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

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 436 339 288
Rank change year-on-year -97 -51 +235
Contract jobs citing MPLS 192 192 334
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.42% 0.66% 0.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.23% 5.08% 5.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 99 170
10th Percentile £206 £318 £263
25th Percentile £359 £413 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +25.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £593 £575
90th Percentile £626 £675 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £350
% change year-on-year -2.56% +39.29% -17.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 22
10th Percentile - - £14.00
25th Percentile £42.13 £18.50 £24.25
Median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +122.37% -52.50% -31.81%
75th Percentile £42.38 £19.50 -
90th Percentile - - £69.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £19.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +122.37% -52.50% -27.69%

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 4,541 3,777 5,848
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.93% 12.92% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,883 2,341 3,528
10th Percentile £225 £213 £205
25th Percentile £386 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £480
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% +1.67% -7.79%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 202 155 413
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.46 £17.69
Median hourly rate £42.25 £36.65 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.30% +12.75% +71.05%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.88 £61.75
90th Percentile £76.35 £75.00 £67.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £28.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +78.57% -37.78% +143.24%

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 8 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
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 8 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 -122 159 £475 -5.00% 36
UK excluding London -78 106 £475 -2.56% 25
London -96 60 £400 -20.00% 19
Work from Home -33 59 £425 -15.00% 18
South East -52 43 £500 -13.61% 12
Midlands -54 20 £406 +30.00% 4
West Midlands -59 17 £406 +30.00% 3
North of England -63 14 £400 -23.81% 3
Scotland +16 13 £213 -46.88% 1
North West -30 13 £400 -23.81%
South West -30 11 £525 - 3
East of England -28 5 £500 +100.00% 1
Yorkshire -53 1 - - 3
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 (4.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.56%) Confluence
3 2 (1.04%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.52%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (4.69%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.60%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.04%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.04%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 32 (16.67%) Azure
2 16 (8.33%) AWS
3 15 (7.81%) Entra ID
4 11 (5.73%) GCP
4 11 (5.73%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (4.17%) IaaS
6 7 (3.65%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 5 (2.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 3 (1.56%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (1.04%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.04%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (1.04%) IBM Watson
9 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (1.04%) Mimecast
9 2 (1.04%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.52%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.52%) Amazon Macie
10 1 (0.52%) Azure Functions
10 1 (0.52%) Serverless
10 1 (0.52%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 112 (58.33%) WAN
2 99 (51.56%) BGP
3 97 (50.52%) Firewall
4 75 (39.06%) VPN
5 70 (36.46%) LAN
6 64 (33.33%) SD-WAN
7 61 (31.77%) OSPF
8 44 (22.92%) Network Security
9 31 (16.15%) VLAN
10 30 (15.63%) Cisco ASA
11 29 (15.10%) IPsec
12 22 (11.46%) Ethernet VPN
13 21 (10.94%) EIGRP
13 21 (10.94%) VXLAN
14 20 (10.42%) Internet
15 19 (9.90%) Wireless
16 18 (9.38%) Cisco IOS
17 16 (8.33%) Multicast
18 15 (7.81%) Cisco Nexus
18 15 (7.81%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.04%) Power BI
1 2 (1.04%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 9 (4.69%) Git
2 6 (3.13%) JIRA
3 2 (1.04%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.52%) AppScan
4 1 (0.52%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.52%) Metasploit
General
1 45 (23.44%) Social Skills
2 36 (18.75%) Telecoms
3 23 (11.98%) Finance
4 22 (11.46%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (8.33%) Public Sector
6 9 (4.69%) Financial Institution
7 8 (4.17%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (4.17%) Law
8 6 (3.13%) Legal
9 5 (2.60%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.56%) Billing
10 3 (1.56%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.56%) Retail
11 2 (1.04%) Aviation
11 2 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.04%) Police
11 2 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.52%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 75 (39.06%) Network Engineer
2 30 (15.63%) Architect
3 25 (13.02%) Senior
4 22 (11.46%) Network Architect
5 13 (6.77%) Design Engineer
6 9 (4.69%) Field Engineer
6 9 (4.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 9 (4.69%) Network Design Engineer
6 9 (4.69%) Senior Network Engineer
6 9 (4.69%) Solutions Architect
7 8 (4.17%) IP Engineer
7 8 (4.17%) Network Manager
8 7 (3.65%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 7 (3.65%) Integration Engineer
8 7 (3.65%) IP Network Engineer
8 7 (3.65%) Project Manager
8 7 (3.65%) Security Engineer
9 6 (3.13%) Cisco Engineer
9 6 (3.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 6 (3.13%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.17%) 802.1X
1 8 (4.17%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.17%) YANG
2 7 (3.65%) REST
3 6 (3.13%) LDAP
4 5 (2.60%) OpenConfig
5 4 (2.08%) Jinja
5 4 (2.08%) RESTCONF
6 2 (1.04%) Django
6 2 (1.04%) JSON
6 2 (1.04%) RFC 2544
6 2 (1.04%) XML
7 1 (0.52%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.52%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 33 (17.19%) Data Centre
2 15 (7.81%) Data Protection Act
2 15 (7.81%) PKI
3 10 (5.21%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (3.65%) Analytical Mindset
4 7 (3.65%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.65%) Security Posture
5 6 (3.13%) Onboarding
5 6 (3.13%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.60%) Driving Licence
7 4 (2.08%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.08%) SCADA
7 4 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.08%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.56%) CESG
8 3 (1.56%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.56%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.56%) Wiki
9 2 (1.04%) Algorithms
9 2 (1.04%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.81%) Linux
2 11 (5.73%) Windows
3 7 (3.65%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.13%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.08%) Unix
6 1 (0.52%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.52%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (16.15%) Migration
1 31 (16.15%) Network Design
2 28 (14.58%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (11.98%) Change Management
4 21 (10.94%) Roadmaps
4 21 (10.94%) Stakeholder Management
5 19 (9.90%) Cybersecurity
5 19 (9.90%) ITIL
6 18 (9.38%) Data Protection
6 18 (9.38%) Project Delivery
6 18 (9.38%) Project Management
6 18 (9.38%) Zero Trust
7 17 (8.85%) Network Architecture
7 17 (8.85%) Network Segmentation
8 16 (8.33%) DevOps
8 16 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 16 (8.33%) Technical Leadership
9 14 (7.29%) Load Balancing
9 14 (7.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 13 (6.77%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 42 (21.88%) Python
2 4 (2.08%) PHP
3 3 (1.56%) SQL
4 2 (1.04%) Bash
4 2 (1.04%) C
5 1 (0.52%) Bicep
5 1 (0.52%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 70 (36.46%) Security Cleared
2 55 (28.65%) SC Cleared
3 44 (22.92%) Cisco Certification
4 34 (17.71%) CCNP
5 26 (13.54%) CCIE
6 18 (9.38%) DV Cleared
7 14 (7.29%) CCNA
8 9 (4.69%) JNCIE
9 8 (4.17%) Degree
10 6 (3.13%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (3.13%) CISSP
10 6 (3.13%) GIAC
10 6 (3.13%) JNCIS
11 5 (2.60%) AWS Certification
11 5 (2.60%) CCDP
11 5 (2.60%) CCIE Security
11 5 (2.60%) CCSP
11 5 (2.60%) PMP
12 4 (2.08%) Azure Certification
12 4 (2.08%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (6.25%) NIST
3 11 (5.73%) SLA
4 8 (4.17%) NCSC
5 7 (3.65%) PCI DSS
6 6 (3.13%) GDPR
7 4 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (1.56%) RMADS
9 2 (1.04%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (1.04%) JSP 440
9 2 (1.04%) QA
10 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.52%) COBIT
10 1 (0.52%) GRC
10 1 (0.52%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 14 (7.29%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.65%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (3.13%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.04%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.04%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 38 (19.79%) Ansible
2 9 (4.69%) Cisco Prime
2 9 (4.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (3.65%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.13%) Terraform
4 6 (3.13%) vCenter Server
5 4 (2.08%) Grafana
5 4 (2.08%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.56%) Salt
6 3 (1.56%) SCOM
7 2 (1.04%) CASB
7 2 (1.04%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (1.04%) Iperf
7 2 (1.04%) Nmap
8 1 (0.52%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.52%) Nessus
8 1 (0.52%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 111 (57.81%) Cisco
2 50 (26.04%) Palo Alto
3 41 (21.35%) Fortinet
3 41 (21.35%) Juniper
4 36 (18.75%) F5
5 27 (14.06%) Microsoft
6 23 (11.98%) CheckPoint
6 23 (11.98%) Nokia
7 19 (9.90%) VMware
8 18 (9.38%) Aruba
9 16 (8.33%) Meraki
10 14 (7.29%) SolarWinds
11 12 (6.25%) Arista
12 7 (3.65%) ADVA
12 7 (3.65%) ServiceNow
12 7 (3.65%) Splunk
13 6 (3.13%) Zscaler
14 5 (2.60%) NetScout
15 4 (2.08%) BigPanda
15 4 (2.08%) Tufin