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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 59 57
Rank change year-on-year -38 -2 -9
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,413 1,346 1,358
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.64% 4.10% 3.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 27.88% 34.69% 28.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 881 799 863
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £419 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £592 £614
90th Percentile £656 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £513
% change year-on-year +2.15% -4.49% +7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 29 29
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £21.62
25th Percentile £44.86 £15.33 £23.92
Median hourly rate £65.45 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +118.17% +9.09% -58.33%
75th Percentile £79.38 £43.25 £76.99
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.57 £30.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +118.57% -36.84% -28.03%

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 5,069 3,880 4,745
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 11.82% 12.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,998 2,361 2,873
10th Percentile £250 £243 £220
25th Percentile £400 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +1.68% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 203 314
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.13
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £49.50
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% -6.57% -10.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -42.22% -18.00% -2.86%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 20 August 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 1,232 £510 +2.00% 472
UK excluding London -29 803 £500 +2.15% 365
London -54 473 £500 - 165
Work from Home -38 390 £520 +4.00% 175
North of England -7 287 £500 +3.09% 67
South East -38 208 £520 +4.00% 141
North West +7 185 £525 +10.53% 32
South West -24 85 £550 +8.64% 42
Yorkshire -38 83 £450 -7.22% 22
East of England -2 78 £525 -4.55% 38
Midlands -80 72 £468 -1.47% 62
Scotland +2 63 £400 -13.51% 19
West Midlands -82 55 £450 -5.26% 40
North East -16 25 £563 -2.17% 15
Wales -15 17 £425 +61.90% 5
East Midlands -21 15 £500 +6.16% 22
Northern Ireland -4 1 - - 1

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 48 (3.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (2.26%) SharePoint
3 28 (1.98%) Confluence
4 15 (1.06%) Apache
5 11 (0.78%) nginx
5 11 (0.78%) SAS
6 4 (0.28%) CICS
6 4 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
6 4 (0.28%) IIS
6 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.14%) CMS
8 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
8 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.071%) MTS
Applications
1 24 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (1.63%) MS Visio
3 22 (1.56%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.071%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.071%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 1 (0.071%) Eikon
3 1 (0.071%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.071%) Primavera
3 1 (0.071%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 531 (37.58%) Azure
2 324 (22.93%) AWS
3 162 (11.46%) Entra ID
4 126 (8.92%) Microsoft 365
5 112 (7.93%) GCP
6 75 (5.31%) GitHub
7 69 (4.88%) Azure DevOps
8 66 (4.67%) IaaS
9 62 (4.39%) SaaS
10 55 (3.89%) Azure Monitor
11 51 (3.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 49 (3.47%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 41 (2.90%) Azure Sentinel
14 40 (2.83%) PaaS
15 38 (2.69%) OCI
15 38 (2.69%) Serverless
16 36 (2.55%) GitHub Actions
17 28 (1.98%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 26 (1.84%) Amazon EKS
18 26 (1.84%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 419 (29.65%) VPN
2 393 (27.81%) Network Security
3 386 (27.32%) WAN
4 368 (26.04%) DNS
5 283 (20.03%) LAN
6 254 (17.98%) BGP
7 217 (15.36%) DHCP
8 216 (15.29%) TCP/IP
9 202 (14.30%) VLAN
10 199 (14.08%) OSPF
11 166 (11.75%) Wireless
12 142 (10.05%) SD-WAN
13 132 (9.34%) Wi-Fi
14 88 (6.23%) MPLS
15 87 (6.16%) Cisco ASA
16 85 (6.02%) IPsec
17 82 (5.80%) BIG-IP
18 80 (5.66%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 72 (5.10%) SSL
20 71 (5.02%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.48%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (1.13%) Power BI
4 14 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (0.71%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
6 9 (0.64%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.57%) Data Lake
7 8 (0.57%) MySQL
8 6 (0.42%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.35%) Amazon Aurora
9 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.28%) DataStage
10 4 (0.28%) Db2
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.21%) Big Data
11 3 (0.21%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 94 (6.65%) JIRA
2 57 (4.03%) Jenkins
3 50 (3.54%) GitLab
4 45 (3.18%) Git
5 12 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (0.71%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.57%) Artifactory
8 7 (0.50%) Chocolatey
9 6 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
10 4 (0.28%) MSI
10 4 (0.28%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.21%) Burp Suite
12 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.14%) Gatling
12 2 (0.14%) Gradle
12 2 (0.14%) Introscope
12 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
12 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 308 (21.80%) Social Skills
2 174 (12.31%) Finance
3 148 (10.47%) Analytical Skills
4 123 (8.70%) Public Sector
5 83 (5.87%) Banking
6 59 (4.18%) Documentation Skills
7 53 (3.75%) Telecoms
8 27 (1.91%) Manufacturing
9 26 (1.84%) Legal
10 20 (1.42%) Financial Institution
10 20 (1.42%) Retail
11 18 (1.27%) Local Government
12 17 (1.20%) Military
13 15 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 13 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (0.92%) Police
15 11 (0.78%) Investment Banking
16 10 (0.71%) Law
17 9 (0.64%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 451 (31.92%) Network Engineer
2 217 (15.36%) Senior
3 186 (13.16%) Architect
4 155 (10.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 106 (7.50%) Security Engineer
6 95 (6.72%) Senior Network Engineer
7 82 (5.80%) Cloud Engineer
8 65 (4.60%) Azure Engineer
9 61 (4.32%) Network Architect
10 60 (4.25%) Consultant
11 55 (3.89%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 52 (3.68%) Network Security Engineer
13 50 (3.54%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 47 (3.33%) DevOps Engineer
14 47 (3.33%) Lead
15 45 (3.18%) Security Architect
16 42 (2.97%) Cisco Engineer
16 42 (2.97%) Technical Architect
17 40 (2.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
18 38 (2.69%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 291 (20.59%) Terraform
2 55 (3.89%) 802.1X
3 37 (2.62%) Middleware
4 28 (1.98%) SAML
5 25 (1.77%) ARM Templates
6 19 (1.34%) OpenID
7 15 (1.06%) LDAP
7 15 (1.06%) REST
8 14 (0.99%) OAuth
9 11 (0.78%) Kafka
9 11 (0.78%) OAuth2
9 11 (0.78%) YAML
10 10 (0.71%) React
11 8 (0.57%) .NET
12 7 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (0.50%) JSON
12 7 (0.50%) OpenTelemetry
12 7 (0.50%) SailPoint
13 6 (0.42%) LangChain
13 6 (0.42%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 306 (21.66%) Data Centre
2 96 (6.79%) Hybrid Cloud
3 85 (6.02%) Cloud Native
3 85 (6.02%) PKI
4 58 (4.10%) Onboarding
5 57 (4.03%) Management Information System
6 54 (3.82%) Security Posture
7 47 (3.33%) Operational Technology
8 31 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
8 31 (2.19%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 28 (1.98%) Public Cloud
10 27 (1.91%) Clustering
10 27 (1.91%) IoT
11 25 (1.77%) SCADA
12 24 (1.70%) Driving Licence
12 24 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
13 23 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
13 23 (1.63%) Enterprise Storage
14 21 (1.49%) Replication
15 20 (1.42%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 351 (24.84%) Windows
2 223 (15.78%) Linux
3 146 (10.33%) Windows Server
4 50 (3.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 27 (1.91%) Unix
6 22 (1.56%) Ubuntu
7 20 (1.42%) VMS
8 15 (1.06%) Mac OS
9 13 (0.92%) CentOS
9 13 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
12 7 (0.50%) Rocky
12 7 (0.50%) Windows 10
13 5 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
13 5 (0.35%) Android
13 5 (0.35%) Solaris
13 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.28%) AIX
14 4 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 247 (17.48%) DevOps
2 243 (17.20%) Infrastructure as Code
3 233 (16.49%) CI/CD
4 219 (15.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 203 (14.37%) Cybersecurity
6 195 (13.80%) Load Balancing
7 193 (13.66%) Problem-Solving
8 187 (13.23%) ITIL
9 180 (12.74%) Migration
10 165 (11.68%) High Availability
11 158 (11.18%) Agile
11 158 (11.18%) Zero Trust
12 137 (9.70%) SIEM
13 135 (9.55%) Project Delivery
14 129 (9.13%) Stakeholder Management
15 126 (8.92%) Change Management
16 115 (8.14%) Validation
17 110 (7.78%) Technical Leadership
18 109 (7.71%) Continuous Improvement
19 108 (7.64%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 277 (19.60%) Python
2 217 (15.36%) PowerShell
3 135 (9.55%) Bash
4 52 (3.68%) Bicep
5 47 (3.33%) SQL
6 34 (2.41%) Java
7 11 (0.78%) Perl
8 10 (0.71%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.57%) Groovy
10 6 (0.42%) Go
10 6 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
11 5 (0.35%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.28%) C++
12 4 (0.28%) COBOL
12 4 (0.28%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.14%) PHP
14 2 (0.14%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 481 (34.04%) Security Cleared
2 338 (23.92%) SC Cleared
3 257 (18.19%) Cisco Certification
4 197 (13.94%) CCNP
5 125 (8.85%) DV Cleared
6 116 (8.21%) Degree
7 108 (7.64%) CCNA
8 76 (5.38%) CISSP
9 70 (4.95%) Azure Certification
10 52 (3.68%) AWS Certification
11 38 (2.69%) CCIE
12 32 (2.26%) Microsoft Certification
13 30 (2.12%) CISM
13 30 (2.12%) Computer Science Degree
14 20 (1.42%) Network+ Certification
15 16 (1.13%) JNCIS
15 16 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 15 (1.06%) Server+ Certification
17 14 (0.99%) CEH
17 14 (0.99%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (4.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 60 (4.25%) NIST
3 44 (3.11%) GDPR
4 29 (2.05%) NCSC
5 25 (1.77%) PCI DSS
5 25 (1.77%) SLA
6 24 (1.70%) QA
7 17 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
8 10 (0.71%) JSP 440
9 9 (0.64%) Data Quality
9 9 (0.64%) NIST 800
10 8 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.50%) GxP
12 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.42%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
15 3 (0.21%) RMADS
System Software
1 238 (16.84%) Active Directory
2 184 (13.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 71 (5.02%) Docker
4 69 (4.88%) Hyper-V
5 60 (4.25%) VMware NSX
6 49 (3.47%) vSphere
7 44 (3.11%) VMware ESXi
8 41 (2.90%) Virtual Machines
9 27 (1.91%) Firmware
10 15 (1.06%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (0.71%) BitLocker
12 9 (0.64%) Squid
13 7 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
14 6 (0.42%) NFS
15 4 (0.28%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.21%) Dovecot
16 3 (0.21%) FreeRADIUS
16 3 (0.21%) Postfix
16 3 (0.21%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 210 (14.86%) Ansible
2 129 (9.13%) Kubernetes
3 99 (7.01%) FortiGate
4 71 (5.02%) Microsoft Intune
5 55 (3.89%) Grafana
6 53 (3.75%) Prometheus
7 39 (2.76%) SCCM
8 35 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
9 29 (2.05%) Progress Chef
10 26 (1.84%) vCenter Server
11 18 (1.27%) VxRail
12 17 (1.20%) Puppet
13 15 (1.06%) CASB
14 12 (0.85%) Cisco Prime
15 10 (0.71%) Argo
15 10 (0.71%) Packer
16 9 (0.64%) vMotion
17 8 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 8 (0.57%) NetBackup
17 8 (0.57%) QRadar
Vendors
1 509 (36.02%) Cisco
2 345 (24.42%) Microsoft
3 304 (21.51%) Palo Alto
4 233 (16.49%) VMware
5 197 (13.94%) Fortinet
6 179 (12.67%) F5
7 131 (9.27%) Juniper
8 127 (8.99%) CheckPoint
9 73 (5.17%) Splunk
10 72 (5.10%) ServiceNow
11 67 (4.74%) Aruba
11 67 (4.74%) Google
12 64 (4.53%) Arista
13 60 (4.25%) Zscaler
14 58 (4.10%) SolarWinds
15 47 (3.33%) Meraki
16 41 (2.90%) Citrix
17 40 (2.83%) Red Hat
18 32 (2.26%) Infoblox
19 31 (2.19%) Dynatrace