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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 45 31
Rank change year-on-year +13 -14 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,571 1,344 1,918
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.63% 4.88% 5.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.64% 5.37% 6.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,409 849 1,199
10th Percentile £400 £375 £407
25th Percentile £468 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -4.00% +3.22%
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 412 107 261
10th Percentile £50.35 £35.82 £46.18
25th Percentile £60.00 £52.50 £54.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.41 £75.00 £77.50
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 38,748 25,020 28,500
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.82% 90.83% 85.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,949 15,925 18,341
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £511 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.74% -2.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £627 £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 2,582 1,471 1,520
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.25 £14.05
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.87 £18.13
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £40.94
% change year-on-year +65.23% -38.57% -3.67%

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 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 25 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 25 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 -2 1,159 £600 -7.69% 1,779
North of England +27 399 £534 +8.40% 424
South East +28 335 £525 +4.90% 373
South West +21 314 £550 +10.00% 406
East of England +22 215 £505 +2.17% 282
North West +10 184 £550 +10.00% 240
Yorkshire +18 153 £500 - 107
Midlands -9 110 £450 -18.18% 190
West Midlands -9 75 £459 -20.17% 107
North East +9 67 £650 +41.30% 79
East Midlands +4 34 £435 -8.42% 82
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 54 (2.10%) Confluence
2 52 (2.02%) Apache Spark
3 41 (1.59%) Apache Airflow
4 33 (1.28%) Apache
5 11 (0.43%) CMS
6 9 (0.35%) 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%) 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
12 2 (0.078%) Palantir Foundry
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 6 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.19%) R3 Corda
4 4 (0.16%) Quorum
4 4 (0.16%) Ripple
5 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payroll
5 3 (0.12%) Orchestrade
5 3 (0.12%) Primavera
5 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.078%) Aladdin
6 2 (0.078%) Endur
6 2 (0.078%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.039%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.039%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.039%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.039%) Shopify
7 1 (0.039%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 644 (25.05%) AWS
2 522 (20.30%) Azure
3 258 (10.04%) GCP
4 216 (8.40%) GitHub
5 128 (4.98%) Serverless
6 109 (4.24%) Azure DevOps
6 109 (4.24%) GitHub Actions
7 94 (3.66%) AWS Lambda
8 64 (2.49%) Amazon S3
9 58 (2.26%) OpenShift
10 57 (2.22%) Anthropic Claude
11 51 (1.98%) Amazon SQS
12 49 (1.91%) Amazon EKS
13 47 (1.83%) Amazon ECS
14 44 (1.71%) GitHub Copilot
14 44 (1.71%) Power Platform
15 38 (1.48%) Snowflake
16 37 (1.44%) Azure AKS
17 34 (1.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 29 (1.13%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.17%) Software-Defined Radio
2 29 (1.13%) Wireless
3 19 (0.74%) Firewall
3 19 (0.74%) Internet
4 17 (0.66%) HTTP
5 16 (0.62%) VPN
6 15 (0.58%) Ethernet
7 13 (0.51%) 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
1 140 (5.45%) PostgreSQL
2 102 (3.97%) Relational Database
3 84 (3.27%) NoSQL
3 84 (3.27%) SQL Server
4 49 (1.91%) Data Warehouse
5 48 (1.87%) MongoDB
6 41 (1.59%) DynamoDB
7 34 (1.32%) MySQL
8 31 (1.21%) Power BI
9 29 (1.13%) Metadata
10 28 (1.09%) Big Data
11 27 (1.05%) Amazon RDS
12 25 (0.97%) Data Lake
12 25 (0.97%) Redis
13 24 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
14 21 (0.82%) Pinecone
15 20 (0.78%) BigQuery
16 19 (0.74%) Weaviate
17 15 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
18 12 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 268 (10.42%) Git
2 161 (6.26%) Jenkins
3 149 (5.80%) GitLab
4 114 (4.43%) JIRA
5 58 (2.26%) SonarQube
6 38 (1.48%) Gradle
6 38 (1.48%) JUnit
7 28 (1.09%) Claude Code
8 26 (1.01%) Rational DOORS
9 24 (0.93%) Selenium
10 22 (0.86%) Rational Rhapsody
11 20 (0.78%) Maven
12 19 (0.74%) Visual Studio
13 17 (0.66%) Cucumber
13 17 (0.66%) Mockito
14 13 (0.51%) Bitbucket
14 13 (0.51%) Cypress.io
14 13 (0.51%) Liquibase
15 12 (0.47%) LabVIEW
15 12 (0.47%) Snyk
General
1 500 (19.45%) Social Skills
2 448 (17.43%) Finance
3 196 (7.62%) Banking
4 184 (7.16%) Public Sector
5 183 (7.12%) Analytical Skills
6 94 (3.66%) Aerospace
7 80 (3.11%) Front Office
8 49 (1.91%) Investment Banking
9 48 (1.87%) Retail
10 47 (1.83%) Manufacturing
11 44 (1.71%) Law
12 35 (1.36%) Automotive
13 27 (1.05%) Telecoms
14 26 (1.01%) Aviation
15 25 (0.97%) Military
16 24 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
17 20 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 20 (0.78%) Marketing
18 18 (0.70%) Electronics
18 18 (0.70%) Legal
Job Titles
1 1,155 (44.92%) Software Engineer
2 473 (18.40%) Developer
3 455 (17.70%) Senior
4 282 (10.97%) Lead
5 192 (7.47%) Senior Software Engineer
6 168 (6.53%) Java Engineer
7 158 (6.15%) Embedded Engineer
8 147 (5.72%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 133 (5.17%) Java Software Engineer
10 127 (4.94%) Java Developer
11 116 (4.51%) Software Developer
12 113 (4.40%) C++ Software Engineer
13 104 (4.05%) Architect
14 103 (4.01%) Python Engineer
15 97 (3.77%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 91 (3.54%) Senior Developer
17 84 (3.27%) Lead Software Engineer
18 83 (3.23%) Data Engineer
19 76 (2.96%) DevOps Engineer
20 75 (2.92%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 268 (10.42%) Terraform
2 253 (9.84%) React
3 214 (8.32%) REST
4 210 (8.17%) Spring
5 209 (8.13%) .NET
6 194 (7.55%) Spring Boot
7 167 (6.50%) Kafka
8 143 (5.56%) Node.js
9 128 (4.98%) RESTful
10 107 (4.16%) AngularJS
11 59 (2.29%) Django
12 52 (2.02%) Next.js
13 49 (1.91%) HTML
14 48 (1.87%) CSS
15 44 (1.71%) GraphQL
16 43 (1.67%) LangChain
17 40 (1.56%) JSON
18 39 (1.52%) Quarkus
19 38 (1.48%) FastAPI
20 37 (1.44%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 372 (14.47%) Cloud Native
2 228 (8.87%) Distributed Systems
3 131 (5.10%) Product Ownership
4 95 (3.70%) AI Agents
5 84 (3.27%) Algorithms
6 58 (2.26%) Enterprise Software
7 53 (2.06%) Data Structures
8 50 (1.94%) Embedded Systems
9 48 (1.87%) Onboarding
10 42 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
11 40 (1.56%) Fixed Income
12 34 (1.32%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 34 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
13 30 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
14 27 (1.05%) Derivative
14 27 (1.05%) Robotics
15 24 (0.93%) Equities
15 24 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
16 18 (0.70%) NHS
16 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 178 (6.92%) Linux
2 49 (1.91%) Windows
3 27 (1.05%) Unix
4 24 (0.93%) Embedded Linux
5 21 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.54%) FreeRTOS
7 13 (0.51%) Android
8 8 (0.31%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.27%) Windows Server
10 6 (0.23%) Apple iOS
10 6 (0.23%) Debian
11 3 (0.12%) Rocky
11 3 (0.12%) VMS
12 2 (0.078%) VxWorks
12 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.039%) Solaris
13 1 (0.039%) Tizen
13 1 (0.039%) webOS
13 1 (0.039%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 868 (33.76%) CI/CD
2 777 (30.22%) Agile
3 608 (23.65%) DevOps
4 500 (19.45%) AI
5 399 (15.52%) Microservices
6 353 (13.73%) Test Automation
7 306 (11.90%) Problem-Solving
8 293 (11.40%) Continuous Improvement
9 288 (11.20%) Infrastructure as Code
10 260 (10.11%) Containerisation
11 255 (9.92%) Full-Stack Development
12 243 (9.45%) SDLC
13 241 (9.37%) Observability
14 215 (8.36%) Machine Learning
15 206 (8.01%) Platform Engineering
16 203 (7.90%) Technical Leadership
17 199 (7.74%) Mentoring
18 195 (7.58%) Event-Driven
19 194 (7.55%) Scrum
20 188 (7.31%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 739 (28.74%) Python
2 650 (25.28%) Java
3 364 (14.16%) SQL
4 290 (11.28%) C#
5 281 (10.93%) TypeScript
6 221 (8.60%) C++
7 208 (8.09%) JavaScript
8 116 (4.51%) C
9 97 (3.77%) Ada
10 89 (3.46%) Go
11 63 (2.45%) Kotlin
12 44 (1.71%) PowerShell
13 40 (1.56%) Rust
14 39 (1.52%) Bash
15 37 (1.44%) Scala
16 23 (0.89%) Embedded C
17 22 (0.86%) PL/SQL
18 20 (0.78%) Ruby
19 19 (0.74%) Bicep
20 17 (0.66%) PHP
Qualifications
1 592 (23.03%) Security Cleared
2 497 (19.33%) SC Cleared
3 207 (8.05%) Degree
4 95 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
5 80 (3.11%) DV Cleared
6 53 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
7 46 (1.79%) 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 (6.18%) QA
2 61 (2.37%) Data Quality
3 47 (1.83%) Accessibility
4 24 (0.93%) 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%) PCI DSS
14 5 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.12%) DO-254
15 3 (0.12%) MiFID
System Software
1 382 (14.86%) Docker
2 30 (1.17%) Firmware
3 19 (0.74%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (0.39%) Active Directory
5 9 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.039%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 432 (16.80%) Kubernetes
2 82 (3.19%) Ansible
3 52 (2.02%) Grafana
4 41 (1.59%) Argo
5 38 (1.48%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.43%) Kibana
8 7 (0.27%) Puppet
9 6 (0.23%) Functional Safety
9 6 (0.23%) Kubeflow
10 4 (0.16%) Consul
10 4 (0.16%) HAProxy
11 3 (0.12%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.12%) Istio
11 3 (0.12%) Kustomize
11 3 (0.12%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.078%) Cilium
12 2 (0.078%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.078%) Packer
12 2 (0.078%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 131 (5.10%) Microsoft
2 90 (3.50%) Google
3 75 (2.92%) Oracle
4 66 (2.57%) Databricks
5 52 (2.02%) OpenAI
6 43 (1.67%) Red Hat
7 25 (0.97%) Salesforce
8 20 (0.78%) Splunk
9 19 (0.74%) ServiceNow
10 17 (0.66%) IBM
10 17 (0.66%) Informatica
11 12 (0.47%) Adobe
11 12 (0.47%) SAP
12 11 (0.43%) Checkmarx
12 11 (0.43%) Foundry
13 10 (0.39%) ForgeRock
13 10 (0.39%) Okta
14 9 (0.35%) Dynatrace
15 8 (0.31%) Confluent
16 7 (0.27%) Solace