Firewall Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Firewall
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Firewall skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 57 42 34
Rank change year-on-year -15 -8 +21
Contract jobs citing Firewall 695 711 1,084
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.95% 4.43% 5.34%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 31.71% 29.14% 29.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 449 399 715
10th Percentile £293 £283 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £613
90th Percentile £650 £638 £677
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 17 49
10th Percentile £29.00 £19.40 £39.50
25th Percentile £30.89 £20.00 £62.50
Median hourly rate £66.50 £22.50 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +195.56% -65.90% +60.81%
75th Percentile £85.50 £35.00 £75.67
90th Percentile £89.63 £53.25 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £38.25 £31.25 £65.98
% change year-on-year +22.40% -52.64% +96.96%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 2,192 2,440 3,616
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.44% 15.20% 17.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,451 1,334 2,166
10th Percentile £190 £200 £205
25th Percentile £291 £331 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £566 £580 £600
90th Percentile £643 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 142 283
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.08 £17.72
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.50 £24.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +25.53%
75th Percentile £67.31 £66.52 £66.25
90th Percentile £81.50 £75.00 £75.67
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -17.07% -25.45% +30.95%

Firewall
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Firewall relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Firewall job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Firewall
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Firewall.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Firewall

Firewall
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firewall in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Firewall in the UK excluding London

Firewall
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Firewall.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Firewall

Firewall
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Firewall in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Firewall in the UK excluding London

Firewall
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Firewall within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 December 2025. 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
North of England -19 199 £492 -1.60% 115
South East -3 179 £488 -2.50% 223
Midlands -12 137 £475 -5.00% 67
West Midlands +11 128 £475 -5.00% 48
North West -19 101 £525 +5.00% 67
Yorkshire -11 94 £450 -2.70% 40
Scotland -18 59 £438 -12.50% 15
East of England -9 51 £483 -12.27% 50
South West -24 49 £540 +13.68% 51
Wales -10 14 £250 -32.43% 20
Northern Ireland - 10 £500 - 3
East Midlands -39 9 £450 +20.00% 19
North East -9 7 £550 +22.22% 8
Channel Islands - 4 £725 -
South Coast - 2 - -
Firewall
UK

Firewall
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 36 (5.18%) Confluence
2 31 (4.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (2.30%) SharePoint
4 11 (1.58%) Apache
4 11 (1.58%) nginx
5 9 (1.29%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.58%) IIS
6 4 (0.58%) JBoss
6 4 (0.58%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.29%) CICS
7 2 (0.29%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.14%) CMS
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 28 (4.03%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.44%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 8 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.86%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.29%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.14%) Finacle
2 1 (0.14%) Pegasus Opera
2 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 186 (26.76%) AWS
2 182 (26.19%) Azure
3 79 (11.37%) Microsoft 365
4 74 (10.65%) GCP
5 52 (7.48%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 47 (6.76%) Amazon EC2
7 38 (5.47%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 37 (5.32%) Amazon S3
9 32 (4.60%) Amazon ELB
9 32 (4.60%) Entra ID
10 27 (3.88%) Azure Sentinel
11 24 (3.45%) Amazon ECS
12 22 (3.17%) AWS KMS
13 19 (2.73%) Serverless
14 16 (2.30%) AWS CloudFormation
14 16 (2.30%) IaaS
15 15 (2.16%) Akamai
15 15 (2.16%) AWS Lambda
16 14 (2.01%) PaaS
17 13 (1.87%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 146 (21.01%) Network Security
2 143 (20.58%) DNS
3 131 (18.85%) VPN
4 113 (16.26%) WAN
5 85 (12.23%) TCP/IP
6 80 (11.51%) Wireless
7 73 (10.50%) BGP
8 69 (9.93%) LAN
9 65 (9.35%) VLAN
10 59 (8.49%) DHCP
10 59 (8.49%) OSPF
11 49 (7.05%) SD-WAN
12 43 (6.19%) Cisco IOS
13 38 (5.47%) Cisco ISE
14 37 (5.32%) SSL
15 36 (5.18%) Wi-Fi
16 35 (5.04%) Cisco ASA
17 32 (4.60%) HTTP
18 31 (4.46%) MPLS
19 29 (4.17%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (5.18%) Amazon RDS
2 23 (3.31%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.30%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.44%) Amazon Aurora
5 8 (1.15%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.43%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.43%) MySQL
7 2 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.29%) DB2
7 2 (0.29%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.14%) Amazon QuickSight
8 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.14%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.14%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.14%) Redis
Development Applications
1 62 (8.92%) Jenkins
2 52 (7.48%) Git
2 52 (7.48%) JIRA
3 30 (4.32%) GitLab
4 21 (3.02%) Vagrant
5 14 (2.01%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (1.44%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.01%) Postman
8 4 (0.58%) Burp Suite
8 4 (0.58%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.14%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.14%) Maven
9 1 (0.14%) MSI
9 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 184 (26.47%) Social Skills
2 86 (12.37%) Public Sector
3 76 (10.94%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (8.06%) Finance
5 34 (4.89%) Documentation Skills
6 29 (4.17%) Banking
7 27 (3.88%) Telecoms
8 23 (3.31%) Manufacturing
9 22 (3.17%) Legal
10 21 (3.02%) Games
11 16 (2.30%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (1.15%) Military
12 8 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (0.86%) Aerospace
13 6 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 6 (0.86%) Local Government
13 6 (0.86%) Retail
14 5 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.72%) Law
15 4 (0.58%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 166 (23.88%) Network Engineer
2 86 (12.37%) Architect
3 67 (9.64%) Security Engineer
4 57 (8.20%) Senior
5 54 (7.77%) Platform Engineer
6 43 (6.19%) Analyst
6 43 (6.19%) DevOps Engineer
7 37 (5.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 35 (5.04%) Network Architect
9 31 (4.46%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 28 (4.03%) Support Engineer
11 25 (3.60%) IT Engineer
12 24 (3.45%) AWS Engineer
12 24 (3.45%) Network Security Engineer
13 23 (3.31%) Security Architect
14 21 (3.02%) IT Support
15 20 (2.88%) Cloud Platform Engineer
16 19 (2.73%) Consultant
16 19 (2.73%) Firewall Engineer
17 18 (2.59%) AWS DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.60%) 802.1X
2 18 (2.59%) LDAP
3 13 (1.87%) RFC 2544
4 12 (1.73%) OAuth
4 12 (1.73%) OAuth2
4 12 (1.73%) OpenID
4 12 (1.73%) SAML
5 10 (1.44%) JSON
5 10 (1.44%) REST
6 9 (1.29%) Node.js
7 8 (1.15%) Middleware
8 5 (0.72%) XML
9 4 (0.58%) Kafka
10 3 (0.43%) CSS
10 3 (0.43%) Elastic Stack
10 3 (0.43%) HTML
10 3 (0.43%) Lambda Expressions
10 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 2 (0.29%) JBoss Seam
11 2 (0.29%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 108 (15.54%) Data Centre
2 50 (7.19%) Security Posture
3 42 (6.04%) PKI
4 39 (5.61%) Operational Technology
5 35 (5.04%) Replication
6 31 (4.46%) Hybrid Cloud
7 22 (3.17%) Onboarding
8 17 (2.45%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (2.30%) Cloud Native
10 15 (2.16%) Cyber Threat
11 14 (2.01%) Cyber Defence
12 13 (1.87%) Management Information System
13 11 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (1.44%) Fibre Optics
14 10 (1.44%) Security Operations Centre
15 9 (1.29%) Fat Client
15 9 (1.29%) Private Cloud
15 9 (1.29%) Product Ownership
15 9 (1.29%) SCADA
15 9 (1.29%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 210 (30.22%) Windows
2 144 (20.72%) Linux
3 71 (10.22%) Windows Server
4 30 (4.32%) VMS
5 27 (3.88%) Mac OS
6 24 (3.45%) Amazon Linux
6 24 (3.45%) Android
7 22 (3.17%) Unix
8 19 (2.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 15 (2.16%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.44%) Windows 10
11 9 (1.29%) Windows 7
12 6 (0.86%) Windows Server 2016
12 6 (0.86%) Windows Server 2019
13 5 (0.72%) CentOS
13 5 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.43%) Apple iOS
14 3 (0.43%) Solaris
15 2 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
15 2 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (18.56%) Cybersecurity
2 106 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
3 99 (14.24%) DevOps
4 91 (13.09%) Cloud Security
5 87 (12.52%) Incident Response
6 80 (11.51%) SIEM
7 78 (11.22%) CI/CD
8 67 (9.64%) ITIL
9 65 (9.35%) Migration
10 61 (8.78%) Infrastructure as Code
11 59 (8.49%) Agile
11 59 (8.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 57 (8.20%) Change Management
13 56 (8.06%) High Availability
14 54 (7.77%) Containerisation
15 52 (7.48%) Load Balancing
15 52 (7.48%) Network Design
16 51 (7.34%) Security Operations
17 50 (7.19%) Platform Engineering
18 46 (6.62%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 147 (21.15%) Python
2 133 (19.14%) PowerShell
3 64 (9.21%) Bash
4 39 (5.61%) Perl
5 31 (4.46%) Java
6 27 (3.88%) SQL
7 21 (3.02%) Groovy
8 9 (1.29%) Ruby
9 7 (1.01%) Shell Script
10 6 (0.86%) Kusto Query Language
11 4 (0.58%) C#
12 3 (0.43%) Bicep
12 3 (0.43%) JavaScript
12 3 (0.43%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.14%) C++
13 1 (0.14%) Go
13 1 (0.14%) Korn
13 1 (0.14%) Lisp
13 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 248 (35.68%) Security Cleared
2 167 (24.03%) SC Cleared
3 123 (17.70%) Cisco Certification
4 92 (13.24%) CCNP
5 60 (8.63%) DV Cleared
6 58 (8.35%) Degree
7 50 (7.19%) CISSP
8 49 (7.05%) CCNA
9 38 (5.47%) AWS Certification
10 34 (4.89%) Azure Certification
10 34 (4.89%) Microsoft Certification
11 26 (3.74%) CCIE
12 23 (3.31%) CISM
13 13 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
14 12 (1.73%) CEH
15 11 (1.58%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (1.58%) GIAC
16 10 (1.44%) CISMP
16 10 (1.44%) GSEC
17 9 (1.29%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (7.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 54 (7.77%) NIST
3 46 (6.62%) GDPR
4 25 (3.60%) PCI DSS
5 15 (2.16%) NCSC
6 13 (1.87%) QA
7 9 (1.29%) SLA
8 8 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (1.01%) COBIT
10 5 (0.72%) PSD2
11 4 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.43%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.43%) GxP
12 3 (0.43%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.29%) GRC
13 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 2 (0.29%) PMO
14 1 (0.14%) Def Stans
System Software
1 136 (19.57%) Active Directory
2 99 (14.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (12.66%) Docker
4 29 (4.17%) Hyper-V
5 24 (3.45%) DFS Replication
6 19 (2.73%) vSphere
7 17 (2.45%) VMware NSX
8 10 (1.44%) Dovecot
8 10 (1.44%) Postfix
8 10 (1.44%) Squid
8 10 (1.44%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.86%) Terminal Services
10 6 (0.86%) Virtual Servers
11 5 (0.72%) Firmware
12 4 (0.58%) KVM
12 4 (0.58%) Veritas Cluster Server
13 2 (0.29%) XenApp
14 1 (0.14%) SRDF
14 1 (0.14%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 90 (12.95%) Terraform
2 73 (10.50%) Ansible
3 54 (7.77%) Kubernetes
4 43 (6.19%) Microsoft Intune
5 34 (4.89%) SCCM
6 27 (3.88%) FortiGate
7 24 (3.45%) Grafana
8 22 (3.17%) Prometheus
9 18 (2.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (2.45%) vCenter Server
11 15 (2.16%) Nessus
11 15 (2.16%) Single Sign-On
12 12 (1.73%) Puppet
13 10 (1.44%) CSIRT
13 10 (1.44%) Proxmox
14 9 (1.29%) WMI
15 8 (1.15%) Fluentd
16 7 (1.01%) NetBackup
16 7 (1.01%) Nmap
16 7 (1.01%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 255 (36.69%) Cisco
2 194 (27.91%) Microsoft
3 132 (18.99%) Palo Alto
4 119 (17.12%) VMware
5 95 (13.67%) F5
6 69 (9.93%) CheckPoint
7 64 (9.21%) Splunk
8 60 (8.63%) Meraki
9 57 (8.20%) Fortinet
10 44 (6.33%) Juniper
11 40 (5.76%) Oracle
11 40 (5.76%) SolarWinds
12 33 (4.75%) Google
13 29 (4.17%) ServiceNow
14 27 (3.88%) Citrix
15 25 (3.60%) Zscaler
16 20 (2.88%) Aruba
16 20 (2.88%) Dell
17 17 (2.45%) Red Hat
18 11 (1.58%) Blue Coat