OSPF Job Trends

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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 576 396 536
Rank change year-on-year -180 +140 +129
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 122 261 321
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.61% 0.38%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.20% 4.61% 2.83%
Number of salaries quoted 69 219 267
10th Percentile £49,500 £32,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £58,750 £43,799 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £55,000 £50,500
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% +8.91% -8.18%
75th Percentile £77,500 £72,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £103,750 £84,000 £82,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £53,000 £48,500
% change year-on-year +22.64% +9.28% +7.78%

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 10,147 5,664 11,345
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 13.56% 13.24% 13.35%
Number of salaries quoted 4,016 3,659 9,227
10th Percentile £26,250 £29,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £53,000 £48,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.75% +9.28% -7.62%
75th Percentile £65,000 £71,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £79,700
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £48,000 £43,500
% change year-on-year -27.08% +10.34% -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 18 March 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 March 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 -147 118 £70,000 +27.27% 43
London -23 54 £74,000 +2.07% 15
UK excluding London -155 54 £65,000 +22.64% 34
Work from Home -15 28 £76,750 +35.10% 13
South East -79 19 £70,000 +32.08% 19
North of England -58 13 £60,000 +9.09% 5
Midlands -36 10 £62,500 +78.57% 3
North East -12 9 - - 1
West Midlands -19 8 £62,500 +78.57% 2
South West -36 7 £58,099 +3.53% 2
East of England -21 5 £40,000 -31.62% 5
Yorkshire -55 3 £62,500 +38.89% 2
East Midlands -34 2 £50,000 - 1
North West -27 1 £53,000 -7.83% 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 5 (4.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.64%) Confluence
Applications
1 23 (18.85%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 54 (44.26%) Azure
2 43 (35.25%) AWS
3 15 (12.30%) AWS Direct Connect
4 12 (9.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 11 (9.02%) SaaS
6 5 (4.10%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (3.28%) Datadog
7 4 (3.28%) GCP
8 3 (2.46%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (1.64%) Nutanix
9 2 (1.64%) OCI
10 1 (0.82%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.82%) Stackdriver
Communications & Networking
1 117 (95.90%) BGP
2 104 (85.25%) Firewall
3 90 (73.77%) WAN
4 82 (67.21%) VPN
5 71 (58.20%) LAN
6 62 (50.82%) Wireless
7 59 (48.36%) SD-WAN
8 53 (43.44%) EIGRP
9 49 (40.16%) Network Security
10 47 (38.52%) Cisco ASA
11 43 (35.25%) VLAN
12 38 (31.15%) MPLS
13 37 (30.33%) Cisco Nexus
14 34 (27.87%) VXLAN
15 32 (26.23%) Cisco ISE
16 30 (24.59%) Wi-Fi
17 23 (18.85%) Cisco Firepower
18 22 (18.03%) IPsec
19 20 (16.39%) Cisco Wireless
20 18 (14.75%) WAAS
Development Applications
1 4 (3.28%) Git
2 1 (0.82%) JIRA
2 1 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 34 (27.87%) Analytical Skills
2 32 (26.23%) Social Skills
3 16 (13.11%) Finance
4 8 (6.56%) Retail Banking
5 7 (5.74%) Law
6 6 (4.92%) Banking
7 4 (3.28%) Public Sector
8 3 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.46%) Marketing
9 2 (1.64%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.64%) Police
9 2 (1.64%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.82%) Retail
Job Titles
1 94 (77.05%) Network Engineer
2 43 (35.25%) Senior
3 42 (34.43%) Senior Network Engineer
4 16 (13.11%) Cisco Engineer
4 16 (13.11%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 12 (9.84%) Consultant
5 12 (9.84%) Firewall Engineer
5 12 (9.84%) Network Consultant
6 10 (8.20%) Cisco Consultant
6 10 (8.20%) Cisco Network Consultant
7 9 (7.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 9 (7.38%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
7 9 (7.38%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
7 9 (7.38%) Network Operations Engineer
7 9 (7.38%) Operations Engineer
7 9 (7.38%) WAN Consultant
8 8 (6.56%) Lead
8 8 (6.56%) Network Team Leader
8 8 (6.56%) Team Leader
9 7 (5.74%) Lead Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (9.02%) REST
2 8 (6.56%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 57 (46.72%) Data Centre
2 9 (7.38%) Management Information System
3 8 (6.56%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.74%) Driving Licence
5 5 (4.10%) PKI
5 5 (4.10%) Security Posture
6 4 (3.28%) Cloud Native
7 3 (2.46%) Public Cloud
7 3 (2.46%) Virtual Team
8 2 (1.64%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.64%) e-Learning
9 1 (0.82%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.82%) Digital Media
9 1 (0.82%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 6 (4.92%) Windows
2 5 (4.10%) Linux
2 5 (4.10%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.82%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (23.77%) Kalman Filter
1 29 (23.77%) Load Balancing
2 27 (22.13%) Problem-Solving
3 26 (21.31%) Computer Science
4 22 (18.03%) Network Monitoring
5 21 (17.21%) Network Segmentation
5 21 (17.21%) Project Delivery
5 21 (17.21%) Root Cause Analysis
6 18 (14.75%) WAN Optimisation
7 17 (13.93%) Collaborative Working
7 17 (13.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 16 (13.11%) Analytical Thinking
8 16 (13.11%) ITIL
8 16 (13.11%) Zero Trust
9 15 (12.30%) Cloud Security
10 12 (9.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (9.02%) Change Management
11 11 (9.02%) High Availability
11 11 (9.02%) Network Design
12 9 (7.38%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 44 (36.07%) Python
2 3 (2.46%) Bash
Qualifications
1 89 (72.95%) Cisco Certification
2 87 (71.31%) CCNP
3 31 (25.41%) CCIE
4 29 (23.77%) Degree
5 25 (20.49%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (9.02%) CCNA
7 6 (4.92%) Azure Certification
7 6 (4.92%) Security Cleared
8 5 (4.10%) DBS Check
8 5 (4.10%) SC Cleared
9 4 (3.28%) AWS Certification
9 4 (3.28%) DV Cleared
10 3 (2.46%) Master's Degree
11 2 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.64%) CCSA
11 2 (1.64%) CCSE
12 1 (0.82%) JNCIA
12 1 (0.82%) JNCIP
12 1 (0.82%) JNCIS
12 1 (0.82%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (14.75%) PMO
2 6 (4.92%) NIST
3 5 (4.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (2.46%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.64%) SLA
6 1 (0.82%) GDPR
6 1 (0.82%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.82%) SOC 2
System Software
1 16 (13.11%) ProxySG
2 6 (4.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (4.10%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.64%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.82%) Firmware
5 1 (0.82%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (16.39%) Ansible
1 20 (16.39%) FortiGate
2 8 (6.56%) Check_MK
3 6 (4.92%) Terraform
4 5 (4.10%) Nagios
5 1 (0.82%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.82%) VxRail
Vendors
1 115 (94.26%) Cisco
2 60 (49.18%) SolarWinds
3 47 (38.52%) Fortinet
4 45 (36.89%) Meraki
5 44 (36.07%) Palo Alto
6 37 (30.33%) CheckPoint
7 25 (20.49%) ServiceNow
8 24 (19.67%) F5
9 22 (18.03%) Infoblox
10 18 (14.75%) Motorola
11 16 (13.11%) Blue Coat
12 14 (11.48%) Arista
13 11 (9.02%) Dynatrace
14 10 (8.20%) Microsoft
15 9 (7.38%) Juniper
16 7 (5.74%) VMware
17 5 (4.10%) Aruba
18 3 (2.46%) ForeScout
18 3 (2.46%) SevOne
18 3 (2.46%) Splunk