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

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 446 336 283
Rank change year-on-year -110 -53 +218
Contract jobs citing MPLS 173 191 345
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.65% 0.80%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.81% 5.12% 6.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 108 176
10th Percentile £220 £300 £294
25th Percentile £375 £423 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £405
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% +23.46% -14.74%
75th Percentile £556 £553 £582
90th Percentile £630 £630 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £375
% change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 22
10th Percentile £22.53 £22.05 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £27.38 £23.48
Median hourly rate £42.25 £37.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.67% +15.38% -47.58%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.38 £40.00
90th Percentile - £39.75 £64.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +122.37% -52.50% -35.48%

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 4,536 3,729 5,522
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.61% 12.73% 12.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,824 2,294 3,303
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £495
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -1.52% -4.81%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 230 175 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.32 £16.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £36.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.45% -8.39% +111.30%
75th Percentile £67.13 £58.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.36 £24.71 £45.88
% change year-on-year +99.76% -46.14% +148.00%

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 4 May 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 4 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 14 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 4 May 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 -132 146 £490 -2.00% 32
UK excluding London -99 90 £500 +11.11% 24
London -76 57 £400 -20.00% 10
Work from Home -39 54 £425 -15.00% 22
South East -57 45 £500 +11.11% 7
North of England -69 12 £490 +3.16% 8
South West -33 11 £525 - 2
North West -43 11 £490 +3.16% 4
Midlands -75 10 £344 +5.77% 4
Scotland -4 7 £440 +3.53% 2
West Midlands -68 7 £344 +5.77% 3
East of England -33 5 £500 +100.00% 1
Yorkshire -48 1 - - 3
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 -

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 8 (4.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.31%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.73%) Confluence
4 1 (0.58%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (4.05%) Microsoft Office
1 7 (4.05%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.16%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 2 (1.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 30 (17.34%) Azure
2 15 (8.67%) Entra ID
3 14 (8.09%) AWS
4 11 (6.36%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (4.62%) IaaS
6 6 (3.47%) GCP
7 3 (1.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (1.16%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.16%) IBM Watson
8 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (1.16%) Mimecast
8 2 (1.16%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.58%) AWS CloudTrail
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Functions
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Service Bus
9 1 (0.58%) Serverless
9 1 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 95 (54.91%) WAN
2 89 (51.45%) BGP
2 89 (51.45%) Firewall
3 62 (35.84%) LAN
4 58 (33.53%) VPN
5 55 (31.79%) OSPF
6 51 (29.48%) SD-WAN
7 46 (26.59%) Network Security
8 27 (15.61%) VLAN
9 26 (15.03%) Cisco ASA
10 25 (14.45%) IPsec
11 22 (12.72%) Ethernet VPN
12 18 (10.40%) Cisco IOS
12 18 (10.40%) Internet
13 17 (9.83%) EIGRP
13 17 (9.83%) Multicast
13 17 (9.83%) VXLAN
14 16 (9.25%) Cisco Nexus
14 16 (9.25%) Wireless
15 15 (8.67%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.16%) Power BI
1 2 (1.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (3.47%) Git
2 5 (2.89%) JIRA
3 2 (1.16%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.58%) AppScan
4 1 (0.58%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.58%) Metasploit
General
1 40 (23.12%) Social Skills
2 36 (20.81%) Telecoms
3 24 (13.87%) Finance
4 20 (11.56%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (7.51%) Public Sector
6 9 (5.20%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (5.20%) Financial Institution
7 8 (4.62%) Law
8 7 (4.05%) Legal
9 3 (1.73%) Billing
9 3 (1.73%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.73%) Retail
10 2 (1.16%) Aviation
10 2 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.16%) Police
11 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.58%) Banking
11 1 (0.58%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 69 (39.88%) Network Engineer
2 26 (15.03%) Architect
3 22 (12.72%) Senior
4 18 (10.40%) Network Architect
5 11 (6.36%) Design Engineer
6 9 (5.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 9 (5.20%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 8 (4.62%) Network Design Engineer
7 8 (4.62%) Network Manager
7 8 (4.62%) Security Engineer
8 7 (4.05%) Integration Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) IP Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.47%) Senior Network Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) Solutions Architect
10 5 (2.89%) Cisco Engineer
10 5 (2.89%) Core Network Engineer
10 5 (2.89%) IP Network Engineer
10 5 (2.89%) Juniper Engineer
10 5 (2.89%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.20%) NETCONF
1 9 (5.20%) REST
1 9 (5.20%) YANG
2 8 (4.62%) 802.1X
3 6 (3.47%) LDAP
4 4 (2.31%) Jinja
4 4 (2.31%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.31%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.16%) Django
5 2 (1.16%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.58%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.58%) EDI
6 1 (0.58%) JSON
6 1 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (16.76%) Data Centre
2 17 (9.83%) Data Protection Act
3 12 (6.94%) Hybrid Cloud
4 11 (6.36%) PKI
5 7 (4.05%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (4.05%) Operational Technology
5 7 (4.05%) Security Posture
6 6 (3.47%) Cloud Native
6 6 (3.47%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.47%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.31%) SCADA
7 4 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.31%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.73%) CESG
8 3 (1.73%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.73%) Wiki
9 2 (1.16%) Algorithms
9 2 (1.16%) Fibre Optics
10 1 (0.58%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 15 (8.67%) Linux
2 11 (6.36%) Windows
3 7 (4.05%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.47%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.31%) Unix
6 1 (0.58%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.58%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (16.76%) Migration
2 27 (15.61%) Network Design
3 25 (14.45%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (13.87%) Change Management
5 20 (11.56%) Technical Leadership
6 19 (10.98%) Network Segmentation
7 18 (10.40%) Data Protection
8 17 (9.83%) ITIL
9 16 (9.25%) DevOps
9 16 (9.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 16 (9.25%) Network Architecture
9 16 (9.25%) Project Delivery
10 15 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
10 15 (8.67%) Project Management
10 15 (8.67%) Roadmaps
10 15 (8.67%) Root Cause Analysis
11 14 (8.09%) Incident Management
11 14 (8.09%) Stakeholder Management
11 14 (8.09%) Zero Trust
12 13 (7.51%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 35 (20.23%) Python
2 4 (2.31%) PHP
3 3 (1.73%) SQL
4 2 (1.16%) Bash
4 2 (1.16%) C
5 1 (0.58%) Bicep
5 1 (0.58%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 65 (37.57%) Security Cleared
2 54 (31.21%) SC Cleared
3 42 (24.28%) Cisco Certification
4 30 (17.34%) CCNP
5 24 (13.87%) CCIE
6 16 (9.25%) DV Cleared
7 13 (7.51%) CCNA
8 10 (5.78%) JNCIE
9 6 (3.47%) GIAC
9 6 (3.47%) JNCIS
10 5 (2.89%) Degree
11 4 (2.31%) APMG
11 4 (2.31%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (2.31%) GSEC
11 4 (2.31%) ISTQB
11 4 (2.31%) PMP
11 4 (2.31%) SSCP
12 3 (1.73%) CCDP
12 3 (1.73%) CISSP
12 3 (1.73%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 8 (4.62%) NCSC
2 7 (4.05%) NIST
3 6 (3.47%) SLA
4 4 (2.31%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (2.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (2.31%) QA
5 3 (1.73%) RMADS
6 2 (1.16%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (1.16%) JSP 440
6 2 (1.16%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.58%) COBIT
7 1 (0.58%) GDPR
7 1 (0.58%) GRC
7 1 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 14 (8.09%) Active Directory
2 10 (5.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (4.05%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.16%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.16%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 34 (19.65%) Ansible
2 10 (5.78%) Cisco Prime
3 9 (5.20%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (3.47%) vCenter Server
5 4 (2.31%) FortiGate
5 4 (2.31%) Grafana
5 4 (2.31%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.73%) Salt
6 3 (1.73%) SCOM
7 2 (1.16%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (1.16%) Iperf
7 2 (1.16%) Nmap
7 2 (1.16%) Terraform
8 1 (0.58%) CASB
8 1 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.58%) Nessus
8 1 (0.58%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.58%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 100 (57.80%) Cisco
2 46 (26.59%) Palo Alto
3 32 (18.50%) Fortinet
3 32 (18.50%) Juniper
4 29 (16.76%) F5
5 25 (14.45%) CheckPoint
5 25 (14.45%) Microsoft
6 17 (9.83%) Nokia
7 16 (9.25%) Aruba
7 16 (9.25%) VMware
8 13 (7.51%) Arista
8 13 (7.51%) Meraki
9 10 (5.78%) SolarWinds
10 7 (4.05%) ADVA
10 7 (4.05%) ServiceNow
10 7 (4.05%) Splunk
11 6 (3.47%) Zscaler
12 5 (2.89%) NetScout
13 4 (2.31%) BigPanda
13 4 (2.31%) Tufin