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

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 52 52
Rank change year-on-year -33 0 +5
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,362 1,193 1,593
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.89% 4.09% 3.68%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 29.97% 32.02% 28.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 887 719 1,003
10th Percentile £334 £313 £313
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £515
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -0.97% -1.90%
75th Percentile £581 £600 £625
90th Percentile £643 £688 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £489 £500
% change year-on-year +2.30% -2.25% +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 17 45
10th Percentile £19.90 - £16.00
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £23.92
Median hourly rate £52.36 £36.65 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.88% -38.93% -3.23%
75th Percentile £71.64 £41.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £85.10 £56.50 £87.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.00 £32.07 £83.77
% change year-on-year +74.60% -61.71% +35.10%

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 4,545 3,726 5,610
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.65% 12.77% 12.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,834 2,295 3,363
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -0.51% -5.41%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 224 173 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £20.00 £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.54 £37.50 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.11% -1.32% +100.00%
75th Percentile £67.81 £61.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £27.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +77.16% -40.06% +148.00%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 29 April 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 -37 1,138 £500 -3.51% 421
UK excluding London -15 765 £500 +2.30% 374
London -62 423 £504 -4.10% 109
Work from Home -25 392 £515 +3.00% 171
South East -1 245 £500 - 119
North of England -26 219 £499 +5.00% 98
North West -13 140 £525 +10.53% 44
Midlands -39 93 £425 -23.42% 43
West Midlands -19 81 £420 -20.00% 24
Yorkshire -29 73 £425 -10.53% 28
East of England -13 64 £500 -4.76% 45
South West -47 56 £550 +0.92% 40
Scotland +19 55 £425 - 16
Wales -13 32 £425 +11.11% 11
North East -10 8 £545 -0.91% 27
East Midlands -55 8 £475 -17.39% 19
Northern Ireland +3 3 £443 - 16

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 39 (2.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (2.20%) Confluence
3 16 (1.17%) SharePoint
4 13 (0.95%) Apache
4 13 (0.95%) nginx
5 10 (0.73%) CICS
6 7 (0.51%) SAS
7 5 (0.37%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.22%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.15%) CMS
9 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.15%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.073%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.073%) JBoss
Applications
1 34 (2.50%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (1.54%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.073%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.073%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.073%) Primavera
1 1 (0.073%) SAP S/4HANA
1 1 (0.073%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 458 (33.63%) Azure
2 290 (21.29%) AWS
3 116 (8.52%) Microsoft 365
4 114 (8.37%) Entra ID
5 113 (8.30%) GCP
6 66 (4.85%) GitHub
7 57 (4.19%) IaaS
8 55 (4.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 53 (3.89%) Azure DevOps
10 51 (3.74%) PaaS
11 46 (3.38%) SaaS
12 42 (3.08%) Azure Sentinel
13 41 (3.01%) Azure Monitor
14 40 (2.94%) GitHub Actions
15 39 (2.86%) Serverless
16 34 (2.50%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 30 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
18 28 (2.06%) Amazon EC2
18 28 (2.06%) Amazon EKS
19 27 (1.98%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 375 (27.53%) Network Security
2 353 (25.92%) WAN
3 342 (25.11%) VPN
4 282 (20.70%) DNS
5 269 (19.75%) LAN
6 226 (16.59%) BGP
7 207 (15.20%) OSPF
8 154 (11.31%) VLAN
9 146 (10.72%) DHCP
10 145 (10.65%) TCP/IP
11 139 (10.21%) SD-WAN
12 125 (9.18%) Wireless
13 103 (7.56%) Wi-Fi
14 88 (6.46%) MPLS
15 86 (6.31%) IPsec
16 79 (5.80%) VXLAN
17 75 (5.51%) BIG-IP
18 71 (5.21%) Cisco ISE
19 69 (5.07%) Ethernet VPN
20 66 (4.85%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.91%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
4 13 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
5 12 (0.88%) Power BI
6 11 (0.81%) Oracle Database
7 10 (0.73%) DataStage
8 8 (0.59%) Data Lake
8 8 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.51%) MongoDB
10 6 (0.44%) MySQL
11 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.29%) Metadata
12 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 3 (0.22%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 80 (5.87%) JIRA
2 52 (3.82%) Jenkins
3 45 (3.30%) GitLab
4 40 (2.94%) Git
5 19 (1.40%) Sonatype Nexus
6 16 (1.17%) Bitbucket
6 16 (1.17%) Burp Suite
6 16 (1.17%) Metasploit
7 9 (0.66%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.66%) Jaeger
8 7 (0.51%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.37%) Artifactory
9 5 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
10 4 (0.29%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.15%) Introscope
11 2 (0.15%) Postman
11 2 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.073%) Maven
12 1 (0.073%) PVCS
12 1 (0.073%) Subversion
General
1 333 (24.45%) Social Skills
2 162 (11.89%) Finance
3 132 (9.69%) Analytical Skills
4 109 (8.00%) Public Sector
5 91 (6.68%) Documentation Skills
6 54 (3.96%) Banking
7 42 (3.08%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.13%) Legal
9 26 (1.91%) Financial Institution
10 25 (1.84%) Manufacturing
11 19 (1.40%) Military
12 17 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.10%) Law
14 14 (1.03%) Retail
15 11 (0.81%) Local Government
16 10 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
17 9 (0.66%) Front Office
17 9 (0.66%) Investment Banking
17 9 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 400 (29.37%) Network Engineer
2 223 (16.37%) Architect
3 158 (11.60%) Senior
4 114 (8.37%) Security Engineer
5 102 (7.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 75 (5.51%) Network Architect
7 62 (4.55%) Azure Engineer
8 61 (4.48%) Senior Network Engineer
9 55 (4.04%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 48 (3.52%) Cloud Engineer
11 44 (3.23%) Network Security Engineer
11 44 (3.23%) Security Architect
12 41 (3.01%) Lead
13 40 (2.94%) DevOps Engineer
13 40 (2.94%) Technical Architect
14 37 (2.72%) Analyst
14 37 (2.72%) Cisco Engineer
15 34 (2.50%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 34 (2.50%) Solutions Architect
16 32 (2.35%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (5.07%) 802.1X
2 41 (3.01%) LDAP
3 37 (2.72%) Middleware
4 32 (2.35%) SAML
5 28 (2.06%) OpenID
6 20 (1.47%) Kafka
7 13 (0.95%) OAuth
7 13 (0.95%) REST
8 12 (0.88%) OAuth2
9 11 (0.81%) OpenTelemetry
10 9 (0.66%) ARM Templates
10 9 (0.66%) JSON
10 9 (0.66%) Node.js
10 9 (0.66%) Spring Boot
11 8 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
12 6 (0.44%) LangChain
12 6 (0.44%) PyTorch
12 6 (0.44%) scikit-learn
12 6 (0.44%) XML
12 6 (0.44%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 295 (21.66%) Data Centre
2 74 (5.43%) Cloud Native
3 73 (5.36%) Security Posture
4 68 (4.99%) PKI
5 50 (3.67%) Hybrid Cloud
6 48 (3.52%) Onboarding
7 45 (3.30%) Operational Technology
8 39 (2.86%) Clustering
9 38 (2.79%) Management Information System
10 35 (2.57%) Public Cloud
11 29 (2.13%) IoT
12 25 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
13 22 (1.62%) SCADA
14 21 (1.54%) Cyber Threat
15 20 (1.47%) Enterprise Storage
16 19 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
17 18 (1.32%) Replication
17 18 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
18 16 (1.17%) NHS
19 15 (1.10%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 323 (23.72%) Windows
2 194 (14.24%) Linux
3 129 (9.47%) Windows Server
4 36 (2.64%) Unix
5 30 (2.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 26 (1.91%) VMS
7 12 (0.88%) Solaris
8 11 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
8 11 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (0.73%) AIX
10 7 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
11 5 (0.37%) Amazon Linux
11 5 (0.37%) CatOS
11 5 (0.37%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.37%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.37%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.22%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.22%) SUSE
13 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (15.93%) DevOps
2 208 (15.27%) Cybersecurity
3 185 (13.58%) Problem-Solving
4 183 (13.44%) CI/CD
4 183 (13.44%) Infrastructure as Code
5 174 (12.78%) Migration
6 169 (12.41%) Load Balancing
7 159 (11.67%) ITIL
8 155 (11.38%) High Availability
9 142 (10.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 128 (9.40%) Agile
11 124 (9.10%) Zero Trust
12 114 (8.37%) SIEM
13 113 (8.30%) Cloud Security
14 110 (8.08%) Change Management
15 96 (7.05%) Observability
16 91 (6.68%) Project Delivery
16 91 (6.68%) Technical Leadership
17 88 (6.46%) Network Segmentation
17 88 (6.46%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 182 (13.36%) Python
2 161 (11.82%) PowerShell
3 74 (5.43%) Bash
4 53 (3.89%) SQL
5 39 (2.86%) Bicep
6 30 (2.20%) Java
7 16 (1.17%) Perl
8 11 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.73%) COBOL
9 10 (0.73%) JavaScript
10 8 (0.59%) Rust
11 7 (0.51%) Ruby
12 6 (0.44%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.37%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.29%) C#
14 4 (0.29%) Go
15 3 (0.22%) Groovy
16 2 (0.15%) C++
16 2 (0.15%) Jython
16 2 (0.15%) PHP
Qualifications
1 477 (35.02%) Security Cleared
2 344 (25.26%) SC Cleared
3 265 (19.46%) Cisco Certification
4 206 (15.12%) CCNP
5 114 (8.37%) DV Cleared
6 112 (8.22%) Degree
7 106 (7.78%) CCNA
8 73 (5.36%) CISSP
9 56 (4.11%) Azure Certification
10 44 (3.23%) CCIE
10 44 (3.23%) CISM
11 39 (2.86%) AWS Certification
12 27 (1.98%) Microsoft Certification
13 25 (1.84%) CompTIA Security+
14 23 (1.69%) JNCIS
15 21 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
16 20 (1.47%) JNCIP
17 19 (1.40%) JNCIA
17 19 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
18 17 (1.25%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (6.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 66 (4.85%) NIST
3 60 (4.41%) GDPR
4 38 (2.79%) PCI DSS
5 33 (2.42%) NCSC
5 33 (2.42%) SLA
6 25 (1.84%) Cyber Essentials
6 25 (1.84%) QA
7 17 (1.25%) PMO
8 7 (0.51%) Data Quality
8 7 (0.51%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.44%) RMADS
10 5 (0.37%) GRC
10 5 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 5 (0.37%) SOC 2
11 4 (0.29%) GxP
12 3 (0.22%) NIST 800
System Software
1 225 (16.52%) Active Directory
2 167 (12.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 72 (5.29%) VMware NSX
4 67 (4.92%) Docker
5 41 (3.01%) Hyper-V
6 36 (2.64%) Virtual Machines
7 35 (2.57%) vSphere
8 32 (2.35%) VMware ESXi
9 22 (1.62%) Firmware
10 21 (1.54%) Virtual Desktop
11 11 (0.81%) Squid
12 10 (0.73%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
14 6 (0.44%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.22%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
16 2 (0.15%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 2 (0.15%) NFS
16 2 (0.15%) Samba
16 2 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 213 (15.64%) Terraform
2 162 (11.89%) Ansible
3 113 (8.30%) Kubernetes
4 101 (7.42%) FortiGate
5 58 (4.26%) Microsoft Intune
6 50 (3.67%) Grafana
7 45 (3.30%) Prometheus
8 36 (2.64%) Single Sign-On
9 33 (2.42%) SCCM
10 31 (2.28%) vCenter Server
11 18 (1.32%) Nmap
12 17 (1.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 15 (1.10%) QRadar
14 13 (0.95%) CASB
15 12 (0.88%) Cisco Prime
15 12 (0.88%) Nagios
15 12 (0.88%) Puppet
16 11 (0.81%) VxRail
16 11 (0.81%) WSUS
17 10 (0.73%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 483 (35.46%) Cisco
2 296 (21.73%) Microsoft
2 296 (21.73%) Palo Alto
3 210 (15.42%) VMware
4 173 (12.70%) Fortinet
5 169 (12.41%) F5
6 150 (11.01%) Juniper
7 139 (10.21%) CheckPoint
8 94 (6.90%) Splunk
9 88 (6.46%) Aruba
10 71 (5.21%) SolarWinds
11 59 (4.33%) ServiceNow
12 53 (3.89%) Arista
12 53 (3.89%) Google
13 46 (3.38%) Meraki
14 43 (3.16%) Zscaler
15 41 (3.01%) Citrix
16 35 (2.57%) Oracle
17 34 (2.50%) Red Hat
18 27 (1.98%) Extreme Networks