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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 55 56
Rank change year-on-year -36 +1 -8
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,457 1,407 1,453
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.76% 4.32% 3.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 29.12% 35.64% 28.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 926 833 914
10th Percentile £350 £325 £277
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £646 £688 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £513
% change year-on-year +2.56% -4.88% +7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 27 41
10th Percentile £28.70 £14.20 £18.50
25th Percentile £37.53 £15.23 £23.92
Median hourly rate £61.25 £30.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +104.17% -50.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £77.44 £42.61 £85.65
90th Percentile £94.42 £89.63 £87.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.75 £30.00 £76.99
% change year-on-year +112.50% -61.03% +18.45%

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 5,003 3,948 5,144
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.11% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 2,403 3,070
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £592 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 326 195 384
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.91
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.08 £17.67
Median hourly rate £26.22 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.31% +15.63% -16.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -17.27%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -40 1,256 £500 - 446
UK excluding London -31 825 £500 +2.56% 383
London -54 479 £500 - 118
Work from Home -35 404 £520 +4.00% 153
North of England -14 294 £500 +5.26% 83
South East -31 232 £500 - 143
North West -5 190 £537 +13.05% 42
Yorkshire -37 88 £450 -8.07% 30
Midlands -62 78 £450 -9.27% 46
East of England -11 72 £525 -4.55% 34
South West -42 69 £525 +5.00% 45
Scotland +7 68 £438 -1.41% 22
West Midlands -62 62 £434 -15.78% 29
North East -21 22 £625 - 13
Wales -20 19 £425 +17.24% 11
East Midlands -24 13 £500 +6.16% 17
Northern Ireland -7 1 - - 7

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 40 (2.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (2.20%) Confluence
3 25 (1.72%) SharePoint
4 17 (1.17%) nginx
5 13 (0.89%) Apache
6 10 (0.69%) CICS
7 6 (0.41%) SAS
8 4 (0.27%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
9 3 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
9 3 (0.21%) IIS
9 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
10 2 (0.14%) CMS
10 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 22 (1.51%) MS Visio
2 18 (1.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.24%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.069%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.069%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.069%) Bloomberg TOMS
2 1 (0.069%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.069%) Eikon
2 1 (0.069%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.069%) Primavera
2 1 (0.069%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.069%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 513 (35.21%) Azure
2 322 (22.10%) AWS
3 148 (10.16%) Entra ID
4 123 (8.44%) GCP
5 117 (8.03%) Microsoft 365
6 71 (4.87%) GitHub
7 65 (4.46%) IaaS
8 62 (4.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 55 (3.77%) SaaS
10 53 (3.64%) Azure DevOps
11 47 (3.23%) Azure Monitor
12 43 (2.95%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 43 (2.95%) PaaS
13 39 (2.68%) Serverless
14 38 (2.61%) Azure Sentinel
15 35 (2.40%) OCI
16 31 (2.13%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 30 (2.06%) GitHub Actions
18 29 (1.99%) Amazon EC2
19 28 (1.92%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 420 (28.83%) VPN
2 414 (28.41%) Network Security
3 393 (26.97%) WAN
4 357 (24.50%) DNS
5 293 (20.11%) LAN
6 276 (18.94%) BGP
7 224 (15.37%) OSPF
8 208 (14.28%) TCP/IP
9 204 (14.00%) VLAN
10 198 (13.59%) DHCP
11 171 (11.74%) Wireless
12 146 (10.02%) SD-WAN
13 124 (8.51%) Wi-Fi
14 98 (6.73%) MPLS
15 96 (6.59%) BIG-IP
16 94 (6.45%) IPsec
17 86 (5.90%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 84 (5.77%) VXLAN
19 81 (5.56%) SSL
20 79 (5.42%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (1.92%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.24%) Power BI
3 17 (1.17%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (0.89%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (0.69%) Data Lake
5 10 (0.69%) DataStage
6 9 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.62%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.55%) MySQL
7 8 (0.55%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.34%) Delta Lake
9 4 (0.27%) Amazon Aurora
9 4 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.27%) Db2
9 4 (0.27%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.21%) Big Data
10 3 (0.21%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 98 (6.73%) JIRA
2 51 (3.50%) Jenkins
3 42 (2.88%) Git
4 39 (2.68%) GitLab
5 15 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
6 11 (0.75%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.62%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.62%) SonarQube
8 8 (0.55%) Chocolatey
9 6 (0.41%) Browser DevTools
10 4 (0.27%) Burp Suite
11 3 (0.21%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.14%) Gradle
12 2 (0.14%) Introscope
12 2 (0.14%) Jaeger
12 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
12 2 (0.14%) MSI
12 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 313 (21.48%) Social Skills
2 192 (13.18%) Finance
3 130 (8.92%) Analytical Skills
4 120 (8.24%) Public Sector
5 79 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
6 76 (5.22%) Banking
7 51 (3.50%) Telecoms
8 26 (1.78%) Manufacturing
9 25 (1.72%) Legal
10 23 (1.58%) Financial Institution
11 20 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
11 20 (1.37%) Military
12 16 (1.10%) Retail
13 15 (1.03%) Local Government
14 12 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.82%) Police
15 10 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 10 (0.69%) Law
16 9 (0.62%) Investment Banking
16 9 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 477 (32.74%) Network Engineer
2 212 (14.55%) Architect
3 201 (13.80%) Senior
4 143 (9.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 129 (8.85%) Security Engineer
6 88 (6.04%) Senior Network Engineer
7 73 (5.01%) Cloud Engineer
8 70 (4.80%) Network Architect
9 61 (4.19%) Network Security Engineer
10 60 (4.12%) Consultant
11 56 (3.84%) Azure Engineer
12 49 (3.36%) Technical Architect
13 48 (3.29%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 46 (3.16%) Security Architect
15 43 (2.95%) DevOps Engineer
16 42 (2.88%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 39 (2.68%) Cisco Engineer
17 39 (2.68%) Lead
18 36 (2.47%) Cisco Network Engineer
19 35 (2.40%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (4.94%) 802.1X
2 42 (2.88%) Middleware
3 35 (2.40%) LDAP
4 26 (1.78%) SAML
5 20 (1.37%) ARM Templates
5 20 (1.37%) OpenID
6 11 (0.75%) OAuth
7 10 (0.69%) Kafka
8 9 (0.62%) LangChain
8 9 (0.62%) OAuth2
8 9 (0.62%) PyTorch
8 9 (0.62%) scikit-learn
9 8 (0.55%) .NET
9 8 (0.55%) REST
10 7 (0.48%) SailPoint
10 7 (0.48%) YAML
11 6 (0.41%) Elastic Stack
11 6 (0.41%) React
12 5 (0.34%) Jinja
12 5 (0.34%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 339 (23.27%) Data Centre
2 93 (6.38%) Cloud Native
3 84 (5.77%) Hybrid Cloud
4 80 (5.49%) PKI
5 76 (5.22%) Security Posture
6 56 (3.84%) Management Information System
7 53 (3.64%) Onboarding
8 43 (2.95%) Operational Technology
9 41 (2.81%) Clustering
10 32 (2.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 30 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
11 30 (2.06%) IoT
12 28 (1.92%) Public Cloud
13 24 (1.65%) Enterprise Storage
14 23 (1.58%) SCADA
15 21 (1.44%) Driving Licence
16 20 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
17 18 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
17 18 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
18 17 (1.17%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 332 (22.79%) Windows
2 201 (13.80%) Linux
3 120 (8.24%) Windows Server
4 51 (3.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 34 (2.33%) Unix
6 23 (1.58%) VMS
7 18 (1.24%) Ubuntu
8 14 (0.96%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (0.75%) Solaris
10 10 (0.69%) AIX
10 10 (0.69%) CentOS
10 10 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.48%) Mac OS
11 7 (0.48%) Windows 10
11 7 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
12 6 (0.41%) Rocky
12 6 (0.41%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (0.27%) Amazon Linux
13 4 (0.27%) Android
13 4 (0.27%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (16.33%) DevOps
2 218 (14.96%) CI/CD
3 217 (14.89%) Infrastructure as Code
4 201 (13.80%) Load Balancing
5 198 (13.59%) Problem-Solving
6 196 (13.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 193 (13.25%) Migration
8 188 (12.90%) ITIL
9 185 (12.70%) Cybersecurity
10 179 (12.29%) High Availability
11 157 (10.78%) Agile
12 154 (10.57%) Zero Trust
13 136 (9.33%) Change Management
14 133 (9.13%) SIEM
15 125 (8.58%) Project Delivery
16 119 (8.17%) Observability
16 119 (8.17%) Validation
17 114 (7.82%) Stakeholder Management
18 104 (7.14%) Cloud Security
18 104 (7.14%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 260 (17.84%) Python
2 181 (12.42%) PowerShell
3 113 (7.76%) Bash
4 49 (3.36%) Bicep
5 41 (2.81%) SQL
6 34 (2.33%) Java
7 11 (0.75%) ActionScript
7 11 (0.75%) Perl
8 10 (0.69%) COBOL
9 7 (0.48%) Groovy
10 6 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (0.34%) C++
11 5 (0.34%) Go
11 5 (0.34%) JavaScript
12 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) C
13 2 (0.14%) Jython
13 2 (0.14%) PHP
14 1 (0.069%) Korn
Qualifications
1 485 (33.29%) Security Cleared
2 341 (23.40%) SC Cleared
3 287 (19.70%) Cisco Certification
4 216 (14.82%) CCNP
5 124 (8.51%) DV Cleared
6 118 (8.10%) CCNA
7 114 (7.82%) Degree
8 74 (5.08%) CISSP
9 58 (3.98%) Azure Certification
10 43 (2.95%) AWS Certification
10 43 (2.95%) CCIE
11 35 (2.40%) CISM
12 34 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
13 22 (1.51%) Computer Science Degree
13 22 (1.51%) JNCIS
14 21 (1.44%) Network+ Certification
15 18 (1.24%) JNCIP
15 18 (1.24%) PMP
16 17 (1.17%) Server+ Certification
17 16 (1.10%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (5.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 58 (3.98%) NIST
3 43 (2.95%) GDPR
4 31 (2.13%) NCSC
5 25 (1.72%) PCI DSS
6 22 (1.51%) QA
7 21 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials
7 21 (1.44%) SLA
8 9 (0.62%) Data Quality
8 9 (0.62%) NIST 800
9 8 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
10 7 (0.48%) GxP
11 6 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.41%) GRC
11 6 (0.41%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.34%) HIPAA
12 5 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.34%) PMO
13 4 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 226 (15.51%) Active Directory
2 163 (11.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 61 (4.19%) VMware NSX
4 58 (3.98%) Docker
5 47 (3.23%) Hyper-V
6 44 (3.02%) vSphere
7 40 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
8 38 (2.61%) VMware ESXi
9 26 (1.78%) Firmware
10 18 (1.24%) Virtual Desktop
11 16 (1.10%) Squid
12 12 (0.82%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.55%) Microsoft App-V
14 6 (0.41%) NFS
15 4 (0.27%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.21%) Dovecot
16 3 (0.21%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 3 (0.21%) Postfix
16 3 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
17 2 (0.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
Systems Management
1 270 (18.53%) Terraform
2 190 (13.04%) Ansible
3 117 (8.03%) FortiGate
4 112 (7.69%) Kubernetes
5 66 (4.53%) Microsoft Intune
6 62 (4.26%) Grafana
7 59 (4.05%) Prometheus
8 38 (2.61%) SCCM
9 35 (2.40%) Single Sign-On
10 24 (1.65%) vCenter Server
11 19 (1.30%) Progress Chef
12 17 (1.17%) Puppet
13 16 (1.10%) CASB
14 14 (0.96%) Cisco Prime
15 12 (0.82%) VxRail
16 11 (0.75%) Consul
17 10 (0.69%) QRadar
18 9 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
18 9 (0.62%) Nessus
18 9 (0.62%) Packer
Vendors
1 530 (36.38%) Cisco
2 317 (21.76%) Palo Alto
3 308 (21.14%) Microsoft
4 218 (14.96%) VMware
5 212 (14.55%) Fortinet
6 205 (14.07%) F5
7 166 (11.39%) Juniper
8 132 (9.06%) CheckPoint
9 81 (5.56%) Splunk
10 77 (5.28%) Arista
11 75 (5.15%) Aruba
12 71 (4.87%) Google
13 70 (4.80%) ServiceNow
14 69 (4.74%) SolarWinds
15 64 (4.39%) Zscaler
16 50 (3.43%) Red Hat
17 47 (3.23%) Citrix
18 44 (3.02%) Meraki
19 33 (2.26%) Infoblox
20 31 (2.13%) Dynatrace