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 13 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 53 54
Rank change year-on-year -38 +1 -6
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,432 1,412 1,520
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.72% 4.32% 3.56%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.64% 35.42% 28.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 912 837 942
10th Percentile £336 £325 £275
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £648 £688 £686
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £504
% change year-on-year +2.56% -3.27% +5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 25 46
10th Percentile £28.30 £14.20 £18.06
25th Percentile £37.53 £15.13 £23.92
Median hourly rate £60.00 £30.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +100.00% -50.00% -4.08%
75th Percentile £73.69 £32.77 £85.65
90th Percentile £89.09 £67.80 £87.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.62 £30.00 £82.38
% change year-on-year +102.06% -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 5,000 3,986 5,363
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.20% 12.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,038 2,436 3,162
10th Percentile £238 £233 £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 £485 £472 £490
% change year-on-year +2.81% -3.67% +5.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 319 193 425
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.64
25th Percentile £19.34 £24.66 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% +7.56% +49.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £81.28 £73.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -38.82% -10.53% +5.56%

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 13 July 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 13 July 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 13 July 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 -41 1,224 £500 - 533
UK excluding London -32 816 £500 +2.56% 473
London -64 463 £500 -2.44% 143
Work from Home -36 391 £520 +4.00% 221
North of England -14 290 £500 +5.26% 94
South East -32 215 £500 - 177
North West -6 186 £537 +13.05% 50
Yorkshire -38 88 £450 -7.22% 33
Midlands -64 81 £438 -11.08% 59
East of England -11 72 £525 -0.94% 41
South West -39 72 £525 +5.00% 62
Scotland +13 67 £450 +4.35% 25
West Midlands -68 65 £425 -15.84% 41
Wales -16 25 £425 +17.24% 7
North East -15 22 £625 +25.00% 13
East Midlands -27 13 £500 +11.11% 18
Northern Ireland -6 2 £385 - 19

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 34 (2.37%) Confluence
1 34 (2.37%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (1.68%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.12%) nginx
4 12 (0.84%) Apache
5 10 (0.70%) CICS
6 6 (0.42%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.21%) IIS
8 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.14%) CMS
9 2 (0.14%) FactoryTalk
9 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 27 (1.89%) MS Visio
2 19 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.19%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.070%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.070%) Bloomberg TOMS
1 1 (0.070%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.070%) Eikon
1 1 (0.070%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.070%) Primavera
1 1 (0.070%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.070%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 487 (34.01%) Azure
2 320 (22.35%) AWS
3 135 (9.43%) Entra ID
4 119 (8.31%) GCP
5 110 (7.68%) Microsoft 365
6 69 (4.82%) GitHub
7 65 (4.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 62 (4.33%) IaaS
9 54 (3.77%) SaaS
10 50 (3.49%) Azure DevOps
11 42 (2.93%) PaaS
12 39 (2.72%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 38 (2.65%) Azure Monitor
14 37 (2.58%) Serverless
15 36 (2.51%) OCI
16 33 (2.30%) Azure Sentinel
17 30 (2.09%) Amazon EC2
17 30 (2.09%) GitHub Actions
18 29 (2.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
19 27 (1.89%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 407 (28.42%) Network Security
2 402 (28.07%) VPN
3 396 (27.65%) WAN
4 337 (23.53%) DNS
5 294 (20.53%) LAN
6 267 (18.65%) BGP
7 219 (15.29%) OSPF
8 188 (13.13%) VLAN
9 187 (13.06%) TCP/IP
10 177 (12.36%) DHCP
11 164 (11.45%) Wireless
12 155 (10.82%) SD-WAN
13 116 (8.10%) Wi-Fi
14 100 (6.98%) BIG-IP
15 94 (6.56%) MPLS
16 88 (6.15%) VXLAN
17 86 (6.01%) IPsec
18 82 (5.73%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 78 (5.45%) Cisco ISE
19 78 (5.45%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (1.68%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.26%) Power BI
3 17 (1.19%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.19%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (0.91%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (0.77%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.70%) DataStage
7 9 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.63%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.56%) MySQL
8 8 (0.56%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
9 5 (0.35%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.28%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.28%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (0.28%) Amazon QuickSight
10 4 (0.28%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.21%) Big Data
11 3 (0.21%) Db2
Development Applications
1 99 (6.91%) JIRA
2 53 (3.70%) Jenkins
3 41 (2.86%) Git
3 41 (2.86%) GitLab
4 16 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (0.77%) Bitbucket
6 10 (0.70%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.63%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.63%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
9 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
10 3 (0.21%) Jaeger
11 2 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.14%) Gatling
11 2 (0.14%) Gradle
11 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
11 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 313 (21.86%) Social Skills
2 189 (13.20%) Finance
3 125 (8.73%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (8.24%) Public Sector
5 78 (5.45%) Documentation Skills
6 74 (5.17%) Banking
7 44 (3.07%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.03%) Legal
9 25 (1.75%) Manufacturing
10 23 (1.61%) Financial Institution
11 20 (1.40%) Influencing Skills
12 18 (1.26%) Military
13 14 (0.98%) Local Government
14 13 (0.91%) Retail
15 12 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
16 11 (0.77%) Police
17 10 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.70%) Investment Banking
18 9 (0.63%) Front Office
18 9 (0.63%) Law
Job Titles
1 464 (32.40%) Network Engineer
2 231 (16.13%) Architect
3 184 (12.85%) Senior
4 132 (9.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 124 (8.66%) Security Engineer
6 80 (5.59%) Senior Network Engineer
7 79 (5.52%) Network Architect
8 70 (4.89%) Cloud Engineer
9 58 (4.05%) Network Security Engineer
10 57 (3.98%) Consultant
11 55 (3.84%) Azure Engineer
11 55 (3.84%) Technical Architect
12 47 (3.28%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 47 (3.28%) Security Architect
13 43 (3.00%) DevOps Engineer
14 42 (2.93%) Lead
15 40 (2.79%) Solutions Architect
16 36 (2.51%) Cloud Architect
17 33 (2.30%) Analyst
17 33 (2.30%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (4.82%) 802.1X
2 42 (2.93%) Middleware
3 37 (2.58%) LDAP
4 32 (2.23%) SAML
5 23 (1.61%) OpenID
6 13 (0.91%) OAuth
7 11 (0.77%) Kafka
7 11 (0.77%) OAuth2
8 9 (0.63%) ARM Templates
8 9 (0.63%) LangChain
8 9 (0.63%) PyTorch
8 9 (0.63%) REST
8 9 (0.63%) scikit-learn
9 8 (0.56%) .NET
10 7 (0.49%) SailPoint
10 7 (0.49%) YAML
11 6 (0.42%) Elastic Stack
11 6 (0.42%) OpenTelemetry
11 6 (0.42%) React
12 5 (0.35%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 342 (23.88%) Data Centre
2 92 (6.42%) Cloud Native
3 78 (5.45%) Security Posture
4 77 (5.38%) Hybrid Cloud
5 66 (4.61%) PKI
6 49 (3.42%) Management Information System
6 49 (3.42%) Onboarding
7 42 (2.93%) Operational Technology
8 40 (2.79%) Clustering
9 32 (2.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 32 (2.23%) IoT
10 30 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
11 26 (1.82%) Public Cloud
12 24 (1.68%) Enterprise Storage
12 24 (1.68%) SCADA
13 19 (1.33%) Driving Licence
13 19 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
14 18 (1.26%) Cyber Threat
14 18 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
15 16 (1.12%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 313 (21.86%) Windows
2 188 (13.13%) Linux
3 109 (7.61%) Windows Server
4 47 (3.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (2.23%) Unix
6 21 (1.47%) VMS
7 15 (1.05%) Ubuntu
8 14 (0.98%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (0.77%) Solaris
10 10 (0.70%) AIX
10 10 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
11 9 (0.63%) CentOS
12 6 (0.42%) Mac OS
12 6 (0.42%) Windows 10
12 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (0.35%) Rocky
14 4 (0.28%) Amazon Linux
14 4 (0.28%) Android
14 4 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 233 (16.27%) DevOps
2 214 (14.94%) CI/CD
3 211 (14.73%) Infrastructure as Code
4 199 (13.90%) Load Balancing
5 191 (13.34%) Problem-Solving
6 187 (13.06%) Migration
7 181 (12.64%) High Availability
7 181 (12.64%) ITIL
8 180 (12.57%) Cybersecurity
9 179 (12.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 155 (10.82%) Agile
10 155 (10.82%) Zero Trust
11 128 (8.94%) Change Management
12 126 (8.80%) SIEM
13 113 (7.89%) Observability
13 113 (7.89%) Validation
14 112 (7.82%) Project Delivery
15 108 (7.54%) Stakeholder Management
16 106 (7.40%) Roadmaps
17 105 (7.33%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 251 (17.53%) Python
2 162 (11.31%) PowerShell
3 98 (6.84%) Bash
4 40 (2.79%) Bicep
4 40 (2.79%) SQL
5 33 (2.30%) Java
6 11 (0.77%) ActionScript
6 11 (0.77%) Perl
7 10 (0.70%) COBOL
8 7 (0.49%) Groovy
9 6 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.35%) C++
10 5 (0.35%) Go
10 5 (0.35%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) C
12 2 (0.14%) Jython
12 2 (0.14%) PHP
12 2 (0.14%) Rust
Qualifications
1 467 (32.61%) Security Cleared
2 335 (23.39%) SC Cleared
3 289 (20.18%) Cisco Certification
4 216 (15.08%) CCNP
5 120 (8.38%) CCNA
6 114 (7.96%) DV Cleared
7 112 (7.82%) Degree
8 71 (4.96%) CISSP
9 56 (3.91%) Azure Certification
10 44 (3.07%) CCIE
11 42 (2.93%) AWS Certification
12 34 (2.37%) Microsoft Certification
13 33 (2.30%) CISM
14 23 (1.61%) Computer Science Degree
15 21 (1.47%) JNCIS
15 21 (1.47%) Network+ Certification
16 18 (1.26%) PMP
17 17 (1.19%) JNCIA
17 17 (1.19%) JNCIP
17 17 (1.19%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (5.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 58 (4.05%) NIST
3 41 (2.86%) GDPR
4 31 (2.16%) NCSC
5 26 (1.82%) PCI DSS
6 22 (1.54%) QA
7 21 (1.47%) Cyber Essentials
8 20 (1.40%) SLA
9 9 (0.63%) Data Quality
9 9 (0.63%) NIST 800
10 8 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
11 7 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
12 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.42%) GRC
12 6 (0.42%) GxP
12 6 (0.42%) JSP 440
13 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 5 (0.35%) PMO
14 4 (0.28%) RMADS
14 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 212 (14.80%) Active Directory
2 158 (11.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 59 (4.12%) VMware NSX
4 55 (3.84%) Docker
5 42 (2.93%) Hyper-V
6 41 (2.86%) vSphere
7 38 (2.65%) Virtual Machines
7 38 (2.65%) VMware ESXi
8 26 (1.82%) Firmware
9 19 (1.33%) Virtual Desktop
10 16 (1.12%) Squid
11 12 (0.84%) BitLocker
12 8 (0.56%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.35%) NFS
14 4 (0.28%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.21%) Dovecot
15 3 (0.21%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.21%) Postfix
15 3 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.14%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 256 (17.88%) Terraform
2 180 (12.57%) Ansible
3 114 (7.96%) FortiGate
4 108 (7.54%) Kubernetes
5 65 (4.54%) Grafana
6 61 (4.26%) Prometheus
7 56 (3.91%) Microsoft Intune
8 40 (2.79%) Single Sign-On
9 32 (2.23%) SCCM
10 23 (1.61%) vCenter Server
11 18 (1.26%) Puppet
12 17 (1.19%) Progress Chef
13 16 (1.12%) CASB
14 14 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 11 (0.77%) Consul
16 10 (0.70%) Cisco Prime
16 10 (0.70%) QRadar
17 9 (0.63%) Nessus
17 9 (0.63%) VxRail
18 8 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 514 (35.89%) Cisco
2 311 (21.72%) Palo Alto
3 295 (20.60%) Microsoft
4 209 (14.59%) VMware
5 208 (14.53%) Fortinet
6 201 (14.04%) F5
7 164 (11.45%) Juniper
8 134 (9.36%) CheckPoint
9 81 (5.66%) Splunk
10 75 (5.24%) Arista
10 75 (5.24%) Aruba
11 70 (4.89%) ServiceNow
12 67 (4.68%) SolarWinds
13 65 (4.54%) Google
14 57 (3.98%) Zscaler
15 48 (3.35%) Citrix
16 47 (3.28%) Red Hat
17 43 (3.00%) Meraki
18 32 (2.23%) Infoblox
19 31 (2.16%) Dynatrace