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

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 32 40
Rank change year-on-year -3 +8 -4
Contract jobs citing Firewall 178 115 112
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.06% 5.74% 3.95%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 39.91% 36.98% 33.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 149 74 73
10th Percentile £399 £352 £343
25th Percentile £459 £403 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £473 £650
Median % change year-on-year +13.65% -27.31% +44.44%
75th Percentile £608 £572 £850
90th Percentile £635 £646 -
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile £32.88 - -
25th Percentile £38.71 - £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 £30.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +86.67% -50.00% -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 446 311 335
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.68% 15.53% 11.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 287 190 231
10th Percentile £300 £193 £210
25th Percentile £375 £352 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.90% -10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £669
90th Percentile £630 £638 £825
England median daily rate £500 £495 £500
% change year-on-year +0.93% -0.92% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 2 12
10th Percentile £15.40 £27.70 £20.93
25th Percentile £16.88 £34.78 £25.13
Median hourly rate £19.84 £47.37 £40.44
Median % change year-on-year -58.12% +17.14% +29.41%
75th Percentile £41.94 £59.17 £46.60
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.76 £50.78
England median hourly rate £29.52 £40.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -27.11% -11.73% +142.37%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -14 59 £520 +13.66% 30
Cheshire +13 47 £570 +20.00% 10
Cumbria -3 47 £525 +2.44% 7
Lancashire +13 22 £488 -2.50% 9
Merseyside -18 2 - - 3
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 (5.06%) CICS
2 2 (1.12%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (3.93%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.69%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.56%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 65 (36.52%) Azure
2 43 (24.16%) AWS
3 20 (11.24%) GCP
4 14 (7.87%) Entra ID
4 14 (7.87%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 13 (7.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 11 (6.18%) OCI
6 11 (6.18%) SaaS
7 7 (3.93%) Azure AI
8 6 (3.37%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (3.37%) IBM Watson
8 6 (3.37%) Vertex AI
9 5 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (2.81%) Azure Key Vault
9 5 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (2.25%) GitHub
11 3 (1.69%) Microsoft Purview
12 2 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (1.12%) IaaS
12 2 (1.12%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 62 (34.83%) Network Security
2 46 (25.84%) WAN
3 45 (25.28%) Wireless
4 39 (21.91%) VLAN
5 38 (21.35%) VPN
6 32 (17.98%) DNS
7 27 (15.17%) BGP
8 24 (13.48%) OSPF
9 23 (12.92%) LAN
10 21 (11.80%) SD-WAN
11 20 (11.24%) Wi-Fi
12 19 (10.67%) Cisco IOS
12 19 (10.67%) Structured Cabling
12 19 (10.67%) TCP/IP
13 17 (9.55%) DHCP
13 17 (9.55%) Ethernet VPN
13 17 (9.55%) NX-OS
14 16 (8.99%) NAS
14 16 (8.99%) SAN
14 16 (8.99%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.06%) DataStage
2 2 (1.12%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.56%) Redis
Development Applications
1 9 (5.06%) GitLab
1 9 (5.06%) JIRA
2 3 (1.69%) Git
2 3 (1.69%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.12%) Burp Suite
3 2 (1.12%) Cucumber
3 2 (1.12%) Gatling
3 2 (1.12%) Gradle
3 2 (1.12%) LoadRunner
3 2 (1.12%) REST Assured
3 2 (1.12%) SonarQube
3 2 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 36 (20.22%) Social Skills
2 35 (19.66%) Finance
3 15 (8.43%) Public Sector
4 12 (6.74%) Documentation Skills
5 11 (6.18%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (6.18%) Banking
6 9 (5.06%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (2.81%) Legal
8 3 (1.69%) Military
9 2 (1.12%) Retail
10 1 (0.56%) Advertising
10 1 (0.56%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.56%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.56%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.56%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 58 (32.58%) Network Engineer
2 31 (17.42%) Architect
3 26 (14.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (13.48%) Security Engineer
5 20 (11.24%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 20 (11.24%) Senior
6 12 (6.74%) Network Architect
7 11 (6.18%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 10 (5.62%) Cloud Engineer
8 10 (5.62%) Designer
9 9 (5.06%) Infrastructure Designer
10 6 (3.37%) Cisco Engineer
10 6 (3.37%) Security Architect
10 6 (3.37%) Technical Architect
11 5 (2.81%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 5 (2.81%) Infrastructure Architect
11 5 (2.81%) Senior Network Engineer
12 4 (2.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 4 (2.25%) Cloud Security Engineer
12 4 (2.25%) GCP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.87%) 802.1X
2 12 (6.74%) LDAP
3 10 (5.62%) Middleware
4 9 (5.06%) LangChain
4 9 (5.06%) PyTorch
4 9 (5.06%) scikit-learn
5 2 (1.12%) Node.js
5 2 (1.12%) Playwright
5 2 (1.12%) Quarkus
5 2 (1.12%) React
5 2 (1.12%) Spring
5 2 (1.12%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.56%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.56%) Azure Blueprints
6 1 (0.56%) JSON
6 1 (0.56%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.56%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 59 (33.15%) Data Centre
2 37 (20.79%) Cloud Native
3 29 (16.29%) Security Posture
4 11 (6.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (5.06%) BYOD
5 9 (5.06%) Mainframe
5 9 (5.06%) Management Information System
5 9 (5.06%) VSAM
6 7 (3.93%) Onboarding
7 5 (2.81%) Cloud Security Posture
7 5 (2.81%) Product Ownership
8 4 (2.25%) PKI
8 4 (2.25%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.69%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (1.12%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (1.12%) Private Cloud
11 1 (0.56%) Cyber Defence
11 1 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
11 1 (0.56%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 1 (0.56%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 34 (19.10%) Linux
2 27 (15.17%) Windows
3 14 (7.87%) Unix
4 12 (6.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (5.06%) AIX
5 9 (5.06%) Solaris
6 7 (3.93%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.12%) Windows Server 2012
7 2 (1.12%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.56%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (25.28%) Load Balancing
2 39 (21.91%) CI/CD
3 33 (18.54%) Change Management
3 33 (18.54%) DevOps
4 32 (17.98%) Network Segmentation
4 32 (17.98%) Roadmaps
5 30 (16.85%) SIEM
6 28 (15.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 27 (15.17%) Project Delivery
8 24 (13.48%) Cybersecurity
9 22 (12.36%) Cloud Security
9 22 (12.36%) ITIL
9 22 (12.36%) Zero Trust
10 21 (11.80%) High Availability
11 20 (11.24%) Agile
11 20 (11.24%) Infrastructure as Code
12 19 (10.67%) ITSM
13 18 (10.11%) Network Design
13 18 (10.11%) Network Monitoring
13 18 (10.11%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 45 (25.28%) Python
2 26 (14.61%) PowerShell
3 17 (9.55%) Bash
4 12 (6.74%) Java
5 9 (5.06%) COBOL
6 7 (3.93%) Bicep
7 3 (1.69%) Perl
8 1 (0.56%) ActionScript
8 1 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.56%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 65 (36.52%) Security Cleared
2 64 (35.96%) Cisco Certification
3 54 (30.34%) SC Cleared
4 53 (29.78%) CCNA
5 49 (27.53%) CCNP
6 23 (12.92%) Degree
7 20 (11.24%) CISSP
8 15 (8.43%) Network+ Certification
8 15 (8.43%) Server+ Certification
9 14 (7.87%) AWS Certification
10 13 (7.30%) Azure Certification
11 7 (3.93%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (2.81%) CCIE
12 5 (2.81%) MCSA
12 5 (2.81%) MCSE
12 5 (2.81%) Microsoft Certification
13 3 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (1.69%) DV Cleared
14 2 (1.12%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.93%) NIST
2 5 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.25%) SLA
4 3 (1.69%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.69%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.12%) GDPR
5 2 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 2 (1.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 20 (11.24%) Active Directory
2 16 (8.99%) Docker
3 7 (3.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.69%) Firmware
4 3 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (1.12%) vSphere
6 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.56%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 35 (19.66%) Terraform
2 21 (11.80%) Ansible
3 19 (10.67%) Kubernetes
4 12 (6.74%) Progress Chef
5 8 (4.49%) CASB
6 6 (3.37%) Nessus
7 3 (1.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (1.69%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (1.12%) Grafana
8 2 (1.12%) Istio
8 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (1.12%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.12%) SCCM
9 1 (0.56%) Packer
9 1 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 69 (38.76%) Cisco
2 33 (18.54%) Palo Alto
3 21 (11.80%) ServiceNow
4 20 (11.24%) Google
4 20 (11.24%) Microsoft
5 18 (10.11%) F5
6 17 (9.55%) Aruba
7 15 (8.43%) IBM
8 14 (7.87%) Arista
8 14 (7.87%) Red Hat
9 13 (7.30%) Fortinet
9 13 (7.30%) VMware
10 11 (6.18%) Splunk
11 8 (4.49%) CheckPoint
11 8 (4.49%) CyberArk
12 7 (3.93%) Juniper
13 5 (2.81%) Ekahau
13 5 (2.81%) ForeScout
13 5 (2.81%) Remedy
13 5 (2.81%) Tenable