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 18 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 64 55 44
Rank change year-on-year -9 -11 +25
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,256 1,372 2,160
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 3.67% 4.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 33.06% 30.33% 32.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 782 819 1,450
10th Percentile £310 £320 £313
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -
75th Percentile £600 £622 £615
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £490
% change year-on-year -3.45% +2.04% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 25 64
10th Percentile £19.70 £20.00 £28.88
25th Percentile £29.00 £20.19 £62.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £66.62
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -58.72% +65.46%
75th Percentile £43.25 £38.00 £75.82
90th Percentile £89.63 £61.50 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.39 £27.50 £66.62
% change year-on-year +14.13% -58.72% +50.05%

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 3,799 4,523 6,568
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.41% 12.08% 13.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,427 2,597 4,114
10th Percentile £213 £225 £223
25th Percentile £358 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £601 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £454 £480 £465
% change year-on-year -5.52% +3.23% +3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 190 179 328
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.09 £17.24
25th Percentile £19.12 £24.59 £22.75
Median hourly rate £34.00 £48.56 £56.45
Median % change year-on-year -29.98% -13.97% +41.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.48 £52.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -21.00% -7.06% +25.53%

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 18 October 2025.

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 18 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Firewall in the UK

Firewall
Top 18 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 18 October 2025. 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 -9 1,075 £500 -4.76% 673
UK excluding London -9 678 £483 -3.45% 596
London -7 456 £525 -4.55% 199
Work from Home -7 370 £500 -9.09% 321
North of England -20 183 £488 -7.14% 135
South East -7 171 £500 - 234
Midlands -3 142 £475 -5.00% 88
West Midlands +16 127 £475 -5.00% 62
Yorkshire -4 96 £489 -20.05% 38
North West -26 84 £475 -5.00% 81
Scotland -15 58 £488 +2.63% 29
South West -4 54 £481 +1.32% 45
East of England -8 49 £501 -6.74% 72
East Midlands -34 15 £471 -8.10% 23
Northern Ireland - 14 £475 - 8
Wales -3 12 £200 -23.81% 12
Channel Islands - 4 £725 -
North East -7 3 £575 +64.29% 22

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 58 (4.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 52 (4.14%) Confluence
3 36 (2.87%) SharePoint
4 16 (1.27%) OpenStack
5 13 (1.04%) nginx
6 8 (0.64%) Apache
7 7 (0.56%) Tomcat
8 6 (0.48%) CMS
9 4 (0.32%) JBoss
10 3 (0.24%) IIS
11 2 (0.16%) CICS
11 2 (0.16%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.16%) SAS
11 2 (0.16%) Traefik
11 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.16%) WebSphere
12 1 (0.080%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.080%) Exchange Server 2010
12 1 (0.080%) Exchange Server 2013
12 1 (0.080%) Mattermost
Applications
1 27 (2.15%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (0.88%) MS Visio
3 10 (0.80%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 9 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
5 6 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) ION MarketView
1 3 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.16%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.16%) SAP PM
3 1 (0.080%) Alphatax
3 1 (0.080%) Finacle
3 1 (0.080%) Pegasus Opera
3 1 (0.080%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 379 (30.18%) Azure
2 325 (25.88%) AWS
3 148 (11.78%) Microsoft 365
4 135 (10.75%) GCP
5 83 (6.61%) Entra ID
6 76 (6.05%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 62 (4.94%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 61 (4.86%) Amazon EC2
9 56 (4.46%) Amazon S3
10 50 (3.98%) Azure Sentinel
11 45 (3.58%) Amazon ELB
12 40 (3.18%) IaaS
13 37 (2.95%) Akamai
14 36 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
15 35 (2.79%) GitHub
16 29 (2.31%) PaaS
16 29 (2.31%) Serverless
17 25 (1.99%) AWS CloudFormation
17 25 (1.99%) AWS KMS
17 25 (1.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 282 (22.45%) VPN
2 255 (20.30%) Network Security
3 254 (20.22%) DNS
4 228 (18.15%) WAN
5 166 (13.22%) TCP/IP
6 161 (12.82%) LAN
7 138 (10.99%) BGP
8 127 (10.11%) SD-WAN
9 126 (10.03%) OSPF
10 120 (9.55%) Wireless
11 108 (8.60%) DHCP
12 102 (8.12%) VLAN
13 95 (7.56%) Wi-Fi
14 90 (7.17%) SSL
15 79 (6.29%) Cisco Nexus
16 61 (4.86%) MPLS
17 58 (4.62%) Cisco ISE
18 56 (4.46%) IPsec
19 54 (4.30%) Intrusion Detection
20 51 (4.06%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.79%) Amazon RDS
1 35 (2.79%) SQL Server
2 21 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (0.80%) Amazon Aurora
4 9 (0.72%) Relational Database
5 8 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (0.64%) NoSQL
6 7 (0.56%) MySQL
7 6 (0.48%) Data Lake
7 6 (0.48%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.40%) DB2
9 4 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
9 4 (0.32%) MongoDB
9 4 (0.32%) Redis
10 3 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.24%) Power BI
11 2 (0.16%) Amazon QuickSight
11 2 (0.16%) Big Data
11 2 (0.16%) Delta Lake
11 2 (0.16%) GIS
Development Applications
1 107 (8.52%) Jenkins
2 85 (6.77%) Git
3 82 (6.53%) JIRA
4 52 (4.14%) GitLab
5 23 (1.83%) Sonatype Nexus
6 22 (1.75%) Vagrant
7 16 (1.27%) Postman
8 10 (0.80%) SonarQube
9 8 (0.64%) Bitbucket
10 3 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 3 (0.24%) Maven
11 2 (0.16%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.16%) Gradle
12 1 (0.080%) Eclipse
12 1 (0.080%) MSI
General
1 289 (23.01%) Social Skills
2 147 (11.70%) Finance
3 125 (9.95%) Public Sector
4 121 (9.63%) Analytical Skills
5 64 (5.10%) Banking
6 58 (4.62%) Telecoms
7 39 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
8 34 (2.71%) Manufacturing
9 30 (2.39%) Legal
10 26 (2.07%) Games
11 23 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
12 21 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 14 (1.11%) Military
14 13 (1.04%) Local Government
15 12 (0.96%) Law
16 10 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.72%) Retail
18 8 (0.64%) Marketing
19 6 (0.48%) Financial Institution
20 5 (0.40%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 288 (22.93%) Network Engineer
2 192 (15.29%) Architect
3 124 (9.87%) Security Engineer
4 115 (9.16%) Senior
5 87 (6.93%) Analyst
6 77 (6.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 71 (5.65%) Network Architect
8 64 (5.10%) Consultant
8 64 (5.10%) DevOps Engineer
9 57 (4.54%) Platform Engineer
10 52 (4.14%) Security Architect
11 51 (4.06%) Network Security Engineer
12 47 (3.74%) Support Engineer
13 39 (3.11%) Lead
14 38 (3.03%) Cisco Engineer
15 36 (2.87%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 35 (2.79%) AWS Engineer
16 35 (2.79%) Azure Engineer
17 34 (2.71%) Cisco Network Engineer
17 34 (2.71%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (2.71%) LDAP
2 29 (2.31%) RFC 2544
3 28 (2.23%) 802.1X
4 19 (1.51%) Middleware
5 18 (1.43%) REST
6 17 (1.35%) Elastic Stack
7 13 (1.04%) JSON
8 9 (0.72%) ARM Templates
9 8 (0.64%) Node.js
9 8 (0.64%) YAML
10 7 (0.56%) SAML
10 7 (0.56%) XML
11 6 (0.48%) JBoss Seam
11 6 (0.48%) Kafka
11 6 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.32%) OAuth
13 3 (0.24%) CSS
13 3 (0.24%) OAuth2
13 3 (0.24%) OpenID
13 3 (0.24%) React
Miscellaneous
1 184 (14.65%) Data Centre
2 78 (6.21%) Security Posture
3 61 (4.86%) Hybrid Cloud
4 53 (4.22%) Operational Technology
5 41 (3.26%) Onboarding
6 39 (3.11%) PKI
7 38 (3.03%) Management Information System
8 37 (2.95%) Replication
9 32 (2.55%) Cloud Native
10 30 (2.39%) Data Protection Act
11 27 (2.15%) Cyber Threat
12 22 (1.75%) SCADA
12 22 (1.75%) Security Operations Centre
13 21 (1.67%) Fibre Optics
14 20 (1.59%) Public Cloud
15 18 (1.43%) Cyber Defence
16 17 (1.35%) Virtual Team
17 15 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
17 15 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
18 14 (1.11%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 291 (23.17%) Windows
2 200 (15.92%) Linux
3 81 (6.45%) Windows Server
4 39 (3.11%) Unix
5 38 (3.03%) Mac OS
6 34 (2.71%) VMS
7 32 (2.55%) Android
8 27 (2.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 25 (1.99%) Windows 10
10 22 (1.75%) Amazon Linux
10 22 (1.75%) Ubuntu
11 16 (1.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 10 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
12 10 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
13 9 (0.72%) CentOS
14 7 (0.56%) Solaris
15 5 (0.40%) Windows 7
16 3 (0.24%) Apple iOS
16 3 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
16 3 (0.24%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (16.64%) Cybersecurity
2 203 (16.16%) DevOps
3 176 (14.01%) Cloud Security
4 161 (12.82%) Problem-Solving
5 154 (12.26%) SIEM
6 150 (11.94%) CI/CD
7 149 (11.86%) Incident Response
8 143 (11.39%) Migration
9 140 (11.15%) Infrastructure as Code
10 132 (10.51%) Agile
11 123 (9.79%) ITIL
12 119 (9.47%) High Availability
13 114 (9.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 96 (7.64%) Change Management
14 96 (7.64%) Security Operations
15 85 (6.77%) Configuration Management
16 79 (6.29%) Network Design
17 78 (6.21%) Zero Trust
18 76 (6.05%) Vulnerability Management
19 75 (5.97%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 264 (21.02%) Python
2 179 (14.25%) PowerShell
3 105 (8.36%) Bash
4 63 (5.02%) SQL
5 45 (3.58%) Java
6 35 (2.79%) Perl
7 22 (1.75%) Groovy
8 19 (1.51%) Bicep
9 18 (1.43%) Kusto Query Language
10 14 (1.11%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.64%) Go
11 8 (0.64%) JavaScript
12 5 (0.40%) Ruby
13 4 (0.32%) C
13 4 (0.32%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.24%) Kotlin
15 2 (0.16%) Apex Code
15 2 (0.16%) C++
15 2 (0.16%) PHP
16 1 (0.080%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 351 (27.95%) Security Cleared
2 257 (20.46%) SC Cleared
3 211 (16.80%) Cisco Certification
4 150 (11.94%) CCNP
5 101 (8.04%) Degree
6 81 (6.45%) CISSP
7 78 (6.21%) CCNA
8 68 (5.41%) DV Cleared
9 56 (4.46%) Azure Certification
10 48 (3.82%) AWS Certification
11 43 (3.42%) CCIE
12 42 (3.34%) Computer Science Degree
12 42 (3.34%) Microsoft Certification
13 40 (3.18%) CISM
14 24 (1.91%) CEH
15 23 (1.83%) CompTIA Security+
16 19 (1.51%) BPSS Clearance
17 15 (1.19%) GIAC
18 14 (1.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
19 13 (1.04%) CCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (7.80%) NIST
2 88 (7.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 67 (5.33%) GDPR
4 32 (2.55%) PCI DSS
5 24 (1.91%) SLA
6 18 (1.43%) QA
7 16 (1.27%) NCSC
8 15 (1.19%) HIPAA
9 13 (1.04%) SOC 2
10 12 (0.96%) GRC
11 10 (0.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.72%) COBIT
13 7 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
13 7 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 6 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
14 6 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
15 5 (0.40%) GxP
16 4 (0.32%) Accessibility
17 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
17 3 (0.24%) PSD2
System Software
1 214 (17.04%) Active Directory
2 138 (10.99%) Docker
3 117 (9.32%) VMware Infrastructure
4 41 (3.26%) Hyper-V
5 32 (2.55%) Virtual Machines
6 25 (1.99%) DFS Replication
7 24 (1.91%) vSphere
8 15 (1.19%) Squid
9 14 (1.11%) Firmware
10 13 (1.04%) VMware NSX
11 11 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.80%) Dovecot
12 10 (0.80%) Postfix
13 9 (0.72%) Terminal Services
14 7 (0.56%) Veritas Cluster Server
15 6 (0.48%) KVM
15 6 (0.48%) Snort
15 6 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
16 4 (0.32%) NDS
16 4 (0.32%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 182 (14.49%) Ansible
2 175 (13.93%) Terraform
3 95 (7.56%) Kubernetes
4 66 (5.25%) Microsoft Intune
5 63 (5.02%) FortiGate
6 55 (4.38%) SCCM
7 42 (3.34%) Grafana
8 39 (3.11%) Prometheus
9 29 (2.31%) Puppet
10 22 (1.75%) Nessus
11 20 (1.59%) Single Sign-On
12 18 (1.43%) CSIRT
13 15 (1.19%) CASB
14 14 (1.11%) vCenter Server
15 12 (0.96%) QRadar
16 11 (0.88%) Nagios
17 10 (0.80%) Microsoft Clustering
17 10 (0.80%) Progress Chef
17 10 (0.80%) Proxmox
18 9 (0.72%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 452 (35.99%) Cisco
2 301 (23.96%) Microsoft
3 211 (16.80%) Palo Alto
4 162 (12.90%) F5
5 152 (12.10%) VMware
6 146 (11.62%) Fortinet
7 126 (10.03%) CheckPoint
8 102 (8.12%) Juniper
9 97 (7.72%) Splunk
10 73 (5.81%) Meraki
11 72 (5.73%) SolarWinds
12 67 (5.33%) Oracle
13 60 (4.78%) ServiceNow
14 56 (4.46%) Zscaler
15 49 (3.90%) Google
16 43 (3.42%) Citrix
17 28 (2.23%) Aruba
18 27 (2.15%) Dell
19 26 (2.07%) HP
19 26 (2.07%) Red Hat