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 2 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 52 52
Rank change year-on-year -37 0 -4
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,392 1,337 1,539
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.70% 4.32% 3.55%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.41% 35.14% 28.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 892 789 963
10th Percentile £350 £325 £275
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £643 £692 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £484 £500
% change year-on-year +3.36% -3.25% +2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 22 47
10th Percentile £24.84 £14.20 £16.98
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.43 £23.86
Median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +86.67% -50.00% -4.08%
75th Percentile £70.23 £32.33 £85.65
90th Percentile £78.55 £44.83 £87.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.00 £30.00 £82.38
% change year-on-year +86.67% -63.58% +31.71%

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 4,900 3,805 5,424
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.52% 12.29% 12.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,984 2,324 3,203
10th Percentile £250 £230 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -1.38%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £474 £490
% change year-on-year +1.95% -3.22% +3.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 179 430
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £19.34 £23.37 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £45.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.24% - +114.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.38 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £80.20 £73.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £36.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -28.16% -23.16% +115.91%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 -45 1,186 £500 - 545
UK excluding London -35 792 £500 +3.36% 476
London -60 445 £500 -3.85% 155
Work from Home -33 391 £520 +4.00% 212
North of England -14 288 £500 +5.26% 91
South East -33 209 £500 - 169
North West -4 186 £528 +11.75% 48
Yorkshire -33 86 £450 -8.07% 36
Midlands -54 80 £438 -9.51% 70
East of England -9 69 £525 +0.48% 49
Scotland +16 66 £450 +4.35% 24
West Midlands -56 65 £425 -19.05% 45
South West -48 61 £525 +5.00% 61
Wales -15 25 £425 +30.77% 9
North East -10 22 £625 +25.00% 10
East Midlands -32 12 £500 +11.11% 25
Northern Ireland -6 2 £385 - 19

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 36 (2.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (2.30%) Confluence
3 22 (1.58%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.01%) nginx
5 10 (0.72%) Apache
5 10 (0.72%) CICS
6 6 (0.43%) SAS
7 4 (0.29%) IIS
7 4 (0.29%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.22%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.22%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
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 (0.072%) MTS
Applications
1 26 (1.87%) MS Visio
2 20 (1.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (1.36%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.072%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.072%) Bloomberg TOMS
1 1 (0.072%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.072%) Eikon
1 1 (0.072%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.072%) Primavera
1 1 (0.072%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.072%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 473 (33.98%) Azure
2 308 (22.13%) AWS
3 130 (9.34%) Entra ID
4 117 (8.41%) GCP
5 107 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
6 69 (4.96%) GitHub
7 64 (4.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 62 (4.45%) IaaS
9 52 (3.74%) SaaS
10 51 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
11 43 (3.09%) PaaS
12 40 (2.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 40 (2.87%) Azure Monitor
13 36 (2.59%) OCI
14 35 (2.51%) Azure Sentinel
14 35 (2.51%) Serverless
15 31 (2.23%) GitHub Actions
16 29 (2.08%) Amazon EC2
16 29 (2.08%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 27 (1.94%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 395 (28.38%) WAN
2 394 (28.30%) Network Security
3 379 (27.23%) VPN
4 314 (22.56%) DNS
5 289 (20.76%) LAN
6 259 (18.61%) BGP
7 216 (15.52%) OSPF
8 176 (12.64%) VLAN
9 167 (12.00%) TCP/IP
10 161 (11.57%) SD-WAN
11 160 (11.49%) DHCP
12 156 (11.21%) Wireless
13 114 (8.19%) Wi-Fi
14 102 (7.33%) BIG-IP
15 94 (6.75%) MPLS
16 91 (6.54%) VXLAN
17 87 (6.25%) IPsec
18 83 (5.96%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 78 (5.60%) SSL
20 74 (5.32%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.44%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.22%) Elasticsearch
3 16 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (1.15%) Power BI
4 11 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
4 11 (0.79%) Data Lake
5 10 (0.72%) DataStage
6 9 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (0.57%) MySQL
8 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.36%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
10 4 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.22%) Big Data
11 3 (0.22%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 100 (7.18%) JIRA
2 54 (3.88%) Jenkins
3 41 (2.95%) GitLab
4 40 (2.87%) Git
5 16 (1.15%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (0.72%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.65%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.65%) Chocolatey
7 9 (0.65%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.50%) Burp Suite
9 5 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
9 5 (0.36%) Jaeger
9 5 (0.36%) Metasploit
10 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.14%) Gatling
10 2 (0.14%) Gradle
10 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.14%) MSI
10 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 305 (21.91%) Social Skills
2 180 (12.93%) Finance
3 118 (8.48%) Analytical Skills
4 109 (7.83%) Public Sector
5 78 (5.60%) Documentation Skills
6 63 (4.53%) Banking
7 41 (2.95%) Telecoms
8 35 (2.51%) Legal
9 21 (1.51%) Financial Institution
9 21 (1.51%) Manufacturing
10 19 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.29%) Military
12 13 (0.93%) Retail
13 12 (0.86%) Local Government
13 12 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
14 11 (0.79%) Law
15 10 (0.72%) Investment Banking
15 10 (0.72%) Police
16 9 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 448 (32.18%) Network Engineer
2 229 (16.45%) Architect
3 173 (12.43%) Senior
4 127 (9.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 117 (8.41%) Security Engineer
6 80 (5.75%) Network Architect
7 74 (5.32%) Senior Network Engineer
8 71 (5.10%) Cloud Engineer
9 56 (4.02%) Azure Engineer
10 55 (3.95%) Technical Architect
11 53 (3.81%) Network Security Engineer
12 52 (3.74%) Consultant
12 52 (3.74%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 45 (3.23%) Security Architect
14 43 (3.09%) Lead
15 41 (2.95%) DevOps Engineer
16 36 (2.59%) Cloud Architect
16 36 (2.59%) Solutions Architect
17 35 (2.51%) Cisco Engineer
18 34 (2.44%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (5.03%) 802.1X
2 43 (3.09%) Middleware
3 36 (2.59%) LDAP
4 28 (2.01%) SAML
5 23 (1.65%) OpenID
6 12 (0.86%) Kafka
6 12 (0.86%) OAuth
7 11 (0.79%) ARM Templates
7 11 (0.79%) OAuth2
8 9 (0.65%) LangChain
8 9 (0.65%) PyTorch
8 9 (0.65%) REST
8 9 (0.65%) scikit-learn
9 8 (0.57%) .NET
9 8 (0.57%) OpenTelemetry
10 7 (0.50%) SailPoint
10 7 (0.50%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.50%) YAML
11 6 (0.43%) Elastic Stack
11 6 (0.43%) React
Miscellaneous
1 338 (24.28%) Data Centre
2 93 (6.68%) Cloud Native
3 80 (5.75%) Security Posture
4 75 (5.39%) Hybrid Cloud
5 62 (4.45%) PKI
6 48 (3.45%) Management Information System
7 47 (3.38%) Onboarding
8 41 (2.95%) Clustering
9 38 (2.73%) Operational Technology
10 31 (2.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 29 (2.08%) Data Protection Act
12 27 (1.94%) Public Cloud
13 26 (1.87%) IoT
14 25 (1.80%) Enterprise Storage
15 21 (1.51%) Cyber Threat
16 19 (1.36%) SCADA
17 17 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
17 17 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
18 16 (1.15%) Linux Command Line
18 16 (1.15%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 308 (22.13%) Windows
2 178 (12.79%) Linux
3 111 (7.97%) Windows Server
4 43 (3.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 31 (2.23%) Unix
6 23 (1.65%) VMS
7 14 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
8 13 (0.93%) Ubuntu
9 11 (0.79%) Solaris
10 10 (0.72%) AIX
10 10 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.50%) CentOS
11 7 (0.50%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (0.36%) Mac OS
14 4 (0.29%) Android
14 4 (0.29%) SUSE
14 4 (0.29%) Windows 10
15 3 (0.22%) CatOS
15 3 (0.22%) Check Point GAiA
Processes & Methodologies
1 232 (16.67%) DevOps
2 207 (14.87%) CI/CD
3 204 (14.66%) Infrastructure as Code
4 196 (14.08%) Load Balancing
5 188 (13.51%) Migration
6 180 (12.93%) High Availability
7 172 (12.36%) Cybersecurity
8 169 (12.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 169 (12.14%) ITIL
9 167 (12.00%) Problem-Solving
10 153 (10.99%) Agile
11 152 (10.92%) Zero Trust
12 120 (8.62%) SIEM
13 117 (8.41%) Change Management
14 110 (7.90%) Observability
15 108 (7.76%) Project Delivery
15 108 (7.76%) Validation
16 104 (7.47%) Cloud Security
16 104 (7.47%) Roadmaps
17 100 (7.18%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 239 (17.17%) Python
2 145 (10.42%) PowerShell
3 88 (6.32%) Bash
4 42 (3.02%) SQL
5 40 (2.87%) Bicep
6 30 (2.16%) Java
7 11 (0.79%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.72%) COBOL
8 10 (0.72%) Perl
9 6 (0.43%) Groovy
9 6 (0.43%) JavaScript
9 6 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.36%) C++
10 5 (0.36%) Go
11 4 (0.29%) Rust
12 3 (0.22%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) C
13 2 (0.14%) Jython
13 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 462 (33.19%) Security Cleared
2 339 (24.35%) SC Cleared
3 289 (20.76%) Cisco Certification
4 217 (15.59%) CCNP
5 120 (8.62%) CCNA
6 115 (8.26%) Degree
7 103 (7.40%) DV Cleared
8 67 (4.81%) CISSP
9 55 (3.95%) Azure Certification
10 44 (3.16%) CCIE
11 39 (2.80%) AWS Certification
12 33 (2.37%) Microsoft Certification
13 32 (2.30%) CISM
14 21 (1.51%) Network+ Certification
15 20 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
16 18 (1.29%) JNCIS
16 18 (1.29%) PMP
17 17 (1.22%) JNCIA
17 17 (1.22%) Server+ Certification
18 16 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (5.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 58 (4.17%) NIST
3 44 (3.16%) GDPR
4 35 (2.51%) NCSC
5 29 (2.08%) PCI DSS
6 24 (1.72%) QA
7 22 (1.58%) Cyber Essentials
7 22 (1.58%) SLA
8 9 (0.65%) NIST 800
9 8 (0.57%) Data Quality
9 8 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
10 7 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
10 7 (0.50%) PMO
11 6 (0.43%) GRC
11 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.36%) RMADS
13 4 (0.29%) GxP
13 4 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 203 (14.58%) Active Directory
2 144 (10.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 52 (3.74%) VMware NSX
4 51 (3.66%) Docker
5 39 (2.80%) Virtual Machines
6 35 (2.51%) VMware ESXi
7 34 (2.44%) vSphere
8 33 (2.37%) Hyper-V
9 26 (1.87%) Firmware
10 19 (1.36%) Virtual Desktop
11 16 (1.15%) Squid
12 13 (0.93%) BitLocker
13 9 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
14 4 (0.29%) NFS
14 4 (0.29%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.22%) Dovecot
15 3 (0.22%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.22%) Postfix
16 2 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.14%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 242 (17.39%) Terraform
2 169 (12.14%) Ansible
3 116 (8.33%) FortiGate
4 103 (7.40%) Kubernetes
5 63 (4.53%) Grafana
6 59 (4.24%) Prometheus
7 53 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
8 38 (2.73%) Single Sign-On
9 31 (2.23%) SCCM
10 22 (1.58%) vCenter Server
11 19 (1.36%) Puppet
12 17 (1.22%) Progress Chef
13 16 (1.15%) CASB
14 14 (1.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 11 (0.79%) Cisco Prime
15 11 (0.79%) Consul
15 11 (0.79%) QRadar
16 9 (0.65%) Nessus
16 9 (0.65%) vMotion
17 8 (0.57%) Nagios
Vendors
1 502 (36.06%) Cisco
2 304 (21.84%) Palo Alto
3 285 (20.47%) Microsoft
4 202 (14.51%) Fortinet
5 195 (14.01%) F5
6 189 (13.58%) VMware
7 158 (11.35%) Juniper
8 131 (9.41%) CheckPoint
9 81 (5.82%) Splunk
10 80 (5.75%) Aruba
11 74 (5.32%) Arista
12 73 (5.24%) ServiceNow
13 69 (4.96%) SolarWinds
14 66 (4.74%) Google
15 57 (4.09%) Zscaler
16 46 (3.30%) Citrix
17 43 (3.09%) Red Hat
18 37 (2.66%) Meraki
19 31 (2.23%) Infoblox
20 29 (2.08%) Dynatrace