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 21 February 2026.

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

 6 months to
21 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 120 100
Rank change year-on-year +19 -20 +30
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 894 571 864
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.56% 2.21% 2.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.79% 2.38% 2.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 386 353 449
10th Percentile £400 £413 £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 £860 £788
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - +2.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 285 60 259
10th Percentile £51.25 £50.88 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £60.69 £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 £75.60
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 32,094 24,035 35,291
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.85% 92.97% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,339 15,179 23,643
10th Percentile £305 £297 £270
25th Percentile £410 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -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 2,052 719 2,161
10th Percentile £15.01 £16.25 £13.23
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.50 £16.67
Median hourly rate £33.17 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.23% - -12.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.63 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £31.49 £34.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.38% -2.86% -10.26%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -30 299 £625 - 247
South West +14 173 £500 -14.16% 131
North of England +26 157 £544 +14.42% 162
East of England +41 119 £525 -9.87% 73
North West +14 81 £550 +22.22% 98
South East -10 73 £550 +7.32% 178
Yorkshire -18 57 £525 +3.70% 35
Midlands -31 39 £500 +11.11% 76
West Midlands -27 34 £514 +8.21% 36
North East -4 21 £550 - 29
East Midlands -24 5 £475 +18.60% 40
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 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.

1 884 (98.88%) Software Engineering
2 257 (28.75%) Agile
3 252 (28.19%) AWS
4 218 (24.38%) Python
5 211 (23.60%) CI/CD
6 209 (23.38%) Java
7 200 (22.37%) Security Cleared
8 188 (21.03%) C++
9 152 (17.00%) SC Cleared
10 147 (16.44%) DevOps
11 140 (15.66%) Docker
12 138 (15.44%) Kubernetes
13 136 (15.21%) JavaScript
13 136 (15.21%) Microservices
14 128 (14.32%) TypeScript
15 126 (14.09%) Linux
15 126 (14.09%) React
16 116 (12.98%) C#
17 107 (11.97%) SQL
18 102 (11.41%) Terraform
19 97 (10.85%) Azure
20 95 (10.63%) Problem-Solving
21 89 (9.96%) Containerisation
21 89 (9.96%) Full-Stack Development
22 86 (9.62%) AI
23 85 (9.51%) GCP
24 84 (9.40%) Kafka
24 84 (9.40%) Test Automation
25 82 (9.17%) Degree
25 82 (9.17%) 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 11 (1.23%) Confluence
4 8 (0.89%) 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%) nginx
8 2 (0.22%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.22%) WinCC
9 1 (0.11%) Apache Synapse
9 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.11%) Smallworld
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
1 252 (28.19%) AWS
2 97 (10.85%) Azure
3 85 (9.51%) GCP
4 75 (8.39%) Serverless
5 50 (5.59%) GitHub
6 33 (3.69%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (2.91%) GitHub Actions
8 25 (2.80%) Amazon S3
9 24 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
10 23 (2.57%) Amazon ECS
11 19 (2.13%) Amazon EC2
12 18 (2.01%) AWS CloudFormation
13 16 (1.79%) Amazon EKS
13 16 (1.79%) Amazon SQS
14 14 (1.57%) 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
17 9 (1.01%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.57%) 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%) FTP
7 1 (0.11%) LTE
7 1 (0.11%) Multicast
7 1 (0.11%) Profibus
7 1 (0.11%) VPN
7 1 (0.11%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (5.93%) PostgreSQL
2 36 (4.03%) NoSQL
3 30 (3.36%) MongoDB
4 29 (3.24%) Apache Cassandra
5 24 (2.68%) SQL Server
6 22 (2.46%) Amazon RDS
6 22 (2.46%) Data Lake
7 19 (2.13%) Amazon Athena
8 18 (2.01%) MySQL
9 15 (1.68%) Relational Database
10 13 (1.45%) Metadata
11 12 (1.34%) Mixpanel
12 11 (1.23%) DynamoDB
12 11 (1.23%) Power BI
13 9 (1.01%) BigQuery
13 9 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
14 8 (0.89%) Amazon Aurora
14 8 (0.89%) Apache Arrow
14 8 (0.89%) Apache Iceberg
14 8 (0.89%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 76 (8.50%) Git
2 54 (6.04%) GitLab
3 44 (4.92%) Jenkins
4 39 (4.36%) JIRA
5 24 (2.68%) Rational DOORS
6 20 (2.24%) Liquibase
6 20 (2.24%) Rational Rhapsody
7 18 (2.01%) Gradle
8 15 (1.68%) IntelliJ
9 14 (1.57%) Cypress.io
10 11 (1.23%) Eclipse
10 11 (1.23%) 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
1 118 (13.20%) Finance
2 112 (12.53%) Social Skills
3 47 (5.26%) Public Sector
4 44 (4.92%) Banking
5 43 (4.81%) Aerospace
6 40 (4.47%) Analytical Skills
7 36 (4.03%) Front Office
8 34 (3.80%) Electronics
9 23 (2.57%) Law
10 19 (2.13%) Military
11 18 (2.01%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.90%) Financial Institution
13 11 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (1.23%) Investment Banking
13 11 (1.23%) Retail
14 9 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.67%) Automotive
15 6 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
16 5 (0.56%) Health Technology
16 5 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (14.09%) React
2 84 (9.40%) Kafka
3 80 (8.95%) Node.js
4 71 (7.94%) REST
5 68 (7.61%) .NET
6 55 (6.15%) RESTful
7 53 (5.93%) Spring
8 50 (5.59%) Spring Boot
9 41 (4.59%) AngularJS
10 32 (3.58%) Middleware
11 28 (3.13%) GraphQL
11 28 (3.13%) gRPC
12 26 (2.91%) Redux
13 24 (2.68%) Qt
14 23 (2.57%) CSS
15 21 (2.35%) JSON
16 20 (2.24%) HTML
16 20 (2.24%) XML
17 19 (2.13%) Elastic Stack
18 17 (1.90%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 83 (9.28%) Cloud Native
2 59 (6.60%) Distributed Systems
3 40 (4.47%) Algorithms
4 33 (3.69%) Fixed Income
5 28 (3.13%) Product Ownership
6 21 (2.35%) Public Cloud
7 19 (2.13%) Embedded Systems
8 18 (2.01%) Greenfield Project
9 17 (1.90%) Equities
10 15 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
12 13 (1.45%) Life Science
12 13 (1.45%) Mobile App
13 12 (1.34%) Derivative
13 12 (1.34%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 11 (1.23%) AI Agents
15 10 (1.12%) Robotics
16 9 (1.01%) Data Structures
16 9 (1.01%) Onboarding
17 8 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 126 (14.09%) Linux
2 54 (6.04%) Windows
3 24 (2.68%) Unix
4 16 (1.79%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.45%) Android
6 12 (1.34%) Windows Server
7 11 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 7 (0.78%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.56%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.34%) Debian
11 2 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
11 2 (0.22%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.22%) Rocky
11 2 (0.22%) Solaris
11 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.11%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.11%) VMS
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 884 (98.88%) Software Engineering
2 257 (28.75%) Agile
3 211 (23.60%) CI/CD
4 147 (16.44%) DevOps
5 136 (15.21%) Microservices
6 95 (10.63%) Problem-Solving
7 89 (9.96%) Containerisation
7 89 (9.96%) Full-Stack Development
8 86 (9.62%) AI
9 84 (9.40%) Test Automation
10 77 (8.61%) Infrastructure as Code
11 73 (8.17%) Mentoring
12 63 (7.05%) TDD
13 59 (6.60%) Clean Code
14 56 (6.26%) Machine Learning
15 52 (5.82%) Computer Science
15 52 (5.82%) Continuous Improvement
16 48 (5.37%) Software Testing
17 47 (5.26%) SDLC
18 46 (5.15%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 218 (24.38%) Python
2 209 (23.38%) Java
3 188 (21.03%) C++
4 136 (15.21%) JavaScript
5 128 (14.32%) TypeScript
6 116 (12.98%) C#
7 107 (11.97%) SQL
8 82 (9.17%) Go
9 81 (9.06%) Ada
10 74 (8.28%) C
11 23 (2.57%) Embedded C++
12 22 (2.46%) Embedded C
13 20 (2.24%) Kotlin
13 20 (2.24%) Rust
14 17 (1.90%) PowerShell
15 16 (1.79%) MATLAB
16 10 (1.12%) Swift
17 9 (1.01%) Bash
17 9 (1.01%) Shell Script
18 8 (0.89%) Perl
Qualifications
1 200 (22.37%) Security Cleared
2 152 (17.00%) SC Cleared
3 82 (9.17%) 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 5 (0.56%) 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
11 2 (0.22%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.22%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 1 (0.11%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.11%) CCDP
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 (2.13%) 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
1 140 (15.66%) Docker
2 14 (1.57%) Firmware
2 14 (1.57%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (1.01%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.45%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 138 (15.44%) Kubernetes
2 102 (11.41%) Terraform
3 36 (4.03%) Grafana
4 28 (3.13%) Ansible
5 21 (2.35%) 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 31 (3.47%) Google
2 29 (3.24%) Red Hat
3 28 (3.13%) Microsoft
4 24 (2.68%) Oracle
5 22 (2.46%) Databricks
5 22 (2.46%) Splunk
6 17 (1.90%) 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%) Adobe
13 2 (0.22%) Cisco
13 2 (0.22%) NVIDIA
13 2 (0.22%) Palantir
13 2 (0.22%) Sybase
13 2 (0.22%) webMethods
824 Software Engineer jobs in England