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 3 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 283 264
Rank change year-on-year -17 -19 +9
Contract jobs citing BGP 444 302 342
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.83% 0.93% 0.89%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.74% 7.90% 7.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 198 206
10th Percentile £375 £308 £322
25th Percentile £424 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £481
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -1.30% -3.75%
75th Percentile £588 £609 £550
90th Percentile £688 £667 £649
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 2
10th Percentile £48.55 £37.38 £23.15
25th Percentile £49.00 £39.06 £30.13
Median hourly rate £58.25 £48.75 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.49% +16.07% -30.00%
75th Percentile £73.75 £60.88 £53.63
90th Percentile £85.02 £64.70 £60.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.25 £66.50 £19.00
% change year-on-year -12.41% +250.00% -68.85%

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 5,080 3,822 4,575
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 11.76% 11.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,005 2,349 2,716
10th Percentile £235 £238 £230
25th Percentile £399 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +2.31% -6.16% +10.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 376 201 286
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.69
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £50.25
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% -10.45% -8.64%
75th Percentile £65.22 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.92 £42.50 £56.87
% change year-on-year -39.01% -25.27% +0.67%

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 3 September 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 3 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BGP in the UK

BGP
Top 16 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 3 September 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 -23 408 £510 +7.37% 240
UK excluding London -24 249 £500 +5.26% 97
London -53 137 £500 +5.26% 161
Work from Home -18 113 £500 - 66
North of England +20 106 £500 +5.26% 17
South East -25 79 £525 +5.00% 31
North West +5 77 £488 +2.63% 6
Midlands -41 45 £447 +11.63% 13
West Midlands -43 42 £468 +17.00% 10
South West -35 33 £525 -16.67% 8
Yorkshire -20 22 £495 +23.75% 10
North East -30 13 £650 +160.00% 1
Scotland -25 9 £375 -11.76% 8
East of England -22 7 £475 -32.14% 17
East Midlands -18 2 - - 3
Wales -16 1 £425 -2.86% 1

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 (2.70%) OpenStack
2 8 (1.80%) SAS
3 4 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.45%) Confluence
5 1 (0.23%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.03%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.68%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 111 (25.00%) Azure
2 85 (19.14%) AWS
3 23 (5.18%) GCP
3 23 (5.18%) OCI
4 21 (4.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 17 (3.83%) GitHub
6 13 (2.93%) SaaS
7 10 (2.25%) AWS Direct Connect
7 10 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
8 8 (1.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 7 (1.58%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (1.58%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (1.58%) OpenShift
10 5 (1.13%) Nutanix
11 3 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (0.68%) Entra ID
12 2 (0.45%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 2 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
13 1 (0.23%) Amazon EKS
13 1 (0.23%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 258 (58.11%) OSPF
2 251 (56.53%) Firewall
3 214 (48.20%) WAN
4 133 (29.95%) VPN
5 126 (28.38%) VLAN
6 124 (27.93%) LAN
7 111 (25.00%) VXLAN
8 105 (23.65%) MPLS
9 100 (22.52%) Network Security
10 89 (20.05%) DNS
11 88 (19.82%) SD-WAN
12 79 (17.79%) Ethernet VPN
13 71 (15.99%) Wireless
14 67 (15.09%) IPsec
14 67 (15.09%) TCP/IP
15 64 (14.41%) Wi-Fi
16 62 (13.96%) Multicast
17 54 (12.16%) Cisco Nexus
17 54 (12.16%) EIGRP
17 54 (12.16%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Development Applications
1 28 (6.31%) GitLab
2 18 (4.05%) Git
3 7 (1.58%) JIRA
3 7 (1.58%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
General
1 75 (16.89%) Social Skills
2 48 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (10.14%) Finance
4 30 (6.76%) Public Sector
4 30 (6.76%) Telecoms
5 28 (6.31%) Banking
6 18 (4.05%) Investment Banking
7 16 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.80%) Legal
8 8 (1.80%) Police
8 8 (1.80%) Retail
9 6 (1.35%) Military
10 5 (1.13%) Financial Institution
11 4 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.68%) German Language
12 3 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.68%) Italian Language
12 3 (0.68%) Spanish Language
13 2 (0.45%) Law
13 2 (0.45%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 264 (59.46%) Network Engineer
2 99 (22.30%) Senior
3 64 (14.41%) Senior Network Engineer
4 60 (13.51%) Cisco Engineer
5 57 (12.84%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 47 (10.59%) Architect
7 38 (8.56%) Data Network Engineer
7 38 (8.56%) Network Security Engineer
7 38 (8.56%) Security Engineer
8 35 (7.88%) Network Architect
9 33 (7.43%) Consultant
10 28 (6.31%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 27 (6.08%) Data Engineer
12 23 (5.18%) Network Consultant
13 20 (4.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 20 (4.50%) Network Specialist
14 18 (4.05%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 17 (3.83%) Developer
16 14 (3.15%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 13 (2.93%) Web Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (15.77%) Terraform
2 23 (5.18%) 802.1X
3 22 (4.95%) REST
4 12 (2.70%) NETCONF
5 10 (2.25%) YAML
5 10 (2.25%) YANG
6 8 (1.80%) JSON
7 6 (1.35%) RESTCONF
8 5 (1.13%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.90%) CSS
10 3 (0.68%) eBPF
10 3 (0.68%) SAML
11 2 (0.45%) gRPC
11 2 (0.45%) Spine.js
12 1 (0.23%) Django
12 1 (0.23%) Jinja
12 1 (0.23%) LDAP
12 1 (0.23%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 180 (40.54%) Data Centre
2 49 (11.04%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (6.31%) Cloud Native
4 18 (4.05%) PKI
5 11 (2.48%) Private Cloud
6 10 (2.25%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 9 (2.03%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (1.80%) Clustering
8 8 (1.80%) Operational Technology
8 8 (1.80%) Public Cloud
8 8 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (1.58%) Digital Signage
9 7 (1.58%) Onboarding
10 6 (1.35%) Security Posture
11 5 (1.13%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (0.90%) CMDB
12 4 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
13 3 (0.68%) Distributed Applications
13 3 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
13 3 (0.68%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 31 (6.98%) Windows
2 21 (4.73%) Linux
3 4 (0.90%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.68%) Unix
4 3 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.23%) VMS
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (21.40%) Load Balancing
2 83 (18.69%) High Availability
3 78 (17.57%) Migration
4 74 (16.67%) Network Design
5 70 (15.77%) Infrastructure as Code
5 70 (15.77%) Zero Trust
6 48 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
7 47 (10.59%) ITIL
8 46 (10.36%) Project Delivery
8 46 (10.36%) Validation
9 44 (9.91%) Network Architecture
10 41 (9.23%) CI/CD
11 35 (7.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 35 (7.88%) Network Segmentation
12 32 (7.21%) DevOps
13 31 (6.98%) Technical Leadership
14 29 (6.53%) Mentoring
14 29 (6.53%) Stakeholder Management
15 28 (6.31%) Change Control
16 26 (5.86%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 127 (28.60%) Python
2 11 (2.48%) Bash
3 6 (1.35%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.35%) SQL
4 3 (0.68%) Shell Script
5 2 (0.45%) Go
5 2 (0.45%) Perl
6 1 (0.23%) C++
6 1 (0.23%) Java
Qualifications
1 139 (31.31%) Security Cleared
2 125 (28.15%) Cisco Certification
3 92 (20.72%) CCNP
4 85 (19.14%) SC Cleared
5 50 (11.26%) CCIE
6 48 (10.81%) DV Cleared
7 23 (5.18%) CCNA
8 20 (4.50%) Degree
9 14 (3.15%) JNCIE
10 8 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.58%) Azure Certification
12 5 (1.13%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.90%) CCIE Security
13 4 (0.90%) CISSP
13 4 (0.90%) PMP
13 4 (0.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 3 (0.68%) VCDX
15 2 (0.45%) CWNA
15 2 (0.45%) PMI Certification
15 2 (0.45%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (0.90%) NCSC
1 4 (0.90%) NIST
2 3 (0.68%) GDPR
2 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (0.68%) QA
3 2 (0.45%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
System Software
1 30 (6.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (3.38%) VMware NSX
3 8 (1.80%) Active Directory
4 7 (1.58%) Firmware
4 7 (1.58%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.13%) Docker
6 4 (0.90%) vSphere
7 3 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.23%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 122 (27.48%) Ansible
2 42 (9.46%) FortiGate
3 20 (4.50%) Kubernetes
4 12 (2.70%) Grafana
4 12 (2.70%) Prometheus
5 10 (2.25%) Cisco Prime
6 6 (1.35%) Cilium
7 4 (0.90%) Istio
7 4 (0.90%) Nagios
8 2 (0.45%) Puppet
8 2 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.23%) CASB
9 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.23%) OPNET
9 1 (0.23%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.23%) QRadar
9 1 (0.23%) Rancher
9 1 (0.23%) Suricata
Vendors
1 312 (70.27%) Cisco
2 141 (31.76%) F5
3 131 (29.50%) Palo Alto
4 101 (22.75%) Fortinet
5 80 (18.02%) Arista
6 61 (13.74%) Juniper
7 43 (9.68%) Aruba
7 43 (9.68%) VMware
8 42 (9.46%) CheckPoint
9 30 (6.76%) Microsoft
10 28 (6.31%) SolarWinds
11 17 (3.83%) Meraki
11 17 (3.83%) ServiceNow
12 16 (3.60%) Zscaler
13 14 (3.15%) Splunk
14 9 (2.03%) Extreme Networks
14 9 (2.03%) Red Hat
15 8 (1.80%) Google
16 7 (1.58%) Citrix
16 7 (1.58%) Dell