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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 610 526 437
Rank change year-on-year -84 -89 -55
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 201 143 356
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.29% 0.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.52% 2.05% 4.17%
Number of salaries quoted 145 87 193
10th Percentile £48,150 £42,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £57,500 £50,625 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% +13.64% -
75th Percentile £86,250 £75,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £92,000 £87,500 £84,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £67,788 £55,560 £53,750
% change year-on-year +22.01% +3.37% +2.38%

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 7,979 6,979 8,544
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 6.74% 14.22% 11.97%
Number of salaries quoted 4,863 3,946 4,200
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,087 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,375 £28,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £38,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +29.87% -26.67% +1.94%
75th Percentile £70,000 £60,469 £70,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £78,750 £83,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £34,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +32.35% -32.00% +11.11%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 -80 191 £75,000 +15.38% 157
UK excluding London -81 121 £67,788 +22.01% 64
London -64 75 £83,750 +24.07% 95
Work from Home -34 56 £78,000 +20.00% 57
Midlands -5 54 £75,000 +25.00% 12
West Midlands +2 48 £75,000 +20.00% 8
South East -33 22 £52,500 - 19
North of England -57 22 £70,000 +12.00% 11
North West -25 14 £70,000 +16.67% 6
South West -71 10 £55,000 +3.77% 6
Scotland +4 7 £50,500 - 6
East of England -32 7 £60,000 -7.69% 10
Yorkshire -35 7 £72,788 -9.02% 4
East Midlands -27 6 £55,000 -3.92% 4
North East -69 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 (1.00%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.00%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.00%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.50%) FLEXCUBE
Cloud Services
1 59 (29.35%) Azure
2 42 (20.90%) AWS
3 19 (9.45%) OpenShift
4 9 (4.48%) GCP
5 7 (3.48%) SaaS
6 4 (1.99%) ChatGPT
6 4 (1.99%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (1.49%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 3 (1.49%) Datadog
8 2 (1.00%) Microsoft 365
8 2 (1.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 1 (0.50%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.50%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.50%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 182 (90.55%) BGP
2 134 (66.67%) Firewall
3 128 (63.68%) VPN
4 118 (58.71%) WAN
5 102 (50.75%) LAN
6 87 (43.28%) Network Security
7 76 (37.81%) VLAN
8 60 (29.85%) TCP/IP
9 50 (24.88%) EIGRP
10 48 (23.88%) DNS
10 48 (23.88%) SD-WAN
11 45 (22.39%) Wireless
12 42 (20.90%) VXLAN
13 39 (19.40%) Wi-Fi
14 32 (15.92%) MPLS
15 28 (13.93%) Cisco ASA
15 28 (13.93%) Cisco Nexus
16 26 (12.94%) Ethernet VPN
17 24 (11.94%) DHCP
18 22 (10.95%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.49%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 12 (5.97%) Sonatype Nexus
2 5 (2.49%) Git
3 3 (1.49%) GitLab
4 2 (1.00%) JIRA
4 2 (1.00%) Robot Framework
4 2 (1.00%) Selenium
General
1 68 (33.83%) Social Skills
2 37 (18.41%) Finance
3 30 (14.93%) Telecoms
4 21 (10.45%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (7.46%) Manufacturing
6 13 (6.47%) Law
7 12 (5.97%) Banking
7 12 (5.97%) Public Sector
8 10 (4.98%) Marketing
8 10 (4.98%) Retail
9 9 (4.48%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (2.49%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (1.99%) Aerospace
12 2 (1.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.50%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 138 (68.66%) Network Engineer
2 58 (28.86%) Senior
3 41 (20.40%) Senior Network Engineer
4 25 (12.44%) Network Specialist
5 18 (8.96%) Network Security Specialist
5 18 (8.96%) Security Specialist
6 15 (7.46%) Principal Engineer
7 14 (6.97%) Principal Systems Engineer
7 14 (6.97%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 14 (6.97%) Senior Network Specialist
8 13 (6.47%) Automation Engineer
8 13 (6.47%) Senior Network Security Specialist
8 13 (6.47%) Senior Security Specialist
9 12 (5.97%) Cisco Engineer
9 12 (5.97%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 12 (5.97%) Control Systems Engineer
10 6 (2.99%) Data Centre Engineer
10 6 (2.99%) Network Security Engineer
10 6 (2.99%) Security Engineer
11 5 (2.49%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (12.44%) Terraform
2 10 (4.98%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.99%) gRPC
4 4 (1.99%) YAML
5 3 (1.49%) OpenTelemetry
5 3 (1.49%) Rendezvous
6 2 (1.00%) ModSecurity
7 1 (0.50%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.50%) Jinja
7 1 (0.50%) LDAP
7 1 (0.50%) REST
7 1 (0.50%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 78 (38.81%) Data Centre
2 12 (5.97%) SCADA
3 11 (5.47%) Security Posture
4 10 (4.98%) Onboarding
5 8 (3.98%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.49%) Driving Licence
6 5 (2.49%) Life Science
7 4 (1.99%) CMDB
7 4 (1.99%) PKI
8 3 (1.49%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.49%) Cyber Security Posture
8 3 (1.49%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.00%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (1.00%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.50%) Cyber Threat
10 1 (0.50%) IPTV
10 1 (0.50%) Linux Command Line
10 1 (0.50%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.50%) Private Cloud
10 1 (0.50%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 19 (9.45%) Linux
2 11 (5.47%) Windows
3 7 (3.48%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.99%) Unix
5 2 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (19.90%) Network Monitoring
2 39 (19.40%) Infrastructure as Code
3 36 (17.91%) High Availability
4 35 (17.41%) Problem-Solving
5 34 (16.92%) Validation
6 33 (16.42%) Cybersecurity
7 31 (15.42%) Technical Leadership
8 27 (13.43%) Roadmaps
9 25 (12.44%) Zero Trust
10 24 (11.94%) Network Design
11 23 (11.44%) Change Management
11 23 (11.44%) Continuous Improvement
11 23 (11.44%) Mentoring
12 22 (10.95%) Network Segmentation
13 21 (10.45%) Root Cause Analysis
14 20 (9.95%) Information Security
14 20 (9.95%) Load Balancing
15 19 (9.45%) AI
15 19 (9.45%) Analytics
16 18 (8.96%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 47 (23.38%) Python
2 7 (3.48%) Bash
3 4 (1.99%) Bicep
3 4 (1.99%) PowerShell
4 1 (0.50%) C
4 1 (0.50%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 102 (50.75%) Cisco Certification
2 93 (46.27%) CCNP
3 33 (16.42%) CCNA
4 24 (11.94%) Security Cleared
5 15 (7.46%) CCIE
5 15 (7.46%) DV Cleared
6 13 (6.47%) CISSP
7 11 (5.47%) Degree
8 8 (3.98%) SC Cleared
9 6 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (2.49%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (1.99%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (1.49%) CCDP
13 2 (1.00%) AWS Certification
13 2 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (1.00%) CCIE Data Center
13 2 (1.00%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.00%) JNCIS
14 1 (0.50%) CCIE Routing and Switching
14 1 (0.50%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.47%) SLA
2 9 (4.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.49%) QA
4 3 (1.49%) NIST
5 2 (1.00%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.50%) GDPR
System Software
1 11 (5.47%) VMware NSX
2 8 (3.98%) Firmware
2 8 (3.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.49%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.49%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (1.49%) vSphere
5 2 (1.00%) Docker
6 1 (0.50%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.50%) KVM
6 1 (0.50%) NFS
6 1 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 41 (20.40%) Ansible
2 33 (16.42%) FortiGate
3 19 (9.45%) Kubernetes
4 8 (3.98%) Nagios
5 6 (2.99%) Grafana
5 6 (2.99%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.99%) ZABBIX
7 3 (1.49%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
8 2 (1.00%) Cisco Prime
9 1 (0.50%) CASB
9 1 (0.50%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.50%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 128 (63.68%) Cisco
2 60 (29.85%) Palo Alto
3 53 (26.37%) Fortinet
4 22 (10.95%) Arista
5 20 (9.95%) SolarWinds
6 19 (9.45%) Juniper
7 18 (8.96%) Zscaler
8 17 (8.46%) Aruba
8 17 (8.46%) F5
8 17 (8.46%) VMware
9 13 (6.47%) Meraki
10 12 (5.97%) Microsoft
11 7 (3.48%) Mellanox
11 7 (3.48%) NVIDIA
12 5 (2.49%) CheckPoint
12 5 (2.49%) Infoblox
12 5 (2.49%) ServiceNow
13 4 (1.99%) Avaya
13 4 (1.99%) Citrix
13 4 (1.99%) SonicWALL