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 16 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 40 36
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +5
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,739 1,271 1,872
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.11% 4.93% 4.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.85% 5.48% 5.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 899 790 1,078
10th Percentile £385 £419 £425
25th Percentile £451 £502 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £675 £750 £738
90th Percentile £785 £838 £800
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 341 77 315
10th Percentile £52.50 £40.50 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £57.54 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £68.13
90th Percentile £73.00 £68.75 £76.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +1.56% +2.40% -3.85%

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 29,729 23,178 33,190
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.40% 89.84% 87.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,995 14,353 22,084
10th Percentile £310 £309 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £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 1,873 724 1,981
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.17 £21.20 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.37% - -
75th Percentile £60.25 £65.00 £61.25
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.18 £73.65
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £34.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -4.41% -1.68%

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 16 February 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 -11 785 £600 -7.69% 576
North of England +10 268 £518 -5.91% 262
South West +6 218 £500 -16.67% 211
East of England +27 171 £475 +5.09% 133
South East +8 147 £494 -1.25% 382
North West +10 124 £500 -9.09% 167
Yorkshire -5 107 £525 - 69
Midlands -14 93 £525 +7.14% 136
West Midlands -5 81 £525 +10.06% 71
North East +15 40 £488 -18.41% 26
East Midlands -19 12 £475 -5.00% 65
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 60 (3.45%) Confluence
2 50 (2.88%) Apache
3 42 (2.42%) Apache Spark
4 29 (1.67%) Apache Airflow
5 12 (0.69%) WebLogic
6 10 (0.58%) CMS
7 8 (0.46%) JBoss
7 8 (0.46%) Palantir Foundry
8 6 (0.35%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.23%) IIS
9 4 (0.23%) SAS
10 3 (0.17%) Appian
10 3 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.12%) Camunda
11 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.12%) nginx
11 2 (0.12%) SharePoint
11 2 (0.12%) WordPress
12 1 (0.058%) Tomcat
Applications
1 17 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.58%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.17%) Simulink
6 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.058%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.058%) Maya
7 1 (0.058%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.058%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.058%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.12%) LabWindows
1 2 (0.12%) Primavera
2 1 (0.058%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.058%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.058%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.058%) Temenos T24
2 1 (0.058%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 522 (30.02%) AWS
2 303 (17.42%) Azure
3 179 (10.29%) GCP
4 150 (8.63%) Serverless
5 119 (6.84%) GitHub
6 66 (3.80%) AWS Lambda
7 65 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
7 65 (3.74%) GitHub Actions
8 62 (3.57%) Amazon S3
9 42 (2.42%) OpenShift
10 41 (2.36%) Amazon EKS
10 41 (2.36%) AWS CloudFormation
11 40 (2.30%) Amazon ECS
11 40 (2.30%) Power Platform
12 39 (2.24%) Azure AKS
13 37 (2.13%) SaaS
14 36 (2.07%) Amazon EC2
15 35 (2.01%) Azure Functions
16 30 (1.73%) Snowflake
17 22 (1.27%) Cloud Run
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.09%) Ethernet
2 12 (0.69%) Network Security
3 9 (0.52%) Firewall
4 7 (0.40%) Internet
4 7 (0.40%) TCP/IP
5 6 (0.35%) Wireless
6 5 (0.29%) Modbus
6 5 (0.29%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.23%) 3GPP
7 4 (0.23%) BGP
7 4 (0.23%) HTTP
7 4 (0.23%) RS-232
7 4 (0.23%) RS-485
7 4 (0.23%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.23%) VLAN
8 3 (0.17%) Bluetooth
8 3 (0.17%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.17%) NFC
8 3 (0.17%) PPP
8 3 (0.17%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (6.50%) PostgreSQL
2 76 (4.37%) Apache Cassandra
3 75 (4.31%) NoSQL
4 68 (3.91%) MongoDB
5 48 (2.76%) Relational Database
5 48 (2.76%) SQL Server
6 36 (2.07%) Amazon RDS
7 34 (1.96%) Data Lake
8 32 (1.84%) MySQL
9 31 (1.78%) Big Data
10 29 (1.67%) Power BI
11 26 (1.50%) BigQuery
11 26 (1.50%) Metadata
12 23 (1.32%) Amazon Athena
13 22 (1.27%) Hadoop
14 19 (1.09%) DynamoDB
15 18 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
16 14 (0.81%) Data Warehouse
16 14 (0.81%) Mixpanel
17 10 (0.58%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 161 (9.26%) Git
2 125 (7.19%) Jenkins
3 120 (6.90%) GitLab
4 97 (5.58%) JIRA
5 36 (2.07%) Selenium
6 31 (1.78%) JUnit
6 31 (1.78%) SonarQube
7 30 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
8 28 (1.61%) Cypress.io
8 28 (1.61%) Gradle
9 27 (1.55%) Cucumber
10 23 (1.32%) Liquibase
11 21 (1.21%) IntelliJ
11 21 (1.21%) Rational Rhapsody
12 20 (1.15%) Maven
13 18 (1.04%) Bitbucket
13 18 (1.04%) Eclipse
13 18 (1.04%) Mockito
14 13 (0.75%) Postman
15 11 (0.63%) Artifactory
General
1 307 (17.65%) Social Skills
2 300 (17.25%) Finance
3 124 (7.13%) Banking
4 119 (6.84%) Public Sector
5 89 (5.12%) Analytical Skills
6 54 (3.11%) Front Office
7 49 (2.82%) Aerospace
8 42 (2.42%) Electronics
9 38 (2.19%) Investment Banking
10 34 (1.96%) Financial Institution
11 30 (1.73%) Law
12 27 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
13 24 (1.38%) Retail
14 22 (1.27%) Manufacturing
14 22 (1.27%) Military
15 18 (1.04%) Telecoms
16 17 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
17 16 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
18 13 (0.75%) Documentation Skills
19 12 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 868 (49.91%) Software Engineer
2 358 (20.59%) Senior
3 328 (18.86%) Developer
4 179 (10.29%) Senior Software Engineer
5 130 (7.48%) Lead
6 124 (7.13%) C++ Software Engineer
7 92 (5.29%) Java Engineer
8 88 (5.06%) Embedded Engineer
9 83 (4.77%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 80 (4.60%) Python Engineer
11 77 (4.43%) Java Software Engineer
12 74 (4.26%) Senior Developer
13 73 (4.20%) Java Developer
14 62 (3.57%) Python Developer
15 60 (3.45%) Architect
16 54 (3.11%) AWS Engineer
17 51 (2.93%) Data Engineer
18 50 (2.88%) Full-Stack Engineer
19 47 (2.70%) DevOps Engineer
20 46 (2.65%) Developer/Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 218 (12.54%) React
2 215 (12.36%) Kafka
3 148 (8.51%) Node.js
4 136 (7.82%) REST
5 133 (7.65%) .NET
6 114 (6.56%) Spring
7 111 (6.38%) RESTful
8 108 (6.21%) Spring Boot
9 93 (5.35%) AngularJS
10 80 (4.60%) gRPC
11 58 (3.34%) Middleware
12 55 (3.16%) GraphQL
13 54 (3.11%) JSON
14 51 (2.93%) HTML
15 47 (2.70%) CSS
16 45 (2.59%) Playwright
17 42 (2.42%) FastAPI
18 41 (2.36%) Vue
19 35 (2.01%) Pandas
20 34 (1.96%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 211 (12.13%) Cloud Native
2 134 (7.71%) Distributed Systems
3 81 (4.66%) Product Ownership
4 66 (3.80%) Algorithms
5 44 (2.53%) Fixed Income
6 42 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.96%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 33 (1.90%) Mobile App
9 31 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
10 30 (1.73%) Data Structures
11 28 (1.61%) Hedge funds
11 28 (1.61%) Public Cloud
12 26 (1.50%) Equities
12 26 (1.50%) Greenfield Project
13 25 (1.44%) AI Agents
13 25 (1.44%) Derivative
13 25 (1.44%) Onboarding
14 21 (1.21%) Virtual Team
15 20 (1.15%) Life Science
16 19 (1.09%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 216 (12.42%) Linux
2 76 (4.37%) Windows
3 55 (3.16%) Unix
4 27 (1.55%) Android
5 21 (1.21%) Apple iOS
6 18 (1.04%) Ubuntu
7 14 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 14 (0.81%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.17%) VMS
10 2 (0.12%) Debian
10 2 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
10 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.058%) Rocky
11 1 (0.058%) Solaris
11 1 (0.058%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.058%) Windows Embedded Compact
11 1 (0.058%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.058%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 552 (31.74%) Agile
2 498 (28.64%) CI/CD
3 353 (20.30%) DevOps
4 306 (17.60%) Microservices
5 252 (14.49%) AI
6 233 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
7 219 (12.59%) Containerisation
8 199 (11.44%) Test Automation
9 196 (11.27%) Infrastructure as Code
10 176 (10.12%) Full-Stack Development
11 163 (9.37%) Computer Science
12 158 (9.09%) Machine Learning
13 152 (8.74%) Mentoring
14 131 (7.53%) Continuous Improvement
15 128 (7.36%) Scrum
16 120 (6.90%) TDD
17 119 (6.84%) Observability
18 117 (6.73%) Open Source
19 113 (6.50%) SDLC
20 106 (6.10%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 502 (28.87%) Python
2 392 (22.54%) Java
3 253 (14.55%) C++
3 253 (14.55%) SQL
4 231 (13.28%) JavaScript
5 209 (12.02%) C#
6 206 (11.85%) TypeScript
7 153 (8.80%) Go
8 106 (6.10%) C
9 97 (5.58%) Ada
10 35 (2.01%) Rust
10 35 (2.01%) Shell Script
11 29 (1.67%) PowerShell
12 28 (1.61%) Kotlin
13 24 (1.38%) Bash
13 24 (1.38%) Embedded C++
14 23 (1.32%) Embedded C
15 18 (1.04%) MATLAB
15 18 (1.04%) Ruby
16 15 (0.86%) VB
Qualifications
1 364 (20.93%) Security Cleared
2 288 (16.56%) SC Cleared
3 206 (11.85%) Degree
4 96 (5.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 65 (3.74%) Master's Degree
6 54 (3.11%) DV Cleared
7 19 (1.09%) AWS Certification
8 18 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (1.04%) CISSP
8 18 (1.04%) PhD
9 17 (0.98%) CISM
10 15 (0.86%) Azure Certification
10 15 (0.86%) TOGAF Certification
11 10 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 10 (0.58%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 6 (0.35%) ISTQB
13 5 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
13 5 (0.29%) Postgraduate
14 4 (0.23%) AWS Certified Developer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (5.12%) QA
2 47 (2.70%) Def Stans
3 35 (2.01%) IEC 61508
4 34 (1.96%) Accessibility
5 33 (1.90%) Data Quality
6 31 (1.78%) MISRA
7 21 (1.21%) MISRA C
8 19 (1.09%) GDPR
9 17 (0.98%) WCAG
10 14 (0.81%) NIST
11 11 (0.63%) DO-178B
12 10 (0.58%) EU AI Act
13 6 (0.35%) HL7
14 3 (0.17%) ISO 26262
14 3 (0.17%) NCSC
14 3 (0.17%) SLA
15 2 (0.12%) FATCA
15 2 (0.12%) IEC 62304
15 2 (0.12%) MiFID
15 2 (0.12%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 343 (19.72%) Docker
2 17 (0.98%) Firmware
3 14 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
4 12 (0.69%) Active Directory
4 12 (0.69%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.058%) zsh
Systems Management
1 361 (20.76%) Kubernetes
2 210 (12.08%) Terraform
3 98 (5.64%) Grafana
4 63 (3.62%) Prometheus
5 59 (3.39%) Ansible
6 22 (1.27%) Argo
7 20 (1.15%) Puppet
8 10 (0.58%) Progress Chef
8 10 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (0.46%) Kibana
10 5 (0.29%) HP Quality Center
10 5 (0.29%) Istio
10 5 (0.29%) Podman
11 4 (0.23%) Data Guard
12 3 (0.17%) Docker Swarm
12 3 (0.17%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.17%) Kubeflow
12 3 (0.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.12%) Functional Safety
13 2 (0.12%) rkt
Vendors
1 132 (7.59%) Microsoft
2 66 (3.80%) Google
3 56 (3.22%) Red Hat
4 55 (3.16%) Oracle
5 45 (2.59%) Databricks
6 36 (2.07%) Splunk
7 28 (1.61%) Foundry
8 17 (0.98%) IBM
9 16 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
10 13 (0.75%) OpenAI
10 13 (0.75%) VMware
11 11 (0.63%) Atlassian
12 9 (0.52%) Palantir
12 9 (0.52%) Software AG
13 8 (0.46%) Cloudera
13 8 (0.46%) CyberArk
13 8 (0.46%) Dynatrace
13 8 (0.46%) PagerDuty
13 8 (0.46%) SAP
13 8 (0.46%) webMethods