Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £611, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 November 2025.

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

6 months to
9 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 130 85 123
Rank change year-on-year -45 +38 -10
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 652 828 831
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.21% 2.68% 2.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.43% 2.89% 2.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 368 432 534
10th Percentile £400 £400 £413
25th Percentile £475 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £611 £625 £589
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% +6.16% -1.88%
75th Percentile £825 £850 £700
90th Percentile £850 £888 £788
UK median daily rate £600 £600 £575
% change year-on-year - +4.35% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 129 174
10th Percentile £38.63 £42.25 £48.78
25th Percentile £61.25 £57.50 £53.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.76% +0.77% -
75th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £69.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.76% +0.77% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 26,836 28,684 37,503
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 92.99% 93.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,222 17,524 25,976
10th Percentile £281 £300 £293
25th Percentile £404 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,596 1,072 1,433
10th Percentile £14.03 £15.22 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.19 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -11.11% +50.00%
75th Percentile £51.71 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.16 £74.86 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.25 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.65% -20.79% +53.98%

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 9 November 2025.

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 9 November 2025.

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 9 November 2025. 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 -25 320 £650 -3.70% 1,364
North of England +2 117 £550 +10.00% 390
East of England -4 80 £500 - 275
South West -39 63 £513 -6.82% 259
Yorkshire +20 61 £525 +3.70% 86
North West -15 48 £550 +22.22% 250
South East -52 31 £475 -5.00% 1,184
Midlands -37 24 £500 +5.26% 116
West Midlands -18 20 £525 +5.00% 58
North East -8 10 £575 - 55
East Midlands -31 4 £463 -2.63% 54
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 November 2025, 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.

1 643 (98.62%) Software Engineering
2 301 (46.17%) Agile
3 250 (38.34%) AWS
3 250 (38.34%) Python
4 208 (31.90%) Java
5 191 (29.29%) JavaScript
6 183 (28.07%) CI/CD
7 163 (25.00%) C++
8 159 (24.39%) TypeScript
9 143 (21.93%) React
10 139 (21.32%) DevOps
11 124 (19.02%) Linux
11 124 (19.02%) Microservices
12 123 (18.87%) Docker
12 123 (18.87%) Node.js
13 114 (17.48%) C#
14 101 (15.49%) Security Cleared
15 100 (15.34%) Kubernetes
15 100 (15.34%) SQL
16 96 (14.72%) GCP
17 89 (13.65%) Azure
18 86 (13.19%) Terraform
19 85 (13.04%) SC Cleared
19 85 (13.04%) Serverless
20 82 (12.58%) Containerisation
20 82 (12.58%) Investment Management
20 82 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
21 80 (12.27%) Full-Stack Development
22 78 (11.96%) Infrastructure as Code
23 75 (11.50%) Degree

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 55 (8.44%) Apache Airflow
2 46 (7.06%) Apache
3 10 (1.53%) Confluence
4 8 (1.23%) JBoss
5 7 (1.07%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.77%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.61%) SAS
8 2 (0.31%) nginx
8 2 (0.31%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.15%) CICS
9 1 (0.15%) CMS
9 1 (0.15%) Drupal
9 1 (0.15%) Mule
9 1 (0.15%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.15%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.15%) Tuxedo
9 1 (0.15%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (0.92%) Simulink
2 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.15%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.23%) Temenos T24
2 5 (0.77%) FLEXCUBE
2 5 (0.77%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.15%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 250 (38.34%) AWS
2 96 (14.72%) GCP
3 89 (13.65%) Azure
4 85 (13.04%) Serverless
5 55 (8.44%) dbt
6 52 (7.98%) GitHub
7 40 (6.13%) AWS Lambda
8 36 (5.52%) Snowflake
9 28 (4.29%) GitHub Actions
10 25 (3.83%) Amazon ECS
10 25 (3.83%) Amazon S3
11 22 (3.37%) Azure DevOps
12 15 (2.30%) Amazon SQS
13 13 (1.99%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 13 (1.99%) Amazon EC2
14 12 (1.84%) Amazon EKS
14 12 (1.84%) AWS Step Functions
15 10 (1.53%) Amazon Cognito
15 10 (1.53%) AWS CloudFormation
16 9 (1.38%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 25 (3.83%) Ethernet
2 18 (2.76%) TCP/IP
3 9 (1.38%) NFC
3 9 (1.38%) PPP
4 3 (0.46%) BGP
4 3 (0.46%) Firewall
4 3 (0.46%) Network Security
4 3 (0.46%) Software-Defined Networking
4 3 (0.46%) VLAN
5 2 (0.31%) SSL
5 2 (0.31%) X.509
6 1 (0.15%) 3GPP
6 1 (0.15%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.15%) FTP
6 1 (0.15%) HTTP
6 1 (0.15%) Internet
6 1 (0.15%) MQTT
6 1 (0.15%) VPN
6 1 (0.15%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.15%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (8.90%) Amazon Athena
1 58 (8.90%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (8.44%) Apache Arrow
2 55 (8.44%) Apache Iceberg
2 55 (8.44%) Dremio
3 41 (6.29%) Data Lake
4 40 (6.13%) NoSQL
5 34 (5.21%) Apache Ignite
6 27 (4.14%) MongoDB
7 16 (2.45%) DynamoDB
8 15 (2.30%) SQL Server
9 14 (2.15%) Amazon RDS
9 14 (2.15%) Big Data
10 13 (1.99%) MySQL
11 12 (1.84%) Apache Cassandra
12 10 (1.53%) Relational Database
13 9 (1.38%) Elasticsearch
14 8 (1.23%) GIS
15 7 (1.07%) DocumentDB
15 7 (1.07%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 67 (10.28%) Git
2 53 (8.13%) Jenkins
3 43 (6.60%) GitLab
4 33 (5.06%) JIRA
5 29 (4.45%) Eclipse
6 24 (3.68%) Visual Studio
7 21 (3.22%) Liquibase
8 13 (1.99%) Rational DOORS
9 11 (1.69%) Cypress.io
10 9 (1.38%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.38%) Valgrind
11 8 (1.23%) Gradle
12 7 (1.07%) JUnit
12 7 (1.07%) SonarQube
13 6 (0.92%) Rational Rhapsody
13 6 (0.92%) Selenium
14 5 (0.77%) Maven
15 3 (0.46%) JMeter
15 3 (0.46%) LabVIEW
15 3 (0.46%) MSTest
General
1 192 (29.45%) Finance
2 133 (20.40%) Social Skills
3 98 (15.03%) Front Office
4 96 (14.72%) Banking
5 50 (7.67%) Investment Banking
6 38 (5.83%) Public Sector
7 35 (5.37%) Military
8 34 (5.21%) Analytical Skills
9 17 (2.61%) Financial Institution
9 17 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
10 16 (2.45%) Aerospace
11 14 (2.15%) Law
12 10 (1.53%) Electronics
13 9 (1.38%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.38%) Pharmaceutical
14 6 (0.92%) Automotive
14 6 (0.92%) Games
15 5 (0.77%) Back Office
15 5 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.77%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 143 (21.93%) React
2 123 (18.87%) Node.js
3 72 (11.04%) Kafka
4 62 (9.51%) .NET
5 60 (9.20%) AngularJS
6 57 (8.74%) NumPy
6 57 (8.74%) SciPy
7 55 (8.44%) Pandas
7 55 (8.44%) REST
8 49 (7.52%) RESTful
9 42 (6.44%) gRPC
10 36 (5.52%) Vue
11 35 (5.37%) Web Services
12 34 (5.21%) Protocol Buffers
12 34 (5.21%) Spring
13 31 (4.75%) Redux
14 29 (4.45%) JSON
15 28 (4.29%) Spring Boot
16 25 (3.83%) XML
17 24 (3.68%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 86 (13.19%) Fixed Income
2 75 (11.50%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 67 (10.28%) Equities
4 62 (9.51%) Cloud Native
5 49 (7.52%) Distributed Systems
6 40 (6.13%) Hedge funds
7 36 (5.52%) Derivative
8 34 (5.21%) Pricing Data
9 22 (3.37%) Public Cloud
10 21 (3.22%) Algorithms
11 16 (2.45%) Data Structures
12 13 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
12 13 (1.99%) Greenfield Project
13 11 (1.69%) Embedded Systems
13 11 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
14 10 (1.53%) CUDA
14 10 (1.53%) PCIe
14 10 (1.53%) Product Ownership
15 9 (1.38%) Smartcard
15 9 (1.38%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 124 (19.02%) Linux
2 57 (8.74%) Windows
3 21 (3.22%) Unix
4 14 (2.15%) Android
5 9 (1.38%) Ubuntu
6 6 (0.92%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.77%) FreeRTOS
7 5 (0.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.61%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.46%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Embedded Compact
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 643 (98.62%) Software Engineering
2 301 (46.17%) Agile
3 183 (28.07%) CI/CD
4 139 (21.32%) DevOps
5 124 (19.02%) Microservices
6 82 (12.58%) Containerisation
6 82 (12.58%) Investment Management
6 82 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
7 80 (12.27%) Full-Stack Development
8 78 (11.96%) Infrastructure as Code
9 75 (11.50%) TDD
9 75 (11.50%) Test Automation
10 72 (11.04%) Asset Management
11 67 (10.28%) Mentoring
12 57 (8.74%) Computer Science
12 57 (8.74%) Unit Testing
13 55 (8.44%) Clean Code
14 52 (7.98%) Continuous Integration
15 49 (7.52%) Fintech
16 48 (7.36%) AI
Programming Languages
1 250 (38.34%) Python
2 208 (31.90%) Java
3 191 (29.29%) JavaScript
4 163 (25.00%) C++
5 159 (24.39%) TypeScript
6 114 (17.48%) C#
7 100 (15.34%) SQL
8 52 (7.98%) Go
9 39 (5.98%) C
10 20 (3.07%) Ada
11 11 (1.69%) Bicep
11 11 (1.69%) MATLAB
11 11 (1.69%) PHP
11 11 (1.69%) PowerShell
12 10 (1.53%) Shell Script
13 9 (1.38%) Bash
13 9 (1.38%) Embedded C++
13 9 (1.38%) PL/SQL
14 7 (1.07%) Kotlin
15 6 (0.92%) R
Qualifications
1 101 (15.49%) Security Cleared
2 85 (13.04%) SC Cleared
3 75 (11.50%) Degree
4 38 (5.83%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (3.07%) Master's Degree
6 14 (2.15%) DV Cleared
7 9 (1.38%) AWS Certification
8 8 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (0.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (0.61%) MCP
9 4 (0.61%) Postgraduate
10 3 (0.46%) AWS Certified Developer
10 3 (0.46%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 1 (0.15%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.07%) QA
2 13 (1.99%) Def Stans
2 13 (1.99%) MISRA
3 8 (1.23%) IEC 61508
3 8 (1.23%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.77%) DO-178B
4 5 (0.77%) Software Quality Assurance
5 4 (0.61%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.61%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.46%) WCAG
7 2 (0.31%) GDPR
7 2 (0.31%) HL7
7 2 (0.31%) PMO
8 1 (0.15%) AUTOSAR
8 1 (0.15%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.15%) SEPA
System Software
1 123 (18.87%) Docker
2 6 (0.92%) Firmware
2 6 (0.92%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.77%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.15%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 100 (15.34%) Kubernetes
2 86 (13.19%) Terraform
3 27 (4.14%) Ansible
4 24 (3.68%) Prometheus
5 19 (2.91%) Grafana
6 6 (0.92%) Kibana
7 4 (0.61%) Podman
8 3 (0.46%) SELinux
8 3 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.31%) Argo
9 2 (0.31%) Puppet
10 1 (0.15%) Bitnami
10 1 (0.15%) CA Endevor
10 1 (0.15%) Functional Safety
10 1 (0.15%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 45 (6.90%) Microsoft
2 29 (4.45%) Oracle
3 26 (3.99%) Google
4 19 (2.91%) Splunk
5 10 (1.53%) Temenos
6 7 (1.07%) Red Hat
7 6 (0.92%) Databricks
8 5 (0.77%) Atlassian
8 5 (0.77%) Salesforce
8 5 (0.77%) SAP
8 5 (0.77%) Workday
9 4 (0.61%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.46%) Brio
10 3 (0.46%) Cisco
10 3 (0.46%) Foundry
10 3 (0.46%) IBM
10 3 (0.46%) NVIDIA
10 3 (0.46%) Ping Identity
10 3 (0.46%) webMethods
11 2 (0.31%) Adobe