OSPF Contracts

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring OSPF skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited OSPF over the 6 months leading up to 25 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 270 393 389
Rank change year-on-year +123 -4 +128
Contract jobs citing OSPF 282 201 320
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.93% 0.46% 0.58%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.48% 3.72% 4.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 144 192
10th Percentile £363 £313 £363
25th Percentile £425 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £475 £499
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £611 £538 £619
90th Percentile £838 £575 £662
UK excluding London median daily rate £455 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +1.11% -5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 15
10th Percentile £37.00 £19.45 £20.90
25th Percentile £38.13 £20.88 £60.50
Median hourly rate £40.00 £23.50 £77.50
Median % change year-on-year +70.21% -69.68% +198.08%
75th Percentile £49.38 £39.38 £80.63
90th Percentile £55.00 £48.75 £83.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £19.00 £62.00
% change year-on-year - -69.35% +181.82%

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 3,771 5,406 7,122
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.50% 12.41% 12.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,275 3,197 4,590
10th Percentile £225 £213 £238
25th Percentile £363 £350 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.80% - -
75th Percentile £590 £600 £625
90th Percentile £675 £688 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -3.57% +3.16% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 180 430 451
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.50 £9.80
25th Percentile £18.56 £17.69 £10.63
Median hourly rate £41.48 £45.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.83% +136.84% -33.23%
75th Percentile £59.09 £63.75 £60.63
90th Percentile £75.50 £72.93 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.32 £47.50 £19.00
% change year-on-year -36.17% +150.00% -14.03%

OSPF
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing OSPF as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing OSPF.

Daily rate trend for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing OSPF over the 6 months to 25 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing OSPF.

Hourly rate trend for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing OSPF over the 6 months to 25 June 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Top 17 Contract 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 25 June 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 +106 223 £475 - 162
UK excluding London +82 125 £455 +1.11% 73
London +71 113 £478 -2.05% 120
Work from Home +65 86 £505 +3.59% 86
North of England +33 46 £475 +7.95% 13
North West +16 43 £475 - 6
South East +30 20 £450 - 19
Midlands +27 19 £488 -15.22% 6
South West +59 17 £575 +17.95% 6
West Midlands +20 15 £488 - 4
Scotland +12 11 £425 -22.73% 23
Wales +12 8 £450 - 3
East of England +23 5 £500 +33.33% 4
East Midlands +7 4 £544 -5.43% 2
Channel Islands - 4 £725 -
North East -1 1 £250 -41.18%
Yorkshire - 1 £500 - 7

OSPF
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 5 (1.77%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.42%) Confluence
3 2 (0.71%) nginx
Applications
1 7 (2.48%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.77%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.42%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 73 (25.89%) AWS
2 51 (18.09%) Azure
3 30 (10.64%) GCP
4 21 (7.45%) SaaS
5 19 (6.74%) IaaS
5 19 (6.74%) PaaS
6 18 (6.38%) AWS CloudFormation
7 6 (2.13%) Akamai
7 6 (2.13%) GitHub
7 6 (2.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (0.71%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (0.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (0.71%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (0.71%) Microsoft 365
8 2 (0.71%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.35%) Datadog
9 1 (0.35%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 279 (98.94%) BGP
2 188 (66.67%) Firewall
3 106 (37.59%) VPN
4 91 (32.27%) Network Security
5 86 (30.50%) EIGRP
5 86 (30.50%) WAN
6 77 (27.30%) IPsec
7 74 (26.24%) VLAN
8 66 (23.40%) TCP/IP
9 65 (23.05%) MPLS
10 58 (20.57%) DNS
11 51 (18.09%) HSRP
12 48 (17.02%) SD-WAN
13 47 (16.67%) Wireless
14 45 (15.96%) LAN
15 44 (15.60%) DHCP
16 41 (14.54%) Multicast
17 40 (14.18%) Cisco IOS
18 38 (13.48%) Cisco Nexus
19 32 (11.35%) Cisco ASA
Development Applications
1 10 (3.55%) Sonatype Nexus
2 6 (2.13%) GitLab
3 4 (1.42%) Bitbucket
4 3 (1.06%) Git
4 3 (1.06%) JIRA
5 1 (0.35%) Jenkins
General
1 76 (26.95%) Social Skills
2 37 (13.12%) Analytical Skills
3 33 (11.70%) Finance
4 27 (9.57%) Telecoms
5 18 (6.38%) Banking
6 15 (5.32%) Public Sector
7 11 (3.90%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (3.55%) Military
9 7 (2.48%) Marketing
10 5 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.06%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Retail
12 2 (0.71%) Advertising
12 2 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.71%) Legal
12 2 (0.71%) Local Government
12 2 (0.71%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.35%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 181 (64.18%) Network Engineer
2 33 (11.70%) Cisco Engineer
2 33 (11.70%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 32 (11.35%) Architect
4 20 (7.09%) Senior
5 19 (6.74%) Cloud Architect
6 18 (6.38%) Cloud Native Architect
6 18 (6.38%) Technical Architect
7 16 (5.67%) Senior Network Engineer
8 14 (4.96%) Implementation Engineer
9 13 (4.61%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 12 (4.26%) Network Architect
11 11 (3.90%) Network Security Engineer
11 11 (3.90%) Security Architect
11 11 (3.90%) Security Engineer
11 11 (3.90%) WAN Engineer
12 10 (3.55%) AWS Architect
12 10 (3.55%) Network Security Architect
13 9 (3.19%) Designer
13 9 (3.19%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (8.87%) 802.1X
2 5 (1.77%) Spine.js
3 2 (0.71%) JSON
3 2 (0.71%) REST
3 2 (0.71%) XML
3 2 (0.71%) YAML
4 1 (0.35%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 49 (17.38%) Data Centre
2 22 (7.80%) Cloud Native
3 6 (2.13%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (1.77%) Operational Technology
5 4 (1.42%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 4 (1.42%) Hedge funds
5 4 (1.42%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.06%) Public Cloud
7 2 (0.71%) CMDB
7 2 (0.71%) Derivative
7 2 (0.71%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (0.71%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (0.71%) Life Science
7 2 (0.71%) PKI
7 2 (0.71%) Private Cloud
7 2 (0.71%) Product Ownership
7 2 (0.71%) Security Posture
7 2 (0.71%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 2 (0.71%) Video\Live Streaming
8 1 (0.35%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 9 (3.19%) Linux
2 6 (2.13%) Check Point GAiA
3 5 (1.77%) CatOS
4 4 (1.42%) Unix
5 2 (0.71%) Windows
5 2 (0.71%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (20.92%) Network Monitoring
2 41 (14.54%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (13.83%) Migration
4 35 (12.41%) High Availability
5 34 (12.06%) ITIL
6 29 (10.28%) Network Design
7 26 (9.22%) Computer Science
8 24 (8.51%) Change Management
9 22 (7.80%) Infrastructure as Code
10 20 (7.09%) Network Architecture
10 20 (7.09%) Network Management
10 20 (7.09%) Test Automation
10 20 (7.09%) Validation
11 18 (6.38%) Sprint Planning
12 17 (6.03%) Service Management
13 16 (5.67%) Project Delivery
14 15 (5.32%) Root Cause Analysis
15 14 (4.96%) Low Latency
16 13 (4.61%) Load Balancing
16 13 (4.61%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 52 (18.44%) Python
2 18 (6.38%) Bicep
3 8 (2.84%) Bash
4 6 (2.13%) Perl
5 5 (1.77%) PowerShell
6 1 (0.35%) C++
6 1 (0.35%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 143 (50.71%) Cisco Certification
2 117 (41.49%) CCNP
3 56 (19.86%) Security Cleared
4 46 (16.31%) SC Cleared
5 38 (13.48%) CCIE
6 35 (12.41%) Degree
7 31 (10.99%) CCNA
8 18 (6.38%) CCSE
8 18 (6.38%) Computer Science Degree
9 14 (4.96%) CCSA
10 13 (4.61%) DV Cleared
11 11 (3.90%) JNCIA
12 7 (2.48%) AWS Certification
12 7 (2.48%) JNCIS
13 6 (2.13%) Check Point Certification
13 6 (2.13%) JNCIE
14 5 (1.77%) CCIE Service Provider
14 5 (1.77%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 4 (1.42%) Master's Degree
16 3 (1.06%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.71%) NCSC
2 2 (0.71%) SLA
3 1 (0.35%) Def Stans
3 1 (0.35%) GDPR
3 1 (0.35%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.35%) QA
System Software
1 16 (5.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (4.26%) Firmware
3 6 (2.13%) Docker
4 4 (1.42%) Ceph
5 2 (0.71%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.35%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.35%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 63 (22.34%) Ansible
2 30 (10.64%) Terraform
3 20 (7.09%) FortiGate
4 12 (4.26%) Nagios
5 10 (3.55%) ZABBIX
6 6 (2.13%) vCenter Server
7 5 (1.77%) Cacti
8 4 (1.42%) CA Spectrum
8 4 (1.42%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (1.42%) Puppet
9 3 (1.06%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.71%) Argo
10 2 (0.71%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.71%) Icinga
10 2 (0.71%) Kubernetes
10 2 (0.71%) Observium
11 1 (0.35%) Cisco LMS
11 1 (0.35%) OpenView
11 1 (0.35%) Tivoli
11 1 (0.35%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 227 (80.50%) Cisco
2 96 (34.04%) Palo Alto
3 76 (26.95%) CheckPoint
4 75 (26.60%) Fortinet
5 61 (21.63%) SolarWinds
6 50 (17.73%) Juniper
7 38 (13.48%) Arista
7 38 (13.48%) F5
8 20 (7.09%) VMware
9 19 (6.74%) Meraki
10 10 (3.55%) Nokia
11 9 (3.19%) Aruba
11 9 (3.19%) Dell
12 7 (2.48%) ServiceNow
13 6 (2.13%) Huawei
14 5 (1.77%) Microsoft
14 5 (1.77%) Splunk
14 5 (1.77%) Zscaler
15 4 (1.42%) BMC
15 4 (1.42%) Remedy