Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £553, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026.

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

 6 months to
20 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 129 74
Rank change year-on-year +44 -55 +56
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,174 517 1,027
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.86% 2.13% 2.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.09% 2.30% 3.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 503 352 539
10th Percentile £400 £411 £450
25th Percentile £463 £475 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £553 £625 £638
Median % change year-on-year -11.60% -1.96% +6.25%
75th Percentile £688 £825 £750
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 388 45 314
10th Percentile £52.50 £52.20 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £61.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.65 £74.50 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +6.12%

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 37,960 22,434 33,770
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.38% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,575 14,905 22,421
10th Percentile £319 £295 £283
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,608 926 2,442
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £30.00 £36.92
Median % change year-on-year +50.00% -18.73% -17.97%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.19 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%

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 20 May 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 20 May 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 20 May 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 -20 356 £625 -7.41% 258
South West +41 260 £570 -0.87% 113
North of England +28 179 £500 +11.11% 157
South East +15 154 £550 -4.35% 195
East of England +54 152 £503 -13.65% 96
North West +19 104 £500 +11.11% 92
Yorkshire -19 53 £500 +5.26% 38
Midlands -44 41 £494 +12.99% 61
West Midlands -26 35 £478 +6.16% 34
North East 0 24 £400 - 29
East Midlands -32 6 £513 +7.89% 27
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 May 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 1,161 (98.89%) Software Engineering
2 302 (25.72%) Java
3 282 (24.02%) Agile
4 278 (23.68%) Security Cleared
5 261 (22.23%) AWS
6 249 (21.21%) CI/CD
7 231 (19.68%) Python
8 214 (18.23%) SC Cleared
9 177 (15.08%) C++
10 166 (14.14%) C#
11 158 (13.46%) TypeScript
12 153 (13.03%) React
13 140 (11.93%) DevOps
13 140 (11.93%) JavaScript
14 138 (11.75%) Microservices
15 132 (11.24%) Docker
16 128 (10.90%) Kubernetes
17 126 (10.73%) Linux
18 123 (10.48%) SQL
19 122 (10.39%) Full-Stack Development
20 119 (10.14%) Azure
21 111 (9.45%) Ada
22 102 (8.69%) Node.js
23 99 (8.43%) .NET
24 95 (8.09%) AI
25 90 (7.67%) Test Automation
26 88 (7.50%) Kafka
27 85 (7.24%) C
27 85 (7.24%) Go
27 85 (7.24%) 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 19 (1.62%) Apache
2 16 (1.36%) Confluence
3 13 (1.11%) Apache Spark
4 4 (0.34%) IIS
5 3 (0.26%) nginx
5 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.17%) Camunda
6 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
6 2 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.17%) SAS
6 2 (0.17%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.17%) WinCC
7 1 (0.085%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.085%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.085%) Apache Synapse
7 1 (0.085%) CMS
7 1 (0.085%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.085%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.085%) Smallworld
Applications
1 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.17%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.085%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.085%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 261 (22.23%) AWS
2 119 (10.14%) Azure
3 65 (5.54%) GCP
4 52 (4.43%) Serverless
5 49 (4.17%) GitHub
6 29 (2.47%) AWS Lambda
7 23 (1.96%) Amazon S3
8 21 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (1.70%) OpenShift
10 19 (1.62%) Amazon EC2
11 17 (1.45%) GitHub Actions
12 15 (1.28%) Amazon ECS
12 15 (1.28%) Amazon SQS
12 15 (1.28%) Power Platform
13 13 (1.11%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (0.94%) Azure Functions
15 10 (0.85%) Amazon EKS
16 9 (0.77%) Collibra
17 8 (0.68%) SaaS
18 7 (0.60%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.73%) Software-Defined Radio
2 19 (1.62%) Ethernet
3 17 (1.45%) Wireless
4 12 (1.02%) HTTP
5 11 (0.94%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.68%) 3GPP
7 6 (0.51%) RTP
8 5 (0.43%) Firewall
8 5 (0.43%) Wireshark
9 3 (0.26%) VPN
10 2 (0.17%) DNS
10 2 (0.17%) Modbus
11 1 (0.085%) BGP
11 1 (0.085%) HTTPS
11 1 (0.085%) Internet
11 1 (0.085%) Profibus
11 1 (0.085%) RS-232
11 1 (0.085%) RS-422
11 1 (0.085%) RS-485
11 1 (0.085%) RTCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (5.88%) PostgreSQL
2 35 (2.98%) SQL Server
3 34 (2.90%) Relational Database
4 21 (1.79%) Apache Cassandra
5 19 (1.62%) MongoDB
5 19 (1.62%) NoSQL
6 17 (1.45%) Amazon RDS
7 15 (1.28%) Data Lake
7 15 (1.28%) DynamoDB
8 14 (1.19%) MySQL
9 12 (1.02%) Power BI
10 10 (0.85%) Amazon Athena
10 10 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
10 10 (0.85%) Metadata
10 10 (0.85%) Mixpanel
11 7 (0.60%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.51%) Hadoop
12 6 (0.51%) Redis
13 5 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.43%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 83 (7.07%) Git
2 59 (5.03%) GitLab
3 52 (4.43%) Jenkins
4 39 (3.32%) JIRA
5 26 (2.21%) Gradle
6 23 (1.96%) Rational DOORS
7 22 (1.87%) JUnit
7 22 (1.87%) Rational Rhapsody
8 20 (1.70%) IntelliJ
9 17 (1.45%) SonarQube
10 16 (1.36%) Visual Studio
11 12 (1.02%) Cucumber
11 12 (1.02%) Mockito
12 10 (0.85%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.85%) Eclipse
12 10 (0.85%) Liquibase
12 10 (0.85%) Maven
13 8 (0.68%) Selenium
14 7 (0.60%) Cypress.io
15 6 (0.51%) Postman
General
1 139 (11.84%) Finance
2 94 (8.01%) Social Skills
3 59 (5.03%) Aerospace
4 51 (4.34%) Front Office
5 39 (3.32%) Public Sector
6 37 (3.15%) Analytical Skills
7 36 (3.07%) Banking
8 28 (2.39%) Law
9 27 (2.30%) Manufacturing
10 21 (1.79%) Electronics
11 16 (1.36%) Military
12 14 (1.19%) Retail
13 13 (1.11%) Aviation
14 11 (0.94%) Investment Banking
15 10 (0.85%) Automotive
16 8 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
17 6 (0.51%) Telecoms
18 5 (0.43%) Back Office
18 5 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
19 4 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 153 (13.03%) React
2 102 (8.69%) Node.js
3 99 (8.43%) .NET
4 88 (7.50%) Kafka
5 84 (7.16%) Spring
6 79 (6.73%) Spring Boot
7 75 (6.39%) REST
8 60 (5.11%) AngularJS
9 48 (4.09%) GraphQL
10 46 (3.92%) Redux
11 39 (3.32%) RESTful
12 28 (2.39%) Middleware
13 23 (1.96%) Next.js
14 21 (1.79%) CSS
15 19 (1.62%) HTML
16 18 (1.53%) gRPC
16 18 (1.53%) Vue
17 17 (1.45%) Web Services
18 16 (1.36%) JSON
19 15 (1.28%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 86 (7.33%) Cloud Native
2 62 (5.28%) Algorithms
3 57 (4.86%) Distributed Systems
4 53 (4.51%) Fixed Income
5 40 (3.41%) Product Ownership
6 25 (2.13%) Embedded Systems
7 20 (1.70%) Derivative
8 19 (1.62%) AI Agents
9 16 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
10 14 (1.19%) Equities
10 14 (1.19%) Robotics
11 13 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
11 13 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
11 13 (1.11%) Onboarding
12 11 (0.94%) FPGA
13 10 (0.85%) Life Science
13 10 (0.85%) Mobile App
13 10 (0.85%) Self-Motivation
14 8 (0.68%) Data Centre
14 8 (0.68%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 126 (10.73%) Linux
2 50 (4.26%) Windows
3 19 (1.62%) Unix
4 16 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (1.11%) Embedded Linux
6 12 (1.02%) Apple iOS
7 11 (0.94%) Windows Server
8 10 (0.85%) FreeRTOS
9 8 (0.68%) Android
10 5 (0.43%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.34%) Debian
11 4 (0.34%) Rocky
12 3 (0.26%) Solaris
12 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
14 1 (0.085%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.085%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,161 (98.89%) Software Engineering
2 282 (24.02%) Agile
3 249 (21.21%) CI/CD
4 140 (11.93%) DevOps
5 138 (11.75%) Microservices
6 122 (10.39%) Full-Stack Development
7 95 (8.09%) AI
8 90 (7.67%) Test Automation
9 85 (7.24%) Problem-Solving
10 76 (6.47%) Containerisation
11 72 (6.13%) TDD
12 64 (5.45%) SDLC
13 62 (5.28%) Infrastructure as Code
14 61 (5.20%) Mentoring
14 61 (5.20%) Scrum
15 57 (4.86%) Machine Learning
16 55 (4.68%) Continuous Improvement
17 52 (4.43%) Unit Testing
18 51 (4.34%) Observability
19 49 (4.17%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 302 (25.72%) Java
2 231 (19.68%) Python
3 177 (15.08%) C++
4 166 (14.14%) C#
5 158 (13.46%) TypeScript
6 140 (11.93%) JavaScript
7 123 (10.48%) SQL
8 111 (9.45%) Ada
9 85 (7.24%) C
9 85 (7.24%) Go
10 30 (2.56%) Embedded C
11 27 (2.30%) Kotlin
12 26 (2.21%) Rust
13 25 (2.13%) PowerShell
14 22 (1.87%) MATLAB
15 15 (1.28%) Bash
16 12 (1.02%) Embedded C++
17 10 (0.85%) PL/SQL
18 9 (0.77%) PHP
19 7 (0.60%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 278 (23.68%) Security Cleared
2 214 (18.23%) SC Cleared
3 52 (4.43%) Degree
4 44 (3.75%) DV Cleared
5 21 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.60%) AWS Certification
7 7 (0.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (0.43%) ISTQB
8 5 (0.43%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.26%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.17%) CCNA
10 2 (0.17%) CCNP
10 2 (0.17%) HNC
10 2 (0.17%) HND
11 1 (0.085%) CCDP
11 1 (0.085%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.085%) OCA
11 1 (0.085%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.085%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.15%) QA
2 32 (2.73%) Def Stans
3 28 (2.39%) IEC 61508
4 17 (1.45%) Data Quality
4 17 (1.45%) MISRA
5 13 (1.11%) GDPR
6 12 (1.02%) MISRA C
7 11 (0.94%) Accessibility
8 4 (0.34%) DO-178B
8 4 (0.34%) HL7
8 4 (0.34%) NCSC
8 4 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.26%) WCAG
10 1 (0.085%) DICOM
10 1 (0.085%) FATCA
10 1 (0.085%) ISO 26262
10 1 (0.085%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.085%) NIST
System Software
1 132 (11.24%) Docker
2 14 (1.19%) Firmware
3 8 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.17%) HDFS
8 1 (0.085%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 128 (10.90%) Kubernetes
2 73 (6.22%) Terraform
3 27 (2.30%) Grafana
4 20 (1.70%) Ansible
5 11 (0.94%) Argo
6 7 (0.60%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.34%) Data Guard
8 2 (0.17%) Cilium
8 2 (0.17%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.17%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.17%) Puppet
8 2 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.085%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.085%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.085%) Podman
Vendors
1 34 (2.90%) Microsoft
1 34 (2.90%) Red Hat
2 23 (1.96%) Google
3 20 (1.70%) IBM
3 20 (1.70%) Oracle
4 19 (1.62%) Databricks
5 10 (0.85%) MathWorks
6 8 (0.68%) Spotify
6 8 (0.68%) VMware
7 7 (0.60%) Siemens
7 7 (0.60%) Splunk
8 6 (0.51%) ANSYS
8 6 (0.51%) SAP
9 4 (0.34%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.34%) Checkmarx
9 4 (0.34%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.26%) Brio
10 3 (0.26%) Palantir
10 3 (0.26%) Sybase
10 3 (0.26%) Talend
850 Software Engineer jobs in England