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

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 65 47 38
Rank change year-on-year -18 -9 +7
Contract jobs citing Firewall 762 587 926
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.41% 4.66% 4.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.08% 28.32% 25.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 519 348 583
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £412 £382 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £584 £608
90th Percentile £638 £650 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £505
% change year-on-year -1.96% +1.09% -3.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 16 30
10th Percentile £20.65 £14.20 £23.92
25th Percentile £37.25 £17.43 £58.88
Median hourly rate £48.72 £35.82 £78.90
Median % change year-on-year +36.00% -54.60% +42.61%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.62 £86.66
90th Percentile £85.40 £59.38 £87.53
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £36.65 £64.00
% change year-on-year +32.95% -42.74% +9.10%

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 2,533 2,073 3,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.34% 16.47% 17.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,605 1,262 2,120
10th Percentile £203 £190 £200
25th Percentile £350 £303 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -
75th Percentile £575 £580 £596
90th Percentile £656 £638 £688
UK median daily rate £495 £488 £475
% change year-on-year +1.54% +2.63% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 157 125 333
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £16.50 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -27.78% +136.84%
75th Percentile £67.50 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.61 £70.53
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £38.00
% change year-on-year +10.00% -7.89% +96.89%

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 28 March 2026.

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 28 March 2026.

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 28 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
North of England -20 235 £500 +5.82% 105
South East +2 233 £506 +3.32% 134
North West -9 156 £528 +12.34% 67
Midlands -48 96 £425 -23.42% 62
West Midlands -17 86 £425 -16.71% 37
Yorkshire -21 77 £433 -15.61% 27
South West -43 58 £550 +0.92% 42
East of England -17 56 £475 -9.52% 51
Scotland -8 53 £425 -2.86% 22
Wales -15 30 £425 +9.68% 13
East Midlands -55 7 £475 -19.83% 25
North East -10 5 £548 +9.50% 12
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 5
South Coast - 2 £600 -
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 16 (2.10%) Confluence
2 9 (1.18%) Apache
3 8 (1.05%) CICS
3 8 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.79%) IIS
5 4 (0.52%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.52%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.26%) Apache Pulsar
6 2 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.26%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.26%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Portal
7 1 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 33 (4.33%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (1.84%) MS Visio
4 13 (1.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 211 (27.69%) Azure
2 156 (20.47%) AWS
3 58 (7.61%) GCP
4 54 (7.09%) Entra ID
5 39 (5.12%) Microsoft 365
6 34 (4.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 26 (3.41%) GitHub
8 24 (3.15%) Serverless
9 22 (2.89%) AWS CloudFormation
9 22 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
10 21 (2.76%) Azure Sentinel
10 21 (2.76%) IaaS
11 20 (2.62%) AWS Lambda
12 19 (2.49%) Amazon EC2
12 19 (2.49%) Azure Monitor
12 19 (2.49%) PaaS
13 15 (1.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 14 (1.84%) GitHub Actions
15 13 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
15 13 (1.71%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 199 (26.12%) Network Security
2 195 (25.59%) WAN
3 164 (21.52%) VPN
4 163 (21.39%) LAN
5 153 (20.08%) DNS
6 129 (16.93%) BGP
7 119 (15.62%) OSPF
8 101 (13.25%) VLAN
9 90 (11.81%) DHCP
10 89 (11.68%) Wireless
11 82 (10.76%) TCP/IP
12 62 (8.14%) SD-WAN
13 60 (7.87%) Cisco ISE
14 56 (7.35%) IPsec
14 56 (7.35%) Wi-Fi
15 47 (6.17%) MPLS
16 45 (5.91%) VXLAN
17 43 (5.64%) Ethernet VPN
18 38 (4.99%) Cisco ASA
19 34 (4.46%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (1.84%) Amazon RDS
2 12 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
2 12 (1.57%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.05%) DataStage
4 6 (0.79%) Power BI
5 4 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (0.52%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.52%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.52%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.52%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.39%) Delta Lake
6 3 (0.39%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.39%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.26%) Amazon QuickSight
7 2 (0.26%) MariaDB
7 2 (0.26%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.13%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.13%) MySQL
8 1 (0.13%) Redis
8 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 53 (6.96%) JIRA
2 35 (4.59%) Jenkins
3 30 (3.94%) GitLab
4 28 (3.67%) Git
5 17 (2.23%) Sonatype Nexus
6 16 (2.10%) Burp Suite
6 16 (2.10%) Metasploit
7 9 (1.18%) Bitbucket
8 8 (1.05%) Jaeger
9 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.39%) Chocolatey
11 2 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
11 2 (0.26%) Introscope
12 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.13%) MSI
12 1 (0.13%) Subversion
12 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 209 (27.43%) Social Skills
2 81 (10.63%) Finance
3 70 (9.19%) Public Sector
4 68 (8.92%) Analytical Skills
5 57 (7.48%) Documentation Skills
6 25 (3.28%) Banking
7 19 (2.49%) Legal
8 18 (2.36%) Manufacturing
9 17 (2.23%) Telecoms
10 15 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.31%) Financial Institution
11 10 (1.31%) Military
12 8 (1.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 7 (0.92%) Aerospace
13 7 (0.92%) Law
14 6 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.66%) Retail
16 3 (0.39%) Electronics
16 3 (0.39%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 244 (32.02%) Network Engineer
2 118 (15.49%) Architect
3 76 (9.97%) Senior
4 58 (7.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 55 (7.22%) Security Engineer
6 51 (6.69%) Network Architect
7 43 (5.64%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 27 (3.54%) Senior Network Engineer
9 24 (3.15%) Analyst
9 24 (3.15%) Cisco Engineer
9 24 (3.15%) Cloud Engineer
9 24 (3.15%) IT Support
9 24 (3.15%) Platform Engineer
10 23 (3.02%) Security Architect
11 21 (2.76%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 21 (2.76%) Network Specialist
11 21 (2.76%) Solutions Architect
12 20 (2.62%) DevOps Engineer
12 20 (2.62%) IT Engineer
12 20 (2.62%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (7.74%) 802.1X
2 22 (2.89%) LDAP
2 22 (2.89%) SAML
3 20 (2.62%) Middleware
4 18 (2.36%) Kafka
5 17 (2.23%) OAuth
5 17 (2.23%) OAuth2
6 15 (1.97%) OpenID
7 10 (1.31%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (1.05%) Node.js
8 8 (1.05%) Spring Boot
9 6 (0.79%) JSON
9 6 (0.79%) LangChain
9 6 (0.79%) PyTorch
9 6 (0.79%) scikit-learn
10 5 (0.66%) REST
10 5 (0.66%) YAML
11 4 (0.52%) ARM Templates
12 3 (0.39%) Lambda Expressions
13 2 (0.26%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 176 (23.10%) Data Centre
2 53 (6.96%) Security Posture
3 49 (6.43%) PKI
4 39 (5.12%) Cloud Native
5 26 (3.41%) Hybrid Cloud
5 26 (3.41%) Operational Technology
6 25 (3.28%) Clustering
7 23 (3.02%) Onboarding
8 19 (2.49%) NHS
9 18 (2.36%) IoT
10 15 (1.97%) Management Information System
11 14 (1.84%) Private Cloud
11 14 (1.84%) Security Operations Centre
12 13 (1.71%) Product Ownership
12 13 (1.71%) SCADA
13 12 (1.57%) BYOD
13 12 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.57%) Public Cloud
14 11 (1.44%) Replication
15 10 (1.31%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 225 (29.53%) Windows
2 151 (19.82%) Linux
3 89 (11.68%) Windows Server
4 26 (3.41%) Unix
5 22 (2.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (1.31%) Solaris
7 8 (1.05%) AIX
7 8 (1.05%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.66%) VMS
9 5 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
11 3 (0.39%) CatOS
11 3 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
11 3 (0.39%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.26%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.26%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.26%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.13%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (17.45%) Cybersecurity
2 119 (15.62%) Problem-Solving
3 108 (14.17%) DevOps
4 101 (13.25%) Load Balancing
5 98 (12.86%) CI/CD
6 96 (12.60%) High Availability
7 95 (12.47%) ITIL
8 87 (11.42%) Infrastructure as Code
9 84 (11.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 67 (8.79%) Change Management
10 67 (8.79%) Zero Trust
11 65 (8.53%) Agile
11 65 (8.53%) Observability
11 65 (8.53%) SIEM
12 63 (8.27%) Identity Access Management
13 60 (7.87%) Cloud Security
13 60 (7.87%) Network Segmentation
14 59 (7.74%) Technical Leadership
15 57 (7.48%) Mentoring
16 56 (7.35%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 114 (14.96%) Python
2 106 (13.91%) PowerShell
3 60 (7.87%) Bash
4 33 (4.33%) SQL
5 25 (3.28%) Java
6 24 (3.15%) Bicep
7 20 (2.62%) Perl
8 8 (1.05%) COBOL
8 8 (1.05%) Ruby
8 8 (1.05%) Rust
9 4 (0.52%) C#
10 3 (0.39%) Go
10 3 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (0.39%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.39%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.26%) C++
11 2 (0.26%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.26%) Jython
12 1 (0.13%) Groovy
12 1 (0.13%) Korn
Qualifications
1 321 (42.13%) Security Cleared
2 206 (27.03%) SC Cleared
3 158 (20.73%) Cisco Certification
4 128 (16.80%) CCNP
5 92 (12.07%) DV Cleared
6 80 (10.50%) CCNA
7 72 (9.45%) Degree
8 40 (5.25%) CISSP
9 31 (4.07%) AWS Certification
10 29 (3.81%) Microsoft Certification
11 24 (3.15%) Azure Certification
12 20 (2.62%) CCIE
13 18 (2.36%) CISM
14 17 (2.23%) JNCIS
15 16 (2.10%) CHECK Team Member
16 14 (1.84%) CREST Certified
16 14 (1.84%) Cyber Scheme
16 14 (1.84%) JNCIA
16 14 (1.84%) Network+ Certification
17 13 (1.71%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (8.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (5.77%) NIST
3 39 (5.12%) GDPR
4 33 (4.33%) PCI DSS
5 22 (2.89%) NCSC
6 21 (2.76%) Cyber Essentials
7 16 (2.10%) QA
8 14 (1.84%) SLA
9 12 (1.57%) PMO
10 5 (0.66%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.39%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.39%) GRC
13 2 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.26%) COBIT
13 2 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.26%) PSD2
13 2 (0.26%) RMADS
13 2 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 151 (19.82%) Active Directory
2 117 (15.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 66 (8.66%) Docker
4 37 (4.86%) VMware NSX
5 33 (4.33%) vSphere
6 24 (3.15%) Hyper-V
7 15 (1.97%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (1.71%) Firmware
9 8 (1.05%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (1.05%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
11 3 (0.39%) DFS Replication
12 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.13%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.13%) RHEV
12 1 (0.13%) Squid
12 1 (0.13%) UAG
12 1 (0.13%) Xen
12 1 (0.13%) XenApp
12 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 104 (13.65%) Terraform
2 70 (9.19%) Ansible
3 69 (9.06%) Kubernetes
4 45 (5.91%) FortiGate
5 27 (3.54%) Single Sign-On
6 25 (3.28%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 22 (2.89%) Grafana
7 22 (2.89%) Microsoft Intune
7 22 (2.89%) vCenter Server
8 18 (2.36%) Nmap
9 16 (2.10%) Prometheus
10 11 (1.44%) SCCM
11 10 (1.31%) Nagios
12 9 (1.18%) CASB
12 9 (1.18%) Cisco Prime
13 8 (1.05%) Kiali
13 8 (1.05%) Nessus
13 8 (1.05%) WMI
14 7 (0.92%) VxRail
15 5 (0.66%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 281 (36.88%) Cisco
2 157 (20.60%) Microsoft
3 149 (19.55%) Palo Alto
3 149 (19.55%) VMware
4 86 (11.29%) Juniper
5 84 (11.02%) F5
6 69 (9.06%) Fortinet
7 68 (8.92%) CheckPoint
8 67 (8.79%) Splunk
9 60 (7.87%) SolarWinds
10 56 (7.35%) Aruba
11 40 (5.25%) Google
12 36 (4.72%) Meraki
13 35 (4.59%) ServiceNow
14 25 (3.28%) Red Hat
15 23 (3.02%) Extreme Networks
15 23 (3.02%) Oracle
16 19 (2.49%) Citrix
17 14 (1.84%) IBM
17 14 (1.84%) Veeam