IT freelance & contract jobs in automotive in Germany 2026
737 of 44,305 analysed IT freelance listings name an end client in the automotive industry (1.7%) – rank 10 of the 13 industries. Clearly more in demand than across all projects: Embedded C/C++ Developer; typical skills: CAN, Electronics, ISO 26262.
- Projects: 737 of 44,305 (1.7%), rank 10 of 13 industries
- Fully remote: 29% of the projects stating a share (all projects: 39%)
- German required: 46% (all projects: 52%)
- Leasing and employment: 8.8% (all projects: 16%)
- Top role: Embedded C/C++ Developer (38% of the engineering projects)
- Typical skills: CAN, Electronics, ISO 26262
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IT projects in the automotive industry compared
The key shares of the projects in the automotive industry next to those of all analysed projects of the same months.
| Automotive | All projects | |
|---|---|---|
| Fully remote (of the projects stating a share) | 29% | 39% |
| Fully or partly remote (of the projects stating a share) | 87% | 93% |
| No remote share stated | 54% | 34% |
| German required | 46% | 52% |
| Explicitly no German needed | 11% | 6% |
| Freelance | 72% | 71% |
| Employee leasing (ANÜ) | 7.2% | 13% |
| Leasing, fixed-term or permanent employment | 8.8% | 16% |
| Engineering projects (of the classified) | 30% | 30% |
Remote, hybrid or on site: IT projects in the automotive industry
29% of the projects in the automotive industry that state a remote share are fully remote – fewer than across all projects (39%). At least partly remote: 87% of them (all projects: 93%). 54% of the listings state no remote share.
Shares of the projects stating a remote share. Below each name: how many projects state a share at all.
German language and contract type: IT projects in the automotive industry
46% of the listings in the automotive industry require German – less often than all projects (52%). 11% explicitly need no German (all projects: 6%); 43% name no language.
72% of the projects in the automotive industry are freelance projects (all projects: 71%). Employment – employee leasing (7.2%) or fixed-term and permanent positions – makes up 8.8%, less than across all projects (16%). 20% state no contract type. More: Freelance vs employee leasing in Germany.
In-demand developer roles in the automotive industry
30% of the classified projects in the automotive industry are engineering projects (219 projects) – about as many as across all projects (30%). Engineering projects build software or technical systems; the others are e.g. consulting, project management, IT operations or projects outside IT. The bars show the roles with the most of those projects as a share of the industry's engineering projects; the tick marks the share across all projects.
Clearly more frequent than across all projects: Embedded C/C++ Developer (38%; all projects 5.6%). Clearly less frequent: DevOps / Platform Engineer (5.9%; all projects 13%), Security Engineer (0.5%; all projects 6.8%), Low-Code Platform Developer (0.5%; all projects 5.6%), SAP Developer (1.8%; all projects 6.9%), Data Engineer (4.1%; all projects 8.1%) and ML / AI Engineer (2.3%; all projects 5.7%).
Most in-demand IT skills in the automotive industry
The technologies and methods listings in the automotive industry name most often, as a share of the projects with skills. Blue: typical for the industry, i.e. asked for clearly more often than across all projects; the tick marks the share across all projects.
Under each name: its share in all projects.
Typical skills for IT projects in the automotive industry
Listings in the automotive industry ask for these clearly more often than all projects: CAN (6.7%; all projects 0.3%), Electronics (7.1%; all projects 0.8%), ISO 26262 (6%; all projects 0.2%), Embedded Software Development (6.3%; all projects 0.8%), Functional Safety (5.9%; all projects 0.6%) and Verification and Validation (6%; all projects 0.8%). Listings in the automotive industry name 14.7 skills on average, all listings 15.1; that difference alone does not make a skill typical.
IT recruitment agencies posting projects in the automotive industry
67% of the projects in the automotive industry name the posting company, mostly an IT staffing agency or project broker. The most frequent: SOLCOM (15%). The bars show the companies with the most projects in the automotive industry as a share of the projects naming a company. More: IT recruitment agencies in Germany.
Find IT freelance projects in the automotive industry
For IT freelancers and contractors with experience in the automotive industry: Projectmatch matches new projects against your profile automatically. Browse current IT freelance projects or try it now.
More industries: Energy & utilities · Transport & logistics · Public sector · Banking & finance · Manufacturing · Healthcare & pharma · Aerospace & defence · Insurance & health insurers · Retail, e-commerce & consumer goods.
All industries compared: IT freelance projects by industry. By location: IT freelance projects by city. How remote IT projects are: How remote are IT freelance projects? Without German: English-speaking IT contracts in Germany.
Method
We count the end client's industry when a listing states it – e.g. “for a client in the energy sector” or “at a public authority” –, never the agency's and never inferred from the technologies asked for; an AI model reads it from each project description. A share counts as higher or lower only when its difference from the other projects is unlikely to be chance. The figures are updated monthly. Details: method of the industry analysis.