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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 433 383 327
Rank change year-on-year -50 -56 +257
Contract jobs citing Firmware 115 111 237
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.41% 0.65%
As % of the System Software category 2.93% 3.43% 5.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 61 157
10th Percentile £160 £150 £205
25th Percentile £318 £200 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £473 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -0.53% +1.33%
75th Percentile £550 £530 £575
90th Percentile £590 £638 £645
UK median daily rate £463 £473 £475
% change year-on-year -2.12% -0.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 14 31
10th Percentile £56.05 £48.63 £47.50
25th Percentile £65.75 £53.03 £55.00
Median hourly rate £75.00 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% - +13.64%
75th Percentile £81.00 £75.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £91.20 - £90.00
UK median hourly rate £75.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +15.38% +4.00% +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 3,925 3,233 4,490
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.47% 11.84% 12.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,657 2,097 3,103
10th Percentile £213 £202 £190
25th Percentile £400 £363 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £608
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 78 203
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.59 £15.55
25th Percentile £20.91 £21.05 £18.39
Median hourly rate £47.50 £28.71 £46.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.48% -37.60% +67.27%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £67.94
90th Percentile £90.60 £79.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £48.11 £28.41 £49.88
% change year-on-year +69.34% -43.04% +86.47%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +9 31 £463 +62.28% 16
East of England -9 25 £282 -40.74% 61
Midlands -17 24 £400 +142.42% 52
West Midlands -20 20 £488 +195.45% 27
North of England -74 18 £380 -20.17% 59
North West -34 16 £500 +5.26% 19
South West +1 14 £475 +216.67% 49
South East -26 12 £500 +2.56% 129
East Midlands -24 4 £138 -16.21% 23
Yorkshire -61 2 £283 -40.78% 31
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 11 (9.57%) Confluence
2 2 (1.74%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 7 (6.09%) Simulink
2 4 (3.48%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (1.74%) Windchill
4 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.87%) OrCAD
4 1 (0.87%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (1.74%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 7 (6.09%) Azure
2 6 (5.22%) GitHub
3 2 (1.74%) AWS
3 2 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (0.87%) Asana
4 1 (0.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 1 (0.87%) GCP
4 1 (0.87%) IaaS
4 1 (0.87%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (0.87%) PaaS
4 1 (0.87%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (17.39%) DNS
2 13 (11.30%) Ethernet
2 13 (11.30%) SSL
2 13 (11.30%) TCP/IP
3 12 (10.43%) HTTP
4 11 (9.57%) BIG-IP
4 11 (9.57%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 11 (9.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 11 (9.57%) Wireshark
5 10 (8.70%) Firewall
6 7 (6.09%) Wireless
7 6 (5.22%) BGP
7 6 (5.22%) Cisco Firepower
7 6 (5.22%) Cisco IOS
7 6 (5.22%) IPsec
7 6 (5.22%) Modbus
7 6 (5.22%) OSPF
7 6 (5.22%) RS-232
7 6 (5.22%) RS-485
7 6 (5.22%) SAN
Development Applications
1 14 (12.17%) JIRA
2 11 (9.57%) Fiddler
3 5 (4.35%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.74%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (1.74%) Rational Rhapsody
4 2 (1.74%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.87%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.87%) QADirector
5 1 (0.87%) Zephyr
General
1 30 (26.09%) Social Skills
2 20 (17.39%) Electronics
3 16 (13.91%) Banking
4 12 (10.43%) Investment Banking
5 11 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (7.83%) Military
7 7 (6.09%) Manufacturing
8 5 (4.35%) Games
8 5 (4.35%) Law
9 4 (3.48%) Aerospace
9 4 (3.48%) Finance
10 3 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (2.61%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.74%) Legal
12 1 (0.87%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.87%) Marketing
12 1 (0.87%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.87%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 27 (23.48%) Network Engineer
2 14 (12.17%) Embedded Engineer
3 12 (10.43%) Software Engineer
4 11 (9.57%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 11 (9.57%) IP Network Engineer
4 11 (9.57%) Web Engineer
5 9 (7.83%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 9 (7.83%) Principal Engineer
5 9 (7.83%) Security Engineer
6 8 (6.96%) Design Engineer
6 8 (6.96%) Firmware Engineer
6 8 (6.96%) Lead
7 7 (6.09%) Storage Engineer
8 6 (5.22%) Administrator
8 6 (5.22%) RF Engineer
9 5 (4.35%) Cisco Engineer
9 5 (4.35%) JIRA Administrator
9 5 (4.35%) Support Engineer
10 4 (3.48%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
10 4 (3.48%) Juniper Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (5.22%) Flash
2 2 (1.74%) Unity (Game Engine)
2 2 (1.74%) Unreal Engine
3 1 (0.87%) EJB
3 1 (0.87%) JCE
3 1 (0.87%) JSON Web Signature
3 1 (0.87%) JWT
3 1 (0.87%) LDAP
3 1 (0.87%) Middleware
3 1 (0.87%) OAuth
3 1 (0.87%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.87%) OpenID
3 1 (0.87%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (14.78%) FPGA
2 15 (13.04%) Embedded Systems
3 14 (12.17%) Management Information System
4 11 (9.57%) PKI
5 9 (7.83%) Data Centre
6 8 (6.96%) PCIe
6 8 (6.96%) VHDL
7 6 (5.22%) Algorithms
7 6 (5.22%) Verilog
8 4 (3.48%) Analogue Electronics
9 2 (1.74%) CUDA
9 2 (1.74%) IoT
9 2 (1.74%) Mixed Reality
9 2 (1.74%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.74%) Synthetic Data
9 2 (1.74%) Virtual Reality
10 1 (0.87%) Arduino
10 1 (0.87%) Hedge funds
10 1 (0.87%) Life Science
10 1 (0.87%) Smart Meter
Operating Systems
1 16 (13.91%) Windows
2 13 (11.30%) Linux
3 7 (6.09%) FreeRTOS
4 4 (3.48%) Windows 10
4 4 (3.48%) Windows Server
5 3 (2.61%) Windows 7
5 3 (2.61%) Windows 8
6 2 (1.74%) Debian
6 2 (1.74%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.87%) Android
7 1 (0.87%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.87%) CentOS
7 1 (0.87%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.87%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.87%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.87%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (20.00%) Validation
2 17 (14.78%) Systems Engineering
3 16 (13.91%) Problem-Solving
4 14 (12.17%) Software Engineering
5 13 (11.30%) AI
5 13 (11.30%) Change Management
6 12 (10.43%) Load Balancing
7 11 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
7 11 (9.57%) Data Loss Prevention
7 11 (9.57%) Malware Detection/Protection
8 10 (8.70%) ITIL
8 10 (8.70%) Mentoring
8 10 (8.70%) Technical Leadership
9 9 (7.83%) Computer Science
9 9 (7.83%) Disaster Recovery
10 8 (6.96%) Collaborative Culture
10 8 (6.96%) Data Management
10 8 (6.96%) ITSM
11 7 (6.09%) Machine Learning
11 7 (6.09%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (20.00%) C
2 21 (18.26%) C++
2 21 (18.26%) Python
3 10 (8.70%) PowerShell
4 8 (6.96%) Bash
5 7 (6.09%) MATLAB
6 6 (5.22%) Embedded C++
6 6 (5.22%) SystemVerilog
6 6 (5.22%) Tcl
7 5 (4.35%) Embedded C
7 5 (4.35%) Perl
Qualifications
1 33 (28.70%) Security Cleared
2 24 (20.87%) SC Cleared
3 20 (17.39%) Degree
4 9 (7.83%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (6.96%) DV Cleared
6 7 (6.09%) CCNP
7 5 (4.35%) CISSP
7 5 (4.35%) HNC
7 5 (4.35%) HND
7 5 (4.35%) JNCIA
7 5 (4.35%) JNCIS
8 4 (3.48%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (2.61%) CISM
10 2 (1.74%) CCNA
10 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.87%) MCP
11 1 (0.87%) MCSA
11 1 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
11 1 (0.87%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.87%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (8.70%) NIST
2 9 (7.83%) Def Stans
2 9 (7.83%) DO-178B
2 9 (7.83%) MISRA
3 8 (6.96%) JSP 440
3 8 (6.96%) NCSC
3 8 (6.96%) NIST 800
4 6 (5.22%) DO-254
5 2 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.74%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.74%) SLA
6 1 (0.87%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.87%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.87%) GRC
6 1 (0.87%) JTAG
6 1 (0.87%) QA
6 1 (0.87%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 14 (12.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (11.30%) Embedded Firmware
3 8 (6.96%) Active Directory
4 5 (4.35%) VMware NSX
5 4 (3.48%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.61%) BitLocker
6 3 (2.61%) Docker
7 2 (1.74%) Ceph
7 2 (1.74%) Lustre
7 2 (1.74%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (1.74%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.74%) vSphere
8 1 (0.87%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.87%) KVM
Systems Management
1 9 (7.83%) SCCM
2 6 (5.22%) vCenter Server
3 3 (2.61%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.74%) Ansible
4 2 (1.74%) Dell DRAC
4 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.87%) Grafana
5 1 (0.87%) HAProxy
5 1 (0.87%) Podman
5 1 (0.87%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.87%) SCOM
5 1 (0.87%) VxRail
Vendors
1 19 (16.52%) Cisco
2 15 (13.04%) NetApp
2 15 (13.04%) VMware
3 14 (12.17%) McAfee
4 12 (10.43%) F5
4 12 (10.43%) Microsoft
5 11 (9.57%) Blue Coat
5 11 (9.57%) Dell
6 10 (8.70%) EMC
7 9 (7.83%) Juniper
8 6 (5.22%) Intel
9 5 (4.35%) Actel
9 5 (4.35%) Altera
9 5 (4.35%) Atlassian
9 5 (4.35%) Microsemi
9 5 (4.35%) SolarWinds
9 5 (4.35%) Xilinx
10 4 (3.48%) Broadcom
10 4 (3.48%) Veritas
11 3 (2.61%) Draytek