Firmware: market
A Firmware Engineer writes the embedded software that controls hardware: bootloaders, drivers, low-level protocols and firmware updates — from electronics to robotics and aerospace. We currently track 471 open positions for this role, 454 of them fresh. The core is C and C++, microcontrollers and SoCs, an RTOS, peripheral protocols, on-hardware debugging; Python for test automation. By co-occurrence in requirements, C++, Python, Rust and MATLAB appear most often. 12% of the postings allow fully remote work. Below is a live slice of the Firmware Engineer market: geography, seniority, adjacent stack and sources.
The Firmware market currently has 471 open roles, 454 of them freshly observed. Median salary $13,666/mo.
12% of Firmware Engineer postings allow fully remote work; the share counts only postings that state the format.
⚠ salary known for 33 of 471 jobs; remote share from 367 with a stated format; 454 counted as fresh observations; trend and hiring difficulty are not shown
Timeline: postings and sources
How many Firmware postings appeared each week since 4 May, and from how many sources. The second line separates market growth from coverage growth: a jump in the week new sources were connected means we started seeing more, not that the market grew.
New postings and active sources per week
Sources over the period: 79
New sources connected: 11 May +5 · 18 May +2 · 25 May +1 · 1 Jun +1 · 8 Jun +1 · 15 Jun +1 · 22 Jun +7 · 29 Jun +6 · 6 Jul +9 · 13 Jul +10 · 20 Jul +2 · 27 Jul +2 · 3 Aug +4 · 10 Aug +1 · 17 Aug +1 · 31 Aug +1 · 7 Sept +3 · 21 Sept +8 · 28 Sept +2 · 5 Oct +3 · 12 Oct +7
Week = posting first-seen date, all statuses; postings are selected by the same rule as this page's counter. Sources are distinct collection channels; their names are not published.
Remote work over time
Share of Firmware postings offering fully remote work, per week.
Remote postings, %
The share is among postings that state a format (remote, hybrid, office). Weeks with fewer than 10 such postings are left blank.
Technologies over time
How the share of Firmware postings mentioning each of the top technologies changed.
Postings mentioning the technology, %
Share among postings with a tagged stack; the series starts on 10 Aug: earlier stack tags were assigned differently. Weeks with fewer than 20 tagged postings are left blank.
Countries over time
How the share of Firmware postings in each of the top countries changed, per week.
Postings in the country, %
Share among postings with a known country; the chart shows the five countries with the most postings over six months. Weeks with fewer than 20 postings with a known country are left blank. A rising share can mean a newly connected source in that country rather than market growth.
Demand and observed supply: Firmware
| Open demand | 471 |
| Observed supply | — not published |
⚠ candidates matching a vacancy are not counted yet: demand and the observed pool are shown
Salary distribution: Firmware
One in ten earns under $4,804, one in ten over $18,850. Half the market falls between $11,250 and $17,166. Sample: 33.
The range histogram for Firmware Engineer uses only postings with an explicit compensation range; the median is computed over the same sample.
Demand geography: Firmware
| country | jobs |
|---|---|
| US | 249 |
| PL | 29 |
| IN | 20 |
| GB | 19 |
| DE | 16 |
| CA | 14 |
| SG | 8 |
| UA | 7 |
| TH | 6 |
| TW | 6 |
The top country for Firmware Engineer demand is the US (249 positions).
⚠ job counts only: salary by country is not published
Used together with
In Firmware Engineer requirements the most frequently named skills and technologies are C++, Python, Rust and MATLAB.
Demand by grade: Firmware
| grade | jobs |
|---|---|
| senior | 145 |
| principal | 67 |
| lead | 19 |
| junior | 16 |
| middle | 8 |
Senior-and-above is about 91% of 255 Firmware Engineer postings with an explicit grade.
⚠ demand side only: the grade of the observed pool is unknown for most of it
Employers: Firmware
Demand is spread across 250 employers. The largest accounts for 5.6%, the top ten for 22.8%; the remaining 77.3% is long tail.
| share | value |
|---|---|
| top-1 | 5.6% |
| top-3 | 11.7% |
| top-10 | 22.8% |
| long tail | 77.3% |
Firmware Engineer openings come from 250 distinct employers; the largest one accounts for only 5.6% of postings — the market is not tied to a single hirer.
⚠ names are not shown: staffing agencies and end employers are not yet told apart by the classifier
Where Zorky sees this market
Observed across 45 sources; the largest accounts for 34.6% — this market does not rest on a single channel.
Firmware Engineer postings arrive mostly from ATS & career sites and job boards & aggregators.
Recent openings: Firmware
- Staff SSD Firmware Test Engineer · US · $13,667
- Firmware Software Engineer · US · $10,417
- Firmware Engineering Intern · PL
- Firmware Test Engineer · PL
- Intern, Firmware Engineer
- Embedded Sustainment Firmware engineer · US
- Staff Firmware/Middleware Engineer · US
- Principal Firmware Engineer · US
Adjacent markets
⚠ adjacent markets for comparison are not defined yet
How this is measured
- Vacancy
- an open job that cleared the quality gate and lists at least two technologies
- Observed candidate
- a candidate whose stack contains this technology; an aggregate — not a single record leaves the perimeter
- Matchable candidate
- not counted yet
- Window
- jobs open at the moment the snapshot was built
About the data
- Some breakdowns are hidden: their data coverage is not yet sufficient.
- Statistics are shown only where the sample clears a quality gate.
- A missing block does not mean a value of zero.
Breakdowns currently hidden: 8.
Data as of 2026-10-24
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about the Firmware Engineer role — short answers from the same data slice.
What does a Firmware Engineer do?
A Firmware Engineer writes the embedded software that controls hardware: bootloaders, drivers, low-level protocols and firmware updates — from electronics to robotics and aerospace.
Which skills do Firmware Engineer postings require?
The core is C and C++, microcontrollers and SoCs, an RTOS, peripheral protocols, on-hardware debugging; Python for test automation. In the current slice, C++, Python, Rust and MATLAB appear in requirements most often.
How does a Firmware Engineer differ from an Embedded developer?
The line is blurry: firmware is closer to hardware — boot, drivers, registers; embedded is wider and includes device application logic and embedded Linux.
How remote-friendly are Firmware Engineer jobs?
12% of postings with an explicit format allow fully remote work; the slice tracks 471 open positions.
Get the full Firmware market details
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