PhD Contract Job Trends in Cambridgeshire

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil, EngD, Doctorate)
East of England > Cambridgeshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Cambridgeshire with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 3 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 42 37 49
Rank change year-on-year -5 +12 +14
Contract jobs citing PhD 2 9 3
As % of all contract jobs in Cambridgeshire 0.54% 2.12% 0.59%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.17% 13.04% 1.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £379 - £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £408 - £525
Median % change year-on-year - - +16.67%
75th Percentile £436 - £538
90th Percentile - - -
East of England median daily rate £456 - £525
% change year-on-year - - -25.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 0
Median hourly rate - £57.50 -
East of England median hourly rate £85.00 £57.50 -
% change year-on-year +47.83% - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Cambridgeshire

PhD falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in Cambridgeshire.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 92 69 152
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cambridgeshire 25.07% 16.27% 29.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 13 37
10th Percentile £379 £225 £238
25th Percentile £432 £356 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £604 £588 £550
90th Percentile £625 £600 £575
East of England median daily rate £550 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 23 77
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.16 -
25th Percentile £15.50 £16.30 £13.41
Median hourly rate £16.30 £21.37 £19.81
Median % change year-on-year -23.72% +7.87% +27.81%
75th Percentile £25.15 £24.28 £20.56
90th Percentile £31.00 £28.93 £22.00
East of England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £21.66
% change year-on-year -41.51% +98.57% +3.12%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend in Cambridgeshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PhD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Cambridgeshire.

PhD job vacancy trend in Cambridgeshire

PhD
Daily Rate Trend in Cambridgeshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cambridgeshire citing PhD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cambridgeshire citing PhD

PhD
Hourly Rate Trend in Cambridgeshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cambridgeshire citing PhD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cambridgeshire citing PhD

PhD
Contract Job Locations in Cambridgeshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PhD within the Cambridgeshire region over the 6 months to 3 October 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Cambridge -9 2 £408 - 13
PhD
East of England

PhD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cambridgeshire by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 2 (100.00%) SAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (100.00%) Electronic Patient Records
1 2 (100.00%) Hadoop
1 2 (100.00%) Text Mining
General
1 2 (100.00%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Information Scientist
1 2 (100.00%) Senior
Miscellaneous
1 2 (100.00%) Life Science
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Analytics
1 2 (100.00%) Benchmarking
1 2 (100.00%) Data Science
1 2 (100.00%) Data Visualisation
1 2 (100.00%) Decision-Making
1 2 (100.00%) Economics
1 2 (100.00%) Health Informatics
1 2 (100.00%) Informatics
1 2 (100.00%) Ontologies
1 2 (100.00%) Statistical Analysis
1 2 (100.00%) Visual Analytics
1 2 (100.00%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 2 (100.00%) MATLAB
1 2 (100.00%) Python
1 2 (100.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) Degree
Vendors
1 2 (100.00%) SAP