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 25 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 52 54
Rank change year-on-year -34 +2 0
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,336 1,201 1,516
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.76% 4.17% 3.56%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.70% 32.98% 28.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 872 716 957
10th Percentile £338 £322 £299
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £508
Median % change year-on-year - -1.48% -3.33%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £492 £500
% change year-on-year +1.63% -1.60% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 18 44
10th Percentile £17.33 - £16.00
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £23.92
Median hourly rate £48.72 £22.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +121.45% -63.33% -3.23%
75th Percentile £63.00 £41.25 £85.99
90th Percentile £76.98 £53.63 £87.51
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £22.00 £83.63
% change year-on-year +121.45% -73.69% +34.89%

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 4,655 3,642 5,398
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.61% 12.65% 12.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,864 2,256 3,233
10th Percentile £263 £213 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -0.51% -4.39%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 156 414
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £29.04 £38.41 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.39% -3.98% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.66 £28.00 £46.14
% change year-on-year +30.93% -39.31% +156.31%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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 25 May 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 -38 1,118 £500 -2.20% 474
UK excluding London -22 761 £500 +1.63% 446
London -66 403 £513 -2.38% 118
Work from Home -28 390 £520 +4.00% 209
South East -4 237 £500 - 154
North of England -14 236 £515 +8.42% 116
North West -8 153 £540 +13.68% 72
Midlands -55 79 £420 -23.64% 64
Yorkshire -38 68 £424 -12.63% 31
West Midlands -48 67 £413 -21.43% 39
East of England -10 66 £503 -4.19% 27
Scotland +19 59 £450 +2.86% 28
South West -42 59 £525 +5.00% 46
Wales -16 27 £425 +21.43% 15
North East -10 17 £625 +25.00% 15
East Midlands -43 8 £488 -12.16% 25
Northern Ireland -2 2 £385 - 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 33 (2.47%) Confluence
1 33 (2.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (1.35%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.05%) nginx
4 10 (0.75%) CICS
5 9 (0.67%) Apache
6 6 (0.45%) SAS
7 4 (0.30%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.22%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.15%) CloudStack
9 2 (0.15%) CMS
9 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.15%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.075%) MTS
Applications
1 30 (2.25%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (1.80%) MS Visio
3 22 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
4 17 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.075%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.075%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.075%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.075%) Primavera
1 1 (0.075%) SAP S/4HANA
1 1 (0.075%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 1 (0.075%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 438 (32.78%) Azure
2 276 (20.66%) AWS
3 110 (8.23%) GCP
4 107 (8.01%) Entra ID
5 102 (7.63%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (4.94%) GitHub
7 57 (4.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 55 (4.12%) IaaS
9 50 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
10 42 (3.14%) PaaS
11 37 (2.77%) SaaS
12 36 (2.69%) Azure Sentinel
13 35 (2.62%) GitHub Actions
14 34 (2.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 33 (2.47%) Azure Monitor
16 29 (2.17%) OCI
17 27 (2.02%) Serverless
18 26 (1.95%) Amazon EC2
18 26 (1.95%) Amazon EKS
19 22 (1.65%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 367 (27.47%) Network Security
2 365 (27.32%) WAN
3 339 (25.37%) VPN
4 278 (20.81%) LAN
5 275 (20.58%) DNS
6 235 (17.59%) BGP
7 214 (16.02%) OSPF
8 168 (12.57%) VLAN
9 143 (10.70%) SD-WAN
10 142 (10.63%) TCP/IP
11 141 (10.55%) DHCP
12 137 (10.25%) Wireless
13 106 (7.93%) Wi-Fi
14 92 (6.89%) IPsec
15 90 (6.74%) VXLAN
16 89 (6.66%) BIG-IP
17 88 (6.59%) MPLS
18 78 (5.84%) Ethernet VPN
19 70 (5.24%) Cisco ISE
20 69 (5.16%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.95%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.35%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (0.97%) Power BI
5 10 (0.75%) DataStage
5 10 (0.75%) Oracle Database
6 7 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.52%) Data Lake
6 7 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (0.52%) MongoDB
7 6 (0.45%) MySQL
7 6 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (0.30%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
9 4 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (0.30%) Metadata
9 4 (0.30%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 84 (6.29%) JIRA
2 55 (4.12%) Jenkins
3 44 (3.29%) Git
3 44 (3.29%) GitLab
4 17 (1.27%) Burp Suite
5 16 (1.20%) Metasploit
6 15 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
7 9 (0.67%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.67%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.67%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.67%) Jaeger
8 8 (0.60%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
10 4 (0.30%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.15%) Introscope
11 2 (0.15%) Postman
11 2 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.075%) LoadRunner
12 1 (0.075%) MSI
12 1 (0.075%) PVCS
General
1 306 (22.90%) Social Skills
2 158 (11.83%) Finance
3 120 (8.98%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (8.31%) Public Sector
5 88 (6.59%) Documentation Skills
6 54 (4.04%) Banking
7 40 (2.99%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.17%) Legal
9 25 (1.87%) Manufacturing
10 24 (1.80%) Financial Institution
11 21 (1.57%) Military
12 17 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.12%) Law
14 14 (1.05%) Retail
15 10 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
17 8 (0.60%) Front Office
17 8 (0.60%) Investment Banking
17 8 (0.60%) Local Government
17 8 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 416 (31.14%) Network Engineer
2 207 (15.49%) Architect
3 162 (12.13%) Senior
4 108 (8.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 103 (7.71%) Security Engineer
6 72 (5.39%) Network Architect
7 68 (5.09%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 66 (4.94%) Senior Network Engineer
9 56 (4.19%) Azure Engineer
10 54 (4.04%) Cloud Engineer
11 44 (3.29%) Network Security Engineer
11 44 (3.29%) Technical Architect
12 43 (3.22%) Cisco Engineer
13 42 (3.14%) Lead
14 39 (2.92%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 37 (2.77%) DevOps Engineer
15 37 (2.77%) Security Architect
16 34 (2.54%) Analyst
16 34 (2.54%) Consultant
17 31 (2.32%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (5.31%) 802.1X
2 40 (2.99%) Middleware
3 39 (2.92%) LDAP
4 28 (2.10%) SAML
5 23 (1.72%) OpenID
6 18 (1.35%) Kafka
7 12 (0.90%) OAuth
8 11 (0.82%) OAuth2
8 11 (0.82%) OpenTelemetry
9 10 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
9 10 (0.75%) REST
9 10 (0.75%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.52%) YAML
11 6 (0.45%) .NET
11 6 (0.45%) ARM Templates
11 6 (0.45%) HTML
11 6 (0.45%) JSON
11 6 (0.45%) LangChain
11 6 (0.45%) PyTorch
11 6 (0.45%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 329 (24.63%) Data Centre
2 74 (5.54%) Security Posture
3 68 (5.09%) Cloud Native
4 59 (4.42%) PKI
5 58 (4.34%) Hybrid Cloud
6 48 (3.59%) Onboarding
7 39 (2.92%) Clustering
8 38 (2.84%) Management Information System
8 38 (2.84%) Operational Technology
9 33 (2.47%) Public Cloud
10 26 (1.95%) IoT
11 25 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
12 23 (1.72%) Cyber Threat
13 21 (1.57%) Enterprise Storage
14 19 (1.42%) SCADA
15 17 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
16 16 (1.20%) Driving Licence
16 16 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
17 15 (1.12%) BYOD
18 14 (1.05%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 303 (22.68%) Windows
2 175 (13.10%) Linux
3 117 (8.76%) Windows Server
4 30 (2.25%) Unix
5 29 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 26 (1.95%) VMS
7 11 (0.82%) Solaris
8 10 (0.75%) AIX
8 10 (0.75%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (0.67%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (0.60%) Windows Server 2003
11 6 (0.45%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.45%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.45%) Windows 10
12 5 (0.37%) CatOS
12 5 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.30%) SUSE
14 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
14 3 (0.22%) Android
14 3 (0.22%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 218 (16.32%) DevOps
2 190 (14.22%) CI/CD
3 186 (13.92%) Cybersecurity
4 181 (13.55%) Load Balancing
5 180 (13.47%) Infrastructure as Code
6 167 (12.50%) High Availability
6 167 (12.50%) Migration
7 166 (12.43%) Problem-Solving
8 150 (11.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 150 (11.23%) ITIL
9 139 (10.40%) Zero Trust
10 131 (9.81%) Agile
11 104 (7.78%) SIEM
12 102 (7.63%) Cloud Security
13 99 (7.41%) Project Delivery
14 97 (7.26%) Change Management
15 92 (6.89%) Network Segmentation
15 92 (6.89%) Observability
16 89 (6.66%) Technical Leadership
17 88 (6.59%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 187 (14.00%) Python
2 135 (10.10%) PowerShell
3 74 (5.54%) Bash
4 54 (4.04%) SQL
5 41 (3.07%) Bicep
6 31 (2.32%) Java
7 10 (0.75%) COBOL
8 9 (0.67%) JavaScript
8 9 (0.67%) Perl
9 8 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.60%) Rust
10 6 (0.45%) PL/SQL
11 5 (0.37%) ActionScript
11 5 (0.37%) Go
11 5 (0.37%) Groovy
11 5 (0.37%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.22%) C++
13 2 (0.15%) Jython
13 2 (0.15%) PHP
14 1 (0.075%) C
Qualifications
1 486 (36.38%) Security Cleared
2 367 (27.47%) SC Cleared
3 279 (20.88%) Cisco Certification
4 212 (15.87%) CCNP
5 113 (8.46%) CCNA
6 108 (8.08%) Degree
7 104 (7.78%) DV Cleared
8 59 (4.42%) Azure Certification
8 59 (4.42%) CISSP
9 38 (2.84%) CCIE
10 35 (2.62%) AWS Certification
11 33 (2.47%) CISM
12 31 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
13 23 (1.72%) JNCIS
14 22 (1.65%) Network+ Certification
15 20 (1.50%) CompTIA Security+
15 20 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
16 19 (1.42%) JNCIA
17 17 (1.27%) CREST Certified
18 16 (1.20%) CHECK Team Member
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (5.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (3.89%) GDPR
2 52 (3.89%) NIST
3 37 (2.77%) PCI DSS
4 31 (2.32%) SLA
5 30 (2.25%) NCSC
6 28 (2.10%) QA
7 20 (1.50%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (1.20%) PMO
9 7 (0.52%) Data Quality
9 7 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
10 6 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.45%) GRC
10 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.45%) RMADS
11 5 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.37%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.30%) GxP
12 4 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 206 (15.42%) Active Directory
2 155 (11.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 61 (4.57%) VMware NSX
4 54 (4.04%) Docker
5 39 (2.92%) Hyper-V
6 38 (2.84%) vSphere
7 33 (2.47%) Virtual Machines
8 28 (2.10%) VMware ESXi
9 22 (1.65%) Firmware
10 20 (1.50%) Virtual Desktop
11 16 (1.20%) Squid
12 11 (0.82%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.60%) Microsoft App-V
14 3 (0.22%) DFS Replication
14 3 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
15 2 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 2 (0.15%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 2 (0.15%) KVM
15 2 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
15 2 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 214 (16.02%) Terraform
2 164 (12.28%) Ansible
3 103 (7.71%) FortiGate
4 101 (7.56%) Kubernetes
5 62 (4.64%) Grafana
6 52 (3.89%) Microsoft Intune
6 52 (3.89%) Prometheus
7 34 (2.54%) Single Sign-On
8 28 (2.10%) SCCM
9 24 (1.80%) vCenter Server
10 18 (1.35%) Nmap
11 15 (1.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 13 (0.97%) CASB
12 13 (0.97%) Nagios
12 13 (0.97%) Puppet
13 12 (0.90%) Cisco Prime
13 12 (0.90%) QRadar
14 11 (0.82%) VxRail
15 10 (0.75%) Consul
15 10 (0.75%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 491 (36.75%) Cisco
2 305 (22.83%) Palo Alto
3 259 (19.39%) Microsoft
4 200 (14.97%) VMware
5 184 (13.77%) F5
6 180 (13.47%) Fortinet
7 146 (10.93%) Juniper
8 135 (10.10%) CheckPoint
9 94 (7.04%) Aruba
10 81 (6.06%) Splunk
11 69 (5.16%) ServiceNow
12 67 (5.01%) SolarWinds
13 63 (4.72%) Arista
14 51 (3.82%) Google
15 44 (3.29%) Zscaler
16 41 (3.07%) Meraki
17 35 (2.62%) Citrix
18 33 (2.47%) Red Hat
19 28 (2.10%) Oracle
20 27 (2.02%) Extreme Networks