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 14 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 428 384 345
Rank change year-on-year -44 -39 +251
Contract jobs citing Firmware 117 136 230
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.39% 0.44% 0.58%
As % of the System Software category 3.06% 3.64% 4.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 64 134
10th Percentile £160 £152 £205
25th Percentile £281 £240 £301
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £475 £460
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% +3.26% -8.00%
75th Percentile £509 £551 £575
90th Percentile £588 £648 £645
UK median daily rate £390 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -17.84% - -3.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 22 27
10th Percentile £54.48 £51.25 £34.25
25th Percentile £67.44 £55.47 £49.38
Median hourly rate £81.00 £70.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.71% +21.74% +4.55%
75th Percentile £89.69 £72.44 £65.00
90th Percentile £91.50 £75.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £81.00 £70.00 £58.75
% change year-on-year +15.71% +19.15% +6.82%

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 3,825 3,734 5,177
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.65% 11.96% 13.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,496 2,400 3,574
10th Percentile £213 £220 £198
25th Percentile £395 £385 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £625
90th Percentile £675 £703 £713
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 80 237
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.09 £15.50
25th Percentile £21.00 £21.46 £18.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +14.05% +80.78%
75th Percentile £72.50 £69.77 £67.25
90th Percentile £88.15 £75.00 £76.92
UK median hourly rate £28.50 £37.08 £46.18
% change year-on-year -23.14% -19.70% +87.53%

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 14 November 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 14 November 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 14 November 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
East of England 0 37 £88 -80.82% 45
London +32 36 £425 -5.56% 37
Midlands -19 18 £575 +130.00% 30
West Midlands -20 14 £575 +4.55% 16
South East -13 11 £500 +17.65% 82
North of England -81 10 £425 -10.71% 34
South West +2 9 - - 63
North West -34 9 £425 -10.53% 21
East Midlands -14 4 £392 +88.92% 14
Yorkshire -59 1 £230 -51.78% 10
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 5 (4.27%) Confluence
2 2 (1.71%) nginx
3 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 11 (9.40%) Simulink
2 8 (6.84%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (3.42%) Windchill
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.85%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (3.42%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 9 (7.69%) AWS
1 9 (7.69%) Azure
2 4 (3.42%) GCP
3 3 (2.56%) SaaS
4 2 (1.71%) GitHub
5 1 (0.85%) Asana
5 1 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (0.85%) IaaS
5 1 (0.85%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.85%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (17.09%) DNS
2 16 (13.68%) Firewall
3 14 (11.97%) BGP
3 14 (11.97%) OSPF
4 12 (10.26%) SSL
4 12 (10.26%) VLAN
5 11 (9.40%) WAN
6 10 (8.55%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 10 (8.55%) TCP/IP
6 10 (8.55%) VPN
7 9 (7.69%) DHCP
7 9 (7.69%) EIGRP
7 9 (7.69%) Ethernet
7 9 (7.69%) IPsec
7 9 (7.69%) Network Security
7 9 (7.69%) Wireless
8 8 (6.84%) LAN
9 7 (5.98%) HTTP
9 7 (5.98%) HTTPS
9 7 (5.98%) SD-WAN
Development Applications
1 10 (8.55%) JIRA
2 7 (5.98%) Bitbucket
3 6 (5.13%) Fiddler
4 5 (4.27%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (3.42%) Rational Rhapsody
6 3 (2.56%) Git
7 2 (1.71%) GitLab
8 1 (0.85%) IDA Disassembler
8 1 (0.85%) QADirector
8 1 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.85%) Zephyr
General
1 34 (29.06%) Social Skills
2 21 (17.95%) Electronics
3 15 (12.82%) Military
4 12 (10.26%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (10.26%) Banking
5 8 (6.84%) Law
5 8 (6.84%) Manufacturing
6 7 (5.98%) Finance
6 7 (5.98%) Games
6 7 (5.98%) Investment Banking
7 4 (3.42%) Public Sector
8 3 (2.56%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.71%) Legal
9 2 (1.71%) Marketing
9 2 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.71%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.85%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 26 (22.22%) Network Engineer
2 17 (14.53%) Security Engineer
3 14 (11.97%) Lead
4 13 (11.11%) Design Engineer
5 10 (8.55%) Cisco Engineer
5 10 (8.55%) Principal Engineer
5 10 (8.55%) RF Engineer
6 9 (7.69%) Administrator
6 9 (7.69%) Firmware Engineer
7 7 (5.98%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 7 (5.98%) Juniper Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) Digital Design Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) FPGA Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) IP Network Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) RF Design Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) Software Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) Web Engineer
9 5 (4.27%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 5 (4.27%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (6.84%) 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%) REST
2 1 (0.85%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 20 (17.09%) FPGA
2 12 (10.26%) Management Information System
2 12 (10.26%) VHDL
3 11 (9.40%) Verilog
4 10 (8.55%) PKI
5 9 (7.69%) Embedded Systems
6 8 (6.84%) Algorithms
7 7 (5.98%) Data Centre
7 7 (5.98%) PCIe
8 6 (5.13%) Analogue Electronics
9 4 (3.42%) Synthetic Data
10 2 (1.71%) Clustering
10 2 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (1.71%) IoT
10 2 (1.71%) Onboarding
10 2 (1.71%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.71%) Public Cloud
10 2 (1.71%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (1.71%) Smart Energy
10 2 (1.71%) Smart Meter
Operating Systems
1 17 (14.53%) Windows
2 8 (6.84%) Linux
3 4 (3.42%) Windows 10
3 4 (3.42%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.56%) Windows 7
4 3 (2.56%) Windows 8
5 1 (0.85%) Android
5 1 (0.85%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.85%) CentOS
5 1 (0.85%) FreeRTOS
5 1 (0.85%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.85%) Oracle Linux
5 1 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.85%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (16.24%) Patch Management
2 17 (14.53%) Problem-Solving
3 15 (12.82%) AI
4 14 (11.97%) Incident Management
4 14 (11.97%) Validation
5 12 (10.26%) GAP Analysis
5 12 (10.26%) Information Assurance
5 12 (10.26%) Key Management
5 12 (10.26%) MODAF
5 12 (10.26%) SABSA
5 12 (10.26%) Security Management
6 11 (9.40%) Data Management
6 11 (9.40%) Systems Engineering
7 10 (8.55%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
8 9 (7.69%) Change Management
8 9 (7.69%) Network Monitoring
8 9 (7.69%) UVM
9 8 (6.84%) Cryptography
9 8 (6.84%) Sensor Fusion
9 8 (6.84%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 24 (20.51%) Python
2 17 (14.53%) C
3 16 (13.68%) C++
4 11 (9.40%) MATLAB
5 10 (8.55%) SystemVerilog
6 9 (7.69%) PowerShell
7 8 (6.84%) Bash
7 8 (6.84%) Tcl
8 6 (5.13%) Perl
Qualifications
1 41 (35.04%) Security Cleared
2 36 (30.77%) SC Cleared
3 25 (21.37%) Degree
4 14 (11.97%) Cisco Certification
5 12 (10.26%) CCNP
6 8 (6.84%) JNCIA
7 7 (5.98%) HNC
7 7 (5.98%) HND
8 6 (5.13%) CISSP
8 6 (5.13%) JNCIS
9 4 (3.42%) CCSA
9 4 (3.42%) DV Cleared
10 3 (2.56%) CISM
10 3 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (1.71%) CCNA
11 2 (1.71%) Master's Degree
11 2 (1.71%) PhD
12 1 (0.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 1 (0.85%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.85%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (14.53%) NIST
2 14 (11.97%) JSP 440
2 14 (11.97%) NCSC
2 14 (11.97%) NIST 800
3 8 (6.84%) DO-254
4 5 (4.27%) Def Stans
4 5 (4.27%) DO-178B
4 5 (4.27%) MISRA
5 3 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (2.56%) PCI DSS
5 3 (2.56%) SLA
6 2 (1.71%) GRC
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 (10.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (5.98%) Active Directory
3 6 (5.13%) VMware NSX
4 4 (3.42%) BitLocker
4 4 (3.42%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (3.42%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (2.56%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.71%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 10 (8.55%) SCCM
2 7 (5.98%) vCenter Server
3 5 (4.27%) Ansible
4 3 (2.56%) CA Spectrum
4 3 (2.56%) HAProxy
4 3 (2.56%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.71%) Dell DRAC
5 2 (1.71%) vMotion
6 1 (0.85%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.85%) PowerCLI
6 1 (0.85%) SCOM
6 1 (0.85%) Terraform
6 1 (0.85%) VxRail
Vendors
1 27 (23.08%) Cisco
2 15 (12.82%) Microsoft
3 14 (11.97%) Juniper
3 14 (11.97%) VMware
4 13 (11.11%) F5
5 10 (8.55%) McAfee
6 8 (6.84%) Dell
6 8 (6.84%) EMC
6 8 (6.84%) Intel
6 8 (6.84%) Xilinx
7 7 (5.98%) Actel
7 7 (5.98%) Altera
7 7 (5.98%) Microsemi
8 6 (5.13%) Blue Coat
8 6 (5.13%) Meraki
8 6 (5.13%) NetApp
8 6 (5.13%) SolarWinds
9 5 (4.27%) Atlassian
9 5 (4.27%) CheckPoint
9 5 (4.27%) SAP