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 24 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 337 206 247
Rank change year-on-year -131 +41 +143
Contract jobs citing BGP 258 394 425
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 1.25% 0.96%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.49% 9.71% 7.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 150 236 217
10th Percentile £285 £375 £325
25th Percentile £400 £429 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% - +5.00%
75th Percentile £525 £650 £600
90th Percentile £589 £800 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £445 £515 £488
% change year-on-year -13.59% +5.64% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 12
10th Percentile £67.45 £22.33 £24.25
25th Percentile £70.01 £28.06 £24.81
Median hourly rate £74.26 £33.75 £37.77
Median % change year-on-year +120.03% -10.64% +43.89%
75th Percentile - £35.75 £68.13
90th Percentile - £37.10 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £19.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year +290.84% -56.82% +87.23%

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 3,974 4,058 6,031
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.46% 12.84% 13.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,606 2,359 3,677
10th Percentile £204 £213 £208
25th Percentile £355 £363 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.91%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £466 £475
% change year-on-year -3.43% -1.89% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 164 139 377
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.05 £16.97
25th Percentile £18.97 £21.46 £23.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -33.96% +155.98%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £32.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +24.74% -42.47% +202.73%

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 24 January 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
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 24 January 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 -118 225 £450 -12.83% 95
UK excluding London -81 155 £445 -13.59% 85
Work from Home -82 86 £443 -29.76% 25
London -71 75 £475 -7.32% 22
South East -26 64 £445 -22.61% 30
West Midlands -16 43 £400 -16.45% 8
Midlands -20 43 £400 -20.00% 14
North of England -89 36 £550 +8.91% 14
North West -54 32 £550 +8.91% 3
Scotland +6 13 £425 +6.25% 3
South West -35 9 £519 +13.39% 13
Yorkshire -63 4 £600 +118.18% 10
North East -10 3 £550 - 3
Wales -6 2 - - 3
East of England -20 1 £300 +9.09% 8

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 18 (6.98%) OpenStack
2 13 (5.04%) SharePoint
3 6 (2.33%) Confluence
Applications
1 16 (6.20%) MS Visio
2 7 (2.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 52 (20.16%) AWS
2 39 (15.12%) Azure
3 14 (5.43%) GCP
4 12 (4.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 7 (2.71%) AWS Direct Connect
5 7 (2.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (2.33%) OpenShift
7 5 (1.94%) Route 53
7 5 (1.94%) SaaS
8 3 (1.16%) Amazon EKS
8 3 (1.16%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 3 (1.16%) Amazon S3
8 3 (1.16%) Catchpoint
8 3 (1.16%) IaaS
8 3 (1.16%) PaaS
9 2 (0.78%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (0.78%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (0.78%) AWS Control Tower
9 2 (0.78%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.78%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 157 (60.85%) OSPF
2 149 (57.75%) Firewall
3 131 (50.78%) WAN
4 94 (36.43%) MPLS
4 94 (36.43%) VPN
5 90 (34.88%) LAN
6 65 (25.19%) IPsec
6 65 (25.19%) Network Security
7 54 (20.93%) VLAN
8 48 (18.60%) Wireless
9 44 (17.05%) SD-WAN
10 41 (15.89%) DNS
10 41 (15.89%) EIGRP
11 39 (15.12%) VXLAN
12 33 (12.79%) Cisco ASA
13 31 (12.02%) Cisco Nexus
14 30 (11.63%) TCP/IP
15 27 (10.47%) Ethernet VPN
16 26 (10.08%) Cisco ISE
17 24 (9.30%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.39%) Redis
1 1 (0.39%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (4.65%) Git
2 7 (2.71%) Sonatype Nexus
3 5 (1.94%) GitLab
4 2 (0.78%) JIRA
5 1 (0.39%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.39%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.39%) Robot Framework
General
1 69 (26.74%) Social Skills
2 35 (13.57%) Public Sector
3 33 (12.79%) Documentation Skills
4 30 (11.63%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (6.59%) Telecoms
6 16 (6.20%) Finance
7 13 (5.04%) Manufacturing
8 12 (4.65%) Banking
9 11 (4.26%) Investment Banking
10 7 (2.71%) Military
11 5 (1.94%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.94%) Legal
11 5 (1.94%) Marketing
12 4 (1.55%) Retail
13 3 (1.16%) Electronics
13 3 (1.16%) French Language
13 3 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.39%) Police
Job Titles
1 142 (55.04%) Network Engineer
2 40 (15.50%) Architect
3 32 (12.40%) Cisco Engineer
4 28 (10.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 23 (8.91%) Network Architect
5 23 (8.91%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 18 (6.98%) Security Engineer
6 18 (6.98%) Senior
7 15 (5.81%) Network Security Engineer
8 14 (5.43%) Support Engineer
9 12 (4.65%) Senior Network Engineer
9 12 (4.65%) WAN Engineer
10 11 (4.26%) Juniper Engineer
11 10 (3.88%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 10 (3.88%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 10 (3.88%) 3rd Line Support
11 10 (3.88%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
11 10 (3.88%) Solutions Architect
12 9 (3.49%) IP Specialist
12 9 (3.49%) Wireless Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (5.04%) YANG
2 12 (4.65%) 802.1X
2 12 (4.65%) NETCONF
3 10 (3.88%) REST
4 4 (1.55%) JSON
4 4 (1.55%) VML
5 3 (1.16%) Jinja
5 3 (1.16%) LDAP
5 3 (1.16%) OpenConfig
5 3 (1.16%) SAML
6 2 (0.78%) AWS CDK
6 2 (0.78%) CSS
6 2 (0.78%) HTML
6 2 (0.78%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.78%) XML
7 1 (0.39%) CrewAI
7 1 (0.39%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.39%) gRPC
7 1 (0.39%) JFC
7 1 (0.39%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 93 (36.05%) Data Centre
2 38 (14.73%) PKI
3 20 (7.75%) Hybrid Cloud
4 11 (4.26%) Cloud Native
5 8 (3.10%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (1.94%) NHS
9 4 (1.55%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.55%) Operational Technology
10 3 (1.16%) CESG
10 3 (1.16%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (1.16%) Public Cloud
10 3 (1.16%) SCADA
11 2 (0.78%) Algorithms
11 2 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
11 2 (0.78%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.78%) Private Cloud
11 2 (0.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.59%) Linux
2 12 (4.65%) Windows
3 8 (3.10%) Windows Server
4 6 (2.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (1.55%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (17.44%) Network Design
2 38 (14.73%) Load Balancing
3 35 (13.57%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (10.08%) Migration
5 24 (9.30%) Network Monitoring
6 23 (8.91%) Cybersecurity
6 23 (8.91%) Network Segmentation
7 22 (8.53%) Roadmaps
8 21 (8.14%) Project Delivery
9 20 (7.75%) Network Virtualisation
9 20 (7.75%) Zero Trust
10 19 (7.36%) Network Architecture
10 19 (7.36%) Strategic Thinking
11 18 (6.98%) DevOps
11 18 (6.98%) High Availability
11 18 (6.98%) Stakeholder Management
11 18 (6.98%) TOGAF
12 17 (6.59%) Security Architecture
13 16 (6.20%) Performance Tuning
14 15 (5.81%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 71 (27.52%) Python
2 19 (7.36%) Bash
3 15 (5.81%) Perl
4 10 (3.88%) PowerShell
5 8 (3.10%) Lisp
6 5 (1.94%) C++
7 2 (0.78%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.39%) Go
8 1 (0.39%) PHP
8 1 (0.39%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.39%) SQL
Qualifications
1 129 (50.00%) Cisco Certification
2 112 (43.41%) Security Cleared
3 107 (41.47%) CCNP
4 93 (36.05%) SC Cleared
5 52 (20.16%) CCIE
6 23 (8.91%) Degree
6 23 (8.91%) JNCIE
7 22 (8.53%) DV Cleared
8 21 (8.14%) CCNA
9 15 (5.81%) JNCIS
10 13 (5.04%) AWS Certification
11 10 (3.88%) CCDP
11 10 (3.88%) JNCIA
11 10 (3.88%) JNCIP
12 9 (3.49%) CISSP
13 5 (1.94%) CCIE Security
13 5 (1.94%) CCSE
14 4 (1.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (1.55%) Azure Certification
14 4 (1.55%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.26%) NIST
2 10 (3.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (2.71%) SLA
4 6 (2.33%) GDPR
4 6 (2.33%) PCI DSS
5 4 (1.55%) NCSC
6 3 (1.16%) RMADS
7 2 (0.78%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.39%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.39%) SOC 2
System Software
1 24 (9.30%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (8.14%) VMware NSX
3 9 (3.49%) Docker
4 7 (2.71%) Active Directory
5 6 (2.33%) Firmware
6 3 (1.16%) KVM
6 3 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.16%) vSphere
7 2 (0.78%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.78%) vCloud
8 1 (0.39%) Squid
Systems Management
1 59 (22.87%) Ansible
2 31 (12.02%) Terraform
3 29 (11.24%) FortiGate
4 7 (2.71%) Kubernetes
5 4 (1.55%) Grafana
5 4 (1.55%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.16%) Iperf
6 3 (1.16%) Nagios
6 3 (1.16%) Nmap
6 3 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.16%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.39%) CASB
7 1 (0.39%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.39%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.39%) SCOM
7 1 (0.39%) vRealize
7 1 (0.39%) VxRail
Vendors
1 178 (68.99%) Cisco
2 76 (29.46%) Juniper
3 75 (29.07%) Palo Alto
4 55 (21.32%) F5
5 45 (17.44%) Fortinet
6 39 (15.12%) CheckPoint
7 30 (11.63%) Aruba
7 30 (11.63%) Meraki
8 28 (10.85%) VMware
9 18 (6.98%) Arista
9 18 (6.98%) SolarWinds
10 16 (6.20%) Zscaler
11 13 (5.04%) Remedy
11 13 (5.04%) ServiceNow
12 11 (4.26%) Nokia
13 10 (3.88%) Ekahau
14 7 (2.71%) Microsoft
15 6 (2.33%) Red Hat
16 5 (1.94%) Dell
16 5 (1.94%) Splunk