FPGA Job Trends

Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term FPGA in permanent job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited FPGA over the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 518 532 606
Rank change year-on-year +14 +74 +165
Permanent jobs citing FPGA 133 185 131
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.35% 0.23%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.65% 0.93% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 55 73 107
10th Percentile £51,250 £45,500 £34,000
25th Percentile £58,750 £50,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% +4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £70,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £123,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £51,500
% change year-on-year +18.18% +6.80% -10.43%

All Generic Skills
UK

FPGA falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 20,441 19,816 20,455
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 34.27% 37.14% 36.56%
Number of salaries quoted 10,264 9,266 14,883
10th Percentile £27,750 £33,750 £32,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £46,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -7.69%
75th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £110,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £52,744
% change year-on-year -13.64% +4.28% -4.10%

FPGA
Job Vacancy Trend

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

FPGA job vacancy trend in the UK

FPGA
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing FPGA.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing FPGA

FPGA
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing FPGA over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Salary histogram for FPGA in the UK

FPGA
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing FPGA within the UK over the 6 months to 13 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London +6 100 £65,000 +18.18% 155
England -4 97 £65,000 +10.64% 159
Work from Home +61 78 £67,500 +5.88% 42
London +57 22 £135,000 +18.68% 21
North of England +29 19 £75,000 +100.00% 8
East of England -8 19 £80,000 +45.45% 41
South West +11 15 £65,000 -27.78% 26
South East -25 15 £60,000 -4.00% 54
Wales +14 13 £57,500 +4.55% 4
North West +23 11 £75,000 +100.00% 3
Scotland +7 10 £67,500 +3.85% 5
Yorkshire -1 8 - - 4
Midlands +25 6 £77,500 +55.00% 17
West Midlands - 5 £77,500 - 2
Northern Ireland - 3 - - 8
East Midlands -14 1 - - 15

FPGA
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 2 (1.50%) Apache
1 2 (1.50%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (2.26%) Simulink
2 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.75%) Towers Watson Igloo
Cloud Services
1 1 (0.75%) AWS
1 1 (0.75%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 48 (36.09%) Ethernet
2 19 (14.29%) TCP/IP
3 5 (3.76%) RS-232
3 5 (3.76%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (1.50%) DHCP
4 2 (1.50%) DNS
4 2 (1.50%) LAN
4 2 (1.50%) NAS
4 2 (1.50%) SAN
4 2 (1.50%) SNMP
4 2 (1.50%) WAN
4 2 (1.50%) Wireless
5 1 (0.75%) 4G
5 1 (0.75%) 5G
5 1 (0.75%) Internet
5 1 (0.75%) LTE
5 1 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 12 (9.02%) Git
2 6 (4.51%) Rational DOORS
3 5 (3.76%) JIRA
4 2 (1.50%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.75%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.75%) Redmine
5 1 (0.75%) Subversion
General
1 41 (30.83%) Electronics
2 22 (16.54%) Finance
3 17 (12.78%) Banking
3 17 (12.78%) Investment Banking
4 13 (9.77%) Aerospace
5 10 (7.52%) Aviation
6 9 (6.77%) Social Skills
7 6 (4.51%) Automotive
8 4 (3.01%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.50%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.75%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.75%) Marketing
11 1 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.75%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 24 (18.05%) Senior
2 19 (14.29%) Lead
3 18 (13.53%) Developer
4 17 (12.78%) C++ Developer
4 17 (12.78%) Investment Banking C++ Developer
4 17 (12.78%) Linux Developer
4 17 (12.78%) Linux Scripter
4 17 (12.78%) Low Latency C++ Developer
5 15 (11.28%) FPGA Engineer
6 11 (8.27%) Electronics Engineer
7 10 (7.52%) Firmware Engineer
8 9 (6.77%) Senior Electronics Engineer
9 8 (6.02%) Senior FPGA Engineer
10 7 (5.26%) Design Engineer
10 7 (5.26%) Designer
11 6 (4.51%) FPGA Designer
11 6 (4.51%) Senior Designer
12 5 (3.76%) FPGA Design Engineer
13 4 (3.01%) Radio Engineer
13 4 (3.01%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.50%) LDAP
2 1 (0.75%) DPDK
2 1 (0.75%) gRPC
2 1 (0.75%) Node.js
2 1 (0.75%) NumPy
2 1 (0.75%) PyTorch
2 1 (0.75%) SciPy
2 1 (0.75%) ZeroMQ
Miscellaneous
1 52 (39.10%) Embedded Systems
2 18 (13.53%) VHDL
3 8 (6.02%) Verilog
4 5 (3.76%) Algorithms
5 4 (3.01%) ASIC
5 4 (3.01%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.50%) IoT
6 2 (1.50%) PCIe
6 2 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.75%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.75%) Device Driver
7 1 (0.75%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.75%) NVMe
7 1 (0.75%) Robotics
7 1 (0.75%) Smart City
Operating Systems
1 67 (50.38%) Linux
2 2 (1.50%) CentOS
2 2 (1.50%) Oracle Linux
2 2 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.75%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (20.30%) Agile
2 26 (19.55%) FPGA Design
3 20 (15.04%) Low Latency
4 12 (9.02%) Signal Processing
5 11 (8.27%) CI/CD
5 11 (8.27%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (8.27%) System Testing
6 10 (7.52%) Test Automation
6 10 (7.52%) Validation
7 9 (6.77%) Technical Leadership
7 9 (6.77%) Verification and Validation
8 8 (6.02%) Software Engineering
9 6 (4.51%) Digital Signal Processing
9 6 (4.51%) Schematic Capture
10 5 (3.76%) Physics
11 4 (3.01%) Cybersecurity
11 4 (3.01%) Innovative Thinking
11 4 (3.01%) OO
11 4 (3.01%) Requirements Management
11 4 (3.01%) UVM
Programming Languages
1 35 (26.32%) C
2 29 (21.80%) C++
3 22 (16.54%) Java
4 6 (4.51%) Python
5 5 (3.76%) SystemVerilog
6 4 (3.01%) MATLAB
7 3 (2.26%) Perl
8 2 (1.50%) Rust
9 1 (0.75%) Assembly Language
9 1 (0.75%) Embedded C
9 1 (0.75%) SQL
9 1 (0.75%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 13 (9.77%) Degree
2 9 (6.77%) Security Cleared
3 5 (3.76%) SC Cleared
4 3 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
4 3 (2.26%) DV Cleared
4 3 (2.26%) HND
4 3 (2.26%) Master's Degree
4 3 (2.26%) PhD
5 2 (1.50%) HNC
6 1 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (5.26%) QA
2 4 (3.01%) IEC 61508
2 4 (3.01%) ISO 26262
3 2 (1.50%) MISRA
4 1 (0.75%) ECSS
4 1 (0.75%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 21 (15.79%) Firmware
2 15 (11.28%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (0.75%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (1.50%) Ansible
1 2 (1.50%) Red Hat Satellite
1 2 (1.50%) Red Hat Spacewalk
Vendors
1 7 (5.26%) EMC
2 6 (4.51%) Xilinx
3 3 (2.26%) Intel
3 3 (2.26%) Microsemi
3 3 (2.26%) Microsoft
4 2 (1.50%) Dell
4 2 (1.50%) HP
4 2 (1.50%) Oracle
4 2 (1.50%) Red Hat
5 1 (0.75%) Altera
5 1 (0.75%) SAP
5 1 (0.75%) Solarflare