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

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 51 37
Rank change year-on-year -15 -14 +5
Contract jobs citing Firewall 765 553 901
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.20% 4.36% 4.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 29.53% 28.24% 26.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 512 344 585
10th Percentile £318 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £384 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.30% -2.25% +1.01%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £608
90th Percentile £638 £650 £733
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £515
% change year-on-year -1.96% -0.97% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 16 31
10th Percentile £19.04 - £23.92
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £52.45
Median hourly rate £56.00 £32.07 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year +74.60% -61.71% +35.10%
75th Percentile £72.00 £41.62 £87.46
90th Percentile £85.20 £59.38 £87.53
UK median hourly rate £52.36 £36.65 £60.00
% change year-on-year +42.88% -38.93% -3.23%

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 2,591 1,958 3,443
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.83% 15.42% 16.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,571 1,199 1,981
10th Percentile £208 £195 £204
25th Percentile £358 £300 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £653 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £490
% change year-on-year +2.56% -0.51% -5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 135 354
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.54 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £48.72 £27.50 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year +77.16% -40.06% +148.00%
75th Percentile £69.38 £64.38 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.61 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £40.54 £37.50 £38.00
% change year-on-year +8.11% -1.32% +100.00%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -1 245 £500 - 119
North of England -26 219 £499 +5.00% 98
North West -13 140 £525 +10.53% 44
Midlands -39 93 £425 -23.42% 43
West Midlands -19 81 £420 -20.00% 24
Yorkshire -29 73 £425 -10.53% 28
East of England -13 64 £500 -4.76% 45
South West -47 56 £550 +0.92% 40
Scotland +19 55 £425 - 16
Wales -13 32 £425 +11.11% 11
North East -10 8 £545 -0.91% 27
East Midlands -55 8 £475 -17.39% 19
Northern Ireland +3 3 £443 - 16
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 13 (1.70%) Confluence
2 9 (1.18%) Apache
2 9 (1.18%) CICS
3 8 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.65%) IIS
5 3 (0.39%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.39%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.26%) Apache Pulsar
6 2 (0.26%) CMS
6 2 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
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 29 (3.79%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.96%) MS Visio
4 13 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 220 (28.76%) Azure
2 146 (19.08%) AWS
3 53 (6.93%) Entra ID
4 49 (6.41%) GCP
5 42 (5.49%) Microsoft 365
6 28 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (3.40%) GitHub
8 24 (3.14%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 22 (2.88%) Azure Sentinel
10 21 (2.75%) IaaS
11 19 (2.48%) PaaS
12 18 (2.35%) Serverless
13 16 (2.09%) AWS CloudFormation
13 16 (2.09%) Azure Monitor
14 15 (1.96%) Nutanix
14 15 (1.96%) SaaS
15 14 (1.83%) AWS Lambda
15 14 (1.83%) GitHub Actions
15 14 (1.83%) OCI
16 13 (1.70%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 220 (28.76%) WAN
2 210 (27.45%) Network Security
3 186 (24.31%) LAN
4 169 (22.09%) VPN
5 153 (20.00%) DNS
6 132 (17.25%) BGP
7 128 (16.73%) OSPF
8 97 (12.68%) DHCP
8 97 (12.68%) VLAN
8 97 (12.68%) Wireless
9 80 (10.46%) TCP/IP
10 75 (9.80%) SD-WAN
11 66 (8.63%) IPsec
12 65 (8.50%) Wi-Fi
13 58 (7.58%) Cisco ISE
14 57 (7.45%) Ethernet VPN
14 57 (7.45%) VXLAN
15 52 (6.80%) BIG-IP
16 44 (5.75%) Cisco Nexus
17 43 (5.62%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
1 12 (1.57%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.18%) DataStage
3 8 (1.05%) Amazon RDS
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%) MariaDB
7 2 (0.26%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.13%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.13%) MySQL
8 1 (0.13%) Redis
8 1 (0.13%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 57 (7.45%) JIRA
2 33 (4.31%) GitLab
3 28 (3.66%) Jenkins
4 22 (2.88%) Git
5 16 (2.09%) Burp Suite
5 16 (2.09%) Metasploit
6 14 (1.83%) Sonatype Nexus
7 9 (1.18%) Jaeger
8 6 (0.78%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.52%) Browser DevTools
9 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.39%) Chocolatey
11 2 (0.26%) Introscope
11 2 (0.26%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.13%) MSI
12 1 (0.13%) Postman
12 1 (0.13%) Subversion
12 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 196 (25.62%) Social Skills
2 77 (10.07%) Finance
3 67 (8.76%) Analytical Skills
3 67 (8.76%) Public Sector
4 50 (6.54%) Documentation Skills
5 21 (2.75%) Banking
6 19 (2.48%) Manufacturing
7 17 (2.22%) Telecoms
8 15 (1.96%) Military
9 13 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
9 13 (1.70%) Legal
10 10 (1.31%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.05%) Law
12 7 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (0.92%) Retail
13 6 (0.78%) Aerospace
13 6 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.39%) Back Office
14 3 (0.39%) Electronics
14 3 (0.39%) Police
Job Titles
1 259 (33.86%) Network Engineer
2 105 (13.73%) Architect
3 85 (11.11%) Senior
4 70 (9.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 55 (7.19%) Security Engineer
6 46 (6.01%) Network Architect
7 41 (5.36%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 36 (4.71%) Senior Network Engineer
9 27 (3.53%) Cisco Engineer
10 26 (3.40%) Cloud Engineer
11 25 (3.27%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 23 (3.01%) IT Support
12 23 (3.01%) Network Specialist
13 22 (2.88%) Lead
14 21 (2.75%) Designer
15 19 (2.48%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 19 (2.48%) Network Security Engineer
15 19 (2.48%) Security Architect
16 18 (2.35%) Analyst
17 17 (2.22%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (7.71%) 802.1X
2 26 (3.40%) LDAP
3 20 (2.61%) Middleware
4 18 (2.35%) Kafka
4 18 (2.35%) SAML
5 11 (1.44%) OpenTelemetry
6 9 (1.18%) Spring Boot
7 8 (1.05%) OAuth
7 8 (1.05%) OAuth2
8 6 (0.78%) LangChain
8 6 (0.78%) OpenID
8 6 (0.78%) PyTorch
8 6 (0.78%) scikit-learn
9 5 (0.65%) JSON
9 5 (0.65%) Node.js
10 4 (0.52%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.52%) REST
10 4 (0.52%) YAML
11 3 (0.39%) .NET
11 3 (0.39%) Lambda Expressions
Miscellaneous
1 190 (24.84%) Data Centre
2 47 (6.14%) Security Posture
3 44 (5.75%) PKI
4 42 (5.49%) Cloud Native
5 32 (4.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 32 (4.18%) Operational Technology
6 28 (3.66%) Clustering
7 24 (3.14%) Onboarding
8 20 (2.61%) IoT
9 16 (2.09%) Management Information System
9 16 (2.09%) Public Cloud
9 16 (2.09%) SCADA
10 15 (1.96%) NHS
11 14 (1.83%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.70%) BYOD
12 13 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (1.44%) Distributed Systems
14 10 (1.31%) Cyber Threat
14 10 (1.31%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 207 (27.06%) Windows
2 131 (17.12%) Linux
3 74 (9.67%) Windows Server
4 29 (3.79%) Unix
5 15 (1.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.44%) Solaris
7 9 (1.18%) AIX
8 7 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.78%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.65%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.65%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.52%) CatOS
11 4 (0.52%) VMS
11 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
12 3 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
13 2 (0.26%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.26%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.26%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (15.56%) Cybersecurity
2 111 (14.51%) DevOps
3 103 (13.46%) Problem-Solving
4 102 (13.33%) Load Balancing
5 101 (13.20%) High Availability
6 97 (12.68%) CI/CD
7 95 (12.42%) ITIL
8 93 (12.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 87 (11.37%) Infrastructure as Code
10 74 (9.67%) Zero Trust
11 68 (8.89%) Observability
12 65 (8.50%) Agile
13 64 (8.37%) Change Management
13 64 (8.37%) Migration
14 62 (8.10%) Network Segmentation
15 60 (7.84%) Technical Leadership
16 59 (7.71%) Cloud Security
16 59 (7.71%) SIEM
17 56 (7.32%) Identity Access Management
18 54 (7.06%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 92 (12.03%) Python
2 74 (9.67%) PowerShell
3 36 (4.71%) Bash
4 33 (4.31%) SQL
5 24 (3.14%) Bicep
6 23 (3.01%) Java
7 9 (1.18%) COBOL
7 9 (1.18%) Perl
8 8 (1.05%) Rust
9 5 (0.65%) Ruby
10 4 (0.52%) C#
10 4 (0.52%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.39%) Go
11 3 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.39%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.39%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.26%) C++
12 2 (0.26%) Jython
13 1 (0.13%) C
13 1 (0.13%) Korn
Qualifications
1 308 (40.26%) Security Cleared
2 208 (27.19%) SC Cleared
3 170 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
4 129 (16.86%) CCNP
5 85 (11.11%) CCNA
6 82 (10.72%) DV Cleared
7 68 (8.89%) Degree
8 37 (4.84%) CISSP
9 23 (3.01%) AWS Certification
10 21 (2.75%) Azure Certification
11 20 (2.61%) CISM
12 17 (2.22%) Network+ Certification
13 16 (2.09%) CHECK Team Member
13 16 (2.09%) JNCIS
14 15 (1.96%) CCIE
14 15 (1.96%) Microsoft Certification
15 14 (1.83%) CREST Certified
15 14 (1.83%) Cyber Scheme
16 13 (1.70%) CompTIA Security+
16 13 (1.70%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (7.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 38 (4.97%) NIST
3 37 (4.84%) GDPR
4 28 (3.66%) PCI DSS
5 20 (2.61%) NCSC
6 19 (2.48%) Cyber Essentials
6 19 (2.48%) QA
7 15 (1.96%) SLA
8 12 (1.57%) PMO
9 6 (0.78%) Data Quality
9 6 (0.78%) Disclosure Scotland
10 5 (0.65%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 4 (0.52%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.39%) GRC
12 3 (0.39%) ISA99
12 3 (0.39%) RMADS
13 2 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.26%) GxP
13 2 (0.26%) NIST 800
System Software
1 137 (17.91%) Active Directory
2 102 (13.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (6.01%) Docker
4 40 (5.23%) VMware NSX
5 27 (3.53%) vSphere
6 20 (2.61%) Hyper-V
7 16 (2.09%) Firmware
7 16 (2.09%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
9 8 (1.05%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.39%) DFS Replication
10 3 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.13%) KVM
11 1 (0.13%) Squid
11 1 (0.13%) UAG
11 1 (0.13%) Xen
11 1 (0.13%) XenApp
11 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 99 (12.94%) Terraform
2 75 (9.80%) Ansible
3 55 (7.19%) Kubernetes
4 48 (6.27%) FortiGate
5 23 (3.01%) Grafana
6 21 (2.75%) Single Sign-On
7 20 (2.61%) Microsoft Intune
8 19 (2.48%) vCenter Server
9 18 (2.35%) Nmap
10 17 (2.22%) Prometheus
11 16 (2.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 11 (1.44%) Nagios
13 10 (1.31%) CASB
13 10 (1.31%) SCCM
14 9 (1.18%) Cisco Prime
14 9 (1.18%) Kiali
15 8 (1.05%) Nessus
16 7 (0.92%) VxRail
17 6 (0.78%) Progress Chef
18 5 (0.65%) Endace
Vendors
1 300 (39.22%) Cisco
2 159 (20.78%) Palo Alto
3 145 (18.95%) Microsoft
4 134 (17.52%) VMware
5 99 (12.94%) F5
6 94 (12.29%) Juniper
7 75 (9.80%) CheckPoint
8 72 (9.41%) Fortinet
9 68 (8.89%) Splunk
10 64 (8.37%) SolarWinds
11 61 (7.97%) Aruba
12 39 (5.10%) ServiceNow
13 31 (4.05%) Google
14 27 (3.53%) Meraki
15 26 (3.40%) Extreme Networks
16 20 (2.61%) Oracle
17 19 (2.48%) Arista
18 18 (2.35%) Red Hat
19 17 (2.22%) Veeam
20 16 (2.09%) Citrix