Firewall Contract Job Trends

Firewall
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Firewall skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 52 55
Rank change year-on-year -40 +3 -7
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,383 1,288 1,515
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.72% 4.30% 3.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.71% 34.61% 28.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 892 763 943
10th Percentile £350 £319 £290
25th Percentile £413 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 23 47
10th Percentile £28.00 £14.20 £16.98
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.66 £23.86
Median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +86.67% -50.00% -4.08%
75th Percentile £70.11 £41.25 £85.65
90th Percentile £78.50 £44.65 £87.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £82.38
% change year-on-year +86.67% -63.58% +31.71%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,817 3,722 5,393
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.42% 12.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,962 2,284 3,181
10th Percentile £250 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £483 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -3.45% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £473 £488
% change year-on-year +1.59% -3.23% +2.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 174 428
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.56 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.69 £44.50 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.78% +7.23% +118.42%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.97 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.08 £78.50 £72.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -23.66% -26.32% +150.00%

Firewall
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Firewall relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Firewall job vacancy trend in the UK

Firewall
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firewall.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firewall

Firewall
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firewall over the 6 months to 23 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Firewall in the UK

Firewall
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firewall.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firewall

Firewall
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Firewall over the 6 months to 23 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Firewall in the UK

Firewall
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 23 June 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
England -40 1,171 £500 - 459
UK excluding London -32 789 £500 +5.26% 432
London -55 435 £500 -4.76% 104
Work from Home -26 398 £520 +4.00% 193
North of England -17 279 £500 +5.26% 98
South East -23 217 £514 +2.75% 155
North West -3 178 £537 +13.65% 57
Yorkshire -37 85 £434 -11.39% 30
Midlands -59 76 £429 -12.80% 68
East of England -11 72 £505 -2.88% 46
Scotland +11 64 £456 +4.29% 20
West Midlands -57 64 £425 -19.05% 40
South West -43 62 £525 +8.25% 41
Wales -19 25 £425 +30.77% 6
North East -15 22 £625 +25.00% 13
East Midlands -35 9 £488 +3.50% 28
Northern Ireland -7 2 £385 - 11

Firewall
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (2.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (2.24%) Confluence
3 25 (1.81%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.01%) nginx
5 11 (0.80%) Apache
6 10 (0.72%) CICS
7 6 (0.43%) IIS
8 5 (0.36%) SAS
9 4 (0.29%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
11 2 (0.14%) CloudStack
11 2 (0.14%) CMS
11 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
11 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
12 1 (0.072%) MTS
Applications
1 24 (1.74%) MS Visio
2 22 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.37%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.072%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.072%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.072%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.072%) Primavera
1 1 (0.072%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.072%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 459 (33.19%) Azure
2 301 (21.76%) AWS
3 125 (9.04%) Entra ID
4 116 (8.39%) GCP
5 105 (7.59%) Microsoft 365
6 74 (5.35%) GitHub
7 65 (4.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 56 (4.05%) IaaS
9 53 (3.83%) Azure DevOps
10 48 (3.47%) SaaS
11 39 (2.82%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 39 (2.82%) PaaS
12 37 (2.68%) Azure Monitor
12 37 (2.68%) OCI
13 35 (2.53%) GitHub Actions
13 35 (2.53%) Serverless
14 34 (2.46%) Azure Sentinel
15 29 (2.10%) Amazon EC2
16 28 (2.02%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 26 (1.88%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 391 (28.27%) Network Security
2 384 (27.77%) WAN
3 355 (25.67%) VPN
4 299 (21.62%) DNS
5 280 (20.25%) LAN
6 244 (17.64%) BGP
7 204 (14.75%) OSPF
8 178 (12.87%) VLAN
9 161 (11.64%) TCP/IP
10 158 (11.42%) SD-WAN
11 151 (10.92%) DHCP
12 146 (10.56%) Wireless
13 113 (8.17%) Wi-Fi
14 100 (7.23%) BIG-IP
15 93 (6.72%) VXLAN
16 91 (6.58%) MPLS
17 86 (6.22%) IPsec
18 80 (5.78%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 78 (5.64%) SSL
20 76 (5.50%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.45%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
3 16 (1.16%) Power BI
4 14 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (0.72%) DataStage
7 9 (0.65%) Oracle Database
8 8 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (0.58%) Data Lake
8 8 (0.58%) MySQL
9 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.43%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.22%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 97 (7.01%) JIRA
2 59 (4.27%) Jenkins
3 42 (3.04%) GitLab
4 41 (2.96%) Git
5 14 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (0.72%) Artifactory
6 10 (0.72%) Burp Suite
7 9 (0.65%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.65%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.65%) SonarQube
8 8 (0.58%) Metasploit
9 6 (0.43%) Jaeger
10 5 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
11 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.14%) Gatling
11 2 (0.14%) Gradle
11 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.14%) MSI
11 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 303 (21.91%) Social Skills
2 173 (12.51%) Finance
3 119 (8.60%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.66%) Public Sector
5 82 (5.93%) Documentation Skills
6 59 (4.27%) Banking
7 38 (2.75%) Telecoms
8 36 (2.60%) Legal
9 22 (1.59%) Financial Institution
10 21 (1.52%) Manufacturing
11 18 (1.30%) Military
12 16 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (0.94%) Law
13 13 (0.94%) Retail
14 11 (0.80%) Investment Banking
14 11 (0.80%) Local Government
15 10 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.65%) Front Office
16 9 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 441 (31.89%) Network Engineer
2 220 (15.91%) Architect
3 167 (12.08%) Senior
4 126 (9.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 114 (8.24%) Security Engineer
6 72 (5.21%) Network Architect
7 71 (5.13%) Senior Network Engineer
8 69 (4.99%) Cloud Engineer
9 57 (4.12%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 54 (3.90%) Azure Engineer
11 52 (3.76%) Network Security Engineer
12 49 (3.54%) Technical Architect
13 46 (3.33%) Consultant
14 43 (3.11%) DevOps Engineer
14 43 (3.11%) Lead
15 40 (2.89%) Cisco Engineer
15 40 (2.89%) Security Architect
16 36 (2.60%) Cisco Network Engineer
17 35 (2.53%) Analyst
17 35 (2.53%) Cloud Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (5.21%) 802.1X
2 40 (2.89%) Middleware
3 35 (2.53%) LDAP
4 27 (1.95%) SAML
5 23 (1.66%) OpenID
6 13 (0.94%) Kafka
7 12 (0.87%) OAuth
8 11 (0.80%) OAuth2
8 11 (0.80%) REST
9 9 (0.65%) ARM Templates
9 9 (0.65%) LangChain
9 9 (0.65%) OpenTelemetry
9 9 (0.65%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.65%) scikit-learn
10 8 (0.58%) .NET
10 8 (0.58%) Spring Boot
11 7 (0.51%) YAML
12 6 (0.43%) React
12 6 (0.43%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.36%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 331 (23.93%) Data Centre
2 89 (6.44%) Cloud Native
3 83 (6.00%) Security Posture
4 72 (5.21%) Hybrid Cloud
5 59 (4.27%) PKI
6 57 (4.12%) Onboarding
7 47 (3.40%) Management Information System
8 41 (2.96%) Clustering
9 38 (2.75%) Operational Technology
10 30 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
10 30 (2.17%) Public Cloud
11 27 (1.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 26 (1.88%) IoT
13 24 (1.74%) Enterprise Storage
14 23 (1.66%) Cyber Threat
15 19 (1.37%) SCADA
16 17 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
17 16 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
17 16 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
18 15 (1.08%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 306 (22.13%) Windows
2 180 (13.02%) Linux
3 110 (7.95%) Windows Server
4 41 (2.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (2.17%) Unix
6 24 (1.74%) VMS
7 13 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
8 11 (0.80%) Solaris
9 10 (0.72%) AIX
10 9 (0.65%) Ubuntu
10 9 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.43%) CentOS
12 6 (0.43%) Windows 10
13 5 (0.36%) Mac OS
13 5 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.29%) Android
14 4 (0.29%) SUSE
15 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.22%) CatOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (16.99%) DevOps
2 211 (15.26%) CI/CD
3 203 (14.68%) Infrastructure as Code
4 195 (14.10%) Load Balancing
5 190 (13.74%) Migration
6 177 (12.80%) High Availability
7 172 (12.44%) Cybersecurity
8 169 (12.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 168 (12.15%) Problem-Solving
10 160 (11.57%) ITIL
11 154 (11.14%) Agile
12 147 (10.63%) Zero Trust
13 119 (8.60%) SIEM
14 111 (8.03%) Change Management
15 108 (7.81%) Validation
16 107 (7.74%) Observability
17 105 (7.59%) Project Delivery
18 102 (7.38%) Cloud Security
19 99 (7.16%) Roadmaps
20 97 (7.01%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 233 (16.85%) Python
2 145 (10.48%) PowerShell
3 87 (6.29%) Bash
4 44 (3.18%) SQL
5 40 (2.89%) Bicep
6 32 (2.31%) Java
7 11 (0.80%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.72%) COBOL
8 10 (0.72%) Perl
9 6 (0.43%) Groovy
9 6 (0.43%) JavaScript
9 6 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.36%) C++
10 5 (0.36%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.36%) Rust
11 4 (0.29%) Go
12 3 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) C
13 2 (0.14%) Jython
13 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 459 (33.19%) Security Cleared
2 337 (24.37%) SC Cleared
3 281 (20.32%) Cisco Certification
4 210 (15.18%) CCNP
5 119 (8.60%) CCNA
6 115 (8.32%) Degree
7 100 (7.23%) DV Cleared
8 67 (4.84%) CISSP
9 57 (4.12%) Azure Certification
10 40 (2.89%) AWS Certification
10 40 (2.89%) CCIE
11 33 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
12 31 (2.24%) CISM
13 21 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
14 18 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (1.30%) JNCIS
14 18 (1.30%) PMP
15 17 (1.23%) JNCIA
15 17 (1.23%) Server+ Certification
16 16 (1.16%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (5.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 56 (4.05%) NIST
3 47 (3.40%) GDPR
4 32 (2.31%) NCSC
5 31 (2.24%) PCI DSS
6 26 (1.88%) QA
7 25 (1.81%) SLA
8 23 (1.66%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (0.65%) PMO
10 8 (0.58%) Data Quality
10 8 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
11 7 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
12 6 (0.43%) GRC
12 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 5 (0.36%) RMADS
14 4 (0.29%) GxP
14 4 (0.29%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 203 (14.68%) Active Directory
2 151 (10.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 58 (4.19%) VMware NSX
4 51 (3.69%) Docker
5 37 (2.68%) VMware ESXi
5 37 (2.68%) vSphere
6 34 (2.46%) Hyper-V
6 34 (2.46%) Virtual Machines
7 25 (1.81%) Firmware
8 22 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
9 16 (1.16%) Squid
10 13 (0.94%) BitLocker
11 9 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
12 4 (0.29%) Terminal Services
13 3 (0.22%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.22%) NFS
13 3 (0.22%) Postfix
14 2 (0.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 2 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.14%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 242 (17.50%) Terraform
2 174 (12.58%) Ansible
3 112 (8.10%) FortiGate
4 105 (7.59%) Kubernetes
5 63 (4.56%) Grafana
6 58 (4.19%) Prometheus
7 52 (3.76%) Microsoft Intune
8 36 (2.60%) Single Sign-On
9 30 (2.17%) SCCM
10 25 (1.81%) vCenter Server
11 19 (1.37%) Puppet
12 17 (1.23%) Progress Chef
13 15 (1.08%) CASB
14 14 (1.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 12 (0.87%) Cisco Prime
16 11 (0.80%) Consul
16 11 (0.80%) QRadar
17 10 (0.72%) Nmap
17 10 (0.72%) VxRail
18 9 (0.65%) vMotion
Vendors
1 494 (35.72%) Cisco
2 306 (22.13%) Palo Alto
3 277 (20.03%) Microsoft
4 197 (14.24%) Fortinet
5 193 (13.96%) VMware
6 191 (13.81%) F5
7 153 (11.06%) Juniper
8 124 (8.97%) CheckPoint
9 86 (6.22%) Aruba
10 81 (5.86%) Splunk
11 73 (5.28%) Arista
12 72 (5.21%) ServiceNow
13 68 (4.92%) SolarWinds
14 66 (4.77%) Google
15 53 (3.83%) Zscaler
16 43 (3.11%) Red Hat
17 38 (2.75%) Citrix
18 34 (2.46%) Meraki
19 30 (2.17%) Infoblox
20 28 (2.02%) Dynatrace