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 26 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 435 379 338
Rank change year-on-year -56 -41 +219
Contract jobs citing Firmware 136 93 218
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.38% 0.58%
As % of the System Software category 3.20% 2.90% 5.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 46 140
10th Percentile £230 £203 £205
25th Percentile £325 £402 £272
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £489 £425
Median % change year-on-year -15.56% +14.94% -5.56%
75th Percentile £500 £581 £575
90th Percentile £638 £656 £636
UK median daily rate £413 £475 £425
% change year-on-year -13.16% +11.76% -15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 16 40
10th Percentile £42.50 £46.25 £20.50
25th Percentile £61.25 £52.14 £50.17
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +4.00% +19.05%
75th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.38
90th Percentile - £88.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £66.50 £67.50 £60.50
% change year-on-year -1.48% +11.57% +15.24%

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 4,251 3,211 4,128
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.32% 13.23% 10.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,909 2,221 2,846
10th Percentile £213 £210 £188
25th Percentile £400 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £478
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +9.95% -9.05%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £694 £738 £690
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £485
% change year-on-year -4.76% +8.25% -7.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 80 202
10th Percentile £15.80 £15.22 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.00 £21.20 £15.54
Median hourly rate £48.72 £28.71 £22.15
Median % change year-on-year +69.73% +29.59% -44.63%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.25 £61.50
90th Percentile £79.20 £82.88 £70.59
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £29.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year +68.00% +16.00% -44.35%

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 26 March 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 26 March 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 26 March 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 -49 42 £365 -30.14% 31
Midlands -37 31 £400 - 33
London -32 30 £454 +13.44% 29
West Midlands -36 29 £406 - 20
North West -37 26 £498 -5.24% 15
South West -10 17 £450 +80.00% 32
East of England -28 17 £250 -54.55% 43
Yorkshire -39 15 £365 -23.48% 12
South East -58 15 £500 +2.56% 71
East Midlands -34 2 £159 - 13
North East -12 1 - - 4
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 7 (5.15%) Confluence
2 4 (2.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.47%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.74%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (5.15%) Simulink
2 1 (0.74%) OrCAD
Cloud Services
1 19 (13.97%) Azure
2 7 (5.15%) Entra ID
2 7 (5.15%) GitHub
3 6 (4.41%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 4 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (2.21%) AWS
5 3 (2.21%) Azure Monitor
5 3 (2.21%) Azure Stack
6 1 (0.74%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.74%) Cohesity
6 1 (0.74%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.74%) IaaS
6 1 (0.74%) OCI
6 1 (0.74%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.74%) PaaS
6 1 (0.74%) Rubrik
6 1 (0.74%) SaaS
6 1 (0.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (21.32%) DNS
2 21 (15.44%) TCP/IP
3 20 (14.71%) SSL
3 20 (14.71%) Wireshark
4 19 (13.97%) BIG-IP
4 19 (13.97%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 19 (13.97%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 19 (13.97%) HTTP
5 18 (13.24%) Firewall
6 16 (11.76%) Ethernet
7 13 (9.56%) SAN
8 12 (8.82%) VLAN
9 11 (8.09%) Wireless
10 9 (6.62%) VPN
11 8 (5.88%) DHCP
11 8 (5.88%) Network Security
12 7 (5.15%) Modbus
12 7 (5.15%) RS-232
12 7 (5.15%) RS-485
13 5 (3.68%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 19 (13.97%) Fiddler
2 12 (8.82%) JIRA
3 3 (2.21%) Git
4 2 (1.47%) MSTest
4 2 (1.47%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (1.47%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.74%) QADirector
5 1 (0.74%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.74%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.74%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 33 (24.26%) Social Skills
2 22 (16.18%) Banking
3 21 (15.44%) Electronics
4 20 (14.71%) Investment Banking
5 16 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (4.41%) Aerospace
7 5 (3.68%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.94%) Games
9 3 (2.21%) Law
10 2 (1.47%) Finance
10 2 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.74%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.74%) Legal
11 1 (0.74%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 30 (22.06%) Network Engineer
2 23 (16.91%) Embedded Engineer
3 19 (13.97%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 19 (13.97%) IP Network Engineer
3 19 (13.97%) Web Engineer
4 17 (12.50%) Software Engineer
5 14 (10.29%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 8 (5.88%) Administrator
6 8 (5.88%) Desktop Engineer
6 8 (5.88%) Firmware Engineer
6 8 (5.88%) Senior
7 7 (5.15%) Data Centre Engineer
8 6 (4.41%) Cloud Engineer
8 6 (4.41%) FPGA Engineer
8 6 (4.41%) Storage Engineer
8 6 (4.41%) Support Engineer
9 5 (3.68%) Desktop Support
9 5 (3.68%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 5 (3.68%) Systems Engineer
10 4 (2.94%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.88%) Redfish
2 3 (2.21%) Flash
2 3 (2.21%) OpenTelemetry
2 3 (2.21%) Yocto
3 2 (1.47%) 802.1X
3 2 (1.47%) Unity (Game Engine)
3 2 (1.47%) Unreal Engine
4 1 (0.74%) JSON
4 1 (0.74%) LDAP
4 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.74%) REST
4 1 (0.74%) WPF
4 1 (0.74%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (16.18%) Embedded Systems
2 21 (15.44%) Data Centre
3 20 (14.71%) Management Information System
4 19 (13.97%) FPGA
5 10 (7.35%) PCIe
5 10 (7.35%) VHDL
6 9 (6.62%) Verilog
7 7 (5.15%) Clustering
7 7 (5.15%) PKI
8 6 (4.41%) Onboarding
8 6 (4.41%) Replication
9 5 (3.68%) Algorithms
9 5 (3.68%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (2.94%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (2.21%) Device Driver
11 3 (2.21%) MicroBlaze
11 3 (2.21%) RISC-V
12 2 (1.47%) CCTV
12 2 (1.47%) CUDA
12 2 (1.47%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 30 (22.06%) Linux
1 30 (22.06%) Windows
2 7 (5.15%) Embedded Linux
2 7 (5.15%) FreeRTOS
3 5 (3.68%) AIX
3 5 (3.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (2.21%) SUSE
4 3 (2.21%) Unix
4 3 (2.21%) VMS
4 3 (2.21%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.47%) Android
5 2 (1.47%) Debian
5 2 (1.47%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.74%) CentOS
6 1 (0.74%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.74%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.74%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (19.85%) Validation
2 22 (16.18%) Load Balancing
3 20 (14.71%) Software Engineering
4 19 (13.97%) Data Loss Prevention
4 19 (13.97%) Malware Detection/Protection
5 16 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
5 16 (11.76%) Systems Engineering
6 13 (9.56%) Computer Science
6 13 (9.56%) Data Centre Operations
6 13 (9.56%) Disaster Recovery
6 13 (9.56%) ITIL
6 13 (9.56%) Runbook
7 11 (8.09%) Customer Requirements
7 11 (8.09%) High Availability
7 11 (8.09%) Test Automation
8 10 (7.35%) AI
8 10 (7.35%) Capacity Planning
8 10 (7.35%) ITSM
8 10 (7.35%) Platform Engineering
9 9 (6.62%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 27 (19.85%) Python
2 23 (16.91%) C
3 16 (11.76%) C++
3 16 (11.76%) PowerShell
4 9 (6.62%) Bash
5 8 (5.88%) MATLAB
5 8 (5.88%) SystemVerilog
6 7 (5.15%) Embedded C++
7 5 (3.68%) Embedded C
7 5 (3.68%) Tcl
8 3 (2.21%) C#
8 3 (2.21%) Perl
9 1 (0.74%) Ada
Qualifications
1 30 (22.06%) Security Cleared
2 20 (14.71%) SC Cleared
3 15 (11.03%) Degree
4 8 (5.88%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (5.88%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.94%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.94%) HNC
5 4 (2.94%) HND
6 3 (2.21%) CCNA
6 3 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
6 3 (2.21%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.47%) CCNP
7 2 (1.47%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.74%) JNCIA
8 1 (0.74%) JNCIS
8 1 (0.74%) MCSA
8 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.74%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.74%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.35%) Def Stans
1 10 (7.35%) DO-178B
1 10 (7.35%) MISRA
2 8 (5.88%) DO-254
3 3 (2.21%) QA
4 1 (0.74%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 1 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.74%) GDPR
4 1 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.74%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.74%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 31 (22.79%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (11.76%) Active Directory
2 16 (11.76%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (6.62%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (5.88%) Hyper-V
5 5 (3.68%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (2.94%) Docker
6 4 (2.94%) KVM
6 4 (2.94%) VMware NSX
6 4 (2.94%) vSphere
7 3 (2.21%) PowerHA
8 2 (1.47%) Ceph
8 2 (1.47%) Lustre
8 2 (1.47%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.74%) NFS
Systems Management
1 8 (5.88%) vCenter Server
2 7 (5.15%) Dell DRAC
3 6 (4.41%) Ansible
3 6 (4.41%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (3.68%) Terraform
5 4 (2.94%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.94%) Prometheus
6 3 (2.21%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (2.21%) Microsoft Clustering
6 3 (2.21%) VxRail
7 2 (1.47%) Grafana
7 2 (1.47%) HP ALM
7 2 (1.47%) HP Quality Center
7 2 (1.47%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 1 (0.74%) PaperCut
8 1 (0.74%) Podman
8 1 (0.74%) SCCM
8 1 (0.74%) SCOM
8 1 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.74%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 33 (24.26%) VMware
2 24 (17.65%) NetApp
3 20 (14.71%) F5
4 19 (13.97%) Blue Coat
4 19 (13.97%) McAfee
5 17 (12.50%) Cisco
6 14 (10.29%) Microsoft
7 12 (8.82%) Dell
8 8 (5.88%) Altera
8 8 (5.88%) Xilinx
9 7 (5.15%) EMC
9 7 (5.15%) IBM
9 7 (5.15%) Microsemi
10 6 (4.41%) SolarWinds
11 5 (3.68%) HP
11 5 (3.68%) Intel
11 5 (3.68%) Juniper
12 4 (2.94%) Actel
12 4 (2.94%) Nexthink
12 4 (2.94%) Veritas