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

 6 months to
16 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 484 394 382
Rank change year-on-year -90 -12 -14
Contract jobs citing Firmware 158 108 152
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.39% 0.46%
As % of the System Software category 3.43% 3.20% 3.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 48 81
10th Percentile £310 £223 £165
25th Percentile £371 £325 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -15.79%
75th Percentile £541 £503 £515
90th Percentile £625 £588 £575
UK median daily rate £450 £425 £440
% change year-on-year +5.88% -3.41% -9.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 30 28
10th Percentile £12.76 £52.00 £24.18
25th Percentile £52.00 £57.38 £51.06
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.00 £57.75
Median % change year-on-year -19.75% +40.26% +5.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £89.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £91.50 £70.98
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £81.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year -19.75% +40.87% +4.55%

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 4,609 3,380 3,820
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.00% 12.17% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,000 2,173 2,567
10th Percentile £213 £214 £219
25th Percentile £385 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -
75th Percentile £595 £600 £609
90th Percentile £682 £675 £694
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -0.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 226 96 100
10th Percentile £17.63 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £33.70 £22.50 £16.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £36.00 £24.35
Median % change year-on-year +80.56% +47.84% -49.09%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £92.31 £90.75 £80.13
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £33.39 £24.35
% change year-on-year +89.11% +37.10% -51.30%

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 September 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 -40 42 £400 -5.88% 81
East of England -23 33 £403 -5.29% 220
South East -49 31 £581 +22.37% 204
Midlands -26 30 £500 -13.04% 102
North West -22 28 £410 -3.53% 51
London -97 27 £450 +5.88% 191
West Midlands -40 20 £413 -28.26% 43
Yorkshire - 13 £365 - 18
East Midlands -4 10 £500 +27.55% 59
South West -43 8 £425 -3.41% 106
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 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 4 (2.53%) Simulink
2 3 (1.90%) OrCAD
3 1 (0.63%) Adobe After Effects
3 1 (0.63%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.63%) Blender
3 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 24 (15.19%) Azure
2 8 (5.06%) AWS
3 6 (3.80%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (2.53%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (2.53%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 3 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
5 3 (1.90%) Azure Stack
6 2 (1.27%) AWS IoT
6 2 (1.27%) Cohesity
6 2 (1.27%) GitHub
6 2 (1.27%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.27%) IaaS
6 2 (1.27%) Nutanix
6 2 (1.27%) PaaS
6 2 (1.27%) SaaS
7 1 (0.63%) Figma
7 1 (0.63%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 22 (13.92%) Firewall
2 20 (12.66%) DNS
3 18 (11.39%) SAN
4 17 (10.76%) TCP/IP
5 15 (9.49%) SSL
5 15 (9.49%) Wireshark
6 14 (8.86%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 14 (8.86%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 14 (8.86%) VLAN
6 14 (8.86%) WAN
6 14 (8.86%) Wireless
7 13 (8.23%) BIG-IP
7 13 (8.23%) HTTP
7 13 (8.23%) Software-Defined Radio
8 11 (6.96%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (6.33%) LAN
10 9 (5.70%) DHCP
10 9 (5.70%) SD-WAN
11 8 (5.06%) Ethernet
11 8 (5.06%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.63%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 13 (8.23%) Fiddler
2 9 (5.70%) JIRA
3 6 (3.80%) Git
4 3 (1.90%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (1.27%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (1.27%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (1.27%) VectorCAST
6 1 (0.63%) GitLab
6 1 (0.63%) Ranorex
General
1 31 (19.62%) Social Skills
2 15 (9.49%) Electronics
3 14 (8.86%) Aerospace
4 13 (8.23%) Banking
4 13 (8.23%) Investment Banking
5 12 (7.59%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.80%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.16%) Retail
8 4 (2.53%) Law
9 3 (1.90%) Legal
9 3 (1.90%) Military
10 2 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.27%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.63%) Automotive
11 1 (0.63%) Aviation
11 1 (0.63%) Finance
11 1 (0.63%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 27 (17.09%) Network Engineer
2 18 (11.39%) Software Engineer
3 17 (10.76%) Embedded Engineer
3 17 (10.76%) Lead
4 13 (8.23%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 13 (8.23%) IP Network Engineer
4 13 (8.23%) Web Engineer
5 11 (6.96%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 11 (6.96%) Senior
6 9 (5.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 8 (5.06%) Developer
8 6 (3.80%) Analyst
8 6 (3.80%) Data Centre Engineer
8 6 (3.80%) Firmware Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Embedded Linux Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) FPGA Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Hardware Technician
9 5 (3.16%) ICT Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Linux Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Network Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.59%) Yocto
2 7 (4.43%) Redfish
3 5 (3.16%) Terraform
4 3 (1.90%) .NET
4 3 (1.90%) Flutter
4 3 (1.90%) REST
5 2 (1.27%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.63%) Flash
6 1 (0.63%) Framer.js
6 1 (0.63%) JSON
6 1 (0.63%) Middleware
6 1 (0.63%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.63%) PyQt
6 1 (0.63%) Streamlit
6 1 (0.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (20.89%) Embedded Systems
2 24 (15.19%) Data Centre
3 17 (10.76%) RISC-V
4 16 (10.13%) Device Driver
4 16 (10.13%) Management Information System
5 15 (9.49%) FPGA
6 10 (6.33%) IoT
6 10 (6.33%) MicroBlaze
7 9 (5.70%) Clustering
7 9 (5.70%) Replication
8 8 (5.06%) Verilog
9 7 (4.43%) PCIe
9 7 (4.43%) VHDL
10 6 (3.80%) Enterprise Storage
11 5 (3.16%) Driving Licence
11 5 (3.16%) EPoS
11 5 (3.16%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (2.53%) Legacy Systems
13 3 (1.90%) Onboarding
13 3 (1.90%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 38 (24.05%) Linux
2 27 (17.09%) Windows
3 16 (10.13%) Embedded Linux
4 10 (6.33%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.80%) AIX
5 6 (3.80%) Android
6 5 (3.16%) VMS
7 4 (2.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (2.53%) Unix
8 3 (1.90%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.90%) SUSE
9 2 (1.27%) VxWorks
9 2 (1.27%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.63%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.63%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.63%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (18.35%) Software Engineering
2 19 (12.03%) Capacity Planning
2 19 (12.03%) ITIL
2 19 (12.03%) Validation
3 16 (10.13%) Migration
3 16 (10.13%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (9.49%) Agile
4 15 (9.49%) Data Centre Operations
4 15 (9.49%) Disaster Recovery
4 15 (9.49%) Signal Processing
5 14 (8.86%) High Availability
6 13 (8.23%) Data Loss Prevention
6 13 (8.23%) Load Balancing
6 13 (8.23%) Malware Detection/Protection
7 12 (7.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 11 (6.96%) Cybersecurity
8 11 (6.96%) Digital Signal Processing
8 11 (6.96%) Project Delivery
8 11 (6.96%) Test Automation
9 9 (5.70%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 33 (20.89%) C++
2 31 (19.62%) C
3 19 (12.03%) Python
4 15 (9.49%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.70%) Ada
6 7 (4.43%) SystemVerilog
7 6 (3.80%) C#
7 6 (3.80%) MATLAB
8 5 (3.16%) Java
9 4 (2.53%) Bash
9 4 (2.53%) Embedded C
9 4 (2.53%) Embedded C++
9 4 (2.53%) Perl
10 3 (1.90%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.90%) Swift
11 2 (1.27%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.63%) Rust
12 1 (0.63%) Tcl
12 1 (0.63%) VB
Qualifications
1 41 (25.95%) Security Cleared
2 28 (17.72%) SC Cleared
3 26 (16.46%) Degree
4 10 (6.33%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (5.06%) DV Cleared
5 8 (5.06%) ITIL Certification
6 5 (3.16%) CCNA
6 5 (3.16%) CCNP
6 5 (3.16%) CISSP
7 4 (2.53%) Azure Certification
7 4 (2.53%) CEH
7 4 (2.53%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (1.90%) CCIE
8 3 (1.90%) ISACA
8 3 (1.90%) Master's Degree
8 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (1.27%) MCSE
10 1 (0.63%) HNC
10 1 (0.63%) MCSA
10 1 (0.63%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.96%) DO-254
2 10 (6.33%) Def Stans
3 9 (5.70%) DO-178B
4 8 (5.06%) NIST
5 7 (4.43%) MISRA
6 6 (3.80%) QA
7 4 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (2.53%) NCSC
8 3 (1.90%) NIST 800
8 3 (1.90%) SLA
9 2 (1.27%) GDPR
10 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.63%) DO-160
10 1 (0.63%) JTAG
System Software
1 32 (20.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (16.46%) Embedded Firmware
3 11 (6.96%) Active Directory
4 10 (6.33%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (5.70%) vSphere
6 5 (3.16%) Hyper-V
7 4 (2.53%) BitLocker
7 4 (2.53%) PowerHA
7 4 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.63%) KVM
9 1 (0.63%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 8 (5.06%) Dell DRAC
1 8 (5.06%) vCenter Server
2 6 (3.80%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.80%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 5 (3.16%) Ansible
4 4 (2.53%) SCCM
5 3 (1.90%) Failover Clustering
5 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Clustering
5 3 (1.90%) vMotion
5 3 (1.90%) VxRail
6 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.63%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 34 (21.52%) VMware
2 28 (17.72%) Cisco
3 16 (10.13%) F5
4 15 (9.49%) NetApp
5 14 (8.86%) McAfee
6 13 (8.23%) Blue Coat
7 12 (7.59%) Microsoft
8 10 (6.33%) Dell
8 10 (6.33%) Xilinx
9 8 (5.06%) Fortinet
10 7 (4.43%) Altera
10 7 (4.43%) EMC
10 7 (4.43%) HP
10 7 (4.43%) IBM
10 7 (4.43%) Microsemi
10 7 (4.43%) Palo Alto
11 6 (3.80%) Juniper
11 6 (3.80%) Meraki
11 6 (3.80%) ServiceNow
12 5 (3.16%) Commvault
948 Firmware jobs in England