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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 64 56
Rank change year-on-year -44 -8 -11
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,345 1,259 1,376
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.47% 3.80% 3.62%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 26.69% 33.22% 30.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 835 777 826
10th Percentile £350 £308 £316
25th Percentile £425 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.60% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £622
90th Percentile £675 £688 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 29 28
10th Percentile £29.00 £19.70 £20.00
25th Percentile £48.93 £29.00 £20.98
Median hourly rate £67.47 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +124.90% +9.09% -58.32%
75th Percentile £78.75 £43.25 £47.81
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £65.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.00 £31.39 £27.50
% change year-on-year +113.48% +14.13% -58.32%

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 5,039 3,790 4,550
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.25% 11.43% 11.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,917 2,399 2,613
10th Percentile £236 £216 £225
25th Percentile £393 £358 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £601
90th Percentile £678 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £485
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% +5.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 195 192
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.20
25th Percentile £19.50 £20.00 £24.18
Median hourly rate £32.50 £35.00 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% -28.57% -13.26%
75th Percentile £68.69 £64.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £41.48 £55.00
% change year-on-year -36.97% -24.59% -4.35%

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 9 October 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 9 October 2026.

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 9 October 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 -39 1,188 £510 +2.00% 1,165
UK excluding London -39 756 £500 +5.26% 644
London -58 455 £513 -2.38% 547
Work from Home -46 377 £525 +5.00% 424
North of England +1 280 £500 +5.26% 140
North West +12 162 £510 +13.33% 85
South East -50 161 £509 +1.75% 197
Yorkshire -23 96 £500 +2.35% 39
Midlands -64 95 £472 -0.74% 92
South West +4 93 £560 +17.89% 89
West Midlands -72 71 £450 -5.26% 60
East of England -9 69 £600 +19.70% 51
Scotland -20 60 £400 -20.00% 43
North East -14 29 £500 -13.04% 17
East Midlands -9 24 £500 +6.16% 32
Wales -19 3 £608 +203.75% 17
Channel Islands -7 2 £600 -17.24% 1
Northern Ireland -8 1 - - 18

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 52 (3.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 34 (2.53%) Confluence
4 13 (0.97%) Apache
4 13 (0.97%) nginx
5 8 (0.59%) SAS
6 4 (0.30%) FactoryTalk
6 4 (0.30%) IIS
7 3 (0.22%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
7 3 (0.22%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.15%) CMS
8 2 (0.15%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.074%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.074%) Appian
9 1 (0.074%) MTS
Applications
1 21 (1.56%) MS Visio
2 20 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.074%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 6 (0.45%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.37%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.15%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 2 (0.15%) Dynamics GP
3 2 (0.15%) Eikon
3 2 (0.15%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.074%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.074%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.074%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.074%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 524 (38.96%) Azure
2 312 (23.20%) AWS
3 179 (13.31%) Entra ID
4 125 (9.29%) Microsoft 365
5 113 (8.40%) GCP
6 84 (6.25%) GitHub
7 72 (5.35%) IaaS
8 68 (5.06%) Azure DevOps
9 62 (4.61%) Azure Monitor
10 60 (4.46%) SaaS
11 47 (3.49%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 44 (3.27%) OCI
13 41 (3.05%) PaaS
14 38 (2.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 37 (2.75%) Azure Sentinel
16 34 (2.53%) GitHub Actions
17 30 (2.23%) Serverless
18 28 (2.08%) AWS CloudFormation
19 27 (2.01%) Google Kubernetes Engine
20 26 (1.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 409 (30.41%) VPN
2 405 (30.11%) Network Security
3 374 (27.81%) DNS
4 334 (24.83%) WAN
5 243 (18.07%) LAN
6 232 (17.25%) BGP
7 223 (16.58%) TCP/IP
8 215 (15.99%) DHCP
9 198 (14.72%) VLAN
10 178 (13.23%) Wireless
11 167 (12.42%) OSPF
12 129 (9.59%) SD-WAN
13 121 (9.00%) Wi-Fi
14 80 (5.95%) MPLS
15 77 (5.72%) Cisco ASA
16 75 (5.58%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 74 (5.50%) SSL
18 73 (5.43%) IPsec
19 72 (5.35%) BIG-IP
20 64 (4.76%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.53%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.49%) Amazon RDS
3 19 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (1.19%) Relational Database
5 15 (1.12%) Data Lake
6 12 (0.89%) Power BI
7 10 (0.74%) NoSQL
8 9 (0.67%) Amazon Aurora
9 6 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.37%) MySQL
10 5 (0.37%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.30%) Big Data
11 4 (0.30%) Db2
12 3 (0.22%) EDRMS
12 3 (0.22%) Metadata
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
13 2 (0.15%) Delta Lake
13 2 (0.15%) Oracle Database 12c
13 2 (0.15%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 84 (6.25%) JIRA
2 72 (5.35%) Jenkins
3 55 (4.09%) Git
4 47 (3.49%) GitLab
5 17 (1.26%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (0.67%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.59%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.52%) Artifactory
9 6 (0.45%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 5 (0.37%) Maven
11 4 (0.30%) Chocolatey
11 4 (0.30%) MSI
12 3 (0.22%) Cucumber
12 3 (0.22%) REST Assured
13 2 (0.15%) Burp Suite
13 2 (0.15%) Gatling
13 2 (0.15%) Gradle
13 2 (0.15%) Postman
13 2 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
13 2 (0.15%) Vagrant
General
1 314 (23.35%) Social Skills
2 179 (13.31%) Finance
3 136 (10.11%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.96%) Public Sector
5 96 (7.14%) Banking
6 57 (4.24%) Documentation Skills
7 56 (4.16%) Telecoms
8 38 (2.83%) Manufacturing
9 29 (2.16%) Legal
10 19 (1.41%) Retail
11 17 (1.26%) Military
12 16 (1.19%) Local Government
13 14 (1.04%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 12 (0.89%) Aerospace
15 10 (0.74%) Automotive
15 10 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
15 10 (0.74%) Investment Banking
16 9 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.67%) Police
Job Titles
1 435 (32.34%) Network Engineer
2 206 (15.32%) Senior
3 170 (12.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 157 (11.67%) Architect
5 111 (8.25%) Security Engineer
6 87 (6.47%) Cloud Engineer
7 84 (6.25%) Senior Network Engineer
8 70 (5.20%) Consultant
9 63 (4.68%) Azure Engineer
10 60 (4.46%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 59 (4.39%) Network Security Engineer
12 54 (4.01%) Network Architect
13 50 (3.72%) DevOps Engineer
13 50 (3.72%) Security Architect
14 46 (3.42%) Lead
14 46 (3.42%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 41 (3.05%) Platform Engineer
16 37 (2.75%) Cisco Engineer
16 37 (2.75%) Firewall Engineer
17 35 (2.60%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 303 (22.53%) Terraform
2 41 (3.05%) 802.1X
3 30 (2.23%) ARM Templates
4 22 (1.64%) Middleware
5 21 (1.56%) REST
5 21 (1.56%) SAML
6 19 (1.41%) OAuth
7 18 (1.34%) YAML
8 16 (1.19%) OpenID
9 12 (0.89%) JSON
9 12 (0.89%) LDAP
9 12 (0.89%) OAuth2
10 9 (0.67%) Kafka
10 9 (0.67%) SailPoint
11 8 (0.59%) ModSecurity
11 8 (0.59%) React
12 7 (0.52%) Elastic Stack
13 6 (0.45%) .NET
13 6 (0.45%) OpenTelemetry
13 6 (0.45%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 282 (20.97%) Data Centre
2 104 (7.73%) Hybrid Cloud
3 80 (5.95%) Cloud Native
4 76 (5.65%) PKI
5 67 (4.98%) Onboarding
6 62 (4.61%) Security Posture
7 56 (4.16%) Management Information System
8 49 (3.64%) Operational Technology
9 40 (2.97%) Public Cloud
10 27 (2.01%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 27 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
11 24 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
11 24 (1.78%) Driving Licence
12 22 (1.64%) Linux Command Line
13 21 (1.56%) Replication
13 21 (1.56%) SCADA
14 20 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
15 19 (1.41%) CMDB
15 19 (1.41%) Enterprise Storage
15 19 (1.41%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 340 (25.28%) Windows
2 220 (16.36%) Linux
3 154 (11.45%) Windows Server
4 44 (3.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (2.23%) Unix
6 25 (1.86%) Ubuntu
7 17 (1.26%) VMS
8 15 (1.12%) Mac OS
9 14 (1.04%) CentOS
9 14 (1.04%) Windows 10
10 13 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
11 9 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
12 8 (0.59%) Amazon Linux
12 8 (0.59%) Android
13 7 (0.52%) Rocky
14 6 (0.45%) Apple iOS
14 6 (0.45%) Windows Server 2016
15 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2003
16 3 (0.22%) Check Point GAiA
17 2 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 275 (20.45%) Infrastructure as Code
2 256 (19.03%) CI/CD
3 244 (18.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 239 (17.77%) DevOps
5 230 (17.10%) Cybersecurity
6 207 (15.39%) Migration
7 199 (14.80%) Problem-Solving
8 185 (13.75%) Load Balancing
9 170 (12.64%) ITIL
10 166 (12.34%) Stakeholder Management
11 165 (12.27%) Zero Trust
12 155 (11.52%) Agile
13 140 (10.41%) Project Delivery
14 131 (9.74%) SIEM
15 129 (9.59%) Change Management
16 128 (9.52%) High Availability
17 125 (9.29%) Cloud Security
18 119 (8.85%) Technical Leadership
19 113 (8.40%) Incident Response
20 112 (8.33%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 286 (21.26%) Python
2 237 (17.62%) PowerShell
3 141 (10.48%) Bash
4 51 (3.79%) Bicep
5 46 (3.42%) SQL
6 44 (3.27%) Java
7 20 (1.49%) ActionScript
8 15 (1.12%) Groovy
9 10 (0.74%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.67%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.59%) Perl
12 6 (0.45%) C++
12 6 (0.45%) Go
12 6 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
13 4 (0.30%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.30%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.22%) C#
15 2 (0.15%) C
15 2 (0.15%) Korn
15 2 (0.15%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 452 (33.61%) Security Cleared
2 308 (22.90%) SC Cleared
3 229 (17.03%) Cisco Certification
4 171 (12.71%) CCNP
5 129 (9.59%) DV Cleared
6 102 (7.58%) Degree
7 87 (6.47%) CCNA
8 76 (5.65%) CISSP
9 66 (4.91%) Azure Certification
10 51 (3.79%) AWS Certification
11 38 (2.83%) CCIE
12 35 (2.60%) Microsoft Certification
13 30 (2.23%) CISM
14 25 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
15 16 (1.19%) CEH
16 15 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 14 (1.04%) PMI Certification
18 13 (0.97%) CCSE
18 13 (0.97%) Network+ Certification
18 13 (0.97%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (5.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 69 (5.13%) NIST
3 33 (2.45%) GDPR
4 26 (1.93%) NCSC
4 26 (1.93%) QA
5 25 (1.86%) PCI DSS
6 23 (1.71%) SLA
7 22 (1.64%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (1.19%) NIST 800
9 10 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 9 (0.67%) JSP 440
10 9 (0.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.52%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.45%) GxP
12 6 (0.45%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.37%) COBIT
13 5 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
13 5 (0.37%) GRC
14 4 (0.30%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 3 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 239 (17.77%) Active Directory
2 174 (12.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 80 (5.95%) Docker
4 67 (4.98%) Hyper-V
5 57 (4.24%) vSphere
6 55 (4.09%) VMware NSX
7 47 (3.49%) VMware ESXi
8 40 (2.97%) Virtual Machines
9 23 (1.71%) Firmware
10 15 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
11 8 (0.59%) Squid
11 8 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
12 5 (0.37%) BitLocker
12 5 (0.37%) Dovecot
12 5 (0.37%) FreeRADIUS
12 5 (0.37%) NFS
12 5 (0.37%) Postfix
13 4 (0.30%) VirtualBox
14 3 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
14 3 (0.22%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 220 (16.36%) Ansible
2 131 (9.74%) Kubernetes
3 84 (6.25%) FortiGate
4 79 (5.87%) Microsoft Intune
5 57 (4.24%) Grafana
6 50 (3.72%) Prometheus
7 43 (3.20%) SCCM
8 31 (2.30%) Progress Chef
9 29 (2.16%) Single Sign-On
10 22 (1.64%) vCenter Server
11 19 (1.41%) VxRail
12 13 (0.97%) CASB
12 13 (0.97%) Cisco Prime
12 13 (0.97%) Puppet
13 10 (0.74%) Argo
13 10 (0.74%) Nagios
13 10 (0.74%) Nessus
13 10 (0.74%) Packer
14 8 (0.59%) Istio
14 8 (0.59%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 491 (36.51%) Cisco
2 350 (26.02%) Microsoft
3 330 (24.54%) Palo Alto
4 222 (16.51%) VMware
5 191 (14.20%) Fortinet
6 164 (12.19%) F5
7 120 (8.92%) CheckPoint
8 111 (8.25%) Juniper
9 69 (5.13%) Zscaler
10 66 (4.91%) Google
11 62 (4.61%) Splunk
12 61 (4.54%) Aruba
13 59 (4.39%) Meraki
14 58 (4.31%) ServiceNow
15 54 (4.01%) Arista
16 51 (3.79%) SolarWinds
17 32 (2.38%) Citrix
17 32 (2.38%) Red Hat
18 31 (2.30%) Dynatrace
19 26 (1.93%) Infoblox