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 23 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 48 50
Rank change year-on-year -35 +2 +8
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,325 1,259 1,642
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.03% 4.26% 3.71%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.07% 32.29% 27.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 878 754 1,019
10th Percentile £335 £319 £312
25th Percentile £413 £411 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £650 £699 £746
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £495
% change year-on-year +2.56% -1.52% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 19 43
10th Percentile £20.63 £14.20 £16.00
25th Percentile £37.25 £22.38 £23.92
Median hourly rate £45.71 £36.65 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.74% -43.62% +17.49%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £85.50 £50.75 £87.52
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.36 £35.82 £76.53
% change year-on-year +46.17% -53.19% +38.34%

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 4,406 3,899 5,891
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.07% 13.19% 13.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,841 2,393 3,546
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £375 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.20% +3.16% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 145 396
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £13.93
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.46 £17.72
Median hourly rate £36.00 £35.00 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% +12.00% +64.47%
75th Percentile £66.63 £63.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £41.23
% change year-on-year +29.05% -21.17% +120.95%

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 23 March 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 23 March 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 23 March 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 -33 1,114 £515 - 520
UK excluding London -24 747 £500 +2.56% 448
London -50 408 £525 - 134
Work from Home -26 375 £513 +2.50% 202
North of England -19 234 £508 +6.84% 97
South East +5 228 £500 +2.30% 157
North West -9 155 £528 +11.16% 56
Midlands -44 95 £425 -22.73% 69
West Midlands -24 85 £425 -15.00% 38
Yorkshire -29 77 £433 -21.36% 29
South West -45 57 £550 +0.92% 44
East of England -18 54 £475 -12.04% 59
Scotland -6 52 £425 -2.86% 21
Wales -15 26 £425 +11.48% 14
East Midlands -58 7 £475 -19.83% 31
North East -18 5 £548 +9.50% 12
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 4

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 (3.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (2.49%) Confluence
3 20 (1.51%) SharePoint
4 13 (0.98%) Apache
4 13 (0.98%) nginx
5 8 (0.60%) CICS
5 8 (0.60%) SAS
6 6 (0.45%) IIS
7 4 (0.30%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
8 2 (0.15%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.15%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.075%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.075%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.075%) JBoss
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 1 (0.075%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.075%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 36 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (1.51%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.075%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.075%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.075%) Primavera
2 1 (0.075%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.075%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 453 (34.19%) Azure
2 301 (22.72%) AWS
3 130 (9.81%) GCP
4 123 (9.28%) Microsoft 365
5 113 (8.53%) Entra ID
6 67 (5.06%) GitHub
7 65 (4.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 58 (4.38%) IaaS
9 52 (3.92%) PaaS
10 51 (3.85%) Azure DevOps
11 47 (3.55%) Azure Sentinel
12 44 (3.32%) Serverless
13 43 (3.25%) Azure Monitor
14 38 (2.87%) GitHub Actions
15 36 (2.72%) Amazon EC2
15 36 (2.72%) AWS Lambda
16 35 (2.64%) AWS CloudFormation
17 34 (2.57%) SaaS
18 33 (2.49%) Azure ExpressRoute
19 32 (2.42%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 361 (27.25%) Network Security
2 333 (25.13%) VPN
3 330 (24.91%) WAN
4 266 (20.08%) DNS
5 243 (18.34%) LAN
6 214 (16.15%) BGP
7 189 (14.26%) OSPF
8 144 (10.87%) TCP/IP
9 143 (10.79%) VLAN
10 135 (10.19%) DHCP
11 130 (9.81%) SD-WAN
12 121 (9.13%) Wireless
13 99 (7.47%) Wi-Fi
14 97 (7.32%) MPLS
15 74 (5.58%) IPsec
16 69 (5.21%) Cisco ISE
17 65 (4.91%) Cisco ASA
18 63 (4.75%) VXLAN
19 56 (4.23%) SSL
20 53 (4.00%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.04%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.51%) Amazon RDS
3 19 (1.43%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (1.28%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (0.91%) Oracle Database
6 10 (0.75%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (0.68%) Power BI
8 8 (0.60%) DataStage
9 7 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.53%) MongoDB
10 5 (0.38%) MySQL
10 5 (0.38%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
11 4 (0.30%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.30%) Redis
11 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.23%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 78 (5.89%) JIRA
2 63 (4.75%) Jenkins
3 53 (4.00%) GitLab
4 50 (3.77%) Git
5 23 (1.74%) Sonatype Nexus
6 21 (1.58%) Bitbucket
7 16 (1.21%) Burp Suite
7 16 (1.21%) Metasploit
8 8 (0.60%) Chocolatey
8 8 (0.60%) Jaeger
9 7 (0.53%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.30%) Artifactory
10 4 (0.30%) CircleCI
11 3 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.075%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.075%) Introscope
12 1 (0.075%) MSI
12 1 (0.075%) Postman
12 1 (0.075%) Subversion
12 1 (0.075%) Travis CI
General
1 352 (26.57%) Social Skills
2 163 (12.30%) Finance
3 131 (9.89%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (8.08%) Public Sector
5 95 (7.17%) Documentation Skills
6 55 (4.15%) Banking
7 40 (3.02%) Telecoms
8 33 (2.49%) Legal
9 26 (1.96%) Financial Institution
10 24 (1.81%) Manufacturing
11 18 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
12 17 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 12 (0.91%) Military
14 11 (0.83%) Law
15 10 (0.75%) Local Government
15 10 (0.75%) Retail
16 8 (0.60%) Aerospace
16 8 (0.60%) Front Office
16 8 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 370 (27.92%) Network Engineer
2 235 (17.74%) Architect
3 135 (10.19%) Senior
4 113 (8.53%) Security Engineer
5 87 (6.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 83 (6.26%) Network Architect
7 53 (4.00%) Azure Engineer
8 52 (3.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 50 (3.77%) Security Architect
10 46 (3.47%) Analyst
11 45 (3.40%) Senior Network Engineer
12 44 (3.32%) Cloud Engineer
12 44 (3.32%) Solutions Architect
13 40 (3.02%) Consultant
14 39 (2.94%) Platform Engineer
15 37 (2.79%) DevOps Engineer
15 37 (2.79%) Lead
16 36 (2.72%) Network Security Engineer
17 33 (2.49%) Cisco Engineer
17 33 (2.49%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (5.36%) 802.1X
2 38 (2.87%) LDAP
3 30 (2.26%) Middleware
3 30 (2.26%) SAML
4 29 (2.19%) OpenID
5 19 (1.43%) Kafka
5 19 (1.43%) OAuth
6 18 (1.36%) OAuth2
7 14 (1.06%) Node.js
8 12 (0.91%) REST
9 11 (0.83%) JSON
10 10 (0.75%) ARM Templates
10 10 (0.75%) OpenTelemetry
11 9 (0.68%) Spring Boot
12 8 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
12 8 (0.60%) XML
13 7 (0.53%) YAML
14 6 (0.45%) LangChain
14 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
14 6 (0.45%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 278 (20.98%) Data Centre
2 85 (6.42%) Security Posture
3 75 (5.66%) Cloud Native
3 75 (5.66%) PKI
4 49 (3.70%) Onboarding
5 45 (3.40%) Hybrid Cloud
6 41 (3.09%) Operational Technology
7 36 (2.72%) Management Information System
7 36 (2.72%) Public Cloud
8 31 (2.34%) Clustering
9 22 (1.66%) IoT
10 21 (1.58%) Cyber Threat
10 21 (1.58%) Product Ownership
11 20 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (1.51%) SCADA
12 19 (1.43%) NHS
12 19 (1.43%) Replication
12 19 (1.43%) Security Operations Centre
13 18 (1.36%) Private Cloud
14 15 (1.13%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 337 (25.43%) Windows
2 203 (15.32%) Linux
3 141 (10.64%) Windows Server
4 35 (2.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 31 (2.34%) Unix
6 24 (1.81%) VMS
7 12 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
8 10 (0.75%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (0.68%) Solaris
9 9 (0.68%) Windows 7
10 8 (0.60%) AIX
10 8 (0.60%) Windows 10
11 6 (0.45%) Windows Server 2003
12 5 (0.38%) Mac OS
13 4 (0.30%) CatOS
13 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.23%) Amazon Linux
14 3 (0.23%) Android
15 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
16 1 (0.075%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 227 (17.13%) Cybersecurity
2 212 (16.00%) DevOps
3 208 (15.70%) Problem-Solving
4 186 (14.04%) CI/CD
5 184 (13.89%) Infrastructure as Code
6 156 (11.77%) Load Balancing
7 155 (11.70%) ITIL
8 149 (11.25%) Migration
9 141 (10.64%) High Availability
10 133 (10.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 131 (9.89%) Agile
12 127 (9.58%) SIEM
13 125 (9.43%) Cloud Security
14 116 (8.75%) Zero Trust
15 113 (8.53%) Change Management
16 102 (7.70%) Incident Response
17 95 (7.17%) Stakeholder Management
18 92 (6.94%) Mentoring
19 89 (6.72%) Project Delivery
20 88 (6.64%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 207 (15.62%) Python
2 194 (14.64%) PowerShell
3 93 (7.02%) Bash
4 60 (4.53%) SQL
5 38 (2.87%) Bicep
6 36 (2.72%) Java
7 28 (2.11%) Perl
8 12 (0.91%) Kusto Query Language
8 12 (0.91%) Ruby
9 8 (0.60%) COBOL
9 8 (0.60%) JavaScript
9 8 (0.60%) Rust
10 5 (0.38%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.30%) C#
11 4 (0.30%) Go
11 4 (0.30%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) C++
12 2 (0.15%) PHP
13 1 (0.075%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.075%) Jython
Qualifications
1 465 (35.09%) Security Cleared
2 317 (23.92%) SC Cleared
3 252 (19.02%) Cisco Certification
4 201 (15.17%) CCNP
5 127 (9.58%) DV Cleared
6 118 (8.91%) Degree
7 106 (8.00%) CCNA
8 85 (6.42%) CISSP
9 55 (4.15%) Azure Certification
10 51 (3.85%) CCIE
11 47 (3.55%) AWS Certification
12 46 (3.47%) CISM
13 42 (3.17%) Microsoft Certification
14 27 (2.04%) CompTIA Security+
14 27 (2.04%) JNCIS
15 26 (1.96%) JNCIP
16 22 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
17 20 (1.51%) JNCIA
18 18 (1.36%) CREST Certified
18 18 (1.36%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 105 (7.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 79 (5.96%) NIST
3 67 (5.06%) GDPR
4 43 (3.25%) PCI DSS
5 36 (2.72%) NCSC
6 30 (2.26%) SLA
7 27 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials
8 20 (1.51%) QA
9 16 (1.21%) PMO
10 8 (0.60%) JSP 440
11 7 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
12 6 (0.45%) GRC
12 6 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 5 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 5 (0.38%) RMADS
13 5 (0.38%) SOC 2
14 4 (0.30%) Data Quality
14 4 (0.30%) GxP
14 4 (0.30%) HIPAA
14 4 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 243 (18.34%) Active Directory
2 171 (12.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 91 (6.87%) Docker
4 68 (5.13%) VMware NSX
5 40 (3.02%) Hyper-V
6 37 (2.79%) vSphere
7 25 (1.89%) Virtual Machines
8 23 (1.74%) VMware ESXi
9 18 (1.36%) Virtual Desktop
10 16 (1.21%) Firmware
11 11 (0.83%) Squid
12 9 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
13 8 (0.60%) BitLocker
14 7 (0.53%) Microsoft App-V
15 3 (0.23%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
16 2 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 2 (0.15%) KVM
16 2 (0.15%) NetIQ eDirectory
16 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 214 (16.15%) Terraform
2 152 (11.47%) Ansible
3 122 (9.21%) Kubernetes
4 94 (7.09%) FortiGate
5 66 (4.98%) Microsoft Intune
6 45 (3.40%) Single Sign-On
7 44 (3.32%) Grafana
8 37 (2.79%) Prometheus
9 36 (2.72%) SCCM
10 29 (2.19%) vCenter Server
11 25 (1.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (1.36%) Nmap
13 16 (1.21%) QRadar
14 15 (1.13%) CASB
15 13 (0.98%) Nagios
16 10 (0.75%) Fluentd
16 10 (0.75%) Nessus
17 9 (0.68%) Cisco Prime
17 9 (0.68%) Puppet
17 9 (0.68%) WMI
Vendors
1 444 (33.51%) Cisco
2 308 (23.25%) Microsoft
3 274 (20.68%) Palo Alto
4 218 (16.45%) VMware
5 148 (11.17%) Fortinet
6 147 (11.09%) F5
7 140 (10.57%) Juniper
8 127 (9.58%) CheckPoint
9 91 (6.87%) Splunk
10 88 (6.64%) Aruba
11 68 (5.13%) SolarWinds
12 64 (4.83%) Google
13 59 (4.45%) Meraki
14 54 (4.08%) ServiceNow
15 47 (3.55%) Citrix
16 45 (3.40%) Zscaler
17 42 (3.17%) Red Hat
18 41 (3.09%) Oracle
19 35 (2.64%) Arista
20 24 (1.81%) Tenable