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 6 April 2026.

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

 6 months to
6 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 119 84
Rank change year-on-year +26 -35 +53
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,043 555 932
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.70% 2.28% 2.50%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.92% 2.45% 2.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 456 368 492
10th Percentile £400 £400 £427
25th Percentile £457 £484 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +5.93%
75th Percentile £688 £750 £750
90th Percentile £800 £875 £800
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +5.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 350 54 277
10th Percentile £52.50 £53.36 £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% +4.17%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% +4.17%

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 35,703 22,640 34,614
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.87% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,481 15,159 23,114
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.52% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,372 844 2,312
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.84 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.09 £20.29 £16.25
Median hourly rate £42.50 £33.00 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.79% - -24.57%
75th Percentile £65.60 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.70 £76.25 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £31.76 £33.07
% change year-on-year +25.94% -3.95% -26.52%

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 6 April 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 6 April 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 6 April 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 -31 327 £625 -1.96% 235
South West +30 226 £575 -3.36% 136
North of England +16 167 £500 +5.26% 146
East of England +45 136 £500 -14.16% 90
South East -11 105 £550 -4.35% 186
North West +15 90 £550 +22.22% 80
Yorkshire -19 52 £500 +3.09% 45
Midlands -46 43 £500 +11.11% 79
West Midlands -29 37 £500 +5.26% 46
North East +11 28 £439 - 21
East Midlands -35 6 £488 +2.63% 33
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 6 April 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 1,032 (98.95%) Software Engineering
2 270 (25.89%) Agile
3 264 (25.31%) AWS
4 263 (25.22%) Java
4 263 (25.22%) Security Cleared
5 230 (22.05%) CI/CD
6 228 (21.86%) Python
7 205 (19.65%) SC Cleared
8 186 (17.83%) C++
9 151 (14.48%) TypeScript
10 141 (13.52%) C#
10 141 (13.52%) JavaScript
11 140 (13.42%) DevOps
11 140 (13.42%) React
12 134 (12.85%) Kubernetes
12 134 (12.85%) Microservices
13 132 (12.66%) Docker
14 123 (11.79%) Linux
15 119 (11.41%) Azure
16 111 (10.64%) Full-Stack Development
17 108 (10.35%) Node.js
18 106 (10.16%) Ada
19 105 (10.07%) SQL
20 96 (9.20%) Go
20 96 (9.20%) Kafka
21 89 (8.53%) Problem-Solving
22 88 (8.44%) Terraform
23 86 (8.25%) Git
24 85 (8.15%) AI
25 80 (7.67%) .NET

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 24 (2.30%) Apache
2 18 (1.73%) Confluence
3 17 (1.63%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.29%) IIS
4 3 (0.29%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.19%) Camunda
5 2 (0.19%) nginx
5 2 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.19%) SAS
5 2 (0.19%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.19%) WinCC
6 1 (0.096%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.096%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.096%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.096%) Smallworld
Applications
1 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.096%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.096%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.096%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.19%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.096%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.096%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 264 (25.31%) AWS
2 119 (11.41%) Azure
3 69 (6.62%) GCP
4 57 (5.47%) Serverless
5 46 (4.41%) GitHub
6 27 (2.59%) AWS Lambda
7 23 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
8 22 (2.11%) Amazon S3
9 21 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (2.01%) OpenShift
10 19 (1.82%) AWS CloudFormation
11 17 (1.63%) Power Platform
12 16 (1.53%) Amazon ECS
12 16 (1.53%) Amazon SQS
13 14 (1.34%) Amazon EC2
14 12 (1.15%) Azure Functions
15 11 (1.05%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (1.05%) Collibra
16 9 (0.86%) SaaS
17 8 (0.77%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.73%) Ethernet
2 11 (1.05%) Software-Defined Radio
2 11 (1.05%) TCP/IP
3 6 (0.58%) Wireless
4 5 (0.48%) Firewall
4 5 (0.48%) HTTP
5 4 (0.38%) 3GPP
5 4 (0.38%) BGP
5 4 (0.38%) Network Security
5 4 (0.38%) VLAN
6 3 (0.29%) Software-Defined Networking
7 2 (0.19%) Modbus
8 1 (0.096%) FTP
8 1 (0.096%) LTE
8 1 (0.096%) Multicast
8 1 (0.096%) NFC
8 1 (0.096%) Profibus
8 1 (0.096%) RTCP
8 1 (0.096%) RTP
8 1 (0.096%) XCAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (6.14%) PostgreSQL
2 30 (2.88%) Relational Database
3 29 (2.78%) Apache Cassandra
4 28 (2.68%) SQL Server
5 25 (2.40%) NoSQL
6 22 (2.11%) MongoDB
7 21 (2.01%) Data Lake
8 19 (1.82%) Amazon RDS
9 17 (1.63%) MySQL
10 14 (1.34%) Power BI
11 13 (1.25%) Amazon Athena
11 13 (1.25%) Metadata
12 12 (1.15%) DynamoDB
12 12 (1.15%) Mixpanel
13 10 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
14 9 (0.86%) BigQuery
15 7 (0.67%) Hadoop
15 7 (0.67%) OLAP
15 7 (0.67%) OLTP
16 6 (0.58%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 86 (8.25%) Git
2 53 (5.08%) GitLab
3 50 (4.79%) Jenkins
4 43 (4.12%) JIRA
5 27 (2.59%) Rational DOORS
6 25 (2.40%) Rational Rhapsody
7 20 (1.92%) Gradle
8 17 (1.63%) IntelliJ
8 17 (1.63%) JUnit
8 17 (1.63%) SonarQube
8 17 (1.63%) Visual Studio
9 12 (1.15%) Cucumber
9 12 (1.15%) Eclipse
10 10 (0.96%) Bitbucket
10 10 (0.96%) Liquibase
11 9 (0.86%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.86%) Maven
12 8 (0.77%) Postman
12 8 (0.77%) PVCS
13 7 (0.67%) Oracle APEX
General
1 111 (10.64%) Finance
2 91 (8.72%) Social Skills
3 51 (4.89%) Aerospace
4 50 (4.79%) Front Office
5 45 (4.31%) Public Sector
6 38 (3.64%) Analytical Skills
7 32 (3.07%) Electronics
8 31 (2.97%) Banking
9 28 (2.68%) Law
10 20 (1.92%) Military
11 19 (1.82%) Manufacturing
12 12 (1.15%) Retail
13 9 (0.86%) Influencing Skills
13 9 (0.86%) Investment Banking
14 8 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.48%) Financial Institution
15 5 (0.48%) Health Technology
16 4 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 4 (0.38%) Telecoms
17 3 (0.29%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 140 (13.42%) React
2 108 (10.35%) Node.js
3 96 (9.20%) Kafka
4 80 (7.67%) .NET
5 74 (7.09%) REST
6 62 (5.94%) Spring
7 60 (5.75%) Spring Boot
8 56 (5.37%) AngularJS
9 46 (4.41%) Redux
10 44 (4.22%) GraphQL
11 41 (3.93%) RESTful
12 34 (3.26%) Middleware
13 27 (2.59%) gRPC
14 25 (2.40%) CSS
15 21 (2.01%) HTML
16 19 (1.82%) Qt
17 18 (1.73%) JSON
17 18 (1.73%) Web Services
18 17 (1.63%) Vue
19 16 (1.53%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 78 (7.48%) Cloud Native
2 55 (5.27%) Distributed Systems
3 52 (4.99%) Fixed Income
4 49 (4.70%) Algorithms
5 35 (3.36%) Product Ownership
6 19 (1.82%) Embedded Systems
7 16 (1.53%) Derivative
7 16 (1.53%) Equities
7 16 (1.53%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (1.25%) Greenfield Project
8 13 (1.25%) Mobile App
9 11 (1.05%) AI Agents
10 10 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (0.96%) Onboarding
10 10 (0.96%) Robotics
11 9 (0.86%) Life Science
11 9 (0.86%) Public Cloud
12 8 (0.77%) CUDA
12 8 (0.77%) NHS
13 7 (0.67%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 123 (11.79%) Linux
2 52 (4.99%) Windows
3 19 (1.82%) Unix
4 18 (1.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (1.53%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.25%) Android
7 12 (1.15%) Windows Server
8 8 (0.77%) Embedded Linux
9 7 (0.67%) FreeRTOS
10 6 (0.58%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.38%) Debian
12 3 (0.29%) Rocky
13 2 (0.19%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.19%) Solaris
13 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.096%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.096%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,032 (98.95%) Software Engineering
2 270 (25.89%) Agile
3 230 (22.05%) CI/CD
4 140 (13.42%) DevOps
5 134 (12.85%) Microservices
6 111 (10.64%) Full-Stack Development
7 89 (8.53%) Problem-Solving
8 85 (8.15%) AI
9 78 (7.48%) Containerisation
10 74 (7.09%) TDD
11 72 (6.90%) Test Automation
12 68 (6.52%) Mentoring
13 66 (6.33%) Infrastructure as Code
14 58 (5.56%) SDLC
15 57 (5.47%) Scrum
16 54 (5.18%) Unit Testing
17 53 (5.08%) Continuous Improvement
18 52 (4.99%) Machine Learning
19 51 (4.89%) Clean Code
20 46 (4.41%) Investment Management
Programming Languages
1 263 (25.22%) Java
2 228 (21.86%) Python
3 186 (17.83%) C++
4 151 (14.48%) TypeScript
5 141 (13.52%) C#
5 141 (13.52%) JavaScript
6 106 (10.16%) Ada
7 105 (10.07%) SQL
8 96 (9.20%) Go
9 79 (7.57%) C
10 27 (2.59%) Embedded C
11 25 (2.40%) PowerShell
12 24 (2.30%) Kotlin
13 21 (2.01%) MATLAB
13 21 (2.01%) Rust
14 19 (1.82%) Embedded C++
15 17 (1.63%) Bash
16 9 (0.86%) PL/SQL
16 9 (0.86%) Swift
17 8 (0.77%) Perl
Qualifications
1 263 (25.22%) Security Cleared
2 205 (19.65%) SC Cleared
3 50 (4.79%) Degree
4 36 (3.45%) DV Cleared
5 23 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (0.96%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.77%) AWS Certification
8 7 (0.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 5 (0.48%) Master's Degree
10 4 (0.38%) ISTQB
10 4 (0.38%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 3 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.19%) CCNA
12 2 (0.19%) CCNP
12 2 (0.19%) HNC
12 2 (0.19%) HND
13 1 (0.096%) CCDP
13 1 (0.096%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 1 (0.096%) OCA
13 1 (0.096%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (3.93%) Def Stans
2 34 (3.26%) IEC 61508
2 34 (3.26%) QA
3 24 (2.30%) MISRA
4 20 (1.92%) Data Quality
5 17 (1.63%) MISRA C
6 13 (1.25%) GDPR
7 7 (0.67%) Accessibility
7 7 (0.67%) DO-178B
8 6 (0.58%) HL7
9 4 (0.38%) NCSC
10 2 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.096%) DICOM
11 1 (0.096%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.096%) NIST
11 1 (0.096%) WCAG
System Software
1 132 (12.66%) Docker
2 15 (1.44%) Firmware
3 10 (0.96%) Virtual Machines
3 10 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.38%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.19%) HDFS
7 1 (0.096%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 134 (12.85%) Kubernetes
2 88 (8.44%) Terraform
3 27 (2.59%) Grafana
4 22 (2.11%) Ansible
5 13 (1.25%) Argo
6 9 (0.86%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.38%) Data Guard
8 3 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.19%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.19%) Puppet
10 1 (0.096%) Functional Safety
10 1 (0.096%) HAProxy
10 1 (0.096%) Podman
Vendors
1 38 (3.64%) Red Hat
2 37 (3.55%) Microsoft
3 25 (2.40%) Oracle
4 23 (2.21%) Databricks
5 22 (2.11%) Google
6 19 (1.82%) IBM
7 10 (0.96%) Splunk
7 10 (0.96%) VMware
8 8 (0.77%) ANSYS
8 8 (0.77%) MathWorks
8 8 (0.77%) Siemens
8 8 (0.77%) Spotify
9 4 (0.38%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.38%) Brio
10 3 (0.29%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.29%) NVIDIA
10 3 (0.29%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.29%) Palantir
11 2 (0.19%) PagerDuty
11 2 (0.19%) Rockwell
848 Software Engineer jobs in England