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 31 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 330 290 444
Rank change year-on-year -40 +154 +32
Contract jobs citing MPLS 193 319 258
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.66% 0.74% 0.46%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.18% 5.87% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 161 127
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £350 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £410 £486
Median % change year-on-year +21.95% -15.64% -2.80%
75th Percentile £599 £575 £600
90th Percentile £649 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £375 £425
% change year-on-year +26.67% -11.76% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 18 13
10th Percentile £36.63 £13.78 £12.80
25th Percentile £37.19 £19.69 £18.50
Median hourly rate £38.75 £32.50 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.23% -47.58% +138.46%
75th Percentile £39.69 £40.00 £63.23
90th Percentile £39.88 - £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £40.00 £55.32
% change year-on-year - -27.69% +151.45%

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 3,725 5,430 7,113
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.77% 12.66% 12.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,279 3,247 4,591
10th Percentile £220 £206 £240
25th Percentile £363 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £638
90th Percentile £675 £688 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £477 £475
% change year-on-year -2.52% +0.42% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 166 413 449
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.50 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £16.30 £10.63
Median hourly rate £37.50 £40.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +116.22% -32.73%
75th Percentile £58.75 £63.75 £59.80
90th Percentile £77.50 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £45.88 £18.22
% change year-on-year -34.61% +151.88% -15.28%

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 31 May 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 31 May 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 -36 176 £500 +25.00% 136
UK excluding London -37 97 £475 +26.67% 91
London +32 81 £500 -1.96% 50
Work from Home +58 67 £500 +23.46% 69
South East +18 41 £450 +16.13% 28
North of England +32 23 £475 +11.76% 12
North West +24 19 £475 -21.10% 4
South West +50 18 £613 -5.77% 16
West Midlands -59 15 £350 -6.67% 12
Midlands -68 15 £350 -6.67% 24
Scotland +4 3 £425 +6.25% 4
Yorkshire - 3 £350 - 8
East of England - 2 £250 - 6
North East -2 1 £550 +42.86% 1
Channel Islands - 1 £450 - 1

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 12 (6.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (3.63%) Confluence
3 2 (1.04%) Camunda
4 1 (0.52%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (5.70%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.07%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.52%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (2.07%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.04%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 56 (29.02%) Azure
2 45 (23.32%) AWS
3 17 (8.81%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (5.70%) Entra ID
4 11 (5.70%) IaaS
5 9 (4.66%) GCP
6 6 (3.11%) Cloudflare
7 2 (1.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 1 (0.52%) Akamai
8 1 (0.52%) AWS Direct Connect
8 1 (0.52%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 116 (60.10%) VPN
2 111 (57.51%) BGP
3 107 (55.44%) WAN
4 76 (39.38%) OSPF
5 71 (36.79%) Firewall
6 52 (26.94%) LAN
7 48 (24.87%) SD-WAN
8 41 (21.24%) IPsec
9 34 (17.62%) Network Security
10 30 (15.54%) DNS
11 25 (12.95%) Ethernet
12 24 (12.44%) Multicast
13 22 (11.40%) LTE
13 22 (11.40%) SDH
14 20 (10.36%) Cisco Nexus
14 20 (10.36%) Wireshark
15 19 (9.84%) TCP/IP
16 18 (9.33%) Wireless
17 17 (8.81%) SAN
18 16 (8.29%) Internet
Development Applications
1 8 (4.15%) JIRA
2 3 (1.55%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.52%) GitLab
3 1 (0.52%) Robot Framework
General
1 47 (24.35%) Social Skills
2 40 (20.73%) Telecoms
3 20 (10.36%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (8.81%) Finance
5 10 (5.18%) Public Sector
6 9 (4.66%) Legal
7 7 (3.63%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.11%) Banking
8 6 (3.11%) Law
9 5 (2.59%) Spanish Language
10 4 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.04%) Billing
11 2 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (1.04%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.52%) Electronics
12 1 (0.52%) Marketing
12 1 (0.52%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.52%) Retail
12 1 (0.52%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 97 (50.26%) Network Engineer
2 21 (10.88%) Architect
3 20 (10.36%) IP Engineer
4 15 (7.77%) Senior
5 14 (7.25%) Cisco Engineer
5 14 (7.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 14 (7.25%) Implementation Engineer
5 14 (7.25%) Network Architect
5 14 (7.25%) Test Engineer
6 12 (6.22%) Principal Engineer
6 12 (6.22%) Principal Network Engineer
6 12 (6.22%) WAN Engineer
7 10 (5.18%) Core Network Engineer
7 10 (5.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (4.66%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 9 (4.66%) 2nd Line Support
8 9 (4.66%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
8 9 (4.66%) Consultant
8 9 (4.66%) Network Implementation Engineer
8 9 (4.66%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.63%) NETCONF
1 7 (3.63%) RESTCONF
2 5 (2.59%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.52%) gRPC
3 1 (0.52%) HTML
3 1 (0.52%) Java RMI
3 1 (0.52%) JSON
3 1 (0.52%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (11.92%) Hybrid Cloud
2 20 (10.36%) PKI
3 19 (9.84%) Data Centre
4 17 (8.81%) Self-Motivation
5 10 (5.18%) Cloud Native
5 10 (5.18%) Public Cloud
6 6 (3.11%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.59%) SCADA
8 4 (2.07%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 4 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.07%) Operational Technology
9 3 (1.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (1.55%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.55%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.55%) TM Forum
10 2 (1.04%) NHS
10 2 (1.04%) Private Cloud
11 1 (0.52%) Clustering
11 1 (0.52%) Data Protection Act
11 1 (0.52%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 17 (8.81%) Linux
2 16 (8.29%) Unix
3 13 (6.74%) Windows
4 12 (6.22%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.52%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (21.24%) Migration
2 39 (20.21%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (19.17%) Network Monitoring
4 31 (16.06%) Project Delivery
5 30 (15.54%) ITIL
6 25 (12.95%) Network Design
7 22 (11.40%) Network Architecture
8 21 (10.88%) Project Management
9 20 (10.36%) Fault Management
10 19 (9.84%) Validation
11 18 (9.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 17 (8.81%) Roadmaps
12 17 (8.81%) Test Strategy
13 16 (8.29%) Regression Testing
14 15 (7.77%) Change Management
14 15 (7.77%) Network Virtualisation
15 14 (7.25%) Time Management
16 13 (6.74%) Data Loss Prevention
16 13 (6.74%) TOGAF
17 12 (6.22%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 34 (17.62%) Python
2 16 (8.29%) Java
3 4 (2.07%) PowerShell
4 3 (1.55%) Perl
5 2 (1.04%) Bash
6 1 (0.52%) SQL
Qualifications
1 90 (46.63%) Cisco Certification
2 65 (33.68%) CCNP
3 39 (20.21%) Security Cleared
4 33 (17.10%) CCIE
5 32 (16.58%) SC Cleared
6 30 (15.54%) Degree
7 21 (10.88%) CCNA
8 16 (8.29%) ISEB
8 16 (8.29%) ISTQB
8 16 (8.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 7 (3.63%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (3.63%) JNCIE
10 6 (3.11%) Master's Degree
11 5 (2.59%) CCIE Service Provider
11 5 (2.59%) DV Cleared
11 5 (2.59%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (2.07%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.07%) Azure Certification
13 3 (1.55%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (1.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.15%) SLA
2 6 (3.11%) NIST
3 4 (2.07%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (2.07%) NCSC
4 2 (1.04%) Government Security Classifications
4 2 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.04%) OASIS TOSCA
5 1 (0.52%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.52%) QA
5 1 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 16 (8.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (6.74%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.63%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (3.11%) VMware NSX
5 3 (1.55%) Firmware
6 1 (0.52%) Docker
6 1 (0.52%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.52%) vSphere
6 1 (0.52%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 37 (19.17%) Ansible
2 11 (5.70%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (5.18%) FortiGate
4 8 (4.15%) Terraform
4 8 (4.15%) ZABBIX
5 5 (2.59%) Cisco Prime
5 5 (2.59%) Nagios
6 4 (2.07%) Kubernetes
7 2 (1.04%) Amdocs OSS
7 2 (1.04%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.52%) HAProxy
8 1 (0.52%) OpenView
8 1 (0.52%) OPNET
8 1 (0.52%) SCCM
8 1 (0.52%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 120 (62.18%) Cisco
2 43 (22.28%) Juniper
3 38 (19.69%) Fortinet
4 36 (18.65%) Microsoft
5 33 (17.10%) Palo Alto
6 22 (11.40%) F5
6 22 (11.40%) SolarWinds
7 18 (9.33%) VMware
8 17 (8.81%) Aruba
9 16 (8.29%) Nokia
10 12 (6.22%) CheckPoint
11 11 (5.70%) Meraki
12 9 (4.66%) Arista
12 9 (4.66%) Zscaler
13 8 (4.15%) Citrix
14 7 (3.63%) Atlassian
15 6 (3.11%) Huawei
16 4 (2.07%) BMC
16 4 (2.07%) Remedy
17 3 (1.55%) Ericsson