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 22 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 308 272 263
Rank change year-on-year -36 -9 +6
Contract jobs citing BGP 431 296 339
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 0.91% 0.89%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.45% 7.88% 7.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 191 196
10th Percentile £380 £325 £344
25th Percentile £425 £410 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £575
90th Percentile £700 £664 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £465 £505
% change year-on-year +9.68% -7.92% +3.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 4 3
10th Percentile £48.93 £37.38 £22.40
25th Percentile £56.53 £39.06 £28.25
Median hourly rate £68.75 £48.75 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.03% +28.29% -36.67%
75th Percentile - £60.88 £51.50
90th Percentile £75.63 £64.70 £59.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £68.75 £66.50 £19.00
% change year-on-year +3.38% +250.00% -68.85%

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 5,099 3,757 4,513
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.34% 11.57% 11.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,952 2,332 2,627
10th Percentile £235 £225 £227
25th Percentile £395 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £500
% change year-on-year +4.86% -9.40% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 418 199 235
10th Percentile £14.19 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.08 £22.93
Median hourly rate £33.64 £42.50 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.85% -17.48% -8.83%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.74 £73.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -23.53% -25.89% -0.26%

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 22 September 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 22 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Top 16 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 22 September 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 -39 392 £500 - 218
UK excluding London -30 242 £510 +9.68% 110
London -61 128 £500 - 116
Work from Home -39 107 £500 - 79
North of England +6 103 £500 +5.26% 21
North West -2 74 £488 +2.63% 16
South East -39 65 £525 +5.00% 31
Midlands -48 40 £571 +42.69% 13
West Midlands -48 37 £571 +42.69% 10
South West -31 32 £525 -16.67% 12
Yorkshire -24 22 £495 +23.75% 4
East of England -24 16 £500 -28.57% 25
North East -23 13 £650 +160.00% 1
Scotland -27 11 £375 -11.76% 7
East Midlands -12 3 - - 3
Wales -9 1 £425 +6.25% 2

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 (3.25%) OpenStack
2 8 (1.86%) SAS
3 4 (0.93%) Confluence
3 4 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.23%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.09%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.70%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 106 (24.59%) Azure
2 84 (19.49%) AWS
3 29 (6.73%) GCP
4 23 (5.34%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 23 (5.34%) GitHub
4 23 (5.34%) OCI
5 13 (3.02%) AWS Direct Connect
5 13 (3.02%) SaaS
6 10 (2.32%) Microsoft 365
7 8 (1.86%) Azure Monitor
8 7 (1.62%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (1.62%) OpenShift
8 7 (1.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 5 (1.16%) Nutanix
10 3 (0.70%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.46%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 2 (0.46%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (0.46%) IBM Watson
12 1 (0.23%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 1 (0.23%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 242 (56.15%) OSPF
2 236 (54.76%) Firewall
3 197 (45.71%) WAN
4 132 (30.63%) VPN
5 122 (28.31%) VLAN
6 111 (25.75%) LAN
7 104 (24.13%) VXLAN
8 103 (23.90%) MPLS
9 93 (21.58%) Network Security
10 86 (19.95%) SD-WAN
11 83 (19.26%) DNS
12 82 (19.03%) Ethernet VPN
13 70 (16.24%) TCP/IP
14 65 (15.08%) IPsec
14 65 (15.08%) Wireless
15 59 (13.69%) Wi-Fi
16 57 (13.23%) Multicast
17 54 (12.53%) Cisco Nexus
18 53 (12.30%) EIGRP
19 49 (11.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.23%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 29 (6.73%) GitLab
2 26 (6.03%) Git
3 7 (1.62%) JIRA
3 7 (1.62%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.23%) Jenkins
General
1 73 (16.94%) Social Skills
2 47 (10.90%) Analytical Skills
3 44 (10.21%) Finance
4 32 (7.42%) Telecoms
5 28 (6.50%) Banking
6 27 (6.26%) Public Sector
7 16 (3.71%) Investment Banking
8 13 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.86%) Legal
9 8 (1.86%) Retail
10 7 (1.62%) Police
11 6 (1.39%) Military
12 5 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.93%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.70%) German Language
14 3 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.70%) Italian Language
14 3 (0.70%) Spanish Language
15 2 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 257 (59.63%) Network Engineer
2 97 (22.51%) Senior
3 63 (14.62%) Senior Network Engineer
4 53 (12.30%) Cisco Engineer
5 50 (11.60%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 47 (10.90%) Architect
7 36 (8.35%) Network Architect
7 36 (8.35%) Security Engineer
8 34 (7.89%) Consultant
8 34 (7.89%) Network Security Engineer
9 33 (7.66%) Data Network Engineer
10 24 (5.57%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 23 (5.34%) Data Engineer
11 23 (5.34%) Network Consultant
12 20 (4.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 19 (4.41%) Network Specialist
14 18 (4.18%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 17 (3.94%) Developer
16 13 (3.02%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 12 (2.78%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (16.94%) Terraform
2 28 (6.50%) REST
3 20 (4.64%) 802.1X
4 16 (3.71%) YAML
5 15 (3.48%) NETCONF
6 14 (3.25%) JSON
7 13 (3.02%) YANG
8 6 (1.39%) RESTCONF
9 5 (1.16%) OpenConfig
10 4 (0.93%) CSS
11 3 (0.70%) eBPF
11 3 (0.70%) SAML
12 2 (0.46%) gRPC
12 2 (0.46%) Spine.js
13 1 (0.23%) Django
13 1 (0.23%) LDAP
13 1 (0.23%) Model Context Protocol
13 1 (0.23%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 173 (40.14%) Data Centre
2 51 (11.83%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (6.50%) Cloud Native
4 15 (3.48%) PKI
5 12 (2.78%) Private Cloud
5 12 (2.78%) Self-Motivation
6 10 (2.32%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 8 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (1.86%) Digital Signage
7 8 (1.86%) Public Cloud
8 7 (1.62%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.39%) Operational Technology
9 6 (1.39%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.16%) Clustering
10 5 (1.16%) CMDB
10 5 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
11 4 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (0.93%) Data Structures
11 4 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
12 3 (0.70%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 36 (8.35%) Windows
2 26 (6.03%) Linux
3 9 (2.09%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.70%) Unix
5 3 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.23%) VMS
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (20.88%) Load Balancing
2 81 (18.79%) Migration
3 79 (18.33%) Infrastructure as Code
4 74 (17.17%) High Availability
5 73 (16.94%) Network Design
6 72 (16.71%) Zero Trust
7 50 (11.60%) Validation
8 48 (11.14%) Problem-Solving
9 45 (10.44%) CI/CD
9 45 (10.44%) Network Architecture
10 43 (9.98%) Project Delivery
11 39 (9.05%) ITIL
12 36 (8.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 35 (8.12%) Network Segmentation
14 34 (7.89%) DevOps
15 30 (6.96%) Technical Leadership
16 28 (6.50%) Change Control
16 28 (6.50%) Mentoring
16 28 (6.50%) Runbook
17 26 (6.03%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 129 (29.93%) Python
2 13 (3.02%) Bash
3 9 (2.09%) PowerShell
4 5 (1.16%) SQL
5 3 (0.70%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.46%) Go
6 2 (0.46%) Perl
7 1 (0.23%) C++
7 1 (0.23%) Java
Qualifications
1 131 (30.39%) Security Cleared
2 118 (27.38%) Cisco Certification
3 90 (20.88%) CCNP
4 76 (17.63%) SC Cleared
5 49 (11.37%) DV Cleared
6 47 (10.90%) CCIE
7 23 (5.34%) CCNA
8 17 (3.94%) Degree
9 14 (3.25%) JNCIE
10 5 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (0.93%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.93%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.93%) CCIE Security
11 4 (0.93%) CISSP
11 4 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (0.46%) CWNA
12 2 (0.46%) JNCIP
12 2 (0.46%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.46%) PMP
13 1 (0.23%) CCDE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (1.16%) NIST
2 4 (0.93%) NCSC
3 3 (0.70%) GDPR
3 3 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.70%) QA
4 2 (0.46%) NIST 800
4 2 (0.46%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.23%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.23%) SLA
System Software
1 30 (6.96%) VMware Infrastructure
2 18 (4.18%) VMware NSX
3 13 (3.02%) Active Directory
4 9 (2.09%) vSphere
5 8 (1.86%) Docker
5 8 (1.86%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.39%) Firmware
7 3 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.23%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 125 (29.00%) Ansible
2 41 (9.51%) FortiGate
3 19 (4.41%) Kubernetes
4 11 (2.55%) Cisco Prime
4 11 (2.55%) Grafana
5 10 (2.32%) Prometheus
6 9 (2.09%) Nagios
7 6 (1.39%) Cilium
8 4 (0.93%) Istio
9 2 (0.46%) Puppet
9 2 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.23%) CASB
10 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.23%) OPNET
10 1 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.23%) QRadar
10 1 (0.23%) Rancher
10 1 (0.23%) Suricata
10 1 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 303 (70.30%) Cisco
2 126 (29.23%) F5
3 124 (28.77%) Palo Alto
4 93 (21.58%) Fortinet
5 79 (18.33%) Arista
6 57 (13.23%) Juniper
7 46 (10.67%) VMware
8 40 (9.28%) Aruba
9 39 (9.05%) CheckPoint
10 31 (7.19%) Microsoft
10 31 (7.19%) SolarWinds
11 18 (4.18%) Zscaler
12 17 (3.94%) Meraki
12 17 (3.94%) ServiceNow
13 12 (2.78%) Splunk
14 11 (2.55%) Red Hat
15 8 (1.86%) Google
16 7 (1.62%) Citrix
16 7 (1.62%) Dell
17 6 (1.39%) Nokia