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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 59 59
Rank change year-on-year -35 0 -11
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,411 1,337 1,334
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.63% 4.09% 3.44%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 27.84% 34.51% 28.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 881 793 848
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £415 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £595 £622
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 49 29 28
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £21.74
25th Percentile £44.86 £15.33 £23.89
Median hourly rate £65.69 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +118.97% +9.09% -58.33%
75th Percentile £78.75 £43.25 £79.06
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% -28.02%

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 5,068 3,874 4,665
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.45% 11.84% 12.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,992 2,362 2,803
10th Percentile £250 £241 £220
25th Percentile £400 £367 £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 £677 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £472 £500
% change year-on-year +0.58% -5.55% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 371 201 302
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% -7.50% -11.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £44.50 £54.94
% change year-on-year -42.09% -19.00% -4.46%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 1,228 £505 +1.00% 371
UK excluding London -30 786 £500 +2.15% 287
London -58 485 £500 - 100
Work from Home -30 395 £523 +4.50% 157
North of England -9 279 £500 +3.09% 55
South East -45 199 £520 +4.00% 94
North West +3 173 £506 +6.58% 29
Yorkshire -28 86 £450 -7.64% 18
South West -22 85 £550 +10.00% 39
East of England -3 78 £525 -4.55% 31
Midlands -83 72 £468 -1.47% 64
Scotland -2 63 £400 -13.51% 10
West Midlands -86 55 £450 -5.26% 47
North East -18 26 £500 -13.04% 8
Wales -12 17 £425 +61.90% 1
East Midlands -18 15 £500 +1.63% 17
Northern Ireland -10 1 - - 2

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 49 (3.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (2.34%) SharePoint
3 30 (2.13%) Confluence
4 14 (0.99%) Apache
5 12 (0.85%) nginx
6 11 (0.78%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
7 4 (0.28%) IIS
7 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.21%) CICS
8 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
9 2 (0.14%) CMS
9 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.14%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.071%) MTS
Applications
1 24 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 22 (1.56%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.56%) MS Visio
3 11 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.071%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 1 (0.071%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.14%) Bloomberg TOMS
2 2 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.14%) Eikon
2 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.071%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.071%) Primavera
3 1 (0.071%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 528 (37.42%) Azure
2 321 (22.75%) AWS
3 165 (11.69%) Entra ID
4 130 (9.21%) Microsoft 365
5 108 (7.65%) GCP
6 73 (5.17%) GitHub
7 71 (5.03%) Azure DevOps
8 62 (4.39%) IaaS
9 61 (4.32%) SaaS
10 55 (3.90%) Azure Monitor
11 49 (3.47%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 48 (3.40%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 42 (2.98%) Azure Sentinel
14 38 (2.69%) OCI
14 38 (2.69%) PaaS
15 36 (2.55%) GitHub Actions
15 36 (2.55%) Serverless
16 26 (1.84%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (1.84%) Azure AKS
17 25 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 420 (29.77%) VPN
2 403 (28.56%) Network Security
3 381 (27.00%) WAN
4 364 (25.80%) DNS
5 275 (19.49%) LAN
6 259 (18.36%) BGP
7 212 (15.02%) DHCP
8 211 (14.95%) TCP/IP
9 197 (13.96%) OSPF
10 196 (13.89%) VLAN
11 163 (11.55%) Wireless
12 142 (10.06%) SD-WAN
13 131 (9.28%) Wi-Fi
14 88 (6.24%) Cisco ASA
15 84 (5.95%) MPLS
16 83 (5.88%) IPsec
17 81 (5.74%) BIG-IP
18 80 (5.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 72 (5.10%) SSL
20 71 (5.03%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.34%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
4 15 (1.06%) Power BI
5 12 (0.85%) Relational Database
6 10 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.64%) Oracle Database
8 8 (0.57%) Amazon Aurora
8 8 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (0.50%) Data Lake
10 6 (0.43%) MySQL
10 6 (0.43%) NoSQL
11 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
12 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.28%) Db2
13 3 (0.21%) Big Data
13 3 (0.21%) DataStage
13 3 (0.21%) EDRMS
13 3 (0.21%) Metadata
14 2 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 95 (6.73%) JIRA
2 59 (4.18%) Jenkins
3 49 (3.47%) GitLab
4 45 (3.19%) Git
5 12 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (0.64%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.50%) Artifactory
8 6 (0.43%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 6 (0.43%) Browser DevTools
8 6 (0.43%) Chocolatey
9 4 (0.28%) MSI
10 3 (0.21%) Burp Suite
10 3 (0.21%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.14%) Gatling
11 2 (0.14%) Gradle
11 2 (0.14%) Introscope
11 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.14%) Vagrant
General
1 307 (21.76%) Social Skills
2 176 (12.47%) Finance
3 149 (10.56%) Analytical Skills
4 120 (8.50%) Public Sector
5 86 (6.09%) Banking
6 59 (4.18%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (3.83%) Telecoms
8 31 (2.20%) Manufacturing
9 28 (1.98%) Legal
10 22 (1.56%) Retail
11 18 (1.28%) Local Government
12 17 (1.20%) Financial Institution
12 17 (1.20%) Military
13 14 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 13 (0.92%) Police
15 11 (0.78%) Investment Banking
15 11 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
16 10 (0.71%) Law
17 9 (0.64%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 448 (31.75%) Network Engineer
2 219 (15.52%) Senior
3 182 (12.90%) Architect
4 155 (10.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 101 (7.16%) Security Engineer
6 98 (6.95%) Senior Network Engineer
7 77 (5.46%) Cloud Engineer
8 66 (4.68%) Consultant
9 63 (4.46%) Azure Engineer
10 58 (4.11%) Network Architect
11 55 (3.90%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 53 (3.76%) Network Security Engineer
13 51 (3.61%) Lead
14 49 (3.47%) DevOps Engineer
15 47 (3.33%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 47 (3.33%) Security Architect
16 42 (2.98%) Cisco Engineer
17 40 (2.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
17 40 (2.83%) Platform Engineer
18 39 (2.76%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 287 (20.34%) Terraform
2 50 (3.54%) 802.1X
3 36 (2.55%) Middleware
4 29 (2.06%) SAML
5 25 (1.77%) ARM Templates
6 18 (1.28%) 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
10 10 (0.71%) React
10 10 (0.71%) YAML
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 5 (0.35%) ModSecurity
13 5 (0.35%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 302 (21.40%) Data Centre
2 97 (6.87%) Hybrid Cloud
3 83 (5.88%) PKI
4 76 (5.39%) Cloud Native
5 59 (4.18%) Onboarding
6 53 (3.76%) Management Information System
7 51 (3.61%) Security Posture
8 46 (3.26%) Operational Technology
9 31 (2.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 29 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
10 29 (2.06%) IoT
11 27 (1.91%) Public Cloud
12 25 (1.77%) Clustering
13 24 (1.70%) Driving Licence
13 24 (1.70%) Replication
13 24 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
14 23 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
15 22 (1.56%) Enterprise Storage
15 22 (1.56%) SCADA
16 20 (1.42%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 355 (25.16%) Windows
2 219 (15.52%) Linux
3 148 (10.49%) Windows Server
4 46 (3.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 26 (1.84%) Unix
6 24 (1.70%) Ubuntu
7 20 (1.42%) VMS
8 15 (1.06%) Mac OS
9 12 (0.85%) CentOS
9 12 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
10 9 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.57%) Amazon Linux
11 8 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
12 7 (0.50%) Rocky
12 7 (0.50%) Windows 10
13 6 (0.43%) Android
14 5 (0.35%) Apple iOS
14 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2003
15 4 (0.28%) Solaris
15 4 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 245 (17.36%) DevOps
2 240 (17.01%) Infrastructure as Code
3 229 (16.23%) CI/CD
4 221 (15.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 201 (14.25%) Cybersecurity
6 197 (13.96%) Load Balancing
7 195 (13.82%) Migration
8 191 (13.54%) Problem-Solving
9 189 (13.39%) ITIL
10 169 (11.98%) High Availability
11 164 (11.62%) Zero Trust
12 160 (11.34%) Agile
13 140 (9.92%) Stakeholder Management
14 138 (9.78%) Project Delivery
15 131 (9.28%) Change Management
16 130 (9.21%) SIEM
17 116 (8.22%) Technical Leadership
18 114 (8.08%) Validation
19 109 (7.73%) Cloud Security
20 107 (7.58%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 272 (19.28%) Python
2 216 (15.31%) PowerShell
3 129 (9.14%) Bash
4 52 (3.69%) Bicep
5 46 (3.26%) SQL
6 36 (2.55%) Java
7 12 (0.85%) Perl
8 11 (0.78%) Groovy
8 11 (0.78%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.71%) ActionScript
10 6 (0.43%) Go
10 6 (0.43%) Search Processing Language
11 5 (0.35%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.28%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.21%) C++
13 3 (0.21%) COBOL
13 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.14%) C
14 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 472 (33.45%) Security Cleared
2 332 (23.53%) SC Cleared
3 249 (17.65%) Cisco Certification
4 188 (13.32%) CCNP
5 121 (8.58%) DV Cleared
6 113 (8.01%) Degree
7 97 (6.87%) CCNA
8 76 (5.39%) CISSP
9 71 (5.03%) Azure Certification
10 52 (3.69%) AWS Certification
11 39 (2.76%) CCIE
12 33 (2.34%) CISM
12 33 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
13 28 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
14 17 (1.20%) CEH
15 16 (1.13%) JNCIS
15 16 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 15 (1.06%) Network+ Certification
16 15 (1.06%) PMP
17 13 (0.92%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (5.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 61 (4.32%) NIST
3 44 (3.12%) GDPR
4 27 (1.91%) NCSC
5 24 (1.70%) PCI DSS
5 24 (1.70%) QA
6 22 (1.56%) SLA
7 20 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials
8 9 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 9 (0.64%) Data Quality
8 9 (0.64%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
9 8 (0.57%) NIST 800
9 8 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 7 (0.50%) GxP
11 6 (0.43%) HIPAA
12 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.28%) COBIT
12 4 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 3 (0.21%) PMO
System Software
1 236 (16.73%) Active Directory
2 184 (13.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 70 (4.96%) Hyper-V
4 68 (4.82%) Docker
5 58 (4.11%) VMware NSX
6 48 (3.40%) vSphere
7 44 (3.12%) VMware ESXi
8 42 (2.98%) Virtual Machines
9 27 (1.91%) Firmware
10 15 (1.06%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (0.71%) BitLocker
11 10 (0.71%) Squid
12 7 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
13 6 (0.43%) NFS
14 5 (0.35%) Dovecot
14 5 (0.35%) Postfix
15 4 (0.28%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.21%) FreeRADIUS
16 3 (0.21%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 208 (14.74%) Ansible
2 122 (8.65%) Kubernetes
3 97 (6.87%) FortiGate
4 73 (5.17%) Microsoft Intune
5 56 (3.97%) Grafana
6 54 (3.83%) Prometheus
7 40 (2.83%) SCCM
8 34 (2.41%) Single Sign-On
9 28 (1.98%) Progress Chef
10 25 (1.77%) vCenter Server
11 17 (1.20%) VxRail
12 16 (1.13%) Puppet
13 14 (0.99%) CASB
14 13 (0.92%) Cisco Prime
15 10 (0.71%) Argo
15 10 (0.71%) Packer
16 9 (0.64%) vMotion
16 9 (0.64%) WSUS
17 8 (0.57%) NetBackup
17 8 (0.57%) QRadar
Vendors
1 515 (36.50%) Cisco
2 344 (24.38%) Microsoft
3 305 (21.62%) Palo Alto
4 229 (16.23%) VMware
5 204 (14.46%) Fortinet
6 179 (12.69%) F5
7 129 (9.14%) Juniper
8 124 (8.79%) CheckPoint
9 71 (5.03%) ServiceNow
9 71 (5.03%) Splunk
10 63 (4.46%) Arista
10 63 (4.46%) Aruba
11 61 (4.32%) Google
11 61 (4.32%) Zscaler
12 56 (3.97%) SolarWinds
13 52 (3.69%) Meraki
14 43 (3.05%) Citrix
15 35 (2.48%) Red Hat
16 32 (2.27%) Infoblox
17 29 (2.06%) Dynatrace