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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 331 281 239
Rank change year-on-year -50 -42 +22
Contract jobs citing BGP 415 285 381
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 0.86% 1.00%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.23% 7.48% 8.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 185 217
10th Percentile £380 £318 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £588
90th Percentile £702 £670 £733
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £475 £505
% change year-on-year +7.37% -5.94% +3.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 4
10th Percentile £50.40 £37.38 £23.45
25th Percentile £58.13 £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 £72.75 £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 5,043 3,808 4,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.23% 11.47% 11.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,910 2,393 2,614
10th Percentile £231 £220 £225
25th Percentile £389 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £606
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £485
% change year-on-year +4.86% -6.60% +6.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 432 205 202
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £21.25 £23.90
Median hourly rate £32.50 £41.94 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.51% -16.12% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £74.20 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -37.27% -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 4 October 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 October 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 October 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 -23 381 £500 - 287
UK excluding London -27 236 £510 +7.37% 124
London -68 126 £500 -2.44% 177
North of England +6 99 £500 +8.46% 27
Work from Home -59 99 £500 -9.09% 98
North West +4 70 £488 +2.63% 16
South East -35 63 £525 +5.00% 32
Midlands -45 39 £571 +42.69% 19
West Midlands -47 38 £571 +42.69% 10
South West -27 30 £525 -16.83% 10
Yorkshire -21 22 £495 +12.50% 10
East of England -10 18 £488 -30.36% 21
North East -27 13 £650 +160.00% 1
Scotland -24 11 £375 -11.76% 11
East Midlands -9 1 - - 9

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 (3.37%) OpenStack
2 8 (1.93%) SAS
3 4 (0.96%) Confluence
3 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.24%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.17%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.72%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 105 (25.30%) Azure
2 85 (20.48%) AWS
3 30 (7.23%) GCP
4 24 (5.78%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 23 (5.54%) GitHub
5 23 (5.54%) OCI
6 17 (4.10%) AWS Direct Connect
7 13 (3.13%) SaaS
8 10 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
9 8 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
10 7 (1.69%) Azure Sentinel
10 7 (1.69%) OpenShift
10 7 (1.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.20%) Nutanix
12 4 (0.96%) Entra ID
13 3 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
14 2 (0.48%) IBM Watson
15 1 (0.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 1 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
15 1 (0.24%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 232 (55.90%) Firewall
2 231 (55.66%) OSPF
3 188 (45.30%) WAN
4 131 (31.57%) VPN
5 114 (27.47%) VLAN
6 111 (26.75%) LAN
7 102 (24.58%) MPLS
8 99 (23.86%) VXLAN
9 96 (23.13%) Network Security
10 87 (20.96%) SD-WAN
11 80 (19.28%) DNS
12 78 (18.80%) Ethernet VPN
13 71 (17.11%) TCP/IP
14 65 (15.66%) IPsec
15 64 (15.42%) Wireless
16 59 (14.22%) Wi-Fi
17 54 (13.01%) EIGRP
18 53 (12.77%) Cisco Nexus
19 50 (12.05%) Multicast
20 47 (11.33%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.24%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 30 (7.23%) GitLab
2 27 (6.51%) Git
3 7 (1.69%) JIRA
3 7 (1.69%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.48%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.24%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.24%) Cucumber
General
1 75 (18.07%) Social Skills
2 46 (11.08%) Analytical Skills
2 46 (11.08%) Finance
3 32 (7.71%) Telecoms
4 28 (6.75%) Banking
5 27 (6.51%) Public Sector
6 15 (3.61%) Investment Banking
7 13 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.93%) Legal
9 7 (1.69%) Military
9 7 (1.69%) Retail
10 6 (1.45%) Police
11 5 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.96%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.72%) German Language
13 3 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.72%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.72%) Spanish Language
14 2 (0.48%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 245 (59.04%) Network Engineer
2 91 (21.93%) Senior
3 58 (13.98%) Senior Network Engineer
4 49 (11.81%) Cisco Engineer
5 48 (11.57%) Architect
6 46 (11.08%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 38 (9.16%) Network Architect
8 35 (8.43%) Security Engineer
9 34 (8.19%) Consultant
10 33 (7.95%) Network Security Engineer
11 27 (6.51%) Data Network Engineer
12 23 (5.54%) Network Consultant
13 22 (5.30%) Cisco Security Engineer
14 21 (5.06%) Data Engineer
15 19 (4.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 17 (4.10%) Developer
16 17 (4.10%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 16 (3.86%) Network Specialist
18 14 (3.37%) Operations Engineer
19 11 (2.65%) Implementation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (17.35%) Terraform
2 29 (6.99%) REST
3 19 (4.58%) 802.1X
4 17 (4.10%) YAML
5 16 (3.86%) NETCONF
6 15 (3.61%) JSON
7 14 (3.37%) YANG
8 6 (1.45%) RESTCONF
9 5 (1.20%) OpenConfig
10 4 (0.96%) CSS
11 3 (0.72%) eBPF
11 3 (0.72%) SAML
12 2 (0.48%) gRPC
12 2 (0.48%) Spine.js
13 1 (0.24%) Django
13 1 (0.24%) LDAP
13 1 (0.24%) Model Context Protocol
13 1 (0.24%) ModSecurity
13 1 (0.24%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 166 (40.00%) Data Centre
2 50 (12.05%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (6.75%) Cloud Native
4 15 (3.61%) Self-Motivation
5 13 (3.13%) PKI
6 12 (2.89%) Private Cloud
7 10 (2.41%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 9 (2.17%) Public Cloud
9 8 (1.93%) Analytical Mindset
9 8 (1.93%) Digital Signage
10 6 (1.45%) Security Posture
11 5 (1.20%) CMDB
11 5 (1.20%) Data Structures
11 5 (1.20%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (1.20%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.20%) Video Conferencing
12 4 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (0.96%) Onboarding
13 3 (0.72%) Distributed Applications
13 3 (0.72%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 40 (9.64%) Windows
2 31 (7.47%) Linux
3 12 (2.89%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.72%) Unix
5 3 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.24%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.24%) VMS
6 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (20.72%) Load Balancing
2 79 (19.04%) Infrastructure as Code
2 79 (19.04%) Migration
3 73 (17.59%) Zero Trust
4 69 (16.63%) Network Design
5 68 (16.39%) High Availability
6 50 (12.05%) Validation
7 48 (11.57%) Problem-Solving
8 47 (11.33%) CI/CD
9 45 (10.84%) Network Architecture
10 39 (9.40%) Project Delivery
11 38 (9.16%) DevOps
11 38 (9.16%) ITIL
12 35 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 34 (8.19%) Network Segmentation
14 31 (7.47%) Change Control
15 30 (7.23%) Runbook
15 30 (7.23%) Technical Leadership
16 28 (6.75%) Stakeholder Management
17 27 (6.51%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 125 (30.12%) Python
2 14 (3.37%) Bash
3 9 (2.17%) PowerShell
4 5 (1.20%) SQL
5 3 (0.72%) Go
5 3 (0.72%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.48%) Perl
7 1 (0.24%) C++
7 1 (0.24%) Java
Qualifications
1 127 (30.60%) Security Cleared
2 113 (27.23%) Cisco Certification
3 88 (21.20%) CCNP
4 70 (16.87%) SC Cleared
5 52 (12.53%) DV Cleared
6 47 (11.33%) CCIE
7 24 (5.78%) CCNA
8 16 (3.86%) Degree
9 13 (3.13%) JNCIE
10 4 (0.96%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.96%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.96%) CCIE Security
10 4 (0.96%) CISSP
10 4 (0.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (0.72%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (0.48%) CWNA
12 2 (0.48%) JNCIP
12 2 (0.48%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.48%) PMP
13 1 (0.24%) CCDE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (1.45%) NIST
2 4 (0.96%) NCSC
3 3 (0.72%) GDPR
3 3 (0.72%) NIST 800
3 3 (0.72%) QA
3 3 (0.72%) SLA
4 2 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.48%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.24%) Data Quality
System Software
1 33 (7.95%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (4.58%) VMware NSX
3 16 (3.86%) Active Directory
4 12 (2.89%) vSphere
5 10 (2.41%) Docker
6 8 (1.93%) Hyper-V
7 6 (1.45%) Firmware
8 3 (0.72%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.24%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 121 (29.16%) Ansible
2 39 (9.40%) FortiGate
3 20 (4.82%) Kubernetes
4 12 (2.89%) Nagios
5 11 (2.65%) Cisco Prime
5 11 (2.65%) Grafana
6 10 (2.41%) Prometheus
7 6 (1.45%) Cilium
8 4 (0.96%) Istio
9 2 (0.48%) Puppet
9 2 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.48%) VxRail
10 1 (0.24%) CASB
10 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.24%) OPNET
10 1 (0.24%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.24%) QRadar
10 1 (0.24%) Rancher
10 1 (0.24%) Suricata
Vendors
1 290 (69.88%) Cisco
2 124 (29.88%) Palo Alto
3 119 (28.67%) F5
4 89 (21.45%) Fortinet
5 73 (17.59%) Arista
6 52 (12.53%) Juniper
7 49 (11.81%) VMware
8 40 (9.64%) Aruba
9 38 (9.16%) CheckPoint
10 32 (7.71%) Microsoft
10 32 (7.71%) SolarWinds
11 18 (4.34%) ServiceNow
12 17 (4.10%) Meraki
12 17 (4.10%) Zscaler
13 12 (2.89%) Red Hat
14 10 (2.41%) Splunk
15 9 (2.17%) Google
16 7 (1.69%) Citrix
16 7 (1.69%) Dell
16 7 (1.69%) Infoblox