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 7 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 333 201 240
Rank change year-on-year -132 +39 +138
Contract jobs citing BGP 324 393 459
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 1.28% 1.02%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.48% 9.65% 7.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 183 240 256
10th Percentile £300 £375 £313
25th Percentile £400 £425 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £520 £488
Median % change year-on-year -14.42% +6.67% -2.50%
75th Percentile £534 £644 £588
90th Percentile £588 £800 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £445 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -11.00% +11.11% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 10
10th Percentile £53.08 £22.33 £24.15
25th Percentile £70.67 £28.06 £24.44
Median hourly rate £74.26 £33.75 £46.25
Median % change year-on-year +120.03% -27.03% -40.32%
75th Percentile - £35.75 £69.38
90th Percentile - £37.10 £71.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £19.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year +290.84% -56.82% +31.34%

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 4,332 4,074 6,043
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.14% 13.29% 13.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,816 2,461 3,625
10th Percentile £205 £208 £205
25th Percentile £363 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +5.26% -8.65%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £466 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -1.89% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 141 394
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.27
25th Percentile £20.04 £21.46 £19.25
Median hourly rate £36.75 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £73.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +29.05% -31.58% +152.39%

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 7 March 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 7 March 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 7 March 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 -106 282 £445 -13.17% 57
UK excluding London -64 190 £445 -11.00% 51
Work from Home -65 101 £438 -23.91% 20
London -81 93 £425 -15.84% 17
South East +6 91 £445 -25.83% 25
West Midlands -13 50 £400 -5.88% 5
Midlands -26 50 £400 -5.88% 7
North of England -89 48 £550 +4.76% 6
North West -59 44 £550 +4.76% 1
Scotland +13 12 £425 - 4
South West -47 11 £525 +5.00% 4
Yorkshire -59 4 £545 +98.18% 5
Wales -6 3 £425 -5.56% 4
North East -9 3 £550 -
East of England -27 1 - - 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 (3.70%) SharePoint
2 8 (2.47%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.23%) Confluence
Applications
1 17 (5.25%) MS Visio
2 8 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 56 (17.28%) AWS
2 44 (13.58%) Azure
3 27 (8.33%) GCP
4 19 (5.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 9 (2.78%) AWS Direct Connect
5 9 (2.78%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (2.16%) Route 53
7 6 (1.85%) SaaS
8 5 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (1.23%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (1.23%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 4 (1.23%) IaaS
9 4 (1.23%) PaaS
10 3 (0.93%) Amazon S3
10 3 (0.93%) Catchpoint
10 3 (0.93%) Entra ID
10 3 (0.93%) Nutanix
11 2 (0.62%) AWS Control Tower
11 2 (0.62%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (0.62%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 214 (66.05%) OSPF
2 207 (63.89%) Firewall
3 174 (53.70%) WAN
4 125 (38.58%) LAN
5 116 (35.80%) VPN
6 101 (31.17%) MPLS
7 91 (28.09%) Network Security
8 73 (22.53%) DNS
9 70 (21.60%) VXLAN
10 68 (20.99%) VLAN
11 63 (19.44%) IPsec
12 57 (17.59%) SD-WAN
13 54 (16.67%) Ethernet VPN
14 50 (15.43%) Cisco ASA
15 46 (14.20%) DHCP
16 45 (13.89%) Multicast
16 45 (13.89%) Wireless
17 44 (13.58%) EIGRP
18 43 (13.27%) TCP/IP
19 42 (12.96%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.31%) Redis
1 1 (0.31%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (4.63%) Git
2 8 (2.47%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (1.23%) GitLab
4 3 (0.93%) JIRA
5 2 (0.62%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.31%) AppScan
6 1 (0.31%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.31%) Metasploit
General
1 67 (20.68%) Social Skills
2 38 (11.73%) Documentation Skills
3 35 (10.80%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (9.88%) Public Sector
5 30 (9.26%) Finance
6 24 (7.41%) Banking
7 20 (6.17%) Telecoms
8 17 (5.25%) Investment Banking
9 15 (4.63%) Financial Institution
9 15 (4.63%) Manufacturing
10 13 (4.01%) Military
11 6 (1.85%) Legal
11 6 (1.85%) Marketing
12 4 (1.23%) French Language
12 4 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.23%) Retail
13 3 (0.93%) Electronics
14 2 (0.62%) Aviation
14 2 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 182 (56.17%) Network Engineer
2 43 (13.27%) Architect
3 42 (12.96%) Cisco Engineer
4 38 (11.73%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 32 (9.88%) Security Engineer
5 32 (9.88%) Senior
6 28 (8.64%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 27 (8.33%) Network Architect
7 27 (8.33%) Network Security Engineer
8 20 (6.17%) Data Network Engineer
9 18 (5.56%) Cisco Security Engineer
9 18 (5.56%) Data Engineer
9 18 (5.56%) Senior Network Engineer
10 16 (4.94%) Network Specialist
11 14 (4.32%) Juniper Engineer
12 11 (3.40%) Design Engineer
12 11 (3.40%) WAN Engineer
13 10 (3.09%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 9 (2.78%) Solutions Architect
14 9 (2.78%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (10.19%) 802.1X
2 9 (2.78%) NETCONF
2 9 (2.78%) YANG
3 6 (1.85%) LDAP
3 6 (1.85%) REST
4 5 (1.54%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.23%) Jinja
5 4 (1.23%) RESTCONF
5 4 (1.23%) VML
6 3 (0.93%) SAML
7 2 (0.62%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.62%) CSS
7 2 (0.62%) HTML
7 2 (0.62%) JSON
7 2 (0.62%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.62%) XML
8 1 (0.31%) Elastic Stack
8 1 (0.31%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 131 (40.43%) Data Centre
2 46 (14.20%) PKI
3 19 (5.86%) Clustering
4 13 (4.01%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.78%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.47%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (2.16%) Cloud Native
7 7 (2.16%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (1.54%) NHS
9 5 (1.54%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.54%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.23%) SCADA
11 3 (0.93%) CESG
11 3 (0.93%) Distributed Architecture
11 3 (0.93%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.93%) Private Cloud
11 3 (0.93%) Public Cloud
11 3 (0.93%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 37 (11.42%) Windows
2 24 (7.41%) Linux
3 10 (3.09%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.16%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.31%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.31%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (20.99%) Load Balancing
2 53 (16.36%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (13.27%) Network Design
4 40 (12.35%) High Availability
5 34 (10.49%) Migration
6 30 (9.26%) Cybersecurity
7 28 (8.64%) Change Management
7 28 (8.64%) Network Monitoring
8 26 (8.02%) Zero Trust
9 25 (7.72%) Observability
10 22 (6.79%) Identity Access Management
10 22 (6.79%) ITIL
10 22 (6.79%) Project Delivery
11 21 (6.48%) Network Segmentation
11 21 (6.48%) Stakeholder Management
12 20 (6.17%) Network Architecture
13 18 (5.56%) Agile
13 18 (5.56%) CI/CD
13 18 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
13 18 (5.56%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 65 (20.06%) Python
2 16 (4.94%) Bash
3 12 (3.70%) PowerShell
4 9 (2.78%) Lisp
4 9 (2.78%) Perl
5 4 (1.23%) PHP
6 3 (0.93%) SQL
7 2 (0.62%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.31%) C++
Qualifications
1 151 (46.60%) Cisco Certification
2 137 (42.28%) Security Cleared
3 121 (37.35%) CCNP
4 103 (31.79%) SC Cleared
5 49 (15.12%) CCIE
6 39 (12.04%) DV Cleared
7 27 (8.33%) CCNA
7 27 (8.33%) Degree
8 18 (5.56%) JNCIP
8 18 (5.56%) JNCIS
9 14 (4.32%) JNCIE
10 13 (4.01%) JNCIA
11 11 (3.40%) AWS Certification
11 11 (3.40%) CISSP
12 9 (2.78%) CCDP
13 7 (2.16%) GIAC
14 5 (1.54%) Azure Certification
14 5 (1.54%) CCIE Security
14 5 (1.54%) CompTIA Security+
14 5 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.94%) NIST
2 15 (4.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (3.40%) NCSC
4 10 (3.09%) SLA
5 7 (2.16%) GDPR
5 7 (2.16%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.93%) RMADS
8 2 (0.62%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.62%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.31%) COBIT
9 1 (0.31%) GRC
9 1 (0.31%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.31%) QA
9 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 25 (7.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (4.94%) VMware NSX
3 11 (3.40%) Active Directory
4 10 (3.09%) Docker
5 8 (2.47%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.93%) Firmware
6 3 (0.93%) vSphere
7 2 (0.62%) vCloud
8 1 (0.31%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.31%) KVM
8 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 58 (17.90%) Ansible
2 51 (15.74%) FortiGate
3 30 (9.26%) Terraform
4 12 (3.70%) Grafana
5 10 (3.09%) Prometheus
6 6 (1.85%) Kubernetes
6 6 (1.85%) vCenter Server
7 5 (1.54%) Nagios
8 3 (0.93%) Iperf
8 3 (0.93%) Nmap
8 3 (0.93%) SCOM
8 3 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.62%) CASB
9 2 (0.62%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.62%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.62%) VxRail
10 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.31%) Nessus
10 1 (0.31%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.31%) QRadar
Vendors
1 237 (73.15%) Cisco
2 94 (29.01%) F5
2 94 (29.01%) Juniper
3 90 (27.78%) Palo Alto
4 51 (15.74%) CheckPoint
5 49 (15.12%) Fortinet
6 38 (11.73%) Aruba
7 36 (11.11%) SolarWinds
8 31 (9.57%) VMware
9 29 (8.95%) Meraki
10 27 (8.33%) Arista
11 26 (8.02%) Splunk
12 22 (6.79%) Extreme Networks
13 21 (6.48%) Zscaler
14 12 (3.70%) ServiceNow
15 11 (3.40%) Microsoft
15 11 (3.40%) Nokia
15 11 (3.40%) Remedy
16 10 (3.09%) Ekahau
17 7 (2.16%) NVIDIA