Embedded C Contract Job Trends

Embedded C
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Embedded C skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 651 549 501
Rank change year-on-year -102 -48 +59
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 34 4 62
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.062% 0.012% 0.16%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.24% 0.037% 0.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 1 12
10th Percentile - - £364
25th Percentile £513 - £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% +2.56% -11.36%
75th Percentile £606 - £575
90th Percentile £730 - £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 28
10th Percentile £63.88 - £62.13
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £70.00 £90.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% +28.57% -9.09%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £90.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -22.22% +28.57% -16.17%

All Programming Languages
UK

Embedded C falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 14,186 10,727 12,091
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.04% 32.76% 31.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,216 7,109 8,253
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 535 295 341
10th Percentile £28.00 £29.00 £27.00
25th Percentile £48.32 £37.23 £46.18
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.25 £67.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £80.00 £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +0.97%

Embedded C
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Embedded C relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Embedded C job vacancy trend in the UK

Embedded C
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded C.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded C

Embedded C
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Embedded C over the 6 months to 9 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Embedded C in the UK

Embedded C
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded C.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded C

Embedded C
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Embedded C over the 6 months to 9 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Embedded C in the UK

Embedded C
Top 7 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Embedded C within the UK over the 6 months to 9 September 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London -77 32 £525 +5.00% 109
England -87 31 £525 +5.00% 111
South East - 15 £525 - 26
East of England -10 14 - - 28
Work from Home -65 11 £525 - 110
Scotland - 3 - - 7
London -86 2 £775 - 10

Embedded C
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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (2.94%) GitHub
1 1 (2.94%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (11.76%) Ethernet
1 4 (11.76%) Software-Defined Radio
1 4 (11.76%) Wireless
2 3 (8.82%) Bluetooth
Development Applications
1 7 (20.59%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (11.76%) Git
3 2 (5.88%) CppUnit
3 2 (5.88%) PVCS
4 1 (2.94%) Eclipse
4 1 (2.94%) JIRA
General
1 5 (14.71%) Social Skills
2 4 (11.76%) Law
3 1 (2.94%) Avionics
3 1 (2.94%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 25 (73.53%) Software Engineer
2 23 (67.65%) Embedded Engineer
3 20 (58.82%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 9 (26.47%) C Software Engineer
4 9 (26.47%) Embedded C Engineer
4 9 (26.47%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 8 (23.53%) Development Engineer
5 8 (23.53%) Software Development Engineer
6 4 (11.76%) DSP Engineer
6 4 (11.76%) DSP Software Engineer
7 3 (8.82%) Embedded Linux Engineer
7 3 (8.82%) Linux Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Firmware Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Senior
8 1 (2.94%) Senior Embedded Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.94%) PyQt
1 1 (2.94%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 8 (23.53%) Embedded Systems
2 6 (17.65%) FPGA
3 4 (11.76%) Device Driver
3 4 (11.76%) PCIe
4 3 (8.82%) ARM Cortex
5 2 (5.88%) Verilog
5 2 (5.88%) VHDL
6 1 (2.94%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 10 (29.41%) Linux
2 8 (23.53%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (11.76%) FreeRTOS
4 1 (2.94%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (82.35%) Software Engineering
2 9 (26.47%) Signal Processing
3 6 (17.65%) Digital Signal Processing
4 4 (11.76%) SysML
4 4 (11.76%) System Testing
4 4 (11.76%) UML
5 3 (8.82%) API Integration
5 3 (8.82%) Collaborative Engineering
5 3 (8.82%) Device Driver Development
5 3 (8.82%) Performance Tuning
5 3 (8.82%) Problem-Solving
6 2 (5.88%) Acceptance Criteria
6 2 (5.88%) Code Coverage
6 2 (5.88%) Customer Requirements
6 2 (5.88%) Regression Testing
6 2 (5.88%) Requirements Analysis
6 2 (5.88%) Test Assurance
6 2 (5.88%) Test Harness
6 2 (5.88%) Trade-off Analysis
6 2 (5.88%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 34 (100.00%) C
2 12 (35.29%) C++
3 9 (26.47%) Embedded C++
4 2 (5.88%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (11.76%) Security Cleared
2 3 (8.82%) DV Cleared
3 2 (5.88%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 4 (11.76%) Firmware
2 2 (5.88%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (2.94%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 2 (5.88%) Intel
1 2 (5.88%) SAP
1 2 (5.88%) VMware
1 2 (5.88%) Xilinx
2 1 (2.94%) Wind River