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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 54 55
Rank change year-on-year -35 +1 -7
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,417 1,370 1,535
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.72% 4.30% 3.55%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.53% 35.18% 28.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 909 807 955
10th Percentile £347 £325 £275
25th Percentile £413 £413 £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 £640 £689 £698
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 23 47
10th Percentile £24.84 £14.20 £16.98
25th Percentile £36.25 £14.66 £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 £31.89 £85.65
90th Percentile £78.55 £44.65 £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 4,967 3,894 5,417
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.24% 12.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,020 2,379 3,191
10th Percentile £240 £231 £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 £671 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 183 427
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £23.37 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% - +80.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.38 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.00 £73.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £36.65 £47.50
% change year-on-year -29.05% -22.85% +58.33%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -43 1,212 £500 - 561
UK excluding London -27 803 £500 +3.09% 510
London -60 461 £500 -3.85% 143
Work from Home -40 393 £520 +4.00% 235
North of England -13 289 £500 +5.26% 107
South East -31 213 £500 - 176
North West 0 186 £528 +11.16% 56
Yorkshire -35 87 £438 -10.62% 38
Midlands -59 82 £438 -7.89% 63
East of England -14 71 £525 - 48
Scotland +11 67 £450 +4.35% 32
West Midlands -57 67 £425 -19.05% 41
South West -50 62 £525 +5.00% 68
Wales -19 25 £425 +30.77% 10
North East -18 22 £625 +25.00% 15
East Midlands -29 12 £500 +11.11% 22
Northern Ireland -2 2 £385 - 21

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 37 (2.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (2.33%) Confluence
3 25 (1.76%) SharePoint
4 15 (1.06%) nginx
5 10 (0.71%) Apache
5 10 (0.71%) 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%) 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
10 1 (0.071%) MTS
Applications
1 26 (1.83%) MS Visio
2 18 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.071%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.071%) Bloomberg TOMS
1 1 (0.071%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.071%) Eikon
1 1 (0.071%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.071%) Primavera
1 1 (0.071%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.071%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 480 (33.87%) Azure
2 308 (21.74%) AWS
3 131 (9.24%) Entra ID
4 118 (8.33%) GCP
5 113 (7.97%) Microsoft 365
6 69 (4.87%) GitHub
7 64 (4.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 63 (4.45%) IaaS
9 53 (3.74%) SaaS
10 51 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
11 43 (3.03%) PaaS
12 41 (2.89%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 39 (2.75%) Azure Monitor
14 36 (2.54%) OCI
14 36 (2.54%) Serverless
15 34 (2.40%) Azure Sentinel
16 30 (2.12%) GitHub Actions
17 29 (2.05%) Amazon EC2
17 29 (2.05%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 27 (1.91%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 402 (28.37%) Network Security
2 399 (28.16%) WAN
3 395 (27.88%) VPN
4 325 (22.94%) DNS
5 292 (20.61%) LAN
6 264 (18.63%) BGP
7 216 (15.24%) OSPF
8 184 (12.99%) VLAN
9 173 (12.21%) TCP/IP
10 167 (11.79%) DHCP
11 163 (11.50%) SD-WAN
12 161 (11.36%) Wireless
13 114 (8.05%) Wi-Fi
14 102 (7.20%) BIG-IP
15 94 (6.63%) MPLS
16 91 (6.42%) VXLAN
17 85 (6.00%) IPsec
18 84 (5.93%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 79 (5.58%) SSL
20 76 (5.36%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (1.48%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.27%) Power BI
3 17 (1.20%) Elasticsearch
4 16 (1.13%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (0.78%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.71%) DataStage
7 9 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (0.56%) MySQL
8 8 (0.56%) Oracle Database
9 7 (0.49%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
10 5 (0.35%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.28%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (0.28%) Amazon QuickSight
11 4 (0.28%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon Aurora
12 3 (0.21%) Big Data
12 3 (0.21%) Db2
Development Applications
1 102 (7.20%) JIRA
2 52 (3.67%) Jenkins
3 41 (2.89%) GitLab
4 40 (2.82%) Git
5 16 (1.13%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (0.71%) Artifactory
6 10 (0.71%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.64%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.64%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
9 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
9 4 (0.28%) Jaeger
10 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.14%) Gradle
10 2 (0.14%) Introscope
10 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
10 2 (0.14%) MSI
10 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 308 (21.74%) Social Skills
2 186 (13.13%) Finance
3 119 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (8.05%) Public Sector
5 75 (5.29%) Documentation Skills
6 68 (4.80%) Banking
7 40 (2.82%) Telecoms
8 35 (2.47%) Legal
9 22 (1.55%) Manufacturing
10 20 (1.41%) Financial Institution
10 20 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.27%) Military
12 14 (0.99%) Local Government
13 13 (0.92%) Retail
14 12 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
15 11 (0.78%) Law
16 10 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.71%) Investment Banking
16 10 (0.71%) Police
17 9 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 459 (32.39%) Network Engineer
2 234 (16.51%) Architect
3 176 (12.42%) Senior
4 128 (9.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 122 (8.61%) Security Engineer
6 81 (5.72%) Network Architect
7 76 (5.36%) Senior Network Engineer
8 69 (4.87%) Cloud Engineer
9 57 (4.02%) Network Security Engineer
10 55 (3.88%) Technical Architect
11 54 (3.81%) Azure Engineer
11 54 (3.81%) Consultant
12 49 (3.46%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 47 (3.32%) Security Architect
14 43 (3.03%) Lead
15 40 (2.82%) DevOps Engineer
16 39 (2.75%) Solutions Architect
17 36 (2.54%) Cloud Architect
18 34 (2.40%) Cisco Engineer
19 33 (2.33%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (4.94%) 802.1X
2 43 (3.03%) Middleware
3 37 (2.61%) LDAP
4 31 (2.19%) SAML
5 23 (1.62%) OpenID
6 12 (0.85%) Kafka
6 12 (0.85%) OAuth
7 11 (0.78%) OAuth2
8 10 (0.71%) ARM Templates
9 9 (0.64%) LangChain
9 9 (0.64%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.64%) REST
9 9 (0.64%) scikit-learn
10 8 (0.56%) .NET
11 7 (0.49%) OpenTelemetry
11 7 (0.49%) SailPoint
11 7 (0.49%) YAML
12 6 (0.42%) Elastic Stack
12 6 (0.42%) React
12 6 (0.42%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 339 (23.92%) Data Centre
2 93 (6.56%) Cloud Native
3 79 (5.58%) Security Posture
4 76 (5.36%) Hybrid Cloud
5 64 (4.52%) PKI
6 47 (3.32%) Management Information System
7 45 (3.18%) Onboarding
8 41 (2.89%) Clustering
8 41 (2.89%) Operational Technology
9 31 (2.19%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 30 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
10 30 (2.12%) IoT
11 26 (1.83%) Public Cloud
12 25 (1.76%) Enterprise Storage
13 23 (1.62%) SCADA
14 19 (1.34%) Cyber Threat
15 18 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
16 17 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
17 16 (1.13%) Linux Command Line
17 16 (1.13%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 312 (22.02%) Windows
2 180 (12.70%) Linux
3 113 (7.97%) Windows Server
4 46 (3.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (2.26%) Unix
6 21 (1.48%) VMS
7 14 (0.99%) Windows Server 2019
8 13 (0.92%) Ubuntu
9 11 (0.78%) Solaris
10 10 (0.71%) AIX
10 10 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.56%) CentOS
12 7 (0.49%) Windows Server 2003
13 6 (0.42%) Mac OS
13 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.35%) Windows 10
15 4 (0.28%) Android
15 4 (0.28%) Rocky
15 4 (0.28%) SUSE
16 3 (0.21%) Check Point GAiA
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (16.30%) DevOps
2 207 (14.61%) CI/CD
3 202 (14.26%) Infrastructure as Code
4 198 (13.97%) Load Balancing
5 187 (13.20%) Migration
6 180 (12.70%) High Availability
7 177 (12.49%) ITIL
8 175 (12.35%) Problem-Solving
9 172 (12.14%) Cybersecurity
10 171 (12.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 155 (10.94%) Zero Trust
12 154 (10.87%) Agile
13 124 (8.75%) Change Management
14 120 (8.47%) SIEM
15 113 (7.97%) Observability
16 111 (7.83%) Validation
17 109 (7.69%) Project Delivery
18 106 (7.48%) Stakeholder Management
19 105 (7.41%) Roadmaps
20 103 (7.27%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 242 (17.08%) Python
2 148 (10.44%) PowerShell
3 88 (6.21%) Bash
4 41 (2.89%) SQL
5 40 (2.82%) Bicep
6 31 (2.19%) Java
7 11 (0.78%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.71%) COBOL
8 10 (0.71%) Perl
9 6 (0.42%) Groovy
9 6 (0.42%) JavaScript
9 6 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.35%) C++
10 5 (0.35%) Go
11 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.21%) Rust
11 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) C
12 2 (0.14%) Jython
12 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 463 (32.67%) Security Cleared
2 338 (23.85%) SC Cleared
3 291 (20.54%) Cisco Certification
4 218 (15.38%) CCNP
5 121 (8.54%) CCNA
6 111 (7.83%) Degree
7 106 (7.48%) DV Cleared
8 69 (4.87%) CISSP
9 54 (3.81%) Azure Certification
10 44 (3.11%) CCIE
11 39 (2.75%) AWS Certification
12 33 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
13 32 (2.26%) CISM
14 21 (1.48%) Network+ Certification
15 20 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
15 20 (1.41%) JNCIS
16 18 (1.27%) PMP
17 17 (1.20%) JNCIA
17 17 (1.20%) Server+ Certification
18 16 (1.13%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (5.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 58 (4.09%) NIST
3 42 (2.96%) GDPR
4 35 (2.47%) NCSC
5 26 (1.83%) PCI DSS
6 22 (1.55%) Cyber Essentials
6 22 (1.55%) QA
6 22 (1.55%) SLA
7 9 (0.64%) Data Quality
7 9 (0.64%) NIST 800
8 8 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
9 7 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 7 (0.49%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.42%) GRC
11 5 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.35%) GxP
11 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.35%) PMO
11 5 (0.35%) RMADS
12 4 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 208 (14.68%) Active Directory
2 149 (10.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 52 (3.67%) VMware NSX
4 50 (3.53%) Docker
5 38 (2.68%) Virtual Machines
5 38 (2.68%) VMware ESXi
6 35 (2.47%) Hyper-V
7 34 (2.40%) vSphere
8 26 (1.83%) Firmware
9 19 (1.34%) Virtual Desktop
10 16 (1.13%) Squid
11 13 (0.92%) BitLocker
12 9 (0.64%) 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
1 242 (17.08%) Terraform
2 168 (11.86%) Ansible
3 115 (8.12%) FortiGate
4 102 (7.20%) Kubernetes
5 65 (4.59%) Grafana
6 61 (4.30%) Prometheus
7 55 (3.88%) Microsoft Intune
8 39 (2.75%) Single Sign-On
9 31 (2.19%) SCCM
10 23 (1.62%) vCenter Server
11 19 (1.34%) Puppet
12 17 (1.20%) Progress Chef
13 16 (1.13%) CASB
14 14 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 12 (0.85%) Cisco Prime
16 11 (0.78%) Consul
16 11 (0.78%) QRadar
17 9 (0.64%) Nagios
17 9 (0.64%) Nessus
17 9 (0.64%) vMotion
Vendors
1 513 (36.20%) Cisco
2 309 (21.81%) Palo Alto
3 287 (20.25%) Microsoft
4 208 (14.68%) Fortinet
5 201 (14.18%) F5
6 196 (13.83%) VMware
7 165 (11.64%) Juniper
8 132 (9.32%) CheckPoint
9 82 (5.79%) Splunk
10 78 (5.50%) Aruba
11 75 (5.29%) Arista
12 74 (5.22%) ServiceNow
13 70 (4.94%) SolarWinds
14 65 (4.59%) Google
15 59 (4.16%) Zscaler
16 48 (3.39%) Citrix
17 45 (3.18%) Red Hat
18 39 (2.75%) Meraki
19 32 (2.26%) Infoblox
20 30 (2.12%) Dynatrace