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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 566 438 595
Rank change year-on-year -128 +157 -30
Permanent jobs citing OSPF 173 231 336
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.52% 0.31%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.54% 3.46% 2.54%
Number of salaries quoted 125 179 248
10th Percentile £49,150 £32,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £61,761 £42,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £53,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +36.79% +0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £81,250 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £84,000 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £53,000 £48,500
% change year-on-year +32.08% +9.28% -2.02%

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 6,807 6,683 13,240
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.35% 15.10% 12.39%
Number of salaries quoted 4,367 3,737 9,430
10th Percentile £27,694 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £47,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - - -6.39%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £85,000 £77,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £40,000 £44,500
% change year-on-year +6.25% -10.11% -1.11%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -99 165 £74,000 +39.62% 34
London -26 83 £76,250 +22.00% 8
UK excluding London -121 76 £70,000 +32.08% 40
Work from Home -16 49 £78,000 +30.00% 23
North of England -30 26 £70,000 - 12
Midlands -12 21 £70,000 +100.00% 4
South East -76 21 £75,000 +41.51% 10
West Midlands -17 19 £70,000 +100.00% 3
North West +19 10 £70,000 +21.74% 7
Yorkshire -48 8 £72,788 -2.95% 3
North East - 8 £65,576 - 2
Scotland +8 4 £61,500 -8.89% 7
South West -72 4 £56,550 +0.76% 1
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 (1.16%) Confluence
Applications
1 20 (11.56%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 60 (34.68%) Azure
2 48 (27.75%) AWS
3 12 (6.94%) SaaS
3 12 (6.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 10 (5.78%) AWS Direct Connect
5 9 (5.20%) OpenShift
6 8 (4.62%) Datadog
7 7 (4.05%) GCP
8 5 (2.89%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (2.31%) ChatGPT
9 4 (2.31%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (1.73%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.16%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (1.16%) Nutanix
11 2 (1.16%) Route 53
12 1 (0.58%) Cloudflare
12 1 (0.58%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 171 (98.84%) BGP
2 142 (82.08%) Firewall
3 116 (67.05%) VPN
4 107 (61.85%) WAN
5 86 (49.71%) LAN
6 79 (45.66%) Network Security
7 64 (36.99%) SD-WAN
8 57 (32.95%) Wireless
9 56 (32.37%) VLAN
10 49 (28.32%) Cisco ASA
11 48 (27.75%) EIGRP
12 44 (25.43%) MPLS
12 44 (25.43%) VXLAN
13 40 (23.12%) Cisco ISE
14 39 (22.54%) Wi-Fi
15 37 (21.39%) Cisco Nexus
16 32 (18.50%) TCP/IP
17 28 (16.18%) Cisco Firepower
18 25 (14.45%) Ethernet VPN
19 24 (13.87%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.73%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 1 (0.58%) Git
1 1 (0.58%) GitLab
1 1 (0.58%) JIRA
1 1 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 58 (33.53%) Social Skills
2 29 (16.76%) Analytical Skills
3 27 (15.61%) Finance
4 15 (8.67%) Law
4 15 (8.67%) Telecoms
5 8 (4.62%) Retail Banking
6 6 (3.47%) Banking
7 5 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.89%) Public Sector
8 2 (1.16%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.16%) Marketing
8 2 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.16%) Retail
9 1 (0.58%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.58%) Police
Job Titles
1 134 (77.46%) Network Engineer
2 70 (40.46%) Senior
3 55 (31.79%) Senior Network Engineer
4 14 (8.09%) Cisco Engineer
4 14 (8.09%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 13 (7.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 11 (6.36%) Consultant
6 11 (6.36%) Network Consultant
6 11 (6.36%) Network Specialist
7 10 (5.78%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (5.20%) Firewall Engineer
9 8 (4.62%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
9 8 (4.62%) Network Operations Engineer
9 8 (4.62%) Network Security Specialist
9 8 (4.62%) Operations Engineer
9 8 (4.62%) Security Specialist
9 8 (4.62%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
9 8 (4.62%) Senior Network Security Specialist
9 8 (4.62%) Senior Network Specialist
9 8 (4.62%) Senior Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (10.40%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.05%) gRPC
3 6 (3.47%) REST
4 3 (1.73%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.73%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.58%) LDAP
5 1 (0.58%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 85 (49.13%) Data Centre
2 11 (6.36%) Security Posture
3 10 (5.78%) PKI
4 9 (5.20%) Onboarding
5 8 (4.62%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.47%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 6 (3.47%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (2.31%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.16%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.16%) Life Science
8 2 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.58%) IPTV
9 1 (0.58%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 18 (10.40%) Linux
2 4 (2.31%) Windows
3 1 (0.58%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (27.17%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (20.81%) Load Balancing
2 36 (20.81%) Network Monitoring
3 25 (14.45%) Computer Science
3 25 (14.45%) Kalman Filter
3 25 (14.45%) Network Segmentation
3 25 (14.45%) Project Delivery
3 25 (14.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 25 (14.45%) Zero Trust
4 23 (13.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 22 (12.72%) Network Design
6 21 (12.14%) High Availability
7 20 (11.56%) Infrastructure as Code
8 19 (10.98%) WAN Optimisation
9 18 (10.40%) ITIL
9 18 (10.40%) Roadmaps
9 18 (10.40%) Root Cause Analysis
10 16 (9.25%) Analytics
10 16 (9.25%) Observability
10 16 (9.25%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 49 (28.32%) Python
2 7 (4.05%) Bash
3 6 (3.47%) Bicep
4 3 (1.73%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.58%) C
Qualifications
1 96 (55.49%) Cisco Certification
2 88 (50.87%) CCNP
3 27 (15.61%) CCIE
3 27 (15.61%) Degree
4 22 (12.72%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (10.98%) Security Cleared
6 18 (10.40%) CCNA
7 12 (6.94%) DV Cleared
8 9 (5.20%) SC Cleared
9 4 (2.31%) Azure Certification
9 4 (2.31%) Network+ Certification
10 3 (1.73%) CISSP
11 2 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.16%) CCSA
11 2 (1.16%) CCSE
12 1 (0.58%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.58%) JNCIA
12 1 (0.58%) JNCIP
12 1 (0.58%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.09%) PMO
2 12 (6.94%) SLA
3 5 (2.89%) NIST
3 5 (2.89%) PCI DSS
4 4 (2.31%) QA
5 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 14 (8.09%) ProxySG
2 5 (2.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.89%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.73%) Docker
4 2 (1.16%) Firmware
4 2 (1.16%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 30 (17.34%) FortiGate
2 24 (13.87%) Ansible
3 14 (8.09%) Terraform
4 12 (6.94%) Nagios
5 9 (5.20%) Check_MK
5 9 (5.20%) Kubernetes
6 7 (4.05%) Grafana
7 6 (3.47%) Prometheus
8 3 (1.73%) ZABBIX
9 2 (1.16%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.58%) CASB
10 1 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 128 (73.99%) Cisco
2 59 (34.10%) Palo Alto
3 57 (32.95%) SolarWinds
4 49 (28.32%) Fortinet
5 34 (19.65%) Meraki
6 33 (19.08%) CheckPoint
7 31 (17.92%) F5
8 24 (13.87%) Arista
9 22 (12.72%) ServiceNow
10 19 (10.98%) Infoblox
11 15 (8.67%) Juniper
12 14 (8.09%) Blue Coat
12 14 (8.09%) Motorola
13 11 (6.36%) Aruba
14 10 (5.78%) Dynatrace
15 9 (5.20%) VMware
16 8 (4.62%) Microsoft
16 8 (4.62%) Zscaler
17 6 (3.47%) Mellanox
17 6 (3.47%) NVIDIA