Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 119 109 122
Rank change year-on-year -10 +13 -8
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 757 689 782
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.41% 2.38% 2.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.64% 2.56% 2.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 365 394 490
10th Percentile £386 £411 £425
25th Percentile £463 £490 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% - -
75th Percentile £700 £750 £720
90th Percentile £850 £888 £788
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -2.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 82 163
10th Percentile £46.25 £47.75 £49.90
25th Percentile £61.25 £60.75 £55.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.25 £68.75 £68.13
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.25 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 28,706 26,921 34,873
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.27% 92.92% 93.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,309 16,785 23,966
10th Percentile £291 £300 £288
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -1.50% -3.09%
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 1,763 853 1,358
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.73 £15.25
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.25 £19.50
Median hourly rate £26.78 £36.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.61% -20.00% +38.46%
75th Percentile £60.68 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.90 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.50 £34.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.00% -23.60% +48.33%

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 19 December 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 19 December 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 19 December 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 -17 309 £625 -7.41% 219
North of England +24 135 £525 +7.69% 294
East of England +16 119 £525 +5.00% 233
South West -22 89 £449 -18.45% 218
Yorkshire +8 67 £513 +1.23% 104
North West 0 58 £550 +15.79% 154
South East -52 44 £475 -5.00% 373
Midlands -35 31 £502 +5.58% 220
West Midlands -15 26 £525 +10.53% 115
North East 0 12 £575 - 37
East Midlands -27 5 £475 - 94
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 December 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.

1 749 (98.94%) Software Engineering
2 271 (35.80%) Agile
3 231 (30.52%) AWS
3 231 (30.52%) Python
4 204 (26.95%) CI/CD
5 195 (25.76%) C++
6 192 (25.36%) Java
7 153 (20.21%) JavaScript
8 147 (19.42%) DevOps
9 143 (18.89%) Docker
9 143 (18.89%) Security Cleared
10 135 (17.83%) C#
11 132 (17.44%) Linux
12 131 (17.31%) TypeScript
13 128 (16.91%) Microservices
14 124 (16.38%) React
15 123 (16.25%) Kubernetes
16 120 (15.85%) SC Cleared
17 108 (14.27%) Node.js
18 102 (13.47%) SQL
19 101 (13.34%) Terraform
20 94 (12.42%) Azure
21 91 (12.02%) Containerisation
22 83 (10.96%) Serverless
23 81 (10.70%) Infrastructure as Code
23 81 (10.70%) Problem-Solving
24 80 (10.57%) Kafka
25 78 (10.30%) Degree
25 78 (10.30%) Test Automation
26 75 (9.91%) Full-Stack Development

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 43 (5.68%) Apache
2 35 (4.62%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.59%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.32%) Confluence
5 7 (0.92%) JBoss
6 5 (0.66%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.53%) SAS
8 3 (0.40%) IIS
9 2 (0.26%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.13%) CICS
10 1 (0.13%) CMS
10 1 (0.13%) Mule
10 1 (0.13%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.13%) nginx
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.13%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
10 1 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (0.79%) Simulink
2 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.13%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.06%) Temenos T24
2 1 (0.13%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 231 (30.52%) AWS
2 94 (12.42%) Azure
3 83 (10.96%) Serverless
4 75 (9.91%) GCP
5 52 (6.87%) GitHub
6 38 (5.02%) AWS Lambda
7 35 (4.62%) dbt
8 32 (4.23%) GitHub Actions
9 27 (3.57%) Amazon ECS
10 26 (3.43%) Azure DevOps
10 26 (3.43%) Snowflake
11 24 (3.17%) Amazon S3
12 15 (1.98%) Amazon SQS
13 14 (1.85%) AWS CloudFormation
14 13 (1.72%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (1.45%) Amazon EC2
15 11 (1.45%) Azure Functions
16 10 (1.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 10 (1.32%) Cloud Computing
16 10 (1.32%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 24 (3.17%) Ethernet
2 16 (2.11%) TCP/IP
3 5 (0.66%) NFC
3 5 (0.66%) PPP
4 3 (0.40%) BGP
4 3 (0.40%) Firewall
4 3 (0.40%) Network Security
4 3 (0.40%) Software-Defined Networking
4 3 (0.40%) VLAN
5 2 (0.26%) HTTP
5 2 (0.26%) SSL
6 1 (0.13%) 3GPP
6 1 (0.13%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.13%) FTP
6 1 (0.13%) Internet
6 1 (0.13%) UWB
6 1 (0.13%) VPN
6 1 (0.13%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.13%) Wireless
6 1 (0.13%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (5.94%) NoSQL
2 44 (5.81%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (5.55%) Amazon Athena
4 35 (4.62%) Apache Arrow
4 35 (4.62%) Apache Iceberg
4 35 (4.62%) Data Lake
4 35 (4.62%) Dremio
5 25 (3.30%) MongoDB
6 24 (3.17%) Apache Ignite
6 24 (3.17%) SQL Server
7 18 (2.38%) Apache Cassandra
8 14 (1.85%) Relational Database
9 13 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
10 11 (1.45%) Big Data
11 10 (1.32%) DynamoDB
11 10 (1.32%) MySQL
12 8 (1.06%) Elasticsearch
12 8 (1.06%) GIS
12 8 (1.06%) Metadata
13 7 (0.92%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 74 (9.78%) Git
2 53 (7.00%) GitLab
3 49 (6.47%) Jenkins
4 43 (5.68%) JIRA
5 23 (3.04%) Eclipse
5 23 (3.04%) Visual Studio
6 22 (2.91%) Rational DOORS
7 21 (2.77%) Liquibase
8 10 (1.32%) Cypress.io
8 10 (1.32%) Gradle
8 10 (1.32%) Rational Rhapsody
9 9 (1.19%) Artifactory
9 9 (1.19%) SonarQube
10 8 (1.06%) JUnit
11 7 (0.92%) IntelliJ
12 6 (0.79%) PVCS
12 6 (0.79%) Selenium
13 5 (0.66%) Cucumber
13 5 (0.66%) Postman
13 5 (0.66%) Valgrind
General
1 153 (20.21%) Finance
2 128 (16.91%) Social Skills
3 65 (8.59%) Banking
4 60 (7.93%) Front Office
5 40 (5.28%) Public Sector
6 35 (4.62%) Investment Banking
7 31 (4.10%) Analytical Skills
7 31 (4.10%) Military
8 29 (3.83%) Electronics
9 25 (3.30%) Aerospace
10 18 (2.38%) Financial Institution
11 16 (2.11%) Law
12 15 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.72%) Manufacturing
14 9 (1.19%) Games
14 9 (1.19%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.79%) Automotive
15 6 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (0.79%) Retail
16 5 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 124 (16.38%) React
2 108 (14.27%) Node.js
3 80 (10.57%) Kafka
4 71 (9.38%) .NET
5 62 (8.19%) REST
6 48 (6.34%) AngularJS
6 48 (6.34%) RESTful
7 39 (5.15%) gRPC
8 37 (4.89%) NumPy
8 37 (4.89%) SciPy
8 37 (4.89%) Spring
9 35 (4.62%) Pandas
10 32 (4.23%) Spring Boot
11 28 (3.70%) JSON
12 27 (3.57%) Web Services
13 24 (3.17%) Protocol Buffers
14 23 (3.04%) Vue
14 23 (3.04%) XML
15 22 (2.91%) Middleware
16 21 (2.77%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 67 (8.85%) Cloud Native
2 53 (7.00%) Distributed Systems
3 50 (6.61%) Fixed Income
4 42 (5.55%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 37 (4.89%) Equities
6 25 (3.30%) Derivative
6 25 (3.30%) Hedge funds
7 24 (3.17%) Algorithms
7 24 (3.17%) Pricing Data
8 22 (2.91%) Public Cloud
9 19 (2.51%) Embedded Systems
10 17 (2.25%) Data Structures
10 17 (2.25%) Product Ownership
11 15 (1.98%) Greenfield Project
12 14 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
13 12 (1.59%) CUDA
14 11 (1.45%) PCIe
15 10 (1.32%) Life Science
15 10 (1.32%) Virtual Reality
16 9 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 132 (17.44%) Linux
2 64 (8.45%) Windows
3 21 (2.77%) Android
4 20 (2.64%) Unix
5 13 (1.72%) Apple iOS
6 9 (1.19%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.92%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.66%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.53%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.40%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.13%) Debian
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Embedded Compact
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.13%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 749 (98.94%) Software Engineering
2 271 (35.80%) Agile
3 204 (26.95%) CI/CD
4 147 (19.42%) DevOps
5 128 (16.91%) Microservices
6 91 (12.02%) Containerisation
7 81 (10.70%) Infrastructure as Code
7 81 (10.70%) Problem-Solving
8 78 (10.30%) Test Automation
9 75 (9.91%) Full-Stack Development
10 69 (9.11%) TDD
11 66 (8.72%) Mentoring
11 66 (8.72%) Unit Testing
12 61 (8.06%) AI
13 60 (7.93%) Clean Code
14 53 (7.00%) Computer Science
14 53 (7.00%) Continuous Integration
15 50 (6.61%) Validation
16 47 (6.21%) Investment Management
17 45 (5.94%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 231 (30.52%) Python
2 195 (25.76%) C++
3 192 (25.36%) Java
4 153 (20.21%) JavaScript
5 135 (17.83%) C#
6 131 (17.31%) TypeScript
7 102 (13.47%) SQL
8 62 (8.19%) Go
9 60 (7.93%) C
10 39 (5.15%) Ada
11 16 (2.11%) Embedded C++
12 15 (1.98%) Embedded C
12 15 (1.98%) PowerShell
13 14 (1.85%) Kotlin
14 13 (1.72%) PHP
15 12 (1.59%) Bash
16 11 (1.45%) Bicep
16 11 (1.45%) Rust
17 10 (1.32%) MATLAB
18 9 (1.19%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 143 (18.89%) Security Cleared
2 120 (15.85%) SC Cleared
3 78 (10.30%) Degree
4 35 (4.62%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (2.51%) Master's Degree
6 18 (2.38%) DV Cleared
7 9 (1.19%) AWS Certification
8 7 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (0.66%) MCP
10 4 (0.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.53%) Postgraduate
11 3 (0.40%) AWS Certified Developer
11 3 (0.40%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.13%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.13%) CCNA
12 1 (0.13%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.17%) QA
2 23 (3.04%) Def Stans
3 21 (2.77%) MISRA
4 15 (1.98%) IEC 61508
5 12 (1.59%) MISRA C
6 10 (1.32%) Data Quality
7 9 (1.19%) DO-178B
8 8 (1.06%) Accessibility
9 5 (0.66%) GDPR
9 5 (0.66%) HL7
10 4 (0.53%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.40%) WCAG
12 2 (0.26%) PMO
13 1 (0.13%) AUTOSAR
13 1 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 143 (18.89%) Docker
2 12 (1.59%) Virtual Machines
3 10 (1.32%) Firmware
4 6 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.66%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 123 (16.25%) Kubernetes
2 101 (13.34%) Terraform
3 29 (3.83%) Ansible
4 25 (3.30%) Grafana
5 21 (2.77%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.79%) Kibana
7 5 (0.66%) Argo
8 4 (0.53%) Podman
9 3 (0.40%) SELinux
9 3 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.26%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.26%) Puppet
11 1 (0.13%) Bitnami
11 1 (0.13%) CA Endevor
11 1 (0.13%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 43 (5.68%) Microsoft
2 27 (3.57%) Google
3 24 (3.17%) Oracle
4 19 (2.51%) Splunk
5 17 (2.25%) Red Hat
6 12 (1.59%) Databricks
7 10 (1.32%) IBM
7 10 (1.32%) Temenos
8 7 (0.92%) VMware
9 6 (0.79%) ANSYS
10 5 (0.66%) SAP
10 5 (0.66%) Workday
11 4 (0.53%) Brio
11 4 (0.53%) OpenAI
11 4 (0.53%) Salesforce
12 3 (0.40%) Cisco
12 3 (0.40%) Foundry
12 3 (0.40%) NVIDIA
12 3 (0.40%) webMethods
13 2 (0.26%) Ping Identity