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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 269 266
Rank change year-on-year -22 -3 +13
Contract jobs citing BGP 444 316 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.83% 0.96% 0.91%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.84% 8.10% 7.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 200 224
10th Percentile £375 £325 £299
25th Percentile £413 £411 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £580 £602 £538
90th Percentile £670 £665 £579
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - -2.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 3 2
10th Percentile £44.80 £37.00 £23.15
25th Percentile £50.72 £38.13 £30.13
Median hourly rate £64.79 £40.00 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year +61.98% -4.76% -32.26%
75th Percentile £73.31 £49.38 £53.63
90th Percentile £83.14 £55.00 £60.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.25 - £19.00
% change year-on-year - - -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 5,020 3,900 4,751
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.41% 11.84% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,384 2,884
10th Percentile £250 £250 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 200 319
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.88 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.53% -4.34% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.10 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -2.86%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -12 409 £500 - 122
UK excluding London -26 266 £500 +5.26% 52
London -78 125 £500 - 79
Work from Home -33 110 £500 - 39
North of England +2 104 £500 +5.26% 11
South East +1 101 £525 +16.67% 18
North West +2 79 £500 +5.26% 4
Midlands -40 48 £419 +4.69% 9
West Midlands -29 45 £413 +10.00% 9
South West -37 31 £525 -16.33% 5
Yorkshire -25 18 £495 -1.00% 6
North East -30 13 £650 +160.00% 1
Scotland -11 9 £375 -11.76% 3
East of England -21 6 £500 -28.57% 5
Wales -15 2 £425 -6.59% 1
East Midlands -18 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 12 (2.70%) OpenStack
2 4 (0.90%) SAS
3 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.45%) Confluence
5 1 (0.23%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (2.48%) MS Visio
2 8 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.68%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 111 (25.00%) Azure
2 87 (19.59%) AWS
3 26 (5.86%) GCP
4 23 (5.18%) OCI
5 20 (4.50%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 13 (2.93%) GitHub
6 13 (2.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 12 (2.70%) SaaS
8 9 (2.03%) AWS Direct Connect
9 7 (1.58%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (1.58%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (1.58%) OpenShift
10 6 (1.35%) Nutanix
11 5 (1.13%) Microsoft 365
12 3 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
13 2 (0.45%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.45%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 2 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
13 2 (0.45%) Entra ID
13 2 (0.45%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 278 (62.61%) OSPF
2 264 (59.46%) Firewall
3 233 (52.48%) WAN
4 144 (32.43%) LAN
5 131 (29.50%) VPN
6 125 (28.15%) VXLAN
7 115 (25.90%) VLAN
8 104 (23.42%) DNS
9 103 (23.20%) MPLS
10 93 (20.95%) Network Security
11 90 (20.27%) Ethernet VPN
12 87 (19.59%) SD-WAN
13 71 (15.99%) TCP/IP
14 69 (15.54%) Multicast
15 65 (14.64%) Wireless
16 64 (14.41%) IPsec
17 62 (13.96%) BIG-IP
18 57 (12.84%) Wi-Fi
19 54 (12.16%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
20 53 (11.94%) DHCP
Development Applications
1 25 (5.63%) GitLab
2 15 (3.38%) Git
3 7 (1.58%) JIRA
3 7 (1.58%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (0.90%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
General
1 69 (15.54%) Social Skills
2 45 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
3 44 (9.91%) Finance
4 30 (6.76%) Banking
4 30 (6.76%) Public Sector
5 26 (5.86%) Telecoms
6 19 (4.28%) Investment Banking
7 12 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.48%) Financial Institution
9 10 (2.25%) Military
10 8 (1.80%) Legal
10 8 (1.80%) Retail
11 7 (1.58%) Police
12 4 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.68%) German Language
13 3 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.68%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.68%) Spanish Language
14 2 (0.45%) Law
14 2 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 260 (58.56%) Network Engineer
2 92 (20.72%) Senior
3 62 (13.96%) Cisco Engineer
4 60 (13.51%) Senior Network Engineer
5 59 (13.29%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 47 (10.59%) Architect
7 43 (9.68%) Data Network Engineer
8 42 (9.46%) Network Security Engineer
8 42 (9.46%) Security Engineer
9 33 (7.43%) Network Architect
10 32 (7.21%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 31 (6.98%) Data Engineer
12 27 (6.08%) Network Specialist
13 22 (4.95%) Consultant
14 20 (4.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 18 (4.05%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 17 (3.83%) Developer
17 15 (3.38%) Web Engineer
18 14 (3.15%) Firewall Specialist
18 14 (3.15%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (9.01%) 802.1X
2 16 (3.60%) REST
3 12 (2.70%) NETCONF
3 12 (2.70%) YANG
4 7 (1.58%) OpenConfig
5 6 (1.35%) RESTCONF
6 4 (0.90%) CSS
6 4 (0.90%) Jinja
6 4 (0.90%) JSON
6 4 (0.90%) YAML
7 3 (0.68%) eBPF
8 2 (0.45%) SAML
9 1 (0.23%) LDAP
9 1 (0.23%) Model Context Protocol
9 1 (0.23%) Spine.js
Miscellaneous
1 181 (40.77%) Data Centre
2 51 (11.49%) Hybrid Cloud
3 34 (7.66%) PKI
4 26 (5.86%) Clustering
5 24 (5.41%) Cloud Native
6 10 (2.25%) Analytical Mindset
6 10 (2.25%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 10 (2.25%) Private Cloud
7 9 (2.03%) Self-Motivation
8 7 (1.58%) Operational Technology
8 7 (1.58%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.13%) Digital Signage
9 5 (1.13%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (1.13%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.13%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.90%) CMDB
10 4 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (0.68%) Distributed Applications
11 3 (0.68%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 46 (10.36%) Windows
2 15 (3.38%) Linux
3 5 (1.13%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.68%) Unix
4 3 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.23%) VMS
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (25.23%) Load Balancing
2 88 (19.82%) High Availability
3 72 (16.22%) Network Design
4 67 (15.09%) Infrastructure as Code
4 67 (15.09%) Migration
4 67 (15.09%) Zero Trust
5 55 (12.39%) Problem-Solving
6 49 (11.04%) ITIL
7 45 (10.14%) Project Delivery
8 44 (9.91%) Network Architecture
9 41 (9.23%) CI/CD
10 38 (8.56%) Observability
10 38 (8.56%) Validation
11 32 (7.21%) DevOps
11 32 (7.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 32 (7.21%) Network Segmentation
12 28 (6.31%) Change Management
12 28 (6.31%) Mentoring
12 28 (6.31%) Network Monitoring
13 27 (6.08%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 117 (26.35%) Python
2 8 (1.80%) Bash
3 6 (1.35%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.35%) SQL
4 3 (0.68%) Shell Script
5 2 (0.45%) Perl
Qualifications
1 143 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 140 (31.53%) Cisco Certification
3 93 (20.95%) CCNP
4 75 (16.89%) SC Cleared
5 57 (12.84%) DV Cleared
6 51 (11.49%) CCIE
7 22 (4.95%) CCNA
8 20 (4.50%) Degree
9 14 (3.15%) JNCIE
10 8 (1.80%) Azure Certification
10 8 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.80%) JNCIA
10 8 (1.80%) JNCIP
10 8 (1.80%) JNCIS
11 6 (1.35%) AWS Certification
12 4 (0.90%) CISSP
12 4 (0.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 3 (0.68%) CCIE Security
13 3 (0.68%) PMP
13 3 (0.68%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (1.13%) NCSC
1 5 (1.13%) NIST
2 3 (0.68%) GDPR
2 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (0.68%) QA
2 3 (0.68%) SLA
3 2 (0.45%) NIST 800
3 2 (0.45%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 30 (6.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (3.15%) VMware NSX
3 8 (1.80%) Firmware
4 7 (1.58%) Active Directory
4 7 (1.58%) Hyper-V
5 6 (1.35%) Docker
6 4 (0.90%) vSphere
7 3 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.23%) KVM
9 1 (0.23%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 116 (26.13%) Ansible
2 73 (16.44%) Terraform
3 62 (13.96%) FortiGate
4 17 (3.83%) Kubernetes
5 16 (3.60%) Grafana
6 14 (3.15%) Prometheus
7 8 (1.80%) Cisco Prime
8 6 (1.35%) Nagios
9 2 (0.45%) Cilium
9 2 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.23%) CASB
10 1 (0.23%) Istio
10 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.23%) OPNET
10 1 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.23%) Puppet
10 1 (0.23%) QRadar
10 1 (0.23%) Rancher
10 1 (0.23%) Suricata
10 1 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 311 (70.05%) Cisco
2 166 (37.39%) F5
3 128 (28.83%) Palo Alto
4 102 (22.97%) Fortinet
5 83 (18.69%) Juniper
6 79 (17.79%) Arista
7 48 (10.81%) SolarWinds
8 42 (9.46%) Aruba
8 42 (9.46%) VMware
9 39 (8.78%) CheckPoint
10 31 (6.98%) Splunk
11 28 (6.31%) Microsoft
12 24 (5.41%) Extreme Networks
13 20 (4.50%) Zscaler
14 19 (4.28%) Meraki
15 12 (2.70%) ServiceNow
16 11 (2.48%) Google
17 8 (1.80%) Citrix
18 7 (1.58%) Ekahau
19 6 (1.35%) NetScout