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 23 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 576 498 522
Rank change year-on-year -78 +24 +173
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 34 20 80
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.078% 0.068% 0.18%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.27% 0.20% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 6 18
10th Percentile £398 £410 £250
25th Percentile £463 £429 £321
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £470 £463
Median % change year-on-year +11.70% +1.62% +0.54%
75th Percentile £550 £497 £604
90th Percentile £585 £519 £778
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 6 53
10th Percentile £68.00 £51.88 -
25th Percentile - £55.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £66.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +5.66% -5.36% +22.27%
75th Percentile - £68.75 £90.00
90th Percentile - £79.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £66.25 £70.00
% change year-on-year +5.66% -5.36% +22.81%

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 12,660 10,052 12,894
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 28.93% 34.01% 29.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,419 6,691 9,119
10th Percentile £353 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £715 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £484 £485
% change year-on-year -1.76% -0.31% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 499 245 486
10th Percentile £41.87 £22.09 £30.94
25th Percentile £54.55 £31.76 £46.20
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £67.47
90th Percentile £77.00 £85.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.75 £61.60
% change year-on-year +1.97% +3.48% -5.23%

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 23 March 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 8 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 23 March 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 -92 33 £525 +11.70% 89
UK excluding London -76 30 £475 +1.06% 99
East of England -5 24 £525 - 13
Work from Home -21 17 - - 26
South West -25 3 £475 - 16
London - 3 £550 - 2
South East -62 2 - - 27
Scotland - 1 - - 7

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 (8.82%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 3 (8.82%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 8 (23.53%) Ethernet
2 3 (8.82%) Modbus
2 3 (8.82%) RS-232
2 3 (8.82%) RS-485
3 1 (2.94%) 3GPP
3 1 (2.94%) 5G
3 1 (2.94%) 5G NR
3 1 (2.94%) LTE
3 1 (2.94%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 10 (29.41%) JIRA
1 10 (29.41%) Rational DOORS
2 8 (23.53%) Git
3 7 (20.59%) PVCS
4 1 (2.94%) Visual Studio
General
1 7 (20.59%) Electronics
2 2 (5.88%) Military
3 1 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (2.94%) Law
3 1 (2.94%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 25 (73.53%) Software Engineer
2 24 (70.59%) Embedded Engineer
3 21 (61.76%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 19 (55.88%) C Software Engineer
4 19 (55.88%) Embedded C Engineer
4 19 (55.88%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) C/C++ Software Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) C++ Software Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) Embedded C++ Engineer
5 13 (38.24%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
6 3 (8.82%) Validation Engineer
7 2 (5.88%) SOC Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Systems Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Wireless Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 7 (20.59%) PCIe
2 5 (14.71%) FPGA
3 3 (8.82%) Cyber Threat
3 3 (8.82%) Embedded Systems
4 2 (5.88%) Verilog
4 2 (5.88%) VHDL
5 1 (2.94%) Algorithms
5 1 (2.94%) Device Driver
5 1 (2.94%) IoT
5 1 (2.94%) NB-IoT
Operating Systems
1 6 (17.65%) FreeRTOS
1 6 (17.65%) Linux
2 2 (5.88%) Embedded Linux
3 1 (2.94%) Debian
3 1 (2.94%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (79.41%) Software Engineering
2 7 (20.59%) Code Coverage
2 7 (20.59%) Requirements Analysis
2 7 (20.59%) Unit Testing
2 7 (20.59%) Workflow
3 4 (11.76%) UML
4 3 (8.82%) Software Testing
4 3 (8.82%) SysML
4 3 (8.82%) Technical Leadership
4 3 (8.82%) Test Automation
4 3 (8.82%) Test Scripting
4 3 (8.82%) Validation
5 2 (5.88%) Acceptance Criteria
5 2 (5.88%) Continuous Improvement
5 2 (5.88%) Customer Engagement
5 2 (5.88%) Customer Requirements
5 2 (5.88%) Digital Signal Processing
5 2 (5.88%) Signal Processing
5 2 (5.88%) Test Assurance
5 2 (5.88%) Trade-off Analysis
Programming Languages
1 34 (100.00%) C
2 23 (67.65%) C++
3 20 (58.82%) Embedded C++
4 6 (17.65%) Python
5 1 (2.94%) C#
Qualifications
1 9 (26.47%) Security Cleared
2 7 (20.59%) SC Cleared
3 5 (14.71%) DV Cleared
4 1 (2.94%) Degree
System Software
1 7 (20.59%) Virtual Machines
1 7 (20.59%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (17.65%) Firmware
3 3 (8.82%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 7 (20.59%) ANSYS
1 7 (20.59%) IBM
1 7 (20.59%) VMware
2 2 (5.88%) Intel
2 2 (5.88%) SAP
2 2 (5.88%) Xilinx