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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 52 43 32
Rank change year-on-year -9 -11 +22
Contract jobs citing Firewall 734 735 1,150
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.22% 4.41% 5.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 32.19% 29.53% 30.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 472 407 750
10th Percentile £293 £275 £300
25th Percentile £400 £399 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £600
90th Percentile £650 £647 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 19 58
10th Percentile £22.20 £20.00 £38.94
25th Percentile £29.00 £20.09 £62.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £27.50 £66.62
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% -58.72% +62.38%
75th Percentile £74.26 £38.25 £75.67
90th Percentile £89.63 £60.50 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £33.39 £27.50 £65.98
% change year-on-year +21.40% -58.32% +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 2,280 2,489 3,712
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 13.10% 14.92% 17.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,503 1,371 2,234
10th Percentile £191 £200 £205
25th Percentile £300 £344 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £581 £595
90th Percentile £649 £659 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 144 135 280
10th Percentile £15.50 £19.10 £17.67
25th Percentile £18.50 £25.13 £24.69
Median hourly rate £42.50 £50.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% -11.49% +25.53%
75th Percentile £67.25 £69.38 £67.50
90th Percentile £78.50 £75.00 £75.67
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £46.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year -24.32% -15.91% +30.72%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -12 209 £496 -0.80% 86
South East -2 177 £488 -2.50% 238
Midlands -4 153 £475 -5.00% 85
West Midlands +14 138 £475 -5.00% 60
Yorkshire 0 109 £488 +14.71% 32
North West -26 97 £525 +5.00% 42
Scotland -17 64 £450 -5.26% 34
East of England -12 55 £501 -4.52% 62
South West -25 54 £540 +13.68% 61
East Midlands -36 15 £492 -4.00% 25
Wales -4 14 £200 -46.67% 19
Northern Ireland - 12 £500 - 8
North East -12 6 £550 +57.14% 12
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 38 (5.18%) Confluence
2 35 (4.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.32%) SharePoint
4 11 (1.50%) nginx
5 9 (1.23%) OpenStack
6 8 (1.09%) Apache
7 4 (0.54%) JBoss
7 4 (0.54%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.27%) CICS
8 2 (0.27%) IIS
8 2 (0.27%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.14%) CMS
9 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 27 (3.68%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.36%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 6 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (0.82%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.14%) Finacle
2 1 (0.14%) Pegasus Opera
2 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 191 (26.02%) AWS
2 187 (25.48%) Azure
3 88 (11.99%) Microsoft 365
4 76 (10.35%) GCP
5 57 (7.77%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 48 (6.54%) Amazon EC2
7 45 (6.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 38 (5.18%) Amazon S3
9 33 (4.50%) Amazon ELB
10 32 (4.36%) Entra ID
11 28 (3.81%) Azure Sentinel
12 26 (3.54%) Amazon ECS
13 25 (3.41%) AWS KMS
14 19 (2.59%) Serverless
15 17 (2.32%) AWS Lambda
16 16 (2.18%) IaaS
17 15 (2.04%) Akamai
17 15 (2.04%) AWS CloudFormation
18 14 (1.91%) PaaS
19 13 (1.77%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 156 (21.25%) Network Security
2 146 (19.89%) DNS
3 141 (19.21%) VPN
4 113 (15.40%) WAN
5 94 (12.81%) TCP/IP
6 87 (11.85%) Wireless
7 74 (10.08%) BGP
8 69 (9.40%) VLAN
9 68 (9.26%) LAN
10 62 (8.45%) DHCP
11 60 (8.17%) OSPF
12 53 (7.22%) SD-WAN
13 48 (6.54%) Cisco IOS
14 40 (5.45%) Cisco ISE
15 38 (5.18%) SSL
16 37 (5.04%) Cisco ASA
17 36 (4.90%) Wi-Fi
18 34 (4.63%) HTTP
19 31 (4.22%) MPLS
20 29 (3.95%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (5.31%) Amazon RDS
2 24 (3.27%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.18%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.36%) Amazon Aurora
4 10 (1.36%) Relational Database
5 5 (0.68%) DynamoDB
5 5 (0.68%) MySQL
6 4 (0.54%) DB2
6 4 (0.54%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.14%) Amazon QuickSight
8 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.14%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.14%) Redis
Development Applications
1 74 (10.08%) Jenkins
2 62 (8.45%) Git
3 58 (7.90%) JIRA
4 31 (4.22%) GitLab
5 22 (3.00%) Vagrant
6 16 (2.18%) Postman
7 15 (2.04%) Sonatype Nexus
8 10 (1.36%) 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 (24.80%) Social Skills
2 83 (11.31%) Analytical Skills
2 83 (11.31%) Public Sector
3 69 (9.40%) Finance
4 32 (4.36%) Banking
4 32 (4.36%) Telecoms
5 30 (4.09%) Documentation Skills
6 27 (3.68%) Manufacturing
7 25 (3.41%) Legal
8 24 (3.27%) Games
9 16 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
10 9 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (0.95%) Military
13 6 (0.82%) Local Government
13 6 (0.82%) Retail
14 5 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.68%) Law
15 4 (0.54%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.54%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 169 (23.02%) Network Engineer
2 86 (11.72%) Architect
3 69 (9.40%) Security Engineer
4 61 (8.31%) Senior
5 57 (7.77%) Platform Engineer
6 56 (7.63%) Analyst
7 48 (6.54%) DevOps Engineer
8 37 (5.04%) Network Architect
9 36 (4.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 31 (4.22%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 30 (4.09%) Support Engineer
12 25 (3.41%) AWS Engineer
12 25 (3.41%) IT Engineer
13 23 (3.13%) Network Security Engineer
14 22 (3.00%) Security Architect
15 21 (2.86%) Consultant
16 20 (2.72%) Cloud Platform Engineer
16 20 (2.72%) IT Support
16 20 (2.72%) Security Analyst
17 19 (2.59%) AWS DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (3.27%) 802.1X
2 18 (2.45%) LDAP
2 18 (2.45%) RFC 2544
3 12 (1.63%) REST
4 11 (1.50%) OAuth
4 11 (1.50%) OAuth2
4 11 (1.50%) OpenID
4 11 (1.50%) SAML
5 10 (1.36%) JSON
6 9 (1.23%) Node.js
7 8 (1.09%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (1.09%) Middleware
8 5 (0.68%) XML
9 4 (0.54%) Kafka
10 3 (0.41%) CSS
10 3 (0.41%) HTML
10 3 (0.41%) JBoss Seam
10 3 (0.41%) Lambda Expressions
10 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Graph
11 2 (0.27%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 107 (14.58%) Data Centre
2 51 (6.95%) Security Posture
3 40 (5.45%) Operational Technology
4 36 (4.90%) Hybrid Cloud
4 36 (4.90%) Replication
5 35 (4.77%) PKI
6 24 (3.27%) Onboarding
7 20 (2.72%) Management Information System
8 19 (2.59%) Data Protection Act
9 17 (2.32%) Cyber Threat
10 14 (1.91%) Cloud Native
10 14 (1.91%) Fibre Optics
11 13 (1.77%) Cyber Defence
12 11 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (1.50%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.36%) Security Operations Centre
14 9 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
14 9 (1.23%) Private Cloud
14 9 (1.23%) Public Cloud
14 9 (1.23%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 204 (27.79%) Windows
2 145 (19.75%) Linux
3 68 (9.26%) Windows Server
4 31 (4.22%) VMS
5 30 (4.09%) Mac OS
6 28 (3.81%) Android
7 26 (3.54%) Unix
8 25 (3.41%) Amazon Linux
9 20 (2.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 15 (2.04%) Ubuntu
11 11 (1.50%) Windows 10
12 7 (0.95%) Windows 7
13 6 (0.82%) Solaris
13 6 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
14 5 (0.68%) CentOS
14 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
15 3 (0.41%) AIX
15 3 (0.41%) Apple iOS
15 3 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (18.53%) Cybersecurity
2 116 (15.80%) DevOps
3 104 (14.17%) Problem-Solving
4 97 (13.22%) Cloud Security
5 94 (12.81%) Incident Response
6 83 (11.31%) SIEM
7 80 (10.90%) CI/CD
8 74 (10.08%) ITIL
9 73 (9.95%) Migration
10 70 (9.54%) Agile
11 63 (8.58%) High Availability
12 62 (8.45%) Infrastructure as Code
13 59 (8.04%) Change Management
14 56 (7.63%) Configuration Management
15 55 (7.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 55 (7.49%) Security Operations
16 54 (7.36%) Load Balancing
17 52 (7.08%) Containerisation
18 50 (6.81%) Network Design
19 47 (6.40%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 164 (22.34%) Python
2 139 (18.94%) PowerShell
3 64 (8.72%) Bash
4 41 (5.59%) Perl
5 34 (4.63%) Java
6 28 (3.81%) SQL
7 22 (3.00%) Groovy
8 9 (1.23%) Kusto Query Language
8 9 (1.23%) Shell Script
9 8 (1.09%) Ruby
10 3 (0.41%) Bicep
10 3 (0.41%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.41%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.27%) C#
12 1 (0.14%) C++
12 1 (0.14%) Go
12 1 (0.14%) Korn
12 1 (0.14%) Lisp
12 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 239 (32.56%) Security Cleared
2 159 (21.66%) SC Cleared
3 133 (18.12%) Cisco Certification
4 96 (13.08%) CCNP
5 64 (8.72%) Degree
6 62 (8.45%) DV Cleared
7 56 (7.63%) CCNA
8 53 (7.22%) CISSP
9 38 (5.18%) AWS Certification
10 37 (5.04%) Azure Certification
11 34 (4.63%) Microsoft Certification
12 31 (4.22%) CCIE
13 25 (3.41%) CISM
14 20 (2.72%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (1.63%) CEH
16 11 (1.50%) GIAC
17 10 (1.36%) CISMP
17 10 (1.36%) CompTIA Security+
17 10 (1.36%) GSEC
18 9 (1.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (7.90%) NIST
2 52 (7.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 47 (6.40%) GDPR
4 22 (3.00%) PCI DSS
5 15 (2.04%) QA
6 14 (1.91%) NCSC
7 13 (1.77%) SLA
8 7 (0.95%) COBIT
8 7 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.82%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (0.82%) Disclosure Scotland
10 5 (0.68%) HIPAA
10 5 (0.68%) PSD2
11 4 (0.54%) GRC
12 3 (0.41%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.41%) GxP
12 3 (0.41%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 2 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 133 (18.12%) Active Directory
2 103 (14.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 87 (11.85%) Docker
4 25 (3.41%) DFS Replication
5 23 (3.13%) Hyper-V
6 19 (2.59%) vSphere
7 15 (2.04%) VMware NSX
8 10 (1.36%) Dovecot
8 10 (1.36%) Postfix
8 10 (1.36%) Squid
9 9 (1.23%) VMware ESXi
10 8 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
11 7 (0.95%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 6 (0.82%) Terminal Services
12 6 (0.82%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.68%) Firmware
14 4 (0.54%) KVM
15 1 (0.14%) SRDF
15 1 (0.14%) UAG
15 1 (0.14%) Xen
Systems Management
1 90 (12.26%) Terraform
2 84 (11.44%) Ansible
3 53 (7.22%) Kubernetes
4 48 (6.54%) Microsoft Intune
5 41 (5.59%) SCCM
6 28 (3.81%) FortiGate
6 28 (3.81%) Grafana
7 26 (3.54%) Prometheus
8 23 (3.13%) Puppet
9 17 (2.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 16 (2.18%) vCenter Server
11 14 (1.91%) Nessus
11 14 (1.91%) Single Sign-On
12 11 (1.50%) CSIRT
13 10 (1.36%) Microsoft Clustering
13 10 (1.36%) Proxmox
14 8 (1.09%) Fluentd
15 7 (0.95%) NetBackup
15 7 (0.95%) Oracle RMAN
15 7 (0.95%) WMI
Vendors
1 278 (37.87%) Cisco
2 208 (28.34%) Microsoft
3 122 (16.62%) Palo Alto
4 120 (16.35%) VMware
5 107 (14.58%) F5
6 71 (9.67%) CheckPoint
7 67 (9.13%) Splunk
8 63 (8.58%) Fortinet
9 60 (8.17%) Meraki
10 46 (6.27%) Juniper
11 43 (5.86%) SolarWinds
12 42 (5.72%) Oracle
13 34 (4.63%) ServiceNow
14 30 (4.09%) Google
15 25 (3.41%) Citrix
15 25 (3.41%) Zscaler
16 20 (2.72%) Dell
17 19 (2.59%) Red Hat
18 17 (2.32%) MuleSoft
19 16 (2.18%) Aruba