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 16 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 401 392 365
Rank change year-on-year -9 -27 +222
Contract jobs citing Firmware 111 142 241
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.39% 0.44% 0.59%
As % of the System Software category 3.13% 3.81% 4.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 68 129
10th Percentile £160 £154 £205
25th Percentile £294 £200 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -8.16% -6.67%
75th Percentile £503 £541 £579
90th Percentile £588 £586 £645
UK median daily rate £400 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -15.74% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 24 30
10th Percentile £52.00 £32.15 £23.53
25th Percentile £63.50 £51.25 £47.50
Median hourly rate £81.00 £70.00 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +15.71% +24.44% +2.27%
75th Percentile £89.38 - £65.00
90th Percentile £91.50 £72.28 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £81.00 £64.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +26.56% +13.78% +2.27%

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 3,552 3,727 5,314
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.59% 11.62% 13.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,280 2,432 3,643
10th Percentile £206 £220 £198
25th Percentile £375 £380 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% +2.22% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £630
90th Percentile £675 £700 £725
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 79 253
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.25 £15.50
25th Percentile £21.00 £21.05 £18.00
Median hourly rate £34.00 £31.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.68% -34.74% +111.11%
75th Percentile £68.56 £70.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £89.19 £81.71 £77.31
UK median hourly rate £28.50 £30.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year -6.56% -39.00% +124.72%

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 16 October 2025.

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 16 October 2025.

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 16 October 2025. 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
London +29 38 £419 +19.64% 25
East of England +18 34 £88 -72.55% 45
Midlands -16 15 £575 +116.98% 24
West Midlands -9 11 £575 +4.55% 13
South East -2 10 £475 +22.58% 70
South West +16 9 £440 +193.33% 35
North West -38 6 £425 -12.82% 26
North of England -69 6 £425 -10.90% 35
East Midlands -12 4 £392 +52.23% 11
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 5 (4.50%) Confluence
2 2 (1.80%) nginx
Applications
1 10 (9.01%) Simulink
2 8 (7.21%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (3.60%) Windchill
4 1 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.90%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (3.60%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 11 (9.91%) AWS
1 11 (9.91%) Azure
2 4 (3.60%) GCP
3 3 (2.70%) SaaS
4 2 (1.80%) GitHub
4 2 (1.80%) IaaS
4 2 (1.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 1 (0.90%) Asana
5 1 (0.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (0.90%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.90%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (14.41%) BGP
1 16 (14.41%) DNS
1 16 (14.41%) OSPF
2 14 (12.61%) Firewall
3 13 (11.71%) WAN
4 12 (10.81%) VPN
5 11 (9.91%) VLAN
6 10 (9.01%) LAN
7 9 (8.11%) EIGRP
7 9 (8.11%) IPsec
7 9 (8.11%) SSL
8 8 (7.21%) DHCP
8 8 (7.21%) Ethernet
8 8 (7.21%) Network Security
8 8 (7.21%) Wireless
9 7 (6.31%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 7 (6.31%) HTTPS
9 7 (6.31%) SD-WAN
9 7 (6.31%) TCP/IP
10 5 (4.50%) Multicast
Development Applications
1 10 (9.01%) JIRA
2 7 (6.31%) Bitbucket
3 5 (4.50%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (3.60%) Rational Rhapsody
5 3 (2.70%) Fiddler
5 3 (2.70%) Git
5 3 (2.70%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (1.80%) GitLab
7 1 (0.90%) IDA Disassembler
7 1 (0.90%) Zephyr
General
1 30 (27.03%) Social Skills
2 19 (17.12%) Electronics
3 15 (13.51%) Military
4 10 (9.01%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (7.21%) Banking
5 8 (7.21%) Finance
5 8 (7.21%) Law
5 8 (7.21%) Manufacturing
6 6 (5.41%) Games
7 5 (4.50%) Public Sector
8 4 (3.60%) Investment Banking
8 4 (3.60%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.70%) Aerospace
9 3 (2.70%) Marketing
10 2 (1.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.90%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.90%) Legal
Job Titles
1 21 (18.92%) Network Engineer
2 17 (15.32%) Security Engineer
3 13 (11.71%) Design Engineer
3 13 (11.71%) Lead
4 10 (9.01%) Cisco Engineer
4 10 (9.01%) RF Engineer
5 9 (8.11%) Administrator
5 9 (8.11%) Principal Engineer
6 8 (7.21%) Firmware Engineer
7 7 (6.31%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 7 (6.31%) Juniper Engineer
8 6 (5.41%) Digital Design Engineer
8 6 (5.41%) FPGA Engineer
8 6 (5.41%) RF Design Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) JIRA Administrator
9 5 (4.50%) Software Engineer
9 5 (4.50%) Tester
10 4 (3.60%) Consultant
10 4 (3.60%) Embedded Engineer
10 4 (3.60%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (6.31%) Flash
2 1 (0.90%) EJB
2 1 (0.90%) JCE
2 1 (0.90%) JSON Web Signature
2 1 (0.90%) JWT
2 1 (0.90%) LDAP
2 1 (0.90%) Middleware
2 1 (0.90%) OAuth
2 1 (0.90%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.90%) OpenID
2 1 (0.90%) REST
2 1 (0.90%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (16.22%) FPGA
2 12 (10.81%) VHDL
3 10 (9.01%) Verilog
4 9 (8.11%) Data Centre
4 9 (8.11%) Management Information System
5 8 (7.21%) Embedded Systems
6 7 (6.31%) Algorithms
6 7 (6.31%) PKI
7 6 (5.41%) Analogue Electronics
7 6 (5.41%) PCIe
8 3 (2.70%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.80%) Clustering
9 2 (1.80%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.80%) IoT
9 2 (1.80%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.80%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.80%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (1.80%) Smart Energy
9 2 (1.80%) Smart Meter
Operating Systems
1 16 (14.41%) Windows
2 8 (7.21%) Linux
3 5 (4.50%) Windows 10
4 4 (3.60%) Windows Server
5 3 (2.70%) Windows 7
5 3 (2.70%) Windows 8
6 1 (0.90%) Android
6 1 (0.90%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.90%) CentOS
6 1 (0.90%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.90%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.90%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.90%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (17.12%) Patch Management
2 15 (13.51%) Problem-Solving
3 14 (12.61%) Incident Management
4 13 (11.71%) AI
5 12 (10.81%) GAP Analysis
5 12 (10.81%) Information Assurance
5 12 (10.81%) Key Management
5 12 (10.81%) MODAF
5 12 (10.81%) SABSA
5 12 (10.81%) Security Management
6 11 (9.91%) Data Management
6 11 (9.91%) Validation
7 10 (9.01%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 10 (9.01%) Systems Engineering
8 9 (8.11%) Network Monitoring
8 9 (8.11%) UVM
9 8 (7.21%) Change Management
9 8 (7.21%) Line Management
10 7 (6.31%) Cryptography
10 7 (6.31%) Signal Processing
Programming Languages
1 24 (21.62%) Python
2 15 (13.51%) C
2 15 (13.51%) C++
3 10 (9.01%) MATLAB
4 9 (8.11%) SystemVerilog
5 8 (7.21%) Bash
5 8 (7.21%) PowerShell
6 6 (5.41%) Perl
6 6 (5.41%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 39 (35.14%) Security Cleared
2 36 (32.43%) SC Cleared
3 25 (22.52%) Degree
4 13 (11.71%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (9.91%) CCNP
6 8 (7.21%) JNCIA
7 6 (5.41%) CISSP
7 6 (5.41%) HNC
7 6 (5.41%) HND
7 6 (5.41%) JNCIS
8 4 (3.60%) CCSA
9 3 (2.70%) CISM
9 3 (2.70%) DV Cleared
9 3 (2.70%) Master's Degree
9 3 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (2.70%) PhD
10 1 (0.90%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.90%) CEH
10 1 (0.90%) ISSAP
10 1 (0.90%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (15.32%) NIST
2 14 (12.61%) JSP 440
2 14 (12.61%) NCSC
2 14 (12.61%) NIST 800
3 7 (6.31%) DO-254
4 4 (3.60%) Def Stans
4 4 (3.60%) DO-178B
4 4 (3.60%) MISRA
5 3 (2.70%) PCI DSS
5 3 (2.70%) SLA
6 2 (1.80%) GRC
6 2 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.90%) JTAG
7 1 (0.90%) SOC 2
System Software
1 9 (8.11%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (5.41%) Active Directory
3 5 (4.50%) VMware NSX
4 4 (3.60%) BitLocker
4 4 (3.60%) Embedded Firmware
5 3 (2.70%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.90%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.90%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (9.91%) SCCM
2 7 (6.31%) Ansible
3 4 (3.60%) vCenter Server
4 3 (2.70%) CA Spectrum
4 3 (2.70%) HAProxy
5 2 (1.80%) Dell DRAC
5 2 (1.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.80%) vMotion
6 1 (0.90%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.90%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.90%) PowerCLI
6 1 (0.90%) Terraform
6 1 (0.90%) VxRail
Vendors
1 27 (24.32%) Cisco
2 15 (13.51%) Microsoft
3 12 (10.81%) Juniper
3 12 (10.81%) VMware
4 10 (9.01%) F5
5 8 (7.21%) EMC
6 7 (6.31%) Dell
6 7 (6.31%) Intel
6 7 (6.31%) McAfee
6 7 (6.31%) Xilinx
7 6 (5.41%) Actel
7 6 (5.41%) Altera
7 6 (5.41%) Meraki
7 6 (5.41%) Microsemi
7 6 (5.41%) SAP
8 5 (4.50%) Atlassian
9 4 (3.60%) CheckPoint
9 4 (3.60%) SolarWinds
10 3 (2.70%) HP
10 3 (2.70%) NetApp