Embedded Engineer Contract Job Trends

Embedded Engineer
UK

The median Embedded Engineer daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 505 444 442
Rank change year-on-year -61 -2 +264
Contract jobs requiring an Embedded Engineer 85 90 161
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.23% 0.27% 0.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.25% 0.29% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 29 42
10th Percentile £413 £375 £325
25th Percentile £450 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% +18.31%
75th Percentile £638 £525 £550
90th Percentile £671 £553 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% +18.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 33 98
10th Percentile £57.37 £51.50 £51.75
25th Percentile £65.00 £61.25 £55.00
Median hourly rate £67.50 £66.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.50% +2.31% +13.04%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile - £68.75 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £66.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +1.50% +2.31% +13.04%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,741 30,870 40,353
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.20% 92.72% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,345 18,959 27,051
10th Percentile £298 £300 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,972 954 1,548
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.51 £14.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.47 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.63% -27.78% +40.82%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.41 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +77.62%

Embedded Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Embedded Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Embedded Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Embedded Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Embedded Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Embedded Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Embedded Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Embedded Engineer over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Embedded Engineer in the UK

Embedded Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Embedded Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Embedded Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Embedded Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Embedded Engineer over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Embedded Engineer in the UK

Embedded Engineer
Top 11 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 Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 30 December 2025. 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 -55 77 £550 +10.00% 262
UK excluding London -67 75 £475 -5.00% 268
East of England +21 44 £475 -5.00% 56
Work from Home +10 25 - - 132
South West -34 18 - - 38
London - 7 £550 - 30
Northern Ireland -5 5 £425 - 4
South East -27 5 - - 70
West Midlands -30 2 £563 +40.63% 13
Midlands -45 2 £563 +40.63% 28
Scotland +4 1 - - 29

Embedded Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 December 2025, Embedded Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Embedded Engineer in the job title.

1 77 (90.59%) Software Engineering
2 37 (43.53%) C
3 27 (31.76%) C++
4 25 (29.41%) Security Cleared
5 24 (28.24%) SC Cleared
6 22 (25.88%) Ada
7 20 (23.53%) Embedded C++
8 19 (22.35%) Embedded C
8 19 (22.35%) Rational DOORS
8 19 (22.35%) UML
8 19 (22.35%) Validation
9 16 (18.82%) SysML
10 15 (17.65%) JIRA
10 15 (17.65%) Systems Engineering
11 14 (16.47%) Firmware
12 13 (15.29%) Git
12 13 (15.29%) Linux
13 11 (12.94%) Test Scripting
13 11 (12.94%) Virtual Machines
14 10 (11.76%) MISRA
15 9 (10.59%) C#
15 9 (10.59%) Def Stans
15 9 (10.59%) DO-178B
15 9 (10.59%) Ethernet
15 9 (10.59%) FreeRTOS
16 8 (9.41%) Collaborative Culture
16 8 (9.41%) Technical Leadership
17 7 (8.24%) Agile
18 6 (7.06%) ANSYS
18 6 (7.06%) Code Coverage

Embedded Engineer Skill Set
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 4 (4.71%) Confluence
2 1 (1.18%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (1.18%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 4 (4.71%) GitHub
2 1 (1.18%) Azure
2 1 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (1.18%) Azure Functions
2 1 (1.18%) Entra ID
2 1 (1.18%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (1.18%) Power Automate
2 1 (1.18%) Power Platform
2 1 (1.18%) PowerApps
2 1 (1.18%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 9 (10.59%) Ethernet
2 5 (5.88%) RS-232
3 4 (4.71%) Modbus
3 4 (4.71%) RS-485
Development Applications
1 19 (22.35%) Rational DOORS
2 15 (17.65%) JIRA
3 13 (15.29%) Git
4 6 (7.06%) PVCS
5 5 (5.88%) Jenkins
6 1 (1.18%) Polyspace
6 1 (1.18%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (1.18%) Visual Studio
General
1 25 (29.41%) Electronics
2 14 (16.47%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (7.06%) Aerospace
4 4 (4.71%) Military
5 3 (3.53%) Law
5 3 (3.53%) Social Skills
6 2 (2.35%) Games
7 1 (1.18%) Automotive
7 1 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.18%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.35%) .NET
1 2 (2.35%) Yocto
2 1 (1.18%) .NET Framework
2 1 (1.18%) Kafka
2 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Graph
2 1 (1.18%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 18 (21.18%) Embedded Systems
2 6 (7.06%) PCIe
3 5 (5.88%) CAN bus
3 5 (5.88%) FPGA
4 2 (2.35%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.18%) CUDA
5 1 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.18%) Life Science
5 1 (1.18%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.18%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 13 (15.29%) Linux
2 9 (10.59%) FreeRTOS
3 6 (7.06%) Windows
4 5 (5.88%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (1.18%) Android
5 1 (1.18%) Debian
5 1 (1.18%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (90.59%) Software Engineering
2 19 (22.35%) UML
2 19 (22.35%) Validation
3 16 (18.82%) SysML
4 15 (17.65%) Systems Engineering
5 11 (12.94%) Test Scripting
6 8 (9.41%) Collaborative Culture
6 8 (9.41%) Technical Leadership
7 7 (8.24%) Agile
8 6 (7.06%) Code Coverage
8 6 (7.06%) Configuration Management
8 6 (7.06%) DevOps
8 6 (7.06%) Mentoring
8 6 (7.06%) Requirements Analysis
8 6 (7.06%) Software Testing
8 6 (7.06%) Unit Testing
8 6 (7.06%) Workflow
9 5 (5.88%) Continuous Integration
10 3 (3.53%) Continuous Improvement
10 3 (3.53%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 37 (43.53%) C
2 27 (31.76%) C++
3 22 (25.88%) Ada
4 20 (23.53%) Embedded C++
5 19 (22.35%) Embedded C
6 9 (10.59%) C#
7 2 (2.35%) MATLAB
7 2 (2.35%) Python
7 2 (2.35%) SQL
8 1 (1.18%) Java
8 1 (1.18%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 25 (29.41%) Security Cleared
2 24 (28.24%) SC Cleared
3 1 (1.18%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (11.76%) MISRA
2 9 (10.59%) Def Stans
2 9 (10.59%) DO-178B
3 1 (1.18%) AUTOSAR
3 1 (1.18%) ISO 26262
3 1 (1.18%) MISRA C
System Software
1 14 (16.47%) Firmware
2 11 (12.94%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (7.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (5.88%) Docker
5 4 (4.71%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (1.18%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (1.18%) Functional Safety
1 1 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 6 (7.06%) ANSYS
1 6 (7.06%) IBM
1 6 (7.06%) VMware
2 1 (1.18%) Microsoft
2 1 (1.18%) NVIDIA
2 1 (1.18%) Oracle
2 1 (1.18%) QNX
2 1 (1.18%) Sitecore