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 6 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 431 326 332
Rank change year-on-year -105 +6 +140
Contract jobs citing MPLS 164 236 297
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.66% 0.66%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.13% 5.31% 4.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 115 152
10th Percentile £263 £363 £315
25th Percentile £363 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.60% -4.76% +13.51%
75th Percentile £538 £608 £600
90th Percentile £625 £682 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% +3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 19
10th Percentile - £17.98 £24.25
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.50 £30.63
Median hourly rate £20.00 £22.40 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% -66.05% +151.35%
75th Percentile £21.00 £33.75 -
90th Percentile - £34.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.00 £19.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year +5.26% -71.20% +180.77%

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 3,970 4,444 6,262
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.89% 12.35% 13.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,583 2,571 3,881
10th Percentile £206 £220 £211
25th Percentile £356 £373 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 167 348
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.06 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.09 £22.75 £22.69
Median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.70
Median % change year-on-year -17.07% -26.39% +26.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.05
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +25.53%

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 6 December 2025.

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 6 December 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 -91 135 £450 -10.00% 35
UK excluding London -81 102 £425 -15.00% 30
Work from Home -34 50 £447 -10.60% 11
London -35 45 £500 -6.85% 7
West Midlands -3 36 £400 -5.88% 2
Midlands -20 36 £400 +6.67% 2
South East -37 36 £500 -6.98% 14
Scotland +13 13 £213 -
North of England -68 11 £435 -13.00% 8
North West -27 10 £430 -14.85% 1
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 -
South West -11 2 £569 -10.08% 4
East of England -11 2 £350 - 4
North East -2 1 £550 - 1

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 21 (12.80%) OpenStack
2 5 (3.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.22%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (4.88%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.66%) MS Visio
3 5 (3.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (3.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.22%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 38 (23.17%) AWS
2 34 (20.73%) Azure
3 8 (4.88%) Entra ID
3 8 (4.88%) GCP
4 7 (4.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 7 (4.27%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (3.66%) OpenShift
6 4 (2.44%) AWS Direct Connect
6 4 (2.44%) IaaS
6 4 (2.44%) Microsoft Purview
6 4 (2.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.22%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (1.22%) Azure Functions
7 2 (1.22%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (1.22%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (1.22%) Azure Service Bus
7 2 (1.22%) Serverless
8 1 (0.61%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.61%) PaaS
8 1 (0.61%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 105 (64.02%) BGP
2 102 (62.20%) WAN
3 78 (47.56%) Firewall
4 65 (39.63%) VPN
5 62 (37.80%) LAN
6 54 (32.93%) OSPF
7 45 (27.44%) IPsec
8 37 (22.56%) SD-WAN
9 23 (14.02%) Wireless
10 22 (13.41%) VLAN
11 19 (11.59%) DNS
12 18 (10.98%) VXLAN
13 16 (9.76%) 5G
13 16 (9.76%) Network Security
14 15 (9.15%) SDH
15 14 (8.54%) DHCP
16 13 (7.93%) Cisco ASA
17 12 (7.32%) Wireshark
17 12 (7.32%) WLAN
18 11 (6.71%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.22%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.22%) NoSQL
1 2 (1.22%) RDBMS
1 2 (1.22%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (6.10%) Git
2 4 (2.44%) GitLab
3 3 (1.83%) JIRA
4 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.61%) Robot Framework
4 1 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 52 (31.71%) Social Skills
2 21 (12.80%) Telecoms
3 19 (11.59%) Public Sector
4 11 (6.71%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (6.10%) Finance
6 8 (4.88%) Analytical Skills
7 4 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.22%) Retail
10 1 (0.61%) Aviation
10 1 (0.61%) Banking
10 1 (0.61%) Police
Job Titles
1 65 (39.63%) Network Engineer
2 26 (15.85%) Architect
3 23 (14.02%) Senior
4 19 (11.59%) Support Engineer
5 17 (10.37%) WAN Engineer
6 16 (9.76%) Senior Network Engineer
7 14 (8.54%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 14 (8.54%) Network Architect
8 13 (7.93%) 3rd Line Support
8 13 (7.93%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
8 13 (7.93%) Solutions Architect
9 11 (6.71%) Designer
10 10 (6.10%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 10 (6.10%) Design Engineer
11 9 (5.49%) Field Engineer
12 8 (4.88%) IP Specialist
12 8 (4.88%) Network Design Engineer
13 7 (4.27%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 7 (4.27%) IP Engineer
13 7 (4.27%) IP Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.93%) YANG
2 12 (7.32%) NETCONF
3 8 (4.88%) REST
4 5 (3.05%) Jinja
4 5 (3.05%) JSON
5 4 (2.44%) RESTCONF
5 4 (2.44%) XML
6 3 (1.83%) OpenConfig
7 2 (1.22%) 802.1X
7 2 (1.22%) ARM Templates
7 2 (1.22%) EDI
7 2 (1.22%) SOAP
7 2 (1.22%) YAML
8 1 (0.61%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 35 (21.34%) Data Centre
2 24 (14.63%) PKI
3 15 (9.15%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (6.10%) Cloud Native
4 10 (6.10%) Operational Technology
5 9 (5.49%) Data Protection Act
6 7 (4.27%) Driving Licence
7 6 (3.66%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.83%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.83%) SCADA
8 3 (1.83%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.22%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.22%) Enterprise Cloud
9 2 (1.22%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.22%) Private Cloud
10 1 (0.61%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.61%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.61%) Management Information System
10 1 (0.61%) Thin Client
10 1 (0.61%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 7 (4.27%) Windows
2 3 (1.83%) Linux
2 3 (1.83%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.22%) CentOS
3 2 (1.22%) Unix
4 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (25.00%) Network Design
2 33 (20.12%) Load Balancing
3 25 (15.24%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (13.41%) Migration
5 20 (12.20%) Roadmaps
6 19 (11.59%) Network Virtualisation
7 17 (10.37%) DevOps
8 16 (9.76%) Stakeholder Management
9 15 (9.15%) Network Architecture
10 14 (8.54%) Project Delivery
11 13 (7.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 13 (7.93%) Validation
12 12 (7.32%) Data Protection
12 12 (7.32%) Strategic Thinking
12 12 (7.32%) TOGAF
13 11 (6.71%) Enterprise Architecture
13 11 (6.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 11 (6.71%) Network Monitoring
14 10 (6.10%) Network Management
14 10 (6.10%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 46 (28.05%) Python
2 4 (2.44%) Bash
3 2 (1.22%) SQL
4 1 (0.61%) Bicep
4 1 (0.61%) Go
4 1 (0.61%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 61 (37.20%) Security Cleared
2 55 (33.54%) Cisco Certification
3 46 (28.05%) SC Cleared
4 38 (23.17%) CCNP
5 29 (17.68%) CCIE
6 17 (10.37%) CCNA
6 17 (10.37%) JNCIE
7 11 (6.71%) AWS Certification
8 8 (4.88%) Degree
8 8 (4.88%) DV Cleared
9 7 (4.27%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (3.66%) JNCIS
11 5 (3.05%) Azure Certification
11 5 (3.05%) CISSP
12 4 (2.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (2.44%) CCSP
13 3 (1.83%) CCIE Security
13 3 (1.83%) JNCIP
14 2 (1.22%) CCDP
15 1 (0.61%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.71%) SLA
2 7 (4.27%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (3.05%) GDPR
4 5 (3.05%) NIST
5 1 (0.61%) QA
System Software
1 13 (7.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.32%) Docker
3 11 (6.71%) Active Directory
4 10 (6.10%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 40 (24.39%) Ansible
2 16 (9.76%) Terraform
3 8 (4.88%) FortiGate
4 4 (2.44%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.83%) Iperf
5 3 (1.83%) Kubernetes
5 3 (1.83%) Nmap
6 2 (1.22%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.22%) SCCM
7 1 (0.61%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.61%) CASB
Vendors
1 88 (53.66%) Cisco
2 58 (35.37%) Juniper
3 32 (19.51%) Fortinet
4 30 (18.29%) Palo Alto
5 26 (15.85%) F5
5 26 (15.85%) Microsoft
6 16 (9.76%) VMware
7 14 (8.54%) Meraki
8 13 (7.93%) SolarWinds
9 12 (7.32%) Nokia
10 10 (6.10%) CheckPoint
11 9 (5.49%) Dell
12 6 (3.66%) Arista
12 6 (3.66%) Aruba
13 5 (3.05%) LogicMonitor
14 4 (2.44%) Citrix
15 3 (1.83%) Forcepoint
16 2 (1.22%) BT
16 2 (1.22%) CenturyLink
16 2 (1.22%) Databricks