Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineer
UK > England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in England is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 January 2026.

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

 6 months to
3 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 113 112
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +2
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 767 637 790
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.42% 2.30% 2.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.65% 2.48% 2.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 353 365 469
10th Percentile £388 £404 £421
25th Percentile £463 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% - -
75th Percentile £688 £738 £700
90th Percentile £825 £883 £788
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -2.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 66 184
10th Percentile £46.25 £47.50 £48.32
25th Percentile £54.55 £57.91 £54.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.25 £68.00 £67.14
90th Percentile £70.00 £69.38 £86.40
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 28,919 25,671 33,979
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.43% 92.86% 93.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,508 15,889 23,197
10th Percentile £300 £300 £280
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,740 809 1,448
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.39 £21.25 £19.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% -22.22% +36.36%
75th Percentile £62.31 £64.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £74.50 £76.67
UK median hourly rate £26.30 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.08% -27.78% +40.82%

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 3 January 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 3 January 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 3 January 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 -17 294 £625 -7.41% 262
North of England +15 136 £537 +10.44% 160
East of England +22 116 £525 +1.94% 106
South West -10 110 £449 -18.45% 142
Yorkshire +6 69 £525 +3.70% 43
North West -2 55 £550 +18.92% 87
South East -26 50 £494 -1.25% 195
Midlands -35 28 £502 +11.44% 52
West Midlands -21 23 £525 +10.53% 20
North East +1 14 £575 - 31
East Midlands -28 5 £475 +5.56% 32
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 January 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.

1 759 (98.96%) Software Engineering
2 261 (34.03%) Agile
3 224 (29.20%) AWS
4 221 (28.81%) Python
5 208 (27.12%) CI/CD
6 193 (25.16%) C++
7 176 (22.95%) Java
8 154 (20.08%) Security Cleared
9 152 (19.82%) DevOps
10 149 (19.43%) Docker
11 136 (17.73%) Kubernetes
12 134 (17.47%) JavaScript
13 129 (16.82%) C#
14 128 (16.69%) Microservices
14 128 (16.69%) SC Cleared
15 125 (16.30%) Linux
16 117 (15.25%) TypeScript
17 112 (14.60%) React
18 105 (13.69%) SQL
19 103 (13.43%) Terraform
20 99 (12.91%) Azure
21 97 (12.65%) Containerisation
22 89 (11.60%) Node.js
23 86 (11.21%) Serverless
24 85 (11.08%) Problem-Solving
25 84 (10.95%) Infrastructure as Code
26 79 (10.30%) Degree
27 78 (10.17%) Test Automation
28 77 (10.04%) Git
29 74 (9.65%) GCP

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 39 (5.08%) Apache
2 29 (3.78%) Apache Airflow
3 13 (1.69%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.30%) Confluence
5 4 (0.52%) SAS
5 4 (0.52%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.39%) IIS
6 3 (0.39%) JBoss
7 2 (0.26%) Camunda
7 2 (0.26%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.13%) CICS
8 1 (0.13%) CMS
8 1 (0.13%) Mule
8 1 (0.13%) Mule ESB
8 1 (0.13%) nginx
8 1 (0.13%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.26%) Simulink
3 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.13%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) LabWindows
1 2 (0.26%) Temenos T24
2 1 (0.13%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 224 (29.20%) AWS
2 99 (12.91%) Azure
3 86 (11.21%) Serverless
4 74 (9.65%) GCP
5 52 (6.78%) GitHub
6 40 (5.22%) AWS Lambda
7 31 (4.04%) GitHub Actions
8 29 (3.78%) Amazon ECS
8 29 (3.78%) dbt
9 28 (3.65%) Amazon S3
9 28 (3.65%) Azure DevOps
10 22 (2.87%) Snowflake
11 16 (2.09%) Amazon EKS
11 16 (2.09%) Amazon SQS
12 15 (1.96%) AWS CloudFormation
13 14 (1.83%) Amazon EC2
13 14 (1.83%) OpenShift
14 13 (1.69%) Azure Functions
15 11 (1.43%) Cloud Computing
16 9 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 22 (2.87%) Ethernet
2 14 (1.83%) TCP/IP
3 4 (0.52%) NFC
3 4 (0.52%) PPP
4 3 (0.39%) BGP
4 3 (0.39%) Firewall
4 3 (0.39%) Network Security
4 3 (0.39%) Software-Defined Networking
4 3 (0.39%) VLAN
5 2 (0.26%) Bluetooth
5 2 (0.26%) HTTP
5 2 (0.26%) SSL
5 2 (0.26%) Wireless
6 1 (0.13%) 3GPP
6 1 (0.13%) FTP
6 1 (0.13%) Internet
6 1 (0.13%) MQTT
6 1 (0.13%) VPN
6 1 (0.13%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.13%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (5.74%) NoSQL
2 43 (5.61%) PostgreSQL
3 37 (4.82%) Amazon Athena
4 34 (4.43%) Data Lake
5 29 (3.78%) Apache Arrow
5 29 (3.78%) Apache Iceberg
5 29 (3.78%) Dremio
6 24 (3.13%) MongoDB
7 21 (2.74%) Apache Cassandra
7 21 (2.74%) SQL Server
8 20 (2.61%) Apache Ignite
9 16 (2.09%) Amazon RDS
9 16 (2.09%) Relational Database
10 11 (1.43%) MySQL
11 10 (1.30%) Big Data
11 10 (1.30%) DynamoDB
11 10 (1.30%) Metadata
12 9 (1.17%) Elasticsearch
13 8 (1.04%) Mixpanel
14 7 (0.91%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 77 (10.04%) Git
2 58 (7.56%) GitLab
3 48 (6.26%) Jenkins
4 46 (6.00%) JIRA
5 24 (3.13%) Rational DOORS
6 23 (3.00%) Visual Studio
7 21 (2.74%) Liquibase
8 20 (2.61%) Eclipse
9 15 (1.96%) Gradle
10 12 (1.56%) Cypress.io
10 12 (1.56%) IntelliJ
10 12 (1.56%) Rational Rhapsody
11 10 (1.30%) JUnit
12 9 (1.17%) Artifactory
12 9 (1.17%) SonarQube
13 8 (1.04%) PVCS
14 7 (0.91%) Cucumber
15 6 (0.78%) Selenium
16 5 (0.65%) Maven
16 5 (0.65%) Postman
General
1 127 (16.56%) Finance
2 123 (16.04%) Social Skills
3 57 (7.43%) Banking
4 43 (5.61%) Public Sector
5 38 (4.95%) Front Office
6 34 (4.43%) Analytical Skills
7 32 (4.17%) Electronics
8 29 (3.78%) Aerospace
8 29 (3.78%) Investment Banking
9 28 (3.65%) Military
10 19 (2.48%) Law
11 18 (2.35%) Financial Institution
12 13 (1.69%) Manufacturing
12 13 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (1.17%) Games
13 9 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
14 7 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (0.78%) Automotive
16 5 (0.65%) Health Technology
16 5 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (14.60%) React
2 89 (11.60%) Node.js
3 70 (9.13%) .NET
4 68 (8.87%) Kafka
5 61 (7.95%) REST
6 49 (6.39%) AngularJS
7 46 (6.00%) RESTful
8 41 (5.35%) Spring
8 41 (5.35%) Spring Boot
9 37 (4.82%) gRPC
10 31 (4.04%) NumPy
10 31 (4.04%) SciPy
11 29 (3.78%) Pandas
12 27 (3.52%) Middleware
13 25 (3.26%) JSON
13 25 (3.26%) Web Services
14 23 (3.00%) Vue
15 22 (2.87%) CSS
15 22 (2.87%) HTML
16 21 (2.74%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.65%) Cloud Native
2 55 (7.17%) Distributed Systems
3 34 (4.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 31 (4.04%) Equities
4 31 (4.04%) Fixed Income
5 30 (3.91%) Algorithms
6 22 (2.87%) Public Cloud
7 21 (2.74%) Derivative
8 20 (2.61%) Embedded Systems
8 20 (2.61%) Hedge funds
8 20 (2.61%) Pricing Data
9 16 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (2.09%) Greenfield Project
9 16 (2.09%) Product Ownership
10 15 (1.96%) Data Structures
11 12 (1.56%) Life Science
11 12 (1.56%) Virtual Reality
12 10 (1.30%) AI Agents
12 10 (1.30%) PCIe
13 9 (1.17%) CUDA
Operating Systems
1 125 (16.30%) Linux
2 60 (7.82%) Windows
3 22 (2.87%) Android
3 22 (2.87%) Unix
4 13 (1.69%) Apple iOS
5 9 (1.17%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.78%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.65%) FreeRTOS
7 5 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.52%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.39%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.13%) Debian
10 1 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.13%) VMS
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Embedded Compact
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.13%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 759 (98.96%) Software Engineering
2 261 (34.03%) Agile
3 208 (27.12%) CI/CD
4 152 (19.82%) DevOps
5 128 (16.69%) Microservices
6 97 (12.65%) Containerisation
7 85 (11.08%) Problem-Solving
8 84 (10.95%) Infrastructure as Code
9 78 (10.17%) Test Automation
10 71 (9.26%) Full-Stack Development
11 70 (9.13%) TDD
12 69 (9.00%) AI
13 65 (8.47%) Mentoring
14 64 (8.34%) Unit Testing
15 55 (7.17%) Clean Code
16 52 (6.78%) Computer Science
17 50 (6.52%) Validation
18 49 (6.39%) Machine Learning
19 48 (6.26%) Continuous Integration
20 47 (6.13%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 221 (28.81%) Python
2 193 (25.16%) C++
3 176 (22.95%) Java
4 134 (17.47%) JavaScript
5 129 (16.82%) C#
6 117 (15.25%) TypeScript
7 105 (13.69%) SQL
8 63 (8.21%) C
9 56 (7.30%) Go
10 46 (6.00%) Ada
11 19 (2.48%) Embedded C++
11 19 (2.48%) Kotlin
12 18 (2.35%) Embedded C
13 17 (2.22%) PowerShell
14 13 (1.69%) PHP
15 11 (1.43%) Bash
15 11 (1.43%) Rust
16 10 (1.30%) Bicep
17 8 (1.04%) R
17 8 (1.04%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 154 (20.08%) Security Cleared
2 128 (16.69%) SC Cleared
3 79 (10.30%) Degree
4 35 (4.56%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (2.61%) DV Cleared
6 19 (2.48%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.17%) AWS Certification
8 7 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (0.65%) MCP
10 4 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.52%) Postgraduate
11 3 (0.39%) AWS Certified Developer
11 3 (0.39%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.13%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.13%) CCNA
12 1 (0.13%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.78%) Def Stans
2 25 (3.26%) MISRA
3 24 (3.13%) QA
4 21 (2.74%) IEC 61508
5 16 (2.09%) MISRA C
6 11 (1.43%) Data Quality
7 9 (1.17%) DO-178B
8 7 (0.91%) Accessibility
9 6 (0.78%) GDPR
9 6 (0.78%) HL7
10 3 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
10 3 (0.39%) WCAG
11 2 (0.26%) NCSC
12 1 (0.13%) AUTOSAR
12 1 (0.13%) DICOM
12 1 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 149 (19.43%) Docker
2 14 (1.83%) Virtual Machines
3 12 (1.56%) Firmware
4 8 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.65%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 136 (17.73%) Kubernetes
2 103 (13.43%) Terraform
3 30 (3.91%) Grafana
4 29 (3.78%) Ansible
5 21 (2.74%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.78%) Kibana
7 5 (0.65%) Argo
8 4 (0.52%) Podman
9 3 (0.39%) SELinux
9 3 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.26%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.26%) Puppet
11 1 (0.13%) Bitnami
11 1 (0.13%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 41 (5.35%) Microsoft
2 28 (3.65%) Google
3 22 (2.87%) Red Hat
4 19 (2.48%) Splunk
5 17 (2.22%) Oracle
6 15 (1.96%) Databricks
7 14 (1.83%) IBM
8 8 (1.04%) ANSYS
8 8 (1.04%) VMware
9 4 (0.52%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.52%) Brio
9 4 (0.52%) Spotify
10 3 (0.39%) NVIDIA
10 3 (0.39%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.39%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.39%) SAP
10 3 (0.39%) Workday
11 2 (0.26%) Siemens
11 2 (0.26%) Temenos
11 2 (0.26%) webMethods
855 Software Engineer jobs in England