OSPF Contract Job Trends

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring OSPF skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 370 257 390
Rank change year-on-year -113 +133 +25
Contract jobs citing OSPF 272 292 196
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.99% 0.46%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.97% 7.78% 3.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 164 175 149
10th Percentile £321 £363 £313
25th Percentile £400 £425 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £613 £538
90th Percentile £646 £823 £603
UK excluding London median daily rate £456 £490 £450
% change year-on-year -6.94% +8.89% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 4
10th Percentile £50.10 £22.05 £19.93
25th Percentile £63.21 £27.38 £22.06
Median hourly rate £71.17 £37.50 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.77% +56.25% -69.23%
75th Percentile £72.13 £39.38 £32.31
90th Percentile £72.38 £39.75 £45.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.17 £19.00 £21.75
% change year-on-year +274.55% -12.64% -64.92%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

OSPF 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 4,555 3,752 5,473
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.57% 12.76% 12.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,821 2,310 3,274
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £489 £495
Median % change year-on-year +1.28% -1.26% -4.44%
75th Percentile £588 £598 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £466 £475
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 169 418
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.44
Median hourly rate £41.24 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.89% -18.75% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.91 £58.69 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.11 £24.66 £46.14
% change year-on-year +95.09% -46.55% +149.85%

OSPF
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing OSPF relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

OSPF job vacancy trend in the UK

OSPF
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing OSPF.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing OSPF

OSPF
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing OSPF over the 6 months to 11 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing OSPF.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing OSPF

OSPF
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing OSPF over the 6 months to 11 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing OSPF within the UK over the 6 months to 11 May 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 -99 238 £456 -8.80% 76
UK excluding London -65 156 £456 -6.94% 61
Work from Home -39 89 £445 -15.24% 40
South East +6 88 £445 -1.11% 25
London -89 72 £495 -1.00% 25
North of England -88 30 £575 +15.00% 20
North West -68 21 £571 +8.81% 8
South West -36 15 £495 -13.91% 3
Midlands -67 14 £419 -22.81% 8
West Midlands -59 11 £413 +23.13% 7
Scotland +2 7 £450 +9.09% 5
North East -11 7 £650 +160.00% 8
Yorkshire -49 4 £538 +7.50% 4
Wales -18 3 £425 -5.56%
East Midlands -37 2 - - 1
East of England -33 1 - - 1

OSPF
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 4 (1.47%) Confluence
1 4 (1.47%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (2.21%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 58 (21.32%) Azure
2 56 (20.59%) AWS
3 14 (5.15%) OCI
4 13 (4.78%) GCP
4 13 (4.78%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 10 (3.68%) SaaS
6 7 (2.57%) Route 53
7 5 (1.84%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 4 (1.47%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 4 (1.47%) AWS Direct Connect
8 4 (1.47%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.47%) Nutanix
9 3 (1.10%) Amazon S3
9 3 (1.10%) Catchpoint
10 2 (0.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (0.74%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.74%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (0.74%) Entra ID
10 2 (0.74%) GitHub
10 2 (0.74%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 268 (98.53%) BGP
2 206 (75.74%) Firewall
3 176 (64.71%) WAN
4 134 (49.26%) LAN
5 87 (31.99%) Network Security
6 85 (31.25%) VXLAN
7 80 (29.41%) VLAN
8 72 (26.47%) Ethernet VPN
9 66 (24.26%) SD-WAN
9 66 (24.26%) VPN
10 55 (20.22%) BIG-IP
11 54 (19.85%) MPLS
12 45 (16.54%) DNS
12 45 (16.54%) IPsec
13 44 (16.18%) TCP/IP
14 42 (15.44%) Cisco ISE
14 42 (15.44%) Wireless
15 40 (14.71%) DHCP
16 38 (13.97%) Cisco Nexus
17 37 (13.60%) EIGRP
Development Applications
1 14 (5.15%) GitLab
2 8 (2.94%) Sonatype Nexus
3 7 (2.57%) Git
4 3 (1.10%) JIRA
5 1 (0.37%) AppScan
5 1 (0.37%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.37%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.37%) Metasploit
General
1 36 (13.24%) Documentation Skills
2 35 (12.87%) Social Skills
3 31 (11.40%) Finance
3 31 (11.40%) Public Sector
4 23 (8.46%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (5.15%) Manufacturing
5 14 (5.15%) Telecoms
6 13 (4.78%) Financial Institution
6 13 (4.78%) Military
7 10 (3.68%) Banking
8 6 (2.21%) Retail
9 5 (1.84%) Marketing
10 3 (1.10%) French Language
10 3 (1.10%) Police
11 2 (0.74%) Aviation
11 2 (0.74%) Electronics
11 2 (0.74%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.37%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 163 (59.93%) Network Engineer
2 61 (22.43%) Senior
3 37 (13.60%) Senior Network Engineer
4 29 (10.66%) Architect
4 29 (10.66%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 24 (8.82%) Network Specialist
6 20 (7.35%) Cisco Engineer
7 18 (6.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 18 (6.62%) Network Architect
8 14 (5.15%) Firewall Specialist
8 14 (5.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 12 (4.41%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 10 (3.68%) Juniper Engineer
11 8 (2.94%) Data Centre Engineer
12 7 (2.57%) Data Network Engineer
12 7 (2.57%) IP Engineer
12 7 (2.57%) IP Network Engineer
12 7 (2.57%) Network Security Engineer
12 7 (2.57%) Security Engineer
13 6 (2.21%) Senior Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (14.71%) 802.1X
2 5 (1.84%) REST
3 4 (1.47%) Jinja
3 4 (1.47%) VML
4 2 (0.74%) AWS CDK
4 2 (0.74%) CSS
4 2 (0.74%) HTML
4 2 (0.74%) RFC 2544
5 1 (0.37%) LDAP
5 1 (0.37%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 136 (50.00%) Data Centre
2 29 (10.66%) PKI
3 25 (9.19%) Clustering
4 19 (6.99%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (2.94%) Cloud Native
5 8 (2.94%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
6 4 (1.47%) Operational Technology
6 4 (1.47%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.10%) CESG
7 3 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (1.10%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (1.10%) Management Information System
7 3 (1.10%) NHS
7 3 (1.10%) SCADA
7 3 (1.10%) Virtual Team
8 2 (0.74%) Algorithms
8 2 (0.74%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (0.74%) Driving Licence
8 2 (0.74%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 35 (12.87%) Windows
2 11 (4.04%) Linux
3 2 (0.74%) Unix
4 1 (0.37%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.37%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (22.79%) High Availability
2 56 (20.59%) Load Balancing
3 43 (15.81%) Problem-Solving
4 37 (13.60%) Network Design
5 36 (13.24%) Zero Trust
6 35 (12.87%) Migration
7 33 (12.13%) Infrastructure as Code
8 30 (11.03%) ITIL
8 30 (11.03%) Observability
9 29 (10.66%) Change Management
10 27 (9.93%) Network Monitoring
11 26 (9.56%) Identity Access Management
11 26 (9.56%) Project Delivery
12 23 (8.46%) CI/CD
12 23 (8.46%) Root Cause Analysis
12 23 (8.46%) Technical Leadership
13 22 (8.09%) Network Architecture
14 20 (7.35%) Network Segmentation
15 19 (6.99%) Disaster Recovery
16 18 (6.62%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 56 (20.59%) Python
2 3 (1.10%) Bash
3 2 (0.74%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.37%) Lisp
4 1 (0.37%) PowerShell
4 1 (0.37%) SQL
Qualifications
1 125 (45.96%) Security Cleared
2 123 (45.22%) Cisco Certification
3 95 (34.93%) SC Cleared
4 91 (33.46%) CCNP
5 39 (14.34%) CCIE
6 27 (9.93%) DV Cleared
7 25 (9.19%) Degree
8 20 (7.35%) CCNA
9 16 (5.88%) JNCIP
10 14 (5.15%) JNCIS
11 13 (4.78%) JNCIA
12 6 (2.21%) Azure Certification
12 6 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (1.84%) AWS Certification
13 5 (1.84%) JNCIE
13 5 (1.84%) Network+ Certification
14 4 (1.47%) CISSP
14 4 (1.47%) ISTQB
14 4 (1.47%) PMP
15 3 (1.10%) CCDP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (3.31%) NCSC
2 8 (2.94%) SLA
3 3 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.10%) RMADS
4 2 (0.74%) JSP 440
4 2 (0.74%) NIST
4 2 (0.74%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.37%) COBIT
5 1 (0.37%) GDPR
5 1 (0.37%) GRC
5 1 (0.37%) QA
System Software
1 14 (5.15%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (2.57%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.10%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.10%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.10%) vSphere
4 2 (0.74%) Firmware
4 2 (0.74%) KVM
4 2 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
4 2 (0.74%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 65 (23.90%) Ansible
2 45 (16.54%) FortiGate
3 34 (12.50%) Terraform
4 5 (1.84%) Nagios
5 2 (0.74%) CASB
5 2 (0.74%) Cisco Prime
5 2 (0.74%) Iperf
5 2 (0.74%) Kubernetes
5 2 (0.74%) Nmap
6 1 (0.37%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.37%) Grafana
6 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.37%) Nessus
6 1 (0.37%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.37%) QRadar
6 1 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 198 (72.79%) Cisco
2 97 (35.66%) Palo Alto
3 95 (34.93%) F5
4 72 (26.47%) Juniper
5 51 (18.75%) CheckPoint
5 51 (18.75%) Fortinet
6 48 (17.65%) Aruba
7 39 (14.34%) Arista
8 33 (12.13%) SolarWinds
9 27 (9.93%) Splunk
10 26 (9.56%) Extreme Networks
11 19 (6.99%) VMware
12 15 (5.51%) Meraki
12 15 (5.51%) Zscaler
13 7 (2.57%) Ekahau
13 7 (2.57%) ServiceNow
14 5 (1.84%) Infoblox
14 5 (1.84%) Netskope
15 4 (1.47%) Google
15 4 (1.47%) Tufin