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

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 50 54
Rank change year-on-year -38 +4 -1
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,347 1,194 1,517
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.77% 4.17% 3.58%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.85% 32.97% 28.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 877 712 955
10th Percentile £339 £325 £293
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £508
Median % change year-on-year - -1.48% -3.33%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 18 44
10th Percentile £18.19 - £16.00
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £23.92
Median hourly rate £48.72 £22.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +121.45% -63.33% -3.23%
75th Percentile £70.15 £41.25 £85.99
90th Percentile £82.24 £53.63 £87.51
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £22.00 £83.63
% change year-on-year +121.45% -73.69% +34.89%

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 4,669 3,622 5,376
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.61% 12.66% 12.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,871 2,249 3,212
10th Percentile £263 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £488
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% - -5.34%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 151 415
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £32.50 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -6.25% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.22 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.78 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.02 £28.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year +39.36% -38.97% +154.89%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 1,127 £500 -1.96% 518
UK excluding London -24 764 £500 +2.04% 473
London -65 409 £513 -2.38% 138
Work from Home -26 395 £520 +4.00% 227
South East -7 237 £500 - 162
North of England -17 237 £515 +8.42% 120
North West -5 154 £540 +13.68% 72
Midlands -61 80 £420 -21.86% 71
Yorkshire -36 68 £424 -12.63% 34
West Midlands -44 68 £413 -21.43% 45
East of England -7 67 £502 -4.48% 28
South West -45 59 £525 +5.00% 46
Scotland +16 58 £450 +2.86% 28
Wales -16 28 £425 +21.43% 15
North East -11 17 £625 +25.00% 16
East Midlands -47 8 £488 -12.16% 26
Northern Ireland -3 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 36 (2.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (2.45%) Confluence
3 18 (1.34%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.04%) nginx
5 10 (0.74%) Apache
5 10 (0.74%) CICS
6 6 (0.45%) SAS
7 4 (0.30%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.22%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.15%) CloudStack
9 2 (0.15%) CMS
9 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.074%) MTS
Applications
1 30 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (1.78%) MS Visio
3 22 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
4 17 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.074%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.074%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.074%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.074%) Primavera
1 1 (0.074%) SAP S/4HANA
1 1 (0.074%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 1 (0.074%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 443 (32.89%) Azure
2 280 (20.79%) AWS
3 111 (8.24%) GCP
4 110 (8.17%) Entra ID
5 103 (7.65%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (4.90%) GitHub
7 57 (4.23%) IaaS
7 57 (4.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 51 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (3.19%) PaaS
10 37 (2.75%) Azure Sentinel
10 37 (2.75%) SaaS
11 35 (2.60%) GitHub Actions
12 34 (2.52%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 33 (2.45%) Azure Monitor
14 29 (2.15%) OCI
15 27 (2.00%) Serverless
16 26 (1.93%) Amazon EC2
16 26 (1.93%) Amazon EKS
17 22 (1.63%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 371 (27.54%) WAN
2 370 (27.47%) Network Security
3 343 (25.46%) VPN
4 281 (20.86%) LAN
5 278 (20.64%) DNS
6 235 (17.45%) BGP
7 214 (15.89%) OSPF
8 169 (12.55%) VLAN
9 144 (10.69%) SD-WAN
10 143 (10.62%) DHCP
10 143 (10.62%) TCP/IP
11 137 (10.17%) Wireless
12 106 (7.87%) Wi-Fi
13 91 (6.76%) IPsec
14 90 (6.68%) MPLS
14 90 (6.68%) VXLAN
15 89 (6.61%) BIG-IP
16 78 (5.79%) Ethernet VPN
17 70 (5.20%) Cisco ISE
18 69 (5.12%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.93%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.34%) Elasticsearch
2 18 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (0.97%) Power BI
4 10 (0.74%) DataStage
4 10 (0.74%) Oracle Database
5 7 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
5 7 (0.52%) Data Lake
5 7 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (0.52%) MongoDB
5 7 (0.52%) MySQL
6 6 (0.45%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.30%) Amazon Athena
8 4 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
8 4 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
8 4 (0.30%) Metadata
8 4 (0.30%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 85 (6.31%) JIRA
2 55 (4.08%) Jenkins
3 44 (3.27%) Git
3 44 (3.27%) GitLab
4 17 (1.26%) Burp Suite
5 16 (1.19%) Metasploit
6 15 (1.11%) Sonatype Nexus
7 9 (0.67%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.67%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.67%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.67%) Jaeger
8 8 (0.59%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
10 4 (0.30%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.15%) Introscope
11 2 (0.15%) Postman
11 2 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.074%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.074%) Cucumber
12 1 (0.074%) Gradle
General
1 308 (22.87%) Social Skills
2 158 (11.73%) Finance
3 120 (8.91%) Analytical Skills
4 112 (8.31%) Public Sector
5 88 (6.53%) Documentation Skills
6 54 (4.01%) Banking
7 40 (2.97%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.15%) Legal
9 25 (1.86%) Manufacturing
10 24 (1.78%) Financial Institution
11 21 (1.56%) Military
12 17 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.11%) Law
14 14 (1.04%) Retail
15 10 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
17 8 (0.59%) Front Office
17 8 (0.59%) Investment Banking
17 8 (0.59%) Local Government
17 8 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 417 (30.96%) Network Engineer
2 208 (15.44%) Architect
3 163 (12.10%) Senior
4 111 (8.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 107 (7.94%) Security Engineer
6 72 (5.35%) Network Architect
7 68 (5.05%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 66 (4.90%) Senior Network Engineer
9 57 (4.23%) Azure Engineer
10 55 (4.08%) Cloud Engineer
11 45 (3.34%) Network Security Engineer
12 44 (3.27%) Technical Architect
13 43 (3.19%) Cisco Engineer
13 43 (3.19%) Lead
14 39 (2.90%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 38 (2.82%) Security Architect
16 37 (2.75%) DevOps Engineer
17 34 (2.52%) Analyst
17 34 (2.52%) Consultant
18 31 (2.30%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (5.27%) 802.1X
2 41 (3.04%) LDAP
3 40 (2.97%) Middleware
4 28 (2.08%) SAML
5 23 (1.71%) OpenID
6 18 (1.34%) Kafka
7 12 (0.89%) OAuth
8 11 (0.82%) Elastic Stack
8 11 (0.82%) OAuth2
8 11 (0.82%) OpenTelemetry
9 10 (0.74%) REST
9 10 (0.74%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.52%) YAML
11 6 (0.45%) .NET
11 6 (0.45%) ARM Templates
11 6 (0.45%) HTML
11 6 (0.45%) JSON
11 6 (0.45%) LangChain
11 6 (0.45%) PyTorch
11 6 (0.45%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 331 (24.57%) Data Centre
2 74 (5.49%) Security Posture
3 68 (5.05%) Cloud Native
4 59 (4.38%) PKI
5 58 (4.31%) Hybrid Cloud
6 48 (3.56%) Onboarding
7 39 (2.90%) Clustering
8 38 (2.82%) Management Information System
8 38 (2.82%) Operational Technology
9 33 (2.45%) Public Cloud
10 26 (1.93%) IoT
11 25 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
12 23 (1.71%) Cyber Threat
13 21 (1.56%) Enterprise Storage
14 19 (1.41%) SCADA
15 17 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
16 16 (1.19%) Driving Licence
16 16 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
17 15 (1.11%) BYOD
18 14 (1.04%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 306 (22.72%) Windows
2 178 (13.21%) Linux
3 120 (8.91%) Windows Server
4 31 (2.30%) Unix
5 30 (2.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 26 (1.93%) VMS
7 11 (0.82%) Solaris
8 10 (0.74%) AIX
8 10 (0.74%) Windows Server 2016
8 10 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
9 8 (0.59%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (0.45%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.45%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.45%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.37%) CatOS
11 5 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.30%) SUSE
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
13 3 (0.22%) Android
13 3 (0.22%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (16.26%) DevOps
2 191 (14.18%) CI/CD
2 191 (14.18%) Cybersecurity
3 181 (13.44%) Infrastructure as Code
4 180 (13.36%) Load Balancing
5 169 (12.55%) Migration
6 167 (12.40%) High Availability
7 166 (12.32%) Problem-Solving
8 154 (11.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 153 (11.36%) ITIL
10 140 (10.39%) Zero Trust
11 131 (9.73%) Agile
12 107 (7.94%) SIEM
13 104 (7.72%) Cloud Security
14 100 (7.42%) Change Management
14 100 (7.42%) Project Delivery
15 93 (6.90%) Network Segmentation
16 92 (6.83%) Observability
17 91 (6.76%) Technical Leadership
18 88 (6.53%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 190 (14.11%) Python
2 139 (10.32%) PowerShell
3 76 (5.64%) Bash
4 55 (4.08%) SQL
5 41 (3.04%) Bicep
6 31 (2.30%) Java
7 10 (0.74%) COBOL
7 10 (0.74%) JavaScript
7 10 (0.74%) Perl
8 8 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (0.59%) Rust
9 6 (0.45%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.37%) ActionScript
10 5 (0.37%) Go
10 5 (0.37%) Groovy
10 5 (0.37%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.22%) C++
12 2 (0.15%) Jython
12 2 (0.15%) PHP
13 1 (0.074%) VB
Qualifications
1 489 (36.30%) Security Cleared
2 368 (27.32%) SC Cleared
3 279 (20.71%) Cisco Certification
4 212 (15.74%) CCNP
5 113 (8.39%) CCNA
6 108 (8.02%) Degree
7 106 (7.87%) DV Cleared
8 61 (4.53%) CISSP
9 59 (4.38%) Azure Certification
10 39 (2.90%) CCIE
11 35 (2.60%) AWS Certification
11 35 (2.60%) CISM
12 31 (2.30%) Microsoft Certification
13 23 (1.71%) JNCIS
14 22 (1.63%) Network+ Certification
15 21 (1.56%) CompTIA Security+
16 20 (1.48%) Computer Science Degree
17 19 (1.41%) JNCIA
18 17 (1.26%) CREST Certified
19 16 (1.19%) CHECK Team Member
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (5.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 53 (3.93%) GDPR
2 53 (3.93%) NIST
3 37 (2.75%) PCI DSS
4 31 (2.30%) SLA
5 30 (2.23%) NCSC
6 27 (2.00%) QA
7 21 (1.56%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (1.19%) PMO
9 7 (0.52%) Data Quality
9 7 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
10 6 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.45%) GRC
10 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.45%) RMADS
11 5 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.37%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.30%) GxP
12 4 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 211 (15.66%) Active Directory
2 156 (11.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 61 (4.53%) VMware NSX
4 54 (4.01%) Docker
5 40 (2.97%) Hyper-V
6 38 (2.82%) vSphere
7 34 (2.52%) Virtual Machines
8 29 (2.15%) VMware ESXi
9 22 (1.63%) Firmware
10 20 (1.48%) Virtual Desktop
11 16 (1.19%) Squid
12 11 (0.82%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
14 3 (0.22%) DFS Replication
14 3 (0.22%) KVM
14 3 (0.22%) NFS
14 3 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
15 2 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 2 (0.15%) iptables
15 2 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 217 (16.11%) Terraform
2 166 (12.32%) Ansible
3 103 (7.65%) FortiGate
4 101 (7.50%) Kubernetes
5 62 (4.60%) Grafana
6 53 (3.93%) Microsoft Intune
7 52 (3.86%) Prometheus
8 34 (2.52%) Single Sign-On
9 29 (2.15%) SCCM
10 25 (1.86%) vCenter Server
11 18 (1.34%) Nmap
12 15 (1.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 14 (1.04%) CASB
14 13 (0.97%) Nagios
14 13 (0.97%) Puppet
15 12 (0.89%) Cisco Prime
15 12 (0.89%) QRadar
16 11 (0.82%) VxRail
17 10 (0.74%) Consul
17 10 (0.74%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 495 (36.75%) Cisco
2 308 (22.87%) Palo Alto
3 262 (19.45%) Microsoft
4 202 (15.00%) VMware
5 183 (13.59%) F5
5 183 (13.59%) Fortinet
6 147 (10.91%) Juniper
7 135 (10.02%) CheckPoint
8 94 (6.98%) Aruba
9 83 (6.16%) Splunk
10 70 (5.20%) ServiceNow
11 67 (4.97%) SolarWinds
12 63 (4.68%) Arista
13 51 (3.79%) Google
14 44 (3.27%) Zscaler
15 43 (3.19%) Meraki
16 35 (2.60%) Citrix
17 34 (2.52%) Red Hat
18 28 (2.08%) Oracle
19 27 (2.00%) Extreme Networks