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

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 650 545 511
Rank change year-on-year -105 -34 +64
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 33 4 59
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.061% 0.012% 0.16%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.23% 0.038% 0.49%
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 9 1 28
10th Percentile £61.50 - £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 14,083 10,655 12,041
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.10% 32.76% 31.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,158 7,073 8,289
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £501 £528
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -5.12% -4.09%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £743 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 525 295 346
10th Percentile £28.00 £29.00 £28.88
25th Percentile £47.50 £37.23 £46.20
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.60 £80.00 £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +3.17%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -65 31 £525 +5.00% 98
England -102 30 £525 +5.00% 101
South East - 15 £525 - 24
East of England -10 13 - - 25
Work from Home -51 10 £525 - 40
Scotland - 3 - - 6
London -81 2 £775 - 8

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 (3.03%) GitHub
1 1 (3.03%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (12.12%) Ethernet
1 4 (12.12%) Software-Defined Radio
1 4 (12.12%) Wireless
2 3 (9.09%) Bluetooth
Development Applications
1 7 (21.21%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (12.12%) Git
3 2 (6.06%) CppUnit
3 2 (6.06%) PVCS
4 1 (3.03%) Eclipse
4 1 (3.03%) JIRA
General
1 5 (15.15%) Social Skills
2 4 (12.12%) Law
3 1 (3.03%) Avionics
3 1 (3.03%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 24 (72.73%) Software Engineer
2 22 (66.67%) Embedded Engineer
3 19 (57.58%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 8 (24.24%) C Software Engineer
4 8 (24.24%) Embedded C Engineer
4 8 (24.24%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 7 (21.21%) Development Engineer
5 7 (21.21%) Software Development Engineer
6 4 (12.12%) DSP Engineer
6 4 (12.12%) DSP Software Engineer
7 3 (9.09%) Embedded Linux Engineer
7 3 (9.09%) Linux Engineer
8 1 (3.03%) Firmware Engineer
8 1 (3.03%) Senior
8 1 (3.03%) Senior Embedded Engineer
8 1 (3.03%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
8 1 (3.03%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.03%) PyQt
1 1 (3.03%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 8 (24.24%) Embedded Systems
2 6 (18.18%) FPGA
3 4 (12.12%) Device Driver
3 4 (12.12%) PCIe
4 3 (9.09%) ARM Cortex
5 2 (6.06%) Verilog
5 2 (6.06%) VHDL
6 1 (3.03%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 10 (30.30%) Linux
2 8 (24.24%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (12.12%) FreeRTOS
4 1 (3.03%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (81.82%) Software Engineering
2 9 (27.27%) Signal Processing
3 6 (18.18%) Digital Signal Processing
4 4 (12.12%) SysML
4 4 (12.12%) System Testing
4 4 (12.12%) UML
5 3 (9.09%) API Integration
5 3 (9.09%) Collaborative Engineering
5 3 (9.09%) Device Driver Development
5 3 (9.09%) Performance Tuning
5 3 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
6 2 (6.06%) Acceptance Criteria
6 2 (6.06%) Code Coverage
6 2 (6.06%) Customer Requirements
6 2 (6.06%) Regression Testing
6 2 (6.06%) Requirements Analysis
6 2 (6.06%) Test Assurance
6 2 (6.06%) Test Harness
6 2 (6.06%) Trade-off Analysis
6 2 (6.06%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 33 (100.00%) C
2 12 (36.36%) C++
3 9 (27.27%) Embedded C++
4 2 (6.06%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (12.12%) Security Cleared
2 3 (9.09%) DV Cleared
3 2 (6.06%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 4 (12.12%) Firmware
2 2 (6.06%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (6.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (3.03%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 2 (6.06%) Intel
1 2 (6.06%) SAP
1 2 (6.06%) VMware
1 2 (6.06%) Xilinx
2 1 (3.03%) Wind River