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 1 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 494 548 609
Rank change year-on-year +54 +61 +201
Permanent jobs citing FPGA 155 206 99
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.29% 0.32% 0.20%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.83% 0.92% 0.51%
Number of salaries quoted 66 93 84
10th Percentile £48,125 £37,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £54,828 £47,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% -4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £71,813 £71,250 £70,625
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +18.18% - -12.00%

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 18,681 22,418 19,402
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 34.50% 34.57% 38.25%
Number of salaries quoted 10,484 10,966 14,636
10th Percentile £27,707 £33,625 £33,500
25th Percentile £35,917 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,500 £60,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.83% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,750 £84,056
90th Percentile £100,000 £110,000 £106,289
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £54,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -16.67% -1.82% -

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London +23 118 £65,000 +18.18% 113
England +36 109 £68,000 +13.33% 110
Work from Home +94 86 £67,500 -10.00% 52
South East +5 27 £54,770 -10.21% 49
London +61 22 £125,000 +2.04% 5
North of England +29 19 £75,000 +100.00% 4
East of England -5 19 £77,500 +40.91% 41
Wales +25 15 £57,500 +4.55% 1
South West +24 15 £65,000 -27.78% 17
Scotland +17 14 £67,500 +22.73% 8
North West +40 11 £75,000 +100.00% 1
Yorkshire +11 8 - - 1
Midlands +42 6 £77,500 +63.16% 6
West Midlands - 5 £77,500 - 5
Northern Ireland - 3 - -
East Midlands +8 1 - - 1

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 (1.29%) Apache
1 2 (1.29%) nginx
Applications
1 5 (3.23%) Simulink
2 4 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 2 (1.29%) AWS
2 1 (0.65%) Amazon S3
2 1 (0.65%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 50 (32.26%) Ethernet
2 20 (12.90%) TCP/IP
3 15 (9.68%) Software-Defined Radio
4 9 (5.81%) RS-232
5 2 (1.29%) DHCP
5 2 (1.29%) DNS
5 2 (1.29%) LAN
5 2 (1.29%) NAS
5 2 (1.29%) SAN
5 2 (1.29%) SNMP
5 2 (1.29%) WAN
5 2 (1.29%) Wireless
6 1 (0.65%) 4G
6 1 (0.65%) 5G
6 1 (0.65%) Internet
6 1 (0.65%) Multicast
Development Applications
1 16 (10.32%) Git
2 6 (3.87%) JIRA
2 6 (3.87%) Rational DOORS
3 4 (2.58%) GitLab
4 2 (1.29%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.65%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.65%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.65%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.65%) Redmine
5 1 (0.65%) Subversion
General
1 54 (34.84%) Electronics
2 27 (17.42%) Finance
3 18 (11.61%) Banking
3 18 (11.61%) Investment Banking
4 17 (10.97%) Aerospace
5 14 (9.03%) Social Skills
6 12 (7.74%) Automotive
6 12 (7.74%) Aviation
7 11 (7.10%) Manufacturing
8 8 (5.16%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (4.52%) Telecoms
10 5 (3.23%) Analytical Skills
10 5 (3.23%) Marketing
11 4 (2.58%) Public Sector
12 3 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.65%) Back Office
13 1 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 32 (20.65%) Senior
2 23 (14.84%) Electronics Engineer
3 21 (13.55%) FPGA Engineer
4 18 (11.61%) C++ Developer
4 18 (11.61%) Developer
4 18 (11.61%) Investment Banking C++ Developer
4 18 (11.61%) Linux Developer
4 18 (11.61%) Linux Scripter
4 18 (11.61%) Low Latency C++ Developer
4 18 (11.61%) Senior Electronics Engineer
5 15 (9.68%) Lead
6 14 (9.03%) Systems Engineer
7 12 (7.74%) Firmware Engineer
7 12 (7.74%) Radio Engineer
7 12 (7.74%) Senior FPGA Engineer
8 10 (6.45%) Design Engineer
9 8 (5.16%) FPGA Design Engineer
10 7 (4.52%) Designer
11 5 (3.23%) DSP Engineer
12 4 (2.58%) Process Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.29%) LDAP
2 1 (0.65%) DPDK
2 1 (0.65%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 52 (33.55%) Embedded Systems
2 29 (18.71%) VHDL
3 14 (9.03%) Verilog
4 8 (5.16%) Algorithms
5 6 (3.87%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.58%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.94%) ASIC
8 2 (1.29%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.29%) IoT
9 1 (0.65%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.65%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.65%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.65%) PCIe
9 1 (0.65%) Robotics
9 1 (0.65%) Smart City
Operating Systems
1 72 (46.45%) Linux
2 2 (1.29%) CentOS
2 2 (1.29%) Oracle Linux
2 2 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 2 (1.29%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (21.29%) FPGA Design
2 31 (20.00%) Agile
3 23 (14.84%) Signal Processing
4 21 (13.55%) Low Latency
5 15 (9.68%) Digital Signal Processing
5 15 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (9.03%) CI/CD
7 13 (8.39%) Software Engineering
8 12 (7.74%) Physics
8 12 (7.74%) System Testing
8 12 (7.74%) Test Automation
8 12 (7.74%) Validation
9 11 (7.10%) Innovative Thinking
9 11 (7.10%) Verification and Validation
10 10 (6.45%) Cybersecurity
10 10 (6.45%) Schematic Capture
11 8 (5.16%) Technical Leadership
12 5 (3.23%) UVM
13 4 (2.58%) Analytical Thinking
13 4 (2.58%) Creative Thinking
Programming Languages
1 43 (27.74%) C
2 34 (21.94%) C++
3 23 (14.84%) Java
4 11 (7.10%) MATLAB
4 11 (7.10%) Python
5 7 (4.52%) SystemVerilog
6 3 (1.94%) Perl
7 1 (0.65%) Bash
7 1 (0.65%) Embedded C
7 1 (0.65%) Rust
7 1 (0.65%) SQL
7 1 (0.65%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 30 (19.35%) Security Cleared
2 25 (16.13%) Degree
3 14 (9.03%) SC Cleared
4 9 (5.81%) DV Cleared
4 9 (5.81%) HND
5 5 (3.23%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.29%) HNC
7 2 (1.29%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.29%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.81%) QA
2 4 (2.58%) IEC 61508
2 4 (2.58%) ISO 26262
3 3 (1.94%) ISO 9001
4 2 (1.29%) MISRA
5 1 (0.65%) ECSS
5 1 (0.65%) SLA
System Software
1 38 (24.52%) Firmware
2 24 (15.48%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (1.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (1.94%) Ansible
2 2 (1.29%) Red Hat Satellite
2 2 (1.29%) Red Hat Spacewalk
3 1 (0.65%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 11 (7.10%) EMC
2 8 (5.16%) Xilinx
3 5 (3.23%) Intel
3 5 (3.23%) Microsemi
4 4 (2.58%) Microsoft
4 4 (2.58%) SAP
5 3 (1.94%) Mentor Graphics
6 2 (1.29%) Dell
6 2 (1.29%) HP
6 2 (1.29%) Oracle
6 2 (1.29%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.65%) Cadence
7 1 (0.65%) New Relic
7 1 (0.65%) PagerDuty
7 1 (0.65%) Solarflare