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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 408 331 335
Rank change year-on-year -77 +4 +128
Contract jobs citing MPLS 162 225 316
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.61% 0.67%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.03% 5.10% 4.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 110 155
10th Percentile £263 £363 £315
25th Percentile £365 £413 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £543 £595 £600
90th Percentile £639 £675 £683
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 20
10th Percentile - £19.54 £20.08
25th Percentile £19.00 £22.40 £24.88
Median hourly rate £20.00 £32.50 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year -38.46% -50.74% +153.77%
75th Percentile £21.00 £35.00 -
90th Percentile - £53.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.00 £20.08 £65.98
% change year-on-year -0.37% -69.57% +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 4,020 4,410 6,565
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.32% 12.04% 14.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,606 2,546 4,097
10th Percentile £206 £225 £213
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -4.63% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 166 342
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.83 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.50 £24.63 £22.81
Median hourly rate £35.00 £46.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.32% -15.91% +30.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £75.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £50.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -15.00% -11.49% +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 15 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 15 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 -96 135 £450 -10.00% 56
UK excluding London -55 108 £425 -15.00% 37
Work from Home -10 58 £500 - 21
London -30 40 £500 -1.23% 22
West Midlands -7 37 £400 -5.88% 7
Midlands -16 37 £400 +6.67% 7
South East -24 33 £444 -12.13% 18
Scotland +6 13 £213 -43.33% 2
North of England -61 12 £442 -11.55% 3
North West -22 10 £436 -13.61% 1
South West -1 9 £625 -1.19% 4
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 - 1
East of England -20 2 £350 - 3
North East -11 1 £550 +12.82%
Yorkshire -49 1 £500 - 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 21 (12.96%) OpenStack
2 7 (4.32%) Confluence
3 3 (1.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.23%) Camunda
5 1 (0.62%) SharePoint
Applications
1 14 (8.64%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.09%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 38 (23.46%) AWS
2 33 (20.37%) Azure
3 10 (6.17%) GCP
4 7 (4.32%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 6 (3.70%) Entra ID
5 6 (3.70%) OpenShift
6 4 (2.47%) AWS Direct Connect
6 4 (2.47%) Microsoft 365
6 4 (2.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 3 (1.85%) IaaS
7 3 (1.85%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (1.23%) Azure Functions
8 2 (1.23%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.23%) Azure Service Bus
8 2 (1.23%) Serverless
9 1 (0.62%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.62%) PaaS
9 1 (0.62%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 106 (65.43%) BGP
2 94 (58.02%) WAN
3 71 (43.83%) Firewall
4 69 (42.59%) VPN
5 54 (33.33%) OSPF
6 52 (32.10%) LAN
7 48 (29.63%) IPsec
8 35 (21.60%) SD-WAN
9 26 (16.05%) DNS
10 24 (14.81%) VLAN
11 20 (12.35%) Wireless
12 18 (11.11%) VXLAN
13 16 (9.88%) 5G
14 14 (8.64%) DHCP
14 14 (8.64%) Network Security
15 13 (8.02%) Radio Access Network
15 13 (8.02%) SDH
16 12 (7.41%) 4G
16 12 (7.41%) Wireshark
17 11 (6.79%) Cisco ASA
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 10 (6.17%) JIRA
2 8 (4.94%) Git
3 4 (2.47%) GitLab
4 1 (0.62%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.62%) Robot Framework
4 1 (0.62%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 56 (34.57%) Social Skills
2 24 (14.81%) Telecoms
3 17 (10.49%) Public Sector
4 13 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (6.79%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (6.17%) Finance
7 4 (2.47%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.23%) Legal
9 2 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.62%) Aviation
10 1 (0.62%) Banking
10 1 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.62%) Law
10 1 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 62 (38.27%) Network Engineer
2 27 (16.67%) Architect
3 20 (12.35%) Senior
4 19 (11.73%) Support Engineer
5 17 (10.49%) WAN Engineer
6 14 (8.64%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 14 (8.64%) Senior Network Engineer
7 13 (8.02%) 3rd Line Support
7 13 (8.02%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 13 (8.02%) Designer
7 13 (8.02%) Network Architect
8 12 (7.41%) Solutions Architect
9 10 (6.17%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 9 (5.56%) Field Engineer
11 7 (4.32%) IP Engineer
11 7 (4.32%) IP Network Engineer
11 7 (4.32%) IP Specialist
11 7 (4.32%) Network Designer
12 6 (3.70%) IP Architect
12 6 (3.70%) IP Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (10.49%) NETCONF
2 11 (6.79%) YANG
3 10 (6.17%) RESTCONF
4 8 (4.94%) REST
5 5 (3.09%) Jinja
6 4 (2.47%) JSON
7 3 (1.85%) XML
8 2 (1.23%) 802.1X
8 2 (1.23%) ARM Templates
8 2 (1.23%) OpenConfig
8 2 (1.23%) SOAP
8 2 (1.23%) YAML
9 1 (0.62%) EDI
9 1 (0.62%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 33 (20.37%) Data Centre
2 31 (19.14%) PKI
3 16 (9.88%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (8.02%) Cloud Native
5 10 (6.17%) Operational Technology
6 7 (4.32%) Driving Licence
7 6 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (3.09%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (2.47%) SCADA
9 4 (2.47%) TM Forum
10 3 (1.85%) Virtual Team
11 2 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
11 2 (1.23%) Enterprise Cloud
11 2 (1.23%) Management Information System
11 2 (1.23%) Onboarding
11 2 (1.23%) Private Cloud
12 1 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
12 1 (0.62%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 6 (3.70%) Windows
2 3 (1.85%) Linux
3 2 (1.23%) CentOS
3 2 (1.23%) Unix
3 2 (1.23%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (22.84%) Network Design
2 30 (18.52%) Load Balancing
3 27 (16.67%) Network Virtualisation
4 21 (12.96%) Problem-Solving
4 21 (12.96%) Validation
5 20 (12.35%) Roadmaps
6 19 (11.73%) Migration
7 18 (11.11%) DevOps
8 17 (10.49%) Network Architecture
9 16 (9.88%) Stakeholder Management
9 16 (9.88%) TOGAF
10 14 (8.64%) ITIL
11 13 (8.02%) Network Monitoring
11 13 (8.02%) Project Delivery
12 12 (7.41%) Enterprise Architecture
12 12 (7.41%) Strategic Thinking
13 11 (6.79%) Change Control
14 10 (6.17%) Data Protection
14 10 (6.17%) Knowledge Transfer
14 10 (6.17%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 50 (30.86%) Python
2 4 (2.47%) Bash
3 2 (1.23%) SQL
4 1 (0.62%) Bicep
4 1 (0.62%) Go
4 1 (0.62%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 61 (37.65%) Security Cleared
2 59 (36.42%) Cisco Certification
3 49 (30.25%) SC Cleared
4 42 (25.93%) CCNP
5 30 (18.52%) CCIE
6 20 (12.35%) Degree
7 19 (11.73%) JNCIE
8 14 (8.64%) CCNA
9 11 (6.79%) AWS Certification
10 7 (4.32%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (3.09%) Azure Certification
11 5 (3.09%) CISSP
11 5 (3.09%) DV Cleared
12 4 (2.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (2.47%) CCSP
12 4 (2.47%) JNCIP
12 4 (2.47%) JNCIS
12 4 (2.47%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.85%) CCIE Security
14 2 (1.23%) CCDP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.79%) SLA
2 7 (4.32%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (3.09%) GDPR
4 5 (3.09%) NIST
5 2 (1.23%) OASIS TOSCA
6 1 (0.62%) QA
System Software
1 19 (11.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.41%) Docker
3 10 (6.17%) VMware NSX
4 9 (5.56%) Active Directory
5 7 (4.32%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 48 (29.63%) Ansible
2 16 (9.88%) Terraform
3 6 (3.70%) FortiGate
3 6 (3.70%) Kubernetes
4 3 (1.85%) Amdocs OSS
4 3 (1.85%) Iperf
4 3 (1.85%) Nmap
5 2 (1.23%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.23%) SCCM
6 1 (0.62%) CASB
6 1 (0.62%) Cisco Prime
Vendors
1 89 (54.94%) Cisco
2 53 (32.72%) Juniper
3 32 (19.75%) Fortinet
4 24 (14.81%) F5
4 24 (14.81%) Palo Alto
5 22 (13.58%) VMware
6 21 (12.96%) Microsoft
7 13 (8.02%) SolarWinds
8 11 (6.79%) Nokia
9 10 (6.17%) Meraki
10 9 (5.56%) Dell
11 8 (4.94%) CheckPoint
12 7 (4.32%) Aruba
12 7 (4.32%) Atlassian
13 6 (3.70%) Arista
14 4 (2.47%) Citrix
15 3 (1.85%) Huawei
15 3 (1.85%) LogicMonitor
16 2 (1.23%) CenturyLink
16 2 (1.23%) Mellanox