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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 449 398 354
Rank change year-on-year -51 -44 +119
Contract jobs citing Firmware 148 80 195
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.32% 0.52%
As % of the System Software category 3.45% 2.57% 4.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 36 108
10th Percentile £293 £200 £205
25th Percentile £358 £308 £292
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £423 £425
Median % change year-on-year +0.59% -0.59% -5.56%
75th Percentile £525 £528 £556
90th Percentile £713 £613 £575
UK median daily rate £423 £400 £440
% change year-on-year +5.63% -9.09% -7.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 20 52
10th Percentile £34.97 £39.63 £24.18
25th Percentile £50.00 £56.03 £50.98
Median hourly rate £70.50 £82.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.55% +32.00% +19.05%
75th Percentile £75.00 £88.88 £70.00
90th Percentile - £91.60 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £82.50 £60.50
% change year-on-year -15.15% +36.36% +15.24%

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 4,295 3,114 4,132
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.00% 12.59% 11.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,885 2,074 2,879
10th Percentile £213 £214 £205
25th Percentile £400 £382 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £599 £607 £608
90th Percentile £680 £700 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 75 203
10th Percentile £16.40 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £25.15 £18.13 £14.48
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £22.30
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% +25.56% -57.22%
75th Percentile £73.00 £75.60 £58.69
90th Percentile £77.50 £90.40 £72.85
UK median hourly rate £51.00 £28.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year +82.14% +15.80% -55.68%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 -27 50 £365 -16.57% 32
London -61 30 £431 +7.81% 26
Midlands -35 29 £413 +37.50% 24
North West -20 27 £450 - 25
South East -45 26 £600 +24.35% 86
West Midlands -34 25 £413 +37.50% 14
Yorkshire - 22 £365 - 4
East of England -25 19 £425 -21.84% 63
South West -23 8 £475 +61.02% 46
East Midlands -18 4 £500 - 10
North East -32 1 - - 4
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 (4.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (3.38%) Confluence
3 1 (0.68%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (4.05%) Simulink
2 1 (0.68%) Adobe After Effects
2 1 (0.68%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.68%) Blender
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 28 (18.92%) Azure
2 11 (7.43%) Entra ID
3 7 (4.73%) AWS
3 7 (4.73%) Microsoft 365
4 5 (3.38%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 5 (3.38%) GitHub
5 4 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (2.03%) Azure Monitor
6 3 (2.03%) Azure Stack
7 2 (1.35%) AWS IoT
8 1 (0.68%) AWS Direct Connect
8 1 (0.68%) Cohesity
8 1 (0.68%) Figma
8 1 (0.68%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.68%) IaaS
8 1 (0.68%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.68%) PaaS
8 1 (0.68%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.68%) SaaS
8 1 (0.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 25 (16.89%) DNS
2 22 (14.86%) Firewall
3 20 (13.51%) SSL
3 20 (13.51%) Wireshark
4 18 (12.16%) TCP/IP
5 17 (11.49%) BIG-IP
5 17 (11.49%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 17 (11.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 17 (11.49%) HTTP
6 16 (10.81%) SAN
7 14 (9.46%) WAN
8 13 (8.78%) Ethernet
8 13 (8.78%) VLAN
9 10 (6.76%) SD-WAN
9 10 (6.76%) Wireless
10 9 (6.08%) LAN
10 9 (6.08%) Software-Defined Radio
10 9 (6.08%) VPN
10 9 (6.08%) Wi-Fi
11 8 (5.41%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 17 (11.49%) Fiddler
1 17 (11.49%) JIRA
2 3 (2.03%) Git
2 3 (2.03%) Rational DOORS
2 3 (2.03%) Rational Rhapsody
3 2 (1.35%) MSTest
3 2 (1.35%) Team Foundation Server
3 2 (1.35%) VectorCAST
3 2 (1.35%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 31 (20.95%) Social Skills
2 17 (11.49%) Banking
2 17 (11.49%) Investment Banking
3 11 (7.43%) Aerospace
4 10 (6.76%) Electronics
5 7 (4.73%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.35%) Finance
6 2 (1.35%) Games
6 2 (1.35%) Law
6 2 (1.35%) Legal
6 2 (1.35%) Manufacturing
6 2 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.68%) Local Government
7 1 (0.68%) Mandarin Language
7 1 (0.68%) Retail
7 1 (0.68%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 33 (22.30%) Network Engineer
2 17 (11.49%) Blue Coat Engineer
2 17 (11.49%) IP Network Engineer
2 17 (11.49%) Web Engineer
3 15 (10.14%) Senior
4 14 (9.46%) Embedded Engineer
5 13 (8.78%) Software Engineer
6 12 (8.11%) Data Centre Engineer
7 9 (6.08%) Administrator
7 9 (6.08%) Lead
8 7 (4.73%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 7 (4.73%) Firmware Engineer
9 5 (3.38%) Desktop Engineer
9 5 (3.38%) FPGA Engineer
9 5 (3.38%) ICT Engineer
9 5 (3.38%) Technical Leader
10 4 (2.70%) Electronics Engineer
10 4 (2.70%) IBM Storage Administrator
10 4 (2.70%) SAN Administrator
10 4 (2.70%) Storage Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (8.78%) Redfish
2 6 (4.05%) Yocto
3 3 (2.03%) .NET
3 3 (2.03%) OpenTelemetry
4 2 (1.35%) 802.1X
4 2 (1.35%) Unity (Game Engine)
4 2 (1.35%) Unreal Engine
5 1 (0.68%) Framer.js
5 1 (0.68%) JSON
5 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.68%) REST
5 1 (0.68%) WPF
5 1 (0.68%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (19.59%) Data Centre
2 23 (15.54%) Embedded Systems
3 18 (12.16%) FPGA
3 18 (12.16%) Management Information System
4 10 (6.76%) Verilog
4 10 (6.76%) VHDL
5 9 (6.08%) PCIe
6 7 (4.73%) Clustering
6 7 (4.73%) Device Driver
6 7 (4.73%) Onboarding
6 7 (4.73%) Replication
7 6 (4.05%) Enterprise Storage
7 6 (4.05%) MicroBlaze
7 6 (4.05%) RISC-V
8 5 (3.38%) Linux Command Line
8 5 (3.38%) Security Posture
9 4 (2.70%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (2.70%) Driving Licence
9 4 (2.70%) IoT
9 4 (2.70%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 37 (25.00%) Windows
2 33 (22.30%) Linux
3 8 (5.41%) Embedded Linux
4 7 (4.73%) AIX
5 5 (3.38%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (3.38%) VMS
6 4 (2.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (2.70%) Windows Server
7 3 (2.03%) SUSE
7 3 (2.03%) Unix
8 2 (1.35%) Android
8 2 (1.35%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.68%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.68%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (13.51%) Software Engineering
2 19 (12.84%) Load Balancing
2 19 (12.84%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (11.49%) Data Centre Operations
3 17 (11.49%) Data Loss Prevention
3 17 (11.49%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 16 (10.81%) Capacity Planning
4 16 (10.81%) Runbook
4 16 (10.81%) Validation
5 14 (9.46%) ITIL
5 14 (9.46%) Test Automation
6 13 (8.78%) Migration
7 11 (7.43%) Asset Management
7 11 (7.43%) High Availability
8 10 (6.76%) Agile
8 10 (6.76%) Computer Science
8 10 (6.76%) Continuous Improvement
8 10 (6.76%) Infrastructure Management
8 10 (6.76%) Inventory Management
8 10 (6.76%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 28 (18.92%) Python
2 20 (13.51%) PowerShell
3 17 (11.49%) C++
4 16 (10.81%) C
5 11 (7.43%) Bash
6 9 (6.08%) MATLAB
6 9 (6.08%) SystemVerilog
7 8 (5.41%) C#
8 5 (3.38%) Embedded C++
9 3 (2.03%) Ada
9 3 (2.03%) Embedded C
9 3 (2.03%) Perl
10 2 (1.35%) Java
10 2 (1.35%) Tcl
10 2 (1.35%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.68%) VB
Qualifications
1 31 (20.95%) Security Cleared
2 26 (17.57%) SC Cleared
3 21 (14.19%) Degree
4 9 (6.08%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (4.05%) CCNP
5 6 (4.05%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (2.70%) Azure Certification
6 4 (2.70%) CCNA
6 4 (2.70%) CEH
6 4 (2.70%) CISSP
6 4 (2.70%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (2.03%) CCIE
7 3 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.35%) DV Cleared
8 2 (1.35%) HNC
8 2 (1.35%) HND
8 2 (1.35%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.35%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (1.35%) MCSE
9 1 (0.68%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.76%) DO-254
2 4 (2.70%) NIST
2 4 (2.70%) QA
3 3 (2.03%) DO-178B
3 3 (2.03%) GDPR
4 1 (0.68%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.68%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.68%) MISRA
4 1 (0.68%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.68%) SLA
System Software
1 34 (22.97%) VMware Infrastructure
2 22 (14.86%) Embedded Firmware
3 17 (11.49%) Active Directory
4 9 (6.08%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (5.41%) Hyper-V
6 5 (3.38%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.70%) BitLocker
7 4 (2.70%) KVM
7 4 (2.70%) vSphere
8 3 (2.03%) PowerHA
9 2 (1.35%) Docker
10 1 (0.68%) NFS
Systems Management
1 12 (8.11%) Dell DRAC
2 7 (4.73%) Ansible
3 5 (3.38%) FortiGate
3 5 (3.38%) Terraform
4 4 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (2.70%) SCCM
4 4 (2.70%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 3 (2.03%) Failover Clustering
5 3 (2.03%) Microsoft Clustering
5 3 (2.03%) Prometheus
5 3 (2.03%) vCenter Server
5 3 (2.03%) VxRail
6 2 (1.35%) HP ALM
6 2 (1.35%) HP Quality Center
6 2 (1.35%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.68%) Grafana
7 1 (0.68%) PaperCut
7 1 (0.68%) Podman
7 1 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.68%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 38 (25.68%) VMware
2 28 (18.92%) Cisco
3 19 (12.84%) F5
4 18 (12.16%) McAfee
4 18 (12.16%) NetApp
5 17 (11.49%) Blue Coat
5 17 (11.49%) Microsoft
6 10 (6.76%) Xilinx
7 9 (6.08%) IBM
7 9 (6.08%) Microsemi
8 8 (5.41%) Dell
8 8 (5.41%) Fortinet
9 7 (4.73%) Altera
9 7 (4.73%) HP
9 7 (4.73%) Juniper
9 7 (4.73%) ServiceNow
10 6 (4.05%) Palo Alto
11 5 (3.38%) EMC
11 5 (3.38%) Meraki
11 5 (3.38%) Siemens