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 28 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 297 235 251
Rank change year-on-year -62 +16 +104
Contract jobs citing BGP 369 331 427
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 1.13% 0.99%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.15% 8.85% 7.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 211 257
10th Percentile £340 £325 £313
25th Percentile £400 £419 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £544 £600 £550
90th Percentile £625 £750 £614
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -2.63% +5.56% -9.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 9
10th Percentile £47.22 - £22.30
25th Percentile £56.01 £18.50 £24.25
Median hourly rate £71.33 £19.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +275.42% -49.33% -46.43%
75th Percentile £73.13 £19.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £73.81 - £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.33 £19.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year +275.42% -56.57% -29.44%

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 4,527 3,740 5,616
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.64% 12.74% 12.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,822 2,310 3,363
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.30% -0.26% -5.59%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £464 £475
% change year-on-year +2.43% -2.37% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 218 172 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.82 £20.22 £17.00
Median hourly rate £41.24 £37.50 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.97% -1.32% +100.00%
75th Percentile £68.44 £61.31 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £27.72 £45.88
% change year-on-year +75.76% -39.58% +148.00%

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 28 April 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 28 April 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 28 April 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 -52 323 £465 -7.00% 81
UK excluding London -42 214 £463 -2.63% 74
Work from Home -31 112 £445 -11.00% 32
South East +3 108 £450 -10.00% 26
London -85 100 £475 -5.00% 21
North of England -73 55 £520 +4.00% 19
North West -36 47 £520 -0.95% 9
Midlands -39 47 £413 +26.92% 9
West Midlands -32 44 £413 +37.50% 8
South West -39 21 £513 -2.38% 10
Scotland -4 7 £438 +6.06% 4
Yorkshire -57 6 £538 +53.57% 4
North East -16 4 - - 6
Wales -16 4 £425 -5.56%
East of England -30 4 £500 +17.65% 4
East Midlands -38 2 - - 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 6 (1.63%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.08%) Confluence
3 3 (0.81%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (3.25%) MS Visio
2 8 (2.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 63 (17.07%) AWS
2 59 (15.99%) Azure
3 20 (5.42%) GCP
4 15 (4.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 8 (2.17%) OCI
5 8 (2.17%) Route 53
5 8 (2.17%) SaaS
6 7 (1.90%) AWS Direct Connect
6 7 (1.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 5 (1.36%) Amazon EKS
7 5 (1.36%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 4 (1.08%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.08%) GitHub
8 4 (1.08%) Nutanix
9 3 (0.81%) Amazon S3
9 3 (0.81%) Catchpoint
9 3 (0.81%) IaaS
9 3 (0.81%) PaaS
10 2 (0.54%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (0.54%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 266 (72.09%) OSPF
2 223 (60.43%) Firewall
3 206 (55.83%) WAN
4 147 (39.84%) LAN
5 114 (30.89%) VPN
6 102 (27.64%) Network Security
7 95 (25.75%) VXLAN
8 90 (24.39%) MPLS
9 80 (21.68%) VLAN
10 79 (21.41%) DNS
11 71 (19.24%) Ethernet VPN
12 64 (17.34%) SD-WAN
13 63 (17.07%) Multicast
14 52 (14.09%) IPsec
15 50 (13.55%) TCP/IP
16 46 (12.47%) BIG-IP
17 45 (12.20%) Cisco ASA
17 45 (12.20%) Wireless
18 44 (11.92%) Cisco ISE
19 43 (11.65%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 11 (2.98%) Git
2 9 (2.44%) Sonatype Nexus
3 8 (2.17%) GitLab
4 4 (1.08%) JIRA
5 3 (0.81%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.27%) AppScan
6 1 (0.27%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.27%) Metasploit
General
1 54 (14.63%) Social Skills
2 37 (10.03%) Documentation Skills
3 35 (9.49%) Finance
4 33 (8.94%) Public Sector
5 30 (8.13%) Analytical Skills
6 26 (7.05%) Banking
7 22 (5.96%) Telecoms
8 18 (4.88%) Investment Banking
9 15 (4.07%) Financial Institution
10 14 (3.79%) Manufacturing
11 13 (3.52%) Military
12 6 (1.63%) Retail
13 5 (1.36%) Marketing
14 4 (1.08%) Legal
15 3 (0.81%) French Language
15 3 (0.81%) Police
16 2 (0.54%) Aviation
16 2 (0.54%) Electronics
16 2 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
17 1 (0.27%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 229 (62.06%) Network Engineer
2 57 (15.45%) Senior
3 56 (15.18%) Cisco Engineer
4 53 (14.36%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 45 (12.20%) Security Engineer
6 40 (10.84%) Network Security Engineer
7 39 (10.57%) Senior Network Engineer
8 38 (10.30%) Architect
8 38 (10.30%) Data Network Engineer
9 30 (8.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 29 (7.86%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 28 (7.59%) Data Engineer
12 25 (6.78%) Network Architect
13 23 (6.23%) Network Specialist
14 14 (3.79%) Firewall Specialist
14 14 (3.79%) Juniper Engineer
15 13 (3.52%) Web Engineer
16 11 (2.98%) Data Centre Engineer
16 11 (2.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 11 (2.98%) Operations Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (10.84%) 802.1X
2 9 (2.44%) REST
3 8 (2.17%) NETCONF
3 8 (2.17%) YANG
4 6 (1.63%) LDAP
5 4 (1.08%) Jinja
5 4 (1.08%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.08%) RESTCONF
5 4 (1.08%) VML
6 2 (0.54%) AWS CDK
6 2 (0.54%) CSS
6 2 (0.54%) HTML
6 2 (0.54%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.27%) eBPF
7 1 (0.27%) JSON
7 1 (0.27%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 163 (44.17%) Data Centre
2 40 (10.84%) PKI
3 25 (6.78%) Clustering
4 21 (5.69%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.44%) Cloud Native
6 8 (2.17%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (1.08%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.08%) NHS
9 4 (1.08%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.08%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.08%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.81%) CESG
10 3 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.81%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (0.81%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.81%) SCADA
10 3 (0.81%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 39 (10.57%) Windows
2 17 (4.61%) Linux
3 6 (1.63%) Ubuntu
4 3 (0.81%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.54%) Unix
6 1 (0.27%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.27%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (23.31%) Load Balancing
2 61 (16.53%) High Availability
3 51 (13.82%) Problem-Solving
4 44 (11.92%) Network Design
5 43 (11.65%) Migration
6 36 (9.76%) Infrastructure as Code
7 32 (8.67%) Change Management
7 32 (8.67%) Observability
8 30 (8.13%) ITIL
9 29 (7.86%) Zero Trust
10 27 (7.32%) Network Monitoring
11 26 (7.05%) Identity Access Management
11 26 (7.05%) Project Delivery
12 25 (6.78%) Network Segmentation
13 23 (6.23%) Root Cause Analysis
13 23 (6.23%) Stakeholder Management
13 23 (6.23%) Technical Leadership
14 22 (5.96%) Network Architecture
15 20 (5.42%) Continuous Improvement
15 20 (5.42%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 77 (20.87%) Python
2 4 (1.08%) Bash
2 4 (1.08%) PHP
3 3 (0.81%) Lisp
4 2 (0.54%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.54%) PowerShell
4 2 (0.54%) SQL
5 1 (0.27%) Perl
Qualifications
1 157 (42.55%) Cisco Certification
2 143 (38.75%) Security Cleared
3 117 (31.71%) CCNP
4 107 (29.00%) SC Cleared
5 51 (13.82%) CCIE
6 41 (11.11%) DV Cleared
7 28 (7.59%) CCNA
8 25 (6.78%) Degree
9 18 (4.88%) JNCIS
10 17 (4.61%) JNCIP
11 13 (3.52%) JNCIA
11 13 (3.52%) JNCIE
12 8 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (1.90%) AWS Certification
13 7 (1.90%) GIAC
14 6 (1.63%) Azure Certification
14 6 (1.63%) CISSP
15 5 (1.36%) CCDP
15 5 (1.36%) CompTIA Security+
15 5 (1.36%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.71%) NCSC
1 10 (2.71%) SLA
2 9 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.44%) NIST
3 4 (1.08%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.08%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 3 (0.81%) RMADS
5 2 (0.54%) JSP 440
5 2 (0.54%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.27%) COBIT
6 1 (0.27%) GDPR
6 1 (0.27%) GRC
6 1 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.27%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.27%) QA
System Software
1 26 (7.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (2.98%) VMware NSX
3 8 (2.17%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (1.63%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.81%) vSphere
6 2 (0.54%) Docker
6 2 (0.54%) Firmware
6 2 (0.54%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.54%) vCloud
6 2 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.27%) KVM
7 1 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 80 (21.68%) Ansible
2 52 (14.09%) FortiGate
3 41 (11.11%) Terraform
4 15 (4.07%) Grafana
5 12 (3.25%) Prometheus
6 6 (1.63%) vCenter Server
7 5 (1.36%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.36%) Nagios
8 3 (0.81%) SCOM
9 2 (0.54%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.54%) Iperf
9 2 (0.54%) Nmap
10 1 (0.27%) CASB
10 1 (0.27%) Cilium
10 1 (0.27%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.27%) Nessus
10 1 (0.27%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.27%) QRadar
10 1 (0.27%) vRealize
10 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 279 (75.61%) Cisco
2 126 (34.15%) F5
3 106 (28.73%) Palo Alto
4 91 (24.66%) Juniper
5 64 (17.34%) Fortinet
6 53 (14.36%) CheckPoint
7 47 (12.74%) Arista
8 43 (11.65%) Aruba
9 33 (8.94%) SolarWinds
10 32 (8.67%) VMware
11 28 (7.59%) Splunk
12 26 (7.05%) Extreme Networks
13 22 (5.96%) Meraki
14 18 (4.88%) Zscaler
15 11 (2.98%) Nokia
16 9 (2.44%) Ekahau
16 9 (2.44%) Microsoft
16 9 (2.44%) ServiceNow
17 6 (1.63%) Infoblox
17 6 (1.63%) Remedy