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 31 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 408 328 335
Rank change year-on-year -80 +7 +134
Contract jobs citing MPLS 158 235 320
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.64% 0.68%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.04% 5.29% 4.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 114 151
10th Percentile £263 £363 £319
25th Percentile £366 £413 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £594
90th Percentile £649 £675 £658
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £500 £486
% change year-on-year -15.00% +2.88% +14.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 5 15
10th Percentile £22.45 £19.54 £19.20
25th Percentile £27.63 £22.40 £24.75
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.50 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% -50.74% +163.92%
75th Percentile £39.38 £35.00 -
90th Percentile £39.75 £53.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.00 £20.08 £65.98
% change year-on-year -0.37% -69.57% +186.87%

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 3,907 4,442 6,548
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.39% 12.12% 13.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,523 2,560 4,088
10th Percentile £206 £223 £213
25th Percentile £356 £369 £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 £450 £475 £470
% change year-on-year -5.26% +1.06% +4.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 164 337
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.31 £17.24
25th Percentile £20.00 £26.25 £22.50
Median hourly rate £34.50 £48.56 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.95% -11.71% +36.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.14 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £52.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -20.11% -7.06% +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 31 October 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 31 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

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 31 October 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 -86 134 £450 -10.00% 45
UK excluding London -65 99 £425 -15.00% 40
Work from Home -12 55 £500 - 13
London -9 45 £525 +7.69% 12
West Midlands 0 38 £400 -13.51% 9
Midlands -12 38 £400 - 10
South East -35 26 £435 -13.86% 16
North of England -56 12 £442 -11.55% 7
Scotland +4 10 £213 -43.33% 4
North West -17 10 £436 -13.61% 2
South West +5 9 £625 -1.19%
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 - 1
East of England -13 2 £350 - 2
North East -12 1 £550 +29.41%
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 (13.29%) OpenStack
2 7 (4.43%) Confluence
3 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.27%) Camunda
5 1 (0.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (7.59%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.53%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 42 (26.58%) AWS
2 35 (22.15%) Azure
3 10 (6.33%) GCP
4 6 (3.80%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 6 (3.80%) OpenShift
4 6 (3.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 5 (3.16%) AWS Direct Connect
5 5 (3.16%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.90%) IaaS
7 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.63%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.63%) Azure Functions
8 1 (0.63%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (0.63%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (0.63%) Azure Service Bus
8 1 (0.63%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.63%) PaaS
8 1 (0.63%) Serverless
8 1 (0.63%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 108 (68.35%) BGP
2 89 (56.33%) WAN
3 69 (43.67%) Firewall
4 64 (40.51%) VPN
5 58 (36.71%) OSPF
6 51 (32.28%) LAN
7 47 (29.75%) IPsec
8 34 (21.52%) SD-WAN
9 26 (16.46%) DNS
10 23 (14.56%) VLAN
11 22 (13.92%) Wireless
12 21 (13.29%) VXLAN
13 16 (10.13%) 5G
14 15 (9.49%) Network Security
15 14 (8.86%) DHCP
15 14 (8.86%) Radio Access Network
16 13 (8.23%) Ethernet VPN
17 12 (7.59%) 4G
17 12 (7.59%) Wireshark
18 11 (6.96%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.27%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.27%) NoSQL
1 2 (1.27%) RDBMS
1 2 (1.27%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (6.33%) JIRA
2 8 (5.06%) Git
3 4 (2.53%) GitLab
4 3 (1.90%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.63%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.63%) Robot Framework
General
1 53 (33.54%) Social Skills
2 21 (13.29%) Telecoms
3 14 (8.86%) Public Sector
4 12 (7.59%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (6.96%) Documentation Skills
5 11 (6.96%) Finance
6 4 (2.53%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (2.53%) Legal
6 4 (2.53%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.90%) Banking
7 3 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.63%) Aviation
8 1 (0.63%) Billing
8 1 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.63%) Law
Job Titles
1 61 (38.61%) Network Engineer
2 26 (16.46%) Architect
3 19 (12.03%) Support Engineer
4 18 (11.39%) Senior
4 18 (11.39%) WAN Engineer
5 14 (8.86%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 14 (8.86%) Senior Network Engineer
6 13 (8.23%) 3rd Line Support
6 13 (8.23%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 13 (8.23%) Designer
6 13 (8.23%) Network Architect
7 11 (6.96%) Solutions Architect
8 9 (5.70%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 7 (4.43%) Field Engineer
9 7 (4.43%) Network Designer
10 6 (3.80%) Consultant
10 6 (3.80%) IP Architect
10 6 (3.80%) IP Engineer
10 6 (3.80%) IP Network Engineer
10 6 (3.80%) IP Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (10.13%) NETCONF
2 10 (6.33%) YANG
3 9 (5.70%) RESTCONF
4 8 (5.06%) REST
5 5 (3.16%) Jinja
6 4 (2.53%) JSON
7 3 (1.90%) XML
8 2 (1.27%) gRPC
8 2 (1.27%) SOAP
8 2 (1.27%) YAML
9 1 (0.63%) 802.1X
9 1 (0.63%) ARM Templates
9 1 (0.63%) EDI
9 1 (0.63%) OpenConfig
Miscellaneous
1 38 (24.05%) Data Centre
2 30 (18.99%) PKI
3 17 (10.76%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (8.23%) Cloud Native
5 10 (6.33%) Operational Technology
6 6 (3.80%) Driving Licence
7 4 (2.53%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (2.53%) SCADA
7 4 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.90%) TM Forum
8 3 (1.90%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.27%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (1.27%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.27%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.27%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.63%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.63%) Linux Command Line
10 1 (0.63%) Onboarding
10 1 (0.63%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 6 (3.80%) Windows
2 4 (2.53%) Linux
3 2 (1.27%) CentOS
3 2 (1.27%) Unix
3 2 (1.27%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (23.42%) Network Design
2 31 (19.62%) Load Balancing
3 27 (17.09%) Network Virtualisation
4 22 (13.92%) Validation
5 21 (13.29%) Roadmaps
6 19 (12.03%) DevOps
6 19 (12.03%) Migration
6 19 (12.03%) Problem-Solving
7 18 (11.39%) Network Architecture
8 16 (10.13%) TOGAF
9 15 (9.49%) ITIL
9 15 (9.49%) Stakeholder Management
10 14 (8.86%) Network Monitoring
11 13 (8.23%) Project Delivery
11 13 (8.23%) Strategic Thinking
12 12 (7.59%) Change Control
12 12 (7.59%) Enterprise Architecture
12 12 (7.59%) Network Segmentation
13 11 (6.96%) Incident Response
14 10 (6.33%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 53 (33.54%) Python
2 4 (2.53%) Bash
3 2 (1.27%) SQL
4 1 (0.63%) Go
4 1 (0.63%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 60 (37.97%) Cisco Certification
2 55 (34.81%) Security Cleared
3 46 (29.11%) SC Cleared
4 42 (26.58%) CCNP
5 30 (18.99%) CCIE
6 21 (13.29%) Degree
7 19 (12.03%) JNCIE
8 13 (8.23%) CCNA
9 12 (7.59%) AWS Certification
10 4 (2.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 4 (2.53%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.53%) CCSP
10 4 (2.53%) CISSP
10 4 (2.53%) JNCIP
10 4 (2.53%) JNCIS
10 4 (2.53%) Master's Degree
11 3 (1.90%) CCIE Security
11 3 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (1.90%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.43%) PCI DSS
1 7 (4.43%) SLA
2 6 (3.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.80%) NIST
3 5 (3.16%) GDPR
4 2 (1.27%) OASIS TOSCA
5 1 (0.63%) QA
System Software
1 19 (12.03%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.59%) Docker
3 10 (6.33%) VMware NSX
4 9 (5.70%) Active Directory
5 7 (4.43%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.27%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 51 (32.28%) Ansible
2 17 (10.76%) Terraform
3 6 (3.80%) FortiGate
3 6 (3.80%) Kubernetes
4 3 (1.90%) Amdocs OSS
4 3 (1.90%) Iperf
4 3 (1.90%) Nmap
5 2 (1.27%) Cisco CUCM
5 2 (1.27%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.27%) SCCM
6 1 (0.63%) CASB
6 1 (0.63%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.63%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 82 (51.90%) Cisco
2 49 (31.01%) Juniper
3 30 (18.99%) Fortinet
4 24 (15.19%) Palo Alto
5 23 (14.56%) F5
6 22 (13.92%) VMware
7 19 (12.03%) Microsoft
8 14 (8.86%) SolarWinds
9 12 (7.59%) Meraki
10 10 (6.33%) Nokia
11 9 (5.70%) Dell
12 8 (5.06%) Arista
12 8 (5.06%) CheckPoint
13 7 (4.43%) Aruba
13 7 (4.43%) Atlassian
14 5 (3.16%) Citrix
15 3 (1.90%) Huawei
15 3 (1.90%) LogicMonitor
15 3 (1.90%) Mellanox
16 2 (1.27%) Zerto