4.49%) CheckPoint
11 4 (4.49%) Dell
11 4 (4.49%) Remedy
12 3 (3.37%) Google