Firewall Contract Job Trends in the North West

Firewall
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Firewall skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 34 43
Rank change year-on-year -2 +9 -9
Contract jobs citing Firewall 166 104 106
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.87% 5.28% 3.87%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 38.07% 33.02% 32.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 139 64 69
10th Percentile £399 £319 £395
25th Percentile £461 £409 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £475 £750
Median % change year-on-year +13.68% -36.67% +66.67%
75th Percentile £612 £585 £850
90th Percentile £638 £650 -
England median daily rate £500 £501 £508
% change year-on-year -0.10% -1.38% -3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £46.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 - £47.50
75th Percentile £50.02 - £48.75
90th Percentile £64.56 - -
England median hourly rate £56.00 £21.40 £60.00
% change year-on-year +161.74% -64.34% -4.08%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

Firewall falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 436 315 324
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.78% 16.01% 11.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 188 217
10th Percentile £310 £192 £206
25th Percentile £375 £325 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% -10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £595 £538 £666
90th Percentile £638 £608 £835
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 2 14
10th Percentile £14.50 £27.70 £21.28
25th Percentile £17.57 £34.78 £26.06
Median hourly rate £29.16 £47.37 £43.56
Median % change year-on-year -38.45% +8.76% +39.38%
75th Percentile £50.02 £59.17 £48.03
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.76 £85.30
England median hourly rate £32.50 £40.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -18.75% - +136.20%

Firewall
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Firewall relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Firewall job vacancy trend in the North West

Firewall
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Firewall.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Firewall

Firewall
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firewall in the North West over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Firewall in the North West

Firewall
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Firewall.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Firewall

Firewall
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Firewall in the North West over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Firewall in the North West

Firewall
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Firewall within the North West region over the 6 months to 6 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester -10 56 £550 +18.28% 38
Cumbria -3 43 £508 -7.73% 10
Cheshire +17 41 £550 +5.01% 8
Lancashire +11 21 £525 +5.00% 11
Merseyside -16 4 £330 -17.50% 7
Firewall
England

Firewall
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 9 (5.42%) CICS
2 2 (1.20%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.20%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.60%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 60 (36.14%) Azure
2 41 (24.70%) AWS
3 17 (10.24%) GCP
4 12 (7.23%) Entra ID
4 12 (7.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
4 12 (7.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 11 (6.63%) OCI
5 11 (6.63%) SaaS
6 8 (4.82%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (4.22%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (3.01%) Azure AI
8 5 (3.01%) Azure Key Vault
9 4 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (2.41%) IBM Watson
9 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Purview
9 4 (2.41%) Nutanix
9 4 (2.41%) Vertex AI
10 3 (1.81%) GitHub
11 2 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 55 (33.13%) Network Security
2 44 (26.51%) VLAN
3 38 (22.89%) WAN
4 37 (22.29%) Wireless
5 32 (19.28%) DNS
6 29 (17.47%) VPN
7 24 (14.46%) BGP
8 23 (13.86%) OSPF
9 21 (12.65%) SD-WAN
10 20 (12.05%) DHCP
10 20 (12.05%) TCP/IP
11 19 (11.45%) Wi-Fi
12 18 (10.84%) Ethernet VPN
12 18 (10.84%) Structured Cabling
13 17 (10.24%) Cisco IOS
14 16 (9.64%) LAN
14 16 (9.64%) NAS
14 16 (9.64%) SAN
14 16 (9.64%) VXLAN
15 15 (9.04%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.42%) DataStage
2 2 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.60%) Redis
Development Applications
1 9 (5.42%) GitLab
2 7 (4.22%) JIRA
3 2 (1.20%) Git
3 2 (1.20%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.60%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.60%) Cucumber
4 1 (0.60%) Gatling
4 1 (0.60%) Gradle
4 1 (0.60%) LoadRunner
4 1 (0.60%) REST Assured
4 1 (0.60%) SonarQube
4 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 33 (19.88%) Finance
1 33 (19.88%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.84%) Public Sector
3 12 (7.23%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (6.63%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (5.42%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (4.82%) Banking
7 3 (1.81%) Legal
7 3 (1.81%) Military
8 2 (1.20%) Retail
9 1 (0.60%) Advertising
9 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.60%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.60%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 49 (29.52%) Network Engineer
2 29 (17.47%) Architect
3 27 (16.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 25 (15.06%) Security Engineer
5 22 (13.25%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 21 (12.65%) Senior
7 13 (7.83%) Network Architect
8 12 (7.23%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (6.02%) Designer
10 9 (5.42%) Cloud Engineer
10 9 (5.42%) Infrastructure Designer
11 7 (4.22%) Cisco Engineer
12 6 (3.61%) Platform Engineer
12 6 (3.61%) Technical Architect
13 5 (3.01%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
13 5 (3.01%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 5 (3.01%) Infrastructure Architect
14 4 (2.41%) Cloud Security Engineer
14 4 (2.41%) Cybersecurity Engineer
14 4 (2.41%) GCP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.43%) 802.1X
2 12 (7.23%) LDAP
3 10 (6.02%) Middleware
4 6 (3.61%) LangChain
4 6 (3.61%) PyTorch
4 6 (3.61%) scikit-learn
5 1 (0.60%) JSON
5 1 (0.60%) Node.js
5 1 (0.60%) Playwright
5 1 (0.60%) Quarkus
5 1 (0.60%) React
5 1 (0.60%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.60%) Spring
5 1 (0.60%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 61 (36.75%) Data Centre
2 33 (19.88%) Cloud Native
3 25 (15.06%) Security Posture
4 11 (6.63%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (5.42%) BYOD
5 9 (5.42%) Mainframe
5 9 (5.42%) VSAM
6 7 (4.22%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.61%) Management Information System
7 6 (3.61%) Public Cloud
8 5 (3.01%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (3.01%) Product Ownership
9 4 (2.41%) PKI
9 4 (2.41%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.81%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (1.20%) Linux Command Line
12 1 (0.60%) Cyber Defence
12 1 (0.60%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 1 (0.60%) Security Operations Centre
12 1 (0.60%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 34 (20.48%) Linux
2 28 (16.87%) Windows
3 14 (8.43%) Unix
4 11 (6.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (5.42%) AIX
5 9 (5.42%) Solaris
5 9 (5.42%) Windows Server
6 4 (2.41%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.60%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (23.49%) Load Balancing
2 33 (19.88%) CI/CD
3 32 (19.28%) Network Segmentation
4 30 (18.07%) DevOps
5 29 (17.47%) Change Management
5 29 (17.47%) Project Delivery
6 28 (16.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 28 (16.87%) Roadmaps
7 27 (16.27%) SIEM
8 25 (15.06%) Cybersecurity
9 23 (13.86%) Zero Trust
10 21 (12.65%) Cloud Security
10 21 (12.65%) High Availability
10 21 (12.65%) ITIL
11 20 (12.05%) Network Monitoring
12 19 (11.45%) ITSM
12 19 (11.45%) Problem-Solving
13 18 (10.84%) Infrastructure as Code
13 18 (10.84%) Network Design
13 18 (10.84%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 37 (22.29%) Python
2 25 (15.06%) PowerShell
3 15 (9.04%) Bash
4 10 (6.02%) Java
5 9 (5.42%) COBOL
6 6 (3.61%) Bicep
7 2 (1.20%) Perl
8 1 (0.60%) ActionScript
8 1 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 68 (40.96%) Security Cleared
2 57 (34.34%) Cisco Certification
3 54 (32.53%) SC Cleared
4 50 (30.12%) CCNP
5 49 (29.52%) CCNA
6 20 (12.05%) Degree
7 19 (11.45%) CISSP
8 15 (9.04%) Network+ Certification
8 15 (9.04%) Server+ Certification
9 12 (7.23%) Azure Certification
10 11 (6.63%) AWS Certification
11 8 (4.82%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (3.01%) MCSA
12 5 (3.01%) MCSE
12 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Certification
13 4 (2.41%) CISM
13 4 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (2.41%) DV Cleared
14 2 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (1.20%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.22%) NIST
2 5 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.41%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (2.41%) SLA
4 3 (1.81%) GDPR
4 3 (1.81%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 2 (1.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 22 (13.25%) Active Directory
2 17 (10.24%) Docker
3 8 (4.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (2.41%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (2.41%) vSphere
5 3 (1.81%) Firmware
5 3 (1.81%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (18.67%) Terraform
2 18 (10.84%) Ansible
2 18 (10.84%) Kubernetes
3 11 (6.63%) Progress Chef
4 7 (4.22%) CASB
5 6 (3.61%) Nessus
6 5 (3.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (2.41%) SCCM
8 3 (1.81%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (1.20%) Grafana
9 2 (1.20%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.60%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.60%) Istio
10 1 (0.60%) Packer
Vendors
1 64 (38.55%) Cisco
2 37 (22.29%) Palo Alto
3 21 (12.65%) ServiceNow
4 20 (12.05%) F5
5 18 (10.84%) Aruba
5 18 (10.84%) Microsoft
6 17 (10.24%) Google
7 15 (9.04%) VMware
8 13 (7.83%) IBM
8 13 (7.83%) Red Hat
9 12 (7.23%) Arista
10 11 (6.63%) Fortinet
11 10 (6.02%) Splunk
12 8 (4.82%) CheckPoint
12 8 (4.82%) CyberArk
13 6 (3.61%) Ekahau
14 5 (3.01%) ForeScout
14 5 (3.01%) Remedy
14 5 (3.01%) Tenable
15 4 (2.41%) Juniper