Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 July 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 130 67
Rank change year-on-year +33 -63 +64
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,210 617 1,074
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.68% 2.24% 3.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.89% 2.44% 3.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 555 407 589
10th Percentile £400 £406 £425
25th Percentile £475 £483 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £626 £650
Median % change year-on-year -8.15% -3.69% +13.04%
75th Percentile £688 £831 £800
90th Percentile £788 £875 £888
UK median daily rate £575 £625 £630
% change year-on-year -8.00% -0.79% +9.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 324 58 286
10th Percentile £52.50 £31.25 £48.00
25th Percentile £60.50 £59.00 £52.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £68.75 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.18 £78.25 £75.00
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 41,842 25,310 32,147
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 91.77% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,510 16,451 21,225
10th Percentile £325 £288 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,015 1,273 2,038
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.75 £13.69
25th Percentile £22.31 £17.79 £18.81
Median hourly rate £45.50 £26.30 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.00% -38.84% -1.96%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.85 £25.15 £41.81
% change year-on-year +70.39% -39.85% -3.47%

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 26 July 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 26 July 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 26 July 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 -43 396 £625 -15.25% 535
South West +60 243 £543 -5.65% 116
North of England +10 196 £525 +10.53% 143
South East +20 156 £530 +6.00% 151
East of England +27 146 £505 +1.00% 117
North West +7 128 £550 +18.92% 84
Midlands -12 55 £450 +0.56% 63
Yorkshire -22 49 £481 -1.79% 35
West Midlands -19 41 £450 - 30
North East -23 21 - - 24
East Midlands -8 14 £473 -0.53% 33
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 July 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 1,195 (98.76%) Software Engineering
2 338 (27.93%) Agile
3 318 (26.28%) Java
4 291 (24.05%) Security Cleared
5 286 (23.64%) CI/CD
6 275 (22.73%) Python
7 258 (21.32%) AWS
8 245 (20.25%) SC Cleared
9 172 (14.21%) C++
10 162 (13.39%) TypeScript
11 160 (13.22%) C#
11 160 (13.22%) React
12 145 (11.98%) Full-Stack Development
13 140 (11.57%) JavaScript
14 136 (11.24%) DevOps
15 135 (11.16%) Docker
16 130 (10.74%) SQL
17 128 (10.58%) Microservices
18 122 (10.08%) AI
19 118 (9.75%) Kubernetes
20 115 (9.50%) Azure
21 114 (9.42%) Linux
22 110 (9.09%) Test Automation
23 107 (8.84%) .NET
24 102 (8.43%) Node.js
25 100 (8.26%) Ada
26 95 (7.85%) Kafka
27 92 (7.60%) Problem-Solving
28 90 (7.44%) Git
29 87 (7.19%) 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 (1.16%) Confluence
2 12 (0.99%) Apache Spark
3 8 (0.66%) Apache
4 4 (0.33%) CMS
5 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.25%) nginx
5 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.17%) Apache Solr
6 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
6 2 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.17%) SAS
6 2 (0.17%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.17%) WinCC
6 2 (0.17%) WordPress
7 1 (0.083%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.083%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.083%) IIS
7 1 (0.083%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.083%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.083%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Trello
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.17%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.083%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.083%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 258 (21.32%) AWS
2 115 (9.50%) Azure
3 67 (5.54%) GCP
4 59 (4.88%) GitHub
5 55 (4.55%) Serverless
6 38 (3.14%) AWS Lambda
7 30 (2.48%) GitHub Actions
8 25 (2.07%) OpenShift
9 22 (1.82%) Amazon S3
9 22 (1.82%) Amazon SQS
10 21 (1.74%) Amazon ECS
11 16 (1.32%) Amazon EC2
11 16 (1.32%) Amazon EKS
12 11 (0.91%) SaaS
13 10 (0.83%) Anthropic Claude
13 10 (0.83%) Azure DevOps
13 10 (0.83%) Power Platform
14 9 (0.74%) AWS CloudFormation
15 8 (0.66%) Amazon EventBridge
15 8 (0.66%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 27 (2.23%) Software-Defined Radio
2 23 (1.90%) Wireless
3 20 (1.65%) Ethernet
4 15 (1.24%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.99%) Firewall
5 12 (0.99%) HTTP
6 10 (0.83%) VPN
7 9 (0.74%) 3GPP
8 8 (0.66%) RTP
9 7 (0.58%) Wireshark
10 4 (0.33%) Internet
11 3 (0.25%) Network Security
12 2 (0.17%) DNS
12 2 (0.17%) RS-232
12 2 (0.17%) RS-422
13 1 (0.083%) BGP
13 1 (0.083%) HTTPS
13 1 (0.083%) MQTT
13 1 (0.083%) RS-485
13 1 (0.083%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (6.12%) PostgreSQL
2 47 (3.88%) Relational Database
3 40 (3.31%) SQL Server
4 29 (2.40%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.57%) DynamoDB
6 17 (1.40%) Elasticsearch
7 13 (1.07%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.91%) MySQL
9 10 (0.83%) Apache Cassandra
10 9 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
11 7 (0.58%) Metadata
11 7 (0.58%) Redis
12 6 (0.50%) Big Data
12 6 (0.50%) Power BI
13 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
13 4 (0.33%) Hadoop
14 3 (0.25%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.25%) Data Hub
14 3 (0.25%) Data Lake
14 3 (0.25%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 90 (7.44%) Git
2 62 (5.12%) Jenkins
3 52 (4.30%) GitLab
4 30 (2.48%) JIRA
5 23 (1.90%) JUnit
6 18 (1.49%) SonarQube
6 18 (1.49%) Visual Studio
7 16 (1.32%) Rational DOORS
8 13 (1.07%) Gradle
8 13 (1.07%) Mockito
8 13 (1.07%) Rational Rhapsody
9 11 (0.91%) Eclipse
9 11 (0.91%) Liquibase
10 9 (0.74%) Bitbucket
11 8 (0.66%) IntelliJ
12 7 (0.58%) Claude Code
12 7 (0.58%) Cucumber
12 7 (0.58%) LabVIEW
12 7 (0.58%) TeamCity
13 6 (0.50%) Selenium
General
1 170 (14.05%) Finance
2 122 (10.08%) Social Skills
3 63 (5.21%) Aerospace
4 61 (5.04%) Banking
4 61 (5.04%) Front Office
5 54 (4.46%) Public Sector
6 40 (3.31%) Analytical Skills
7 29 (2.40%) Law
8 25 (2.07%) Manufacturing
9 18 (1.49%) Retail
10 17 (1.40%) Aviation
11 16 (1.32%) Automotive
12 13 (1.07%) Electronics
12 13 (1.07%) Military
13 11 (0.91%) Investment Banking
14 8 (0.66%) Back Office
15 7 (0.58%) Avionics
15 7 (0.58%) Telecoms
16 5 (0.41%) Fire and Rescue
16 5 (0.41%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (13.22%) React
2 107 (8.84%) .NET
3 102 (8.43%) Node.js
4 95 (7.85%) Kafka
5 87 (7.19%) Spring
6 81 (6.69%) Spring Boot
7 73 (6.03%) REST
8 55 (4.55%) AngularJS
8 55 (4.55%) Redux
9 52 (4.30%) GraphQL
10 41 (3.39%) RESTful
11 36 (2.98%) Django
12 23 (1.90%) CSS
12 23 (1.90%) Next.js
13 22 (1.82%) HTML
14 20 (1.65%) FastAPI
15 19 (1.57%) .NET Core
16 16 (1.32%) Web Services
17 15 (1.24%) Flask
17 15 (1.24%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 116 (9.59%) Cloud Native
2 81 (6.69%) Distributed Systems
3 62 (5.12%) Fixed Income
4 42 (3.47%) Algorithms
5 32 (2.64%) Product Ownership
6 30 (2.48%) Embedded Systems
7 22 (1.82%) AI Agents
8 21 (1.74%) Derivative
9 19 (1.57%) Onboarding
10 16 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.24%) Equities
12 14 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
13 13 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
13 13 (1.07%) Data Structures
14 10 (0.83%) RISC-V
15 9 (0.74%) Enterprise Software
15 9 (0.74%) FPGA
15 9 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
16 8 (0.66%) Device Driver
16 8 (0.66%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 114 (9.42%) Linux
2 38 (3.14%) Windows
3 17 (1.40%) Embedded Linux
4 15 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (0.91%) FreeRTOS
6 10 (0.83%) Unix
7 8 (0.66%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.50%) Windows Server
9 5 (0.41%) Android
10 3 (0.25%) Debian
10 3 (0.25%) Rocky
10 3 (0.25%) Solaris
10 3 (0.25%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.17%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.083%) Tizen
12 1 (0.083%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,195 (98.76%) Software Engineering
2 338 (27.93%) Agile
3 286 (23.64%) CI/CD
4 145 (11.98%) Full-Stack Development
5 136 (11.24%) DevOps
6 128 (10.58%) Microservices
7 122 (10.08%) AI
8 110 (9.09%) Test Automation
9 92 (7.60%) Problem-Solving
10 82 (6.78%) TDD
11 78 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
12 71 (5.87%) Containerisation
13 68 (5.62%) Software Testing
14 67 (5.54%) Infrastructure as Code
15 66 (5.45%) Mentoring
16 63 (5.21%) SDLC
17 61 (5.04%) Machine Learning
18 58 (4.79%) Event-Driven
19 57 (4.71%) Clean Code
20 55 (4.55%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 318 (26.28%) Java
2 275 (22.73%) Python
3 172 (14.21%) C++
4 162 (13.39%) TypeScript
5 160 (13.22%) C#
6 140 (11.57%) JavaScript
7 130 (10.74%) SQL
8 100 (8.26%) Ada
9 74 (6.12%) C
10 72 (5.95%) Go
11 33 (2.73%) Kotlin
12 24 (1.98%) Rust
13 21 (1.74%) PowerShell
14 18 (1.49%) Embedded C
15 14 (1.16%) PHP
16 12 (0.99%) MATLAB
16 12 (0.99%) PL/SQL
17 11 (0.91%) Bash
18 7 (0.58%) R
19 6 (0.50%) Scala
Qualifications
1 291 (24.05%) Security Cleared
2 245 (20.25%) SC Cleared
3 49 (4.05%) Degree
4 37 (3.06%) DV Cleared
5 20 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (0.74%) AWS Certification
6 9 (0.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 5 (0.41%) ISTQB
7 5 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (0.25%) Chartered Engineer
8 3 (0.25%) PhD
9 2 (0.17%) CCNP
9 2 (0.17%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.17%) HNC
9 2 (0.17%) HND
9 2 (0.17%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.083%) OCA
10 1 (0.083%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (3.64%) QA
2 16 (1.32%) Def Stans
3 13 (1.07%) IEC 61508
4 11 (0.91%) MISRA
5 10 (0.83%) Data Quality
6 9 (0.74%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.74%) GDPR
7 8 (0.66%) DO-178B
8 5 (0.41%) WCAG
9 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.25%) MISRA C
11 2 (0.17%) ISO 26262
11 2 (0.17%) NCSC
12 1 (0.083%) FATCA
12 1 (0.083%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.083%) MIL-STD-1553
12 1 (0.083%) NIST
System Software
1 135 (11.16%) Docker
2 14 (1.16%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.17%) HDFS
4 2 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.083%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 118 (9.75%) Kubernetes
2 68 (5.62%) Terraform
3 20 (1.65%) Ansible
4 14 (1.16%) Argo
4 14 (1.16%) Grafana
5 8 (0.66%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.33%) Control-M
6 4 (0.33%) Kibana
6 4 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.25%) Functional Safety
7 3 (0.25%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.25%) Puppet
8 2 (0.17%) Cilium
8 2 (0.17%) HAProxy
9 1 (0.083%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.083%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (2.98%) Microsoft
2 26 (2.15%) Oracle
3 22 (1.82%) Red Hat
4 21 (1.74%) Google
5 10 (0.83%) IBM
6 8 (0.66%) SAP
7 7 (0.58%) Splunk
8 6 (0.50%) OpenAI
9 5 (0.41%) MathWorks
9 5 (0.41%) Siemens
10 4 (0.33%) Checkmarx
10 4 (0.33%) Databricks
10 4 (0.33%) Hitachi
10 4 (0.33%) Sybase
11 3 (0.25%) Informatica
11 3 (0.25%) Talend
11 3 (0.25%) VMware
12 2 (0.17%) Foundry
12 2 (0.17%) Palantir
12 2 (0.17%) TOWER Software