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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 600 505 548
Rank change year-on-year -95 +43 -98
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 185 188 286
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.38% 0.34%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.48% 2.55% 2.88%
Number of salaries quoted 138 124 206
10th Percentile £48,450 £33,200 £32,750
25th Percentile £61,761 £46,125 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £55,560 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +34.99% +1.02% -
75th Percentile £86,250 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £86,750 £87,500
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 7,458 7,365 9,932
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.03% 14.79% 11.89%
Number of salaries quoted 4,804 4,237 6,304
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,087 £27,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £29,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £41,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.46% -17.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £62,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,750 £37,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year +18.24% -17.78% -

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -80 177 £75,000 +33.64% 139
UK excluding London -94 92 £70,000 +33.33% 63
London -60 84 £83,750 +28.85% 88
Work from Home -20 54 £78,000 +20.00% 42
North of England -46 28 £70,000 +16.67% 14
Midlands +5 27 £73,750 +90.32% 12
West Midlands +2 25 £75,000 +93.55% 10
South East -50 22 £52,500 +8.27% 14
North West -11 17 £70,000 +16.67% 7
South West -62 8 £65,000 +16.99% 7
Yorkshire -35 7 £72,788 -2.95% 6
Scotland +11 5 £50,500 - 7
North East - 4 £65,576 - 1
East of England -30 3 - - 6
East Midlands - 2 £53,750 - 2

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 (1.08%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (5.41%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.08%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 62 (33.51%) Azure
2 43 (23.24%) AWS
3 19 (10.27%) OpenShift
4 9 (4.86%) GCP
5 5 (2.70%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.70%) Datadog
5 5 (2.70%) SaaS
6 4 (2.16%) ChatGPT
6 4 (2.16%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (1.62%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (1.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.08%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.08%) Route 53
9 1 (0.54%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (0.54%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.54%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 178 (96.22%) BGP
2 143 (77.30%) Firewall
3 119 (64.32%) VPN
4 115 (62.16%) WAN
5 99 (53.51%) LAN
6 90 (48.65%) Network Security
7 62 (33.51%) VLAN
8 52 (28.11%) SD-WAN
9 51 (27.57%) Wireless
10 47 (25.41%) EIGRP
11 45 (24.32%) TCP/IP
12 42 (22.70%) Wi-Fi
13 39 (21.08%) VXLAN
14 38 (20.54%) DNS
15 33 (17.84%) Cisco ISE
15 33 (17.84%) MPLS
16 31 (16.76%) Cisco ASA
17 30 (16.22%) Cisco Nexus
18 24 (12.97%) Ethernet VPN
19 22 (11.89%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.62%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 4 (2.16%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.54%) Git
2 1 (0.54%) GitLab
2 1 (0.54%) JIRA
General
1 66 (35.68%) Social Skills
2 32 (17.30%) Finance
3 20 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (10.27%) Telecoms
5 13 (7.03%) Law
6 8 (4.32%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (3.78%) Banking
8 6 (3.24%) Public Sector
9 5 (2.70%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (2.16%) Marketing
10 4 (2.16%) Retail
10 4 (2.16%) Retail Banking
11 3 (1.62%) Manufacturing
12 2 (1.08%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 132 (71.35%) Network Engineer
2 64 (34.59%) Senior
3 43 (23.24%) Senior Network Engineer
4 25 (13.51%) Network Specialist
5 18 (9.73%) Network Security Specialist
5 18 (9.73%) Security Specialist
6 14 (7.57%) Cisco Engineer
6 14 (7.57%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 14 (7.57%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
6 14 (7.57%) Senior Network Specialist
7 13 (7.03%) Senior Network Security Specialist
7 13 (7.03%) Senior Security Specialist
8 7 (3.78%) Consultant
8 7 (3.78%) Network Consultant
9 6 (3.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 6 (3.24%) Network Security Engineer
9 6 (3.24%) Security Engineer
10 5 (2.70%) Juniper Consultant
10 5 (2.70%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 5 (2.70%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (9.19%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.78%) gRPC
3 3 (1.62%) ARM Templates
3 3 (1.62%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.54%) Jinja
4 1 (0.54%) LDAP
4 1 (0.54%) REST
4 1 (0.54%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 79 (42.70%) Data Centre
2 9 (4.86%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.32%) Security Posture
4 6 (3.24%) Hybrid Cloud
4 6 (3.24%) PKI
5 4 (2.16%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 4 (2.16%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.62%) Life Science
6 3 (1.62%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.08%) CMDB
7 2 (1.08%) Cyber Security Posture
7 2 (1.08%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.54%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.54%) IPTV
8 1 (0.54%) Replication
8 1 (0.54%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 17 (9.19%) Linux
2 7 (3.78%) Windows
3 3 (1.62%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.54%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (22.16%) Network Monitoring
1 41 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (19.46%) Infrastructure as Code
3 29 (15.68%) Roadmaps
4 27 (14.59%) Load Balancing
5 26 (14.05%) Zero Trust
6 25 (13.51%) Network Design
7 23 (12.43%) ITIL
7 23 (12.43%) Project Delivery
8 22 (11.89%) High Availability
8 22 (11.89%) Mentoring
8 22 (11.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 21 (11.35%) Network Segmentation
10 20 (10.81%) AI
11 19 (10.27%) Information Security
11 19 (10.27%) Technical Leadership
12 18 (9.73%) Analytics
12 18 (9.73%) Containerisation
12 18 (9.73%) Root Cause Analysis
13 16 (8.65%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 41 (22.16%) Python
2 7 (3.78%) Bash
3 6 (3.24%) Bicep
4 3 (1.62%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.54%) C
Qualifications
1 103 (55.68%) Cisco Certification
2 92 (49.73%) CCNP
3 26 (14.05%) CCNA
4 25 (13.51%) Security Cleared
5 24 (12.97%) CCIE
6 18 (9.73%) Degree
6 18 (9.73%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.49%) CISSP
7 12 (6.49%) Computer Science Degree
8 11 (5.95%) SC Cleared
9 5 (2.70%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (2.16%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.16%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (1.62%) CCDP
12 2 (1.08%) AWS Certification
12 2 (1.08%) CCIE Data Center
12 2 (1.08%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.08%) JNCIS
13 1 (0.54%) CCIE Service Provider
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.03%) SLA
2 6 (3.24%) PMO
3 5 (2.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.70%) QA
4 4 (2.16%) NIST
5 2 (1.08%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.08%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 10 (5.41%) VMware NSX
2 9 (4.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (3.24%) Firmware
3 6 (3.24%) ProxySG
4 3 (1.62%) Docker
4 3 (1.62%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.08%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.54%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.54%) KVM
Systems Management
1 36 (19.46%) FortiGate
2 31 (16.76%) Ansible
3 22 (11.89%) Terraform
4 19 (10.27%) Kubernetes
5 9 (4.86%) Nagios
6 7 (3.78%) Grafana
7 6 (3.24%) Prometheus
8 5 (2.70%) Check_MK
9 4 (2.16%) ZABBIX
10 2 (1.08%) Cisco Prime
10 2 (1.08%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
11 1 (0.54%) CASB
11 1 (0.54%) Proxmox
11 1 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 127 (68.65%) Cisco
2 67 (36.22%) Palo Alto
3 53 (28.65%) Fortinet
4 32 (17.30%) SolarWinds
5 22 (11.89%) Arista
5 22 (11.89%) F5
6 20 (10.81%) Juniper
7 18 (9.73%) Aruba
7 18 (9.73%) Zscaler
8 15 (8.11%) Meraki
8 15 (8.11%) VMware
9 13 (7.03%) CheckPoint
10 11 (5.95%) Microsoft
11 10 (5.41%) Infoblox
12 9 (4.86%) ServiceNow
13 6 (3.24%) Blue Coat
13 6 (3.24%) Mellanox
13 6 (3.24%) Motorola
13 6 (3.24%) NVIDIA
14 4 (2.16%) SonicWALL