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 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 560 521 517
Rank change year-on-year -39 -4 +250
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 17 40 87
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.047% 0.11% 0.19%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.15% 0.34% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 7 29
10th Percentile £505 £369 £324
25th Percentile £513 £391 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £400 £490
Median % change year-on-year +37.50% -18.37% +12.00%
75th Percentile - £481 £550
90th Percentile £603 £488 £563
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £425 £538
% change year-on-year +20.59% -20.93% +26.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 12 46
10th Percentile £67.33 £51.38 £50.63
25th Percentile £68.00 £60.00 £58.25
Median hourly rate £69.00 £67.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.22% -3.57% +21.74%
75th Percentile £70.00 £69.06 £90.00
90th Percentile - £70.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +2.22% -3.57% +21.74%

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 11,501 11,708 13,887
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.51% 32.41% 30.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,590 7,500 9,878
10th Percentile £345 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.24% -4.55% -2.65%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 346 286 430
10th Percentile £30.13 £22.00 £31.48
25th Percentile £48.75 £40.19 £47.50
Median hourly rate £63.75 £63.00 £60.50
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% +4.13% -3.20%
75th Percentile £68.00 £69.45 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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
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
Top 6 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 5 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -53 16 £550 +37.50% 71
UK excluding London -68 13 £513 +20.59% 77
East of England -6 12 £525 - 21
Work from Home +3 8 - - 33
London +4 2 £550 +37.50% 1
South West -30 1 £500 +8.11% 11

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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (11.76%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 2 (11.76%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 5 (29.41%) Ethernet
2 2 (11.76%) Modbus
2 2 (11.76%) RS-232
2 2 (11.76%) RS-485
2 2 (11.76%) Wireless
3 1 (5.88%) 3GPP
3 1 (5.88%) 5G
3 1 (5.88%) 5G NR
3 1 (5.88%) Bluetooth
3 1 (5.88%) LoRaWAN
3 1 (5.88%) LTE
3 1 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 6 (35.29%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (29.41%) JIRA
3 4 (23.53%) Git
4 3 (17.65%) PVCS
5 1 (5.88%) Visual Studio
General
1 4 (23.53%) Electronics
2 2 (11.76%) Military
3 1 (5.88%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (5.88%) Law
3 1 (5.88%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 14 (82.35%) Embedded Engineer
2 13 (76.47%) Software Engineer
3 12 (70.59%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 10 (58.82%) C Software Engineer
4 10 (58.82%) Embedded C Engineer
4 10 (58.82%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) C/C++ Software Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) C++ Software Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) Embedded C++ Engineer
5 4 (23.53%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
6 1 (5.88%) Electronics Design Engineer
6 1 (5.88%) Electronics Engineer
6 1 (5.88%) Firmware Engineer
6 1 (5.88%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
6 1 (5.88%) Senior
6 1 (5.88%) Senior Firmware Engineer
6 1 (5.88%) Wireless Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.88%) REST
1 1 (5.88%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 4 (23.53%) PCIe
2 2 (11.76%) Embedded Systems
2 2 (11.76%) IoT
3 1 (5.88%) Analogue Electronics
3 1 (5.88%) FPGA
3 1 (5.88%) NB-IoT
Operating Systems
1 6 (35.29%) FreeRTOS
2 1 (5.88%) Debian
2 1 (5.88%) Linux
2 1 (5.88%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (82.35%) Software Engineering
2 4 (23.53%) Test Scripting
2 4 (23.53%) UML
3 3 (17.65%) Code Coverage
3 3 (17.65%) Requirements Analysis
3 3 (17.65%) Software Testing
3 3 (17.65%) SysML
3 3 (17.65%) Technical Leadership
3 3 (17.65%) Unit Testing
3 3 (17.65%) Workflow
4 2 (11.76%) Test Automation
5 1 (5.88%) Architectural Design
5 1 (5.88%) Computer Science
5 1 (5.88%) Continuous Improvement
5 1 (5.88%) Mathematics
5 1 (5.88%) Mentoring
5 1 (5.88%) Performance Optimisation
5 1 (5.88%) Problem-Solving
5 1 (5.88%) Schematic Capture
5 1 (5.88%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 17 (100.00%) C
2 9 (52.94%) C++
2 9 (52.94%) Embedded C++
3 1 (5.88%) C#
3 1 (5.88%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (23.53%) SC Cleared
1 4 (23.53%) Security Cleared
2 1 (5.88%) Degree
System Software
1 3 (17.65%) Embedded Firmware
1 3 (17.65%) Firmware
1 3 (17.65%) Virtual Machines
1 3 (17.65%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 3 (17.65%) ANSYS
1 3 (17.65%) IBM
1 3 (17.65%) VMware
2 1 (5.88%) Atmel