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 12 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 297 227 277
Rank change year-on-year -70 +50 +46
Contract jobs citing BGP 416 350 372
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.83% 1.19% 0.85%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.70% 9.51% 6.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 241 216 233
10th Percentile £335 £344 £317
25th Percentile £400 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £556 £613 £538
90th Percentile £627 £700 £610
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £490 £463
% change year-on-year +1.02% +5.83% -4.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 4
10th Percentile £47.22 £37.00 £19.93
25th Percentile £56.01 £38.13 £22.06
Median hourly rate £71.33 £40.00 £39.25
Median % change year-on-year +78.33% +1.91% -43.93%
75th Percentile £73.13 £49.38 £57.50
90th Percentile £73.81 £55.00 £62.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.33 - £19.00
% change year-on-year - - -69.35%

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 4,779 3,681 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.56% 12.51% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,266 3,221
10th Percentile £263 £220 £208
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £482 £495
Median % change year-on-year +3.73% -2.63% -3.41%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £469 £481
% change year-on-year +2.27% -2.47% +1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 287 165 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.00% +113.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.61 £71.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +2.23% -33.07% +156.76%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -45 372 £493 -1.50% 52
UK excluding London -22 241 £495 +1.02% 50
Work from Home -51 127 £450 -14.29% 31
London -78 115 £450 -10.00% 21
South East 0 101 £473 +5.00% 19
North of England -46 83 £571 +15.40% 10
North West -19 64 £575 +15.00% 5
Midlands -39 52 £413 +17.86% 4
West Midlands -33 49 £413 +26.92% 3
South West -36 26 £531 -15.00% 3
North East -22 13 £650 +160.00% 2
Yorkshire -42 12 £475 +35.71% 3
Scotland -10 8 £434 +5.15% 7
Wales -20 4 £425 -5.56%
East of England -22 4 £500 +25.00% 2
East Midlands -24 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 8 (1.92%) OpenStack
2 4 (0.96%) Confluence
3 3 (0.72%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.16%) MS Visio
2 5 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.72%) AutoCAD
4 3 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 87 (20.91%) Azure
2 81 (19.47%) AWS
3 26 (6.25%) GCP
4 22 (5.29%) OCI
5 17 (4.09%) SaaS
6 15 (3.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 11 (2.64%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 9 (2.16%) Azure Sentinel
9 8 (1.92%) Route 53
10 7 (1.68%) AWS Direct Connect
11 5 (1.20%) Amazon EKS
11 5 (1.20%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 5 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (1.20%) Nutanix
12 4 (0.96%) GitHub
13 3 (0.72%) Amazon S3
13 3 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (0.72%) Catchpoint
13 3 (0.72%) IaaS
13 3 (0.72%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 278 (66.83%) OSPF
2 241 (57.93%) Firewall
3 240 (57.69%) WAN
4 147 (35.34%) LAN
5 117 (28.13%) VXLAN
6 110 (26.44%) VPN
7 101 (24.28%) Network Security
8 100 (24.04%) MPLS
9 95 (22.84%) VLAN
10 89 (21.39%) Ethernet VPN
11 87 (20.91%) SD-WAN
12 84 (20.19%) DNS
13 70 (16.83%) Multicast
14 61 (14.66%) BIG-IP
15 56 (13.46%) IPsec
16 54 (12.98%) TCP/IP
17 45 (10.82%) Wireless
18 43 (10.34%) Cisco Nexus
18 43 (10.34%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 42 (10.10%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 21 (5.05%) GitLab
2 10 (2.40%) Git
3 8 (1.92%) Sonatype Nexus
4 7 (1.68%) JIRA
5 3 (0.72%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.24%) AppScan
6 1 (0.24%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.24%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.24%) Metasploit
General
1 54 (12.98%) Social Skills
2 40 (9.62%) Finance
3 34 (8.17%) Analytical Skills
3 34 (8.17%) Public Sector
4 29 (6.97%) Banking
5 25 (6.01%) Documentation Skills
6 24 (5.77%) Telecoms
7 21 (5.05%) Investment Banking
8 13 (3.13%) Financial Institution
9 12 (2.88%) Military
10 8 (1.92%) Legal
10 8 (1.92%) Manufacturing
11 4 (0.96%) Police
12 3 (0.72%) French Language
12 3 (0.72%) German Language
12 3 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.72%) Italian Language
12 3 (0.72%) Marketing
12 3 (0.72%) Retail
12 3 (0.72%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 232 (55.77%) Network Engineer
2 81 (19.47%) Senior
3 64 (15.38%) Cisco Engineer
4 59 (14.18%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 47 (11.30%) Security Engineer
6 45 (10.82%) Senior Network Engineer
7 44 (10.58%) Data Network Engineer
8 42 (10.10%) Network Security Engineer
9 40 (9.62%) Architect
10 34 (8.17%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 33 (7.93%) Data Engineer
12 27 (6.49%) Network Architect
13 24 (5.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 24 (5.77%) Network Specialist
13 24 (5.77%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 18 (4.33%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 15 (3.61%) Operations Engineer
15 15 (3.61%) Web Engineer
16 14 (3.37%) Firewall Specialist
17 12 (2.88%) Data Centre Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (10.34%) 802.1X
2 14 (3.37%) REST
3 8 (1.92%) NETCONF
3 8 (1.92%) YANG
4 7 (1.68%) LDAP
5 6 (1.44%) CSS
6 4 (0.96%) Jinja
7 2 (0.48%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.48%) HTML
7 2 (0.48%) OpenConfig
7 2 (0.48%) RESTCONF
7 2 (0.48%) RFC 2544
8 1 (0.24%) eBPF
8 1 (0.24%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 186 (44.71%) Data Centre
2 41 (9.86%) PKI
3 36 (8.65%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (6.25%) Clustering
5 20 (4.81%) Cloud Native
6 8 (1.92%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.44%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 5 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (1.20%) Linux Command Line
8 5 (1.20%) Security Posture
9 4 (0.96%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.96%) Operational Technology
9 4 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (0.72%) CESG
10 3 (0.72%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.72%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.72%) SCADA
10 3 (0.72%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.48%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 44 (10.58%) Windows
2 19 (4.57%) Linux
3 6 (1.44%) Ubuntu
4 3 (0.72%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.48%) Unix
6 1 (0.24%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.24%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (25.48%) Load Balancing
2 75 (18.03%) High Availability
3 61 (14.66%) Network Design
4 60 (14.42%) Infrastructure as Code
5 56 (13.46%) Migration
6 55 (13.22%) Zero Trust
7 49 (11.78%) Problem-Solving
8 40 (9.62%) Network Architecture
9 38 (9.13%) CI/CD
10 33 (7.93%) DevOps
10 33 (7.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 32 (7.69%) ITIL
11 32 (7.69%) Observability
12 31 (7.45%) Change Management
13 29 (6.97%) Project Delivery
13 29 (6.97%) Technical Leadership
14 27 (6.49%) Network Segmentation
15 26 (6.25%) Continuous Improvement
15 26 (6.25%) Identity Access Management
15 26 (6.25%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 98 (23.56%) Python
2 7 (1.68%) Bash
3 6 (1.44%) SQL
4 4 (0.96%) PHP
5 3 (0.72%) PowerShell
6 2 (0.48%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.48%) Perl
7 1 (0.24%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 154 (37.02%) Cisco Certification
2 143 (34.38%) Security Cleared
3 111 (26.68%) CCNP
4 105 (25.24%) SC Cleared
5 52 (12.50%) CCIE
6 42 (10.10%) DV Cleared
7 26 (6.25%) Degree
8 23 (5.53%) CCNA
9 14 (3.37%) JNCIP
10 13 (3.13%) JNCIE
11 12 (2.88%) JNCIS
12 11 (2.64%) JNCIA
13 9 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (1.92%) AWS Certification
15 7 (1.68%) Azure Certification
16 6 (1.44%) GIAC
17 5 (1.20%) CCDP
17 5 (1.20%) CompTIA Security+
18 4 (0.96%) CISSP
18 4 (0.96%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.88%) NIST
2 10 (2.40%) NCSC
3 9 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.68%) SLA
5 4 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 4 (0.96%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.72%) GDPR
6 3 (0.72%) QA
6 3 (0.72%) RMADS
7 2 (0.48%) JSP 440
7 2 (0.48%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.24%) COBIT
8 1 (0.24%) GRC
8 1 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 29 (6.97%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (2.64%) VMware NSX
3 8 (1.92%) VMware ESXi
4 7 (1.68%) Firmware
5 6 (1.44%) Active Directory
6 5 (1.20%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.96%) vSphere
8 2 (0.48%) Docker
8 2 (0.48%) vCloud
8 2 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.24%) KVM
9 1 (0.24%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 104 (25.00%) Ansible
2 63 (15.14%) Terraform
3 51 (12.26%) FortiGate
4 19 (4.57%) Grafana
5 16 (3.85%) Prometheus
6 7 (1.68%) Kubernetes
7 6 (1.44%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.72%) Cisco Prime
8 3 (0.72%) SCOM
9 2 (0.48%) CASB
9 2 (0.48%) Iperf
9 2 (0.48%) Nagios
9 2 (0.48%) Nmap
9 2 (0.48%) QRadar
10 1 (0.24%) Cilium
10 1 (0.24%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.24%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.24%) vRealize
10 1 (0.24%) VxRail
Vendors
1 282 (67.79%) Cisco
2 145 (34.86%) F5
3 114 (27.40%) Palo Alto
4 82 (19.71%) Juniper
5 74 (17.79%) Fortinet
6 73 (17.55%) Arista
7 46 (11.06%) Aruba
8 40 (9.62%) CheckPoint
9 35 (8.41%) VMware
10 32 (7.69%) SolarWinds
11 30 (7.21%) Splunk
12 26 (6.25%) Extreme Networks
13 20 (4.81%) Zscaler
14 13 (3.13%) Microsoft
15 12 (2.88%) Meraki
16 9 (2.16%) ServiceNow
17 7 (1.68%) Ekahau
17 7 (1.68%) Nokia
18 6 (1.44%) Google
19 5 (1.20%) HP