Palo Alto Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Palo Alto
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring knowledge or experience of Palo Alto products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Palo Alto over the 6 months leading up to 11 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within Palo Alto Networks.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 174 195
Rank change year-on-year -39 +21 +133
Contract jobs citing Palo Alto 192 183 212
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.07% 1.32% 1.09%
As % of the Vendors category 2.33% 2.85% 2.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 96 145
10th Percentile £337 £354 £319
25th Percentile £427 £406 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.78% -1.67% +10.53%
75th Percentile £574 £575 £627
90th Percentile £685 £625 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 0 10
10th Percentile £72.56 - £58.05
25th Percentile £74.26 - -
Median hourly rate £85.00 - £65.98
75th Percentile £89.63 - -
90th Percentile £89.70 - £66.13
UK median hourly rate £77.13 £45.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year +71.40% -31.80% +26.57%

All Vendors
UK excluding London

Palo Alto falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 8,256 6,431 9,005
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 45.83% 46.30% 46.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,420 3,818 5,649
10th Percentile £220 £215 £208
25th Percentile £380 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 631 335 542
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.22 £13.58
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.56 £17.50
Median hourly rate £21.50 £25.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.00% -43.82% +80.27%
75th Percentile £48.13 £60.00 £62.49
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £74.31
UK median hourly rate £23.83 £27.35 £43.84
% change year-on-year -12.89% -37.61% +60.13%

Palo Alto
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Palo Alto relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Palo Alto job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Palo Alto
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Palo Alto.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Palo Alto

Palo Alto
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Palo Alto in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Palo Alto in the UK excluding London

Palo Alto
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Palo Alto.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Palo Alto

Palo Alto
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Palo Alto in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Palo Alto in the UK excluding London

Palo Alto
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 Palo Alto within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 11 January 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 -37 62 £508 -7.73% 33
South East -14 55 £488 -7.14% 78
North West -28 52 £515 -6.36% 13
Midlands -48 24 £500 -9.26% 27
Scotland +18 22 £450 +28.57% 15
East of England +3 22 £445 +11.25% 38
West Midlands -29 22 £500 -9.26% 9
Yorkshire -40 10 £238 -62.00% 14
South West -35 9 £490 +16.67% 23
Wales +2 3 - - 12
East Midlands -31 2 £500 - 18
South Coast - 2 - -
North East -8 1 - - 6
Palo Alto
UK

Palo Alto
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 5 (2.60%) Apache
1 5 (2.60%) IIS
2 4 (2.08%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.52%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.08%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 40 (20.83%) AWS
2 37 (19.27%) Azure
3 17 (8.85%) GCP
3 17 (8.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 10 (5.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 10 (5.21%) Amazon EC2
4 10 (5.21%) Amazon ELB
4 10 (5.21%) Amazon S3
5 6 (3.13%) Entra ID
6 4 (2.08%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.08%) Mimecast
7 3 (1.56%) Nutanix
8 2 (1.04%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (1.04%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.04%) PaaS
9 1 (0.52%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 1 (0.52%) IaaS
9 1 (0.52%) Microsoft 365
9 1 (0.52%) OCI
9 1 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 162 (84.38%) Firewall
2 76 (39.58%) WAN
3 61 (31.77%) VPN
4 58 (30.21%) Network Security
5 48 (25.00%) LAN
6 46 (23.96%) BGP
7 40 (20.83%) OSPF
8 35 (18.23%) SD-WAN
9 34 (17.71%) VLAN
10 33 (17.19%) DNS
11 26 (13.54%) Wi-Fi
12 24 (12.50%) TCP/IP
13 23 (11.98%) Wireless
14 20 (10.42%) Cisco ASA
14 20 (10.42%) IPsec
15 18 (9.38%) Cisco ISE
15 18 (9.38%) Cisco Nexus
15 18 (9.38%) MPLS
16 15 (7.81%) DHCP
17 14 (7.29%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.04%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 11 (5.73%) Jenkins
2 10 (5.21%) Git
3 8 (4.17%) GitLab
4 6 (3.13%) JIRA
5 4 (2.08%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (1.04%) Rational DOORS
General
1 34 (17.71%) Social Skills
2 22 (11.46%) Public Sector
3 19 (9.90%) Documentation Skills
4 15 (7.81%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (5.21%) Finance
5 10 (5.21%) Manufacturing
6 8 (4.17%) Legal
7 5 (2.60%) Telecoms
8 4 (2.08%) Aerospace
8 4 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.08%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (2.08%) Pharmaceutical
9 3 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.56%) Retail
10 2 (1.04%) Law
10 2 (1.04%) Military
11 1 (0.52%) Automotive
11 1 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.52%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 105 (54.69%) Network Engineer
2 31 (16.15%) Architect
3 30 (15.63%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 26 (13.54%) Senior
5 23 (11.98%) Network Architect
6 13 (6.77%) Cisco Engineer
6 13 (6.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 13 (6.77%) Security Engineer
7 12 (6.25%) Senior Network Engineer
8 10 (5.21%) Solutions Architect
9 9 (4.69%) Lead
10 8 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.17%) Network Security Engineer
11 7 (3.65%) DevOps Engineer
11 7 (3.65%) Senior DevOps
11 7 (3.65%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 6 (3.13%) Analyst
12 6 (3.13%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 5 (2.60%) Security Architect
13 5 (2.60%) Switch Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (7.81%) 802.1X
2 5 (2.60%) LDAP
3 3 (1.56%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 67 (34.90%) Data Centre
2 9 (4.69%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (2.60%) Onboarding
3 5 (2.60%) Operational Technology
3 5 (2.60%) Security Posture
3 5 (2.60%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (1.56%) Cyber Defence
4 3 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.04%) CMDB
5 2 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
5 2 (1.04%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.04%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.04%) PKI
5 2 (1.04%) Product Ownership
5 2 (1.04%) SCADA
6 1 (0.52%) Blackberry
6 1 (0.52%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.52%) Life Science
6 1 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
6 1 (0.52%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 25 (13.02%) Windows
2 17 (8.85%) Linux
3 11 (5.73%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.56%) Mac OS
4 3 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.04%) CatOS
6 1 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (16.67%) Network Design
2 31 (16.15%) Network Architecture
3 28 (14.58%) Zero Trust
4 27 (14.06%) Cybersecurity
5 26 (13.54%) High Availability
6 25 (13.02%) Incident Response
6 25 (13.02%) Problem-Solving
7 23 (11.98%) Load Balancing
7 23 (11.98%) Network Management
8 20 (10.42%) Project Delivery
9 19 (9.90%) Network Monitoring
10 18 (9.38%) DevOps
10 18 (9.38%) Infrastructure Automation
10 18 (9.38%) ITIL
11 16 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 15 (7.81%) Migration
12 15 (7.81%) Roadmaps
13 14 (7.29%) Impact Assessments
13 14 (7.29%) Mentoring
13 14 (7.29%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 39 (20.31%) Python
2 21 (10.94%) Bash
3 7 (3.65%) PowerShell
4 6 (3.13%) Perl
5 2 (1.04%) SQL
6 1 (0.52%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 95 (49.48%) Security Cleared
2 77 (40.10%) Cisco Certification
3 73 (38.02%) SC Cleared
4 66 (34.38%) CCNP
5 26 (13.54%) CCNA
6 18 (9.38%) CCIE
6 18 (9.38%) Degree
7 9 (4.69%) DV Cleared
8 8 (4.17%) CISSP
9 4 (2.08%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (2.08%) AWS Certification
9 4 (2.08%) CCIE Security
9 4 (2.08%) CCSP
9 4 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (1.56%) A+ Certification
10 3 (1.56%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.56%) CCDP
10 3 (1.56%) CCSA
10 3 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (1.04%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.21%) GDPR
2 8 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.65%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (3.13%) NIST
4 6 (3.13%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.04%) SLA
6 1 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 21 (10.94%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (7.81%) Active Directory
2 15 (7.81%) Docker
3 12 (6.25%) VMware NSX
4 6 (3.13%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (3.13%) vSphere
5 3 (1.56%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 34 (17.71%) Ansible
2 24 (12.50%) Terraform
3 15 (7.81%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.13%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (2.08%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.08%) vCenter Server
6 3 (1.56%) Iperf
6 3 (1.56%) Nmap
7 2 (1.04%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.04%) Nessus
7 2 (1.04%) WSUS
8 1 (0.52%) Argo
8 1 (0.52%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.52%) Podman
8 1 (0.52%) SCCM
Vendors
1 151 (78.65%) Cisco
2 45 (23.44%) F5
3 44 (22.92%) CheckPoint
4 38 (19.79%) Meraki
5 29 (15.10%) Fortinet
6 28 (14.58%) VMware
7 25 (13.02%) Aruba
7 25 (13.02%) Microsoft
8 19 (9.90%) SolarWinds
9 18 (9.38%) Juniper
10 15 (7.81%) Zscaler
11 10 (5.21%) ServiceNow
12 7 (3.65%) Nokia
13 5 (2.60%) Barracuda Networks
13 5 (2.60%) Splunk
14 4 (2.08%) Arista
14 4 (2.08%) Red Hat
15 3 (1.56%) Forcepoint
15 3 (1.56%) Tenable
16 2 (1.04%) McAfee