MPLS Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring MPLS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 320 250 228
Rank change year-on-year -70 -22 +124
Contract jobs citing MPLS 111 91 188
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.52% 0.69% 0.90%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.56% 4.08% 5.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 34 78
10th Percentile £237 £286 £255
25th Percentile £350 £403 £314
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £369
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +42.37% -13.74%
75th Percentile £540 £584 £400
90th Percentile £618 £625 £531
UK median daily rate £431 £513 £419
% change year-on-year -15.85% +22.39% -6.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 19
10th Percentile - - £19.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.50 £32.50
Median hourly rate £20.00 £19.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -52.50% +39.13%
75th Percentile £21.00 £19.50 £65.98
90th Percentile - - £66.28
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -38.46% -18.75% +29.03%

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 2,435 2,230 3,643
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.48% 16.95% 17.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,581 1,319 2,111
10th Percentile £200 £184 £205
25th Percentile £315 £300 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -1.05% -
75th Percentile £575 £580 £588
90th Percentile £663 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £481 £500 £480
% change year-on-year -3.75% +4.17% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 111 311
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.22 £14.27
25th Percentile £16.93 £21.00 £20.13
Median hourly rate £41.94 £31.08 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +34.94% -34.57% +150.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -1.43% -12.50% +107.25%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MPLS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

MPLS job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS

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 5 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS

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 5 March 2026. 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 -62 37 £500 -13.04% 12
Midlands -42 26 £400 +28.00% 3
West Midlands -38 24 £400 +28.00% 2
North of England -60 16 £400 -23.81% 4
Scotland +27 15 £215 -46.25% 2
North West -32 15 £400 -23.81%
South West -30 11 £525 - 1
East of England -25 4 £505 +102.00% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 -
Yorkshire -68 1 - - 4
MPLS
UK

MPLS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 4 (3.60%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.80%) Confluence
2 2 (1.80%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (9.91%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (6.31%) MS Visio
3 6 (5.41%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (4.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.80%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 17 (15.32%) Azure
2 14 (12.61%) AWS
3 9 (8.11%) GCP
4 6 (5.41%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (4.50%) Entra ID
5 5 (4.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 3 (2.70%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
7 2 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.80%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.90%) Amazon ELB
8 1 (0.90%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 1 (0.90%) Amazon Macie
8 1 (0.90%) AWS CloudTrail
8 1 (0.90%) IaaS
8 1 (0.90%) IBM Watson
8 1 (0.90%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.90%) PaaS
8 1 (0.90%) Route 53
8 1 (0.90%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 75 (67.57%) WAN
2 61 (54.95%) VPN
3 60 (54.05%) BGP
4 48 (43.24%) Firewall
5 42 (37.84%) LAN
6 34 (30.63%) SD-WAN
7 30 (27.03%) IPsec
8 29 (26.13%) OSPF
9 22 (19.82%) Cisco ASA
10 17 (15.32%) VLAN
11 16 (14.41%) Wireless
12 14 (12.61%) Network Security
13 13 (11.71%) TACACS
13 13 (11.71%) VXLAN
14 12 (10.81%) Cisco IOS
15 11 (9.91%) EIGRP
15 11 (9.91%) SDH
16 10 (9.01%) Cisco Nexus
17 9 (8.11%) Ethernet VPN
17 9 (8.11%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.80%) Power BI
1 2 (1.80%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 3 (2.70%) JIRA
2 2 (1.80%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.90%) AppScan
3 1 (0.90%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.90%) Metasploit
General
1 36 (32.43%) Social Skills
2 20 (18.02%) Telecoms
3 15 (13.51%) Public Sector
4 9 (8.11%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (6.31%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (5.41%) Finance
7 5 (4.50%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.70%) Law
8 3 (2.70%) Legal
9 2 (1.80%) Aviation
9 2 (1.80%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.90%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.90%) Police
10 1 (0.90%) Retail
Job Titles
1 37 (33.33%) Network Engineer
2 21 (18.92%) Architect
3 17 (15.32%) Network Architect
4 13 (11.71%) Senior
5 10 (9.01%) Field Engineer
6 8 (7.21%) 2nd Line Engineer
6 8 (7.21%) Support Engineer
6 8 (7.21%) WAN Engineer
7 7 (6.31%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 7 (6.31%) Senior Network Engineer
8 6 (5.41%) IP Engineer
8 6 (5.41%) IP Specialist
8 6 (5.41%) Security Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) 3rd Line Support
9 5 (4.50%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) Cisco Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) Design Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) IP Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (6.31%) NETCONF
1 7 (6.31%) YANG
2 6 (5.41%) 802.1X
2 6 (5.41%) LDAP
3 4 (3.60%) OpenConfig
3 4 (3.60%) RESTCONF
4 3 (2.70%) REST
5 2 (1.80%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.90%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 21 (18.92%) Data Centre
2 19 (17.12%) PKI
3 9 (8.11%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (7.21%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.31%) Driving Licence
6 5 (4.50%) Onboarding
6 5 (4.50%) Operational Technology
6 5 (4.50%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (3.60%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (3.60%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.60%) SCADA
7 4 (3.60%) Security Posture
8 3 (2.70%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.80%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (1.80%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.80%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.80%) Wiki
10 1 (0.90%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.90%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.90%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 8 (7.21%) Linux
2 6 (5.41%) Ubuntu
3 2 (1.80%) Windows
4 1 (0.90%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.90%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (25.23%) Network Design
2 19 (17.12%) Cybersecurity
3 16 (14.41%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (10.81%) Load Balancing
4 12 (10.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 12 (10.81%) Zero Trust
5 11 (9.91%) Migration
5 11 (9.91%) Network Architecture
6 10 (9.01%) Roadmaps
6 10 (9.01%) Stakeholder Management
6 10 (9.01%) Technical Leadership
7 9 (8.11%) ITIL
7 9 (8.11%) Network Management
8 8 (7.21%) Collaborative Working
8 8 (7.21%) Network Segmentation
8 8 (7.21%) Project Delivery
8 8 (7.21%) Project Management
8 8 (7.21%) Test Automation
9 7 (6.31%) Knowledge Transfer
9 7 (6.31%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 27 (24.32%) Python
2 4 (3.60%) PHP
3 3 (2.70%) Bash
4 2 (1.80%) C
4 2 (1.80%) Lisp
4 2 (1.80%) SQL
Qualifications
1 54 (48.65%) Security Cleared
2 40 (36.04%) SC Cleared
3 35 (31.53%) Cisco Certification
4 26 (23.42%) CCNP
5 19 (17.12%) CCIE
6 14 (12.61%) DV Cleared
7 13 (11.71%) CCNA
8 10 (9.01%) JNCIE
9 6 (5.41%) AWS Certification
9 6 (5.41%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (4.50%) CCSP
11 4 (3.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (3.60%) APMG
11 4 (3.60%) CISSP
11 4 (3.60%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (3.60%) Degree
11 4 (3.60%) GIAC
11 4 (3.60%) ISTQB
11 4 (3.60%) JNCIS
11 4 (3.60%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (11.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (10.81%) NIST
2 12 (10.81%) SLA
3 7 (6.31%) PCI DSS
4 6 (5.41%) GDPR
5 5 (4.50%) NCSC
6 4 (3.60%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (3.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (1.80%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.90%) COBIT
8 1 (0.90%) GRC
8 1 (0.90%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.90%) QA
System Software
1 12 (10.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (5.41%) VMware ESXi
2 6 (5.41%) VMware NSX
3 5 (4.50%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.90%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 23 (20.72%) Ansible
2 7 (6.31%) Terraform
3 6 (5.41%) Cisco Prime
3 6 (5.41%) vCenter Server
4 4 (3.60%) FortiGate
5 3 (2.70%) Iperf
5 3 (2.70%) Nmap
5 3 (2.70%) SCOM
6 2 (1.80%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.90%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.90%) CASB
7 1 (0.90%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.90%) Nessus
7 1 (0.90%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 78 (70.27%) Cisco
2 32 (28.83%) Juniper
3 29 (26.13%) Fortinet
4 21 (18.92%) Palo Alto
5 19 (17.12%) Microsoft
6 14 (12.61%) SolarWinds
7 13 (11.71%) F5
7 13 (11.71%) VMware
8 12 (10.81%) Meraki
9 9 (8.11%) CheckPoint
10 8 (7.21%) Aruba
11 7 (6.31%) Nokia
12 4 (3.60%) Zscaler
13 3 (2.70%) Forcepoint
13 3 (2.70%) Qualys
14 2 (1.80%) Arista
14 2 (1.80%) Rockwell
14 2 (1.80%) ServiceNow
14 2 (1.80%) Splunk
14 2 (1.80%) Tufin