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 June 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 139 65
Rank change year-on-year +49 -74 +73
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,188 497 1,165
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.78% 2.02% 3.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.01% 2.19% 3.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 518 350 589
10th Percentile £400 £410 £450
25th Percentile £463 £475 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £630
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% -0.79% +5.00%
75th Percentile £688 £825 £788
90th Percentile £788 £875 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 34 356
10th Percentile £52.50 £46.76 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.13 £59.56 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.73 £83.15 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +1.96%

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 39,453 22,713 34,813
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.34% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,315 14,934 22,760
10th Percentile £325 £294 £288
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £514 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.17% -2.10% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £635 £638
90th Percentile £730 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £514 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.80% -4.76% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,782 1,000 2,654
10th Percentile £15.89 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.04 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.99% -26.49% -12.22%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £27.70 £37.50
% change year-on-year +54.10% -26.13% -16.67%

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 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 13 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 13 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 -24 360 £618 -10.05% 144
South West +77 276 £551 -10.91% 102
North of England +31 187 £500 +11.11% 116
South East +26 155 £550 +5.77% 174
East of England +53 140 £500 +23.46% 100
North West +20 110 £525 +16.67% 71
Yorkshire -16 54 £500 +5.26% 20
Midlands -28 45 £450 -2.70% 45
West Midlands -24 35 £450 -7.69% 24
North East -10 25 £400 - 25
East Midlands -18 10 £473 -0.53% 21
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 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 1,172 (98.65%) Software Engineering
2 317 (26.68%) Java
3 303 (25.51%) Agile
4 280 (23.57%) Security Cleared
5 271 (22.81%) CI/CD
6 269 (22.64%) AWS
7 227 (19.11%) Python
8 222 (18.69%) SC Cleared
9 174 (14.65%) C++
10 170 (14.31%) C#
11 161 (13.55%) TypeScript
12 158 (13.30%) React
13 140 (11.78%) JavaScript
14 137 (11.53%) Microservices
15 134 (11.28%) DevOps
15 134 (11.28%) SQL
16 132 (11.11%) Full-Stack Development
17 130 (10.94%) Docker
18 124 (10.44%) Kubernetes
19 120 (10.10%) Linux
20 119 (10.02%) Azure
21 117 (9.85%) AI
22 107 (9.01%) Ada
23 103 (8.67%) .NET
24 98 (8.25%) Test Automation
25 95 (8.00%) Node.js
26 94 (7.91%) Kafka
27 90 (7.58%) Git
28 88 (7.41%) Spring
29 87 (7.32%) Spring Boot

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 (1.18%) Apache Spark
1 14 (1.18%) Confluence
2 13 (1.09%) Apache
3 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.25%) nginx
3 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
4 2 (0.17%) Camunda
4 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
4 2 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.17%) SAS
4 2 (0.17%) WebLogic
4 2 (0.17%) WinCC
5 1 (0.084%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.084%) Apache Synapse
5 1 (0.084%) CMS
5 1 (0.084%) IIS
5 1 (0.084%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.084%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.084%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.17%) LabWindows
3 1 (0.084%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 269 (22.64%) AWS
2 119 (10.02%) Azure
3 66 (5.56%) GCP
4 56 (4.71%) Serverless
5 54 (4.55%) GitHub
6 34 (2.86%) AWS Lambda
7 27 (2.27%) Amazon S3
7 27 (2.27%) OpenShift
8 22 (1.85%) Amazon EC2
9 20 (1.68%) GitHub Actions
10 19 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
11 17 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
12 16 (1.35%) Amazon SQS
13 14 (1.18%) Power Platform
14 12 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
14 12 (1.01%) SaaS
15 11 (0.93%) AWS CloudFormation
16 10 (0.84%) Azure Functions
17 9 (0.76%) Anthropic Claude
18 8 (0.67%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.69%) Software-Defined Radio
2 21 (1.77%) Wireless
3 19 (1.60%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.18%) TCP/IP
5 12 (1.01%) HTTP
6 9 (0.76%) 3GPP
7 7 (0.59%) Firewall
7 7 (0.59%) RTP
8 6 (0.51%) Wireshark
9 5 (0.42%) VPN
10 2 (0.17%) DNS
10 2 (0.17%) Internet
11 1 (0.084%) BGP
11 1 (0.084%) Bluetooth
11 1 (0.084%) HTTPS
11 1 (0.084%) Modbus
11 1 (0.084%) MQTT
11 1 (0.084%) Network Security
11 1 (0.084%) RTCP
11 1 (0.084%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (5.98%) PostgreSQL
2 40 (3.37%) Relational Database
3 33 (2.78%) SQL Server
4 23 (1.94%) NoSQL
5 20 (1.68%) Apache Cassandra
6 18 (1.52%) Amazon RDS
6 18 (1.52%) MongoDB
7 17 (1.43%) DynamoDB
8 15 (1.26%) MySQL
9 12 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.93%) Data Lake
11 10 (0.84%) Metadata
11 10 (0.84%) Power BI
12 9 (0.76%) Amazon Athena
13 7 (0.59%) Hadoop
13 7 (0.59%) Mixpanel
14 5 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
14 5 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.42%) BigQuery
15 4 (0.34%) Redis
Development Applications
1 90 (7.58%) Git
2 57 (4.80%) Jenkins
3 51 (4.29%) GitLab
4 35 (2.95%) JIRA
5 25 (2.10%) JUnit
6 23 (1.94%) Gradle
7 21 (1.77%) Rational Rhapsody
8 20 (1.68%) Rational DOORS
8 20 (1.68%) Visual Studio
9 18 (1.52%) SonarQube
10 16 (1.35%) IntelliJ
11 13 (1.09%) Cucumber
11 13 (1.09%) Mockito
12 11 (0.93%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.93%) Liquibase
13 10 (0.84%) Selenium
14 9 (0.76%) Bitbucket
14 9 (0.76%) Maven
15 7 (0.59%) Cypress.io
15 7 (0.59%) LabVIEW
General
1 158 (13.30%) Finance
2 95 (8.00%) Social Skills
3 65 (5.47%) Aerospace
4 53 (4.46%) Front Office
5 45 (3.79%) Banking
6 38 (3.20%) Public Sector
7 32 (2.69%) Analytical Skills
8 30 (2.53%) Law
9 26 (2.19%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.43%) Aviation
11 15 (1.26%) Retail
12 14 (1.18%) Automotive
12 14 (1.18%) Military
13 11 (0.93%) Investment Banking
14 8 (0.67%) Electronics
15 7 (0.59%) Back Office
15 7 (0.59%) Telecoms
16 6 (0.51%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.42%) Fire and Rescue
17 5 (0.42%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 158 (13.30%) React
2 103 (8.67%) .NET
3 95 (8.00%) Node.js
4 94 (7.91%) Kafka
5 88 (7.41%) Spring
6 87 (7.32%) Spring Boot
7 68 (5.72%) REST
8 60 (5.05%) AngularJS
9 51 (4.29%) Redux
10 48 (4.04%) GraphQL
11 40 (3.37%) RESTful
12 27 (2.27%) Next.js
13 24 (2.02%) Middleware
14 23 (1.94%) CSS
15 21 (1.77%) HTML
16 17 (1.43%) FastAPI
17 16 (1.35%) Vue
17 16 (1.35%) Web Services
18 15 (1.26%) Qt
18 15 (1.26%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 99 (8.33%) Cloud Native
2 67 (5.64%) Distributed Systems
3 63 (5.30%) Algorithms
4 56 (4.71%) Fixed Income
5 34 (2.86%) Product Ownership
6 28 (2.36%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.77%) Derivative
8 20 (1.68%) AI Agents
9 18 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (1.26%) Equities
10 15 (1.26%) Onboarding
10 15 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
11 13 (1.09%) Robotics
12 11 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (0.84%) FPGA
14 8 (0.67%) Data Centre
14 8 (0.67%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.67%) Mobile App
14 8 (0.67%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 120 (10.10%) Linux
2 42 (3.54%) Windows
3 17 (1.43%) Unix
4 16 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (1.26%) Embedded Linux
6 11 (0.93%) FreeRTOS
7 10 (0.84%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.51%) Windows Server
9 5 (0.42%) Android
10 4 (0.34%) Debian
10 4 (0.34%) Rocky
10 4 (0.34%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.25%) Solaris
11 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.17%) VxWorks
13 1 (0.084%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.084%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.084%) Tizen
13 1 (0.084%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,172 (98.65%) Software Engineering
2 303 (25.51%) Agile
3 271 (22.81%) CI/CD
4 137 (11.53%) Microservices
5 134 (11.28%) DevOps
6 132 (11.11%) Full-Stack Development
7 117 (9.85%) AI
8 98 (8.25%) Test Automation
9 84 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
10 79 (6.65%) TDD
11 75 (6.31%) Containerisation
12 65 (5.47%) Infrastructure as Code
12 65 (5.47%) SDLC
13 62 (5.22%) Machine Learning
14 58 (4.88%) Mentoring
15 57 (4.80%) Scrum
16 56 (4.71%) Continuous Improvement
17 54 (4.55%) Software Testing
18 51 (4.29%) Unit Testing
19 50 (4.21%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 317 (26.68%) Java
2 227 (19.11%) Python
3 174 (14.65%) C++
4 170 (14.31%) C#
5 161 (13.55%) TypeScript
6 140 (11.78%) JavaScript
7 134 (11.28%) SQL
8 107 (9.01%) Ada
9 81 (6.82%) Go
10 76 (6.40%) C
11 26 (2.19%) Kotlin
12 25 (2.10%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.85%) MATLAB
13 22 (1.85%) Rust
14 20 (1.68%) PowerShell
15 15 (1.26%) PL/SQL
16 11 (0.93%) Bash
17 10 (0.84%) PHP
18 9 (0.76%) Embedded C++
19 7 (0.59%) Scala
Qualifications
1 280 (23.57%) Security Cleared
2 222 (18.69%) SC Cleared
3 55 (4.63%) Degree
4 38 (3.20%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.67%) AWS Certification
7 8 (0.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (0.42%) ISTQB
8 5 (0.42%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.25%) Chartered Engineer
10 2 (0.17%) CCNP
10 2 (0.17%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.17%) HNC
10 2 (0.17%) HND
11 1 (0.084%) CCDP
11 1 (0.084%) CCNA
11 1 (0.084%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.084%) OCA
11 1 (0.084%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.54%) QA
2 27 (2.27%) IEC 61508
3 26 (2.19%) Def Stans
4 14 (1.18%) MISRA
5 13 (1.09%) Data Quality
6 11 (0.93%) GDPR
6 11 (0.93%) MISRA C
7 9 (0.76%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.42%) WCAG
9 4 (0.34%) NCSC
9 4 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.25%) DO-178B
11 2 (0.17%) HL7
11 2 (0.17%) ISO 26262
12 1 (0.084%) DICOM
12 1 (0.084%) FATCA
12 1 (0.084%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.084%) NIST
System Software
1 130 (10.94%) Docker
2 13 (1.09%) Firmware
3 5 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
3 5 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.17%) HDFS
7 1 (0.084%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 124 (10.44%) Kubernetes
2 69 (5.81%) Terraform
3 23 (1.94%) Grafana
4 18 (1.52%) Ansible
5 13 (1.09%) Argo
6 7 (0.59%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.34%) Data Guard
7 4 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.25%) Control-M
8 3 (0.25%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.17%) Cilium
9 2 (0.17%) HAProxy
9 2 (0.17%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.17%) Puppet
10 1 (0.084%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 35 (2.95%) Microsoft
2 31 (2.61%) Red Hat
3 28 (2.36%) Oracle
4 23 (1.94%) Google
5 16 (1.35%) IBM
6 15 (1.26%) Databricks
7 10 (0.84%) MathWorks
8 7 (0.59%) Splunk
9 6 (0.51%) SAP
9 6 (0.51%) Siemens
9 6 (0.51%) Spotify
10 5 (0.42%) OpenAI
10 5 (0.42%) VMware
11 4 (0.34%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.34%) Checkmarx
11 4 (0.34%) Sybase
12 3 (0.25%) ANSYS
12 3 (0.25%) Informatica
12 3 (0.25%) Talend
13 2 (0.17%) Palantir