BGP Contracts

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring BGP skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited BGP over the 6 months leading up to 14 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 224 258 321
Rank change year-on-year +34 +63 +111
Contract jobs citing BGP 341 387 442
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.17% 0.91% 0.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.11% 7.13% 6.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 242 252
10th Percentile £325 £314 £363
25th Percentile £425 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £550 £600
90th Percentile £746 £613 £674
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £481
% change year-on-year +1.06% -2.29% +6.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 16
10th Percentile £22.05 £19.93 £60.50
25th Percentile £27.38 £22.06 £61.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £24.00 £73.75
Median % change year-on-year +56.25% -67.46% +183.65%
75th Percentile £39.38 £32.31 £80.44
90th Percentile £39.75 £45.93 £83.03
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.00 £21.75 £62.00
% change year-on-year -12.64% -64.92% +158.33%

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 3,743 5,429 7,207
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.89% 12.70% 12.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,274 3,239 4,658
10th Percentile £213 £205 £235
25th Percentile £360 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £490 £516
Median % change year-on-year -0.51% -4.99% +3.15%
75th Percentile £590 £600 £638
90th Percentile £675 £696 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -2.63% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 170 417 472
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.50 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £16.30 £10.63
Median hourly rate £29.66 £40.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.85% +116.22% -32.73%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.40 £45.88 £18.47
% change year-on-year -46.81% +148.47% -14.12%

BGP
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing BGP as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for BGP in the UK

BGP
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing BGP.

Daily rate trend for BGP in the UK

BGP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BGP over the 6 months to 14 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing BGP.

Hourly rate trend for BGP in the UK

BGP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BGP over the 6 months to 14 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Top 17 Contract 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 14 May 2025. 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 +5 271 £500 +5.26% 199
UK excluding London -17 152 £475 +1.06% 139
London +51 130 £500 -4.76% 120
Work from Home +66 120 £513 +5.13% 137
North of England +51 54 £500 - 21
North West +42 50 £525 +3.30% 10
South East -10 33 £450 - 59
South West +28 26 £525 +7.14% 15
Midlands -38 25 £300 -20.00% 15
West Midlands -37 21 £288 -23.33% 9
Scotland +13 9 £413 -17.50% 18
Wales - 9 £450 - 3
East Midlands +6 4 £438 -23.91% 5
East of England +28 3 £425 - 5
Yorkshire - 2 £350 - 10
North East -5 1 £250 -27.54% 1
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -

BGP
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (1.47%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.17%) Confluence
3 1 (0.29%) CMS
Applications
1 8 (2.35%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.76%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.17%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 84 (24.63%) AWS
2 69 (20.23%) Azure
3 30 (8.80%) GCP
4 19 (5.57%) AWS CloudFormation
4 19 (5.57%) IaaS
4 19 (5.57%) PaaS
4 19 (5.57%) SaaS
5 7 (2.05%) OpenShift
6 6 (1.76%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (1.17%) GitHub
7 4 (1.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 3 (0.88%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (0.59%) Akamai
10 1 (0.29%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.29%) Datadog
10 1 (0.29%) Entra ID
10 1 (0.29%) npm
10 1 (0.29%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 282 (82.70%) OSPF
2 191 (56.01%) Firewall
3 144 (42.23%) VPN
4 117 (34.31%) WAN
5 113 (33.14%) Network Security
6 106 (31.09%) MPLS
7 95 (27.86%) IPsec
8 89 (26.10%) EIGRP
8 89 (26.10%) TCP/IP
9 65 (19.06%) HSRP
10 64 (18.77%) VLAN
11 57 (16.72%) DNS
11 57 (16.72%) LAN
12 56 (16.42%) Cisco Nexus
12 56 (16.42%) SD-WAN
13 52 (15.25%) Wireless
14 45 (13.20%) Multicast
15 43 (12.61%) Cisco ASA
16 40 (11.73%) Cisco Firepower
16 40 (11.73%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.59%) MongoDB
1 2 (0.59%) NoSQL
2 1 (0.29%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 12 (3.52%) Sonatype Nexus
2 7 (2.05%) GitLab
3 5 (1.47%) JIRA
4 3 (0.88%) Robot Framework
5 2 (0.59%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.59%) Jenkins
General
1 87 (25.51%) Social Skills
2 48 (14.08%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (11.73%) Finance
4 32 (9.38%) Telecoms
5 22 (6.45%) Public Sector
6 14 (4.11%) Banking
7 13 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.23%) Military
9 9 (2.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (2.05%) Marketing
11 4 (1.17%) Legal
12 3 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.88%) Retail
13 2 (0.59%) Advertising
13 2 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.29%) Investment Banking
14 1 (0.29%) Law
14 1 (0.29%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.29%) Police
Job Titles
1 197 (57.77%) Network Engineer
2 51 (14.96%) Architect
3 33 (9.68%) Senior
4 32 (9.38%) Cisco Engineer
5 31 (9.09%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 22 (6.45%) Cloud Architect
6 22 (6.45%) Consultant
6 22 (6.45%) Network Architect
6 22 (6.45%) Technical Architect
7 20 (5.87%) Senior Network Engineer
8 18 (5.28%) Cloud Native Architect
9 17 (4.99%) Network Consultant
10 15 (4.40%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 15 (4.40%) Security Architect
11 14 (4.11%) Implementation Engineer
12 13 (3.81%) WAN Engineer
13 11 (3.23%) Network Security Architect
13 11 (3.23%) Principal Engineer
13 11 (3.23%) Principal Network Engineer
13 11 (3.23%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.74%) 802.1X
2 6 (1.76%) JSON
3 5 (1.47%) Spine.js
4 4 (1.17%) XML
4 4 (1.17%) YAML
5 3 (0.88%) REST
6 2 (0.59%) NETCONF
6 2 (0.59%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.59%) SOAP
6 2 (0.59%) YANG
7 1 (0.29%) FIX Protocol
7 1 (0.29%) gRPC
7 1 (0.29%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (18.77%) Data Centre
2 25 (7.33%) Cloud Native
3 16 (4.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.40%) PKI
5 7 (2.05%) Hedge funds
6 6 (1.76%) Linux Command Line
6 6 (1.76%) Public Cloud
7 4 (1.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 4 (1.17%) Onboarding
8 3 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (0.88%) NHS
8 3 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.59%) Derivative
9 2 (0.59%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.59%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.59%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 1 (0.29%) Clustering
10 1 (0.29%) FMCG
10 1 (0.29%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 11 (3.23%) Linux
2 6 (1.76%) Check Point GAiA
2 6 (1.76%) Unix
3 5 (1.47%) CatOS
4 2 (0.59%) CentOS
4 2 (0.59%) Windows
5 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (15.84%) Network Monitoring
2 52 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
3 51 (14.96%) Migration
4 38 (11.14%) Network Design
5 33 (9.68%) ITIL
6 29 (8.50%) Infrastructure as Code
7 26 (7.62%) High Availability
8 25 (7.33%) Test Automation
9 24 (7.04%) Computer Science
9 24 (7.04%) Network Management
10 23 (6.74%) Load Balancing
10 23 (6.74%) Project Delivery
11 20 (5.87%) Change Management
11 20 (5.87%) Network Architecture
11 20 (5.87%) Service Management
12 18 (5.28%) Root Cause Analysis
12 18 (5.28%) Sprint Planning
12 18 (5.28%) Validation
13 16 (4.69%) Low Latency
14 15 (4.40%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 59 (17.30%) Python
2 19 (5.57%) Bicep
3 6 (1.76%) Perl
4 5 (1.47%) Bash
4 5 (1.47%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.59%) SQL
Qualifications
1 154 (45.16%) Cisco Certification
2 126 (36.95%) CCNP
3 84 (24.63%) Security Cleared
4 66 (19.35%) SC Cleared
5 45 (13.20%) CCIE
6 35 (10.26%) CCNA
6 35 (10.26%) Degree
7 20 (5.87%) DV Cleared
8 18 (5.28%) CCSE
9 15 (4.40%) Computer Science Degree
10 14 (4.11%) CCSA
11 8 (2.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (2.05%) AWS Certification
12 7 (2.05%) JNCIA
13 6 (1.76%) CCIE Data Center
13 6 (1.76%) Check Point Certification
14 5 (1.47%) CCIE Service Provider
14 5 (1.47%) JNCIE
14 5 (1.47%) JNCIP
14 5 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.05%) SLA
2 6 (1.76%) NCSC
3 4 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.17%) NIST
4 2 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.59%) QA
5 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 26 (7.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (2.64%) Firmware
2 9 (2.64%) VMware NSX
3 6 (1.76%) Docker
4 5 (1.47%) vSphere
5 2 (0.59%) Ceph
6 1 (0.29%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 63 (18.48%) Ansible
2 35 (10.26%) Terraform
3 31 (9.09%) FortiGate
4 10 (2.93%) ZABBIX
5 8 (2.35%) Cisco Prime
5 8 (2.35%) Nagios
6 7 (2.05%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.47%) Cacti
7 5 (1.47%) Progress Chef
7 5 (1.47%) Puppet
7 5 (1.47%) vCenter Server
8 4 (1.17%) CA Spectrum
9 2 (0.59%) Argo
10 1 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.29%) Cisco LMS
10 1 (0.29%) Cisco UCCX
10 1 (0.29%) Icinga
10 1 (0.29%) Observium
10 1 (0.29%) OpenView
10 1 (0.29%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 270 (79.18%) Cisco
2 118 (34.60%) Palo Alto
3 79 (23.17%) CheckPoint
3 79 (23.17%) Fortinet
4 53 (15.54%) Juniper
5 48 (14.08%) SolarWinds
6 35 (10.26%) Arista
7 30 (8.80%) F5
8 29 (8.50%) VMware
9 23 (6.74%) Meraki
10 11 (3.23%) Aruba
11 10 (2.93%) Microsoft
11 10 (2.93%) Nokia
12 7 (2.05%) Red Hat
12 7 (2.05%) Splunk
12 7 (2.05%) Zscaler
13 6 (1.76%) ServiceNow
14 4 (1.17%) BMC
14 4 (1.17%) NVIDIA
14 4 (1.17%) Remedy