Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 June 2026.

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

 6 months to
23 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 139 63
Rank change year-on-year +53 -76 +74
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,226 513 1,188
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.83% 2.05% 3.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.06% 2.23% 3.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 539 360 591
10th Percentile £400 £412 £450
25th Percentile £463 £475 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £630
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% -0.79% +5.00%
75th Percentile £688 £825 £794
90th Percentile £788 £875 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 34 370
10th Percentile £52.54 £46.76 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £59.56 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £83.15 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 England with a recognized job title 40,014 23,037 34,822
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.23% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,629 15,128 22,693
10th Percentile £325 £293 £290
25th Percentile £416 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £633 £638
90th Percentile £735 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £518 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,831 1,043 2,688
10th Percentile £15.99 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.93 £18.13 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.00 £39.53
Median % change year-on-year +55.17% -26.63% -10.17%
75th Percentile £67.60 £58.72 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.39
UK median hourly rate £43.25 £27.38 £37.50
% change year-on-year +57.99% -27.00% -14.77%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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 England.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in England

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in England

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in England over the 6 months to 23 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in England

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in England

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineer in England over the 6 months to 23 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineer in England

Software Engineer
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 Software Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 23 June 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 -24 377 £625 -10.71% 167
South West +71 283 £550 -11.11% 97
North of England +27 193 £500 +11.11% 113
South East +32 159 £550 +5.77% 161
East of England +46 143 £500 +1.52% 109
North West +19 117 £550 +22.22% 70
Yorkshire -17 52 £488 +1.04% 17
Midlands -22 47 £450 -2.70% 41
West Midlands -28 37 £450 -7.69% 16
North East -10 26 £400 - 26
East Midlands -16 10 £473 -0.53% 25
Software Engineer
UK

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 23 June 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 England region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 1,209 (98.61%) Software Engineering
2 327 (26.67%) Agile
3 322 (26.26%) Java
4 293 (23.90%) Security Cleared
5 278 (22.68%) AWS
6 277 (22.59%) CI/CD
7 240 (19.58%) Python
8 234 (19.09%) SC Cleared
9 184 (15.01%) C++
10 173 (14.11%) C#
11 167 (13.62%) TypeScript
12 160 (13.05%) React
13 143 (11.66%) JavaScript
14 140 (11.42%) DevOps
15 139 (11.34%) Full-Stack Development
15 139 (11.34%) Microservices
16 138 (11.26%) Docker
17 136 (11.09%) SQL
18 130 (10.60%) Kubernetes
19 121 (9.87%) Azure
20 120 (9.79%) AI
21 116 (9.46%) Linux
22 112 (9.14%) Ada
23 107 (8.73%) .NET
24 102 (8.32%) Test Automation
25 99 (8.08%) Kafka
25 99 (8.08%) Node.js
26 91 (7.42%) Git
27 89 (7.26%) Problem-Solving
28 88 (7.18%) Spring

Software Engineer Skill Set
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 14 (1.14%) Confluence
2 13 (1.06%) Apache Spark
3 11 (0.90%) Apache
4 3 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.24%) nginx
4 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.16%) Camunda
5 2 (0.16%) MQSeries
5 2 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.16%) SAS
5 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.16%) WinCC
6 1 (0.082%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.082%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.082%) CMS
6 1 (0.082%) IIS
6 1 (0.082%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.082%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.082%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.16%) LabWindows
Cloud Services
1 278 (22.68%) AWS
2 121 (9.87%) Azure
3 64 (5.22%) GCP
4 57 (4.65%) GitHub
4 57 (4.65%) Serverless
5 34 (2.77%) AWS Lambda
6 30 (2.45%) OpenShift
7 24 (1.96%) Amazon S3
8 23 (1.88%) GitHub Actions
9 21 (1.71%) Amazon EC2
10 19 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
11 17 (1.39%) Amazon ECS
11 17 (1.39%) Amazon SQS
12 13 (1.06%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (1.06%) SaaS
13 11 (0.90%) Power Platform
14 10 (0.82%) Anthropic Claude
14 10 (0.82%) Azure Functions
15 9 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
15 9 (0.73%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.61%) Software-Defined Radio
2 21 (1.71%) Wireless
3 20 (1.63%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.98%) HTTP
6 9 (0.73%) 3GPP
7 7 (0.57%) Firewall
7 7 (0.57%) RTP
8 6 (0.49%) Wireshark
9 5 (0.41%) VPN
10 4 (0.33%) Internet
11 2 (0.16%) DNS
11 2 (0.16%) RS-232
11 2 (0.16%) RS-422
12 1 (0.082%) Modbus
12 1 (0.082%) MQTT
12 1 (0.082%) Network Security
12 1 (0.082%) RS-485
12 1 (0.082%) VLAN
12 1 (0.082%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (5.87%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (3.43%) Relational Database
3 34 (2.77%) SQL Server
4 25 (2.04%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.55%) Apache Cassandra
6 18 (1.47%) DynamoDB
6 18 (1.47%) MongoDB
7 17 (1.39%) MySQL
8 16 (1.31%) Amazon RDS
9 12 (0.98%) Elasticsearch
10 9 (0.73%) Metadata
11 8 (0.65%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.57%) Hadoop
12 7 (0.57%) Power BI
13 6 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
14 5 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
14 5 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
15 4 (0.33%) Big Data
15 4 (0.33%) GIS
15 4 (0.33%) Redis
Development Applications
1 91 (7.42%) Git
2 60 (4.89%) Jenkins
3 50 (4.08%) GitLab
4 33 (2.69%) JIRA
5 24 (1.96%) JUnit
6 21 (1.71%) Visual Studio
7 20 (1.63%) Gradle
7 20 (1.63%) Rational DOORS
7 20 (1.63%) Rational Rhapsody
8 18 (1.47%) SonarQube
9 13 (1.06%) IntelliJ
9 13 (1.06%) Mockito
10 11 (0.90%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.90%) Eclipse
10 11 (0.90%) Liquibase
11 10 (0.82%) Selenium
12 9 (0.73%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.73%) Maven
13 7 (0.57%) Cypress.io
13 7 (0.57%) LabVIEW
General
1 163 (13.30%) Finance
2 112 (9.14%) Social Skills
3 66 (5.38%) Aerospace
4 58 (4.73%) Front Office
5 53 (4.32%) Banking
6 43 (3.51%) Public Sector
7 39 (3.18%) Analytical Skills
8 32 (2.61%) Law
9 25 (2.04%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.39%) Aviation
10 17 (1.39%) Retail
11 14 (1.14%) Automotive
12 12 (0.98%) Military
13 11 (0.90%) Investment Banking
14 10 (0.82%) Electronics
15 8 (0.65%) Back Office
16 7 (0.57%) Telecoms
17 6 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
18 5 (0.41%) Fire and Rescue
18 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (13.05%) React
2 107 (8.73%) .NET
3 99 (8.08%) Kafka
3 99 (8.08%) Node.js
4 88 (7.18%) Spring
4 88 (7.18%) Spring Boot
5 70 (5.71%) REST
6 56 (4.57%) Redux
7 55 (4.49%) AngularJS
8 49 (4.00%) GraphQL
9 39 (3.18%) RESTful
10 25 (2.04%) Next.js
11 24 (1.96%) Middleware
12 23 (1.88%) CSS
13 21 (1.71%) HTML
14 18 (1.47%) FastAPI
15 17 (1.39%) .NET Core
15 17 (1.39%) Vue
16 16 (1.31%) Web Services
17 15 (1.22%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 106 (8.65%) Cloud Native
2 77 (6.28%) Distributed Systems
3 61 (4.98%) Algorithms
4 60 (4.89%) Fixed Income
5 36 (2.94%) Product Ownership
6 30 (2.45%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.71%) AI Agents
7 21 (1.71%) Derivative
8 19 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
9 17 (1.39%) Onboarding
10 15 (1.22%) Equities
10 15 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (0.90%) Robotics
13 10 (0.82%) FPGA
14 9 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
15 8 (0.65%) Data Structures
15 8 (0.65%) Device Driver
15 8 (0.65%) PCIe
15 8 (0.65%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 116 (9.46%) Linux
2 42 (3.43%) Windows
3 16 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (1.22%) Embedded Linux
5 14 (1.14%) Unix
6 11 (0.90%) FreeRTOS
7 9 (0.73%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.49%) Windows Server
9 5 (0.41%) Android
10 4 (0.33%) Debian
10 4 (0.33%) Rocky
10 4 (0.33%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.24%) Solaris
11 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.16%) VxWorks
13 1 (0.082%) Tizen
13 1 (0.082%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,209 (98.61%) Software Engineering
2 327 (26.67%) Agile
3 277 (22.59%) CI/CD
4 140 (11.42%) DevOps
5 139 (11.34%) Full-Stack Development
5 139 (11.34%) Microservices
6 120 (9.79%) AI
7 102 (8.32%) Test Automation
8 89 (7.26%) Problem-Solving
9 86 (7.01%) TDD
10 75 (6.12%) Containerisation
11 68 (5.55%) Continuous Improvement
12 65 (5.30%) SDLC
13 64 (5.22%) Infrastructure as Code
14 63 (5.14%) Machine Learning
14 63 (5.14%) Software Testing
15 62 (5.06%) Mentoring
16 56 (4.57%) Scrum
17 53 (4.32%) Clean Code
17 53 (4.32%) Investment Management
Programming Languages
1 322 (26.26%) Java
2 240 (19.58%) Python
3 184 (15.01%) C++
4 173 (14.11%) C#
5 167 (13.62%) TypeScript
6 143 (11.66%) JavaScript
7 136 (11.09%) SQL
8 112 (9.14%) Ada
9 82 (6.69%) Go
10 81 (6.61%) C
11 26 (2.12%) Kotlin
12 24 (1.96%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.79%) MATLAB
13 22 (1.79%) Rust
14 20 (1.63%) PowerShell
15 16 (1.31%) PL/SQL
16 11 (0.90%) Bash
16 11 (0.90%) PHP
17 8 (0.65%) Embedded C++
18 7 (0.57%) Scala
Qualifications
1 293 (23.90%) Security Cleared
2 234 (19.09%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.16%) Degree
4 39 (3.18%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.65%) AWS Certification
7 8 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (0.41%) ISTQB
8 5 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.24%) Chartered Engineer
10 2 (0.16%) CCNP
10 2 (0.16%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.16%) HNC
10 2 (0.16%) HND
11 1 (0.082%) OCA
11 1 (0.082%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.082%) RHCA
11 1 (0.082%) RHCE
11 1 (0.082%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.51%) QA
2 30 (2.45%) Def Stans
3 27 (2.20%) IEC 61508
4 18 (1.47%) MISRA
5 11 (0.90%) Data Quality
5 11 (0.90%) MISRA C
6 9 (0.73%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.73%) GDPR
7 7 (0.57%) DO-178B
8 5 (0.41%) WCAG
9 4 (0.33%) NCSC
9 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.16%) ISO 26262
11 1 (0.082%) DICOM
11 1 (0.082%) FATCA
11 1 (0.082%) HL7
11 1 (0.082%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.082%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.082%) NIST
System Software
1 138 (11.26%) Docker
2 17 (1.39%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.16%) HDFS
5 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.082%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 130 (10.60%) Kubernetes
2 68 (5.55%) Terraform
3 20 (1.63%) Grafana
4 18 (1.47%) Ansible
5 13 (1.06%) Argo
6 7 (0.57%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.33%) Control-M
7 4 (0.33%) Data Guard
7 4 (0.33%) Kibana
7 4 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.24%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.16%) Cilium
9 2 (0.16%) HAProxy
9 2 (0.16%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.16%) Puppet
10 1 (0.082%) CA Endevor
10 1 (0.082%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (2.94%) Microsoft
2 29 (2.37%) Oracle
3 27 (2.20%) Red Hat
4 21 (1.71%) Google
5 16 (1.31%) IBM
6 12 (0.98%) Databricks
7 10 (0.82%) MathWorks
8 7 (0.57%) SAP
8 7 (0.57%) Splunk
9 6 (0.49%) Siemens
9 6 (0.49%) Spotify
10 5 (0.41%) OpenAI
11 4 (0.33%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.33%) Checkmarx
11 4 (0.33%) Sybase
11 4 (0.33%) VMware
12 3 (0.24%) Informatica
12 3 (0.24%) Talend
13 2 (0.16%) PagerDuty
13 2 (0.16%) Palantir
653 Software Engineer jobs in England