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 6 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 472 406 377
Rank change year-on-year -66 -29 -11
Contract jobs citing Firmware 166 109 147
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.39% 0.46%
As % of the System Software category 3.58% 3.17% 3.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 66 43 73
10th Percentile £225 £160 £158
25th Percentile £341 £288 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -7.69%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £550
90th Percentile £583 £588 £587
UK median daily rate £440 £400 £475
% change year-on-year +10.00% -15.79% -3.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 32 25
10th Percentile £17.33 £52.00 £34.81
25th Percentile £52.81 £59.63 £51.25
Median hourly rate £61.75 £81.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.77% +15.71% +27.27%
75th Percentile £71.00 £89.06 -
90th Percentile £78.10 £91.50 £71.95
UK median hourly rate £61.50 £81.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -24.07% +39.66% +5.45%

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 4,636 3,440 3,703
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.01% 12.39% 11.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 2,215 2,419
10th Percentile £218 £211 £220
25th Percentile £385 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £613
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 237 107 90
10th Percentile £17.75 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £28.00 £22.50 £19.37
Median hourly rate £63.14 £34.50 £28.75
Median % change year-on-year +83.00% +20.00% -37.74%
75th Percentile £74.00 £76.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.84 £89.78 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £61.50 £34.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +80.88% +23.64% -42.58%

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 -36 41 £400 -5.88% 106
East of England -21 37 £403 +360.00% 225
South East -37 31 £525 +10.53% 189
North West -22 30 £425 - 54
Midlands -25 30 £325 -43.48% 98
London -101 28 £450 +9.09% 176
West Midlands -35 21 £288 -50.00% 45
Yorkshire - 11 £365 - 31
South West -33 10 £560 +27.27% 89
East Midlands -3 9 £500 +27.55% 53
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 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (0.60%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.41%) OrCAD
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%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 1 (0.60%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 19 (11.45%) Azure
2 8 (4.82%) AWS
3 6 (3.61%) Cohesity
4 4 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (1.81%) Rubrik
6 2 (1.20%) AWS IoT
6 2 (1.20%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.20%) GitHub
6 2 (1.20%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.20%) IaaS
6 2 (1.20%) Nutanix
6 2 (1.20%) PaaS
6 2 (1.20%) SaaS
7 1 (0.60%) Figma
7 1 (0.60%) OCI
7 1 (0.60%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.65%) TCP/IP
2 20 (12.05%) Firewall
3 18 (10.84%) DNS
3 18 (10.84%) SAN
4 16 (9.64%) WAN
4 16 (9.64%) Wi-Fi
5 14 (8.43%) SSL
5 14 (8.43%) Wireshark
6 13 (7.83%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 13 (7.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 13 (7.83%) Wireless
7 12 (7.23%) BIG-IP
7 12 (7.23%) HTTP
8 11 (6.63%) SD-WAN
8 11 (6.63%) Software-Defined Radio
9 10 (6.02%) LAN
9 10 (6.02%) VLAN
10 9 (5.42%) NAS
11 8 (4.82%) Ethernet
12 7 (4.22%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 12 (7.23%) Fiddler
2 11 (6.63%) JIRA
3 8 (4.82%) Git
4 4 (2.41%) GitLab
5 3 (1.81%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (1.20%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (1.20%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (1.20%) VectorCAST
7 1 (0.60%) Ranorex
General
1 34 (20.48%) Social Skills
2 25 (15.06%) Electronics
3 15 (9.04%) Aerospace
3 15 (9.04%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (7.23%) Banking
4 12 (7.23%) Investment Banking
5 11 (6.63%) Manufacturing
6 9 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (4.22%) Telecoms
8 6 (3.61%) Avionics
9 5 (3.01%) Retail
10 4 (2.41%) Law
11 3 (1.81%) Automotive
11 3 (1.81%) Legal
11 3 (1.81%) Military
12 2 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.60%) Aviation
13 1 (0.60%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 30 (18.07%) Network Engineer
2 16 (9.64%) Software Engineer
3 15 (9.04%) Embedded Engineer
4 13 (7.83%) Lead
5 12 (7.23%) Blue Coat Engineer
5 12 (7.23%) IP Network Engineer
5 12 (7.23%) Web Engineer
6 10 (6.02%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 9 (5.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 9 (5.42%) Senior
8 7 (4.22%) Consultant
8 7 (4.22%) Developer
8 7 (4.22%) Electronics Engineer
9 6 (3.61%) Analyst
9 6 (3.61%) Backup Engineer
9 6 (3.61%) Storage and Backup Engineer
9 6 (3.61%) Storage Engineer
10 5 (3.01%) Firmware Engineer
10 5 (3.01%) Hardware Technician
10 5 (3.01%) ICT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.02%) Yocto
2 5 (3.01%) Redfish
3 4 (2.41%) Terraform
4 3 (1.81%) Flutter
4 3 (1.81%) REST
5 2 (1.20%) .NET
6 1 (0.60%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.60%) Flash
6 1 (0.60%) Framer.js
6 1 (0.60%) Middleware
6 1 (0.60%) PyQt
6 1 (0.60%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 35 (21.08%) Embedded Systems
2 25 (15.06%) Data Centre
3 15 (9.04%) Device Driver
3 15 (9.04%) Management Information System
3 15 (9.04%) RISC-V
4 13 (7.83%) FPGA
4 13 (7.83%) IoT
5 9 (5.42%) Clustering
5 9 (5.42%) Enterprise Storage
5 9 (5.42%) Replication
6 8 (4.82%) MicroBlaze
7 6 (3.61%) Robotics
8 5 (3.01%) Driving Licence
8 5 (3.01%) EPoS
8 5 (3.01%) Operational Technology
8 5 (3.01%) PCIe
8 5 (3.01%) Verilog
9 4 (2.41%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (2.41%) VHDL
9 4 (2.41%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 32 (19.28%) Linux
2 31 (18.67%) Windows
3 13 (7.83%) Embedded Linux
4 10 (6.02%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.61%) AIX
6 5 (3.01%) Android
7 4 (2.41%) Unix
8 3 (1.81%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.81%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (1.20%) VxWorks
9 2 (1.20%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.60%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.60%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.60%) VMS
10 1 (0.60%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (17.47%) Software Engineering
2 22 (13.25%) Capacity Planning
3 21 (12.65%) ITIL
4 19 (11.45%) Disaster Recovery
5 17 (10.24%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (10.24%) Validation
6 14 (8.43%) Data Centre Operations
6 14 (8.43%) Signal Processing
7 13 (7.83%) Agile
7 13 (7.83%) Configuration Management
7 13 (7.83%) High Availability
7 13 (7.83%) Migration
8 12 (7.23%) Data Loss Prevention
8 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 12 (7.23%) Load Balancing
8 12 (7.23%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 11 (6.63%) Project Delivery
9 11 (6.63%) Root Cause Analysis
9 11 (6.63%) Test Automation
10 10 (6.02%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 32 (19.28%) C
2 30 (18.07%) C++
3 17 (10.24%) Python
4 13 (7.83%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.42%) Ada
6 5 (3.01%) C#
6 5 (3.01%) Java
7 4 (2.41%) Embedded C
7 4 (2.41%) Embedded C++
7 4 (2.41%) Perl
7 4 (2.41%) SystemVerilog
8 3 (1.81%) Bash
8 3 (1.81%) Kotlin
8 3 (1.81%) MATLAB
8 3 (1.81%) Swift
9 2 (1.20%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.60%) Rust
10 1 (0.60%) Tcl
10 1 (0.60%) VB
Qualifications
1 39 (23.49%) Security Cleared
2 23 (13.86%) Degree
3 22 (13.25%) SC Cleared
4 10 (6.02%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (6.02%) DV Cleared
5 9 (5.42%) ITIL Certification
6 5 (3.01%) CCNA
6 5 (3.01%) CCNP
7 4 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (1.81%) CCIE
8 3 (1.81%) CISSP
8 3 (1.81%) ISACA
8 3 (1.81%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.20%) CEH
9 2 (1.20%) CompTIA Security+
9 2 (1.20%) MCSE
10 1 (0.60%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.60%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.60%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.02%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.42%) DO-178B
3 8 (4.82%) DO-254
4 7 (4.22%) MISRA
5 6 (3.61%) NIST
5 6 (3.61%) QA
6 4 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (2.41%) NCSC
6 4 (2.41%) SLA
7 3 (1.81%) NIST 800
8 2 (1.20%) GDPR
8 2 (1.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.60%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.60%) DO-160
9 1 (0.60%) JTAG
System Software
1 32 (19.28%) VMware Infrastructure
2 25 (15.06%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (5.42%) Active Directory
4 7 (4.22%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (3.61%) vSphere
6 4 (2.41%) PowerHA
7 3 (1.81%) BitLocker
7 3 (1.81%) NFS
7 3 (1.81%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.20%) Hyper-V
8 2 (1.20%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.60%) KVM
9 1 (0.60%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.60%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 7 (4.22%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.61%) Dell DRAC
2 6 (3.61%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 5 (3.01%) vCenter Server
4 4 (2.41%) Ansible
5 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.81%) SCCM
5 3 (1.81%) SnapMirror
5 3 (1.81%) vMotion
Vendors
1 35 (21.08%) VMware
2 26 (15.66%) Cisco
3 18 (10.84%) NetApp
4 15 (9.04%) F5
5 14 (8.43%) Microsoft
6 13 (7.83%) McAfee
7 12 (7.23%) Blue Coat
8 10 (6.02%) EMC
9 9 (5.42%) Fortinet
10 8 (4.82%) HP
10 8 (4.82%) Palo Alto
10 8 (4.82%) Xilinx
11 7 (4.22%) IBM
12 6 (3.61%) Altera
12 6 (3.61%) Juniper
12 6 (3.61%) ServiceNow
13 5 (3.01%) Infoblox
13 5 (3.01%) Meraki
13 5 (3.01%) Veeam
13 5 (3.01%) Zscaler