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

6 months to
9 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 55 58
Rank change year-on-year -40 +3 -10
Contract jobs citing Firewall 1,443 1,400 1,343
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.69% 4.22% 3.46%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 28.63% 35.37% 28.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 903 830 853
10th Percentile £350 £325 £314
25th Percentile £418 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £622
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £503 £489 £520
% change year-on-year +2.97% -6.06% +9.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 27 31
10th Percentile £29.00 £14.20 £22.40
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% -58.33%
75th Percentile £78.75 £38.01 £85.45
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% -9.08%

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 5,040 3,958 4,706
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.40% 11.94% 12.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,994 2,420 2,867
10th Percentile £250 £240 £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 361 198 315
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £19.59
Median hourly rate £26.44 £46.88 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.59% -4.34% -2.82%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.30 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -40.76% -18.18% -2.64%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -41 1,254 £510 +2.00% 533
UK excluding London -36 815 £503 +2.97% 391
London -64 483 £500 - 190
Work from Home -33 394 £520 +4.00% 197
North of England -16 285 £500 +5.26% 91
South East -32 228 £523 +4.50% 137
North West -4 184 £525 +10.53% 49
Yorkshire -39 83 £450 -7.22% 32
South West -35 78 £550 +13.11% 47
East of England -1 76 £525 -4.55% 30
Midlands -73 74 £459 -3.37% 58
Scotland +9 65 £425 -5.56% 16
West Midlands -72 57 £440 -7.37% 30
North East -21 24 £625 +4.17% 13
Wales -21 16 £425 +17.24% 10
East Midlands -18 14 £500 +1.63% 28
Northern Ireland -4 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 47 (3.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (2.08%) Confluence
3 27 (1.87%) SharePoint
4 15 (1.04%) Apache
5 13 (0.90%) nginx
6 6 (0.42%) CICS
6 6 (0.42%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
7 4 (0.28%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.21%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.21%) IIS
8 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
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 (0.069%) MTS
Applications
1 22 (1.52%) MS Visio
2 20 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.069%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.069%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 1 (0.069%) Eikon
3 1 (0.069%) Primavera
3 1 (0.069%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 526 (36.45%) Azure
2 331 (22.94%) AWS
3 159 (11.02%) Entra ID
4 125 (8.66%) Microsoft 365
5 116 (8.04%) GCP
6 76 (5.27%) GitHub
7 66 (4.57%) IaaS
8 63 (4.37%) Azure DevOps
9 61 (4.23%) SaaS
10 54 (3.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 52 (3.60%) Azure Monitor
12 47 (3.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 42 (2.91%) Azure Sentinel
14 41 (2.84%) PaaS
15 37 (2.56%) OCI
16 36 (2.49%) Serverless
17 34 (2.36%) GitHub Actions
18 30 (2.08%) Google Kubernetes Engine
19 26 (1.80%) AWS CloudFormation
20 24 (1.66%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 427 (29.59%) VPN
2 399 (27.65%) WAN
3 392 (27.17%) Network Security
4 377 (26.13%) DNS
5 293 (20.30%) LAN
6 263 (18.23%) BGP
7 216 (14.97%) TCP/IP
8 215 (14.90%) DHCP
9 210 (14.55%) OSPF
10 203 (14.07%) VLAN
11 165 (11.43%) Wireless
12 148 (10.26%) SD-WAN
13 127 (8.80%) Wi-Fi
14 94 (6.51%) BIG-IP
15 93 (6.44%) MPLS
16 92 (6.38%) IPsec
17 85 (5.89%) VXLAN
18 80 (5.54%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
19 78 (5.41%) SSL
20 77 (5.34%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (2.22%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.18%) Power BI
4 13 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (0.69%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.62%) Data Lake
6 9 (0.62%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.55%) MySQL
8 6 (0.42%) DataStage
9 5 (0.35%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.28%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.28%) Db2
10 4 (0.28%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon QuickSight
11 3 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.21%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 94 (6.51%) JIRA
2 59 (4.09%) Jenkins
3 48 (3.33%) GitLab
4 47 (3.26%) Git
5 14 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 11 (0.76%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.55%) Artifactory
8 7 (0.49%) Chocolatey
9 6 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 6 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
10 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
11 4 (0.28%) MSI
12 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.14%) Gatling
12 2 (0.14%) Gradle
12 2 (0.14%) Introscope
12 2 (0.14%) Metasploit
12 2 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 306 (21.21%) Social Skills
2 181 (12.54%) Finance
3 140 (9.70%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (8.59%) Public Sector
5 77 (5.34%) Banking
6 63 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (3.19%) Telecoms
8 26 (1.80%) Manufacturing
9 25 (1.73%) Legal
10 22 (1.52%) Financial Institution
11 21 (1.46%) Military
12 19 (1.32%) Local Government
12 19 (1.32%) Retail
13 18 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.90%) Law
14 13 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.83%) Police
16 11 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.69%) Investment Banking
18 9 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 464 (32.16%) Network Engineer
2 215 (14.90%) Senior
3 204 (14.14%) Architect
4 145 (10.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 113 (7.83%) Security Engineer
6 97 (6.72%) Senior Network Engineer
7 78 (5.41%) Cloud Engineer
8 70 (4.85%) Network Architect
9 62 (4.30%) Consultant
10 58 (4.02%) Azure Engineer
11 54 (3.74%) Network Security Engineer
12 50 (3.47%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 49 (3.40%) Security Architect
13 49 (3.40%) Technical Architect
14 46 (3.19%) DevOps Engineer
15 45 (3.12%) Lead
15 45 (3.12%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 42 (2.91%) Cisco Engineer
17 40 (2.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
18 38 (2.63%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (4.78%) 802.1X
2 43 (2.98%) Middleware
3 30 (2.08%) SAML
4 23 (1.59%) ARM Templates
5 21 (1.46%) LDAP
6 19 (1.32%) OpenID
7 13 (0.90%) OAuth
8 11 (0.76%) OAuth2
9 10 (0.69%) Kafka
9 10 (0.69%) React
9 10 (0.69%) REST
10 9 (0.62%) LangChain
10 9 (0.62%) PyTorch
10 9 (0.62%) scikit-learn
10 9 (0.62%) YAML
11 8 (0.55%) .NET
12 7 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (0.49%) OpenTelemetry
12 7 (0.49%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.35%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 323 (22.38%) Data Centre
2 98 (6.79%) Hybrid Cloud
3 94 (6.51%) Cloud Native
4 88 (6.10%) PKI
5 66 (4.57%) Security Posture
6 61 (4.23%) Management Information System
7 53 (3.67%) Onboarding
8 50 (3.47%) Operational Technology
9 41 (2.84%) Clustering
10 30 (2.08%) Data Protection Act
11 29 (2.01%) Public Cloud
12 28 (1.94%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 25 (1.73%) IoT
14 24 (1.66%) SCADA
15 23 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
16 22 (1.52%) Driving Licence
17 21 (1.46%) Enterprise Storage
17 21 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
18 20 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
19 19 (1.32%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 363 (25.16%) Windows
2 227 (15.73%) Linux
3 140 (9.70%) Windows Server
4 51 (3.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 33 (2.29%) Unix
6 22 (1.52%) VMS
7 20 (1.39%) Ubuntu
8 15 (1.04%) Mac OS
9 13 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
10 11 (0.76%) CentOS
11 10 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
12 7 (0.49%) Rocky
12 7 (0.49%) Solaris
12 7 (0.49%) Windows 10
13 6 (0.42%) AIX
13 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2003
15 4 (0.28%) Amazon Linux
15 4 (0.28%) Android
15 4 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (17.19%) DevOps
2 235 (16.29%) CI/CD
3 233 (16.15%) Infrastructure as Code
4 207 (14.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 207 (14.35%) Load Balancing
5 199 (13.79%) Cybersecurity
6 196 (13.58%) Problem-Solving
7 190 (13.17%) ITIL
8 179 (12.40%) Migration
9 177 (12.27%) High Availability
10 157 (10.88%) Agile
11 154 (10.67%) Zero Trust
12 147 (10.19%) SIEM
13 131 (9.08%) Project Delivery
14 129 (8.94%) Change Management
15 121 (8.39%) Observability
16 115 (7.97%) Stakeholder Management
17 113 (7.83%) Validation
18 112 (7.76%) Cloud Security
19 106 (7.35%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 276 (19.13%) Python
2 203 (14.07%) PowerShell
3 135 (9.36%) Bash
4 50 (3.47%) Bicep
5 47 (3.26%) SQL
6 34 (2.36%) Java
7 11 (0.76%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.69%) Perl
9 9 (0.62%) Kusto Query Language
10 7 (0.49%) Groovy
10 7 (0.49%) JavaScript
11 6 (0.42%) COBOL
11 6 (0.42%) Go
12 5 (0.35%) C++
13 4 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
13 4 (0.28%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.21%) PL/SQL
14 3 (0.21%) Shell Script
15 2 (0.14%) Jython
15 2 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 496 (34.37%) Security Cleared
2 346 (23.98%) SC Cleared
3 272 (18.85%) Cisco Certification
4 202 (14.00%) CCNP
5 131 (9.08%) DV Cleared
6 120 (8.32%) Degree
7 114 (7.90%) CCNA
8 79 (5.47%) CISSP
9 66 (4.57%) Azure Certification
10 48 (3.33%) AWS Certification
11 39 (2.70%) CCIE
12 37 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
13 33 (2.29%) CISM
14 29 (2.01%) Computer Science Degree
15 23 (1.59%) 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 16 (1.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (4.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 62 (4.30%) NIST
3 45 (3.12%) GDPR
4 32 (2.22%) NCSC
5 25 (1.73%) PCI DSS
6 23 (1.59%) SLA
7 22 (1.52%) QA
8 19 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials
9 10 (0.69%) JSP 440
10 9 (0.62%) Data Quality
10 9 (0.62%) NIST 800
11 8 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
11 8 (0.55%) GxP
11 8 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.42%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 4 (0.28%) PMO
14 4 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 237 (16.42%) Active Directory
2 177 (12.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 70 (4.85%) Docker
4 66 (4.57%) Hyper-V
5 58 (4.02%) VMware NSX
6 44 (3.05%) vSphere
7 42 (2.91%) Virtual Machines
8 38 (2.63%) VMware ESXi
9 26 (1.80%) Firmware
10 16 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (0.69%) BitLocker
11 10 (0.69%) Squid
12 7 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
13 6 (0.42%) NFS
14 5 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.28%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.21%) Dovecot
16 3 (0.21%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 3 (0.21%) Postfix
16 3 (0.21%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 283 (19.61%) Terraform
2 205 (14.21%) Ansible
3 124 (8.59%) Kubernetes
4 109 (7.55%) FortiGate
5 69 (4.78%) Microsoft Intune
6 55 (3.81%) Grafana
7 52 (3.60%) Prometheus
8 37 (2.56%) SCCM
9 35 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
10 26 (1.80%) Progress Chef
11 23 (1.59%) vCenter Server
12 20 (1.39%) CASB
13 17 (1.18%) Puppet
13 17 (1.18%) VxRail
14 13 (0.90%) Cisco Prime
15 11 (0.76%) Packer
15 11 (0.76%) QRadar
16 10 (0.69%) Argo
17 8 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 8 (0.55%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 522 (36.17%) Cisco
2 336 (23.28%) Microsoft
3 307 (21.28%) Palo Alto
4 226 (15.66%) VMware
5 203 (14.07%) Fortinet
6 196 (13.58%) F5
7 159 (11.02%) Juniper
8 123 (8.52%) CheckPoint
9 91 (6.31%) Splunk
10 75 (5.20%) ServiceNow
11 74 (5.13%) Aruba
11 74 (5.13%) Google
12 69 (4.78%) Arista
12 69 (4.78%) SolarWinds
13 67 (4.64%) Zscaler
14 48 (3.33%) Meraki
15 44 (3.05%) Red Hat
16 43 (2.98%) Citrix
17 34 (2.36%) Infoblox
18 30 (2.08%) Dynatrace