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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 467 379 354
Rank change year-on-year -88 -25 +224
Contract jobs citing Firmware 106 103 196
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.30% 0.40% 0.53%
As % of the System Software category 2.52% 3.17% 4.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 41 60 131
10th Percentile £230 £150 £205
25th Percentile £300 £200 £262
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £469 £425
Median % change year-on-year -9.33% +10.29% -5.56%
75th Percentile £545 £538 £575
90th Percentile £638 £638 £645
UK median daily rate £400 £438 £425
% change year-on-year -8.57% +2.94% -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 14 32
10th Percentile £61.25 £45.75 £32.88
25th Percentile £65.00 £53.22 £54.38
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% - +20.93%
75th Percentile £77.50 £75.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £84.10 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £66.50 £67.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year -1.48% +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 4,213 3,254 4,233
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.91% 12.63% 11.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,895 2,154 2,932
10th Percentile £205 £205 £188
25th Percentile £400 £380 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £695 £744 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £480
% change year-on-year -3.85% +8.33% -8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 78 211
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.41 £14.06
25th Percentile £20.00 £21.10 £16.89
Median hourly rate £34.00 £30.75 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.57% -5.38% -15.58%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.40 £83.63 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +7.69% -18.75% -

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -11 29 £468 +53.28% 26
North of England -69 29 £360 -24.21% 33
Midlands -37 21 £390 +136.36% 34
West Midlands -33 20 £400 +142.42% 16
North West -35 20 £575 +15.29% 10
East of England -20 16 £63 -86.74% 42
South West -17 13 £475 +216.67% 23
South East -43 12 £500 - 59
Yorkshire -62 9 £348 +73.75% 19
East Midlands -30 1 £143 -13.64% 18
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 (6.60%) Confluence
2 2 (1.89%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (4.72%) Simulink
2 1 (0.94%) OrCAD
Cloud Services
1 9 (8.49%) Azure
2 7 (6.60%) GitHub
3 4 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (2.83%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.94%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (0.94%) IaaS
5 1 (0.94%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.94%) PaaS
5 1 (0.94%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (21.70%) DNS
2 18 (16.98%) TCP/IP
3 16 (15.09%) BIG-IP
3 16 (15.09%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 16 (15.09%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 16 (15.09%) HTTP
3 16 (15.09%) SSL
3 16 (15.09%) Wireshark
4 14 (13.21%) Ethernet
5 12 (11.32%) Firewall
6 7 (6.60%) Modbus
6 7 (6.60%) RS-232
6 7 (6.60%) RS-485
6 7 (6.60%) Wireless
7 6 (5.66%) SAN
7 6 (5.66%) VLAN
7 6 (5.66%) VPN
8 5 (4.72%) Cisco Firepower
8 5 (4.72%) Cisco IOS
8 5 (4.72%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.94%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 16 (15.09%) Fiddler
2 9 (8.49%) JIRA
3 2 (1.89%) MSTest
3 2 (1.89%) Team Foundation Server
3 2 (1.89%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.94%) Git
4 1 (0.94%) QADirector
4 1 (0.94%) Rational DOORS
4 1 (0.94%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 31 (29.25%) Social Skills
2 20 (18.87%) Banking
2 20 (18.87%) Electronics
3 17 (16.04%) Investment Banking
4 14 (13.21%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (6.60%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.72%) Games
7 4 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (3.77%) Law
8 3 (2.83%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.89%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.94%) Finance
10 1 (0.94%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.94%) Legal
10 1 (0.94%) Military
10 1 (0.94%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 29 (27.36%) Network Engineer
2 19 (17.92%) Embedded Engineer
3 16 (15.09%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 16 (15.09%) IP Network Engineer
3 16 (15.09%) Web Engineer
4 14 (13.21%) Software Engineer
5 12 (11.32%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 8 (7.55%) Firmware Engineer
6 8 (7.55%) Principal Engineer
7 6 (5.66%) Desktop Engineer
7 6 (5.66%) Storage Engineer
7 6 (5.66%) Support Engineer
8 5 (4.72%) Cloud Engineer
8 5 (4.72%) Design Engineer
8 5 (4.72%) Desktop Support
8 5 (4.72%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 4 (3.77%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 4 (3.77%) Cloud Network Engineer
9 4 (3.77%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 4 (3.77%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.77%) Flash
2 2 (1.89%) Unity (Game Engine)
2 2 (1.89%) Unreal Engine
3 1 (0.94%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.94%) LDAP
3 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.94%) Redfish
3 1 (0.94%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 18 (16.98%) Management Information System
2 17 (16.04%) FPGA
3 16 (15.09%) Embedded Systems
4 12 (11.32%) Data Centre
5 8 (7.55%) PCIe
5 8 (7.55%) VHDL
6 7 (6.60%) PKI
6 7 (6.60%) Verilog
7 6 (5.66%) Algorithms
8 4 (3.77%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.89%) Analogue Electronics
9 2 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.89%) CCTV
9 2 (1.89%) CUDA
9 2 (1.89%) Mixed Reality
9 2 (1.89%) Replication
9 2 (1.89%) Virtual Reality
10 1 (0.94%) CPLD
10 1 (0.94%) Hedge funds
10 1 (0.94%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 19 (17.92%) Windows
2 16 (15.09%) Linux
3 7 (6.60%) FreeRTOS
4 3 (2.83%) Embedded Linux
5 2 (1.89%) Debian
5 2 (1.89%) Mac OS
5 2 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.89%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.94%) AIX
6 1 (0.94%) Android
6 1 (0.94%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.94%) CentOS
6 1 (0.94%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.94%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.94%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (18.87%) Validation
2 18 (16.98%) Systems Engineering
3 17 (16.04%) Load Balancing
3 17 (16.04%) Software Engineering
4 16 (15.09%) Data Loss Prevention
4 16 (15.09%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 16 (15.09%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (10.38%) AI
5 11 (10.38%) Computer Science
6 9 (8.49%) Disaster Recovery
6 9 (8.49%) Mentoring
6 9 (8.49%) Technical Leadership
7 8 (7.55%) Change Management
7 8 (7.55%) Collaborative Culture
7 8 (7.55%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (7.55%) Customer Requirements
7 8 (7.55%) ITIL
7 8 (7.55%) ITSM
8 7 (6.60%) DevOps
8 7 (6.60%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 21 (19.81%) C
2 17 (16.04%) Python
3 16 (15.09%) C++
4 10 (9.43%) PowerShell
5 7 (6.60%) Bash
5 7 (6.60%) Embedded C++
6 6 (5.66%) MATLAB
6 6 (5.66%) SystemVerilog
6 6 (5.66%) Tcl
7 5 (4.72%) Embedded C
8 2 (1.89%) C#
8 2 (1.89%) Perl
9 1 (0.94%) Ada
Qualifications
1 22 (20.75%) Security Cleared
2 15 (14.15%) Degree
3 14 (13.21%) SC Cleared
4 8 (7.55%) DV Cleared
5 6 (5.66%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (4.72%) HNC
6 5 (4.72%) HND
7 4 (3.77%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (2.83%) CCNP
8 3 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (1.89%) CCNA
9 2 (1.89%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.89%) JNCIA
9 2 (1.89%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.94%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.94%) MCSA
10 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (9.43%) Def Stans
1 10 (9.43%) DO-178B
1 10 (9.43%) MISRA
2 6 (5.66%) DO-254
3 3 (2.83%) QA
4 1 (0.94%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 1 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.94%) GDPR
4 1 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.94%) JSP 440
4 1 (0.94%) NCSC
4 1 (0.94%) NIST
4 1 (0.94%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.94%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 23 (21.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (11.32%) Embedded Firmware
3 10 (9.43%) Active Directory
4 6 (5.66%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (3.77%) Hyper-V
5 4 (3.77%) KVM
5 4 (3.77%) VMware NSX
6 3 (2.83%) Docker
7 2 (1.89%) Ceph
7 2 (1.89%) Lustre
7 2 (1.89%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.94%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.94%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (4.72%) vCenter Server
2 4 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (2.83%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.89%) Ansible
4 2 (1.89%) Dell DRAC
4 2 (1.89%) HP ALM
4 2 (1.89%) HP Quality Center
5 1 (0.94%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.94%) Grafana
5 1 (0.94%) HAProxy
5 1 (0.94%) PaperCut
5 1 (0.94%) Podman
5 1 (0.94%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.94%) SCCM
5 1 (0.94%) SCOM
5 1 (0.94%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 24 (22.64%) VMware
2 20 (18.87%) NetApp
3 17 (16.04%) F5
4 16 (15.09%) Blue Coat
4 16 (15.09%) McAfee
5 15 (14.15%) Cisco
6 10 (9.43%) Microsoft
7 9 (8.49%) EMC
8 6 (5.66%) Altera
8 6 (5.66%) Intel
8 6 (5.66%) Juniper
8 6 (5.66%) Xilinx
9 5 (4.72%) Actel
9 5 (4.72%) Dell
9 5 (4.72%) HP
9 5 (4.72%) Microsemi
9 5 (4.72%) SolarWinds
10 4 (3.77%) Broadcom
10 4 (3.77%) Veritas
11 3 (2.83%) Fortinet