MPLS Contracts

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring MPLS skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited MPLS over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 338 290 495
Rank change year-on-year -48 +205 -8
Contract jobs citing MPLS 187 351 219
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.64% 0.81% 0.37%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.00% 6.22% 2.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 180 127
10th Percentile £300 £263 £313
25th Percentile £422 £334 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £568 £576 £600
90th Percentile £638 £676 £693
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £375 £425
% change year-on-year +20.00% -11.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 23 12
10th Percentile - £14.00 £13.10
25th Percentile £18.50 £23.72 £29.19
Median hourly rate £19.00 £37.50 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year -49.33% -39.52% +138.46%
75th Percentile £19.50 £40.00 £64.92
90th Percentile - £62.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.00 £40.00 £58.66
% change year-on-year -52.50% -31.81% +166.64%

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 3,739 5,643 7,361
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.79% 12.94% 12.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,297 3,382 4,789
10th Percentile £213 £205 £235
25th Percentile £363 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £495 £519
Median % change year-on-year -1.52% -4.53% +3.70%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £675 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -2.63% - +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 423 478
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.57 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.35 £10.63
Median hourly rate £32.50 £38.50 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.58% +102.63% -31.84%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.59 £45.88 £18.50
% change year-on-year -46.41% +148.00% -13.95%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 15 Contract 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 30 April 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 -61 168 £500 +25.00% 79
UK excluding London -48 89 £450 +20.00% 63
London -3 81 £500 -4.76% 31
Work from Home +54 61 £500 +37.93% 66
South East +19 46 £450 +20.00% 15
North of England +41 20 £475 +37.68% 8
North West +23 17 £475 +1.12% 6
West Midlands -61 13 £313 -10.71% 7
Midlands -61 13 £313 -10.71% 11
South West +41 10 £525 -23.64% 7
Scotland +8 3 £425 -10.53% 10
East of England +34 2 £250 - 4
Yorkshire - 2 £200 - 2
North East -1 1 £550 +59.42%
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -

MPLS
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 14 (7.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.53%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.14%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (2.14%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.53%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (2.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.07%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 60 (32.09%) Azure
2 46 (24.60%) AWS
3 18 (9.63%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (6.95%) Entra ID
4 13 (6.95%) IaaS
5 11 (5.88%) GCP
6 9 (4.81%) Cloudflare
7 2 (1.07%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (0.53%) Akamai
8 1 (0.53%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 113 (60.43%) VPN
2 107 (57.22%) WAN
3 103 (55.08%) BGP
4 75 (40.11%) Firewall
5 71 (37.97%) OSPF
6 50 (26.74%) LAN
7 40 (21.39%) SD-WAN
8 37 (19.79%) IPsec
9 34 (18.18%) Network Security
10 28 (14.97%) Ethernet
11 26 (13.90%) DNS
12 24 (12.83%) Multicast
13 22 (11.76%) SDH
14 21 (11.23%) TCP/IP
15 19 (10.16%) Internet
15 19 (10.16%) Wireshark
16 18 (9.63%) SAN
17 17 (9.09%) Cisco Nexus
17 17 (9.09%) LTE
17 17 (9.09%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.07%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.07%) MySQL
1 2 (1.07%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 5 (2.67%) Robot Framework
2 3 (1.60%) GitLab
2 3 (1.60%) JIRA
3 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 43 (22.99%) Telecoms
2 41 (21.93%) Social Skills
3 20 (10.70%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (9.63%) Finance
5 11 (5.88%) Public Sector
6 6 (3.21%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (3.21%) Legal
7 5 (2.67%) Law
7 5 (2.67%) Spanish Language
8 4 (2.14%) Banking
8 4 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.07%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.53%) Billing
11 1 (0.53%) Electronics
11 1 (0.53%) Marketing
11 1 (0.53%) Retail
11 1 (0.53%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 92 (49.20%) Network Engineer
2 19 (10.16%) IP Engineer
3 16 (8.56%) Architect
3 16 (8.56%) Senior
4 15 (8.02%) Cisco Engineer
4 15 (8.02%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 14 (7.49%) Test Engineer
6 12 (6.42%) Consultant
6 12 (6.42%) Implementation Engineer
6 12 (6.42%) Network Architect
6 12 (6.42%) Principal Engineer
6 12 (6.42%) Principal Network Engineer
7 11 (5.88%) WAN Engineer
8 10 (5.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (4.81%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 9 (4.81%) 2nd Line Support
9 9 (4.81%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 9 (4.81%) Core Network Engineer
9 9 (4.81%) Integration Engineer
9 9 (4.81%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.67%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.60%) JSON
2 3 (1.60%) XML
3 2 (1.07%) NETCONF
3 2 (1.07%) REST
3 2 (1.07%) RESTCONF
3 2 (1.07%) SOAP
3 2 (1.07%) YAML
3 2 (1.07%) YANG
4 1 (0.53%) HTML
4 1 (0.53%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 20 (10.70%) Self-Motivation
2 19 (10.16%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (7.49%) PKI
4 13 (6.95%) Data Centre
4 13 (6.95%) Public Cloud
5 8 (4.28%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 4 (2.14%) Operational Technology
6 4 (2.14%) SCADA
6 4 (2.14%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.60%) Clustering
7 3 (1.60%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.60%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.07%) NHS
8 2 (1.07%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.07%) Security Operations Centre
9 1 (0.53%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.53%) FMCG
9 1 (0.53%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.53%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 22 (11.76%) Linux
2 19 (10.16%) Unix
3 18 (9.63%) Windows
4 14 (7.49%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.07%) CentOS
5 2 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.53%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (22.46%) Problem-Solving
2 38 (20.32%) Migration
3 34 (18.18%) Network Monitoring
4 33 (17.65%) Project Delivery
5 26 (13.90%) Network Design
6 24 (12.83%) ITIL
6 24 (12.83%) Network Architecture
7 20 (10.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 20 (10.70%) Test Strategy
8 19 (10.16%) Project Management
9 18 (9.63%) Fault Management
10 17 (9.09%) Regression Testing
11 15 (8.02%) Change Management
11 15 (8.02%) Data Loss Prevention
11 15 (8.02%) Roadmaps
11 15 (8.02%) Time Management
12 13 (6.95%) Zero Trust
13 11 (5.88%) Network Management
14 9 (4.81%) Containerisation
14 9 (4.81%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 32 (17.11%) Python
2 15 (8.02%) Java
3 5 (2.67%) Perl
3 5 (2.67%) PowerShell
4 3 (1.60%) SQL
5 2 (1.07%) Bash
Qualifications
1 79 (42.25%) Cisco Certification
2 54 (28.88%) CCNP
3 33 (17.65%) Security Cleared
4 32 (17.11%) CCIE
5 25 (13.37%) SC Cleared
6 21 (11.23%) CCNA
6 21 (11.23%) Degree
7 15 (8.02%) ISEB
7 15 (8.02%) ISTQB
7 15 (8.02%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 5 (2.67%) CCIE Service Provider
8 5 (2.67%) DV Cleared
8 5 (2.67%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (2.14%) Azure Certification
9 4 (2.14%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (2.14%) JNCIE
10 3 (1.60%) AWS Certification
10 3 (1.60%) MCSE
10 3 (1.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (1.07%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.28%) NIST
1 8 (4.28%) SLA
2 4 (2.14%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (2.14%) NCSC
3 2 (1.07%) Government Security Classifications
3 2 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.07%) QA
4 1 (0.53%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 14 (7.49%) Active Directory
2 9 (4.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.74%) Docker
4 6 (3.21%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.53%) Firmware
5 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.53%) vSphere
5 1 (0.53%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 30 (16.04%) Ansible
2 13 (6.95%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (5.35%) FortiGate
4 8 (4.28%) ZABBIX
5 7 (3.74%) Kubernetes
5 7 (3.74%) Terraform
6 6 (3.21%) Cisco Prime
7 5 (2.67%) Nagios
8 2 (1.07%) SolarWinds Orion
9 1 (0.53%) OpenView
9 1 (0.53%) OPNET
9 1 (0.53%) SCCM
9 1 (0.53%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 113 (60.43%) Cisco
2 43 (22.99%) Juniper
3 37 (19.79%) Microsoft
4 34 (18.18%) Fortinet
5 33 (17.65%) Palo Alto
6 25 (13.37%) F5
7 23 (12.30%) SolarWinds
8 16 (8.56%) CheckPoint
9 15 (8.02%) Aruba
10 14 (7.49%) Nokia
11 12 (6.42%) Zscaler
12 11 (5.88%) Citrix
12 11 (5.88%) VMware
13 9 (4.81%) Meraki
14 8 (4.28%) Arista
15 5 (2.67%) Splunk
16 4 (2.14%) BMC
16 4 (2.14%) Huawei
16 4 (2.14%) Remedy
17 3 (1.60%) McAfee