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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 55 59
Rank change year-on-year -37 +4 -11
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,435 1,397 1,359
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.69% 4.24% 3.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.75% 35.30% 28.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 899 830 859
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £413 £411 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £598 £600 £614
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £515
% change year-on-year +2.15% -4.97% +8.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 27 32
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £22.54
25th Percentile £43.98 £15.23 £23.92
Median hourly rate £65.23 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +117.42% +9.09% -58.32%
75th Percentile £78.75 £38.01 £85.35
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £87.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.45 £30.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +118.17% -50.00% -9.06%

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 4,992 3,957 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.36% 12.02% 12.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,963 2,418 2,878
10th Percentile £250 £235 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 195 327
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.78 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -40.76% -18.00% -4.42%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -43 1,245 £505 +1.00% 540
UK excluding London -34 808 £500 +2.15% 400
London -60 481 £500 - 190
Work from Home -35 390 £520 +4.00% 207
North of England -16 287 £500 +5.26% 88
South East -33 223 £520 +4.00% 146
North West -6 186 £525 +10.53% 49
Yorkshire -44 83 £450 -7.22% 27
South West -42 75 £550 +11.39% 47
Midlands -70 75 £468 -1.47% 60
East of England -4 74 £525 -2.78% 32
Scotland +16 65 £413 -13.16% 13
West Midlands -72 58 £450 -5.26% 33
North East -18 24 £625 +4.17% 15
Wales -14 16 £425 +17.24% 12
East Midlands -15 14 £500 +1.63% 27
Northern Ireland -5 1 - - 7

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 46 (3.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (2.09%) Confluence
3 27 (1.88%) SharePoint
4 15 (1.05%) Apache
5 14 (0.98%) nginx
6 7 (0.49%) CICS
7 6 (0.42%) SAS
8 4 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
8 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
9 3 (0.21%) IIS
9 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.14%) CMS
10 2 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.14%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.14%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.14%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.070%) MTS
Applications
1 22 (1.53%) Microsoft Office
1 22 (1.53%) MS Visio
2 20 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
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%) Primavera
3 1 (0.070%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 520 (36.24%) Azure
2 328 (22.86%) AWS
3 153 (10.66%) Entra ID
4 124 (8.64%) Microsoft 365
5 114 (7.94%) GCP
6 75 (5.23%) GitHub
7 65 (4.53%) IaaS
8 62 (4.32%) Azure DevOps
9 60 (4.18%) SaaS
10 55 (3.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 50 (3.48%) Azure Monitor
12 47 (3.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 42 (2.93%) Azure Sentinel
13 42 (2.93%) PaaS
14 37 (2.58%) OCI
15 36 (2.51%) Serverless
16 33 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
17 30 (2.09%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 26 (1.81%) AWS CloudFormation
19 25 (1.74%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 424 (29.55%) VPN
2 396 (27.60%) WAN
3 391 (27.25%) Network Security
4 373 (25.99%) DNS
5 292 (20.35%) LAN
6 264 (18.40%) BGP
7 213 (14.84%) TCP/IP
8 212 (14.77%) DHCP
9 210 (14.63%) OSPF
10 202 (14.08%) VLAN
11 165 (11.50%) Wireless
12 146 (10.17%) SD-WAN
13 125 (8.71%) Wi-Fi
14 94 (6.55%) BIG-IP
15 93 (6.48%) MPLS
16 92 (6.41%) IPsec
17 85 (5.92%) VXLAN
18 79 (5.51%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 79 (5.51%) SSL
19 78 (5.44%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.30%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.18%) Power BI
4 13 (0.91%) 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 94 (6.55%) JIRA
2 57 (3.97%) Jenkins
3 46 (3.21%) Git
3 46 (3.21%) GitLab
4 14 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
5 10 (0.70%) Bitbucket
6 8 (0.56%) Artifactory
6 8 (0.56%) Chocolatey
7 6 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
8 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
10 3 (0.21%) MSI
11 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.14%) Gatling
11 2 (0.14%) Gradle
11 2 (0.14%) Introscope
11 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
11 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 302 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 183 (12.75%) Finance
3 136 (9.48%) Analytical Skills
4 123 (8.57%) Public Sector
5 77 (5.37%) Banking
6 64 (4.46%) Documentation Skills
7 45 (3.14%) Telecoms
8 26 (1.81%) Legal
9 25 (1.74%) Manufacturing
10 23 (1.60%) Financial Institution
11 21 (1.46%) Military
12 19 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
12 19 (1.32%) Local Government
13 17 (1.18%) Retail
14 14 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
15 13 (0.91%) Law
16 12 (0.84%) Police
17 11 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 10 (0.70%) Investment Banking
19 9 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 465 (32.40%) Network Engineer
2 214 (14.91%) Senior
3 201 (14.01%) Architect
4 146 (10.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 115 (8.01%) Security Engineer
6 96 (6.69%) Senior Network Engineer
7 77 (5.37%) Cloud Engineer
8 69 (4.81%) Network Architect
9 62 (4.32%) Consultant
10 58 (4.04%) Azure Engineer
11 55 (3.83%) Network Security Engineer
12 50 (3.48%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 48 (3.34%) Technical Architect
14 47 (3.28%) Security Architect
15 46 (3.21%) DevOps Engineer
16 45 (3.14%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 44 (3.07%) Lead
18 41 (2.86%) Cisco Engineer
19 39 (2.72%) Cisco Network Engineer
20 36 (2.51%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (4.81%) 802.1X
2 41 (2.86%) Middleware
3 29 (2.02%) SAML
4 23 (1.60%) ARM Templates
5 22 (1.53%) LDAP
6 18 (1.25%) OpenID
7 11 (0.77%) OAuth
8 9 (0.63%) Kafka
8 9 (0.63%) LangChain
8 9 (0.63%) OAuth2
8 9 (0.63%) PyTorch
8 9 (0.63%) React
8 9 (0.63%) REST
8 9 (0.63%) scikit-learn
8 9 (0.63%) YAML
9 8 (0.56%) .NET
10 7 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
10 7 (0.49%) SailPoint
11 6 (0.42%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.35%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 325 (22.65%) Data Centre
2 94 (6.55%) Cloud Native
2 94 (6.55%) Hybrid Cloud
3 87 (6.06%) PKI
4 67 (4.67%) Security Posture
5 59 (4.11%) Management Information System
6 53 (3.69%) Onboarding
7 49 (3.41%) Operational Technology
8 42 (2.93%) Clustering
9 29 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
10 28 (1.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 27 (1.88%) Public Cloud
12 25 (1.74%) IoT
13 24 (1.67%) SCADA
14 23 (1.60%) Enterprise Storage
15 21 (1.46%) Driving Licence
15 21 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
16 20 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
17 19 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
17 19 (1.32%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 357 (24.88%) Windows
2 222 (15.47%) Linux
3 137 (9.55%) Windows Server
4 52 (3.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 33 (2.30%) Unix
6 22 (1.53%) VMS
7 20 (1.39%) Ubuntu
8 13 (0.91%) 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
11 8 (0.56%) Windows 10
12 7 (0.49%) AIX
12 7 (0.49%) Rocky
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
1 244 (17.00%) DevOps
2 229 (15.96%) CI/CD
3 226 (15.75%) Infrastructure as Code
4 205 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 205 (14.29%) Load Balancing
5 195 (13.59%) Problem-Solving
6 192 (13.38%) Cybersecurity
7 187 (13.03%) ITIL
8 180 (12.54%) Migration
9 177 (12.33%) High Availability
10 155 (10.80%) Agile
10 155 (10.80%) Zero Trust
11 142 (9.90%) SIEM
12 131 (9.13%) Project Delivery
13 129 (8.99%) Change Management
14 120 (8.36%) Observability
15 113 (7.87%) Validation
16 111 (7.74%) Stakeholder Management
17 108 (7.53%) Cloud Security
18 103 (7.18%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 272 (18.95%) Python
2 197 (13.73%) PowerShell
3 132 (9.20%) Bash
4 49 (3.41%) Bicep
5 46 (3.21%) SQL
6 33 (2.30%) Java
7 11 (0.77%) ActionScript
7 11 (0.77%) Perl
8 8 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.49%) COBOL
9 7 (0.49%) Groovy
9 7 (0.49%) JavaScript
10 6 (0.42%) Go
11 5 (0.35%) C++
12 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.21%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.14%) Jython
13 2 (0.14%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 490 (34.15%) Security Cleared
2 339 (23.62%) SC Cleared
3 274 (19.09%) Cisco Certification
4 204 (14.22%) CCNP
5 130 (9.06%) DV Cleared
6 120 (8.36%) Degree
7 115 (8.01%) CCNA
8 76 (5.30%) CISSP
9 65 (4.53%) Azure Certification
10 47 (3.28%) AWS Certification
11 39 (2.72%) CCIE
12 36 (2.51%) Microsoft Certification
13 32 (2.23%) CISM
14 28 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
15 23 (1.60%) Network+ Certification
16 21 (1.46%) JNCIS
17 18 (1.25%) CompTIA Security+
18 17 (1.18%) JNCIP
18 17 (1.18%) Server+ Certification
19 15 (1.05%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (5.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 60 (4.18%) NIST
3 45 (3.14%) GDPR
4 30 (2.09%) NCSC
5 24 (1.67%) PCI DSS
5 24 (1.67%) SLA
6 21 (1.46%) QA
7 20 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
8 9 (0.63%) Data Quality
8 9 (0.63%) NIST 800
9 8 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
9 8 (0.56%) GxP
9 8 (0.56%) JSP 440
10 7 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.42%) HIPAA
12 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.28%) PMO
13 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 236 (16.45%) Active Directory
2 173 (12.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 70 (4.88%) Docker
4 62 (4.32%) Hyper-V
5 59 (4.11%) VMware NSX
6 43 (3.00%) vSphere
7 42 (2.93%) Virtual Machines
8 39 (2.72%) VMware ESXi
9 26 (1.81%) Firmware
10 13 (0.91%) 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%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 279 (19.44%) Terraform
2 201 (14.01%) Ansible
3 121 (8.43%) Kubernetes
4 110 (7.67%) FortiGate
5 66 (4.60%) Microsoft Intune
6 55 (3.83%) Grafana
7 52 (3.62%) Prometheus
8 37 (2.58%) SCCM
9 34 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
10 25 (1.74%) Progress Chef
11 24 (1.67%) vCenter Server
12 19 (1.32%) CASB
13 18 (1.25%) Puppet
14 16 (1.11%) VxRail
15 13 (0.91%) Cisco Prime
16 11 (0.77%) Packer
16 11 (0.77%) QRadar
17 9 (0.63%) Argo
18 8 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
18 8 (0.56%) vMotion
Vendors
1 522 (36.38%) Cisco
2 328 (22.86%) Microsoft
3 307 (21.39%) Palo Alto
4 224 (15.61%) VMware
5 204 (14.22%) Fortinet
6 197 (13.73%) F5
7 159 (11.08%) Juniper
8 124 (8.64%) CheckPoint
9 89 (6.20%) Splunk
10 76 (5.30%) ServiceNow
11 74 (5.16%) Aruba
12 71 (4.95%) Google
13 70 (4.88%) Arista
14 69 (4.81%) SolarWinds
15 67 (4.67%) Zscaler
16 47 (3.28%) Meraki
17 46 (3.21%) Citrix
17 46 (3.21%) Red Hat
18 34 (2.37%) Infoblox
19 31 (2.16%) Dynatrace