Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Software Engineering
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 29 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 47 39
Rank change year-on-year -9 -8 +17
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 12 7 18
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 1.73% 1.65% 3.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.98% 1.71% 4.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 6 16
10th Percentile £328 £346 £475
25th Percentile £350 £365 £501
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £402 £433 £510
Median % change year-on-year -7.16% -15.10% -25.00%
75th Percentile £430 £491 £604
90th Percentile £543 £492 £614
North West median daily rate £488 £501 £549
% change year-on-year -2.69% -8.74% -8.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
Median hourly rate - - £38.00
North West median hourly rate £57.50 £70.54 £48.00
% change year-on-year -18.49% +46.96% +18.26%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Cheshire

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Cheshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 605 410 424
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 87.43% 96.93% 84.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 430 273 282
10th Percentile £321 £314 £277
25th Percentile £385 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £469 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.05% -6.20% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £553 £580
90th Percentile £652 £638 £637
North West median daily rate £465 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -2.11% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 27 30
10th Percentile £13.47 £19.00 £13.70
25th Percentile £21.75 £27.88 £16.61
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.00 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -5.41% +38.78% -12.70%
75th Percentile £85.00 £85.63 £42.31
90th Percentile - £86.00 £44.13
North West median hourly rate £50.00 £32.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year +56.25% +52.38% -40.00%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Software Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Cheshire over the 6 months to 29 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in Cheshire

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Software Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineering within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 29 April 2026. 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
Knutsford -28 4 £376 -13.16%
Ellesmere Port - 4 - -
Warrington - 3 - - 9
Software Engineering
North West

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 1 (8.33%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 3 (25.00%) AWS
1 3 (25.00%) Azure
1 3 (25.00%) GCP
Development Applications
1 2 (16.67%) GitLab
1 2 (16.67%) JIRA
2 1 (8.33%) Selenium
2 1 (8.33%) SonarQube
2 1 (8.33%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 4 (33.33%) Banking
1 4 (33.33%) Finance
1 4 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 2 (16.67%) Influencing Skills
2 2 (16.67%) Retail
Job Titles
1 8 (66.67%) Software Engineer
2 3 (25.00%) Applications Architect
2 3 (25.00%) Architect
3 1 (8.33%) Cloud Architect
3 1 (8.33%) Cryptography Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Developer
3 1 (8.33%) Digital Architect
3 1 (8.33%) Java Applications Architect
3 1 (8.33%) Java Architect
3 1 (8.33%) Java Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Java Software Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) React Developer
3 1 (8.33%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (25.00%) REST
2 1 (8.33%) Java SE
2 1 (8.33%) JCE
2 1 (8.33%) OpenAPI
2 1 (8.33%) React Native
2 1 (8.33%) RESTful
2 1 (8.33%) Swagger
2 1 (8.33%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 3 (25.00%) Cloud Native
1 3 (25.00%) Distributed Systems
2 2 (16.67%) Mobile Banking
2 2 (16.67%) Product Ownership
3 1 (8.33%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (8.33%) Online Banking
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (41.67%) Agile
2 3 (25.00%) Integration Patterns
2 3 (25.00%) Microservices
2 3 (25.00%) Migration
2 3 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 3 (25.00%) Regulatory Compliance
2 3 (25.00%) Roadmaps
2 3 (25.00%) Technology Roadmap
3 2 (16.67%) CI/CD
3 2 (16.67%) Customer Experience
3 2 (16.67%) Scrum
3 2 (16.67%) SDLC
3 2 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
3 2 (16.67%) Technical Debt
3 2 (16.67%) Test Automation
3 2 (16.67%) Translating Business Requirements
4 1 (8.33%) Cryptography
4 1 (8.33%) Kanban
4 1 (8.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 1 (8.33%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 5 (41.67%) Java
2 3 (25.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 2 (16.67%) BPSS Clearance
Vendors
1 2 (16.67%) Google
1 2 (16.67%) Veracode
2 1 (8.33%) Sonatype