Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £560, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
25 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 127 71
Rank change year-on-year +28 -56 +52
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,169 610 1,015
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.56% 2.21% 3.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.77% 2.42% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 514 393 542
10th Percentile £400 £410 £450
25th Percentile £463 £488 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £638 £650
Median % change year-on-year -12.16% -1.92% +13.04%
75th Percentile £675 £825 £850
90th Percentile £750 £875 £888
UK median daily rate £573 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -8.40% -3.85% +13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 320 65 235
10th Percentile £52.29 £31.25 £45.22
25th Percentile £60.00 £59.00 £53.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.50
Median % change year-on-year - -0.76% +0.77%
75th Percentile £68.75 £67.00 £70.25
90th Percentile £74.00 £76.50 £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 42,233 25,214 30,900
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.54% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,442 16,270 19,985
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,231 1,370 1,701
10th Percentile £15.20 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.45 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.23 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.48% -43.94% +2.60%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -1.58%

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 25 August 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 25 August 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 25 August 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 -50 372 £625 -13.79% 147
South West +55 220 £550 -12.87% 131
North of England +1 189 £523 +6.30% 92
South East +48 171 £530 +11.58% 111
East of England +25 146 £505 +1.00% 63
North West +1 116 £550 +13.75% 58
Yorkshire -13 59 £475 -5.00% 19
Midlands -15 58 £441 -7.16% 45
West Midlands -18 34 £460 - 18
East Midlands +2 24 £425 -10.53% 27
North East -25 16 £425 -5.56% 15
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 August 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 1,155 (98.80%) Software Engineering
2 293 (25.06%) Agile
3 290 (24.81%) Java
4 283 (24.21%) CI/CD
5 275 (23.52%) Security Cleared
6 250 (21.39%) Python
7 239 (20.44%) SC Cleared
8 218 (18.65%) AWS
9 173 (14.80%) C++
10 155 (13.26%) C#
11 134 (11.46%) DevOps
12 130 (11.12%) Microservices
13 129 (11.04%) Docker
14 126 (10.78%) React
15 125 (10.69%) AI
16 124 (10.61%) SQL
17 123 (10.52%) TypeScript
18 122 (10.44%) Full-Stack Development
19 116 (9.92%) Kubernetes
20 112 (9.58%) Test Automation
21 109 (9.32%) .NET
22 108 (9.24%) Azure
23 102 (8.73%) Linux
24 93 (7.96%) JavaScript
24 93 (7.96%) Spring
25 89 (7.61%) Git
25 89 (7.61%) Spring Boot
26 87 (7.44%) Ada
27 85 (7.27%) C
28 81 (6.93%) 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 12 (1.03%) Apache Spark
2 8 (0.68%) Apache
2 8 (0.68%) Confluence
3 5 (0.43%) Apache Solr
4 4 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
4 4 (0.34%) CMS
5 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
5 2 (0.17%) WordPress
6 1 (0.086%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.086%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.086%) IIS
6 1 (0.086%) nginx
6 1 (0.086%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.086%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.086%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.086%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (0.26%) Trello
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.17%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.086%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.086%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 4 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.086%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 218 (18.65%) AWS
2 108 (9.24%) Azure
3 64 (5.47%) GitHub
4 53 (4.53%) Serverless
5 50 (4.28%) GCP
6 39 (3.34%) AWS Lambda
7 35 (2.99%) GitHub Actions
8 23 (1.97%) Amazon SQS
9 22 (1.88%) OpenShift
10 21 (1.80%) Amazon ECS
10 21 (1.80%) Amazon S3
11 17 (1.45%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (1.11%) Amazon EC2
12 13 (1.11%) Azure DevOps
13 10 (0.86%) Amazon EventBridge
13 10 (0.86%) Anthropic Claude
14 9 (0.77%) Datadog
14 9 (0.77%) Power Platform
14 9 (0.77%) SaaS
15 8 (0.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.74%) Software-Defined Radio
2 28 (2.40%) Wireless
3 15 (1.28%) Ethernet
4 12 (1.03%) Firewall
4 12 (1.03%) HTTP
4 12 (1.03%) VPN
5 10 (0.86%) TCP/IP
6 7 (0.60%) RTP
6 7 (0.60%) Wireshark
7 6 (0.51%) 3GPP
8 4 (0.34%) Internet
9 2 (0.17%) Network Security
10 1 (0.086%) DNS
10 1 (0.086%) MQTT
10 1 (0.086%) RS-232
10 1 (0.086%) RS-422
10 1 (0.086%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (5.30%) PostgreSQL
2 49 (4.19%) Relational Database
3 38 (3.25%) SQL Server
4 34 (2.91%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.63%) DynamoDB
6 13 (1.11%) Elasticsearch
6 13 (1.11%) MySQL
7 11 (0.94%) MongoDB
8 8 (0.68%) Metadata
8 8 (0.68%) Redis
9 6 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.51%) Big Data
9 6 (0.51%) Power BI
10 5 (0.43%) Apache Cassandra
10 5 (0.43%) ObjectStore
11 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
12 3 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.26%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.26%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.26%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 89 (7.61%) Git
2 60 (5.13%) Jenkins
3 53 (4.53%) GitLab
4 31 (2.65%) JIRA
5 25 (2.14%) JUnit
6 20 (1.71%) Rational DOORS
7 15 (1.28%) SonarQube
8 14 (1.20%) Gradle
8 14 (1.20%) Mockito
8 14 (1.20%) Rational Rhapsody
9 13 (1.11%) Visual Studio
10 12 (1.03%) LabVIEW
11 9 (0.77%) Liquibase
11 9 (0.77%) Selenium
12 8 (0.68%) Claude Code
13 7 (0.60%) IntelliJ
13 7 (0.60%) TeamCity
14 6 (0.51%) Eclipse
14 6 (0.51%) Maven
15 5 (0.43%) Bitbucket
General
1 146 (12.49%) Finance
2 121 (10.35%) Social Skills
3 68 (5.82%) Banking
4 58 (4.96%) Public Sector
5 54 (4.62%) Aerospace
6 35 (2.99%) Analytical Skills
7 31 (2.65%) Front Office
8 25 (2.14%) Law
9 21 (1.80%) Manufacturing
10 19 (1.63%) Automotive
11 17 (1.45%) Aviation
12 13 (1.11%) Electronics
13 12 (1.03%) Investment Banking
13 12 (1.03%) Retail
14 11 (0.94%) Back Office
15 10 (0.86%) Military
16 7 (0.60%) Avionics
17 6 (0.51%) Telecoms
18 5 (0.43%) Marketing
18 5 (0.43%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (10.78%) React
2 109 (9.32%) .NET
3 93 (7.96%) Spring
4 89 (7.61%) Spring Boot
5 81 (6.93%) REST
6 73 (6.24%) Kafka
7 69 (5.90%) Node.js
8 62 (5.30%) Terraform
9 45 (3.85%) AngularJS
10 44 (3.76%) Django
11 37 (3.17%) RESTful
12 24 (2.05%) Next.js
13 22 (1.88%) FastAPI
14 21 (1.80%) GraphQL
14 21 (1.80%) Redux
15 19 (1.63%) CSS
16 18 (1.54%) HTML
17 17 (1.45%) .NET Core
17 17 (1.45%) Flask
18 15 (1.28%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 117 (10.01%) Cloud Native
2 88 (7.53%) Distributed Systems
3 35 (2.99%) Algorithms
4 33 (2.82%) Embedded Systems
5 28 (2.40%) Fixed Income
6 25 (2.14%) AI Agents
7 24 (2.05%) Product Ownership
8 21 (1.80%) Onboarding
9 14 (1.20%) RISC-V
10 13 (1.11%) Data Structures
10 13 (1.11%) Device Driver
10 13 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (1.03%) Derivative
12 11 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (0.77%) FPGA
13 9 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
14 8 (0.68%) MicroBlaze
14 8 (0.68%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 102 (8.73%) Linux
2 29 (2.48%) Windows
3 22 (1.88%) Embedded Linux
4 13 (1.11%) FreeRTOS
5 10 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.51%) Android
6 6 (0.51%) Unix
7 5 (0.43%) Debian
8 3 (0.26%) Rocky
8 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.17%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.17%) VxWorks
9 2 (0.17%) Windows Server
10 1 (0.086%) Solaris
10 1 (0.086%) Tizen
10 1 (0.086%) webOS
10 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,155 (98.80%) Software Engineering
2 293 (25.06%) Agile
3 283 (24.21%) CI/CD
4 134 (11.46%) DevOps
5 130 (11.12%) Microservices
6 125 (10.69%) AI
7 122 (10.44%) Full-Stack Development
8 112 (9.58%) Test Automation
9 81 (6.93%) Problem-Solving
10 77 (6.59%) Continuous Improvement
11 76 (6.50%) TDD
12 68 (5.82%) Software Testing
13 64 (5.47%) Containerisation
13 64 (5.47%) Event-Driven
14 63 (5.39%) Infrastructure as Code
15 59 (5.05%) Clean Code
15 59 (5.05%) Observability
16 55 (4.70%) SDLC
17 54 (4.62%) Technical Leadership
18 51 (4.36%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 290 (24.81%) Java
2 250 (21.39%) Python
3 173 (14.80%) C++
4 155 (13.26%) C#
5 124 (10.61%) SQL
6 123 (10.52%) TypeScript
7 93 (7.96%) JavaScript
8 87 (7.44%) Ada
9 85 (7.27%) C
10 42 (3.59%) Go
11 40 (3.42%) Kotlin
12 23 (1.97%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.88%) PowerShell
14 20 (1.71%) Rust
15 14 (1.20%) PHP
16 10 (0.86%) Bash
17 8 (0.68%) MATLAB
18 7 (0.60%) PL/SQL
18 7 (0.60%) Scala
19 6 (0.51%) R
Qualifications
1 275 (23.52%) Security Cleared
2 239 (20.44%) SC Cleared
3 41 (3.51%) Degree
4 32 (2.74%) DV Cleared
5 17 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 16 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (0.43%) AWS Certification
7 5 (0.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 5 (0.43%) ISTQB
8 4 (0.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.26%) Chartered Engineer
9 3 (0.26%) PhD
10 2 (0.17%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.17%) QA
2 13 (1.11%) MISRA
3 12 (1.03%) Def Stans
4 9 (0.77%) Accessibility
4 9 (0.77%) IEC 61508
5 8 (0.68%) DO-178B
5 8 (0.68%) GDPR
6 6 (0.51%) WCAG
7 5 (0.43%) Data Quality
7 5 (0.43%) MISRA C
8 4 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.26%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.17%) HL7
10 2 (0.17%) ISO 26262
10 2 (0.17%) NCSC
11 1 (0.086%) FATCA
11 1 (0.086%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.086%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 129 (11.04%) Docker
2 19 (1.63%) Firmware
3 10 (0.86%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 116 (9.92%) Kubernetes
2 15 (1.28%) Ansible
3 12 (1.03%) Argo
4 10 (0.86%) Grafana
5 6 (0.51%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.34%) Control-M
6 4 (0.34%) Kibana
6 4 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.26%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.17%) Cilium
8 2 (0.17%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.17%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.086%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.086%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.086%) PTC Integrity
9 1 (0.086%) Puppet
Vendors
1 32 (2.74%) Microsoft
2 20 (1.71%) Oracle
3 14 (1.20%) Red Hat
4 13 (1.11%) Google
5 10 (0.86%) SAP
6 8 (0.68%) IBM
7 7 (0.60%) Databricks
7 7 (0.60%) Hitachi
8 5 (0.43%) MathWorks
8 5 (0.43%) OpenAI
8 5 (0.43%) Splunk
9 4 (0.34%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.26%) FIS
10 3 (0.26%) VMware
11 2 (0.17%) Ariba
11 2 (0.17%) MKS
11 2 (0.17%) QNX
11 2 (0.17%) Salesforce
11 2 (0.17%) Sybase
11 2 (0.17%) TOWER Software
497 Software Engineer jobs in England