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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 56 57
Rank change year-on-year -40 +1 -9
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,426 1,379 1,362
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.67% 4.19% 3.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.41% 35.36% 28.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 891 822 863
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £421 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £614
90th Percentile £653 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £503 £490 £515
% change year-on-year +2.65% -4.85% +8.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 28 31
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £22.40
25th Percentile £44.86 £15.28 £23.92
Median hourly rate £65.45 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +118.17% +9.09% -59.56%
75th Percentile £78.75 £35.39 £85.45
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.57 £30.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +118.57% -50.00% -11.76%

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 5,020 3,900 4,751
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.41% 11.84% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,384 2,884
10th Percentile £250 £250 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 200 319
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.88 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.53% -4.34% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.10 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -40 1,246 £510 +2.00% 850
UK excluding London -35 809 £503 +2.65% 554
London -57 483 £500 -2.20% 382
Work from Home -37 385 £523 +4.50% 335
North of England -16 281 £500 +3.09% 124
South East -32 224 £523 +4.50% 182
North West +1 182 £525 +10.53% 67
Yorkshire -45 81 £450 -8.07% 43
South West -28 80 £550 +13.11% 62
East of England -5 77 £525 -4.55% 42
Midlands -78 73 £468 -1.47% 86
Scotland +10 65 £425 -5.56% 37
West Midlands -68 57 £450 -5.26% 51
North East -20 24 £625 +4.17% 16
Wales -13 16 £425 +61.90% 14
East Midlands -24 14 £500 +1.63% 35
Northern Ireland -3 1 - - 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 47 (3.30%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (1.96%) Confluence
3 27 (1.89%) SharePoint
4 15 (1.05%) Apache
5 11 (0.77%) nginx
6 7 (0.49%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) CICS
7 4 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
7 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.21%) IIS
8 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.14%) CMS
9 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
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 (0.070%) MTS
Applications
1 22 (1.54%) MS Visio
2 19 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.33%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.070%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.070%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 1 (0.070%) Eikon
3 1 (0.070%) Primavera
3 1 (0.070%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 527 (36.96%) Azure
2 329 (23.07%) AWS
3 160 (11.22%) Entra ID
4 125 (8.77%) Microsoft 365
5 116 (8.13%) GCP
6 77 (5.40%) GitHub
7 65 (4.56%) IaaS
8 63 (4.42%) Azure DevOps
9 60 (4.21%) SaaS
10 54 (3.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 51 (3.58%) Azure Monitor
12 47 (3.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 40 (2.81%) Azure Sentinel
14 38 (2.66%) PaaS
15 37 (2.59%) OCI
16 36 (2.52%) GitHub Actions
16 36 (2.52%) Serverless
17 30 (2.10%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 26 (1.82%) AWS CloudFormation
19 24 (1.68%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 420 (29.45%) VPN
2 396 (27.77%) WAN
3 390 (27.35%) Network Security
4 374 (26.23%) DNS
5 293 (20.55%) LAN
6 264 (18.51%) BGP
7 216 (15.15%) DHCP
8 212 (14.87%) TCP/IP
9 209 (14.66%) OSPF
10 199 (13.96%) VLAN
11 165 (11.57%) Wireless
12 144 (10.10%) SD-WAN
13 127 (8.91%) Wi-Fi
14 94 (6.59%) BIG-IP
15 93 (6.52%) MPLS
16 87 (6.10%) IPsec
17 84 (5.89%) VXLAN
18 82 (5.75%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 79 (5.54%) Cisco ASA
20 77 (5.40%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (2.24%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.33%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.19%) Power BI
4 14 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (0.70%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.63%) Elasticsearch
6 9 (0.63%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.56%) MySQL
8 7 (0.49%) Data Lake
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
10 4 (0.28%) NoSQL
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 93 (6.52%) JIRA
2 59 (4.14%) Jenkins
3 48 (3.37%) GitLab
4 47 (3.30%) Git
5 13 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (0.70%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.56%) Artifactory
8 7 (0.49%) 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%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
12 2 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 307 (21.53%) Social Skills
2 173 (12.13%) Finance
3 142 (9.96%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (8.70%) Public Sector
5 77 (5.40%) Banking
6 60 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (3.23%) Telecoms
8 28 (1.96%) Legal
9 26 (1.82%) Manufacturing
10 22 (1.54%) Financial Institution
11 21 (1.47%) Military
12 19 (1.33%) Retail
13 18 (1.26%) Local Government
14 16 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
15 13 (0.91%) Law
15 13 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (0.84%) Police
17 11 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 10 (0.70%) Investment Banking
19 9 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 461 (32.33%) Network Engineer
2 213 (14.94%) Senior
3 195 (13.67%) Architect
4 147 (10.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 111 (7.78%) Security Engineer
6 97 (6.80%) Senior Network Engineer
7 79 (5.54%) Cloud Engineer
8 65 (4.56%) Network Architect
9 60 (4.21%) Consultant
10 59 (4.14%) Azure Engineer
11 52 (3.65%) Network Security Engineer
12 51 (3.58%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 48 (3.37%) Security Architect
14 47 (3.30%) Lead
15 46 (3.23%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 45 (3.16%) DevOps Engineer
16 45 (3.16%) Technical Architect
17 42 (2.95%) Cisco Engineer
18 40 (2.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
19 37 (2.59%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (4.98%) 802.1X
2 39 (2.73%) Middleware
3 30 (2.10%) SAML
4 23 (1.61%) ARM Templates
5 19 (1.33%) LDAP
5 19 (1.33%) OpenID
6 14 (0.98%) OAuth
6 14 (0.98%) REST
7 11 (0.77%) Kafka
7 11 (0.77%) OAuth2
8 10 (0.70%) React
9 9 (0.63%) LangChain
9 9 (0.63%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.63%) scikit-learn
9 9 (0.63%) YAML
10 8 (0.56%) .NET
11 7 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (0.49%) JSON
11 7 (0.49%) OpenTelemetry
11 7 (0.49%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 310 (21.74%) Data Centre
2 96 (6.73%) Hybrid Cloud
3 93 (6.52%) Cloud Native
4 90 (6.31%) PKI
5 64 (4.49%) Security Posture
6 58 (4.07%) Management Information System
7 55 (3.86%) Onboarding
8 48 (3.37%) Operational Technology
9 41 (2.88%) Clustering
10 31 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
11 29 (2.03%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 29 (2.03%) Public Cloud
12 25 (1.75%) SCADA
13 24 (1.68%) IoT
14 23 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
15 22 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
16 21 (1.47%) Driving Licence
16 21 (1.47%) Enterprise Storage
16 21 (1.47%) Replication
17 20 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 358 (25.11%) Windows
2 221 (15.50%) Linux
3 138 (9.68%) Windows Server
4 49 (3.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 31 (2.17%) Unix
6 20 (1.40%) Ubuntu
6 20 (1.40%) VMS
7 15 (1.05%) Mac OS
8 13 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (0.77%) CentOS
10 10 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.49%) Rocky
11 7 (0.49%) Windows 10
12 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
13 5 (0.35%) Solaris
13 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.28%) AIX
14 4 (0.28%) Android
14 4 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (17.39%) DevOps
2 238 (16.69%) CI/CD
3 235 (16.48%) Infrastructure as Code
4 210 (14.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 205 (14.38%) Load Balancing
6 198 (13.88%) Cybersecurity
7 197 (13.81%) Problem-Solving
8 190 (13.32%) ITIL
9 179 (12.55%) High Availability
10 177 (12.41%) Migration
11 159 (11.15%) Agile
12 153 (10.73%) Zero Trust
13 143 (10.03%) SIEM
14 131 (9.19%) Project Delivery
15 129 (9.05%) Change Management
16 121 (8.49%) Observability
17 120 (8.42%) Stakeholder Management
18 114 (7.99%) Validation
19 109 (7.64%) Cloud Security
20 107 (7.50%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 276 (19.35%) Python
2 204 (14.31%) PowerShell
3 133 (9.33%) Bash
4 48 (3.37%) Bicep
5 47 (3.30%) SQL
6 35 (2.45%) Java
7 11 (0.77%) ActionScript
7 11 (0.77%) Perl
8 9 (0.63%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.56%) Groovy
10 6 (0.42%) Go
11 5 (0.35%) C++
11 5 (0.35%) Search Processing Language
12 4 (0.28%) COBOL
12 4 (0.28%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.14%) Jython
14 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 485 (34.01%) Security Cleared
2 334 (23.42%) SC Cleared
3 262 (18.37%) Cisco Certification
4 192 (13.46%) CCNP
5 130 (9.12%) DV Cleared
6 116 (8.13%) Degree
7 110 (7.71%) CCNA
8 74 (5.19%) CISSP
9 67 (4.70%) Azure Certification
10 48 (3.37%) AWS Certification
11 38 (2.66%) CCIE
12 35 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
13 31 (2.17%) CISM
14 29 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
15 22 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
16 21 (1.47%) JNCIS
17 16 (1.12%) JNCIP
17 16 (1.12%) Server+ Certification
17 16 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
18 14 (0.98%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (4.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 59 (4.14%) NIST
3 44 (3.09%) GDPR
4 30 (2.10%) NCSC
5 24 (1.68%) PCI DSS
6 23 (1.61%) QA
6 23 (1.61%) SLA
7 19 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (0.77%) JSP 440
9 9 (0.63%) Data Quality
9 9 (0.63%) NIST 800
10 8 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.56%) GxP
10 8 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.42%) HIPAA
12 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
14 3 (0.21%) RMADS
System Software
1 236 (16.55%) Active Directory
2 176 (12.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 71 (4.98%) Docker
4 66 (4.63%) Hyper-V
5 58 (4.07%) VMware NSX
6 44 (3.09%) vSphere
7 41 (2.88%) Virtual Machines
8 39 (2.73%) VMware ESXi
9 26 (1.82%) Firmware
10 16 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (0.70%) BitLocker
12 9 (0.63%) Squid
13 7 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
14 6 (0.42%) NFS
15 5 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
16 4 (0.28%) Terminal Services
17 3 (0.21%) Dovecot
17 3 (0.21%) EMC RecoverPoint
17 3 (0.21%) FreeRADIUS
17 3 (0.21%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 285 (19.99%) Terraform
2 206 (14.45%) Ansible
3 125 (8.77%) Kubernetes
4 113 (7.92%) FortiGate
5 69 (4.84%) Microsoft Intune
6 54 (3.79%) Grafana
7 52 (3.65%) Prometheus
8 37 (2.59%) SCCM
9 35 (2.45%) Single Sign-On
10 26 (1.82%) Progress Chef
11 23 (1.61%) vCenter Server
12 18 (1.26%) CASB
13 17 (1.19%) Puppet
13 17 (1.19%) VxRail
14 14 (0.98%) Cisco Prime
15 10 (0.70%) Argo
15 10 (0.70%) Packer
16 8 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 8 (0.56%) QRadar
16 8 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 520 (36.47%) Cisco
2 337 (23.63%) Microsoft
3 301 (21.11%) Palo Alto
4 225 (15.78%) VMware
5 200 (14.03%) Fortinet
6 197 (13.81%) F5
7 153 (10.73%) Juniper
8 119 (8.35%) CheckPoint
9 88 (6.17%) Splunk
10 75 (5.26%) ServiceNow
11 74 (5.19%) Google
12 72 (5.05%) SolarWinds
13 71 (4.98%) Aruba
14 66 (4.63%) Arista
15 64 (4.49%) Zscaler
16 45 (3.16%) Meraki
17 43 (3.02%) Citrix
18 41 (2.88%) Red Hat
19 33 (2.31%) Infoblox
20 29 (2.03%) CyberArk