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 19 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 74 51 48
Rank change year-on-year -23 -3 +17
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,193 1,220 1,755
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.23% 3.87% 4.06%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.82% 30.11% 29.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 770 725 1,147
10th Percentile £313 £313 £313
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £522 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.21% -0.57% -
75th Percentile £600 £613 £627
90th Percentile £675 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -1.52% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 23 47
10th Percentile £26.53 £20.00 £40.63
25th Percentile £33.00 £20.72 £61.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £35.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +19.83% -46.95% +103.02%
75th Percentile £71.06 £41.50 £76.25
90th Percentile £85.30 £57.50 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.33 £35.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year +29.51% -46.95% +60.81%

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 3,871 4,052 5,885
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.47% 12.87% 13.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,546 2,354 3,612
10th Percentile £204 £213 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.91%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £469 £475
% change year-on-year -4.00% -1.32% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 161 140 348
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.72
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £23.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £56.45
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -37.99% +156.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £70.00 £74.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £57.99
% change year-on-year +29.05% -43.96% +205.21%

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 19 January 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 19 January 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 19 January 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 -26 1,004 £508 -3.33% 478
UK excluding London -21 657 £488 -1.52% 450
London -36 385 £534 -2.95% 117
Work from Home -5 377 £500 -5.66% 203
North of England -23 186 £492 +3.58% 95
South East +15 180 £500 - 172
Midlands -17 120 £445 -11.00% 48
West Midlands 0 112 £445 +1.71% 35
North West -25 102 £519 +9.16% 48
Yorkshire -14 80 £455 +7.06% 34
Scotland -11 57 £438 -12.50% 32
South West -33 52 £550 +10.00% 54
East of England -20 39 £475 -5.00% 49
Wales -18 16 £293 -19.86% 11
North East -15 7 £550 - 16
East Midlands -52 7 £440 -32.36% 13
Northern Ireland - 7 £500 - 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 44 (3.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 42 (3.52%) Confluence
3 28 (2.35%) SharePoint
4 13 (1.09%) Apache
5 12 (1.01%) nginx
6 9 (0.75%) OpenStack
7 7 (0.59%) IIS
8 6 (0.50%) SAS
8 6 (0.50%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.25%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.17%) CICS
10 2 (0.17%) JBoss
10 2 (0.17%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.17%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.084%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.084%) CMS
11 1 (0.084%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.084%) Exchange Server 2013
11 1 (0.084%) Mattermost
11 1 (0.084%) Traefik
Applications
1 34 (2.85%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (1.76%) MS Visio
3 19 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (1.42%) Microsoft Excel
5 9 (0.75%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 1 (0.084%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.084%) Finacle
3 1 (0.084%) ION MarketView
3 1 (0.084%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 412 (34.53%) Azure
2 339 (28.42%) AWS
3 147 (12.32%) GCP
4 115 (9.64%) Microsoft 365
5 83 (6.96%) Entra ID
6 75 (6.29%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 61 (5.11%) Amazon EC2
8 51 (4.27%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 51 (4.27%) GitHub
9 49 (4.11%) Amazon S3
10 42 (3.52%) Azure Sentinel
11 41 (3.44%) IaaS
12 39 (3.27%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (3.19%) Amazon ELB
14 36 (3.02%) Azure Monitor
15 33 (2.77%) PaaS
16 31 (2.60%) GitHub Actions
17 30 (2.51%) AWS CloudFormation
18 28 (2.35%) Serverless
19 26 (2.18%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 282 (23.64%) VPN
2 281 (23.55%) Network Security
3 245 (20.54%) WAN
4 228 (19.11%) DNS
5 165 (13.83%) LAN
6 143 (11.99%) BGP
7 142 (11.90%) TCP/IP
8 117 (9.81%) OSPF
9 111 (9.30%) VLAN
10 109 (9.14%) Wireless
11 105 (8.80%) SD-WAN
12 87 (7.29%) DHCP
13 84 (7.04%) Wi-Fi
14 78 (6.54%) SSL
15 72 (6.04%) MPLS
16 59 (4.95%) IPsec
17 50 (4.19%) Cisco ASA
17 50 (4.19%) HTTP
18 47 (3.94%) Cisco Nexus
19 46 (3.86%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.93%) SQL Server
2 33 (2.77%) Amazon RDS
3 29 (2.43%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.75%) Amazon Aurora
5 8 (0.67%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.67%) Oracle Database
6 7 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.42%) Data Lake
8 5 (0.42%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.34%) Redis
9 4 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.25%) Amazon QuickSight
10 3 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.25%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.25%) Oracle Exadata
11 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.17%) DB2
11 2 (0.17%) MySQL
11 2 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 93 (7.80%) Jenkins
2 81 (6.79%) Git
3 75 (6.29%) JIRA
4 63 (5.28%) GitLab
5 23 (1.93%) Sonatype Nexus
6 14 (1.17%) Burp Suite
6 14 (1.17%) Metasploit
6 14 (1.17%) Vagrant
7 13 (1.09%) Bitbucket
8 7 (0.59%) Jaeger
8 7 (0.59%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.34%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.17%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.17%) Chocolatey
10 2 (0.17%) MSI
10 2 (0.17%) Postman
11 1 (0.084%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.084%) Eclipse
11 1 (0.084%) Maven
11 1 (0.084%) Subversion
General
1 328 (27.49%) Social Skills
2 135 (11.32%) Analytical Skills
3 117 (9.81%) Public Sector
4 116 (9.72%) Finance
5 73 (6.12%) Documentation Skills
6 58 (4.86%) Banking
7 49 (4.11%) Telecoms
8 34 (2.85%) Legal
9 28 (2.35%) Manufacturing
9 28 (2.35%) Presentation Skills
10 15 (1.26%) Military
11 13 (1.09%) Local Government
12 12 (1.01%) Financial Institution
12 12 (1.01%) Retail
13 11 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 9 (0.75%) Law
15 7 (0.59%) Electronics
15 7 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (0.59%) Spanish Language
16 6 (0.50%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 301 (25.23%) Network Engineer
2 188 (15.76%) Architect
3 121 (10.14%) Senior
4 107 (8.97%) Security Engineer
5 85 (7.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 63 (5.28%) Network Architect
7 59 (4.95%) Security Architect
8 57 (4.78%) DevOps Engineer
9 51 (4.27%) Analyst
9 51 (4.27%) Platform Engineer
10 49 (4.11%) Consultant
10 49 (4.11%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 42 (3.52%) Solutions Architect
12 41 (3.44%) Azure Engineer
13 37 (3.10%) Lead
13 37 (3.10%) Network Security Engineer
14 32 (2.68%) Cloud Engineer
15 31 (2.60%) Senior Network Engineer
15 31 (2.60%) Support Engineer
16 27 (2.26%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (3.35%) 802.1X
2 32 (2.68%) LDAP
3 31 (2.60%) SAML
4 25 (2.10%) Middleware
5 21 (1.76%) OpenID
6 17 (1.42%) OAuth
7 16 (1.34%) Node.js
7 16 (1.34%) OAuth2
8 15 (1.26%) JSON
9 13 (1.09%) Kafka
9 13 (1.09%) REST
10 11 (0.92%) ARM Templates
11 10 (0.84%) Elastic Stack
11 10 (0.84%) XML
12 8 (0.67%) RFC 2544
12 8 (0.67%) Spring Boot
13 7 (0.59%) Microsoft Graph
13 7 (0.59%) OpenTelemetry
13 7 (0.59%) YAML
14 5 (0.42%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 218 (18.27%) Data Centre
2 84 (7.04%) Security Posture
3 58 (4.86%) PKI
4 47 (3.94%) Onboarding
5 46 (3.86%) Hybrid Cloud
6 44 (3.69%) Cloud Native
7 43 (3.60%) Operational Technology
8 38 (3.19%) Replication
9 29 (2.43%) Public Cloud
10 27 (2.26%) Management Information System
11 25 (2.10%) Cyber Threat
12 24 (2.01%) Security Operations Centre
13 21 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
14 19 (1.59%) Private Cloud
14 19 (1.59%) SCADA
15 15 (1.26%) NHS
16 14 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
16 14 (1.17%) Fat Client
16 14 (1.17%) Thin Client
17 13 (1.09%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 303 (25.40%) Windows
2 211 (17.69%) Linux
3 118 (9.89%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.10%) VMS
5 31 (2.60%) Unix
6 28 (2.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 17 (1.42%) Amazon Linux
8 16 (1.34%) Ubuntu
9 13 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
10 12 (1.01%) Windows 10
11 11 (0.92%) Windows 7
12 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
13 5 (0.42%) CentOS
13 5 (0.42%) Mac OS
13 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.34%) Android
14 4 (0.34%) CatOS
14 4 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
15 3 (0.25%) Apple iOS
15 3 (0.25%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (20.20%) Cybersecurity
2 204 (17.10%) DevOps
3 188 (15.76%) CI/CD
4 183 (15.34%) Problem-Solving
5 174 (14.59%) Infrastructure as Code
6 145 (12.15%) SIEM
7 141 (11.82%) Cloud Security
7 141 (11.82%) Incident Response
8 133 (11.15%) Migration
9 132 (11.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 127 (10.65%) Agile
11 112 (9.39%) High Availability
11 112 (9.39%) ITIL
12 106 (8.89%) Load Balancing
13 99 (8.30%) Stakeholder Management
14 95 (7.96%) Change Management
15 91 (7.63%) Mentoring
15 91 (7.63%) Zero Trust
16 81 (6.79%) DevSecOps
17 80 (6.71%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 236 (19.78%) Python
2 190 (15.93%) PowerShell
3 108 (9.05%) Bash
4 67 (5.62%) SQL
5 44 (3.69%) Java
6 37 (3.10%) Perl
7 20 (1.68%) Bicep
8 14 (1.17%) Groovy
9 13 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (1.01%) Ruby
11 8 (0.67%) Rust
11 8 (0.67%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.50%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.34%) C#
13 4 (0.34%) Go
13 4 (0.34%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.17%) C++
15 1 (0.084%) C
15 1 (0.084%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 414 (34.70%) Security Cleared
2 287 (24.06%) SC Cleared
3 216 (18.11%) Cisco Certification
4 176 (14.75%) CCNP
5 111 (9.30%) Degree
6 98 (8.21%) DV Cleared
7 90 (7.54%) CISSP
8 86 (7.21%) CCNA
9 60 (5.03%) Azure Certification
10 53 (4.44%) CISM
11 49 (4.11%) AWS Certification
12 46 (3.86%) CCIE
13 42 (3.52%) Microsoft Certification
14 26 (2.18%) CompTIA Security+
15 20 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
16 18 (1.51%) CEH
16 18 (1.51%) JNCIP
17 16 (1.34%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 16 (1.34%) CREST Certified
17 16 (1.34%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (9.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 96 (8.05%) NIST
3 66 (5.53%) GDPR
4 43 (3.60%) PCI DSS
5 27 (2.26%) SLA
6 24 (2.01%) NCSC
7 22 (1.84%) Cyber Essentials
8 18 (1.51%) QA
9 14 (1.17%) PMO
10 12 (1.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 10 (0.84%) GRC
12 7 (0.59%) HIPAA
13 6 (0.50%) COBIT
13 6 (0.50%) JSP 440
14 5 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
14 5 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 5 (0.42%) PSD2
14 5 (0.42%) SOC 2
15 4 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 4 (0.34%) NIST 800
System Software
1 212 (17.77%) Active Directory
2 152 (12.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 138 (11.57%) Docker
4 46 (3.86%) VMware NSX
5 44 (3.69%) Hyper-V
6 33 (2.77%) Virtual Machines
7 27 (2.26%) vSphere
8 19 (1.59%) VMware ESXi
9 17 (1.42%) DFS Replication
10 15 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
11 14 (1.17%) Squid
12 9 (0.75%) Dovecot
12 9 (0.75%) Firmware
12 9 (0.75%) Postfix
13 8 (0.67%) KVM
13 8 (0.67%) Virtual Servers
14 6 (0.50%) Snort
15 5 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
15 5 (0.42%) NDS
15 5 (0.42%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 204 (17.10%) Terraform
2 162 (13.58%) Ansible
3 110 (9.22%) Kubernetes
4 66 (5.53%) FortiGate
5 56 (4.69%) Microsoft Intune
6 37 (3.10%) Grafana
7 36 (3.02%) Single Sign-On
8 34 (2.85%) Prometheus
9 33 (2.77%) SCCM
10 25 (2.10%) vCenter Server
11 22 (1.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (1.51%) Nessus
13 17 (1.42%) Nmap
14 16 (1.34%) CSIRT
15 14 (1.17%) Nagios
16 13 (1.09%) Fluentd
17 12 (1.01%) QRadar
17 12 (1.01%) WMI
18 10 (0.84%) CASB
18 10 (0.84%) SCOM
Vendors
1 387 (32.44%) Cisco
2 273 (22.88%) Microsoft
3 260 (21.79%) Palo Alto
4 185 (15.51%) VMware
5 150 (12.57%) F5
6 136 (11.40%) CheckPoint
7 115 (9.64%) Fortinet
8 97 (8.13%) Juniper
9 91 (7.63%) Splunk
10 70 (5.87%) Aruba
11 63 (5.28%) Meraki
12 58 (4.86%) Oracle
13 57 (4.78%) SolarWinds
14 55 (4.61%) Google
15 51 (4.27%) Zscaler
16 50 (4.19%) ServiceNow
17 39 (3.27%) Citrix
18 24 (2.01%) Dell
19 21 (1.76%) Red Hat
20 20 (1.68%) Tenable