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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 284 259 255
Rank change year-on-year -25 -4 +45
Contract jobs citing BGP 451 335 381
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.03% 0.92%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.03% 8.44% 7.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 213 242
10th Percentile £358 £325 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £573 £600 £538
90th Percentile £650 £675 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -2.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 2
10th Percentile £50.15 £37.00 £23.15
25th Percentile £63.34 £38.13 £30.13
Median hourly rate £72.80 £40.00 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.99% -4.76% -40.00%
75th Percentile £78.83 £49.38 £53.63
90th Percentile £87.05 £55.00 £60.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.80 - £19.00
% change year-on-year - - -69.35%

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 4,993 3,967 5,141
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.16% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,011 2,422 3,069
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.25% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £589 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.05% -5.00% +9.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 324 193 383
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.90
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.66
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% +15.63% -16.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.80 £73.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -16.91%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 -18 411 £500 - 77
UK excluding London -26 266 £500 - 49
London -72 124 £488 - 32
Work from Home -37 118 £490 -2.00% 32
South East +15 107 £523 +16.11% 14
North of England -26 98 £500 +5.26% 11
North West -17 74 £500 +2.56% 6
Midlands -35 50 £425 +6.25% 6
West Midlands -35 47 £440 +17.40% 6
South West -46 30 £525 -16.00% 9
Yorkshire -33 17 £495 +41.43% 5
North East -24 13 £650 +160.00%
Scotland -22 8 £400 -8.57% 1
East of England -22 6 £500 -28.57% 7
East Midlands -14 2 - -
Wales -20 2 £425 -6.59%

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 11 (2.44%) OpenStack
2 3 (0.67%) SAS
3 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.22%) Confluence
4 1 (0.22%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (2.44%) MS Visio
2 9 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.67%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 117 (25.94%) Azure
2 93 (20.62%) AWS
3 34 (7.54%) GCP
4 23 (5.10%) OCI
5 18 (3.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 15 (3.33%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (2.88%) SaaS
8 11 (2.44%) GitHub
9 10 (2.22%) Azure Sentinel
10 8 (1.77%) AWS Direct Connect
11 7 (1.55%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (1.55%) Microsoft 365
11 7 (1.55%) OpenShift
12 6 (1.33%) Nutanix
13 4 (0.89%) Entra ID
14 3 (0.67%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 3 (0.67%) Azure DevOps
14 3 (0.67%) Route 53
15 2 (0.44%) AWS CloudFormation
15 2 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 294 (65.19%) OSPF
2 272 (60.31%) Firewall
3 245 (54.32%) WAN
4 153 (33.92%) LAN
5 140 (31.04%) VPN
6 120 (26.61%) VLAN
7 119 (26.39%) VXLAN
8 111 (24.61%) MPLS
9 108 (23.95%) Network Security
10 102 (22.62%) DNS
11 87 (19.29%) Ethernet VPN
12 85 (18.85%) SD-WAN
13 78 (17.29%) Multicast
14 77 (17.07%) TCP/IP
15 67 (14.86%) IPsec
16 63 (13.97%) Wireless
17 61 (13.53%) BIG-IP
18 54 (11.97%) Cisco ASA
19 52 (11.53%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 52 (11.53%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 22 (4.88%) GitLab
2 14 (3.10%) Git
3 9 (2.00%) Sonatype Nexus
4 7 (1.55%) JIRA
5 4 (0.89%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.22%) AppScan
6 1 (0.22%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.22%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.22%) Metasploit
General
1 74 (16.41%) Social Skills
2 50 (11.09%) Finance
3 43 (9.53%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (7.32%) Banking
5 31 (6.87%) Public Sector
6 29 (6.43%) Telecoms
7 20 (4.43%) Documentation Skills
8 19 (4.21%) Investment Banking
9 13 (2.88%) Financial Institution
10 10 (2.22%) Military
11 8 (1.77%) Retail
12 7 (1.55%) Legal
12 7 (1.55%) Police
13 3 (0.67%) German Language
13 3 (0.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.67%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.67%) Spanish Language
14 2 (0.44%) Aviation
14 2 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 258 (57.21%) Network Engineer
2 96 (21.29%) Senior
3 62 (13.75%) Cisco Engineer
4 59 (13.08%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 58 (12.86%) Senior Network Engineer
6 46 (10.20%) Architect
7 45 (9.98%) Security Engineer
8 43 (9.53%) Data Network Engineer
8 43 (9.53%) Network Security Engineer
9 32 (7.10%) Cisco Security Engineer
9 32 (7.10%) Network Architect
10 31 (6.87%) Data Engineer
11 25 (5.54%) Network Specialist
12 22 (4.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 20 (4.43%) Consultant
14 18 (3.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 16 (3.55%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 15 (3.33%) Web Engineer
17 14 (3.10%) Developer
17 14 (3.10%) Firewall Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (8.65%) 802.1X
2 14 (3.10%) REST
3 11 (2.44%) NETCONF
3 11 (2.44%) YANG
4 6 (1.33%) OpenConfig
4 6 (1.33%) RESTCONF
5 4 (0.89%) CSS
5 4 (0.89%) Jinja
5 4 (0.89%) LDAP
6 3 (0.67%) eBPF
7 2 (0.44%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.44%) SAML
8 1 (0.22%) JSON
8 1 (0.22%) Model Context Protocol
8 1 (0.22%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 190 (42.13%) Data Centre
2 51 (11.31%) Hybrid Cloud
3 37 (8.20%) PKI
4 26 (5.76%) Clustering
5 23 (5.10%) Cloud Native
6 10 (2.22%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 10 (2.22%) Private Cloud
7 9 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
8 7 (1.55%) Public Cloud
8 7 (1.55%) Security Posture
9 6 (1.33%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.11%) Digital Signage
10 5 (1.11%) Linux Command Line
10 5 (1.11%) Onboarding
11 4 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
11 4 (0.89%) Management Information System
12 3 (0.67%) Greenfield Project
12 3 (0.67%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 48 (10.64%) Windows
2 19 (4.21%) Linux
3 5 (1.11%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.67%) Ubuntu
4 3 (0.67%) Unix
5 2 (0.44%) VMS
5 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.22%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (25.28%) Load Balancing
2 84 (18.63%) High Availability
3 72 (15.96%) Network Design
4 70 (15.52%) Zero Trust
5 66 (14.63%) Infrastructure as Code
6 65 (14.41%) Migration
7 55 (12.20%) Problem-Solving
8 47 (10.42%) Network Architecture
9 46 (10.20%) ITIL
10 44 (9.76%) Project Delivery
11 42 (9.31%) CI/CD
12 37 (8.20%) Observability
13 36 (7.98%) Change Management
14 35 (7.76%) Validation
15 33 (7.32%) DevOps
15 33 (7.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 33 (7.32%) Network Segmentation
16 29 (6.43%) Mentoring
17 28 (6.21%) Continuous Improvement
18 27 (5.99%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 124 (27.49%) Python
2 10 (2.22%) Bash
3 8 (1.77%) PowerShell
4 6 (1.33%) SQL
5 3 (0.67%) Perl
5 3 (0.67%) PHP
6 2 (0.44%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.22%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 151 (33.48%) Cisco Certification
2 146 (32.37%) Security Cleared
3 107 (23.73%) CCNP
4 85 (18.85%) SC Cleared
5 57 (12.64%) DV Cleared
6 55 (12.20%) CCIE
7 23 (5.10%) Degree
8 22 (4.88%) CCNA
9 14 (3.10%) JNCIE
10 12 (2.66%) JNCIP
11 11 (2.44%) JNCIS
12 10 (2.22%) JNCIA
13 8 (1.77%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.77%) Azure Certification
13 8 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
14 7 (1.55%) CISSP
15 6 (1.33%) GIAC
16 4 (0.89%) ISTQB
16 4 (0.89%) PMP
16 4 (0.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.66%) NCSC
2 9 (2.00%) NIST
3 8 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (0.89%) GDPR
4 4 (0.89%) QA
5 3 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (0.67%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.67%) SLA
6 2 (0.44%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.22%) COBIT
7 1 (0.22%) GRC
7 1 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.22%) RMADS
System Software
1 30 (6.65%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (3.10%) VMware NSX
3 9 (2.00%) Active Directory
4 7 (1.55%) Firmware
4 7 (1.55%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (1.33%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.11%) vSphere
7 4 (0.89%) Docker
8 2 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.44%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.22%) KVM
9 1 (0.22%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 124 (27.49%) Ansible
2 76 (16.85%) Terraform
3 59 (13.08%) FortiGate
4 20 (4.43%) Grafana
5 17 (3.77%) Prometheus
6 13 (2.88%) Kubernetes
7 9 (2.00%) Cisco Prime
8 3 (0.67%) Nagios
8 3 (0.67%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.44%) CASB
9 2 (0.44%) Iperf
9 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.44%) Nmap
9 2 (0.44%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.44%) QRadar
9 2 (0.44%) SCOM
9 2 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.22%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.22%) OPNET
10 1 (0.22%) Puppet
Vendors
1 311 (68.96%) Cisco
2 167 (37.03%) F5
3 131 (29.05%) Palo Alto
4 101 (22.39%) Fortinet
5 95 (21.06%) Juniper
6 84 (18.63%) Arista
7 43 (9.53%) Aruba
7 43 (9.53%) CheckPoint
7 43 (9.53%) SolarWinds
8 41 (9.09%) VMware
9 32 (7.10%) Splunk
10 27 (5.99%) Microsoft
11 26 (5.76%) Extreme Networks
12 22 (4.88%) Zscaler
13 18 (3.99%) Meraki
14 10 (2.22%) Citrix
14 10 (2.22%) Google
15 7 (1.55%) Ekahau
15 7 (1.55%) ServiceNow
16 5 (1.11%) HP