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 29 September 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 130 71
Rank change year-on-year +19 -59 +49
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,118 607 956
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.41% 2.20% 2.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.62% 2.41% 3.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 467 379 493
10th Percentile £388 £409 £425
25th Percentile £461 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £630
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% -0.79% +9.57%
75th Percentile £671 £825 £850
90th Percentile £750 £875 £888
UK median daily rate £560 £615 £625
% change year-on-year -8.94% -1.60% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 323 68 191
10th Percentile £51.75 £31.25 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.25 £60.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.85
Median % change year-on-year - -1.29% +1.31%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £70.13
90th Percentile £74.00 £75.00 £75.00
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 42,712 25,148 30,073
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 91.27% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,315 16,227 18,440
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £401 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.11%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £730 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,579 1,379 1,371
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.77 £15.00
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.31 £21.25
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% -1.92%
75th Percentile £67.85 £52.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -3.37%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -64 349 £625 -16.67% 1,558
North of England -9 191 £525 +5.00% 363
South West +49 189 £525 +2.44% 299
East of England +19 158 £505 +1.00% 275
South East +33 156 £528 +11.05% 305
North West +11 123 £550 +11.79% 226
Midlands +11 70 £470 -4.08% 210
Yorkshire -27 55 £460 -10.24% 89
West Midlands -18 38 £470 -11.32% 96
East Midlands +11 32 £413 -5.28% 114
North East -33 13 £448 -22.17% 48
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 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 1,105 (98.84%) Software Engineering
2 287 (25.67%) CI/CD
3 273 (24.42%) Agile
3 273 (24.42%) Java
4 233 (20.84%) Security Cleared
5 232 (20.75%) Python
6 202 (18.07%) SC Cleared
7 193 (17.26%) AWS
8 179 (16.01%) C++
9 142 (12.70%) C#
10 134 (11.99%) AI
11 131 (11.72%) DevOps
12 121 (10.82%) Microservices
13 113 (10.11%) React
13 113 (10.11%) Test Automation
13 113 (10.11%) TypeScript
14 112 (10.02%) SQL
15 111 (9.93%) Docker
16 106 (9.48%) Kubernetes
17 104 (9.30%) Full-Stack Development
18 102 (9.12%) .NET
18 102 (9.12%) Azure
19 92 (8.23%) Linux
20 88 (7.87%) C
20 88 (7.87%) Spring
21 85 (7.60%) JavaScript
21 85 (7.60%) Spring Boot
22 84 (7.51%) Continuous Improvement
23 82 (7.33%) Problem-Solving
24 80 (7.16%) TDD

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 (1.07%) Apache Spark
2 8 (0.72%) Apache
2 8 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (0.45%) Apache Solr
3 5 (0.45%) CMS
4 4 (0.36%) Confluence
5 2 (0.18%) MQSeries
5 2 (0.18%) nginx
5 2 (0.18%) WordPress
6 1 (0.089%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.089%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.089%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.089%) IIS
6 1 (0.089%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.089%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.089%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (0.27%) Trello
2 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.18%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.089%) S-PLUS
3 1 (0.089%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.089%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.089%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.089%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 193 (17.26%) AWS
2 102 (9.12%) Azure
3 62 (5.55%) GitHub
4 54 (4.83%) GCP
5 51 (4.56%) Serverless
6 40 (3.58%) AWS Lambda
7 35 (3.13%) GitHub Actions
8 23 (2.06%) Amazon SQS
9 21 (1.88%) Amazon S3
10 20 (1.79%) Amazon ECS
11 17 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
12 16 (1.43%) Amazon EKS
12 16 (1.43%) OpenShift
13 13 (1.16%) Amazon EC2
14 11 (0.98%) Amazon EventBridge
15 10 (0.89%) GitHub Copilot
15 10 (0.89%) SaaS
16 9 (0.81%) Datadog
17 8 (0.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 8 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.77%) Software-Defined Radio
1 31 (2.77%) Wireless
2 18 (1.61%) Ethernet
3 15 (1.34%) Firewall
3 15 (1.34%) VPN
4 13 (1.16%) HTTP
4 13 (1.16%) TCP/IP
5 8 (0.72%) RTP
5 8 (0.72%) Wireshark
6 6 (0.54%) 3GPP
7 5 (0.45%) DNS
8 4 (0.36%) Internet
9 2 (0.18%) Broadband
9 2 (0.18%) Network Security
9 2 (0.18%) SSL
9 2 (0.18%) VoIP
9 2 (0.18%) Wi-Fi
10 1 (0.089%) Asterisk PBX
10 1 (0.089%) RTCP
10 1 (0.089%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (4.56%) PostgreSQL
2 41 (3.67%) Relational Database
3 33 (2.95%) NoSQL
3 33 (2.95%) SQL Server
4 19 (1.70%) MySQL
5 18 (1.61%) DynamoDB
6 11 (0.98%) Elasticsearch
6 11 (0.98%) MongoDB
7 9 (0.81%) Redis
8 7 (0.63%) Big Data
8 7 (0.63%) Metadata
9 6 (0.54%) Power BI
10 5 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.45%) ObjectStore
11 4 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.27%) Couchbase
12 3 (0.27%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.27%) Electronic Patient Records
12 3 (0.27%) Geospatial Data
12 3 (0.27%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 72 (6.44%) Git
2 45 (4.03%) GitLab
3 40 (3.58%) Jenkins
4 30 (2.68%) JIRA
5 25 (2.24%) Rational DOORS
6 19 (1.70%) Visual Studio
7 15 (1.34%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.34%) Rational Rhapsody
8 14 (1.25%) JUnit
9 11 (0.98%) Gradle
10 10 (0.89%) Claude Code
10 10 (0.89%) Eclipse
11 9 (0.81%) Mockito
12 7 (0.63%) Selenium
12 7 (0.63%) SonarQube
12 7 (0.63%) TeamCity
13 5 (0.45%) Liquibase
13 5 (0.45%) Maven
14 4 (0.36%) IntelliJ
14 4 (0.36%) Mocha
General
1 144 (12.88%) Finance
2 126 (11.27%) Social Skills
3 70 (6.26%) Banking
4 60 (5.37%) Public Sector
5 44 (3.94%) Aerospace
6 33 (2.95%) Analytical Skills
7 25 (2.24%) Front Office
8 24 (2.15%) Automotive
9 21 (1.88%) Manufacturing
10 19 (1.70%) Law
11 17 (1.52%) Aviation
12 15 (1.34%) Military
13 12 (1.07%) Electronics
13 12 (1.07%) Telecoms
14 11 (0.98%) Investment Banking
14 11 (0.98%) Retail
15 9 (0.81%) Back Office
16 8 (0.72%) Avionics
17 6 (0.54%) Marketing
18 5 (0.45%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (10.11%) React
2 102 (9.12%) .NET
3 88 (7.87%) Spring
4 85 (7.60%) Spring Boot
5 76 (6.80%) REST
6 59 (5.28%) Kafka
6 59 (5.28%) Node.js
7 56 (5.01%) Terraform
8 47 (4.20%) Django
9 43 (3.85%) RESTful
10 31 (2.77%) AngularJS
11 24 (2.15%) FastAPI
12 23 (2.06%) Next.js
13 19 (1.70%) .NET Core
14 17 (1.52%) Web Services
15 16 (1.43%) CSS
15 16 (1.43%) GraphQL
15 16 (1.43%) WinForms
16 15 (1.34%) Flask
16 15 (1.34%) Qt
Miscellaneous
1 122 (10.91%) Cloud Native
2 86 (7.69%) Distributed Systems
3 32 (2.86%) Embedded Systems
4 30 (2.68%) AI Agents
4 30 (2.68%) Onboarding
5 27 (2.42%) Algorithms
6 23 (2.06%) Product Ownership
7 15 (1.34%) Data Structures
7 15 (1.34%) Fixed Income
8 14 (1.25%) Enterprise Software
8 14 (1.25%) Greenfield Project
9 13 (1.16%) RISC-V
10 12 (1.07%) Device Driver
10 12 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (0.98%) Data Protection Act
12 9 (0.81%) Derivative
12 9 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
12 9 (0.81%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (0.72%) FPGA
13 8 (0.72%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 92 (8.23%) Linux
2 35 (3.13%) Windows
3 17 (1.52%) Embedded Linux
4 13 (1.16%) FreeRTOS
5 7 (0.63%) Unix
6 5 (0.45%) Android
6 5 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.36%) Debian
8 3 (0.27%) VxWorks
8 3 (0.27%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.18%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.18%) Rocky
9 2 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.089%) Solaris
10 1 (0.089%) Tizen
10 1 (0.089%) webOS
10 1 (0.089%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.089%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,105 (98.84%) Software Engineering
2 287 (25.67%) CI/CD
3 273 (24.42%) Agile
4 134 (11.99%) AI
5 131 (11.72%) DevOps
6 121 (10.82%) Microservices
7 113 (10.11%) Test Automation
8 104 (9.30%) Full-Stack Development
9 84 (7.51%) Continuous Improvement
10 82 (7.33%) Problem-Solving
11 80 (7.16%) TDD
12 70 (6.26%) Software Testing
13 68 (6.08%) Event-Driven
14 67 (5.99%) Observability
15 59 (5.28%) Infrastructure as Code
16 57 (5.10%) Clean Code
17 56 (5.01%) Containerisation
18 53 (4.74%) Event-Driven Architecture
19 51 (4.56%) Validation
20 48 (4.29%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 273 (24.42%) Java
2 232 (20.75%) Python
3 179 (16.01%) C++
4 142 (12.70%) C#
5 113 (10.11%) TypeScript
6 112 (10.02%) SQL
7 88 (7.87%) C
8 85 (7.60%) JavaScript
9 72 (6.44%) Ada
10 45 (4.03%) Kotlin
11 29 (2.59%) Embedded C
12 23 (2.06%) Go
13 21 (1.88%) Rust
14 18 (1.61%) PowerShell
15 15 (1.34%) PHP
16 10 (0.89%) Bash
17 7 (0.63%) PL/SQL
18 6 (0.54%) RPG
18 6 (0.54%) Ruby
18 6 (0.54%) Scala
Qualifications
1 233 (20.84%) Security Cleared
2 202 (18.07%) SC Cleared
3 43 (3.85%) Degree
4 31 (2.77%) DV Cleared
5 19 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
6 16 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (0.45%) AWS Certification
7 5 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (0.27%) Chartered Engineer
8 3 (0.27%) ISTQB
9 2 (0.18%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.18%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (0.18%) PhD
10 1 (0.089%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (3.13%) QA
2 17 (1.52%) MISRA
3 13 (1.16%) Def Stans
4 11 (0.98%) Accessibility
5 10 (0.89%) IEC 61508
6 9 (0.81%) MISRA C
7 8 (0.72%) DO-178B
8 5 (0.45%) WCAG
9 4 (0.36%) Data Quality
10 3 (0.27%) GDPR
10 3 (0.27%) ISO 20022
11 2 (0.18%) HL7
11 2 (0.18%) ISO 26262
11 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.089%) FATCA
12 1 (0.089%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 111 (9.93%) Docker
2 17 (1.52%) Firmware
3 8 (0.72%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 106 (9.48%) Kubernetes
2 12 (1.07%) Ansible
3 9 (0.81%) Grafana
4 7 (0.63%) Argo
5 6 (0.54%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.36%) Control-M
6 4 (0.36%) Kibana
6 4 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.27%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.18%) Cilium
8 2 (0.18%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.18%) Kustomize
8 2 (0.18%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.18%) Puppet
9 1 (0.089%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.089%) Podman
9 1 (0.089%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 33 (2.95%) Microsoft
2 24 (2.15%) Oracle
3 16 (1.43%) Google
4 8 (0.72%) Databricks
4 8 (0.72%) SAP
5 7 (0.63%) Hitachi
5 7 (0.63%) Red Hat
6 6 (0.54%) IBM
6 6 (0.54%) Splunk
7 5 (0.45%) Siemens
7 5 (0.45%) VMware
8 4 (0.36%) Castleton
8 4 (0.36%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.27%) FIS
9 3 (0.27%) MathWorks
9 3 (0.27%) Salesforce
9 3 (0.27%) SGI
10 2 (0.18%) Ariba
10 2 (0.18%) QNX
10 2 (0.18%) Sybase