Firewall Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Firewall
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Firewall skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 7 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 82 47
Rank change year-on-year 0 -35 +14
Permanent jobs citing Firewall 97 112 182
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.40% 3.25% 4.88%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 27.48% 23.63% 39.06%
Number of salaries quoted 68 73 175
10th Percentile £30,500 £34,600 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £41,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.73% +10.00% +33.33%
75th Percentile £61,563 £63,750 £59,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £74,250
South East median annual salary £46,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -13.21% +6.00% +11.11%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

Firewall falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 353 474 466
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.74% 13.74% 12.51%
Number of salaries quoted 187 221 404
10th Percentile £27,250 £31,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -17.00% - +9.29%
75th Percentile £56,812 £63,750 £61,250
90th Percentile £69,250 £90,000 £77,500
South East median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% +5.26%

Firewall
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Firewall relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Firewall job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Firewall
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Firewall.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Firewall

Firewall
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Firewall in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 7 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Firewall in the Thames Valley

Firewall
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Firewall within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 7 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire -1 56 £49,000 -10.91% 28
Oxfordshire +16 23 £32,375 -47.14% 4
Buckinghamshire -4 18 £48,000 -4.00% 12
Firewall
South East

Firewall
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 16 (16.49%) SharePoint
2 10 (10.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (4.12%) Exchange Server 2013
3 4 (4.12%) IIS
4 3 (3.09%) WinCC
5 2 (2.06%) CMS
5 2 (2.06%) FactoryTalk
5 2 (2.06%) WordPress
6 1 (1.03%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 10 (10.31%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.03%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 39 (40.21%) Azure
2 38 (39.18%) Microsoft 365
3 23 (23.71%) AWS
4 9 (9.28%) Google Workspace
5 7 (7.22%) GCP
6 4 (4.12%) Azure Sentinel
6 4 (4.12%) Entra ID
6 4 (4.12%) SaaS
7 3 (3.09%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (1.03%) OneDrive
8 1 (1.03%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 32 (32.99%) DNS
2 27 (27.84%) DHCP
3 26 (26.80%) TCP/IP
4 22 (22.68%) VLAN
5 20 (20.62%) VPN
5 20 (20.62%) Wireless
6 16 (16.49%) WAN
7 13 (13.40%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (12.37%) SAN
9 11 (11.34%) VoIP
10 10 (10.31%) Network Security
11 7 (7.22%) DECT
11 7 (7.22%) DSL
11 7 (7.22%) LAN
11 7 (7.22%) PBX
11 7 (7.22%) Unified Communications
11 7 (7.22%) Wireshark
12 6 (6.19%) NAS
13 4 (4.12%) Modbus
14 3 (3.09%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (7.22%) SQL Server
2 2 (2.06%) MySQL
2 2 (2.06%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (1.03%) GitLab
General
1 33 (34.02%) Social Skills
2 11 (11.34%) Telecoms
3 7 (7.22%) Finance
3 7 (7.22%) Marketing
4 6 (6.19%) Retail
5 4 (4.12%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (4.12%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.06%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.03%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.03%) Law
7 1 (1.03%) Legal
Job Titles
1 18 (18.56%) Senior
2 12 (12.37%) IT Support
3 11 (11.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 11 (11.34%) Infrastructure Manager
3 11 (11.34%) Support Engineer
4 10 (10.31%) 2nd Line Support
4 10 (10.31%) Security Engineer
5 9 (9.28%) Analyst
5 9 (9.28%) Cisco Engineer
5 9 (9.28%) Cybersecurity Engineer
5 9 (9.28%) Senior Security Engineer
6 8 (8.25%) Cisco Field Engineer
6 8 (8.25%) Field Engineer
7 7 (7.22%) IT Engineer
7 7 (7.22%) IT Infrastructure Manager
7 7 (7.22%) IT Manager
7 7 (7.22%) IT Security Manager
7 7 (7.22%) IT Support Engineer
7 7 (7.22%) Lead
7 7 (7.22%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.06%) Web Services
2 1 (1.03%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 11 (11.34%) Driving Licence
2 7 (7.22%) Security Operations Centre
2 7 (7.22%) Web Conferencing
3 6 (6.19%) Replication
4 5 (5.15%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (4.12%) Cloud Native
5 4 (4.12%) Data Centre
5 4 (4.12%) Operational Technology
5 4 (4.12%) SCADA
6 3 (3.09%) Renewable Energy
7 2 (2.06%) Clustering
7 2 (2.06%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (2.06%) Management Information System
8 1 (1.03%) CMDB
8 1 (1.03%) Cyber Defence
8 1 (1.03%) PKI
8 1 (1.03%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 51 (52.58%) Windows
2 32 (32.99%) Windows Server
3 16 (16.49%) Linux
4 10 (10.31%) Windows Server 2019
5 7 (7.22%) Android
5 7 (7.22%) Apple iOS
6 4 (4.12%) Windows 10
6 4 (4.12%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (3.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (2.06%) Mac OS
8 2 (2.06%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (29.90%) Cybersecurity
2 22 (22.68%) ITIL
3 19 (19.59%) Problem-Solving
4 13 (13.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 13 (13.40%) Presales
5 12 (12.37%) Business Continuity
5 12 (12.37%) Mentoring
5 12 (12.37%) Project Delivery
6 11 (11.34%) Agile
7 10 (10.31%) Security Operations
8 9 (9.28%) Customer Service
8 9 (9.28%) Disaster Recovery
8 9 (9.28%) High Availability
8 9 (9.28%) SIEM
8 9 (9.28%) Time Management
9 8 (8.25%) Kalman Filter
9 8 (8.25%) Penetration Testing
10 7 (7.22%) Case Management
10 7 (7.22%) Network Design
10 7 (7.22%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 11 (11.34%) PowerShell
2 6 (6.19%) Bash
2 6 (6.19%) Python
3 4 (4.12%) SQL
4 2 (2.06%) Korn
4 2 (2.06%) T-SQL
5 1 (1.03%) Bicep
5 1 (1.03%) Ladder Logic
5 1 (1.03%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 16 (16.49%) Degree
2 12 (12.37%) Security Cleared
3 11 (11.34%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (10.31%) CISSP
5 8 (8.25%) CCNA
6 7 (7.22%) CCNP
6 7 (7.22%) CompTIA Security+
6 7 (7.22%) GCIA
6 7 (7.22%) SANS
7 6 (6.19%) DV Cleared
7 6 (6.19%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (5.15%) SC Cleared
9 4 (4.12%) MCSE
10 3 (3.09%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 3 (3.09%) CCSP
10 3 (3.09%) CEH
10 3 (3.09%) CISA
10 3 (3.09%) CISM
10 3 (3.09%) MCP
10 3 (3.09%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (19.59%) Cyber Essentials
2 16 (16.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (7.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (4.12%) SLA
5 3 (3.09%) GRC
5 3 (3.09%) IEC 61508
5 3 (3.09%) PCI DSS
5 3 (3.09%) QA
6 2 (2.06%) IEC 61131
6 2 (2.06%) NIST
7 1 (1.03%) NIST 800
System Software
1 33 (34.02%) Active Directory
2 24 (24.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (21.65%) Hyper-V
4 11 (11.34%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (6.19%) vSphere
6 5 (5.15%) VMware NSX
7 4 (4.12%) Docker
8 2 (2.06%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 21 (21.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (5.15%) SCCM
2 5 (5.15%) Terraform
2 5 (5.15%) vRealize
3 3 (3.09%) Ansible
3 3 (3.09%) Kubernetes
4 2 (2.06%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (2.06%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.03%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.03%) WSUS
Vendors
1 45 (46.39%) Microsoft
2 40 (41.24%) VMware
3 17 (17.53%) Cisco
4 15 (15.46%) Palo Alto
5 12 (12.37%) Draytek
5 12 (12.37%) Google
5 12 (12.37%) Sophos
6 10 (10.31%) Meraki
7 6 (6.19%) LogicMonitor
8 5 (5.15%) CheckPoint
9 4 (4.12%) arcserve
9 4 (4.12%) Aruba
9 4 (4.12%) Atlassian
9 4 (4.12%) Fortinet
9 4 (4.12%) Tenable
10 3 (3.09%) Forcepoint
10 3 (3.09%) Red Hat
10 3 (3.09%) Rockwell
10 3 (3.09%) Siemens
10 3 (3.09%) Splunk