Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring OSPF skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 470 560
Rank change year-on-year -117 +90 -47
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 174 221 327
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.45% 0.33%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.38% 3.09% 2.70%
Number of salaries quoted 134 155 244
10th Percentile £47,750 £32,780 £37,500
25th Percentile £61,761 £42,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £55,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year +31.82% +3.77% -3.64%
75th Percentile £82,500 £72,500 £67,813
90th Percentile £91,175 £85,000 £86,313
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +33.33% +5.00% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

OSPF falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 7,304 7,159 12,103
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.35% 14.60% 12.38%
Number of salaries quoted 4,699 4,133 8,406
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,087 £26,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £30,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £43,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.47% -9.47% -7.77%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £86,250 £82,500 £78,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £38,500 £44,500
% change year-on-year +10.39% -13.48% -1.11%

OSPF
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing OSPF relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

OSPF job vacancy trend in the UK

OSPF
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing OSPF.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing OSPF

OSPF
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing OSPF over the 6 months to 18 July 2026.

Salary histogram for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing OSPF within the UK over the 6 months to 18 July 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -120 166 £75,000 +37.61% 44
London -32 88 £78,000 +20.00% 14
UK excluding London -115 76 £70,000 +33.33% 33
Work from Home -13 47 £78,000 +20.00% 9
North of England -50 25 £70,000 +16.67% 7
Midlands -15 23 £75,000 +114.29% 6
West Midlands -6 21 £75,000 +114.29% 6
South East -58 20 £52,500 +0.96% 7
North West +6 13 £70,000 +16.67% 4
Yorkshire -44 7 £72,788 -2.95% 3
Scotland +10 5 £50,500 -25.19%
North East - 5 £65,576 -
South West -66 3 £55,000 - 5
East Midlands - 2 £53,750 -

OSPF
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 2 (1.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 14 (8.05%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 62 (35.63%) Azure
2 46 (26.44%) AWS
3 18 (10.34%) OpenShift
4 9 (5.17%) GCP
5 8 (4.60%) Datadog
5 8 (4.60%) SaaS
5 8 (4.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (3.45%) AWS Direct Connect
7 5 (2.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 4 (2.30%) ChatGPT
8 4 (2.30%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (1.72%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.15%) Nutanix
10 2 (1.15%) Route 53
11 1 (0.57%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.57%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 172 (98.85%) BGP
2 139 (79.89%) Firewall
3 115 (66.09%) VPN
4 110 (63.22%) WAN
5 87 (50.00%) LAN
6 85 (48.85%) Network Security
7 60 (34.48%) SD-WAN
8 58 (33.33%) VLAN
9 49 (28.16%) Wireless
10 47 (27.01%) EIGRP
11 42 (24.14%) Wi-Fi
12 41 (23.56%) TCP/IP
13 40 (22.99%) VXLAN
14 38 (21.84%) MPLS
15 36 (20.69%) Cisco ASA
15 36 (20.69%) Cisco ISE
16 35 (20.11%) DNS
17 29 (16.67%) Cisco Nexus
18 25 (14.37%) Cisco Firepower
19 22 (12.64%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.72%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 1 (0.57%) GitLab
1 1 (0.57%) JIRA
1 1 (0.57%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 62 (35.63%) Social Skills
2 30 (17.24%) Finance
3 20 (11.49%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (9.77%) Telecoms
5 13 (7.47%) Law
6 7 (4.02%) Banking
6 7 (4.02%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (4.02%) Public Sector
6 7 (4.02%) Retail Banking
7 4 (2.30%) Marketing
7 4 (2.30%) Retail
8 2 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.15%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.57%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 126 (72.41%) Network Engineer
2 67 (38.51%) Senior
3 46 (26.44%) Senior Network Engineer
4 23 (13.22%) Network Specialist
5 17 (9.77%) Network Security Specialist
5 17 (9.77%) Security Specialist
6 14 (8.05%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
6 14 (8.05%) Senior Network Specialist
7 13 (7.47%) Senior Network Security Specialist
7 13 (7.47%) Senior Security Specialist
8 11 (6.32%) Cisco Engineer
8 11 (6.32%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 9 (5.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.60%) Consultant
10 8 (4.60%) Network Consultant
11 6 (3.45%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
11 6 (3.45%) Network Security Engineer
11 6 (3.45%) Security Engineer
12 5 (2.87%) Firewall Engineer
12 5 (2.87%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (9.77%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.02%) gRPC
3 3 (1.72%) ARM Templates
3 3 (1.72%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.57%) LDAP
4 1 (0.57%) REST
4 1 (0.57%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 83 (47.70%) Data Centre
2 11 (6.32%) PKI
2 11 (6.32%) Security Posture
3 7 (4.02%) Onboarding
4 6 (3.45%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (2.87%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 4 (2.30%) Driving Licence
6 4 (2.30%) Management Information System
7 3 (1.72%) Life Science
8 2 (1.15%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.15%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.57%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.57%) IPTV
9 1 (0.57%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 16 (9.20%) Linux
2 5 (2.87%) Windows
3 1 (0.57%) Unix
3 1 (0.57%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (24.71%) Problem-Solving
2 39 (22.41%) Network Monitoring
3 31 (17.82%) Load Balancing
4 30 (17.24%) Zero Trust
5 29 (16.67%) Infrastructure as Code
5 29 (16.67%) Roadmaps
6 25 (14.37%) Network Segmentation
7 24 (13.79%) Network Design
7 24 (13.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 22 (12.64%) High Availability
8 22 (12.64%) Project Delivery
9 21 (12.07%) ITIL
10 19 (10.92%) Computer Science
10 19 (10.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 19 (10.92%) Kalman Filter
10 19 (10.92%) Mentoring
11 18 (10.34%) Analytics
12 17 (9.77%) AI
12 17 (9.77%) Containerisation
12 17 (9.77%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 40 (22.99%) Python
2 7 (4.02%) Bash
3 6 (3.45%) Bicep
4 3 (1.72%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.57%) C
Qualifications
1 97 (55.75%) Cisco Certification
2 89 (51.15%) CCNP
3 24 (13.79%) CCIE
3 24 (13.79%) CCNA
4 21 (12.07%) Degree
5 19 (10.92%) Security Cleared
6 16 (9.20%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (6.90%) DV Cleared
8 11 (6.32%) CISSP
9 9 (5.17%) SC Cleared
10 4 (2.30%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.30%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (2.30%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (1.15%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.15%) CCSA
11 2 (1.15%) CCSE
11 2 (1.15%) JNCIP
12 1 (0.57%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.57%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.32%) SLA
2 8 (4.60%) PMO
3 5 (2.87%) NIST
3 5 (2.87%) PCI DSS
3 5 (2.87%) QA
4 1 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 8 (4.60%) ProxySG
2 7 (4.02%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.72%) Docker
3 3 (1.72%) Firmware
3 3 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.15%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (17.82%) FortiGate
2 26 (14.94%) Ansible
3 18 (10.34%) Kubernetes
4 17 (9.77%) Terraform
5 9 (5.17%) Nagios
6 8 (4.60%) Check_MK
7 7 (4.02%) Grafana
8 6 (3.45%) Prometheus
9 3 (1.72%) ZABBIX
10 2 (1.15%) Cisco Prime
11 1 (0.57%) CASB
11 1 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 119 (68.39%) Cisco
2 68 (39.08%) Palo Alto
3 53 (30.46%) Fortinet
4 41 (23.56%) SolarWinds
5 26 (14.94%) F5
6 23 (13.22%) Arista
7 22 (12.64%) CheckPoint
7 22 (12.64%) Meraki
8 17 (9.77%) Juniper
8 17 (9.77%) Zscaler
9 13 (7.47%) Aruba
9 13 (7.47%) Infoblox
10 12 (6.90%) Microsoft
10 12 (6.90%) ServiceNow
11 9 (5.17%) VMware
12 8 (4.60%) Blue Coat
12 8 (4.60%) Motorola
13 6 (3.45%) Dynatrace
13 6 (3.45%) Mellanox
13 6 (3.45%) NVIDIA