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 8 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 41 35
Rank change year-on-year +1 -6 +7
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,820 1,254 1,917
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.04% 4.98% 5.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.80% 5.50% 5.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 958 809 1,101
10th Percentile £379 £407 £425
25th Percentile £450 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £675 £750 £738
90th Percentile £800 £838 £800
UK median daily rate £543 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -9.49% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 360 80 320
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.95 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £59.01 £52.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £68.81
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £75.25
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -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 31,372 22,802 33,057
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.81% 90.52% 86.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,079 14,552 21,849
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.19% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £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 1,949 811 2,155
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.25 £13.02
25th Percentile £18.59 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £29.61 £34.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.17% +6.15% -7.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.58
90th Percentile £74.26 £76.25 £71.82
UK median hourly rate £28.50 £32.50 £32.12
% change year-on-year -12.31% +1.20% -8.24%

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 8 March 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 8 March 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 8 March 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 -12 797 £600 -8.40% 601
North of England +17 273 £523 -5.00% 223
South West +9 249 £500 -15.25% 236
East of England +34 176 £475 +5.56% 140
South East +3 160 £494 -1.25% 352
North West +10 130 £505 -8.18% 111
Midlands -16 104 £502 +5.14% 100
Yorkshire -8 101 £525 - 88
West Midlands -5 87 £503 +5.45% 48
North East +21 47 £488 -18.41% 25
East Midlands -26 17 £500 +1.01% 52
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 (3.30%) Confluence
2 52 (2.86%) Apache
3 49 (2.69%) Apache Spark
4 26 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.71%) WebLogic
6 10 (0.55%) CMS
7 8 (0.44%) JBoss
7 8 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
8 5 (0.27%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.22%) IIS
9 4 (0.22%) nginx
10 3 (0.16%) SAS
10 3 (0.16%) SharePoint
10 3 (0.16%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.11%) Camunda
11 2 (0.11%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.11%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.11%) WinCC
11 2 (0.11%) WordPress
12 1 (0.055%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 15 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.55%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.11%) Simulink
6 1 (0.055%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.055%) Maya
6 1 (0.055%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.055%) OrCAD
6 1 (0.055%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.11%) LabWindows
1 2 (0.11%) Primavera
2 1 (0.055%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.055%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.055%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 539 (29.62%) AWS
2 328 (18.02%) Azure
3 185 (10.16%) GCP
4 138 (7.58%) Serverless
5 122 (6.70%) GitHub
6 65 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
7 63 (3.46%) GitHub Actions
8 61 (3.35%) AWS Lambda
9 60 (3.30%) Amazon S3
10 46 (2.53%) Azure AKS
11 45 (2.47%) Amazon EKS
11 45 (2.47%) Power Platform
12 43 (2.36%) OpenShift
13 41 (2.25%) AWS CloudFormation
14 37 (2.03%) Azure Functions
15 34 (1.87%) Amazon EC2
15 34 (1.87%) Amazon ECS
16 32 (1.76%) SaaS
17 24 (1.32%) Snowflake
18 23 (1.26%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.21%) Ethernet
2 13 (0.71%) TCP/IP
3 12 (0.66%) Network Security
4 9 (0.49%) Firewall
5 7 (0.38%) Internet
6 5 (0.27%) 3GPP
6 5 (0.27%) Modbus
6 5 (0.27%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.22%) BGP
7 4 (0.22%) HTTP
7 4 (0.22%) RS-232
7 4 (0.22%) RS-485
7 4 (0.22%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.22%) VLAN
7 4 (0.22%) Wireless
8 3 (0.16%) Bluetooth
8 3 (0.16%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.16%) NFC
8 3 (0.16%) PPP
8 3 (0.16%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (6.98%) PostgreSQL
2 74 (4.07%) Apache Cassandra
3 71 (3.90%) MongoDB
4 68 (3.74%) NoSQL
5 54 (2.97%) SQL Server
6 50 (2.75%) Relational Database
7 37 (2.03%) Data Lake
8 34 (1.87%) Amazon RDS
9 32 (1.76%) Power BI
10 31 (1.70%) Big Data
11 29 (1.59%) MySQL
12 28 (1.54%) BigQuery
12 28 (1.54%) Metadata
13 23 (1.26%) Hadoop
14 20 (1.10%) DynamoDB
15 19 (1.04%) Amazon Athena
15 19 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
16 17 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
17 15 (0.82%) Mixpanel
18 12 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 177 (9.73%) Git
2 130 (7.14%) Jenkins
3 120 (6.59%) GitLab
4 102 (5.60%) JIRA
5 32 (1.76%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (1.70%) Selenium
7 30 (1.65%) JUnit
8 28 (1.54%) Cucumber
9 27 (1.48%) Cypress.io
9 27 (1.48%) Rational Rhapsody
9 27 (1.48%) SonarQube
10 26 (1.43%) Gradle
11 24 (1.32%) Bitbucket
11 24 (1.32%) IntelliJ
12 23 (1.26%) Eclipse
13 18 (0.99%) Maven
14 17 (0.93%) Liquibase
14 17 (0.93%) Visual Studio
15 16 (0.88%) Mockito
16 12 (0.66%) Postman
General
1 320 (17.58%) Finance
2 310 (17.03%) Social Skills
3 123 (6.76%) Public Sector
4 118 (6.48%) Banking
5 93 (5.11%) Analytical Skills
6 68 (3.74%) Front Office
7 63 (3.46%) Aerospace
8 43 (2.36%) Electronics
9 33 (1.81%) Law
10 31 (1.70%) Financial Institution
11 30 (1.65%) Investment Banking
11 30 (1.65%) Retail
12 27 (1.48%) Military
13 24 (1.32%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
15 21 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (0.99%) Telecoms
17 17 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
18 14 (0.77%) Documentation Skills
19 11 (0.60%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 943 (51.81%) Software Engineer
2 358 (19.67%) Senior
3 347 (19.07%) Developer
4 170 (9.34%) Senior Software Engineer
5 147 (8.08%) Lead
6 126 (6.92%) C++ Software Engineer
7 111 (6.10%) Java Engineer
8 101 (5.55%) Embedded Engineer
9 91 (5.00%) Java Software Engineer
10 90 (4.95%) Embedded Software Engineer
11 80 (4.40%) Java Developer
12 75 (4.12%) Senior Developer
13 72 (3.96%) Python Engineer
14 64 (3.52%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 62 (3.41%) Architect
16 61 (3.35%) Python Developer
17 58 (3.19%) Lead Software Engineer
18 55 (3.02%) Data Engineer
19 52 (2.86%) AWS Engineer
20 51 (2.80%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 240 (13.19%) React
2 222 (12.20%) Kafka
3 176 (9.67%) Node.js
4 147 (8.08%) REST
5 136 (7.47%) .NET
6 115 (6.32%) Spring
7 108 (5.93%) RESTful
8 107 (5.88%) Spring Boot
9 94 (5.16%) AngularJS
10 77 (4.23%) gRPC
11 70 (3.85%) GraphQL
12 61 (3.35%) Middleware
13 56 (3.08%) HTML
14 54 (2.97%) Redux
15 52 (2.86%) JSON
16 50 (2.75%) CSS
17 40 (2.20%) Vue
18 39 (2.14%) FastAPI
19 38 (2.09%) Playwright
20 34 (1.87%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 213 (11.70%) Cloud Native
2 129 (7.09%) Distributed Systems
3 89 (4.89%) Product Ownership
4 67 (3.68%) Algorithms
5 63 (3.46%) Fixed Income
6 41 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.87%) Mobile App
8 32 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
9 31 (1.70%) Data Structures
10 30 (1.65%) Derivative
11 29 (1.59%) AI Agents
11 29 (1.59%) Equities
12 28 (1.54%) Onboarding
13 27 (1.48%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 26 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
15 24 (1.32%) Hedge funds
15 24 (1.32%) Public Cloud
16 22 (1.21%) Embedded Systems
17 20 (1.10%) Life Science
18 19 (1.04%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 216 (11.87%) Linux
2 79 (4.34%) Windows
3 57 (3.13%) Unix
4 27 (1.48%) Android
5 21 (1.15%) Apple iOS
6 19 (1.04%) Ubuntu
7 17 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 14 (0.77%) Windows Server
9 6 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.16%) Debian
10 3 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
10 3 (0.16%) VMS
11 2 (0.11%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.11%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.11%) Rocky
11 2 (0.11%) Solaris
11 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.055%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.055%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 575 (31.59%) Agile
2 520 (28.57%) CI/CD
3 372 (20.44%) DevOps
4 312 (17.14%) Microservices
5 265 (14.56%) AI
6 242 (13.30%) Problem-Solving
7 211 (11.59%) Containerisation
8 201 (11.04%) Test Automation
9 187 (10.27%) Full-Stack Development
10 186 (10.22%) Infrastructure as Code
11 170 (9.34%) Machine Learning
12 160 (8.79%) Computer Science
13 156 (8.57%) Mentoring
14 147 (8.08%) Continuous Improvement
15 128 (7.03%) Scrum
15 128 (7.03%) SDLC
16 120 (6.59%) Observability
17 116 (6.37%) Open Source
17 116 (6.37%) TDD
18 115 (6.32%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 528 (29.01%) Python
2 433 (23.79%) Java
3 252 (13.85%) C++
4 250 (13.74%) SQL
5 249 (13.68%) JavaScript
6 236 (12.97%) TypeScript
7 219 (12.03%) C#
8 168 (9.23%) Go
9 119 (6.54%) Ada
10 112 (6.15%) C
11 35 (1.92%) PowerShell
12 33 (1.81%) Shell Script
13 32 (1.76%) Rust
14 29 (1.59%) Kotlin
15 28 (1.54%) Bash
16 25 (1.37%) Embedded C
17 24 (1.32%) Embedded C++
18 19 (1.04%) MATLAB
18 19 (1.04%) Scala
19 16 (0.88%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 413 (22.69%) Security Cleared
2 319 (17.53%) SC Cleared
3 203 (11.15%) Degree
4 91 (5.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 60 (3.30%) Master's Degree
6 56 (3.08%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (1.04%) PhD
9 18 (0.99%) AWS Certification
9 18 (0.99%) CISSP
10 17 (0.93%) CISM
11 15 (0.82%) Azure Certification
11 15 (0.82%) TOGAF Certification
12 11 (0.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 11 (0.60%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 7 (0.38%) ISTQB
14 6 (0.33%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 5 (0.27%) Microsoft Certification
16 4 (0.22%) HND
16 4 (0.22%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (5.11%) QA
2 55 (3.02%) Def Stans
3 38 (2.09%) IEC 61508
4 37 (2.03%) Data Quality
5 33 (1.81%) Accessibility
6 31 (1.70%) MISRA
7 25 (1.37%) GDPR
8 21 (1.15%) MISRA C
9 18 (0.99%) WCAG
10 14 (0.77%) NIST
11 11 (0.60%) DO-178B
12 10 (0.55%) EU AI Act
13 6 (0.33%) HL7
14 3 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 3 (0.16%) NCSC
14 3 (0.16%) SLA
15 2 (0.11%) FATCA
15 2 (0.11%) PCI DSS
15 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 2 (0.11%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 333 (18.30%) Docker
2 17 (0.93%) Firmware
3 15 (0.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (0.60%) Active Directory
6 4 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.16%) HDFS
8 2 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.11%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 357 (19.62%) Kubernetes
2 210 (11.54%) Terraform
3 94 (5.16%) Grafana
4 66 (3.63%) Ansible
5 57 (3.13%) Prometheus
6 23 (1.26%) Puppet
7 22 (1.21%) Argo
8 13 (0.71%) Progress Chef
9 10 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (0.44%) Kibana
11 6 (0.33%) Istio
12 5 (0.27%) HP Quality Center
12 5 (0.27%) Kubeflow
13 4 (0.22%) Data Guard
13 4 (0.22%) Podman
14 3 (0.16%) Docker Swarm
14 3 (0.16%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.16%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
15 2 (0.11%) Functional Safety
15 2 (0.11%) rkt
Vendors
1 140 (7.69%) Microsoft
2 66 (3.63%) Google
3 60 (3.30%) Red Hat
4 57 (3.13%) Oracle
5 47 (2.58%) Databricks
6 30 (1.65%) Splunk
7 25 (1.37%) Foundry
8 18 (0.99%) IBM
9 16 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
9 16 (0.88%) VMware
10 14 (0.77%) OpenAI
11 10 (0.55%) Atlassian
11 10 (0.55%) PagerDuty
12 9 (0.49%) Palantir
12 9 (0.49%) SAP
12 9 (0.49%) Siemens
12 9 (0.49%) Software AG
13 8 (0.44%) ANSYS
13 8 (0.44%) ServiceNow
13 8 (0.44%) webMethods