Hybrid/Remote OSPF Contract Job Trends

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for remote or hybrid contract work requiring OSPF skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 265 211 306
Rank change year-on-year -54 +95 +105
Contract jobs citing OSPF 53 107 86
As % of all contract jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.52% 0.88% 0.48%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.99% 8.31% 3.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 63 53
10th Percentile £304 £392 £320
25th Percentile £375 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £583 £450
Median % change year-on-year -23.26% +29.44% -10.00%
75th Percentile £500 £688 £588
90th Percentile £612 £800 £744
UK median daily rate £455 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -13.33% - +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 9
10th Percentile - £20.45 £24.25
25th Percentile - £23.38 £24.50
Median hourly rate - £28.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year - -13.64% -
75th Percentile - £33.38 £35.00
90th Percentile - £36.15 £43.93
UK median hourly rate - £33.75 £33.72
% change year-on-year - +0.09% +2.18%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 1,062 1,287 2,314
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 10.43% 10.61% 13.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 681 774 1,501
10th Percentile £308 £313 £300
25th Percentile £400 £407 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £524 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.53% +4.75% -4.76%
75th Percentile £591 £625 £614
90th Percentile £680 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 30 85
10th Percentile £22.03 £18.11 £19.99
25th Percentile £36.06 £38.63 £21.98
Median hourly rate £64.25 £46.78 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.34% -2.54% -23.81%
75th Percentile £65.00 £66.52 £70.00
90th Percentile £69.79 £75.00 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £33.39 £41.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -18.57% -25.45% +25.00%

OSPF
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing OSPF and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

OSPF job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

OSPF
Daily Rate Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing OSPF.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing OSPF

OSPF
Daily Rate Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing OSPF over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

OSPF daily rate histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

OSPF
Hourly Rate Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing OSPF.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing OSPF

OSPF
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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 11 (20.75%) OpenStack
2 3 (5.66%) Confluence
2 3 (5.66%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (5.66%) MS Visio
2 2 (3.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 17 (32.08%) AWS
2 7 (13.21%) Azure
3 6 (11.32%) OpenShift
4 2 (3.77%) GCP
4 2 (3.77%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 1 (1.89%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (1.89%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 51 (96.23%) BGP
2 38 (71.70%) Firewall
3 31 (58.49%) WAN
4 23 (43.40%) MPLS
5 21 (39.62%) LAN
5 21 (39.62%) VPN
6 17 (32.08%) Wireless
7 15 (28.30%) IPsec
8 14 (26.42%) VLAN
9 12 (22.64%) SD-WAN
10 11 (20.75%) Wireshark
11 10 (18.87%) DNS
12 9 (16.98%) EIGRP
13 8 (15.09%) Cisco ASA
13 8 (15.09%) DHCP
13 8 (15.09%) TCP/IP
13 8 (15.09%) VXLAN
14 7 (13.21%) Multicast
14 7 (13.21%) TACACS
14 7 (13.21%) VoIP
Development Applications
1 2 (3.77%) Git
1 2 (3.77%) GitLab
2 1 (1.89%) Bitbucket
2 1 (1.89%) JIRA
2 1 (1.89%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 18 (33.96%) Social Skills
2 15 (28.30%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (18.87%) Public Sector
4 8 (15.09%) Telecoms
5 6 (11.32%) Finance
6 4 (7.55%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (7.55%) Manufacturing
7 3 (5.66%) Retail
8 2 (3.77%) Electronics
8 2 (3.77%) Marketing
8 2 (3.77%) Military
9 1 (1.89%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.89%) French Language
9 1 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 24 (45.28%) Network Engineer
2 9 (16.98%) Designer
3 6 (11.32%) Architect
3 6 (11.32%) IP Designer
3 6 (11.32%) Solutions Architect
4 5 (9.43%) Senior
5 4 (7.55%) Cisco Engineer
5 4 (7.55%) Consultant
5 4 (7.55%) IP Engineer
5 4 (7.55%) Network Specialist
6 3 (5.66%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 3 (5.66%) IP Network Engineer
6 3 (5.66%) Network Architect
6 3 (5.66%) Network Designer
6 3 (5.66%) Tester
7 2 (3.77%) Juniper Engineer
7 2 (3.77%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 2 (3.77%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 2 (3.77%) Senior Network Specialist
7 2 (3.77%) Validation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (5.66%) VML
2 2 (3.77%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.89%) JFC
3 1 (1.89%) REST
3 1 (1.89%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (30.19%) Data Centre
2 8 (15.09%) Operational Technology
3 6 (11.32%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (5.66%) PKI
5 2 (3.77%) NHS
5 2 (3.77%) Public Cloud
5 2 (3.77%) SCADA
6 1 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.89%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 3 (5.66%) Windows
2 1 (1.89%) Linux
2 1 (1.89%) Windows Server 2012
2 1 (1.89%) Windows Server 2016
2 1 (1.89%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (22.64%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (20.75%) Migration
3 9 (16.98%) Validation
4 7 (13.21%) Incident Response
4 7 (13.21%) Load Balancing
4 7 (13.21%) Network Virtualisation
5 6 (11.32%) Configuration Management
5 6 (11.32%) Knowledge Transfer
6 5 (9.43%) ITIL
6 5 (9.43%) Network Monitoring
7 4 (7.55%) Business Intelligence
7 4 (7.55%) Project Delivery
7 4 (7.55%) Security Architecture
7 4 (7.55%) TOGAF
7 4 (7.55%) Zero Trust
8 3 (5.66%) Agile
8 3 (5.66%) Software Testing
8 3 (5.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 3 (5.66%) Test Automation
8 3 (5.66%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 22 (41.51%) Python
2 4 (7.55%) Bash
3 2 (3.77%) Perl
4 1 (1.89%) C++
Qualifications
1 31 (58.49%) Cisco Certification
2 25 (47.17%) CCNP
3 17 (32.08%) Security Cleared
4 15 (28.30%) CCIE
5 11 (20.75%) SC Cleared
6 9 (16.98%) JNCIE
7 7 (13.21%) AWS Certification
7 7 (13.21%) CCNA
7 7 (13.21%) Degree
8 5 (9.43%) JNCIP
9 3 (5.66%) CCSE
9 3 (5.66%) JNCIA
9 3 (5.66%) JNCIS
10 2 (3.77%) DV Cleared
11 1 (1.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 1 (1.89%) Azure Certification
11 1 (1.89%) CCDP
11 1 (1.89%) CCIE Security
11 1 (1.89%) CISSP
11 1 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.66%) SLA
2 1 (1.89%) GDPR
2 1 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.89%) NIST
2 1 (1.89%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 7 (13.21%) VMware Infrastructure
1 7 (13.21%) VMware NSX
2 5 (9.43%) Docker
3 1 (1.89%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.89%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 20 (37.74%) Ansible
2 10 (18.87%) Terraform
3 3 (5.66%) Iperf
3 3 (5.66%) Nmap
4 2 (3.77%) FortiGate
4 2 (3.77%) Nagios
5 1 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 39 (73.58%) Cisco
2 18 (33.96%) Juniper
3 16 (30.19%) F5
4 15 (28.30%) CheckPoint
4 15 (28.30%) Fortinet
4 15 (28.30%) Palo Alto
5 9 (16.98%) Aruba
6 8 (15.09%) SolarWinds
6 8 (15.09%) VMware
7 7 (13.21%) Meraki
8 5 (9.43%) Dell
9 4 (7.55%) Remedy
9 4 (7.55%) ServiceNow
9 4 (7.55%) Zscaler
10 3 (5.66%) Infoblox
11 2 (3.77%) Arista
11 2 (3.77%) Extreme Networks
11 2 (3.77%) LogicMonitor
11 2 (3.77%) SAP
12 1 (1.89%) ForeScout