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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 481 412 385
Rank change year-on-year -69 -27 -16
Contract jobs citing Firmware 159 109 144
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.39% 0.44%
As % of the System Software category 3.43% 3.14% 3.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 45 77
10th Percentile £246 £160 £161
25th Percentile £358 £300 £240
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -6.49%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £538
90th Percentile £602 £588 £586
UK median daily rate £450 £400 £473
% change year-on-year +12.50% -15.34% -3.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 32 25
10th Percentile £12.76 £52.00 £34.81
25th Percentile £53.75 £59.63 £51.25
Median hourly rate £62.25 £81.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.15% +15.71% +27.27%
75th Percentile £71.00 £89.06 -
90th Percentile £79.00 £91.50 £71.95
UK median hourly rate £62.00 £81.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -23.46% +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 4,637 3,469 3,767
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.96% 12.40% 11.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,008 2,224 2,484
10th Percentile £218 £213 £220
25th Percentile £388 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year - -2.06% +2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £611
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 230 107 91
10th Percentile £17.73 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £29.00 £22.25 £18.67
Median hourly rate £64.24 £34.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +86.20% +25.45% -40.22%
75th Percentile £74.32 £76.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £89.78 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £34.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +83.82% +23.64% -42.50%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -38 39 £400 -5.88% 101
East of England -23 35 £403 +84.00% 222
Midlands -37 30 £413 -28.26% 96
South East -45 30 £525 +10.53% 204
North West -27 28 £425 - 55
London -92 28 £450 +7.46% 184
West Midlands -30 20 £288 -50.00% 47
Yorkshire - 11 £365 - 30
East Midlands -8 10 £500 +27.55% 49
South West -36 7 £560 +27.27% 101
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 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (0.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.52%) OrCAD
2 1 (0.63%) Adobe After Effects
2 1 (0.63%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.63%) Blender
2 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.63%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 1 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 19 (11.95%) Azure
2 8 (5.03%) AWS
3 6 (3.77%) Cohesity
4 4 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (2.52%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (1.89%) Rubrik
6 2 (1.26%) AWS IoT
6 2 (1.26%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.26%) GitHub
6 2 (1.26%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.26%) IaaS
6 2 (1.26%) Nutanix
6 2 (1.26%) PaaS
6 2 (1.26%) SaaS
7 1 (0.63%) Figma
7 1 (0.63%) OCI
7 1 (0.63%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 20 (12.58%) Firewall
2 18 (11.32%) SAN
2 18 (11.32%) TCP/IP
3 17 (10.69%) DNS
4 16 (10.06%) WAN
5 14 (8.81%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (8.18%) SSL
6 13 (8.18%) Wireshark
7 12 (7.55%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 12 (7.55%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 12 (7.55%) Wireless
8 11 (6.92%) BIG-IP
8 11 (6.92%) HTTP
8 11 (6.92%) SD-WAN
8 11 (6.92%) Software-Defined Radio
9 10 (6.29%) LAN
9 10 (6.29%) VLAN
10 9 (5.66%) NAS
11 7 (4.40%) DHCP
11 7 (4.40%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.63%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 11 (6.92%) Fiddler
2 10 (6.29%) JIRA
3 7 (4.40%) Git
4 3 (1.89%) GitLab
4 3 (1.89%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (1.26%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (1.26%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (1.26%) VectorCAST
6 1 (0.63%) Ranorex
General
1 34 (21.38%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.84%) Electronics
3 15 (9.43%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (8.81%) Aerospace
5 11 (6.92%) Banking
5 11 (6.92%) Investment Banking
6 9 (5.66%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (5.03%) Manufacturing
8 6 (3.77%) Telecoms
9 5 (3.14%) Retail
10 4 (2.52%) Avionics
10 4 (2.52%) Law
11 3 (1.89%) Legal
11 3 (1.89%) Military
12 2 (1.26%) Automotive
12 2 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.63%) Aviation
13 1 (0.63%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 29 (18.24%) Network Engineer
2 17 (10.69%) Software Engineer
3 15 (9.43%) Embedded Engineer
4 14 (8.81%) Lead
5 11 (6.92%) Blue Coat Engineer
5 11 (6.92%) IP Network Engineer
5 11 (6.92%) Web Engineer
6 10 (6.29%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 9 (5.66%) Senior
8 8 (5.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 7 (4.40%) Developer
10 6 (3.77%) Analyst
10 6 (3.77%) Backup Engineer
10 6 (3.77%) Electronics Engineer
10 6 (3.77%) Storage and Backup Engineer
10 6 (3.77%) Storage Engineer
11 5 (3.14%) Data Centre Engineer
11 5 (3.14%) Firmware Engineer
11 5 (3.14%) Hardware Technician
11 5 (3.14%) ICT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.29%) Yocto
2 5 (3.14%) Redfish
3 4 (2.52%) Terraform
4 3 (1.89%) .NET
4 3 (1.89%) Flutter
4 3 (1.89%) REST
5 1 (0.63%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.63%) Flash
5 1 (0.63%) Framer.js
5 1 (0.63%) Middleware
5 1 (0.63%) PyQt
5 1 (0.63%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 32 (20.13%) Embedded Systems
2 25 (15.72%) Data Centre
3 15 (9.43%) Device Driver
3 15 (9.43%) RISC-V
4 14 (8.81%) Management Information System
5 13 (8.18%) FPGA
6 12 (7.55%) IoT
7 9 (5.66%) Clustering
7 9 (5.66%) Enterprise Storage
8 8 (5.03%) MicroBlaze
8 8 (5.03%) Replication
9 5 (3.14%) Driving Licence
9 5 (3.14%) EPoS
9 5 (3.14%) PCIe
9 5 (3.14%) Verilog
10 4 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (2.52%) Robotics
10 4 (2.52%) VHDL
10 4 (2.52%) Video Conferencing
11 3 (1.89%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 32 (20.13%) Linux
2 29 (18.24%) Windows
3 13 (8.18%) Embedded Linux
4 10 (6.29%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.77%) AIX
6 5 (3.14%) Android
7 4 (2.52%) Unix
8 3 (1.89%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.89%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (1.26%) VxWorks
9 2 (1.26%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.63%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.63%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.63%) VMS
10 1 (0.63%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (17.61%) Software Engineering
2 22 (13.84%) Capacity Planning
3 21 (13.21%) ITIL
4 19 (11.95%) Disaster Recovery
5 17 (10.69%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (10.69%) Validation
6 14 (8.81%) Data Centre Operations
6 14 (8.81%) High Availability
6 14 (8.81%) Signal Processing
7 13 (8.18%) Agile
7 13 (8.18%) Migration
8 12 (7.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 11 (6.92%) Configuration Management
9 11 (6.92%) Data Loss Prevention
9 11 (6.92%) Load Balancing
9 11 (6.92%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 11 (6.92%) Project Delivery
10 10 (6.29%) Cybersecurity
10 10 (6.29%) Root Cause Analysis
10 10 (6.29%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 31 (19.50%) C
1 31 (19.50%) C++
2 16 (10.06%) Python
3 12 (7.55%) PowerShell
4 9 (5.66%) Ada
5 6 (3.77%) C#
6 5 (3.14%) Java
7 4 (2.52%) Embedded C
7 4 (2.52%) Embedded C++
7 4 (2.52%) Perl
7 4 (2.52%) SystemVerilog
8 3 (1.89%) Bash
8 3 (1.89%) Kotlin
8 3 (1.89%) MATLAB
8 3 (1.89%) Swift
9 2 (1.26%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.63%) Rust
10 1 (0.63%) Tcl
10 1 (0.63%) VB
Qualifications
1 39 (24.53%) Security Cleared
2 24 (15.09%) Degree
3 23 (14.47%) SC Cleared
4 10 (6.29%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (6.29%) DV Cleared
5 9 (5.66%) ITIL Certification
6 5 (3.14%) CCNA
6 5 (3.14%) CCNP
7 4 (2.52%) CISSP
7 4 (2.52%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (1.89%) CCIE
8 3 (1.89%) CEH
8 3 (1.89%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (1.89%) ISACA
8 3 (1.89%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.26%) MCSE
10 1 (0.63%) HNC
10 1 (0.63%) HND
10 1 (0.63%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.29%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.66%) DO-178B
3 8 (5.03%) DO-254
4 7 (4.40%) MISRA
4 7 (4.40%) NIST
4 7 (4.40%) QA
5 4 (2.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (2.52%) NCSC
5 4 (2.52%) SLA
6 3 (1.89%) NIST 800
7 2 (1.26%) GDPR
7 2 (1.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.63%) DO-160
8 1 (0.63%) JTAG
System Software
1 31 (19.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (15.09%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (5.66%) Active Directory
4 7 (4.40%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (3.77%) vSphere
6 4 (2.52%) BitLocker
6 4 (2.52%) PowerHA
6 4 (2.52%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.89%) NFS
8 2 (1.26%) Hyper-V
8 2 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.63%) KVM
9 1 (0.63%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.63%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 7 (4.40%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.77%) Dell DRAC
2 6 (3.77%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 5 (3.14%) vCenter Server
4 4 (2.52%) Ansible
4 4 (2.52%) SCCM
5 3 (1.89%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.89%) SnapMirror
5 3 (1.89%) vMotion
Vendors
1 34 (21.38%) VMware
2 26 (16.35%) Cisco
3 17 (10.69%) NetApp
4 14 (8.81%) F5
5 12 (7.55%) McAfee
5 12 (7.55%) Microsoft
6 11 (6.92%) Blue Coat
7 9 (5.66%) EMC
7 9 (5.66%) Fortinet
8 8 (5.03%) HP
8 8 (5.03%) Palo Alto
8 8 (5.03%) Xilinx
9 7 (4.40%) IBM
10 6 (3.77%) Altera
10 6 (3.77%) Dell
10 6 (3.77%) Juniper
10 6 (3.77%) ServiceNow
11 5 (3.14%) Infoblox
11 5 (3.14%) Meraki
11 5 (3.14%) Zscaler