Straight Answers
What Do Freelance Electrical and Embedded Engineers Charge per Hour?
Experienced US freelance electrical and embedded engineers generally bill around $100–$250 an hour. The lower end follows from simple arithmetic: replacing a $120k–$180k salary plus benefits and unbilled time takes roughly $110–$160/hr. Specialists in RF, medical, power and safety-critical work price above that. Talent Badger publishes its card: $95–$245/hr by assessed level.
Turning a salary into a contract rate
- Start with what the engineer could earn as an employee, for example $150,000.
- Add what an employer would otherwise pay: both halves of Social Security and Medicare (self-employment tax is 15.3% on earnings up to the Social Security wage base), health insurance, retirement and equipment. A 1.25–1.4× multiplier is a reasonable rough allowance.
- Divide by billable hours, not 2,080. After sales, admin, holidays and gaps between projects, many independents bill somewhere around 1,200–1,600 hours a year.
- Worked example: $150,000 × 1.3 ÷ 1,450 hours ≈ $134/hr just to match the salaried job, before any margin.
What pushes a rate up or down
- Domain: regulated medical, RF and high-speed digital, power electronics and safety-critical firmware command more than general microcontroller work.
- Seniority: architects who can make system-level calls cost more per hour and often less per result.
- Engagement shape: short, urgent or on-site work costs more; longer engagements with steady hours can come in lower.
- Who carries the risk: a fixed-price milestone prices in the unknowns, while capped hourly leaves them with you.
Talent Badger's published rate card
- Engineer $95–$120/hr · Senior Engineer $115–$145/hr · Principal Engineer $135–$170/hr.
- Expert Engineer $155–$195/hr · Master Engineer $175–$215/hr · Distinguished Engineer $195–$245/hr.
- Regulatory specialists $140–$175/hr · technical project managers $105–$130/hr.
- The band is set by each specialist's assessed level and shown on their profile. The platform fee is built in, with no recruiter fee on top.
What a cheap rate can cost
- A board respin adds a fab cycle, new parts and weeks to the schedule, which can outweigh the hourly savings.
- A less experienced engineer can need more of your senior team's review time.
- Compare quotes on total cost to a working result, not on the hourly number alone.
Common questions
Experienced freelance EEs generally bill around $100–$250/hr, depending on seniority and domain. On Talent Badger the published card runs $95–$245/hr by assessed level, with senior and principal engineers at $115–$170/hr, and the band is shown on each profile.