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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 580 427 585
Rank change year-on-year -153 +158 +26
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 163 241 324
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.56% 0.32%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.78% 3.67% 2.50%
Number of salaries quoted 114 192 249
10th Percentile £43,625 £32,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £61,761 £42,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £53,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +36.79% +1.92% -5.45%
75th Percentile £78,000 £67,500 £66,250
90th Percentile £93,875 £84,875 £85,375
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £53,000 £48,500
% change year-on-year +32.08% +9.28% +3.19%

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 9,144 6,563 12,960
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 9.82% 15.13% 12.88%
Number of salaries quoted 4,295 3,663 9,400
10th Percentile £27,500 £26,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,500 £47,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.21% - -5.94%
75th Percentile £68,750 £68,525 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £85,250 £77,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £42,500 £44,000
% change year-on-year - -3.41% -2.22%

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 30 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 30 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 -129 155 £74,000 +39.62% 58
London -41 76 £75,000 +20.00% 15
UK excluding London -133 71 £70,000 +32.08% 61
Work from Home +2 48 £78,000 +30.00% 33
North of England -58 23 £72,500 +11.54% 16
South East -77 22 £75,000 +41.51% 16
Midlands -29 19 £62,500 +78.57% 10
West Midlands -30 16 £70,000 +100.00% 10
North East - 9 £65,576 - 5
Yorkshire -56 8 £72,788 -2.95% 3
North West -2 6 £72,500 +26.09% 9
Scotland +5 3 £61,500 -8.89% 11
South West -64 3 £58,099 +3.53% 5
East Midlands - 3 £52,500 -
East of England -21 1 - - 5

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 3 (1.84%) Confluence
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 23 (14.11%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.84%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 61 (37.42%) Azure
2 51 (31.29%) AWS
3 13 (7.98%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 11 (6.75%) AWS Direct Connect
4 11 (6.75%) SaaS
5 8 (4.91%) Datadog
6 7 (4.29%) GCP
6 7 (4.29%) OpenShift
7 5 (3.07%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 4 (2.45%) ChatGPT
8 4 (2.45%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (1.84%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.23%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.23%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (1.23%) Nutanix
10 2 (1.23%) Route 53
11 1 (0.61%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 160 (98.16%) BGP
2 136 (83.44%) Firewall
3 108 (66.26%) VPN
4 106 (65.03%) WAN
5 85 (52.15%) LAN
6 74 (45.40%) Network Security
7 64 (39.26%) SD-WAN
8 62 (38.04%) Wireless
9 53 (32.52%) VLAN
10 50 (30.67%) Cisco ASA
11 46 (28.22%) EIGRP
11 46 (28.22%) VXLAN
12 42 (25.77%) Cisco ISE
12 42 (25.77%) MPLS
13 40 (24.54%) Cisco Nexus
14 37 (22.70%) Wi-Fi
15 30 (18.40%) TCP/IP
16 28 (17.18%) Cisco Firepower
17 26 (15.95%) Cisco Wireless
18 25 (15.34%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.84%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 2 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.61%) Git
2 1 (0.61%) GitLab
2 1 (0.61%) JIRA
General
1 51 (31.29%) Social Skills
2 31 (19.02%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.72%) Finance
4 15 (9.20%) Telecoms
5 13 (7.98%) Law
6 8 (4.91%) Retail Banking
7 6 (3.68%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.07%) Banking
9 4 (2.45%) Public Sector
10 2 (1.23%) Financial Institution
10 2 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.23%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.61%) Marketing
11 1 (0.61%) Police
11 1 (0.61%) Retail
Job Titles
1 126 (77.30%) Network Engineer
2 67 (41.10%) Senior
3 54 (33.13%) Senior Network Engineer
4 14 (8.59%) Cisco Engineer
4 14 (8.59%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 14 (8.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 11 (6.75%) Firewall Engineer
5 11 (6.75%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
6 10 (6.13%) Consultant
6 10 (6.13%) Network Consultant
7 9 (5.52%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
7 9 (5.52%) Network Operations Engineer
7 9 (5.52%) Network Specialist
7 9 (5.52%) Operations Engineer
8 8 (4.91%) Cisco Consultant
8 8 (4.91%) Cisco Network Consultant
8 8 (4.91%) WAN Consultant
9 6 (3.68%) Network Security Specialist
9 6 (3.68%) Senior Network Security Specialist
9 6 (3.68%) Senior Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (11.04%) 802.1X
2 8 (4.91%) REST
3 7 (4.29%) gRPC
4 3 (1.84%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.84%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.61%) LDAP
5 1 (0.61%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 82 (50.31%) Data Centre
2 11 (6.75%) Security Posture
3 10 (6.13%) Onboarding
3 10 (6.13%) PKI
4 9 (5.52%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.68%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 6 (3.68%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.45%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.23%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.61%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.61%) IPTV
8 1 (0.61%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.61%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 17 (10.43%) Linux
2 5 (3.07%) Windows
3 1 (0.61%) Unix
3 1 (0.61%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (27.61%) Problem-Solving
2 37 (22.70%) Load Balancing
3 33 (20.25%) Network Monitoring
4 28 (17.18%) Kalman Filter
5 27 (16.56%) Computer Science
6 25 (15.34%) Network Segmentation
6 25 (15.34%) Project Delivery
7 24 (14.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 23 (14.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 23 (14.11%) Zero Trust
9 20 (12.27%) Network Design
9 20 (12.27%) Root Cause Analysis
9 20 (12.27%) WAN Optimisation
10 19 (11.66%) ITIL
11 17 (10.43%) Infrastructure as Code
11 17 (10.43%) Runbook
12 16 (9.82%) Analytical Thinking
12 16 (9.82%) Collaborative Working
12 16 (9.82%) High Availability
12 16 (9.82%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 51 (31.29%) Python
2 6 (3.68%) Bash
3 5 (3.07%) Bicep
4 2 (1.23%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.61%) C
Qualifications
1 92 (56.44%) Cisco Certification
2 84 (51.53%) CCNP
3 28 (17.18%) Degree
4 27 (16.56%) CCIE
5 24 (14.72%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (11.04%) Security Cleared
7 15 (9.20%) CCNA
8 11 (6.75%) DV Cleared
9 9 (5.52%) SC Cleared
10 4 (2.45%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.45%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.23%) CCSA
11 2 (1.23%) CCSE
11 2 (1.23%) CISSP
11 2 (1.23%) JNCIA
11 2 (1.23%) JNCIP
11 2 (1.23%) JNCIS
12 1 (0.61%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (9.82%) PMO
2 12 (7.36%) SLA
3 5 (3.07%) NIST
3 5 (3.07%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.23%) QA
System Software
1 16 (9.82%) ProxySG
2 6 (3.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.84%) Docker
3 3 (1.84%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.23%) Firmware
4 2 (1.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.61%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 33 (20.25%) FortiGate
2 23 (14.11%) Ansible
3 12 (7.36%) Nagios
4 11 (6.75%) Terraform
5 9 (5.52%) Check_MK
6 7 (4.29%) Grafana
6 7 (4.29%) Kubernetes
7 6 (3.68%) Prometheus
8 3 (1.84%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.61%) CASB
9 1 (0.61%) Cisco Prime
9 1 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 128 (78.53%) Cisco
2 60 (36.81%) SolarWinds
3 55 (33.74%) Palo Alto
4 50 (30.67%) Fortinet
5 36 (22.09%) Meraki
6 34 (20.86%) CheckPoint
7 32 (19.63%) F5
8 25 (15.34%) ServiceNow
9 22 (13.50%) Arista
10 21 (12.88%) Infoblox
11 16 (9.82%) Blue Coat
11 16 (9.82%) Motorola
12 13 (7.98%) Juniper
13 11 (6.75%) Dynatrace
14 10 (6.13%) Aruba
15 8 (4.91%) Microsoft
15 8 (4.91%) VMware
16 6 (3.68%) Zscaler
17 5 (3.07%) Mellanox
17 5 (3.07%) SevOne