Firmware Contract Job Trends in England

Firmware
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Firmware skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 458 407 360
Rank change year-on-year -51 -47 +50
Contract jobs citing Firmware 167 108 166
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.39% 0.50%
As % of the System Software category 3.64% 3.30% 4.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 48 80
10th Percentile £243 £192 £205
25th Percentile £358 £321 £289
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £439 £425 £433
Median % change year-on-year +3.24% -1.73% -8.95%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £532
90th Percentile £626 £588 £575
UK median daily rate £425 £401 £450
% change year-on-year +6.12% -11.00% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 27 41
10th Percentile £12.76 £51.63 £20.50
25th Percentile £42.50 £55.50 £51.06
Median hourly rate £65.00 £82.50 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.21% +43.48% +4.55%
75th Percentile £75.00 £89.38 £70.00
90th Percentile - £91.50 -
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £82.50 £57.38
% change year-on-year -24.24% +43.79% +4.32%

All System Software Skills
England

Firmware falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring system software skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,591 3,273 3,882
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.07% 11.84% 11.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,026 2,114 2,701
10th Percentile £215 £225 £225
25th Percentile £400 £385 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £680 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 190 93 130
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.10 £14.06
25th Percentile £29.00 £23.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £60.17 £40.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +50.41% +65.43% -33.30%
75th Percentile £74.20 £81.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £85.48 £91.50 £73.73
UK median hourly rate £54.00 £33.64 £24.18
% change year-on-year +60.55% +39.10% -49.45%

Firmware
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Firmware relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Firmware job vacancy trend in England

Firmware
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Firmware.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Firmware

Firmware
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firmware in England over the 6 months to 14 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Firmware in England

Firmware
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Firmware.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Firmware

Firmware
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Firmware in England over the 6 months to 14 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Firmware in England

Firmware
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Firmware within the England region over the 6 months to 14 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
North of England -21 52 £365 -16.57% 52
Midlands -22 40 £413 -28.26% 36
North West -19 32 £420 -4.00% 26
London -79 30 £450 +12.50% 77
West Midlands -32 29 £413 -28.26% 18
South East -51 29 £600 +33.33% 116
East of England -27 25 £425 - 139
Yorkshire - 19 £365 - 12
East Midlands -15 11 £500 +27.55% 18
South West -46 5 £425 -3.41% 53
North East - 1 - - 16
Firmware
UK

Firmware
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 6 (3.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.60%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (2.99%) Simulink
2 1 (0.60%) Adobe After Effects
2 1 (0.60%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.60%) Blender
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.60%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 30 (17.96%) Azure
2 10 (5.99%) Entra ID
3 9 (5.39%) AWS
4 8 (4.79%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (2.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.40%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (1.80%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (1.80%) Azure Stack
8 2 (1.20%) AWS IoT
8 2 (1.20%) GitHub
8 2 (1.20%) GitHub Copilot
8 2 (1.20%) IaaS
8 2 (1.20%) OCI
8 2 (1.20%) PaaS
8 2 (1.20%) SaaS
9 1 (0.60%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (0.60%) Cohesity
9 1 (0.60%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.60%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 25 (14.97%) DNS
2 24 (14.37%) Firewall
3 20 (11.98%) SAN
4 19 (11.38%) SSL
4 19 (11.38%) Wireshark
5 18 (10.78%) TCP/IP
6 17 (10.18%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 17 (10.18%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 17 (10.18%) WAN
7 16 (9.58%) BIG-IP
7 16 (9.58%) HTTP
8 14 (8.38%) VLAN
9 13 (7.78%) Wireless
10 12 (7.19%) Software-Defined Radio
11 11 (6.59%) SD-WAN
12 10 (5.99%) DHCP
12 10 (5.99%) LAN
12 10 (5.99%) Wi-Fi
13 9 (5.39%) VPN
14 8 (4.79%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.60%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 16 (9.58%) Fiddler
2 10 (5.99%) JIRA
3 6 (3.59%) Git
4 3 (1.80%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (1.20%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (1.20%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (1.20%) VectorCAST
6 1 (0.60%) Ranorex
6 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 34 (20.36%) Social Skills
2 16 (9.58%) Banking
2 16 (9.58%) Investment Banking
3 15 (8.98%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (8.38%) Electronics
5 11 (6.59%) Aerospace
6 5 (2.99%) Manufacturing
6 5 (2.99%) Retail
7 4 (2.40%) Law
8 3 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.80%) Legal
9 2 (1.20%) Finance
9 2 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.60%) Automotive
10 1 (0.60%) Games
10 1 (0.60%) Local Government
10 1 (0.60%) Mandarin Language
10 1 (0.60%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.60%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 32 (19.16%) Network Engineer
2 17 (10.18%) Embedded Engineer
2 17 (10.18%) Software Engineer
3 16 (9.58%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 16 (9.58%) IP Network Engineer
3 16 (9.58%) Web Engineer
4 13 (7.78%) Lead
4 13 (7.78%) Senior
5 11 (6.59%) Administrator
6 10 (5.99%) Data Centre Engineer
7 9 (5.39%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 7 (4.19%) Developer
8 7 (4.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 6 (3.59%) Analyst
9 6 (3.59%) Firmware Engineer
9 6 (3.59%) FPGA Engineer
9 6 (3.59%) SAN Administrator
9 6 (3.59%) Storage Administrator
9 6 (3.59%) Storage and Backup Administrator
9 6 (3.59%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.78%) Redfish
2 10 (5.99%) Yocto
3 3 (1.80%) .NET
3 3 (1.80%) 802.1X
3 3 (1.80%) OpenTelemetry
4 2 (1.20%) Flutter
4 2 (1.20%) REST
5 1 (0.60%) Framer.js
5 1 (0.60%) JSON
5 1 (0.60%) Middleware
5 1 (0.60%) PyQt
5 1 (0.60%) Streamlit
5 1 (0.60%) WPF
5 1 (0.60%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (18.56%) Data Centre
2 30 (17.96%) Embedded Systems
3 16 (9.58%) Management Information System
4 15 (8.98%) RISC-V
5 14 (8.38%) Device Driver
6 13 (7.78%) FPGA
7 12 (7.19%) Clustering
8 9 (5.39%) Verilog
9 8 (4.79%) IoT
9 8 (4.79%) MicroBlaze
9 8 (4.79%) Replication
9 8 (4.79%) VHDL
10 7 (4.19%) Onboarding
11 6 (3.59%) Driving Licence
11 6 (3.59%) Enterprise Storage
11 6 (3.59%) PCIe
12 5 (2.99%) EPoS
12 5 (2.99%) Linux Command Line
13 4 (2.40%) Analytical Mindset
13 4 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 36 (21.56%) Linux
2 32 (19.16%) Windows
3 14 (8.38%) Embedded Linux
4 11 (6.59%) AIX
5 7 (4.19%) Unix
5 7 (4.19%) Windows Server
6 5 (2.99%) VMS
7 4 (2.40%) Android
8 3 (1.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (1.80%) SUSE
9 2 (1.20%) Apple iOS
9 2 (1.20%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.60%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.60%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.60%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (16.77%) Software Engineering
2 22 (13.17%) Capacity Planning
2 22 (13.17%) Data Centre Operations
3 21 (12.57%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (11.98%) ITIL
4 20 (11.98%) Migration
5 18 (10.78%) Load Balancing
6 16 (9.58%) Data Loss Prevention
6 16 (9.58%) Malware Detection/Protection
6 16 (9.58%) Validation
7 15 (8.98%) Runbook
8 14 (8.38%) Test Automation
9 13 (7.78%) Disaster Recovery
9 13 (7.78%) Performance Tuning
9 13 (7.78%) Signal Processing
10 12 (7.19%) Agile
10 12 (7.19%) High Availability
11 11 (6.59%) Asset Management
11 11 (6.59%) Project Delivery
12 10 (5.99%) Inventory Management
Programming Languages
1 31 (18.56%) C++
2 29 (17.37%) C
3 27 (16.17%) Python
4 17 (10.18%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.39%) Ada
6 8 (4.79%) SystemVerilog
7 7 (4.19%) Bash
7 7 (4.19%) C#
7 7 (4.19%) MATLAB
7 7 (4.19%) Perl
8 4 (2.40%) Embedded C
8 4 (2.40%) Embedded C++
8 4 (2.40%) Java
9 2 (1.20%) Kotlin
9 2 (1.20%) Swift
9 2 (1.20%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.60%) Rust
10 1 (0.60%) Tcl
10 1 (0.60%) VB
Qualifications
1 31 (18.56%) Security Cleared
2 25 (14.97%) SC Cleared
3 23 (13.77%) Degree
4 11 (6.59%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (3.59%) CCNA
5 6 (3.59%) CCNP
6 5 (2.99%) CISSP
6 5 (2.99%) ITIL Certification
7 4 (2.40%) Azure Certification
7 4 (2.40%) CEH
7 4 (2.40%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (2.40%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.80%) CCIE
8 3 (1.80%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.80%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.20%) MCSE
9 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.60%) HNC
10 1 (0.60%) HND
10 1 (0.60%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.39%) DO-178B
1 9 (5.39%) DO-254
2 8 (4.79%) Def Stans
3 7 (4.19%) MISRA
4 6 (3.59%) QA
5 5 (2.99%) NIST
6 2 (1.20%) GDPR
7 1 (0.60%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.60%) JTAG
7 1 (0.60%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.60%) SLA
System Software
1 30 (17.96%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (15.57%) Embedded Firmware
3 17 (10.18%) Active Directory
4 8 (4.79%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (4.19%) PowerHA
6 6 (3.59%) vSphere
7 5 (2.99%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (2.40%) BitLocker
8 4 (2.40%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.60%) Docker
9 1 (0.60%) NFS
9 1 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.60%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 13 (7.78%) Dell DRAC
2 8 (4.79%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 7 (4.19%) Ansible
3 7 (4.19%) FortiGate
3 7 (4.19%) Terraform
4 5 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (2.99%) vCenter Server
5 4 (2.40%) SCCM
6 3 (1.80%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (1.80%) Microsoft Clustering
6 3 (1.80%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.80%) VxRail
7 1 (0.60%) Grafana
7 1 (0.60%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.60%) SnapMirror
7 1 (0.60%) vMotion
Vendors
1 34 (20.36%) VMware
2 33 (19.76%) Cisco
3 19 (11.38%) F5
4 17 (10.18%) McAfee
4 17 (10.18%) NetApp
5 16 (9.58%) Blue Coat
6 15 (8.98%) Microsoft
7 12 (7.19%) IBM
8 10 (5.99%) Dell
8 10 (5.99%) Fortinet
9 9 (5.39%) Xilinx
10 8 (4.79%) Meraki
10 8 (4.79%) Microsemi
11 7 (4.19%) Juniper
11 7 (4.19%) Palo Alto
11 7 (4.19%) ServiceNow
12 6 (3.59%) Altera
12 6 (3.59%) EMC
12 6 (3.59%) HP
13 5 (2.99%) Infoblox