OSPF Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring OSPF skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 318 217 272
Rank change year-on-year -101 +55 +62
Contract jobs citing OSPF 81 137 135
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.44% 0.93% 0.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.63% 5.83% 3.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 58 92 72
10th Percentile £400 £400 £332
25th Percentile £413 £413 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year -13.24% +7.69% -4.41%
75th Percentile £570 £582 £591
90th Percentile £700 £625 £698
UK median daily rate £460 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -11.96% -0.48% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 6
10th Percentile - - £24.63
25th Percentile - £18.50 £26.63
Median hourly rate - £19.00 £33.22
Median % change year-on-year - -42.81% +0.67%
75th Percentile - £19.50 £34.88
90th Percentile - - £51.25
UK median hourly rate - £33.75 £34.00
% change year-on-year - -0.74% +3.03%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

OSPF 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 2,230 2,351 3,454
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.19% 16.00% 17.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,481 1,335 2,064
10th Percentile £200 £191 £205
25th Percentile £300 £313 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £473 £473
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - +5.00%
75th Percentile £563 £575 £600
90th Percentile £645 £650 £686
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 131 112 271
10th Percentile £15.33 £15.22 £17.25
25th Percentile £16.93 £20.64 £24.42
Median hourly rate £42.50 £33.75 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +25.93% -40.25% +46.73%
75th Percentile £67.67 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £83.00 £71.13 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.45
% change year-on-year -2.86% -37.99% +61.27%

OSPF
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

OSPF job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

OSPF
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

OSPF
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing OSPF in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 28 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for OSPF in the UK excluding London

OSPF
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

OSPF
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 OSPF within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 28 December 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 -15 44 £448 -18.64% 54
Scotland +8 10 £425 +6.25% 3
West Midlands -26 8 £525 +5.00% 17
Midlands -43 8 £525 -4.55% 27
North of England -82 8 £520 -0.95% 28
South West -10 6 £500 +19.05% 13
North West -59 5 £520 -5.45% 13
East of England -25 4 £700 +154.55% 15
Yorkshire -50 3 £545 +98.18% 14
Wales 0 1 £400 -11.11% 6
OSPF
UK

OSPF
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 6 (7.41%) OpenStack
2 1 (1.23%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (2.47%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 22 (27.16%) AWS
2 12 (14.81%) Azure
3 6 (7.41%) GCP
3 6 (7.41%) OpenShift
3 6 (7.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 4 (4.94%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 2 (2.47%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (1.23%) Google Ads
6 1 (1.23%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 81 (100.00%) BGP
2 70 (86.42%) Firewall
3 46 (56.79%) WAN
4 38 (46.91%) VPN
5 36 (44.44%) LAN
6 30 (37.04%) VLAN
7 26 (32.10%) MPLS
8 23 (28.40%) Wireless
9 20 (24.69%) Cisco ASA
10 19 (23.46%) EIGRP
10 19 (23.46%) Network Security
11 17 (20.99%) IPsec
11 17 (20.99%) SD-WAN
12 12 (14.81%) Cisco ISE
13 11 (13.58%) Structured Cabling
13 11 (13.58%) VXLAN
14 10 (12.35%) Cisco Nexus
14 10 (12.35%) TCP/IP
14 10 (12.35%) WLAN
15 9 (11.11%) DNS
Development Applications
1 1 (1.23%) Bitbucket
1 1 (1.23%) JIRA
1 1 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 27 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 24 (29.63%) Documentation Skills
3 15 (18.52%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (13.58%) Public Sector
5 10 (12.35%) Manufacturing
6 5 (6.17%) Telecoms
7 4 (4.94%) Finance
8 3 (3.70%) Electronics
8 3 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (3.70%) Marketing
9 2 (2.47%) Advertising
9 2 (2.47%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (2.47%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (1.23%) Financial Institution
10 1 (1.23%) French Language
10 1 (1.23%) Legal
10 1 (1.23%) Military
Job Titles
1 47 (58.02%) Network Engineer
2 16 (19.75%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 8 (9.88%) Architect
3 8 (9.88%) Network Architect
4 7 (8.64%) Cisco Engineer
5 6 (7.41%) Designer
5 6 (7.41%) IP Designer
6 5 (6.17%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 5 (6.17%) Senior
7 4 (4.94%) IP Engineer
7 4 (4.94%) Network Security Engineer
7 4 (4.94%) Security Engineer
7 4 (4.94%) Solutions Architect
8 3 (3.70%) Consultant
8 3 (3.70%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 3 (3.70%) IP Network Engineer
8 3 (3.70%) Juniper Specialist
8 3 (3.70%) Network Consultant
8 3 (3.70%) Network Specialist
8 3 (3.70%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.94%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.23%) JFC
Miscellaneous
1 32 (39.51%) Data Centre
2 8 (9.88%) Hybrid Cloud
3 4 (4.94%) Onboarding
4 3 (3.70%) NHS
5 2 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (2.47%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (1.23%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.23%) PKI
6 1 (1.23%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 2 (2.47%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (16.05%) Project Delivery
2 12 (14.81%) Incident Response
3 11 (13.58%) High Availability
3 11 (13.58%) Validation
4 10 (12.35%) Network Monitoring
4 10 (12.35%) Network Segmentation
4 10 (12.35%) Strategic Thinking
4 10 (12.35%) Zero Trust
5 9 (11.11%) Network Virtualisation
5 9 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
6 7 (8.64%) Network Design
7 6 (7.41%) Customer Requirements
7 6 (7.41%) Cybersecurity
7 6 (7.41%) Network Architecture
8 5 (6.17%) Knowledge Transfer
8 5 (6.17%) Load Balancing
8 5 (6.17%) Network Management
8 5 (6.17%) Performance Monitoring
8 5 (6.17%) Roadmaps
8 5 (6.17%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 19 (23.46%) Python
2 3 (3.70%) Bash
3 1 (1.23%) Perl
Qualifications
1 52 (64.20%) Cisco Certification
2 46 (56.79%) CCNP
3 44 (54.32%) Security Cleared
4 32 (39.51%) SC Cleared
5 15 (18.52%) CCIE
6 12 (14.81%) Degree
7 10 (12.35%) AWS Certification
7 10 (12.35%) DV Cleared
8 8 (9.88%) CCNA
8 8 (9.88%) JNCIE
9 5 (6.17%) CISSP
9 5 (6.17%) JNCIP
10 4 (4.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 4 (4.94%) CCSP
11 3 (3.70%) Azure Certification
11 3 (3.70%) CCIE Security
11 3 (3.70%) JNCIA
11 3 (3.70%) JNCIS
11 3 (3.70%) Network+ Certification
12 2 (2.47%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (7.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (7.41%) NIST
1 6 (7.41%) PCI DSS
2 5 (6.17%) GDPR
3 2 (2.47%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (13.58%) VMware Infrastructure
1 11 (13.58%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 21 (25.93%) Ansible
2 14 (17.28%) Terraform
3 10 (12.35%) FortiGate
4 3 (3.70%) Iperf
4 3 (3.70%) Nagios
4 3 (3.70%) Nmap
5 1 (1.23%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (1.23%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 71 (87.65%) Cisco
2 40 (49.38%) Palo Alto
3 28 (34.57%) Fortinet
4 19 (23.46%) Juniper
5 17 (20.99%) CheckPoint
6 15 (18.52%) F5
7 14 (17.28%) Aruba
8 13 (16.05%) SolarWinds
9 12 (14.81%) VMware
10 11 (13.58%) Meraki
11 3 (3.70%) Nokia
11 3 (3.70%) SAP
11 3 (3.70%) Zscaler
12 2 (2.47%) Forcepoint
12 2 (2.47%) LogicMonitor
12 2 (2.47%) Mellanox
12 2 (2.47%) Microsoft
12 2 (2.47%) NVIDIA
13 1 (1.23%) Arista
13 1 (1.23%) Broadcom