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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 41 40
Rank change year-on-year -31 -1 -5
Contract jobs citing Firewall 825 715 827
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.06% 4.81% 4.16%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.21% 33.33% 26.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 547 403 522
10th Percentile £350 £303 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -4.88% +7.89%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £646 £638 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £515
% change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 26 31
10th Percentile £28.10 £14.20 £22.40
25th Percentile £39.44 £15.18 £25.08
Median hourly rate £63.75 £30.00 £76.99
Median % change year-on-year +112.50% -61.03% +18.45%
75th Percentile £75.32 £42.93 £87.46
90th Percentile £98.19 £89.63 £87.53
UK median hourly rate £61.25 £30.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +104.17% -50.00% -9.09%

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 2,924 2,145 3,085
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.84% 14.44% 15.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,690 1,286 1,765
10th Percentile £213 £200 £205
25th Percentile £375 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +8.70%
75th Percentile £581 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 280 138 331
10th Percentile £15.98 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £19.34 £17.42 £17.66
Median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -17.27%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £87.65 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.22 £46.25 £40.00
% change year-on-year -43.31% +15.63% -16.52%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -14 294 £500 +5.26% 84
South East -31 232 £500 - 142
North West -5 190 £537 +13.05% 43
Yorkshire -37 88 £450 -8.07% 30
Midlands -62 78 £450 -9.27% 46
East of England -11 72 £525 -4.55% 34
South West -42 69 £525 +5.00% 45
Scotland +7 68 £438 -1.41% 22
West Midlands -62 62 £434 -15.78% 29
North East -21 22 £625 - 13
Wales -20 19 £425 +17.24% 11
East Midlands -24 13 £500 +6.16% 17
Northern Ireland -7 1 - - 7
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 14 (1.70%) Confluence
2 13 (1.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.09%) CICS
3 9 (1.09%) SharePoint
4 8 (0.97%) Apache
5 7 (0.85%) nginx
6 3 (0.36%) FactoryTalk
6 3 (0.36%) IIS
6 3 (0.36%) SAS
6 3 (0.36%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.36%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.24%) Apache Pulsar
7 2 (0.24%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.24%) CMS
7 2 (0.24%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.24%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.24%) Umbraco
7 2 (0.24%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.24%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.24%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 20 (2.42%) MS Visio
2 12 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.24%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 276 (33.45%) Azure
2 160 (19.39%) AWS
3 75 (9.09%) Entra ID
4 67 (8.12%) GCP
5 54 (6.55%) Microsoft 365
6 34 (4.12%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (3.76%) GitHub
8 29 (3.52%) OCI
9 28 (3.39%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 28 (3.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 26 (3.15%) Azure Monitor
10 26 (3.15%) IaaS
11 25 (3.03%) SaaS
12 23 (2.79%) Azure Sentinel
13 18 (2.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 16 (1.94%) AWS CloudFormation
15 14 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
16 13 (1.58%) Microsoft Purview
16 13 (1.58%) Power Platform
16 13 (1.58%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 247 (29.94%) WAN
2 229 (27.76%) Network Security
3 213 (25.82%) VPN
4 209 (25.33%) LAN
5 203 (24.61%) DNS
6 155 (18.79%) BGP
7 139 (16.85%) OSPF
8 131 (15.88%) DHCP
9 124 (15.03%) Wireless
10 119 (14.42%) TCP/IP
11 114 (13.82%) VLAN
12 93 (11.27%) SD-WAN
13 88 (10.67%) Wi-Fi
14 78 (9.45%) BIG-IP
15 64 (7.76%) IPsec
16 62 (7.52%) VXLAN
17 57 (6.91%) MPLS
18 56 (6.79%) Cisco ISE
18 56 (6.79%) Ethernet VPN
19 54 (6.55%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.33%) SQL Server
2 10 (1.21%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (1.09%) DataStage
3 9 (1.09%) Relational Database
4 7 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
4 7 (0.85%) Power BI
5 6 (0.73%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.48%) Delta Lake
6 4 (0.48%) MySQL
6 4 (0.48%) NoSQL
6 4 (0.48%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.12%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.12%) Redis
7 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.12%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 68 (8.24%) JIRA
2 30 (3.64%) GitLab
3 28 (3.39%) Jenkins
4 16 (1.94%) Git
5 11 (1.33%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.61%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.48%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.48%) Burp Suite
8 3 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.24%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.24%) Gatling
9 2 (0.24%) Gradle
9 2 (0.24%) Introscope
9 2 (0.24%) Jaeger
9 2 (0.24%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.24%) Metasploit
9 2 (0.24%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.24%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.24%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.12%) Postman
General
1 170 (20.61%) Social Skills
2 86 (10.42%) Finance
3 72 (8.73%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (8.36%) Public Sector
5 38 (4.61%) Documentation Skills
6 28 (3.39%) Telecoms
7 26 (3.15%) Banking
8 21 (2.55%) Manufacturing
9 17 (2.06%) Military
10 13 (1.58%) Legal
11 12 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
12 8 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 7 (0.85%) Police
13 7 (0.85%) Retail
14 4 (0.48%) Aerospace
14 4 (0.48%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.36%) Advertising
15 3 (0.36%) Law
15 3 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 273 (33.09%) Network Engineer
2 111 (13.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 111 (13.45%) Senior
3 103 (12.48%) Architect
4 69 (8.36%) Security Engineer
5 53 (6.42%) Senior Network Engineer
6 41 (4.97%) Network Architect
7 38 (4.61%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 37 (4.48%) Cloud Engineer
9 32 (3.88%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 26 (3.15%) Lead
11 24 (2.91%) Consultant
11 24 (2.91%) Network Security Engineer
12 20 (2.42%) Designer
12 20 (2.42%) Technical Architect
13 19 (2.30%) Network Specialist
14 18 (2.18%) Firewall Specialist
14 18 (2.18%) Security Architect
15 17 (2.06%) Cisco Engineer
16 16 (1.94%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (6.91%) 802.1X
2 19 (2.30%) LDAP
3 13 (1.58%) ARM Templates
3 13 (1.58%) Middleware
3 13 (1.58%) SAML
4 10 (1.21%) Kafka
5 9 (1.09%) LangChain
5 9 (1.09%) PyTorch
5 9 (1.09%) scikit-learn
6 6 (0.73%) SailPoint
6 6 (0.73%) YAML
7 5 (0.61%) OAuth
7 5 (0.61%) OpenTelemetry
7 5 (0.61%) React
8 4 (0.48%) OAuth2
8 4 (0.48%) Redfish
8 4 (0.48%) Spring Boot
9 3 (0.36%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.36%) LEMP Stack
9 3 (0.36%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 206 (24.97%) Data Centre
2 70 (8.48%) Cloud Native
3 59 (7.15%) PKI
4 55 (6.67%) Hybrid Cloud
5 51 (6.18%) Security Posture
6 33 (4.00%) Operational Technology
7 29 (3.52%) Clustering
8 25 (3.03%) Onboarding
9 22 (2.67%) Management Information System
9 22 (2.67%) SCADA
10 19 (2.30%) IoT
11 18 (2.18%) Enterprise Storage
11 18 (2.18%) Public Cloud
12 16 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
13 14 (1.70%) BYOD
13 14 (1.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 14 (1.70%) Driving Licence
13 14 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
14 11 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (1.33%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 213 (25.82%) Windows
2 134 (16.24%) Linux
3 74 (8.97%) Windows Server
4 32 (3.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (2.91%) Unix
6 10 (1.21%) Solaris
7 9 (1.09%) AIX
7 9 (1.09%) CentOS
7 9 (1.09%) Ubuntu
7 9 (1.09%) VMS
8 7 (0.85%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.73%) Rocky
10 5 (0.61%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.36%) Check Point GAiA
11 3 (0.36%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.24%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (17.09%) CI/CD
1 141 (17.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 137 (16.61%) Load Balancing
3 133 (16.12%) DevOps
4 122 (14.79%) Problem-Solving
5 121 (14.67%) Infrastructure as Code
6 120 (14.55%) High Availability
7 119 (14.42%) Cybersecurity
8 115 (13.94%) ITIL
9 97 (11.76%) Agile
10 87 (10.55%) Migration
11 83 (10.06%) Change Management
12 82 (9.94%) Zero Trust
13 80 (9.70%) SIEM
14 79 (9.58%) Observability
15 71 (8.61%) Roadmaps
16 69 (8.36%) Network Segmentation
17 68 (8.24%) Validation
18 63 (7.64%) Project Delivery
19 59 (7.15%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 142 (17.21%) Python
2 103 (12.48%) PowerShell
3 63 (7.64%) Bash
4 34 (4.12%) Bicep
5 25 (3.03%) Java
6 24 (2.91%) SQL
7 9 (1.09%) ActionScript
7 9 (1.09%) COBOL
8 5 (0.61%) Perl
9 4 (0.48%) Go
10 3 (0.36%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.36%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.24%) C++
11 2 (0.24%) Groovy
11 2 (0.24%) Jython
12 1 (0.12%) C
12 1 (0.12%) Korn
12 1 (0.12%) Rust
12 1 (0.12%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 313 (37.94%) Security Cleared
2 199 (24.12%) SC Cleared
3 182 (22.06%) Cisco Certification
4 124 (15.03%) CCNP
5 92 (11.15%) CCNA
6 90 (10.91%) DV Cleared
7 66 (8.00%) Degree
8 43 (5.21%) CISSP
9 33 (4.00%) AWS Certification
10 28 (3.39%) Azure Certification
11 20 (2.42%) Microsoft Certification
12 19 (2.30%) CCIE
13 18 (2.18%) Network+ Certification
14 16 (1.94%) CISM
15 15 (1.82%) JNCIS
15 15 (1.82%) Server+ Certification
16 13 (1.58%) JNCIA
16 13 (1.58%) PMP
17 11 (1.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
18 10 (1.21%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (5.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (4.00%) NIST
3 23 (2.79%) GDPR
3 23 (2.79%) NCSC
4 15 (1.82%) QA
5 13 (1.58%) Cyber Essentials
5 13 (1.58%) PCI DSS
6 8 (0.97%) Data Quality
6 8 (0.97%) Disclosure Scotland
7 6 (0.73%) JSP 440
8 5 (0.61%) GxP
8 5 (0.61%) SLA
9 4 (0.48%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 4 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.48%) SOC 2
10 3 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.36%) ISA99
10 3 (0.36%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.36%) RMADS
System Software
1 145 (17.58%) Active Directory
2 116 (14.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 47 (5.70%) VMware NSX
4 36 (4.36%) Docker
5 34 (4.12%) vSphere
6 30 (3.64%) Hyper-V
7 22 (2.67%) VMware ESXi
8 19 (2.30%) Firmware
9 17 (2.06%) Virtual Machines
10 9 (1.09%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.36%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.36%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.36%) Postfix
12 2 (0.24%) Squid
12 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.24%) VirtualBox
13 1 (0.12%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 1 (0.12%) FreeRADIUS
13 1 (0.12%) iptables
13 1 (0.12%) KVM
Systems Management
1 150 (18.18%) Terraform
2 103 (12.48%) Ansible
3 58 (7.03%) Kubernetes
4 54 (6.55%) FortiGate
5 30 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
6 18 (2.18%) Grafana
7 17 (2.06%) Prometheus
8 16 (1.94%) Single Sign-On
9 15 (1.82%) CASB
10 14 (1.70%) Progress Chef
10 14 (1.70%) SCCM
11 11 (1.33%) vCenter Server
12 8 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 8 (0.97%) Cisco Prime
12 8 (0.97%) VxRail
13 7 (0.85%) Nessus
14 6 (0.73%) Argo
14 6 (0.73%) Packer
15 5 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
15 5 (0.61%) Nagios
Vendors
1 303 (36.73%) Cisco
2 169 (20.48%) Microsoft
3 155 (18.79%) VMware
4 149 (18.06%) Palo Alto
5 125 (15.15%) F5
6 106 (12.85%) Juniper
7 75 (9.09%) Fortinet
8 69 (8.36%) CheckPoint
9 62 (7.52%) SolarWinds
10 57 (6.91%) Aruba
11 53 (6.42%) Splunk
12 50 (6.06%) ServiceNow
13 47 (5.70%) Google
14 34 (4.12%) Arista
15 27 (3.27%) Red Hat
16 26 (3.15%) Extreme Networks
17 24 (2.91%) Zscaler
18 22 (2.67%) Meraki
19 21 (2.55%) Veeam
20 18 (2.18%) IBM