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 29 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 421 348 338
Rank change year-on-year -73 -10 +139
Contract jobs citing MPLS 163 224 306
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.61% 0.67%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.10% 5.05% 4.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 106 155
10th Percentile £263 £363 £315
25th Percentile £365 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% +12.30%
75th Percentile £553 £595 £600
90th Percentile £638 £675 £678
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% +5.26%
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 3,971 4,436 6,390
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.02% 12.17% 13.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,578 2,549 3,957
10th Percentile £205 £223 £211
25th Percentile £356 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 169 347
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.16 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.50 £23.10 £22.88
Median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £56.40
Median % change year-on-year -17.07% -27.30% +35.09%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.16
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 29 November 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 15 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 29 November 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 -90 134 £450 -10.00% 43
UK excluding London -54 104 £425 -15.00% 39
Work from Home -17 56 £475 -5.00% 12
London -12 43 £500 -1.23% 12
West Midlands -2 36 £400 -5.88% 2
Midlands -17 36 £400 +6.67% 2
South East -25 34 £538 +6.44% 25
Scotland +13 13 £213 -
North of England -63 12 £436 -12.75% 5
North West -28 10 £430 -14.85%
South West +2 5 £633 - 4
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 -
East of England -15 2 £350 - 4
North East -6 1 £550 -
Yorkshire -46 1 £500 - 5

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 (12.88%) OpenStack
2 5 (3.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.45%) Confluence
4 1 (0.61%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (7.36%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.68%) MS Visio
3 5 (3.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (3.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 36 (22.09%) AWS
2 33 (20.25%) Azure
3 8 (4.91%) Entra ID
3 8 (4.91%) GCP
4 7 (4.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 6 (3.68%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (3.68%) OpenShift
6 4 (2.45%) AWS Direct Connect
6 4 (2.45%) IaaS
6 4 (2.45%) Microsoft Purview
6 4 (2.45%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (1.23%) Azure Functions
7 2 (1.23%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (1.23%) Azure Service Bus
7 2 (1.23%) Serverless
8 1 (0.61%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.61%) PaaS
8 1 (0.61%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 106 (65.03%) BGP
2 100 (61.35%) WAN
3 74 (45.40%) Firewall
4 68 (41.72%) VPN
5 60 (36.81%) LAN
6 52 (31.90%) OSPF
7 48 (29.45%) IPsec
8 38 (23.31%) SD-WAN
9 24 (14.72%) DNS
10 22 (13.50%) VLAN
11 21 (12.88%) Wireless
12 18 (11.04%) VXLAN
13 14 (8.59%) 5G
13 14 (8.59%) DHCP
14 13 (7.98%) Cisco ASA
14 13 (7.98%) Network Security
15 12 (7.36%) SDH
15 12 (7.36%) Wireshark
16 11 (6.75%) Wi-Fi
16 11 (6.75%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.23%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.23%) NoSQL
1 2 (1.23%) RDBMS
1 2 (1.23%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 8 (4.91%) Git
2 7 (4.29%) JIRA
3 4 (2.45%) GitLab
4 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.61%) Robot Framework
4 1 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 55 (33.74%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.50%) Telecoms
3 19 (11.66%) Public Sector
4 12 (7.36%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (6.75%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (6.13%) Finance
7 4 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.84%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.23%) Legal
9 2 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.61%) Aviation
10 1 (0.61%) Banking
10 1 (0.61%) Law
10 1 (0.61%) Police
10 1 (0.61%) Retail
Job Titles
1 65 (39.88%) Network Engineer
2 25 (15.34%) Architect
3 23 (14.11%) Senior
4 19 (11.66%) Support Engineer
5 17 (10.43%) WAN Engineer
6 16 (9.82%) Senior Network Engineer
7 14 (8.59%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 14 (8.59%) Network Architect
8 13 (7.98%) 3rd Line Support
8 13 (7.98%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 12 (7.36%) Solutions Architect
10 11 (6.75%) Designer
11 10 (6.13%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 9 (5.52%) Field Engineer
13 8 (4.91%) IP Specialist
14 7 (4.29%) Design Engineer
14 7 (4.29%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 7 (4.29%) IP Engineer
14 7 (4.29%) IP Network Engineer
15 6 (3.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (9.20%) NETCONF
2 12 (7.36%) YANG
3 8 (4.91%) REST
3 8 (4.91%) RESTCONF
4 5 (3.07%) Jinja
5 4 (2.45%) JSON
6 3 (1.84%) OpenConfig
6 3 (1.84%) XML
7 2 (1.23%) 802.1X
7 2 (1.23%) ARM Templates
7 2 (1.23%) EDI
7 2 (1.23%) SOAP
7 2 (1.23%) YAML
8 1 (0.61%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 34 (20.86%) Data Centre
2 28 (17.18%) PKI
3 15 (9.20%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (6.13%) Cloud Native
4 10 (6.13%) Operational Technology
5 7 (4.29%) Data Protection Act
5 7 (4.29%) Driving Licence
6 6 (3.68%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.84%) SCADA
7 3 (1.84%) Virtual Team
8 2 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (1.23%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (1.23%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.23%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.61%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.61%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.61%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 7 (4.29%) Windows
2 3 (1.84%) Linux
2 3 (1.84%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.23%) CentOS
3 2 (1.23%) 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 (25.15%) Network Design
2 31 (19.02%) Load Balancing
3 23 (14.11%) Network Virtualisation
3 23 (14.11%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (12.27%) Migration
5 18 (11.04%) Roadmaps
6 17 (10.43%) Validation
7 16 (9.82%) Stakeholder Management
8 15 (9.20%) DevOps
8 15 (9.20%) Network Architecture
9 14 (8.59%) Project Delivery
10 13 (7.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 12 (7.36%) Strategic Thinking
11 12 (7.36%) TOGAF
12 11 (6.75%) Change Control
12 11 (6.75%) Data Protection
12 11 (6.75%) Enterprise Architecture
13 10 (6.13%) ITIL
13 10 (6.13%) Network Monitoring
13 10 (6.13%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 48 (29.45%) Python
2 4 (2.45%) Bash
3 2 (1.23%) SQL
4 1 (0.61%) Bicep
4 1 (0.61%) Go
4 1 (0.61%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 62 (38.04%) Security Cleared
2 57 (34.97%) Cisco Certification
3 47 (28.83%) SC Cleared
4 39 (23.93%) CCNP
5 30 (18.40%) CCIE
6 18 (11.04%) JNCIE
7 16 (9.82%) CCNA
8 12 (7.36%) Degree
9 11 (6.75%) AWS Certification
10 8 (4.91%) DV Cleared
11 7 (4.29%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (4.29%) JNCIS
12 5 (3.07%) Azure Certification
12 5 (3.07%) CISSP
13 4 (2.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (2.45%) CCSP
13 4 (2.45%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.84%) CCIE Security
15 2 (1.23%) CCDP
16 1 (0.61%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.75%) SLA
2 7 (4.29%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (3.07%) GDPR
4 5 (3.07%) NIST
5 1 (0.61%) QA
System Software
1 17 (10.43%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.36%) Docker
3 11 (6.75%) Active Directory
4 10 (6.13%) VMware NSX
5 4 (2.45%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 44 (26.99%) Ansible
2 16 (9.82%) Terraform
3 6 (3.68%) FortiGate
4 4 (2.45%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.84%) Iperf
5 3 (1.84%) Kubernetes
5 3 (1.84%) Nmap
6 2 (1.23%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.23%) SCCM
7 1 (0.61%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.61%) CASB
7 1 (0.61%) Cisco Prime
Vendors
1 91 (55.83%) Cisco
2 58 (35.58%) Juniper
3 31 (19.02%) Fortinet
4 28 (17.18%) Palo Alto
5 26 (15.95%) Microsoft
6 24 (14.72%) F5
7 20 (12.27%) VMware
8 13 (7.98%) SolarWinds
9 12 (7.36%) Meraki
10 10 (6.13%) CheckPoint
11 9 (5.52%) Dell
11 9 (5.52%) Nokia
12 7 (4.29%) Aruba
13 6 (3.68%) Arista
14 4 (2.45%) Atlassian
14 4 (2.45%) Citrix
15 3 (1.84%) Forcepoint
15 3 (1.84%) LogicMonitor
16 2 (1.23%) CenturyLink
16 2 (1.23%) Databricks