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

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 62 45 39
Rank change year-on-year -17 -6 +7
Contract jobs citing Firewall 770 588 919
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.42% 4.67% 4.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.37% 28.70% 25.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 522 349 585
10th Percentile £315 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £385 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £575 £588 £608
90th Percentile £638 £650 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £500
% change year-on-year -1.91% +2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 17 28
10th Percentile £20.68 - £23.92
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £55.47
Median hourly rate £52.36 £35.00 £83.63
Median % change year-on-year +49.60% -58.15% +51.17%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.50 £87.46
90th Percentile £85.30 £56.50 £87.53
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £35.82 £62.75
% change year-on-year +36.00% -42.91% +6.97%

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 2,535 2,049 3,647
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.27% 16.27% 17.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,605 1,243 2,123
10th Percentile £203 £193 £202
25th Percentile £350 £313 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £473 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -0.53% -
75th Percentile £575 £580 £595
90th Percentile £653 £638 £681
UK median daily rate £500 £490 £475
% change year-on-year +2.04% +3.16% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 155 126 338
10th Percentile £15.35 £14.60 £13.50
25th Percentile £17.52 £20.89 £17.70
Median hourly rate £48.72 £31.79 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.26% -27.75% +137.84%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.01 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +19.83% +7.69% +71.05%

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 1 April 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 1 April 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 1 April 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
South East +9 236 £515 +4.04% 134
North of England -22 235 £515 +8.42% 105
North West -7 157 £533 +12.70% 67
Midlands -44 96 £425 -23.42% 62
West Midlands -16 86 £425 -16.71% 37
Yorkshire -25 76 £433 -15.61% 27
South West -43 60 £550 +0.73% 42
East of England -10 59 £475 -7.32% 51
Scotland -6 53 £425 -2.86% 22
Wales -13 30 £425 +9.68% 13
East Midlands -53 7 £475 -19.83% 25
North East -12 5 £548 +9.50% 12
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 5
South Coast - 2 £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 15 (1.95%) Confluence
2 9 (1.17%) Apache
3 8 (1.04%) CICS
3 8 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.78%) IIS
5 4 (0.52%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.52%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.26%) Apache Pulsar
6 2 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.26%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.26%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Portal
7 1 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 33 (4.29%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (1.82%) MS Visio
4 13 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 212 (27.53%) Azure
2 158 (20.52%) AWS
3 58 (7.53%) GCP
4 54 (7.01%) Entra ID
5 38 (4.94%) Microsoft 365
6 34 (4.42%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 26 (3.38%) GitHub
8 24 (3.12%) Serverless
9 23 (2.99%) IaaS
10 22 (2.86%) AWS CloudFormation
10 22 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
11 21 (2.73%) Azure Sentinel
11 21 (2.73%) PaaS
12 20 (2.60%) AWS Lambda
13 19 (2.47%) Azure Monitor
14 18 (2.34%) Amazon EC2
15 15 (1.95%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 14 (1.82%) GitHub Actions
17 13 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
17 13 (1.69%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 199 (25.84%) Network Security
1 199 (25.84%) WAN
2 168 (21.82%) LAN
3 166 (21.56%) VPN
4 159 (20.65%) DNS
5 131 (17.01%) BGP
6 121 (15.71%) OSPF
7 101 (13.12%) VLAN
8 94 (12.21%) DHCP
9 91 (11.82%) Wireless
10 81 (10.52%) TCP/IP
11 62 (8.05%) Cisco ISE
11 62 (8.05%) SD-WAN
12 58 (7.53%) IPsec
13 56 (7.27%) Wi-Fi
14 47 (6.10%) MPLS
14 47 (6.10%) VXLAN
15 45 (5.84%) Ethernet VPN
16 39 (5.06%) Cisco ASA
17 36 (4.68%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (1.82%) Amazon RDS
2 12 (1.56%) PostgreSQL
2 12 (1.56%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.04%) DataStage
4 6 (0.78%) Power BI
5 4 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (0.52%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.52%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.52%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.52%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.39%) Delta Lake
6 3 (0.39%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.39%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.26%) Amazon QuickSight
7 2 (0.26%) MariaDB
7 2 (0.26%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.13%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.13%) MySQL
8 1 (0.13%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 53 (6.88%) JIRA
2 34 (4.42%) Jenkins
3 30 (3.90%) GitLab
4 27 (3.51%) Git
5 17 (2.21%) Sonatype Nexus
6 16 (2.08%) Burp Suite
6 16 (2.08%) Metasploit
7 9 (1.17%) Bitbucket
8 8 (1.04%) Jaeger
9 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.39%) Chocolatey
11 2 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
11 2 (0.26%) Introscope
12 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.13%) MSI
12 1 (0.13%) Subversion
12 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 213 (27.66%) Social Skills
2 81 (10.52%) Finance
3 70 (9.09%) Public Sector
4 69 (8.96%) Analytical Skills
5 58 (7.53%) Documentation Skills
6 24 (3.12%) Banking
7 18 (2.34%) Legal
7 18 (2.34%) Manufacturing
8 17 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 15 (1.95%) Influencing Skills
10 11 (1.43%) Military
11 10 (1.30%) Financial Institution
12 8 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.04%) Law
13 7 (0.91%) Aerospace
14 6 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.65%) Retail
16 3 (0.39%) Back Office
16 3 (0.39%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 246 (31.95%) Network Engineer
2 120 (15.58%) Architect
3 77 (10.00%) Senior
4 60 (7.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 55 (7.14%) Security Engineer
6 51 (6.62%) Network Architect
7 44 (5.71%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 30 (3.90%) Senior Network Engineer
9 26 (3.38%) Cloud Engineer
10 25 (3.25%) Cisco Engineer
10 25 (3.25%) IT Support
11 24 (3.12%) Platform Engineer
12 23 (2.99%) Security Architect
13 22 (2.86%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 22 (2.86%) Network Specialist
14 21 (2.73%) Analyst
14 21 (2.73%) Solutions Architect
15 20 (2.60%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 20 (2.60%) IT Engineer
15 20 (2.60%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (7.79%) 802.1X
2 22 (2.86%) LDAP
2 22 (2.86%) SAML
3 20 (2.60%) Middleware
4 18 (2.34%) Kafka
5 17 (2.21%) OAuth
5 17 (2.21%) OAuth2
6 15 (1.95%) OpenID
7 10 (1.30%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (1.04%) Node.js
8 8 (1.04%) Spring Boot
9 6 (0.78%) JSON
9 6 (0.78%) LangChain
9 6 (0.78%) PyTorch
9 6 (0.78%) scikit-learn
10 5 (0.65%) REST
10 5 (0.65%) YAML
11 4 (0.52%) ARM Templates
12 3 (0.39%) Lambda Expressions
13 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 181 (23.51%) Data Centre
2 53 (6.88%) Security Posture
3 50 (6.49%) PKI
4 39 (5.06%) Cloud Native
5 27 (3.51%) Hybrid Cloud
6 26 (3.38%) Clustering
6 26 (3.38%) Operational Technology
7 25 (3.25%) Onboarding
8 19 (2.47%) IoT
8 19 (2.47%) NHS
9 15 (1.95%) Management Information System
10 14 (1.82%) Private Cloud
10 14 (1.82%) Public Cloud
11 13 (1.69%) Product Ownership
11 13 (1.69%) SCADA
11 13 (1.69%) Security Operations Centre
12 12 (1.56%) BYOD
12 12 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (1.43%) Replication
14 10 (1.30%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 225 (29.22%) Windows
2 150 (19.48%) Linux
3 90 (11.69%) Windows Server
4 26 (3.38%) Unix
5 22 (2.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (1.30%) Solaris
7 8 (1.04%) AIX
7 8 (1.04%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.65%) VMS
9 5 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
11 3 (0.39%) CatOS
11 3 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.26%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.26%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.26%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.26%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (17.27%) Cybersecurity
2 120 (15.58%) Problem-Solving
3 110 (14.29%) DevOps
4 104 (13.51%) Load Balancing
5 99 (12.86%) CI/CD
6 98 (12.73%) High Availability
7 94 (12.21%) ITIL
8 89 (11.56%) Infrastructure as Code
9 87 (11.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 69 (8.96%) Zero Trust
11 68 (8.83%) Change Management
12 67 (8.70%) Observability
13 66 (8.57%) Agile
13 66 (8.57%) Identity Access Management
14 64 (8.31%) SIEM
15 62 (8.05%) Cloud Security
15 62 (8.05%) Network Segmentation
16 59 (7.66%) Technical Leadership
17 57 (7.40%) Migration
18 56 (7.27%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 113 (14.68%) Python
2 105 (13.64%) PowerShell
3 59 (7.66%) Bash
4 33 (4.29%) SQL
5 26 (3.38%) Bicep
6 25 (3.25%) Java
7 20 (2.60%) Perl
8 8 (1.04%) COBOL
8 8 (1.04%) Ruby
8 8 (1.04%) Rust
9 4 (0.52%) C#
10 3 (0.39%) Go
10 3 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (0.39%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.39%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.26%) C++
11 2 (0.26%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.26%) Jython
12 1 (0.13%) Groovy
12 1 (0.13%) Korn
Qualifications
1 326 (42.34%) Security Cleared
2 210 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 161 (20.91%) Cisco Certification
4 130 (16.88%) CCNP
5 94 (12.21%) DV Cleared
6 82 (10.65%) CCNA
7 72 (9.35%) Degree
8 40 (5.19%) CISSP
9 31 (4.03%) AWS Certification
10 28 (3.64%) Microsoft Certification
11 24 (3.12%) Azure Certification
12 20 (2.60%) CCIE
13 18 (2.34%) CISM
14 17 (2.21%) JNCIS
15 16 (2.08%) CHECK Team Member
15 16 (2.08%) Network+ Certification
16 14 (1.82%) CREST Certified
16 14 (1.82%) Cyber Scheme
16 14 (1.82%) JNCIA
17 13 (1.69%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (8.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 43 (5.58%) NIST
3 40 (5.19%) GDPR
4 33 (4.29%) PCI DSS
5 24 (3.12%) NCSC
6 21 (2.73%) Cyber Essentials
7 16 (2.08%) QA
8 14 (1.82%) SLA
9 12 (1.56%) PMO
10 5 (0.65%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.39%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.39%) GRC
13 2 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.26%) GxP
13 2 (0.26%) ISA99
13 2 (0.26%) PSD2
13 2 (0.26%) RMADS
13 2 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 153 (19.87%) Active Directory
2 116 (15.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 65 (8.44%) Docker
4 38 (4.94%) VMware NSX
5 33 (4.29%) vSphere
6 24 (3.12%) Hyper-V
7 15 (1.95%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (1.69%) Firmware
9 8 (1.04%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (1.04%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
11 3 (0.39%) DFS Replication
12 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.13%) iptables
12 1 (0.13%) KVM
12 1 (0.13%) RHEV
12 1 (0.13%) UAG
12 1 (0.13%) XenApp
12 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 104 (13.51%) Terraform
2 70 (9.09%) Kubernetes
3 68 (8.83%) Ansible
4 44 (5.71%) FortiGate
5 27 (3.51%) Single Sign-On
6 25 (3.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 23 (2.99%) Grafana
7 23 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
8 20 (2.60%) vCenter Server
9 18 (2.34%) Nmap
10 17 (2.21%) Prometheus
11 11 (1.43%) SCCM
12 10 (1.30%) Nagios
13 9 (1.17%) CASB
13 9 (1.17%) Cisco Prime
14 8 (1.04%) Kiali
14 8 (1.04%) Nessus
14 8 (1.04%) WMI
15 7 (0.91%) VxRail
16 5 (0.65%) Endace
Vendors
1 287 (37.27%) Cisco
2 158 (20.52%) Microsoft
3 148 (19.22%) Palo Alto
3 148 (19.22%) VMware
4 89 (11.56%) Juniper
5 84 (10.91%) F5
6 67 (8.70%) CheckPoint
6 67 (8.70%) Fortinet
6 67 (8.70%) Splunk
7 61 (7.92%) SolarWinds
8 54 (7.01%) Aruba
9 40 (5.19%) Google
10 37 (4.81%) ServiceNow
11 36 (4.68%) Meraki
12 25 (3.25%) Red Hat
13 24 (3.12%) Extreme Networks
14 22 (2.86%) Oracle
15 19 (2.47%) Citrix
16 14 (1.82%) IBM
16 14 (1.82%) Veeam