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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 46 31
Rank change year-on-year +6 -15 +5
Contract jobs citing Firewall 184 100 123
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.74% 4.51% 5.06%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 36.44% 32.89% 41.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 144 62 78
10th Percentile £368 £363 £450
25th Percentile £447 £413 £495
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £601
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -20.97% +28.56%
75th Percentile £589 £597 £844
90th Percentile £630 £667 £850
England median daily rate £510 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £29.00 £65.75 £46.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £66.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -54.89% +40.00% -24.60%
75th Percentile £31.00 £67.25 £48.75
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £66.35 £30.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +121.15% +9.09% -58.33%

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 505 304 298
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.00% 13.72% 12.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 329 173 196
10th Percentile £234 £147 £250
25th Percentile £354 £325 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £447 £515
Median % change year-on-year +6.71% -13.20% +8.42%
75th Percentile £582 £538 £678
90th Percentile £625 £675 £838
England median daily rate £500 £492 £504
% change year-on-year +1.63% -2.38% +0.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 5 9
10th Percentile £14.80 £22.40 £24.61
25th Percentile £16.50 £26.00 £35.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £66.50 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -73.68% +36.94% +194.30%
75th Percentile £21.76 £67.25 £51.91
90th Percentile £33.46 £69.00 £62.80
England median hourly rate £27.75 £43.50 £54.88
% change year-on-year -36.21% -20.73% -1.84%

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 21 August 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
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 21 August 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 -4 58 £499 -6.78% 14
Cheshire +7 54 £538 +7.50% 4
Cumbria -2 49 £525 +1.25% 4
Lancashire +12 21 £519 - 3
Merseyside -22 2 £275 -33.33% 5
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 8 (4.35%) SAS
2 3 (1.63%) CICS
2 3 (1.63%) Confluence
3 1 (0.54%) nginx
Applications
1 7 (3.80%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.17%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.09%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.54%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 63 (34.24%) Azure
2 51 (27.72%) AWS
3 24 (13.04%) GCP
4 15 (8.15%) Google Kubernetes Engine
4 15 (8.15%) SaaS
5 12 (6.52%) OCI
6 11 (5.98%) Entra ID
6 11 (5.98%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 8 (4.35%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (4.35%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (3.26%) GitHub
9 5 (2.72%) Serverless
10 4 (2.17%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (2.17%) IaaS
10 4 (2.17%) IBM Watson
11 3 (1.63%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (1.63%) AWS KMS
11 3 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.63%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 74 (40.22%) Network Security
2 60 (32.61%) VPN
3 51 (27.72%) Wireless
4 46 (25.00%) WAN
5 45 (24.46%) BGP
6 43 (23.37%) OSPF
7 28 (15.22%) LAN
7 28 (15.22%) VLAN
8 26 (14.13%) Wi-Fi
9 25 (13.59%) DNS
10 23 (12.50%) Cisco ASA
11 22 (11.96%) Cisco Firepower
12 19 (10.33%) SD-WAN
13 18 (9.78%) Cisco IOS
13 18 (9.78%) EIGRP
13 18 (9.78%) Structured Cabling
14 17 (9.24%) DHCP
15 16 (8.70%) NX-OS
16 15 (8.15%) NAS
16 15 (8.15%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.63%) DataStage
2 2 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (1.09%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (8.15%) GitLab
2 10 (5.43%) JIRA
3 9 (4.89%) Jenkins
4 4 (2.17%) Git
5 3 (1.63%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (1.09%) Burp Suite
6 2 (1.09%) Cucumber
6 2 (1.09%) Gatling
6 2 (1.09%) Gradle
6 2 (1.09%) LoadRunner
6 2 (1.09%) REST Assured
6 2 (1.09%) SonarQube
6 2 (1.09%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 41 (22.28%) Social Skills
2 38 (20.65%) Finance
3 18 (9.78%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (9.78%) Banking
4 13 (7.07%) Documentation Skills
5 12 (6.52%) Public Sector
6 5 (2.72%) Financial Institution
6 5 (2.72%) Legal
7 3 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.09%) Military
8 2 (1.09%) Retail
9 1 (0.54%) Games
9 1 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.54%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.54%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 75 (40.76%) Network Engineer
2 26 (14.13%) Architect
3 25 (13.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (13.04%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 22 (11.96%) Senior
6 21 (11.41%) Security Engineer
7 11 (5.98%) Cloud Engineer
7 11 (5.98%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 10 (5.43%) Network Architect
9 9 (4.89%) Senior Network Engineer
10 7 (3.80%) Cloud Security Engineer
10 7 (3.80%) Technical Architect
11 6 (3.26%) Consultant
11 6 (3.26%) Network Security Engineer
12 5 (2.72%) SIEM Engineer
12 5 (2.72%) Splunk Engineer
13 4 (2.17%) Azure Architect
13 4 (2.17%) GCP Engineer
13 4 (2.17%) Network Consultant
13 4 (2.17%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (22.28%) Terraform
2 9 (4.89%) 802.1X
3 5 (2.72%) LangChain
3 5 (2.72%) PyTorch
3 5 (2.72%) scikit-learn
4 4 (2.17%) ARM Templates
4 4 (2.17%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (2.17%) Middleware
4 4 (2.17%) React
5 2 (1.09%) CSS
5 2 (1.09%) HTML
5 2 (1.09%) Node.js
5 2 (1.09%) ODBC
5 2 (1.09%) Playwright
5 2 (1.09%) Quarkus
5 2 (1.09%) REST
5 2 (1.09%) Spring
5 2 (1.09%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.54%) JWT
6 1 (0.54%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 40 (21.74%) Data Centre
2 34 (18.48%) Cloud Native
3 21 (11.41%) Security Posture
4 14 (7.61%) Management Information System
5 13 (7.07%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.72%) PKI
7 4 (2.17%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.63%) BYOD
8 3 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.63%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (1.63%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.63%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.63%) Mainframe
8 3 (1.63%) Operational Technology
8 3 (1.63%) VSAM
9 2 (1.09%) Handset
9 2 (1.09%) Self-Motivation
10 1 (0.54%) Cloud Security Posture
10 1 (0.54%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.54%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 22 (11.96%) Linux
2 20 (10.87%) Windows
3 12 (6.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (2.72%) Windows Server
5 4 (2.17%) Unix
6 3 (1.63%) AIX
6 3 (1.63%) Solaris
7 1 (0.54%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.54%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (26.63%) Load Balancing
2 44 (23.91%) CI/CD
3 37 (20.11%) Network Segmentation
4 36 (19.57%) Change Management
5 35 (19.02%) DevOps
6 33 (17.93%) Zero Trust
7 32 (17.39%) Infrastructure as Code
8 31 (16.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 29 (15.76%) SIEM
10 27 (14.67%) ITIL
10 27 (14.67%) Project Delivery
11 26 (14.13%) Cloud Security
12 24 (13.04%) Agile
13 21 (11.41%) High Availability
13 21 (11.41%) Roadmaps
14 20 (10.87%) Network Architecture
15 18 (9.78%) Network Design
15 18 (9.78%) Scrum
16 17 (9.24%) ITSM
16 17 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 52 (28.26%) Python
2 24 (13.04%) PowerShell
3 20 (10.87%) Bash
4 13 (7.07%) Java
5 10 (5.43%) Bicep
6 7 (3.80%) SQL
7 5 (2.72%) Kusto Query Language
7 5 (2.72%) Search Processing Language
8 3 (1.63%) COBOL
9 2 (1.09%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.09%) Perl
9 2 (1.09%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.54%) ActionScript
10 1 (0.54%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 66 (35.87%) Security Cleared
2 64 (34.78%) Cisco Certification
3 60 (32.61%) SC Cleared
4 49 (26.63%) CCNP
5 45 (24.46%) CCNA
6 28 (15.22%) Degree
7 26 (14.13%) CISSP
8 17 (9.24%) AWS Certification
9 16 (8.70%) Network+ Certification
10 14 (7.61%) Azure Certification
10 14 (7.61%) Server+ Certification
11 8 (4.35%) CCIE
12 7 (3.80%) GCIH
13 5 (2.72%) GCFA
14 4 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
15 3 (1.63%) CCIE Security
15 3 (1.63%) CCSP
15 3 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
16 2 (1.09%) CCSA
16 2 (1.09%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.98%) NIST
2 10 (5.43%) PCI DSS
3 7 (3.80%) GDPR
3 7 (3.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (2.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (1.09%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 2 (1.09%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.54%) Data Quality
System Software
1 16 (8.70%) Docker
2 7 (3.80%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.63%) Firmware
3 3 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.63%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.09%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.54%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.54%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 33 (17.93%) Ansible
2 21 (11.41%) Progress Chef
3 19 (10.33%) Kubernetes
4 10 (5.43%) CASB
5 3 (1.63%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.63%) Istio
5 3 (1.63%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.09%) Grafana
6 2 (1.09%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.54%) Nagios
7 1 (0.54%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.54%) Packer
7 1 (0.54%) Puppet
Vendors
1 82 (44.57%) Cisco
2 50 (27.17%) Palo Alto
3 29 (15.76%) CheckPoint
4 25 (13.59%) Microsoft
5 22 (11.96%) F5
6 20 (10.87%) Aruba
7 19 (10.33%) Fortinet
7 19 (10.33%) Google
7 19 (10.33%) ServiceNow
8 17 (9.24%) Arista
9 14 (7.61%) Red Hat
10 13 (7.07%) Splunk
11 9 (4.89%) Juniper
12 7 (3.80%) AlgoSec
12 7 (3.80%) IBM
12 7 (3.80%) Meraki
12 7 (3.80%) Zscaler
13 6 (3.26%) Ekahau
13 6 (3.26%) VMware
14 5 (2.72%) ForeScout