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

6 months to
12 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 451 396 327
Rank change year-on-year -55 -69 +210
Contract jobs citing Firmware 143 79 216
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.32% 0.58%
As % of the System Software category 3.30% 2.50% 5.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 39 141
10th Percentile £254 £200 £205
25th Percentile £358 £363 £262
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £475 £425
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +11.76% -5.56%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £701 £675 -
UK median daily rate £420 £465 £425
% change year-on-year -9.68% +9.41% -11.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 18 40
10th Percentile £42.50 £46.75 £20.50
25th Percentile £53.13 £55.59 £50.17
Median hourly rate £66.50 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.40% - +13.64%
75th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.38
90th Percentile - £88.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £66.50 £62.50 £60.50
% change year-on-year +6.40% +3.31% +10.00%

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 4,328 3,154 4,094
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.04% 12.94% 10.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,960 2,192 2,831
10th Percentile £213 £213 £190
25th Percentile £400 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £480
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +9.38% -8.57%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £694 £725 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 151 83 203
10th Percentile £16.25 £15.17 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.15 £14.99
Median hourly rate £52.50 £29.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.03% +38.10% -49.85%
75th Percentile £74.00 £65.50 £55.63
90th Percentile £80.00 £85.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £51.00 £29.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +75.86% +28.89% -55.00%

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 12 April 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 12 April 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 12 April 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 -40 44 £365 -18.89% 31
Midlands -38 33 £400 - 33
London -53 32 £444 +8.90% 29
West Midlands -38 30 £406 - 20
North West -17 27 £498 +2.05% 15
South East -54 21 £600 +23.08% 71
East of England -41 16 £338 -38.64% 43
Yorkshire - 16 £365 - 12
South West -11 14 £450 +80.00% 32
East Midlands -34 3 £175 - 13
North East -19 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 (4.90%) Confluence
1 7 (4.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (5.59%) Simulink
2 1 (0.70%) OrCAD
Cloud Services
1 24 (16.78%) Azure
2 10 (6.99%) Entra ID
3 7 (4.90%) GitHub
3 7 (4.90%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (4.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (3.50%) AWS
6 4 (2.80%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (2.10%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (2.10%) Azure Stack
8 2 (1.40%) AWS IoT
9 1 (0.70%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (0.70%) Cohesity
9 1 (0.70%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.70%) IaaS
9 1 (0.70%) OCI
9 1 (0.70%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.70%) PaaS
9 1 (0.70%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.70%) SaaS
9 1 (0.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 28 (19.58%) DNS
2 21 (14.69%) SSL
2 21 (14.69%) Wireshark
3 20 (13.99%) BIG-IP
3 20 (13.99%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 20 (13.99%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 20 (13.99%) HTTP
3 20 (13.99%) TCP/IP
4 17 (11.89%) Ethernet
4 17 (11.89%) Firewall
5 14 (9.79%) SAN
6 12 (8.39%) VLAN
7 10 (6.99%) Wireless
8 7 (4.90%) DHCP
8 7 (4.90%) Modbus
8 7 (4.90%) Network Security
8 7 (4.90%) RS-232
8 7 (4.90%) RS-485
8 7 (4.90%) VPN
9 5 (3.50%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 20 (13.99%) Fiddler
2 13 (9.09%) JIRA
3 3 (2.10%) Git
4 2 (1.40%) MSTest
4 2 (1.40%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (1.40%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.70%) QADirector
5 1 (0.70%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.70%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 34 (23.78%) Social Skills
2 21 (14.69%) Banking
3 20 (13.99%) Investment Banking
4 15 (10.49%) Electronics
5 12 (8.39%) Analytical Skills
6 10 (6.99%) Aerospace
7 5 (3.50%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.80%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.80%) Games
9 2 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.70%) Finance
10 1 (0.70%) Law
10 1 (0.70%) Legal
10 1 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.70%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 31 (21.68%) Network Engineer
2 20 (13.99%) Blue Coat Engineer
2 20 (13.99%) IP Network Engineer
2 20 (13.99%) Web Engineer
3 19 (13.29%) Embedded Engineer
4 14 (9.79%) Software Engineer
5 10 (6.99%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 10 (6.99%) Senior
6 9 (6.29%) Lead
7 8 (5.59%) Administrator
7 8 (5.59%) Data Centre Engineer
7 8 (5.59%) Firmware Engineer
8 7 (4.90%) Desktop Engineer
8 7 (4.90%) FPGA Engineer
9 6 (4.20%) Cloud Engineer
9 6 (4.20%) Storage Engineer
10 5 (3.50%) Systems Engineer
10 5 (3.50%) Technical Leader
11 4 (2.80%) Architect
11 4 (2.80%) Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (6.29%) Redfish
2 3 (2.10%) .NET
2 3 (2.10%) OpenTelemetry
2 3 (2.10%) Yocto
3 2 (1.40%) 802.1X
3 2 (1.40%) Unity (Game Engine)
3 2 (1.40%) Unreal Engine
4 1 (0.70%) Flash
4 1 (0.70%) JSON
4 1 (0.70%) LDAP
4 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.70%) REST
4 1 (0.70%) WPF
4 1 (0.70%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (15.38%) Data Centre
2 21 (14.69%) Embedded Systems
2 21 (14.69%) Management Information System
3 18 (12.59%) FPGA
4 11 (7.69%) PCIe
5 10 (6.99%) Verilog
6 9 (6.29%) VHDL
7 7 (4.90%) Clustering
7 7 (4.90%) PKI
8 6 (4.20%) Replication
9 5 (3.50%) Algorithms
9 5 (3.50%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (3.50%) Onboarding
10 4 (2.80%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (2.80%) Device Driver
11 3 (2.10%) MicroBlaze
11 3 (2.10%) RISC-V
12 2 (1.40%) Mixed Reality
12 2 (1.40%) Security Posture
12 2 (1.40%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 33 (23.08%) Windows
2 32 (22.38%) Linux
3 7 (4.90%) Embedded Linux
3 7 (4.90%) FreeRTOS
4 5 (3.50%) AIX
4 5 (3.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (2.80%) VMS
6 3 (2.10%) SUSE
6 3 (2.10%) Unix
6 3 (2.10%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.40%) Android
7 2 (1.40%) Debian
8 1 (0.70%) CentOS
8 1 (0.70%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.70%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.70%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (16.08%) Load Balancing
1 23 (16.08%) Validation
2 20 (13.99%) Data Loss Prevention
2 20 (13.99%) Malware Detection/Protection
3 17 (11.89%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (11.89%) Software Engineering
4 14 (9.79%) Data Centre Operations
4 14 (9.79%) Runbook
5 13 (9.09%) Computer Science
5 13 (9.09%) Disaster Recovery
5 13 (9.09%) ITIL
6 12 (8.39%) High Availability
6 12 (8.39%) Systems Engineering
6 12 (8.39%) Test Automation
7 11 (7.69%) Capacity Planning
7 11 (7.69%) Customer Requirements
8 10 (6.99%) ITSM
8 10 (6.99%) Platform Engineering
9 9 (6.29%) Migration
10 8 (5.59%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 27 (18.88%) Python
2 19 (13.29%) C
3 18 (12.59%) PowerShell
4 17 (11.89%) C++
5 9 (6.29%) Bash
5 9 (6.29%) MATLAB
5 9 (6.29%) SystemVerilog
6 7 (4.90%) Embedded C++
7 6 (4.20%) C#
8 5 (3.50%) Embedded C
8 5 (3.50%) Tcl
9 3 (2.10%) Perl
10 2 (1.40%) Java
10 2 (1.40%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.70%) Ada
Qualifications
1 33 (23.08%) Security Cleared
2 22 (15.38%) SC Cleared
3 19 (13.29%) Degree
4 8 (5.59%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (5.59%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.80%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.80%) HNC
5 4 (2.80%) HND
6 3 (2.10%) CEH
6 3 (2.10%) CISSP
6 3 (2.10%) CompTIA Security+
7 2 (1.40%) CCNA
7 2 (1.40%) CCNP
7 2 (1.40%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.40%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.40%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.70%) JNCIA
8 1 (0.70%) JNCIS
8 1 (0.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (6.29%) DO-254
2 6 (4.20%) Def Stans
2 6 (4.20%) DO-178B
2 6 (4.20%) MISRA
3 4 (2.80%) QA
4 3 (2.10%) NIST
5 1 (0.70%) 21 CFR Part 11
5 1 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.70%) GDPR
5 1 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.70%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.70%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 32 (22.38%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (13.29%) Embedded Firmware
3 18 (12.59%) Active Directory
4 9 (6.29%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (5.59%) Hyper-V
6 5 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.80%) Docker
7 4 (2.80%) KVM
7 4 (2.80%) VMware NSX
7 4 (2.80%) vSphere
8 3 (2.10%) BitLocker
8 3 (2.10%) PowerHA
9 2 (1.40%) Ceph
9 2 (1.40%) Lustre
9 2 (1.40%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.70%) NFS
Systems Management
1 8 (5.59%) Dell DRAC
1 8 (5.59%) vCenter Server
2 6 (4.20%) Ansible
3 5 (3.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (3.50%) Terraform
4 4 (2.80%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.80%) Prometheus
5 3 (2.10%) Failover Clustering
5 3 (2.10%) Microsoft Clustering
5 3 (2.10%) SCCM
5 3 (2.10%) VxRail
6 2 (1.40%) Grafana
6 2 (1.40%) HP ALM
6 2 (1.40%) HP Quality Center
6 2 (1.40%) Tivoli Storage Manager
7 1 (0.70%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.70%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.70%) PaperCut
7 1 (0.70%) SCOM
7 1 (0.70%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 34 (23.78%) VMware
2 25 (17.48%) NetApp
3 21 (14.69%) Cisco
3 21 (14.69%) F5
4 20 (13.99%) Blue Coat
4 20 (13.99%) McAfee
5 15 (10.49%) Microsoft
6 13 (9.09%) Dell
7 9 (6.29%) Altera
7 9 (6.29%) Xilinx
8 8 (5.59%) Microsemi
9 7 (4.90%) EMC
9 7 (4.90%) IBM
10 6 (4.20%) HP
10 6 (4.20%) SolarWinds
11 5 (3.50%) Intel
11 5 (3.50%) Juniper
12 4 (2.80%) Actel
12 4 (2.80%) Nexthink
12 4 (2.80%) Veritas