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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 318 207 227
Rank change year-on-year -111 +20 +147
Contract jobs citing BGP 325 384 467
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 1.30% 1.05%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.50% 9.76% 7.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 239 264
10th Percentile £300 £363 £313
25th Percentile £400 £425 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £444 £513 £488
Median % change year-on-year -13.41% +5.13% -2.50%
75th Percentile £538 £625 £588
90th Percentile £612 £800 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 10
10th Percentile £53.08 £21.05 £24.15
25th Percentile £70.67 £24.88 £24.44
Median hourly rate £74.26 £32.50 £46.25
Median % change year-on-year +128.49% -29.73% -40.32%
75th Percentile - £34.38 £69.38
90th Percentile - £34.75 £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 4,333 3,936 6,007
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.12% 13.36% 13.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,797 2,406 3,608
10th Percentile £212 £208 £205
25th Percentile £364 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £497 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.46% +4.68% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +0.64% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 180 139 395
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.31 £14.10
25th Percentile £20.13 £21.46 £18.93
Median hourly rate £40.02 £35.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.34% -6.67% +97.37%
75th Percentile £67.58 £63.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £46.39
% change year-on-year +30.00% -29.94% +145.32%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -87 285 £445 -12.75% 50
UK excluding London -71 196 £450 -10.00% 41
Work from Home -58 98 £438 -18.98% 17
South East -6 96 £445 -25.83% 18
London -93 89 £400 -20.00% 20
West Midlands -20 51 £400 +10.34% 6
Midlands -27 51 £400 +10.34% 8
North of England -85 50 £550 +4.76% 5
North West -53 46 £550 +4.76%
South West -43 12 £525 +2.44% 2
Scotland +8 11 £425 - 3
Yorkshire -54 4 £545 +98.18% 4
North East -11 3 £550 - 1
Wales -12 3 £425 -5.56% 3
East of England -31 1 - - 5

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 (3.69%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.23%) Confluence
3 2 (0.62%) OpenStack
Applications
1 17 (5.23%) MS Visio
2 8 (2.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 53 (16.31%) AWS
2 46 (14.15%) Azure
3 25 (7.69%) GCP
4 19 (5.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 9 (2.77%) AWS Direct Connect
5 9 (2.77%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (2.15%) Route 53
7 6 (1.85%) SaaS
8 4 (1.23%) Amazon EKS
8 4 (1.23%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 4 (1.23%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.23%) IaaS
8 4 (1.23%) PaaS
9 3 (0.92%) Amazon S3
9 3 (0.92%) Catchpoint
9 3 (0.92%) Nutanix
10 2 (0.62%) AWS Control Tower
10 2 (0.62%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (0.62%) Entra ID
10 2 (0.62%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 214 (65.85%) OSPF
2 206 (63.38%) Firewall
3 179 (55.08%) WAN
4 128 (39.38%) LAN
5 114 (35.08%) VPN
6 96 (29.54%) MPLS
7 94 (28.92%) Network Security
8 75 (23.08%) VXLAN
9 69 (21.23%) DNS
10 63 (19.38%) VLAN
11 60 (18.46%) IPsec
12 59 (18.15%) SD-WAN
13 55 (16.92%) Ethernet VPN
14 53 (16.31%) Cisco ASA
15 48 (14.77%) Multicast
16 47 (14.46%) Cisco ISE
17 46 (14.15%) Wireless
18 44 (13.54%) DHCP
18 44 (13.54%) TCP/IP
19 42 (12.92%) EIGRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.31%) Redis
1 1 (0.31%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (4.62%) Git
2 8 (2.46%) Sonatype Nexus
3 5 (1.54%) GitLab
4 4 (1.23%) JIRA
5 3 (0.92%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.31%) AppScan
6 1 (0.31%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.31%) Metasploit
General
1 62 (19.08%) Social Skills
2 39 (12.00%) Documentation Skills
3 36 (11.08%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (9.85%) Public Sector
5 30 (9.23%) Finance
6 26 (8.00%) Banking
7 20 (6.15%) Telecoms
8 18 (5.54%) Investment Banking
9 15 (4.62%) Financial Institution
9 15 (4.62%) Manufacturing
10 12 (3.69%) 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 (0.92%) Electronics
14 2 (0.62%) Aviation
14 2 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 188 (57.85%) Network Engineer
2 45 (13.85%) Cisco Engineer
3 41 (12.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 37 (11.38%) Architect
5 34 (10.46%) Senior
6 32 (9.85%) Security Engineer
7 29 (8.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 27 (8.31%) Network Security Engineer
9 26 (8.00%) Network Architect
10 23 (7.08%) Data Network Engineer
11 22 (6.77%) Senior Network Engineer
12 20 (6.15%) Cisco Security Engineer
12 20 (6.15%) Data Engineer
13 16 (4.92%) Network Specialist
14 13 (4.00%) Juniper Engineer
15 12 (3.69%) Design Engineer
16 11 (3.38%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 10 (3.08%) Firewall Specialist
17 10 (3.08%) Operations Engineer
17 10 (3.08%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (11.08%) 802.1X
2 8 (2.46%) NETCONF
2 8 (2.46%) 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 2 (0.62%) AWS CDK
6 2 (0.62%) CSS
6 2 (0.62%) HTML
6 2 (0.62%) JSON
6 2 (0.62%) RFC 2544
6 2 (0.62%) XML
7 1 (0.31%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.31%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 135 (41.54%) Data Centre
2 46 (14.15%) PKI
3 21 (6.46%) Clustering
4 12 (3.69%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.77%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.46%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.85%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (1.54%) NHS
9 5 (1.54%) Onboarding
10 4 (1.23%) SCADA
11 3 (0.92%) CESG
11 3 (0.92%) Distributed Architecture
11 3 (0.92%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.92%) Operational Technology
11 3 (0.92%) Private Cloud
11 3 (0.92%) Public Cloud
11 3 (0.92%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.92%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 40 (12.31%) Windows
2 22 (6.77%) Linux
3 10 (3.08%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.15%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.31%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.31%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (22.46%) Load Balancing
2 52 (16.00%) Problem-Solving
3 47 (14.46%) High Availability
4 43 (13.23%) Network Design
5 36 (11.08%) Migration
6 30 (9.23%) Change Management
6 30 (9.23%) Cybersecurity
7 29 (8.92%) Network Monitoring
8 28 (8.62%) ITIL
9 27 (8.31%) Observability
10 26 (8.00%) Stakeholder Management
11 24 (7.38%) Zero Trust
12 22 (6.77%) Identity Access Management
12 22 (6.77%) Project Delivery
13 21 (6.46%) Network Segmentation
14 20 (6.15%) ITSM
15 19 (5.85%) CI/CD
15 19 (5.85%) Continuous Improvement
15 19 (5.85%) Root Cause Analysis
15 19 (5.85%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 63 (19.38%) Python
2 13 (4.00%) Bash
3 11 (3.38%) PowerShell
4 9 (2.77%) Lisp
5 8 (2.46%) Perl
6 4 (1.23%) PHP
7 3 (0.92%) SQL
8 2 (0.62%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 151 (46.46%) Cisco Certification
2 142 (43.69%) Security Cleared
3 118 (36.31%) CCNP
4 108 (33.23%) SC Cleared
5 49 (15.08%) CCIE
6 42 (12.92%) DV Cleared
7 29 (8.92%) Degree
8 28 (8.62%) CCNA
9 19 (5.85%) JNCIP
10 18 (5.54%) JNCIS
11 13 (4.00%) JNCIA
12 12 (3.69%) JNCIE
13 11 (3.38%) CISSP
14 10 (3.08%) AWS Certification
15 9 (2.77%) CCDP
16 7 (2.15%) GIAC
17 6 (1.85%) Azure Certification
18 5 (1.54%) CCIE Security
18 5 (1.54%) CompTIA Security+
18 5 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.62%) NIST
2 14 (4.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (3.38%) NCSC
4 10 (3.08%) SLA
5 7 (2.15%) PCI DSS
6 6 (1.85%) GDPR
7 4 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.92%) RMADS
9 2 (0.62%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.62%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.31%) COBIT
10 1 (0.31%) GRC
10 1 (0.31%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.31%) QA
System Software
1 29 (8.92%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (4.31%) VMware NSX
3 10 (3.08%) Active Directory
4 8 (2.46%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (1.85%) Docker
6 3 (0.92%) vSphere
7 2 (0.62%) Firmware
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 (17.85%) Ansible
2 53 (16.31%) FortiGate
3 30 (9.23%) Terraform
4 14 (4.31%) Grafana
5 12 (3.69%) Prometheus
6 7 (2.15%) Kubernetes
7 6 (1.85%) vCenter Server
8 5 (1.54%) Nagios
9 3 (0.92%) SCOM
10 2 (0.62%) CASB
10 2 (0.62%) Cisco Prime
10 2 (0.62%) Iperf
10 2 (0.62%) Nmap
10 2 (0.62%) VxRail
11 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.31%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
11 1 (0.31%) Nessus
11 1 (0.31%) QRadar
11 1 (0.31%) vRealize
Vendors
1 244 (75.08%) Cisco
2 102 (31.38%) F5
3 94 (28.92%) Palo Alto
4 93 (28.62%) Juniper
5 50 (15.38%) CheckPoint
6 49 (15.08%) Fortinet
7 38 (11.69%) Aruba
8 36 (11.08%) SolarWinds
9 34 (10.46%) VMware
10 30 (9.23%) Arista
11 29 (8.92%) Meraki
12 25 (7.69%) Splunk
13 23 (7.08%) Extreme Networks
14 18 (5.54%) Zscaler
15 14 (4.31%) ServiceNow
16 12 (3.69%) Nokia
17 11 (3.38%) Microsoft
17 11 (3.38%) Remedy
18 10 (3.08%) Ekahau
19 7 (2.15%) NVIDIA