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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 266 254
Rank change year-on-year -28 -12 +32
Contract jobs citing BGP 442 325 359
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.83% 0.99% 0.92%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.85% 8.21% 7.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 256 208 227
10th Percentile £375 £325 £293
25th Percentile £413 £413 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% +2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £573 £608 £538
90th Percentile £650 £675 £581
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - -2.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 3 2
10th Percentile £45.49 £37.00 £23.15
25th Percentile £53.19 £38.13 £30.13
Median hourly rate £71.33 £40.00 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.33% -4.76% -32.26%
75th Percentile £74.01 £49.38 £53.63
90th Percentile £81.57 £55.00 £60.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.79 - £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 4,992 3,957 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.36% 12.02% 12.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,963 2,418 2,878
10th Percentile £250 £235 £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 £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 195 327
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.78 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -40.76% -18.00% -4.42%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -12 407 £500 - 108
UK excluding London -23 267 £500 +5.26% 53
London -70 120 £500 - 62
Work from Home -43 110 £500 - 45
South East +7 103 £525 +16.67% 15
North of England -7 102 £500 +5.26% 16
North West -8 78 £505 +6.32% 9
Midlands -37 48 £419 +4.69% 7
West Midlands -39 45 £413 +10.00% 7
South West -49 32 £525 -16.00% 7
Yorkshire -32 17 £495 +41.43% 8
North East -28 13 £650 +160.00%
Scotland -7 9 £375 -11.76% 2
East of England -20 6 £500 -28.57% 6
East Midlands -9 2 - -
Wales -14 2 £425 -6.08% 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 (2.71%) OpenStack
2 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.68%) SAS
3 2 (0.45%) Confluence
4 1 (0.23%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (2.49%) MS Visio
2 9 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.68%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 113 (25.57%) Azure
2 89 (20.14%) AWS
3 30 (6.79%) GCP
4 23 (5.20%) OCI
5 17 (3.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 14 (3.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (2.94%) SaaS
8 11 (2.49%) GitHub
9 9 (2.04%) Azure Sentinel
10 8 (1.81%) AWS Direct Connect
10 8 (1.81%) Nutanix
11 7 (1.58%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (1.58%) OpenShift
12 6 (1.36%) Microsoft 365
13 3 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
13 3 (0.68%) Entra ID
14 2 (0.45%) Amazon EKS
14 2 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
14 2 (0.45%) GitHub Actions
14 2 (0.45%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 282 (63.80%) OSPF
2 264 (59.73%) Firewall
3 238 (53.85%) WAN
4 148 (33.48%) LAN
5 132 (29.86%) VPN
6 119 (26.92%) VXLAN
7 117 (26.47%) VLAN
8 105 (23.76%) DNS
9 103 (23.30%) MPLS
10 97 (21.95%) Network Security
11 86 (19.46%) SD-WAN
12 84 (19.00%) Ethernet VPN
13 73 (16.52%) Multicast
13 73 (16.52%) TCP/IP
14 69 (15.61%) IPsec
15 65 (14.71%) Wireless
16 62 (14.03%) BIG-IP
17 55 (12.44%) Wi-Fi
18 53 (11.99%) Cisco ASA
19 52 (11.76%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Development Applications
1 22 (4.98%) GitLab
2 14 (3.17%) Git
3 8 (1.81%) Sonatype Nexus
4 7 (1.58%) JIRA
5 4 (0.90%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
General
1 70 (15.84%) Social Skills
2 47 (10.63%) Finance
3 44 (9.95%) Analytical Skills
4 31 (7.01%) Banking
4 31 (7.01%) Public Sector
5 25 (5.66%) Telecoms
6 19 (4.30%) Investment Banking
7 14 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
8 12 (2.71%) Financial Institution
9 10 (2.26%) Military
10 8 (1.81%) Retail
11 7 (1.58%) Legal
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%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 257 (58.14%) Network Engineer
2 93 (21.04%) Senior
3 62 (14.03%) Cisco Engineer
4 59 (13.35%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 59 (13.35%) Senior Network Engineer
5 45 (10.18%) Architect
6 43 (9.73%) Data Network Engineer
6 43 (9.73%) Network Security Engineer
6 43 (9.73%) Security Engineer
7 32 (7.24%) Cisco Security Engineer
7 32 (7.24%) Network Architect
8 31 (7.01%) Data Engineer
9 27 (6.11%) Network Specialist
10 20 (4.52%) Consultant
10 20 (4.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 18 (4.07%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 17 (3.85%) Developer
13 15 (3.39%) Web Engineer
14 14 (3.17%) Firewall Specialist
14 14 (3.17%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (8.82%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.94%) REST
3 12 (2.71%) NETCONF
3 12 (2.71%) YANG
4 7 (1.58%) OpenConfig
5 6 (1.36%) RESTCONF
6 4 (0.90%) CSS
6 4 (0.90%) Jinja
7 3 (0.68%) eBPF
8 2 (0.45%) LDAP
8 2 (0.45%) SAML
9 1 (0.23%) JSON
9 1 (0.23%) Model Context Protocol
9 1 (0.23%) RFC 2544
9 1 (0.23%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 181 (40.95%) Data Centre
2 51 (11.54%) Hybrid Cloud
3 36 (8.14%) PKI
4 26 (5.88%) Clustering
5 23 (5.20%) Cloud Native
6 10 (2.26%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 9 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (2.04%) Private Cloud
7 9 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.36%) Public Cloud
8 6 (1.36%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.13%) Digital Signage
9 5 (1.13%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (1.13%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.13%) Operational Technology
10 4 (0.90%) CMDB
10 4 (0.90%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (0.68%) Distributed Applications
11 3 (0.68%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 48 (10.86%) Windows
2 15 (3.39%) Linux
3 6 (1.36%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.68%) Unix
4 3 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (0.45%) VMS
6 1 (0.23%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (25.57%) Load Balancing
2 85 (19.23%) High Availability
3 72 (16.29%) Network Design
4 68 (15.38%) Zero Trust
5 66 (14.93%) Migration
6 64 (14.48%) Infrastructure as Code
7 52 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
8 48 (10.86%) ITIL
9 45 (10.18%) Network Architecture
9 45 (10.18%) Project Delivery
10 41 (9.28%) CI/CD
11 37 (8.37%) Observability
12 35 (7.92%) Validation
13 33 (7.47%) DevOps
14 32 (7.24%) Change Management
15 31 (7.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 30 (6.79%) Network Segmentation
17 28 (6.33%) Mentoring
18 26 (5.88%) Continuous Improvement
18 26 (5.88%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 117 (26.47%) Python
2 8 (1.81%) Bash
2 8 (1.81%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.36%) SQL
4 3 (0.68%) Perl
4 3 (0.68%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.23%) PHP
Qualifications
1 145 (32.81%) Security Cleared
2 143 (32.35%) Cisco Certification
3 96 (21.72%) CCNP
4 79 (17.87%) SC Cleared
5 58 (13.12%) DV Cleared
6 50 (11.31%) CCIE
7 25 (5.66%) CCNA
8 22 (4.98%) Degree
9 15 (3.39%) JNCIE
10 9 (2.04%) JNCIP
11 8 (1.81%) AWS Certification
11 8 (1.81%) Azure Certification
11 8 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (1.81%) JNCIA
11 8 (1.81%) JNCIS
12 6 (1.36%) CISSP
13 4 (0.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 3 (0.68%) CCDP
14 3 (0.68%) GIAC
14 3 (0.68%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (1.81%) NCSC
2 6 (1.36%) NIST
3 5 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.68%) GDPR
4 3 (0.68%) QA
4 3 (0.68%) SLA
5 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.45%) NIST 800
5 2 (0.45%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 32 (7.24%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (2.71%) VMware NSX
3 9 (2.04%) Active Directory
4 8 (1.81%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.58%) Firmware
6 5 (1.13%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.90%) Docker
7 4 (0.90%) vSphere
8 2 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.23%) KVM
9 1 (0.23%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 115 (26.02%) Ansible
2 75 (16.97%) Terraform
3 59 (13.35%) FortiGate
4 18 (4.07%) Grafana
5 15 (3.39%) Prometheus
6 14 (3.17%) Kubernetes
7 8 (1.81%) Cisco Prime
8 6 (1.36%) Nagios
9 2 (0.45%) CASB
9 2 (0.45%) QRadar
9 2 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.23%) Cilium
10 1 (0.23%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.23%) OPNET
10 1 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.23%) Puppet
10 1 (0.23%) Rancher
10 1 (0.23%) Suricata
10 1 (0.23%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 308 (69.68%) Cisco
2 166 (37.56%) F5
3 128 (28.96%) Palo Alto
4 98 (22.17%) Fortinet
5 87 (19.68%) Juniper
6 80 (18.10%) Arista
7 45 (10.18%) SolarWinds
8 44 (9.95%) VMware
9 41 (9.28%) Aruba
10 40 (9.05%) CheckPoint
11 32 (7.24%) Splunk
12 27 (6.11%) Microsoft
13 26 (5.88%) Extreme Networks
14 22 (4.98%) Zscaler
15 21 (4.75%) Meraki
16 10 (2.26%) Google
17 9 (2.04%) Citrix
17 9 (2.04%) ServiceNow
18 7 (1.58%) Ekahau
19 6 (1.36%) NetScout