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 14 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 67 53 45
Rank change year-on-year -14 -8 +20
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,317 1,353 2,074
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.71% 3.69% 4.46%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 32.88% 30.60% 31.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 844 812 1,379
10th Percentile £313 £313 £313
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -
75th Percentile £600 £614 £625
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 23 65
10th Percentile £20.47 £20.00 £35.00
25th Percentile £29.00 £20.72 £62.50
Median hourly rate £33.39 £27.50 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +21.40% -58.32% +86.60%
75th Percentile £69.31 £39.75 £75.67
90th Percentile £89.63 £57.75 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £27.50 £66.62
% change year-on-year +27.27% -58.72% +62.38%

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 4,005 4,422 6,519
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.27% 12.05% 14.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,602 2,554 4,068
10th Percentile £206 £225 £213
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
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 201 166 340
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.83 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.18 £24.63 £22.94
Median hourly rate £35.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% -18.18% +30.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.44
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £75.71
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £49.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -14.14% -12.37% +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 14 November 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 14 November 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 14 November 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 -9 1,130 £500 -4.76% 802
UK excluding London -12 727 £488 -2.50% 592
London -11 467 £525 -4.55% 312
Work from Home -8 374 £500 -4.76% 309
North of England -13 209 £496 -0.80% 87
South East -3 177 £488 -2.50% 242
Midlands -8 147 £475 -5.00% 88
West Midlands +9 133 £475 -5.00% 60
Yorkshire -1 109 £488 +14.71% 35
North West -22 97 £525 +5.00% 40
Scotland -21 63 £450 -5.26% 31
East of England -11 55 £501 -4.52% 64
South West -24 54 £540 +13.68% 63
East Midlands -38 14 £492 -4.00% 28
Wales -6 13 £200 -46.67% 19
Northern Ireland - 13 £500 - 9
North East -12 6 £550 +57.14% 12
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 (4.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (3.80%) Confluence
3 35 (2.66%) SharePoint
4 16 (1.21%) OpenStack
5 13 (0.99%) nginx
6 10 (0.76%) Apache
7 6 (0.46%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.30%) JBoss
9 3 (0.23%) CMS
9 3 (0.23%) SAS
10 2 (0.15%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.15%) CICS
10 2 (0.15%) IIS
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.15%) Traefik
10 2 (0.15%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.15%) WebSphere
11 1 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2013
11 1 (0.076%) Mattermost
11 1 (0.076%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 29 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.76%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 9 (0.68%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
5 6 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.23%) ION MarketView
2 2 (0.15%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.076%) Finacle
3 1 (0.076%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 402 (30.52%) Azure
2 348 (26.42%) AWS
3 149 (11.31%) Microsoft 365
4 147 (11.16%) GCP
5 90 (6.83%) Entra ID
6 82 (6.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 69 (5.24%) Amazon EC2
8 65 (4.94%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 58 (4.40%) Amazon S3
10 53 (4.02%) Azure Sentinel
11 46 (3.49%) Amazon ELB
12 38 (2.89%) IaaS
13 37 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
14 36 (2.73%) Akamai
14 36 (2.73%) GitHub
15 33 (2.51%) PaaS
16 31 (2.35%) Serverless
17 30 (2.28%) SaaS
18 29 (2.20%) Amazon ECS
19 27 (2.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 285 (21.64%) VPN
2 282 (21.41%) Network Security
3 270 (20.50%) DNS
4 242 (18.38%) WAN
5 173 (13.14%) LAN
6 163 (12.38%) TCP/IP
7 152 (11.54%) BGP
8 139 (10.55%) SD-WAN
9 130 (9.87%) OSPF
10 122 (9.26%) Wireless
11 114 (8.66%) VLAN
12 112 (8.50%) DHCP
13 103 (7.82%) Wi-Fi
14 85 (6.45%) SSL
15 75 (5.69%) Cisco Nexus
16 70 (5.32%) MPLS
17 64 (4.86%) Cisco ISE
18 56 (4.25%) Cisco IOS
19 55 (4.18%) HTTP
20 52 (3.95%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (3.19%) Amazon RDS
2 37 (2.81%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (0.91%) Relational Database
5 10 (0.76%) Amazon Aurora
6 8 (0.61%) Data Lake
7 7 (0.53%) MySQL
8 6 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (0.38%) DB2
9 5 (0.38%) DynamoDB
9 5 (0.38%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.38%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.38%) Redis
10 4 (0.30%) Apache Cassandra
10 4 (0.30%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.15%) Amazon QuickSight
12 2 (0.15%) Data Vault
12 2 (0.15%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.076%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 111 (8.43%) Jenkins
2 97 (7.37%) Git
3 87 (6.61%) JIRA
4 67 (5.09%) GitLab
5 26 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 22 (1.67%) Vagrant
7 16 (1.21%) Postman
8 15 (1.14%) Bitbucket
9 9 (0.68%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.23%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.15%) Maven
11 2 (0.15%) MSI
12 1 (0.076%) Eclipse
12 1 (0.076%) Subversion
General
1 323 (24.53%) Social Skills
2 150 (11.39%) Finance
3 144 (10.93%) Analytical Skills
4 123 (9.34%) Public Sector
5 68 (5.16%) Banking
6 55 (4.18%) Telecoms
7 53 (4.02%) Documentation Skills
8 36 (2.73%) Manufacturing
9 33 (2.51%) Legal
10 29 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
11 26 (1.97%) Games
12 16 (1.21%) Local Government
13 14 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 13 (0.99%) Military
15 11 (0.84%) Law
15 11 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
16 10 (0.76%) Retail
17 9 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
18 8 (0.61%) Financial Institution
19 6 (0.46%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 301 (22.85%) Network Engineer
2 211 (16.02%) Architect
3 135 (10.25%) Security Engineer
4 113 (8.58%) Senior
5 90 (6.83%) Analyst
6 78 (5.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 77 (5.85%) Network Architect
8 74 (5.62%) Platform Engineer
9 69 (5.24%) Consultant
10 67 (5.09%) DevOps Engineer
11 57 (4.33%) Security Architect
12 55 (4.18%) Network Security Engineer
13 45 (3.42%) Support Engineer
14 42 (3.19%) Solutions Architect
15 41 (3.11%) Azure Engineer
16 40 (3.04%) Lead
17 35 (2.66%) Cloud Engineer
18 34 (2.58%) AWS Engineer
18 34 (2.58%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
18 34 (2.58%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (2.43%) LDAP
2 29 (2.20%) 802.1X
3 25 (1.90%) RFC 2544
4 21 (1.59%) SAML
5 20 (1.52%) REST
6 19 (1.44%) Middleware
7 17 (1.29%) JSON
7 17 (1.29%) OpenID
8 15 (1.14%) OAuth
9 14 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
10 13 (0.99%) Node.js
10 13 (0.99%) OAuth2
11 10 (0.76%) XML
12 9 (0.68%) ARM Templates
13 8 (0.61%) YAML
14 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
15 5 (0.38%) Kafka
16 3 (0.23%) JBoss Seam
16 3 (0.23%) Regular Expression
16 3 (0.23%) Rendezvous
Miscellaneous
1 197 (14.96%) Data Centre
2 83 (6.30%) Security Posture
3 61 (4.63%) Operational Technology
4 60 (4.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 47 (3.57%) PKI
6 44 (3.34%) Onboarding
6 44 (3.34%) Replication
7 35 (2.66%) Management Information System
8 30 (2.28%) Cloud Native
8 30 (2.28%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (2.05%) Cyber Threat
10 23 (1.75%) Public Cloud
10 23 (1.75%) Security Operations Centre
11 20 (1.52%) SCADA
12 19 (1.44%) Fibre Optics
12 19 (1.44%) Private Cloud
13 18 (1.37%) Cyber Defence
14 15 (1.14%) Virtual Team
15 14 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
15 14 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 320 (24.30%) Windows
2 229 (17.39%) Linux
3 106 (8.05%) Windows Server
4 41 (3.11%) Unix
5 38 (2.89%) VMS
6 36 (2.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 33 (2.51%) Mac OS
8 29 (2.20%) Android
9 25 (1.90%) Amazon Linux
10 22 (1.67%) Ubuntu
11 14 (1.06%) Windows 10
12 12 (0.91%) Windows Server 2016
13 11 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
14 9 (0.68%) CentOS
15 8 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
16 7 (0.53%) Windows 7
17 6 (0.46%) Solaris
18 3 (0.23%) AIX
18 3 (0.23%) Apple iOS
18 3 (0.23%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 233 (17.69%) Cybersecurity
2 206 (15.64%) DevOps
3 189 (14.35%) Problem-Solving
4 186 (14.12%) Cloud Security
5 164 (12.45%) CI/CD
6 162 (12.30%) Incident Response
7 157 (11.92%) SIEM
8 154 (11.69%) Infrastructure as Code
9 141 (10.71%) Migration
10 133 (10.10%) Agile
11 125 (9.49%) ITIL
12 122 (9.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 119 (9.04%) High Availability
14 99 (7.52%) Change Management
14 99 (7.52%) Security Operations
15 93 (7.06%) Stakeholder Management
16 90 (6.83%) Network Design
17 88 (6.68%) Load Balancing
18 86 (6.53%) Zero Trust
19 81 (6.15%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 284 (21.56%) Python
2 215 (16.32%) PowerShell
3 114 (8.66%) Bash
4 59 (4.48%) SQL
5 46 (3.49%) Java
5 46 (3.49%) Perl
6 22 (1.67%) Groovy
7 18 (1.37%) Bicep
7 18 (1.37%) Kusto Query Language
8 11 (0.84%) Shell Script
9 10 (0.76%) Ruby
10 7 (0.53%) JavaScript
11 6 (0.46%) Go
12 4 (0.30%) C
13 3 (0.23%) Kotlin
13 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.15%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.15%) C++
14 2 (0.15%) PHP
15 1 (0.076%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 362 (27.49%) Security Cleared
2 255 (19.36%) SC Cleared
3 227 (17.24%) Cisco Certification
4 165 (12.53%) CCNP
5 109 (8.28%) Degree
6 103 (7.82%) CISSP
7 86 (6.53%) CCNA
8 79 (6.00%) DV Cleared
9 62 (4.71%) Azure Certification
10 54 (4.10%) AWS Certification
11 52 (3.95%) CCIE
11 52 (3.95%) CISM
12 51 (3.87%) Microsoft Certification
13 37 (2.81%) Computer Science Degree
14 27 (2.05%) CEH
14 27 (2.05%) CompTIA Security+
15 20 (1.52%) GIAC
16 16 (1.21%) BPSS Clearance
16 16 (1.21%) JNCIP
17 15 (1.14%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (8.96%) NIST
2 104 (7.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 74 (5.62%) GDPR
4 40 (3.04%) PCI DSS
5 24 (1.82%) SLA
6 20 (1.52%) NCSC
6 20 (1.52%) QA
7 14 (1.06%) GRC
8 13 (0.99%) HIPAA
9 12 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials
9 12 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 10 (0.76%) SOC 2
11 9 (0.68%) COBIT
12 6 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
12 6 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
12 6 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 5 (0.38%) GxP
13 5 (0.38%) PSD2
14 4 (0.30%) Accessibility
14 4 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 233 (17.69%) Active Directory
2 144 (10.93%) Docker
3 136 (10.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 38 (2.89%) Hyper-V
5 34 (2.58%) Virtual Machines
6 26 (1.97%) vSphere
7 25 (1.90%) DFS Replication
8 22 (1.67%) VMware NSX
9 16 (1.21%) Firmware
10 15 (1.14%) Squid
11 11 (0.84%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.76%) Dovecot
12 10 (0.76%) Postfix
13 8 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
14 7 (0.53%) Terminal Services
14 7 (0.53%) Veritas Cluster Server
14 7 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
15 6 (0.46%) KVM
15 6 (0.46%) Snort
16 5 (0.38%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 188 (14.27%) Terraform
2 181 (13.74%) Ansible
3 103 (7.82%) Kubernetes
4 74 (5.62%) Microsoft Intune
5 68 (5.16%) FortiGate
6 61 (4.63%) SCCM
7 43 (3.26%) Grafana
8 41 (3.11%) Prometheus
9 32 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
10 24 (1.82%) Puppet
11 21 (1.59%) Nessus
12 19 (1.44%) vCenter Server
13 18 (1.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 18 (1.37%) CSIRT
14 16 (1.21%) CASB
15 15 (1.14%) QRadar
16 12 (0.91%) Fluentd
17 10 (0.76%) Microsoft Clustering
17 10 (0.76%) Proxmox
17 10 (0.76%) SCOM
Vendors
1 448 (34.02%) Cisco
2 334 (25.36%) Microsoft
3 221 (16.78%) Palo Alto
4 173 (13.14%) F5
5 171 (12.98%) VMware
6 146 (11.09%) Fortinet
7 121 (9.19%) CheckPoint
8 113 (8.58%) Splunk
9 100 (7.59%) Juniper
10 81 (6.15%) Meraki
11 71 (5.39%) SolarWinds
12 69 (5.24%) Oracle
13 57 (4.33%) ServiceNow
13 57 (4.33%) Zscaler
14 54 (4.10%) Google
15 46 (3.49%) Citrix
16 32 (2.43%) Red Hat
17 29 (2.20%) Aruba
18 26 (1.97%) Dell
19 21 (1.59%) Tenable