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 11 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 51 42
Rank change year-on-year -34 -9 -10
Contract jobs citing Firewall 774 674 746
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.75% 4.36% 4.15%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 26.08% 32.26% 28.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 501 404 454
10th Percentile £350 £300 £300
25th Percentile £420 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -4.88% +7.89%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £650 £684
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 24 23
10th Percentile £29.45 £14.20 £20.00
25th Percentile £44.86 £17.18 £20.72
Median hourly rate £65.45 £30.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +118.17% -36.84% -28.01%
75th Percentile £79.78 £49.25 £85.45
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK median hourly rate £67.00 £30.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +123.33% +9.09% -58.32%

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 2,968 2,089 2,579
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.54% 13.51% 14.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,662 1,297 1,432
10th Percentile £210 £204 £213
25th Percentile £354 £325 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £465 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.58% -7.00% +10.50%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £640 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 336 134 232
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.36 £18.50 £21.37
Median hourly rate £26.00 £42.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -38.82% -25.89% +1.52%
75th Percentile £65.88 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.00 £84.40 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.66 £42.50 £51.00
% change year-on-year -37.27% -16.67% -9.72%

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 11 September 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 11 September 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 11 September 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 -6 281 £500 +3.09% 86
South East -41 180 £523 +4.50% 159
North West +10 172 £501 +5.53% 55
Yorkshire -32 88 £475 -2.96% 18
South West -19 87 £556 +14.64% 46
Midlands -76 81 £465 -2.05% 72
East of England -7 76 £530 - 40
Scotland -5 63 £400 -11.11% 24
West Midlands -84 59 £450 -5.26% 50
North East -22 27 £500 -13.04% 13
East Midlands -10 20 £500 +1.63% 22
Wales -15 10 £425 +112.50% 5
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 -17.24% 1
Northern Ireland -10 1 - - 5
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 25 (3.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (2.33%) Confluence
3 14 (1.81%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.29%) Apache
5 9 (1.16%) nginx
6 8 (1.03%) SAS
7 4 (0.52%) FactoryTalk
7 4 (0.52%) IIS
8 3 (0.39%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.39%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.26%) CloudStack
9 2 (0.26%) CMS
9 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
10 1 (0.13%) CICS
10 1 (0.13%) IBM HTTP Server
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere Application Server
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 20 (2.58%) MS Visio
2 12 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.26%) Dynamics GP
3 2 (0.26%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Retail
Cloud Services
1 279 (36.05%) Azure
2 169 (21.83%) AWS
3 87 (11.24%) Entra ID
4 70 (9.04%) Microsoft 365
5 60 (7.75%) GCP
6 38 (4.91%) IaaS
7 36 (4.65%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (4.65%) SaaS
8 32 (4.13%) Azure Monitor
9 31 (4.01%) GitHub
9 31 (4.01%) OCI
10 26 (3.36%) Azure Sentinel
11 24 (3.10%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 20 (2.58%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 18 (2.33%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 17 (2.20%) Serverless
15 16 (2.07%) AWS CloudFormation
16 15 (1.94%) Amazon EKS
16 15 (1.94%) PaaS
17 14 (1.81%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 223 (28.81%) DNS
1 223 (28.81%) VPN
2 219 (28.29%) Network Security
3 211 (27.26%) WAN
4 172 (22.22%) LAN
5 142 (18.35%) DHCP
6 132 (17.05%) BGP
7 127 (16.41%) TCP/IP
8 119 (15.37%) Wireless
9 116 (14.99%) OSPF
10 107 (13.82%) VLAN
11 88 (11.37%) SD-WAN
12 86 (11.11%) Wi-Fi
13 61 (7.88%) BIG-IP
14 59 (7.62%) Cisco ASA
14 59 (7.62%) IPsec
15 52 (6.72%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 48 (6.20%) Cisco Firepower
16 48 (6.20%) SSL
17 46 (5.94%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.20%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.55%) Relational Database
3 11 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.16%) Data Lake
5 8 (1.03%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.39%) EDRMS
8 3 (0.39%) MySQL
8 3 (0.39%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.39%) Power BI
9 2 (0.26%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.13%) DataStage
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.13%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 66 (8.53%) JIRA
2 37 (4.78%) GitLab
3 34 (4.39%) Jenkins
4 16 (2.07%) Git
5 9 (1.16%) Bitbucket
5 9 (1.16%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.78%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.52%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.39%) Burp Suite
8 3 (0.39%) Maven
9 2 (0.26%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.26%) Gatling
9 2 (0.26%) Gradle
9 2 (0.26%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.26%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.26%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.13%) Ant
10 1 (0.13%) Postman
General
1 173 (22.35%) Social Skills
2 83 (10.72%) Analytical Skills
3 76 (9.82%) Finance
4 60 (7.75%) Public Sector
5 38 (4.91%) Banking
6 28 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (3.36%) Telecoms
8 25 (3.23%) Manufacturing
9 15 (1.94%) Legal
10 14 (1.81%) Military
11 10 (1.29%) Aerospace
12 9 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (1.03%) Police
14 6 (0.78%) Retail
15 5 (0.65%) Law
16 4 (0.52%) Financial Institution
16 4 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
17 3 (0.39%) Advertising
17 3 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 240 (31.01%) Network Engineer
2 121 (15.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 121 (15.63%) Senior
3 88 (11.37%) Architect
4 53 (6.85%) Security Engineer
4 53 (6.85%) Senior Network Engineer
5 43 (5.56%) Cloud Engineer
6 36 (4.65%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 36 (4.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 33 (4.26%) Lead
8 28 (3.62%) Network Architect
9 26 (3.36%) Platform Engineer
10 24 (3.10%) Network Security Engineer
11 22 (2.84%) Consultant
12 20 (2.58%) Azure Engineer
12 20 (2.58%) Solutions Architect
13 18 (2.33%) Technical Architect
14 15 (1.94%) Developer
14 15 (1.94%) Support Engineer
15 14 (1.81%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (21.83%) Terraform
2 24 (3.10%) 802.1X
3 21 (2.71%) ARM Templates
4 15 (1.94%) SAML
5 10 (1.29%) React
6 7 (0.90%) Kafka
6 7 (0.90%) OAuth
6 7 (0.90%) OpenID
6 7 (0.90%) YAML
7 6 (0.78%) LDAP
7 6 (0.78%) OAuth2
7 6 (0.78%) REST
7 6 (0.78%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.65%) Azure Blueprints
8 5 (0.65%) gRPC
8 5 (0.65%) Middleware
8 5 (0.65%) ModSecurity
8 5 (0.65%) OpenTelemetry
9 4 (0.52%) CSS
9 4 (0.52%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 173 (22.35%) Data Centre
2 64 (8.27%) Hybrid Cloud
3 56 (7.24%) PKI
4 55 (7.11%) Cloud Native
5 31 (4.01%) Operational Technology
5 31 (4.01%) Security Posture
6 24 (3.10%) Management Information System
7 22 (2.84%) Onboarding
8 21 (2.71%) Public Cloud
8 21 (2.71%) SCADA
9 19 (2.45%) Driving Licence
10 17 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
10 17 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
11 16 (2.07%) Enterprise Storage
12 14 (1.81%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 14 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.68%) Linux Command Line
14 11 (1.42%) Private Cloud
14 11 (1.42%) Replication
15 10 (1.29%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 213 (27.52%) Windows
2 148 (19.12%) Linux
3 100 (12.92%) Windows Server
4 28 (3.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (2.07%) Unix
6 13 (1.68%) CentOS
7 12 (1.55%) Ubuntu
8 11 (1.42%) Mac OS
9 10 (1.29%) VMS
10 7 (0.90%) Rocky
10 7 (0.90%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.65%) Android
11 5 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.52%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.39%) Check Point GAiA
14 2 (0.26%) Data ONTAP
14 2 (0.26%) Solaris
14 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2003
15 1 (0.13%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (21.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 152 (19.64%) CI/CD
3 151 (19.51%) Infrastructure as Code
4 139 (17.96%) DevOps
5 132 (17.05%) Load Balancing
6 126 (16.28%) Problem-Solving
7 122 (15.76%) Cybersecurity
8 108 (13.95%) ITIL
9 101 (13.05%) Agile
10 95 (12.27%) High Availability
11 94 (12.14%) Migration
12 87 (11.24%) Zero Trust
13 80 (10.34%) Change Management
14 78 (10.08%) Technical Leadership
15 74 (9.56%) SIEM
16 71 (9.17%) Network Segmentation
17 70 (9.04%) Project Delivery
18 69 (8.91%) Validation
19 64 (8.27%) Continuous Improvement
19 64 (8.27%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 155 (20.03%) Python
2 131 (16.93%) PowerShell
3 80 (10.34%) Bash
4 37 (4.78%) Bicep
5 31 (4.01%) SQL
6 29 (3.75%) Java
7 12 (1.55%) ActionScript
8 5 (0.65%) Go
8 5 (0.65%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.65%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (0.52%) Groovy
9 4 (0.52%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.52%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.52%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.39%) Perl
10 3 (0.39%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.26%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.13%) C
12 1 (0.13%) COBOL
12 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 306 (39.53%) Security Cleared
2 200 (25.84%) SC Cleared
3 152 (19.64%) Cisco Certification
4 106 (13.70%) CCNP
5 92 (11.89%) DV Cleared
6 69 (8.91%) CCNA
7 61 (7.88%) Degree
8 45 (5.81%) CISSP
9 38 (4.91%) AWS Certification
10 32 (4.13%) Azure Certification
11 21 (2.71%) CCIE
12 19 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
13 16 (2.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 14 (1.81%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (1.55%) CISM
15 12 (1.55%) VCAP
16 11 (1.42%) Server+ Certification
17 10 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
18 9 (1.16%) CEH
18 9 (1.16%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (5.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (4.52%) NIST
3 22 (2.84%) NCSC
4 21 (2.71%) GDPR
5 15 (1.94%) QA
6 13 (1.68%) PCI DSS
7 9 (1.16%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (1.16%) JSP 440
7 9 (1.16%) SLA
8 8 (1.03%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (0.90%) Disclosure Scotland
10 6 (0.78%) Data Quality
11 5 (0.65%) NIST 800
12 4 (0.52%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.52%) GxP
12 4 (0.52%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 3 (0.39%) ISA99
13 3 (0.39%) RMADS
14 2 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 149 (19.25%) Active Directory
2 141 (18.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 59 (7.62%) Hyper-V
4 50 (6.46%) VMware NSX
5 47 (6.07%) Docker
6 41 (5.30%) vSphere
7 29 (3.75%) VMware ESXi
8 23 (2.97%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (2.33%) Firmware
10 7 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
11 5 (0.65%) Virtual Servers
12 3 (0.39%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.39%) FreeRADIUS
12 3 (0.39%) Postfix
12 3 (0.39%) VirtualBox
13 2 (0.26%) BitLocker
13 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 2 (0.26%) Squid
14 1 (0.13%) iptables
14 1 (0.13%) KVM
Systems Management
1 131 (16.93%) Ansible
2 85 (10.98%) Kubernetes
3 35 (4.52%) FortiGate
4 30 (3.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (3.10%) Progress Chef
6 21 (2.71%) Grafana
7 20 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
8 19 (2.45%) Prometheus
9 14 (1.81%) SCCM
9 14 (1.81%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.81%) VxRail
10 13 (1.68%) CASB
11 9 (1.16%) Argo
12 8 (1.03%) Istio
13 7 (0.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.90%) NetBackup
13 7 (0.90%) Packer
14 6 (0.78%) Cisco Prime
15 4 (0.52%) Cisco CUCM
15 4 (0.52%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 281 (36.30%) Cisco
2 191 (24.68%) Microsoft
3 171 (22.09%) VMware
4 160 (20.67%) Palo Alto
5 110 (14.21%) F5
6 76 (9.82%) Juniper
7 71 (9.17%) Fortinet
8 67 (8.66%) CheckPoint
9 41 (5.30%) ServiceNow
9 41 (5.30%) SolarWinds
10 40 (5.17%) Aruba
11 37 (4.78%) Splunk
12 34 (4.39%) Google
13 28 (3.62%) Arista
13 28 (3.62%) Meraki
14 23 (2.97%) Red Hat
14 23 (2.97%) Zscaler
15 19 (2.45%) Veeam
16 16 (2.07%) Citrix
16 16 (2.07%) CyberArk