Embedded
Embedded hiring is growing and candidate competition is low. Be precise about the device, stack, and ownership.
Demand
Exact DOU categoryHiring Use direct outreach. Name the device, target platform, RTOS or bare metal, and hardware access.
Candidate Lead with shipped firmware and your ownership of debugging, interfaces, performance, and reliability.
Data All-DOU September and DefTech Q3 responses cover different periods and vacancy populations.
Salary
Hiring Set salary by level and sector; DefTech and wider IT benchmarks differ.
Candidate Check whether the role is wider IT or DefTech before comparing pay.
Data Monthly net USD. Senior wider-IT and all-level DefTech figures are not like-for-like; the DefTech role sample is small.
Skills
Hiring Name the actual stack: C/C++, RTOS or bare metal, interfaces, memory, and target hardware.
Candidate C and C++ are still the core. Show shipped work on real hardware.
Data Language survey results cover Embedded developers, not every firmware vacancy.
Independent salary benchmark
DOU salary survey
Salary range history
| Survey | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile | Respondents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1125 | $1500 | $2000 | 34 | |
| $1638 | $2350 | $4000 | 52 | |
| $1700 | $2500 | $4000 | 61 | |
| $2025 | $3000 | $4650 | 54 | |
| $2139 | $3410 | $4700 | 52 | |
| $2175 | $4000 | $4850 | 40 | |
| $1500 | $3800 | $5000 | 117 | |
| $1500 | $3000 | $4550 | 88 | |
| $1500 | $3753 | $5200 | 97 | |
| $2100 | $3500 | $4500 | 105 |
Embedded software engineering specialization · monthly net base salary in USD; bonuses excluded; all locations in the published CSV.
Derived from the shortened public salary-survey data published by DOU. Jobnote and DOU vacancy salaries are separate datasets.
Most wanted skills
Counts of active jobs now and salaries.