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

6 months to
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 53 58
Rank change year-on-year -43 +5 -11
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,437 1,410 1,362
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.70% 4.26% 3.49%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.91% 35.44% 28.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 901 837 866
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £413 £406 £414
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £595 £600 £614
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £515
% change year-on-year +2.56% -5.36% +7.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 26 32
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £22.54
25th Percentile £38.80 £15.18 £23.92
Median hourly rate £65.00 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +116.67% +9.09% -57.36%
75th Percentile £78.75 £40.63 £85.35
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.23 £30.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +117.42% -50.00% -6.96%

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 4,970 3,978 4,735
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.35% 12.01% 12.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,954 2,428 2,892
10th Percentile £250 £235 £220
25th Percentile £400 £373 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £591 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 345 195 327
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.44 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.12% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £53.69
% change year-on-year -40.76% -16.18% -6.63%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -46 1,247 £505 +1.00% 526
UK excluding London -36 807 £500 +2.56% 427
London -55 484 £500 - 162
Work from Home -32 395 £520 +4.00% 211
North of England -14 284 £500 +5.26% 93
South East -32 223 £520 +4.00% 151
North West -6 184 £527 +10.84% 48
Yorkshire -43 84 £450 -7.22% 36
South West -39 76 £550 +11.39% 55
Midlands -64 76 £459 -3.37% 64
East of England -1 74 £525 -2.78% 32
Scotland +14 65 £413 -13.16% 22
West Midlands -76 60 £450 -5.26% 38
North East -17 22 £625 - 13
Wales -19 16 £425 +17.24% 10
East Midlands -24 13 £488 -0.91% 26
Northern Ireland -6 1 - - 8

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 45 (3.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (1.95%) Confluence
2 28 (1.95%) SharePoint
3 14 (0.97%) Apache
4 13 (0.90%) nginx
5 7 (0.49%) CICS
6 6 (0.42%) SAS
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 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
5 4 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.070%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (0.28%) 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%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.070%) Primavera
3 1 (0.070%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 518 (36.05%) Azure
2 327 (22.76%) AWS
3 154 (10.72%) Entra ID
4 124 (8.63%) Microsoft 365
5 120 (8.35%) GCP
6 76 (5.29%) GitHub
7 64 (4.45%) IaaS
8 62 (4.31%) Azure DevOps
9 58 (4.04%) SaaS
10 56 (3.90%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 47 (3.27%) Azure Monitor
12 46 (3.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 42 (2.92%) PaaS
14 41 (2.85%) Azure Sentinel
15 37 (2.57%) OCI
15 37 (2.57%) Serverless
16 33 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
17 31 (2.16%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 27 (1.88%) AWS CloudFormation
19 25 (1.74%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 424 (29.51%) VPN
2 397 (27.63%) WAN
3 393 (27.35%) Network Security
4 364 (25.33%) DNS
5 295 (20.53%) LAN
6 269 (18.72%) BGP
7 215 (14.96%) OSPF
8 211 (14.68%) TCP/IP
9 207 (14.41%) DHCP
10 205 (14.27%) VLAN
11 166 (11.55%) Wireless
12 146 (10.16%) SD-WAN
13 126 (8.77%) Wi-Fi
14 94 (6.54%) BIG-IP
15 93 (6.47%) IPsec
15 93 (6.47%) MPLS
16 85 (5.92%) VXLAN
17 80 (5.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 80 (5.57%) SSL
18 75 (5.22%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.30%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.18%) Power BI
4 13 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
5 12 (0.84%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.63%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.63%) Oracle Database
7 9 (0.63%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.56%) MySQL
9 7 (0.49%) DataStage
10 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.28%) Amazon Aurora
11 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.28%) Db2
11 4 (0.28%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon QuickSight
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.21%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 93 (6.47%) JIRA
2 58 (4.04%) Jenkins
3 45 (3.13%) Git
4 44 (3.06%) GitLab
5 14 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (0.63%) Artifactory
6 9 (0.63%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.56%) Chocolatey
8 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
9 5 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
11 3 (0.21%) MSI
12 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.14%) Gradle
12 2 (0.14%) Introscope
12 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
12 2 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 300 (20.88%) Social Skills
2 182 (12.67%) Finance
3 135 (9.39%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (8.42%) Public Sector
5 79 (5.50%) Banking
6 64 (4.45%) Documentation Skills
7 49 (3.41%) Telecoms
8 25 (1.74%) Legal
8 25 (1.74%) Manufacturing
9 21 (1.46%) Financial Institution
9 21 (1.46%) Military
10 20 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (1.39%) Local Government
11 16 (1.11%) Retail
12 13 (0.90%) Law
12 13 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (0.84%) Police
14 11 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 10 (0.70%) Investment Banking
16 9 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 469 (32.64%) Network Engineer
2 211 (14.68%) Senior
3 203 (14.13%) Architect
4 146 (10.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 118 (8.21%) Security Engineer
6 94 (6.54%) Senior Network Engineer
7 77 (5.36%) Cloud Engineer
8 71 (4.94%) Network Architect
9 62 (4.31%) Consultant
10 58 (4.04%) Azure Engineer
11 56 (3.90%) Network Security Engineer
12 49 (3.41%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 48 (3.34%) Security Architect
14 46 (3.20%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 46 (3.20%) Technical Architect
15 44 (3.06%) DevOps Engineer
15 44 (3.06%) Lead
16 39 (2.71%) Cisco Engineer
17 37 (2.57%) Analyst
17 37 (2.57%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (4.87%) 802.1X
2 40 (2.78%) Middleware
3 29 (2.02%) SAML
4 22 (1.53%) ARM Templates
4 22 (1.53%) LDAP
5 18 (1.25%) OpenID
6 13 (0.90%) OAuth
7 11 (0.77%) OAuth2
8 10 (0.70%) Kafka
8 10 (0.70%) React
9 9 (0.63%) LangChain
9 9 (0.63%) PyTorch
9 9 (0.63%) REST
9 9 (0.63%) scikit-learn
10 8 (0.56%) .NET
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
1 330 (22.96%) Data Centre
2 95 (6.61%) Cloud Native
3 90 (6.26%) Hybrid Cloud
4 89 (6.19%) PKI
5 68 (4.73%) Security Posture
6 57 (3.97%) Management Information System
7 54 (3.76%) Onboarding
8 50 (3.48%) Operational Technology
9 42 (2.92%) Clustering
10 29 (2.02%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 28 (1.95%) Data Protection Act
12 27 (1.88%) Public Cloud
13 26 (1.81%) IoT
14 24 (1.67%) Enterprise Storage
14 24 (1.67%) SCADA
15 22 (1.53%) Driving Licence
16 21 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
17 20 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
18 19 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
18 19 (1.32%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 356 (24.77%) Windows
2 218 (15.17%) Linux
3 135 (9.39%) Windows Server
4 52 (3.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 33 (2.30%) Unix
6 23 (1.60%) VMS
7 20 (1.39%) Ubuntu
8 13 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (0.77%) CentOS
9 11 (0.77%) Mac OS
10 10 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.56%) Solaris
12 7 (0.49%) 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
1 242 (16.84%) DevOps
2 229 (15.94%) CI/CD
3 226 (15.73%) Infrastructure as Code
4 206 (14.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 203 (14.13%) Load Balancing
6 194 (13.50%) Problem-Solving
7 188 (13.08%) Cybersecurity
8 185 (12.87%) ITIL
9 181 (12.60%) Migration
10 179 (12.46%) High Availability
11 157 (10.93%) Zero Trust
12 154 (10.72%) Agile
13 140 (9.74%) SIEM
14 129 (8.98%) Project Delivery
15 128 (8.91%) Change Management
16 121 (8.42%) Observability
17 117 (8.14%) Validation
18 112 (7.79%) Stakeholder Management
19 107 (7.45%) Cloud Security
20 101 (7.03%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 266 (18.51%) Python
2 187 (13.01%) PowerShell
3 127 (8.84%) Bash
4 50 (3.48%) Bicep
5 44 (3.06%) SQL
6 34 (2.37%) Java
7 11 (0.77%) ActionScript
7 11 (0.77%) Perl
8 7 (0.49%) COBOL
8 7 (0.49%) Groovy
8 7 (0.49%) JavaScript
9 6 (0.42%) Go
9 6 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.35%) C++
11 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.21%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.14%) C
12 2 (0.14%) Jython
12 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 489 (34.03%) Security Cleared
2 340 (23.66%) SC Cleared
3 279 (19.42%) Cisco Certification
4 209 (14.54%) CCNP
5 131 (9.12%) DV Cleared
6 117 (8.14%) CCNA
6 117 (8.14%) Degree
7 74 (5.15%) CISSP
8 62 (4.31%) Azure Certification
9 46 (3.20%) AWS Certification
10 40 (2.78%) CCIE
11 35 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
12 32 (2.23%) CISM
13 28 (1.95%) 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 (5.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 60 (4.18%) NIST
3 43 (2.99%) GDPR
4 31 (2.16%) NCSC
5 23 (1.60%) PCI DSS
5 23 (1.60%) SLA
6 21 (1.46%) Cyber Essentials
6 21 (1.46%) QA
7 9 (0.63%) Data Quality
7 9 (0.63%) NIST 800
8 8 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
8 8 (0.56%) GxP
9 7 (0.49%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (0.42%) HIPAA
11 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.28%) PMO
12 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 235 (16.35%) Active Directory
2 169 (11.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 67 (4.66%) Docker
4 61 (4.24%) VMware NSX
5 58 (4.04%) Hyper-V
6 43 (2.99%) vSphere
7 41 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
8 39 (2.71%) VMware ESXi
9 26 (1.81%) Firmware
10 13 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
11 11 (0.77%) BitLocker
11 11 (0.77%) 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
1 280 (19.49%) Terraform
2 196 (13.64%) Ansible
3 119 (8.28%) Kubernetes
4 109 (7.59%) FortiGate
5 67 (4.66%) Microsoft Intune
6 54 (3.76%) Grafana
7 51 (3.55%) Prometheus
8 39 (2.71%) SCCM
9 32 (2.23%) 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 13 (0.90%) Cisco Prime
15 11 (0.77%) QRadar
16 10 (0.70%) Packer
17 9 (0.63%) Argo
18 8 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
18 8 (0.56%) Nagios
Vendors
1 524 (36.46%) Cisco
2 325 (22.62%) Microsoft
3 308 (21.43%) Palo Alto
4 222 (15.45%) VMware
5 206 (14.34%) Fortinet
6 197 (13.71%) F5
7 162 (11.27%) Juniper
8 124 (8.63%) CheckPoint
9 87 (6.05%) Splunk
10 76 (5.29%) ServiceNow
11 75 (5.22%) Aruba
12 74 (5.15%) Google
13 72 (5.01%) Arista
14 69 (4.80%) SolarWinds
15 67 (4.66%) Zscaler
16 47 (3.27%) Citrix
17 45 (3.13%) Meraki
17 45 (3.13%) Red Hat
18 32 (2.23%) Infoblox
19 31 (2.16%) Dynatrace