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 26 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 54 53
Rank change year-on-year -38 -1 -6
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,381 1,298 1,530
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.71% 4.29% 3.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.62% 34.85% 28.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 888 761 954
10th Percentile £350 £325 £290
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year - -2.20% -2.62%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £614
90th Percentile £646 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £479 £500
% change year-on-year +4.44% -4.25% +3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 22 47
10th Percentile £24.84 £14.20 £16.98
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.43 £23.86
Median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +86.67% -50.00% -4.08%
75th Percentile £70.23 £32.33 £85.65
90th Percentile £78.55 £43.12 £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 4,826 3,725 5,407
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.48% 12.32% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,956 2,268 3,192
10th Percentile £250 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £493
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.57% +3.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 177 430
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £20.50 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.88 £44.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.64% -2.22% +136.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.10 £77.00 £73.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £33.89 £47.50
% change year-on-year -21.32% -28.66% +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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -42 1,173 £500 - 451
UK excluding London -31 785 £500 +4.44% 417
London -51 442 £500 -4.71% 101
Work from Home -32 397 £520 +4.00% 181
North of England -14 275 £515 +8.42% 91
South East -25 214 £513 +2.50% 153
North West -1 177 £538 +14.36% 47
Yorkshire -36 82 £425 -13.18% 34
Midlands -64 80 £438 -9.51% 61
East of England -10 70 £515 -1.44% 54
Scotland +16 66 £456 +4.29% 14
West Midlands -57 65 £425 -19.05% 38
South West -45 61 £525 +6.33% 46
Wales -17 25 £425 +36.00% 6
North East -11 22 £625 +25.00% 12
East Midlands -22 12 £500 +11.11% 23
Northern Ireland -4 2 £385 - 6

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 36 (2.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (2.32%) Confluence
3 23 (1.67%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.01%) nginx
5 10 (0.72%) Apache
5 10 (0.72%) CICS
6 4 (0.29%) IIS
6 4 (0.29%) SAS
6 4 (0.29%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.22%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
8 2 (0.14%) CMS
8 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
8 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.072%) MTS
Applications
1 25 (1.81%) MS Visio
2 21 (1.52%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.38%) 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%) Bloomberg TOMS
1 1 (0.072%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.072%) Eikon
1 1 (0.072%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.072%) Primavera
1 1 (0.072%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.072%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 470 (34.03%) Azure
2 307 (22.23%) AWS
3 126 (9.12%) Entra ID
4 117 (8.47%) GCP
5 106 (7.68%) Microsoft 365
6 72 (5.21%) GitHub
7 65 (4.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 60 (4.34%) IaaS
9 51 (3.69%) Azure DevOps
9 51 (3.69%) SaaS
10 41 (2.97%) PaaS
11 39 (2.82%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 39 (2.82%) Azure Monitor
12 36 (2.61%) OCI
13 35 (2.53%) Serverless
14 34 (2.46%) GitHub Actions
15 33 (2.39%) Azure Sentinel
16 29 (2.10%) Amazon EC2
17 28 (2.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 27 (1.96%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 391 (28.31%) Network Security
2 386 (27.95%) WAN
3 361 (26.14%) VPN
4 306 (22.16%) DNS
5 283 (20.49%) LAN
6 247 (17.89%) BGP
7 205 (14.84%) OSPF
8 176 (12.74%) VLAN
9 163 (11.80%) TCP/IP
10 161 (11.66%) SD-WAN
11 154 (11.15%) DHCP
12 147 (10.64%) Wireless
13 113 (8.18%) Wi-Fi
14 102 (7.39%) BIG-IP
15 94 (6.81%) MPLS
16 92 (6.66%) VXLAN
17 84 (6.08%) IPsec
18 82 (5.94%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 79 (5.72%) SSL
20 75 (5.43%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.45%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
3 16 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (1.16%) Power BI
4 11 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
4 11 (0.80%) Data Lake
5 10 (0.72%) DataStage
6 9 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (0.58%) MySQL
7 8 (0.58%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
8 5 (0.36%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
9 4 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
9 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.22%) Big Data
10 3 (0.22%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 98 (7.10%) JIRA
2 57 (4.13%) Jenkins
3 41 (2.97%) GitLab
4 40 (2.90%) Git
5 16 (1.16%) 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 5 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
9 5 (0.36%) Jaeger
10 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.14%) Gatling
10 2 (0.14%) Gradle
10 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.14%) MSI
10 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 303 (21.94%) Social Skills
2 176 (12.74%) Finance
3 117 (8.47%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.68%) Public Sector
5 77 (5.58%) Documentation Skills
6 60 (4.34%) Banking
7 40 (2.90%) Telecoms
8 36 (2.61%) Legal
9 21 (1.52%) Financial Institution
9 21 (1.52%) Manufacturing
10 18 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (1.30%) Military
11 13 (0.94%) Law
11 13 (0.94%) Retail
12 12 (0.87%) Local Government
12 12 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
13 11 (0.80%) Investment Banking
14 10 (0.72%) Front Office
15 9 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 9 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 441 (31.93%) Network Engineer
2 221 (16.00%) Architect
3 169 (12.24%) Senior
4 125 (9.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 117 (8.47%) Security Engineer
6 73 (5.29%) Network Architect
7 72 (5.21%) Cloud Engineer
7 72 (5.21%) Senior Network Engineer
8 56 (4.06%) Azure Engineer
9 53 (3.84%) Network Security Engineer
9 53 (3.84%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 52 (3.77%) Technical Architect
11 49 (3.55%) Consultant
12 44 (3.19%) Lead
13 43 (3.11%) DevOps Engineer
14 39 (2.82%) Security Architect
15 37 (2.68%) Cisco Engineer
16 35 (2.53%) Analyst
16 35 (2.53%) Cloud Architect
16 35 (2.53%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (5.14%) 802.1X
2 40 (2.90%) Middleware
3 35 (2.53%) LDAP
4 27 (1.96%) SAML
5 23 (1.67%) OpenID
6 12 (0.87%) Kafka
6 12 (0.87%) OAuth
7 11 (0.80%) ARM Templates
7 11 (0.80%) OAuth2
8 10 (0.72%) REST
9 9 (0.65%) LangChain
9 9 (0.65%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.65%) scikit-learn
10 8 (0.58%) .NET
10 8 (0.58%) OpenTelemetry
11 7 (0.51%) SailPoint
11 7 (0.51%) Spring Boot
11 7 (0.51%) YAML
12 6 (0.43%) Elastic Stack
12 6 (0.43%) React
Miscellaneous
1 332 (24.04%) Data Centre
2 93 (6.73%) Cloud Native
3 83 (6.01%) Security Posture
4 75 (5.43%) Hybrid Cloud
5 59 (4.27%) PKI
6 52 (3.77%) Onboarding
7 47 (3.40%) Management Information System
8 41 (2.97%) Clustering
9 38 (2.75%) Operational Technology
10 30 (2.17%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 30 (2.17%) Public Cloud
11 29 (2.10%) Data Protection Act
12 26 (1.88%) IoT
13 24 (1.74%) Enterprise Storage
14 21 (1.52%) Cyber Threat
15 19 (1.38%) SCADA
16 16 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
16 16 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
16 16 (1.16%) Private Cloud
17 15 (1.09%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 310 (22.45%) Windows
2 180 (13.03%) Linux
3 111 (8.04%) Windows Server
4 44 (3.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (2.17%) Unix
6 24 (1.74%) VMS
7 14 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
8 13 (0.94%) Ubuntu
9 11 (0.80%) Solaris
10 10 (0.72%) AIX
10 10 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.51%) CentOS
11 7 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (0.36%) Mac OS
13 5 (0.36%) Windows 10
14 4 (0.29%) Android
14 4 (0.29%) SUSE
15 3 (0.22%) CatOS
15 3 (0.22%) Check Point GAiA
Processes & Methodologies
1 234 (16.94%) DevOps
2 209 (15.13%) CI/CD
3 205 (14.84%) Infrastructure as Code
4 197 (14.27%) Load Balancing
5 193 (13.98%) Migration
6 181 (13.11%) High Availability
7 172 (12.45%) Cybersecurity
8 169 (12.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 165 (11.95%) Problem-Solving
10 162 (11.73%) ITIL
11 155 (11.22%) Agile
12 148 (10.72%) Zero Trust
13 120 (8.69%) SIEM
14 113 (8.18%) Change Management
15 108 (7.82%) Project Delivery
15 108 (7.82%) Validation
16 107 (7.75%) Observability
17 105 (7.60%) Cloud Security
18 102 (7.39%) Roadmaps
19 99 (7.17%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 236 (17.09%) Python
2 147 (10.64%) PowerShell
3 88 (6.37%) Bash
4 42 (3.04%) SQL
5 39 (2.82%) Bicep
6 30 (2.17%) 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++
11 4 (0.29%) Go
11 4 (0.29%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.29%) Rust
12 3 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) C
13 2 (0.14%) Jython
13 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 457 (33.09%) Security Cleared
2 335 (24.26%) SC Cleared
3 283 (20.49%) Cisco Certification
4 211 (15.28%) CCNP
5 119 (8.62%) CCNA
6 116 (8.40%) Degree
7 102 (7.39%) DV Cleared
8 67 (4.85%) CISSP
9 55 (3.98%) Azure Certification
10 43 (3.11%) CCIE
11 40 (2.90%) AWS Certification
12 32 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
13 31 (2.24%) CISM
14 21 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
15 19 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
16 18 (1.30%) JNCIS
16 18 (1.30%) PMP
17 17 (1.23%) JNCIA
17 17 (1.23%) Server+ Certification
18 15 (1.09%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (5.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 55 (3.98%) NIST
3 47 (3.40%) GDPR
4 33 (2.39%) NCSC
5 31 (2.24%) PCI DSS
6 26 (1.88%) QA
7 23 (1.67%) Cyber Essentials
7 23 (1.67%) SLA
8 9 (0.65%) PMO
9 8 (0.58%) Data Quality
9 8 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
10 7 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (0.43%) GRC
11 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
12 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.36%) RMADS
13 4 (0.29%) GxP
13 4 (0.29%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 204 (14.77%) Active Directory
2 148 (10.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 55 (3.98%) VMware NSX
4 51 (3.69%) Docker
5 39 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
6 36 (2.61%) VMware ESXi
6 36 (2.61%) vSphere
7 33 (2.39%) Hyper-V
8 25 (1.81%) Firmware
9 20 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
10 16 (1.16%) Squid
11 13 (0.94%) BitLocker
12 9 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
13 4 (0.29%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.22%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.22%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.22%) NFS
14 3 (0.22%) Postfix
15 2 (0.14%) VirtualBox
15 2 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 243 (17.60%) Terraform
2 173 (12.53%) Ansible
3 116 (8.40%) FortiGate
4 106 (7.68%) Kubernetes
5 62 (4.49%) Grafana
6 58 (4.20%) Prometheus
7 52 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
8 38 (2.75%) Single Sign-On
9 32 (2.32%) SCCM
10 24 (1.74%) vCenter Server
11 19 (1.38%) Puppet
12 17 (1.23%) Progress Chef
13 16 (1.16%) 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
18 9 (0.65%) Nessus
18 9 (0.65%) vMotion
Vendors
1 494 (35.77%) Cisco
2 298 (21.58%) Palo Alto
3 282 (20.42%) Microsoft
4 199 (14.41%) Fortinet
5 193 (13.98%) VMware
6 192 (13.90%) F5
7 154 (11.15%) Juniper
8 120 (8.69%) CheckPoint
9 81 (5.87%) Aruba
10 80 (5.79%) Splunk
11 73 (5.29%) Arista
11 73 (5.29%) ServiceNow
12 69 (5.00%) Google
13 68 (4.92%) SolarWinds
14 57 (4.13%) Zscaler
15 43 (3.11%) Citrix
15 43 (3.11%) Red Hat
16 35 (2.53%) Meraki
17 31 (2.24%) Infoblox
18 28 (2.03%) Dynatrace