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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 40 35
Rank change year-on-year -24 -5 +10
Contract jobs citing Firewall 724 650 971
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.51% 4.86% 4.71%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.31% 28.75% 27.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 492 362 609
10th Percentile £310 £287 £275
25th Percentile £406 £387 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £481 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -3.75% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £608
90th Percentile £643 £649 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £518
% change year-on-year -4.31% +0.97% -1.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 19 40
10th Percentile £35.38 £20.00 £53.23
25th Percentile £37.25 £20.63 £62.50
Median hourly rate £45.71 £35.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.61% -51.72% +39.08%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.74 £84.71
90th Percentile £85.70 £62.75 £87.53
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £36.65 £65.98
% change year-on-year +14.45% -44.46% +26.57%

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 2,389 2,261 3,584
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.58% 16.90% 17.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,547 1,332 2,061
10th Percentile £193 £185 £205
25th Percentile £313 £300 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £467 £467 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -1.68% +1.06%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £660 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £480 £500 £481
% change year-on-year -4.00% +4.06% -7.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 108 308
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.41 £14.26
25th Percentile £17.26 £21.00 £20.96
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.04 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.61% -39.92% +163.16%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £74.13 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £43.12
% change year-on-year +4.62% -24.62% +123.39%

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 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 26 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 26 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 -27 227 £518 +9.05% 113
South East +11 205 £500 - 196
North West -16 140 £538 +13.16% 76
Midlands -31 107 £425 -20.60% 44
West Midlands -14 95 £425 -7.10% 31
Yorkshire -24 85 £465 +16.25% 27
South West -42 60 £550 +10.00% 41
Scotland -11 55 £425 -2.86% 26
East of England -19 45 £470 -12.56% 47
Wales -19 20 £425 +16.44% 14
East Midlands -54 10 £488 -25.06% 13
Northern Ireland - 6 £500 - 1
North East -18 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 21 (2.90%) Confluence
2 11 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.38%) Apache
4 7 (0.97%) CICS
4 7 (0.97%) SharePoint
5 6 (0.83%) IIS
6 4 (0.55%) nginx
6 4 (0.55%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.28%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.14%) CMS
8 1 (0.14%) JBoss
8 1 (0.14%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 31 (4.28%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (2.07%) MS Visio
3 14 (1.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.41%) 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
1 201 (27.76%) Azure
2 171 (23.62%) AWS
3 70 (9.67%) GCP
4 45 (6.22%) Entra ID
5 42 (5.80%) Microsoft 365
5 42 (5.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 29 (4.01%) Amazon EC2
7 22 (3.04%) AWS CloudFormation
7 22 (3.04%) IaaS
8 21 (2.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 21 (2.90%) Serverless
9 20 (2.76%) Azure Sentinel
9 20 (2.76%) PaaS
10 18 (2.49%) Amazon S3
10 18 (2.49%) Azure Monitor
11 17 (2.35%) Amazon ECS
11 17 (2.35%) AWS Lambda
11 17 (2.35%) GitHub
12 14 (1.93%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (1.80%) Amazon ELB
Communications & Networking
1 172 (23.76%) Network Security
2 161 (22.24%) WAN
3 154 (21.27%) VPN
4 145 (20.03%) DNS
5 124 (17.13%) LAN
6 110 (15.19%) BGP
7 98 (13.54%) OSPF
8 97 (13.40%) VLAN
9 92 (12.71%) Wireless
10 77 (10.64%) DHCP
10 77 (10.64%) TCP/IP
11 52 (7.18%) SD-WAN
12 51 (7.04%) Cisco ISE
13 49 (6.77%) MPLS
14 46 (6.35%) IPsec
15 42 (5.80%) Wi-Fi
16 39 (5.39%) Cisco ASA
17 38 (5.25%) Cisco Nexus
18 37 (5.11%) VXLAN
19 34 (4.70%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (2.76%) Amazon RDS
2 19 (2.62%) SQL Server
3 14 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (0.97%) DataStage
5 4 (0.55%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.55%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.55%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
6 3 (0.41%) DynamoDB
7 2 (0.28%) Amazon QuickSight
7 2 (0.28%) MariaDB
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.28%) Power BI
8 1 (0.14%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.14%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.14%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.14%) Redis
8 1 (0.14%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 45 (6.22%) JIRA
2 41 (5.66%) Jenkins
3 35 (4.83%) Git
3 35 (4.83%) GitLab
4 20 (2.76%) Sonatype Nexus
5 15 (2.07%) Burp Suite
5 15 (2.07%) Metasploit
6 11 (1.52%) Bitbucket
7 8 (1.10%) Jaeger
8 4 (0.55%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.55%) Vagrant
9 3 (0.41%) Chocolatey
10 1 (0.14%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.14%) MSI
10 1 (0.14%) Subversion
10 1 (0.14%) Travis CI
General
1 211 (29.14%) Social Skills
2 82 (11.33%) Finance
3 73 (10.08%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (9.12%) Public Sector
5 60 (8.29%) Documentation Skills
6 28 (3.87%) Banking
7 27 (3.73%) Telecoms
8 23 (3.18%) Legal
9 20 (2.76%) Manufacturing
10 14 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.38%) Financial Institution
11 10 (1.38%) Military
12 9 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.97%) Aerospace
13 7 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.83%) Law
15 5 (0.69%) Retail
16 4 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
16 4 (0.55%) Retail Banking
17 3 (0.41%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 217 (29.97%) Network Engineer
2 105 (14.50%) Architect
3 75 (10.36%) Senior
4 62 (8.56%) Security Engineer
5 50 (6.91%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 50 (6.91%) Network Architect
6 40 (5.52%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 29 (4.01%) Analyst
8 28 (3.87%) Platform Engineer
9 27 (3.73%) DevOps Engineer
10 24 (3.31%) IT Engineer
10 24 (3.31%) Senior Network Engineer
11 23 (3.18%) IT Support
12 22 (3.04%) Cisco Engineer
12 22 (3.04%) Security Architect
13 21 (2.90%) Support Engineer
14 20 (2.76%) Cloud Engineer
15 19 (2.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 18 (2.49%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 18 (2.49%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (7.32%) 802.1X
2 24 (3.31%) LDAP
3 20 (2.76%) SAML
4 18 (2.49%) Middleware
5 17 (2.35%) OAuth
5 17 (2.35%) OAuth2
6 15 (2.07%) OpenID
7 14 (1.93%) Kafka
8 10 (1.38%) Node.js
8 10 (1.38%) OpenTelemetry
9 8 (1.10%) JSON
9 8 (1.10%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.97%) REST
11 6 (0.83%) LangChain
11 6 (0.83%) PyTorch
11 6 (0.83%) scikit-learn
12 5 (0.69%) RFC 2544
13 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Graph
13 4 (0.55%) XML
13 4 (0.55%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 161 (22.24%) Data Centre
2 60 (8.29%) Security Posture
3 44 (6.08%) PKI
4 29 (4.01%) Operational Technology
5 27 (3.73%) Cloud Native
5 27 (3.73%) Onboarding
6 25 (3.45%) Hybrid Cloud
7 17 (2.35%) NHS
8 16 (2.21%) Clustering
8 16 (2.21%) Replication
9 15 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
9 15 (2.07%) Management Information System
9 15 (2.07%) Security Operations Centre
10 14 (1.93%) Cyber Threat
11 12 (1.66%) Private Cloud
12 11 (1.52%) Product Ownership
12 11 (1.52%) Public Cloud
13 10 (1.38%) BYOD
13 10 (1.38%) Distributed Systems
13 10 (1.38%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 209 (28.87%) Windows
2 150 (20.72%) Linux
3 80 (11.05%) Windows Server
4 24 (3.31%) Unix
5 20 (2.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.52%) VMS
7 10 (1.38%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.10%) Solaris
9 7 (0.97%) AIX
9 7 (0.97%) Amazon Linux
9 7 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.69%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.69%) Windows 10
11 4 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.41%) Android
12 3 (0.41%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.41%) CatOS
12 3 (0.41%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.28%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (19.34%) Cybersecurity
2 114 (15.75%) Problem-Solving
3 108 (14.92%) DevOps
4 97 (13.40%) CI/CD
5 83 (11.46%) Infrastructure as Code
6 75 (10.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 75 (10.36%) Load Balancing
7 74 (10.22%) Incident Response
8 72 (9.94%) ITIL
9 71 (9.81%) High Availability
9 71 (9.81%) SIEM
10 66 (9.12%) Cloud Security
11 63 (8.70%) Agile
12 62 (8.56%) Mentoring
13 59 (8.15%) Containerisation
14 55 (7.60%) Change Management
14 55 (7.60%) Zero Trust
15 53 (7.32%) Identity Access Management
16 51 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
17 50 (6.91%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 134 (18.51%) Python
2 112 (15.47%) PowerShell
3 67 (9.25%) Bash
4 32 (4.42%) Java
5 30 (4.14%) SQL
6 26 (3.59%) Perl
7 14 (1.93%) Bicep
8 10 (1.38%) Ruby
9 8 (1.10%) Rust
10 7 (0.97%) COBOL
11 4 (0.55%) C#
11 4 (0.55%) Groovy
11 4 (0.55%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.41%) Go
12 3 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.28%) C++
13 2 (0.28%) JavaScript
14 1 (0.14%) Korn
14 1 (0.14%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 304 (41.99%) Security Cleared
2 194 (26.80%) SC Cleared
3 158 (21.82%) Cisco Certification
4 130 (17.96%) CCNP
5 86 (11.88%) DV Cleared
6 74 (10.22%) CCNA
7 73 (10.08%) Degree
8 48 (6.63%) CISSP
9 32 (4.42%) AWS Certification
10 30 (4.14%) Microsoft Certification
11 27 (3.73%) CCIE
12 24 (3.31%) Azure Certification
12 24 (3.31%) CISM
13 15 (2.07%) CHECK Team Member
13 15 (2.07%) CompTIA Security+
13 15 (2.07%) Network+ Certification
14 14 (1.93%) JNCIS
15 13 (1.80%) CREST Certified
15 13 (1.80%) Cyber Scheme
15 13 (1.80%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (8.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 50 (6.91%) NIST
3 34 (4.70%) GDPR
3 34 (4.70%) PCI DSS
4 22 (3.04%) Cyber Essentials
5 19 (2.62%) NCSC
6 18 (2.49%) SLA
7 15 (2.07%) QA
8 11 (1.52%) PMO
9 5 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.69%) COBIT
10 4 (0.55%) JSP 440
11 3 (0.41%) GRC
11 3 (0.41%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.28%) PSD2
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 140 (19.34%) Active Directory
2 105 (14.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 80 (11.05%) Docker
4 32 (4.42%) vSphere
5 30 (4.14%) VMware NSX
6 25 (3.45%) Hyper-V
7 14 (1.93%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (1.10%) Firmware
8 8 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.97%) DFS Replication
10 6 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.83%) Virtual Servers
11 3 (0.41%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.41%) KVM
11 3 (0.41%) Postfix
11 3 (0.41%) Squid
12 1 (0.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.14%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.14%) Xen
12 1 (0.14%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 100 (13.81%) Terraform
2 77 (10.64%) Ansible
3 72 (9.94%) Kubernetes
4 38 (5.25%) FortiGate
5 25 (3.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 23 (3.18%) Grafana
6 23 (3.18%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (3.18%) Single Sign-On
7 20 (2.76%) vCenter Server
8 19 (2.62%) Nmap
9 18 (2.49%) Prometheus
10 14 (1.93%) SCCM
11 11 (1.52%) Nessus
12 10 (1.38%) Nagios
12 10 (1.38%) WMI
13 8 (1.10%) Fluentd
13 8 (1.10%) Kiali
13 8 (1.10%) Progress Chef
14 7 (0.97%) CASB
14 7 (0.97%) VxRail
Vendors
1 278 (38.40%) Cisco
2 160 (22.10%) Palo Alto
3 150 (20.72%) Microsoft
4 138 (19.06%) VMware
5 86 (11.88%) CheckPoint
6 85 (11.74%) F5
7 76 (10.50%) Juniper
8 59 (8.15%) Fortinet
9 58 (8.01%) Splunk
10 56 (7.73%) SolarWinds
11 52 (7.18%) Aruba
12 39 (5.39%) Google
13 38 (5.25%) Meraki
14 27 (3.73%) Oracle
14 27 (3.73%) ServiceNow
15 23 (3.18%) Red Hat
16 19 (2.62%) Dell
17 18 (2.49%) Citrix
18 17 (2.35%) Extreme Networks
19 15 (2.07%) Zscaler