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

 6 months to
14 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 471 404 381
Rank change year-on-year -67 -23 -13
Contract jobs citing Firmware 158 105 140
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.38% 0.43%
As % of the System Software category 3.43% 3.15% 3.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 46 69
10th Percentile £310 £205 £234
25th Percentile £361 £325 £298
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £530
90th Percentile £625 £588 £579
UK median daily rate £450 £413 £474
% change year-on-year +9.09% -12.93% -2.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 29 28
10th Percentile £12.76 £52.00 £24.18
25th Percentile £52.00 £56.25 £51.06
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.00 £57.75
Median % change year-on-year -19.75% +40.26% +5.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £90.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £91.50 £70.98
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £81.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year -19.75% +40.87% +4.55%

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 4,600 3,329 3,828
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.00% 12.08% 11.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,002 2,139 2,583
10th Percentile £213 £219 £221
25th Percentile £389 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £610
90th Percentile £680 £675 £695
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -0.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 94 103
10th Percentile £17.54 £16.05 £14.16
25th Percentile £33.80 £23.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £36.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +80.56% +48.88% -49.48%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.00 £63.13
90th Percentile £92.46 £91.05 £78.65
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £33.39 £24.18
% change year-on-year +89.11% +38.07% -51.64%

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 September 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 14 September 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 14 September 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 -38 43 £400 -5.88% 64
East of England -30 33 £403 -5.29% 185
Midlands -30 30 £500 -13.04% 73
South East -36 30 £600 +26.32% 165
North West -29 29 £400 -5.88% 43
London -90 27 £450 +9.09% 135
West Midlands -35 20 £413 -28.26% 28
Yorkshire - 13 £365 - 14
East Midlands -10 10 £500 +27.55% 45
South West -43 8 £425 -3.41% 67
North East - 1 - - 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 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 4 (2.53%) Simulink
2 3 (1.90%) OrCAD
3 1 (0.63%) Adobe After Effects
3 1 (0.63%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.63%) Blender
3 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 24 (15.19%) Azure
2 9 (5.70%) AWS
3 6 (3.80%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (2.53%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (2.53%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 4 (2.53%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
5 3 (1.90%) Azure Stack
6 2 (1.27%) AWS IoT
6 2 (1.27%) Cohesity
6 2 (1.27%) GitHub
6 2 (1.27%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.27%) IaaS
6 2 (1.27%) Nutanix
6 2 (1.27%) PaaS
6 2 (1.27%) SaaS
7 1 (0.63%) Figma
7 1 (0.63%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 22 (13.92%) Firewall
2 21 (13.29%) DNS
3 18 (11.39%) SAN
4 17 (10.76%) TCP/IP
5 16 (10.13%) Wireshark
6 15 (9.49%) SSL
6 15 (9.49%) VLAN
6 15 (9.49%) WAN
6 15 (9.49%) Wireless
7 14 (8.86%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 14 (8.86%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 13 (8.23%) BIG-IP
8 13 (8.23%) HTTP
8 13 (8.23%) Software-Defined Radio
9 11 (6.96%) LAN
9 11 (6.96%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (6.33%) SD-WAN
11 9 (5.70%) DHCP
12 8 (5.06%) Ethernet
12 8 (5.06%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.63%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 13 (8.23%) Fiddler
2 9 (5.70%) JIRA
3 6 (3.80%) Git
4 3 (1.90%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (1.27%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (1.27%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (1.27%) VectorCAST
6 1 (0.63%) GitLab
6 1 (0.63%) Ranorex
General
1 31 (19.62%) Social Skills
2 15 (9.49%) Electronics
3 14 (8.86%) Aerospace
4 13 (8.23%) Banking
4 13 (8.23%) Investment Banking
5 12 (7.59%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.80%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.16%) Retail
8 4 (2.53%) Law
9 3 (1.90%) Legal
9 3 (1.90%) Military
10 2 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.27%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.63%) Automotive
11 1 (0.63%) Aviation
11 1 (0.63%) Finance
11 1 (0.63%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 28 (17.72%) Network Engineer
2 18 (11.39%) Software Engineer
3 17 (10.76%) Embedded Engineer
3 17 (10.76%) Lead
4 13 (8.23%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 13 (8.23%) IP Network Engineer
4 13 (8.23%) Web Engineer
5 11 (6.96%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 11 (6.96%) Senior
6 9 (5.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 8 (5.06%) Developer
8 6 (3.80%) Analyst
8 6 (3.80%) Data Centre Engineer
8 6 (3.80%) Firmware Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Embedded Linux Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) FPGA Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Hardware Technician
9 5 (3.16%) ICT Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Linux Engineer
9 5 (3.16%) Network Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.59%) Yocto
2 7 (4.43%) Redfish
3 6 (3.80%) Terraform
4 3 (1.90%) .NET
4 3 (1.90%) Flutter
4 3 (1.90%) REST
5 2 (1.27%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.63%) Flash
6 1 (0.63%) Framer.js
6 1 (0.63%) JSON
6 1 (0.63%) Middleware
6 1 (0.63%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.63%) PyQt
6 1 (0.63%) Streamlit
6 1 (0.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (20.89%) Embedded Systems
2 24 (15.19%) Data Centre
3 17 (10.76%) RISC-V
4 16 (10.13%) Device Driver
4 16 (10.13%) Management Information System
5 15 (9.49%) FPGA
6 10 (6.33%) IoT
6 10 (6.33%) MicroBlaze
7 9 (5.70%) Clustering
8 8 (5.06%) Replication
8 8 (5.06%) Verilog
9 7 (4.43%) PCIe
9 7 (4.43%) VHDL
10 5 (3.16%) Driving Licence
10 5 (3.16%) Enterprise Storage
10 5 (3.16%) EPoS
10 5 (3.16%) Linux Command Line
11 4 (2.53%) Legacy Systems
12 3 (1.90%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.90%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 38 (24.05%) Linux
2 27 (17.09%) Windows
3 16 (10.13%) Embedded Linux
4 10 (6.33%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.80%) AIX
5 6 (3.80%) Android
6 5 (3.16%) VMS
7 4 (2.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (2.53%) Unix
8 3 (1.90%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.90%) SUSE
9 2 (1.27%) VxWorks
9 2 (1.27%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.63%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.63%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.63%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (18.35%) Software Engineering
2 19 (12.03%) Capacity Planning
2 19 (12.03%) ITIL
2 19 (12.03%) Validation
3 16 (10.13%) Migration
3 16 (10.13%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (9.49%) Agile
4 15 (9.49%) Data Centre Operations
4 15 (9.49%) Signal Processing
5 14 (8.86%) Disaster Recovery
5 14 (8.86%) High Availability
5 14 (8.86%) Load Balancing
6 13 (8.23%) Data Loss Prevention
6 13 (8.23%) Malware Detection/Protection
7 11 (6.96%) Cybersecurity
7 11 (6.96%) Digital Signal Processing
7 11 (6.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 11 (6.96%) Project Delivery
7 11 (6.96%) Test Automation
8 9 (5.70%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 33 (20.89%) C++
2 31 (19.62%) C
3 20 (12.66%) Python
4 15 (9.49%) PowerShell
5 9 (5.70%) Ada
6 7 (4.43%) SystemVerilog
7 6 (3.80%) C#
7 6 (3.80%) MATLAB
8 5 (3.16%) Java
9 4 (2.53%) Bash
9 4 (2.53%) Embedded C
9 4 (2.53%) Embedded C++
9 4 (2.53%) Perl
10 3 (1.90%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.90%) Swift
11 2 (1.27%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.63%) Rust
12 1 (0.63%) Tcl
12 1 (0.63%) VB
Qualifications
1 41 (25.95%) Security Cleared
2 28 (17.72%) SC Cleared
3 26 (16.46%) Degree
4 11 (6.96%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (5.06%) DV Cleared
5 8 (5.06%) ITIL Certification
6 6 (3.80%) CCNA
6 6 (3.80%) CCNP
7 5 (3.16%) CISSP
8 4 (2.53%) Azure Certification
8 4 (2.53%) CEH
8 4 (2.53%) CompTIA Security+
9 3 (1.90%) CCIE
9 3 (1.90%) ISACA
9 3 (1.90%) Master's Degree
9 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (1.27%) MCSE
11 1 (0.63%) HNC
11 1 (0.63%) MCSA
11 1 (0.63%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.96%) DO-254
2 10 (6.33%) Def Stans
3 9 (5.70%) DO-178B
4 8 (5.06%) NIST
5 7 (4.43%) MISRA
6 6 (3.80%) QA
7 4 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (2.53%) NCSC
8 3 (1.90%) NIST 800
8 3 (1.90%) SLA
9 2 (1.27%) GDPR
10 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.63%) DO-160
10 1 (0.63%) JTAG
System Software
1 31 (19.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (16.46%) Embedded Firmware
3 11 (6.96%) Active Directory
4 10 (6.33%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (5.70%) vSphere
6 4 (2.53%) BitLocker
6 4 (2.53%) Hyper-V
6 4 (2.53%) PowerHA
6 4 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.63%) KVM
8 1 (0.63%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 8 (5.06%) Dell DRAC
1 8 (5.06%) vCenter Server
2 6 (3.80%) Ansible
2 6 (3.80%) FortiGate
2 6 (3.80%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 4 (2.53%) SCCM
4 3 (1.90%) Failover Clustering
4 3 (1.90%) Microsoft Clustering
4 3 (1.90%) vMotion
4 3 (1.90%) VxRail
5 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.63%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 33 (20.89%) VMware
2 29 (18.35%) Cisco
3 16 (10.13%) F5
4 15 (9.49%) NetApp
5 14 (8.86%) McAfee
6 13 (8.23%) Blue Coat
7 11 (6.96%) Microsoft
8 10 (6.33%) Dell
8 10 (6.33%) Xilinx
9 8 (5.06%) Fortinet
10 7 (4.43%) Altera
10 7 (4.43%) Juniper
10 7 (4.43%) Meraki
10 7 (4.43%) Microsemi
10 7 (4.43%) Palo Alto
11 6 (3.80%) EMC
11 6 (3.80%) HP
11 6 (3.80%) IBM
11 6 (3.80%) ServiceNow
12 5 (3.16%) Infoblox
700 Firmware jobs in England