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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 435 379 328
Rank change year-on-year -56 -51 +253
Contract jobs citing Firmware 112 111 233
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.35% 0.42% 0.63%
As % of the System Software category 2.80% 3.50% 5.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 63 160
10th Percentile £160 £150 £205
25th Percentile £304 £225 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £473
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% +0.53% +5.00%
75th Percentile £550 £565 £575
90th Percentile £619 £663 £638
UK median daily rate £450 £474 £473
% change year-on-year -5.01% +0.26% -0.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 15 35
10th Percentile £61.25 £49.00 £49.00
25th Percentile £65.75 £53.56 £57.50
Median hourly rate £70.75 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.20% -3.85% +18.18%
75th Percentile £81.00 £75.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £89.88 - £90.00
UK median hourly rate £75.00 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +20.00% - +13.64%

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 3,995 3,175 4,458
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.51% 11.99% 12.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,734 2,043 3,117
10th Percentile £213 £200 £188
25th Percentile £400 £368 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £495
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +6.06% -6.60%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £511 £500
% change year-on-year -2.12% +2.17% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 77 197
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.58 £15.50
25th Percentile £20.82 £21.05 £18.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £28.41 £46.39
Median % change year-on-year +47.62% -38.76% +20.90%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £68.63
90th Percentile £89.00 £75.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £42.31 £28.41 £53.50
% change year-on-year +48.94% -46.90% +39.43%

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 20 January 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 20 January 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 20 January 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
London -15 30 £450 +57.89% 25
Midlands -22 24 £400 +142.42% 38
East of England -12 23 £62 -87.05% 44
West Midlands -13 20 £400 +142.42% 16
North of England -76 19 £380 -20.17% 32
North West -30 17 £500 +5.26% 11
South West +4 14 £475 +216.67% 40
South East -32 13 £500 - 98
East Midlands -27 4 £138 -16.21% 21
Yorkshire -65 2 £283 -40.78% 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 10 (8.93%) Confluence
2 2 (1.79%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.89%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (5.36%) Simulink
2 2 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.89%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.89%) OrCAD
3 1 (0.89%) Trello
Cloud Services
1 7 (6.25%) Azure
2 6 (5.36%) GitHub
3 4 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (0.89%) Asana
4 1 (0.89%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 1 (0.89%) IaaS
4 1 (0.89%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (0.89%) PaaS
4 1 (0.89%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (18.75%) DNS
2 14 (12.50%) Ethernet
2 14 (12.50%) TCP/IP
3 13 (11.61%) HTTP
3 13 (11.61%) SSL
4 12 (10.71%) BIG-IP
4 12 (10.71%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 12 (10.71%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 12 (10.71%) Wireshark
5 9 (8.04%) Firewall
6 7 (6.25%) Wireless
7 6 (5.36%) BGP
7 6 (5.36%) Cisco Firepower
7 6 (5.36%) Cisco IOS
7 6 (5.36%) IPsec
7 6 (5.36%) Modbus
7 6 (5.36%) OSPF
7 6 (5.36%) RS-232
7 6 (5.36%) RS-485
7 6 (5.36%) SAN
Development Applications
1 13 (11.61%) JIRA
2 12 (10.71%) Fiddler
3 4 (3.57%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.79%) MSTest
4 2 (1.79%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (1.79%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.89%) Git
5 1 (0.89%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.89%) QADirector
5 1 (0.89%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.89%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.89%) Zephyr
General
1 32 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 20 (17.86%) Electronics
3 17 (15.18%) Banking
4 13 (11.61%) Investment Banking
5 11 (9.82%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (6.25%) Manufacturing
7 6 (5.36%) Games
7 6 (5.36%) Military
8 4 (3.57%) Aerospace
9 3 (2.68%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (2.68%) Finance
9 3 (2.68%) Law
9 3 (2.68%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.79%) Legal
11 1 (0.89%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.89%) Marketing
11 1 (0.89%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 27 (24.11%) Network Engineer
2 16 (14.29%) Embedded Engineer
3 14 (12.50%) Software Engineer
4 12 (10.71%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 12 (10.71%) IP Network Engineer
4 12 (10.71%) Web Engineer
5 11 (9.82%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 9 (8.04%) Firmware Engineer
6 9 (8.04%) Principal Engineer
7 7 (6.25%) Design Engineer
7 7 (6.25%) Lead
7 7 (6.25%) Storage Engineer
8 5 (4.46%) Administrator
8 5 (4.46%) Cisco Engineer
8 5 (4.46%) Security Engineer
8 5 (4.46%) Support Engineer
9 4 (3.57%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
9 4 (3.57%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 4 (3.57%) RF Design Engineer
9 4 (3.57%) RF Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.46%) Flash
2 2 (1.79%) Unity (Game Engine)
2 2 (1.79%) Unreal Engine
3 1 (0.89%) LDAP
3 1 (0.89%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 18 (16.07%) FPGA
2 16 (14.29%) Embedded Systems
3 15 (13.39%) Management Information System
4 10 (8.93%) PKI
5 9 (8.04%) Data Centre
5 9 (8.04%) PCIe
6 8 (7.14%) VHDL
7 7 (6.25%) Algorithms
7 7 (6.25%) Verilog
8 3 (2.68%) Analogue Electronics
9 2 (1.79%) CCTV
9 2 (1.79%) CUDA
9 2 (1.79%) IoT
9 2 (1.79%) Mixed Reality
9 2 (1.79%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.79%) Virtual Reality
10 1 (0.89%) CPLD
10 1 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.89%) Life Science
10 1 (0.89%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 17 (15.18%) Windows
2 15 (13.39%) Linux
3 7 (6.25%) FreeRTOS
4 4 (3.57%) Windows 10
4 4 (3.57%) Windows Server
5 3 (2.68%) Embedded Linux
5 3 (2.68%) Windows 7
5 3 (2.68%) Windows 8
6 2 (1.79%) Debian
6 2 (1.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.89%) Android
7 1 (0.89%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.89%) CentOS
7 1 (0.89%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.89%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.89%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.89%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (19.64%) Validation
2 18 (16.07%) Systems Engineering
3 17 (15.18%) Software Engineering
4 15 (13.39%) Problem-Solving
5 13 (11.61%) AI
5 13 (11.61%) Load Balancing
6 12 (10.71%) Change Management
6 12 (10.71%) Data Loss Prevention
6 12 (10.71%) Malware Detection/Protection
7 10 (8.93%) Computer Science
7 10 (8.93%) Mentoring
7 10 (8.93%) Technical Leadership
8 9 (8.04%) Disaster Recovery
8 9 (8.04%) ITIL
9 8 (7.14%) Collaborative Culture
9 8 (7.14%) Customer Requirements
9 8 (7.14%) ITSM
9 8 (7.14%) Machine Learning
10 7 (6.25%) Continuous Improvement
10 7 (6.25%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (20.54%) C
2 21 (18.75%) C++
3 19 (16.96%) Python
4 8 (7.14%) PowerShell
5 7 (6.25%) Bash
5 7 (6.25%) MATLAB
5 7 (6.25%) SystemVerilog
5 7 (6.25%) Tcl
6 6 (5.36%) Embedded C++
7 5 (4.46%) Embedded C
7 5 (4.46%) Perl
8 2 (1.79%) C#
9 1 (0.89%) Ada
Qualifications
1 30 (26.79%) Security Cleared
2 22 (19.64%) SC Cleared
3 18 (16.07%) Degree
4 8 (7.14%) DV Cleared
5 7 (6.25%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (5.36%) CCNP
6 6 (5.36%) HNC
6 6 (5.36%) HND
7 5 (4.46%) JNCIA
7 5 (4.46%) JNCIS
8 4 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.79%) CCNA
9 2 (1.79%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.79%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.89%) CISSP
10 1 (0.89%) MCP
10 1 (0.89%) MCSA
10 1 (0.89%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.89%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.89%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.04%) Def Stans
1 9 (8.04%) DO-178B
1 9 (8.04%) MISRA
2 7 (6.25%) DO-254
3 5 (4.46%) JSP 440
3 5 (4.46%) NCSC
3 5 (4.46%) NIST
3 5 (4.46%) NIST 800
4 3 (2.68%) QA
5 2 (1.79%) SLA
6 1 (0.89%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.89%) JTAG
6 1 (0.89%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 15 (13.39%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (11.61%) Embedded Firmware
3 8 (7.14%) Active Directory
4 5 (4.46%) VMware NSX
5 4 (3.57%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.68%) BitLocker
6 3 (2.68%) Docker
7 2 (1.79%) Ceph
7 2 (1.79%) Lustre
7 2 (1.79%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (1.79%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.79%) vSphere
8 1 (0.89%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.89%) KVM
Systems Management
1 8 (7.14%) SCCM
2 6 (5.36%) vCenter Server
3 3 (2.68%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.79%) Ansible
4 2 (1.79%) Dell DRAC
4 2 (1.79%) HP ALM
4 2 (1.79%) HP Quality Center
4 2 (1.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.89%) Grafana
5 1 (0.89%) HAProxy
5 1 (0.89%) Podman
5 1 (0.89%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.89%) SCOM
5 1 (0.89%) VxRail
Vendors
1 19 (16.96%) Cisco
2 16 (14.29%) NetApp
2 16 (14.29%) VMware
3 15 (13.39%) McAfee
4 13 (11.61%) F5
4 13 (11.61%) Microsoft
5 12 (10.71%) Blue Coat
6 10 (8.93%) Dell
6 10 (8.93%) EMC
7 9 (8.04%) Juniper
8 6 (5.36%) Actel
8 6 (5.36%) Altera
8 6 (5.36%) Intel
8 6 (5.36%) Microsemi
8 6 (5.36%) Xilinx
9 5 (4.46%) SolarWinds
10 4 (3.57%) Atlassian
10 4 (3.57%) Broadcom
10 4 (3.57%) HP
10 4 (3.57%) Veritas