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 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 89 44
Rank change year-on-year +42 -45 +2
Permanent jobs citing Firewall 188 114 314
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.07% 3.17% 4.75%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 41.69% 19.52% 34.51%
Number of salaries quoted 143 91 269
10th Percentile £31,200 £34,750 £32,250
25th Percentile £38,750 £37,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +22.22% - -
75th Percentile £68,750 £68,352 £57,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £78,750 £64,000
South East median annual salary £48,000 £47,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +1.05% +11.76% -5.56%

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 451 584 910
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.36% 16.24% 13.76%
Number of salaries quoted 325 280 633
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,166 £45,000 £44,089
Median % change year-on-year +4.81% +2.07% -7.18%
75th Percentile £67,500 £64,063 £59,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £75,000 £70,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £42,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% +3.26%

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 11 July 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 11 July 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 +52 96 £55,000 +4.76% 19
Buckinghamshire +5 62 £62,500 +51.52% 14
Oxfordshire -3 30 £40,000 -3.61% 16
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 33 (17.55%) SharePoint
2 31 (16.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (2.66%) Apache
4 4 (2.13%) Confluence
5 2 (1.06%) nginx
6 1 (0.53%) IIS
Business Applications
1 6 (3.19%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 90 (47.87%) Azure
2 59 (31.38%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (28.19%) AWS
4 20 (10.64%) Entra ID
5 12 (6.38%) Azure Sentinel
5 12 (6.38%) GCP
6 10 (5.32%) OpenShift
7 8 (4.26%) Cloudflare
7 8 (4.26%) Power Automate
8 6 (3.19%) OneDrive
9 5 (2.66%) Apigee
9 5 (2.66%) Kong
10 4 (2.13%) Google Workspace
11 3 (1.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 3 (1.60%) IaaS
11 3 (1.60%) Power Platform
12 2 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
13 1 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
13 1 (0.53%) Mimecast
13 1 (0.53%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 90 (47.87%) DNS
2 78 (41.49%) VPN
3 44 (23.40%) Wi-Fi
4 37 (19.68%) DHCP
4 37 (19.68%) WAN
5 31 (16.49%) LAN
6 30 (15.96%) TCP/IP
7 29 (15.43%) VLAN
8 22 (11.70%) Wireless
9 21 (11.17%) Network Security
9 21 (11.17%) VoIP
10 12 (6.38%) SAN
11 11 (5.85%) Remote Desktop
11 11 (5.85%) SD-WAN
12 10 (5.32%) PBX
13 9 (4.79%) HTTP
13 9 (4.79%) Unified Communications
13 9 (4.79%) Wireshark
14 8 (4.26%) DECT
14 8 (4.26%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.32%) SQL Server
2 8 (4.26%) MySQL
2 8 (4.26%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.60%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 13 (6.91%) GitLab
2 6 (3.19%) Git
3 4 (2.13%) JIRA
General
1 72 (38.30%) Social Skills
2 23 (12.23%) Telecoms
3 18 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (8.51%) Organisational Skills
5 15 (7.98%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (6.38%) Finance
7 6 (3.19%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (3.19%) Presentation Skills
7 6 (3.19%) Retail
8 5 (2.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (2.66%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.66%) Marketing
9 2 (1.06%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.53%) Aviation
10 1 (0.53%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.53%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 39 (20.74%) Senior
2 32 (17.02%) Architect
3 29 (15.43%) Network Engineer
4 27 (14.36%) IT Support
5 26 (13.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 25 (13.30%) IT Engineer
7 18 (9.57%) Applications Architect
8 17 (9.04%) Support Engineer
9 16 (8.51%) Analyst
9 16 (8.51%) IT Support Engineer
10 15 (7.98%) Security Architect
11 13 (6.91%) Security Engineer
12 12 (6.38%) Support Technician
13 11 (5.85%) IT Support Technician
13 11 (5.85%) IT Technician
14 10 (5.32%) 2nd Line Support
14 10 (5.32%) Automation Engineer
14 10 (5.32%) Telecoms Engineer
15 9 (4.79%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 8 (4.26%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (12.23%) Regular Expression
2 19 (10.11%) LDAP
2 19 (10.11%) XMPP
3 17 (9.04%) JSON
4 12 (6.38%) XML
5 10 (5.32%) Jinja
5 10 (5.32%) YAML
6 7 (3.72%) JSON Schema
7 5 (2.66%) REST
7 5 (2.66%) YANG
8 2 (1.06%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 25 (13.30%) Self-Motivation
2 22 (11.70%) Driving Licence
3 16 (8.51%) PKI
4 11 (5.85%) Cyber Defence
5 9 (4.79%) Cloud Native
5 9 (4.79%) Cyber Threat
6 8 (4.26%) Management Information System
6 8 (4.26%) Security Posture
6 8 (4.26%) Web Conferencing
7 7 (3.72%) Onboarding
8 6 (3.19%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (3.19%) CCTV
8 6 (3.19%) Data Centre
8 6 (3.19%) Private Cloud
9 4 (2.13%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (2.13%) Public Cloud
9 4 (2.13%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.60%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (1.60%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 112 (59.57%) Windows
2 81 (43.09%) Linux
3 79 (42.02%) Windows Server
4 31 (16.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (5.32%) Mac OS
6 9 (4.79%) Windows 10
7 5 (2.66%) Unix
8 4 (2.13%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (1.06%) CentOS
10 1 (0.53%) FreeBSD
10 1 (0.53%) OpenBSD
10 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (27.13%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (23.94%) SIEM
3 40 (21.28%) Cybersecurity
4 34 (18.09%) Continuous Improvement
4 34 (18.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 30 (15.96%) Disaster Recovery
6 29 (15.43%) ITIL
7 26 (13.83%) Validation
8 24 (12.77%) Customer Service
9 20 (10.64%) High Availability
10 19 (10.11%) Application Security
10 19 (10.11%) Platform Engineering
10 19 (10.11%) Time Management
11 18 (9.57%) Task Automation
12 17 (9.04%) Antivirus Management
12 17 (9.04%) Incident Response
13 16 (8.51%) CI/CD
13 16 (8.51%) Containerisation
13 16 (8.51%) Pattern Matching
13 16 (8.51%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 47 (25.00%) PowerShell
2 37 (19.68%) Python
3 24 (12.77%) Bash
4 7 (3.72%) Search Processing Language
4 7 (3.72%) Shell Script
5 6 (3.19%) Korn
6 5 (2.66%) JavaScript
7 4 (2.13%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (1.06%) C
9 1 (0.53%) Bicep
9 1 (0.53%) SQL
Qualifications
1 49 (26.06%) Security Cleared
2 32 (17.02%) DV Cleared
3 31 (16.49%) Degree
4 18 (9.57%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (7.98%) CCNA
6 13 (6.91%) CCNP
6 13 (6.91%) GCIA
6 13 (6.91%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (6.91%) SC Cleared
7 12 (6.38%) CompTIA Security+
8 10 (5.32%) GIAC
8 10 (5.32%) SANS
9 9 (4.79%) Network+ Certification
10 8 (4.26%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (4.26%) CREST Certified
10 8 (4.26%) GCIH
11 7 (3.72%) DBS Check
11 7 (3.72%) GCED
11 7 (3.72%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (3.19%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (8.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 8 (4.26%) GDPR
2 8 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (4.26%) SLA
3 5 (2.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (2.13%) NCSC
5 3 (1.60%) QA
5 3 (1.60%) SOC 2
6 2 (1.06%) NIST
7 1 (0.53%) GRC
System Software
1 86 (45.74%) Active Directory
2 34 (18.09%) Hyper-V
2 34 (18.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (15.43%) vSphere
4 12 (6.38%) Docker
5 10 (5.32%) VMware NSX
6 9 (4.79%) KVM
7 8 (4.26%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 5 (2.66%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (1.60%) BitLocker
9 3 (1.60%) Terminal Services
10 2 (1.06%) Samba
10 2 (1.06%) Squid
10 2 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 17 (9.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (7.45%) Kubernetes
3 9 (4.79%) Graylog
3 9 (4.79%) Proxmox
4 8 (4.26%) Kibana
4 8 (4.26%) ZABBIX
5 6 (3.19%) Terraform
5 6 (3.19%) vRealize
6 4 (2.13%) Ansible
6 4 (2.13%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (1.60%) Grafana
7 3 (1.60%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.06%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.53%) Autotask
9 1 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.53%) QRadar
Vendors
1 111 (59.04%) Microsoft
2 76 (40.43%) VMware
3 37 (19.68%) Red Hat
4 33 (17.55%) Cisco
5 18 (9.57%) Palo Alto
6 15 (7.98%) Fortinet
6 15 (7.98%) McAfee
6 15 (7.98%) Veeam
7 12 (6.38%) Aruba
8 11 (5.85%) Juniper
9 10 (5.32%) Splunk
10 9 (4.79%) CrowdStrike
11 8 (4.26%) Dell
12 7 (3.72%) Carbon Black
13 5 (2.66%) Datto
13 5 (2.66%) F5
13 5 (2.66%) Google
14 4 (2.13%) Citrix
14 4 (2.13%) IBM
14 4 (2.13%) SonicWALL