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 17 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
17 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 129 69
Rank change year-on-year +35 -60 +61
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,215 593 1,114
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.71% 2.18% 3.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.93% 2.37% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 555 399 600
10th Percentile £400 £409 £425
25th Percentile £463 £481 £512
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% -3.85% +10.17%
75th Percentile £688 £831 £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 335 54 314
10th Percentile £52.50 £38.63 £48.00
25th Percentile £61.25 £61.44 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £69.50 £68.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.25 £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 41,413 25,002 33,620
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.90% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,306 16,263 22,078
10th Percentile £325 £293 £300
25th Percentile £425 £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 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,966 1,234 2,327
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £22.26 £17.87 £17.72
Median hourly rate £45.56 £27.70 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +64.46% -30.75% -6.98%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.12 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.03 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £44.50 £25.31 £40.00
% change year-on-year +75.82% -36.73% -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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -37 392 £625 -13.79% 283
South West +60 251 £550 -4.35% 119
North of England +13 195 £525 +13.51% 162
South East +27 158 £530 +1.92% 176
East of England +38 152 £504 +2.34% 123
North West +9 125 £550 +23.94% 93
Yorkshire -17 49 £481 -1.79% 43
Midlands -27 49 £450 -2.70% 94
West Midlands -30 38 £450 -7.69% 25
North East -15 23 £226 - 26
East Midlands -12 11 £473 -0.53% 69
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 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 1,198 (98.60%) Software Engineering
2 335 (27.57%) Agile
3 315 (25.93%) Java
4 295 (24.28%) Security Cleared
5 279 (22.96%) CI/CD
6 262 (21.56%) AWS
6 262 (21.56%) Python
7 246 (20.25%) SC Cleared
8 176 (14.49%) C++
9 167 (13.74%) TypeScript
10 162 (13.33%) React
11 159 (13.09%) C#
12 142 (11.69%) Full-Stack Development
13 140 (11.52%) JavaScript
14 132 (10.86%) DevOps
15 131 (10.78%) Docker
16 129 (10.62%) Microservices
17 126 (10.37%) SQL
18 119 (9.79%) AI
19 118 (9.71%) Kubernetes
20 116 (9.55%) Azure
21 115 (9.47%) Linux
22 111 (9.14%) Test Automation
23 106 (8.72%) .NET
24 102 (8.40%) Ada
24 102 (8.40%) Node.js
25 95 (7.82%) Kafka
26 92 (7.57%) Problem-Solving
27 89 (7.33%) Git
28 87 (7.16%) 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 14 (1.15%) 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 (0.16%) MQSeries
6 2 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.16%) SAS
6 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.16%) WinCC
6 2 (0.16%) WordPress
7 1 (0.082%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.082%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.082%) Apache Synapse
7 1 (0.082%) IIS
7 1 (0.082%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.082%) SharePoint
7 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
1 2 (0.16%) Trello
2 1 (0.082%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.082%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 262 (21.56%) AWS
2 116 (9.55%) Azure
3 70 (5.76%) GCP
4 59 (4.86%) GitHub
5 54 (4.44%) Serverless
6 36 (2.96%) AWS Lambda
7 28 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
8 26 (2.14%) OpenShift
9 24 (1.98%) Amazon S3
10 19 (1.56%) Amazon SQS
11 18 (1.48%) Amazon EC2
12 17 (1.40%) Amazon ECS
13 13 (1.07%) Amazon EKS
13 13 (1.07%) SaaS
14 11 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (0.82%) Anthropic Claude
15 10 (0.82%) Power Platform
16 7 (0.58%) Amazon EventBridge
16 7 (0.58%) AWS Step Functions
16 7 (0.58%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 27 (2.22%) Software-Defined Radio
2 23 (1.89%) Wireless
3 20 (1.65%) Ethernet
4 15 (1.23%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.99%) HTTP
6 11 (0.91%) Firewall
7 9 (0.74%) 3GPP
7 9 (0.74%) VPN
8 7 (0.58%) RTP
9 6 (0.49%) Wireshark
10 4 (0.33%) Internet
11 3 (0.25%) Network Security
12 2 (0.16%) DNS
12 2 (0.16%) RS-232
12 2 (0.16%) RS-422
13 1 (0.082%) BGP
13 1 (0.082%) HTTPS
13 1 (0.082%) MQTT
13 1 (0.082%) RS-485
13 1 (0.082%) RTCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (5.93%) PostgreSQL
2 45 (3.70%) Relational Database
3 39 (3.21%) SQL Server
4 27 (2.22%) NoSQL
5 16 (1.32%) DynamoDB
6 15 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
6 15 (1.23%) MongoDB
7 12 (0.99%) Apache Cassandra
8 11 (0.91%) MySQL
9 9 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
10 7 (0.58%) Metadata
11 6 (0.49%) Power BI
11 6 (0.49%) Redis
12 5 (0.41%) Big Data
12 5 (0.41%) Hadoop
13 4 (0.33%) Amazon Athena
13 4 (0.33%) Data Lake
13 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
13 4 (0.33%) GIS
14 3 (0.25%) Data Hub
Development Applications
1 89 (7.33%) Git
2 61 (5.02%) Jenkins
3 48 (3.95%) GitLab
4 30 (2.47%) JIRA
5 21 (1.73%) JUnit
6 19 (1.56%) Visual Studio
7 18 (1.48%) SonarQube
8 17 (1.40%) Rational DOORS
9 14 (1.15%) Gradle
9 14 (1.15%) Rational Rhapsody
10 11 (0.91%) Eclipse
10 11 (0.91%) Liquibase
10 11 (0.91%) Mockito
11 9 (0.74%) Bitbucket
11 9 (0.74%) Selenium
12 8 (0.66%) Cucumber
12 8 (0.66%) IntelliJ
13 7 (0.58%) LabVIEW
14 6 (0.49%) Maven
14 6 (0.49%) Mocha
General
1 166 (13.66%) Finance
2 124 (10.21%) Social Skills
3 66 (5.43%) Aerospace
4 60 (4.94%) Banking
5 59 (4.86%) Front Office
6 53 (4.36%) Public Sector
7 41 (3.37%) Analytical Skills
8 31 (2.55%) Law
9 26 (2.14%) Manufacturing
10 18 (1.48%) Retail
11 17 (1.40%) Aviation
12 16 (1.32%) Automotive
13 14 (1.15%) Electronics
14 12 (0.99%) Military
15 11 (0.91%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.66%) Back Office
16 8 (0.66%) Telecoms
17 6 (0.49%) Avionics
18 5 (0.41%) Fire and Rescue
18 5 (0.41%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 162 (13.33%) React
2 106 (8.72%) .NET
3 102 (8.40%) Node.js
4 95 (7.82%) Kafka
5 82 (6.75%) Spring
6 76 (6.26%) Spring Boot
7 69 (5.68%) REST
8 56 (4.61%) Redux
9 55 (4.53%) AngularJS
10 52 (4.28%) GraphQL
11 39 (3.21%) RESTful
12 32 (2.63%) Django
13 24 (1.98%) Next.js
14 23 (1.89%) CSS
15 21 (1.73%) HTML
16 19 (1.56%) FastAPI
17 18 (1.48%) .NET Core
18 16 (1.32%) Web Services
19 15 (1.23%) Vue
20 14 (1.15%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 111 (9.14%) Cloud Native
2 75 (6.17%) Distributed Systems
3 61 (5.02%) Fixed Income
4 44 (3.62%) Algorithms
5 34 (2.80%) Product Ownership
6 31 (2.55%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.73%) Derivative
8 20 (1.65%) AI Agents
9 18 (1.48%) Onboarding
10 16 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.23%) Equities
11 15 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (0.91%) Data Structures
14 10 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (0.82%) RISC-V
15 9 (0.74%) FPGA
15 9 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
16 8 (0.66%) Data Centre
16 8 (0.66%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 115 (9.47%) Linux
2 39 (3.21%) Windows
3 17 (1.40%) Embedded Linux
4 15 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (0.99%) Unix
6 11 (0.91%) FreeRTOS
7 9 (0.74%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.49%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.33%) 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 (0.16%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.082%) Tizen
12 1 (0.082%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,198 (98.60%) Software Engineering
2 335 (27.57%) Agile
3 279 (22.96%) CI/CD
4 142 (11.69%) Full-Stack Development
5 132 (10.86%) DevOps
6 129 (10.62%) Microservices
7 119 (9.79%) AI
8 111 (9.14%) Test Automation
9 92 (7.57%) Problem-Solving
10 87 (7.16%) TDD
11 74 (6.09%) Continuous Improvement
12 69 (5.68%) Containerisation
13 66 (5.43%) Software Testing
14 64 (5.27%) Infrastructure as Code
14 64 (5.27%) Mentoring
15 62 (5.10%) Machine Learning
16 59 (4.86%) SDLC
17 58 (4.77%) Event-Driven
18 57 (4.69%) Clean Code
19 53 (4.36%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 315 (25.93%) Java
2 262 (21.56%) Python
3 176 (14.49%) C++
4 167 (13.74%) TypeScript
5 159 (13.09%) C#
6 140 (11.52%) JavaScript
7 126 (10.37%) SQL
8 102 (8.40%) Ada
9 75 (6.17%) C
10 74 (6.09%) Go
11 29 (2.39%) Kotlin
12 22 (1.81%) Rust
13 19 (1.56%) Embedded C
13 19 (1.56%) PowerShell
14 14 (1.15%) PHP
15 13 (1.07%) MATLAB
16 12 (0.99%) PL/SQL
17 11 (0.91%) Bash
18 7 (0.58%) R
19 6 (0.49%) Scala
Qualifications
1 295 (24.28%) Security Cleared
2 246 (20.25%) SC Cleared
3 50 (4.12%) Degree
4 36 (2.96%) DV Cleared
5 20 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (0.66%) AWS Certification
6 8 (0.66%) 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 (0.16%) CCNP
9 2 (0.16%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.16%) HNC
9 2 (0.16%) HND
9 2 (0.16%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.082%) CCDP
10 1 (0.082%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.46%) QA
2 19 (1.56%) Def Stans
3 14 (1.15%) IEC 61508
4 13 (1.07%) MISRA
5 10 (0.82%) Data Quality
6 9 (0.74%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.74%) DO-178B
6 9 (0.74%) GDPR
7 5 (0.41%) WCAG
8 4 (0.33%) MISRA C
8 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.16%) ISO 26262
9 2 (0.16%) NCSC
10 1 (0.082%) FATCA
10 1 (0.082%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.082%) MIL-STD-1553
10 1 (0.082%) NIST
System Software
1 131 (10.78%) Docker
2 15 (1.23%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.16%) HDFS
4 2 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.082%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 118 (9.71%) Kubernetes
2 64 (5.27%) Terraform
3 19 (1.56%) Ansible
4 16 (1.32%) Grafana
5 13 (1.07%) Argo
6 9 (0.74%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.33%) Control-M
8 4 (0.33%) Kibana
9 3 (0.25%) 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%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (2.96%) Microsoft
2 25 (2.06%) Oracle
3 23 (1.89%) Red Hat
4 21 (1.73%) Google
5 10 (0.82%) IBM
6 8 (0.66%) SAP
7 7 (0.58%) Splunk
8 6 (0.49%) Databricks
8 6 (0.49%) OpenAI
8 6 (0.49%) Siemens
9 5 (0.41%) MathWorks
10 4 (0.33%) Checkmarx
10 4 (0.33%) Sybase
11 3 (0.25%) Hitachi
11 3 (0.25%) Informatica
11 3 (0.25%) Talend
12 2 (0.16%) Ariba
12 2 (0.16%) Foundry
12 2 (0.16%) Palantir
12 2 (0.16%) Salesforce
909 Software Engineer jobs in England