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

 6 months to
27 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 449 404 373
Rank change year-on-year -45 -31 +25
Contract jobs citing Firmware 169 110 164
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.40% 0.49%
As % of the System Software category 3.67% 3.33% 4.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 79 50 78
10th Percentile £288 £201 £204
25th Percentile £358 £314 £304
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £509 £529
90th Percentile £626 £588 £575
UK median daily rate £445 £401 £463
% change year-on-year +11.11% -13.41% -5.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 28 38
10th Percentile £12.76 £51.72 £20.50
25th Percentile £50.00 £55.88 £51.06
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.75 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.49% +42.17% +2.22%
75th Percentile £75.00 £90.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.40 £91.50 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £81.75 £57.50
% change year-on-year -20.49% +42.17% +2.22%

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 4,601 3,302 3,878
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.06% 11.97% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,024 2,127 2,650
10th Percentile £213 £225 £225
25th Percentile £392 £378 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £686 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 197 95 125
10th Percentile £16.60 £15.03 £14.06
25th Percentile £33.70 £22.75 £15.76
Median hourly rate £62.00 £37.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +65.33% +57.56% -45.60%
75th Percentile £75.00 £80.50 £59.88
90th Percentile £89.85 £91.50 £70.75
UK median hourly rate £56.25 £30.00 £23.99
% change year-on-year +87.50% +25.05% -52.02%

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 27 August 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 27 August 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 27 August 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 -26 49 £370 -12.94% 35
Midlands -29 39 £413 -28.26% 41
North West -19 32 £410 -3.53% 20
South East -35 32 £600 +33.33% 71
West Midlands -30 28 £413 -28.26% 23
London -82 28 £450 +12.36% 26
East of England -29 26 £425 - 54
Yorkshire - 16 £365 - 9
East Midlands -10 11 £500 +27.55% 18
South West -39 8 £425 -3.41% 47
North East - 1 - - 8
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 (3.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (2.96%) Simulink
2 2 (1.18%) OrCAD
3 1 (0.59%) Adobe After Effects
3 1 (0.59%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.59%) Blender
3 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 27 (15.98%) Azure
2 10 (5.92%) AWS
3 9 (5.33%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (3.55%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (1.78%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (1.78%) Azure Stack
8 2 (1.18%) AWS IoT
8 2 (1.18%) GitHub
8 2 (1.18%) GitHub Copilot
8 2 (1.18%) IaaS
8 2 (1.18%) Nutanix
8 2 (1.18%) OCI
8 2 (1.18%) PaaS
8 2 (1.18%) SaaS
9 1 (0.59%) Figma
9 1 (0.59%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.59%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 25 (14.79%) DNS
2 24 (14.20%) Firewall
3 21 (12.43%) SAN
4 18 (10.65%) SSL
4 18 (10.65%) TCP/IP
4 18 (10.65%) Wireshark
5 16 (9.47%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 16 (9.47%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 16 (9.47%) VLAN
5 16 (9.47%) WAN
6 15 (8.88%) BIG-IP
6 15 (8.88%) HTTP
6 15 (8.88%) Wireless
7 14 (8.28%) Software-Defined Radio
8 11 (6.51%) DHCP
8 11 (6.51%) LAN
8 11 (6.51%) SD-WAN
9 10 (5.92%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (4.73%) BGP
10 8 (4.73%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.59%) Oracle Database
1 1 (0.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (8.88%) Fiddler
2 10 (5.92%) JIRA
3 6 (3.55%) Git
4 3 (1.78%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (1.18%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (1.18%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (1.18%) VectorCAST
6 1 (0.59%) Ranorex
6 1 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 29 (17.16%) Social Skills
2 15 (8.88%) Banking
2 15 (8.88%) Investment Banking
3 14 (8.28%) Electronics
4 12 (7.10%) Aerospace
4 12 (7.10%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (2.96%) Retail
6 4 (2.37%) Law
6 4 (2.37%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.78%) Legal
8 2 (1.18%) Finance
8 2 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.59%) Automotive
9 1 (0.59%) Games
9 1 (0.59%) Local Government
9 1 (0.59%) Mandarin Language
9 1 (0.59%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.59%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 30 (17.75%) Network Engineer
2 19 (11.24%) Software Engineer
3 18 (10.65%) Embedded Engineer
4 15 (8.88%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 15 (8.88%) IP Network Engineer
4 15 (8.88%) Lead
4 15 (8.88%) Web Engineer
5 13 (7.69%) Senior
6 11 (6.51%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 10 (5.92%) Administrator
8 9 (5.33%) Data Centre Engineer
8 9 (5.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 8 (4.73%) Developer
10 6 (3.55%) Analyst
10 6 (3.55%) Firmware Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) FPGA Engineer
11 5 (2.96%) Backup Administrator
11 5 (2.96%) Embedded Linux Engineer
11 5 (2.96%) Hardware Technician
11 5 (2.96%) SAN Storage Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.10%) Redfish
1 12 (7.10%) Yocto
2 8 (4.73%) Terraform
3 3 (1.78%) .NET
3 3 (1.78%) Flutter
3 3 (1.78%) OpenTelemetry
3 3 (1.78%) REST
4 2 (1.18%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.59%) Framer.js
5 1 (0.59%) JSON
5 1 (0.59%) Middleware
5 1 (0.59%) PyQt
5 1 (0.59%) Streamlit
5 1 (0.59%) WPF
5 1 (0.59%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 32 (18.93%) Embedded Systems
2 30 (17.75%) Data Centre
3 17 (10.06%) RISC-V
4 16 (9.47%) Device Driver
5 15 (8.88%) Management Information System
6 14 (8.28%) FPGA
7 13 (7.69%) Clustering
8 10 (5.92%) MicroBlaze
9 9 (5.33%) IoT
9 9 (5.33%) Verilog
10 8 (4.73%) Replication
10 8 (4.73%) VHDL
11 7 (4.14%) Enterprise Storage
11 7 (4.14%) PCIe
12 6 (3.55%) Driving Licence
13 5 (2.96%) EPoS
13 5 (2.96%) Linux Command Line
14 4 (2.37%) Legacy Systems
14 4 (2.37%) PKI
14 4 (2.37%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 40 (23.67%) Linux
2 31 (18.34%) Windows
3 16 (9.47%) Embedded Linux
4 10 (5.92%) AIX
4 10 (5.92%) Windows Server
5 7 (4.14%) Unix
6 6 (3.55%) Android
7 5 (2.96%) VMS
8 4 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (1.78%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.78%) SUSE
10 2 (1.18%) VxWorks
10 2 (1.18%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.59%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.59%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.59%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.59%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (17.75%) Software Engineering
2 23 (13.61%) Capacity Planning
3 21 (12.43%) Data Centre Operations
4 19 (11.24%) ITIL
4 19 (11.24%) Migration
4 19 (11.24%) Validation
5 17 (10.06%) Load Balancing
6 16 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
7 15 (8.88%) Agile
7 15 (8.88%) Data Loss Prevention
7 15 (8.88%) Disaster Recovery
7 15 (8.88%) High Availability
7 15 (8.88%) Malware Detection/Protection
7 15 (8.88%) Signal Processing
8 13 (7.69%) Test Automation
9 12 (7.10%) Asset Management
10 11 (6.51%) Digital Signal Processing
10 11 (6.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 11 (6.51%) Project Delivery
10 11 (6.51%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 33 (19.53%) C++
2 31 (18.34%) C
3 27 (15.98%) Python
4 15 (8.88%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.33%) Ada
6 8 (4.73%) SystemVerilog
7 7 (4.14%) Bash
7 7 (4.14%) C#
7 7 (4.14%) MATLAB
7 7 (4.14%) Perl
8 5 (2.96%) Java
9 4 (2.37%) Embedded C
9 4 (2.37%) Embedded C++
10 3 (1.78%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.78%) Swift
11 2 (1.18%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.59%) Rust
12 1 (0.59%) Tcl
12 1 (0.59%) VB
Qualifications
1 37 (21.89%) Security Cleared
2 29 (17.16%) SC Cleared
3 22 (13.02%) Degree
4 11 (6.51%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (4.14%) ITIL Certification
6 6 (3.55%) CCNA
6 6 (3.55%) CCNP
7 5 (2.96%) CISSP
8 4 (2.37%) Azure Certification
8 4 (2.37%) CEH
8 4 (2.37%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (2.37%) DV Cleared
9 3 (1.78%) CCIE
9 3 (1.78%) Master's Degree
9 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (1.18%) MCSE
11 1 (0.59%) HNC
11 1 (0.59%) HND
11 1 (0.59%) JNCIA
11 1 (0.59%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.92%) DO-254
2 9 (5.33%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.33%) DO-178B
3 7 (4.14%) MISRA
4 6 (3.55%) QA
5 5 (2.96%) NIST
6 3 (1.78%) SLA
7 2 (1.18%) GDPR
8 1 (0.59%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.59%) JTAG
8 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 32 (18.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 27 (15.98%) Embedded Firmware
3 14 (8.28%) Active Directory
4 10 (5.92%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (4.73%) vSphere
6 7 (4.14%) PowerHA
7 5 (2.96%) Hyper-V
7 5 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (2.37%) BitLocker
9 2 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.59%) Docker
10 1 (0.59%) KVM
10 1 (0.59%) NFS
10 1 (0.59%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 12 (7.10%) Dell DRAC
2 8 (4.73%) Ansible
3 7 (4.14%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 7 (4.14%) vCenter Server
4 6 (3.55%) FortiGate
5 4 (2.37%) SCCM
6 3 (1.78%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Clustering
6 3 (1.78%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.78%) VxRail
7 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (1.18%) vMotion
8 1 (0.59%) Grafana
8 1 (0.59%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.59%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 35 (20.71%) VMware
2 32 (18.93%) Cisco
3 18 (10.65%) F5
4 16 (9.47%) McAfee
4 16 (9.47%) NetApp
5 15 (8.88%) Blue Coat
6 13 (7.69%) Microsoft
7 12 (7.10%) Dell
8 11 (6.51%) IBM
9 10 (5.92%) Xilinx
10 9 (5.33%) Fortinet
11 8 (4.73%) Meraki
11 8 (4.73%) Microsemi
11 8 (4.73%) ServiceNow
12 7 (4.14%) Altera
12 7 (4.14%) Juniper
12 7 (4.14%) Palo Alto
13 6 (3.55%) EMC
13 6 (3.55%) HP
14 5 (2.96%) Infoblox
250 Firmware jobs in England