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

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 52 56
Rank change year-on-year -39 +4 -7
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,377 1,282 1,525
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.72% 4.29% 3.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.53% 34.54% 28.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 889 761 952
10th Percentile £350 £319 £291
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £615
90th Percentile £650 £688 £718
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £483 £500
% change year-on-year +3.63% -3.50% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 22 47
10th Percentile £28.00 £14.20 £16.98
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.43 £23.86
Median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +86.67% -50.00% -4.08%
75th Percentile £70.11 £41.25 £85.65
90th Percentile £78.50 £44.83 £87.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £82.38
% change year-on-year +86.67% -63.58% +31.71%

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 4,827 3,712 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.53% 12.43% 12.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,970 2,280 3,213
10th Percentile £250 £225 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -1.48%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £471 £488
% change year-on-year +1.91% -3.38% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 296 171 425
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.69 £20.93 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.94 £45.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.91% +12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.69 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.13 £80.00 £72.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £32.77 £47.50
% change year-on-year -18.46% -31.01% +150.00%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 -44 1,166 £500 - 474
UK excluding London -32 786 £500 +3.63% 432
London -57 433 £500 -4.76% 111
Work from Home -30 394 £520 +4.00% 193
North of England -19 277 £500 +5.26% 93
South East -27 215 £506 +1.25% 157
North West -4 177 £537 +14.26% 53
Yorkshire -43 84 £443 -9.60% 29
Midlands -64 76 £427 -13.21% 67
East of England -12 72 £505 -2.88% 43
Scotland +18 64 £456 +4.29% 17
South West -41 63 £525 +8.25% 49
West Midlands -57 63 £425 -19.05% 40
Wales -18 25 £425 +30.77% 6
North East -15 22 £625 +25.00% 12
East Midlands -34 10 £488 +3.50% 27
Northern Ireland -5 2 £385 - 11

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 37 (2.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (2.25%) Confluence
3 24 (1.74%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.02%) nginx
5 11 (0.80%) Apache
6 10 (0.73%) CICS
7 6 (0.44%) IIS
8 5 (0.36%) SAS
9 4 (0.29%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
11 2 (0.15%) CloudStack
11 2 (0.15%) CMS
11 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.15%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.15%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
11 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
12 1 (0.073%) MTS
Applications
1 24 (1.74%) MS Visio
2 22 (1.60%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.38%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.073%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.073%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.073%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.073%) Primavera
1 1 (0.073%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.073%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 453 (32.90%) Azure
2 295 (21.42%) AWS
3 124 (9.01%) Entra ID
4 114 (8.28%) GCP
5 104 (7.55%) Microsoft 365
6 75 (5.45%) GitHub
7 64 (4.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 56 (4.07%) IaaS
9 54 (3.92%) Azure DevOps
10 47 (3.41%) SaaS
11 40 (2.90%) PaaS
12 39 (2.83%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 37 (2.69%) OCI
14 36 (2.61%) Azure Monitor
15 35 (2.54%) GitHub Actions
15 35 (2.54%) Serverless
16 33 (2.40%) Azure Sentinel
17 29 (2.11%) Amazon EC2
18 28 (2.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
19 26 (1.89%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 392 (28.47%) Network Security
2 382 (27.74%) WAN
3 355 (25.78%) VPN
4 294 (21.35%) DNS
5 279 (20.26%) LAN
6 243 (17.65%) BGP
7 204 (14.81%) OSPF
8 181 (13.14%) VLAN
9 157 (11.40%) TCP/IP
10 156 (11.33%) SD-WAN
11 147 (10.68%) DHCP
12 146 (10.60%) Wireless
13 113 (8.21%) Wi-Fi
14 100 (7.26%) BIG-IP
15 94 (6.83%) VXLAN
16 91 (6.61%) MPLS
17 87 (6.32%) IPsec
18 80 (5.81%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 78 (5.66%) SSL
20 77 (5.59%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.45%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.31%) Elasticsearch
3 16 (1.16%) Power BI
4 15 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (0.73%) DataStage
7 9 (0.65%) Oracle Database
8 8 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (0.58%) Data Lake
8 8 (0.58%) MySQL
9 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.22%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 95 (6.90%) JIRA
2 60 (4.36%) Jenkins
3 43 (3.12%) GitLab
4 42 (3.05%) Git
5 14 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (0.73%) Artifactory
6 10 (0.73%) Burp Suite
7 9 (0.65%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.65%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.65%) SonarQube
8 8 (0.58%) Metasploit
9 6 (0.44%) Jaeger
10 5 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
11 2 (0.15%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.15%) Gatling
11 2 (0.15%) Gradle
11 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.15%) MSI
11 2 (0.15%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 303 (22.00%) Social Skills
2 172 (12.49%) Finance
3 115 (8.35%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.70%) Public Sector
5 79 (5.74%) Documentation Skills
6 59 (4.28%) Banking
7 37 (2.69%) Telecoms
8 36 (2.61%) Legal
9 22 (1.60%) Financial Institution
10 21 (1.53%) Manufacturing
11 18 (1.31%) Military
12 16 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (0.94%) Law
13 13 (0.94%) Retail
14 11 (0.80%) Investment Banking
14 11 (0.80%) Local Government
15 10 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 10 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.65%) Front Office
16 9 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 441 (32.03%) Network Engineer
2 215 (15.61%) Architect
3 169 (12.27%) Senior
4 126 (9.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 113 (8.21%) Security Engineer
6 72 (5.23%) Network Architect
7 71 (5.16%) Senior Network Engineer
8 69 (5.01%) Cloud Engineer
9 57 (4.14%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 54 (3.92%) Azure Engineer
11 51 (3.70%) Network Security Engineer
12 49 (3.56%) Technical Architect
13 45 (3.27%) Consultant
14 44 (3.20%) Lead
15 43 (3.12%) DevOps Engineer
16 40 (2.90%) Cisco Engineer
16 40 (2.90%) Security Architect
17 36 (2.61%) Cisco Network Engineer
18 35 (2.54%) Analyst
18 35 (2.54%) Cloud Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (5.30%) 802.1X
2 39 (2.83%) Middleware
3 34 (2.47%) LDAP
4 27 (1.96%) SAML
5 23 (1.67%) OpenID
6 13 (0.94%) Kafka
7 12 (0.87%) OAuth
8 11 (0.80%) OAuth2
8 11 (0.80%) REST
9 9 (0.65%) LangChain
9 9 (0.65%) OpenTelemetry
9 9 (0.65%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.65%) scikit-learn
10 8 (0.58%) .NET
10 8 (0.58%) ARM Templates
10 8 (0.58%) Spring Boot
11 7 (0.51%) YAML
12 6 (0.44%) React
12 6 (0.44%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.36%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 332 (24.11%) Data Centre
2 89 (6.46%) Cloud Native
3 83 (6.03%) Security Posture
4 72 (5.23%) Hybrid Cloud
5 59 (4.28%) Onboarding
5 59 (4.28%) PKI
6 46 (3.34%) Management Information System
7 42 (3.05%) Clustering
8 38 (2.76%) Operational Technology
9 30 (2.18%) Public Cloud
10 29 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
11 26 (1.89%) IoT
12 23 (1.67%) Cyber Threat
12 23 (1.67%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 23 (1.67%) Enterprise Storage
13 19 (1.38%) SCADA
13 19 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
14 16 (1.16%) Driving Licence
14 16 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
14 16 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 304 (22.08%) Windows
2 182 (13.22%) Linux
3 110 (7.99%) Windows Server
4 41 (2.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 29 (2.11%) Unix
6 23 (1.67%) VMS
7 13 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
8 11 (0.80%) Solaris
9 10 (0.73%) AIX
10 9 (0.65%) Ubuntu
10 9 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.58%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.44%) CentOS
12 6 (0.44%) Windows 10
13 5 (0.36%) Mac OS
13 5 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.29%) Android
14 4 (0.29%) SUSE
15 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.22%) CatOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (17.28%) DevOps
2 213 (15.47%) CI/CD
3 199 (14.45%) Infrastructure as Code
4 190 (13.80%) Load Balancing
5 188 (13.65%) Migration
6 175 (12.71%) High Availability
7 170 (12.35%) Cybersecurity
8 168 (12.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 163 (11.84%) Problem-Solving
10 160 (11.62%) ITIL
11 154 (11.18%) Agile
12 146 (10.60%) Zero Trust
13 116 (8.42%) SIEM
14 110 (7.99%) Change Management
15 108 (7.84%) Observability
16 105 (7.63%) Project Delivery
16 105 (7.63%) Validation
17 102 (7.41%) Cloud Security
18 99 (7.19%) Roadmaps
19 98 (7.12%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 226 (16.41%) Python
2 140 (10.17%) PowerShell
3 82 (5.95%) Bash
4 45 (3.27%) SQL
5 40 (2.90%) Bicep
6 33 (2.40%) Java
7 11 (0.80%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.73%) COBOL
8 10 (0.73%) Perl
9 6 (0.44%) Groovy
9 6 (0.44%) JavaScript
9 6 (0.44%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.36%) C++
10 5 (0.36%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.36%) Rust
11 4 (0.29%) Go
12 3 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.15%) C
13 2 (0.15%) Jython
13 2 (0.15%) PHP
Qualifications
1 459 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 335 (24.33%) SC Cleared
3 283 (20.55%) Cisco Certification
4 212 (15.40%) CCNP
5 121 (8.79%) CCNA
6 114 (8.28%) Degree
7 102 (7.41%) DV Cleared
8 67 (4.87%) CISSP
9 56 (4.07%) Azure Certification
10 40 (2.90%) AWS Certification
10 40 (2.90%) CCIE
11 33 (2.40%) Microsoft Certification
12 31 (2.25%) CISM
13 21 (1.53%) Network+ Certification
14 19 (1.38%) JNCIS
15 18 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
15 18 (1.31%) PMP
16 17 (1.23%) JNCIA
16 17 (1.23%) Server+ Certification
17 16 (1.16%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (5.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 56 (4.07%) NIST
3 46 (3.34%) GDPR
4 32 (2.32%) NCSC
5 31 (2.25%) PCI DSS
6 28 (2.03%) SLA
7 26 (1.89%) QA
8 22 (1.60%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (0.65%) PMO
10 8 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
11 7 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (0.51%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.44%) GRC
12 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 5 (0.36%) RMADS
14 4 (0.29%) GxP
14 4 (0.29%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 204 (14.81%) Active Directory
2 151 (10.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 58 (4.21%) VMware NSX
4 53 (3.85%) Docker
5 37 (2.69%) vSphere
6 36 (2.61%) VMware ESXi
7 35 (2.54%) Hyper-V
8 34 (2.47%) Virtual Machines
9 25 (1.82%) Firmware
10 22 (1.60%) Virtual Desktop
11 16 (1.16%) Squid
12 14 (1.02%) BitLocker
13 10 (0.73%) Microsoft App-V
14 4 (0.29%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.22%) Dovecot
15 3 (0.22%) Postfix
16 2 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 2 (0.15%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 2 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
16 2 (0.15%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 237 (17.21%) Terraform
2 175 (12.71%) Ansible
3 112 (8.13%) FortiGate
4 107 (7.77%) Kubernetes
5 64 (4.65%) Grafana
6 58 (4.21%) Prometheus
7 51 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
8 34 (2.47%) Single Sign-On
9 30 (2.18%) SCCM
10 26 (1.89%) vCenter Server
11 20 (1.45%) Puppet
12 17 (1.23%) Progress Chef
13 14 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 14 (1.02%) CASB
14 12 (0.87%) Cisco Prime
15 11 (0.80%) Consul
15 11 (0.80%) QRadar
16 10 (0.73%) Nmap
16 10 (0.73%) vMotion
16 10 (0.73%) VxRail
Vendors
1 495 (35.95%) Cisco
2 305 (22.15%) Palo Alto
3 274 (19.90%) Microsoft
4 196 (14.23%) Fortinet
5 192 (13.94%) VMware
6 191 (13.87%) F5
7 152 (11.04%) Juniper
8 124 (9.01%) CheckPoint
9 86 (6.25%) Aruba
10 80 (5.81%) Splunk
11 72 (5.23%) Arista
11 72 (5.23%) ServiceNow
12 69 (5.01%) SolarWinds
13 63 (4.58%) Google
14 51 (3.70%) Zscaler
15 43 (3.12%) Red Hat
16 39 (2.83%) Citrix
17 34 (2.47%) Meraki
18 28 (2.03%) Dynatrace
18 28 (2.03%) Extreme Networks