Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £570, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
10 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 131 68
Rank change year-on-year +42 -63 +63
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,230 586 1,146
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.74% 2.17% 3.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.97% 2.36% 3.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 558 394 607
10th Percentile £400 £411 £425
25th Percentile £465 £485 £511
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £570 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -8.80% -3.85% +8.33%
75th Percentile £688 £834 £800
90th Percentile £788 £875 £875
UK median daily rate £565 £600 £630
% change year-on-year -5.83% -4.76% +6.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 347 54 334
10th Percentile £53.08 £38.63 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £59.56 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.10 £76.75 £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 41,428 24,879 34,445
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 92.04% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,397 16,215 22,554
10th Percentile £325 £293 £300
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £638
90th Percentile £738 £746 £750
UK median daily rate £522 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.40% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,961 1,195 2,501
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.76 £13.00
25th Percentile £22.10 £17.87 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.71% -30.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £74.50 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £26.39 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.87% -29.64% -14.05%

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 10 July 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 10 July 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 10 July 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 -28 388 £625 -13.79% 348
South West +65 261 £550 -13.73% 206
North of England +10 195 £525 +13.51% 125
South East +26 159 £550 +5.77% 163
East of England +33 158 £504 +2.34% 130
North West +11 124 £550 +23.94% 75
Yorkshire -18 49 £488 -0.51% 33
Midlands -25 49 £458 -0.88% 60
West Midlands -37 38 £458 -5.97% 23
North East -14 24 £400 - 17
East Midlands -12 11 £473 -0.53% 37
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 July 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 1,212 (98.54%) Software Engineering
2 337 (27.40%) Agile
3 318 (25.85%) Java
4 306 (24.88%) Security Cleared
5 281 (22.85%) CI/CD
6 269 (21.87%) AWS
7 261 (21.22%) Python
8 251 (20.41%) SC Cleared
9 185 (15.04%) C++
10 166 (13.50%) C#
11 165 (13.41%) TypeScript
12 158 (12.85%) React
13 141 (11.46%) DevOps
14 139 (11.30%) JavaScript
15 138 (11.22%) Full-Stack Development
16 134 (10.89%) Microservices
17 132 (10.73%) Docker
18 128 (10.41%) SQL
19 119 (9.67%) Azure
19 119 (9.67%) Kubernetes
19 119 (9.67%) Linux
20 117 (9.51%) AI
21 109 (8.86%) Ada
22 108 (8.78%) .NET
22 108 (8.78%) Test Automation
23 102 (8.29%) Node.js
24 97 (7.89%) Kafka
25 92 (7.48%) Problem-Solving
26 89 (7.24%) Git
27 86 (6.99%) 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 15 (1.22%) Confluence
2 13 (1.06%) Apache Spark
3 11 (0.89%) Apache
4 3 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.24%) nginx
4 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.16%) MQSeries
5 2 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.16%) SAS
5 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.16%) WinCC
6 1 (0.081%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.081%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.081%) CMS
6 1 (0.081%) IIS
6 1 (0.081%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.081%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.081%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.081%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.081%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.081%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.081%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.081%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 269 (21.87%) AWS
2 119 (9.67%) Azure
3 68 (5.53%) GCP
4 56 (4.55%) GitHub
5 53 (4.31%) Serverless
6 35 (2.85%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (2.11%) OpenShift
8 25 (2.03%) Amazon S3
9 24 (1.95%) GitHub Actions
10 20 (1.63%) Amazon EC2
11 19 (1.54%) Amazon SQS
12 17 (1.38%) Amazon ECS
13 14 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
13 14 (1.14%) SaaS
14 12 (0.98%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (0.89%) Power Platform
16 10 (0.81%) Anthropic Claude
17 9 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
17 9 (0.73%) AWS Step Functions
18 7 (0.57%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.52%) Software-Defined Radio
2 21 (1.71%) Wireless
3 20 (1.63%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.98%) HTTP
6 11 (0.89%) Firewall
7 9 (0.73%) 3GPP
7 9 (0.73%) VPN
8 7 (0.57%) RTP
9 6 (0.49%) Wireshark
10 4 (0.33%) Internet
11 2 (0.16%) DNS
11 2 (0.16%) RS-232
11 2 (0.16%) RS-422
12 1 (0.081%) BGP
12 1 (0.081%) HTTPS
12 1 (0.081%) MQTT
12 1 (0.081%) RS-485
12 1 (0.081%) RTCP
12 1 (0.081%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (5.53%) PostgreSQL
2 44 (3.58%) Relational Database
3 36 (2.93%) SQL Server
4 26 (2.11%) NoSQL
5 17 (1.38%) DynamoDB
6 15 (1.22%) Apache Cassandra
6 15 (1.22%) MongoDB
7 13 (1.06%) Elasticsearch
8 12 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
8 12 (0.98%) MySQL
9 7 (0.57%) Hadoop
9 7 (0.57%) Metadata
9 7 (0.57%) Power BI
10 6 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
10 6 (0.49%) Data Lake
11 4 (0.33%) Big Data
11 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.33%) GIS
11 4 (0.33%) Mixpanel
11 4 (0.33%) Redis
Development Applications
1 89 (7.24%) Git
2 62 (5.04%) Jenkins
3 47 (3.82%) GitLab
4 33 (2.68%) JIRA
5 22 (1.79%) JUnit
6 19 (1.54%) Rational DOORS
6 19 (1.54%) Visual Studio
7 18 (1.46%) SonarQube
8 17 (1.38%) Rational Rhapsody
9 15 (1.22%) Gradle
10 11 (0.89%) Eclipse
10 11 (0.89%) Liquibase
10 11 (0.89%) Mockito
11 10 (0.81%) IntelliJ
11 10 (0.81%) Selenium
12 9 (0.73%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.73%) Cucumber
13 7 (0.57%) Maven
14 6 (0.49%) LabVIEW
14 6 (0.49%) Mocha
General
1 166 (13.50%) Finance
2 122 (9.92%) Social Skills
3 66 (5.37%) Aerospace
4 58 (4.72%) Front Office
5 57 (4.63%) Banking
6 55 (4.47%) Public Sector
7 39 (3.17%) Analytical Skills
8 33 (2.68%) Law
9 27 (2.20%) Manufacturing
10 18 (1.46%) Retail
11 17 (1.38%) Aviation
12 16 (1.30%) Automotive
13 14 (1.14%) Electronics
14 13 (1.06%) Military
15 11 (0.89%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.65%) Back Office
16 8 (0.65%) Telecoms
17 6 (0.49%) Avionics
18 5 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
18 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 158 (12.85%) React
2 108 (8.78%) .NET
3 102 (8.29%) Node.js
4 97 (7.89%) Kafka
5 84 (6.83%) Spring
6 79 (6.42%) Spring Boot
7 69 (5.61%) REST
8 56 (4.55%) Redux
9 53 (4.31%) AngularJS
10 52 (4.23%) GraphQL
11 40 (3.25%) RESTful
12 29 (2.36%) Django
13 25 (2.03%) Next.js
14 21 (1.71%) CSS
15 19 (1.54%) HTML
16 18 (1.46%) .NET Core
16 18 (1.46%) Middleware
17 17 (1.38%) FastAPI
17 17 (1.38%) Web Services
18 15 (1.22%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 108 (8.78%) Cloud Native
2 77 (6.26%) Distributed Systems
3 60 (4.88%) Fixed Income
4 51 (4.15%) Algorithms
5 36 (2.93%) Product Ownership
6 31 (2.52%) Embedded Systems
7 21 (1.71%) Derivative
8 19 (1.54%) AI Agents
9 18 (1.46%) Onboarding
10 17 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.22%) Equities
11 15 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
13 10 (0.81%) FPGA
13 10 (0.81%) RISC-V
14 9 (0.73%) Robotics
15 8 (0.65%) Data Centre
15 8 (0.65%) Data Structures
15 8 (0.65%) Device Driver
15 8 (0.65%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 119 (9.67%) Linux
2 42 (3.41%) Windows
3 17 (1.38%) Embedded Linux
4 16 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (0.98%) Unix
6 11 (0.89%) FreeRTOS
7 9 (0.73%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.49%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.33%) Android
9 4 (0.33%) Debian
9 4 (0.33%) Rocky
9 4 (0.33%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.24%) Solaris
10 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.16%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.081%) Tizen
12 1 (0.081%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,212 (98.54%) Software Engineering
2 337 (27.40%) Agile
3 281 (22.85%) CI/CD
4 141 (11.46%) DevOps
5 138 (11.22%) Full-Stack Development
6 134 (10.89%) Microservices
7 117 (9.51%) AI
8 108 (8.78%) Test Automation
9 92 (7.48%) Problem-Solving
10 86 (6.99%) TDD
11 72 (5.85%) Continuous Improvement
12 70 (5.69%) Containerisation
13 67 (5.45%) Software Testing
14 64 (5.20%) Infrastructure as Code
14 64 (5.20%) Mentoring
14 64 (5.20%) SDLC
15 62 (5.04%) Machine Learning
16 57 (4.63%) Clean Code
17 56 (4.55%) Event-Driven
18 54 (4.39%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 318 (25.85%) Java
2 261 (21.22%) Python
3 185 (15.04%) C++
4 166 (13.50%) C#
5 165 (13.41%) TypeScript
6 139 (11.30%) JavaScript
7 128 (10.41%) SQL
8 109 (8.86%) Ada
9 82 (6.67%) C
10 74 (6.02%) Go
11 24 (1.95%) Kotlin
11 24 (1.95%) Rust
12 20 (1.63%) Embedded C
13 18 (1.46%) MATLAB
13 18 (1.46%) PowerShell
14 13 (1.06%) PL/SQL
15 12 (0.98%) PHP
16 11 (0.89%) Bash
17 7 (0.57%) R
17 7 (0.57%) Scala
Qualifications
1 306 (24.88%) Security Cleared
2 251 (20.41%) SC Cleared
3 52 (4.23%) Degree
4 37 (3.01%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.54%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.65%) AWS Certification
7 8 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (0.41%) ISTQB
8 5 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.24%) Chartered Engineer
9 3 (0.24%) PhD
10 2 (0.16%) CCNP
10 2 (0.16%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.16%) HNC
10 2 (0.16%) HND
10 2 (0.16%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.081%) OCA
11 1 (0.081%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.081%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.50%) QA
2 25 (2.03%) Def Stans
3 20 (1.63%) IEC 61508
4 15 (1.22%) MISRA
5 11 (0.89%) Data Quality
6 10 (0.81%) GDPR
7 9 (0.73%) Accessibility
7 9 (0.73%) DO-178B
8 6 (0.49%) MISRA C
9 5 (0.41%) WCAG
10 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.16%) ISO 26262
11 2 (0.16%) NCSC
12 1 (0.081%) FATCA
12 1 (0.081%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.081%) MIL-STD-1553
12 1 (0.081%) NIST
System Software
1 132 (10.73%) Docker
2 17 (1.38%) Firmware
3 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.16%) HDFS
4 2 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.081%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.081%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 119 (9.67%) Kubernetes
2 67 (5.45%) Terraform
3 18 (1.46%) Ansible
4 17 (1.38%) Grafana
5 13 (1.06%) Argo
6 7 (0.57%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.33%) Control-M
8 4 (0.33%) Kibana
9 3 (0.24%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.16%) Cilium
10 2 (0.16%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.16%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.16%) Puppet
11 1 (0.081%) CA Endevor
11 1 (0.081%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.081%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (2.93%) Microsoft
2 26 (2.11%) Oracle
3 23 (1.87%) Red Hat
4 21 (1.71%) Google
5 12 (0.98%) IBM
6 9 (0.73%) Databricks
7 8 (0.65%) SAP
8 7 (0.57%) MathWorks
8 7 (0.57%) Splunk
9 6 (0.49%) Siemens
10 5 (0.41%) OpenAI
11 4 (0.33%) Checkmarx
11 4 (0.33%) Sybase
12 3 (0.24%) Informatica
12 3 (0.24%) Spotify
12 3 (0.24%) Talend
13 2 (0.16%) Confluent
13 2 (0.16%) Denodo
13 2 (0.16%) NVIDIA
13 2 (0.16%) Rockwell
910 Software Engineer jobs in England