DO-254 Contract Job Trends

RTCA DO-254/EUROCAE ED-80
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring DO-254 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 545 552 617
Rank change year-on-year +7 +65 +202
Contract jobs citing DO-254 13 6 20
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.038% 0.017% 0.043%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.21% 0.12% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 1 3
10th Percentile £61 - -
25th Percentile £61 £572 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £63 £581 £438
Median % change year-on-year -89.24% +32.80% -7.89%
75th Percentile £64 £591 £444
90th Percentile £65 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £63 £581 £438
% change year-on-year -89.24% +32.80% -7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 0
10th Percentile £77.00 - -
25th Percentile - £67.75 -
Median hourly rate £80.00 £70.50 -
Median % change year-on-year +13.48% - -
75th Percentile £88.00 £73.25 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 £70.50 -
% change year-on-year +13.48% - -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

DO-254 falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 6,052 4,807 6,685
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.65% 13.24% 14.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,879 2,816 4,481
10th Percentile £302 £275 £313
25th Percentile £401 £390 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £731 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £471 £500
% change year-on-year +0.96% -5.90% +4.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 211 254
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.26 £14.68
25th Percentile £16.50 £15.50 £20.18
Median hourly rate £27.77 £26.68 £38.46
Median % change year-on-year +4.09% -30.63% +47.92%
75th Percentile £60.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £26.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -13.21% -33.75% +77.05%

DO-254
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DO-254 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

DO-254 job vacancy trend in the UK

DO-254
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DO-254.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DO-254

DO-254
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DO-254.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DO-254

DO-254
Top 6 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DO-254 within the UK over the 6 months to 3 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
UK excluding London -24 11 £63 -89.24% 12
England -12 10 £60 -89.67% 12
East of England -7 6 £60 - 5
Scotland - 3 £65 -
South East +5 2 - - 4
Work from Home - 1 - - 2

DO-254
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Applications
1 9 (69.23%) Simulink
2 1 (7.69%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (7.69%) Primavera
Communications & Networking
1 9 (69.23%) Ethernet
Development Applications
1 1 (7.69%) JIRA
General
1 10 (76.92%) Electronics
2 6 (46.15%) Games
2 6 (46.15%) Social Skills
3 3 (23.08%) Manufacturing
4 2 (15.38%) Law
5 1 (7.69%) Aerospace
5 1 (7.69%) Finance
5 1 (7.69%) Marketing
5 1 (7.69%) Public Sector
5 1 (7.69%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 8 (61.54%) Firmware Engineer
2 5 (38.46%) Senior
3 3 (23.08%) FPGA Engineer
3 3 (23.08%) Principal Engineer
3 3 (23.08%) Senior Firmware Engineer
4 2 (15.38%) Hardware Engineer
4 2 (15.38%) Senior Hardware Engineer
5 1 (7.69%) Analogue Hardware Engineer
5 1 (7.69%) Delivery Manager
5 1 (7.69%) Digital Hardware Engineer
5 1 (7.69%) Engineering Manager
5 1 (7.69%) Senior FPGA Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 11 (84.62%) FPGA
2 9 (69.23%) PCIe
3 8 (61.54%) Verilog
4 6 (46.15%) Algorithms
5 5 (38.46%) VHDL
6 1 (7.69%) ASIC
6 1 (7.69%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (7.69%) State Machine
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (69.23%) UVM
2 6 (46.15%) AI
2 6 (46.15%) Computer Science
2 6 (46.15%) Cryptography
2 6 (46.15%) Machine Learning
2 6 (46.15%) Physics
3 5 (38.46%) Customer Requirements
4 4 (30.77%) FPGA Design
5 1 (7.69%) Business Intelligence
5 1 (7.69%) Coaching
5 1 (7.69%) Configuration Management
5 1 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
5 1 (7.69%) Digital Marketing
5 1 (7.69%) Kalman Filter
5 1 (7.69%) Mechatronics
5 1 (7.69%) People Management
5 1 (7.69%) Power Management
5 1 (7.69%) Scrum
5 1 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (7.69%) V-Model
Programming Languages
1 9 (69.23%) MATLAB
1 9 (69.23%) SystemVerilog
2 6 (46.15%) Tcl
3 1 (7.69%) C
Qualifications
1 10 (76.92%) Security Cleared
2 9 (69.23%) Degree
2 9 (69.23%) SC Cleared
3 6 (46.15%) HNC
3 6 (46.15%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (7.69%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 10 (76.92%) Firmware
Vendors
1 9 (69.23%) Altera
1 9 (69.23%) Xilinx
2 8 (61.54%) Microsemi
3 7 (53.85%) Actel
3 7 (53.85%) Intel
4 1 (7.69%) EMC
4 1 (7.69%) SAP
4 1 (7.69%) Siemens