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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 477 401 392
Rank change year-on-year -76 -9 -27
Contract jobs citing Firmware 175 111 142
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.39% 0.44%
As % of the System Software category 3.73% 3.13% 3.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 65 44 68
10th Percentile £213 £160 £154
25th Percentile £335 £294 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -8.16%
75th Percentile £538 £503 £541
90th Percentile £575 £588 £586
UK median daily rate £450 £400 £475
% change year-on-year +12.43% -15.74% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 31 24
10th Percentile £26.25 £52.00 £32.15
25th Percentile £49.38 £63.50 £51.25
Median hourly rate £60.00 £81.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +15.71% +24.44%
75th Percentile £70.50 £89.38 -
90th Percentile £79.00 £91.50 £72.28
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £81.00 £64.00
% change year-on-year -25.93% +26.56% +13.78%

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 4,692 3,552 3,727
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.02% 12.59% 11.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,065 2,280 2,432
10th Percentile £215 £206 £220
25th Percentile £393 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year - -2.17% +2.22%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £613
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 243 116 79
10th Percentile £17.75 £15.50 £15.25
25th Percentile £25.80 £21.00 £21.05
Median hourly rate £62.50 £34.00 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +83.82% +9.68% -34.74%
75th Percentile £74.00 £68.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £89.19 £81.71
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £28.50 £30.50
% change year-on-year +110.53% -6.56% -39.00%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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
East of England -18 43 £403 +360.00% 50
North of England -31 40 £400 -5.88% 24
Midlands -31 32 £363 -36.96% 26
South East -36 32 £525 +10.53% 68
North West -21 30 £450 +5.88% 14
London -101 25 £465 +11.04% 19
West Midlands -33 23 £325 -43.48% 15
South West -31 13 £530 +20.45% 23
Yorkshire - 10 £365 - 4
East Midlands -1 9 £500 +27.55% 11
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 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.14%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.29%) OrCAD
2 2 (1.14%) Simulink
3 1 (0.57%) Adobe After Effects
3 1 (0.57%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.57%) Blender
3 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.57%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.57%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 18 (10.29%) Azure
2 6 (3.43%) Cohesity
3 5 (2.86%) AWS
3 5 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
5 3 (1.71%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.71%) GitHub
5 3 (1.71%) GitHub Copilot
5 3 (1.71%) Rubrik
6 2 (1.14%) IaaS
6 2 (1.14%) Nutanix
6 2 (1.14%) OneDrive
6 2 (1.14%) PaaS
6 2 (1.14%) SaaS
7 1 (0.57%) Figma
7 1 (0.57%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 23 (13.14%) Firewall
2 22 (12.57%) TCP/IP
3 19 (10.86%) WAN
4 17 (9.71%) DNS
4 17 (9.71%) SAN
4 17 (9.71%) Wi-Fi
4 17 (9.71%) Wireless
5 13 (7.43%) SD-WAN
5 13 (7.43%) SSL
5 13 (7.43%) VLAN
5 13 (7.43%) Wireshark
6 12 (6.86%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 12 (6.86%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 12 (6.86%) LAN
6 12 (6.86%) Software-Defined Radio
7 11 (6.29%) BIG-IP
7 11 (6.29%) HTTP
8 9 (5.14%) NAS
9 8 (4.57%) Ethernet
10 7 (4.00%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.57%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 11 (6.29%) Fiddler
1 11 (6.29%) JIRA
2 10 (5.71%) Git
3 5 (2.86%) GitLab
4 3 (1.71%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (1.14%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (1.14%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (1.14%) VectorCAST
6 1 (0.57%) Ranorex
General
1 32 (18.29%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.43%) Electronics
3 18 (10.29%) Aerospace
4 17 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (8.57%) Manufacturing
6 11 (6.29%) Banking
6 11 (6.29%) Investment Banking
7 10 (5.71%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (4.57%) Telecoms
9 7 (4.00%) Avionics
10 5 (2.86%) Legal
10 5 (2.86%) Military
10 5 (2.86%) Retail
11 4 (2.29%) Law
11 4 (2.29%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.71%) Automotive
13 2 (1.14%) Finance
13 2 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (1.14%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.57%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 32 (18.29%) Network Engineer
2 16 (9.14%) Embedded Engineer
2 16 (9.14%) Software Engineer
3 12 (6.86%) Lead
4 11 (6.29%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 11 (6.29%) IP Network Engineer
4 11 (6.29%) Web Engineer
5 10 (5.71%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 9 (5.14%) Consultant
6 9 (5.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 9 (5.14%) Senior
7 8 (4.57%) Electronics Engineer
8 7 (4.00%) Developer
9 6 (3.43%) Analyst
9 6 (3.43%) Backup Engineer
9 6 (3.43%) Storage and Backup Engineer
9 6 (3.43%) Storage Engineer
10 5 (2.86%) Firmware Engineer
10 5 (2.86%) Hardware Technician
10 5 (2.86%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.29%) Yocto
2 4 (2.29%) Redfish
2 4 (2.29%) Terraform
3 3 (1.71%) Flutter
3 3 (1.71%) REST
4 1 (0.57%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.57%) Flash
4 1 (0.57%) Framer.js
4 1 (0.57%) Middleware
4 1 (0.57%) PyQt
4 1 (0.57%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 39 (22.29%) Embedded Systems
2 26 (14.86%) Data Centre
3 16 (9.14%) Device Driver
3 16 (9.14%) RISC-V
4 15 (8.57%) Management Information System
5 14 (8.00%) FPGA
6 11 (6.29%) IoT
7 10 (5.71%) Replication
8 9 (5.14%) Clustering
8 9 (5.14%) Enterprise Storage
8 9 (5.14%) MicroBlaze
9 7 (4.00%) Robotics
10 5 (2.86%) Driving Licence
10 5 (2.86%) EPoS
10 5 (2.86%) Operational Technology
10 5 (2.86%) PCIe
10 5 (2.86%) Verilog
10 5 (2.86%) VHDL
11 4 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (2.29%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 34 (19.43%) Linux
2 32 (18.29%) Windows
3 14 (8.00%) Embedded Linux
4 12 (6.86%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.43%) AIX
6 5 (2.86%) Android
7 4 (2.29%) Unix
8 3 (1.71%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.71%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.14%) Ubuntu
9 2 (1.14%) VxWorks
9 2 (1.14%) Windows 10
9 2 (1.14%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.57%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.57%) VMS
10 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (17.14%) Software Engineering
2 21 (12.00%) Capacity Planning
2 21 (12.00%) ITIL
3 19 (10.86%) Disaster Recovery
4 16 (9.14%) Configuration Management
4 16 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
4 16 (9.14%) Validation
5 15 (8.57%) Signal Processing
6 14 (8.00%) Agile
6 14 (8.00%) Migration
7 13 (7.43%) Data Centre Operations
7 13 (7.43%) High Availability
7 13 (7.43%) Root Cause Analysis
8 12 (6.86%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 11 (6.29%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (6.29%) Cybersecurity
9 11 (6.29%) Data Loss Prevention
9 11 (6.29%) Load Balancing
9 11 (6.29%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 11 (6.29%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 33 (18.86%) C
2 30 (17.14%) C++
3 17 (9.71%) Python
4 12 (6.86%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.14%) Ada
6 6 (3.43%) Embedded C
7 5 (2.86%) Embedded C++
8 4 (2.29%) Bash
8 4 (2.29%) MATLAB
8 4 (2.29%) Perl
8 4 (2.29%) SystemVerilog
9 3 (1.71%) C#
9 3 (1.71%) Java
9 3 (1.71%) Kotlin
9 3 (1.71%) Swift
10 1 (0.57%) Rust
10 1 (0.57%) Tcl
10 1 (0.57%) VB
Qualifications
1 45 (25.71%) Security Cleared
2 28 (16.00%) SC Cleared
3 22 (12.57%) Degree
4 12 (6.86%) Cisco Certification
5 10 (5.71%) DV Cleared
6 9 (5.14%) ITIL Certification
7 7 (4.00%) CCNA
7 7 (4.00%) CCNP
8 5 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (2.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (1.71%) CCIE
10 3 (1.71%) ISACA
10 3 (1.71%) Master's Degree
11 2 (1.14%) CISSP
11 2 (1.14%) MCSE
12 1 (0.57%) HNC
12 1 (0.57%) HND
12 1 (0.57%) ISTQB
12 1 (0.57%) MCSA
12 1 (0.57%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (6.86%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.14%) DO-178B
3 8 (4.57%) DO-254
4 7 (4.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (4.00%) MISRA
5 6 (3.43%) NIST
5 6 (3.43%) QA
6 5 (2.86%) NCSC
7 4 (2.29%) SLA
8 3 (1.71%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (1.71%) NIST 800
9 2 (1.14%) GDPR
9 2 (1.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.57%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.57%) DO-160
10 1 (0.57%) JTAG
System Software
1 32 (18.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (16.00%) Embedded Firmware
3 10 (5.71%) Active Directory
4 7 (4.00%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (3.43%) vSphere
6 4 (2.29%) Hyper-V
6 4 (2.29%) PowerHA
6 4 (2.29%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.71%) NFS
8 2 (1.14%) BitLocker
8 2 (1.14%) KVM
8 2 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.57%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.57%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 8 (4.57%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.43%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 5 (2.86%) Dell DRAC
3 5 (2.86%) vCenter Server
4 4 (2.29%) Ansible
4 4 (2.29%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.71%) SnapMirror
5 3 (1.71%) vMotion
6 2 (1.14%) SCCM
7 1 (0.57%) WSUS
Vendors
1 35 (20.00%) VMware
2 27 (15.43%) Cisco
3 17 (9.71%) NetApp
4 16 (9.14%) Microsoft
5 14 (8.00%) F5
6 12 (6.86%) Fortinet
6 12 (6.86%) McAfee
7 11 (6.29%) Blue Coat
8 10 (5.71%) EMC
9 9 (5.14%) Palo Alto
9 9 (5.14%) Xilinx
10 8 (4.57%) HP
11 7 (4.00%) IBM
12 6 (3.43%) Altera
12 6 (3.43%) Infoblox
12 6 (3.43%) Juniper
12 6 (3.43%) ServiceNow
12 6 (3.43%) Zscaler
13 5 (2.86%) Meraki
13 5 (2.86%) Veeam