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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 585 456 573
Rank change year-on-year -129 +117 -44
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 174 229 341
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.47% 0.33%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.40% 3.21% 2.67%
Number of salaries quoted 131 167 252
10th Percentile £47,750 £32,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £62,130 £42,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £53,688 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year +35.04% +1.30% -3.64%
75th Percentile £82,500 £72,500 £67,813
90th Percentile £91,250 £85,000 £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 7,256 7,129 12,795
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.43% 14.63% 12.47%
Number of salaries quoted 4,642 4,123 8,992
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,087 £26,250
25th Percentile £32,253 £30,625 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £45,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -7.41%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £86,250 £83,750 £77,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £40,000 £43,742
% change year-on-year +6.25% -8.55% -2.80%

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 9 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 9 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 -99 166 £75,000 +41.51% 58
London -26 89 £78,000 +20.00% 21
UK excluding London -121 74 £70,000 +33.33% 43
Work from Home -13 49 £78,000 +20.00% 23
North of England -37 26 £70,000 +16.67% 8
Midlands -17 21 £72,500 +107.14% 6
West Midlands -13 19 £75,000 +114.29% 5
South East -79 19 £62,500 +19.05% 12
North West +1 13 £70,000 +16.67% 4
Yorkshire -45 7 £72,788 -2.95% 4
North East - 6 £65,576 -
Scotland +5 5 £50,500 -25.19% 2
South West -67 3 £55,000 - 9
East Midlands - 2 £53,750 - 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 (1.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 16 (9.20%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 60 (34.48%) Azure
2 46 (26.44%) AWS
3 16 (9.20%) OpenShift
4 10 (5.75%) SaaS
5 9 (5.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 8 (4.60%) Datadog
7 7 (4.02%) AWS Direct Connect
7 7 (4.02%) GCP
8 5 (2.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (2.30%) ChatGPT
9 4 (2.30%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (1.72%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (1.15%) Nutanix
11 2 (1.15%) Route 53
12 1 (0.57%) Cloudflare
12 1 (0.57%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 172 (98.85%) BGP
2 137 (78.74%) Firewall
3 115 (66.09%) VPN
4 108 (62.07%) WAN
5 85 (48.85%) LAN
6 84 (48.28%) Network Security
7 61 (35.06%) SD-WAN
8 59 (33.91%) VLAN
9 52 (29.89%) Wireless
10 48 (27.59%) EIGRP
11 41 (23.56%) Cisco ASA
11 41 (23.56%) MPLS
12 40 (22.99%) VXLAN
13 38 (21.84%) TCP/IP
13 38 (21.84%) Wi-Fi
14 37 (21.26%) Cisco ISE
15 32 (18.39%) Cisco Nexus
15 32 (18.39%) DNS
16 27 (15.52%) Cisco Firepower
17 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 61 (35.06%) Social Skills
2 29 (16.67%) Finance
3 23 (13.22%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (9.77%) Telecoms
5 14 (8.05%) Law
6 8 (4.60%) Retail Banking
7 7 (4.02%) Public Sector
8 6 (3.45%) Banking
9 5 (2.87%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (2.30%) Marketing
10 4 (2.30%) Retail
11 2 (1.15%) Financial Institution
11 2 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.15%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 127 (72.99%) Network Engineer
2 69 (39.66%) Senior
3 48 (27.59%) Senior Network Engineer
4 21 (12.07%) Network Specialist
5 15 (8.62%) Network Security Specialist
5 15 (8.62%) 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 10 (5.75%) Cisco Engineer
8 10 (5.75%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 10 (5.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (5.17%) Consultant
9 9 (5.17%) Network Consultant
10 7 (4.02%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
10 7 (4.02%) Network Security Engineer
10 7 (4.02%) Security Engineer
11 6 (3.45%) Firewall Engineer
12 5 (2.87%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (10.34%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.02%) gRPC
3 3 (1.72%) ARM Templates
3 3 (1.72%) OpenTelemetry
4 2 (1.15%) REST
5 1 (0.57%) LDAP
5 1 (0.57%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 86 (49.43%) Data Centre
2 11 (6.32%) PKI
2 11 (6.32%) Security Posture
3 7 (4.02%) Onboarding
4 6 (3.45%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 6 (3.45%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (2.87%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.30%) Driving Licence
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 45 (25.86%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (20.69%) Network Monitoring
3 33 (18.97%) Load Balancing
4 29 (16.67%) Zero Trust
5 27 (15.52%) Infrastructure as Code
5 27 (15.52%) Roadmaps
6 26 (14.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 25 (14.37%) Network Segmentation
7 25 (14.37%) Project Delivery
8 24 (13.79%) Network Design
9 23 (13.22%) High Availability
10 22 (12.64%) Kalman Filter
11 21 (12.07%) Computer Science
12 20 (11.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 20 (11.49%) ITIL
13 19 (10.92%) Mentoring
14 18 (10.34%) Analytics
15 17 (9.77%) AI
15 17 (9.77%) Root Cause Analysis
16 16 (9.20%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 44 (25.29%) Python
2 7 (4.02%) Bash
3 6 (3.45%) Bicep
4 3 (1.72%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.57%) C
Qualifications
1 96 (55.17%) Cisco Certification
2 88 (50.57%) CCNP
3 25 (14.37%) CCIE
4 23 (13.22%) Degree
5 22 (12.64%) CCNA
6 19 (10.92%) Security Cleared
7 18 (10.34%) Computer Science Degree
8 12 (6.90%) DV Cleared
9 9 (5.17%) CISSP
9 9 (5.17%) SC Cleared
10 4 (2.30%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.30%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.15%) CCSA
11 2 (1.15%) CCSE
11 2 (1.15%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.57%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.57%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.57%) JNCIA
12 1 (0.57%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (6.90%) SLA
2 10 (5.75%) 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 10 (5.75%) 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 28 (16.09%) FortiGate
2 25 (14.37%) Ansible
3 16 (9.20%) Kubernetes
4 15 (8.62%) Terraform
5 9 (5.17%) Check_MK
5 9 (5.17%) Nagios
6 7 (4.02%) Grafana
7 6 (3.45%) Prometheus
8 3 (1.72%) ZABBIX
9 2 (1.15%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.57%) CASB
10 1 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 120 (68.97%) Cisco
2 69 (39.66%) Palo Alto
3 51 (29.31%) Fortinet
4 46 (26.44%) SolarWinds
5 29 (16.67%) F5
6 27 (15.52%) CheckPoint
6 27 (15.52%) Meraki
7 23 (13.22%) Arista
8 17 (9.77%) Juniper
9 15 (8.62%) Infoblox
9 15 (8.62%) ServiceNow
9 15 (8.62%) Zscaler
10 13 (7.47%) Aruba
11 10 (5.75%) Blue Coat
11 10 (5.75%) Motorola
12 9 (5.17%) Microsoft
12 9 (5.17%) VMware
13 7 (4.02%) Dynatrace
14 6 (3.45%) Mellanox
14 6 (3.45%) NVIDIA