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 12 April 2026.

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

 6 months to
12 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 124 83
Rank change year-on-year +34 -41 +56
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,088 550 949
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.77% 2.26% 2.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.00% 2.43% 2.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 479 369 501
10th Percentile £400 £412 £425
25th Percentile £453 £483 £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 51 285
10th Percentile £52.50 £52.50 £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% +2.04%
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 36,210 22,591 34,649
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.71% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,766 15,118 23,103
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £410 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £509 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.05% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,405 849 2,354
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.63 £12.88
25th Percentile £20.50 £20.12 £16.25
Median hourly rate £44.00 £32.50 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +35.38% -5.00% -21.70%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £76.25 £72.20
UK median hourly rate £41.16 £31.51 £35.00
% change year-on-year +30.61% -9.97% -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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -35 335 £620 -6.31% 232
South West +31 240 £575 -4.17% 123
North of England +23 168 £500 +5.26% 122
East of England +44 149 £500 -14.16% 97
South East +4 115 £550 -4.35% 211
North West +18 93 £550 +22.22% 70
Yorkshire -24 51 £500 +3.09% 37
Midlands -44 41 £475 +8.57% 66
West Midlands -40 34 £478 +6.16% 45
North East +7 27 £439 - 16
East Midlands -35 7 £475 - 21
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 12 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 1,077 (98.99%) Software Engineering
2 270 (24.82%) Agile
3 269 (24.72%) Security Cleared
4 265 (24.36%) Java
5 261 (23.99%) AWS
6 238 (21.88%) CI/CD
7 226 (20.77%) Python
8 208 (19.12%) SC Cleared
9 190 (17.46%) C++
10 152 (13.97%) TypeScript
11 150 (13.79%) C#
12 141 (12.96%) React
13 139 (12.78%) DevOps
14 137 (12.59%) JavaScript
15 130 (11.95%) Docker
15 130 (11.95%) Kubernetes
15 130 (11.95%) Microservices
16 123 (11.31%) Linux
17 119 (10.94%) Azure
18 116 (10.66%) Full-Stack Development
19 112 (10.29%) Ada
20 109 (10.02%) SQL
21 107 (9.83%) Node.js
22 95 (8.73%) Kafka
23 92 (8.46%) AI
23 92 (8.46%) Go
24 91 (8.36%) Problem-Solving
25 89 (8.18%) .NET
26 86 (7.90%) Git
27 85 (7.81%) 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 (1.65%) Confluence
3 17 (1.56%) 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%) 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
3 1 (0.092%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.092%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.092%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.18%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.092%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.092%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 261 (23.99%) AWS
2 119 (10.94%) Azure
3 67 (6.16%) GCP
4 52 (4.78%) Serverless
5 51 (4.69%) GitHub
6 25 (2.30%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (2.02%) Azure DevOps
8 21 (1.93%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (1.84%) Amazon S3
9 20 (1.84%) OpenShift
10 18 (1.65%) AWS CloudFormation
11 17 (1.56%) Power Platform
12 16 (1.47%) Amazon ECS
12 16 (1.47%) Amazon SQS
13 13 (1.19%) Amazon EC2
14 12 (1.10%) Azure Functions
15 11 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (1.01%) Collibra
16 9 (0.83%) SaaS
17 8 (0.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.84%) Ethernet
2 17 (1.56%) 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%) LTE
9 1 (0.092%) Multicast
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 (5.70%) PostgreSQL
2 31 (2.85%) Relational Database
3 29 (2.67%) SQL Server
4 28 (2.57%) Apache Cassandra
5 22 (2.02%) MongoDB
6 21 (1.93%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.75%) Data Lake
8 17 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
8 17 (1.56%) MySQL
9 14 (1.29%) Power BI
10 13 (1.19%) 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%) Hadoop
15 7 (0.64%) OLAP
15 7 (0.64%) OLTP
16 6 (0.55%) Redis
Development Applications
1 86 (7.90%) Git
2 52 (4.78%) GitLab
3 46 (4.23%) Jenkins
4 43 (3.95%) JIRA
5 29 (2.67%) Rational DOORS
6 26 (2.39%) Rational Rhapsody
7 20 (1.84%) Gradle
8 18 (1.65%) IntelliJ
8 18 (1.65%) JUnit
9 17 (1.56%) SonarQube
9 17 (1.56%) Visual Studio
10 12 (1.10%) Cucumber
10 12 (1.10%) Eclipse
11 10 (0.92%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.83%) Maven
13 8 (0.74%) Cypress.io
13 8 (0.74%) Postman
13 8 (0.74%) PVCS
14 7 (0.64%) Mockito
14 7 (0.64%) Oracle APEX
General
1 114 (10.48%) Finance
2 90 (8.27%) Social Skills
3 54 (4.96%) Aerospace
4 48 (4.41%) Front Office
5 43 (3.95%) Public Sector
6 38 (3.49%) Analytical Skills
7 32 (2.94%) Electronics
8 29 (2.67%) Law
9 27 (2.48%) Banking
10 22 (2.02%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.84%) Military
12 13 (1.19%) 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
1 141 (12.96%) React
2 107 (9.83%) Node.js
3 95 (8.73%) Kafka
4 89 (8.18%) .NET
5 73 (6.71%) REST
6 64 (5.88%) Spring
7 61 (5.61%) Spring Boot
8 55 (5.06%) AngularJS
9 46 (4.23%) GraphQL
9 46 (4.23%) Redux
10 36 (3.31%) RESTful
11 34 (3.13%) Middleware
12 24 (2.21%) gRPC
13 23 (2.11%) CSS
14 20 (1.84%) HTML
15 19 (1.75%) JSON
15 19 (1.75%) Qt
15 19 (1.75%) Vue
16 18 (1.65%) Web Services
17 17 (1.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 77 (7.08%) Cloud Native
2 55 (5.06%) Algorithms
3 52 (4.78%) Distributed Systems
4 50 (4.60%) Fixed Income
5 36 (3.31%) Product Ownership
6 20 (1.84%) Embedded Systems
7 16 (1.47%) AI Agents
7 16 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (1.38%) Derivative
9 14 (1.29%) Equities
10 13 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
10 13 (1.19%) Mobile App
11 12 (1.10%) Robotics
12 10 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
12 10 (0.92%) Onboarding
13 9 (0.83%) Life Science
13 9 (0.83%) PCIe
14 8 (0.74%) CUDA
14 8 (0.74%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.74%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 123 (11.31%) Linux
2 51 (4.69%) Windows
3 19 (1.75%) Unix
4 18 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (1.47%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.19%) Android
7 12 (1.10%) Windows Server
8 9 (0.83%) Embedded Linux
8 9 (0.83%) FreeRTOS
9 6 (0.55%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.37%) Debian
11 3 (0.28%) Rocky
12 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.18%) Solaris
12 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.092%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.092%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,077 (98.99%) Software Engineering
2 270 (24.82%) Agile
3 238 (21.88%) CI/CD
4 139 (12.78%) DevOps
5 130 (11.95%) Microservices
6 116 (10.66%) Full-Stack Development
7 92 (8.46%) AI
8 91 (8.36%) Problem-Solving
9 77 (7.08%) Containerisation
10 76 (6.99%) TDD
11 72 (6.62%) Test Automation
12 68 (6.25%) Mentoring
13 63 (5.79%) Infrastructure as Code
14 58 (5.33%) SDLC
15 56 (5.15%) Machine Learning
15 56 (5.15%) Scrum
16 55 (5.06%) Continuous Improvement
16 55 (5.06%) Unit Testing
17 49 (4.50%) Clean Code
18 46 (4.23%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 265 (24.36%) Java
2 226 (20.77%) Python
3 190 (17.46%) C++
4 152 (13.97%) TypeScript
5 150 (13.79%) C#
6 137 (12.59%) JavaScript
7 112 (10.29%) Ada
8 109 (10.02%) SQL
9 92 (8.46%) Go
10 85 (7.81%) C
11 30 (2.76%) Embedded C
12 26 (2.39%) PowerShell
13 24 (2.21%) Kotlin
14 22 (2.02%) MATLAB
14 22 (2.02%) Rust
15 18 (1.65%) Embedded C++
16 17 (1.56%) Bash
17 9 (0.83%) PL/SQL
17 9 (0.83%) Swift
18 7 (0.64%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 269 (24.72%) Security Cleared
2 208 (19.12%) SC Cleared
3 50 (4.60%) Degree
4 39 (3.58%) DV Cleared
5 22 (2.02%) 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%) CCDP
12 1 (0.092%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.68%) Def Stans
2 34 (3.13%) IEC 61508
3 33 (3.03%) QA
4 23 (2.11%) MISRA
5 21 (1.93%) Data Quality
6 17 (1.56%) MISRA C
7 13 (1.19%) 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
1 130 (11.95%) 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
1 130 (11.95%) Kubernetes
2 85 (7.81%) Terraform
3 24 (2.21%) Grafana
4 21 (1.93%) Ansible
5 12 (1.10%) 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 (3.49%) Microsoft
2 37 (3.40%) Red Hat
3 24 (2.21%) Oracle
4 23 (2.11%) Databricks
4 23 (2.11%) Google
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
12 2 (0.18%) Foundry
12 2 (0.18%) PagerDuty
826 Software Engineer jobs in England