Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Software Engineer
Central London > City of London

The median Software Engineer daily rate in the City of London is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 75 105
Rank change year-on-year -24 +30 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 24 42 23
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 1.27% 2.26% 0.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.35% 2.43% 1.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 17 16
10th Percentile £416 £420 £494
25th Percentile £513 £515 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year +8.70% - -
75th Percentile £750 £613 £716
90th Percentile £782 £800 £750
Central London median daily rate £625 £575 £575
% change year-on-year +8.70% - +4.55%

All Contract IT Job Roles
City of London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the City of London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the City of London with a recognized job title 1,775 1,731 2,248
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.97% 93.01% 94.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,220 1,046 1,614
10th Percentile £349 £354 £340
25th Percentile £429 £463 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £564
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +2.00% -2.86%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £788
Central London median daily rate £536 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -6.74% +4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 7 22
10th Percentile £20.02 £22.00 £17.00
25th Percentile £25.77 £26.63 £19.18
Median hourly rate £34.00 £38.50 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.69% +60.42% -5.88%
75th Percentile £42.65 £80.38 £40.00
90th Percentile £52.80 £112.00 £50.10
Central London median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £26.91
% change year-on-year -25.40% +30.09% +6.55%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Software Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the City of London

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the City of London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the City of London

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the City of London over the 6 months to 5 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in the City of London

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the City of London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the City of London

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London

For the 6 months to 5 February 2026, Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the City of London region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 24 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 6 (25.00%) .NET
3 5 (20.83%) AWS
3 5 (20.83%) Java
4 4 (16.67%) SC Cleared
4 4 (16.67%) Security Cleared
4 4 (16.67%) User Experience
5 3 (12.50%) C#
5 3 (12.50%) CI/CD
5 3 (12.50%) React
5 3 (12.50%) SQL
6 2 (8.33%) Agile
6 2 (8.33%) COBOL
6 2 (8.33%) Data Science
6 2 (8.33%) Degree
6 2 (8.33%) Design Patterns
6 2 (8.33%) FIX Protocol
6 2 (8.33%) Generative AI
6 2 (8.33%) Kafka
6 2 (8.33%) Multithreading
6 2 (8.33%) Oracle
6 2 (8.33%) PowerShell
6 2 (8.33%) Python
6 2 (8.33%) Terraform
6 2 (8.33%) Windows
7 1 (4.17%) .NET Framework
7 1 (4.17%) AI
7 1 (4.17%) Algorithmic Trading
7 1 (4.17%) Analytics
7 1 (4.17%) AngularJS

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 (4.17%) Smallworld
Business Applications
1 1 (4.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 5 (20.83%) AWS
2 1 (4.17%) AWS Lambda
2 1 (4.17%) OpenShift
2 1 (4.17%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 1 (4.17%) HTTP
Development Applications
1 1 (4.17%) GitLab
1 1 (4.17%) MSTest
1 1 (4.17%) Postman
General
1 6 (25.00%) Banking
2 5 (20.83%) Finance
2 5 (20.83%) Manufacturing
3 2 (8.33%) Financial Institution
3 2 (8.33%) Front Office
4 1 (4.17%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (25.00%) .NET
2 3 (12.50%) React
3 2 (8.33%) FIX Protocol
3 2 (8.33%) Kafka
4 1 (4.17%) .NET Framework
4 1 (4.17%) AngularJS
4 1 (4.17%) CSS
4 1 (4.17%) gRPC
4 1 (4.17%) HTML
4 1 (4.17%) HTML5
4 1 (4.17%) JSON
4 1 (4.17%) Node.js
4 1 (4.17%) REST
4 1 (4.17%) Swagger
4 1 (4.17%) Swing
4 1 (4.17%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 5 (20.83%) Life Science
2 2 (8.33%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 1 (4.17%) AI Agents
3 1 (4.17%) Algorithms
3 1 (4.17%) Cloud Native
3 1 (4.17%) Derivative
3 1 (4.17%) Device Driver
3 1 (4.17%) Equities
3 1 (4.17%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (4.17%) Robotics
3 1 (4.17%) TWAP
3 1 (4.17%) VWAP
Operating Systems
1 2 (8.33%) Windows
2 1 (4.17%) Linux
2 1 (4.17%) Unix
2 1 (4.17%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 4 (16.67%) User Experience
3 3 (12.50%) CI/CD
4 2 (8.33%) Agile
4 2 (8.33%) Data Science
4 2 (8.33%) Design Patterns
4 2 (8.33%) Generative AI
4 2 (8.33%) Multithreading
5 1 (4.17%) AI
5 1 (4.17%) Algorithmic Trading
5 1 (4.17%) B2B
5 1 (4.17%) Configuration Management
5 1 (4.17%) Electronic Trading
5 1 (4.17%) Kanban
5 1 (4.17%) Mathematics
5 1 (4.17%) Scrum
5 1 (4.17%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (4.17%) TDD
5 1 (4.17%) Test Automation
5 1 (4.17%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 5 (20.83%) Java
2 3 (12.50%) C#
2 3 (12.50%) SQL
3 2 (8.33%) COBOL
3 2 (8.33%) PowerShell
3 2 (8.33%) Python
4 1 (4.17%) C++
4 1 (4.17%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 4 (16.67%) SC Cleared
1 4 (16.67%) Security Cleared
2 2 (8.33%) Degree
3 1 (4.17%) Postgraduate
System Software
1 1 (4.17%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (8.33%) Terraform
2 1 (4.17%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 2 (8.33%) Oracle
2 1 (4.17%) ForgeRock
2 1 (4.17%) Microsoft
2 1 (4.17%) Ping Identity