Firewall Contract Job Trends in the South West

Firewall
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Firewall skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 36 33
Rank change year-on-year -44 -3 +10
Contract jobs citing Firewall 57 91 158
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 1.98% 5.50% 4.89%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 22.89% 32.85% 30.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 63 111
10th Percentile £390 £330 £394
25th Percentile £505 £406 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £545 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.92% +9.00% -6.98%
75th Percentile £694 £600 £600
90th Percentile £715 £665 £713
England median daily rate £515 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -1.90% +5.00% -6.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 7
10th Percentile £36.55 - £56.06
25th Percentile £37.00 - £64.24
Median hourly rate £40.54 - £65.98
75th Percentile £43.84 - £71.12
90th Percentile - - £76.25
England median hourly rate £41.94 £35.00 £65.49
% change year-on-year +19.83% -46.56% +25.63%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South 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 South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 249 277 520
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 8.65% 16.73% 16.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 198 335
10th Percentile £263 £300 £275
25th Percentile £400 £408 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £548 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.20% -0.36% +10.00%
75th Percentile £617 £622 £675
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 5 47
10th Percentile £12.43 £12.15 £15.75
25th Percentile £36.75 £12.50 £40.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £75.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +32.77% +476.43%
75th Percentile £66.42 - £72.63
90th Percentile £84.50 - £76.55
England median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +7.14% -12.50% +110.53%

Firewall
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Firewall job vacancy trend in the South West

Firewall
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

Firewall
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firewall in the South West over the 6 months to 12 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Firewall in the South West

Firewall
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

Firewall
Contract Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 12 March 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
Wiltshire -10 24 £700 +16.67% 6
Somerset +1 12 £575 - 6
Bristol -36 10 £520 +25.94% 11
Gloucestershire -26 5 £525 -4.02% 8
Devon -6 4 £458 +10.91% 2
Dorset -3 2 £300 -17.24% 2
Firewall
England

Firewall
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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 5 (8.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (3.51%) SharePoint
2 2 (3.51%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 12 (21.05%) Azure
2 5 (8.77%) Azure Monitor
2 5 (8.77%) Azure Sentinel
2 5 (8.77%) Entra ID
2 5 (8.77%) Microsoft 365
3 4 (7.02%) AWS
4 3 (5.26%) GCP
4 3 (5.26%) IaaS
4 3 (5.26%) PaaS
5 2 (3.51%) Azure Key Vault
6 1 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (1.75%) Google Compute Engine
6 1 (1.75%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 1 (1.75%) Mimecast
6 1 (1.75%) OCI
6 1 (1.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 18 (31.58%) DNS
2 16 (28.07%) Network Security
3 9 (15.79%) DHCP
4 8 (14.04%) Wireless
5 6 (10.53%) HTTPS
5 6 (10.53%) VPN
6 4 (7.02%) WAN
7 3 (5.26%) BGP
7 3 (5.26%) Cisco Nexus
7 3 (5.26%) LAN
7 3 (5.26%) OSPF
8 2 (3.51%) Cisco ASA
8 2 (3.51%) Cisco IOS
8 2 (3.51%) Skype
8 2 (3.51%) VLAN
9 1 (1.75%) DKIM
9 1 (1.75%) DMARC
9 1 (1.75%) NGFW
9 1 (1.75%) Telepresence
9 1 (1.75%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.26%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.75%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (3.51%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.75%) Bitbucket
2 1 (1.75%) Git
2 1 (1.75%) GitLab
2 1 (1.75%) JIRA
2 1 (1.75%) MSI
2 1 (1.75%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 23 (40.35%) Social Skills
2 9 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
2 9 (15.79%) Documentation Skills
3 3 (5.26%) Public Sector
4 2 (3.51%) Finance
5 1 (1.75%) Back Office
5 1 (1.75%) Banking
5 1 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.75%) Legal
Job Titles
1 14 (24.56%) Architect
2 7 (12.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 6 (10.53%) Network Engineer
3 6 (10.53%) Solutions Architect
3 6 (10.53%) Technical Architect
4 5 (8.77%) Analyst
4 5 (8.77%) Security Engineer
5 3 (5.26%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 3 (5.26%) Support Engineer
5 3 (5.26%) Technical Support
6 2 (3.51%) Azure Engineer
6 2 (3.51%) Azure Security Engineer
6 2 (3.51%) Cloud Engineer
6 2 (3.51%) SOC Analyst
6 2 (3.51%) Technical Solutions Architect
6 2 (3.51%) Wintel Engineer
6 2 (3.51%) Wintel Support
6 2 (3.51%) Wintel Support Engineer
7 1 (1.75%) Azure Consultant
7 1 (1.75%) Data Centre Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (24.56%) OAuth
1 14 (24.56%) OAuth2
1 14 (24.56%) OpenID
1 14 (24.56%) SAML
2 6 (10.53%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.75%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (1.75%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.75%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (1.75%) LDAP
3 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.75%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 8 (14.04%) Data Centre
2 6 (10.53%) IoT
3 5 (8.77%) Private Cloud
3 5 (8.77%) Replication
4 4 (7.02%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (7.02%) Security Posture
5 2 (3.51%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.75%) CCTV
6 1 (1.75%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (1.75%) Device Driver
6 1 (1.75%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.75%) Mobile App
6 1 (1.75%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.75%) PKI
6 1 (1.75%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.75%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 29 (50.88%) Windows
2 25 (43.86%) Windows Server
3 5 (8.77%) Linux
4 2 (3.51%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.75%) Android
5 1 (1.75%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.75%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.75%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 17 (29.82%) Identity Access Management
3 16 (28.07%) RBAC
4 15 (26.32%) Zero Trust
5 13 (22.81%) Load Balancing
6 12 (21.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 12 (21.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 11 (19.30%) Infrastructure as Code
7 11 (19.30%) Technical Leadership
8 10 (17.54%) Mentoring
8 10 (17.54%) Security Architecture
9 9 (15.79%) Identity Management
10 8 (14.04%) Network Segmentation
11 6 (10.53%) Change Management
11 6 (10.53%) Performance Optimisation
11 6 (10.53%) Regulatory Compliance
11 6 (10.53%) Risk Assessment
11 6 (10.53%) SIEM
11 6 (10.53%) Vulnerability Management
12 5 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 23 (40.35%) PowerShell
2 5 (8.77%) Bicep
3 3 (5.26%) Python
4 2 (3.51%) SQL
5 1 (1.75%) Bash
5 1 (1.75%) Java
5 1 (1.75%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.75%) Perl
Qualifications
1 32 (56.14%) Security Cleared
2 22 (38.60%) DV Cleared
3 15 (26.32%) Microsoft Certification
4 12 (21.05%) SC Cleared
5 4 (7.02%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (5.26%) Azure Certification
7 2 (3.51%) Degree
8 1 (1.75%) CCNP
8 1 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (7.02%) NIST
2 3 (5.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (5.26%) NCSC
3 2 (3.51%) PCI DSS
4 1 (1.75%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (1.75%) GDPR
4 1 (1.75%) GRC
System Software
1 32 (56.14%) Active Directory
2 15 (26.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (12.28%) Hyper-V
4 6 (10.53%) VMware NSX
5 1 (1.75%) Docker
5 1 (1.75%) UAG
5 1 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (1.75%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (31.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 14 (24.56%) Single Sign-On
3 9 (15.79%) Terraform
4 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (3.51%) McAfee ePO
6 1 (1.75%) Ansible
6 1 (1.75%) Grafana
6 1 (1.75%) Icinga
6 1 (1.75%) Kibana
6 1 (1.75%) Kubernetes
6 1 (1.75%) logstash
6 1 (1.75%) SCCM
6 1 (1.75%) SCOM
Vendors
1 28 (49.12%) Microsoft
2 18 (31.58%) VMware
3 6 (10.53%) Cisco
3 6 (10.53%) ForeScout
4 4 (7.02%) Fortinet
5 2 (3.51%) CheckPoint
5 2 (3.51%) F5
5 2 (3.51%) Google
5 2 (3.51%) McAfee
5 2 (3.51%) Palo Alto
5 2 (3.51%) SolarWinds
6 1 (1.75%) Citrix
6 1 (1.75%) EMC
6 1 (1.75%) Logitech
6 1 (1.75%) Nokia
6 1 (1.75%) Sophos
6 1 (1.75%) Tenable
6 1 (1.75%) Veeam