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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 317 287 258
Rank change year-on-year -30 -29 +18
Contract jobs citing BGP 426 287 365
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.78% 0.87% 0.95%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.35% 7.56% 7.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 187 209
10th Percentile £380 £325 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £606 £588
90th Percentile £700 £664 £726
UK excluding London median daily rate £511 £475 £505
% change year-on-year +7.47% -5.94% +3.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 4
10th Percentile £49.70 £37.38 £23.45
25th Percentile £57.59 £39.06 £30.88
Median hourly rate £68.75 £48.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.03% +33.56% -39.17%
75th Percentile - £60.88 £44.75
90th Percentile £73.25 £64.70 £56.90
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 5,104 3,795 4,598
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.30% 11.47% 12.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,949 2,369 2,648
10th Percentile £231 £222 £225
25th Percentile £390 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £490
% change year-on-year +5.56% -8.16% +5.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 425 202 227
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £23.45
Median hourly rate £33.00 £42.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.35% -15.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £72.72 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -32.94% -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 26 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 26 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BGP in the UK

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 26 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 -14 389 £500 - 266
UK excluding London -22 239 £511 +7.47% 108
London -66 128 £500 - 170
Work from Home -29 106 £500 -2.44% 86
North of England +3 101 £500 +5.26% 21
North West +7 72 £488 +2.63% 13
South East -47 63 £525 +5.00% 30
Midlands -40 41 £571 +38.36% 13
West Midlands -41 39 £571 +42.69% 9
South West -33 31 £525 -16.83% 9
Yorkshire -21 22 £495 +23.75% 7
East of England -24 18 £500 -28.57% 22
North East -27 13 £650 +160.00% 1
Scotland -26 11 £375 -11.76% 12
East Midlands -14 2 - - 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 (3.29%) OpenStack
2 8 (1.88%) SAS
3 4 (0.94%) Confluence
3 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.23%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.11%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.41%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.70%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 105 (24.65%) Azure
2 83 (19.48%) AWS
3 28 (6.57%) GCP
4 23 (5.40%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 23 (5.40%) GitHub
4 23 (5.40%) OCI
5 14 (3.29%) AWS Direct Connect
6 13 (3.05%) SaaS
7 10 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
8 8 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (1.64%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (1.64%) OpenShift
10 6 (1.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.17%) Nutanix
12 4 (0.94%) Entra ID
13 2 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
13 2 (0.47%) IBM Watson
14 1 (0.23%) AWS Lambda
14 1 (0.23%) GitHub Actions
14 1 (0.23%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 239 (56.10%) OSPF
2 234 (54.93%) Firewall
3 194 (45.54%) WAN
4 132 (30.99%) VPN
5 117 (27.46%) VLAN
6 112 (26.29%) LAN
7 104 (24.41%) MPLS
8 102 (23.94%) VXLAN
9 96 (22.54%) Network Security
10 86 (20.19%) SD-WAN
11 81 (19.01%) DNS
11 81 (19.01%) Ethernet VPN
12 70 (16.43%) TCP/IP
13 65 (15.26%) IPsec
14 64 (15.02%) Wireless
15 59 (13.85%) Wi-Fi
16 56 (13.15%) Multicast
17 54 (12.68%) Cisco Nexus
18 53 (12.44%) EIGRP
19 47 (11.03%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.23%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 30 (7.04%) GitLab
2 27 (6.34%) Git
3 7 (1.64%) JIRA
3 7 (1.64%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.23%) Jenkins
General
1 73 (17.14%) Social Skills
2 47 (11.03%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (10.56%) Finance
4 33 (7.75%) Telecoms
5 29 (6.81%) Banking
6 26 (6.10%) Public Sector
7 16 (3.76%) Investment Banking
8 13 (3.05%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.88%) Legal
10 7 (1.64%) Police
10 7 (1.64%) Retail
11 5 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.17%) Military
12 4 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.70%) German Language
13 3 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.70%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.70%) Spanish Language
14 2 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 254 (59.62%) Network Engineer
2 97 (22.77%) Senior
3 64 (15.02%) Senior Network Engineer
4 52 (12.21%) Cisco Engineer
5 49 (11.50%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 48 (11.27%) Architect
7 38 (8.92%) Network Architect
8 37 (8.69%) Security Engineer
9 35 (8.22%) Network Security Engineer
10 34 (7.98%) Consultant
11 31 (7.28%) Data Network Engineer
12 24 (5.63%) Cisco Security Engineer
13 23 (5.40%) Data Engineer
13 23 (5.40%) Network Consultant
14 19 (4.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 18 (4.23%) Network Specialist
16 17 (3.99%) Developer
16 17 (3.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 13 (3.05%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
18 12 (2.82%) Operations Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (16.90%) Terraform
2 30 (7.04%) REST
3 19 (4.46%) 802.1X
4 17 (3.99%) YAML
5 16 (3.76%) NETCONF
6 15 (3.52%) JSON
7 14 (3.29%) YANG
8 6 (1.41%) RESTCONF
9 5 (1.17%) OpenConfig
10 4 (0.94%) CSS
11 3 (0.70%) eBPF
11 3 (0.70%) SAML
12 2 (0.47%) gRPC
12 2 (0.47%) 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
1 172 (40.38%) Data Centre
2 50 (11.74%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (6.57%) Cloud Native
4 14 (3.29%) PKI
4 14 (3.29%) Self-Motivation
5 12 (2.82%) Private Cloud
6 10 (2.35%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 8 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (1.88%) Digital Signage
7 8 (1.88%) Public Cloud
8 6 (1.41%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.41%) Operational Technology
8 6 (1.41%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.17%) CMDB
9 5 (1.17%) Data Structures
9 5 (1.17%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (0.94%) Clustering
10 4 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.94%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 39 (9.15%) Windows
2 29 (6.81%) Linux
3 11 (2.58%) Windows Server
4 9 (2.11%) 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 88 (20.66%) Load Balancing
2 81 (19.01%) Infrastructure as Code
2 81 (19.01%) Migration
3 72 (16.90%) Network Design
3 72 (16.90%) Zero Trust
4 71 (16.67%) High Availability
5 49 (11.50%) Problem-Solving
5 49 (11.50%) Validation
6 46 (10.80%) CI/CD
7 45 (10.56%) Network Architecture
8 40 (9.39%) Project Delivery
9 38 (8.92%) ITIL
10 37 (8.69%) DevOps
11 35 (8.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 35 (8.22%) Network Segmentation
12 31 (7.28%) Technical Leadership
13 30 (7.04%) Change Control
14 28 (6.57%) Runbook
15 27 (6.34%) Mentoring
15 27 (6.34%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 128 (30.05%) Python
2 13 (3.05%) Bash
3 9 (2.11%) PowerShell
4 5 (1.17%) SQL
5 3 (0.70%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.47%) Go
6 2 (0.47%) Perl
7 1 (0.23%) C++
7 1 (0.23%) Java
Qualifications
1 128 (30.05%) Security Cleared
2 117 (27.46%) Cisco Certification
3 90 (21.13%) CCNP
4 71 (16.67%) SC Cleared
5 52 (12.21%) DV Cleared
6 48 (11.27%) CCIE
7 24 (5.63%) CCNA
8 16 (3.76%) Degree
9 14 (3.29%) JNCIE
10 4 (0.94%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.94%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.94%) CCIE Security
10 4 (0.94%) CISSP
10 4 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
10 4 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (0.47%) CWNA
11 2 (0.47%) JNCIP
11 2 (0.47%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.47%) PMP
12 1 (0.23%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (1.41%) NIST
2 4 (0.94%) NCSC
3 3 (0.70%) GDPR
3 3 (0.70%) NIST 800
3 3 (0.70%) QA
4 2 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.47%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.47%) SLA
5 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.23%) Data Quality
System Software
1 33 (7.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (4.46%) VMware NSX
3 15 (3.52%) Active Directory
4 11 (2.58%) vSphere
5 10 (2.35%) Docker
6 8 (1.88%) Hyper-V
7 6 (1.41%) Firmware
8 3 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.23%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 124 (29.11%) Ansible
2 39 (9.15%) FortiGate
3 19 (4.46%) Kubernetes
4 11 (2.58%) Cisco Prime
4 11 (2.58%) Nagios
5 10 (2.35%) Grafana
6 9 (2.11%) Prometheus
7 6 (1.41%) Cilium
8 4 (0.94%) Istio
9 2 (0.47%) Puppet
9 2 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.47%) VxRail
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
Vendors
1 300 (70.42%) Cisco
2 123 (28.87%) Palo Alto
3 122 (28.64%) F5
4 93 (21.83%) Fortinet
5 77 (18.08%) Arista
6 53 (12.44%) Juniper
7 49 (11.50%) VMware
8 41 (9.62%) Aruba
9 38 (8.92%) CheckPoint
10 32 (7.51%) Microsoft
10 32 (7.51%) SolarWinds
11 18 (4.23%) ServiceNow
12 17 (3.99%) Meraki
12 17 (3.99%) Zscaler
13 12 (2.82%) Red Hat
14 11 (2.58%) Splunk
15 8 (1.88%) Google
16 7 (1.64%) Citrix
16 7 (1.64%) Dell
16 7 (1.64%) Infoblox