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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 640 546 517
Rank change year-on-year -94 -29 +51
Contract jobs citing Embedded C 32 5 56
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.060% 0.015% 0.14%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.23% 0.046% 0.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 1 12
10th Percentile - - £364
25th Percentile £513 - £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.23%
75th Percentile £538 - £625
90th Percentile - - £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 27
10th Percentile £54.38 - £60.75
25th Percentile £67.19 - -
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% -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 14,168 10,816 12,191
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.41% 32.82% 31.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,220 7,232 8,545
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £502 £533
Median % change year-on-year +2.64% -5.86% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 523 277 405
10th Percentile £30.10 £28.22 £27.00
25th Percentile £51.25 £36.00 £45.22
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.07% -13.85% +8.33%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.95 £83.58 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year +1.96% -1.92% +8.33%

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 15 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 15 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 -75 31 £525 +5.00% 72
England -98 29 £525 +5.00% 79
South East -52 16 £525 - 17
East of England -8 12 - - 17
Work from Home -54 7 £525 - 30
Scotland - 3 - - 2
London -69 1 - - 3

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 (3.13%) GitHub
1 1 (3.13%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (12.50%) Ethernet
1 4 (12.50%) Software-Defined Radio
1 4 (12.50%) Wireless
2 3 (9.38%) Bluetooth
Development Applications
1 6 (18.75%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (12.50%) Git
3 2 (6.25%) CppUnit
3 2 (6.25%) PVCS
General
1 4 (12.50%) Law
1 4 (12.50%) Social Skills
2 1 (3.13%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 22 (68.75%) Software Engineer
2 18 (56.25%) Embedded Engineer
3 15 (46.88%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 5 (15.63%) C Software Engineer
4 5 (15.63%) Embedded C Engineer
4 5 (15.63%) Embedded C Software Engineer
5 4 (12.50%) Development Engineer
5 4 (12.50%) DSP Engineer
5 4 (12.50%) DSP Software Engineer
5 4 (12.50%) Software Development Engineer
6 3 (9.38%) Embedded Linux Engineer
6 3 (9.38%) Linux Engineer
7 1 (3.13%) Firmware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.13%) PyQt
1 1 (3.13%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 7 (21.88%) Embedded Systems
1 7 (21.88%) FPGA
2 4 (12.50%) PCIe
3 3 (9.38%) ARM Cortex
3 3 (9.38%) Cyber Threat
3 3 (9.38%) Device Driver
3 3 (9.38%) Verilog
3 3 (9.38%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 12 (37.50%) Linux
2 9 (28.13%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (12.50%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (78.13%) Software Engineering
2 10 (31.25%) Signal Processing
3 7 (21.88%) Digital Signal Processing
4 4 (12.50%) SysML
4 4 (12.50%) System Testing
4 4 (12.50%) UML
5 3 (9.38%) Acceptance Criteria
5 3 (9.38%) API Integration
5 3 (9.38%) Collaborative Engineering
5 3 (9.38%) Customer Engagement
5 3 (9.38%) Customer Requirements
5 3 (9.38%) Device Driver Development
5 3 (9.38%) Performance Tuning
5 3 (9.38%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (9.38%) Regression Testing
5 3 (9.38%) Test Assurance
5 3 (9.38%) Test Automation
5 3 (9.38%) Trade-off Analysis
6 2 (6.25%) Code Coverage
6 2 (6.25%) Requirements Analysis
Programming Languages
1 32 (100.00%) C
2 15 (46.88%) C++
3 10 (31.25%) Embedded C++
4 4 (12.50%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (21.88%) Security Cleared
2 6 (18.75%) DV Cleared
3 4 (12.50%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 4 (12.50%) Firmware
2 2 (6.25%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (6.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (3.13%) Embedded Firmware
Vendors
1 3 (9.38%) Intel
1 3 (9.38%) SAP
1 3 (9.38%) Xilinx
2 2 (6.25%) VMware