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 11 January 2026.

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

 6 months to
11 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 491 430 434
Rank change year-on-year -61 +4 +261
Contract jobs requiring an Embedded Engineer 97 86 157
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.27% 0.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.29% 0.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 25 38
10th Percentile - £375 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £518
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -3.38% +15.00%
75th Percentile £638 £525 £550
90th Percentile £668 £558 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% +16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 33 101
10th Percentile £42.50 £51.50 £51.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £61.25 £55.00
Median hourly rate £66.50 £66.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +6.40% +8.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile - £68.75 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 £66.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year - +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 33,229 29,465 40,074
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.70% 93.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,002 18,045 26,741
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,953 888 1,677
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.22 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.60 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.51 £44.78
% change year-on-year -20.18% -29.63% +65.05%

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 11 January 2026.

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 11 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Embedded Engineer in the UK

Embedded Engineer
Top 13 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 11 January 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 -53 86 £450 -10.00% 204
England -40 85 £550 +10.00% 187
East of England +22 46 £475 -5.00% 40
Work from Home +16 32 - - 115
South West -43 19 - - 29
Northern Ireland +3 9 £425 - 4
London - 8 £550 - 15
South East -19 7 - - 55
North West -24 2 - - 18
West Midlands -32 2 £563 +40.63% 6
North of England -38 2 - - 36
Midlands -42 2 £563 +40.63% 17
Scotland +2 1 - - 23

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

For the 6 months to 11 January 2026, 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 84 (86.60%) Software Engineering
2 41 (42.27%) C
3 31 (31.96%) C++
4 25 (25.77%) Security Cleared
5 24 (24.74%) SC Cleared
6 23 (23.71%) Embedded C++
7 22 (22.68%) Ada
8 21 (21.65%) Embedded C
8 21 (21.65%) Validation
9 20 (20.62%) Rational DOORS
10 19 (19.59%) UML
11 17 (17.53%) JIRA
11 17 (17.53%) Linux
12 16 (16.49%) SysML
13 15 (15.46%) Firmware
13 15 (15.46%) Systems Engineering
14 14 (14.43%) Git
15 12 (12.37%) Virtual Machines
16 11 (11.34%) Ethernet
16 11 (11.34%) Test Scripting
17 10 (10.31%) FreeRTOS
17 10 (10.31%) MISRA
18 9 (9.28%) C#
18 9 (9.28%) Def Stans
18 9 (9.28%) DO-178B
18 9 (9.28%) Embedded Linux
19 8 (8.25%) Collaborative Culture
19 8 (8.25%) Technical Leadership
20 7 (7.22%) Agile
20 7 (7.22%) ANSYS

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 5 (5.15%) Confluence
2 1 (1.03%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (1.03%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 5 (5.15%) GitHub
2 1 (1.03%) Azure
2 1 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (1.03%) Azure Functions
2 1 (1.03%) Entra ID
2 1 (1.03%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (1.03%) Power Automate
2 1 (1.03%) Power Platform
2 1 (1.03%) PowerApps
2 1 (1.03%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 11 (11.34%) Ethernet
2 6 (6.19%) RS-232
3 5 (5.15%) Modbus
3 5 (5.15%) RS-485
4 2 (2.06%) Software-Defined Radio
Development Applications
1 20 (20.62%) Rational DOORS
2 17 (17.53%) JIRA
3 14 (14.43%) Git
4 7 (7.22%) PVCS
5 5 (5.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (1.03%) Polyspace
6 1 (1.03%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (1.03%) Visual Studio
General
1 26 (26.80%) Electronics
2 14 (14.43%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (6.19%) Aerospace
4 4 (4.12%) Military
5 3 (3.09%) Games
5 3 (3.09%) Law
5 3 (3.09%) Social Skills
6 1 (1.03%) Automotive
6 1 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.03%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.09%) Yocto
2 2 (2.06%) .NET
3 1 (1.03%) .NET Framework
3 1 (1.03%) Kafka
3 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.03%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 21 (21.65%) Embedded Systems
2 7 (7.22%) FPGA
2 7 (7.22%) PCIe
3 5 (5.15%) CAN bus
4 3 (3.09%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.03%) CUDA
5 1 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.03%) Life Science
5 1 (1.03%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.03%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 17 (17.53%) Linux
2 10 (10.31%) FreeRTOS
3 9 (9.28%) Embedded Linux
4 6 (6.19%) Windows
5 1 (1.03%) Android
5 1 (1.03%) Debian
5 1 (1.03%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.03%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (86.60%) Software Engineering
2 21 (21.65%) Validation
3 19 (19.59%) UML
4 16 (16.49%) SysML
5 15 (15.46%) Systems Engineering
6 11 (11.34%) Test Scripting
7 8 (8.25%) Collaborative Culture
7 8 (8.25%) Technical Leadership
8 7 (7.22%) Agile
8 7 (7.22%) Code Coverage
8 7 (7.22%) Requirements Analysis
8 7 (7.22%) Unit Testing
8 7 (7.22%) Workflow
9 6 (6.19%) Configuration Management
9 6 (6.19%) DevOps
9 6 (6.19%) Mentoring
9 6 (6.19%) Software Testing
10 5 (5.15%) Continuous Integration
11 4 (4.12%) Continuous Improvement
12 3 (3.09%) FPGA Design
Programming Languages
1 41 (42.27%) C
2 31 (31.96%) C++
3 23 (23.71%) Embedded C++
4 22 (22.68%) Ada
5 21 (21.65%) Embedded C
6 9 (9.28%) C#
7 2 (2.06%) MATLAB
7 2 (2.06%) Python
7 2 (2.06%) SQL
8 1 (1.03%) Java
8 1 (1.03%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 25 (25.77%) Security Cleared
2 24 (24.74%) SC Cleared
3 1 (1.03%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (10.31%) MISRA
2 9 (9.28%) Def Stans
2 9 (9.28%) DO-178B
3 1 (1.03%) AUTOSAR
3 1 (1.03%) ISO 26262
3 1 (1.03%) MISRA C
System Software
1 15 (15.46%) Firmware
2 12 (12.37%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (7.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (5.15%) Docker
4 5 (5.15%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (1.03%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (1.03%) Functional Safety
1 1 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 7 (7.22%) ANSYS
1 7 (7.22%) IBM
1 7 (7.22%) VMware
2 1 (1.03%) Microsoft
2 1 (1.03%) NVIDIA
2 1 (1.03%) Oracle
2 1 (1.03%) QNX
2 1 (1.03%) Sitecore
231 Embedded Engineer jobs Nationwide