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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 130 68
Rank change year-on-year +41 -62 +63
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,226 589 1,136
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.73% 2.16% 3.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.96% 2.35% 3.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 555 397 604
10th Percentile £400 £410 £425
25th Percentile £463 £485 £512
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% -3.85% +10.17%
75th Percentile £688 £838 £800
90th Percentile £788 £875 £875
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £630
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.76% +6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 347 54 331
10th Percentile £53.34 £38.63 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £59.56 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.10 £76.75 £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 41,444 25,115 34,097
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 92.03% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,363 16,356 22,299
10th Percentile £325 £290 £300
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £638
90th Percentile £738 £740 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,982 1,217 2,452
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.77 £13.00
25th Percentile £22.20 £17.98 £17.25
Median hourly rate £45.56 £28.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.84% -28.75% -6.98%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.54
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £26.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +64.87% -33.75% -5.88%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -32 388 £625 -13.79% 597
South West +63 261 £550 -9.28% 222
North of England +12 196 £513 +7.89% 140
East of England +36 158 £504 +2.34% 127
South East +15 157 £550 +5.77% 169
North West +5 126 £550 +23.94% 86
Midlands -20 48 £450 -2.70% 65
Yorkshire -26 48 £481 -1.79% 36
West Midlands -37 37 £450 -7.69% 24
North East -11 24 £400 - 18
East Midlands -12 11 £473 -0.53% 41
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 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 1,208 (98.53%) Software Engineering
2 333 (27.16%) Agile
3 317 (25.86%) Java
4 305 (24.88%) Security Cleared
5 275 (22.43%) CI/CD
6 266 (21.70%) AWS
7 258 (21.04%) Python
8 250 (20.39%) SC Cleared
9 181 (14.76%) C++
10 164 (13.38%) TypeScript
11 160 (13.05%) C#
12 157 (12.81%) React
13 138 (11.26%) Full-Stack Development
14 136 (11.09%) JavaScript
15 135 (11.01%) DevOps
16 133 (10.85%) Microservices
17 130 (10.60%) Docker
18 126 (10.28%) SQL
19 117 (9.54%) Kubernetes
19 117 (9.54%) Linux
20 116 (9.46%) AI
21 115 (9.38%) Azure
22 112 (9.14%) Ada
23 108 (8.81%) Test Automation
24 105 (8.56%) .NET
25 101 (8.24%) Node.js
26 95 (7.75%) Kafka
27 90 (7.34%) Problem-Solving
28 87 (7.10%) Git
29 86 (7.01%) TDD

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 15 (1.22%) Confluence
2 12 (0.98%) Apache Spark
3 9 (0.73%) Apache
4 3 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.24%) nginx
4 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
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%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.16%) MS Visio
1 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.082%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.082%) S-PLUS
2 1 (0.082%) Trello
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 266 (21.70%) AWS
2 115 (9.38%) Azure
3 68 (5.55%) GCP
4 55 (4.49%) GitHub
5 52 (4.24%) Serverless
6 35 (2.85%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (2.12%) OpenShift
8 24 (1.96%) Amazon S3
8 24 (1.96%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (1.63%) Amazon EC2
10 18 (1.47%) Amazon SQS
11 16 (1.31%) Amazon ECS
12 13 (1.06%) SaaS
13 12 (0.98%) Amazon EKS
13 12 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
14 10 (0.82%) Anthropic Claude
14 10 (0.82%) Power Platform
15 9 (0.73%) AWS Step Functions
16 8 (0.65%) AWS CloudFormation
17 6 (0.49%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.28%) Software-Defined Radio
2 22 (1.79%) Wireless
3 20 (1.63%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.98%) HTTP
6 11 (0.90%) Firewall
7 9 (0.73%) 3GPP
7 9 (0.73%) VPN
8 7 (0.57%) RTP
9 6 (0.49%) Wireshark
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%) BGP
12 1 (0.082%) HTTPS
12 1 (0.082%) Network Security
12 1 (0.082%) RS-485
12 1 (0.082%) RTCP
12 1 (0.082%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (5.63%) PostgreSQL
2 43 (3.51%) Relational Database
3 37 (3.02%) SQL Server
4 26 (2.12%) NoSQL
5 17 (1.39%) DynamoDB
6 15 (1.22%) MongoDB
7 14 (1.14%) Apache Cassandra
7 14 (1.14%) Elasticsearch
8 12 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
8 12 (0.98%) MySQL
9 7 (0.57%) Hadoop
9 7 (0.57%) Metadata
10 6 (0.49%) Power BI
11 5 (0.41%) Amazon Athena
11 5 (0.41%) Data Lake
11 5 (0.41%) Redis
12 4 (0.33%) Big Data
12 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.33%) GIS
13 3 (0.24%) Data Hub
Development Applications
1 87 (7.10%) Git
2 62 (5.06%) Jenkins
3 46 (3.75%) GitLab
4 33 (2.69%) JIRA
5 22 (1.79%) JUnit
6 20 (1.63%) Visual Studio
7 19 (1.55%) Rational DOORS
8 18 (1.47%) SonarQube
9 17 (1.39%) Rational Rhapsody
10 14 (1.14%) Gradle
11 11 (0.90%) Eclipse
11 11 (0.90%) Liquibase
11 11 (0.90%) Mockito
12 10 (0.82%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.82%) Selenium
13 9 (0.73%) Cucumber
13 9 (0.73%) IntelliJ
14 7 (0.57%) LabVIEW
14 7 (0.57%) Maven
15 6 (0.49%) TeamCity
General
1 165 (13.46%) Finance
2 123 (10.03%) Social Skills
3 67 (5.46%) Aerospace
4 58 (4.73%) Front Office
5 57 (4.65%) Banking
6 54 (4.40%) Public Sector
7 39 (3.18%) Analytical Skills
8 33 (2.69%) Law
9 26 (2.12%) Manufacturing
10 18 (1.47%) Retail
11 17 (1.39%) Aviation
12 16 (1.31%) Automotive
13 14 (1.14%) Electronics
14 12 (0.98%) Military
15 11 (0.90%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.65%) Back Office
16 8 (0.65%) Telecoms
17 6 (0.49%) Avionics
18 5 (0.41%) Fire and Rescue
18 5 (0.41%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 157 (12.81%) React
2 105 (8.56%) .NET
3 101 (8.24%) Node.js
4 95 (7.75%) Kafka
5 84 (6.85%) Spring
6 78 (6.36%) Spring Boot
7 67 (5.46%) REST
8 56 (4.57%) Redux
9 53 (4.32%) AngularJS
10 52 (4.24%) GraphQL
11 40 (3.26%) RESTful
12 29 (2.37%) Django
13 24 (1.96%) Next.js
14 21 (1.71%) CSS
15 19 (1.55%) HTML
16 18 (1.47%) .NET Core
16 18 (1.47%) Middleware
17 17 (1.39%) FastAPI
17 17 (1.39%) Web Services
18 15 (1.22%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 105 (8.56%) Cloud Native
2 76 (6.20%) Distributed Systems
3 60 (4.89%) Fixed Income
4 48 (3.92%) Algorithms
5 34 (2.77%) Product Ownership
6 31 (2.53%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.71%) Derivative
8 19 (1.55%) AI Agents
9 18 (1.47%) Onboarding
10 17 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.22%) Equities
11 15 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
13 10 (0.82%) RISC-V
14 9 (0.73%) Data Structures
14 9 (0.73%) FPGA
14 9 (0.73%) Robotics
15 8 (0.65%) Data Centre
15 8 (0.65%) Device Driver
15 8 (0.65%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 117 (9.54%) Linux
2 41 (3.34%) Windows
3 16 (1.31%) Embedded Linux
4 15 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (0.98%) Unix
6 11 (0.90%) FreeRTOS
7 9 (0.73%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.49%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.33%) Android
10 3 (0.24%) Debian
10 3 (0.24%) Rocky
10 3 (0.24%) Solaris
10 3 (0.24%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.16%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.082%) Tizen
12 1 (0.082%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,208 (98.53%) Software Engineering
2 333 (27.16%) Agile
3 275 (22.43%) CI/CD
4 138 (11.26%) Full-Stack Development
5 135 (11.01%) DevOps
6 133 (10.85%) Microservices
7 116 (9.46%) AI
8 108 (8.81%) Test Automation
9 90 (7.34%) Problem-Solving
10 86 (7.01%) TDD
11 71 (5.79%) Continuous Improvement
12 69 (5.63%) Containerisation
13 67 (5.46%) Software Testing
14 64 (5.22%) Mentoring
15 63 (5.14%) Infrastructure as Code
16 62 (5.06%) SDLC
17 61 (4.98%) Machine Learning
18 58 (4.73%) Clean Code
19 56 (4.57%) Event-Driven
20 53 (4.32%) Investment Management
Programming Languages
1 317 (25.86%) Java
2 258 (21.04%) Python
3 181 (14.76%) C++
4 164 (13.38%) TypeScript
5 160 (13.05%) C#
6 136 (11.09%) JavaScript
7 126 (10.28%) SQL
8 112 (9.14%) Ada
9 77 (6.28%) C
10 72 (5.87%) Go
11 24 (1.96%) Kotlin
12 23 (1.88%) Rust
13 19 (1.55%) Embedded C
14 17 (1.39%) PowerShell
15 16 (1.31%) MATLAB
16 13 (1.06%) PL/SQL
17 12 (0.98%) PHP
18 11 (0.90%) Bash
19 7 (0.57%) R
19 7 (0.57%) Scala
Qualifications
1 305 (24.88%) Security Cleared
2 250 (20.39%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.16%) Degree
4 37 (3.02%) DV Cleared
5 21 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (1.63%) 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
9 3 (0.24%) PhD
10 2 (0.16%) CCNP
10 2 (0.16%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.16%) HNC
10 2 (0.16%) HND
10 2 (0.16%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.082%) OCA
11 1 (0.082%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.082%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.43%) QA
2 25 (2.04%) Def Stans
3 20 (1.63%) IEC 61508
4 15 (1.22%) MISRA
5 10 (0.82%) Data Quality
6 9 (0.73%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.73%) DO-178B
6 9 (0.73%) GDPR
7 6 (0.49%) MISRA C
8 5 (0.41%) WCAG
9 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.16%) ISO 26262
10 2 (0.16%) NCSC
11 1 (0.082%) FATCA
11 1 (0.082%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.082%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.082%) NIST
System Software
1 130 (10.60%) Docker
2 16 (1.31%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.16%) HDFS
4 2 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.082%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.082%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 117 (9.54%) Kubernetes
2 63 (5.14%) Terraform
3 18 (1.47%) Ansible
4 16 (1.31%) Grafana
5 13 (1.06%) Argo
6 8 (0.65%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.33%) Control-M
8 4 (0.33%) Kibana
9 3 (0.24%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.16%) Cilium
10 2 (0.16%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.16%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.16%) Puppet
11 1 (0.082%) CA Endevor
11 1 (0.082%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.082%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 35 (2.85%) Microsoft
2 26 (2.12%) Oracle
3 23 (1.88%) Red Hat
4 20 (1.63%) Google
5 11 (0.90%) IBM
6 8 (0.65%) SAP
7 7 (0.57%) Databricks
7 7 (0.57%) Splunk
8 6 (0.49%) MathWorks
8 6 (0.49%) Siemens
9 5 (0.41%) OpenAI
10 4 (0.33%) Checkmarx
10 4 (0.33%) Sybase
11 3 (0.24%) Informatica
11 3 (0.24%) Spotify
11 3 (0.24%) Talend
12 2 (0.16%) NVIDIA
12 2 (0.16%) PagerDuty
12 2 (0.16%) Palantir
12 2 (0.16%) Rockwell