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 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 340 205 243
Rank change year-on-year -135 +38 +153
Contract jobs citing BGP 283 396 438
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 1.28% 0.98%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.80% 9.74% 7.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 165 240 230
10th Percentile £282 £374 £325
25th Percentile £400 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -15.24% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £523 £675 £600
90th Percentile £575 £800 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £448 £525 £489
% change year-on-year -14.76% +7.42% -2.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 12
10th Percentile - £22.33 £24.25
25th Percentile - £28.06 £24.81
Median hourly rate £74.26 £33.75 £37.77
Median % change year-on-year +120.03% -10.64% -50.25%
75th Percentile - £35.75 £68.13
90th Percentile - £37.10 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £19.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year +290.84% -56.82% +31.34%

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 4,162 4,064 6,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.37% 13.13% 13.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,729 2,399 3,608
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £356 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £487
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.72% -6.39%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £681 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £468 £475
% change year-on-year -3.74% -1.58% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 167 130 405
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.41
25th Percentile £18.69 £21.46 £21.00
Median hourly rate £28.88 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% -31.58% +143.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.38 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.13 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £51.89
% change year-on-year +51.55% -48.45% +161.00%

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 14 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
Top 15 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 14 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 -110 244 £446 -14.23% 71
UK excluding London -73 167 £448 -14.76% 57
Work from Home -71 98 £440 -30.16% 25
London -89 80 £425 -17.07% 17
South East -12 70 £445 -25.83% 28
West Midlands -5 49 £400 -9.35% 7
Midlands -13 49 £400 -9.35% 8
North of England -85 39 £550 +4.76% 12
North West -58 36 £550 +4.76% 6
Scotland +8 13 £425 +3.03% 2
South West -39 12 £525 - 4
North East -11 3 £550 -
Yorkshire -60 3 £545 +98.18% 6
Wales -7 2 - -
East of England -28 1 £300 +9.09% 4

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 14 (4.95%) OpenStack
2 12 (4.24%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.77%) Confluence
Applications
1 15 (5.30%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.77%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 53 (18.73%) AWS
2 40 (14.13%) Azure
3 21 (7.42%) GCP
4 14 (4.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 8 (2.83%) AWS Direct Connect
5 8 (2.83%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (2.12%) Route 53
6 6 (2.12%) SaaS
7 5 (1.77%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.41%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 4 (1.41%) IaaS
8 4 (1.41%) OpenShift
8 4 (1.41%) PaaS
9 3 (1.06%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (1.06%) Amazon S3
9 3 (1.06%) Catchpoint
9 3 (1.06%) Entra ID
10 2 (0.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (0.71%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.71%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 178 (62.90%) OSPF
2 166 (58.66%) Firewall
3 145 (51.24%) WAN
4 109 (38.52%) VPN
5 101 (35.69%) LAN
5 101 (35.69%) MPLS
6 77 (27.21%) Network Security
7 70 (24.73%) IPsec
8 64 (22.61%) VLAN
9 50 (17.67%) DNS
10 47 (16.61%) Wireless
11 45 (15.90%) SD-WAN
12 43 (15.19%) EIGRP
12 43 (15.19%) VXLAN
13 42 (14.84%) Cisco ASA
14 34 (12.01%) Cisco Nexus
14 34 (12.01%) Multicast
15 33 (11.66%) Ethernet VPN
15 33 (11.66%) TCP/IP
16 29 (10.25%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.35%) Redis
1 1 (0.35%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (3.89%) Git
2 9 (3.18%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (1.41%) GitLab
4 3 (1.06%) JIRA
5 1 (0.35%) AppScan
5 1 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.35%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.35%) Metasploit
5 1 (0.35%) Robot Framework
General
1 75 (26.50%) Social Skills
2 40 (14.13%) Documentation Skills
3 34 (12.01%) Public Sector
4 30 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.42%) Finance
6 20 (7.07%) Telecoms
7 18 (6.36%) Banking
8 15 (5.30%) Manufacturing
9 14 (4.95%) Investment Banking
10 11 (3.89%) Military
11 9 (3.18%) Financial Institution
12 6 (2.12%) Legal
12 6 (2.12%) Marketing
13 4 (1.41%) French Language
13 4 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (1.41%) Retail
14 3 (1.06%) Electronics
15 2 (0.71%) Aviation
15 2 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 155 (54.77%) Network Engineer
2 40 (14.13%) Cisco Engineer
3 38 (13.43%) Architect
4 36 (12.72%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 26 (9.19%) Security Engineer
6 25 (8.83%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 24 (8.48%) Network Architect
8 23 (8.13%) Senior
9 21 (7.42%) Network Security Engineer
10 13 (4.59%) Data Network Engineer
10 13 (4.59%) Juniper Engineer
11 12 (4.24%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 12 (4.24%) Data Engineer
12 11 (3.89%) Senior Network Engineer
12 11 (3.89%) Support Engineer
12 11 (3.89%) WAN Engineer
13 9 (3.18%) Network Specialist
13 9 (3.18%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (3.18%) Wireless Engineer
13 9 (3.18%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (5.30%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.89%) YANG
3 10 (3.53%) NETCONF
4 9 (3.18%) REST
5 6 (2.12%) LDAP
6 4 (1.41%) JSON
6 4 (1.41%) VML
7 3 (1.06%) OpenConfig
7 3 (1.06%) SAML
8 2 (0.71%) AWS CDK
8 2 (0.71%) CSS
8 2 (0.71%) HTML
8 2 (0.71%) RESTCONF
8 2 (0.71%) RFC 2544
8 2 (0.71%) XML
9 1 (0.35%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.35%) gRPC
9 1 (0.35%) JFC
9 1 (0.35%) RabbitMQ
9 1 (0.35%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 107 (37.81%) Data Centre
2 38 (13.43%) PKI
3 17 (6.01%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (3.53%) Cloud Native
5 9 (3.18%) Product Ownership
6 6 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.77%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.77%) NHS
7 5 (1.77%) Operational Technology
8 4 (1.41%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.41%) SCADA
9 3 (1.06%) CESG
9 3 (1.06%) Distributed Architecture
9 3 (1.06%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.06%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.06%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.71%) Distributed Systems
10 2 (0.71%) Fibre Optics
10 2 (0.71%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 24 (8.48%) Linux
2 18 (6.36%) Windows
3 9 (3.18%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.47%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.35%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.35%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (16.25%) Load Balancing
2 44 (15.55%) Network Design
3 43 (15.19%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (10.25%) Migration
5 28 (9.89%) Cybersecurity
6 25 (8.83%) Network Segmentation
7 24 (8.48%) Network Monitoring
7 24 (8.48%) Zero Trust
8 23 (8.13%) Project Delivery
9 22 (7.77%) Change Management
9 22 (7.77%) High Availability
10 21 (7.42%) Network Architecture
11 20 (7.07%) Roadmaps
12 18 (6.36%) Stakeholder Management
13 17 (6.01%) Strategic Thinking
14 16 (5.65%) Network Virtualisation
15 15 (5.30%) Agile
15 15 (5.30%) DevOps
15 15 (5.30%) Kalman Filter
15 15 (5.30%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 69 (24.38%) Python
2 19 (6.71%) Bash
3 12 (4.24%) Perl
3 12 (4.24%) PowerShell
4 9 (3.18%) Lisp
5 4 (1.41%) C++
5 4 (1.41%) PHP
6 2 (0.71%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.35%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.35%) SQL
Qualifications
1 134 (47.35%) Cisco Certification
2 123 (43.46%) Security Cleared
3 117 (41.34%) CCNP
4 102 (36.04%) SC Cleared
5 49 (17.31%) CCIE
6 30 (10.60%) DV Cleared
7 27 (9.54%) CCNA
7 27 (9.54%) Degree
8 19 (6.71%) JNCIE
9 16 (5.65%) JNCIS
10 13 (4.59%) AWS Certification
11 12 (4.24%) JNCIP
12 11 (3.89%) CISSP
13 10 (3.53%) JNCIA
14 9 (3.18%) CCDP
15 7 (2.47%) GIAC
16 5 (1.77%) CCIE Security
16 5 (1.77%) CompTIA Security+
17 4 (1.41%) APMG
17 4 (1.41%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 15 (5.30%) NIST
2 10 (3.53%) NCSC
3 7 (2.47%) GDPR
3 7 (2.47%) PCI DSS
3 7 (2.47%) SLA
4 4 (1.41%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (1.06%) RMADS
6 2 (0.71%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.35%) COBIT
7 1 (0.35%) GRC
7 1 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.35%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.35%) QA
7 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
System Software
1 28 (9.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 20 (7.07%) VMware NSX
3 10 (3.53%) Active Directory
4 8 (2.83%) Docker
5 7 (2.47%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (1.77%) Firmware
7 3 (1.06%) Hyper-V
7 3 (1.06%) KVM
7 3 (1.06%) vSphere
8 2 (0.71%) vCloud
9 1 (0.35%) Squid
9 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 58 (20.49%) Ansible
2 32 (11.31%) Terraform
3 30 (10.60%) FortiGate
4 8 (2.83%) Grafana
5 7 (2.47%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.12%) Kubernetes
6 6 (2.12%) vCenter Server
7 4 (1.41%) Iperf
7 4 (1.41%) Nmap
8 3 (1.06%) Nagios
8 3 (1.06%) SCOM
8 3 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.71%) CASB
9 2 (0.71%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.71%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.35%) Nessus
10 1 (0.35%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.35%) QRadar
10 1 (0.35%) VxRail
Vendors
1 201 (71.02%) Cisco
2 84 (29.68%) Palo Alto
3 80 (28.27%) Juniper
4 63 (22.26%) F5
5 47 (16.61%) CheckPoint
6 45 (15.90%) Fortinet
7 36 (12.72%) Aruba
8 33 (11.66%) VMware
9 28 (9.89%) Meraki
10 19 (6.71%) Arista
10 19 (6.71%) SolarWinds
11 17 (6.01%) Zscaler
12 12 (4.24%) Remedy
12 12 (4.24%) ServiceNow
13 11 (3.89%) Nokia
14 10 (3.53%) Ekahau
15 9 (3.18%) Splunk
16 7 (2.47%) Microsoft
16 7 (2.47%) NVIDIA
16 7 (2.47%) Red Hat