Gain essential insights into the South East England embedded software talent market with our H2 2025 report. This guide examines how demand, skills expectations and competition have evolved across one of the UK’s most talent-constrained regions for embedded engineers.
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Embedded Software (South East England) H2 2025 Talent Report
Daanish Rauf
12th Jan 2026
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Key Highlights
- Market Trends: Demand for embedded software engineers remained consistently high throughout H2 2025, with the greatest pressure at mid-to-senior level. The South East continues to be one of the UK’s most competitive hiring markets, as defence, aerospace, automotive, medical devices and deep-tech startups all draw from the same limited pool of experienced engineers.
- Emerging Skills: Employers show a strong preference for low-level C and C++, RTOS experience (QNX, FreeRTOS, VxWorks) and embedded Linux. There is growing demand for engineers working on software-defined and connected systems, including IoT, autonomy and edge computing, alongside rising expectations around board-level debugging, hardware interfaces and system integration.
- Hiring Challenges: Hiring timelines are lengthening as most in-demand engineers are already employed. Clients report increasing difficulty attracting candidates without offering above-market salaries or flexible working, which has become a baseline expectation even for historically on-site roles. Many teams are becoming top-heavy, with senior engineers overstretched due to a shortage of strong mid-level support.
- Future Outlook: Demand is expected to remain strong into 2026 as investment continues across defence, mobility, medical technology and deep-tech scale-ups along the Oxford–Cambridge–Reading corridor. Employers that can offer clear technical progression, meaningful system-level work and genuine flexibility will be best positioned to compete for embedded software talent in the South East.