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 25 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 699 614 508
Rank change year-on-year -85 -106 +183
Permanent jobs citing Embedded Linux 114 67 283
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.097% 0.14% 0.37%
As % of the Operating Systems category 1.72% 1.05% 2.90%
Number of salaries quoted 94 25 203
10th Percentile £55,000 - £45,000
25th Percentile £60,000 £43,000 £54,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £62,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -10.71% +21.74%
75th Percentile £75,000 £81,250 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,600 -
UK excluding London median annual salary £67,500 £55,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +22.73% -21.43% +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 6,615 6,364 9,760
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.64% 12.88% 12.69%
Number of salaries quoted 4,833 4,099 5,859
10th Percentile £27,750 £27,000 £27,750
25th Percentile £31,500 £31,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -16.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £63,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,050 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £38,325 £46,000
% change year-on-year +10.89% -16.68% -1.44%

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 25 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Embedded Linux in the UK

Embedded Linux
Top 12 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 25 September 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 -82 108 £67,500 +22.73% 111
England -82 107 £70,000 +27.27% 146
East of England +35 60 £70,000 -9.68% 41
Work from Home -49 39 £67,500 -12.90% 55
South East -75 15 £65,000 +18.18% 31
East Midlands -24 11 £67,500 - 5
Midlands -37 11 £67,500 -12.90% 7
North of England -66 10 £60,000 +30.43% 6
North West - 10 £60,000 - 1
Scotland +14 7 £67,500 +3.05% 5
South West - 5 £70,000 - 18
London -49 2 £52,500 - 34

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:

Applications
1 2 (1.75%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 6 (5.26%) Azure
2 4 (3.51%) AWS
3 3 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (1.75%) AWS IoT
4 2 (1.75%) Cloud Computing
4 2 (1.75%) GCP
4 2 (1.75%) GitHub
4 2 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 16 (14.04%) Wi-Fi
2 14 (12.28%) Wireless
3 8 (7.02%) Ethernet
4 7 (6.14%) RS-232
4 7 (6.14%) TCP/IP
5 6 (5.26%) Software-Defined Radio
6 5 (4.39%) DNS
7 4 (3.51%) VPN
7 4 (3.51%) ZigBee
8 3 (2.63%) X.509
9 2 (1.75%) 5G
9 2 (1.75%) Bluetooth
9 2 (1.75%) DHCP
9 2 (1.75%) Firewall
9 2 (1.75%) IPv4
9 2 (1.75%) IPv6
9 2 (1.75%) LoRaWAN
9 2 (1.75%) LTE
9 2 (1.75%) MQTT
9 2 (1.75%) WireGuard
Development Applications
1 13 (11.40%) Git
2 7 (6.14%) Jenkins
3 6 (5.26%) CMake
4 5 (4.39%) PetaLinux
5 3 (2.63%) GDB
5 3 (2.63%) GitLab
General
1 24 (21.05%) Electronics
2 6 (5.26%) Social Skills
3 5 (4.39%) Aerospace
4 4 (3.51%) Automotive
5 3 (2.63%) Games
5 3 (2.63%) Multimedia
6 1 (0.88%) Cyber-Physical System
6 1 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (0.88%) Manufacturing
6 1 (0.88%) Military
Job Titles
1 92 (80.70%) Embedded Engineer
2 63 (55.26%) Software Engineer
3 59 (51.75%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 55 (48.25%) Linux Engineer
5 54 (47.37%) Embedded Linux Engineer
6 43 (37.72%) Senior
7 37 (32.46%) Senior Embedded Engineer
8 29 (25.44%) Senior Software Engineer
9 26 (22.81%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
10 23 (20.18%) Embedded Linux Software Engineer
11 13 (11.40%) Senior Linux Engineer
12 9 (7.89%) Principal Engineer
13 6 (5.26%) FPGA Engineer
14 5 (4.39%) C++ Software Engineer
14 5 (4.39%) Embedded C++ Engineer
14 5 (4.39%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
15 4 (3.51%) Developer
15 4 (3.51%) Embedded Developer
16 3 (2.63%) Computer Vision Engineer
16 3 (2.63%) Robotics Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (34.21%) Yocto
2 5 (4.39%) Qt
3 4 (3.51%) GraphQL
4 3 (2.63%) CarPlay
4 3 (2.63%) Terraform
5 1 (0.88%) Elastic Stack
5 1 (0.88%) Jest
5 1 (0.88%) JWT
5 1 (0.88%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.88%) Playwright
5 1 (0.88%) QML
5 1 (0.88%) Qt Quick
5 1 (0.88%) React
5 1 (0.88%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 53 (46.49%) Embedded Systems
2 27 (23.68%) Device Driver
3 24 (21.05%) IoT
4 17 (14.91%) FPGA
5 16 (14.04%) Algorithms
6 15 (13.16%) Robotics
7 6 (5.26%) VHDL
8 5 (4.39%) Distributed Systems
8 5 (4.39%) Verilog
9 3 (2.63%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (2.63%) Mobile App
9 3 (2.63%) Onboarding
9 3 (2.63%) Raspberry Pi
10 2 (1.75%) PKI
11 1 (0.88%) Analogue Electronics
11 1 (0.88%) Data Structures
11 1 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
11 1 (0.88%) MicroBlaze
11 1 (0.88%) Product Ownership
11 1 (0.88%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 114 (100.00%) Linux
2 3 (2.63%) Android
2 3 (2.63%) Apple iOS
2 3 (2.63%) OpenWrt
2 3 (2.63%) Robot Operating System
3 2 (1.75%) FreeRTOS
4 1 (0.88%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (79.82%) Software Engineering
2 22 (19.30%) CI/CD
3 19 (16.67%) Computer Science
4 18 (15.79%) Collaborative Engineering
5 16 (14.04%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (12.28%) Continuous Improvement
7 12 (10.53%) Signal Processing
8 11 (9.65%) AI
8 11 (9.65%) Open Source
9 10 (8.77%) Agile
10 9 (7.89%) Collaborative Culture
10 9 (7.89%) Test Automation
11 8 (7.02%) Containerisation
11 8 (7.02%) Device Driver Development
11 8 (7.02%) Software Architecture
11 8 (7.02%) Validation
12 7 (6.14%) DevOps
12 7 (6.14%) Embedded Software Development
12 7 (6.14%) Scrum
13 6 (5.26%) Multithreading
Programming Languages
1 57 (50.00%) C++
2 46 (40.35%) C
3 32 (28.07%) Python
4 25 (21.93%) Embedded C
5 16 (14.04%) Embedded C++
6 7 (6.14%) MATLAB
7 6 (5.26%) Rust
8 5 (4.39%) Go
9 3 (2.63%) C#
9 3 (2.63%) Java
9 3 (2.63%) JavaScript
10 2 (1.75%) Bash
10 2 (1.75%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.88%) SQL
11 1 (0.88%) SystemVerilog
11 1 (0.88%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 22 (19.30%) Degree
2 14 (12.28%) Security Cleared
3 9 (7.89%) Computer Science Degree
3 9 (7.89%) Master's Degree
3 9 (7.89%) SC Cleared
4 5 (4.39%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.26%) QA
2 3 (2.63%) JTAG
System Software
1 17 (14.91%) Firmware
2 10 (8.77%) Docker
3 7 (6.14%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (1.75%) iptables
5 1 (0.88%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 2 (1.75%) Ansible
2 1 (0.88%) Grafana
2 1 (0.88%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.88%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 3 (2.63%) Apple
2 2 (1.75%) Google
3 1 (0.88%) Intel
3 1 (0.88%) Microsoft
3 1 (0.88%) Xilinx