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 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 436 378 492
Rank change year-on-year -58 +114 +186
Contract jobs citing Firmware 103 218 194
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.33% 0.50% 0.35%
As % of the System Software category 2.72% 4.52% 2.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 110 96
10th Percentile £200 £205 £200
25th Percentile £270 £325 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £450 £481
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% -6.49% -3.75%
75th Percentile £465 £573 £538
90th Percentile £566 £599 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £481 £450
% change year-on-year -14.29% +6.94% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 63 28
10th Percentile £39.63 £24.18 £35.50
25th Percentile £56.03 £49.13 £47.50
Median hourly rate £81.75 £60.50 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +35.12% +15.24% +5.00%
75th Percentile £88.00 £70.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £91.50 £81.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.00 £62.50 £57.50
% change year-on-year +32.80% +8.70% +15.00%

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 3,783 4,826 7,242
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.08% 11.10% 12.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,463 3,325 5,066
10th Percentile £225 £206 £200
25th Percentile £381 £368 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £689 £688 £726
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £479
% change year-on-year - -0.84% +6.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 221 255
10th Percentile £14.62 £14.06 £15.21
25th Percentile £16.86 £15.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £28.00 £23.80 £53.35
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -55.39% +166.75%
75th Percentile £66.00 £58.69 £66.75
90th Percentile £89.58 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.88 £24.18 £31.00
% change year-on-year +126.94% -22.00% +67.57%

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 3 July 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 3 July 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 3 July 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 -40 86 £415 -2.35% 519
UK excluding London -47 67 £413 -14.29% 455
London +18 33 £400 +3.23% 118
East of England +30 19 £350 -22.22% 107
Work from Home +12 17 £425 -5.56% 188
South East -7 14 £500 +17.65% 127
North of England -14 9 £438 -13.19% 50
Midlands +16 8 £475 +35.71% 40
North West -9 8 £450 -10.71% 28
Wales +9 7 £300 -45.45% 18
Scotland -12 7 £413 -32.65% 47
West Midlands +11 5 £300 -45.45% 26
South West +24 3 £440 - 70
East Midlands +2 3 £650 +136.36% 13
North East - 1 £200 - 4

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 2 (1.94%) Confluence
1 2 (1.94%) nginx
Applications
1 7 (6.80%) Simulink
2 5 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.97%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.97%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 15 (14.56%) AWS
2 9 (8.74%) Azure
3 3 (2.91%) GCP
3 3 (2.91%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (1.94%) GitHub
4 2 (1.94%) SaaS
4 2 (1.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 1 (0.97%) Asana
5 1 (0.97%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.97%) IaaS
5 1 (0.97%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 19 (18.45%) Firewall
2 17 (16.50%) BGP
2 17 (16.50%) VPN
3 16 (15.53%) OSPF
4 15 (14.56%) WAN
5 14 (13.59%) LAN
6 13 (12.62%) VLAN
6 13 (12.62%) Wireless
7 11 (10.68%) Network Security
8 10 (9.71%) DNS
8 10 (9.71%) SD-WAN
9 9 (8.74%) DHCP
9 9 (8.74%) Ethernet
10 8 (7.77%) Cisco ISE
10 8 (7.77%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (7.77%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 8 (7.77%) SSL
10 8 (7.77%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (7.77%) WLAN
11 7 (6.80%) EIGRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.97%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 14 (13.59%) Git
2 7 (6.80%) Jenkins
2 7 (6.80%) JIRA
3 6 (5.83%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (3.88%) Bitbucket
4 4 (3.88%) GoogleTest
4 4 (3.88%) Robot Framework
5 2 (1.94%) Eclipse
5 2 (1.94%) GitLab
5 2 (1.94%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.97%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 26 (25.24%) Social Skills
2 11 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (9.71%) Electronics
4 8 (7.77%) Public Sector
5 6 (5.83%) Finance
5 6 (5.83%) Games
5 6 (5.83%) Military
6 5 (4.85%) Telecoms
7 4 (3.88%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.91%) Marketing
8 3 (2.91%) Multimedia
9 2 (1.94%) Law
10 1 (0.97%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.97%) Automotive
10 1 (0.97%) Banking
10 1 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 19 (18.45%) Network Engineer
2 12 (11.65%) FPGA Engineer
3 10 (9.71%) Firmware Engineer
4 9 (8.74%) Security Engineer
5 8 (7.77%) Cisco Engineer
5 8 (7.77%) Senior
6 7 (6.80%) Analyst
6 7 (6.80%) IT Engineer
7 6 (5.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 6 (5.83%) Lead
8 5 (4.85%) Administrator
8 5 (4.85%) Developer
8 5 (4.85%) EPoS Engineer
9 4 (3.88%) Network Administrator
9 4 (3.88%) Storage Engineer
9 4 (3.88%) Support Analyst
9 4 (3.88%) Support Engineer
9 4 (3.88%) Virtualisation Engineer
10 3 (2.91%) Software Test Engineer
10 3 (2.91%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.85%) HTML
2 4 (3.88%) CSS
3 3 (2.91%) REST
4 2 (1.94%) Node.js
5 1 (0.97%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.97%) Flash
5 1 (0.97%) Laravel
5 1 (0.97%) RESTful
5 1 (0.97%) Ruby on Rails
5 1 (0.97%) Vue
5 1 (0.97%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 16 (15.53%) FPGA
2 14 (13.59%) Verilog
3 11 (10.68%) Algorithms
4 10 (9.71%) VHDL
5 7 (6.80%) PCIe
6 5 (4.85%) Embedded Systems
6 5 (4.85%) EPoS
6 5 (4.85%) Smartphone
7 4 (3.88%) Data Centre
7 4 (3.88%) IoT
8 3 (2.91%) Cloud Native
8 3 (2.91%) Device Driver
8 3 (2.91%) Digital Signage
8 3 (2.91%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.94%) Clustering
9 2 (1.94%) EMV
9 2 (1.94%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.94%) NHS
9 2 (1.94%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.94%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 9 (8.74%) Linux
1 9 (8.74%) Windows
2 2 (1.94%) FreeRTOS
2 2 (1.94%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.97%) CentOS
3 1 (0.97%) Rocky
3 1 (0.97%) Ubuntu
3 1 (0.97%) Unix
3 1 (0.97%) VxWorks
3 1 (0.97%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (16.50%) Patch Management
2 15 (14.56%) Problem-Solving
3 12 (11.65%) Migration
3 12 (11.65%) Network Monitoring
4 10 (9.71%) Agile
4 10 (9.71%) UVM
5 9 (8.74%) Artificial Intelligence
5 9 (8.74%) Change Management
5 9 (8.74%) Validation
6 8 (7.77%) Cryptography
6 8 (7.77%) Incident Management
7 7 (6.80%) Disaster Recovery
7 7 (6.80%) Signal Processing
8 6 (5.83%) GAP Analysis
8 6 (5.83%) Key Management
8 6 (5.83%) Machine Learning
8 6 (5.83%) Physics
8 6 (5.83%) SABSA
8 6 (5.83%) Security Management
8 6 (5.83%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 22 (21.36%) Python
2 12 (11.65%) C++
3 10 (9.71%) SystemVerilog
4 9 (8.74%) C
5 7 (6.80%) MATLAB
6 6 (5.83%) Tcl
7 4 (3.88%) Bash
8 3 (2.91%) Embedded C
8 3 (2.91%) Java
8 3 (2.91%) JavaScript
8 3 (2.91%) PowerShell
9 2 (1.94%) SQL
10 1 (0.97%) Perl
10 1 (0.97%) PHP
10 1 (0.97%) Ruby
10 1 (0.97%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 33 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 25 (24.27%) SC Cleared
3 16 (15.53%) Cisco Certification
4 15 (14.56%) Degree
5 13 (12.62%) CCNP
6 8 (7.77%) CCSA
7 7 (6.80%) HNC
7 7 (6.80%) HND
8 5 (4.85%) CCNA
9 4 (3.88%) JNCIA
9 4 (3.88%) Master's Degree
9 4 (3.88%) PhD
10 3 (2.91%) DV Cleared
10 3 (2.91%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.97%) CISSP
11 1 (0.97%) JNCIS
11 1 (0.97%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (6.80%) NIST
2 6 (5.83%) DO-254
2 6 (5.83%) JSP 440
2 6 (5.83%) NCSC
2 6 (5.83%) NIST 800
3 2 (1.94%) SLA
4 1 (0.97%) GRC
4 1 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.97%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (0.97%) SOC 2
System Software
1 5 (4.85%) Embedded Firmware
1 5 (4.85%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (3.88%) BitLocker
2 4 (3.88%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.94%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.94%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.97%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.97%) KVM
4 1 (0.97%) QEMU
4 1 (0.97%) Xen
Systems Management
1 11 (10.68%) Ansible
2 6 (5.83%) CA Spectrum
3 5 (4.85%) SCCM
4 4 (3.88%) Terraform
5 3 (2.91%) Cisco UCCE
5 3 (2.91%) FortiGate
5 3 (2.91%) NetBackup
5 3 (2.91%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.94%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (1.94%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (1.94%) HAProxy
6 2 (1.94%) HP Data Protector
6 2 (1.94%) vMotion
7 1 (0.97%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.97%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.97%) Plesk
7 1 (0.97%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 31 (30.10%) Cisco
2 11 (10.68%) Juniper
3 10 (9.71%) CheckPoint
3 10 (9.71%) F5
4 9 (8.74%) Intel
4 9 (8.74%) Meraki
4 9 (8.74%) Microsoft
5 8 (7.77%) HP
5 8 (7.77%) SolarWinds
5 8 (7.77%) VMware
5 8 (7.77%) Xilinx
6 6 (5.83%) Actel
6 6 (5.83%) Altera
6 6 (5.83%) Microsemi
7 5 (4.85%) Apple
8 4 (3.88%) EMC
8 4 (3.88%) Google
8 4 (3.88%) McAfee
8 4 (3.88%) MobileIron
8 4 (3.88%) SAP