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 15 April 2026.

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

 6 months to
15 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 121 84
Rank change year-on-year +31 -37 +55
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,086 551 935
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.77% 2.26% 2.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.00% 2.44% 2.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 478 368 492
10th Percentile £400 £412 £427
25th Percentile £452 £481 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +5.93%
75th Percentile £688 £763 £750
90th Percentile £788 £875 £800
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +5.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 368 51 281
10th Percentile £52.50 £52.00 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £61.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £71.25 £68.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% +4.17%

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 36,195 22,605 34,368
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.67% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,739 15,107 22,910
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £518 £525
% change year-on-year -3.38% -1.43% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,417 855 2,351
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.41 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.50 £20.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% -5.00% -21.90%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £76.25 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.86 £31.42 £35.00
% change year-on-year +33.20% -10.22% -22.22%

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 15 April 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 15 April 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 15 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
London -25 332 £625 -5.55% 227
South West +34 241 £575 -4.17% 125
North of England +18 167 £500 +5.26% 129
East of England +49 149 £500 -14.16% 107
South East -1 116 £550 -4.35% 206
North West +10 93 £550 +22.22% 77
Yorkshire -21 50 £500 +3.09% 34
Midlands -41 41 £475 +8.57% 66
West Midlands -35 34 £478 +6.16% 44
North East +6 27 £439 - 19
East Midlands -31 7 £475 - 22
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 April 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 1,075 (98.99%) Software Engineering
2 270 (24.86%) Agile
3 269 (24.77%) Security Cleared
4 260 (23.94%) Java
5 257 (23.66%) AWS
6 236 (21.73%) CI/CD
7 226 (20.81%) Python
8 209 (19.24%) SC Cleared
9 189 (17.40%) C++
10 152 (14.00%) TypeScript
11 150 (13.81%) C#
12 140 (12.89%) React
13 139 (12.80%) DevOps
14 137 (12.62%) JavaScript
15 129 (11.88%) Docker
15 129 (11.88%) Microservices
16 127 (11.69%) Kubernetes
17 122 (11.23%) Linux
18 117 (10.77%) Full-Stack Development
19 115 (10.59%) Azure
20 112 (10.31%) Ada
21 109 (10.04%) SQL
22 105 (9.67%) Node.js
23 95 (8.75%) Kafka
24 94 (8.66%) AI
25 92 (8.47%) Go
26 91 (8.38%) Problem-Solving
27 89 (8.20%) .NET
28 87 (8.01%) Git
29 85 (7.83%) C

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 21 (1.93%) Apache
2 18 (1.66%) Confluence
3 17 (1.57%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.28%) IIS
4 3 (0.28%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.18%) Camunda
5 2 (0.18%) nginx
5 2 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.18%) SAS
5 2 (0.18%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.18%) WinCC
6 1 (0.092%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.092%) CMS
6 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.092%) MQSeries
6 1 (0.092%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.092%) Smallworld
Applications
1 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.092%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.092%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.18%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.092%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.092%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 257 (23.66%) AWS
2 115 (10.59%) Azure
3 66 (6.08%) GCP
4 52 (4.79%) Serverless
5 51 (4.70%) GitHub
6 25 (2.30%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
8 21 (1.93%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (1.84%) Amazon S3
10 19 (1.75%) OpenShift
11 18 (1.66%) AWS CloudFormation
12 17 (1.57%) Power Platform
13 16 (1.47%) Amazon ECS
13 16 (1.47%) Amazon SQS
14 12 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
14 12 (1.10%) Azure Functions
15 11 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (1.01%) Collibra
16 10 (0.92%) SaaS
17 8 (0.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.84%) Ethernet
2 17 (1.57%) Software-Defined Radio
3 11 (1.01%) TCP/IP
4 8 (0.74%) Wireless
5 6 (0.55%) 3GPP
5 6 (0.55%) Firewall
5 6 (0.55%) HTTP
6 4 (0.37%) BGP
6 4 (0.37%) Network Security
6 4 (0.37%) VLAN
7 3 (0.28%) RTP
7 3 (0.28%) Software-Defined Networking
8 2 (0.18%) Modbus
8 2 (0.18%) Wireshark
9 1 (0.092%) Bluetooth
9 1 (0.092%) LTE
9 1 (0.092%) NFC
9 1 (0.092%) Profibus
9 1 (0.092%) RTCP
9 1 (0.092%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (5.71%) PostgreSQL
2 31 (2.85%) Relational Database
3 29 (2.67%) SQL Server
4 27 (2.49%) Apache Cassandra
5 22 (2.03%) MongoDB
6 20 (1.84%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.75%) Data Lake
8 16 (1.47%) Amazon RDS
8 16 (1.47%) MySQL
9 14 (1.29%) Power BI
10 13 (1.20%) Metadata
11 12 (1.10%) DynamoDB
11 12 (1.10%) Mixpanel
12 11 (1.01%) Amazon Athena
13 10 (0.92%) Elasticsearch
14 9 (0.83%) BigQuery
15 7 (0.64%) OLAP
15 7 (0.64%) OLTP
16 6 (0.55%) Hadoop
16 6 (0.55%) Redis
Development Applications
1 87 (8.01%) Git
2 52 (4.79%) GitLab
3 46 (4.24%) Jenkins
4 43 (3.96%) JIRA
5 29 (2.67%) Rational DOORS
6 26 (2.39%) Rational Rhapsody
7 20 (1.84%) Gradle
8 18 (1.66%) IntelliJ
8 18 (1.66%) JUnit
9 17 (1.57%) SonarQube
9 17 (1.57%) Visual Studio
10 12 (1.10%) Cucumber
10 12 (1.10%) Eclipse
11 10 (0.92%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.83%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.83%) Maven
13 8 (0.74%) Postman
13 8 (0.74%) PVCS
14 7 (0.64%) Liquibase
14 7 (0.64%) Oracle APEX
General
1 112 (10.31%) Finance
2 90 (8.29%) Social Skills
3 54 (4.97%) Aerospace
4 48 (4.42%) Front Office
5 43 (3.96%) Public Sector
6 39 (3.59%) Analytical Skills
7 32 (2.95%) Electronics
8 29 (2.67%) Law
9 27 (2.49%) Banking
10 22 (2.03%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.84%) Military
12 13 (1.20%) Retail
13 9 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
15 7 (0.64%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.46%) Aviation
16 5 (0.46%) Health Technology
17 4 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 4 (0.37%) Telecoms
18 3 (0.28%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 140 (12.89%) React
2 105 (9.67%) Node.js
3 95 (8.75%) Kafka
4 89 (8.20%) .NET
5 73 (6.72%) REST
6 63 (5.80%) Spring
7 61 (5.62%) Spring Boot
8 54 (4.97%) AngularJS
9 46 (4.24%) GraphQL
9 46 (4.24%) Redux
10 35 (3.22%) RESTful
11 34 (3.13%) Middleware
12 24 (2.21%) gRPC
13 22 (2.03%) CSS
14 19 (1.75%) HTML
14 19 (1.75%) JSON
14 19 (1.75%) Qt
15 18 (1.66%) Vue
15 18 (1.66%) Web Services
16 17 (1.57%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 77 (7.09%) Cloud Native
2 55 (5.06%) Algorithms
3 51 (4.70%) Distributed Systems
4 50 (4.60%) Fixed Income
5 36 (3.31%) Product Ownership
6 20 (1.84%) Embedded Systems
7 17 (1.57%) AI Agents
8 16 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
9 15 (1.38%) Derivative
10 14 (1.29%) Equities
11 13 (1.20%) Mobile App
12 12 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
12 12 (1.10%) Robotics
13 11 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
14 10 (0.92%) Life Science
14 10 (0.92%) Onboarding
15 9 (0.83%) PCIe
16 8 (0.74%) CUDA
16 8 (0.74%) Data Structures
16 8 (0.74%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 122 (11.23%) Linux
2 51 (4.70%) Windows
3 18 (1.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 18 (1.66%) Unix
4 16 (1.47%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.20%) Android
6 12 (1.10%) Windows Server
7 9 (0.83%) Embedded Linux
7 9 (0.83%) FreeRTOS
8 6 (0.55%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.37%) Debian
10 3 (0.28%) Rocky
11 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.18%) Solaris
11 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.092%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.092%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,075 (98.99%) Software Engineering
2 270 (24.86%) Agile
3 236 (21.73%) CI/CD
4 139 (12.80%) DevOps
5 129 (11.88%) Microservices
6 117 (10.77%) Full-Stack Development
7 94 (8.66%) AI
8 91 (8.38%) Problem-Solving
9 76 (7.00%) TDD
10 75 (6.91%) Containerisation
11 73 (6.72%) Test Automation
12 68 (6.26%) Mentoring
13 62 (5.71%) Infrastructure as Code
14 58 (5.34%) SDLC
15 57 (5.25%) Machine Learning
16 56 (5.16%) Scrum
17 55 (5.06%) Unit Testing
18 54 (4.97%) Continuous Improvement
19 48 (4.42%) Clean Code
20 46 (4.24%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 260 (23.94%) Java
2 226 (20.81%) Python
3 189 (17.40%) C++
4 152 (14.00%) TypeScript
5 150 (13.81%) C#
6 137 (12.62%) JavaScript
7 112 (10.31%) Ada
8 109 (10.04%) SQL
9 92 (8.47%) Go
10 85 (7.83%) C
11 31 (2.85%) Embedded C
12 26 (2.39%) PowerShell
13 24 (2.21%) Kotlin
14 22 (2.03%) MATLAB
14 22 (2.03%) Rust
15 18 (1.66%) Embedded C++
16 17 (1.57%) Bash
17 9 (0.83%) PL/SQL
17 9 (0.83%) Swift
18 7 (0.64%) Perl
Qualifications
1 269 (24.77%) Security Cleared
2 209 (19.24%) SC Cleared
3 49 (4.51%) Degree
4 38 (3.50%) DV Cleared
5 21 (1.93%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.74%) AWS Certification
8 7 (0.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (0.37%) ISTQB
9 4 (0.37%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.18%) CCNA
11 2 (0.18%) CCNP
11 2 (0.18%) HNC
11 2 (0.18%) HND
11 2 (0.18%) Master's Degree
12 1 (0.092%) AWS Certified Developer
12 1 (0.092%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 1 (0.092%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.68%) Def Stans
2 34 (3.13%) IEC 61508
3 33 (3.04%) QA
4 23 (2.12%) MISRA
5 21 (1.93%) Data Quality
6 17 (1.57%) MISRA C
7 13 (1.20%) GDPR
8 9 (0.83%) Accessibility
9 6 (0.55%) DO-178B
9 6 (0.55%) HL7
10 4 (0.37%) NCSC
11 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.092%) DICOM
12 1 (0.092%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.092%) NIST
12 1 (0.092%) WCAG
System Software
1 129 (11.88%) Docker
2 14 (1.29%) Firmware
3 10 (0.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.37%) Oracle RAC
6 3 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.18%) HDFS
8 1 (0.092%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 127 (11.69%) Kubernetes
2 84 (7.73%) Terraform
3 24 (2.21%) Grafana
4 20 (1.84%) Ansible
5 11 (1.01%) Argo
6 6 (0.55%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.37%) Data Guard
8 3 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.18%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.18%) Puppet
10 1 (0.092%) Functional Safety
10 1 (0.092%) HAProxy
10 1 (0.092%) Podman
Vendors
1 38 (3.50%) Microsoft
2 36 (3.31%) Red Hat
3 24 (2.21%) Google
3 24 (2.21%) Oracle
4 23 (2.12%) Databricks
5 20 (1.84%) IBM
6 10 (0.92%) VMware
7 9 (0.83%) MathWorks
8 8 (0.74%) ANSYS
8 8 (0.74%) Siemens
8 8 (0.74%) Spotify
9 7 (0.64%) Splunk
10 4 (0.37%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.37%) Brio
10 4 (0.37%) Checkmarx
10 4 (0.37%) NVIDIA
11 3 (0.28%) OpenAI
11 3 (0.28%) Palantir
11 3 (0.28%) SAP
12 2 (0.18%) Talend
830 Software Engineer jobs in England