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

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 41 35
Rank change year-on-year -22 -6 +10
Contract jobs citing Firewall 718 643 996
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.52% 4.80% 4.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.50% 28.67% 27.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 362 634
10th Percentile £309 £300 £275
25th Percentile £400 £394 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £575 £580 £608
90th Percentile £644 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 20 49
10th Percentile £35.38 £20.00 £45.24
25th Percentile £37.25 £20.14 £62.50
Median hourly rate £45.71 £35.00 £67.27
Median % change year-on-year +30.61% -47.97% +29.03%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.62 £76.53
90th Percentile £85.70 £61.38 £87.11
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £35.82 £65.98
% change year-on-year +17.08% -45.71% +34.33%

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 2,354 2,243 3,628
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.54% 16.74% 17.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,531 1,321 2,088
10th Percentile £191 £185 £205
25th Percentile £306 £300 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.13% -1.05% -
75th Percentile £569 £580 £588
90th Percentile £655 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 128 107 326
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.40 £14.27
25th Percentile £16.19 £20.88 £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.54 £27.50 £50.91
Median % change year-on-year +47.42% -45.98% +156.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.48 £72.25 £75.63
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +4.62% -31.58% +143.59%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -25 217 £500 +5.26% 117
South East +16 203 £500 - 189
North West -21 127 £525 +10.53% 81
Midlands -29 111 £438 -20.45% 48
West Midlands -12 99 £425 -7.10% 33
Yorkshire -19 88 £465 +24.00% 26
South West -39 60 £550 +10.00% 53
Scotland -13 56 £425 -2.86% 36
East of England -23 45 £473 -12.09% 52
Wales -17 20 £425 +16.44% 12
East Midlands -48 10 £488 -25.06% 15
Northern Ireland - 7 £500 - 2
North East -24 5 £548 -0.45% 12
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 23 (3.20%) Confluence
2 10 (1.39%) Apache
2 10 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (0.97%) IIS
3 7 (0.97%) SharePoint
4 6 (0.84%) CICS
4 6 (0.84%) nginx
5 4 (0.56%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.28%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.14%) CMS
7 1 (0.14%) JBoss
Applications
1 32 (4.46%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (2.23%) MS Visio
3 15 (2.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.56%) 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
1 196 (27.30%) Azure
2 168 (23.40%) AWS
3 66 (9.19%) GCP
4 44 (6.13%) Entra ID
5 43 (5.99%) Microsoft 365
6 40 (5.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 31 (4.32%) Amazon EC2
8 23 (3.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 22 (3.06%) AWS CloudFormation
10 21 (2.92%) IaaS
10 21 (2.92%) Serverless
11 20 (2.79%) Amazon S3
11 20 (2.79%) Azure Sentinel
11 20 (2.79%) PaaS
12 18 (2.51%) Amazon ECS
12 18 (2.51%) Azure Monitor
13 17 (2.37%) AWS Lambda
13 17 (2.37%) GitHub
14 15 (2.09%) Amazon ELB
15 14 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 172 (23.96%) Network Security
2 156 (21.73%) VPN
3 155 (21.59%) WAN
4 147 (20.47%) DNS
5 122 (16.99%) LAN
6 107 (14.90%) BGP
7 95 (13.23%) OSPF
8 90 (12.53%) VLAN
9 87 (12.12%) Wireless
10 77 (10.72%) TCP/IP
11 73 (10.17%) DHCP
12 52 (7.24%) SD-WAN
13 50 (6.96%) Cisco ISE
14 49 (6.82%) MPLS
15 46 (6.41%) IPsec
16 39 (5.43%) Cisco ASA
16 39 (5.43%) Wi-Fi
17 38 (5.29%) Cisco Nexus
18 36 (5.01%) VXLAN
19 34 (4.74%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.06%) Amazon RDS
2 19 (2.65%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.09%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (0.84%) DataStage
5 4 (0.56%) Amazon Aurora
5 4 (0.56%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.56%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.56%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.42%) 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 46 (6.41%) JIRA
2 43 (5.99%) Jenkins
3 37 (5.15%) Git
4 35 (4.87%) GitLab
5 20 (2.79%) Sonatype Nexus
6 15 (2.09%) Burp Suite
6 15 (2.09%) Metasploit
7 11 (1.53%) Bitbucket
8 8 (1.11%) Jaeger
9 6 (0.84%) Vagrant
10 4 (0.56%) CircleCI
11 3 (0.42%) Chocolatey
12 1 (0.14%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.14%) MSI
12 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.14%) Subversion
12 1 (0.14%) Travis CI
General
1 208 (28.97%) Social Skills
2 78 (10.86%) Finance
3 75 (10.45%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (9.47%) Public Sector
5 59 (8.22%) Documentation Skills
6 28 (3.90%) Telecoms
7 26 (3.62%) Banking
8 23 (3.20%) Legal
9 20 (2.79%) Manufacturing
10 13 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.39%) Military
11 10 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
12 9 (1.25%) Financial Institution
13 7 (0.97%) Aerospace
13 7 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.84%) Law
15 5 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.70%) Retail
16 4 (0.56%) Retail Banking
17 3 (0.42%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 212 (29.53%) Network Engineer
2 101 (14.07%) Architect
3 72 (10.03%) Senior
4 58 (8.08%) Security Engineer
5 51 (7.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 47 (6.55%) Network Architect
7 37 (5.15%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 30 (4.18%) Analyst
8 30 (4.18%) Platform Engineer
9 29 (4.04%) DevOps Engineer
10 24 (3.34%) IT Engineer
11 23 (3.20%) IT Support
11 23 (3.20%) Senior Network Engineer
12 22 (3.06%) Cisco Engineer
13 21 (2.92%) Security Architect
14 20 (2.79%) Support Engineer
15 19 (2.65%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 18 (2.51%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 18 (2.51%) Lead
16 18 (2.51%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (6.55%) 802.1X
2 25 (3.48%) LDAP
3 20 (2.79%) SAML
4 17 (2.37%) Middleware
4 17 (2.37%) OAuth
4 17 (2.37%) OAuth2
5 15 (2.09%) OpenID
6 14 (1.95%) Kafka
7 10 (1.39%) Node.js
7 10 (1.39%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (1.11%) JSON
8 8 (1.11%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.97%) REST
10 5 (0.70%) RFC 2544
11 4 (0.56%) ARM Templates
11 4 (0.56%) LangChain
11 4 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
11 4 (0.56%) PyTorch
11 4 (0.56%) scikit-learn
11 4 (0.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 155 (21.59%) Data Centre
2 58 (8.08%) Security Posture
3 44 (6.13%) PKI
4 29 (4.04%) Operational Technology
5 26 (3.62%) Onboarding
6 24 (3.34%) Hybrid Cloud
7 22 (3.06%) Cloud Native
8 18 (2.51%) Replication
9 17 (2.37%) NHS
10 15 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (2.09%) Management Information System
10 15 (2.09%) Security Operations Centre
11 14 (1.95%) Clustering
11 14 (1.95%) Cyber Threat
12 12 (1.67%) Private Cloud
13 11 (1.53%) SCADA
14 10 (1.39%) Fat Client
14 10 (1.39%) IoT
14 10 (1.39%) Public Cloud
14 10 (1.39%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 210 (29.25%) Windows
2 150 (20.89%) Linux
3 80 (11.14%) Windows Server
4 24 (3.34%) Unix
5 19 (2.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (1.81%) VMS
7 10 (1.39%) Windows 7
8 9 (1.25%) Amazon Linux
9 7 (0.97%) Solaris
9 7 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.84%) AIX
10 6 (0.84%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.70%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.42%) Android
13 3 (0.42%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.42%) CatOS
13 3 (0.42%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.28%) CentOS
14 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (19.92%) Cybersecurity
2 112 (15.60%) Problem-Solving
3 105 (14.62%) DevOps
4 94 (13.09%) CI/CD
5 82 (11.42%) Infrastructure as Code
6 76 (10.58%) Incident Response
6 76 (10.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 74 (10.31%) ITIL
8 73 (10.17%) Load Balancing
9 72 (10.03%) High Availability
10 70 (9.75%) SIEM
11 64 (8.91%) Cloud Security
12 62 (8.64%) Agile
13 59 (8.22%) Mentoring
14 58 (8.08%) Containerisation
15 55 (7.66%) Change Management
16 54 (7.52%) Zero Trust
17 52 (7.24%) Identity Access Management
17 52 (7.24%) Migration
18 51 (7.10%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 131 (18.25%) Python
2 110 (15.32%) PowerShell
3 64 (8.91%) Bash
4 32 (4.46%) Java
5 31 (4.32%) SQL
6 27 (3.76%) Perl
7 14 (1.95%) Bicep
8 10 (1.39%) Ruby
9 8 (1.11%) Rust
10 6 (0.84%) COBOL
10 6 (0.84%) Groovy
11 4 (0.56%) C#
11 4 (0.56%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.42%) Go
12 3 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.28%) JavaScript
14 1 (0.14%) C++
14 1 (0.14%) Korn
14 1 (0.14%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 301 (41.92%) Security Cleared
2 189 (26.32%) SC Cleared
3 152 (21.17%) Cisco Certification
4 125 (17.41%) CCNP
5 85 (11.84%) DV Cleared
6 70 (9.75%) CCNA
6 70 (9.75%) Degree
7 46 (6.41%) CISSP
8 32 (4.46%) Microsoft Certification
9 30 (4.18%) AWS Certification
10 27 (3.76%) CCIE
11 25 (3.48%) CISM
12 23 (3.20%) Azure Certification
13 15 (2.09%) CHECK Team Member
13 15 (2.09%) CompTIA Security+
14 14 (1.95%) JNCIS
15 13 (1.81%) CREST Certified
15 13 (1.81%) Cyber Scheme
15 13 (1.81%) Postgraduate
16 11 (1.53%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (8.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 49 (6.82%) NIST
3 34 (4.74%) GDPR
4 33 (4.60%) PCI DSS
5 22 (3.06%) Cyber Essentials
6 19 (2.65%) NCSC
7 18 (2.51%) SLA
8 15 (2.09%) QA
9 11 (1.53%) PMO
10 5 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.70%) COBIT
11 3 (0.42%) GRC
11 3 (0.42%) JSP 440
11 3 (0.42%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.28%) PSD2
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 142 (19.78%) Active Directory
2 105 (14.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 79 (11.00%) Docker
4 31 (4.32%) vSphere
5 29 (4.04%) VMware NSX
6 24 (3.34%) Hyper-V
7 14 (1.95%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (1.25%) DFS Replication
9 8 (1.11%) Firmware
9 8 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.84%) Virtual Servers
11 4 (0.56%) Dovecot
11 4 (0.56%) Postfix
11 4 (0.56%) Squid
12 3 (0.42%) KVM
13 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.14%) RHEV
13 1 (0.14%) UAG
13 1 (0.14%) Xen
Systems Management
1 99 (13.79%) Terraform
2 76 (10.58%) Ansible
3 70 (9.75%) Kubernetes
4 37 (5.15%) FortiGate
5 25 (3.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 25 (3.48%) Grafana
6 23 (3.20%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (3.20%) Single Sign-On
7 20 (2.79%) Prometheus
8 19 (2.65%) Nmap
8 19 (2.65%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.95%) SCCM
10 13 (1.81%) Nessus
11 10 (1.39%) Nagios
11 10 (1.39%) WMI
12 8 (1.11%) Fluentd
12 8 (1.11%) Kiali
13 7 (0.97%) VxRail
14 6 (0.84%) CASB
14 6 (0.84%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 275 (38.30%) Cisco
2 156 (21.73%) Palo Alto
3 151 (21.03%) Microsoft
4 137 (19.08%) VMware
5 86 (11.98%) CheckPoint
6 84 (11.70%) F5
7 73 (10.17%) Juniper
8 62 (8.64%) Fortinet
9 58 (8.08%) Splunk
10 56 (7.80%) SolarWinds
11 49 (6.82%) Aruba
12 39 (5.43%) Meraki
13 34 (4.74%) Google
14 27 (3.76%) Oracle
15 26 (3.62%) ServiceNow
16 21 (2.92%) Red Hat
17 20 (2.79%) Dell
18 18 (2.51%) Citrix
19 16 (2.23%) Extreme Networks
19 16 (2.23%) Veeam