Palo Alto Contract Job Trends

Palo Alto
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of Palo Alto products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Palo Alto over the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within Palo Alto Networks.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 280 226 284
Rank change year-on-year -54 +58 -3
Contract jobs citing Palo Alto 417 347 337
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.19% 0.79%
As % of the Vendors category 2.11% 2.50% 1.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 213 242
10th Percentile £336 £379 £382
25th Percentile £413 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £520 £530
Median % change year-on-year -7.57% -1.89% +6.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £650
90th Percentile £675 £785 £774
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £528
% change year-on-year -5.00% -5.21% +11.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
10th Percentile £35.95 - -
25th Percentile £36.25 - -
Median hourly rate £80.00 - -
75th Percentile £87.50 - -
90th Percentile £89.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.00 - -

All Vendors
UK

Palo Alto falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 19,765 13,886 18,000
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.96% 47.71% 42.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,516 8,664 11,247
10th Percentile £313 £280 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £514
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.29% -2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £627
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +0.41% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 988 568 1,094
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £14.48
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.50 £22.08
Median % change year-on-year +27.45% +15.52% -47.85%
75th Percentile £58.75 £56.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.40 £73.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.54 £22.72 £21.46
% change year-on-year +30.01% +5.86% -44.26%

Palo Alto
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Palo Alto relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Palo Alto job vacancy trend in the UK

Palo Alto
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Palo Alto.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Palo Alto

Palo Alto
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Palo Alto over the 6 months to 21 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Palo Alto in the UK

Palo Alto
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Palo Alto.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Palo Alto

Palo Alto
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Palo Alto over the 6 months to 21 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Palo Alto in the UK

Palo Alto
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Palo Alto within the UK over the 6 months to 21 May 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 -43 349 £500 -3.85% 89
UK excluding London -59 211 £475 -5.00% 69
London -17 153 £515 +3.00% 43
Work from Home -42 149 £517 -1.57% 51
North of England -67 65 £500 -9.09% 19
South East -32 59 £500 +5.26% 30
North West -47 48 £500 -9.09% 11
Scotland +20 39 £450 +5.88% 13
Midlands -49 24 £388 -29.67% 1
West Midlands -47 23 £350 -36.48% 1
North East -9 15 £638 +96.15% 5
East of England -15 15 £475 -5.00% 1
Wales -8 5 £600 +33.33%
South West -52 5 £488 -10.47% 5
Yorkshire -53 4 £450 -28.00% 3

Palo Alto
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 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.72%) Apache
2 3 (0.72%) Confluence
2 3 (0.72%) IIS
2 3 (0.72%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (2.40%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 132 (31.65%) Azure
2 90 (21.58%) AWS
3 30 (7.19%) GCP
4 23 (5.52%) OCI
5 15 (3.60%) Entra ID
6 11 (2.64%) SaaS
7 10 (2.40%) Azure Sentinel
8 8 (1.92%) GitHub
8 8 (1.92%) Microsoft 365
9 7 (1.68%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 6 (1.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.20%) Mimecast
11 5 (1.20%) Nutanix
12 4 (0.96%) Route 53
13 3 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
13 3 (0.72%) Catchpoint
14 2 (0.48%) Azure DevOps
14 2 (0.48%) GitHub Actions
14 2 (0.48%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 309 (74.10%) Firewall
2 184 (44.12%) WAN
3 132 (31.65%) Network Security
4 117 (28.06%) LAN
5 116 (27.82%) BGP
6 105 (25.18%) VPN
7 103 (24.70%) OSPF
8 89 (21.34%) SD-WAN
9 65 (15.59%) Wireless
10 61 (14.63%) IPsec
10 61 (14.63%) VLAN
11 52 (12.47%) Cisco Nexus
12 47 (11.27%) Cisco ASA
12 47 (11.27%) Wi-Fi
13 46 (11.03%) BIG-IP
13 46 (11.03%) VXLAN
14 45 (10.79%) MPLS
15 37 (8.87%) Cisco ISE
15 37 (8.87%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 36 (8.63%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 3 (0.72%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (0.48%) MariaDB
4 1 (0.24%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.24%) MySQL
4 1 (0.24%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 16 (3.84%) GitLab
2 12 (2.88%) JIRA
3 6 (1.44%) Sonatype Nexus
4 5 (1.20%) Git
5 3 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 52 (12.47%) Social Skills
2 51 (12.23%) Finance
3 38 (9.11%) Public Sector
4 32 (7.67%) Documentation Skills
5 26 (6.24%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (5.28%) Legal
7 19 (4.56%) Manufacturing
8 10 (2.40%) Financial Institution
8 10 (2.40%) Law
8 10 (2.40%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.16%) Retail
10 7 (1.68%) Military
10 7 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.44%) Banking
12 4 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.72%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.72%) French Language
13 3 (0.72%) Marketing
14 2 (0.48%) German Language
14 2 (0.48%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 235 (56.35%) Network Engineer
2 70 (16.79%) Senior
3 50 (11.99%) Architect
4 38 (9.11%) Security Engineer
5 35 (8.39%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 29 (6.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 29 (6.95%) Network Security Engineer
7 28 (6.71%) Senior Network Engineer
8 27 (6.47%) Cisco Engineer
9 26 (6.24%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 25 (6.00%) Network Architect
11 22 (5.28%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 17 (4.08%) Consultant
13 11 (2.64%) Cloud Engineer
13 11 (2.64%) Firewall Engineer
13 11 (2.64%) Solutions Architect
14 10 (2.40%) Lead
15 9 (2.16%) Automation Engineer
15 9 (2.16%) Security Manager
16 8 (1.92%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (5.52%) 802.1X
2 14 (3.36%) SAML
3 13 (3.12%) LDAP
4 4 (0.96%) REST
5 2 (0.48%) CSS
5 2 (0.48%) HTML
5 2 (0.48%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.24%) JSON
6 1 (0.24%) NETCONF
6 1 (0.24%) OAuth
6 1 (0.24%) XML
6 1 (0.24%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 152 (36.45%) Data Centre
2 34 (8.15%) Hybrid Cloud
3 18 (4.32%) Security Posture
4 13 (3.12%) Operational Technology
5 12 (2.88%) PKI
6 10 (2.40%) Cloud Native
7 7 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (1.68%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.44%) Public Cloud
8 6 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (1.20%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.96%) BYOD
10 4 (0.96%) Driving Licence
11 3 (0.72%) CESG
11 3 (0.72%) Cyber Defence
11 3 (0.72%) SCADA
12 2 (0.48%) Algorithms
12 2 (0.48%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 2 (0.48%) Greenfield Project
12 2 (0.48%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 52 (12.47%) Windows
2 50 (11.99%) Linux
3 13 (3.12%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.68%) Unix
5 5 (1.20%) CatOS
6 3 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.24%) VMS
7 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (16.55%) Zero Trust
2 59 (14.15%) Load Balancing
3 54 (12.95%) Network Monitoring
4 51 (12.23%) High Availability
5 50 (11.99%) Migration
5 50 (11.99%) Network Design
6 47 (11.27%) Problem-Solving
7 45 (10.79%) Project Delivery
8 44 (10.55%) Infrastructure as Code
9 41 (9.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 41 (9.83%) ITIL
10 38 (9.11%) CI/CD
11 37 (8.87%) Cybersecurity
12 35 (8.39%) Network Architecture
12 35 (8.39%) Technical Leadership
13 31 (7.43%) Cloud Security
13 31 (7.43%) Network Management
14 28 (6.71%) Validation
15 26 (6.24%) Agile
16 25 (6.00%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 70 (16.79%) Python
2 16 (3.84%) PowerShell
3 15 (3.60%) Bash
4 11 (2.64%) SQL
5 2 (0.48%) ActionScript
5 2 (0.48%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.48%) Korn
6 1 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.24%) Perl
6 1 (0.24%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 130 (31.18%) Cisco Certification
2 128 (30.70%) Security Cleared
3 114 (27.34%) CCNP
3 114 (27.34%) SC Cleared
4 50 (11.99%) CCNA
5 35 (8.39%) Degree
6 20 (4.80%) DV Cleared
7 13 (3.12%) CCIE
8 11 (2.64%) CCSE
9 9 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.92%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.44%) CISSP
11 6 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (1.20%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.96%) CCSM
14 3 (0.72%) CCDP
14 3 (0.72%) CISM
15 2 (0.48%) CCSP
15 2 (0.48%) ISTQB
15 2 (0.48%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (4.56%) NIST
2 13 (3.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (2.88%) NCSC
4 11 (2.64%) Cyber Essentials
5 8 (1.92%) QA
5 8 (1.92%) SLA
6 7 (1.68%) GDPR
6 7 (1.68%) GRC
7 6 (1.44%) Disclosure Scotland
8 4 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.72%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.72%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.72%) RMADS
10 2 (0.48%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.24%) PMO
11 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 34 (8.15%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (5.76%) Active Directory
3 23 (5.52%) VMware NSX
4 7 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (1.44%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.20%) Firmware
6 5 (1.20%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.96%) vSphere
8 3 (0.72%) Snort
9 2 (0.48%) Docker
9 2 (0.48%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.24%) IAG
10 1 (0.24%) NFS
10 1 (0.24%) Squid
Systems Management
1 66 (15.83%) Ansible
2 43 (10.31%) Terraform
3 38 (9.11%) FortiGate
4 13 (3.12%) Prometheus
4 13 (3.12%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.40%) Grafana
6 8 (1.92%) Cisco Prime
7 6 (1.44%) WMI
8 5 (1.20%) Kubernetes
8 5 (1.20%) Salt
9 3 (0.72%) CASB
9 3 (0.72%) Consul
9 3 (0.72%) Nessus
9 3 (0.72%) Suricata
10 2 (0.48%) Check_MK
10 2 (0.48%) Iperf
10 2 (0.48%) Nmap
10 2 (0.48%) SCCM
10 2 (0.48%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.48%) WSUS
Vendors
1 300 (71.94%) Cisco
2 118 (28.30%) F5
3 104 (24.94%) Fortinet
4 103 (24.70%) CheckPoint
5 85 (20.38%) Aruba
6 57 (13.67%) Juniper
7 54 (12.95%) Arista
8 47 (11.27%) VMware
9 45 (10.79%) Microsoft
10 33 (7.91%) Meraki
11 32 (7.67%) Zscaler
12 30 (7.19%) SolarWinds
13 29 (6.95%) ServiceNow
14 20 (4.80%) Splunk
15 13 (3.12%) Infoblox
16 6 (1.44%) Barracuda Networks
16 6 (1.44%) BigPanda
16 6 (1.44%) Google
17 5 (1.20%) Ekahau
17 5 (1.20%) Tenable