MPLS Contract Job Trends

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring MPLS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 457 389 307
Rank change year-on-year -68 -82 +103
Contract jobs citing MPLS 210 165 291
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.51% 0.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.20% 4.18% 5.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 141 112 155
10th Percentile £300 £325 £293
25th Percentile £400 £430 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +25.00% -20.00%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £544
90th Percentile £638 £650 £665
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £375
% change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 15
10th Percentile £22.53 £36.63 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £37.19 £18.06
Median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.03% +55.00% -54.81%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.69 £40.00
90th Percentile - £39.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 - £22.40
% change year-on-year - - -10.40%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

MPLS 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 5,003 3,948 5,144
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.11% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 2,403 3,070
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
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 £592 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 326 195 384
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.91
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.08 £17.67
Median hourly rate £26.22 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.31% +15.63% -16.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -17.27%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MPLS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

MPLS job vacancy trend in the UK

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 21 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS

MPLS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 21 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the UK over the 6 months to 21 July 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 -83 153 £500 - 28
UK excluding London -56 138 £500 +11.11% 30
South East -40 59 £525 +16.67% 6
Work from Home -67 51 £450 -10.00% 5
London -79 47 £450 -10.00% 10
Scotland +20 39 £310 -39.51% 12
South West -39 14 £525 -16.00% 5
Midlands -56 10 £468 +10.12% 3
North of England -88 10 £575 +21.05% 4
West Midlands -64 8 £468 +10.12% 3
North West -62 7 £588 +23.68% 1
East of England - 7 £500 -
Yorkshire -53 3 £483 +37.86% 3

MPLS
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 9 (4.29%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.90%) Confluence
2 4 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 24 (11.43%) MS Visio
2 12 (5.71%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (3.81%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (2.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (1.43%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.95%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 37 (17.62%) Azure
2 24 (11.43%) AWS
3 12 (5.71%) GCP
4 10 (4.76%) Entra ID
5 6 (2.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 5 (2.38%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.90%) IaaS
7 4 (1.90%) OpenShift
8 3 (1.43%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (0.95%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (0.95%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.95%) IBM Watson
9 2 (0.95%) Mimecast
9 2 (0.95%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.48%) Amazon ELB
10 1 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.48%) Amazon Macie
10 1 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.48%) AWS CloudTrail
10 1 (0.48%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 144 (68.57%) WAN
2 110 (52.38%) BGP
3 107 (50.95%) LAN
4 98 (46.67%) Firewall
5 70 (33.33%) OSPF
6 56 (26.67%) Network Security
6 56 (26.67%) VPN
7 52 (24.76%) SD-WAN
8 38 (18.10%) IPsec
9 27 (12.86%) Cisco Nexus
10 26 (12.38%) VLAN
11 23 (10.95%) Wireshark
12 22 (10.48%) Cisco ASA
12 22 (10.48%) SDH
13 20 (9.52%) Ethernet VPN
13 20 (9.52%) TCP/IP
13 20 (9.52%) Wi-Fi
14 19 (9.05%) Multicast
15 18 (8.57%) VXLAN
15 18 (8.57%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.95%) Power BI
1 2 (0.95%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (3.33%) JIRA
2 5 (2.38%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (1.90%) Git
4 1 (0.48%) AppScan
4 1 (0.48%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.48%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.48%) Metasploit
General
1 70 (33.33%) Telecoms
2 60 (28.57%) Social Skills
3 31 (14.76%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (11.43%) Finance
5 14 (6.67%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (4.29%) Financial Institution
6 9 (4.29%) Legal
7 8 (3.81%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.38%) Law
8 5 (2.38%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.43%) Billing
9 3 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.43%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.43%) Retail
10 2 (0.95%) Aviation
10 2 (0.95%) Banking
10 2 (0.95%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.95%) Military
Job Titles
1 72 (34.29%) Network Engineer
2 38 (18.10%) Architect
3 27 (12.86%) Network Architect
4 22 (10.48%) Senior
4 22 (10.48%) Telecoms Engineer
5 16 (7.62%) Field Engineer
6 14 (6.67%) Developer
7 13 (6.19%) Field Telecoms Engineer
8 11 (5.24%) Network Field Engineer
9 10 (4.76%) Project Engineer
10 9 (4.29%) Lead
11 8 (3.81%) Network Manager
11 8 (3.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 7 (3.33%) Consultant
12 7 (3.33%) IP Engineer
12 7 (3.33%) Project Manager
12 7 (3.33%) Security Engineer
12 7 (3.33%) Test Engineer
13 6 (2.86%) IP Architect
13 6 (2.86%) Juniper Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.24%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.24%) REST
1 11 (5.24%) YANG
2 8 (3.81%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.86%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.86%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.90%) Jinja
5 3 (1.43%) Java RMI
5 3 (1.43%) LDAP
6 2 (0.95%) Django
6 2 (0.95%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 43 (20.48%) Data Centre
2 20 (9.52%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (5.71%) Driving Licence
4 11 (5.24%) Cloud Native
5 9 (4.29%) Analytical Mindset
5 9 (4.29%) Private Cloud
6 8 (3.81%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (3.33%) PKI
8 6 (2.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (2.86%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.86%) Operational Technology
8 6 (2.86%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.90%) SCADA
10 3 (1.43%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (1.43%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.95%) Onboarding
11 2 (0.95%) Wiki
12 1 (0.48%) IoT
12 1 (0.48%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 12 (5.71%) Linux
2 10 (4.76%) Windows
3 4 (1.90%) Unix
3 4 (1.90%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.43%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.95%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.48%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.48%) VMS
6 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (21.43%) Project Delivery
2 34 (16.19%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (13.81%) Network Design
4 28 (13.33%) Change Management
5 24 (11.43%) Network Architecture
6 23 (10.95%) Migration
7 22 (10.48%) Roadmaps
7 22 (10.48%) Zero Trust
8 21 (10.00%) ITIL
9 20 (9.52%) Agile
9 20 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
10 19 (9.05%) Technical Leadership
11 18 (8.57%) Network Segmentation
12 15 (7.14%) AI
12 15 (7.14%) DevOps
13 14 (6.67%) Disaster Recovery
13 14 (6.67%) Incident Management
14 13 (6.19%) Network Monitoring
14 13 (6.19%) Project Management
14 13 (6.19%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 40 (19.05%) Python
2 3 (1.43%) PHP
2 3 (1.43%) SQL
3 2 (0.95%) Bash
3 2 (0.95%) C
3 2 (0.95%) Perl
3 2 (0.95%) PowerShell
4 1 (0.48%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 69 (32.86%) Security Cleared
2 63 (30.00%) Cisco Certification
3 38 (18.10%) CCNP
4 37 (17.62%) SC Cleared
5 31 (14.76%) CCIE
6 29 (13.81%) DV Cleared
7 21 (10.00%) CCNA
8 13 (6.19%) Degree
8 13 (6.19%) JNCIE
9 6 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (1.90%) AWS Certification
10 4 (1.90%) GIAC
10 4 (1.90%) ISTQB
10 4 (1.90%) JNCIP
10 4 (1.90%) PMP
10 4 (1.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (1.43%) BC Cleared
11 3 (1.43%) CCDP
11 3 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (1.43%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.76%) NCSC
1 10 (4.76%) SLA
2 7 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (3.33%) NIST
3 4 (1.90%) QA
4 3 (1.43%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 3 (1.43%) GDPR
4 3 (1.43%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.95%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.48%) COBIT
6 1 (0.48%) GRC
6 1 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.48%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.48%) PMO
6 1 (0.48%) RMADS
System Software
1 10 (4.76%) Active Directory
2 9 (4.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.81%) VMware NSX
4 4 (1.90%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.95%) Firmware
5 2 (0.95%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.95%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 43 (20.48%) Ansible
2 9 (4.29%) Terraform
3 7 (3.33%) Cisco Prime
4 6 (2.86%) FortiGate
5 4 (1.90%) Grafana
5 4 (1.90%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.90%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.43%) Salt
6 3 (1.43%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.95%) Iperf
7 2 (0.95%) Nmap
7 2 (0.95%) SCOM
8 1 (0.48%) CASB
8 1 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.48%) Nessus
8 1 (0.48%) OPNET
8 1 (0.48%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.48%) QRadar
8 1 (0.48%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.48%) Suricata
Vendors
1 130 (61.90%) Cisco
2 52 (24.76%) Palo Alto
3 43 (20.48%) F5
4 40 (19.05%) Microsoft
5 39 (18.57%) Juniper
6 38 (18.10%) Fortinet
7 25 (11.90%) CheckPoint
8 21 (10.00%) Aruba
8 21 (10.00%) Nokia
8 21 (10.00%) VMware
9 20 (9.52%) SolarWinds
10 17 (8.10%) Arista
11 11 (5.24%) Meraki
12 10 (4.76%) Splunk
13 7 (3.33%) ServiceNow
14 5 (2.38%) NetScout
15 4 (1.90%) BigPanda
15 4 (1.90%) HP
15 4 (1.90%) Tufin
16 3 (1.43%) LogicMonitor