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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 450 376 357
Rank change year-on-year -74 -19 +215
Contract jobs citing Firmware 117 104 197
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.32% 0.41% 0.53%
As % of the System Software category 2.73% 3.21% 4.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 58 132
10th Percentile £248 £150 £205
25th Percentile £333 £200 £262
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £419 £458 £425
Median % change year-on-year -8.47% +7.65% -8.11%
75th Percentile £500 £538 £575
90th Percentile £641 £638 £645
UK median daily rate £413 £425 £425
% change year-on-year -2.94% - -15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 15 34
10th Percentile £53.75 £46.00 £26.88
25th Percentile £62.50 £53.94 £53.13
Median hourly rate £66.50 £67.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +3.85% +20.93%
75th Percentile £77.50 £75.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.40 £88.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £66.50 £68.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year -3.27% +10.00% +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 4,291 3,235 4,178
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.82% 12.75% 11.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,941 2,168 2,884
10th Percentile £205 £205 £188
25th Percentile £400 £387 £307
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 £700 £738 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £480
% change year-on-year -4.40% +8.96% -8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 77 210
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.40 £14.06
25th Percentile £20.16 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £27.38
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% +18.69% -28.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £86.95 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £38.47 £33.25 £40.00
% change year-on-year +15.70% -16.88% -

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 5 March 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 5 March 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 5 March 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 -59 33 £365 -23.16% 39
London -36 32 £450 +47.54% 26
Midlands -41 27 £400 +142.42% 34
West Midlands -31 26 £406 +146.21% 18
North West -38 22 £650 +24.40% 8
East of England -29 16 £63 -86.74% 42
South West -19 13 £475 +216.67% 30
South East -56 11 £500 +5.26% 75
Yorkshire -61 11 £363 +81.25% 26
East Midlands -33 1 £143 -13.64% 15
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 (5.98%) Confluence
2 2 (1.71%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (4.27%) Simulink
2 1 (0.85%) OrCAD
Cloud Services
1 12 (10.26%) Azure
2 7 (5.98%) GitHub
3 5 (4.27%) Entra ID
4 4 (3.42%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (1.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.85%) AWS
6 1 (0.85%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.85%) Cohesity
6 1 (0.85%) IaaS
6 1 (0.85%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.85%) OCI
6 1 (0.85%) PaaS
6 1 (0.85%) Rubrik
6 1 (0.85%) SaaS
6 1 (0.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 24 (20.51%) DNS
2 19 (16.24%) TCP/IP
3 18 (15.38%) SSL
4 17 (14.53%) BIG-IP
4 17 (14.53%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 17 (14.53%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 17 (14.53%) HTTP
4 17 (14.53%) Wireshark
5 14 (11.97%) Ethernet
6 13 (11.11%) Firewall
7 10 (8.55%) SAN
8 7 (5.98%) Modbus
8 7 (5.98%) RS-232
8 7 (5.98%) RS-485
8 7 (5.98%) VLAN
8 7 (5.98%) Wireless
9 6 (5.13%) VPN
10 5 (4.27%) Cisco Firepower
10 5 (4.27%) Cisco IOS
10 5 (4.27%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 17 (14.53%) Fiddler
2 10 (8.55%) JIRA
3 2 (1.71%) Git
3 2 (1.71%) MSTest
3 2 (1.71%) Team Foundation Server
3 2 (1.71%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.85%) QADirector
4 1 (0.85%) Rational DOORS
4 1 (0.85%) Rational Rhapsody
4 1 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 34 (29.06%) Social Skills
2 21 (17.95%) Banking
2 21 (17.95%) Electronics
3 18 (15.38%) Investment Banking
4 16 (13.68%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (5.98%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.27%) Games
7 4 (3.42%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (3.42%) Law
8 3 (2.56%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.71%) Finance
9 2 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.85%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.85%) Legal
10 1 (0.85%) Military
10 1 (0.85%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 30 (25.64%) Network Engineer
2 20 (17.09%) Embedded Engineer
3 17 (14.53%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 17 (14.53%) IP Network Engineer
3 17 (14.53%) Web Engineer
4 14 (11.97%) Software Engineer
5 12 (10.26%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 8 (6.84%) Desktop Engineer
6 8 (6.84%) Firmware Engineer
7 7 (5.98%) Principal Engineer
7 7 (5.98%) Storage Engineer
8 6 (5.13%) Administrator
8 6 (5.13%) Support Engineer
9 5 (4.27%) Cloud Engineer
9 5 (4.27%) Data Centre Engineer
9 5 (4.27%) Desktop Support
9 5 (4.27%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 5 (4.27%) Senior
10 4 (3.42%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 4 (3.42%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.42%) Flash
2 3 (2.56%) Redfish
3 2 (1.71%) Unity (Game Engine)
3 2 (1.71%) Unreal Engine
4 1 (0.85%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.85%) LDAP
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.85%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 19 (16.24%) Data Centre
1 19 (16.24%) Management Information System
2 17 (14.53%) Embedded Systems
2 17 (14.53%) FPGA
3 8 (6.84%) PCIe
3 8 (6.84%) PKI
3 8 (6.84%) VHDL
4 7 (5.98%) Verilog
5 6 (5.13%) Algorithms
5 6 (5.13%) Onboarding
6 4 (3.42%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (2.56%) Clustering
7 3 (2.56%) Replication
8 2 (1.71%) Analogue Electronics
8 2 (1.71%) CCTV
8 2 (1.71%) CUDA
8 2 (1.71%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (1.71%) Mixed Reality
8 2 (1.71%) Virtual Reality
9 1 (0.85%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 23 (19.66%) Windows
2 18 (15.38%) Linux
3 7 (5.98%) FreeRTOS
4 4 (3.42%) AIX
5 3 (2.56%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (1.71%) Debian
6 2 (1.71%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.71%) Unix
6 2 (1.71%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.85%) Android
7 1 (0.85%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.85%) CentOS
7 1 (0.85%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.85%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.85%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (17.95%) Validation
2 19 (16.24%) Load Balancing
3 18 (15.38%) Systems Engineering
4 17 (14.53%) Data Loss Prevention
4 17 (14.53%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 17 (14.53%) Problem-Solving
4 17 (14.53%) Software Engineering
5 13 (11.11%) Computer Science
6 12 (10.26%) Disaster Recovery
6 12 (10.26%) ITIL
7 11 (9.40%) AI
8 10 (8.55%) Data Centre Operations
8 10 (8.55%) Runbook
9 8 (6.84%) Change Management
9 8 (6.84%) Continuous Improvement
9 8 (6.84%) Customer Requirements
9 8 (6.84%) High Availability
9 8 (6.84%) ITSM
9 8 (6.84%) Mentoring
9 8 (6.84%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 21 (17.95%) C
1 21 (17.95%) Python
2 16 (13.68%) C++
3 13 (11.11%) PowerShell
4 8 (6.84%) Bash
5 7 (5.98%) Embedded C++
6 6 (5.13%) MATLAB
6 6 (5.13%) SystemVerilog
6 6 (5.13%) Tcl
7 5 (4.27%) Embedded C
8 4 (3.42%) Perl
9 2 (1.71%) C#
10 1 (0.85%) Ada
Qualifications
1 22 (18.80%) Security Cleared
2 16 (13.68%) Degree
3 14 (11.97%) SC Cleared
4 8 (6.84%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (6.84%) DV Cleared
5 5 (4.27%) HNC
5 5 (4.27%) HND
6 4 (3.42%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (2.56%) CCNP
7 3 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.71%) CCNA
8 2 (1.71%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.71%) JNCIA
8 2 (1.71%) JNCIS
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.85%) MCSA
9 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.85%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (0.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (8.55%) Def Stans
1 10 (8.55%) DO-178B
1 10 (8.55%) MISRA
2 6 (5.13%) DO-254
3 3 (2.56%) QA
4 1 (0.85%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 1 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.85%) GDPR
4 1 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.85%) JSP 440
4 1 (0.85%) NCSC
4 1 (0.85%) NIST
4 1 (0.85%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.85%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.85%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 25 (21.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (11.11%) Embedded Firmware
3 12 (10.26%) Active Directory
4 7 (5.98%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (3.42%) Hyper-V
5 4 (3.42%) KVM
5 4 (3.42%) VMware NSX
6 3 (2.56%) Docker
7 2 (1.71%) Ceph
7 2 (1.71%) Lustre
7 2 (1.71%) PowerHA
7 2 (1.71%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.85%) NFS
8 1 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.85%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (5.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (4.27%) vCenter Server
3 4 (3.42%) Dell DRAC
4 3 (2.56%) Ansible
4 3 (2.56%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.71%) Grafana
5 2 (1.71%) HP ALM
5 2 (1.71%) HP Quality Center
5 2 (1.71%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 1 (0.85%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.85%) HAProxy
6 1 (0.85%) PaperCut
6 1 (0.85%) Podman
6 1 (0.85%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.85%) SCCM
6 1 (0.85%) SCOM
6 1 (0.85%) SnapMirror
6 1 (0.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 27 (23.08%) VMware
2 22 (18.80%) NetApp
3 18 (15.38%) F5
4 17 (14.53%) Blue Coat
4 17 (14.53%) Cisco
4 17 (14.53%) McAfee
5 12 (10.26%) Microsoft
6 9 (7.69%) EMC
7 6 (5.13%) Altera
7 6 (5.13%) IBM
7 6 (5.13%) Intel
7 6 (5.13%) Juniper
7 6 (5.13%) SolarWinds
7 6 (5.13%) Xilinx
8 5 (4.27%) Actel
8 5 (4.27%) Dell
8 5 (4.27%) HP
8 5 (4.27%) Microsemi
9 4 (3.42%) Nexthink
9 4 (3.42%) Veritas