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 24 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
24 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 129 70
Rank change year-on-year +30 -59 +52
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,183 616 1,015
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.59% 2.22% 3.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.80% 2.43% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 516 397 542
10th Percentile £400 £410 £450
25th Percentile £460 £488 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £638 £650
Median % change year-on-year -13.73% -1.92% +13.04%
75th Percentile £675 £825 £850
90th Percentile £750 £875 £888
UK median daily rate £570 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -8.80% -3.85% +13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 328 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 £68.60 £67.00 £70.25
90th Percentile £73.62 £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 42,224 25,400 30,899
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 91.55% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,453 16,393 19,996
10th Percentile £325 £281 £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 3,225 1,375 1,702
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.48 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.65 £25.32 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.44% -43.73% +2.60%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.15 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.13 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.51% -1.71%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -47 373 £623 -14.14% 135
South West +55 228 £550 -12.87% 109
North of England +4 190 £523 +6.30% 88
South East +46 171 £530 +11.58% 115
East of England +24 148 £505 +1.00% 63
North West +1 117 £550 +13.75% 55
Midlands +2 59 £445 -6.32% 45
Yorkshire -10 59 £475 -5.00% 18
West Midlands -18 35 £455 - 18
East Midlands +8 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 24 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 1,169 (98.82%) Software Engineering
2 299 (25.27%) Agile
3 296 (25.02%) Java
4 289 (24.43%) CI/CD
5 281 (23.75%) Security Cleared
6 253 (21.39%) Python
7 244 (20.63%) SC Cleared
8 219 (18.51%) AWS
9 178 (15.05%) C++
10 160 (13.52%) C#
11 135 (11.41%) DevOps
12 131 (11.07%) Microservices
13 130 (10.99%) Docker
14 126 (10.65%) AI
14 126 (10.65%) React
15 125 (10.57%) SQL
16 124 (10.48%) TypeScript
17 122 (10.31%) Full-Stack Development
18 117 (9.89%) Kubernetes
19 112 (9.47%) Test Automation
20 110 (9.30%) .NET
20 110 (9.30%) Linux
21 108 (9.13%) Azure
22 98 (8.28%) JavaScript
23 93 (7.86%) Spring
24 91 (7.69%) Ada
25 90 (7.61%) Git
26 89 (7.52%) Spring Boot
27 85 (7.19%) C
28 81 (6.85%) 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 (1.01%) Apache Spark
2 11 (0.93%) Confluence
3 8 (0.68%) Apache
4 5 (0.42%) Apache Solr
5 4 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.34%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) MQSeries
6 2 (0.17%) WordPress
7 1 (0.085%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.085%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.085%) IIS
7 1 (0.085%) nginx
7 1 (0.085%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.085%) SAS
7 1 (0.085%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.085%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.085%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.25%) Trello
3 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.17%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.085%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.085%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 4 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.085%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 219 (18.51%) AWS
2 108 (9.13%) Azure
3 64 (5.41%) GitHub
4 53 (4.48%) Serverless
5 49 (4.14%) GCP
6 39 (3.30%) AWS Lambda
7 35 (2.96%) GitHub Actions
8 23 (1.94%) Amazon SQS
9 22 (1.86%) OpenShift
10 21 (1.78%) Amazon ECS
10 21 (1.78%) Amazon S3
11 17 (1.44%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
12 13 (1.10%) Azure DevOps
13 10 (0.85%) Amazon EventBridge
13 10 (0.85%) Anthropic Claude
13 10 (0.85%) Power Platform
14 9 (0.76%) Datadog
14 9 (0.76%) SaaS
15 8 (0.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.70%) Software-Defined Radio
2 28 (2.37%) Wireless
3 19 (1.61%) Ethernet
4 14 (1.18%) TCP/IP
5 12 (1.01%) HTTP
6 11 (0.93%) Firewall
6 11 (0.93%) VPN
7 7 (0.59%) RTP
7 7 (0.59%) Wireshark
8 6 (0.51%) 3GPP
9 4 (0.34%) Internet
10 2 (0.17%) Network Security
11 1 (0.085%) DNS
11 1 (0.085%) MQTT
11 1 (0.085%) RS-232
11 1 (0.085%) RS-422
11 1 (0.085%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (5.41%) PostgreSQL
2 48 (4.06%) Relational Database
3 38 (3.21%) SQL Server
4 34 (2.87%) NoSQL
5 19 (1.61%) DynamoDB
6 14 (1.18%) Elasticsearch
6 14 (1.18%) MySQL
7 11 (0.93%) MongoDB
8 8 (0.68%) Metadata
8 8 (0.68%) Redis
9 7 (0.59%) Power BI
10 6 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.51%) Apache Cassandra
10 6 (0.51%) Big Data
11 5 (0.42%) ObjectStore
12 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
13 3 (0.25%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.25%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.25%) Data Mining
13 3 (0.25%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 90 (7.61%) Git
2 63 (5.33%) Jenkins
3 54 (4.56%) GitLab
4 34 (2.87%) JIRA
5 25 (2.11%) JUnit
6 20 (1.69%) Rational DOORS
7 18 (1.52%) Visual Studio
8 15 (1.27%) SonarQube
9 14 (1.18%) Gradle
9 14 (1.18%) Mockito
9 14 (1.18%) Rational Rhapsody
10 12 (1.01%) LabVIEW
11 11 (0.93%) Eclipse
12 9 (0.76%) Liquibase
12 9 (0.76%) Selenium
13 8 (0.68%) Claude Code
14 7 (0.59%) Bitbucket
14 7 (0.59%) IntelliJ
14 7 (0.59%) TeamCity
15 6 (0.51%) Maven
General
1 145 (12.26%) Finance
2 125 (10.57%) Social Skills
3 67 (5.66%) Banking
4 58 (4.90%) Public Sector
5 54 (4.56%) Aerospace
6 37 (3.13%) Analytical Skills
7 31 (2.62%) Front Office
8 26 (2.20%) Law
9 20 (1.69%) Manufacturing
10 19 (1.61%) Automotive
11 17 (1.44%) Aviation
12 14 (1.18%) Military
13 13 (1.10%) Electronics
14 12 (1.01%) Investment Banking
14 12 (1.01%) Retail
15 11 (0.93%) Back Office
16 7 (0.59%) Avionics
17 6 (0.51%) Telecoms
18 5 (0.42%) Marketing
18 5 (0.42%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (10.65%) React
2 110 (9.30%) .NET
3 93 (7.86%) Spring
4 89 (7.52%) Spring Boot
5 80 (6.76%) REST
6 74 (6.26%) Kafka
7 73 (6.17%) Node.js
8 63 (5.33%) Terraform
9 45 (3.80%) AngularJS
10 43 (3.63%) Django
11 36 (3.04%) RESTful
12 24 (2.03%) Next.js
13 22 (1.86%) FastAPI
14 21 (1.78%) GraphQL
14 21 (1.78%) Redux
15 19 (1.61%) CSS
16 18 (1.52%) HTML
17 17 (1.44%) .NET Core
17 17 (1.44%) Flask
18 15 (1.27%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 117 (9.89%) Cloud Native
2 89 (7.52%) Distributed Systems
3 35 (2.96%) Algorithms
4 33 (2.79%) Embedded Systems
5 28 (2.37%) Fixed Income
6 26 (2.20%) AI Agents
7 24 (2.03%) Product Ownership
8 21 (1.78%) Onboarding
9 14 (1.18%) RISC-V
10 13 (1.10%) Data Structures
10 13 (1.10%) Device Driver
10 13 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
11 12 (1.01%) Derivative
12 11 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (0.93%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (0.76%) FPGA
13 9 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
14 8 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
14 8 (0.68%) MicroBlaze
Operating Systems
1 110 (9.30%) Linux
2 36 (3.04%) Windows
3 22 (1.86%) Embedded Linux
4 13 (1.10%) FreeRTOS
5 10 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (0.59%) Unix
7 6 (0.51%) Android
8 5 (0.42%) Debian
9 3 (0.25%) Rocky
9 3 (0.25%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.25%) Windows Server
10 2 (0.17%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.17%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.085%) Solaris
11 1 (0.085%) Tizen
11 1 (0.085%) webOS
11 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,169 (98.82%) Software Engineering
2 299 (25.27%) Agile
3 289 (24.43%) CI/CD
4 135 (11.41%) DevOps
5 131 (11.07%) Microservices
6 126 (10.65%) AI
7 122 (10.31%) Full-Stack Development
8 112 (9.47%) Test Automation
9 81 (6.85%) Problem-Solving
10 80 (6.76%) TDD
11 76 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
12 68 (5.75%) Software Testing
13 64 (5.41%) Containerisation
13 64 (5.41%) Event-Driven
14 63 (5.33%) Infrastructure as Code
15 59 (4.99%) Observability
16 58 (4.90%) Clean Code
17 55 (4.65%) SDLC
18 53 (4.48%) Technical Leadership
19 51 (4.31%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 296 (25.02%) Java
2 253 (21.39%) Python
3 178 (15.05%) C++
4 160 (13.52%) C#
5 125 (10.57%) SQL
6 124 (10.48%) TypeScript
7 98 (8.28%) JavaScript
8 91 (7.69%) Ada
9 85 (7.19%) C
10 43 (3.63%) Go
11 40 (3.38%) Kotlin
12 24 (2.03%) PowerShell
13 23 (1.94%) Embedded C
14 21 (1.78%) Rust
15 14 (1.18%) PHP
16 12 (1.01%) Bash
17 8 (0.68%) MATLAB
17 8 (0.68%) PL/SQL
18 7 (0.59%) Scala
19 6 (0.51%) R
Qualifications
1 281 (23.75%) Security Cleared
2 244 (20.63%) SC Cleared
3 43 (3.63%) Degree
4 33 (2.79%) DV Cleared
5 19 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 16 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (0.51%) AWS Certification
7 6 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (0.42%) ISTQB
9 4 (0.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (0.25%) Chartered Engineer
10 3 (0.25%) PhD
11 2 (0.17%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 1 (0.085%) CCNP
12 1 (0.085%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.085%) OCA
12 1 (0.085%) Oracle Certification
12 1 (0.085%) RHCA
12 1 (0.085%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.13%) QA
2 16 (1.35%) Def Stans
3 13 (1.10%) IEC 61508
3 13 (1.10%) MISRA
4 9 (0.76%) Accessibility
5 8 (0.68%) DO-178B
5 8 (0.68%) GDPR
6 6 (0.51%) WCAG
7 5 (0.42%) Data Quality
7 5 (0.42%) MISRA C
8 4 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.25%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.17%) HL7
10 2 (0.17%) ISO 26262
10 2 (0.17%) NCSC
11 1 (0.085%) FATCA
11 1 (0.085%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.085%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 130 (10.99%) Docker
2 19 (1.61%) Firmware
3 10 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (0.25%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.085%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 117 (9.89%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.52%) Ansible
3 12 (1.01%) Argo
4 11 (0.93%) 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 (0.25%) Functional Safety
7 3 (0.25%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.25%) Puppet
8 2 (0.17%) Cilium
8 2 (0.17%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.17%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.085%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.085%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 37 (3.13%) Microsoft
2 21 (1.78%) Oracle
3 14 (1.18%) Google
3 14 (1.18%) Red Hat
4 10 (0.85%) SAP
5 8 (0.68%) IBM
6 7 (0.59%) Databricks
6 7 (0.59%) Hitachi
7 5 (0.42%) MathWorks
7 5 (0.42%) OpenAI
7 5 (0.42%) Splunk
8 4 (0.34%) Checkmarx
8 4 (0.34%) VMware
9 3 (0.25%) FIS
10 2 (0.17%) Confluent
10 2 (0.17%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.17%) MKS
10 2 (0.17%) NVIDIA
10 2 (0.17%) QNX
10 2 (0.17%) TOWER Software
479 Software Engineer jobs in England