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

 6 months to
18 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 466 392 364
Rank change year-on-year -74 -28 +28
Contract jobs citing Firmware 169 109 167
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.39% 0.50%
As % of the System Software category 3.66% 3.33% 4.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 83 47 80
10th Percentile £249 £187 £205
25th Percentile £358 £318 £318
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £425 £445
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -4.49% -6.32%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £526
90th Percentile £626 £588 £575
UK median daily rate £425 £400 £450
% change year-on-year +6.18% -11.06% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 28 40
10th Percentile £12.76 £51.72 £20.50
25th Percentile £42.50 £55.88 £50.98
Median hourly rate £65.00 £82.50 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.21% +43.48% +4.55%
75th Percentile £75.00 £90.38 £70.00
90th Percentile - £91.50 -
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £82.50 £57.38
% change year-on-year -24.24% +43.79% +4.32%

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 4,623 3,274 3,871
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.11% 11.86% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,051 2,115 2,689
10th Percentile £218 £225 £230
25th Percentile £393 £380 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £685 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 93 128
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.01 £14.06
25th Percentile £28.75 £23.00 £15.70
Median hourly rate £60.17 £40.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +50.41% +65.43% -35.52%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £89.28 £91.50 £74.68
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £33.64 £24.18
% change year-on-year +63.52% +39.10% -49.45%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -35 53 £365 -16.57% 54
Midlands -26 40 £413 -28.26% 50
North West -23 33 £410 -6.29% 30
South East -55 30 £600 +33.33% 110
London -76 30 £450 +12.50% 57
West Midlands -25 29 £413 -28.26% 26
East of England -32 25 £425 - 105
Yorkshire - 19 £365 - 11
East Midlands -13 11 £500 +27.55% 23
South West -41 5 £425 -3.41% 64
North East - 1 - - 15
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 1 (0.59%) Adobe After Effects
2 1 (0.59%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.59%) Blender
2 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.59%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 30 (17.75%) Azure
2 10 (5.92%) Entra ID
3 9 (5.33%) AWS
3 9 (5.33%) Microsoft 365
4 5 (2.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (1.78%) Azure Monitor
6 3 (1.78%) Azure Stack
7 2 (1.18%) AWS IoT
7 2 (1.18%) GitHub
7 2 (1.18%) GitHub Copilot
7 2 (1.18%) IaaS
7 2 (1.18%) OCI
7 2 (1.18%) PaaS
7 2 (1.18%) SaaS
8 1 (0.59%) Figma
8 1 (0.59%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.59%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.59%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 25 (14.79%) DNS
2 24 (14.20%) Firewall
3 20 (11.83%) SAN
4 19 (11.24%) SSL
4 19 (11.24%) Wireshark
5 18 (10.65%) TCP/IP
6 17 (10.06%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 17 (10.06%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 17 (10.06%) WAN
7 16 (9.47%) BIG-IP
7 16 (9.47%) HTTP
8 14 (8.28%) VLAN
9 13 (7.69%) Wireless
10 12 (7.10%) Software-Defined Radio
11 11 (6.51%) LAN
11 11 (6.51%) SD-WAN
12 10 (5.92%) DHCP
12 10 (5.92%) Wi-Fi
13 9 (5.33%) VPN
14 8 (4.73%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.59%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 16 (9.47%) 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 35 (20.71%) Social Skills
2 16 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
2 16 (9.47%) Banking
2 16 (9.47%) Investment Banking
3 14 (8.28%) Electronics
4 11 (6.51%) Aerospace
5 5 (2.96%) Manufacturing
5 5 (2.96%) Retail
6 4 (2.37%) Law
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 32 (18.93%) Network Engineer
2 17 (10.06%) Embedded Engineer
2 17 (10.06%) Software Engineer
3 16 (9.47%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 16 (9.47%) IP Network Engineer
3 16 (9.47%) Web Engineer
4 13 (7.69%) Lead
4 13 (7.69%) Senior
5 11 (6.51%) Administrator
6 10 (5.92%) Data Centre Engineer
7 9 (5.33%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 8 (4.73%) Developer
9 7 (4.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Analyst
10 6 (3.55%) Backup Administrator
10 6 (3.55%) FPGA Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) SAN Administrator
10 6 (3.55%) Storage Administrator
10 6 (3.55%) Storage and Backup Administrator
10 6 (3.55%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.69%) Redfish
2 10 (5.92%) Yocto
3 3 (1.78%) .NET
3 3 (1.78%) 802.1X
3 3 (1.78%) Flutter
3 3 (1.78%) OpenTelemetry
3 3 (1.78%) REST
4 1 (0.59%) Framer.js
4 1 (0.59%) JSON
4 1 (0.59%) Middleware
4 1 (0.59%) PyQt
4 1 (0.59%) Streamlit
4 1 (0.59%) WPF
4 1 (0.59%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (18.34%) Data Centre
2 30 (17.75%) Embedded Systems
3 16 (9.47%) Management Information System
4 15 (8.88%) RISC-V
5 14 (8.28%) Device Driver
6 13 (7.69%) FPGA
7 12 (7.10%) Clustering
8 9 (5.33%) IoT
8 9 (5.33%) Verilog
9 8 (4.73%) MicroBlaze
9 8 (4.73%) Replication
9 8 (4.73%) VHDL
10 7 (4.14%) Onboarding
11 6 (3.55%) Driving Licence
11 6 (3.55%) Enterprise Storage
11 6 (3.55%) PCIe
12 5 (2.96%) EPoS
12 5 (2.96%) Linux Command Line
13 4 (2.37%) Analytical Mindset
13 4 (2.37%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 36 (21.30%) Linux
2 33 (19.53%) Windows
3 14 (8.28%) Embedded Linux
4 11 (6.51%) AIX
5 7 (4.14%) Unix
5 7 (4.14%) Windows Server
6 5 (2.96%) Android
6 5 (2.96%) VMS
7 3 (1.78%) Apple iOS
7 3 (1.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.78%) SUSE
8 2 (1.18%) VxWorks
8 2 (1.18%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.59%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.59%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.59%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (16.57%) Software Engineering
2 23 (13.61%) Capacity Planning
3 22 (13.02%) Data Centre Operations
4 21 (12.43%) Problem-Solving
5 20 (11.83%) ITIL
5 20 (11.83%) Migration
6 18 (10.65%) Load Balancing
7 17 (10.06%) Validation
8 16 (9.47%) Data Loss Prevention
8 16 (9.47%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 15 (8.88%) Runbook
10 14 (8.28%) Test Automation
11 13 (7.69%) Agile
11 13 (7.69%) Disaster Recovery
11 13 (7.69%) Performance Tuning
11 13 (7.69%) Signal Processing
12 12 (7.10%) Asset Management
12 12 (7.10%) High Availability
13 11 (6.51%) Inventory Management
13 11 (6.51%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 31 (18.34%) C++
2 29 (17.16%) C
3 27 (15.98%) Python
4 17 (10.06%) 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 31 (18.34%) Security Cleared
2 25 (14.79%) SC Cleared
3 24 (14.20%) Degree
4 11 (6.51%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (3.55%) CCNA
5 6 (3.55%) CCNP
6 5 (2.96%) CISSP
6 5 (2.96%) ITIL Certification
7 4 (2.37%) Azure Certification
7 4 (2.37%) CEH
7 4 (2.37%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.78%) CCIE
8 3 (1.78%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.78%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.18%) MCSE
9 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.59%) HNC
10 1 (0.59%) HND
10 1 (0.59%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.33%) DO-178B
1 9 (5.33%) DO-254
2 8 (4.73%) Def Stans
3 7 (4.14%) MISRA
4 6 (3.55%) QA
5 5 (2.96%) NIST
6 2 (1.18%) GDPR
6 2 (1.18%) SLA
7 1 (0.59%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.59%) JTAG
7 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 30 (17.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (15.38%) Embedded Firmware
3 18 (10.65%) Active Directory
4 8 (4.73%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (4.14%) PowerHA
6 6 (3.55%) vSphere
7 5 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (2.37%) BitLocker
8 4 (2.37%) Hyper-V
9 2 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.59%) Docker
10 1 (0.59%) NFS
10 1 (0.59%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 13 (7.69%) Dell DRAC
2 8 (4.73%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 7 (4.14%) Ansible
3 7 (4.14%) FortiGate
3 7 (4.14%) Terraform
4 6 (3.55%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (2.96%) vCenter Server
6 4 (2.37%) SCCM
7 3 (1.78%) Failover Clustering
7 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Clustering
7 3 (1.78%) Prometheus
7 3 (1.78%) VxRail
8 1 (0.59%) Grafana
8 1 (0.59%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.59%) SnapMirror
8 1 (0.59%) vMotion
Vendors
1 34 (20.12%) VMware
2 33 (19.53%) Cisco
3 19 (11.24%) F5
4 17 (10.06%) McAfee
4 17 (10.06%) NetApp
5 16 (9.47%) Blue Coat
5 16 (9.47%) Microsoft
6 12 (7.10%) IBM
7 10 (5.92%) Dell
7 10 (5.92%) Fortinet
8 9 (5.33%) Xilinx
9 8 (4.73%) Meraki
9 8 (4.73%) Microsemi
10 7 (4.14%) Juniper
10 7 (4.14%) Palo Alto
10 7 (4.14%) ServiceNow
11 6 (3.55%) Altera
11 6 (3.55%) EMC
11 6 (3.55%) HP
12 5 (2.96%) Infoblox
422 Firmware jobs in England