Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £553, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 June 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 134 66
Rank change year-on-year +47 -68 +70
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,231 527 1,168
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.83% 2.10% 3.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.07% 2.27% 3.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 543 370 592
10th Percentile £400 £413 £450
25th Percentile £463 £477 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £553 £625 £634
Median % change year-on-year -11.60% -1.38% +5.63%
75th Percentile £688 £825 £800
90th Percentile £788 £875 £875
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 365 36 354
10th Percentile £52.69 £43.88 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £59.00 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £82.25 £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 40,099 23,167 34,776
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.29% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,670 15,218 22,731
10th Percentile £325 £293 £293
25th Percentile £417 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £635 £638
90th Percentile £735 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £519 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.80% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,851 1,043 2,631
10th Percentile £15.99 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.93 £18.04 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.75 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +56.52% -27.22% -9.47%
75th Percentile £67.60 £57.55 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £27.13 £37.50
% change year-on-year +60.37% -27.67% -12.79%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -26 380 £625 -10.71% 179
South West +69 283 £550 -11.11% 107
North of England +26 193 £500 +11.11% 109
South East +24 160 £550 +5.77% 171
East of England +43 145 £500 +1.52% 109
North West +20 118 £550 +22.22% 68
Yorkshire -20 51 £488 +1.04% 15
Midlands -30 47 £450 -2.70% 45
West Midlands -28 37 £450 -7.69% 17
North East -10 26 £400 - 26
East Midlands -16 10 £473 -0.53% 28
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 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 1,214 (98.62%) Software Engineering
2 330 (26.81%) Agile
3 320 (26.00%) Java
4 300 (24.37%) Security Cleared
5 278 (22.58%) AWS
5 278 (22.58%) CI/CD
6 245 (19.90%) Python
7 241 (19.58%) SC Cleared
8 186 (15.11%) C++
9 173 (14.05%) C#
10 167 (13.57%) TypeScript
11 161 (13.08%) React
12 142 (11.54%) JavaScript
13 141 (11.45%) DevOps
13 141 (11.45%) Full-Stack Development
14 138 (11.21%) Microservices
15 137 (11.13%) Docker
16 135 (10.97%) SQL
17 128 (10.40%) Kubernetes
18 123 (9.99%) Azure
19 119 (9.67%) AI
20 116 (9.42%) Linux
21 112 (9.10%) Ada
22 107 (8.69%) .NET
23 103 (8.37%) Test Automation
24 99 (8.04%) Kafka
24 99 (8.04%) Node.js
25 92 (7.47%) Git
26 88 (7.15%) Problem-Solving
27 87 (7.07%) 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 (0.89%) 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 (0.081%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.081%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.081%) CMS
6 1 (0.081%) IIS
6 1 (0.081%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.081%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.081%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.081%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.16%) LabWindows
Cloud Services
1 278 (22.58%) AWS
2 123 (9.99%) Azure
3 64 (5.20%) GCP
4 57 (4.63%) GitHub
5 56 (4.55%) Serverless
6 34 (2.76%) AWS Lambda
7 30 (2.44%) OpenShift
8 25 (2.03%) Amazon S3
9 23 (1.87%) GitHub Actions
10 21 (1.71%) Amazon EC2
11 19 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
12 17 (1.38%) Amazon ECS
12 17 (1.38%) Amazon SQS
13 13 (1.06%) Amazon EKS
13 13 (1.06%) SaaS
14 11 (0.89%) Power Platform
15 10 (0.81%) Anthropic Claude
15 10 (0.81%) Azure Functions
16 9 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
16 9 (0.73%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.60%) Software-Defined Radio
2 21 (1.71%) Wireless
3 20 (1.62%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.97%) 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 (0.32%) Internet
11 2 (0.16%) DNS
11 2 (0.16%) RS-232
11 2 (0.16%) RS-422
12 1 (0.081%) Modbus
12 1 (0.081%) MQTT
12 1 (0.081%) Network Security
12 1 (0.081%) RS-485
12 1 (0.081%) VLAN
12 1 (0.081%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (5.85%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (3.41%) Relational Database
3 34 (2.76%) SQL Server
4 25 (2.03%) NoSQL
5 18 (1.46%) Apache Cassandra
5 18 (1.46%) DynamoDB
5 18 (1.46%) MongoDB
6 17 (1.38%) MySQL
7 16 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
8 12 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
9 8 (0.65%) Data Lake
9 8 (0.65%) Metadata
10 7 (0.57%) Hadoop
10 7 (0.57%) Power BI
11 6 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
12 5 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
12 5 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
13 4 (0.32%) Big Data
13 4 (0.32%) GIS
13 4 (0.32%) Redis
Development Applications
1 92 (7.47%) Git
2 61 (4.96%) Jenkins
3 49 (3.98%) GitLab
4 33 (2.68%) JIRA
5 24 (1.95%) JUnit
6 21 (1.71%) Visual Studio
7 20 (1.62%) Rational DOORS
7 20 (1.62%) Rational Rhapsody
8 19 (1.54%) Gradle
9 18 (1.46%) SonarQube
10 13 (1.06%) Mockito
11 12 (0.97%) IntelliJ
12 11 (0.89%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.89%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.89%) Liquibase
13 10 (0.81%) Selenium
14 9 (0.73%) Bitbucket
14 9 (0.73%) Maven
15 7 (0.57%) Cypress.io
15 7 (0.57%) LabVIEW
General
1 163 (13.24%) Finance
2 115 (9.34%) Social Skills
3 66 (5.36%) Aerospace
4 58 (4.71%) Front Office
5 53 (4.31%) Banking
6 45 (3.66%) Public Sector
7 37 (3.01%) Analytical Skills
8 31 (2.52%) Law
9 24 (1.95%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.38%) Aviation
10 17 (1.38%) Retail
11 14 (1.14%) Automotive
12 12 (0.97%) Military
13 11 (0.89%) Electronics
13 11 (0.89%) Investment Banking
14 8 (0.65%) Back Office
15 7 (0.57%) Telecoms
16 6 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.41%) Fire and Rescue
17 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 161 (13.08%) React
2 107 (8.69%) .NET
3 99 (8.04%) Kafka
3 99 (8.04%) Node.js
4 87 (7.07%) Spring
4 87 (7.07%) Spring Boot
5 71 (5.77%) REST
6 56 (4.55%) Redux
7 55 (4.47%) AngularJS
8 50 (4.06%) GraphQL
9 39 (3.17%) RESTful
10 26 (2.11%) Next.js
11 24 (1.95%) Middleware
12 23 (1.87%) CSS
13 21 (1.71%) HTML
14 18 (1.46%) Django
14 18 (1.46%) FastAPI
15 17 (1.38%) .NET Core
15 17 (1.38%) Vue
16 16 (1.30%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 107 (8.69%) Cloud Native
2 76 (6.17%) Distributed Systems
3 60 (4.87%) Algorithms
3 60 (4.87%) Fixed Income
4 36 (2.92%) Product Ownership
5 30 (2.44%) Embedded Systems
6 21 (1.71%) Derivative
7 20 (1.62%) AI Agents
8 18 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
8 18 (1.46%) Onboarding
9 15 (1.22%) Equities
9 15 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (0.81%) FPGA
11 10 (0.81%) Robotics
12 9 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
13 8 (0.65%) Data Centre
13 8 (0.65%) Data Structures
13 8 (0.65%) PCIe
13 8 (0.65%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 116 (9.42%) Linux
2 42 (3.41%) Windows
3 16 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (1.22%) Embedded Linux
5 14 (1.14%) Unix
6 11 (0.89%) FreeRTOS
7 9 (0.73%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.49%) Windows Server
9 5 (0.41%) Android
10 4 (0.32%) Debian
10 4 (0.32%) Rocky
10 4 (0.32%) 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 (0.081%) Tizen
13 1 (0.081%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,214 (98.62%) Software Engineering
2 330 (26.81%) Agile
3 278 (22.58%) CI/CD
4 141 (11.45%) DevOps
4 141 (11.45%) Full-Stack Development
5 138 (11.21%) Microservices
6 119 (9.67%) AI
7 103 (8.37%) Test Automation
8 88 (7.15%) Problem-Solving
9 87 (7.07%) TDD
10 75 (6.09%) Containerisation
11 71 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
12 65 (5.28%) SDLC
13 64 (5.20%) Infrastructure as Code
13 64 (5.20%) Mentoring
14 63 (5.12%) Software Testing
15 62 (5.04%) Machine Learning
16 56 (4.55%) Scrum
17 54 (4.39%) Clean Code
18 53 (4.31%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 320 (26.00%) Java
2 245 (19.90%) Python
3 186 (15.11%) C++
4 173 (14.05%) C#
5 167 (13.57%) TypeScript
6 142 (11.54%) JavaScript
7 135 (10.97%) SQL
8 112 (9.10%) Ada
9 82 (6.66%) C
10 80 (6.50%) Go
11 26 (2.11%) Kotlin
12 24 (1.95%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.79%) MATLAB
13 22 (1.79%) Rust
14 19 (1.54%) PowerShell
15 16 (1.30%) PL/SQL
16 11 (0.89%) Bash
16 11 (0.89%) PHP
17 8 (0.65%) Embedded C++
18 7 (0.57%) Scala
Qualifications
1 300 (24.37%) Security Cleared
2 241 (19.58%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.14%) Degree
4 39 (3.17%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.46%) 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 (0.081%) CCDP
11 1 (0.081%) CCNA
11 1 (0.081%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.081%) OCA
11 1 (0.081%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.49%) QA
2 30 (2.44%) Def Stans
3 27 (2.19%) IEC 61508
4 18 (1.46%) MISRA
5 11 (0.89%) Data Quality
5 11 (0.89%) MISRA C
6 10 (0.81%) GDPR
7 9 (0.73%) Accessibility
8 7 (0.57%) DO-178B
9 5 (0.41%) WCAG
10 4 (0.32%) NCSC
10 4 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.16%) ISO 26262
12 1 (0.081%) DICOM
12 1 (0.081%) FATCA
12 1 (0.081%) HL7
12 1 (0.081%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.081%) MIL-STD-1553
12 1 (0.081%) NIST
System Software
1 137 (11.13%) Docker
2 17 (1.38%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.16%) HDFS
5 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.081%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 128 (10.40%) Kubernetes
2 69 (5.61%) Terraform
3 19 (1.54%) Grafana
4 18 (1.46%) Ansible
5 13 (1.06%) Argo
6 7 (0.57%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.32%) Control-M
8 4 (0.32%) Data Guard
8 4 (0.32%) 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 (0.081%) CA Endevor
11 1 (0.081%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (2.92%) Microsoft
2 29 (2.36%) Oracle
3 27 (2.19%) Red Hat
4 21 (1.71%) Google
5 16 (1.30%) IBM
6 12 (0.97%) Databricks
7 10 (0.81%) MathWorks
8 7 (0.57%) SAP
8 7 (0.57%) Splunk
9 6 (0.49%) Siemens
10 5 (0.41%) OpenAI
10 5 (0.41%) Spotify
11 4 (0.32%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.32%) Checkmarx
11 4 (0.32%) Sybase
11 4 (0.32%) VMware
12 3 (0.24%) Informatica
12 3 (0.24%) Talend
13 2 (0.16%) PagerDuty
13 2 (0.16%) Palantir