Embedded Software Development Contract Job Trends

Embedded Software Development
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Embedded Software Development skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 578 484 576
Rank change year-on-year -94 +92 +144
Contract jobs citing Embedded Software Development 3 36 21
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.008% 0.11% 0.049%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.009% 0.13% 0.056%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 2 10
10th Percentile - £89 £413
25th Percentile £563 £150 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £255 £475
Median % change year-on-year +125.27% -46.26% -16.67%
75th Percentile £588 £364 £541
90th Percentile - £427 £615
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £463 £528
% change year-on-year +24.32% -12.32% -7.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 10 11
10th Percentile - £50.65 £56.00
25th Percentile £71.25 £54.09 £63.75
Median hourly rate £72.50 £60.02 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.79% -7.66% +13.04%
75th Percentile £73.75 £63.75 £70.63
90th Percentile - £66.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £60.02 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -7.66% +23.81%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Embedded Software Development falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 32,128 27,808 37,611
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.80% 88.68% 87.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,262 16,883 24,972
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £743 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,977 884 1,589
10th Percentile £14.52 £15.62 £14.17
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.16
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.69 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.64% -21.75% +15.71%
75th Percentile £56.00 £61.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.39 £74.66 £76.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -20.58% -31.43% +51.38%

Embedded Software Development
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Embedded Software Development relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Embedded Software Development job vacancy trend in the UK

Embedded Software Development
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded Software Development.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded Software Development

Embedded Software Development
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded Software Development.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded Software Development

Embedded Software Development
Top 5 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 Software Development within the UK over the 6 months to 13 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
England -104 3 £575 +125.27% 46
UK excluding London -79 2 £575 +24.32% 50
West Midlands -35 1 £575 - 2
South West -37 1 - - 10
Midlands -44 1 £575 - 5

Embedded Software Development
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:

Communications & Networking
1 1 (33.33%) Internet
Development Applications
1 1 (33.33%) Artifactory
1 1 (33.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
1 1 (33.33%) Bitbucket
1 1 (33.33%) Jenkins
1 1 (33.33%) JIRA
1 1 (33.33%) NUnit
1 1 (33.33%) SonarQube
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Developer
1 1 (33.33%) Embedded Developer
1 1 (33.33%) Embedded Software Developer
1 1 (33.33%) FPGA Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Software Developer
1 1 (33.33%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) .NET
1 1 (33.33%) .NET Compact Framework
1 1 (33.33%) .NET Framework
1 1 (33.33%) NumPy
1 1 (33.33%) OAuth
1 1 (33.33%) OAuth2
1 1 (33.33%) OpenID
1 1 (33.33%) REST
1 1 (33.33%) RESTful
1 1 (33.33%) SciPy
1 1 (33.33%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Contactless
1 1 (33.33%) FPGA
1 1 (33.33%) MicroBlaze
1 1 (33.33%) RISC-V
1 1 (33.33%) Verilog
1 1 (33.33%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 2 (66.67%) Linux
2 1 (33.33%) Android
2 1 (33.33%) Embedded Linux
2 1 (33.33%) Windows
2 1 (33.33%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Agile
1 2 (66.67%) Scrum
1 2 (66.67%) Software Engineering
2 1 (33.33%) Android Development
2 1 (33.33%) API Development
2 1 (33.33%) Architectural Design
2 1 (33.33%) BDD
2 1 (33.33%) CI/CD
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Integration
2 1 (33.33%) Digital Signal Processing
2 1 (33.33%) FPGA Design
2 1 (33.33%) Kanban
2 1 (33.33%) Microservices
2 1 (33.33%) OWASP
2 1 (33.33%) Signal Processing
2 1 (33.33%) Software Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) SOLID
2 1 (33.33%) Test Automation
2 1 (33.33%) Unit Testing
2 1 (33.33%) UVM
Programming Languages
1 3 (100.00%) C
2 2 (66.67%) C++
3 1 (33.33%) C#
3 1 (33.33%) JavaScript
3 1 (33.33%) MATLAB
3 1 (33.33%) Python
3 1 (33.33%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 1 (33.33%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (33.33%) DO-178B
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) Xamarin