Embedded Software Engineer Job Trends

Embedded Software Engineer
UK

The median Embedded Software Engineer salary in the UK is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 September 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 296 570 236
Rank change year-on-year +274 -334 +333
Permanent jobs requiring an Embedded Software Engineer 705 99 896
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.62% 0.20% 1.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.66% 0.22% 1.21%
Number of salaries quoted 564 47 648
10th Percentile £45,000 £45,750 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £48,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £71,250 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £70,000 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -4.35%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 106,427 44,033 73,876
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.44% 89.62% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 73,226 25,764 44,965
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,131 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,319 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.85% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

Embedded Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Embedded Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Embedded Software Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Embedded Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Embedded Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Embedded Software Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Embedded Software Engineer over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Embedded Software Engineer in the UK

Embedded Software Engineer
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Embedded Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 15 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
England +274 671 £61,500 +11.82% 250
UK excluding London +243 666 £60,000 +9.09% 200
South East +79 187 £60,000 -7.69% 52
South West +56 171 £60,000 +33.33% 28
Work from Home +10 110 £67,500 +32.35% 88
Midlands +41 103 £70,000 +33.33% 28
East of England +63 101 £75,000 +38.89% 76
North of England +18 79 £60,000 +9.09% 13
East Midlands +13 52 £54,000 +2.86% 17
West Midlands +10 51 £70,000 +13.36% 11
North West - 30 £57,500 - 8
London -21 29 £80,000 +56.10% 32
Yorkshire -20 28 £60,000 +9.09% 4
North East -41 21 £55,000 -21.43% 1
Scotland +5 16 £67,500 +32.35% 9
Wales -64 9 £47,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 15 September 2026, Embedded Software Engineer 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 permanent job ads featuring Embedded Software Engineer in the job title.

1 705 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 156 (22.13%) C
3 144 (20.43%) C++
4 120 (17.02%) Firmware
5 105 (14.89%) Linux
6 69 (9.79%) Embedded Software Development
7 57 (8.09%) Embedded Linux
8 53 (7.52%) Wireless
9 45 (6.38%) Embedded C
10 43 (6.10%) Embedded Firmware
11 35 (4.96%) Python
12 33 (4.68%) Embedded C++
13 32 (4.54%) Degree
14 29 (4.11%) Bluetooth
14 29 (4.11%) Ethernet
15 27 (3.83%) CI/CD
15 27 (3.83%) Collaborative Engineering
15 27 (3.83%) FreeRTOS
16 26 (3.69%) Software Testing
17 25 (3.55%) Computer Science
18 22 (3.12%) Modbus
18 22 (3.12%) Problem-Solving
18 22 (3.12%) Yocto
19 21 (2.98%) Test Automation
19 21 (2.98%) Validation
20 20 (2.84%) DevOps
21 19 (2.70%) Git
21 19 (2.70%) Software Architecture
21 19 (2.70%) Wi-Fi
22 18 (2.55%) Technology Transformation

Embedded Software 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 1 (0.14%) Confluence
Applications
1 17 (2.41%) Lightworks
2 10 (1.42%) Simulink
3 2 (0.28%) CANalyzer
Cloud Services
1 7 (0.99%) Azure
2 6 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (0.71%) AWS
4 2 (0.28%) AWS IoT
4 2 (0.28%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 53 (7.52%) Wireless
2 29 (4.11%) Bluetooth
2 29 (4.11%) Ethernet
3 22 (3.12%) Modbus
4 19 (2.70%) Wi-Fi
5 17 (2.41%) RS-232
5 17 (2.41%) ZigBee
6 11 (1.56%) RS-485
7 10 (1.42%) LTE
7 10 (1.42%) Profibus
8 9 (1.28%) MQTT
9 8 (1.13%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.28%) LoRaWAN
10 2 (0.28%) Software-Defined Radio
11 1 (0.14%) 5G
11 1 (0.14%) Multicast
11 1 (0.14%) NGN
11 1 (0.14%) SNMP
11 1 (0.14%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 19 (2.70%) Git
2 11 (1.56%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.99%) GDB
4 6 (0.85%) CMake
4 6 (0.85%) GitLab
5 4 (0.57%) Robot Framework
6 3 (0.43%) JIRA
6 3 (0.43%) PetaLinux
7 2 (0.28%) CANoe
8 1 (0.14%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.14%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.14%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 84 (11.91%) Electronics
2 42 (5.96%) Manufacturing
3 34 (4.82%) Automotive
4 25 (3.55%) Aviation
5 19 (2.70%) Social Skills
6 17 (2.41%) Aerospace
7 9 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (0.57%) Law
10 3 (0.43%) Finance
10 3 (0.43%) Multimedia
11 2 (0.28%) Wearables
12 1 (0.14%) Analytical Skills
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber-Physical System
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.12%) Yocto
2 5 (0.71%) Qt
3 4 (0.57%) GraphQL
3 4 (0.57%) pytest
3 4 (0.57%) Unity DI Container
3 4 (0.57%) WebSockets
4 3 (0.43%) Middleware
4 3 (0.43%) PyTorch
4 3 (0.43%) TensorFlow
5 1 (0.14%) QML
5 1 (0.14%) Qt Quick
Miscellaneous
1 87 (12.34%) Embedded Systems
2 38 (5.39%) IoT
3 24 (3.40%) Device Driver
4 21 (2.98%) ARM Cortex
5 19 (2.70%) Algorithms
6 10 (1.42%) Raspberry Pi
7 8 (1.13%) Robotics
8 6 (0.85%) CAN bus
9 4 (0.57%) FPGA
10 3 (0.43%) Media Streaming
10 3 (0.43%) Verilog
10 3 (0.43%) VHDL
11 1 (0.14%) Data Structures
11 1 (0.14%) Linux Command Line
11 1 (0.14%) Smart Energy
Operating Systems
1 105 (14.89%) Linux
2 57 (8.09%) Embedded Linux
3 27 (3.83%) FreeRTOS
4 5 (0.71%) VxWorks
5 2 (0.28%) SafeRTOS
6 1 (0.14%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 705 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 69 (9.79%) Embedded Software Development
3 27 (3.83%) CI/CD
3 27 (3.83%) Collaborative Engineering
4 26 (3.69%) Software Testing
5 25 (3.55%) Computer Science
6 22 (3.12%) Problem-Solving
7 21 (2.98%) Test Automation
7 21 (2.98%) Validation
8 20 (2.84%) DevOps
9 19 (2.70%) Software Architecture
10 18 (2.55%) Technology Transformation
11 17 (2.41%) Continuous Improvement
12 14 (1.99%) Signal Processing
13 13 (1.84%) Collaborative Culture
14 11 (1.56%) Cybersecurity
15 10 (1.42%) Agile
15 10 (1.42%) Mentoring
16 9 (1.28%) TDD
16 9 (1.28%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 156 (22.13%) C
2 144 (20.43%) C++
3 45 (6.38%) Embedded C
4 35 (4.96%) Python
5 33 (4.68%) Embedded C++
6 13 (1.84%) MATLAB
7 10 (1.42%) Rust
8 5 (0.71%) Ada
8 5 (0.71%) Bash
9 1 (0.14%) Assembly Language
9 1 (0.14%) C#
9 1 (0.14%) R
Qualifications
1 32 (4.54%) Degree
2 14 (1.99%) Master's Degree
3 8 (1.13%) Security Cleared
4 7 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (0.71%) SC Cleared
6 4 (0.57%) DV Cleared
7 3 (0.43%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.28%) HNC
8 2 (0.28%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (0.85%) IEC 61508
1 6 (0.85%) JTAG
2 5 (0.71%) MISRA
2 5 (0.71%) MISRA C
3 4 (0.57%) QA
4 3 (0.43%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.43%) ECSS
4 3 (0.43%) ISO 26262
5 2 (0.28%) Automotive SPICE
6 1 (0.14%) DO-254
6 1 (0.14%) HAZOP
6 1 (0.14%) IEC 62304
System Software
1 120 (17.02%) Firmware
2 43 (6.10%) Embedded Firmware
3 5 (0.71%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (0.57%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 4 (0.57%) Peregrine
2 3 (0.43%) Google
2 3 (0.43%) Xilinx
3 2 (0.28%) Atlassian
4 1 (0.14%) Microsoft