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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 404 387 357
Rank change year-on-year -17 -30 +265
Contract jobs citing Firmware 105 140 244
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.38% 0.43% 0.57%
As % of the System Software category 3.17% 3.68% 4.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 69 129
10th Percentile £205 £234 £233
25th Percentile £325 £298 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -5.26% -6.86%
75th Percentile £500 £530 £563
90th Percentile £588 £579 £638
UK median daily rate £413 £474 £488
% change year-on-year -12.93% -2.82% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 28 31
10th Percentile £52.00 £24.18 £24.34
25th Percentile £56.25 £51.06 £47.50
Median hourly rate £81.00 £57.75 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.26% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £90.00 £70.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £91.50 £70.98 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £81.00 £57.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +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 3,311 3,802 5,598
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.10% 11.66% 13.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,127 2,563 3,840
10th Percentile £216 £221 £200
25th Percentile £375 £382 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £513
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% - -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £608 £638
90th Percentile £675 £694 £734
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £501
% change year-on-year - -0.10% -4.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 101 250
10th Percentile £15.87 £14.16 £15.48
25th Percentile £23.00 £16.00 £18.34
Median hourly rate £37.50 £24.20 £47.86
Median % change year-on-year +54.96% -49.44% +117.56%
75th Percentile £81.00 £63.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £91.20 £80.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £24.20 £50.00
% change year-on-year +40.50% -51.60% +127.27%

Firmware
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Firmware as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Firmware 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 +24 33 £425 -5.56% 48
London +5 33 £413 +8.20% 28
Midlands -7 13 £575 +84.00% 33
South East +10 12 £475 -5.00% 89
West Midlands -6 9 £575 +4.55% 19
North West -22 6 £425 -10.53% 30
North of England -46 6 £425 -13.79% 45
South West +30 5 £440 - 39
East Midlands -2 4 £392 +45.19% 13
Firmware
UK

Firmware
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (4.76%) Confluence
2 2 (1.90%) nginx
Applications
1 10 (9.52%) Simulink
2 8 (7.62%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (3.81%) Windchill
4 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.95%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (3.81%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 13 (12.38%) AWS
2 10 (9.52%) Azure
3 4 (3.81%) GCP
4 2 (1.90%) GitHub
4 2 (1.90%) SaaS
4 2 (1.90%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 1 (0.95%) Asana
5 1 (0.95%) IaaS
5 1 (0.95%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 17 (16.19%) BGP
1 17 (16.19%) OSPF
2 13 (12.38%) Firewall
2 13 (12.38%) WAN
3 12 (11.43%) DNS
3 12 (11.43%) LAN
4 11 (10.48%) VLAN
5 10 (9.52%) EIGRP
5 10 (9.52%) VPN
6 9 (8.57%) Network Security
6 9 (8.57%) SD-WAN
6 9 (8.57%) Wireless
7 8 (7.62%) Ethernet
7 8 (7.62%) IPsec
7 8 (7.62%) SSL
8 7 (6.67%) DHCP
8 7 (6.67%) HTTPS
9 6 (5.71%) Cisco ISE
9 6 (5.71%) Cisco Wireless
9 6 (5.71%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.95%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 12 (11.43%) JIRA
2 7 (6.67%) Bitbucket
3 5 (4.76%) Git
3 5 (4.76%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (3.81%) Rational Rhapsody
5 3 (2.86%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (1.90%) GitLab
6 2 (1.90%) GoogleTest
6 2 (1.90%) Jenkins
6 2 (1.90%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.95%) IDA Disassembler
7 1 (0.95%) Zephyr
General
1 30 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 14 (13.33%) Electronics
2 14 (13.33%) Military
3 9 (8.57%) Manufacturing
4 8 (7.62%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (7.62%) Finance
5 7 (6.67%) Public Sector
6 6 (5.71%) Games
6 6 (5.71%) Law
7 4 (3.81%) Marketing
7 4 (3.81%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.90%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.90%) Banking
8 2 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.95%) Legal
9 1 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 16 (15.24%) Network Engineer
1 16 (15.24%) Security Engineer
2 12 (11.43%) Design Engineer
3 11 (10.48%) Lead
4 10 (9.52%) RF Engineer
5 9 (8.57%) Administrator
5 9 (8.57%) Cisco Engineer
5 9 (8.57%) Firmware Engineer
5 9 (8.57%) Principal Engineer
6 7 (6.67%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 7 (6.67%) FPGA Engineer
6 7 (6.67%) Juniper Engineer
7 6 (5.71%) RF Design Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) Analyst
8 5 (4.76%) Digital Design Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) JIRA Administrator
9 4 (3.81%) Consultant
9 4 (3.81%) Tester
9 4 (3.81%) Virtualisation Engineer
10 3 (2.86%) Security Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.76%) Flash
2 2 (1.90%) CSS
2 2 (1.90%) HTML
2 2 (1.90%) Node.js
3 1 (0.95%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.95%) EJB
3 1 (0.95%) JCE
3 1 (0.95%) JSON Web Signature
3 1 (0.95%) JWT
3 1 (0.95%) Middleware
3 1 (0.95%) OAuth
3 1 (0.95%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.95%) OpenID
3 1 (0.95%) REST
3 1 (0.95%) Ruby on Rails
3 1 (0.95%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (16.19%) FPGA
2 11 (10.48%) Verilog
2 11 (10.48%) VHDL
3 7 (6.67%) Algorithms
3 7 (6.67%) Data Centre
3 7 (6.67%) PCIe
3 7 (6.67%) PKI
4 5 (4.76%) Analogue Electronics
4 5 (4.76%) Management Information System
5 4 (3.81%) Embedded Systems
6 3 (2.86%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.90%) Clustering
7 2 (1.90%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.90%) IoT
7 2 (1.90%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.90%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.90%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.90%) Smart Energy
7 2 (1.90%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 13 (12.38%) Windows
2 9 (8.57%) Linux
3 4 (3.81%) Windows 10
4 3 (2.86%) Windows 7
4 3 (2.86%) Windows 8
4 3 (2.86%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.95%) FreeRTOS
5 1 (0.95%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (19.05%) Patch Management
2 18 (17.14%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (12.38%) Data Management
3 13 (12.38%) Incident Management
4 11 (10.48%) Artificial Intelligence
4 11 (10.48%) GAP Analysis
4 11 (10.48%) Information Assurance
4 11 (10.48%) Key Management
4 11 (10.48%) MODAF
4 11 (10.48%) SABSA
4 11 (10.48%) Security Management
5 10 (9.52%) Change Management
5 10 (9.52%) UVM
6 9 (8.57%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 9 (8.57%) Network Monitoring
6 9 (8.57%) Validation
7 8 (7.62%) Kalman Filter
7 8 (7.62%) Line Management
8 7 (6.67%) Schematic Capture
8 7 (6.67%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 24 (22.86%) Python
2 15 (14.29%) C++
3 11 (10.48%) C
4 10 (9.52%) MATLAB
4 10 (9.52%) SystemVerilog
5 8 (7.62%) Bash
6 7 (6.67%) PowerShell
7 6 (5.71%) Perl
7 6 (5.71%) Tcl
8 1 (0.95%) Ruby
8 1 (0.95%) SQL
Qualifications
1 40 (38.10%) Security Cleared
2 36 (34.29%) SC Cleared
3 25 (23.81%) Degree
4 15 (14.29%) Cisco Certification
5 14 (13.33%) CCNP
6 8 (7.62%) JNCIA
7 6 (5.71%) CCSA
7 6 (5.71%) CISSP
7 6 (5.71%) HNC
7 6 (5.71%) HND
7 6 (5.71%) JNCIS
8 4 (3.81%) Master's Degree
8 4 (3.81%) PhD
9 3 (2.86%) CISM
9 3 (2.86%) DV Cleared
10 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.95%) ISSAP
11 1 (0.95%) OSCP
11 1 (0.95%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.95%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (15.24%) NIST
2 13 (12.38%) JSP 440
2 13 (12.38%) NCSC
2 13 (12.38%) NIST 800
3 7 (6.67%) DO-254
4 3 (2.86%) PCI DSS
4 3 (2.86%) SLA
5 2 (1.90%) GRC
5 2 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.95%) JTAG
6 1 (0.95%) SOC 2
System Software
1 6 (5.71%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (4.76%) Embedded Firmware
2 5 (4.76%) VMware NSX
3 4 (3.81%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.81%) BitLocker
4 3 (2.86%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.95%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.95%) KVM
5 1 (0.95%) QEMU
5 1 (0.95%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.95%) vSphere
5 1 (0.95%) Xen
Systems Management
1 10 (9.52%) SCCM
2 7 (6.67%) Ansible
3 4 (3.81%) CA Spectrum
3 4 (3.81%) vCenter Server
4 2 (1.90%) HAProxy
4 2 (1.90%) vMotion
5 1 (0.95%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.95%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.95%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.95%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.95%) PowerCLI
5 1 (0.95%) Terraform
5 1 (0.95%) VxRail
Vendors
1 25 (23.81%) Cisco
2 13 (12.38%) Juniper
3 11 (10.48%) Microsoft
4 9 (8.57%) VMware
5 8 (7.62%) F5
6 7 (6.67%) EMC
6 7 (6.67%) Intel
6 7 (6.67%) SAP
6 7 (6.67%) Xilinx
7 6 (5.71%) Actel
7 6 (5.71%) Altera
7 6 (5.71%) Dell
7 6 (5.71%) Meraki
7 6 (5.71%) Microsemi
8 5 (4.76%) Atlassian
8 5 (4.76%) CheckPoint
8 5 (4.76%) SolarWinds
9 4 (3.81%) McAfee
10 3 (2.86%) Draytek
10 3 (2.86%) Kronos