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 23 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 443 365 306
Rank change year-on-year -78 -59 +124
Contract jobs citing MPLS 196 174 304
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.58% 0.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.07% 4.67% 5.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 109 155
10th Percentile £240 £320 £272
25th Percentile £400 £425 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £488 £400
Median % change year-on-year -5.85% +21.88% -17.70%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £626 £649 £683
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 19
10th Percentile £22.53 £36.63 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £37.19 £20.45
Median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.03% +55.00% -57.38%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.69 £40.00
90th Percentile - £39.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 - £40.00
% change year-on-year - - -0.40%

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 4,817 3,722 5,393
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.42% 12.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,962 2,284 3,181
10th Percentile £250 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £483 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -3.45% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £473 £488
% change year-on-year +1.59% -3.23% +2.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 174 428
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.56 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.69 £44.50 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.78% +7.23% +118.42%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.97 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.08 £78.50 £72.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -23.66% -26.32% +150.00%

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 23 June 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 23 June 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 23 June 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 -128 155 £490 -2.00% 27
UK excluding London -79 118 £500 +11.11% 41
Work from Home -44 60 £450 -10.00% 23
South East -41 54 £475 +5.56% 11
London -88 53 £425 -15.00% 10
Scotland +5 22 £425 - 17
North of England -88 13 £575 +21.05% 7
South West -38 12 £538 -14.00% 3
Midlands -54 11 £440 +35.46% 1
North West -54 10 £575 +21.05% 4
West Midlands -62 9 £440 +35.46% 1
East of England -22 6 £500 - 1
Yorkshire -52 3 £483 +37.86% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 2

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 (4.08%) OpenStack
2 4 (2.04%) Confluence
3 3 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (7.14%) MS Visio
2 8 (4.08%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.06%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.53%) AutoCAD
4 3 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.02%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 35 (17.86%) Azure
2 23 (11.73%) AWS
3 10 (5.10%) Entra ID
3 10 (5.10%) GCP
4 5 (2.55%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (2.04%) IaaS
5 4 (2.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 3 (1.53%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 2 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.02%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.02%) Mimecast
7 2 (1.02%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.51%) Amazon ELB
8 1 (0.51%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 1 (0.51%) Amazon Macie
8 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudTrail
8 1 (0.51%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.51%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 123 (62.76%) WAN
2 102 (52.04%) BGP
3 91 (46.43%) Firewall
4 82 (41.84%) LAN
5 66 (33.67%) OSPF
6 62 (31.63%) VPN
7 58 (29.59%) SD-WAN
8 54 (27.55%) Network Security
9 32 (16.33%) IPsec
10 31 (15.82%) VLAN
11 25 (12.76%) Cisco ASA
11 25 (12.76%) Cisco Nexus
12 23 (11.73%) Ethernet VPN
12 23 (11.73%) Wireshark
13 21 (10.71%) VXLAN
14 19 (9.69%) Multicast
15 18 (9.18%) Wireless
16 17 (8.67%) Cisco IOS
16 17 (8.67%) Internet
17 16 (8.16%) EIGRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.02%) Power BI
1 2 (1.02%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (3.06%) JIRA
2 4 (2.04%) Git
3 2 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.51%) AppScan
4 1 (0.51%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.51%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.51%) Metasploit
General
1 54 (27.55%) Telecoms
2 51 (26.02%) Social Skills
3 26 (13.27%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (12.24%) Finance
5 12 (6.12%) Legal
6 11 (5.61%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (4.59%) Financial Institution
7 9 (4.59%) Law
8 7 (3.57%) Public Sector
9 6 (3.06%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.53%) Billing
11 3 (1.53%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.53%) Retail
12 2 (1.02%) Aviation
12 2 (1.02%) Banking
12 2 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.02%) Investment Banking
12 2 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.51%) Police
Job Titles
1 71 (36.22%) Network Engineer
2 33 (16.84%) Architect
3 23 (11.73%) Senior
4 22 (11.22%) Network Architect
5 10 (5.10%) Network Manager
5 10 (5.10%) Security Engineer
6 9 (4.59%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 9 (4.59%) Telecoms Engineer
7 7 (3.57%) Developer
7 7 (3.57%) Field Engineer
7 7 (3.57%) IP Architect
7 7 (3.57%) IP Engineer
7 7 (3.57%) Lead
7 7 (3.57%) Senior Network Engineer
7 7 (3.57%) Test Engineer
8 6 (3.06%) Cisco Engineer
8 6 (3.06%) Field Telecoms Engineer
8 6 (3.06%) Project Manager
8 6 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
9 5 (2.55%) Network Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.63%) REST
2 10 (5.10%) 802.1X
2 10 (5.10%) NETCONF
2 10 (5.10%) YANG
3 6 (3.06%) LDAP
4 4 (2.04%) Jinja
5 3 (1.53%) OpenConfig
5 3 (1.53%) RESTCONF
6 2 (1.02%) Django
6 2 (1.02%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.51%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 35 (17.86%) Data Centre
2 17 (8.67%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (7.65%) Data Protection Act
4 11 (5.61%) Cloud Native
4 11 (5.61%) PKI
5 7 (3.57%) Security Posture
6 6 (3.06%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (3.06%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.06%) Operational Technology
7 5 (2.55%) Driving Licence
8 4 (2.04%) Onboarding
8 4 (2.04%) Private Cloud
8 4 (2.04%) Public Cloud
8 4 (2.04%) SCADA
8 4 (2.04%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (1.53%) Fibre Optics
9 3 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (1.02%) CESG
10 2 (1.02%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.65%) Linux
2 7 (3.57%) Windows
3 6 (3.06%) Ubuntu
4 4 (2.04%) Unix
5 3 (1.53%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.51%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.51%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (16.33%) Project Delivery
2 31 (15.82%) Change Management
3 28 (14.29%) Network Design
4 27 (13.78%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (12.24%) Network Architecture
6 23 (11.73%) Migration
6 23 (11.73%) Stakeholder Management
7 22 (11.22%) ITIL
7 22 (11.22%) Roadmaps
7 22 (11.22%) Technical Leadership
8 21 (10.71%) Network Segmentation
9 20 (10.20%) Zero Trust
10 18 (9.18%) Agile
11 17 (8.67%) Data Protection
11 17 (8.67%) DevOps
12 16 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
13 15 (7.65%) Network Monitoring
13 15 (7.65%) Project Management
14 14 (7.14%) Root Cause Analysis
14 14 (7.14%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 38 (19.39%) Python
2 4 (2.04%) PHP
3 3 (1.53%) SQL
4 2 (1.02%) Bash
4 2 (1.02%) C
4 2 (1.02%) Perl
4 2 (1.02%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.51%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 66 (33.67%) Security Cleared
2 53 (27.04%) Cisco Certification
3 49 (25.00%) SC Cleared
4 34 (17.35%) CCNP
5 29 (14.80%) CCIE
6 19 (9.69%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.12%) CCNA
7 12 (6.12%) JNCIE
8 10 (5.10%) Degree
9 5 (2.55%) GIAC
10 4 (2.04%) APMG
10 4 (2.04%) AWS Certification
10 4 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.04%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (2.04%) ISTQB
10 4 (2.04%) JNCIP
10 4 (2.04%) PMP
10 4 (2.04%) SSCP
11 3 (1.53%) BC Cleared
11 3 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 9 (4.59%) NCSC
1 9 (4.59%) NIST
2 8 (4.08%) SLA
3 4 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 4 (2.04%) QA
4 3 (1.53%) GDPR
4 3 (1.53%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.02%) Government Security Classifications
5 2 (1.02%) RMADS
6 1 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.51%) COBIT
6 1 (0.51%) GRC
6 1 (0.51%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.51%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.51%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.51%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (6.12%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (4.08%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.57%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (3.06%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.02%) Firmware
5 2 (1.02%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.02%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 40 (20.41%) Ansible
2 9 (4.59%) Cisco Prime
3 7 (3.57%) Terraform
4 6 (3.06%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.06%) vCenter Server
5 4 (2.04%) Grafana
5 4 (2.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (2.04%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.53%) Salt
6 3 (1.53%) SCOM
7 2 (1.02%) Iperf
7 2 (1.02%) Nmap
8 1 (0.51%) CASB
8 1 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.51%) Nessus
8 1 (0.51%) OPNET
8 1 (0.51%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.51%) QRadar
8 1 (0.51%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.51%) Suricata
Vendors
1 113 (57.65%) Cisco
2 48 (24.49%) Palo Alto
3 37 (18.88%) Fortinet
4 35 (17.86%) F5
5 32 (16.33%) Juniper
6 25 (12.76%) Microsoft
7 24 (12.24%) CheckPoint
8 21 (10.71%) Aruba
9 20 (10.20%) VMware
10 19 (9.69%) SolarWinds
11 18 (9.18%) Nokia
12 17 (8.67%) Arista
13 11 (5.61%) Meraki
14 10 (5.10%) Splunk
15 7 (3.57%) ADVA
16 6 (3.06%) ServiceNow
17 5 (2.55%) NetScout
18 4 (2.04%) BigPanda
18 4 (2.04%) HP
18 4 (2.04%) Tufin