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 29 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 41 33
Rank change year-on-year +3 -8 +8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,070 1,216 1,991
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.14% 5.00% 5.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.05% 5.49% 6.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,076 804 1,170
10th Percentile £400 £406 £425
25th Percentile £452 £492 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £671 £775 £750
90th Percentile £775 £838 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 461 80 333
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.95 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £56.97 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -2.56%

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 34,200 22,151 32,000
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.97% 91.14% 86.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,858 14,510 20,977
10th Percentile £318 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.48% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £617 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -4.31% -0.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,144 918 2,231
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.74 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £44.00 £30.45 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +44.50% -14.23% -5.33%
75th Percentile £67.31 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £40.66 £29.07 £35.00
% change year-on-year +39.87% -16.94% -6.17%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 29 April 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 -12 851 £599 -11.26% 533
South West +14 304 £575 - 157
North of England +15 296 £500 - 244
South East +9 251 £525 +2.44% 326
East of England +37 214 £475 -2.72% 145
North West +3 131 £488 -2.69% 145
Yorkshire 0 115 £519 +3.75% 64
Midlands -25 97 £492 +1.93% 104
West Midlands -12 86 £483 -8.98% 58
North East +24 54 £538 +16.85% 35
East Midlands -43 10 £513 +4.59% 46
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 (2.56%) Confluence
2 45 (2.17%) Apache Spark
3 37 (1.79%) Apache
4 21 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.43%) CMS
6 7 (0.34%) SAS
7 6 (0.29%) WebLogic
8 5 (0.24%) IIS
8 5 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
8 5 (0.24%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.19%) nginx
10 3 (0.14%) Camunda
10 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.097%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.097%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.097%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.097%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.097%) WinCC
12 1 (0.048%) JBoss
12 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 12 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.24%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.19%) Simulink
5 3 (0.14%) CPLEX
5 3 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.097%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.048%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.048%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.048%) Blender
7 1 (0.048%) Maya
7 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.048%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.048%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.097%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.097%) LabWindows
4 1 (0.048%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.048%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.048%) Primavera
4 1 (0.048%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.048%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 543 (26.23%) AWS
2 390 (18.84%) Azure
3 189 (9.13%) GCP
4 140 (6.76%) GitHub
5 118 (5.70%) Serverless
6 78 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
7 67 (3.24%) AWS Lambda
8 66 (3.19%) Amazon S3
9 60 (2.90%) GitHub Actions
10 52 (2.51%) OpenShift
10 52 (2.51%) Power Platform
11 41 (1.98%) AWS CloudFormation
12 38 (1.84%) Azure AKS
13 35 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
14 34 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
15 29 (1.40%) SaaS
16 28 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
17 26 (1.26%) Amazon SQS
17 26 (1.26%) Azure Functions
18 21 (1.01%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 25 (1.21%) Ethernet
1 25 (1.21%) Software-Defined Radio
2 15 (0.72%) Wireless
3 14 (0.68%) TCP/IP
4 11 (0.53%) Network Security
5 10 (0.48%) HTTP
6 9 (0.43%) 3GPP
7 8 (0.39%) Firewall
8 5 (0.24%) Modbus
8 5 (0.24%) RTP
9 4 (0.19%) RS-232
9 4 (0.19%) RS-485
9 4 (0.19%) VPN
9 4 (0.19%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.14%) Bluetooth
10 3 (0.14%) DNS
10 3 (0.14%) IPv4
10 3 (0.14%) IPv6
10 3 (0.14%) RS-422
10 3 (0.14%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (6.18%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (3.04%) Relational Database
2 63 (3.04%) SQL Server
3 58 (2.80%) NoSQL
4 56 (2.71%) Apache Cassandra
5 51 (2.46%) MongoDB
6 37 (1.79%) Power BI
7 35 (1.69%) Amazon RDS
8 32 (1.55%) Data Lake
9 27 (1.30%) Big Data
10 26 (1.26%) BigQuery
10 26 (1.26%) MySQL
11 24 (1.16%) DynamoDB
12 23 (1.11%) Metadata
13 21 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
14 17 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
15 15 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
16 14 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
16 14 (0.68%) Redis
17 13 (0.63%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 210 (10.14%) Git
2 135 (6.52%) Jenkins
3 115 (5.56%) GitLab
4 108 (5.22%) JIRA
5 44 (2.13%) SonarQube
6 34 (1.64%) Rational DOORS
7 32 (1.55%) Gradle
7 32 (1.55%) Rational Rhapsody
8 30 (1.45%) JUnit
9 23 (1.11%) Bitbucket
9 23 (1.11%) IntelliJ
10 22 (1.06%) Cucumber
11 20 (0.97%) Cypress.io
12 19 (0.92%) Selenium
13 18 (0.87%) Maven
13 18 (0.87%) Visual Studio
14 14 (0.68%) Mockito
15 13 (0.63%) Eclipse
16 12 (0.58%) Liquibase
17 11 (0.53%) Artifactory
General
1 306 (14.78%) Finance
2 301 (14.54%) Social Skills
3 125 (6.04%) Public Sector
4 113 (5.46%) Analytical Skills
5 109 (5.27%) Banking
6 86 (4.15%) Aerospace
7 66 (3.19%) Front Office
8 38 (1.84%) Law
9 37 (1.79%) Electronics
9 37 (1.79%) Manufacturing
10 33 (1.59%) Retail
11 29 (1.40%) Military
12 26 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (1.26%) Investment Banking
13 22 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (1.01%) Telecoms
15 14 (0.68%) Financial Institution
16 13 (0.63%) Automotive
16 13 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
17 12 (0.58%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 1,130 (54.59%) Software Engineer
2 363 (17.54%) Senior
3 359 (17.34%) Developer
4 175 (8.45%) Senior Software Engineer
5 158 (7.63%) Embedded Engineer
6 154 (7.44%) Lead
7 146 (7.05%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 139 (6.71%) Java Engineer
9 123 (5.94%) C++ Software Engineer
10 111 (5.36%) Java Software Engineer
11 93 (4.49%) Java Developer
12 87 (4.20%) Architect
13 70 (3.38%) Senior Developer
14 67 (3.24%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 62 (3.00%) Data Engineer
15 62 (3.00%) Python Engineer
16 61 (2.95%) Full-Stack Engineer
17 60 (2.90%) Software Developer
18 58 (2.80%) Lead Software Engineer
19 55 (2.66%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 229 (11.06%) React
2 191 (9.23%) Kafka
3 168 (8.12%) Node.js
4 147 (7.10%) .NET
5 141 (6.81%) REST
6 137 (6.62%) Spring
7 124 (5.99%) Spring Boot
8 101 (4.88%) AngularJS
9 91 (4.40%) RESTful
10 73 (3.53%) GraphQL
11 56 (2.71%) gRPC
12 52 (2.51%) Redux
13 51 (2.46%) Middleware
14 48 (2.32%) CSS
15 44 (2.13%) HTML
16 37 (1.79%) JSON
16 37 (1.79%) Playwright
17 36 (1.74%) Web Services
18 34 (1.64%) OpenTelemetry
19 30 (1.45%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 212 (10.24%) Cloud Native
2 143 (6.91%) Distributed Systems
3 92 (4.44%) Product Ownership
4 82 (3.96%) Algorithms
5 58 (2.80%) Fixed Income
6 41 (1.98%) AI Agents
7 33 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
7 33 (1.59%) Embedded Systems
8 31 (1.50%) Onboarding
9 26 (1.26%) Derivative
9 26 (1.26%) Mobile App
9 26 (1.26%) Robotics
10 25 (1.21%) Data Structures
11 24 (1.16%) Legacy Systems
12 20 (0.97%) Equities
13 19 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
14 18 (0.87%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 14 (0.68%) FPGA
15 14 (0.68%) NHS
16 13 (0.63%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 193 (9.32%) Linux
2 69 (3.33%) Windows
3 42 (2.03%) Unix
4 26 (1.26%) Android
5 23 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (0.92%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.58%) Embedded Linux
8 11 (0.53%) Windows Server
9 10 (0.48%) FreeRTOS
10 7 (0.34%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.29%) Debian
12 4 (0.19%) Rocky
12 4 (0.19%) VMS
13 2 (0.097%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.097%) Solaris
13 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.048%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 583 (28.16%) Agile
1 583 (28.16%) CI/CD
2 412 (19.90%) DevOps
3 319 (15.41%) Microservices
4 278 (13.43%) AI
5 226 (10.92%) Problem-Solving
6 216 (10.43%) Full-Stack Development
7 211 (10.19%) Containerisation
7 211 (10.19%) Test Automation
8 200 (9.66%) Infrastructure as Code
9 158 (7.63%) Observability
10 156 (7.54%) Computer Science
11 153 (7.39%) Machine Learning
12 149 (7.20%) SDLC
13 147 (7.10%) Mentoring
14 146 (7.05%) Continuous Improvement
15 140 (6.76%) Scrum
16 138 (6.67%) TDD
17 135 (6.52%) Technical Leadership
18 121 (5.85%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 532 (25.70%) Python
2 495 (23.91%) Java
3 270 (13.04%) SQL
4 258 (12.46%) C#
5 240 (11.59%) TypeScript
6 230 (11.11%) C++
7 216 (10.43%) JavaScript
8 151 (7.29%) Go
9 133 (6.43%) Ada
10 123 (5.94%) C
11 34 (1.64%) Embedded C
11 34 (1.64%) Kotlin
12 33 (1.59%) PowerShell
13 31 (1.50%) Bash
14 26 (1.26%) MATLAB
15 25 (1.21%) Ruby
16 23 (1.11%) Rust
17 21 (1.01%) Shell Script
18 19 (0.92%) Scala
19 18 (0.87%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 512 (24.73%) Security Cleared
2 400 (19.32%) SC Cleared
3 173 (8.36%) Degree
4 90 (4.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 62 (3.00%) DV Cleared
6 39 (1.88%) Master's Degree
7 30 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (1.16%) AWS Certification
9 14 (0.68%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 13 (0.63%) Azure Certification
10 13 (0.63%) CISSP
11 12 (0.58%) PhD
12 10 (0.48%) CISM
13 8 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
14 6 (0.29%) ISTQB
14 6 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 4 (0.19%) HND
15 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
16 3 (0.14%) Cisco Certification
16 3 (0.14%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (5.46%) QA
2 51 (2.46%) Def Stans
3 41 (1.98%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.74%) IEC 61508
5 27 (1.30%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.21%) GDPR
7 22 (1.06%) MISRA
8 16 (0.77%) MISRA C
9 9 (0.43%) NCSC
10 8 (0.39%) NIST
10 8 (0.39%) WCAG
11 7 (0.34%) DO-178B
11 7 (0.34%) HL7
11 7 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 3 (0.14%) EMIR
12 3 (0.14%) FATCA
12 3 (0.14%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.14%) MiFID
12 3 (0.14%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.097%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 310 (14.98%) Docker
2 21 (1.01%) Firmware
3 16 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.39%) Embedded Firmware
6 7 (0.34%) Active Directory
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.14%) HDFS
9 2 (0.097%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 343 (16.57%) Kubernetes
2 211 (10.19%) Terraform
3 90 (4.35%) Grafana
4 58 (2.80%) Ansible
5 50 (2.42%) Prometheus
6 35 (1.69%) Argo
7 14 (0.68%) Puppet
8 12 (0.58%) Progress Chef
9 6 (0.29%) Istio
9 6 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.24%) HAProxy
10 5 (0.24%) Kibana
10 5 (0.24%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 4 (0.19%) Docker Swarm
11 4 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
12 3 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.097%) Consul
13 2 (0.097%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.097%) Podman
Vendors
1 138 (6.67%) Microsoft
2 76 (3.67%) Google
3 60 (2.90%) Oracle
4 57 (2.75%) Red Hat
5 47 (2.27%) Databricks
6 24 (1.16%) IBM
7 21 (1.01%) OpenAI
7 21 (1.01%) Splunk
8 17 (0.82%) VMware
9 13 (0.63%) Foundry
10 12 (0.58%) ServiceNow
11 11 (0.53%) Informatica
11 11 (0.53%) Okta
11 11 (0.53%) Siemens
12 10 (0.48%) Atlassian
12 10 (0.48%) Dynatrace
12 10 (0.48%) ForgeRock
12 10 (0.48%) MathWorks
12 10 (0.48%) PagerDuty
12 10 (0.48%) SAP