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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 55 58
Rank change year-on-year -41 +3 -10
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,441 1,402 1,392
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.71% 4.27% 3.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.99% 35.46% 28.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 907 834 877
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £413 £410 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £597 £595 £614
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £525
% change year-on-year +2.56% -7.14% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 27 36
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £20.45
25th Percentile £38.80 £15.23 £23.92
Median hourly rate £65.00 £30.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +116.67% -20.00% -41.85%
75th Percentile £78.75 £42.61 £85.65
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.23 £30.00 £73.50
% change year-on-year +117.42% -59.18% +16.66%

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 4,971 3,954 4,855
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.36% 12.06% 12.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,961 2,420 2,950
10th Percentile £250 £235 £217
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.41% -2.35% -
75th Percentile £588 £590 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 342 196 341
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.03
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +8.98% -8.24%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £45.00 £52.00
% change year-on-year -40.62% -13.46% -8.63%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 -43 1,247 £500 +0.05% 466
UK excluding London -30 814 £500 +2.56% 379
London -56 480 £500 - 146
Work from Home -33 397 £520 +4.00% 168
North of England -8 288 £500 +5.26% 84
South East -32 224 £520 +4.00% 146
North West -6 186 £525 +10.53% 41
Yorkshire -43 86 £450 -7.64% 32
South West -38 76 £550 +10.00% 38
Midlands -69 76 £459 -3.37% 59
East of England -7 73 £525 -2.78% 31
Scotland +9 66 £413 -8.33% 15
West Midlands -74 60 £450 -5.26% 34
North East -22 22 £625 - 14
Wales -18 18 £425 +17.24% 12
East Midlands -22 13 £488 +3.50% 25
Northern Ireland -9 1 - - 3

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 44 (3.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (1.94%) SharePoint
3 27 (1.87%) Confluence
4 14 (0.97%) Apache
5 13 (0.90%) nginx
6 9 (0.62%) CICS
7 6 (0.42%) SAS
8 4 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
8 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
9 3 (0.21%) IIS
9 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
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
11 1 (0.069%) MTS
Applications
1 23 (1.60%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.53%) MS Visio
3 20 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.069%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.069%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 1 (0.069%) Eikon
3 1 (0.069%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.069%) Primavera
3 1 (0.069%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 519 (36.02%) Azure
2 327 (22.69%) AWS
3 151 (10.48%) Entra ID
4 123 (8.54%) Microsoft 365
5 122 (8.47%) GCP
6 76 (5.27%) GitHub
7 66 (4.58%) IaaS
8 62 (4.30%) Azure DevOps
9 59 (4.09%) SaaS
10 57 (3.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 47 (3.26%) Azure Monitor
12 46 (3.19%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 44 (3.05%) PaaS
14 41 (2.85%) Azure Sentinel
15 37 (2.57%) OCI
15 37 (2.57%) Serverless
16 33 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
17 31 (2.15%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 27 (1.87%) AWS CloudFormation
19 25 (1.73%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 427 (29.63%) VPN
2 395 (27.41%) WAN
3 394 (27.34%) Network Security
4 364 (25.26%) DNS
5 295 (20.47%) LAN
6 269 (18.67%) BGP
7 215 (14.92%) OSPF
8 210 (14.57%) TCP/IP
9 208 (14.43%) VLAN
10 207 (14.37%) DHCP
11 166 (11.52%) Wireless
12 146 (10.13%) SD-WAN
13 126 (8.74%) Wi-Fi
14 94 (6.52%) BIG-IP
15 93 (6.45%) IPsec
15 93 (6.45%) MPLS
16 85 (5.90%) VXLAN
17 81 (5.62%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 80 (5.55%) SSL
19 77 (5.34%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.36%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.18%) Power BI
4 13 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
5 12 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.62%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.62%) DataStage
7 9 (0.62%) Oracle Database
7 9 (0.62%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.56%) MySQL
9 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.28%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.28%) Db2
10 4 (0.28%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon QuickSight
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.21%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 92 (6.38%) JIRA
2 58 (4.02%) Jenkins
3 45 (3.12%) Git
4 44 (3.05%) GitLab
5 14 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (0.62%) Artifactory
6 9 (0.62%) Bitbucket
6 9 (0.62%) Chocolatey
7 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
8 5 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
10 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.14%) Gatling
10 2 (0.14%) Gradle
10 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
10 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 303 (21.03%) Social Skills
2 182 (12.63%) Finance
3 135 (9.37%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (8.40%) Public Sector
5 81 (5.62%) Banking
6 67 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
7 51 (3.54%) Telecoms
8 25 (1.73%) Legal
9 24 (1.67%) Manufacturing
10 22 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
11 21 (1.46%) Military
12 20 (1.39%) Financial Institution
12 20 (1.39%) Local Government
13 16 (1.11%) Retail
14 13 (0.90%) Law
14 13 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.83%) Police
16 11 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.69%) Investment Banking
18 9 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 470 (32.62%) Network Engineer
2 212 (14.71%) Senior
3 204 (14.16%) Architect
4 145 (10.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 120 (8.33%) Security Engineer
6 94 (6.52%) Senior Network Engineer
7 77 (5.34%) Cloud Engineer
8 71 (4.93%) Network Architect
9 61 (4.23%) Consultant
10 59 (4.09%) Azure Engineer
11 57 (3.96%) Network Security Engineer
12 48 (3.33%) Security Architect
12 48 (3.33%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 47 (3.26%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 46 (3.19%) Technical Architect
15 45 (3.12%) DevOps Engineer
16 44 (3.05%) Lead
17 38 (2.64%) Cisco Engineer
18 37 (2.57%) Analyst
19 36 (2.50%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (4.93%) 802.1X
2 42 (2.91%) Middleware
3 29 (2.01%) SAML
4 22 (1.53%) ARM Templates
4 22 (1.53%) LDAP
5 18 (1.25%) OpenID
6 13 (0.90%) OAuth
7 11 (0.76%) OAuth2
8 10 (0.69%) Kafka
8 10 (0.69%) React
9 9 (0.62%) LangChain
9 9 (0.62%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.62%) scikit-learn
10 8 (0.56%) .NET
10 8 (0.56%) REST
10 8 (0.56%) YAML
11 7 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (0.49%) OpenTelemetry
11 7 (0.49%) SailPoint
12 5 (0.35%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 332 (23.04%) Data Centre
2 96 (6.66%) Cloud Native
3 90 (6.25%) Hybrid Cloud
4 89 (6.18%) PKI
5 68 (4.72%) Security Posture
6 58 (4.02%) Management Information System
7 53 (3.68%) Onboarding
8 48 (3.33%) Operational Technology
9 42 (2.91%) Clustering
10 30 (2.08%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 29 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
12 27 (1.87%) IoT
12 27 (1.87%) Public Cloud
13 24 (1.67%) Enterprise Storage
13 24 (1.67%) SCADA
14 22 (1.53%) Driving Licence
15 21 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
16 20 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
17 19 (1.32%) Replication
18 18 (1.25%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 352 (24.43%) Windows
2 217 (15.06%) Linux
3 134 (9.30%) Windows Server
4 52 (3.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 35 (2.43%) Unix
6 23 (1.60%) VMS
7 20 (1.39%) Ubuntu
8 13 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (0.76%) CentOS
10 10 (0.69%) Mac OS
10 10 (0.69%) Solaris
10 10 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
11 9 (0.62%) AIX
12 7 (0.49%) Rocky
12 7 (0.49%) Windows 10
13 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
13 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.28%) Amazon Linux
14 4 (0.28%) Android
14 4 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 244 (16.93%) DevOps
2 230 (15.96%) CI/CD
3 227 (15.75%) Infrastructure as Code
4 204 (14.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 201 (13.95%) Load Balancing
6 194 (13.46%) Problem-Solving
7 186 (12.91%) Cybersecurity
8 184 (12.77%) ITIL
9 183 (12.70%) Migration
10 179 (12.42%) High Availability
11 158 (10.96%) Zero Trust
12 154 (10.69%) Agile
13 139 (9.65%) SIEM
14 129 (8.95%) Project Delivery
15 127 (8.81%) Change Management
16 121 (8.40%) Observability
17 118 (8.19%) Validation
18 114 (7.91%) Stakeholder Management
19 107 (7.43%) Cloud Security
20 102 (7.08%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 268 (18.60%) Python
2 185 (12.84%) PowerShell
3 127 (8.81%) Bash
4 50 (3.47%) Bicep
5 44 (3.05%) SQL
6 34 (2.36%) Java
7 11 (0.76%) ActionScript
7 11 (0.76%) Perl
8 9 (0.62%) COBOL
9 7 (0.49%) Groovy
9 7 (0.49%) JavaScript
10 6 (0.42%) Go
10 6 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (0.35%) C++
12 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.21%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.14%) Jython
13 2 (0.14%) PHP
13 2 (0.14%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 489 (33.93%) Security Cleared
2 339 (23.53%) SC Cleared
3 278 (19.29%) Cisco Certification
4 210 (14.57%) CCNP
5 131 (9.09%) DV Cleared
6 116 (8.05%) CCNA
6 116 (8.05%) Degree
7 74 (5.14%) CISSP
8 62 (4.30%) Azure Certification
9 46 (3.19%) AWS Certification
10 40 (2.78%) CCIE
11 34 (2.36%) Microsoft Certification
12 32 (2.22%) CISM
13 28 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
14 23 (1.60%) Network+ Certification
15 22 (1.53%) JNCIS
16 18 (1.25%) CompTIA Security+
16 18 (1.25%) JNCIP
17 17 (1.18%) Server+ Certification
18 16 (1.11%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (5.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 59 (4.09%) NIST
3 43 (2.98%) GDPR
4 31 (2.15%) NCSC
5 24 (1.67%) SLA
6 23 (1.60%) PCI DSS
7 21 (1.46%) QA
8 20 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (0.62%) Data Quality
9 9 (0.62%) NIST 800
10 8 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.56%) GxP
11 7 (0.49%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.42%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 5 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 4 (0.28%) PMO
14 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 232 (16.10%) Active Directory
2 167 (11.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 67 (4.65%) Docker
4 61 (4.23%) VMware NSX
5 57 (3.96%) Hyper-V
6 43 (2.98%) vSphere
7 41 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
8 39 (2.71%) VMware ESXi
9 26 (1.80%) Firmware
10 14 (0.97%) Virtual Desktop
11 11 (0.76%) BitLocker
11 11 (0.76%) Squid
12 8 (0.56%) Microsoft App-V
13 6 (0.42%) NFS
14 4 (0.28%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.21%) Dovecot
15 3 (0.21%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.21%) Postfix
15 3 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.14%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 282 (19.57%) Terraform
2 197 (13.67%) Ansible
3 119 (8.26%) Kubernetes
4 107 (7.43%) FortiGate
5 67 (4.65%) Microsoft Intune
6 54 (3.75%) Grafana
7 51 (3.54%) Prometheus
8 38 (2.64%) SCCM
9 32 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
10 24 (1.67%) vCenter Server
11 21 (1.46%) Progress Chef
12 18 (1.25%) Puppet
13 17 (1.18%) CASB
13 17 (1.18%) VxRail
14 14 (0.97%) Cisco Prime
15 11 (0.76%) QRadar
16 10 (0.69%) Packer
17 9 (0.62%) Argo
18 8 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
18 8 (0.56%) vMotion
Vendors
1 523 (36.29%) Cisco
2 324 (22.48%) Microsoft
3 308 (21.37%) Palo Alto
4 222 (15.41%) VMware
5 208 (14.43%) Fortinet
6 195 (13.53%) F5
7 161 (11.17%) Juniper
8 122 (8.47%) CheckPoint
9 86 (5.97%) Splunk
10 75 (5.20%) Aruba
11 74 (5.14%) Google
11 74 (5.14%) ServiceNow
12 71 (4.93%) Arista
13 69 (4.79%) SolarWinds
14 67 (4.65%) Zscaler
15 45 (3.12%) Citrix
15 45 (3.12%) Red Hat
16 44 (3.05%) Meraki
17 32 (2.22%) Dynatrace
17 32 (2.22%) Infoblox