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 February 2026.

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

 6 months to
18 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 100 118 100
Rank change year-on-year +18 -18 +30
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 895 573 854
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.59% 2.22% 2.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.82% 2.39% 2.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 389 349 435
10th Percentile £400 £412 £425
25th Percentile £463 £500 £485
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +5.93%
75th Percentile £688 £713 £725
90th Percentile £800 £850 £788
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - +2.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 285 57 263
10th Percentile £51.25 £52.00 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £61.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £68.13
90th Percentile £70.43 £68.75 £77.40
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%

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 31,731 24,013 35,082
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.75% 93.02% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,150 15,038 23,479
10th Percentile £303 £296 £273
25th Percentile £409 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,026 700 2,145
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.25 £13.20
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.49 £16.54
Median hourly rate £31.93 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.77% - -12.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.03 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £34.11 £35.00
% change year-on-year -12.05% -2.54% -9.09%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -26 310 £625 - 228
South West +8 167 £500 -14.16% 145
North of England +27 154 £531 +11.79% 156
East of England +35 119 £525 -9.87% 75
North West +14 77 £550 +22.22% 93
South East -10 73 £550 +7.32% 181
Yorkshire -7 58 £525 +3.70% 38
Midlands -32 39 £500 +8.11% 77
West Midlands -22 34 £514 +8.21% 36
North East +3 21 £550 - 25
East Midlands -22 5 £475 -3.06% 41
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 February 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.

1 885 (98.88%) Software Engineering
2 258 (28.83%) Agile
3 255 (28.49%) AWS
4 225 (25.14%) Python
5 211 (23.58%) CI/CD
6 208 (23.24%) Java
7 196 (21.90%) Security Cleared
8 188 (21.01%) C++
9 148 (16.54%) SC Cleared
10 145 (16.20%) DevOps
11 141 (15.75%) JavaScript
12 138 (15.42%) Docker
13 136 (15.20%) Kubernetes
14 135 (15.08%) Microservices
15 130 (14.53%) TypeScript
16 129 (14.41%) React
17 124 (13.85%) Linux
18 117 (13.07%) C#
19 105 (11.73%) SQL
20 102 (11.40%) Terraform
21 98 (10.95%) Azure
22 92 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
23 91 (10.17%) Full-Stack Development
24 89 (9.94%) AI
25 86 (9.61%) Containerisation
26 85 (9.50%) GCP
26 85 (9.50%) Kafka
27 83 (9.27%) Node.js
28 82 (9.16%) Degree
28 82 (9.16%) Go

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 28 (3.13%) Apache
2 15 (1.68%) Apache Spark
3 12 (1.34%) Confluence
4 10 (1.12%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (0.56%) WebLogic
6 4 (0.45%) SAS
7 3 (0.34%) IIS
8 2 (0.22%) Camunda
8 2 (0.22%) JBoss
8 2 (0.22%) WinCC
9 1 (0.11%) Apache Synapse
9 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.11%) nginx
9 1 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.11%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.11%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.11%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.11%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.22%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.11%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 255 (28.49%) AWS
2 98 (10.95%) Azure
3 85 (9.50%) GCP
4 78 (8.72%) Serverless
5 49 (5.47%) GitHub
6 36 (4.02%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (2.91%) Amazon S3
8 25 (2.79%) Amazon ECS
8 25 (2.79%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
10 21 (2.35%) Amazon EC2
11 18 (2.01%) AWS CloudFormation
12 17 (1.90%) Amazon SQS
13 16 (1.79%) Amazon EKS
14 14 (1.56%) OpenShift
15 11 (1.23%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (1.23%) Power Platform
16 10 (1.12%) Azure Functions
16 10 (1.12%) Cloud Run
16 10 (1.12%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.68%) Ethernet
2 7 (0.78%) TCP/IP
3 5 (0.56%) Firewall
3 5 (0.56%) Software-Defined Radio
4 4 (0.45%) 3GPP
4 4 (0.45%) BGP
4 4 (0.45%) Network Security
4 4 (0.45%) VLAN
5 3 (0.34%) HTTP
5 3 (0.34%) NFC
5 3 (0.34%) PPP
5 3 (0.34%) Software-Defined Networking
6 2 (0.22%) Modbus
6 2 (0.22%) Wireless
7 1 (0.11%) LTE
7 1 (0.11%) Multicast
7 1 (0.11%) Profibus
7 1 (0.11%) RTCP
7 1 (0.11%) RTP
7 1 (0.11%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (5.92%) PostgreSQL
2 39 (4.36%) NoSQL
3 30 (3.35%) MongoDB
4 29 (3.24%) Apache Cassandra
5 24 (2.68%) SQL Server
6 23 (2.57%) Data Lake
7 22 (2.46%) Amazon RDS
8 21 (2.35%) Amazon Athena
9 18 (2.01%) MySQL
10 16 (1.79%) Relational Database
11 13 (1.45%) Metadata
12 12 (1.34%) Mixpanel
13 11 (1.23%) DynamoDB
13 11 (1.23%) Power BI
14 10 (1.12%) Apache Arrow
14 10 (1.12%) Apache Iceberg
14 10 (1.12%) Dremio
15 9 (1.01%) BigQuery
15 9 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
16 8 (0.89%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 76 (8.49%) Git
2 53 (5.92%) GitLab
3 43 (4.80%) Jenkins
4 40 (4.47%) JIRA
5 24 (2.68%) Rational DOORS
6 19 (2.12%) Liquibase
7 18 (2.01%) Gradle
8 17 (1.90%) Rational Rhapsody
9 14 (1.56%) Cypress.io
9 14 (1.56%) IntelliJ
10 12 (1.34%) Eclipse
10 12 (1.34%) Visual Studio
11 10 (1.12%) Cucumber
12 9 (1.01%) Selenium
12 9 (1.01%) SonarQube
13 8 (0.89%) Maven
13 8 (0.89%) Postman
13 8 (0.89%) PVCS
14 7 (0.78%) JUnit
14 7 (0.78%) Oracle APEX
General
1 122 (13.63%) Finance
2 113 (12.63%) Social Skills
3 47 (5.25%) Public Sector
4 45 (5.03%) Banking
5 40 (4.47%) Aerospace
6 39 (4.36%) Front Office
7 38 (4.25%) Analytical Skills
8 34 (3.80%) Electronics
9 22 (2.46%) Law
10 20 (2.23%) Military
11 18 (2.01%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.90%) Financial Institution
13 13 (1.45%) Investment Banking
14 11 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
15 10 (1.12%) Retail
16 9 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
17 6 (0.67%) Automotive
17 6 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
18 5 (0.56%) Health Technology
18 5 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (14.41%) React
2 85 (9.50%) Kafka
3 83 (9.27%) Node.js
4 69 (7.71%) REST
5 68 (7.60%) .NET
6 55 (6.15%) RESTful
7 52 (5.81%) Spring
8 51 (5.70%) Spring Boot
9 45 (5.03%) AngularJS
10 32 (3.58%) Middleware
11 29 (3.24%) gRPC
12 28 (3.13%) GraphQL
13 26 (2.91%) Redux
14 24 (2.68%) Qt
15 23 (2.57%) CSS
16 21 (2.35%) JSON
17 20 (2.23%) HTML
17 20 (2.23%) XML
18 18 (2.01%) Elastic Stack
18 18 (2.01%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 81 (9.05%) Cloud Native
2 59 (6.59%) Distributed Systems
3 41 (4.58%) Algorithms
4 35 (3.91%) Fixed Income
5 26 (2.91%) Product Ownership
6 20 (2.23%) Public Cloud
7 19 (2.12%) Equities
8 18 (2.01%) Greenfield Project
9 17 (1.90%) Embedded Systems
10 15 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (1.56%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 14 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
12 13 (1.45%) Derivative
12 13 (1.45%) Life Science
12 13 (1.45%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.23%) AI Agents
14 10 (1.12%) Data Structures
14 10 (1.12%) Onboarding
14 10 (1.12%) Robotics
15 8 (0.89%) CUDA
Operating Systems
1 124 (13.85%) Linux
2 56 (6.26%) Windows
3 24 (2.68%) Unix
4 16 (1.79%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.45%) Android
6 11 (1.23%) Windows Server
7 9 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (0.67%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.56%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (0.22%) Debian
10 2 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
10 2 (0.22%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.11%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.11%) Rocky
11 1 (0.11%) Solaris
11 1 (0.11%) VMS
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Embedded Compact
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 885 (98.88%) Software Engineering
2 258 (28.83%) Agile
3 211 (23.58%) CI/CD
4 145 (16.20%) DevOps
5 135 (15.08%) Microservices
6 92 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
7 91 (10.17%) Full-Stack Development
8 89 (9.94%) AI
9 86 (9.61%) Containerisation
10 82 (9.16%) Test Automation
11 77 (8.60%) Infrastructure as Code
12 72 (8.04%) Mentoring
13 67 (7.49%) TDD
14 61 (6.82%) Clean Code
15 59 (6.59%) Machine Learning
16 52 (5.81%) Computer Science
16 52 (5.81%) Continuous Improvement
17 48 (5.36%) Software Testing
17 48 (5.36%) Validation
18 46 (5.14%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 225 (25.14%) Python
2 208 (23.24%) Java
3 188 (21.01%) C++
4 141 (15.75%) JavaScript
5 130 (14.53%) TypeScript
6 117 (13.07%) C#
7 105 (11.73%) SQL
8 82 (9.16%) Go
9 76 (8.49%) Ada
10 74 (8.27%) C
11 23 (2.57%) Embedded C++
12 22 (2.46%) Embedded C
13 21 (2.35%) Rust
14 20 (2.23%) Kotlin
15 18 (2.01%) PowerShell
16 16 (1.79%) MATLAB
17 11 (1.23%) Shell Script
18 10 (1.12%) Bash
18 10 (1.12%) Swift
19 8 (0.89%) Perl
Qualifications
1 196 (21.90%) Security Cleared
2 148 (16.54%) SC Cleared
3 82 (9.16%) Degree
4 40 (4.47%) Computer Science Degree
5 28 (3.13%) DV Cleared
6 18 (2.01%) Master's Degree
7 12 (1.34%) AWS Certification
8 9 (1.01%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (0.67%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.34%) AWS Certified Developer
10 3 (0.34%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (0.34%) Postgraduate
11 2 (0.22%) CCNA
11 2 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.22%) HNC
11 2 (0.22%) HND
12 1 (0.11%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.11%) CCDP
12 1 (0.11%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (4.25%) Def Stans
2 29 (3.24%) MISRA
2 29 (3.24%) QA
3 28 (3.13%) IEC 61508
4 19 (2.12%) MISRA C
5 17 (1.90%) Data Quality
6 10 (1.12%) DO-178B
7 8 (0.89%) Accessibility
7 8 (0.89%) GDPR
8 6 (0.67%) HL7
9 2 (0.22%) NCSC
9 2 (0.22%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.11%) AUTOSAR
10 1 (0.11%) DICOM
10 1 (0.11%) ISO 26262
10 1 (0.11%) NIST
System Software
1 138 (15.42%) Docker
2 14 (1.56%) Firmware
2 14 (1.56%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (1.01%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.45%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 136 (15.20%) Kubernetes
2 102 (11.40%) Terraform
3 35 (3.91%) Grafana
4 27 (3.02%) Ansible
5 20 (2.23%) Prometheus
6 7 (0.78%) Argo
7 4 (0.45%) Data Guard
7 4 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.22%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.22%) Kibana
8 2 (0.22%) Puppet
9 1 (0.11%) Podman
Vendors
1 30 (3.35%) Google
1 30 (3.35%) Microsoft
2 28 (3.13%) Red Hat
3 24 (2.68%) Oracle
4 22 (2.46%) Databricks
5 21 (2.35%) Splunk
6 16 (1.79%) IBM
7 9 (1.01%) VMware
8 8 (0.89%) ANSYS
8 8 (0.89%) Siemens
9 7 (0.78%) Spotify
10 5 (0.56%) MathWorks
11 4 (0.45%) Brio
12 3 (0.34%) Atlassian
13 2 (0.22%) Cisco
13 2 (0.22%) Foundry
13 2 (0.22%) PagerDuty
13 2 (0.22%) Palantir
13 2 (0.22%) Sybase
13 2 (0.22%) webMethods
824 Software Engineer jobs in England