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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 50 47
Rank change year-on-year -30 -3 +12
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,314 1,252 1,749
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.15% 4.09% 3.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.97% 31.14% 29.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 873 745 1,089
10th Percentile £317 £313 £310
25th Percentile £413 £413 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £594 £615 £625
90th Percentile £675 £715 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 23 50
10th Percentile £29.33 £20.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £35.94 £28.78 £55.12
Median hourly rate £41.94 £37.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +13.35% -43.92% +26.57%
75th Percentile £74.26 £43.49 £76.53
90th Percentile £85.30 £71.00 £87.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.71 £36.65 £72.50
% change year-on-year +24.74% -49.46% +39.08%

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 4,243 4,021 5,976
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.19% 13.14% 13.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,769 2,423 3,581
10th Percentile £204 £209 £205
25th Percentile £360 £361 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £500 £480
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% +4.17% -7.34%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -0.32% -1.05% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 130 384
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.18 £14.27
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.46 £19.99
Median hourly rate £35.50 £35.00 £43.12
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% -18.82% +123.39%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.88 £74.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £31.79 £50.00
% change year-on-year +31.93% -36.42% +163.16%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 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
England -26 1,102 £514 -2.14% 495
UK excluding London -25 728 £500 - 447
London -45 409 £525 -3.23% 143
Work from Home -18 395 £500 - 179
North of England -28 230 £519 +9.32% 101
South East +15 205 £500 - 186
North West -17 144 £540 +13.68% 68
Midlands -33 105 £425 -22.73% 48
West Midlands -10 94 £425 -15.00% 30
Yorkshire -27 84 £460 +8.24% 26
South West -42 59 £550 +10.00% 44
Scotland -11 57 £425 -2.86% 22
East of England -20 47 £470 -12.56% 47
Wales -19 21 £425 +16.44% 12
East Midlands -46 9 £488 -21.08% 18
Northern Ireland - 6 £500 -
North East -18 5 £548 -0.45% 7

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 44 (3.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (2.97%) Confluence
3 23 (1.75%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.07%) Apache
4 14 (1.07%) nginx
5 8 (0.61%) CICS
5 8 (0.61%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.46%) IIS
6 6 (0.46%) SAS
7 3 (0.23%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
8 2 (0.15%) JBoss
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.15%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.076%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.076%) CMS
9 1 (0.076%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.076%) Traefik
9 1 (0.076%) WebSphere
Applications
1 36 (2.74%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (1.60%) MS Visio
3 18 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.15%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 1 (0.076%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.076%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.076%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.076%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.076%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 446 (33.94%) Azure
2 334 (25.42%) AWS
3 147 (11.19%) GCP
4 117 (8.90%) Microsoft 365
5 103 (7.84%) Entra ID
6 76 (5.78%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 59 (4.49%) GitHub
8 52 (3.96%) IaaS
9 48 (3.65%) Amazon EC2
10 45 (3.42%) PaaS
11 42 (3.20%) Azure Sentinel
12 41 (3.12%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (2.89%) Amazon S3
13 38 (2.89%) Serverless
14 37 (2.82%) Azure Monitor
15 34 (2.59%) AWS CloudFormation
16 33 (2.51%) SaaS
17 32 (2.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 32 (2.44%) GitHub Actions
18 31 (2.36%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 332 (25.27%) Network Security
2 320 (24.35%) VPN
3 290 (22.07%) WAN
4 269 (20.47%) DNS
5 211 (16.06%) LAN
6 193 (14.69%) BGP
7 168 (12.79%) OSPF
8 149 (11.34%) TCP/IP
9 147 (11.19%) VLAN
10 124 (9.44%) DHCP
10 124 (9.44%) Wireless
11 116 (8.83%) SD-WAN
12 98 (7.46%) MPLS
13 94 (7.15%) Wi-Fi
14 69 (5.25%) IPsec
15 68 (5.18%) SSL
16 62 (4.72%) Cisco ASA
16 62 (4.72%) Cisco ISE
17 56 (4.26%) Cisco Nexus
18 54 (4.11%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.59%) SQL Server
2 23 (1.75%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (1.67%) Amazon RDS
4 14 (1.07%) Elasticsearch
5 9 (0.68%) Data Lake
6 8 (0.61%) DataStage
6 8 (0.61%) Oracle Database
7 7 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (0.53%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.38%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
9 4 (0.30%) Power BI
9 4 (0.30%) Redis
9 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.23%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.23%) MySQL
10 3 (0.23%) Oracle Exadata
11 2 (0.15%) Amazon Aurora
11 2 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
11 2 (0.15%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 74 (5.63%) Jenkins
1 74 (5.63%) JIRA
2 63 (4.79%) GitLab
3 62 (4.72%) Git
4 23 (1.75%) Sonatype Nexus
5 21 (1.60%) Bitbucket
6 15 (1.14%) Burp Suite
6 15 (1.14%) Metasploit
7 8 (0.61%) Chocolatey
7 8 (0.61%) Jaeger
8 7 (0.53%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.30%) Artifactory
9 4 (0.30%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.23%) Vagrant
11 2 (0.15%) MSI
12 1 (0.076%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.076%) Maven
12 1 (0.076%) Postman
12 1 (0.076%) Subversion
12 1 (0.076%) Travis CI
General
1 362 (27.55%) Social Skills
2 154 (11.72%) Finance
3 135 (10.27%) Analytical Skills
4 109 (8.30%) Public Sector
5 98 (7.46%) Documentation Skills
6 59 (4.49%) Banking
7 45 (3.42%) Telecoms
8 36 (2.74%) Legal
9 28 (2.13%) Manufacturing
10 25 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
11 22 (1.67%) Financial Institution
12 17 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
13 16 (1.22%) Military
14 13 (0.99%) Local Government
15 11 (0.84%) Law
16 10 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.76%) Retail
17 8 (0.61%) Aerospace
18 7 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
18 7 (0.53%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 354 (26.94%) Network Engineer
2 230 (17.50%) Architect
3 132 (10.05%) Senior
4 121 (9.21%) Security Engineer
5 81 (6.16%) Network Architect
6 79 (6.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 58 (4.41%) Security Architect
8 53 (4.03%) Azure Engineer
9 50 (3.81%) DevOps Engineer
9 50 (3.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 47 (3.58%) Consultant
11 46 (3.50%) Analyst
12 43 (3.27%) Solutions Architect
13 41 (3.12%) Network Security Engineer
14 40 (3.04%) Senior Network Engineer
15 39 (2.97%) Cloud Engineer
15 39 (2.97%) Platform Engineer
16 33 (2.51%) Lead
17 32 (2.44%) IT Engineer
18 31 (2.36%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 65 (4.95%) 802.1X
2 42 (3.20%) LDAP
3 34 (2.59%) Middleware
4 32 (2.44%) SAML
5 29 (2.21%) OpenID
6 20 (1.52%) OAuth
7 19 (1.45%) OAuth2
8 16 (1.22%) Kafka
9 14 (1.07%) Node.js
10 13 (0.99%) REST
11 12 (0.91%) JSON
12 10 (0.76%) OpenTelemetry
13 9 (0.68%) ARM Templates
13 9 (0.68%) Spring Boot
13 9 (0.68%) XML
14 7 (0.53%) Elastic Stack
14 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Graph
15 6 (0.46%) PyTorch
15 6 (0.46%) scikit-learn
15 6 (0.46%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 266 (20.24%) Data Centre
2 93 (7.08%) Security Posture
3 72 (5.48%) PKI
4 61 (4.64%) Cloud Native
5 49 (3.73%) Onboarding
6 48 (3.65%) Operational Technology
7 45 (3.42%) Hybrid Cloud
8 34 (2.59%) Management Information System
8 34 (2.59%) Public Cloud
9 25 (1.90%) Replication
10 24 (1.83%) Cyber Threat
11 23 (1.75%) Clustering
12 22 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
12 22 (1.67%) Security Operations Centre
13 20 (1.52%) Product Ownership
14 18 (1.37%) Private Cloud
14 18 (1.37%) SCADA
15 17 (1.29%) NHS
16 15 (1.14%) IoT
17 12 (0.91%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 325 (24.73%) Windows
2 211 (16.06%) Linux
3 127 (9.67%) Windows Server
4 35 (2.66%) Unix
5 33 (2.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 28 (2.13%) VMS
7 11 (0.84%) Windows 10
8 10 (0.76%) Windows 7
8 10 (0.76%) Windows Server 2019
9 9 (0.68%) Solaris
10 8 (0.61%) AIX
11 7 (0.53%) Ubuntu
12 6 (0.46%) Amazon Linux
12 6 (0.46%) Windows Server 2016
13 5 (0.38%) CentOS
13 5 (0.38%) Mac OS
14 4 (0.30%) Android
14 4 (0.30%) CatOS
14 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (18.34%) Cybersecurity
2 217 (16.51%) Problem-Solving
3 212 (16.13%) DevOps
4 194 (14.76%) CI/CD
5 186 (14.16%) Infrastructure as Code
6 150 (11.42%) Migration
7 142 (10.81%) SIEM
8 140 (10.65%) Cloud Security
9 136 (10.35%) ITIL
10 132 (10.05%) Load Balancing
11 130 (9.89%) High Availability
12 125 (9.51%) Agile
12 125 (9.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 124 (9.44%) Incident Response
14 107 (8.14%) Zero Trust
15 104 (7.91%) Change Management
16 100 (7.61%) Mentoring
17 98 (7.46%) Stakeholder Management
18 89 (6.77%) Security Architecture
19 84 (6.39%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 225 (17.12%) Python
2 191 (14.54%) PowerShell
3 105 (7.99%) Bash
4 58 (4.41%) SQL
5 40 (3.04%) Java
6 29 (2.21%) Perl
7 25 (1.90%) Bicep
8 12 (0.91%) Ruby
9 10 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.61%) COBOL
10 8 (0.61%) JavaScript
10 8 (0.61%) Rust
11 5 (0.38%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.30%) C#
12 4 (0.30%) Go
13 3 (0.23%) Groovy
13 3 (0.23%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.15%) C++
15 1 (0.076%) ActionScript
15 1 (0.076%) Korn
Qualifications
1 449 (34.17%) Security Cleared
2 302 (22.98%) SC Cleared
3 257 (19.56%) Cisco Certification
4 207 (15.75%) CCNP
5 118 (8.98%) Degree
6 117 (8.90%) DV Cleared
7 105 (7.99%) CCNA
8 95 (7.23%) CISSP
9 54 (4.11%) CISM
10 52 (3.96%) Azure Certification
10 52 (3.96%) CCIE
11 49 (3.73%) AWS Certification
12 41 (3.12%) Microsoft Certification
13 29 (2.21%) CompTIA Security+
14 26 (1.98%) JNCIP
14 26 (1.98%) JNCIS
15 20 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
15 20 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
16 18 (1.37%) JNCIA
17 17 (1.29%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (8.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 95 (7.23%) NIST
3 63 (4.79%) GDPR
4 48 (3.65%) PCI DSS
5 33 (2.51%) NCSC
6 31 (2.36%) SLA
7 28 (2.13%) Cyber Essentials
8 21 (1.60%) QA
9 15 (1.14%) PMO
10 12 (0.91%) GRC
10 12 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 9 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
12 8 (0.61%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.46%) HIPAA
13 6 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 6 (0.46%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.38%) COBIT
14 5 (0.38%) NIST 800
15 3 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 3 (0.23%) RMADS
System Software
1 240 (18.26%) Active Directory
2 162 (12.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 113 (8.60%) Docker
4 64 (4.87%) VMware NSX
5 38 (2.89%) Hyper-V
6 36 (2.74%) vSphere
7 29 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
8 21 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
9 19 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
10 13 (0.99%) Squid
11 12 (0.91%) Firmware
12 9 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (0.46%) DFS Replication
14 5 (0.38%) BitLocker
14 5 (0.38%) Microsoft App-V
14 5 (0.38%) NDS
14 5 (0.38%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 4 (0.30%) KVM
16 3 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
16 3 (0.23%) Snort
Systems Management
1 208 (15.83%) Terraform
2 163 (12.40%) Ansible
3 125 (9.51%) Kubernetes
4 97 (7.38%) FortiGate
5 65 (4.95%) Microsoft Intune
6 45 (3.42%) Single Sign-On
7 40 (3.04%) Grafana
8 38 (2.89%) SCCM
9 35 (2.66%) Prometheus
10 27 (2.05%) vCenter Server
11 26 (1.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (1.37%) Nmap
13 15 (1.14%) CASB
13 15 (1.14%) Nagios
13 15 (1.14%) QRadar
14 13 (0.99%) Fluentd
14 13 (0.99%) Nessus
15 11 (0.84%) WMI
16 10 (0.76%) Cisco Prime
17 9 (0.68%) Puppet
Vendors
1 442 (33.64%) Cisco
2 289 (21.99%) Microsoft
3 285 (21.69%) Palo Alto
4 212 (16.13%) VMware
5 155 (11.80%) F5
6 146 (11.11%) CheckPoint
7 137 (10.43%) Fortinet
8 131 (9.97%) Juniper
9 105 (7.99%) Splunk
10 86 (6.54%) Aruba
11 70 (5.33%) SolarWinds
12 62 (4.72%) Meraki
13 61 (4.64%) Google
14 53 (4.03%) Zscaler
15 52 (3.96%) ServiceNow
16 47 (3.58%) Oracle
17 41 (3.12%) Citrix
18 37 (2.82%) Red Hat
19 27 (2.05%) Arista
20 26 (1.98%) Dell