BGP Contract Job Trends

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring BGP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 339 208 243
Rank change year-on-year -131 +35 +140
Contract jobs citing BGP 292 394 431
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.72% 1.28% 0.98%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.96% 9.72% 7.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 164 242 223
10th Percentile £268 £364 £325
25th Percentile £400 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -15.71% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £523 £675 £600
90th Percentile £586 £800 £728
UK excluding London median daily rate £445 £513 £488
% change year-on-year -13.17% +5.13% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 12
10th Percentile £53.08 £22.33 £24.25
25th Percentile £70.67 £28.06 £24.81
Median hourly rate £74.26 £33.75 £37.77
Median % change year-on-year +120.03% -10.64% -51.58%
75th Percentile - £35.75 £68.13
90th Percentile - £37.10 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £19.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year +290.84% -56.82% -21.43%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

BGP 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 4,195 4,055 5,881
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.30% 13.16% 13.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,740 2,421 3,508
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £356 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £487
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.72% -6.39%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -3.62% -1.05% +0.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 127 399
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.93 £14.34
25th Percentile £18.94 £21.46 £20.00
Median hourly rate £28.88 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% -31.58% +143.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.06 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £51.42
% change year-on-year +51.55% -47.98% +157.87%

BGP
Job Vacancy Trend

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

BGP job vacancy trend in the UK

BGP
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

BGP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BGP over the 6 months to 19 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

BGP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BGP over the 6 months to 19 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BGP within the UK over the 6 months to 19 February 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 -96 253 £445 -14.42% 66
UK excluding London -54 175 £445 -13.17% 54
Work from Home -73 98 £438 -28.28% 21
South East -2 81 £445 -25.83% 28
London -99 81 £418 -18.54% 16
West Midlands -19 47 £400 -5.88% 8
Midlands -30 47 £400 -5.88% 9
North of England -95 40 £550 +4.76% 7
North West -50 37 £550 +4.76% 2
Scotland +9 13 £425 - 2
South West -44 11 £525 +5.00% 6
North East -12 3 £550 -
Yorkshire -58 3 £545 +98.18% 5
Wales -7 2 - -
East of England -30 1 £300 +9.09% 4

BGP
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 12 (4.11%) OpenStack
1 12 (4.11%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.37%) Confluence
Applications
1 15 (5.14%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 53 (18.15%) AWS
2 41 (14.04%) Azure
3 22 (7.53%) GCP
4 14 (4.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 8 (2.74%) AWS Direct Connect
5 8 (2.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (2.05%) Route 53
6 6 (2.05%) SaaS
7 5 (1.71%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.37%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 4 (1.37%) IaaS
8 4 (1.37%) PaaS
9 3 (1.03%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (1.03%) Amazon S3
9 3 (1.03%) Catchpoint
9 3 (1.03%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.03%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (0.68%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.68%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 188 (64.38%) OSPF
2 178 (60.96%) Firewall
3 156 (53.42%) WAN
4 112 (38.36%) LAN
5 109 (37.33%) VPN
6 97 (33.22%) MPLS
7 79 (27.05%) Network Security
8 68 (23.29%) IPsec
9 64 (21.92%) VLAN
10 61 (20.89%) DNS
11 54 (18.49%) VXLAN
12 47 (16.10%) SD-WAN
13 46 (15.75%) Wireless
14 43 (14.73%) Ethernet VPN
15 42 (14.38%) Cisco ASA
15 42 (14.38%) EIGRP
16 37 (12.67%) DHCP
17 36 (12.33%) Cisco ISE
17 36 (12.33%) Multicast
18 33 (11.30%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.34%) Redis
1 1 (0.34%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (3.77%) Git
2 9 (3.08%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (1.37%) GitLab
4 2 (0.68%) JIRA
5 1 (0.34%) AppScan
5 1 (0.34%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.34%) Metasploit
5 1 (0.34%) Robot Framework
General
1 71 (24.32%) Social Skills
2 39 (13.36%) Documentation Skills
3 34 (11.64%) Public Sector
4 29 (9.93%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.19%) Finance
6 20 (6.85%) Banking
6 20 (6.85%) Telecoms
7 15 (5.14%) Investment Banking
7 15 (5.14%) Manufacturing
8 13 (4.45%) Military
9 9 (3.08%) Financial Institution
10 6 (2.05%) Legal
10 6 (2.05%) Marketing
11 4 (1.37%) French Language
11 4 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.37%) Retail
12 3 (1.03%) Electronics
13 2 (0.68%) Aviation
13 2 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 160 (54.79%) Network Engineer
2 39 (13.36%) Architect
2 39 (13.36%) Cisco Engineer
3 35 (11.99%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 28 (9.59%) Senior
5 27 (9.25%) Security Engineer
6 26 (8.90%) Network Architect
7 25 (8.56%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 22 (7.53%) Network Security Engineer
9 16 (5.48%) Senior Network Engineer
10 14 (4.79%) Data Network Engineer
11 13 (4.45%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 13 (4.45%) Data Engineer
11 13 (4.45%) Network Specialist
12 12 (4.11%) Juniper Engineer
13 11 (3.77%) WAN Engineer
14 10 (3.42%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 9 (3.08%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 9 (3.08%) Wireless Engineer
15 9 (3.08%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (8.56%) 802.1X
2 10 (3.42%) YANG
3 9 (3.08%) NETCONF
4 8 (2.74%) REST
5 6 (2.05%) LDAP
6 4 (1.37%) JSON
6 4 (1.37%) VML
7 3 (1.03%) OpenConfig
7 3 (1.03%) SAML
8 2 (0.68%) AWS CDK
8 2 (0.68%) CSS
8 2 (0.68%) HTML
8 2 (0.68%) RESTCONF
8 2 (0.68%) RFC 2544
8 2 (0.68%) XML
9 1 (0.34%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.34%) gRPC
9 1 (0.34%) LangChain
9 1 (0.34%) RabbitMQ
9 1 (0.34%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 115 (39.38%) Data Centre
2 44 (15.07%) PKI
3 15 (5.14%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (4.45%) Clustering
5 9 (3.08%) Cloud Native
5 9 (3.08%) Product Ownership
6 5 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.71%) NHS
6 5 (1.71%) Operational Technology
6 5 (1.71%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.37%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.37%) SCADA
8 3 (1.03%) CESG
8 3 (1.03%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.03%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.03%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.03%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.68%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.68%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 28 (9.59%) Windows
2 24 (8.22%) Linux
3 9 (3.08%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.40%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.34%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (18.84%) Load Balancing
2 48 (16.44%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (14.73%) Network Design
4 33 (11.30%) High Availability
5 29 (9.93%) Migration
6 28 (9.59%) Cybersecurity
7 25 (8.56%) Network Monitoring
7 25 (8.56%) Zero Trust
8 23 (7.88%) Network Segmentation
9 22 (7.53%) Change Management
9 22 (7.53%) Network Architecture
9 22 (7.53%) Project Delivery
10 20 (6.85%) Roadmaps
11 18 (6.16%) ITIL
11 18 (6.16%) Stakeholder Management
12 16 (5.48%) Identity Access Management
12 16 (5.48%) Observability
12 16 (5.48%) Root Cause Analysis
12 16 (5.48%) Strategic Thinking
13 15 (5.14%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 66 (22.60%) Python
2 18 (6.16%) Bash
3 12 (4.11%) PowerShell
4 11 (3.77%) Perl
5 9 (3.08%) Lisp
6 4 (1.37%) PHP
7 3 (1.03%) C++
8 2 (0.68%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.34%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.34%) SQL
Qualifications
1 141 (48.29%) Cisco Certification
2 132 (45.21%) Security Cleared
3 116 (39.73%) CCNP
4 101 (34.59%) SC Cleared
5 49 (16.78%) CCIE
6 36 (12.33%) DV Cleared
7 26 (8.90%) CCNA
7 26 (8.90%) Degree
8 19 (6.51%) JNCIS
9 17 (5.82%) JNCIE
10 16 (5.48%) JNCIP
11 13 (4.45%) JNCIA
12 12 (4.11%) AWS Certification
13 11 (3.77%) CISSP
14 9 (3.08%) CCDP
15 7 (2.40%) GIAC
16 5 (1.71%) CCIE Security
16 5 (1.71%) CompTIA Security+
17 4 (1.37%) APMG
17 4 (1.37%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 15 (5.14%) NIST
2 10 (3.42%) NCSC
3 7 (2.40%) GDPR
3 7 (2.40%) PCI DSS
3 7 (2.40%) SLA
4 4 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (1.03%) RMADS
6 2 (0.68%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.34%) COBIT
7 1 (0.34%) GRC
7 1 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.34%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.34%) QA
7 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
System Software
1 27 (9.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (6.51%) VMware NSX
3 10 (3.42%) Active Directory
4 8 (2.74%) Docker
5 7 (2.40%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.37%) Firmware
7 3 (1.03%) Hyper-V
7 3 (1.03%) KVM
7 3 (1.03%) vSphere
8 2 (0.68%) vCloud
9 1 (0.34%) Squid
9 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 56 (19.18%) Ansible
2 40 (13.70%) FortiGate
3 31 (10.62%) Terraform
4 9 (3.08%) Grafana
5 8 (2.74%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.05%) Kubernetes
6 6 (2.05%) vCenter Server
7 4 (1.37%) Iperf
7 4 (1.37%) Nagios
7 4 (1.37%) Nmap
8 3 (1.03%) SCOM
8 3 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.68%) CASB
9 2 (0.68%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.68%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.34%) Nessus
10 1 (0.34%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.34%) QRadar
10 1 (0.34%) VxRail
Vendors
1 209 (71.58%) Cisco
2 87 (29.79%) Juniper
3 84 (28.77%) Palo Alto
4 72 (24.66%) F5
5 47 (16.10%) CheckPoint
6 45 (15.41%) Fortinet
7 36 (12.33%) Aruba
8 32 (10.96%) VMware
9 29 (9.93%) SolarWinds
10 28 (9.59%) Meraki
11 21 (7.19%) Arista
12 19 (6.51%) Splunk
13 18 (6.16%) Zscaler
14 15 (5.14%) Extreme Networks
15 12 (4.11%) Remedy
15 12 (4.11%) ServiceNow
16 11 (3.77%) Nokia
17 10 (3.42%) Ekahau
18 7 (2.40%) Microsoft
18 7 (2.40%) NVIDIA