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 11 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 446 333 298
Rank change year-on-year -113 -35 +201
Contract jobs citing MPLS 189 194 336
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.66% 0.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.18% 5.14% 5.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 104 171
10th Percentile £206 £314 £263
25th Percentile £363 £417 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +25.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £576 £575
90th Percentile £630 £668 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £350
% change year-on-year +5.56% +28.57% -17.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 22
10th Percentile - - £14.00
25th Percentile £42.13 £18.50 £24.25
Median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +122.37% -52.50% -31.81%
75th Percentile £42.38 £19.50 -
90th Percentile - - £69.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +122.37% -52.50% -27.69%

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 4,519 3,771 5,852
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.87% 12.90% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,852 2,341 3,526
10th Percentile £231 £213 £205
25th Percentile £398 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £485
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% +1.14% -6.74%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £468 £475
% change year-on-year +1.60% -1.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 164 421
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.41 £21.35 £17.72
Median hourly rate £42.71 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.88% -6.25% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.50 £61.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.00 £28.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year +92.86% -38.97% +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 11 April 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
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 11 April 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 -110 157 £475 -5.00% 36
UK excluding London -87 103 £475 +5.56% 25
London -97 60 £400 -20.00% 19
Work from Home -39 58 £413 -17.50% 18
South East -62 43 £500 - 12
Midlands -58 18 £444 +42.00% 4
West Midlands -59 15 £444 +42.00% 3
North of England -71 14 £400 -20.00% 3
North West -31 13 £400 -15.79%
Scotland +15 12 £214 -49.71% 1
South West -29 11 £525 - 3
East of England -27 5 £500 +100.00% 1
Yorkshire -52 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 (4.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.59%) Confluence
3 2 (1.06%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.53%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.65%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.06%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 32 (16.93%) Azure
2 16 (8.47%) AWS
3 15 (7.94%) Entra ID
4 11 (5.82%) GCP
4 11 (5.82%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (4.23%) IaaS
6 7 (3.70%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 5 (2.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 3 (1.59%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (1.06%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.06%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (1.06%) IBM Watson
9 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (1.06%) Mimecast
9 2 (1.06%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.53%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.53%) Amazon Macie
10 1 (0.53%) Azure Functions
10 1 (0.53%) Serverless
10 1 (0.53%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 109 (57.67%) WAN
2 97 (51.32%) BGP
2 97 (51.32%) Firewall
3 73 (38.62%) VPN
4 69 (36.51%) LAN
5 64 (33.86%) SD-WAN
6 61 (32.28%) OSPF
7 44 (23.28%) Network Security
8 31 (16.40%) VLAN
9 30 (15.87%) Cisco ASA
10 27 (14.29%) IPsec
11 22 (11.64%) Ethernet VPN
12 21 (11.11%) EIGRP
12 21 (11.11%) VXLAN
13 19 (10.05%) Internet
13 19 (10.05%) Wireless
14 18 (9.52%) Cisco IOS
15 16 (8.47%) Multicast
16 15 (7.94%) Cisco Nexus
16 15 (7.94%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.06%) Power BI
1 2 (1.06%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 9 (4.76%) Git
2 6 (3.17%) JIRA
3 2 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.53%) AppScan
4 1 (0.53%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.53%) Metasploit
General
1 44 (23.28%) Social Skills
2 36 (19.05%) Telecoms
3 23 (12.17%) Finance
4 22 (11.64%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (7.94%) Public Sector
6 9 (4.76%) Financial Institution
7 8 (4.23%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (4.23%) Law
8 6 (3.17%) Legal
9 5 (2.65%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.59%) Billing
10 3 (1.59%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.59%) Retail
11 2 (1.06%) Aviation
11 2 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.06%) Police
11 2 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 75 (39.68%) Network Engineer
2 30 (15.87%) Architect
3 25 (13.23%) Senior
4 22 (11.64%) Network Architect
5 13 (6.88%) Design Engineer
6 9 (4.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 9 (4.76%) Network Design Engineer
6 9 (4.76%) Senior Network Engineer
6 9 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
7 8 (4.23%) Field Engineer
7 8 (4.23%) IP Engineer
7 8 (4.23%) Network Manager
8 7 (3.70%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 7 (3.70%) Integration Engineer
8 7 (3.70%) IP Network Engineer
8 7 (3.70%) Project Manager
8 7 (3.70%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 7 (3.70%) Security Engineer
9 5 (2.65%) Juniper Engineer
9 5 (2.65%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.23%) 802.1X
1 8 (4.23%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.23%) YANG
2 7 (3.70%) REST
3 6 (3.17%) LDAP
4 5 (2.65%) OpenConfig
5 4 (2.12%) Jinja
5 4 (2.12%) RESTCONF
6 2 (1.06%) Django
6 2 (1.06%) JSON
6 2 (1.06%) RFC 2544
6 2 (1.06%) XML
7 1 (0.53%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.53%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 33 (17.46%) Data Centre
2 16 (8.47%) Data Protection Act
3 13 (6.88%) PKI
4 10 (5.29%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (3.70%) Cloud Native
5 7 (3.70%) Security Posture
6 6 (3.17%) Onboarding
6 6 (3.17%) Operational Technology
7 5 (2.65%) Driving Licence
8 4 (2.12%) Management Information System
8 4 (2.12%) SCADA
8 4 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (2.12%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.59%) CESG
9 3 (1.59%) Distributed Architecture
9 3 (1.59%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.59%) Wiki
10 2 (1.06%) Algorithms
10 2 (1.06%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.94%) Linux
2 11 (5.82%) Windows
3 7 (3.70%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.17%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.12%) Unix
6 1 (0.53%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.53%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (16.40%) Migration
2 29 (15.34%) Network Design
3 28 (14.81%) Problem-Solving
4 23 (12.17%) Change Management
5 21 (11.11%) Roadmaps
5 21 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
6 19 (10.05%) Cybersecurity
6 19 (10.05%) Data Protection
6 19 (10.05%) ITIL
7 18 (9.52%) Project Management
7 18 (9.52%) Zero Trust
8 17 (8.99%) Network Segmentation
8 17 (8.99%) Project Delivery
9 16 (8.47%) DevOps
9 16 (8.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 16 (8.47%) Network Architecture
9 16 (8.47%) Technical Leadership
10 14 (7.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 13 (6.88%) Agile
11 13 (6.88%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 42 (22.22%) Python
2 4 (2.12%) PHP
3 3 (1.59%) SQL
4 2 (1.06%) Bash
4 2 (1.06%) C
5 1 (0.53%) Bicep
5 1 (0.53%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 68 (35.98%) Security Cleared
2 54 (28.57%) SC Cleared
3 43 (22.75%) Cisco Certification
4 33 (17.46%) CCNP
5 26 (13.76%) CCIE
6 18 (9.52%) DV Cleared
7 14 (7.41%) CCNA
8 9 (4.76%) JNCIE
9 8 (4.23%) Degree
10 6 (3.17%) CISSP
10 6 (3.17%) GIAC
10 6 (3.17%) JNCIS
11 5 (2.65%) AWS Certification
11 5 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (2.65%) CCDP
11 5 (2.65%) CCIE Security
11 5 (2.65%) CCSP
11 5 (2.65%) PMP
12 4 (2.12%) APMG
12 4 (2.12%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (6.35%) NIST
3 11 (5.82%) SLA
4 8 (4.23%) NCSC
5 7 (3.70%) PCI DSS
6 6 (3.17%) GDPR
7 4 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (1.59%) RMADS
9 2 (1.06%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (1.06%) JSP 440
9 2 (1.06%) QA
10 1 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.53%) COBIT
10 1 (0.53%) GRC
10 1 (0.53%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 14 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.70%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (3.17%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.06%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.06%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 38 (20.11%) Ansible
2 9 (4.76%) Cisco Prime
2 9 (4.76%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (3.70%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.17%) Terraform
4 6 (3.17%) vCenter Server
5 4 (2.12%) Grafana
5 4 (2.12%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.59%) Salt
6 3 (1.59%) SCOM
7 2 (1.06%) CASB
7 2 (1.06%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (1.06%) Iperf
7 2 (1.06%) Nmap
8 1 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.53%) Nessus
8 1 (0.53%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 109 (57.67%) Cisco
2 51 (26.98%) Palo Alto
3 41 (21.69%) Fortinet
4 39 (20.63%) Juniper
5 36 (19.05%) F5
6 26 (13.76%) Microsoft
7 24 (12.70%) CheckPoint
8 23 (12.17%) Nokia
9 19 (10.05%) VMware
10 18 (9.52%) Aruba
11 16 (8.47%) Meraki
12 14 (7.41%) SolarWinds
13 12 (6.35%) Arista
14 7 (3.70%) ADVA
14 7 (3.70%) ServiceNow
14 7 (3.70%) Splunk
15 6 (3.17%) Zscaler
16 5 (2.65%) NetScout
17 4 (2.12%) BigPanda
17 4 (2.12%) Tufin