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 September 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 130 71
Rank change year-on-year +24 -59 +49
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,158 613 1,006
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.51% 2.21% 3.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.72% 2.42% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 506 389 532
10th Percentile £400 £413 £425
25th Percentile £461 £488 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £648 £630
Median % change year-on-year -15.12% +2.86% +9.57%
75th Percentile £669 £825 £850
90th Percentile £750 £875 £888
UK median daily rate £570 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -8.80% - +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 323 67 210
10th Percentile £51.35 £31.25 £45.19
25th Percentile £57.63 £63.13 £60.19
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £66.43
Median % change year-on-year - -2.15% +2.19%
75th Percentile £69.13 £67.00 £70.25
90th Percentile £74.00 £77.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.50
% change year-on-year - -0.76% +0.77%

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 42,644 25,339 30,656
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 91.32% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,474 16,339 19,303
10th Percentile £325 £280 £305
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,406 1,355 1,524
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.71 £14.66
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.50 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.96% -47.05% +5.56%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.13 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.51% -0.76%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -61 369 £623 -17.00% 1,241
South West +51 204 £550 -12.00% 206
North of England 0 189 £512 +3.13% 202
South East +54 169 £530 +11.58% 204
East of England +18 146 £505 +1.00% 216
North West -3 116 £540 +9.76% 130
Midlands +17 73 £465 -12.26% 79
Yorkshire -18 61 £470 -6.00% 54
West Midlands -12 42 £472 -33.68% 31
East Midlands +11 31 £413 -8.33% 48
North East -31 12 £425 -5.56% 18
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 September 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 1,145 (98.88%) Software Engineering
2 291 (25.13%) CI/CD
3 287 (24.78%) Java
4 282 (24.35%) Agile
5 265 (22.88%) Security Cleared
6 242 (20.90%) Python
7 231 (19.95%) SC Cleared
8 204 (17.62%) AWS
9 172 (14.85%) C++
10 148 (12.78%) C#
11 137 (11.83%) AI
12 132 (11.40%) DevOps
13 127 (10.97%) Docker
13 127 (10.97%) Microservices
14 121 (10.45%) SQL
14 121 (10.45%) Test Automation
15 115 (9.93%) Kubernetes
15 115 (9.93%) React
16 113 (9.76%) Full-Stack Development
17 109 (9.41%) TypeScript
18 107 (9.24%) .NET
19 104 (8.98%) Azure
20 102 (8.81%) Linux
21 92 (7.94%) Spring
22 89 (7.69%) JavaScript
23 88 (7.60%) Spring Boot
24 87 (7.51%) C
24 87 (7.51%) Git
25 84 (7.25%) Continuous Improvement
26 83 (7.17%) Problem-Solving

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 12 (1.04%) Apache Spark
2 9 (0.78%) Apache
3 8 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (0.60%) Confluence
5 5 (0.43%) Apache Solr
6 4 (0.35%) CMS
7 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
7 2 (0.17%) WordPress
8 1 (0.086%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.086%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.086%) IIS
8 1 (0.086%) nginx
8 1 (0.086%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.086%) SharePoint
8 1 (0.086%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.086%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (0.26%) Trello
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.17%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.086%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.086%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 4 (0.35%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.086%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 204 (17.62%) AWS
2 104 (8.98%) Azure
3 63 (5.44%) GitHub
4 53 (4.58%) Serverless
5 50 (4.32%) GCP
6 40 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
7 35 (3.02%) GitHub Actions
8 24 (2.07%) Amazon SQS
9 22 (1.90%) Amazon ECS
9 22 (1.90%) Amazon S3
10 19 (1.64%) OpenShift
11 17 (1.47%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (1.12%) Amazon EC2
12 13 (1.12%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.95%) Amazon EventBridge
13 11 (0.95%) Datadog
14 10 (0.86%) Anthropic Claude
15 9 (0.78%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 9 (0.78%) AWS CloudFormation
15 9 (0.78%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.76%) Software-Defined Radio
2 30 (2.59%) Wireless
3 18 (1.55%) Ethernet
4 13 (1.12%) Firewall
4 13 (1.12%) HTTP
4 13 (1.12%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.12%) VPN
5 7 (0.60%) RTP
5 7 (0.60%) Wireshark
6 6 (0.52%) 3GPP
7 4 (0.35%) Internet
8 2 (0.17%) Broadband
8 2 (0.17%) DNS
8 2 (0.17%) Network Security
8 2 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.086%) MQTT
9 1 (0.086%) RS-232
9 1 (0.086%) RS-422
9 1 (0.086%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (4.84%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (4.32%) Relational Database
3 35 (3.02%) SQL Server
4 32 (2.76%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.64%) DynamoDB
6 16 (1.38%) MySQL
7 13 (1.12%) Elasticsearch
8 10 (0.86%) MongoDB
9 9 (0.78%) Redis
10 7 (0.60%) Metadata
11 6 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.52%) Big Data
11 6 (0.52%) Power BI
12 5 (0.43%) ObjectStore
13 4 (0.35%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.26%) Couchbase
14 3 (0.26%) Data Mining
14 3 (0.26%) Electronic Patient Records
14 3 (0.26%) Geospatial Data
14 3 (0.26%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 87 (7.51%) Git
2 51 (4.40%) GitLab
3 48 (4.15%) Jenkins
4 32 (2.76%) JIRA
5 22 (1.90%) JUnit
6 21 (1.81%) Rational DOORS
7 17 (1.47%) Rational Rhapsody
8 15 (1.30%) LabVIEW
8 15 (1.30%) Visual Studio
9 14 (1.21%) Gradle
10 12 (1.04%) Mockito
11 11 (0.95%) SonarQube
12 10 (0.86%) Eclipse
13 9 (0.78%) Claude Code
13 9 (0.78%) Selenium
14 8 (0.69%) Liquibase
15 7 (0.60%) Maven
15 7 (0.60%) TeamCity
16 6 (0.52%) Cucumber
17 5 (0.43%) IntelliJ
General
1 144 (12.44%) Finance
2 131 (11.31%) Social Skills
3 70 (6.04%) Banking
4 62 (5.35%) Public Sector
5 53 (4.58%) Aerospace
6 37 (3.20%) Analytical Skills
7 23 (1.99%) Front Office
7 23 (1.99%) Law
8 22 (1.90%) Automotive
9 21 (1.81%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.47%) Aviation
11 16 (1.38%) Military
12 12 (1.04%) Electronics
12 12 (1.04%) Investment Banking
13 11 (0.95%) Back Office
13 11 (0.95%) Retail
14 8 (0.69%) Avionics
15 6 (0.52%) Telecoms
16 5 (0.43%) Marketing
16 5 (0.43%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 115 (9.93%) React
2 107 (9.24%) .NET
3 92 (7.94%) Spring
4 88 (7.60%) Spring Boot
5 78 (6.74%) REST
6 64 (5.53%) Terraform
7 60 (5.18%) Kafka
7 60 (5.18%) Node.js
8 46 (3.97%) Django
9 42 (3.63%) RESTful
10 38 (3.28%) AngularJS
11 25 (2.16%) FastAPI
12 23 (1.99%) Next.js
13 19 (1.64%) .NET Core
14 18 (1.55%) CSS
14 18 (1.55%) Flask
15 16 (1.38%) GraphQL
16 15 (1.30%) HTML
16 15 (1.30%) Web Services
17 14 (1.21%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 121 (10.45%) Cloud Native
2 89 (7.69%) Distributed Systems
3 34 (2.94%) Embedded Systems
4 32 (2.76%) Algorithms
5 28 (2.42%) AI Agents
6 26 (2.25%) Product Ownership
7 24 (2.07%) Onboarding
8 16 (1.38%) Fixed Income
9 15 (1.30%) Data Structures
10 14 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
10 14 (1.21%) RISC-V
11 13 (1.12%) Device Driver
11 13 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.04%) Legacy Systems
13 10 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
14 9 (0.78%) Data Protection Act
14 9 (0.78%) Derivative
14 9 (0.78%) FPGA
14 9 (0.78%) Legacy Applications
15 8 (0.69%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 102 (8.81%) Linux
2 31 (2.68%) Windows
3 21 (1.81%) Embedded Linux
4 13 (1.12%) FreeRTOS
5 11 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.52%) Android
6 6 (0.52%) Unix
7 5 (0.43%) Debian
8 3 (0.26%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.26%) Rocky
8 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.26%) VxWorks
8 3 (0.26%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.086%) Solaris
9 1 (0.086%) Tizen
9 1 (0.086%) webOS
9 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,145 (98.88%) Software Engineering
2 291 (25.13%) CI/CD
3 282 (24.35%) Agile
4 137 (11.83%) AI
5 132 (11.40%) DevOps
6 127 (10.97%) Microservices
7 121 (10.45%) Test Automation
8 113 (9.76%) Full-Stack Development
9 84 (7.25%) Continuous Improvement
10 83 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
11 81 (6.99%) TDD
12 71 (6.13%) Software Testing
13 70 (6.04%) Event-Driven
14 68 (5.87%) Containerisation
14 68 (5.87%) Observability
15 66 (5.70%) Infrastructure as Code
16 61 (5.27%) Clean Code
17 54 (4.66%) Event-Driven Architecture
17 54 (4.66%) SDLC
18 52 (4.49%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 287 (24.78%) Java
2 242 (20.90%) Python
3 172 (14.85%) C++
4 148 (12.78%) C#
5 121 (10.45%) SQL
6 109 (9.41%) TypeScript
7 89 (7.69%) JavaScript
8 87 (7.51%) C
9 79 (6.82%) Ada
10 41 (3.54%) Kotlin
11 28 (2.42%) Go
12 25 (2.16%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.90%) Rust
14 19 (1.64%) PowerShell
15 15 (1.30%) PHP
16 11 (0.95%) Bash
17 7 (0.60%) PL/SQL
17 7 (0.60%) Scala
18 6 (0.52%) RPG
18 6 (0.52%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 265 (22.88%) Security Cleared
2 231 (19.95%) SC Cleared
3 43 (3.71%) Degree
4 32 (2.76%) DV Cleared
5 21 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (0.43%) AWS Certification
7 5 (0.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 5 (0.43%) ISTQB
8 4 (0.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.26%) Chartered Engineer
9 3 (0.26%) PhD
10 2 (0.17%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.086%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.28%) QA
2 13 (1.12%) MISRA
3 12 (1.04%) Def Stans
4 10 (0.86%) Accessibility
5 9 (0.78%) IEC 61508
6 8 (0.69%) DO-178B
7 6 (0.52%) WCAG
8 5 (0.43%) MISRA C
9 4 (0.35%) GDPR
10 3 (0.26%) Data Quality
10 3 (0.26%) ISO 20022
11 2 (0.17%) HL7
11 2 (0.17%) ISO 26262
11 2 (0.17%) NCSC
11 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.086%) FATCA
12 1 (0.086%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.086%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 127 (10.97%) Docker
2 18 (1.55%) Firmware
3 9 (0.78%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.35%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 115 (9.93%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.95%) Ansible
3 10 (0.86%) Grafana
4 9 (0.78%) Argo
5 6 (0.52%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.35%) Control-M
6 4 (0.35%) Kibana
6 4 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.26%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.17%) Cilium
8 2 (0.17%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.17%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.086%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.086%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.086%) PTC Integrity
9 1 (0.086%) Puppet
Vendors
1 32 (2.76%) Microsoft
2 22 (1.90%) Oracle
3 14 (1.21%) Google
4 12 (1.04%) Red Hat
5 9 (0.78%) SAP
6 7 (0.60%) Databricks
6 7 (0.60%) Hitachi
6 7 (0.60%) IBM
6 7 (0.60%) Splunk
7 5 (0.43%) VMware
8 4 (0.35%) Castleton
8 4 (0.35%) MathWorks
8 4 (0.35%) OpenAI
8 4 (0.35%) Siemens
9 3 (0.26%) Checkmarx
9 3 (0.26%) FIS
10 2 (0.17%) Confluent
10 2 (0.17%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.17%) QNX
10 2 (0.17%) Salesforce