Firmware Contracts

Firmware
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Firmware skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Firmware over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 434 376 559
Rank change year-on-year -58 +183 +107
Contract jobs citing Firmware 85 231 154
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.29% 0.53% 0.26%
As % of the System Software category 2.32% 4.92% 1.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 133 78
10th Percentile £200 £205 £161
25th Percentile £336 £298 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £425 £494
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -13.92% +3.95%
75th Percentile £570 £575 £540
90th Percentile £656 - £587
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -2.11% +5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 61 31
10th Percentile £48.03 £24.18 £40.00
25th Percentile £56.03 £47.50 £47.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.44% +10.00% +10.00%
75th Percentile £77.81 £67.38 £63.75
90th Percentile £88.00 £90.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £60.50 £55.50
% change year-on-year +3.31% +9.01% +9.36%

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 3,664 4,691 7,882
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.53% 10.76% 13.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,498 3,206 5,629
10th Percentile £214 £198 £205
25th Percentile £400 £331 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £623 £600 £638
90th Percentile £700 £688 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £460 £483
% change year-on-year +3.26% -4.69% +7.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 233 280
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.06 £14.95
25th Percentile £16.25 £15.50 £18.25
Median hourly rate £27.72 £22.50 £53.43
Median % change year-on-year +23.20% -57.88% +167.13%
75th Percentile £64.50 £60.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.90 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £22.00 £41.88
% change year-on-year +29.55% -47.46% +131.16%

Firmware
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Firmware.

Daily rate trend for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Firmware over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Firmware.

Hourly rate trend for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Firmware over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Firmware in the UK

Firmware
Top 15 Contract 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 30 April 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
England -65 73 £465 +9.41% 384
UK excluding London -47 57 £465 -2.11% 360
Work from Home +31 25 £500 +25.00% 165
London -3 22 £400 +14.29% 69
South East -14 20 £475 -9.52% 113
East of England +34 14 £575 +27.78% 77
North of England +1 10 £450 -5.26% 51
North West -12 9 £488 -4.88% 24
Scotland -2 6 £413 +6.45% 30
Midlands +25 5 - - 27
West Midlands +16 3 - - 20
East Midlands +11 2 - - 7
South West +32 1 £150 - 53
North East -4 1 £200 -52.94% 7
Wales - 1 £425 - 17

Firmware
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 (5.88%) Confluence
2 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.18%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (4.71%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 11 (12.94%) AWS
2 4 (4.71%) Azure
3 2 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.18%) Asana
4 1 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (1.18%) Entra ID
4 1 (1.18%) GitHub
4 1 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
4 1 (1.18%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 13 (15.29%) Firewall
2 10 (11.76%) Software-Defined Radio
3 9 (10.59%) VPN
4 8 (9.41%) Network Security
5 7 (8.24%) ATM
5 7 (8.24%) BGP
5 7 (8.24%) Cisco ISE
5 7 (8.24%) DNS
5 7 (8.24%) SAN
5 7 (8.24%) VLAN
5 7 (8.24%) Wireless
6 6 (7.06%) DHCP
6 6 (7.06%) LAN
6 6 (7.06%) OSPF
6 6 (7.06%) WAN
7 5 (5.88%) Ethernet
7 5 (5.88%) SD-WAN
7 5 (5.88%) SNMP
7 5 (5.88%) WLAN
8 4 (4.71%) Cisco Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.18%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 14 (16.47%) Git
2 10 (11.76%) JIRA
3 6 (7.06%) Bitbucket
3 6 (7.06%) Jenkins
4 5 (5.88%) Robot Framework
5 4 (4.71%) GoogleTest
6 2 (2.35%) Eclipse
General
1 24 (28.24%) Social Skills
2 10 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (11.76%) Electronics
3 6 (7.06%) Public Sector
4 5 (5.88%) Finance
4 5 (5.88%) Telecoms
5 3 (3.53%) Games
5 3 (3.53%) Marketing
5 3 (3.53%) Multimedia
6 2 (2.35%) Aerospace
6 2 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (2.35%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.18%) Automotive
7 1 (1.18%) French Language
7 1 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.18%) Military
7 1 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.18%) Retail
Job Titles
1 13 (15.29%) Firmware Engineer
2 12 (14.12%) Network Engineer
3 11 (12.94%) Senior
4 8 (9.41%) Storage Engineer
5 7 (8.24%) EPoS Engineer
5 7 (8.24%) FPGA Engineer
6 6 (7.06%) Architect
6 6 (7.06%) Developer
6 6 (7.06%) IT Engineer
7 4 (4.71%) Cisco Engineer
7 4 (4.71%) Software Test Engineer
7 4 (4.71%) Test Engineer
8 3 (3.53%) Administrator
8 3 (3.53%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 3 (3.53%) Security Engineer
8 3 (3.53%) Senior Architect
8 3 (3.53%) Senior Firmware Engineer
8 3 (3.53%) Senior Solutions Architect
8 3 (3.53%) Server Engineer
8 3 (3.53%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (5.88%) HTML
2 4 (4.71%) CSS
3 2 (2.35%) Node.js
4 1 (1.18%) 802.1X
4 1 (1.18%) Laravel
4 1 (1.18%) Redfish
4 1 (1.18%) REST
4 1 (1.18%) RESTful
4 1 (1.18%) Ruby on Rails
4 1 (1.18%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 15 (17.65%) FPGA
1 15 (17.65%) VHDL
2 13 (15.29%) Verilog
3 12 (14.12%) Algorithms
4 7 (8.24%) Embedded Systems
4 7 (8.24%) EPoS
4 7 (8.24%) IoT
4 7 (8.24%) Smartphone
5 6 (7.06%) Device Driver
6 5 (5.88%) PCIe
7 3 (3.53%) Digital Signage
8 2 (2.35%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (2.35%) NHS
9 1 (1.18%) Data Centre
9 1 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (1.18%) Management Information System
9 1 (1.18%) Onboarding
9 1 (1.18%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 21 (24.71%) Linux
2 8 (9.41%) Windows
3 4 (4.71%) Windows Server
4 2 (2.35%) Android
4 2 (2.35%) FreeRTOS
4 2 (2.35%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.18%) CentOS
5 1 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (1.18%) Rocky
5 1 (1.18%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.18%) Unix
5 1 (1.18%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (18.82%) Agile
2 14 (16.47%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (15.29%) Signal Processing
4 11 (12.94%) Migration
5 9 (10.59%) Change Management
6 8 (9.41%) Artificial Intelligence
7 7 (8.24%) Disaster Recovery
7 7 (8.24%) Problem Management
7 7 (8.24%) Project Management
7 7 (8.24%) Scrum
7 7 (8.24%) SysML
7 7 (8.24%) UML
8 6 (7.06%) Architectural Design
8 6 (7.06%) Cloud Enablement
8 6 (7.06%) Cryptography
8 6 (7.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 6 (7.06%) Multithreading
8 6 (7.06%) Network Monitoring
8 6 (7.06%) Software Testing
8 6 (7.06%) UVM
Programming Languages
1 16 (18.82%) Python
2 10 (11.76%) C++
2 10 (11.76%) SystemVerilog
3 9 (10.59%) C
4 6 (7.06%) Embedded C
4 6 (7.06%) Java
4 6 (7.06%) Tcl
5 4 (4.71%) MATLAB
6 3 (3.53%) JavaScript
7 2 (2.35%) Assembly Language
7 2 (2.35%) Rust
7 2 (2.35%) SQL
8 1 (1.18%) Bash
8 1 (1.18%) C#
8 1 (1.18%) C-shell
8 1 (1.18%) PHP
8 1 (1.18%) Ruby
8 1 (1.18%) Shell Script
8 1 (1.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 29 (34.12%) Security Cleared
2 23 (27.06%) SC Cleared
3 11 (12.94%) Degree
4 10 (11.76%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (8.24%) CCNP
6 5 (5.88%) CCNA
7 4 (4.71%) CCSA
7 4 (4.71%) HNC
7 4 (4.71%) HND
8 3 (3.53%) Master's Degree
9 2 (2.35%) DV Cleared
9 2 (2.35%) PhD
10 1 (1.18%) JNCIA
10 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (1.18%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.71%) DO-254
2 1 (1.18%) JSP 440
2 1 (1.18%) NCSC
2 1 (1.18%) NIST
2 1 (1.18%) NIST 800
2 1 (1.18%) QA
2 1 (1.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
2 1 (1.18%) SLA
System Software
1 5 (5.88%) Embedded Firmware
2 3 (3.53%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.18%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.18%) KVM
3 1 (1.18%) QEMU
3 1 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.18%) VMware Workstation
3 1 (1.18%) Xen
Systems Management
1 7 (8.24%) Ansible
2 4 (4.71%) NetBackup
3 3 (3.53%) CA Spectrum
3 3 (3.53%) Cisco UCCE
3 3 (3.53%) EMC NetWorker
3 3 (3.53%) HP Data Protector
4 2 (2.35%) Cisco CUCM
4 2 (2.35%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.18%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (1.18%) HAProxy
5 1 (1.18%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.18%) Nagios
5 1 (1.18%) Plesk
5 1 (1.18%) Puppet
5 1 (1.18%) Terraform
5 1 (1.18%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 21 (24.71%) Cisco
2 13 (15.29%) Xilinx
3 7 (8.24%) Intel
4 6 (7.06%) CheckPoint
4 6 (7.06%) EMC
5 5 (5.88%) Atlassian
5 5 (5.88%) HP
5 5 (5.88%) Meraki
5 5 (5.88%) Microsemi
5 5 (5.88%) SolarWinds
6 4 (4.71%) Altera
6 4 (4.71%) Brocade
6 4 (4.71%) F5
6 4 (4.71%) Fortinet
6 4 (4.71%) Juniper
6 4 (4.71%) Microsoft
7 3 (3.53%) Actel
7 3 (3.53%) Algorithmics
7 3 (3.53%) Veritas
8 2 (2.35%) Kronos