Shakers for expert talent

Build your career as an IoT Developer

Projects where data rules: which sensor publishes, which broker it travels through and which pipeline consumes it. Shakers connects you with teams that want their connected device taken end to end.

What gets read about this craft is guides explaining what IoT is and job ads listing tools. None of them tells how a connected project gets delivered end to end by project: which sensor publishes, which broker it travels through and which pipeline consumes it. Here is that.

  • Higher-paying projects
  • More continuity between projects
  • Greater recognition for your experience
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Looking for IoT projects
Allianz
BBVA
Bankinter
Microsoft
Qida
Accenture
Deloitte
Dcycle
HP
Línea Directa
Podo
Clicars
Sonosuite
Eroski
Civitatis
Alten
Vivla
Wayra
Cabify
Affinity
+3,000

Tech projects published on Shakers

+90

Tech, Product and Data specialisms are part of Shakers

6 months

Average length of a project with Shakers

4.7/5

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Álvaro

Data Scientist

“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”

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Amelia

AI Agent Developer

“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”

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Luz

Backend Developer & Data Engineer

“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”

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Rubén

Software Developer

“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”

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Alejandro

AI Developer

“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”

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Toño

Product Designer

“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”

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The decisions an IoT Developer makes every week

An IoT Developer builds the bridge between the device and the decision: they program the sensor's firmware and connectivity, publish its telemetry via MQTT to the cloud platform that ingests it and leave it ready for the pipeline that turns it into useful data. Their craft lives at the junction of three worlds: the device (sensors, ESP32, Arduino), the cloud platform that receives the data (AWS IoT Core) and the data pipeline that consumes it. They are firmware when they touch the device and cloud when they touch the data: the role is the bridge.

You decide which protocol each sensor publishes with and at what cadence, what the broker validates before letting a message through and how messages get structured so the pipeline understands them without asking. You also decide what the platform refuses: a device without traceable telemetry does not get in. The device belongs to the client; the bridge that makes its data useful, to you.

MQTTAWS IoT CorePythonfirmwaresensors and actuatorsC++ESP32ArduinoRaspberry PiLoRaWANBLEDockerKubernetesTerraformKafkaCI/CDLinuxAzure IoT Hubedge computing MQTTFirmwareAWS IoT CoreTelemetryIoT gatewayTurnkey

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How Shakers works for talent

Join Shakers

Create your profile

Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.

Get your certification

We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.

Match with projects

We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.

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DevOps and Cloud projects that live up to your expectations

Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.

  • Projects that fit you

    Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.

  • Opportunities that come to you

    Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.

  • You build. Shakers handles the rest

    Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.

What an IoT Developer delivers on a Shakers project

At Shakers

The brief arrives as a goal

Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with the connected goal, not with a list of technologies. You close the bridge that meets it.

Delivery

End-to-end data

The device publishing over MQTT, the platform ingesting and the telemetry ready for the pipeline, with every leg documented.

Product

The bridge that holds itself up

Messages with a contract, validation at the broker and visibility of every message: the bridge keeps working when a new device enters without warning you.

What we ask

Bridges told, not mocked up

Having connected real devices and knowing how to tell it: which sensor, which broker, which platform and what broke until data arrived clean at the pipeline.

Judgement

What gets built and what does not

Choosing hardware and protocol by impact, not fashion: sometimes the answer is an ESP32 with MQTT, and defending it against complicating for fashion's sake.

Boundary

Where your brief ends

You don't design the electronics nor build the pipeline. If the project asks for electronics or data engineering, you say so at kickoff and the team fills in.

Frequently asked questions

Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.

What does an IoT Developer do each day?
Keeps the bridge running: firmware that publishes, a broker that validates and a platform that ingests. The message that arrives clean at the pipeline was your best deliverable of the day.
Which tools get used daily?
MQTT as the protocol and AWS IoT Core as the platform almost always; Python or C++ as languages, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi on the device and Docker with CI/CD in the cloud layer.
Is an IoT Developer the same as a firmware developer?
Firmware when they touch the device, cloud when they touch the data. Certification looks at complete bridges you have put into production, not only code that runs on a microcontroller.
How much do you earn as an IoT Developer by project?
The market and the scope set it: which devices connect and how many platforms the bridge serves. At Shakers you agree the budget per project before accepting.
How do you get into the craft if you come from backend or electronics?
With the shore you are missing: the backend developer brings cloud and data, the electronics engineer brings hardware and firmware. Certification values that you have already crossed the bridge on a real project.
How do you join Shakers as a certified IoT Developer?
You create your profile, pass the certification process and enter the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which IoT projects you collaborate on.
The daily shape of the craft

A sensor publishing over MQTT, the cloud platform ingesting its telemetry and the first piece of data end to end. Fewer loose layers and more delivered bridge.

A craft measured in real job ads

95 active tech job ads in Spain mention MQTT, according to Shakers market analysis (n=31,020, September 2026), and the job boards show dozens of ads for the role (InfoJobs 74, LinkedIn 49-58). In Spain the role gets hired as a cloud backend who also integrates devices.

How people get here

Two frequent doors: the backend developer who wants to touch hardware and the electronics engineer who wants to climb to the cloud. Both arrive with half the bridge built: the other shore is missing.

What this role is not

They do not design the device's electronics nor build the pipeline: that belongs to the electronics engineer and the data engineer. Your product is the bridge joining the three worlds.

The roles an IoT project crosses

Five roles from the collective cross your bridge when you connect a device, from the one who designs the cloud to the one who consumes the telemetry.

Boundary

AWS Engineer

The device SDK and AWS IoT Core are their home: when the whole brief lives in Amazon, their platform and your bridge share account, permissions and deployment.

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Data

Data Engineer

What the device publishes, they ingest: your bridge delivers the telemetry at their door and their pipeline turns it into a decision.

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Platform

Backend Developer

Their APIs and microservices are the destination of the device's data: the cloud platform that ingests the telemetry is almost always a backend they sustain.

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Deployment

DevOps Engineer

Their pipeline deploys the platform that ingests the data: containers, CI/CD and the cloud infrastructure where your telemetry lands.

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Cloud

Cloud Architect

Designs the cloud your bridge rests on: their account, network and cost decisions are the ground where the device's telemetry lands.

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Boundaries between these roles are agreed per project: the job title doesn't set them.

Take the next step with Shakers

Want to build the data bridge?

Pass Shakers certification and choose which IoT projects you collaborate on, from sensor to platform.