Middleware Contract Job Trends in England

Middleware
UK > England

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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 257 313
Rank change year-on-year +25 +56 -43
Contract jobs citing Middleware 491 284 216
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.08% 1.03% 0.65%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 5.80% 4.60% 2.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 168 153
10th Percentile £425 £396 £420
25th Percentile £475 £447 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £625
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -12.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £694 £750
90th Percentile £738 £766 £825
UK median daily rate £575 £525 £600
% change year-on-year +9.52% -12.50% +1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 18 0
10th Percentile - £52.10 -
25th Percentile £38.25 £65.00 -
Median hourly rate £63.75 £68.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% - -
75th Percentile £65.00 - -
90th Percentile £66.50 - -
UK median hourly rate £63.75 £68.00 -
% change year-on-year -6.25% - -

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
England

Middleware falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 8,465 6,169 7,332
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 18.59% 22.33% 21.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,546 4,244 5,071
10th Percentile £365 £350 £360
25th Percentile £431 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
75th Percentile £638 £642 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £823
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 248 150 229
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £23.96
25th Percentile £49.20 £43.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -10.20%
75th Percentile £73.11 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £80.10 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £54.44 £50.00
% change year-on-year +19.40% +8.88% -16.67%

Middleware
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Middleware job vacancy trend in England

Middleware
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Middleware.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Middleware

Middleware
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Middleware in England over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Middleware in England

Middleware
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Middleware.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Middleware

Middleware
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Middleware in England over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Middleware in England

Middleware
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Middleware within the England region over the 6 months to 6 August 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
London +57 266 £600 - 131
North of England -30 86 £525 +6.33% 32
South East -48 49 £495 -14.36% 27
North West -28 48 £525 -4.55% 18
Midlands -30 41 £563 +25.84% 9
Yorkshire -34 31 £575 +27.88% 6
West Midlands -33 30 £590 +96.67% 6
South West -39 28 £575 +14.43% 20
East of England -21 17 £500 -4.76% 10
East Midlands -9 9 £550 +23.04% 3
North East -36 7 £500 +5.26% 8
Middleware
UK

Middleware
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 28 (5.70%) WebSphere
2 21 (4.28%) WebLogic
3 14 (2.85%) CICS
4 11 (2.24%) Confluence
5 8 (1.63%) Apache
5 8 (1.63%) Tomcat
6 6 (1.22%) Anypoint
6 6 (1.22%) Apache Geronimo
6 6 (1.22%) Apache ServiceMix
6 6 (1.22%) Red Hat Fuse
7 5 (1.02%) Mule
7 5 (1.02%) WebSphere Application Server
8 4 (0.81%) JBoss
8 4 (0.81%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 4 (0.81%) SAS
8 4 (0.81%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.81%) WordPress
9 3 (0.61%) IBM HTTP Server
9 3 (0.61%) nginx
9 3 (0.61%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
Applications
1 6 (1.22%) Microsoft Project
2 5 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.61%) Navisworks
3 3 (0.61%) Revit
4 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.41%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.20%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 30 (6.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (2.24%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (1.63%) Oracle EBS
4 7 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (1.43%) Oracle Receivables
5 5 (1.02%) Maximo
5 5 (1.02%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.81%) Oracle Cash Management
6 4 (0.81%) Oracle EBS R12
6 4 (0.81%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.81%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.61%) BusinessWorks
7 3 (0.61%) Endur
7 3 (0.61%) SAP MDG
7 3 (0.61%) SAP SD
7 3 (0.61%) Shopify
7 3 (0.61%) Temenos T24
8 2 (0.41%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.41%) SAP MM
8 2 (0.41%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 118 (24.03%) Azure
2 73 (14.87%) AWS
3 39 (7.94%) Boomi
4 33 (6.72%) Azure DevOps
5 31 (6.31%) SaaS
6 28 (5.70%) GCP
7 25 (5.09%) iPaaS
7 25 (5.09%) Power Platform
8 19 (3.87%) Dynamics 365
9 16 (3.26%) GitHub
10 15 (3.05%) Azure Logic Apps
10 15 (3.05%) Azure Service Bus
11 14 (2.85%) Serverless
12 13 (2.65%) PaaS
12 13 (2.65%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 13 (2.65%) SuccessFactors
13 12 (2.44%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 10 (2.04%) Azure Functions
14 10 (2.04%) Entra ID
14 10 (2.04%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.67%) Firewall
1 18 (3.67%) SSL
2 11 (2.24%) HTTP
3 7 (1.43%) DNS
4 5 (1.02%) Multicast
5 4 (0.81%) DHCP
5 4 (0.81%) Kerberos
5 4 (0.81%) LAN
5 4 (0.81%) NAS
5 4 (0.81%) SAN
5 4 (0.81%) VPN
5 4 (0.81%) WAN
6 3 (0.61%) IPv4
6 3 (0.61%) IPv6
6 3 (0.61%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.41%) Cisco Nexus
7 2 (0.41%) MQTT
7 2 (0.41%) Network Security
8 1 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
8 1 (0.20%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (4.28%) Power BI
2 16 (3.26%) SQL Server
3 15 (3.05%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (2.24%) Oracle Database
4 11 (2.24%) Relational Database
5 10 (2.04%) DataStage
6 9 (1.83%) Data Lake
7 8 (1.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (1.43%) Metadata
9 6 (1.22%) NoSQL
9 6 (1.22%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (1.02%) Big Data
10 5 (1.02%) Db2
10 5 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
11 4 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
11 4 (0.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (0.61%) MySQL
12 3 (0.61%) Tableau
13 2 (0.41%) Crystal Reports
Development Applications
1 31 (6.31%) JIRA
2 19 (3.87%) Git
3 13 (2.65%) Jenkins
4 11 (2.24%) GitLab
5 5 (1.02%) Visual Studio
6 4 (0.81%) JetBrains Rider
7 3 (0.61%) Introscope
7 3 (0.61%) JUnit
8 2 (0.41%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.41%) ERwin
8 2 (0.41%) Hudson
8 2 (0.41%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.41%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.41%) Postman
8 2 (0.41%) Selenium
8 2 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.41%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.20%) Ant
9 1 (0.20%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.20%) HP UFT
General
1 167 (34.01%) Finance
2 123 (25.05%) Social Skills
3 90 (18.33%) Banking
4 62 (12.63%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (6.52%) Public Sector
6 30 (6.11%) Retail
7 23 (4.68%) Legal
8 17 (3.46%) Influencing Skills
8 17 (3.46%) Investment Banking
9 15 (3.05%) Manufacturing
10 11 (2.24%) Marketing
10 11 (2.24%) Presentation Skills
11 10 (2.04%) Aerospace
12 9 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (1.43%) Back Office
13 7 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
13 7 (1.43%) Financial Institution
13 7 (1.43%) Law
14 6 (1.22%) Telecoms
15 5 (1.02%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 164 (33.40%) Architect
2 76 (15.48%) Solutions Architect
3 55 (11.20%) Developer
4 39 (7.94%) Integration Architect
5 36 (7.33%) Lead
6 31 (6.31%) Consultant
7 30 (6.11%) Senior
8 29 (5.91%) Technical Architect
9 24 (4.89%) Analyst
10 21 (4.28%) Middleware Engineer
11 20 (4.07%) Administrator
12 17 (3.46%) Salesforce Architect
13 16 (3.26%) SAP Architect
14 15 (3.05%) Business Analyst
15 14 (2.85%) Integration Engineer
15 14 (2.85%) Integration Specialist
15 14 (2.85%) Linux Engineer
16 12 (2.44%) Payments Architect
16 12 (2.44%) Payments Solutions Architect
16 12 (2.44%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (20.57%) REST
2 68 (13.85%) SOAP
3 47 (9.57%) JSON
4 46 (9.37%) XML
5 32 (6.52%) Kafka
6 28 (5.70%) .NET
7 26 (5.30%) OAuth
8 16 (3.26%) JWT
8 16 (3.26%) Lightning Web Components
9 15 (3.05%) Web Services
10 14 (2.85%) GraphQL
10 14 (2.85%) OAuth2
11 13 (2.65%) ISPF
11 13 (2.65%) RabbitMQ
12 12 (2.44%) EDI
12 12 (2.44%) React
13 11 (2.24%) SAML
13 11 (2.24%) Spring
14 9 (1.83%) Spring Boot
14 9 (1.83%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 34 (6.92%) Mainframe
2 30 (6.11%) Onboarding
3 28 (5.70%) Data Centre
4 27 (5.50%) Product Ownership
5 26 (5.30%) Management Information System
6 24 (4.89%) Legacy Systems
7 23 (4.68%) Cloud Native
8 21 (4.28%) Distributed Systems
9 19 (3.87%) Clustering
10 17 (3.46%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (2.85%) Data Structures
12 12 (2.44%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 12 (2.44%) Public Cloud
13 9 (1.83%) AI Agents
13 9 (1.83%) CMDB
13 9 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.83%) Legacy Applications
13 9 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
14 7 (1.43%) FMCG
14 7 (1.43%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 64 (13.03%) Linux
2 30 (6.11%) Unix
3 28 (5.70%) Windows
4 24 (4.89%) zOS
5 14 (2.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (2.65%) Ubuntu
7 8 (1.63%) Solaris
8 7 (1.43%) AIX
9 5 (1.02%) CentOS
10 3 (0.61%) Windows Server
11 2 (0.41%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.41%) VMS
11 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (23.83%) Agile
2 105 (21.38%) Stakeholder Management
3 100 (20.37%) Integration Patterns
4 90 (18.33%) Problem-Solving
5 89 (18.13%) DevOps
6 83 (16.90%) CI/CD
7 76 (15.48%) ERP
8 73 (14.87%) Migration
9 65 (13.24%) Event-Driven
10 62 (12.63%) Roadmaps
11 60 (12.22%) Enterprise Architecture
12 59 (12.02%) User Acceptance Testing
13 51 (10.39%) Data Modelling
14 50 (10.18%) Continuous Improvement
14 50 (10.18%) CRM
15 47 (9.57%) Technical Leadership
16 46 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 38 (7.74%) AI
17 38 (7.74%) Event-Driven Architecture
17 38 (7.74%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 93 (18.94%) SQL
2 50 (10.18%) Java
3 36 (7.33%) Python
4 25 (5.09%) JavaScript
5 24 (4.89%) C#
6 18 (3.67%) Bash
6 18 (3.67%) PL/SQL
7 16 (3.26%) Apex Code
8 13 (2.65%) TypeScript
9 12 (2.44%) Shell Script
10 11 (2.24%) Ada
11 7 (1.43%) C++
11 7 (1.43%) COBOL
12 6 (1.22%) ABAP
12 6 (1.22%) Perl
12 6 (1.22%) PowerShell
13 5 (1.02%) X++
14 4 (0.81%) MATLAB
14 4 (0.81%) SOQL
14 4 (0.81%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 63 (12.83%) Security Cleared
2 50 (10.18%) SC Cleared
3 32 (6.52%) Degree
4 18 (3.67%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (2.24%) TOGAF Certification
6 7 (1.43%) Azure Certification
6 7 (1.43%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (1.02%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.02%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.81%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.61%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (0.61%) DV Cleared
9 3 (0.61%) PMP
9 3 (0.61%) SAP Certification
10 2 (0.41%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.41%) IIBA
10 2 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (0.41%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.20%) ISTQB
11 1 (0.20%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (7.54%) QA
2 25 (5.09%) GDPR
3 21 (4.28%) Data Quality
4 10 (2.04%) Def Stans
4 10 (2.04%) IEC 61508
5 7 (1.43%) ISO 20022
6 6 (1.22%) PMO
7 5 (1.02%) SLA
8 4 (0.81%) HL7
8 4 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.61%) NIST
9 3 (0.61%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.41%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.41%) MISRA
10 2 (0.41%) MISRA C
11 1 (0.20%) IFRS
11 1 (0.20%) PSD2
System Software
1 25 (5.09%) Docker
2 14 (2.85%) RACF
3 11 (2.24%) Active Directory
4 5 (1.02%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (1.02%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.81%) NFS
5 4 (0.81%) vSphere
6 2 (0.41%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.20%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 24 (4.89%) Kubernetes
2 21 (4.28%) Ansible
3 14 (2.85%) OMEGAMON
4 9 (1.83%) Grafana
4 9 (1.83%) Terraform
5 8 (1.63%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.22%) ITRS Geneos
7 5 (1.02%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.02%) systemd
8 4 (0.81%) CA Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.81%) Check_MK
8 4 (0.81%) HP ALM
8 4 (0.81%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (0.81%) Podman
8 4 (0.81%) Red Hat Satellite
9 3 (0.61%) CA Wily
10 2 (0.41%) Avamar
10 2 (0.41%) Control-M
10 2 (0.41%) Data Guard
10 2 (0.41%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 83 (16.90%) Oracle
2 77 (15.68%) SAP
3 56 (11.41%) MuleSoft
4 52 (10.59%) IBM
5 50 (10.18%) Microsoft
6 49 (9.98%) Salesforce
7 30 (6.11%) Workday
8 29 (5.91%) ServiceNow
9 17 (3.46%) Databricks
9 17 (3.46%) TIBCO
10 15 (3.05%) Google
11 12 (2.44%) VMware
12 10 (2.04%) Red Hat
13 9 (1.83%) Solace
14 7 (1.43%) JD Edwards
14 7 (1.43%) Murex
14 7 (1.43%) Splunk
15 6 (1.22%) Ariba
15 6 (1.22%) Sybase
15 6 (1.22%) webMethods