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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 32 31
Rank change year-on-year -4 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Firewall 185 111 117
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.98% 5.09% 4.71%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 38.70% 35.46% 39.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 154 67 79
10th Percentile £395 £361 £444
25th Percentile £451 £413 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £527 £475 £600
Median % change year-on-year +10.84% -20.83% +33.33%
75th Percentile £606 £606 £838
90th Percentile £630 £650 £850
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile £33.53 - -
25th Percentile £40.32 - £46.25
Median hourly rate £52.13 - £47.50
75th Percentile £63.45 - £48.75
90th Percentile £69.93 - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £30.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +116.67% +9.09% -56.35%

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 478 313 296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.86% 14.34% 11.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 307 183 207
10th Percentile £274 £153 £212
25th Percentile £375 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £447 £510
Median % change year-on-year +10.07% -12.35% +8.22%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £674
90th Percentile £630 £649 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 2 10
10th Percentile £15.71 £25.02 £20.48
25th Percentile £17.06 £32.54 £28.44
Median hourly rate £17.75 £45.08 £46.69
Median % change year-on-year -60.63% -3.45% +179.92%
75th Percentile £32.54 £57.62 £51.68
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.14 £57.11
England median hourly rate £26.72 £45.00 £49.50
% change year-on-year -40.62% -9.09% -

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 28 July 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 28 July 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 28 July 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 -12 65 £500 +6.38% 25
Cheshire +16 53 £540 +13.78% 15
Cumbria -3 44 £530 +0.95%
Lancashire +12 22 £519 - 9
Merseyside -21 1 - - 4
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 (4.86%) CICS
2 3 (1.62%) SAS
3 2 (1.08%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (4.32%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.16%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.54%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 66 (35.68%) Azure
2 48 (25.95%) AWS
3 24 (12.97%) GCP
4 16 (8.65%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 13 (7.03%) Entra ID
5 13 (7.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 12 (6.49%) OCI
7 11 (5.95%) SaaS
8 8 (4.32%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (3.78%) Azure AI
9 7 (3.78%) IBM Watson
10 6 (3.24%) Azure Sentinel
10 6 (3.24%) GitHub
10 6 (3.24%) Vertex AI
11 5 (2.70%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (2.70%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
12 4 (2.16%) IaaS
13 3 (1.62%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (1.62%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 63 (34.05%) Network Security
2 53 (28.65%) VPN
3 51 (27.57%) Wireless
4 45 (24.32%) WAN
5 39 (21.08%) BGP
6 36 (19.46%) OSPF
7 33 (17.84%) DNS
8 29 (15.68%) VLAN
9 26 (14.05%) LAN
10 23 (12.43%) Wi-Fi
11 19 (10.27%) Cisco IOS
11 19 (10.27%) SD-WAN
11 19 (10.27%) Structured Cabling
12 18 (9.73%) DHCP
12 18 (9.73%) TCP/IP
13 17 (9.19%) NX-OS
14 16 (8.65%) NAS
14 16 (8.65%) SAN
15 14 (7.57%) Ethernet VPN
16 13 (7.03%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.86%) DataStage
2 2 (1.08%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.54%) Redis
3 1 (0.54%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 10 (5.41%) GitLab
2 9 (4.86%) JIRA
3 4 (2.16%) Git
3 4 (2.16%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.62%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (1.08%) Burp Suite
5 2 (1.08%) Cucumber
5 2 (1.08%) Gatling
5 2 (1.08%) Gradle
5 2 (1.08%) LoadRunner
5 2 (1.08%) REST Assured
5 2 (1.08%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 42 (22.70%) Social Skills
2 41 (22.16%) Finance
3 16 (8.65%) Public Sector
4 14 (7.57%) Banking
5 13 (7.03%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (6.49%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (4.86%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (2.70%) Legal
9 3 (1.62%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.62%) Military
10 2 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.08%) Retail
11 1 (0.54%) Advertising
11 1 (0.54%) Games
11 1 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.54%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.54%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 65 (35.14%) Network Engineer
2 29 (15.68%) Architect
3 26 (14.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 26 (14.05%) Security Engineer
4 22 (11.89%) Senior
5 19 (10.27%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 12 (6.49%) Cloud Engineer
6 12 (6.49%) Network Architect
7 11 (5.95%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 10 (5.41%) Designer
9 9 (4.86%) Infrastructure Designer
9 9 (4.86%) Senior Network Engineer
10 7 (3.78%) Technical Architect
11 6 (3.24%) Cloud Security Engineer
11 6 (3.24%) Consultant
12 5 (2.70%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 5 (2.70%) Security Architect
13 4 (2.16%) Azure Architect
13 4 (2.16%) GCP Engineer
13 4 (2.16%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.41%) Middleware
2 9 (4.86%) 802.1X
2 9 (4.86%) LangChain
2 9 (4.86%) PyTorch
2 9 (4.86%) scikit-learn
3 6 (3.24%) LDAP
4 3 (1.62%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.62%) Azure Blueprints
4 3 (1.62%) React
5 2 (1.08%) JSON
5 2 (1.08%) Node.js
5 2 (1.08%) Playwright
5 2 (1.08%) Quarkus
5 2 (1.08%) Spring
5 2 (1.08%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.54%) CSS
6 1 (0.54%) HTML
6 1 (0.54%) ODBC
6 1 (0.54%) Software Packaging
6 1 (0.54%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (27.03%) Data Centre
2 39 (21.08%) Cloud Native
3 30 (16.22%) Security Posture
4 14 (7.57%) Hybrid Cloud
5 10 (5.41%) Management Information System
6 9 (4.86%) BYOD
6 9 (4.86%) Mainframe
6 9 (4.86%) VSAM
7 5 (2.70%) Cloud Security Posture
7 5 (2.70%) Product Ownership
8 4 (2.16%) PKI
9 3 (1.62%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (1.08%) Onboarding
10 2 (1.08%) Public Cloud
11 1 (0.54%) Driving Licence
11 1 (0.54%) Enterprise Cloud
11 1 (0.54%) Private Cloud
11 1 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
11 1 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 35 (18.92%) Linux
2 28 (15.14%) Windows
3 15 (8.11%) Unix
4 14 (7.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (4.86%) AIX
5 9 (4.86%) Solaris
6 6 (3.24%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.54%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.54%) VMS
7 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (26.49%) Load Balancing
2 44 (23.78%) CI/CD
3 37 (20.00%) DevOps
4 36 (19.46%) Change Management
5 34 (18.38%) Network Segmentation
6 32 (17.30%) SIEM
7 31 (16.76%) Roadmaps
8 30 (16.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 26 (14.05%) Cloud Security
9 26 (14.05%) Infrastructure as Code
9 26 (14.05%) Project Delivery
9 26 (14.05%) Zero Trust
10 25 (13.51%) ITIL
11 24 (12.97%) Agile
12 22 (11.89%) High Availability
13 21 (11.35%) Cybersecurity
14 19 (10.27%) ITSM
14 19 (10.27%) Scrum
15 18 (9.73%) Network Design
16 17 (9.19%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 51 (27.57%) Python
2 22 (11.89%) PowerShell
3 20 (10.81%) Bash
4 14 (7.57%) Java
5 10 (5.41%) Bicep
6 9 (4.86%) COBOL
7 3 (1.62%) Perl
8 1 (0.54%) ActionScript
8 1 (0.54%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.54%) SQL
8 1 (0.54%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.54%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 64 (34.59%) Security Cleared
2 60 (32.43%) Cisco Certification
3 56 (30.27%) SC Cleared
4 47 (25.41%) CCNA
5 45 (24.32%) CCNP
6 25 (13.51%) Degree
7 19 (10.27%) CISSP
8 16 (8.65%) AWS Certification
8 16 (8.65%) Azure Certification
9 15 (8.11%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (8.11%) Server+ Certification
10 7 (3.78%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (3.24%) CCIE
12 5 (2.70%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (2.70%) MCSA
12 5 (2.70%) MCSE
13 4 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
14 3 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
15 1 (0.54%) DBS Check
15 1 (0.54%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.78%) NIST
2 5 (2.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.62%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.62%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.08%) GDPR
4 2 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 2 (1.08%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.54%) Data Quality
System Software
1 18 (9.73%) Docker
2 14 (7.57%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.62%) Firmware
4 3 (1.62%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.08%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.08%) vSphere
6 1 (0.54%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 40 (21.62%) Terraform
2 26 (14.05%) Ansible
3 21 (11.35%) Kubernetes
4 15 (8.11%) Progress Chef
5 10 (5.41%) CASB
6 5 (2.70%) Nessus
7 3 (1.62%) Cisco Prime
7 3 (1.62%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (1.08%) Grafana
8 2 (1.08%) Istio
8 2 (1.08%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.54%) Nagios
9 1 (0.54%) Packer
9 1 (0.54%) Puppet
9 1 (0.54%) SCCM
Vendors
1 74 (40.00%) Cisco
2 39 (21.08%) Palo Alto
3 24 (12.97%) Microsoft
4 23 (12.43%) Google
5 21 (11.35%) F5
5 21 (11.35%) ServiceNow
6 20 (10.81%) Aruba
7 18 (9.73%) CheckPoint
8 17 (9.19%) Arista
8 17 (9.19%) Fortinet
9 16 (8.65%) IBM
9 16 (8.65%) Red Hat
10 14 (7.57%) VMware
11 12 (6.49%) Splunk
12 9 (4.86%) Juniper
13 8 (4.32%) CyberArk
14 7 (3.78%) Zscaler
15 6 (3.24%) Meraki
16 5 (2.70%) Citrix
16 5 (2.70%) Remedy