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

6 months to
4 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 201 234
Rank change year-on-year -109 +33 +161
Contract jobs citing BGP 311 386 449
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.74% 1.28% 1.01%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.24% 9.71% 7.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 234 248
10th Percentile £286 £381 £315
25th Percentile £400 £428 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £525 £493
Median % change year-on-year -15.24% +6.60% -1.50%
75th Percentile £525 £652 £589
90th Percentile £588 £800 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £448 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.50% +11.11% -10.00%
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% +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 4,293 3,974 5,960
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.19% 13.23% 13.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,798 2,399 3,576
10th Percentile £205 £208 £205
25th Percentile £363 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £500 £480
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -0.32% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 176 132 388
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.52 £14.27
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.46 £19.98
Median hourly rate £34.50 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -12.50% +107.25%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.88 £73.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +31.93% -33.07% +150.00%

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 4 March 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 4 March 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 4 March 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 -101 269 £445 -13.17% 110
UK excluding London -78 183 £448 -10.50% 104
Work from Home -58 98 £438 -23.91% 22
London -83 89 £425 -16.67% 21
South East +1 85 £445 -25.83% 42
West Midlands -15 49 £400 -5.88% 9
Midlands -25 49 £400 -5.88% 16
North of England -87 45 £550 +4.76% 16
North West -62 41 £550 +4.76% 6
Scotland +8 12 £425 - 5
South West -47 11 £525 +5.00% 10
Yorkshire -61 4 £545 +98.18% 10
Wales -9 3 £425 -5.56% 7
North East -11 3 £550 -
East of England -29 1 - - 11

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 (3.86%) SharePoint
2 8 (2.57%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.29%) Confluence
Applications
1 16 (5.14%) MS Visio
2 7 (2.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 54 (17.36%) AWS
2 42 (13.50%) Azure
3 25 (8.04%) GCP
4 17 (5.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 10 (3.22%) AWS Direct Connect
5 10 (3.22%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (2.25%) Route 53
7 6 (1.93%) SaaS
8 5 (1.61%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (1.29%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (1.29%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 4 (1.29%) IaaS
9 4 (1.29%) PaaS
10 3 (0.96%) Amazon S3
10 3 (0.96%) Catchpoint
10 3 (0.96%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.64%) AWS Control Tower
11 2 (0.64%) Microsoft 365
11 2 (0.64%) Nutanix
11 2 (0.64%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 204 (65.59%) OSPF
2 198 (63.67%) Firewall
3 166 (53.38%) WAN
4 119 (38.26%) LAN
5 112 (36.01%) VPN
6 96 (30.87%) MPLS
7 86 (27.65%) Network Security
8 70 (22.51%) DNS
9 65 (20.90%) IPsec
9 65 (20.90%) VLAN
10 64 (20.58%) VXLAN
11 53 (17.04%) SD-WAN
12 50 (16.08%) Ethernet VPN
13 48 (15.43%) Cisco ASA
14 46 (14.79%) Wireless
15 44 (14.15%) DHCP
15 44 (14.15%) EIGRP
16 42 (13.50%) Multicast
17 41 (13.18%) Cisco ISE
18 37 (11.90%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.32%) Redis
1 1 (0.32%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (4.18%) Git
2 8 (2.57%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (1.29%) GitLab
4 2 (0.64%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.64%) JIRA
5 1 (0.32%) AppScan
5 1 (0.32%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.32%) Metasploit
General
1 66 (21.22%) Social Skills
2 38 (12.22%) Documentation Skills
3 32 (10.29%) Public Sector
4 31 (9.97%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (9.00%) Finance
6 22 (7.07%) Banking
7 19 (6.11%) Telecoms
8 16 (5.14%) Investment Banking
9 15 (4.82%) Manufacturing
10 14 (4.50%) Financial Institution
11 13 (4.18%) Military
12 6 (1.93%) Legal
12 6 (1.93%) Marketing
13 4 (1.29%) French Language
13 4 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (1.29%) Retail
14 3 (0.96%) Electronics
15 2 (0.64%) Aviation
15 2 (0.64%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 174 (55.95%) Network Engineer
2 40 (12.86%) Architect
2 40 (12.86%) Cisco Engineer
3 36 (11.58%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 31 (9.97%) Senior
5 30 (9.65%) Security Engineer
6 27 (8.68%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 26 (8.36%) Network Architect
8 25 (8.04%) Network Security Engineer
9 18 (5.79%) Senior Network Engineer
10 17 (5.47%) Data Network Engineer
11 16 (5.14%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 16 (5.14%) Data Engineer
11 16 (5.14%) Network Specialist
12 13 (4.18%) Juniper Engineer
13 11 (3.54%) WAN Engineer
14 10 (3.22%) Design Engineer
14 10 (3.22%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 9 (2.89%) Solutions Architect
15 9 (2.89%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (9.97%) 802.1X
2 8 (2.57%) NETCONF
2 8 (2.57%) YANG
3 6 (1.93%) LDAP
3 6 (1.93%) REST
4 4 (1.29%) OpenConfig
4 4 (1.29%) VML
5 3 (0.96%) RESTCONF
5 3 (0.96%) SAML
6 2 (0.64%) AWS CDK
6 2 (0.64%) CSS
6 2 (0.64%) HTML
6 2 (0.64%) Jinja
6 2 (0.64%) JSON
6 2 (0.64%) RFC 2544
6 2 (0.64%) XML
7 1 (0.32%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.32%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 124 (39.87%) Data Centre
2 48 (15.43%) PKI
3 18 (5.79%) Clustering
4 13 (4.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.89%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.25%) Cloud Native
7 6 (1.93%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.93%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.61%) NHS
8 5 (1.61%) Onboarding
8 5 (1.61%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.29%) SCADA
10 3 (0.96%) CESG
10 3 (0.96%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (0.96%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (0.96%) Private Cloud
10 3 (0.96%) Public Cloud
10 3 (0.96%) Security Posture
10 3 (0.96%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 35 (11.25%) Windows
2 24 (7.72%) Linux
3 10 (3.22%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.25%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.32%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.32%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (21.22%) Load Balancing
2 52 (16.72%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (13.18%) Network Design
4 38 (12.22%) High Availability
5 31 (9.97%) Migration
6 30 (9.65%) Cybersecurity
7 27 (8.68%) Network Monitoring
8 26 (8.36%) Change Management
8 26 (8.36%) Zero Trust
9 24 (7.72%) Observability
10 22 (7.07%) Project Delivery
11 21 (6.75%) Identity Access Management
11 21 (6.75%) Network Segmentation
12 20 (6.43%) ITIL
12 20 (6.43%) Network Architecture
12 20 (6.43%) Stakeholder Management
13 18 (5.79%) Roadmaps
14 17 (5.47%) ITSM
15 16 (5.14%) Continuous Improvement
15 16 (5.14%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 62 (19.94%) Python
2 17 (5.47%) Bash
3 12 (3.86%) PowerShell
4 10 (3.22%) Perl
5 9 (2.89%) Lisp
6 4 (1.29%) PHP
7 2 (0.64%) C++
7 2 (0.64%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.64%) SQL
Qualifications
1 146 (46.95%) Cisco Certification
2 134 (43.09%) Security Cleared
3 119 (38.26%) CCNP
4 102 (32.80%) SC Cleared
5 46 (14.79%) CCIE
6 38 (12.22%) DV Cleared
7 27 (8.68%) Degree
8 26 (8.36%) CCNA
9 20 (6.43%) JNCIS
10 18 (5.79%) JNCIP
11 14 (4.50%) JNCIA
12 13 (4.18%) JNCIE
13 11 (3.54%) AWS Certification
13 11 (3.54%) CISSP
14 9 (2.89%) CCDP
15 7 (2.25%) GIAC
16 5 (1.61%) Azure Certification
16 5 (1.61%) CCIE Security
16 5 (1.61%) CompTIA Security+
16 5 (1.61%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.14%) NIST
2 15 (4.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (3.54%) NCSC
4 10 (3.22%) SLA
5 7 (2.25%) GDPR
5 7 (2.25%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.29%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.96%) RMADS
8 2 (0.64%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.64%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.32%) COBIT
9 1 (0.32%) GRC
9 1 (0.32%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.32%) QA
9 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 25 (8.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (5.14%) VMware NSX
3 11 (3.54%) Active Directory
4 10 (3.22%) Docker
5 8 (2.57%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.29%) Firmware
7 3 (0.96%) vSphere
8 2 (0.64%) vCloud
9 1 (0.32%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.32%) KVM
9 1 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 55 (17.68%) Ansible
2 50 (16.08%) FortiGate
3 31 (9.97%) Terraform
4 11 (3.54%) Grafana
5 9 (2.89%) Prometheus
6 6 (1.93%) Kubernetes
6 6 (1.93%) vCenter Server
7 5 (1.61%) Nagios
8 3 (0.96%) Iperf
8 3 (0.96%) Nmap
8 3 (0.96%) SCOM
8 3 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.64%) CASB
9 2 (0.64%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.64%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.64%) VxRail
10 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.32%) Nessus
10 1 (0.32%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.32%) QRadar
Vendors
1 227 (72.99%) Cisco
2 92 (29.58%) Juniper
3 88 (28.30%) F5
3 88 (28.30%) Palo Alto
4 49 (15.76%) CheckPoint
5 47 (15.11%) Fortinet
6 37 (11.90%) Aruba
7 35 (11.25%) SolarWinds
8 31 (9.97%) VMware
9 29 (9.32%) Meraki
10 25 (8.04%) Splunk
11 23 (7.40%) Arista
12 21 (6.75%) Zscaler
13 20 (6.43%) Extreme Networks
14 12 (3.86%) Remedy
14 12 (3.86%) ServiceNow
15 11 (3.54%) Nokia
16 10 (3.22%) Ekahau
17 9 (2.89%) Microsoft
18 7 (2.25%) Dell