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 3 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 641 554 508
Rank change year-on-year -87 -46 +80
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 27 6 54
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.051% 0.018% 0.14%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.19% 0.055% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 2 11
10th Percentile - £501 £363
25th Percentile £513 £503 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% +12.82%
75th Percentile £538 £528 £675
90th Percentile - £534 £803
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £513 £550
% change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 28
10th Percentile £49.63 - £62.13
25th Percentile £60.31 - -
Median hourly rate £68.75 £90.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.61% +28.57% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70.00 - -
90th Percentile - - £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £90.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -22.22% +28.57% -9.09%

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 14,109 10,898 12,197
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.55% 32.91% 31.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,165 7,338 8,619
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £503 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.99% -4.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +3.61% -4.57% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 527 257 407
10th Percentile £32.63 £27.98 £27.00
25th Percentile £50.38 £36.25 £45.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% -11.54% +8.33%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.70 £81.18 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +1.56% -1.54% +4.00%

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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Embedded C over the 6 months to 3 August 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 3 August 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 -74 26 £525 +2.44% 59
England -96 26 £525 +2.44% 67
South East -57 15 £525 - 16
East of England -6 10 - - 9
Work from Home -51 5 £525 - 30
London -63 1 - - 6
Scotland - 1 - - 1

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 (3.70%) GitHub
1 1 (3.70%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (14.81%) Ethernet
1 4 (14.81%) Software-Defined Radio
1 4 (14.81%) Wireless
2 2 (7.41%) Bluetooth
Development Applications
1 6 (22.22%) Rational DOORS
2 3 (11.11%) Git
3 2 (7.41%) CppUnit
3 2 (7.41%) PVCS
General
1 4 (14.81%) Law
2 1 (3.70%) Electronics
2 1 (3.70%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 20 (74.07%) Software Engineer
2 15 (55.56%) Embedded Engineer
3 13 (48.15%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 4 (14.81%) DSP Engineer
4 4 (14.81%) DSP Software Engineer
5 3 (11.11%) C Software Engineer
5 3 (11.11%) Embedded C Engineer
5 3 (11.11%) Embedded C Software Engineer
6 2 (7.41%) Development Engineer
6 2 (7.41%) Embedded Linux Engineer
6 2 (7.41%) Linux Engineer
6 2 (7.41%) Software Development Engineer
7 1 (3.70%) Firmware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.70%) PyQt
1 1 (3.70%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 7 (25.93%) FPGA
2 4 (14.81%) Embedded Systems
2 4 (14.81%) PCIe
3 3 (11.11%) ARM Cortex
3 3 (11.11%) Cyber Threat
3 3 (11.11%) Verilog
3 3 (11.11%) VHDL
4 2 (7.41%) Device Driver
5 1 (3.70%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 8 (29.63%) Linux
2 5 (18.52%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (14.81%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (77.78%) Software Engineering
2 9 (33.33%) Signal Processing
3 7 (25.93%) Digital Signal Processing
4 4 (14.81%) SysML
4 4 (14.81%) System Testing
4 4 (14.81%) UML
5 3 (11.11%) Acceptance Criteria
5 3 (11.11%) Customer Engagement
5 3 (11.11%) Customer Requirements
5 3 (11.11%) Regression Testing
5 3 (11.11%) Test Assurance
5 3 (11.11%) Test Automation
5 3 (11.11%) Trade-off Analysis
6 2 (7.41%) API Integration
6 2 (7.41%) Code Coverage
6 2 (7.41%) Device Driver Development
6 2 (7.41%) Performance Tuning
6 2 (7.41%) Requirements Analysis
6 2 (7.41%) Unit Testing
7 1 (3.70%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 27 (100.00%) C
2 11 (40.74%) C++
3 6 (22.22%) Embedded C++
4 4 (14.81%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (25.93%) Security Cleared
2 6 (22.22%) DV Cleared
3 4 (14.81%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 4 (14.81%) Firmware
2 2 (7.41%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (7.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (3.70%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 3 (11.11%) Intel
1 3 (11.11%) SAP
1 3 (11.11%) Xilinx
2 2 (7.41%) VMware