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 26 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 454 365 316
Rank change year-on-year -89 -49 +118
Contract jobs citing MPLS 202 169 304
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.56% 0.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.19% 4.54% 5.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 109 156
10th Percentile £253 £320 £274
25th Percentile £389 £425 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -8.20% +25.00% -17.70%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £564
90th Percentile £638 £649 £681
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £375
% change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 19
10th Percentile £22.53 £36.63 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £37.19 £20.45
Median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.03% +55.00% -57.38%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.69 £40.00
90th Percentile - £39.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 - £40.00
% change year-on-year - - -0.40%

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 4,826 3,725 5,407
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.48% 12.32% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,956 2,268 3,192
10th Percentile £250 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £493
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.57% +3.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 177 430
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £20.50 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.88 £44.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.64% -2.22% +136.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.10 £77.00 £73.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £33.89 £47.50
% change year-on-year -21.32% -28.66% +150.00%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 26 June 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 -123 158 £490 -2.00% 34
UK excluding London -80 123 £500 +11.11% 43
Work from Home -51 62 £450 -10.00% 23
South East -33 56 £505 +12.22% 12
London -78 54 £425 -15.00% 15
Scotland +12 25 £403 -5.29% 17
South West -38 13 £538 -14.00% 5
North of England -81 12 £575 +21.05% 4
Midlands -67 11 £440 +25.79% 3
North West -57 9 £575 +21.05% 1
West Midlands -64 9 £440 +25.79% 3
East of England -24 6 £500 - 2
Yorkshire -47 3 £483 +37.86% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 1

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 (3.96%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.98%) Confluence
3 3 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 16 (7.92%) MS Visio
2 8 (3.96%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (2.97%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.49%) AutoCAD
4 3 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.99%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 38 (18.81%) Azure
2 25 (12.38%) AWS
3 12 (5.94%) GCP
4 10 (4.95%) Entra ID
5 6 (2.97%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 5 (2.48%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.98%) IaaS
8 3 (1.49%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (0.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.99%) IBM Watson
9 2 (0.99%) Mimecast
9 2 (0.99%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.50%) Amazon ELB
10 1 (0.50%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.50%) Amazon Macie
10 1 (0.50%) AWS CloudTrail
10 1 (0.50%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.50%) OpenShift
10 1 (0.50%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 129 (63.86%) WAN
2 104 (51.49%) BGP
3 94 (46.53%) Firewall
4 89 (44.06%) LAN
5 68 (33.66%) OSPF
6 64 (31.68%) VPN
7 60 (29.70%) SD-WAN
8 54 (26.73%) Network Security
9 33 (16.34%) IPsec
10 32 (15.84%) VLAN
11 27 (13.37%) Cisco Nexus
12 26 (12.87%) Cisco ASA
13 23 (11.39%) Wireshark
14 22 (10.89%) Ethernet VPN
15 20 (9.90%) VXLAN
16 19 (9.41%) Multicast
17 18 (8.91%) Wireless
18 17 (8.42%) Cisco IOS
18 17 (8.42%) TCP/IP
18 17 (8.42%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.99%) Power BI
1 2 (0.99%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (2.97%) JIRA
2 4 (1.98%) Git
2 4 (1.98%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.50%) AppScan
3 1 (0.50%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.50%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.50%) Metasploit
General
1 60 (29.70%) Telecoms
2 53 (26.24%) Social Skills
3 26 (12.87%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (11.88%) Finance
5 12 (5.94%) Legal
6 11 (5.45%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (4.46%) Financial Institution
7 9 (4.46%) Law
8 8 (3.96%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (3.47%) Public Sector
10 4 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.49%) Billing
11 3 (1.49%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.49%) Retail
12 2 (0.99%) Aviation
12 2 (0.99%) Banking
12 2 (0.99%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.50%) Police
Job Titles
1 75 (37.13%) Network Engineer
2 35 (17.33%) Architect
3 24 (11.88%) Network Architect
4 23 (11.39%) Senior
5 11 (5.45%) Telecoms Engineer
6 10 (4.95%) Field Engineer
6 10 (4.95%) Network Manager
6 10 (4.95%) Security Engineer
7 9 (4.46%) Lead
7 9 (4.46%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 8 (3.96%) Field Telecoms Engineer
9 7 (3.47%) Developer
9 7 (3.47%) IP Architect
9 7 (3.47%) IP Engineer
9 7 (3.47%) Network Field Engineer
9 7 (3.47%) Senior Network Engineer
9 7 (3.47%) Test Engineer
10 6 (2.97%) Project Manager
10 6 (2.97%) Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.48%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.44%) REST
2 10 (4.95%) NETCONF
2 10 (4.95%) YANG
3 9 (4.46%) 802.1X
4 6 (2.97%) LDAP
5 4 (1.98%) Jinja
6 3 (1.49%) OpenConfig
6 3 (1.49%) RESTCONF
7 2 (0.99%) Django
7 2 (0.99%) RFC 2544
8 1 (0.50%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 37 (18.32%) Data Centre
2 19 (9.41%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (7.43%) Data Protection Act
4 13 (6.44%) Cloud Native
5 11 (5.45%) PKI
6 7 (3.47%) Security Posture
7 6 (2.97%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.97%) Management Information System
7 6 (2.97%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.97%) Private Cloud
8 5 (2.48%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 5 (2.48%) Driving Licence
9 4 (1.98%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.98%) SCADA
9 4 (1.98%) Virtual Team
10 3 (1.49%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (1.49%) Onboarding
10 3 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.99%) CESG
11 2 (0.99%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.43%) Linux
2 8 (3.96%) Windows
3 6 (2.97%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.98%) Unix
5 3 (1.49%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.50%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.50%) VMS
6 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (16.83%) Project Delivery
2 31 (15.35%) Change Management
3 28 (13.86%) Network Design
3 28 (13.86%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (12.87%) Network Architecture
5 25 (12.38%) ITIL
5 25 (12.38%) Stakeholder Management
6 24 (11.88%) Roadmaps
7 23 (11.39%) Migration
8 22 (10.89%) Zero Trust
9 21 (10.40%) Network Segmentation
9 21 (10.40%) Technical Leadership
10 20 (9.90%) Agile
11 17 (8.42%) Cybersecurity
11 17 (8.42%) Data Protection
11 17 (8.42%) DevOps
12 16 (7.92%) TOGAF
13 15 (7.43%) AI
13 15 (7.43%) Network Monitoring
13 15 (7.43%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 40 (19.80%) Python
2 4 (1.98%) PHP
3 3 (1.49%) SQL
4 2 (0.99%) Bash
4 2 (0.99%) C
4 2 (0.99%) Perl
4 2 (0.99%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.50%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 70 (34.65%) Security Cleared
2 59 (29.21%) Cisco Certification
3 50 (24.75%) SC Cleared
4 38 (18.81%) CCNP
5 31 (15.35%) CCIE
6 21 (10.40%) DV Cleared
7 16 (7.92%) CCNA
8 13 (6.44%) Degree
9 12 (5.94%) JNCIE
10 5 (2.48%) GIAC
11 4 (1.98%) APMG
11 4 (1.98%) AWS Certification
11 4 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.98%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (1.98%) ISTQB
11 4 (1.98%) JNCIP
11 4 (1.98%) PMP
11 4 (1.98%) SSCP
11 4 (1.98%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.45%) NCSC
2 9 (4.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (4.46%) NIST
3 8 (3.96%) SLA
4 4 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.98%) QA
5 3 (1.49%) GDPR
5 3 (1.49%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.99%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.99%) RMADS
7 1 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.50%) COBIT
7 1 (0.50%) GRC
7 1 (0.50%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.50%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.50%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.50%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (5.94%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (4.46%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.96%) VMware NSX
4 7 (3.47%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.99%) Firmware
5 2 (0.99%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.99%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 42 (20.79%) Ansible
2 9 (4.46%) Cisco Prime
2 9 (4.46%) Terraform
3 6 (2.97%) FortiGate
3 6 (2.97%) vCenter Server
4 4 (1.98%) Grafana
4 4 (1.98%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (1.98%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.49%) Salt
5 3 (1.49%) SCOM
6 2 (0.99%) Iperf
6 2 (0.99%) Nmap
7 1 (0.50%) Avamar
7 1 (0.50%) CASB
7 1 (0.50%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.50%) Nessus
7 1 (0.50%) OPNET
7 1 (0.50%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.50%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (0.50%) Suricata
Vendors
1 118 (58.42%) Cisco
2 51 (25.25%) Palo Alto
3 37 (18.32%) F5
3 37 (18.32%) Fortinet
4 33 (16.34%) Juniper
5 30 (14.85%) Microsoft
6 24 (11.88%) CheckPoint
7 23 (11.39%) VMware
8 21 (10.40%) Aruba
8 21 (10.40%) SolarWinds
9 20 (9.90%) Nokia
10 17 (8.42%) Arista
11 12 (5.94%) Meraki
12 10 (4.95%) Splunk
13 7 (3.47%) ADVA
13 7 (3.47%) ServiceNow
14 5 (2.48%) NetScout
15 4 (1.98%) BigPanda
15 4 (1.98%) HP
15 4 (1.98%) Tufin