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 25 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 435 395 324
Rank change year-on-year -40 -71 +281
Contract jobs citing Firmware 118 119 234
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.41% 0.64%
As % of the System Software category 2.99% 3.47% 5.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 63 154
10th Percentile £160 £150 £205
25th Percentile £306 £205 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £473
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +0.53% -3.08%
75th Percentile £549 £542 £575
90th Percentile £588 £638 £645
UK median daily rate £425 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -10.53% - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 15 26
10th Percentile £53.38 £49.00 £41.88
25th Percentile £65.75 £53.56 £55.00
Median hourly rate £75.00 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% - +13.12%
75th Percentile £81.00 £75.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £90.75 - £70.00
UK median hourly rate £75.00 £67.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +11.11% +8.00% +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 3,944 3,428 4,663
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.44% 11.93% 12.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,654 2,220 3,225
10th Percentile £213 £205 £194
25th Percentile £400 £368 £345
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £694 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 140 78 206
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.59 £15.75
25th Percentile £20.98 £21.05 £18.34
Median hourly rate £48.11 £29.50 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year +63.08% -32.71% +75.35%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.88 £65.98
90th Percentile £90.15 £79.00 £77.02
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £28.41 £47.50
% change year-on-year +67.19% -40.19% +90.00%

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025. 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 +10 34 £450 +57.89% 28
East of England -12 28 £282 -40.74% 57
Midlands -22 23 £400 +142.42% 36
West Midlands -14 19 £488 +195.45% 16
North of England -82 16 £425 -10.71% 52
North West -40 15 £500 +5.26% 18
South West -5 13 £363 +141.67% 47
South East -34 12 £500 +2.56% 120
East Midlands -20 4 £138 -16.21% 19
Yorkshire -59 1 £230 -51.78% 30
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 8 (6.78%) Confluence
2 2 (1.69%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 9 (7.63%) Simulink
2 7 (5.93%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (3.39%) Windchill
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.85%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (3.39%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 6 (5.08%) AWS
1 6 (5.08%) Azure
2 3 (2.54%) GitHub
3 2 (1.69%) GCP
4 1 (0.85%) Asana
4 1 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 1 (0.85%) IaaS
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (0.85%) PaaS
4 1 (0.85%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (19.49%) DNS
2 16 (13.56%) SSL
3 15 (12.71%) Firewall
4 14 (11.86%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 12 (10.17%) TCP/IP
6 11 (9.32%) HTTP
6 11 (9.32%) Wireless
7 10 (8.47%) BGP
7 10 (8.47%) BIG-IP
7 10 (8.47%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 10 (8.47%) OSPF
7 10 (8.47%) VLAN
7 10 (8.47%) Wireshark
8 9 (7.63%) DHCP
8 9 (7.63%) Ethernet
8 9 (7.63%) Network Security
8 9 (7.63%) WAN
9 8 (6.78%) EIGRP
9 8 (6.78%) VPN
10 7 (5.93%) Cisco ISE
Development Applications
1 13 (11.02%) JIRA
2 10 (8.47%) Fiddler
3 5 (4.24%) Bitbucket
4 4 (3.39%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (3.39%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.85%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.85%) QADirector
5 1 (0.85%) Zephyr
General
1 34 (28.81%) Social Skills
2 22 (18.64%) Electronics
3 15 (12.71%) Banking
4 14 (11.86%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (9.32%) Investment Banking
6 9 (7.63%) Manufacturing
6 9 (7.63%) Military
7 8 (6.78%) Law
8 5 (4.24%) Games
9 4 (3.39%) Finance
10 3 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (2.54%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (2.54%) Public Sector
11 2 (1.69%) Aerospace
11 2 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.69%) Legal
12 1 (0.85%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.85%) Marketing
12 1 (0.85%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 28 (23.73%) Network Engineer
2 12 (10.17%) Design Engineer
2 12 (10.17%) Embedded Engineer
3 11 (9.32%) Principal Engineer
3 11 (9.32%) Security Engineer
4 10 (8.47%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 10 (8.47%) IP Network Engineer
4 10 (8.47%) RF Engineer
4 10 (8.47%) Software Engineer
4 10 (8.47%) Web Engineer
5 9 (7.63%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 8 (6.78%) Administrator
6 8 (6.78%) Firmware Engineer
6 8 (6.78%) Lead
7 7 (5.93%) Storage Engineer
8 6 (5.08%) Digital Design Engineer
8 6 (5.08%) RF Design Engineer
8 6 (5.08%) Support Engineer
9 5 (4.24%) Cisco Engineer
9 5 (4.24%) JIRA Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (6.78%) Flash
2 1 (0.85%) EJB
2 1 (0.85%) JCE
2 1 (0.85%) JSON Web Signature
2 1 (0.85%) JWT
2 1 (0.85%) LDAP
2 1 (0.85%) Middleware
2 1 (0.85%) OAuth
2 1 (0.85%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.85%) OpenID
2 1 (0.85%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (14.41%) FPGA
2 15 (12.71%) Embedded Systems
3 13 (11.02%) Management Information System
4 11 (9.32%) PKI
5 10 (8.47%) VHDL
6 8 (6.78%) Data Centre
7 6 (5.08%) Algorithms
7 6 (5.08%) Analogue Electronics
7 6 (5.08%) PCIe
7 6 (5.08%) Verilog
8 4 (3.39%) Synthetic Data
9 2 (1.69%) CUDA
9 2 (1.69%) IoT
9 2 (1.69%) Onboarding
10 1 (0.85%) Arduino
10 1 (0.85%) CCTV
10 1 (0.85%) CPLD
10 1 (0.85%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.85%) Hedge funds
10 1 (0.85%) Smart Meter
Operating Systems
1 16 (13.56%) Windows
2 12 (10.17%) Linux
3 4 (3.39%) FreeRTOS
3 4 (3.39%) Windows 10
3 4 (3.39%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.54%) Windows 7
4 3 (2.54%) Windows 8
5 2 (1.69%) Debian
5 2 (1.69%) Embedded Linux
5 2 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.85%) Android
6 1 (0.85%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.85%) CentOS
6 1 (0.85%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.85%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.85%) Robot Operating System
6 1 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (18.64%) Validation
2 19 (16.10%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (14.41%) Systems Engineering
4 15 (12.71%) AI
5 13 (11.02%) Change Management
6 11 (9.32%) Load Balancing
6 11 (9.32%) Mentoring
6 11 (9.32%) Software Engineering
7 10 (8.47%) Data Loss Prevention
7 10 (8.47%) Data Management
7 10 (8.47%) ITIL
7 10 (8.47%) Malware Detection/Protection
7 10 (8.47%) Patch Management
7 10 (8.47%) Technical Leadership
8 9 (7.63%) Disaster Recovery
9 8 (6.78%) Collaborative Culture
9 8 (6.78%) Continuous Improvement
9 8 (6.78%) ITSM
9 8 (6.78%) Line Management
9 8 (6.78%) Sensor Fusion
Programming Languages
1 25 (21.19%) C
2 21 (17.80%) Python
3 20 (16.95%) C++
4 9 (7.63%) MATLAB
4 9 (7.63%) PowerShell
5 7 (5.93%) Bash
6 6 (5.08%) SystemVerilog
6 6 (5.08%) Tcl
7 5 (4.24%) Perl
8 4 (3.39%) Embedded C
9 3 (2.54%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 36 (30.51%) Security Cleared
2 25 (21.19%) SC Cleared
3 20 (16.95%) Degree
4 13 (11.02%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (9.32%) CCNP
6 8 (6.78%) DV Cleared
7 5 (4.24%) CISSP
7 5 (4.24%) HNC
7 5 (4.24%) HND
7 5 (4.24%) JNCIA
7 5 (4.24%) JNCIS
8 4 (3.39%) CCSA
9 3 (2.54%) CISM
10 2 (1.69%) CCNA
10 2 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (1.69%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 1 (0.85%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.85%) OSCP
11 1 (0.85%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (9.32%) NIST
2 9 (7.63%) Def Stans
2 9 (7.63%) DO-178B
2 9 (7.63%) MISRA
3 8 (6.78%) JSP 440
3 8 (6.78%) NCSC
3 8 (6.78%) NIST 800
4 6 (5.08%) DO-254
5 3 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (2.54%) PCI DSS
6 2 (1.69%) GRC
6 2 (1.69%) SLA
7 1 (0.85%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.85%) JTAG
7 1 (0.85%) QA
7 1 (0.85%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.85%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 12 (10.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (7.63%) Embedded Firmware
3 8 (6.78%) Active Directory
4 5 (4.24%) VMware NSX
5 3 (2.54%) BitLocker
5 3 (2.54%) Docker
5 3 (2.54%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.69%) Ceph
6 2 (1.69%) Lustre
6 2 (1.69%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 2 (1.69%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.69%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 9 (7.63%) SCCM
2 6 (5.08%) vCenter Server
3 3 (2.54%) CA Spectrum
3 3 (2.54%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.69%) Ansible
4 2 (1.69%) Dell DRAC
4 2 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.85%) Grafana
5 1 (0.85%) HAProxy
5 1 (0.85%) Podman
5 1 (0.85%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.85%) SCOM
5 1 (0.85%) VxRail
Vendors
1 23 (19.49%) Cisco
2 15 (12.71%) F5
3 14 (11.86%) NetApp
4 13 (11.02%) Juniper
4 13 (11.02%) McAfee
4 13 (11.02%) Microsoft
4 13 (11.02%) VMware
5 12 (10.17%) EMC
6 11 (9.32%) Dell
7 10 (8.47%) Blue Coat
8 8 (6.78%) SolarWinds
9 6 (5.08%) Intel
9 6 (5.08%) Meraki
10 5 (4.24%) Actel
10 5 (4.24%) Altera
10 5 (4.24%) Atlassian
10 5 (4.24%) CheckPoint
10 5 (4.24%) Microsemi
10 5 (4.24%) Xilinx
11 4 (3.39%) Veritas