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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 638 558 526
Rank change year-on-year -80 -32 +35
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 34 5 56
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.063% 0.015% 0.15%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.24% 0.047% 0.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 1 11
10th Percentile - - £363
25th Percentile £513 - £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £538 - £575
90th Percentile - - £803
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 1 27
10th Percentile £61.50 - £60.75
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 14,011 10,681 12,215
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.15% 32.84% 31.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,112 7,106 8,422
10th Percentile £363 £341 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -4.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £742 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 525 298 357
10th Percentile £28.00 £29.00 £30.00
25th Percentile £48.00 £36.69 £46.18
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.44 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.45 £79.13 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +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 2 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 2 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 -74 33 £525 +5.00% 105
England -84 31 £525 +5.00% 105
South East -51 16 £525 - 22
East of England -10 14 - - 25
Work from Home -53 10 £525 - 45
Scotland - 3 - - 7
London -71 1 - - 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 (2.94%) GitHub
1 1 (2.94%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (11.76%) Ethernet
1 4 (11.76%) Software-Defined Radio
1 4 (11.76%) Wireless
2 3 (8.82%) Bluetooth
Development Applications
1 6 (17.65%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (11.76%) Git
3 2 (5.88%) CppUnit
3 2 (5.88%) PVCS
General
1 4 (11.76%) Law
1 4 (11.76%) Social Skills
2 1 (2.94%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 24 (70.59%) Software Engineer
2 21 (61.76%) Embedded Engineer
3 18 (52.94%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 8 (23.53%) C Software Engineer
4 8 (23.53%) Embedded C Engineer
4 8 (23.53%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 7 (20.59%) Development Engineer
5 7 (20.59%) Software Development Engineer
6 4 (11.76%) DSP Engineer
6 4 (11.76%) DSP Software Engineer
7 3 (8.82%) Embedded Linux Engineer
7 3 (8.82%) Linux Engineer
8 1 (2.94%) Firmware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.94%) PyQt
1 1 (2.94%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 7 (20.59%) Embedded Systems
1 7 (20.59%) FPGA
2 4 (11.76%) PCIe
3 3 (8.82%) ARM Cortex
3 3 (8.82%) Device Driver
3 3 (8.82%) Verilog
3 3 (8.82%) VHDL
4 2 (5.88%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 11 (32.35%) Linux
2 9 (26.47%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (11.76%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (79.41%) Software Engineering
2 10 (29.41%) Signal Processing
3 7 (20.59%) Digital Signal Processing
4 4 (11.76%) SysML
4 4 (11.76%) System Testing
4 4 (11.76%) UML
5 3 (8.82%) Acceptance Criteria
5 3 (8.82%) API Integration
5 3 (8.82%) Collaborative Engineering
5 3 (8.82%) Customer Engagement
5 3 (8.82%) Customer Requirements
5 3 (8.82%) Device Driver Development
5 3 (8.82%) Performance Tuning
5 3 (8.82%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (8.82%) Regression Testing
5 3 (8.82%) Test Assurance
5 3 (8.82%) Test Automation
5 3 (8.82%) Test Harness
5 3 (8.82%) Trade-off Analysis
6 2 (5.88%) Code Coverage
Programming Languages
1 34 (100.00%) C
2 14 (41.18%) C++
3 10 (29.41%) Embedded C++
4 3 (8.82%) Python
Qualifications
1 6 (17.65%) Security Cleared
2 5 (14.71%) DV Cleared
3 3 (8.82%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 4 (11.76%) Firmware
2 2 (5.88%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (2.94%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 3 (8.82%) Intel
1 3 (8.82%) SAP
1 3 (8.82%) Xilinx
2 2 (5.88%) VMware