Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in England

Software Engineering
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 44 31
Rank change year-on-year +12 -13 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,578 1,344 1,918
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.64% 4.87% 5.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.65% 5.36% 6.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,406 845 1,202
10th Percentile £400 £377 £408
25th Percentile £468 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -4.00% +3.35%
75th Percentile £688 £750 £810
90th Percentile £788 £838 £888
UK median daily rate £555 £575 £601
% change year-on-year -3.48% -4.25% +0.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 409 108 259
10th Percentile £50.20 £36.52 £46.18
25th Percentile £60.00 £52.50 £54.18
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.09 £75.00 £75.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 38,772 25,064 28,481
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.81% 90.82% 85.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,937 15,945 18,292
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £422
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £753
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,579 1,483 1,510
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.75 £17.87 £18.13
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £69.65 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £40.50
% change year-on-year +63.02% -37.90% -4.71%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in England

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in England over the 6 months to 27 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in England

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in England over the 6 months to 27 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in England

Software Engineering
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 Engineering within the England region over the 6 months to 27 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 -1 1,157 £600 -7.69% 459
North of England +32 410 £534 +8.49% 224
South East +26 332 £525 +4.90% 217
South West +18 311 £550 +10.00% 304
East of England +20 215 £505 +1.00% 133
North West +13 188 £550 +10.00% 119
Yorkshire +15 159 £500 +1.46% 60
Midlands 0 116 £450 -18.74% 113
West Midlands -11 79 £459 -20.17% 48
North East +9 68 £650 +41.30% 46
East Midlands +9 36 £435 -8.42% 64
Software Engineering
UK

Software Engineering
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 53 (2.06%) Confluence
2 52 (2.02%) Apache Spark
3 40 (1.55%) Apache Airflow
4 33 (1.28%) Apache
5 11 (0.43%) CMS
6 8 (0.31%) SharePoint
7 7 (0.27%) SAS
8 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
9 5 (0.19%) Apache Solr
9 5 (0.19%) Ethereum
9 5 (0.19%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.16%) Apache Superset
10 4 (0.16%) Camunda
11 3 (0.12%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.12%) WordPress
12 2 (0.078%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.078%) IIS
12 2 (0.078%) MQSeries
12 2 (0.078%) nginx
12 2 (0.078%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 10 (0.39%) Chatbot
2 10 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
3 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.16%) CPLEX
4 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.16%) Simulink
5 3 (0.12%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.12%) Trello
6 2 (0.078%) CATIA
6 2 (0.078%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.078%) Notion
7 1 (0.039%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.039%) Blender
7 1 (0.039%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 7 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
1 7 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
2 5 (0.19%) R3 Corda
3 4 (0.16%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.16%) Quorum
3 4 (0.16%) Ripple
4 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payroll
4 3 (0.12%) Orchestrade
4 3 (0.12%) Primavera
4 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.078%) Aladdin
5 2 (0.078%) Endur
5 2 (0.078%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.039%) Distributed Ledger
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.039%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.039%) Shopify
6 1 (0.039%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 650 (25.21%) AWS
2 516 (20.02%) Azure
3 258 (10.01%) GCP
4 221 (8.57%) GitHub
5 129 (5.00%) Serverless
6 111 (4.31%) GitHub Actions
7 109 (4.23%) Azure DevOps
8 93 (3.61%) AWS Lambda
9 64 (2.48%) Amazon S3
10 60 (2.33%) Anthropic Claude
11 59 (2.29%) OpenShift
12 50 (1.94%) Amazon SQS
13 48 (1.86%) Amazon EKS
14 47 (1.82%) Amazon ECS
15 46 (1.78%) GitHub Copilot
16 44 (1.71%) Power Platform
17 37 (1.44%) Snowflake
18 35 (1.36%) Azure AKS
19 34 (1.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
20 29 (1.12%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.16%) Software-Defined Radio
2 29 (1.12%) Wireless
3 20 (0.78%) Firewall
4 19 (0.74%) Internet
5 17 (0.66%) HTTP
5 17 (0.66%) VPN
6 13 (0.50%) Ethernet
7 12 (0.47%) TCP/IP
8 11 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
9 7 (0.27%) Network Security
9 7 (0.27%) RTP
9 7 (0.27%) Wireshark
10 6 (0.23%) 3GPP
11 5 (0.19%) DNS
12 4 (0.16%) IPv4
12 4 (0.16%) IPv6
12 4 (0.16%) RS-232
12 4 (0.16%) SSL
13 3 (0.12%) Cisco IPT
13 3 (0.12%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 142 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
2 104 (4.03%) Relational Database
3 87 (3.37%) NoSQL
4 86 (3.34%) SQL Server
5 54 (2.09%) MongoDB
6 48 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
7 41 (1.59%) DynamoDB
8 35 (1.36%) MySQL
9 31 (1.20%) Power BI
10 29 (1.12%) Metadata
11 28 (1.09%) Big Data
12 27 (1.05%) Amazon RDS
13 26 (1.01%) Redis
14 25 (0.97%) Data Lake
15 24 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
16 21 (0.81%) Pinecone
17 19 (0.74%) BigQuery
17 19 (0.74%) Weaviate
18 14 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
19 12 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 270 (10.47%) Git
2 159 (6.17%) Jenkins
3 150 (5.82%) GitLab
4 109 (4.23%) JIRA
5 58 (2.25%) SonarQube
6 38 (1.47%) Gradle
6 38 (1.47%) JUnit
7 29 (1.12%) Claude Code
8 26 (1.01%) Rational DOORS
9 24 (0.93%) Selenium
10 22 (0.85%) Rational Rhapsody
11 20 (0.78%) Maven
12 18 (0.70%) Visual Studio
13 17 (0.66%) Cucumber
13 17 (0.66%) Mockito
14 13 (0.50%) Cypress.io
14 13 (0.50%) Liquibase
15 12 (0.47%) Bitbucket
15 12 (0.47%) LabVIEW
15 12 (0.47%) MLflow
General
1 500 (19.39%) Social Skills
2 451 (17.49%) Finance
3 199 (7.72%) Banking
4 187 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
5 185 (7.18%) Public Sector
6 92 (3.57%) Aerospace
7 83 (3.22%) Front Office
8 49 (1.90%) Investment Banking
8 49 (1.90%) Manufacturing
9 46 (1.78%) Retail
10 43 (1.67%) Law
11 35 (1.36%) Automotive
12 27 (1.05%) Telecoms
13 26 (1.01%) Aviation
14 25 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
15 23 (0.89%) Military
16 20 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 20 (0.78%) Marketing
17 18 (0.70%) Legal
18 17 (0.66%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 1,154 (44.76%) Software Engineer
2 481 (18.66%) Developer
3 460 (17.84%) Senior
4 284 (11.02%) Lead
5 193 (7.49%) Senior Software Engineer
6 173 (6.71%) Java Engineer
7 158 (6.13%) Embedded Engineer
8 147 (5.70%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 139 (5.39%) Java Software Engineer
10 136 (5.28%) Java Developer
11 118 (4.58%) Software Developer
12 111 (4.31%) C++ Software Engineer
13 105 (4.07%) Architect
14 104 (4.03%) Python Engineer
15 99 (3.84%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 94 (3.65%) Senior Developer
17 86 (3.34%) Lead Software Engineer
18 83 (3.22%) Data Engineer
19 76 (2.95%) DevOps Engineer
20 75 (2.91%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 271 (10.51%) Terraform
2 254 (9.85%) React
3 217 (8.42%) REST
3 217 (8.42%) Spring
4 207 (8.03%) .NET
5 201 (7.80%) Spring Boot
6 173 (6.71%) Kafka
7 140 (5.43%) Node.js
8 128 (4.97%) RESTful
9 105 (4.07%) AngularJS
10 60 (2.33%) Django
11 53 (2.06%) Next.js
12 49 (1.90%) CSS
13 48 (1.86%) HTML
14 45 (1.75%) LangChain
15 44 (1.71%) GraphQL
16 40 (1.55%) JSON
17 39 (1.51%) FastAPI
17 39 (1.51%) Quarkus
18 38 (1.47%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 380 (14.74%) Cloud Native
2 233 (9.04%) Distributed Systems
3 132 (5.12%) Product Ownership
4 99 (3.84%) AI Agents
5 84 (3.26%) Algorithms
6 59 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
7 53 (2.06%) Data Structures
8 50 (1.94%) Embedded Systems
8 50 (1.94%) Onboarding
9 44 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
10 40 (1.55%) Fixed Income
11 34 (1.32%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 34 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
12 30 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
13 27 (1.05%) Derivative
13 27 (1.05%) Robotics
14 24 (0.93%) Equities
14 24 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
15 18 (0.70%) NHS
15 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 174 (6.75%) Linux
2 47 (1.82%) Windows
3 29 (1.12%) Unix
4 23 (0.89%) Embedded Linux
5 21 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.54%) FreeRTOS
7 13 (0.50%) Android
8 8 (0.31%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.31%) Windows Server
9 6 (0.23%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.23%) Debian
10 3 (0.12%) Rocky
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.078%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.039%) Solaris
12 1 (0.039%) Tizen
12 1 (0.039%) webOS
12 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 869 (33.71%) CI/CD
2 775 (30.06%) Agile
3 610 (23.66%) DevOps
4 509 (19.74%) AI
5 403 (15.63%) Microservices
6 361 (14.00%) Test Automation
7 305 (11.83%) Problem-Solving
8 295 (11.44%) Continuous Improvement
9 292 (11.33%) Infrastructure as Code
10 261 (10.12%) Containerisation
11 255 (9.89%) Full-Stack Development
12 250 (9.70%) SDLC
13 247 (9.58%) Observability
14 214 (8.30%) Machine Learning
15 209 (8.11%) Platform Engineering
16 206 (7.99%) Technical Leadership
17 204 (7.91%) Mentoring
18 199 (7.72%) Event-Driven
19 195 (7.56%) Scrum
20 190 (7.37%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 749 (29.05%) Python
2 663 (25.72%) Java
3 365 (14.16%) SQL
4 288 (11.17%) C#
5 282 (10.94%) TypeScript
6 215 (8.34%) C++
7 205 (7.95%) JavaScript
8 113 (4.38%) C
9 95 (3.69%) Ada
10 88 (3.41%) Go
11 63 (2.44%) Kotlin
12 47 (1.82%) PowerShell
13 43 (1.67%) Bash
14 41 (1.59%) Rust
15 38 (1.47%) Scala
16 24 (0.93%) Ruby
17 22 (0.85%) Embedded C
17 22 (0.85%) PL/SQL
18 21 (0.81%) Bicep
19 17 (0.66%) PHP
Qualifications
1 580 (22.50%) Security Cleared
2 486 (18.85%) SC Cleared
3 206 (7.99%) Degree
4 95 (3.69%) Computer Science Degree
5 80 (3.10%) DV Cleared
6 53 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
7 46 (1.78%) Master's Degree
8 32 (1.24%) AWS Certification
9 20 (0.78%) PhD
10 15 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 14 (0.54%) Azure Certification
12 8 (0.31%) CISSP
13 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 7 (0.27%) PMP
14 6 (0.23%) Chartered Engineer
14 6 (0.23%) ISTQB
15 4 (0.16%) GIAC
15 4 (0.16%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 4 (0.16%) MBA
15 4 (0.16%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 159 (6.17%) QA
2 61 (2.37%) Data Quality
3 49 (1.90%) Accessibility
4 25 (0.97%) GDPR
5 18 (0.70%) Def Stans
6 17 (0.66%) MISRA
7 15 (0.58%) NIST
8 14 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 12 (0.47%) WCAG
10 10 (0.39%) DO-178B
11 9 (0.35%) IEC 61508
11 9 (0.35%) NCSC
12 7 (0.27%) GRC
13 6 (0.23%) MISRA C
14 5 (0.19%) HL7
14 5 (0.19%) JSP 440
14 5 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.16%) PCI DSS
16 3 (0.12%) DO-254
16 3 (0.12%) EMIR
System Software
1 384 (14.90%) Docker
2 30 (1.16%) Firmware
3 19 (0.74%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (0.39%) Active Directory
4 10 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 434 (16.83%) Kubernetes
2 82 (3.18%) Ansible
3 52 (2.02%) Grafana
4 41 (1.59%) Argo
5 38 (1.47%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.43%) Kibana
8 7 (0.27%) Puppet
9 6 (0.23%) Functional Safety
10 5 (0.19%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.16%) Consul
11 4 (0.16%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.12%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.12%) Istio
12 3 (0.12%) Kustomize
12 3 (0.12%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.078%) Cilium
13 2 (0.078%) Docker Swarm
13 2 (0.078%) Packer
13 2 (0.078%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 133 (5.16%) Microsoft
2 90 (3.49%) Google
3 79 (3.06%) Oracle
4 67 (2.60%) Databricks
5 53 (2.06%) OpenAI
6 43 (1.67%) Red Hat
7 25 (0.97%) Salesforce
8 23 (0.89%) Splunk
9 20 (0.78%) ServiceNow
10 19 (0.74%) IBM
11 17 (0.66%) Informatica
12 13 (0.50%) Foundry
13 12 (0.47%) Adobe
13 12 (0.47%) SAP
14 11 (0.43%) Checkmarx
15 9 (0.35%) Dynatrace
16 8 (0.31%) Confluent
17 7 (0.27%) Hitachi
17 7 (0.27%) Okta
17 7 (0.27%) Solace