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 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 558 490 506
Rank change year-on-year -68 +16 +229
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 26 37 84
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.070% 0.12% 0.20%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.23% 0.36% 0.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 7 25
10th Percentile £398 £400 £278
25th Percentile £463 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £465 £490
Median % change year-on-year +12.90% -5.10% +6.52%
75th Percentile £550 £488 £550
90th Percentile £585 £493 £601
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £505
% change year-on-year +2.15% -7.92% +18.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 12 47
10th Percentile £68.00 £51.38 £46.25
25th Percentile £69.00 £60.00 £55.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £67.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% -3.57% +27.27%
75th Percentile - £69.06 £90.00
90th Percentile - £70.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +3.70% -3.57% +27.27%

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 11,389 10,373 12,866
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.81% 32.82% 30.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,560 6,597 9,141
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.43% -4.55% -3.08%
75th Percentile £619 £640 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £489 £500
% change year-on-year -1.43% -2.20% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 393 239 415
10th Percentile £36.05 £21.25 £35.00
25th Percentile £52.00 £36.25 £47.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - -0.79%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £85.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +3.17% -3.08% -

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 14 January 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
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 14 January 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
England -67 26 £525 +12.90% 119
UK excluding London -68 22 £475 +2.15% 127
East of England +2 19 £525 - 21
Work from Home +1 14 - - 88
South West -36 3 £475 - 32
London - 3 £550 - 6

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 3 (11.54%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 3 (11.54%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 8 (30.77%) Ethernet
2 3 (11.54%) Modbus
2 3 (11.54%) RS-232
2 3 (11.54%) RS-485
3 1 (3.85%) 3GPP
3 1 (3.85%) 5G
3 1 (3.85%) 5G NR
3 1 (3.85%) LTE
3 1 (3.85%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 10 (38.46%) JIRA
1 10 (38.46%) Rational DOORS
2 8 (30.77%) Git
3 7 (26.92%) PVCS
4 1 (3.85%) Visual Studio
General
1 7 (26.92%) Electronics
2 2 (7.69%) Military
3 1 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (3.85%) Law
3 1 (3.85%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 22 (84.62%) Embedded Engineer
2 20 (76.92%) Software Engineer
3 19 (73.08%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 17 (65.38%) C Software Engineer
4 17 (65.38%) Embedded C Engineer
4 17 (65.38%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) C/C++ Software Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) C++ Software Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) Embedded C++ Engineer
5 11 (42.31%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
6 3 (11.54%) Validation Engineer
7 2 (7.69%) SOC Engineer
8 1 (3.85%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
8 1 (3.85%) Systems Engineer
8 1 (3.85%) Wireless Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 7 (26.92%) PCIe
2 3 (11.54%) FPGA
3 2 (7.69%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (3.85%) Device Driver
4 1 (3.85%) IoT
4 1 (3.85%) NB-IoT
Operating Systems
1 6 (23.08%) FreeRTOS
2 1 (3.85%) Debian
2 1 (3.85%) Linux
2 1 (3.85%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (80.77%) Software Engineering
2 7 (26.92%) Code Coverage
2 7 (26.92%) Requirements Analysis
2 7 (26.92%) Unit Testing
2 7 (26.92%) Workflow
3 4 (15.38%) UML
4 3 (11.54%) Software Testing
4 3 (11.54%) SysML
4 3 (11.54%) Technical Leadership
4 3 (11.54%) Test Scripting
4 3 (11.54%) Validation
5 2 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
5 2 (7.69%) Mentoring
6 1 (3.85%) Architectural Design
6 1 (3.85%) Computer Science
6 1 (3.85%) Manual Testing
6 1 (3.85%) Mathematics
6 1 (3.85%) Multithreading
6 1 (3.85%) Performance Optimisation
6 1 (3.85%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 26 (100.00%) C
2 16 (61.54%) C++
2 16 (61.54%) Embedded C++
3 3 (11.54%) Python
4 1 (3.85%) C#
Qualifications
1 4 (15.38%) SC Cleared
1 4 (15.38%) Security Cleared
2 1 (3.85%) Degree
System Software
1 7 (26.92%) Virtual Machines
1 7 (26.92%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (19.23%) Firmware
3 3 (11.54%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 7 (26.92%) ANSYS
1 7 (26.92%) IBM
1 7 (26.92%) VMware