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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 617 523 453
Rank change year-on-year -94 -70 -27
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 189 153 365
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.31% 0.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.45% 2.12% 3.85%
Number of salaries quoted 138 96 202
10th Percentile £47,750 £42,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £57,813 £49,250 £41,263
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £58,750 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +27.66% +6.82% -
75th Percentile £85,938 £75,313 £68,438
90th Percentile £93,250 £87,500 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £67,788 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +27.90% +6.00% -4.76%

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 7,719 7,218 9,476
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 6.70% 14.60% 12.13%
Number of salaries quoted 4,874 4,025 4,917
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,087 £29,318
25th Percentile £33,750 £29,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,445 £40,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.11% -20.00% -0.99%
75th Percentile £70,000 £61,250 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £81,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £35,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +28.57% -26.32% +5.56%

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 September 2026.

Salary histogram for OSPF in the UK

OSPF
Top 15 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 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -63 181 £75,000 +25.00% 195
UK excluding London -81 109 £67,788 +27.90% 97
London -70 77 £82,500 +26.92% 105
Work from Home -13 56 £78,000 +20.00% 63
Midlands -8 41 £75,000 +22.70% 15
West Midlands -10 38 £75,000 +15.38% 13
North of England -56 25 £70,000 +16.67% 19
South East -37 22 £52,500 +1.94% 20
North West -5 17 £70,000 +19.15% 15
South West -84 10 £55,000 +3.77% 9
Scotland +4 7 £50,500 - 10
Yorkshire -46 7 £72,788 -14.37% 3
East of England -27 5 £60,000 -7.69% 24
East Midlands -40 3 £55,000 -3.92% 2
North East - 1 £65,576 - 1

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 (1.06%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (2.12%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.53%) FLEXCUBE
Cloud Services
1 55 (29.10%) Azure
2 40 (21.16%) AWS
3 19 (10.05%) OpenShift
4 9 (4.76%) GCP
5 5 (2.65%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.65%) Datadog
5 5 (2.65%) SaaS
6 4 (2.12%) ChatGPT
6 4 (2.12%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (1.59%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.06%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.06%) Route 53
8 2 (1.06%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 1 (0.53%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.53%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 175 (92.59%) BGP
2 132 (69.84%) Firewall
3 120 (63.49%) VPN
4 114 (60.32%) WAN
5 99 (52.38%) LAN
6 86 (45.50%) Network Security
7 71 (37.57%) VLAN
8 54 (28.57%) TCP/IP
9 48 (25.40%) DNS
10 47 (24.87%) SD-WAN
11 46 (24.34%) Wireless
12 45 (23.81%) EIGRP
13 41 (21.69%) VXLAN
14 40 (21.16%) Wi-Fi
15 31 (16.40%) MPLS
16 25 (13.23%) Cisco ASA
16 25 (13.23%) Cisco Nexus
16 25 (13.23%) Ethernet VPN
17 24 (12.70%) Cisco ISE
18 22 (11.64%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.59%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 8 (4.23%) Sonatype Nexus
2 5 (2.65%) Git
3 3 (1.59%) GitLab
4 2 (1.06%) Robot Framework
4 2 (1.06%) Selenium
5 1 (0.53%) JIRA
General
1 63 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 34 (17.99%) Finance
3 27 (14.29%) Telecoms
4 17 (8.99%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (6.35%) Banking
5 12 (6.35%) Law
5 12 (6.35%) Public Sector
6 10 (5.29%) Marketing
6 10 (5.29%) Retail
7 9 (4.76%) Manufacturing
8 8 (4.23%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (2.65%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.06%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.53%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 129 (68.25%) Network Engineer
2 59 (31.22%) Senior
3 38 (20.11%) Senior Network Engineer
4 25 (13.23%) Network Specialist
5 18 (9.52%) Network Security Specialist
5 18 (9.52%) Security Specialist
6 14 (7.41%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
6 14 (7.41%) Senior Network Specialist
7 13 (6.88%) Senior Network Security Specialist
7 13 (6.88%) Senior Security Specialist
8 12 (6.35%) Cisco Engineer
8 12 (6.35%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 10 (5.29%) Principal Engineer
10 9 (4.76%) Principal Systems Engineer
11 8 (4.23%) Automation Engineer
12 7 (3.70%) Control Systems Engineer
12 7 (3.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 6 (3.17%) Data Centre Engineer
13 6 (3.17%) Network Security Engineer
13 6 (3.17%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (14.81%) Terraform
2 13 (6.88%) 802.1X
3 7 (3.70%) gRPC
4 4 (2.12%) YAML
5 3 (1.59%) ARM Templates
5 3 (1.59%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.53%) Jinja
6 1 (0.53%) LDAP
6 1 (0.53%) REST
6 1 (0.53%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 75 (39.68%) Data Centre
2 10 (5.29%) Security Posture
3 7 (3.70%) Hybrid Cloud
3 7 (3.70%) Onboarding
3 7 (3.70%) SCADA
4 6 (3.17%) PKI
5 4 (2.12%) CMDB
5 4 (2.12%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 4 (2.12%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.59%) Cyber Security Posture
6 3 (1.59%) Life Science
7 2 (1.06%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.06%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.06%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.53%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.53%) IPTV
8 1 (0.53%) Mobile Banking
8 1 (0.53%) Online Banking
8 1 (0.53%) Replication
8 1 (0.53%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 18 (9.52%) Linux
2 8 (4.23%) Windows
3 4 (2.12%) Unix
3 4 (2.12%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (21.16%) Infrastructure as Code
2 38 (20.11%) Network Monitoring
3 35 (18.52%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (15.87%) High Availability
5 28 (14.81%) Cybersecurity
5 28 (14.81%) Network Design
6 27 (14.29%) Roadmaps
7 26 (13.76%) Technical Leadership
7 26 (13.76%) Validation
8 25 (13.23%) Zero Trust
9 23 (12.17%) Change Management
9 23 (12.17%) Mentoring
10 22 (11.64%) Network Segmentation
11 20 (10.58%) AI
11 20 (10.58%) Information Security
11 20 (10.58%) Load Balancing
12 19 (10.05%) Analytics
12 19 (10.05%) Migration
13 18 (9.52%) Containerisation
13 18 (9.52%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 46 (24.34%) Python
2 7 (3.70%) Bash
3 6 (3.17%) Bicep
4 3 (1.59%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.53%) C
5 1 (0.53%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 93 (49.21%) Cisco Certification
2 82 (43.39%) CCNP
3 27 (14.29%) CCNA
4 24 (12.70%) Security Cleared
5 17 (8.99%) DV Cleared
6 14 (7.41%) CCIE
7 13 (6.88%) CISSP
7 13 (6.88%) Degree
8 8 (4.23%) SC Cleared
9 6 (3.17%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (2.65%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (2.12%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (1.59%) CCDP
13 2 (1.06%) AWS Certification
13 2 (1.06%) Azure Certification
13 2 (1.06%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (1.06%) CCIE Data Center
13 2 (1.06%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.06%) JNCIS
14 1 (0.53%) CESG Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.88%) SLA
2 8 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.65%) NIST
3 5 (2.65%) QA
4 2 (1.06%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.06%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 10 (5.29%) VMware NSX
2 8 (4.23%) Firmware
3 7 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.59%) Docker
4 3 (1.59%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.06%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.53%) KVM
Systems Management
1 39 (20.63%) Ansible
2 33 (17.46%) FortiGate
3 19 (10.05%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.70%) Grafana
4 7 (3.70%) Nagios
5 6 (3.17%) Prometheus
6 4 (2.12%) ZABBIX
7 3 (1.59%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
8 2 (1.06%) Cisco Prime
9 1 (0.53%) CASB
9 1 (0.53%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.53%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 119 (62.96%) Cisco
2 62 (32.80%) Palo Alto
3 49 (25.93%) Fortinet
4 21 (11.11%) Arista
5 19 (10.05%) SolarWinds
6 18 (9.52%) Aruba
6 18 (9.52%) F5
6 18 (9.52%) Juniper
6 18 (9.52%) Zscaler
7 13 (6.88%) Meraki
7 13 (6.88%) VMware
8 11 (5.82%) Microsoft
9 6 (3.17%) Infoblox
9 6 (3.17%) Mellanox
9 6 (3.17%) NVIDIA
10 5 (2.65%) CheckPoint
11 4 (2.12%) Avaya
11 4 (2.12%) Citrix
11 4 (2.12%) ServiceNow
11 4 (2.12%) SonicWALL