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 18 June 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 139 65
Rank change year-on-year +52 -74 +74
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,194 509 1,177
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.78% 2.05% 3.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.01% 2.22% 3.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 520 358 590
10th Percentile £400 £412 £450
25th Percentile £463 £477 £506
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 34 365
10th Percentile £52.50 £46.76 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.50 £59.56 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £83.15 £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 39,699 22,906 35,015
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.33% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,420 15,063 22,824
10th Percentile £325 £293 £288
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.46% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £635 £638
90th Percentile £733 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,798 1,026 2,684
10th Percentile £15.92 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.28 £18.13 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.75 £39.53
Median % change year-on-year +56.52% -27.26% -12.17%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -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 18 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 18 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 18 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 £614 -12.32% 480
South West +79 280 £550 -11.11% 159
North of England +29 188 £500 +11.11% 200
South East +31 156 £550 +1.85% 235
East of England +48 140 £502 +3.40% 163
North West +22 113 £540 +20.00% 130
Yorkshire -25 52 £488 +2.63% 27
Midlands -24 46 £450 -2.70% 79
West Midlands -21 36 £450 -7.69% 44
North East -12 25 £400 - 43
East Midlands -21 10 £473 -0.53% 35
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 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 1,177 (98.58%) Software Engineering
2 321 (26.88%) Java
3 308 (25.80%) Agile
4 283 (23.70%) Security Cleared
5 272 (22.78%) CI/CD
6 270 (22.61%) AWS
7 228 (19.10%) Python
8 225 (18.84%) SC Cleared
9 173 (14.49%) C++
10 170 (14.24%) C#
11 160 (13.40%) TypeScript
12 157 (13.15%) React
13 138 (11.56%) JavaScript
14 136 (11.39%) Microservices
15 134 (11.22%) SQL
16 133 (11.14%) DevOps
17 132 (11.06%) Docker
18 128 (10.72%) Full-Stack Development
19 127 (10.64%) Kubernetes
20 119 (9.97%) AI
20 119 (9.97%) Azure
21 117 (9.80%) Linux
22 107 (8.96%) Ada
23 104 (8.71%) .NET
24 100 (8.38%) Test Automation
25 98 (8.21%) Kafka
26 94 (7.87%) Node.js
27 89 (7.45%) Spring
27 89 (7.45%) Spring Boot
28 88 (7.37%) Git

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 (1.17%) Confluence
2 13 (1.09%) Apache Spark
3 12 (1.01%) Apache
4 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.25%) nginx
4 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.17%) Camunda
5 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
5 2 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.17%) SAS
5 2 (0.17%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.17%) WinCC
6 1 (0.084%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.084%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.084%) CMS
6 1 (0.084%) IIS
6 1 (0.084%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.084%) SharePoint
6 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
Cloud Services
1 270 (22.61%) AWS
2 119 (9.97%) Azure
3 64 (5.36%) GCP
4 57 (4.77%) Serverless
5 56 (4.69%) GitHub
6 36 (3.02%) AWS Lambda
7 27 (2.26%) Amazon S3
8 26 (2.18%) OpenShift
9 23 (1.93%) Amazon EC2
10 22 (1.84%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (1.59%) Amazon ECS
12 18 (1.51%) Amazon SQS
12 18 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
13 15 (1.26%) Amazon EKS
14 12 (1.01%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.92%) SaaS
16 10 (0.84%) Anthropic Claude
16 10 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
17 9 (0.75%) AWS Step Functions
17 9 (0.75%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.68%) Software-Defined Radio
2 21 (1.76%) Wireless
3 19 (1.59%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.17%) TCP/IP
5 12 (1.01%) HTTP
6 9 (0.75%) 3GPP
7 7 (0.59%) Firewall
7 7 (0.59%) RTP
8 6 (0.50%) Wireshark
9 5 (0.42%) VPN
10 3 (0.25%) Internet
11 2 (0.17%) DNS
12 1 (0.084%) BGP
12 1 (0.084%) Bluetooth
12 1 (0.084%) HTTPS
12 1 (0.084%) Modbus
12 1 (0.084%) Network Security
12 1 (0.084%) RTCP
12 1 (0.084%) VLAN
12 1 (0.084%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (6.03%) PostgreSQL
2 41 (3.43%) Relational Database
3 33 (2.76%) SQL Server
4 23 (1.93%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.59%) Apache Cassandra
5 19 (1.59%) MongoDB
6 18 (1.51%) Amazon RDS
6 18 (1.51%) DynamoDB
7 17 (1.42%) MySQL
8 12 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
9 9 (0.75%) Data Lake
9 9 (0.75%) Metadata
10 8 (0.67%) Power BI
11 7 (0.59%) Amazon Athena
11 7 (0.59%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
12 5 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.42%) Mixpanel
13 4 (0.34%) Big Data
13 4 (0.34%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 88 (7.37%) Git
2 59 (4.94%) Jenkins
3 50 (4.19%) GitLab
4 34 (2.85%) JIRA
5 24 (2.01%) JUnit
6 22 (1.84%) Gradle
7 20 (1.68%) Rational Rhapsody
7 20 (1.68%) Visual Studio
8 19 (1.59%) Rational DOORS
9 18 (1.51%) SonarQube
10 15 (1.26%) IntelliJ
11 13 (1.09%) Mockito
12 11 (0.92%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.92%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.92%) Liquibase
13 10 (0.84%) Selenium
14 9 (0.75%) Bitbucket
14 9 (0.75%) Maven
15 7 (0.59%) Cypress.io
15 7 (0.59%) LabVIEW
General
1 157 (13.15%) Finance
2 97 (8.12%) Social Skills
3 65 (5.44%) Aerospace
4 54 (4.52%) Front Office
5 47 (3.94%) Banking
6 40 (3.35%) Public Sector
7 32 (2.68%) Analytical Skills
8 30 (2.51%) Law
9 26 (2.18%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.42%) Aviation
11 16 (1.34%) Retail
12 14 (1.17%) Automotive
13 13 (1.09%) Military
14 11 (0.92%) Investment Banking
15 7 (0.59%) Back Office
15 7 (0.59%) Electronics
15 7 (0.59%) Telecoms
16 6 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.42%) Police
17 5 (0.42%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 157 (13.15%) React
2 104 (8.71%) .NET
3 98 (8.21%) Kafka
4 94 (7.87%) Node.js
5 89 (7.45%) Spring
5 89 (7.45%) Spring Boot
6 69 (5.78%) REST
7 57 (4.77%) AngularJS
8 52 (4.36%) Redux
9 48 (4.02%) GraphQL
10 38 (3.18%) RESTful
11 27 (2.26%) Next.js
12 23 (1.93%) CSS
12 23 (1.93%) Middleware
13 21 (1.76%) HTML
14 20 (1.68%) FastAPI
15 16 (1.34%) Vue
15 16 (1.34%) Web Services
16 15 (1.26%) Flask
16 15 (1.26%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 105 (8.79%) Cloud Native
2 73 (6.11%) Distributed Systems
3 62 (5.19%) Algorithms
4 56 (4.69%) Fixed Income
5 35 (2.93%) Product Ownership
6 27 (2.26%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.76%) AI Agents
7 21 (1.76%) Derivative
8 19 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
9 16 (1.34%) Onboarding
10 15 (1.26%) Equities
10 15 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
12 12 (1.01%) Robotics
13 10 (0.84%) FPGA
13 10 (0.84%) Greenfield Project
14 8 (0.67%) Data Centre
14 8 (0.67%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.67%) Device Driver
14 8 (0.67%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 117 (9.80%) Linux
2 42 (3.52%) Windows
3 16 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (1.26%) Embedded Linux
4 15 (1.26%) Unix
5 11 (0.92%) FreeRTOS
6 9 (0.75%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.50%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.34%) Android
8 4 (0.34%) Debian
8 4 (0.34%) Rocky
8 4 (0.34%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.25%) Solaris
9 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.17%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.084%) Tizen
11 1 (0.084%) VMS
11 1 (0.084%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,177 (98.58%) Software Engineering
2 308 (25.80%) Agile
3 272 (22.78%) CI/CD
4 136 (11.39%) Microservices
5 133 (11.14%) DevOps
6 128 (10.72%) Full-Stack Development
7 119 (9.97%) AI
8 100 (8.38%) Test Automation
9 84 (7.04%) Problem-Solving
10 80 (6.70%) TDD
11 73 (6.11%) Containerisation
12 65 (5.44%) Infrastructure as Code
12 65 (5.44%) SDLC
13 63 (5.28%) Machine Learning
14 57 (4.77%) Mentoring
14 57 (4.77%) Scrum
15 56 (4.69%) Continuous Improvement
15 56 (4.69%) Software Testing
16 49 (4.10%) Investment Management
17 48 (4.02%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 321 (26.88%) Java
2 228 (19.10%) Python
3 173 (14.49%) C++
4 170 (14.24%) C#
5 160 (13.40%) TypeScript
6 138 (11.56%) JavaScript
7 134 (11.22%) SQL
8 107 (8.96%) Ada
9 80 (6.70%) Go
10 76 (6.37%) C
11 28 (2.35%) Kotlin
12 24 (2.01%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.84%) MATLAB
14 21 (1.76%) Rust
15 20 (1.68%) PowerShell
16 16 (1.34%) PL/SQL
17 11 (0.92%) Bash
17 11 (0.92%) PHP
18 8 (0.67%) Embedded C++
19 7 (0.59%) Scala
Qualifications
1 283 (23.70%) Security Cleared
2 225 (18.84%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.27%) Degree
4 40 (3.35%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (1.34%) 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%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.084%) OCA
11 1 (0.084%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.084%) PhD
11 1 (0.084%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.52%) QA
2 26 (2.18%) IEC 61508
3 25 (2.09%) Def Stans
4 13 (1.09%) MISRA
5 12 (1.01%) Data Quality
6 10 (0.84%) GDPR
6 10 (0.84%) MISRA C
7 9 (0.75%) 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%) ISO 26262
12 1 (0.084%) DICOM
12 1 (0.084%) FATCA
12 1 (0.084%) HL7
12 1 (0.084%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.084%) NIST
System Software
1 132 (11.06%) Docker
2 13 (1.09%) Firmware
3 5 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.17%) HDFS
5 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.084%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 127 (10.64%) Kubernetes
2 69 (5.78%) Terraform
3 22 (1.84%) Grafana
4 18 (1.51%) Ansible
5 13 (1.09%) Argo
6 7 (0.59%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.34%) Control-M
7 4 (0.34%) Data Guard
8 3 (0.25%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
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 34 (2.85%) Microsoft
2 29 (2.43%) Oracle
2 29 (2.43%) Red Hat
3 22 (1.84%) Google
4 15 (1.26%) IBM
5 13 (1.09%) Databricks
6 10 (0.84%) MathWorks
7 7 (0.59%) SAP
7 7 (0.59%) Splunk
8 6 (0.50%) Siemens
8 6 (0.50%) Spotify
9 5 (0.42%) OpenAI
10 4 (0.34%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.34%) Checkmarx
10 4 (0.34%) Sybase
10 4 (0.34%) VMware
11 3 (0.25%) Informatica
11 3 (0.25%) Talend
12 2 (0.17%) Ariba
12 2 (0.17%) Salesforce