BGP Contract Job Trends

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring BGP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 330 209 238
Rank change year-on-year -121 +29 +143
Contract jobs citing BGP 299 390 440
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.72% 1.27% 1.00%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.05% 9.59% 7.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 240 239
10th Percentile £275 £374 £316
25th Percentile £400 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £520 £495
Median % change year-on-year -14.42% +5.05% -1.00%
75th Percentile £525 £661 £597
90th Percentile £588 £800 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £457
% change year-on-year -10.00% +9.53% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 10
10th Percentile £53.08 £22.33 £24.15
25th Percentile £70.67 £28.06 £24.44
Median hourly rate £74.26 £33.75 £46.25
Median % change year-on-year +120.03% -27.03% -40.32%
75th Percentile - £35.75 £69.38
90th Percentile - £37.10 £71.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £19.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year +290.84% -56.82% -21.43%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

BGP 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,239 4,068 5,872
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.23% 13.26% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,761 2,442 3,513
10th Percentile £204 £209 £205
25th Percentile £360 £361 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £481
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +4.06% -7.15%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £467 £467 £475
% change year-on-year - -1.68% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 177 131 382
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.27
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £19.99
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £43.12
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% -24.62% +123.39%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £30.04 £50.00
% change year-on-year +39.61% -39.92% +163.16%

BGP
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BGP relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

BGP job vacancy trend in the UK

BGP
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BGP.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BGP

BGP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BGP over the 6 months to 26 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BGP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BGP

BGP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BGP over the 6 months to 26 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BGP within the UK over the 6 months to 26 February 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
England -112 259 £446 -12.98% 53
UK excluding London -75 179 £450 -10.00% 42
Work from Home -65 96 £438 -20.45% 19
South East -5 84 £445 -25.83% 21
London -69 83 £418 -17.33% 16
West Midlands -11 47 £400 -5.88% 6
Midlands -17 47 £400 -5.88% 6
North of England -88 43 £550 +4.76% 7
North West -54 39 £550 +4.76% 3
Scotland +13 13 £425 - 3
South West -48 11 £525 +5.00% 2
Yorkshire -64 4 £545 +98.18% 4
North East -11 3 £550 -
Wales -8 2 - - 1

BGP
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 12 (4.01%) SharePoint
2 10 (3.34%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.34%) Confluence
Applications
1 16 (5.35%) MS Visio
2 7 (2.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.34%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 53 (17.73%) AWS
2 41 (13.71%) Azure
3 22 (7.36%) GCP
4 15 (5.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 8 (2.68%) AWS Direct Connect
5 8 (2.68%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (2.01%) Route 53
6 6 (2.01%) SaaS
7 5 (1.67%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.34%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 4 (1.34%) IaaS
8 4 (1.34%) PaaS
9 3 (1.00%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (1.00%) Amazon S3
9 3 (1.00%) Catchpoint
9 3 (1.00%) Entra ID
10 2 (0.67%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (0.67%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.67%) AWS Control Tower
10 2 (0.67%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 195 (65.22%) OSPF
2 188 (62.88%) Firewall
3 161 (53.85%) WAN
4 116 (38.80%) LAN
5 110 (36.79%) VPN
6 98 (32.78%) MPLS
7 83 (27.76%) Network Security
8 67 (22.41%) IPsec
9 64 (21.40%) DNS
9 64 (21.40%) VLAN
10 58 (19.40%) VXLAN
11 50 (16.72%) SD-WAN
12 47 (15.72%) Cisco ASA
13 45 (15.05%) Ethernet VPN
13 45 (15.05%) Wireless
14 42 (14.05%) EIGRP
15 40 (13.38%) DHCP
16 38 (12.71%) Cisco ISE
17 37 (12.37%) Multicast
17 37 (12.37%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.33%) Redis
1 1 (0.33%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (3.68%) Git
2 7 (2.34%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.00%) GitLab
4 2 (0.67%) JIRA
5 1 (0.33%) AppScan
5 1 (0.33%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.33%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.33%) Metasploit
General
1 69 (23.08%) Social Skills
2 39 (13.04%) Documentation Skills
3 33 (11.04%) Public Sector
4 30 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (8.03%) Finance
6 20 (6.69%) Banking
6 20 (6.69%) Telecoms
7 15 (5.02%) Investment Banking
7 15 (5.02%) Manufacturing
8 13 (4.35%) Military
9 12 (4.01%) Financial Institution
10 6 (2.01%) Legal
10 6 (2.01%) Marketing
11 4 (1.34%) French Language
11 4 (1.34%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.34%) Retail
12 3 (1.00%) Electronics
13 2 (0.67%) Aviation
13 2 (0.67%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 163 (54.52%) Network Engineer
2 40 (13.38%) Architect
3 37 (12.37%) Cisco Engineer
4 33 (11.04%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 30 (10.03%) Senior
6 28 (9.36%) Security Engineer
7 27 (9.03%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 26 (8.70%) Network Architect
9 23 (7.69%) Network Security Engineer
10 17 (5.69%) Senior Network Engineer
11 14 (4.68%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 14 (4.68%) Data Engineer
11 14 (4.68%) Data Network Engineer
11 14 (4.68%) Network Specialist
12 11 (3.68%) Juniper Engineer
12 11 (3.68%) WAN Engineer
13 10 (3.34%) Design Engineer
13 10 (3.34%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 9 (3.01%) Solutions Architect
14 9 (3.01%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (9.03%) 802.1X
2 9 (3.01%) NETCONF
2 9 (3.01%) YANG
3 7 (2.34%) REST
4 6 (2.01%) LDAP
5 4 (1.34%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.34%) VML
6 3 (1.00%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.00%) SAML
7 2 (0.67%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.67%) CSS
7 2 (0.67%) HTML
7 2 (0.67%) JSON
7 2 (0.67%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.67%) XML
8 1 (0.33%) Elastic Stack
8 1 (0.33%) Jinja
8 1 (0.33%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 118 (39.46%) Data Centre
2 46 (15.38%) PKI
3 15 (5.02%) Clustering
4 14 (4.68%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (3.01%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.68%) Cloud Native
7 6 (2.01%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.67%) NHS
8 5 (1.67%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.34%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.34%) SCADA
10 3 (1.00%) CESG
10 3 (1.00%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (1.00%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.00%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.00%) Public Cloud
10 3 (1.00%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.00%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 32 (10.70%) Windows
2 24 (8.03%) Linux
3 10 (3.34%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.34%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.33%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.33%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (19.73%) Load Balancing
2 50 (16.72%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (14.38%) Network Design
4 35 (11.71%) High Availability
5 29 (9.70%) Cybersecurity
5 29 (9.70%) Migration
6 26 (8.70%) Change Management
6 26 (8.70%) Network Monitoring
7 25 (8.36%) Zero Trust
8 22 (7.36%) Network Segmentation
8 22 (7.36%) Project Delivery
9 21 (7.02%) Network Architecture
10 20 (6.69%) Stakeholder Management
11 19 (6.35%) ITIL
11 19 (6.35%) Roadmaps
12 18 (6.02%) Identity Access Management
12 18 (6.02%) Observability
13 16 (5.35%) Root Cause Analysis
14 15 (5.02%) Disaster Recovery
14 15 (5.02%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 62 (20.74%) Python
2 18 (6.02%) Bash
3 12 (4.01%) PowerShell
4 10 (3.34%) Perl
5 9 (3.01%) Lisp
6 4 (1.34%) PHP
7 2 (0.67%) C++
7 2 (0.67%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.67%) SQL
Qualifications
1 143 (47.83%) Cisco Certification
2 135 (45.15%) Security Cleared
3 117 (39.13%) CCNP
4 104 (34.78%) SC Cleared
5 48 (16.05%) CCIE
6 37 (12.37%) DV Cleared
7 26 (8.70%) CCNA
7 26 (8.70%) Degree
8 19 (6.35%) JNCIS
9 17 (5.69%) JNCIP
10 16 (5.35%) JNCIE
11 13 (4.35%) JNCIA
12 11 (3.68%) AWS Certification
12 11 (3.68%) CISSP
13 9 (3.01%) CCDP
14 7 (2.34%) GIAC
15 5 (1.67%) CCIE Security
15 5 (1.67%) CompTIA Security+
15 5 (1.67%) Network+ Certification
16 4 (1.34%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.35%) NIST
2 15 (5.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (3.68%) NCSC
4 9 (3.01%) SLA
5 7 (2.34%) GDPR
5 7 (2.34%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (1.00%) RMADS
8 2 (0.67%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.67%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.33%) COBIT
9 1 (0.33%) GRC
9 1 (0.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.33%) QA
9 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
System Software
1 26 (8.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 17 (5.69%) VMware NSX
3 11 (3.68%) Active Directory
4 9 (3.01%) Docker
5 8 (2.68%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.00%) Firmware
6 3 (1.00%) vSphere
7 2 (0.67%) vCloud
8 1 (0.33%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.33%) KVM
8 1 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 55 (18.39%) Ansible
2 44 (14.72%) FortiGate
3 29 (9.70%) Terraform
4 9 (3.01%) Grafana
5 8 (2.68%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.01%) vCenter Server
7 5 (1.67%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.67%) Nagios
8 4 (1.34%) Iperf
8 4 (1.34%) Nmap
9 3 (1.00%) SCOM
9 3 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.67%) CASB
10 2 (0.67%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.67%) Cisco Prime
10 2 (0.67%) VxRail
11 1 (0.33%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.33%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.33%) QRadar
11 1 (0.33%) vRealize
Vendors
1 216 (72.24%) Cisco
2 89 (29.77%) Juniper
3 87 (29.10%) Palo Alto
4 81 (27.09%) F5
5 50 (16.72%) CheckPoint
6 47 (15.72%) Fortinet
7 36 (12.04%) Aruba
8 32 (10.70%) SolarWinds
8 32 (10.70%) VMware
9 28 (9.36%) Meraki
10 22 (7.36%) Splunk
11 20 (6.69%) Arista
12 19 (6.35%) Zscaler
13 17 (5.69%) Extreme Networks
14 12 (4.01%) Remedy
14 12 (4.01%) ServiceNow
15 11 (3.68%) Nokia
16 10 (3.34%) Ekahau
17 8 (2.68%) Microsoft
18 7 (2.34%) Dell