Embedded Linux Job Trends

Embedded Linux
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Embedded Linux skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 680 604 552
Rank change year-on-year -76 -52 +190
Permanent jobs citing Embedded Linux 88 74 300
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.085% 0.15% 0.35%
As % of the Operating Systems category 1.39% 1.06% 2.77%
Number of salaries quoted 71 32 247
10th Percentile £55,000 - £45,000
25th Percentile £60,000 £43,000 £51,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £65,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% -7.14% +18.64%
75th Percentile £72,500 £79,375 £85,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £89,500 -
UK excluding London median annual salary £67,500 £60,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +12.50% -14.29% +21.74%

All Operating Systems
UK

Embedded Linux falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring operating system skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 6,324 6,969 10,833
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 6.13% 14.07% 12.61%
Number of salaries quoted 4,760 4,661 7,980
10th Percentile £27,750 £27,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,500 £31,500 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £67,500 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £82,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £39,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year +8.97% -13.33% -

Embedded Linux
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Embedded Linux relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Embedded Linux job vacancy trend in the UK

Embedded Linux
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded Linux.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Embedded Linux

Embedded Linux
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Embedded Linux over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Embedded Linux in the UK

Embedded Linux
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Embedded Linux within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London -60 85 £67,500 +12.50% 67
England -59 75 £67,500 +22.73% 84
East of England +20 44 £70,000 +3.70% 21
Work from Home -31 36 £67,500 +2.27% 39
Scotland +19 13 £67,500 +2.27% 2
South East -60 11 £65,000 +18.18% 20
Midlands -26 10 £67,500 -12.90% 4
East Midlands -23 8 £67,500 - 3
South West -66 5 £70,000 +21.74% 7
West Midlands -29 2 £52,500 -32.26% 1
London -33 2 £52,500 - 19
North of England -48 2 - - 14
North West - 2 - - 8

Embedded Linux
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 5 (5.68%) Azure
2 4 (4.55%) AWS
3 3 (3.41%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (2.27%) AWS IoT
4 2 (2.27%) Cloud Computing
4 2 (2.27%) GCP
5 1 (1.14%) GitHub
5 1 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (15.91%) Wi-Fi
2 13 (14.77%) Ethernet
2 13 (14.77%) RS-232
2 13 (14.77%) Wireless
3 5 (5.68%) Bluetooth
3 5 (5.68%) Software-Defined Radio
3 5 (5.68%) TCP/IP
4 4 (4.55%) ZigBee
5 2 (2.27%) LoRaWAN
5 2 (2.27%) MQTT
5 2 (2.27%) RFID
6 1 (1.14%) DNS
6 1 (1.14%) Firewall
6 1 (1.14%) IPv4
6 1 (1.14%) IPv6
6 1 (1.14%) LTE
6 1 (1.14%) Multicast
6 1 (1.14%) VPN
6 1 (1.14%) WireGuard
Development Applications
1 12 (13.64%) Git
2 6 (6.82%) Jenkins
3 5 (5.68%) CMake
4 3 (3.41%) GDB
4 3 (3.41%) GitLab
4 3 (3.41%) PetaLinux
5 2 (2.27%) Visual Studio
6 1 (1.14%) Bitbucket
6 1 (1.14%) JIRA
6 1 (1.14%) Zephyr
General
1 22 (25.00%) Electronics
2 5 (5.68%) Aerospace
3 3 (3.41%) Social Skills
4 2 (2.27%) Manufacturing
5 1 (1.14%) Automotive
5 1 (1.14%) Cyber-Physical System
5 1 (1.14%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 73 (82.95%) Embedded Engineer
2 51 (57.95%) Software Engineer
3 48 (54.55%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 40 (45.45%) Linux Engineer
4 40 (45.45%) Senior
5 38 (43.18%) Embedded Linux Engineer
6 34 (38.64%) Senior Embedded Engineer
7 28 (31.82%) Senior Software Engineer
8 25 (28.41%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
9 15 (17.05%) Embedded Linux Software Engineer
10 13 (14.77%) Senior Linux Engineer
11 8 (9.09%) Principal Engineer
12 5 (5.68%) FPGA Engineer
13 4 (4.55%) Developer
13 4 (4.55%) Embedded Developer
14 3 (3.41%) C++ Software Engineer
14 3 (3.41%) Embedded C++ Engineer
14 3 (3.41%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
14 3 (3.41%) Firmware Engineer
14 3 (3.41%) Robotics Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (40.91%) Yocto
2 4 (4.55%) Qt
3 3 (3.41%) GraphQL
4 1 (1.14%) Elastic Stack
4 1 (1.14%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 47 (53.41%) Embedded Systems
2 30 (34.09%) Device Driver
3 19 (21.59%) IoT
4 15 (17.05%) Robotics
5 12 (13.64%) FPGA
6 9 (10.23%) Algorithms
7 5 (5.68%) Verilog
7 5 (5.68%) VHDL
8 3 (3.41%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (2.27%) ARM Cortex
9 2 (2.27%) PCIe
9 2 (2.27%) Photography
9 2 (2.27%) Raspberry Pi
10 1 (1.14%) Data Structures
10 1 (1.14%) Linux Command Line
10 1 (1.14%) NB-IoT
10 1 (1.14%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 88 (100.00%) Linux
2 3 (3.41%) FreeRTOS
2 3 (3.41%) Robot Operating System
3 1 (1.14%) ThreadX
3 1 (1.14%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (90.91%) Software Engineering
2 17 (19.32%) CI/CD
3 16 (18.18%) Agile
4 15 (17.05%) Computer Science
5 14 (15.91%) Collaborative Engineering
6 13 (14.77%) Scrum
7 12 (13.64%) Continuous Improvement
8 8 (9.09%) Collaborative Culture
8 8 (9.09%) DevOps
8 8 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
8 8 (9.09%) Signal Processing
9 7 (7.95%) Device Driver Development
9 7 (7.95%) Embedded Software Development
9 7 (7.95%) Software Architecture
10 6 (6.82%) Containerisation
10 6 (6.82%) Test Automation
10 6 (6.82%) Validation
11 5 (5.68%) Computer Vision
11 5 (5.68%) Software Testing
12 4 (4.55%) AI
Programming Languages
1 50 (56.82%) C++
2 41 (46.59%) C
3 24 (27.27%) Embedded C
3 24 (27.27%) Python
4 7 (7.95%) Embedded C++
5 4 (4.55%) Rust
6 3 (3.41%) C#
6 3 (3.41%) MATLAB
7 2 (2.27%) Bash
7 2 (2.27%) JavaScript
8 1 (1.14%) Go
Qualifications
1 19 (21.59%) Degree
2 8 (9.09%) Master's Degree
2 8 (9.09%) SC Cleared
2 8 (9.09%) Security Cleared
3 7 (7.95%) Computer Science Degree
4 5 (5.68%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.14%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.55%) QA
2 2 (2.27%) JTAG
System Software
1 16 (18.18%) Firmware
2 8 (9.09%) Docker
2 8 (9.09%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (1.14%) iptables
Systems Management
1 1 (1.14%) Ansible
1 1 (1.14%) Grafana
1 1 (1.14%) Kubernetes
1 1 (1.14%) Prometheus
1 1 (1.14%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (2.27%) Google