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 25 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 44 33 43
Rank change year-on-year -11 +10 -7
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,542 1,671 1,778
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.06% 5.41% 4.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.63% 6.20% 5.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 886 1,001 1,186
10th Percentile £375 £405 £425
25th Percentile £463 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £608
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -1.28% +1.29%
75th Percentile £688 £775 £738
90th Percentile £825 £863 £810
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 152 225
10th Percentile £46.85 £46.18 £46.18
25th Percentile £55.00 £56.78 £52.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.25 £70.00 £69.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £83.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process and 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 27,406 26,969 34,678
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.94% 87.30% 88.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,388 16,451 23,708
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.41% -3.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,797 990 1,453
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.10 £14.59
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.24 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.14% -20.00% +25.00%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +27.14%

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 25 November 2025.

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 25 November 2025.

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 25 November 2025. 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 -10 827 £625 -7.41% 521
North of England -7 213 £525 - 197
East of England +5 129 £538 +13.16% 221
South West -17 121 £454 -24.38% 239
Yorkshire -4 114 £525 -4.55% 63
South East -31 102 £475 -5.00% 541
North West -15 80 £550 +15.79% 116
Midlands -38 78 £525 +8.58% 153
West Midlands -12 63 £525 +8.58% 95
North East 0 22 £488 -18.41% 18
East Midlands -32 15 £450 -6.74% 56
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 70 (4.54%) Apache
1 70 (4.54%) Apache Airflow
2 54 (3.50%) Confluence
3 30 (1.95%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.91%) JBoss
5 11 (0.71%) CMS
5 11 (0.71%) WebLogic
6 6 (0.39%) OpenStack
7 4 (0.26%) SAS
7 4 (0.26%) WordPress
8 3 (0.19%) Appian
8 3 (0.19%) IIS
8 3 (0.19%) nginx
8 3 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
9 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
9 2 (0.13%) SharePoint
9 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.065%) CICS
10 1 (0.065%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.065%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 17 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.71%) Chatbot
3 10 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.65%) Simulink
4 9 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.19%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.065%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.065%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 8 (0.52%) Aladdin
1 8 (0.52%) Temenos T24
2 3 (0.19%) Fidessa
2 3 (0.19%) FLEXCUBE
2 3 (0.19%) Oracle BPM
2 3 (0.19%) thinkFolio
3 2 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.13%) Primavera
4 1 (0.065%) ION Anvil
4 1 (0.065%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.065%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 541 (35.08%) AWS
2 265 (17.19%) Azure
3 169 (10.96%) GCP
3 169 (10.96%) Serverless
4 131 (8.50%) GitHub
5 78 (5.06%) GitHub Actions
6 73 (4.73%) AWS Lambda
7 66 (4.28%) Azure DevOps
8 60 (3.89%) dbt
9 57 (3.70%) Snowflake
10 53 (3.44%) Amazon S3
11 46 (2.98%) Power Platform
12 43 (2.79%) Amazon ECS
13 36 (2.33%) Azure AKS
14 31 (2.01%) Amazon EKS
15 30 (1.95%) AWS CloudFormation
16 29 (1.88%) Azure Functions
16 29 (1.88%) OpenShift
17 27 (1.75%) Amazon EC2
18 24 (1.56%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.88%) Ethernet
2 22 (1.43%) TCP/IP
3 10 (0.65%) Firewall
3 10 (0.65%) Network Security
4 8 (0.52%) Internet
4 8 (0.52%) NFC
4 8 (0.52%) PPP
5 6 (0.39%) Wireless
6 5 (0.32%) HTTP
7 4 (0.26%) tcpdump
7 4 (0.26%) VPN
8 3 (0.19%) BGP
8 3 (0.19%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.19%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (0.19%) VLAN
9 2 (0.13%) DNS
9 2 (0.13%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.13%) SSH
9 2 (0.13%) SSL
9 2 (0.13%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (7.91%) PostgreSQL
2 88 (5.71%) NoSQL
3 69 (4.47%) MongoDB
4 68 (4.41%) Apache Cassandra
5 53 (3.44%) Amazon Athena
6 51 (3.31%) Data Lake
7 49 (3.18%) Apache Arrow
7 49 (3.18%) Apache Iceberg
7 49 (3.18%) Dremio
8 48 (3.11%) SQL Server
9 39 (2.53%) Big Data
10 37 (2.40%) Relational Database
11 32 (2.08%) Apache Ignite
11 32 (2.08%) Power BI
12 31 (2.01%) Hadoop
13 30 (1.95%) MySQL
14 27 (1.75%) Amazon RDS
15 25 (1.62%) DynamoDB
15 25 (1.62%) Elasticsearch
16 19 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 183 (11.87%) Git
2 145 (9.40%) Jenkins
3 106 (6.87%) JIRA
4 101 (6.55%) GitLab
5 38 (2.46%) JUnit
6 36 (2.33%) Eclipse
6 36 (2.33%) Selenium
7 35 (2.27%) Liquibase
8 30 (1.95%) Cypress.io
9 29 (1.88%) Cucumber
10 27 (1.75%) SonarQube
11 25 (1.62%) Visual Studio
12 24 (1.56%) Gradle
13 19 (1.23%) Maven
13 19 (1.23%) Mockito
13 19 (1.23%) Rational DOORS
14 16 (1.04%) Artifactory
15 15 (0.97%) Bitbucket
16 12 (0.78%) Postman
16 12 (0.78%) TeamCity
General
1 354 (22.96%) Finance
2 353 (22.89%) Social Skills
3 161 (10.44%) Banking
4 111 (7.20%) Public Sector
5 107 (6.94%) Front Office
6 87 (5.64%) Analytical Skills
7 81 (5.25%) Investment Banking
8 39 (2.53%) Financial Institution
9 37 (2.40%) Military
10 30 (1.95%) Aerospace
11 25 (1.62%) Law
12 22 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
13 21 (1.36%) Electronics
14 20 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
15 18 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
16 16 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
16 16 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 14 (0.91%) Telecoms
18 12 (0.78%) Manufacturing
19 11 (0.71%) Retail
Job Titles
1 695 (45.07%) Software Engineer
2 358 (23.22%) Developer
3 304 (19.71%) Senior
4 150 (9.73%) Senior Software Engineer
5 127 (8.24%) Lead
6 115 (7.46%) Python Engineer
7 105 (6.81%) C++ Software Engineer
8 93 (6.03%) AWS Engineer
9 90 (5.84%) Java Engineer
10 83 (5.38%) Java Software Engineer
11 80 (5.19%) AWS Software Engineer
12 79 (5.12%) Python Software Engineer
13 74 (4.80%) Python Developer
14 72 (4.67%) Java Developer
15 64 (4.15%) Senior Developer
16 53 (3.44%) Developer/Software Engineer
17 50 (3.24%) Architect
18 48 (3.11%) Data Engineer
18 48 (3.11%) Full-Stack Engineer
19 46 (2.98%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 230 (14.92%) Kafka
2 229 (14.85%) React
3 177 (11.48%) Node.js
4 144 (9.34%) .NET
5 135 (8.75%) REST
6 116 (7.52%) RESTful
7 108 (7.00%) gRPC
8 103 (6.68%) AngularJS
9 91 (5.90%) Spring
10 83 (5.38%) Pandas
11 82 (5.32%) NumPy
12 70 (4.54%) Spring Boot
13 69 (4.47%) SciPy
14 58 (3.76%) HTML
15 56 (3.63%) Vue
16 53 (3.44%) FastAPI
16 53 (3.44%) JSON
17 48 (3.11%) GraphQL
18 43 (2.79%) CSS
19 42 (2.72%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 175 (11.35%) Cloud Native
2 132 (8.56%) Distributed Systems
3 100 (6.49%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 93 (6.03%) Fixed Income
5 66 (4.28%) Hedge funds
6 61 (3.96%) Equities
7 57 (3.70%) Algorithms
8 47 (3.05%) Product Ownership
9 45 (2.92%) Derivative
10 43 (2.79%) Data Structures
11 36 (2.33%) Public Cloud
12 34 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
13 33 (2.14%) Greenfield Project
13 33 (2.14%) Virtual Team
14 32 (2.08%) Pricing Data
15 21 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
15 21 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
16 19 (1.23%) Embedded Systems
17 18 (1.17%) Mobile App
18 17 (1.10%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 243 (15.76%) Linux
2 80 (5.19%) Windows
3 51 (3.31%) Unix
4 23 (1.49%) Android
5 21 (1.36%) Ubuntu
6 15 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.65%) Windows Server
8 8 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.39%) FreeRTOS
9 6 (0.39%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.26%) VMS
11 1 (0.065%) Debian
11 1 (0.065%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.065%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.065%) Windows Embedded Compact
11 1 (0.065%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.065%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 621 (40.27%) Agile
2 482 (31.26%) CI/CD
3 355 (23.02%) DevOps
4 302 (19.58%) Microservices
5 234 (15.18%) Problem-Solving
6 204 (13.23%) Containerisation
7 202 (13.10%) Infrastructure as Code
8 185 (12.00%) Test Automation
9 173 (11.22%) AI
10 168 (10.89%) Computer Science
11 160 (10.38%) Mentoring
12 157 (10.18%) TDD
13 144 (9.34%) Full-Stack Development
14 141 (9.14%) Scrum
15 138 (8.95%) Machine Learning
16 115 (7.46%) Clean Code
17 112 (7.26%) Open Source
18 105 (6.81%) Continuous Integration
19 94 (6.10%) Data Pipeline
20 89 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 537 (34.82%) Python
2 405 (26.26%) Java
3 291 (18.87%) JavaScript
4 268 (17.38%) SQL
5 258 (16.73%) C++
6 236 (15.30%) TypeScript
7 228 (14.79%) C#
8 145 (9.40%) Go
9 80 (5.19%) C
10 41 (2.66%) Ada
11 32 (2.08%) Shell Script
12 30 (1.95%) Bash
12 30 (1.95%) Rust
13 20 (1.30%) PowerShell
13 20 (1.30%) Ruby
13 20 (1.30%) VB
14 19 (1.23%) Scala
15 17 (1.10%) PHP
16 15 (0.97%) MATLAB
17 14 (0.91%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 279 (18.09%) Security Cleared
2 230 (14.92%) SC Cleared
3 202 (13.10%) Degree
4 97 (6.29%) Computer Science Degree
5 55 (3.57%) Master's Degree
6 51 (3.31%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.30%) AWS Certification
7 20 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (1.10%) MCP
8 17 (1.10%) PhD
9 15 (0.97%) CISSP
10 13 (0.84%) CISM
11 10 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 10 (0.65%) Azure Certification
12 9 (0.58%) TOGAF Certification
13 7 (0.45%) Postgraduate
14 6 (0.39%) ISTQB
15 4 (0.26%) HND
16 3 (0.19%) HNC
16 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (5.12%) QA
2 28 (1.82%) Accessibility
2 28 (1.82%) Data Quality
3 20 (1.30%) Def Stans
3 20 (1.30%) WCAG
4 17 (1.10%) IEC 61508
4 17 (1.10%) MISRA
5 16 (1.04%) GDPR
6 13 (0.84%) EU AI Act
7 12 (0.78%) NIST
8 11 (0.71%) MISRA C
9 7 (0.45%) DO-178B
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 5 (0.32%) Software Quality Assurance
11 4 (0.26%) ISO 26262
11 4 (0.26%) MiFID
11 4 (0.26%) SLA
12 3 (0.19%) IEC 62304
12 3 (0.19%) NCSC
12 3 (0.19%) SEPA
System Software
1 349 (22.63%) Docker
2 15 (0.97%) Active Directory
3 9 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (0.52%) Firmware
5 5 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (0.26%) zsh
7 2 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.065%) KVM
8 1 (0.065%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.065%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 328 (21.27%) Kubernetes
2 199 (12.91%) Terraform
3 75 (4.86%) Grafana
4 74 (4.80%) Ansible
5 61 (3.96%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.23%) Puppet
7 13 (0.84%) Kibana
8 11 (0.71%) Argo
9 9 (0.58%) Progress Chef
10 8 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.45%) Podman
12 4 (0.26%) Functional Safety
13 3 (0.19%) Cilium
13 3 (0.19%) Kubeflow
13 3 (0.19%) Rsyslog
13 3 (0.19%) SCOM
13 3 (0.19%) SELinux
14 2 (0.13%) Packer
14 2 (0.13%) rkt
15 1 (0.065%) Consul
Vendors
1 129 (8.37%) Microsoft
2 57 (3.70%) Oracle
3 56 (3.63%) Google
4 39 (2.53%) Splunk
5 32 (2.08%) Databricks
6 31 (2.01%) Foundry
7 27 (1.75%) Red Hat
8 14 (0.91%) Atlassian
8 14 (0.91%) Palantir
9 13 (0.84%) Cloudera
10 11 (0.71%) BiZZdesign
10 11 (0.71%) SAP
11 10 (0.65%) OpenAI
11 10 (0.65%) Salesforce
11 10 (0.65%) Temenos
12 9 (0.58%) ServiceNow
12 9 (0.58%) webMethods
13 8 (0.52%) CA Agile Central
14 7 (0.45%) CyberArk
14 7 (0.45%) IBM