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 16 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 52 51
Rank change year-on-year -31 -1 +6
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,366 1,217 1,622
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.97% 4.15% 3.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.36% 32.19% 28.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 892 740 1,017
10th Percentile £335 £313 £313
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £508
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +0.99% -3.33%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 18 40
10th Percentile £20.53 - £15.89
25th Percentile £37.25 £14.20 £23.92
Median hourly rate £52.36 £35.82 £68.25
Median % change year-on-year +46.17% -47.51% +10.08%
75th Percentile £74.26 £41.50 £87.12
90th Percentile £84.61 £53.63 £87.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.00 £35.00 £83.77
% change year-on-year +60.00% -58.22% +35.10%

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 4,500 3,781 5,766
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.80% 12.91% 13.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,832 2,335 3,457
10th Percentile £232 £213 £205
25th Percentile £398 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £486
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% +0.31% -5.63%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £467 £475
% change year-on-year +1.82% -1.79% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 204 170 423
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.46 £21.46 £17.69
Median hourly rate £42.60 £38.41 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.92% -3.98% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.06 £61.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.25 £28.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year +90.18% -38.97% +148.00%

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 16 April 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 16 April 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 16 April 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 -36 1,145 £513 -1.91% 433
UK excluding London -13 778 £500 - 390
London -58 416 £515 -1.90% 117
Work from Home -24 382 £513 +2.50% 185
South East +5 239 £513 +2.50% 129
North of England -16 232 £500 +5.26% 92
North West -9 155 £528 +11.16% 41
Midlands -39 96 £425 -22.73% 54
West Midlands -18 84 £420 -19.31% 33
Yorkshire -25 75 £445 -13.22% 29
East of England -16 63 £475 -9.95% 50
South West -41 62 £560 +2.29% 32
Scotland +11 53 £425 -1.45% 21
Wales -16 31 £425 +9.68% 19
East Midlands -51 8 £475 -18.10% 21
North East -15 5 £548 -0.45% 23
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 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 40 (2.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (2.05%) Confluence
3 17 (1.24%) SharePoint
4 13 (0.95%) Apache
4 13 (0.95%) nginx
5 10 (0.73%) CICS
6 7 (0.51%) SAS
7 5 (0.37%) IIS
8 4 (0.29%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.22%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
10 2 (0.15%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.15%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.15%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.073%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.073%) JBoss
Applications
1 36 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (1.46%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.073%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.073%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.073%) Primavera
2 1 (0.073%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.073%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 441 (32.28%) Azure
2 291 (21.30%) AWS
3 123 (9.00%) GCP
4 116 (8.49%) Microsoft 365
5 115 (8.42%) Entra ID
6 61 (4.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 60 (4.39%) GitHub
8 59 (4.32%) IaaS
9 53 (3.88%) PaaS
10 46 (3.37%) Azure DevOps
11 44 (3.22%) Serverless
12 42 (3.07%) Azure Monitor
12 42 (3.07%) SaaS
13 40 (2.93%) Azure Sentinel
14 36 (2.64%) GitHub Actions
15 35 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
15 35 (2.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 32 (2.34%) AWS CloudFormation
17 31 (2.27%) Amazon EC2
18 30 (2.20%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 376 (27.53%) Network Security
2 351 (25.70%) WAN
3 334 (24.45%) VPN
4 287 (21.01%) DNS
5 266 (19.47%) LAN
6 226 (16.54%) BGP
7 198 (14.49%) OSPF
8 160 (11.71%) VLAN
9 148 (10.83%) DHCP
10 147 (10.76%) TCP/IP
11 135 (9.88%) SD-WAN
12 124 (9.08%) Wireless
13 100 (7.32%) Wi-Fi
14 96 (7.03%) MPLS
15 81 (5.93%) IPsec
16 77 (5.64%) Cisco ISE
17 70 (5.12%) VXLAN
18 66 (4.83%) Cisco ASA
19 63 (4.61%) Cisco Nexus
20 59 (4.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.90%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
4 15 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (0.81%) Oracle Database
6 10 (0.73%) DataStage
7 9 (0.66%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.66%) Power BI
8 8 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.51%) MongoDB
10 6 (0.44%) MySQL
11 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 3 (0.22%) Oracle Exadata
13 3 (0.22%) Redis
Development Applications
1 73 (5.34%) JIRA
2 52 (3.81%) Jenkins
3 45 (3.29%) Git
4 41 (3.00%) GitLab
5 21 (1.54%) Sonatype Nexus
6 18 (1.32%) Bitbucket
7 16 (1.17%) Burp Suite
7 16 (1.17%) Metasploit
8 9 (0.66%) Chocolatey
8 9 (0.66%) Jaeger
9 7 (0.51%) SonarQube
10 6 (0.44%) Artifactory
11 5 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
12 4 (0.29%) CircleCI
13 2 (0.15%) Introscope
14 1 (0.073%) Atlassian Bamboo
14 1 (0.073%) Maven
14 1 (0.073%) MSI
14 1 (0.073%) PVCS
14 1 (0.073%) Subversion
General
1 353 (25.84%) Social Skills
2 162 (11.86%) Finance
3 140 (10.25%) Analytical Skills
4 103 (7.54%) Public Sector
5 99 (7.25%) Documentation Skills
6 54 (3.95%) Banking
7 42 (3.07%) Telecoms
8 32 (2.34%) Legal
9 26 (1.90%) Financial Institution
10 23 (1.68%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
12 18 (1.32%) Military
13 15 (1.10%) Law
14 14 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (0.95%) Retail
16 12 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 11 (0.81%) Local Government
18 10 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
19 8 (0.59%) Front Office
20 7 (0.51%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 394 (28.84%) Network Engineer
2 235 (17.20%) Architect
3 146 (10.69%) Senior
4 112 (8.20%) Security Engineer
5 89 (6.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 84 (6.15%) Network Architect
7 58 (4.25%) Azure Engineer
8 56 (4.10%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 54 (3.95%) Senior Network Engineer
10 46 (3.37%) Security Architect
11 45 (3.29%) Cloud Engineer
12 43 (3.15%) Solutions Architect
13 40 (2.93%) Lead
13 40 (2.93%) Network Security Engineer
14 39 (2.86%) Analyst
14 39 (2.86%) Platform Engineer
14 39 (2.86%) Technical Architect
15 38 (2.78%) Consultant
16 36 (2.64%) Cisco Engineer
17 35 (2.56%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (5.27%) 802.1X
2 39 (2.86%) SAML
3 38 (2.78%) LDAP
4 35 (2.56%) Middleware
4 35 (2.56%) OpenID
5 20 (1.46%) Kafka
5 20 (1.46%) OAuth
6 19 (1.39%) OAuth2
7 14 (1.02%) REST
8 11 (0.81%) Node.js
8 11 (0.81%) OpenTelemetry
9 10 (0.73%) JSON
9 10 (0.73%) Spring Boot
10 9 (0.66%) ARM Templates
11 8 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (0.51%) XML
13 6 (0.44%) HTML
13 6 (0.44%) LangChain
13 6 (0.44%) PyTorch
13 6 (0.44%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 295 (21.60%) Data Centre
2 76 (5.56%) Security Posture
3 73 (5.34%) Cloud Native
4 70 (5.12%) PKI
5 48 (3.51%) Onboarding
6 47 (3.44%) Hybrid Cloud
7 41 (3.00%) Operational Technology
8 38 (2.78%) Clustering
9 35 (2.56%) Management Information System
10 34 (2.49%) Public Cloud
11 29 (2.12%) IoT
12 22 (1.61%) Cyber Threat
12 22 (1.61%) Replication
13 21 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
13 21 (1.54%) Private Cloud
13 21 (1.54%) Product Ownership
13 21 (1.54%) SCADA
14 19 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
15 18 (1.32%) NHS
16 17 (1.24%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 343 (25.11%) Windows
2 211 (15.45%) Linux
3 144 (10.54%) Windows Server
4 37 (2.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 35 (2.56%) Unix
6 27 (1.98%) VMS
7 12 (0.88%) Solaris
8 11 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (0.73%) AIX
9 10 (0.73%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
11 6 (0.44%) Windows 10
11 6 (0.44%) Windows 7
12 5 (0.37%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.29%) CatOS
14 3 (0.22%) Amazon Linux
14 3 (0.22%) Data ONTAP
14 3 (0.22%) SUSE
15 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (16.11%) Cybersecurity
2 211 (15.45%) DevOps
3 203 (14.86%) Problem-Solving
4 178 (13.03%) CI/CD
4 178 (13.03%) Infrastructure as Code
5 171 (12.52%) Load Balancing
6 168 (12.30%) Migration
7 160 (11.71%) ITIL
8 149 (10.91%) High Availability
9 135 (9.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 121 (8.86%) Agile
11 118 (8.64%) SIEM
12 117 (8.57%) Change Management
12 117 (8.57%) Zero Trust
13 116 (8.49%) Cloud Security
14 96 (7.03%) Roadmaps
15 94 (6.88%) Observability
16 93 (6.81%) Incident Response
17 92 (6.73%) Continuous Improvement
18 91 (6.66%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 193 (14.13%) Python
2 183 (13.40%) PowerShell
3 90 (6.59%) Bash
4 55 (4.03%) SQL
5 39 (2.86%) Bicep
6 31 (2.27%) Java
7 22 (1.61%) Perl
8 11 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.73%) COBOL
9 10 (0.73%) JavaScript
10 9 (0.66%) Ruby
11 8 (0.59%) Rust
12 6 (0.44%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.37%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.29%) C#
14 4 (0.29%) Go
15 2 (0.15%) C++
15 2 (0.15%) Jython
15 2 (0.15%) PHP
16 1 (0.073%) Korn
Qualifications
1 485 (35.51%) Security Cleared
2 339 (24.82%) SC Cleared
3 263 (19.25%) Cisco Certification
4 211 (15.45%) CCNP
5 126 (9.22%) DV Cleared
6 121 (8.86%) Degree
7 109 (7.98%) CCNA
8 77 (5.64%) CISSP
9 57 (4.17%) Azure Certification
10 48 (3.51%) CCIE
11 45 (3.29%) AWS Certification
12 43 (3.15%) CISM
13 35 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
14 25 (1.83%) CompTIA Security+
15 24 (1.76%) JNCIS
16 23 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
16 23 (1.68%) JNCIP
17 19 (1.39%) JNCIA
17 19 (1.39%) Network+ Certification
18 18 (1.32%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (6.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 74 (5.42%) NIST
3 65 (4.76%) GDPR
4 45 (3.29%) PCI DSS
5 36 (2.64%) NCSC
6 32 (2.34%) SLA
7 26 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials
8 22 (1.61%) QA
9 17 (1.24%) PMO
10 7 (0.51%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (0.44%) GRC
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 5 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.29%) Data Quality
13 4 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
14 3 (0.22%) ISA99
14 3 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 3 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 239 (17.50%) Active Directory
2 178 (13.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 81 (5.93%) Docker
4 73 (5.34%) VMware NSX
5 43 (3.15%) Hyper-V
6 39 (2.86%) vSphere
7 31 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
8 30 (2.20%) VMware ESXi
9 20 (1.46%) Virtual Desktop
10 19 (1.39%) Firmware
11 11 (0.81%) Squid
12 10 (0.73%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
14 7 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.22%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
16 2 (0.15%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
16 2 (0.15%) Samba
16 2 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 205 (15.01%) Terraform
2 151 (11.05%) Ansible
3 122 (8.93%) Kubernetes
4 102 (7.47%) FortiGate
5 60 (4.39%) Microsoft Intune
6 45 (3.29%) Grafana
6 45 (3.29%) Single Sign-On
7 39 (2.86%) Prometheus
8 34 (2.49%) SCCM
9 32 (2.34%) vCenter Server
10 27 (1.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (1.32%) Nmap
12 14 (1.02%) Nagios
13 13 (0.95%) CASB
13 13 (0.95%) QRadar
14 12 (0.88%) Cisco Prime
14 12 (0.88%) Puppet
15 11 (0.81%) VxRail
16 10 (0.73%) Progress Chef
16 10 (0.73%) WSUS
Vendors
1 475 (34.77%) Cisco
2 306 (22.40%) Microsoft
3 280 (20.50%) Palo Alto
4 221 (16.18%) VMware
5 161 (11.79%) Fortinet
6 158 (11.57%) F5
7 148 (10.83%) Juniper
8 131 (9.59%) CheckPoint
9 90 (6.59%) Splunk
10 83 (6.08%) Aruba
11 74 (5.42%) SolarWinds
12 57 (4.17%) Google
12 57 (4.17%) ServiceNow
13 55 (4.03%) Meraki
14 45 (3.29%) Citrix
15 42 (3.07%) Arista
15 42 (3.07%) Zscaler
16 41 (3.00%) Red Hat
17 38 (2.78%) Oracle
18 26 (1.90%) Extreme Networks