MPLS Contracts

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring MPLS skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited MPLS over the 6 months leading up to 6 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 377 306 416
Rank change year-on-year -71 +110 +59
Contract jobs citing MPLS 172 306 282
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.54% 0.71% 0.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.36% 5.65% 3.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 160 137
10th Percentile £325 £283 £313
25th Percentile £428 £359 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £400 £500
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -20.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £561 £600
90th Percentile £650 £676 £659
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £375 £400
% change year-on-year +20.00% -6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 19 13
10th Percentile £36.63 £14.00 £12.80
25th Percentile £37.19 £20.45 £18.50
Median hourly rate £38.75 £25.00 £55.32
Median % change year-on-year +55.00% -54.81% +112.77%
75th Percentile £39.69 £40.00 £63.23
90th Percentile £39.88 - £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £40.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year - +60.00% +4.17%

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 3,941 5,420 7,263
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.37% 12.52% 12.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,378 3,193 4,688
10th Percentile £231 £213 £231
25th Percentile £363 £350 £382
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £675 £688 £724
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -4.08% +3.16% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 188 427 409
10th Percentile £14.54 £13.86 -
25th Percentile £20.81 £17.69 £10.63
Median hourly rate £42.50 £45.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +100.00% -22.41%
75th Percentile £60.41 £63.75 £63.00
90th Percentile £76.50 £73.45 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.55 £47.50 £26.50
% change year-on-year -33.59% +79.25% +17.78%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MPLS.

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 6 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MPLS.

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 15 Contract 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 July 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 -47 155 £500 +25.00% 223
UK excluding London -48 89 £450 +20.00% 108
London +16 68 £500 +5.26% 130
Work from Home +40 62 £500 +8.11% 101
South East +10 30 £450 +12.50% 26
North of England +15 27 £475 -5.00% 20
North West +22 23 £475 -15.56% 10
South West +44 18 £625 -3.85% 7
West Midlands -58 15 £350 -6.67% 19
Midlands -61 15 £350 -6.67% 29
Yorkshire +4 3 £350 -30.00% 8
Scotland +2 3 £425 +6.25% 9
North East -2 1 £550 +29.41% 2
East of England - 1 - - 9
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (4.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.07%) Confluence
3 5 (2.91%) OpenStack
4 2 (1.16%) Camunda
5 1 (0.58%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (5.81%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.74%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.58%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (2.33%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 39 (22.67%) AWS
1 39 (22.67%) Azure
2 11 (6.40%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (5.23%) Entra ID
3 9 (5.23%) GCP
4 8 (4.65%) IaaS
5 5 (2.91%) Cloudflare
6 2 (1.16%) AWS Direct Connect
6 2 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 1 (0.58%) Akamai
7 1 (0.58%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (0.58%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 99 (57.56%) BGP
2 94 (54.65%) WAN
3 92 (53.49%) VPN
4 72 (41.86%) Firewall
5 67 (38.95%) OSPF
6 52 (30.23%) LAN
7 40 (23.26%) IPsec
8 39 (22.67%) SD-WAN
9 27 (15.70%) DNS
10 25 (14.53%) Network Security
11 22 (12.79%) Wireshark
12 20 (11.63%) Ethernet
12 20 (11.63%) LTE
12 20 (11.63%) Multicast
13 18 (10.47%) SDH
13 18 (10.47%) Wireless
14 16 (9.30%) Internet
14 16 (9.30%) SAN
15 14 (8.14%) ATM
15 14 (8.14%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.16%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.16%) NoSQL
1 2 (1.16%) RDBMS
1 2 (1.16%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (5.81%) JIRA
2 4 (2.33%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.74%) GitLab
General
1 46 (26.74%) Social Skills
2 38 (22.09%) Telecoms
3 19 (11.05%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (8.72%) Finance
5 10 (5.81%) Legal
6 9 (5.23%) Public Sector
7 8 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (4.07%) Banking
9 5 (2.91%) Law
10 4 (2.33%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (2.33%) Spanish Language
11 2 (1.16%) Billing
11 2 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (1.16%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.58%) Electronics
12 1 (0.58%) Retail
12 1 (0.58%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 88 (51.16%) Network Engineer
2 18 (10.47%) IP Engineer
3 16 (9.30%) Architect
4 14 (8.14%) Implementation Engineer
4 14 (8.14%) WAN Engineer
5 13 (7.56%) Cisco Engineer
5 13 (7.56%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 13 (7.56%) Network Architect
6 12 (6.98%) Test Engineer
7 11 (6.40%) Core Network Engineer
8 10 (5.81%) Senior
9 9 (5.23%) Consultant
9 9 (5.23%) Designer
9 9 (5.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) Network Designer
9 9 (5.23%) Network Implementation Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Support Engineer
11 7 (4.07%) 2nd Line Support
11 7 (4.07%) IP Network Engineer
11 7 (4.07%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.23%) NETCONF
1 9 (5.23%) RESTCONF
2 4 (2.33%) 802.1X
3 3 (1.74%) JSON
3 3 (1.74%) XML
4 2 (1.16%) REST
4 2 (1.16%) SOAP
4 2 (1.16%) YAML
4 2 (1.16%) YANG
5 1 (0.58%) EDI
5 1 (0.58%) gRPC
5 1 (0.58%) HTML
5 1 (0.58%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 21 (12.21%) Data Centre
2 16 (9.30%) PKI
3 14 (8.14%) Self-Motivation
4 13 (7.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (5.23%) Cloud Native
5 9 (5.23%) Operational Technology
6 6 (3.49%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.91%) Public Cloud
8 4 (2.33%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 4 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.33%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.74%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (1.74%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.74%) SCADA
9 3 (1.74%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.74%) TM Forum
10 2 (1.16%) NHS
11 1 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
11 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Cloud
11 1 (0.58%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 17 (9.88%) Linux
2 16 (9.30%) Unix
3 11 (6.40%) Windows
4 8 (4.65%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.16%) CentOS
6 1 (0.58%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (23.84%) Migration
2 39 (22.67%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (18.60%) Network Monitoring
4 24 (13.95%) ITIL
4 24 (13.95%) Network Design
5 22 (12.79%) Network Architecture
6 21 (12.21%) Validation
7 20 (11.63%) Project Management
8 19 (11.05%) Project Delivery
9 18 (10.47%) Network Virtualisation
9 18 (10.47%) Roadmaps
10 17 (9.88%) Change Management
10 17 (9.88%) Fault Management
11 14 (8.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 14 (8.14%) Regression Testing
11 14 (8.14%) Test Strategy
12 11 (6.40%) High Availability
12 11 (6.40%) Zero Trust
13 10 (5.81%) Configuration Management
13 10 (5.81%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 37 (21.51%) Python
2 14 (8.14%) Java
3 3 (1.74%) Perl
3 3 (1.74%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.74%) SQL
4 1 (0.58%) Bash
Qualifications
1 79 (45.93%) Cisco Certification
2 56 (32.56%) CCNP
3 35 (20.35%) Security Cleared
4 31 (18.02%) SC Cleared
5 30 (17.44%) CCIE
6 26 (15.12%) Degree
7 16 (9.30%) CCNA
8 14 (8.14%) ISEB
8 14 (8.14%) ISTQB
8 14 (8.14%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (4.65%) JNCIE
10 7 (4.07%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (3.49%) Master's Degree
12 5 (2.91%) CCIE Service Provider
13 4 (2.33%) AWS Certification
14 3 (1.74%) Azure Certification
14 3 (1.74%) JNCIA
14 3 (1.74%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.74%) JNCIS
15 2 (1.16%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.49%) SLA
2 2 (1.16%) Government Security Classifications
2 2 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.16%) NIST
2 2 (1.16%) OASIS TOSCA
3 1 (0.58%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.58%) QA
3 1 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 13 (7.56%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (4.07%) Docker
3 7 (4.07%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (1.74%) Firmware
5 1 (0.58%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.58%) vSphere
5 1 (0.58%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 39 (22.67%) Ansible
2 8 (4.65%) ZABBIX
3 7 (4.07%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (2.91%) Cisco Prime
4 5 (2.91%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.33%) Nagios
6 3 (1.74%) Terraform
7 2 (1.16%) Amdocs OSS
7 2 (1.16%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (1.16%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (1.16%) SCCM
8 1 (0.58%) HAProxy
8 1 (0.58%) OpenView
8 1 (0.58%) OPNET
8 1 (0.58%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 105 (61.05%) Cisco
2 43 (25.00%) Juniper
3 29 (16.86%) Microsoft
4 28 (16.28%) Fortinet
5 24 (13.95%) Palo Alto
6 23 (13.37%) SolarWinds
7 19 (11.05%) F5
8 16 (9.30%) Aruba
9 15 (8.72%) VMware
10 14 (8.14%) Nokia
11 11 (6.40%) CheckPoint
11 11 (6.40%) Citrix
11 11 (6.40%) Meraki
12 9 (5.23%) Zscaler
13 8 (4.65%) Arista
14 7 (4.07%) Atlassian
15 6 (3.49%) Huawei
16 5 (2.91%) Dell
17 4 (2.33%) BMC
17 4 (2.33%) Remedy