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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 50 51
Rank change year-on-year -32 +1 +7
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,375 1,225 1,641
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.02% 4.19% 3.74%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.43% 32.40% 28.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 899 746 1,036
10th Percentile £335 £313 £313
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £623
90th Percentile £650 £688 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 18 39
10th Percentile £19.67 - £15.78
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £23.92
Median hourly rate £48.72 £35.82 £73.50
Median % change year-on-year +36.00% -51.26% +18.02%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.50 £86.32
90th Percentile £85.10 £53.63 £87.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £35.00 £83.77
% change year-on-year +39.20% -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 4,519 3,781 5,848
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.91% 12.92% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,876 2,341 3,530
10th Percentile £225 £213 £205
25th Percentile £383 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £477
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% +2.20% -8.27%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £468 £475
% change year-on-year +1.60% -1.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 156 411
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.46 £17.69
Median hourly rate £42.25 £35.75 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% +10.00% +71.05%
75th Percentile £70.29 £62.69 £61.75
90th Percentile £76.70 £75.00 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £28.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year +78.57% -36.36% +137.84%

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 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 7 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 7 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 -33 1,151 £514 -1.20% 482
UK excluding London -18 781 £500 - 419
London -59 417 £520 -0.95% 122
Work from Home -19 393 £513 +2.50% 174
South East +6 235 £515 +3.00% 134
North of England -20 234 £508 +6.84% 105
North West -6 158 £528 +11.75% 67
Midlands -45 98 £425 -22.73% 62
West Midlands -17 86 £425 -18.35% 37
Yorkshire -22 74 £425 -17.07% 27
South West -41 64 £552 +1.10% 42
East of England -15 63 £475 -9.52% 51
Scotland -3 54 £425 -1.45% 22
Wales -12 31 £425 +9.68% 13
East Midlands -53 8 £475 -19.83% 25
North East -15 5 £548 +9.50% 12
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 5

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 42 (3.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (2.18%) Confluence
3 19 (1.38%) SharePoint
4 13 (0.95%) Apache
4 13 (0.95%) nginx
5 10 (0.73%) CICS
6 7 (0.51%) SAS
7 6 (0.44%) IIS
8 4 (0.29%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.22%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
10 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.15%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.073%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.073%) JBoss
Applications
1 38 (2.76%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (1.38%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.073%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.073%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.073%) Primavera
2 1 (0.073%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.073%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 460 (33.45%) Azure
2 301 (21.89%) AWS
3 126 (9.16%) GCP
4 121 (8.80%) Microsoft 365
5 115 (8.36%) Entra ID
6 63 (4.58%) GitHub
7 62 (4.51%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 61 (4.44%) IaaS
9 55 (4.00%) PaaS
10 51 (3.71%) Azure DevOps
11 46 (3.35%) Azure Monitor
11 46 (3.35%) Serverless
12 44 (3.20%) SaaS
13 43 (3.13%) Azure Sentinel
14 40 (2.91%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 39 (2.84%) GitHub Actions
16 36 (2.62%) AWS Lambda
17 35 (2.55%) AWS CloudFormation
18 33 (2.40%) Amazon EC2
19 31 (2.25%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 374 (27.20%) Network Security
2 346 (25.16%) WAN
3 345 (25.09%) VPN
4 288 (20.95%) DNS
5 260 (18.91%) LAN
6 223 (16.22%) BGP
7 197 (14.33%) OSPF
8 156 (11.35%) VLAN
9 151 (10.98%) TCP/IP
10 149 (10.84%) DHCP
11 133 (9.67%) SD-WAN
12 122 (8.87%) Wireless
13 101 (7.35%) Wi-Fi
14 97 (7.05%) MPLS
15 80 (5.82%) IPsec
16 74 (5.38%) Cisco ISE
17 67 (4.87%) Cisco ASA
18 66 (4.80%) VXLAN
19 59 (4.29%) SSL
20 57 (4.15%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (1.96%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.31%) Amazon RDS
3 18 (1.31%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (0.80%) Oracle Database
5 10 (0.73%) Data Lake
5 10 (0.73%) DataStage
6 9 (0.65%) Power BI
7 8 (0.58%) Data Warehouse
8 7 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
8 7 (0.51%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.44%) MySQL
10 5 (0.36%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
11 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.22%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Exadata
12 3 (0.22%) Redis
Development Applications
1 77 (5.60%) JIRA
2 54 (3.93%) Jenkins
3 45 (3.27%) Git
4 42 (3.05%) GitLab
5 22 (1.60%) Sonatype Nexus
6 19 (1.38%) Bitbucket
7 16 (1.16%) Burp Suite
7 16 (1.16%) Metasploit
8 9 (0.65%) Chocolatey
8 9 (0.65%) Jaeger
9 7 (0.51%) SonarQube
10 5 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
11 4 (0.29%) Artifactory
11 4 (0.29%) CircleCI
12 2 (0.15%) Introscope
13 1 (0.073%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 1 (0.073%) Maven
13 1 (0.073%) MSI
13 1 (0.073%) PVCS
13 1 (0.073%) Subversion
General
1 355 (25.82%) Social Skills
2 166 (12.07%) Finance
3 142 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
4 105 (7.64%) Public Sector
5 99 (7.20%) Documentation Skills
6 56 (4.07%) Banking
7 42 (3.05%) Telecoms
8 32 (2.33%) Legal
9 26 (1.89%) Financial Institution
10 23 (1.67%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
12 14 (1.02%) Military
12 14 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 13 (0.95%) Law
14 12 (0.87%) Retail
15 11 (0.80%) Local Government
16 10 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
17 8 (0.58%) Front Office
18 7 (0.51%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 386 (28.07%) Network Engineer
2 241 (17.53%) Architect
3 146 (10.62%) Senior
4 111 (8.07%) Security Engineer
5 93 (6.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 86 (6.25%) Network Architect
7 59 (4.29%) Azure Engineer
8 55 (4.00%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 52 (3.78%) Senior Network Engineer
10 48 (3.49%) Security Architect
11 45 (3.27%) Solutions Architect
12 44 (3.20%) Cloud Engineer
13 43 (3.13%) Analyst
14 41 (2.98%) Consultant
15 40 (2.91%) Lead
16 39 (2.84%) Platform Engineer
16 39 (2.84%) Technical Architect
17 38 (2.76%) DevOps Engineer
18 36 (2.62%) Cisco Engineer
18 36 (2.62%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (5.09%) 802.1X
2 38 (2.76%) SAML
3 37 (2.69%) LDAP
3 37 (2.69%) Middleware
4 35 (2.55%) OpenID
5 20 (1.45%) Kafka
5 20 (1.45%) OAuth
6 19 (1.38%) OAuth2
7 14 (1.02%) REST
8 12 (0.87%) Node.js
9 11 (0.80%) ARM Templates
9 11 (0.80%) OpenTelemetry
10 10 (0.73%) JSON
10 10 (0.73%) Spring Boot
11 8 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (0.51%) XML
12 7 (0.51%) YAML
13 6 (0.44%) HTML
13 6 (0.44%) PyTorch
13 6 (0.44%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 297 (21.60%) Data Centre
2 78 (5.67%) Security Posture
3 74 (5.38%) Cloud Native
4 72 (5.24%) PKI
5 49 (3.56%) Onboarding
6 48 (3.49%) Hybrid Cloud
7 42 (3.05%) Operational Technology
8 37 (2.69%) Clustering
9 36 (2.62%) Management Information System
10 34 (2.47%) Public Cloud
11 29 (2.11%) IoT
12 22 (1.60%) Cyber Threat
12 22 (1.60%) Replication
12 22 (1.60%) SCADA
13 21 (1.53%) Private Cloud
13 21 (1.53%) Product Ownership
14 20 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
15 19 (1.38%) NHS
16 18 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
17 17 (1.24%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 348 (25.31%) Windows
2 215 (15.64%) Linux
3 144 (10.47%) Windows Server
4 37 (2.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 34 (2.47%) Unix
6 30 (2.18%) VMS
7 12 (0.87%) Solaris
8 11 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (0.73%) AIX
10 9 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.51%) Windows 10
11 7 (0.51%) Windows 7
11 7 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
12 4 (0.29%) CatOS
12 4 (0.29%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
13 3 (0.22%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.22%) SUSE
14 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 227 (16.51%) Cybersecurity
2 216 (15.71%) DevOps
3 210 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
4 183 (13.31%) CI/CD
5 182 (13.24%) Infrastructure as Code
6 171 (12.44%) Load Balancing
7 167 (12.15%) Migration
8 166 (12.07%) ITIL
9 148 (10.76%) High Availability
10 140 (10.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 126 (9.16%) Agile
12 123 (8.95%) Cloud Security
13 122 (8.87%) SIEM
14 120 (8.73%) Zero Trust
15 119 (8.65%) Change Management
16 99 (7.20%) Incident Response
17 96 (6.98%) Roadmaps
18 92 (6.69%) Mentoring
18 92 (6.69%) Observability
19 91 (6.62%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 198 (14.40%) Python
2 194 (14.11%) PowerShell
3 93 (6.76%) Bash
4 59 (4.29%) SQL
5 41 (2.98%) Bicep
6 33 (2.40%) Java
7 25 (1.82%) Perl
8 11 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.73%) COBOL
9 10 (0.73%) JavaScript
9 10 (0.73%) Ruby
10 8 (0.58%) Rust
11 6 (0.44%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.36%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.29%) C#
13 4 (0.29%) Go
14 2 (0.15%) C++
14 2 (0.15%) Jython
14 2 (0.15%) PHP
15 1 (0.073%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 489 (35.56%) Security Cleared
2 337 (24.51%) SC Cleared
3 261 (18.98%) Cisco Certification
4 210 (15.27%) CCNP
5 130 (9.45%) DV Cleared
6 124 (9.02%) Degree
7 109 (7.93%) CCNA
8 83 (6.04%) CISSP
9 62 (4.51%) Azure Certification
10 50 (3.64%) CCIE
11 46 (3.35%) AWS Certification
11 46 (3.35%) CISM
12 40 (2.91%) Microsoft Certification
13 26 (1.89%) CompTIA Security+
14 25 (1.82%) JNCIS
15 24 (1.75%) JNCIP
16 23 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
17 19 (1.38%) JNCIA
17 19 (1.38%) Network+ Certification
18 18 (1.31%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (7.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 79 (5.75%) NIST
3 69 (5.02%) GDPR
4 45 (3.27%) PCI DSS
5 39 (2.84%) NCSC
6 31 (2.25%) SLA
7 27 (1.96%) Cyber Essentials
8 21 (1.53%) QA
9 16 (1.16%) PMO
10 9 (0.65%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (0.44%) GRC
11 6 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 5 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.29%) Data Quality
13 4 (0.29%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.29%) SOC 2
14 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 244 (17.75%) Active Directory
2 181 (13.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 85 (6.18%) Docker
4 72 (5.24%) VMware NSX
5 44 (3.20%) Hyper-V
6 39 (2.84%) vSphere
7 33 (2.40%) Virtual Machines
8 30 (2.18%) VMware ESXi
9 20 (1.45%) Firmware
9 20 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
10 11 (0.80%) Squid
11 9 (0.65%) BitLocker
12 8 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
13 7 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.22%) DFS Replication
14 3 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
15 2 (0.15%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
15 2 (0.15%) Samba
15 2 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 209 (15.20%) Terraform
2 148 (10.76%) Ansible
3 123 (8.95%) Kubernetes
4 99 (7.20%) FortiGate
5 62 (4.51%) Microsoft Intune
6 44 (3.20%) Single Sign-On
7 43 (3.13%) Grafana
8 36 (2.62%) Prometheus
9 35 (2.55%) SCCM
10 32 (2.33%) vCenter Server
11 26 (1.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (1.31%) Nmap
13 14 (1.02%) CASB
13 14 (1.02%) Nagios
13 14 (1.02%) QRadar
14 12 (0.87%) Cisco Prime
15 11 (0.80%) VxRail
16 10 (0.73%) Fluentd
16 10 (0.73%) Puppet
16 10 (0.73%) WSUS
Vendors
1 467 (33.96%) Cisco
2 308 (22.40%) Microsoft
3 274 (19.93%) Palo Alto
4 225 (16.36%) VMware
5 157 (11.42%) Fortinet
6 152 (11.05%) F5
7 148 (10.76%) Juniper
8 127 (9.24%) CheckPoint
9 91 (6.62%) Splunk
10 85 (6.18%) Aruba
11 72 (5.24%) SolarWinds
12 59 (4.29%) Google
13 57 (4.15%) ServiceNow
14 55 (4.00%) Meraki
15 46 (3.35%) Citrix
16 43 (3.13%) Zscaler
17 41 (2.98%) Arista
17 41 (2.98%) Red Hat
18 39 (2.84%) Oracle
19 26 (1.89%) Extreme Networks