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 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 40 34
Rank change year-on-year -23 -6 +12
Contract jobs citing Firewall 713 644 986
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.51% 4.78% 4.74%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.37% 28.72% 27.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 482 359 628
10th Percentile £301 £285 £275
25th Percentile £400 £394 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £575 £580 £608
90th Percentile £645 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 20 48
10th Percentile £35.38 £20.00 £51.71
25th Percentile £37.25 £20.14 £62.50
Median hourly rate £45.71 £35.00 £67.38
Median % change year-on-year +30.61% -48.06% +29.26%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.62 £78.18
90th Percentile £85.70 £61.38 £87.16
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £35.82 £65.98
% change year-on-year +17.08% -45.71% +34.33%

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 2,348 2,242 3,592
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.55% 16.65% 17.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,528 1,314 2,066
10th Percentile £190 £185 £205
25th Percentile £306 £300 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £457 £469 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -1.32% -
75th Percentile £569 £579 £588
90th Percentile £663 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £486
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.88% -6.54%
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 106 324
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.39 £14.27
25th Percentile £16.25 £20.81 £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £50.91
Median % change year-on-year +51.55% -47.45% +156.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.41 £72.50 £75.88
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +4.62% -31.58% +143.59%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 20 February 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 -23 216 £500 +6.10% 125
South East +13 202 £500 - 195
North West -20 126 £525 +10.53% 87
Midlands -27 112 £438 -20.45% 52
West Midlands -10 100 £431 -5.74% 34
Yorkshire -20 88 £465 +24.00% 29
South West -35 60 £550 +10.00% 54
Scotland -18 56 £425 -2.86% 34
East of England -28 41 £445 -19.09% 59
Wales -17 20 £425 +16.44% 11
East Midlands -50 10 £488 -25.06% 18
Northern Ireland - 7 £500 - 4
North East -20 5 £548 -0.45% 11
South Coast - 3 £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 23 (3.23%) Confluence
2 10 (1.40%) Apache
3 9 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.98%) IIS
4 7 (0.98%) SharePoint
5 6 (0.84%) CICS
5 6 (0.84%) nginx
6 4 (0.56%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.28%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.14%) CMS
8 1 (0.14%) JBoss
Applications
1 32 (4.49%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (2.24%) MS Visio
3 15 (2.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.56%) Mozilla Thunderbird
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 192 (26.93%) Azure
2 166 (23.28%) AWS
3 66 (9.26%) GCP
4 42 (5.89%) Microsoft 365
5 41 (5.75%) Entra ID
6 40 (5.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 31 (4.35%) Amazon EC2
8 23 (3.23%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 22 (3.09%) AWS CloudFormation
10 21 (2.95%) Azure Sentinel
10 21 (2.95%) IaaS
10 21 (2.95%) Serverless
11 20 (2.81%) Amazon S3
11 20 (2.81%) PaaS
12 18 (2.52%) Amazon ECS
12 18 (2.52%) Azure Monitor
13 17 (2.38%) AWS Lambda
13 17 (2.38%) GitHub
14 15 (2.10%) Amazon ELB
15 14 (1.96%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 172 (24.12%) Network Security
2 154 (21.60%) WAN
3 153 (21.46%) VPN
4 147 (20.62%) DNS
5 121 (16.97%) LAN
6 107 (15.01%) BGP
7 95 (13.32%) OSPF
8 87 (12.20%) VLAN
9 86 (12.06%) Wireless
10 77 (10.80%) TCP/IP
11 73 (10.24%) DHCP
12 52 (7.29%) SD-WAN
13 49 (6.87%) Cisco ISE
14 46 (6.45%) MPLS
15 43 (6.03%) IPsec
16 39 (5.47%) Cisco ASA
16 39 (5.47%) Wi-Fi
17 38 (5.33%) Cisco Nexus
18 36 (5.05%) VXLAN
19 34 (4.77%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.09%) Amazon RDS
2 18 (2.52%) SQL Server
3 14 (1.96%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (0.84%) DataStage
5 4 (0.56%) Amazon Aurora
5 4 (0.56%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.56%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.42%) Data Lake
6 3 (0.42%) DynamoDB
7 2 (0.28%) Amazon QuickSight
7 2 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.28%) MariaDB
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.14%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.14%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.14%) Power BI
8 1 (0.14%) Redis
8 1 (0.14%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 46 (6.45%) JIRA
2 43 (6.03%) Jenkins
3 37 (5.19%) Git
4 35 (4.91%) GitLab
5 20 (2.81%) Sonatype Nexus
6 15 (2.10%) Burp Suite
6 15 (2.10%) Metasploit
7 11 (1.54%) Bitbucket
8 8 (1.12%) Jaeger
9 6 (0.84%) Vagrant
10 4 (0.56%) CircleCI
11 3 (0.42%) Chocolatey
12 1 (0.14%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.14%) MSI
12 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.14%) Subversion
12 1 (0.14%) Travis CI
General
1 207 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 78 (10.94%) Finance
3 77 (10.80%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (9.26%) Public Sector
5 59 (8.27%) Documentation Skills
6 29 (4.07%) Telecoms
7 26 (3.65%) Banking
8 23 (3.23%) Legal
9 19 (2.66%) Manufacturing
10 13 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.40%) Military
11 10 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
12 9 (1.26%) Financial Institution
13 7 (0.98%) Aerospace
13 7 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.84%) Law
15 5 (0.70%) Retail
16 4 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
16 4 (0.56%) Retail Banking
17 3 (0.42%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 211 (29.59%) Network Engineer
2 97 (13.60%) Architect
3 71 (9.96%) Senior
4 59 (8.27%) Security Engineer
5 51 (7.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 44 (6.17%) Network Architect
7 37 (5.19%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 30 (4.21%) Analyst
8 30 (4.21%) Platform Engineer
9 29 (4.07%) DevOps Engineer
10 24 (3.37%) IT Engineer
11 23 (3.23%) IT Support
11 23 (3.23%) Senior Network Engineer
12 21 (2.95%) Cisco Engineer
12 21 (2.95%) Security Architect
12 21 (2.95%) Support Engineer
13 18 (2.52%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 18 (2.52%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 18 (2.52%) Lead
13 18 (2.52%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (6.45%) 802.1X
2 25 (3.51%) LDAP
3 20 (2.81%) SAML
4 17 (2.38%) Middleware
4 17 (2.38%) OAuth
4 17 (2.38%) OAuth2
5 15 (2.10%) OpenID
6 14 (1.96%) Kafka
7 10 (1.40%) Node.js
7 10 (1.40%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (1.12%) JSON
8 8 (1.12%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.98%) REST
10 6 (0.84%) RFC 2544
11 4 (0.56%) ARM Templates
11 4 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
11 4 (0.56%) XML
12 3 (0.42%) LangChain
12 3 (0.42%) PyTorch
12 3 (0.42%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 155 (21.74%) Data Centre
2 59 (8.27%) Security Posture
3 44 (6.17%) PKI
4 26 (3.65%) Onboarding
5 25 (3.51%) Operational Technology
6 24 (3.37%) Hybrid Cloud
7 20 (2.81%) Cloud Native
8 18 (2.52%) Replication
9 17 (2.38%) NHS
10 16 (2.24%) Management Information System
11 15 (2.10%) Clustering
11 15 (2.10%) Security Operations Centre
12 14 (1.96%) Cyber Threat
12 14 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
13 12 (1.68%) Private Cloud
14 10 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
14 10 (1.40%) Fat Client
14 10 (1.40%) Product Ownership
14 10 (1.40%) Public Cloud
14 10 (1.40%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 210 (29.45%) Windows
2 150 (21.04%) Linux
3 80 (11.22%) Windows Server
4 24 (3.37%) Unix
5 18 (2.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (1.82%) VMS
7 10 (1.40%) Windows 7
8 9 (1.26%) Amazon Linux
9 7 (0.98%) Solaris
9 7 (0.98%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.84%) AIX
10 6 (0.84%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.70%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.42%) Android
13 3 (0.42%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.42%) CatOS
13 3 (0.42%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.28%) CentOS
14 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (19.64%) Cybersecurity
2 114 (15.99%) Problem-Solving
3 105 (14.73%) DevOps
4 93 (13.04%) CI/CD
5 82 (11.50%) Infrastructure as Code
6 77 (10.80%) Incident Response
7 76 (10.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 73 (10.24%) ITIL
8 73 (10.24%) Load Balancing
9 71 (9.96%) High Availability
10 68 (9.54%) SIEM
11 64 (8.98%) Cloud Security
12 62 (8.70%) Agile
13 58 (8.13%) Containerisation
13 58 (8.13%) Mentoring
14 55 (7.71%) Change Management
15 54 (7.57%) Zero Trust
16 52 (7.29%) Identity Access Management
16 52 (7.29%) Migration
17 51 (7.15%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 131 (18.37%) Python
2 109 (15.29%) PowerShell
3 64 (8.98%) Bash
4 32 (4.49%) Java
4 32 (4.49%) SQL
5 27 (3.79%) Perl
6 14 (1.96%) Bicep
7 10 (1.40%) Ruby
8 8 (1.12%) Rust
9 6 (0.84%) COBOL
9 6 (0.84%) Groovy
10 4 (0.56%) C#
10 4 (0.56%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.42%) Go
11 3 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.28%) JavaScript
13 1 (0.14%) C++
13 1 (0.14%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 300 (42.08%) Security Cleared
2 190 (26.65%) SC Cleared
3 150 (21.04%) Cisco Certification
4 122 (17.11%) CCNP
5 86 (12.06%) DV Cleared
6 69 (9.68%) Degree
7 68 (9.54%) CCNA
8 48 (6.73%) CISSP
9 32 (4.49%) Microsoft Certification
10 30 (4.21%) AWS Certification
11 27 (3.79%) CCIE
12 25 (3.51%) CISM
13 23 (3.23%) Azure Certification
14 16 (2.24%) CompTIA Security+
15 15 (2.10%) CHECK Team Member
16 14 (1.96%) JNCIS
17 13 (1.82%) CREST Certified
17 13 (1.82%) Cyber Scheme
17 13 (1.82%) Postgraduate
18 11 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (8.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 49 (6.87%) NIST
3 34 (4.77%) GDPR
4 33 (4.63%) PCI DSS
5 22 (3.09%) Cyber Essentials
6 18 (2.52%) NCSC
6 18 (2.52%) SLA
7 15 (2.10%) QA
8 11 (1.54%) PMO
9 5 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.70%) COBIT
10 3 (0.42%) GRC
10 3 (0.42%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.42%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.28%) PSD2
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.14%) ISO 20022
12 1 (0.14%) ISO 22301
12 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 138 (19.35%) Active Directory
2 105 (14.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (10.94%) Docker
4 31 (4.35%) vSphere
5 29 (4.07%) VMware NSX
6 25 (3.51%) Hyper-V
7 14 (1.96%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (1.26%) DFS Replication
9 8 (1.12%) Firmware
9 8 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.84%) Virtual Servers
11 4 (0.56%) Dovecot
11 4 (0.56%) Postfix
11 4 (0.56%) Squid
12 3 (0.42%) KVM
13 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.14%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.14%) RHEV
13 1 (0.14%) Xen
Systems Management
1 99 (13.88%) Terraform
2 76 (10.66%) Ansible
3 69 (9.68%) Kubernetes
4 36 (5.05%) FortiGate
5 25 (3.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 25 (3.51%) Grafana
6 23 (3.23%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (3.23%) Single Sign-On
7 20 (2.81%) Prometheus
8 19 (2.66%) Nmap
8 19 (2.66%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.96%) SCCM
10 13 (1.82%) Nessus
11 10 (1.40%) Nagios
11 10 (1.40%) WMI
12 9 (1.26%) Fluentd
13 8 (1.12%) Kiali
14 7 (0.98%) VxRail
15 6 (0.84%) CASB
15 6 (0.84%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 272 (38.15%) Cisco
2 155 (21.74%) Palo Alto
3 147 (20.62%) Microsoft
4 137 (19.21%) VMware
5 86 (12.06%) CheckPoint
6 83 (11.64%) F5
7 73 (10.24%) Juniper
8 62 (8.70%) Fortinet
9 58 (8.13%) Splunk
10 57 (7.99%) SolarWinds
11 48 (6.73%) Aruba
12 39 (5.47%) Meraki
13 34 (4.77%) Google
14 27 (3.79%) Oracle
15 26 (3.65%) ServiceNow
16 20 (2.81%) Red Hat
17 19 (2.66%) Dell
18 18 (2.52%) Citrix
19 16 (2.24%) Extreme Networks
19 16 (2.24%) Veeam