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 6 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 508 520 579
Rank change year-on-year +12 +59 +187
Permanent jobs citing FPGA 139 188 126
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.23% 0.35% 0.24%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.68% 0.94% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 59 76 103
10th Percentile £51,000 £45,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £55,160 £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 £71,875 £70,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £118,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £51,500
% change year-on-year +18.18% +6.80% -14.17%

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 20,566 20,052 19,660
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 34.63% 36.99% 37.08%
Number of salaries quoted 10,317 9,456 14,285
10th Percentile £27,794 £33,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £43,520
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -7.69%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £82,548
90th Percentile £100,000 £110,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £54,000 £54,500
% change year-on-year -12.04% -0.92% -0.91%

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 6 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 6 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 -18 104 £65,000 +18.18% 123
England -9 100 £65,000 +13.04% 134
Work from Home +60 80 £67,500 +5.88% 47
London +54 23 £135,000 +18.68% 23
North of England +21 19 £75,000 +100.00% 5
South East -21 19 £55,045 -11.93% 51
East of England -2 17 £82,500 +50.00% 37
South West +10 15 £65,000 -27.78% 17
Wales +16 14 £57,500 +4.55% 1
North West +18 11 £75,000 +100.00% 3
Scotland +5 11 £67,500 +3.85% 6
Yorkshire -4 8 - -
Midlands +16 6 £77,500 +55.00% 13
West Midlands - 5 £77,500 - 5
Northern Ireland - 3 - - 4
East Midlands -7 1 - - 8

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 (1.44%) Apache
1 2 (1.44%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (2.16%) Simulink
2 2 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 1 (0.72%) AWS
1 1 (0.72%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 49 (35.25%) Ethernet
2 20 (14.39%) TCP/IP
3 6 (4.32%) RS-232
3 6 (4.32%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (1.44%) DHCP
4 2 (1.44%) DNS
4 2 (1.44%) LAN
4 2 (1.44%) NAS
4 2 (1.44%) SAN
4 2 (1.44%) SNMP
4 2 (1.44%) WAN
5 1 (0.72%) 4G
5 1 (0.72%) 5G
5 1 (0.72%) Internet
5 1 (0.72%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 13 (9.35%) Git
2 5 (3.60%) JIRA
2 5 (3.60%) Rational DOORS
3 2 (1.44%) Eclipse
4 1 (0.72%) CircleCI
4 1 (0.72%) Redmine
4 1 (0.72%) Subversion
General
1 44 (31.65%) Electronics
2 24 (17.27%) Finance
3 18 (12.95%) Banking
3 18 (12.95%) Investment Banking
4 14 (10.07%) Aerospace
5 11 (7.91%) Aviation
6 9 (6.47%) Social Skills
7 7 (5.04%) Automotive
8 5 (3.60%) Manufacturing
8 5 (3.60%) Telecoms
9 4 (2.88%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.44%) Marketing
10 2 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.44%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 25 (17.99%) Senior
2 19 (13.67%) Developer
3 18 (12.95%) C++ Developer
3 18 (12.95%) Investment Banking C++ Developer
3 18 (12.95%) Lead
3 18 (12.95%) Linux Developer
3 18 (12.95%) Linux Scripter
3 18 (12.95%) Low Latency C++ Developer
4 15 (10.79%) FPGA Engineer
5 14 (10.07%) Electronics Engineer
6 11 (7.91%) Firmware Engineer
6 11 (7.91%) Senior Electronics Engineer
7 9 (6.47%) Designer
7 9 (6.47%) Senior FPGA Engineer
8 7 (5.04%) Design Engineer
9 6 (4.32%) FPGA Designer
9 6 (4.32%) Radio Engineer
9 6 (4.32%) Senior Designer
9 6 (4.32%) Systems Engineer
10 5 (3.60%) FPGA Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.44%) LDAP
2 1 (0.72%) DPDK
2 1 (0.72%) gRPC
2 1 (0.72%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 53 (38.13%) Embedded Systems
2 18 (12.95%) VHDL
3 8 (5.76%) Verilog
4 4 (2.88%) Algorithms
4 4 (2.88%) ASIC
4 4 (2.88%) Onboarding
5 3 (2.16%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.44%) IoT
7 1 (0.72%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.72%) Device Driver
7 1 (0.72%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.72%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.72%) PCIe
7 1 (0.72%) Robotics
7 1 (0.72%) Smart City
Operating Systems
1 68 (48.92%) Linux
2 2 (1.44%) CentOS
2 2 (1.44%) Oracle Linux
2 2 (1.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.72%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (20.86%) Agile
2 28 (20.14%) FPGA Design
3 21 (15.11%) Low Latency
4 14 (10.07%) Signal Processing
5 12 (8.63%) CI/CD
5 12 (8.63%) Problem-Solving
6 11 (7.91%) System Testing
6 11 (7.91%) Test Automation
6 11 (7.91%) Validation
7 10 (7.19%) Verification and Validation
8 9 (6.47%) Software Engineering
8 9 (6.47%) Technical Leadership
9 7 (5.04%) Digital Signal Processing
9 7 (5.04%) Physics
9 7 (5.04%) Schematic Capture
10 6 (4.32%) Innovative Thinking
11 5 (3.60%) Cybersecurity
12 4 (2.88%) Continuous Improvement
12 4 (2.88%) OO
12 4 (2.88%) Requirements Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (25.90%) C
2 29 (20.86%) C++
3 23 (16.55%) Java
4 6 (4.32%) MATLAB
5 5 (3.60%) Python
5 5 (3.60%) SystemVerilog
6 3 (2.16%) Perl
7 2 (1.44%) Rust
8 1 (0.72%) Embedded C
8 1 (0.72%) SQL
8 1 (0.72%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 16 (11.51%) Degree
2 13 (9.35%) Security Cleared
3 7 (5.04%) SC Cleared
4 6 (4.32%) HND
5 5 (3.60%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (2.88%) DV Cleared
7 3 (2.16%) Master's Degree
7 3 (2.16%) PhD
8 2 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.44%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.76%) QA
2 4 (2.88%) IEC 61508
2 4 (2.88%) ISO 26262
3 3 (2.16%) ISO 9001
4 2 (1.44%) MISRA
5 1 (0.72%) ECSS
System Software
1 25 (17.99%) Firmware
2 17 (12.23%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (0.72%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (1.44%) Ansible
1 2 (1.44%) Red Hat Satellite
1 2 (1.44%) Red Hat Spacewalk
Vendors
1 8 (5.76%) EMC
2 5 (3.60%) Xilinx
3 3 (2.16%) Intel
3 3 (2.16%) Microsemi
3 3 (2.16%) Microsoft
4 2 (1.44%) Dell
4 2 (1.44%) HP
4 2 (1.44%) Oracle
4 2 (1.44%) Red Hat
4 2 (1.44%) SAP
5 1 (0.72%) Solarflare