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

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 584 418 589
Rank change year-on-year -166 +171 +22
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 153 240 319
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.56% 0.33%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.70% 3.75% 2.49%
Number of salaries quoted 102 197 252
10th Percentile £47,875 £32,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £61,946 £42,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £53,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +36.79% +0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £78,000 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £97,975 £85,000 £82,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £53,000 £48,500
% change year-on-year +32.08% +9.28% +4.30%

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 8,996 6,393 12,831
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 9.70% 15.00% 13.17%
Number of salaries quoted 4,172 3,558 9,348
10th Percentile £27,500 £26,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.94%
75th Percentile £70,000 £68,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £86,250 £77,715
UK excluding London median annual salary £41,095 £42,500 £43,500
% change year-on-year -3.31% -2.30% -3.33%

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 23 May 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 23 May 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 -156 146 £72,500 +36.79% 69
London -31 72 £75,000 +17.65% 20
UK excluding London -135 65 £70,000 +32.08% 61
Work from Home -8 46 £78,000 +34.34% 33
North of England -53 23 £72,500 +18.37% 16
South East -89 19 £75,000 +41.51% 18
Midlands -29 16 £62,500 +78.57% 12
West Midlands -35 13 £70,000 +100.00% 11
North East - 9 £65,576 - 4
Yorkshire -50 8 £72,788 -2.95% 2
North West -6 6 £72,500 +26.09% 11
South West -66 3 £58,099 +3.53% 5
East Midlands - 3 £52,500 - 1
Scotland +3 2 £72,500 +7.41% 9
East of England -14 2 - - 3

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 4 (2.61%) Confluence
2 2 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 23 (15.03%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.96%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 57 (37.25%) Azure
2 50 (32.68%) AWS
3 14 (9.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 12 (7.84%) AWS Direct Connect
5 11 (7.19%) SaaS
6 9 (5.88%) Datadog
7 8 (5.23%) GCP
8 5 (3.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 5 (3.27%) OpenShift
9 3 (1.96%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.96%) ChatGPT
9 3 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
9 3 (1.96%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.31%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.31%) Nutanix
10 2 (1.31%) Route 53
11 1 (0.65%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.65%) Stackdriver
Communications & Networking
1 151 (98.69%) BGP
2 128 (83.66%) Firewall
3 102 (66.67%) WAN
4 100 (65.36%) VPN
5 80 (52.29%) LAN
6 67 (43.79%) Network Security
7 63 (41.18%) SD-WAN
8 61 (39.87%) Wireless
9 48 (31.37%) Cisco ASA
9 48 (31.37%) VLAN
10 44 (28.76%) VXLAN
11 43 (28.10%) EIGRP
12 42 (27.45%) Cisco ISE
13 41 (26.80%) MPLS
14 39 (25.49%) Cisco Nexus
15 32 (20.92%) Wi-Fi
16 29 (18.95%) TCP/IP
17 26 (16.99%) Cisco Firepower
17 26 (16.99%) Cisco Wireless
18 25 (16.34%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.96%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 2 (1.31%) Git
1 2 (1.31%) JIRA
1 2 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.65%) GitLab
General
1 47 (30.72%) Social Skills
2 29 (18.95%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (13.07%) Finance
4 14 (9.15%) Law
4 14 (9.15%) Telecoms
5 8 (5.23%) Retail Banking
6 6 (3.92%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.27%) Banking
8 2 (1.31%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.31%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.65%) Marketing
9 1 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.65%) Police
9 1 (0.65%) Retail
Job Titles
1 117 (76.47%) Network Engineer
2 61 (39.87%) Senior
3 51 (33.33%) Senior Network Engineer
4 14 (9.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 13 (8.50%) Cisco Engineer
5 13 (8.50%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 11 (7.19%) Firewall Engineer
6 11 (7.19%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
7 10 (6.54%) Consultant
7 10 (6.54%) Network Consultant
8 9 (5.88%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
8 9 (5.88%) Network Operations Engineer
8 9 (5.88%) Operations Engineer
9 8 (5.23%) Cisco Consultant
9 8 (5.23%) Cisco Network Consultant
9 8 (5.23%) WAN Consultant
10 7 (4.58%) Network Specialist
11 5 (3.27%) AWS Engineer
11 5 (3.27%) AWS Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (3.27%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (11.76%) 802.1X
2 8 (5.23%) REST
3 7 (4.58%) gRPC
4 3 (1.96%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.96%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.65%) LDAP
5 1 (0.65%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 78 (50.98%) Data Centre
2 11 (7.19%) Security Posture
3 10 (6.54%) PKI
4 9 (5.88%) Management Information System
4 9 (5.88%) Onboarding
5 6 (3.92%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 6 (3.92%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (3.27%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.96%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.65%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.65%) IPTV
8 1 (0.65%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.65%) Replication
8 1 (0.65%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 15 (9.80%) Linux
2 5 (3.27%) Windows
3 2 (1.31%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (26.80%) Problem-Solving
2 37 (24.18%) Load Balancing
3 31 (20.26%) Network Monitoring
4 27 (17.65%) Kalman Filter
5 25 (16.34%) Computer Science
5 25 (16.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 24 (15.69%) Network Segmentation
6 24 (15.69%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 23 (15.03%) Project Delivery
8 21 (13.73%) Zero Trust
9 20 (13.07%) Root Cause Analysis
9 20 (13.07%) WAN Optimisation
10 19 (12.42%) ITIL
11 18 (11.76%) Network Design
12 17 (11.11%) Collaborative Working
12 17 (11.11%) Runbook
13 16 (10.46%) Analytical Thinking
13 16 (10.46%) Observability
14 15 (9.80%) Infrastructure as Code
15 14 (9.15%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 50 (32.68%) Python
2 5 (3.27%) Bash
3 4 (2.61%) Bicep
4 1 (0.65%) C
4 1 (0.65%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 86 (56.21%) Cisco Certification
2 80 (52.29%) CCNP
3 27 (17.65%) Degree
4 26 (16.99%) CCIE
5 22 (14.38%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (11.11%) Security Cleared
7 12 (7.84%) CCNA
8 10 (6.54%) DV Cleared
9 9 (5.88%) SC Cleared
10 4 (2.61%) Azure Certification
11 2 (1.31%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.31%) CCSA
11 2 (1.31%) CCSE
11 2 (1.31%) DBS Check
11 2 (1.31%) JNCIA
11 2 (1.31%) JNCIP
11 2 (1.31%) JNCIS
11 2 (1.31%) Network+ Certification
12 1 (0.65%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (10.46%) PMO
2 12 (7.84%) SLA
3 5 (3.27%) NIST
3 5 (3.27%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.65%) GDPR
4 1 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.65%) QA
4 1 (0.65%) SOC 2
System Software
1 16 (10.46%) ProxySG
2 6 (3.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.96%) Docker
3 3 (1.96%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.31%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.31%) Firmware
4 2 (1.31%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (20.26%) FortiGate
2 23 (15.03%) Ansible
3 12 (7.84%) Nagios
4 11 (7.19%) Terraform
5 9 (5.88%) Check_MK
6 7 (4.58%) Grafana
7 6 (3.92%) Prometheus
8 5 (3.27%) Kubernetes
9 3 (1.96%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.65%) CASB
10 1 (0.65%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 121 (79.08%) Cisco
2 61 (39.87%) SolarWinds
3 52 (33.99%) Palo Alto
4 43 (28.10%) Fortinet
5 36 (23.53%) Meraki
6 34 (22.22%) CheckPoint
7 32 (20.92%) F5
8 25 (16.34%) ServiceNow
9 22 (14.38%) Infoblox
10 21 (13.73%) Arista
11 16 (10.46%) Blue Coat
11 16 (10.46%) Motorola
12 12 (7.84%) Juniper
13 11 (7.19%) Dynatrace
14 8 (5.23%) Microsoft
14 8 (5.23%) VMware
15 7 (4.58%) Aruba
16 5 (3.27%) Mellanox
16 5 (3.27%) Splunk
16 5 (3.27%) Zscaler