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 19 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 52 51
Rank change year-on-year -34 -1 +6
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,354 1,214 1,615
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.93% 4.13% 3.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.19% 32.16% 28.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 880 740 1,011
10th Percentile £335 £313 £313
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £513
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -0.49% -2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 18 42
10th Percentile £20.55 - £16.00
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £23.98
Median hourly rate £56.00 £35.82 £68.25
Median % change year-on-year +56.33% -47.51% +10.08%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.50 £86.66
90th Percentile £84.21 £53.63 £87.52
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.00 £35.00 £83.77
% change year-on-year +60.00% -58.22% +35.10%

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 4,485 3,775 5,721
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.71% 12.83% 13.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,814 2,340 3,428
10th Percentile £238 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £488
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% - -5.89%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 205 170 422
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.75 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £47.50 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.67% -6.25% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.44 £62.38
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £69.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £28.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +96.43% -41.05% +156.76%

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 19 April 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 19 April 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 19 April 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 -39 1,133 £500 -3.80% 451
UK excluding London -13 770 £500 - 408
London -54 414 £513 -2.38% 110
Work from Home -26 379 £513 +2.50% 174
South East +4 240 £506 +1.25% 137
North of England -23 220 £500 +5.26% 97
North West -8 143 £528 +11.16% 44
Midlands -38 95 £425 -23.42% 54
West Midlands -26 83 £420 -19.66% 31
Yorkshire -24 75 £434 -15.37% 27
East of England -8 66 £500 -4.76% 50
South West -45 61 £554 +1.28% 38
Scotland +14 54 £425 -1.45% 23
Wales -11 31 £425 +11.11% 21
East Midlands -48 8 £475 -18.10% 22
North East -13 5 £548 -0.45% 27
Northern Ireland +5 4 £500 - 3

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 40 (2.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (1.99%) Confluence
3 17 (1.26%) SharePoint
4 13 (0.96%) Apache
4 13 (0.96%) nginx
5 10 (0.74%) CICS
6 7 (0.52%) SAS
7 5 (0.37%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.074%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.074%) CMS
10 1 (0.074%) JBoss
10 1 (0.074%) Umbraco
Applications
1 35 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (1.48%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.074%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.074%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.074%) Primavera
2 1 (0.074%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.074%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 440 (32.50%) Azure
2 283 (20.90%) AWS
3 119 (8.79%) GCP
4 115 (8.49%) Entra ID
4 115 (8.49%) Microsoft 365
5 60 (4.43%) GitHub
6 59 (4.36%) IaaS
7 58 (4.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 53 (3.91%) PaaS
9 48 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
10 42 (3.10%) Azure Sentinel
10 42 (3.10%) SaaS
11 40 (2.95%) Azure Monitor
11 40 (2.95%) Serverless
12 37 (2.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 36 (2.66%) GitHub Actions
14 31 (2.29%) AWS Lambda
15 28 (2.07%) Amazon EKS
15 28 (2.07%) AWS CloudFormation
16 27 (1.99%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 376 (27.77%) Network Security
2 346 (25.55%) WAN
3 336 (24.82%) VPN
4 289 (21.34%) DNS
5 266 (19.65%) LAN
6 225 (16.62%) BGP
7 197 (14.55%) OSPF
8 157 (11.60%) VLAN
9 149 (11.00%) DHCP
10 148 (10.93%) TCP/IP
11 136 (10.04%) SD-WAN
12 125 (9.23%) Wireless
13 95 (7.02%) MPLS
13 95 (7.02%) Wi-Fi
14 83 (6.13%) IPsec
15 72 (5.32%) Cisco ISE
16 70 (5.17%) VXLAN
17 66 (4.87%) Cisco ASA
18 64 (4.73%) Cisco Nexus
19 60 (4.43%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.07%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.33%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
4 11 (0.81%) Oracle Database
5 10 (0.74%) DataStage
6 9 (0.66%) Data Lake
6 9 (0.66%) Power BI
7 8 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
8 7 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
8 7 (0.52%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.44%) MySQL
10 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.30%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
11 4 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.30%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.22%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.22%) Redis
Development Applications
1 72 (5.32%) JIRA
2 49 (3.62%) Jenkins
3 41 (3.03%) Git
3 41 (3.03%) GitLab
4 19 (1.40%) Sonatype Nexus
5 16 (1.18%) Bitbucket
5 16 (1.18%) Burp Suite
5 16 (1.18%) Metasploit
6 9 (0.66%) Chocolatey
6 9 (0.66%) Jaeger
7 7 (0.52%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.44%) Artifactory
9 5 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
10 4 (0.30%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.15%) Introscope
11 2 (0.15%) Postman
12 1 (0.074%) Maven
12 1 (0.074%) MSI
12 1 (0.074%) PVCS
12 1 (0.074%) Subversion
General
1 349 (25.78%) Social Skills
2 163 (12.04%) Finance
3 141 (10.41%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (7.46%) Public Sector
5 97 (7.16%) Documentation Skills
6 53 (3.91%) Banking
7 41 (3.03%) Telecoms
8 32 (2.36%) Legal
9 26 (1.92%) Financial Institution
10 23 (1.70%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
12 19 (1.40%) Military
13 15 (1.11%) Law
14 14 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
14 14 (1.03%) Retail
15 11 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 11 (0.81%) Local Government
16 10 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.66%) Front Office
18 8 (0.59%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 386 (28.51%) Network Engineer
2 232 (17.13%) Architect
3 144 (10.64%) Senior
4 110 (8.12%) Security Engineer
5 94 (6.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 82 (6.06%) Network Architect
7 56 (4.14%) Azure Engineer
8 54 (3.99%) Senior Network Engineer
9 53 (3.91%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 46 (3.40%) Security Architect
11 45 (3.32%) Cloud Engineer
12 42 (3.10%) Solutions Architect
13 41 (3.03%) Network Security Engineer
14 40 (2.95%) Analyst
14 40 (2.95%) Lead
15 39 (2.88%) Technical Architect
16 37 (2.73%) Consultant
17 35 (2.58%) Cisco Engineer
17 35 (2.58%) Platform Engineer
18 33 (2.44%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (4.95%) 802.1X
2 40 (2.95%) SAML
3 39 (2.88%) LDAP
4 36 (2.66%) OpenID
5 35 (2.58%) Middleware
6 21 (1.55%) OAuth
7 20 (1.48%) Kafka
7 20 (1.48%) OAuth2
8 15 (1.11%) REST
9 11 (0.81%) OpenTelemetry
10 10 (0.74%) JSON
10 10 (0.74%) Spring Boot
11 9 (0.66%) ARM Templates
11 9 (0.66%) Node.js
12 8 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
13 7 (0.52%) XML
14 6 (0.44%) HTML
14 6 (0.44%) LangChain
14 6 (0.44%) PyTorch
14 6 (0.44%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 289 (21.34%) Data Centre
2 74 (5.47%) Security Posture
3 73 (5.39%) Cloud Native
4 70 (5.17%) PKI
5 49 (3.62%) Onboarding
6 43 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
7 41 (3.03%) Operational Technology
8 38 (2.81%) Clustering
9 35 (2.58%) Management Information System
10 34 (2.51%) Public Cloud
11 29 (2.14%) IoT
12 22 (1.62%) Cyber Threat
12 22 (1.62%) Replication
13 21 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
13 21 (1.55%) Private Cloud
13 21 (1.55%) Product Ownership
13 21 (1.55%) SCADA
14 19 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
15 18 (1.33%) Enterprise Storage
15 18 (1.33%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 345 (25.48%) Windows
2 203 (14.99%) Linux
3 149 (11.00%) Windows Server
4 37 (2.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 36 (2.66%) Unix
6 29 (2.14%) VMS
7 12 (0.89%) Solaris
8 11 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
8 11 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (0.74%) AIX
10 7 (0.52%) Windows Server 2003
11 5 (0.37%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.37%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.37%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.30%) CatOS
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
13 3 (0.22%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.22%) SUSE
14 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (16.25%) Cybersecurity
2 204 (15.07%) DevOps
3 201 (14.84%) Problem-Solving
4 174 (12.85%) CI/CD
5 171 (12.63%) Infrastructure as Code
6 167 (12.33%) Migration
7 166 (12.26%) Load Balancing
8 160 (11.82%) ITIL
9 151 (11.15%) High Availability
10 139 (10.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 119 (8.79%) Agile
12 117 (8.64%) Zero Trust
13 116 (8.57%) Change Management
13 116 (8.57%) SIEM
14 114 (8.42%) Cloud Security
15 95 (7.02%) Roadmaps
16 94 (6.94%) Continuous Improvement
17 91 (6.72%) Mentoring
17 91 (6.72%) Technical Leadership
18 90 (6.65%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 185 (13.66%) Python
2 181 (13.37%) PowerShell
3 83 (6.13%) Bash
4 55 (4.06%) SQL
5 38 (2.81%) Bicep
6 29 (2.14%) Java
7 19 (1.40%) Perl
8 11 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.74%) COBOL
9 10 (0.74%) JavaScript
10 8 (0.59%) Rust
11 7 (0.52%) Ruby
12 6 (0.44%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.37%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.30%) C#
14 4 (0.30%) Go
15 2 (0.15%) C++
15 2 (0.15%) Jython
15 2 (0.15%) PHP
16 1 (0.074%) VB
Qualifications
1 473 (34.93%) Security Cleared
2 331 (24.45%) SC Cleared
3 264 (19.50%) Cisco Certification
4 207 (15.29%) CCNP
5 124 (9.16%) DV Cleared
6 123 (9.08%) Degree
7 109 (8.05%) CCNA
8 78 (5.76%) CISSP
9 57 (4.21%) Azure Certification
10 48 (3.55%) CCIE
11 44 (3.25%) CISM
12 41 (3.03%) AWS Certification
13 36 (2.66%) Microsoft Certification
14 25 (1.85%) CompTIA Security+
15 24 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
16 23 (1.70%) JNCIS
17 22 (1.62%) JNCIP
18 19 (1.40%) JNCIA
18 19 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
19 18 (1.33%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (7.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 73 (5.39%) NIST
3 67 (4.95%) GDPR
4 45 (3.32%) PCI DSS
5 33 (2.44%) NCSC
6 32 (2.36%) SLA
7 26 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials
8 23 (1.70%) QA
9 17 (1.26%) PMO
10 7 (0.52%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (0.44%) GRC
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 5 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
12 5 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.37%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.30%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.22%) ISA99
14 3 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 237 (17.50%) Active Directory
2 176 (13.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 73 (5.39%) VMware NSX
4 71 (5.24%) Docker
5 43 (3.18%) Hyper-V
6 35 (2.58%) vSphere
7 33 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
8 31 (2.29%) VMware ESXi
9 21 (1.55%) Firmware
10 20 (1.48%) Virtual Desktop
11 11 (0.81%) Squid
12 10 (0.74%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
14 6 (0.44%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.22%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
16 2 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
16 2 (0.15%) Samba
16 2 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 198 (14.62%) Terraform
2 151 (11.15%) Ansible
3 113 (8.35%) Kubernetes
4 103 (7.61%) FortiGate
5 60 (4.43%) Microsoft Intune
6 45 (3.32%) Single Sign-On
7 44 (3.25%) Grafana
8 38 (2.81%) Prometheus
9 35 (2.58%) SCCM
10 33 (2.44%) vCenter Server
11 27 (1.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (1.33%) Nmap
13 13 (0.96%) QRadar
14 12 (0.89%) CASB
14 12 (0.89%) Cisco Prime
14 12 (0.89%) Nagios
14 12 (0.89%) Puppet
15 11 (0.81%) VxRail
15 11 (0.81%) WSUS
16 10 (0.74%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 473 (34.93%) Cisco
2 305 (22.53%) Microsoft
3 273 (20.16%) Palo Alto
4 218 (16.10%) VMware
5 165 (12.19%) Fortinet
6 156 (11.52%) F5
7 146 (10.78%) Juniper
8 132 (9.75%) CheckPoint
9 90 (6.65%) Splunk
10 83 (6.13%) Aruba
11 72 (5.32%) SolarWinds
12 57 (4.21%) ServiceNow
13 56 (4.14%) Google
14 50 (3.69%) Meraki
15 46 (3.40%) Citrix
16 42 (3.10%) Zscaler
17 41 (3.03%) Arista
17 41 (3.03%) Red Hat
18 36 (2.66%) Oracle
19 26 (1.92%) Extreme Networks