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 24 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 56 42 33
Rank change year-on-year -14 -9 +21
Contract jobs citing Firewall 716 739 1,125
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.09% 4.47% 5.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 32.11% 29.60% 30.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 459 416 732
10th Percentile £293 £275 £300
25th Percentile £400 £387 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £503
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -0.50% +5.79%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £600
90th Percentile £650 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 17 56
10th Percentile - - £37.81
25th Percentile £29.00 £20.00 £62.50
Median hourly rate £41.72 £27.50 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +51.71% -58.32% +60.81%
75th Percentile £80.75 £35.00 £75.67
90th Percentile £89.63 £53.25 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £31.25 £65.98
% change year-on-year +8.80% -52.64% +86.60%

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 2,230 2,497 3,695
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.74% 15.12% 17.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,469 1,367 2,213
10th Percentile £190 £200 £205
25th Percentile £293 £342 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £581 £595
90th Percentile £643 £658 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 141 141 289
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.03 £17.24
25th Percentile £18.50 £23.10 £24.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £48.56 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -12.48% -14.04% +25.53%
75th Percentile £67.25 £67.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.67
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £42.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -20.00% -22.73% +29.18%

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 24 November 2025.

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 24 November 2025.

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 24 November 2025. 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 -19 208 £492 -1.60% 91
South East -5 179 £500 - 229
Midlands -11 143 £475 -5.00% 66
West Midlands +14 132 £475 -5.00% 50
Yorkshire -1 107 £488 +9.86% 37
North West -25 97 £523 +4.50% 48
Scotland -17 60 £438 -7.89% 26
East of England -6 54 £479 -8.81% 43
South West -23 52 £540 +2.86% 52
Wales -7 13 £225 -39.19% 22
East Midlands -40 11 £450 -12.20% 15
Northern Ireland - 11 £500 - 8
North East -9 7 £550 +22.22% 6
Channel Islands - 4 £725 -
South Coast - 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 37 (5.17%) Confluence
2 35 (4.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.37%) SharePoint
4 11 (1.54%) Apache
4 11 (1.54%) nginx
5 9 (1.26%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.56%) IIS
6 4 (0.56%) JBoss
6 4 (0.56%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.28%) CICS
7 2 (0.28%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.14%) CMS
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 27 (3.77%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.40%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 6 (0.84%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.70%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.28%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.14%) Finacle
2 1 (0.14%) Pegasus Opera
2 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 186 (25.98%) AWS
2 184 (25.70%) Azure
3 86 (12.01%) Microsoft 365
4 74 (10.34%) GCP
5 54 (7.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 48 (6.70%) Amazon EC2
7 39 (5.45%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 38 (5.31%) Amazon S3
9 33 (4.61%) Amazon ELB
9 33 (4.61%) Entra ID
10 27 (3.77%) Azure Sentinel
11 24 (3.35%) Amazon ECS
12 23 (3.21%) AWS KMS
13 18 (2.51%) Serverless
14 16 (2.23%) AWS CloudFormation
14 16 (2.23%) IaaS
15 15 (2.09%) AWS Lambda
16 14 (1.96%) Akamai
16 14 (1.96%) PaaS
17 13 (1.82%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 151 (21.09%) Network Security
2 147 (20.53%) DNS
3 134 (18.72%) VPN
4 110 (15.36%) WAN
5 94 (13.13%) TCP/IP
6 83 (11.59%) Wireless
7 72 (10.06%) BGP
8 66 (9.22%) LAN
8 66 (9.22%) VLAN
9 64 (8.94%) DHCP
10 58 (8.10%) OSPF
11 50 (6.98%) SD-WAN
12 49 (6.84%) Cisco IOS
13 41 (5.73%) Cisco ISE
14 37 (5.17%) Cisco ASA
14 37 (5.17%) SSL
15 34 (4.75%) HTTP
15 34 (4.75%) Wi-Fi
16 31 (4.33%) MPLS
17 25 (3.49%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.17%) Amazon RDS
2 23 (3.21%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.40%) Amazon Aurora
5 9 (1.26%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.56%) MySQL
7 3 (0.42%) DB2
7 3 (0.42%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.28%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.14%) Amazon QuickSight
9 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects
9 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 1 (0.14%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.14%) Redis
Development Applications
1 72 (10.06%) Jenkins
2 60 (8.38%) Git
3 56 (7.82%) JIRA
4 30 (4.19%) GitLab
5 22 (3.07%) Vagrant
6 16 (2.23%) Postman
7 15 (2.09%) Sonatype Nexus
8 10 (1.40%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.14%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.14%) Maven
9 1 (0.14%) MSI
9 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 182 (25.42%) Social Skills
2 83 (11.59%) Analytical Skills
2 83 (11.59%) Public Sector
3 66 (9.22%) Finance
4 31 (4.33%) Documentation Skills
5 30 (4.19%) Banking
5 30 (4.19%) Telecoms
6 24 (3.35%) Games
6 24 (3.35%) Manufacturing
7 23 (3.21%) Legal
8 16 (2.23%) Presentation Skills
9 9 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (0.98%) Military
11 6 (0.84%) Local Government
11 6 (0.84%) Retail
12 5 (0.70%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.70%) Law
13 4 (0.56%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 167 (23.32%) Network Engineer
2 89 (12.43%) Architect
3 66 (9.22%) Security Engineer
4 64 (8.94%) Senior
5 57 (7.96%) Platform Engineer
6 48 (6.70%) Analyst
7 44 (6.15%) DevOps Engineer
8 41 (5.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 38 (5.31%) Network Architect
10 30 (4.19%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 29 (4.05%) Support Engineer
12 25 (3.49%) IT Engineer
13 24 (3.35%) AWS Engineer
14 23 (3.21%) Network Security Engineer
14 23 (3.21%) Security Architect
15 21 (2.93%) IT Support
16 20 (2.79%) Cloud Platform Engineer
17 19 (2.65%) Consultant
17 19 (2.65%) Firewall Engineer
18 18 (2.51%) AWS DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.21%) 802.1X
2 17 (2.37%) LDAP
3 16 (2.23%) RFC 2544
4 12 (1.68%) OAuth
4 12 (1.68%) OAuth2
4 12 (1.68%) OpenID
4 12 (1.68%) SAML
5 11 (1.54%) REST
6 10 (1.40%) JSON
7 9 (1.26%) Node.js
8 8 (1.12%) Middleware
9 5 (0.70%) XML
10 4 (0.56%) Elastic Stack
10 4 (0.56%) Kafka
11 3 (0.42%) CSS
11 3 (0.42%) HTML
11 3 (0.42%) JBoss Seam
11 3 (0.42%) Lambda Expressions
11 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
12 2 (0.28%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 102 (14.25%) Data Centre
2 48 (6.70%) Security Posture
3 42 (5.87%) PKI
4 39 (5.45%) Operational Technology
5 36 (5.03%) Replication
6 35 (4.89%) Hybrid Cloud
7 23 (3.21%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.51%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (2.23%) Cloud Native
9 16 (2.23%) Management Information System
10 15 (2.09%) Cyber Threat
11 12 (1.68%) Cyber Defence
11 12 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (1.68%) Fibre Optics
12 11 (1.54%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.40%) Security Operations Centre
14 9 (1.26%) Fat Client
14 9 (1.26%) Private Cloud
14 9 (1.26%) SCADA
14 9 (1.26%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 212 (29.61%) Windows
2 146 (20.39%) Linux
3 70 (9.78%) Windows Server
4 31 (4.33%) VMS
5 30 (4.19%) Mac OS
6 27 (3.77%) Android
7 26 (3.63%) Unix
8 25 (3.49%) Amazon Linux
9 20 (2.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 15 (2.09%) Ubuntu
11 10 (1.40%) Windows 10
12 9 (1.26%) Windows 7
13 6 (0.84%) Solaris
13 6 (0.84%) Windows Server 2016
14 5 (0.70%) CentOS
14 5 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.70%) Windows Server 2019
15 3 (0.42%) AIX
15 3 (0.42%) Apple iOS
15 3 (0.42%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (18.16%) Cybersecurity
2 110 (15.36%) DevOps
3 108 (15.08%) Problem-Solving
4 90 (12.57%) Cloud Security
5 87 (12.15%) Incident Response
6 81 (11.31%) SIEM
7 78 (10.89%) CI/CD
8 71 (9.92%) ITIL
8 71 (9.92%) Migration
9 70 (9.78%) Agile
10 62 (8.66%) Infrastructure as Code
11 60 (8.38%) Change Management
11 60 (8.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 58 (8.10%) High Availability
13 55 (7.68%) Configuration Management
14 53 (7.40%) Containerisation
14 53 (7.40%) Load Balancing
15 51 (7.12%) Platform Engineering
16 50 (6.98%) Network Design
16 50 (6.98%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 161 (22.49%) Python
2 140 (19.55%) PowerShell
3 65 (9.08%) Bash
4 41 (5.73%) Perl
5 32 (4.47%) Java
6 26 (3.63%) SQL
7 22 (3.07%) Groovy
8 9 (1.26%) Ruby
9 7 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.98%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.42%) Bicep
10 3 (0.42%) C#
10 3 (0.42%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.42%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.14%) C++
11 1 (0.14%) Go
11 1 (0.14%) Korn
11 1 (0.14%) Lisp
11 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 241 (33.66%) Security Cleared
2 157 (21.93%) SC Cleared
3 125 (17.46%) Cisco Certification
4 93 (12.99%) CCNP
5 63 (8.80%) DV Cleared
6 60 (8.38%) Degree
7 51 (7.12%) CCNA
7 51 (7.12%) CISSP
8 38 (5.31%) AWS Certification
9 36 (5.03%) Azure Certification
10 34 (4.75%) Microsoft Certification
11 28 (3.91%) CCIE
12 24 (3.35%) CISM
13 19 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
14 12 (1.68%) CEH
15 11 (1.54%) GIAC
16 10 (1.40%) CISMP
16 10 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
16 10 (1.40%) GSEC
17 9 (1.26%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (7.40%) NIST
2 50 (6.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (5.87%) GDPR
4 21 (2.93%) PCI DSS
5 14 (1.96%) NCSC
6 12 (1.68%) QA
7 10 (1.40%) SLA
8 7 (0.98%) COBIT
8 7 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.70%) PSD2
10 4 (0.56%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.42%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.42%) GRC
11 3 (0.42%) GxP
11 3 (0.42%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.42%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.14%) Def Stans
System Software
1 140 (19.55%) Active Directory
2 108 (15.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 89 (12.43%) Docker
4 29 (4.05%) Hyper-V
5 25 (3.49%) DFS Replication
6 19 (2.65%) vSphere
7 17 (2.37%) VMware NSX
8 10 (1.40%) Dovecot
8 10 (1.40%) Postfix
8 10 (1.40%) Squid
9 9 (1.26%) VMware ESXi
10 8 (1.12%) Virtual Machines
11 7 (0.98%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 6 (0.84%) Firmware
12 6 (0.84%) Terminal Services
12 6 (0.84%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.56%) KVM
14 2 (0.28%) XenApp
15 1 (0.14%) SRDF
15 1 (0.14%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 91 (12.71%) Terraform
2 87 (12.15%) Ansible
3 53 (7.40%) Kubernetes
4 47 (6.56%) Microsoft Intune
5 41 (5.73%) SCCM
6 27 (3.77%) FortiGate
7 25 (3.49%) Grafana
8 23 (3.21%) Prometheus
9 21 (2.93%) Puppet
10 18 (2.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 17 (2.37%) vCenter Server
12 15 (2.09%) Single Sign-On
13 14 (1.96%) Nessus
14 10 (1.40%) CSIRT
14 10 (1.40%) Microsoft Clustering
14 10 (1.40%) Proxmox
15 9 (1.26%) WMI
16 8 (1.12%) Fluentd
17 7 (0.98%) NetBackup
17 7 (0.98%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 269 (37.57%) Cisco
2 210 (29.33%) Microsoft
3 128 (17.88%) VMware
4 123 (17.18%) Palo Alto
5 100 (13.97%) F5
6 70 (9.78%) CheckPoint
7 64 (8.94%) Splunk
8 61 (8.52%) Meraki
9 56 (7.82%) Fortinet
10 45 (6.28%) Juniper
10 45 (6.28%) SolarWinds
11 41 (5.73%) Oracle
12 33 (4.61%) ServiceNow
13 32 (4.47%) Google
14 27 (3.77%) Citrix
15 24 (3.35%) Zscaler
16 20 (2.79%) Dell
17 17 (2.37%) MuleSoft
17 17 (2.37%) Red Hat
18 16 (2.23%) Aruba