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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 68 56 45
Rank change year-on-year -12 -11 +20
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,278 1,315 1,965
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.58% 3.65% 4.30%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 32.71% 29.94% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 815 792 1,300
10th Percentile £313 £313 £314
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -
75th Percentile £600 £613 £627
90th Percentile £675 £675 £716
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 22 56
10th Percentile £28.15 £20.00 £35.00
25th Percentile £29.00 £20.05 £61.88
Median hourly rate £38.25 £31.25 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +22.40% -52.64% +96.96%
75th Percentile £82.25 £40.63 £76.25
90th Percentile £89.63 £48.63 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 £22.50 £65.98
% change year-on-year +195.56% -65.90% +60.81%

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 3,907 4,392 6,317
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.93% 12.21% 13.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,537 2,525 3,915
10th Percentile £205 £220 £213
25th Percentile £350 £368 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £585 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 171 346
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.26 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.18 £23.05 £22.56
Median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.07% -25.45% +30.95%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +25.53%

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Firewall in the UK

Firewall
Top 18 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 1 December 2025. 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 -12 1,089 £500 -4.76% 553
UK excluding London -15 695 £488 -2.50% 524
London -12 455 £525 -4.55% 137
Work from Home -9 367 £500 -4.76% 214
North of England -19 199 £492 -1.60% 116
South East -3 179 £488 -2.50% 220
Midlands -12 137 £475 -5.00% 67
West Midlands +11 128 £475 -5.00% 48
North West -19 101 £525 +5.00% 68
Yorkshire -11 94 £450 -2.70% 40
Scotland -18 59 £438 -12.50% 15
East of England -9 51 £483 -12.27% 52
South West -24 49 £540 +13.68% 50
Wales -10 14 £250 -32.43% 20
Northern Ireland - 10 £500 - 3
East Midlands -39 9 £450 +20.00% 19
North East -9 7 £550 +22.22% 8
Channel Islands - 4 £725 -

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 58 (4.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 47 (3.68%) Confluence
3 34 (2.66%) SharePoint
4 16 (1.25%) OpenStack
5 14 (1.10%) Apache
6 11 (0.86%) nginx
7 6 (0.47%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.39%) JBoss
9 4 (0.31%) IIS
10 3 (0.23%) SAS
10 3 (0.23%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.16%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.16%) CICS
11 2 (0.16%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.16%) Traefik
11 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
12 1 (0.078%) CMS
12 1 (0.078%) Exchange Server 2013
12 1 (0.078%) Mattermost
12 1 (0.078%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 30 (2.35%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.78%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 9 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.70%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.23%) ION MarketView
2 2 (0.16%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.078%) Finacle
3 1 (0.078%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 406 (31.77%) Azure
2 343 (26.84%) AWS
3 146 (11.42%) GCP
3 146 (11.42%) Microsoft 365
4 92 (7.20%) Entra ID
5 77 (6.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 68 (5.32%) Amazon EC2
7 58 (4.54%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 57 (4.46%) Amazon S3
8 57 (4.46%) Azure Sentinel
9 45 (3.52%) Amazon ELB
10 38 (2.97%) IaaS
11 37 (2.90%) GitHub
12 36 (2.82%) Akamai
13 34 (2.66%) Azure DevOps
14 33 (2.58%) Serverless
15 32 (2.50%) Azure Monitor
16 30 (2.35%) PaaS
17 29 (2.27%) SaaS
18 27 (2.11%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 275 (21.52%) Network Security
2 273 (21.36%) VPN
3 270 (21.13%) DNS
4 239 (18.70%) WAN
5 164 (12.83%) LAN
6 150 (11.74%) TCP/IP
7 149 (11.66%) BGP
8 137 (10.72%) SD-WAN
9 125 (9.78%) OSPF
10 117 (9.15%) Wireless
11 110 (8.61%) DHCP
11 110 (8.61%) VLAN
12 103 (8.06%) Wi-Fi
13 82 (6.42%) SSL
14 73 (5.71%) Cisco Nexus
14 73 (5.71%) MPLS
15 62 (4.85%) Cisco ISE
16 54 (4.23%) Cisco IOS
17 53 (4.15%) HTTP
18 51 (3.99%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (3.05%) Amazon RDS
2 37 (2.90%) SQL Server
3 26 (2.03%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.78%) Amazon Aurora
4 10 (0.78%) Relational Database
5 8 (0.63%) Data Lake
6 6 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.47%) MySQL
7 5 (0.39%) Oracle Database
7 5 (0.39%) Redis
8 4 (0.31%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.23%) Apache Cassandra
9 3 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.23%) DB2
9 3 (0.23%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.23%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.16%) Amazon QuickSight
10 2 (0.16%) Data Vault
10 2 (0.16%) RDBMS
11 1 (0.078%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 98 (7.67%) Jenkins
2 85 (6.65%) Git
3 76 (5.95%) JIRA
4 64 (5.01%) GitLab
5 24 (1.88%) Sonatype Nexus
6 21 (1.64%) Vagrant
7 13 (1.02%) Bitbucket
8 7 (0.55%) Postman
8 7 (0.55%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.31%) Burp Suite
9 4 (0.31%) Metasploit
10 3 (0.23%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.16%) Maven
11 2 (0.16%) MSI
12 1 (0.078%) Eclipse
12 1 (0.078%) Subversion
General
1 329 (25.74%) Social Skills
2 137 (10.72%) Analytical Skills
3 132 (10.33%) Finance
4 128 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 61 (4.77%) Documentation Skills
6 60 (4.69%) Banking
7 56 (4.38%) Telecoms
8 33 (2.58%) Manufacturing
9 29 (2.27%) Presentation Skills
10 28 (2.19%) Legal
11 22 (1.72%) Games
12 17 (1.33%) Local Government
13 14 (1.10%) Military
14 12 (0.94%) Retail
15 10 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.70%) Financial Institution
16 9 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.70%) Law
17 7 (0.55%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 293 (22.93%) Network Engineer
2 204 (15.96%) Architect
3 135 (10.56%) Security Engineer
4 112 (8.76%) Senior
5 78 (6.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 77 (6.03%) Analyst
7 73 (5.71%) Platform Engineer
8 72 (5.63%) Network Architect
9 66 (5.16%) Consultant
10 64 (5.01%) DevOps Engineer
11 58 (4.54%) Security Architect
12 55 (4.30%) Network Security Engineer
13 43 (3.36%) Support Engineer
14 42 (3.29%) Azure Engineer
15 40 (3.13%) Solutions Architect
16 34 (2.66%) Cloud Engineer
16 34 (2.66%) Lead
17 32 (2.50%) AWS Engineer
17 32 (2.50%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
18 30 (2.35%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (2.43%) 802.1X
1 31 (2.43%) LDAP
2 22 (1.72%) SAML
3 19 (1.49%) Middleware
4 18 (1.41%) JSON
4 18 (1.41%) OpenID
4 18 (1.41%) RFC 2544
5 16 (1.25%) OAuth
6 15 (1.17%) REST
7 14 (1.10%) Node.js
7 14 (1.10%) OAuth2
8 11 (0.86%) XML
9 10 (0.78%) Elastic Stack
10 8 (0.63%) ARM Templates
10 8 (0.63%) YAML
11 6 (0.47%) Kafka
11 6 (0.47%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.31%) Regular Expression
13 3 (0.23%) CSS
13 3 (0.23%) React
Miscellaneous
1 202 (15.81%) Data Centre
2 81 (6.34%) Security Posture
3 62 (4.85%) Operational Technology
4 55 (4.30%) Hybrid Cloud
5 54 (4.23%) PKI
6 48 (3.76%) Replication
7 42 (3.29%) Onboarding
8 41 (3.21%) Cloud Native
9 28 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (2.03%) Management Information System
11 23 (1.80%) Cyber Threat
12 22 (1.72%) Public Cloud
12 22 (1.72%) Security Operations Centre
13 21 (1.64%) SCADA
14 18 (1.41%) Cyber Defence
15 16 (1.25%) Private Cloud
16 15 (1.17%) Fibre Optics
16 15 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
16 15 (1.17%) Product Ownership
17 14 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 323 (25.27%) Windows
2 222 (17.37%) Linux
3 113 (8.84%) Windows Server
4 37 (2.90%) Unix
4 37 (2.90%) VMS
5 35 (2.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 29 (2.27%) Mac OS
7 25 (1.96%) Android
8 24 (1.88%) Amazon Linux
9 22 (1.72%) Ubuntu
10 13 (1.02%) Windows 10
11 12 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
12 11 (0.86%) Windows Server 2016
13 9 (0.70%) CentOS
13 9 (0.70%) Windows 7
14 7 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
15 3 (0.23%) Apple iOS
15 3 (0.23%) Solaris
16 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 229 (17.92%) Cybersecurity
2 194 (15.18%) DevOps
3 191 (14.95%) Problem-Solving
4 173 (13.54%) Cloud Security
5 171 (13.38%) CI/CD
6 159 (12.44%) Infrastructure as Code
7 156 (12.21%) SIEM
8 154 (12.05%) Incident Response
9 142 (11.11%) Migration
10 124 (9.70%) Agile
11 123 (9.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 123 (9.62%) ITIL
12 112 (8.76%) High Availability
13 101 (7.90%) Change Management
14 97 (7.59%) Stakeholder Management
15 94 (7.36%) Load Balancing
16 93 (7.28%) Security Operations
17 90 (7.04%) Network Design
18 81 (6.34%) Containerisation
19 80 (6.26%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 268 (20.97%) Python
2 211 (16.51%) PowerShell
3 119 (9.31%) Bash
4 59 (4.62%) SQL
5 45 (3.52%) Perl
6 42 (3.29%) Java
7 21 (1.64%) Groovy
8 18 (1.41%) Kusto Query Language
9 17 (1.33%) Bicep
10 11 (0.86%) Ruby
11 9 (0.70%) Shell Script
12 8 (0.63%) JavaScript
13 6 (0.47%) Go
14 4 (0.31%) C#
15 3 (0.23%) C
15 3 (0.23%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
16 2 (0.16%) Apex Code
16 2 (0.16%) C++
16 2 (0.16%) PHP
Qualifications
1 370 (28.95%) Security Cleared
2 260 (20.34%) SC Cleared
3 213 (16.67%) Cisco Certification
4 160 (12.52%) CCNP
5 100 (7.82%) Degree
6 99 (7.75%) CISSP
7 81 (6.34%) CCNA
8 79 (6.18%) DV Cleared
9 55 (4.30%) Azure Certification
10 53 (4.15%) AWS Certification
11 51 (3.99%) CISM
11 51 (3.99%) Microsoft Certification
12 48 (3.76%) CCIE
13 28 (2.19%) CEH
13 28 (2.19%) CompTIA Security+
14 27 (2.11%) Computer Science Degree
15 20 (1.56%) GIAC
16 17 (1.33%) JNCIP
17 15 (1.17%) BPSS Clearance
18 14 (1.10%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (8.69%) NIST
2 108 (8.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 75 (5.87%) GDPR
4 44 (3.44%) PCI DSS
5 21 (1.64%) NCSC
6 20 (1.56%) SLA
7 19 (1.49%) QA
8 15 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
9 12 (0.94%) GRC
9 12 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 11 (0.86%) HIPAA
11 9 (0.70%) COBIT
12 8 (0.63%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 6 (0.47%) PMO
14 5 (0.39%) GxP
14 5 (0.39%) PSD2
15 4 (0.31%) Accessibility
15 4 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
15 4 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 238 (18.62%) Active Directory
2 145 (11.35%) Docker
3 138 (10.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 45 (3.52%) Hyper-V
5 38 (2.97%) Virtual Machines
6 27 (2.11%) VMware NSX
7 25 (1.96%) vSphere
8 24 (1.88%) DFS Replication
9 16 (1.25%) Squid
10 14 (1.10%) Firmware
11 12 (0.94%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.78%) Dovecot
12 10 (0.78%) Postfix
13 8 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
13 8 (0.63%) Virtual Servers
14 7 (0.55%) KVM
14 7 (0.55%) Snort
14 7 (0.55%) Terminal Services
15 5 (0.39%) NDS
15 5 (0.39%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 193 (15.10%) Terraform
2 159 (12.44%) Ansible
3 102 (7.98%) Kubernetes
4 75 (5.87%) Microsoft Intune
5 68 (5.32%) FortiGate
6 56 (4.38%) SCCM
7 39 (3.05%) Grafana
8 37 (2.90%) Prometheus
9 31 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
10 23 (1.80%) Nessus
11 20 (1.56%) vCenter Server
12 19 (1.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 17 (1.33%) CASB
13 17 (1.33%) CSIRT
14 15 (1.17%) QRadar
15 13 (1.02%) Fluentd
15 13 (1.02%) Puppet
16 12 (0.94%) SCOM
17 10 (0.78%) Proxmox
17 10 (0.78%) WMI
Vendors
1 422 (33.02%) Cisco
2 327 (25.59%) Microsoft
3 230 (18.00%) Palo Alto
4 174 (13.62%) VMware
5 157 (12.28%) F5
6 140 (10.95%) Fortinet
7 123 (9.62%) CheckPoint
8 111 (8.69%) Splunk
9 98 (7.67%) Juniper
10 83 (6.49%) Meraki
11 66 (5.16%) Oracle
11 66 (5.16%) SolarWinds
12 60 (4.69%) Google
13 58 (4.54%) Zscaler
14 49 (3.83%) Citrix
15 47 (3.68%) ServiceNow
16 36 (2.82%) Aruba
17 30 (2.35%) Red Hat
18 26 (2.03%) Dell
19 24 (1.88%) Tenable