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

6 months to
27 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 452 346 284
Rank change year-on-year -106 -62 +201
Contract jobs citing MPLS 173 186 346
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.63% 0.79%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.84% 4.97% 6.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 105 177
10th Percentile £227 £305 £263
25th Percentile £375 £425 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +25.00% -15.79%
75th Percentile £556 £573 £580
90th Percentile £633 £642 £680
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £375
% change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 23
10th Percentile £22.53 - £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £18.50 £23.72
Median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +122.37% -49.33% -39.52%
75th Percentile £42.38 £19.50 £40.00
90th Percentile - - £62.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +122.37% -52.50% -31.81%

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 4,504 3,740 5,652
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.62% 12.74% 12.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,814 2,310 3,383
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.30% -0.26% -5.72%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £464 £475
% change year-on-year +2.43% -2.37% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 172 423
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.57
25th Percentile £20.79 £20.22 £17.35
Median hourly rate £42.25 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.67% -6.25% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.31 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £27.72 £45.88
% change year-on-year +89.39% -39.58% +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 27 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 27 April 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 27 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 -127 146 £489 -2.25% 19
UK excluding London -83 91 £500 +11.11% 15
London -94 56 £400 -20.00% 5
Work from Home -32 54 £425 -15.00% 19
South East -63 47 £488 +8.33% 4
North of England -70 12 £490 +3.16% 6
South West -27 11 £525 - 1
North West -42 11 £490 +3.16% 3
Midlands -60 10 £344 +10.00% 3
Scotland +10 7 £500 +17.65% 1
West Midlands -62 7 £344 +10.00% 2
East of England -31 4 £520 +108.00%
Yorkshire -64 1 - - 2
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 (4.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.73%) Confluence
2 3 (1.73%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.58%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (4.05%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (3.47%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.16%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 28 (16.18%) Azure
2 15 (8.67%) Entra ID
3 13 (7.51%) AWS
4 11 (6.36%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (4.62%) IaaS
6 6 (3.47%) GCP
7 3 (1.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (1.16%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.16%) IBM Watson
8 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (1.16%) Mimecast
8 2 (1.16%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.58%) Amazon Macie
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Functions
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.58%) Azure Service Bus
9 1 (0.58%) Serverless
9 1 (0.58%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 95 (54.91%) WAN
2 88 (50.87%) BGP
3 87 (50.29%) Firewall
4 63 (36.42%) VPN
5 59 (34.10%) LAN
6 56 (32.37%) OSPF
6 56 (32.37%) SD-WAN
7 44 (25.43%) Network Security
8 27 (15.61%) VLAN
9 26 (15.03%) Cisco ASA
10 25 (14.45%) IPsec
11 22 (12.72%) Ethernet VPN
12 18 (10.40%) Cisco IOS
12 18 (10.40%) Internet
13 17 (9.83%) EIGRP
13 17 (9.83%) VXLAN
14 16 (9.25%) Cisco Nexus
14 16 (9.25%) Ethernet
14 16 (9.25%) Multicast
15 15 (8.67%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.16%) Power BI
1 2 (1.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (3.47%) Git
1 6 (3.47%) JIRA
2 2 (1.16%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.58%) AppScan
3 1 (0.58%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.58%) Metasploit
General
1 38 (21.97%) Social Skills
2 36 (20.81%) Telecoms
3 23 (13.29%) Finance
4 18 (10.40%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (8.09%) Public Sector
6 9 (5.20%) Financial Institution
7 8 (4.62%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (4.62%) Law
8 7 (4.05%) Legal
9 3 (1.73%) Billing
9 3 (1.73%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.73%) Retail
10 2 (1.16%) Aviation
10 2 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.16%) Police
11 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 67 (38.73%) Network Engineer
2 27 (15.61%) Architect
3 23 (13.29%) Senior
4 18 (10.40%) Network Architect
5 11 (6.36%) Design Engineer
6 9 (5.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 8 (4.62%) Network Manager
7 8 (4.62%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 7 (4.05%) Integration Engineer
8 7 (4.05%) IP Engineer
8 7 (4.05%) Network Design Engineer
8 7 (4.05%) Project Manager
8 7 (4.05%) Security Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) IP Network Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) Senior Network Engineer
9 6 (3.47%) Solutions Architect
10 5 (2.89%) Core Network Engineer
10 5 (2.89%) Juniper Engineer
10 5 (2.89%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.62%) 802.1X
1 8 (4.62%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.62%) REST
1 8 (4.62%) YANG
2 6 (3.47%) LDAP
3 4 (2.31%) Jinja
3 4 (2.31%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.31%) RESTCONF
4 2 (1.16%) Django
4 2 (1.16%) RFC 2544
5 1 (0.58%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.58%) EDI
5 1 (0.58%) JSON
5 1 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (16.76%) Data Centre
2 17 (9.83%) Data Protection Act
3 11 (6.36%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (6.36%) PKI
4 8 (4.62%) Cloud Native
5 7 (4.05%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (4.05%) Security Posture
6 6 (3.47%) Onboarding
6 6 (3.47%) Operational Technology
7 5 (2.89%) Management Information System
8 4 (2.31%) SCADA
8 4 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (2.31%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.73%) CESG
9 3 (1.73%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.73%) Wiki
10 2 (1.16%) Algorithms
10 2 (1.16%) Fibre Optics
11 1 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
11 1 (0.58%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 15 (8.67%) Linux
2 11 (6.36%) Windows
3 7 (4.05%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.47%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.31%) Unix
6 1 (0.58%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.58%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (16.76%) Migration
2 26 (15.03%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (13.87%) Change Management
3 24 (13.87%) Network Design
4 19 (10.98%) Technical Leadership
5 18 (10.40%) Data Protection
5 18 (10.40%) Network Segmentation
5 18 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
6 17 (9.83%) ITIL
7 16 (9.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 16 (9.25%) Network Architecture
7 16 (9.25%) Project Management
8 15 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
8 15 (8.67%) DevOps
8 15 (8.67%) Project Delivery
9 14 (8.09%) Incident Management
9 14 (8.09%) Roadmaps
9 14 (8.09%) Root Cause Analysis
10 13 (7.51%) Agile
10 13 (7.51%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 35 (20.23%) Python
2 4 (2.31%) PHP
3 3 (1.73%) SQL
4 2 (1.16%) Bash
4 2 (1.16%) C
5 1 (0.58%) Bicep
5 1 (0.58%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 65 (37.57%) Security Cleared
2 53 (30.64%) SC Cleared
3 41 (23.70%) Cisco Certification
4 29 (16.76%) CCNP
5 25 (14.45%) CCIE
6 17 (9.83%) DV Cleared
7 13 (7.51%) CCNA
8 9 (5.20%) JNCIE
9 6 (3.47%) GIAC
9 6 (3.47%) JNCIS
10 5 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (2.89%) CCDP
10 5 (2.89%) Degree
10 5 (2.89%) PMP
11 4 (2.31%) APMG
11 4 (2.31%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (2.31%) GSEC
11 4 (2.31%) ISTQB
11 4 (2.31%) SSCP
12 3 (1.73%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.20%) SLA
2 8 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (4.62%) NCSC
3 7 (4.05%) NIST
4 4 (2.31%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (2.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (1.73%) QA
5 3 (1.73%) RMADS
6 2 (1.16%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (1.16%) JSP 440
6 2 (1.16%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.58%) COBIT
7 1 (0.58%) GDPR
7 1 (0.58%) GRC
7 1 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 14 (8.09%) Active Directory
2 9 (5.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (4.05%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.16%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.16%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 34 (19.65%) Ansible
2 9 (5.20%) Cisco Prime
2 9 (5.20%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (3.47%) vCenter Server
4 4 (2.31%) FortiGate
4 4 (2.31%) Grafana
4 4 (2.31%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.73%) Salt
5 3 (1.73%) SCOM
6 2 (1.16%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (1.16%) Iperf
6 2 (1.16%) Nmap
6 2 (1.16%) Terraform
7 1 (0.58%) CASB
7 1 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.58%) Nessus
7 1 (0.58%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 100 (57.80%) Cisco
2 44 (25.43%) Palo Alto
3 35 (20.23%) Juniper
4 34 (19.65%) Fortinet
5 28 (16.18%) F5
6 25 (14.45%) CheckPoint
7 24 (13.87%) Microsoft
8 18 (10.40%) Nokia
9 16 (9.25%) Aruba
10 15 (8.67%) VMware
11 12 (6.94%) Arista
12 11 (6.36%) Meraki
13 10 (5.78%) SolarWinds
14 7 (4.05%) ADVA
14 7 (4.05%) ServiceNow
14 7 (4.05%) Splunk
15 6 (3.47%) Zscaler
16 5 (2.89%) NetScout
17 4 (2.31%) BigPanda
17 4 (2.31%) Tufin