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 22 June 2026.

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

 6 months to
22 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 140 64
Rank change year-on-year +52 -76 +67
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,220 513 1,194
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.82% 2.05% 3.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.05% 2.23% 3.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 539 360 592
10th Percentile £400 £412 £450
25th Percentile £463 £475 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £630
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% -0.79% +5.00%
75th Percentile £688 £825 £791
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 361 34 374
10th Percentile £52.50 £46.76 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £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 39,986 23,027 34,993
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.37% 92.23% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,604 15,125 22,795
10th Percentile £325 £293 £290
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.95% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £634 £638
90th Percentile £735 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £517 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.30% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,824 1,039 2,704
10th Percentile £15.95 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.93 £18.13 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.75 £39.55
Median % change year-on-year +56.52% -27.31% -10.11%
75th Percentile £67.84 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.42
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.36 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.36% -27.03% -14.77%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -28 377 £625 -10.71% 128
South West +71 283 £550 -11.11% 104
North of England +27 193 £500 +11.11% 117
South East +28 159 £550 +5.77% 167
East of England +46 138 £500 +1.52% 109
North West +21 116 £550 +22.22% 75
Yorkshire -18 53 £488 +1.04% 16
Midlands -26 47 £450 -2.70% 39
West Midlands -29 37 £450 -7.69% 16
North East -13 26 £400 - 26
East Midlands -17 10 £473 -0.53% 23
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 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 1,203 (98.61%) Software Engineering
2 328 (26.89%) Agile
3 323 (26.48%) Java
4 293 (24.02%) Security Cleared
5 279 (22.87%) CI/CD
6 276 (22.62%) AWS
7 238 (19.51%) Python
8 233 (19.10%) SC Cleared
9 176 (14.43%) C++
10 173 (14.18%) C#
11 168 (13.77%) TypeScript
12 163 (13.36%) React
13 144 (11.80%) JavaScript
14 139 (11.39%) Microservices
15 138 (11.31%) Full-Stack Development
16 136 (11.15%) DevOps
16 136 (11.15%) Docker
16 136 (11.15%) SQL
17 130 (10.66%) Kubernetes
18 123 (10.08%) Azure
19 120 (9.84%) AI
20 118 (9.67%) Linux
21 108 (8.85%) Ada
22 106 (8.69%) .NET
23 102 (8.36%) Test Automation
24 100 (8.20%) Kafka
25 99 (8.11%) Node.js
26 90 (7.38%) Git
27 89 (7.30%) Spring
27 89 (7.30%) Spring Boot

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%) Apache Spark
1 14 (1.15%) Confluence
2 12 (0.98%) Apache
3 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.25%) nginx
3 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
4 2 (0.16%) Camunda
4 2 (0.16%) MQSeries
4 2 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.16%) SAS
4 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
4 2 (0.16%) WinCC
5 1 (0.082%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.082%) Apache Synapse
5 1 (0.082%) CMS
5 1 (0.082%) IIS
5 1 (0.082%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.082%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.082%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.16%) LabWindows
Cloud Services
1 276 (22.62%) AWS
2 123 (10.08%) Azure
3 65 (5.33%) GCP
4 59 (4.84%) Serverless
5 57 (4.67%) GitHub
6 36 (2.95%) AWS Lambda
7 27 (2.21%) Amazon S3
8 26 (2.13%) OpenShift
9 23 (1.89%) Amazon EC2
9 23 (1.89%) GitHub Actions
10 19 (1.56%) Amazon ECS
10 19 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
11 18 (1.48%) Amazon SQS
12 15 (1.23%) Amazon EKS
13 13 (1.07%) SaaS
14 12 (0.98%) Power Platform
15 10 (0.82%) Anthropic Claude
15 10 (0.82%) AWS CloudFormation
15 10 (0.82%) Azure Functions
16 9 (0.74%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.62%) Software-Defined Radio
2 21 (1.72%) Wireless
3 20 (1.64%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.15%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.98%) HTTP
6 9 (0.74%) 3GPP
7 7 (0.57%) Firewall
7 7 (0.57%) RTP
8 6 (0.49%) Wireshark
9 5 (0.41%) VPN
10 4 (0.33%) Internet
11 2 (0.16%) DNS
11 2 (0.16%) RS-232
11 2 (0.16%) RS-422
12 1 (0.082%) Modbus
12 1 (0.082%) MQTT
12 1 (0.082%) Network Security
12 1 (0.082%) RS-485
12 1 (0.082%) VLAN
12 1 (0.082%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (5.90%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (3.44%) Relational Database
3 34 (2.79%) SQL Server
4 25 (2.05%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.56%) Apache Cassandra
5 19 (1.56%) MongoDB
6 18 (1.48%) Amazon RDS
6 18 (1.48%) DynamoDB
7 17 (1.39%) MySQL
8 12 (0.98%) Elasticsearch
9 9 (0.74%) Data Lake
9 9 (0.74%) Metadata
10 8 (0.66%) Power BI
11 7 (0.57%) Amazon Athena
11 7 (0.57%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
12 5 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.41%) Mixpanel
13 4 (0.33%) BigQuery
13 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 90 (7.38%) Git
2 60 (4.92%) Jenkins
3 51 (4.18%) GitLab
4 34 (2.79%) JIRA
5 24 (1.97%) JUnit
6 21 (1.72%) Gradle
6 21 (1.72%) Visual Studio
7 20 (1.64%) Rational DOORS
7 20 (1.64%) Rational Rhapsody
8 18 (1.48%) SonarQube
9 14 (1.15%) IntelliJ
10 13 (1.07%) Mockito
11 11 (0.90%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.90%) Eclipse
11 11 (0.90%) Liquibase
12 10 (0.82%) Selenium
13 9 (0.74%) Bitbucket
13 9 (0.74%) Maven
14 7 (0.57%) Cypress.io
14 7 (0.57%) LabVIEW
General
1 164 (13.44%) Finance
2 106 (8.69%) Social Skills
3 66 (5.41%) Aerospace
4 58 (4.75%) Front Office
5 53 (4.34%) Banking
6 45 (3.69%) Public Sector
7 34 (2.79%) Analytical Skills
8 30 (2.46%) Law
9 25 (2.05%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.39%) Aviation
10 17 (1.39%) Retail
11 14 (1.15%) Automotive
12 12 (0.98%) Military
13 11 (0.90%) Investment Banking
14 8 (0.66%) Back Office
15 7 (0.57%) Electronics
15 7 (0.57%) Telecoms
16 6 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.41%) Fire and Rescue
17 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (13.36%) React
2 106 (8.69%) .NET
3 100 (8.20%) Kafka
4 99 (8.11%) Node.js
5 89 (7.30%) Spring
5 89 (7.30%) Spring Boot
6 70 (5.74%) REST
7 58 (4.75%) AngularJS
8 56 (4.59%) Redux
9 49 (4.02%) GraphQL
10 39 (3.20%) RESTful
11 27 (2.21%) Next.js
12 24 (1.97%) Middleware
13 23 (1.89%) CSS
14 21 (1.72%) HTML
15 20 (1.64%) FastAPI
16 17 (1.39%) Vue
17 16 (1.31%) .NET Core
17 16 (1.31%) Django
17 16 (1.31%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 108 (8.85%) Cloud Native
2 76 (6.23%) Distributed Systems
3 62 (5.08%) Algorithms
4 60 (4.92%) Fixed Income
5 37 (3.03%) Product Ownership
6 29 (2.38%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.72%) AI Agents
7 21 (1.72%) Derivative
8 19 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
9 17 (1.39%) Onboarding
10 15 (1.23%) Equities
10 15 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
12 12 (0.98%) Robotics
13 10 (0.82%) FPGA
13 10 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
14 8 (0.66%) Data Centre
14 8 (0.66%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.66%) Device Driver
14 8 (0.66%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 118 (9.67%) Linux
2 42 (3.44%) Windows
3 16 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (1.23%) Embedded Linux
4 15 (1.23%) Unix
5 11 (0.90%) FreeRTOS
6 9 (0.74%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.49%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.41%) Android
9 4 (0.33%) Debian
9 4 (0.33%) Rocky
9 4 (0.33%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.25%) Solaris
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%) VMS
12 1 (0.082%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,203 (98.61%) Software Engineering
2 328 (26.89%) Agile
3 279 (22.87%) CI/CD
4 139 (11.39%) Microservices
5 138 (11.31%) Full-Stack Development
6 136 (11.15%) DevOps
7 120 (9.84%) AI
8 102 (8.36%) Test Automation
9 88 (7.21%) Problem-Solving
10 85 (6.97%) TDD
11 73 (5.98%) Containerisation
12 67 (5.49%) SDLC
13 66 (5.41%) Infrastructure as Code
14 64 (5.25%) Continuous Improvement
15 63 (5.16%) Machine Learning
16 60 (4.92%) Software Testing
17 58 (4.75%) Mentoring
18 57 (4.67%) Scrum
19 53 (4.34%) Investment Management
20 52 (4.26%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 323 (26.48%) Java
2 238 (19.51%) Python
3 176 (14.43%) C++
4 173 (14.18%) C#
5 168 (13.77%) TypeScript
6 144 (11.80%) JavaScript
7 136 (11.15%) SQL
8 108 (8.85%) Ada
9 82 (6.72%) Go
10 75 (6.15%) C
11 27 (2.21%) Kotlin
12 24 (1.97%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.80%) MATLAB
13 22 (1.80%) Rust
14 20 (1.64%) PowerShell
15 16 (1.31%) PL/SQL
16 11 (0.90%) Bash
16 11 (0.90%) PHP
17 8 (0.66%) Embedded C++
18 7 (0.57%) Scala
Qualifications
1 293 (24.02%) Security Cleared
2 233 (19.10%) SC Cleared
3 52 (4.26%) Degree
4 41 (3.36%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.48%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.66%) AWS Certification
7 8 (0.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (0.41%) ISTQB
8 5 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.25%) Chartered Engineer
10 2 (0.16%) CCNP
10 2 (0.16%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.16%) HNC
10 2 (0.16%) HND
11 1 (0.082%) OCA
11 1 (0.082%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.082%) RHCA
11 1 (0.082%) RHCE
11 1 (0.082%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.52%) QA
2 27 (2.21%) IEC 61508
3 26 (2.13%) Def Stans
4 14 (1.15%) MISRA
5 12 (0.98%) Data Quality
6 11 (0.90%) MISRA C
7 10 (0.82%) GDPR
8 9 (0.74%) Accessibility
9 5 (0.41%) WCAG
10 4 (0.33%) NCSC
10 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.25%) DO-178B
12 2 (0.16%) ISO 26262
13 1 (0.082%) DICOM
13 1 (0.082%) FATCA
13 1 (0.082%) HL7
13 1 (0.082%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 1 (0.082%) MIL-STD-1553
13 1 (0.082%) NIST
System Software
1 136 (11.15%) Docker
2 13 (1.07%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.16%) HDFS
5 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.082%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 130 (10.66%) Kubernetes
2 71 (5.82%) Terraform
3 21 (1.72%) Grafana
4 19 (1.56%) Ansible
5 13 (1.07%) Argo
6 7 (0.57%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.33%) Control-M
7 4 (0.33%) Data Guard
7 4 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.25%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.16%) Cilium
9 2 (0.16%) HAProxy
9 2 (0.16%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.16%) Puppet
10 1 (0.082%) CA Endevor
10 1 (0.082%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (2.95%) Microsoft
2 29 (2.38%) Oracle
3 28 (2.30%) Red Hat
4 22 (1.80%) Google
5 16 (1.31%) IBM
6 13 (1.07%) Databricks
7 10 (0.82%) MathWorks
8 7 (0.57%) SAP
8 7 (0.57%) Splunk
9 6 (0.49%) Siemens
9 6 (0.49%) Spotify
10 5 (0.41%) OpenAI
11 4 (0.33%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.33%) Checkmarx
11 4 (0.33%) Sybase
11 4 (0.33%) VMware
12 3 (0.25%) Informatica
12 3 (0.25%) Talend
13 2 (0.16%) Ariba
13 2 (0.16%) Salesforce
628 Software Engineer jobs in England