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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 460 407 379
Rank change year-on-year -53 -28 -6
Contract jobs citing Firmware 165 108 146
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.38% 0.45%
As % of the System Software category 3.57% 3.08% 3.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 43 72
10th Percentile £220 £160 £157
25th Percentile £358 £288 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -7.69%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £550
90th Percentile £587 £588 £587
UK median daily rate £450 £400 £475
% change year-on-year +12.50% -15.79% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 31 25
10th Percentile £18.86 £52.00 £34.81
25th Percentile £56.25 £61.25 £51.25
Median hourly rate £62.00 £81.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.46% +15.71% +27.27%
75th Percentile £71.00 £89.38 -
90th Percentile £77.80 £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 4,625 3,505 3,740
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.01% 12.47% 11.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,024 2,260 2,441
10th Percentile £218 £208 £220
25th Percentile £398 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £613
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 232 109 86
10th Percentile £17.75 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £26.00 £22.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £63.14 £34.50 £43.08
Median % change year-on-year +83.00% -19.92% -6.71%
75th Percentile £74.08 £72.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £89.70 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £62.00 £30.00 £36.17
% change year-on-year +106.67% -17.05% -24.44%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -29 40 £400 -5.88% 111
East of England -22 38 £403 +360.00% 239
South East -40 31 £525 +10.53% 180
North West -25 30 £450 +5.88% 58
Midlands -26 30 £363 -36.96% 85
London -103 26 £465 +12.73% 189
West Midlands -33 21 £325 -43.48% 41
South West -29 10 £560 +27.27% 94
Yorkshire - 10 £365 - 29
East Midlands -13 9 £500 +27.55% 44
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 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (0.61%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.42%) OrCAD
2 1 (0.61%) Adobe After Effects
2 1 (0.61%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.61%) Blender
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.61%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 18 (10.91%) Azure
2 6 (3.64%) AWS
2 6 (3.64%) Cohesity
3 4 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
3 4 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (1.82%) GitHub
4 3 (1.82%) GitHub Copilot
4 3 (1.82%) Rubrik
5 2 (1.21%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.21%) IaaS
5 2 (1.21%) Nutanix
5 2 (1.21%) PaaS
5 2 (1.21%) SaaS
6 1 (0.61%) Figma
6 1 (0.61%) OCI
6 1 (0.61%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 22 (13.33%) Firewall
2 20 (12.12%) TCP/IP
3 18 (10.91%) WAN
4 17 (10.30%) DNS
4 17 (10.30%) SAN
4 17 (10.30%) Wi-Fi
5 15 (9.09%) Wireless
6 13 (7.88%) SD-WAN
6 13 (7.88%) SSL
6 13 (7.88%) Wireshark
7 12 (7.27%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 12 (7.27%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 11 (6.67%) BIG-IP
8 11 (6.67%) HTTP
8 11 (6.67%) LAN
8 11 (6.67%) Software-Defined Radio
8 11 (6.67%) VLAN
9 9 (5.45%) NAS
10 8 (4.85%) Ethernet
11 7 (4.24%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.61%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 11 (6.67%) Fiddler
2 10 (6.06%) JIRA
3 9 (5.45%) Git
4 4 (2.42%) GitLab
5 3 (1.82%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (1.21%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (1.21%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (1.21%) VectorCAST
7 1 (0.61%) Ranorex
General
1 31 (18.79%) Social Skills
2 25 (15.15%) Electronics
3 15 (9.09%) Aerospace
3 15 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (6.67%) Banking
4 11 (6.67%) Investment Banking
4 11 (6.67%) Manufacturing
5 9 (5.45%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (4.24%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.64%) Avionics
8 5 (3.03%) Retail
9 4 (2.42%) Law
9 4 (2.42%) Legal
10 3 (1.82%) Automotive
10 3 (1.82%) Military
11 2 (1.21%) Finance
11 2 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.61%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 31 (18.79%) Network Engineer
2 16 (9.70%) Software Engineer
3 15 (9.09%) Embedded Engineer
4 13 (7.88%) Lead
5 11 (6.67%) Blue Coat Engineer
5 11 (6.67%) IP Network Engineer
5 11 (6.67%) Web Engineer
6 10 (6.06%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 9 (5.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) Senior
9 7 (4.24%) Consultant
9 7 (4.24%) Developer
9 7 (4.24%) Electronics Engineer
10 6 (3.64%) Analyst
10 6 (3.64%) Backup Engineer
10 6 (3.64%) Storage and Backup Engineer
10 6 (3.64%) Storage Engineer
11 5 (3.03%) Firmware Engineer
11 5 (3.03%) Hardware Technician
11 5 (3.03%) Network Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.06%) Yocto
2 4 (2.42%) Redfish
2 4 (2.42%) Terraform
3 3 (1.82%) Flutter
3 3 (1.82%) REST
4 1 (0.61%) .NET
4 1 (0.61%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.61%) Flash
4 1 (0.61%) Framer.js
4 1 (0.61%) Middleware
4 1 (0.61%) PyQt
4 1 (0.61%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 35 (21.21%) Embedded Systems
2 25 (15.15%) Data Centre
3 15 (9.09%) Device Driver
3 15 (9.09%) RISC-V
4 14 (8.48%) Management Information System
5 13 (7.88%) FPGA
6 11 (6.67%) IoT
7 9 (5.45%) Clustering
7 9 (5.45%) Enterprise Storage
7 9 (5.45%) Replication
8 8 (4.85%) MicroBlaze
9 6 (3.64%) Robotics
10 5 (3.03%) Driving Licence
10 5 (3.03%) EPoS
10 5 (3.03%) Operational Technology
10 5 (3.03%) PCIe
10 5 (3.03%) Verilog
11 4 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (2.42%) VHDL
11 4 (2.42%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 31 (18.79%) Linux
2 29 (17.58%) Windows
3 13 (7.88%) Embedded Linux
4 10 (6.06%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.64%) AIX
6 5 (3.03%) Android
7 4 (2.42%) Unix
8 3 (1.82%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.82%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (1.21%) VxWorks
9 2 (1.21%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.61%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.61%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.61%) VMS
10 1 (0.61%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (17.58%) Software Engineering
2 21 (12.73%) Capacity Planning
2 21 (12.73%) ITIL
3 19 (11.52%) Disaster Recovery
4 17 (10.30%) Validation
5 16 (9.70%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (8.48%) Migration
6 14 (8.48%) Signal Processing
7 13 (7.88%) Agile
7 13 (7.88%) Configuration Management
7 13 (7.88%) Data Centre Operations
7 13 (7.88%) High Availability
8 12 (7.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 12 (7.27%) Root Cause Analysis
9 11 (6.67%) Data Loss Prevention
9 11 (6.67%) Load Balancing
9 11 (6.67%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 11 (6.67%) Project Delivery
10 10 (6.06%) Cybersecurity
10 10 (6.06%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 31 (18.79%) C
2 29 (17.58%) C++
3 15 (9.09%) Python
4 12 (7.27%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.45%) Ada
6 5 (3.03%) Embedded C
6 5 (3.03%) Embedded C++
7 4 (2.42%) C#
7 4 (2.42%) Perl
7 4 (2.42%) SystemVerilog
8 3 (1.82%) Bash
8 3 (1.82%) Java
8 3 (1.82%) Kotlin
8 3 (1.82%) MATLAB
8 3 (1.82%) Swift
9 1 (0.61%) Rust
9 1 (0.61%) Tcl
9 1 (0.61%) VB
9 1 (0.61%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 39 (23.64%) Security Cleared
2 23 (13.94%) SC Cleared
3 22 (13.33%) Degree
4 11 (6.67%) Cisco Certification
5 10 (6.06%) DV Cleared
6 9 (5.45%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (3.64%) CCNA
7 6 (3.64%) CCNP
8 4 (2.42%) BPSS Clearance
8 4 (2.42%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (1.82%) CCIE
9 3 (1.82%) CISSP
9 3 (1.82%) ISACA
9 3 (1.82%) Master's Degree
10 2 (1.21%) CEH
10 2 (1.21%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.21%) MCSE
11 1 (0.61%) ISTQB
11 1 (0.61%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 1 (0.61%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.06%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.45%) DO-178B
3 8 (4.85%) DO-254
4 7 (4.24%) MISRA
5 6 (3.64%) NIST
5 6 (3.64%) QA
6 5 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (2.42%) NCSC
7 4 (2.42%) SLA
8 3 (1.82%) NIST 800
9 2 (1.21%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (1.21%) GDPR
9 2 (1.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.61%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.61%) DO-160
10 1 (0.61%) JTAG
System Software
1 31 (18.79%) VMware Infrastructure
2 25 (15.15%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (5.45%) Active Directory
4 7 (4.24%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (3.64%) vSphere
6 4 (2.42%) PowerHA
7 3 (1.82%) NFS
7 3 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.21%) BitLocker
8 2 (1.21%) Hyper-V
8 2 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.61%) KVM
9 1 (0.61%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.61%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 8 (4.85%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.64%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 5 (3.03%) Dell DRAC
3 5 (3.03%) vCenter Server
4 4 (2.42%) Ansible
5 3 (1.82%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.82%) SnapMirror
5 3 (1.82%) vMotion
6 2 (1.21%) SCCM
Vendors
1 34 (20.61%) VMware
2 26 (15.76%) Cisco
3 17 (10.30%) NetApp
4 14 (8.48%) F5
4 14 (8.48%) Microsoft
5 12 (7.27%) McAfee
6 11 (6.67%) Blue Coat
6 11 (6.67%) Fortinet
7 10 (6.06%) EMC
8 9 (5.45%) Palo Alto
9 8 (4.85%) HP
9 8 (4.85%) Xilinx
10 7 (4.24%) IBM
11 6 (3.64%) Altera
11 6 (3.64%) Infoblox
11 6 (3.64%) Juniper
11 6 (3.64%) ServiceNow
11 6 (3.64%) Zscaler
12 5 (3.03%) Meraki
12 5 (3.03%) Veeam