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 26 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 78 48 43
Rank change year-on-year -30 -5 -8
Contract jobs citing Firewall 786 691 739
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.84% 4.51% 4.07%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 26.86% 32.94% 27.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 508 406 466
10th Percentile £350 £316 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.15% -4.49% +7.89%
75th Percentile £594 £588 £608
90th Percentile £657 £648 £744
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 26 23
10th Percentile £28.90 £14.20 £20.63
25th Percentile £44.86 £15.18 £23.92
Median hourly rate £65.57 £30.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +118.57% -36.84% -28.02%
75th Percentile £82.04 £61.25 £85.45
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK median hourly rate £65.69 £30.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +118.97% +9.09% -58.33%

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 2,926 2,098 2,701
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.59% 13.70% 14.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,643 1,274 1,562
10th Percentile £213 £204 £206
25th Percentile £358 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £472 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.58% -5.55% +9.89%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £642 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 315 138 262
10th Percentile £14.91 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.19 £21.28
Median hourly rate £25.77 £44.50 £54.94
Median % change year-on-year -42.09% -19.00% -4.46%
75th Percentile £65.55 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £87.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £50.00
% change year-on-year -43.78% -7.50% -11.49%

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 26 August 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 26 August 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 26 August 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 -9 279 £500 +3.09% 58
South East -45 199 £520 +4.00% 89
North West +3 173 £506 +6.58% 31
Yorkshire -28 86 £450 -7.64% 19
South West -22 85 £550 +10.00% 38
East of England -3 78 £525 -4.55% 31
Midlands -83 72 £468 -1.47% 62
Scotland -2 63 £400 -13.51% 10
West Midlands -86 55 £450 -5.26% 46
North East -18 26 £500 -13.04% 9
Wales -12 17 £425 +61.90% 1
East Midlands -18 15 £500 +1.63% 16
Northern Ireland -10 1 - - 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 21 (2.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 16 (2.04%) Confluence
3 11 (1.40%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.27%) Apache
5 9 (1.15%) nginx
6 8 (1.02%) SAS
7 4 (0.51%) FactoryTalk
7 4 (0.51%) IIS
8 3 (0.38%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.25%) CICS
9 2 (0.25%) CloudStack
9 2 (0.25%) CMS
9 2 (0.25%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.25%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.25%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.25%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.25%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.25%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.25%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 21 (2.67%) MS Visio
2 12 (1.53%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.89%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.25%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.25%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 275 (34.99%) Azure
2 169 (21.50%) AWS
3 79 (10.05%) Entra ID
4 65 (8.27%) Microsoft 365
5 59 (7.51%) GCP
6 41 (5.22%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (4.07%) GitHub
7 32 (4.07%) OCI
7 32 (4.07%) SaaS
8 31 (3.94%) Azure Monitor
9 29 (3.69%) IaaS
10 25 (3.18%) Azure Sentinel
11 22 (2.80%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 22 (2.80%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 21 (2.67%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 18 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (2.29%) Serverless
14 16 (2.04%) Amazon EKS
15 15 (1.91%) AWS CloudFormation
15 15 (1.91%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 222 (28.24%) WAN
2 221 (28.12%) Network Security
2 221 (28.12%) VPN
3 217 (27.61%) DNS
4 186 (23.66%) LAN
5 142 (18.07%) BGP
5 142 (18.07%) DHCP
6 130 (16.54%) TCP/IP
7 125 (15.90%) OSPF
8 112 (14.25%) Wireless
9 107 (13.61%) VLAN
10 92 (11.70%) SD-WAN
11 90 (11.45%) Wi-Fi
12 65 (8.27%) BIG-IP
13 59 (7.51%) IPsec
14 58 (7.38%) Cisco ASA
15 50 (6.36%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 49 (6.23%) MPLS
16 49 (6.23%) VXLAN
17 48 (6.11%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (1.78%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.53%) Relational Database
3 11 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
5 6 (0.76%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.64%) Data Lake
6 5 (0.64%) Oracle Database
6 5 (0.64%) Power BI
7 4 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.51%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.38%) EDRMS
8 3 (0.38%) MySQL
9 2 (0.25%) DataStage
9 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.13%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 67 (8.52%) JIRA
2 39 (4.96%) GitLab
3 32 (4.07%) Jenkins
4 16 (2.04%) Git
5 9 (1.15%) Bitbucket
6 8 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (0.76%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.38%) Burp Suite
10 2 (0.25%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.25%) Gatling
10 2 (0.25%) Gradle
10 2 (0.25%) Introscope
10 2 (0.25%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.25%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 2 (0.25%) Team Foundation Server
11 1 (0.13%) Ant
11 1 (0.13%) MSI
General
1 172 (21.88%) Social Skills
2 86 (10.94%) Analytical Skills
3 80 (10.18%) Finance
4 67 (8.52%) Public Sector
5 35 (4.45%) Banking
6 28 (3.56%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.18%) Telecoms
8 22 (2.80%) Manufacturing
9 14 (1.78%) Military
10 13 (1.65%) Legal
11 9 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 9 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.15%) Retail
12 8 (1.02%) Aerospace
12 8 (1.02%) Police
13 5 (0.64%) Law
14 4 (0.51%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.51%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
15 3 (0.38%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 250 (31.81%) Network Engineer
2 116 (14.76%) Senior
3 111 (14.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 88 (11.20%) Architect
5 54 (6.87%) Senior Network Engineer
6 50 (6.36%) Security Engineer
7 39 (4.96%) Cloud Engineer
8 35 (4.45%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 35 (4.45%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 32 (4.07%) Lead
10 27 (3.44%) Network Architect
11 25 (3.18%) Platform Engineer
12 22 (2.80%) Consultant
12 22 (2.80%) Network Security Engineer
13 20 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
14 18 (2.29%) Technical Architect
15 17 (2.16%) Azure Engineer
16 15 (1.91%) Cisco Engineer
16 15 (1.91%) Data Centre Engineer
16 15 (1.91%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 168 (21.37%) Terraform
2 31 (3.94%) 802.1X
3 18 (2.29%) ARM Templates
4 17 (2.16%) SAML
5 10 (1.27%) Kafka
5 10 (1.27%) React
6 8 (1.02%) YAML
7 7 (0.89%) LDAP
7 7 (0.89%) Middleware
7 7 (0.89%) OAuth
7 7 (0.89%) OpenID
8 6 (0.76%) OAuth2
8 6 (0.76%) SailPoint
9 5 (0.64%) ModSecurity
9 5 (0.64%) OpenTelemetry
9 5 (0.64%) REST
10 4 (0.51%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.51%) gRPC
10 4 (0.51%) Redfish
10 4 (0.51%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 177 (22.52%) Data Centre
2 61 (7.76%) Hybrid Cloud
2 61 (7.76%) PKI
3 54 (6.87%) Cloud Native
4 32 (4.07%) Security Posture
5 30 (3.82%) Operational Technology
6 21 (2.67%) Management Information System
6 21 (2.67%) Onboarding
6 21 (2.67%) SCADA
7 20 (2.54%) Driving Licence
8 18 (2.29%) Enterprise Storage
8 18 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
9 16 (2.04%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (2.04%) Public Cloud
10 14 (1.78%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 14 (1.78%) IoT
11 13 (1.65%) Clustering
11 13 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (1.40%) Private Cloud
12 11 (1.40%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 219 (27.86%) Windows
2 142 (18.07%) Linux
3 96 (12.21%) Windows Server
4 28 (3.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (1.91%) Unix
6 11 (1.40%) CentOS
6 11 (1.40%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.27%) Ubuntu
8 8 (1.02%) VMS
9 7 (0.89%) Rocky
10 6 (0.76%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.64%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.51%) Android
12 4 (0.51%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.38%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.38%) Check Point GAiA
13 3 (0.38%) Solaris
13 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.25%) Data ONTAP
14 2 (0.25%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (19.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 149 (18.96%) CI/CD
3 143 (18.19%) Infrastructure as Code
4 139 (17.68%) DevOps
5 135 (17.18%) Load Balancing
6 121 (15.39%) Problem-Solving
7 120 (15.27%) Cybersecurity
8 117 (14.89%) ITIL
9 104 (13.23%) High Availability
10 97 (12.34%) Agile
11 90 (11.45%) Migration
12 88 (11.20%) Zero Trust
13 78 (9.92%) Change Management
13 78 (9.92%) Technical Leadership
14 74 (9.41%) SIEM
15 70 (8.91%) Project Delivery
16 69 (8.78%) Validation
17 67 (8.52%) Network Segmentation
17 67 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
18 66 (8.40%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 152 (19.34%) Python
2 126 (16.03%) PowerShell
3 79 (10.05%) Bash
4 36 (4.58%) Bicep
5 30 (3.82%) SQL
6 26 (3.31%) Java
7 9 (1.15%) ActionScript
8 5 (0.64%) Go
8 5 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.64%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (0.51%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.51%) Perl
9 4 (0.51%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.38%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.25%) COBOL
11 2 (0.25%) Groovy
11 2 (0.25%) Jython
11 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.25%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 306 (38.93%) Security Cleared
2 197 (25.06%) SC Cleared
3 154 (19.59%) Cisco Certification
4 105 (13.36%) CCNP
5 92 (11.70%) DV Cleared
6 72 (9.16%) CCNA
7 61 (7.76%) Degree
8 44 (5.60%) CISSP
9 39 (4.96%) AWS Certification
10 32 (4.07%) Azure Certification
11 18 (2.29%) CCIE
12 17 (2.16%) Microsoft Certification
13 15 (1.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 14 (1.78%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (1.53%) CISM
15 12 (1.53%) VCAP
16 11 (1.40%) Server+ Certification
17 10 (1.27%) JNCIS
17 10 (1.27%) PMP
18 9 (1.15%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (5.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 34 (4.33%) NIST
3 26 (3.31%) GDPR
4 22 (2.80%) NCSC
5 15 (1.91%) QA
6 14 (1.78%) PCI DSS
7 9 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (1.15%) JSP 440
8 8 (1.02%) Data Quality
8 8 (1.02%) Disclosure Scotland
8 8 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (0.89%) SLA
10 5 (0.64%) GxP
11 4 (0.51%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 4 (0.51%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.38%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.38%) RMADS
12 3 (0.38%) SOC 2
System Software
1 148 (18.83%) Active Directory
2 137 (17.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 54 (6.87%) Hyper-V
4 52 (6.62%) VMware NSX
5 41 (5.22%) Docker
6 38 (4.83%) vSphere
7 25 (3.18%) VMware ESXi
8 19 (2.42%) Firmware
9 18 (2.29%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
12 3 (0.38%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.38%) FreeRADIUS
12 3 (0.38%) Postfix
12 3 (0.38%) VirtualBox
13 2 (0.25%) BitLocker
13 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 2 (0.25%) Squid
14 1 (0.13%) iptables
14 1 (0.13%) KVM
Systems Management
1 126 (16.03%) Ansible
2 76 (9.67%) Kubernetes
3 42 (5.34%) FortiGate
4 33 (4.20%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (2.93%) Progress Chef
6 21 (2.67%) Single Sign-On
7 19 (2.42%) Grafana
8 18 (2.29%) Prometheus
9 14 (1.78%) VxRail
10 13 (1.65%) CASB
11 12 (1.53%) SCCM
11 12 (1.53%) vCenter Server
12 9 (1.15%) Argo
13 7 (0.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.89%) Istio
13 7 (0.89%) NetBackup
13 7 (0.89%) Packer
14 6 (0.76%) Cisco Prime
15 4 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
15 4 (0.51%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 284 (36.13%) Cisco
2 187 (23.79%) Microsoft
3 169 (21.50%) VMware
4 156 (19.85%) Palo Alto
5 109 (13.87%) F5
6 79 (10.05%) Juniper
7 72 (9.16%) Fortinet
8 67 (8.52%) CheckPoint
9 46 (5.85%) SolarWinds
10 45 (5.73%) ServiceNow
11 43 (5.47%) Aruba
11 43 (5.47%) Splunk
12 34 (4.33%) Google
13 29 (3.69%) Meraki
14 28 (3.56%) Arista
15 23 (2.93%) Zscaler
16 22 (2.80%) Red Hat
17 18 (2.29%) Veeam
18 17 (2.16%) Citrix
18 17 (2.16%) Infoblox