Firmware Contract Job Trends

Firmware
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Firmware skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 473 445 352
Rank change year-on-year -28 -93 +222
Contract jobs citing Firmware 159 87 242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.30% 0.55%
As % of the System Software category 3.25% 2.33% 5.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 45 144
10th Percentile £230 £200 £205
25th Percentile £333 £350 £272
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £416 £465 £425
Median % change year-on-year -10.48% +9.41% -10.53%
75th Percentile £549 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £660 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £466 £475
% change year-on-year -11.53% -1.84% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 17 60
10th Percentile £18.79 £46.50 £23.81
25th Percentile £48.13 £55.38 £47.50
Median hourly rate £66.50 £62.50 £60.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.40% +3.31% +10.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.38
90th Percentile - £88.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 £62.50 £60.75
% change year-on-year +6.40% +2.88% +9.46%

All System Software Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,890 3,740 4,750
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.63% 12.74% 10.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,328 2,559 3,242
10th Percentile £213 £214 £195
25th Percentile £400 £400 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £486
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +8.02% -7.43%
75th Percentile £588 £623 £600
90th Percentile £688 £700 £690
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £460
% change year-on-year -0.94% +4.24% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 172 92 232
10th Percentile £14.12 £15.10 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.19 £15.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £29.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +81.03% +28.89% -55.00%
75th Percentile £74.26 £66.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £87.35 £87.83 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £37.50 £21.00
% change year-on-year +40.00% +78.57% -46.22%

Firmware
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Firmware job vacancy trend in the UK

Firmware
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firmware.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firmware

Firmware
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firmware over the 6 months to 17 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firmware.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Firmware

Firmware
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Firmware over the 6 months to 17 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Firmware within the UK over the 6 months to 17 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
England -44 143 £420 -11.58% 218
UK excluding London -33 118 £413 -11.53% 219
North of England -36 44 £365 -18.89% 39
Midlands -45 32 £400 - 34
London -57 32 £438 +7.36% 21
West Midlands -32 29 £406 - 12
North West -17 26 £498 +2.05% 29
South East -55 22 £600 +23.08% 66
Work from Home -29 20 £420 -16.00% 58
Yorkshire - 17 £365 - 9
East of England -29 15 £338 -38.64% 34
South West -18 14 £450 +80.00% 26
Scotland +5 7 £675 +63.64% 18
Wales -6 4 £280 -34.12% 2
East Midlands -31 3 £175 - 22
North East -18 1 - - 1

Firmware
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:

Application Platforms
1 8 (5.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.40%) Confluence
3 2 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (7.55%) Simulink
2 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.63%) OrCAD
Cloud Services
1 26 (16.35%) Azure
2 10 (6.29%) Entra ID
3 8 (5.03%) AWS
3 8 (5.03%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (4.40%) GitHub
5 5 (3.14%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (1.89%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (1.89%) Azure Stack
8 2 (1.26%) AWS IoT
8 2 (1.26%) AWS KMS
8 2 (1.26%) Azure Key Vault
8 2 (1.26%) GCP
9 1 (0.63%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (0.63%) Cohesity
9 1 (0.63%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.63%) OCI
9 1 (0.63%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.63%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 26 (16.35%) DNS
2 21 (13.21%) Ethernet
2 21 (13.21%) Firewall
2 21 (13.21%) Wireshark
3 20 (12.58%) SSL
4 19 (11.95%) BIG-IP
4 19 (11.95%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 19 (11.95%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 19 (11.95%) HTTP
4 19 (11.95%) TCP/IP
5 15 (9.43%) SAN
6 12 (7.55%) VLAN
7 10 (6.29%) Wireless
8 8 (5.03%) Modbus
9 7 (4.40%) DHCP
9 7 (4.40%) Network Security
9 7 (4.40%) RS-232
9 7 (4.40%) RS-485
9 7 (4.40%) VPN
10 5 (3.14%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 19 (11.95%) Fiddler
2 14 (8.81%) JIRA
3 3 (1.89%) Git
4 2 (1.26%) MSTest
4 2 (1.26%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (1.26%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.63%) QADirector
5 1 (0.63%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.63%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 41 (25.79%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.84%) Banking
3 19 (11.95%) Investment Banking
4 17 (10.69%) Electronics
5 13 (8.18%) Aerospace
5 13 (8.18%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.77%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.52%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.52%) Finance
7 4 (2.52%) Games
8 2 (1.26%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.26%) Legal
9 1 (0.63%) Law
9 1 (0.63%) Mandarin Language
9 1 (0.63%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 29 (18.24%) Network Engineer
2 19 (11.95%) Blue Coat Engineer
2 19 (11.95%) Embedded Engineer
2 19 (11.95%) IP Network Engineer
2 19 (11.95%) Web Engineer
3 14 (8.81%) Software Engineer
4 11 (6.92%) Senior
5 10 (6.29%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 10 (6.29%) Firmware Engineer
6 9 (5.66%) Data Centre Engineer
6 9 (5.66%) FPGA Engineer
6 9 (5.66%) Lead
7 7 (4.40%) Administrator
7 7 (4.40%) Desktop Engineer
8 6 (3.77%) Cloud Engineer
8 6 (3.77%) Storage Engineer
8 6 (3.77%) Support Engineer
9 5 (3.14%) Systems Engineer
9 5 (3.14%) Technical Leader
10 4 (2.52%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.29%) Redfish
2 3 (1.89%) .NET
2 3 (1.89%) OpenTelemetry
2 3 (1.89%) Yocto
3 2 (1.26%) 802.1X
3 2 (1.26%) Unity (Game Engine)
3 2 (1.26%) Unreal Engine
4 1 (0.63%) Flash
4 1 (0.63%) JSON
4 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.63%) REST
4 1 (0.63%) WPF
4 1 (0.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.47%) Data Centre
2 22 (13.84%) Embedded Systems
2 22 (13.84%) FPGA
3 20 (12.58%) Management Information System
4 15 (9.43%) PCIe
5 13 (8.18%) VHDL
6 11 (6.92%) Verilog
7 9 (5.66%) PKI
8 8 (5.03%) Algorithms
9 7 (4.40%) Clustering
10 6 (3.77%) Onboarding
10 6 (3.77%) Replication
11 5 (3.14%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (2.52%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (2.52%) Device Driver
12 4 (2.52%) IoT
13 3 (1.89%) Enterprise Storage
13 3 (1.89%) MicroBlaze
13 3 (1.89%) RISC-V
14 2 (1.26%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 38 (23.90%) Windows
2 34 (21.38%) Linux
3 7 (4.40%) Embedded Linux
3 7 (4.40%) FreeRTOS
4 5 (3.14%) AIX
4 5 (3.14%) VMS
4 5 (3.14%) Windows Server
5 4 (2.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.89%) SUSE
6 3 (1.89%) Unix
7 2 (1.26%) Android
7 2 (1.26%) Debian
8 1 (0.63%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.63%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.63%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (15.72%) Validation
2 21 (13.21%) Load Balancing
2 21 (13.21%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (11.95%) Data Loss Prevention
3 19 (11.95%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 18 (11.32%) Software Engineering
5 16 (10.06%) Runbook
6 15 (9.43%) Data Centre Operations
7 14 (8.81%) Computer Science
8 13 (8.18%) Customer Requirements
8 13 (8.18%) Disaster Recovery
8 13 (8.18%) ITIL
8 13 (8.18%) Test Automation
9 12 (7.55%) Capacity Planning
9 12 (7.55%) High Availability
9 12 (7.55%) Systems Engineering
9 12 (7.55%) UVM
10 10 (6.29%) ITSM
10 10 (6.29%) Platform Engineering
11 9 (5.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 31 (19.50%) Python
2 20 (12.58%) C
2 20 (12.58%) PowerShell
3 17 (10.69%) C++
4 13 (8.18%) MATLAB
4 13 (8.18%) SystemVerilog
5 12 (7.55%) Bash
6 7 (4.40%) Embedded C++
7 6 (3.77%) C#
7 6 (3.77%) Embedded C
8 5 (3.14%) Tcl
9 3 (1.89%) Perl
10 2 (1.26%) Java
10 2 (1.26%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.63%) Ada
11 1 (0.63%) VB
Qualifications
1 37 (23.27%) Security Cleared
2 25 (15.72%) SC Cleared
3 22 (13.84%) Degree
4 10 (6.29%) DV Cleared
5 8 (5.03%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (2.52%) Azure Certification
6 4 (2.52%) CCNA
6 4 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (2.52%) HNC
6 4 (2.52%) HND
7 3 (1.89%) CCNP
7 3 (1.89%) CEH
7 3 (1.89%) CISSP
7 3 (1.89%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (1.89%) DBS Check
7 3 (1.89%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (1.26%) FFIEC
8 2 (1.26%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (8.18%) DO-254
2 6 (3.77%) Def Stans
2 6 (3.77%) DO-178B
2 6 (3.77%) MISRA
3 4 (2.52%) NIST
3 4 (2.52%) QA
4 3 (1.89%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.26%) SLA
6 1 (0.63%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.63%) GDPR
6 1 (0.63%) JTAG
6 1 (0.63%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 33 (20.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (11.95%) Active Directory
2 19 (11.95%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (5.66%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (5.03%) Hyper-V
5 6 (3.77%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (3.14%) vSphere
7 4 (2.52%) BitLocker
7 4 (2.52%) Docker
7 4 (2.52%) KVM
7 4 (2.52%) VMware NSX
8 3 (1.89%) PowerHA
9 2 (1.26%) Ceph
9 2 (1.26%) Lustre
9 2 (1.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.63%) NFS
Systems Management
1 10 (6.29%) Ansible
2 9 (5.66%) Dell DRAC
3 8 (5.03%) Terraform
3 8 (5.03%) vCenter Server
4 6 (3.77%) Kubernetes
4 6 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (3.77%) SCCM
5 4 (2.52%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.89%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (1.89%) Microsoft Clustering
6 3 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.89%) VxRail
7 2 (1.26%) Grafana
7 2 (1.26%) HP ALM
7 2 (1.26%) HP Quality Center
7 2 (1.26%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 1 (0.63%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.63%) Nmap
8 1 (0.63%) Podman
8 1 (0.63%) SCOM
Vendors
1 35 (22.01%) VMware
2 24 (15.09%) NetApp
3 20 (12.58%) Cisco
3 20 (12.58%) McAfee
4 19 (11.95%) Blue Coat
4 19 (11.95%) F5
5 17 (10.69%) Microsoft
6 13 (8.18%) Altera
6 13 (8.18%) Xilinx
7 12 (7.55%) Dell
7 12 (7.55%) Microsemi
8 8 (5.03%) EMC
9 7 (4.40%) IBM
10 6 (3.77%) HP
10 6 (3.77%) Intel
10 6 (3.77%) Juniper
11 5 (3.14%) Actel
11 5 (3.14%) SolarWinds
12 4 (2.52%) Broadcom
12 4 (2.52%) Veritas