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

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 42 33
Rank change year-on-year +2 -9 +7
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,983 1,218 1,975
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.07% 5.00% 5.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.92% 5.50% 6.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,040 815 1,161
10th Percentile £400 £406 £425
25th Percentile £450 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £669 £756 £750
90th Percentile £788 £838 £838
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 431 77 320
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.80 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £53.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -2.45%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.46 £68.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -0.29%

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 33,512 22,139 32,406
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.65% 90.95% 86.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,469 14,586 21,356
10th Percentile £313 £313 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £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 2,076 869 2,188
10th Percentile £15.44 £14.84 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.87 £15.85
Median hourly rate £40.52 £32.05 £33.78
Median % change year-on-year +26.43% -5.11% -9.93%
75th Percentile £66.00 £64.52 £58.69
90th Percentile £78.50 £76.25 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £36.71 £31.04 £33.07
% change year-on-year +18.27% -6.12% -8.15%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -11 837 £600 -11.11% 539
North of England +15 281 £500 -0.30% 264
South West +15 279 £570 -0.87% 216
South East +5 218 £525 +3.65% 355
East of England +34 210 £475 -2.66% 135
North West +3 134 £500 -5.66% 145
Yorkshire +2 104 £519 +3.75% 87
Midlands -31 96 £498 +2.90% 126
West Midlands -24 84 £492 -1.64% 74
North East +22 48 £478 +3.80% 33
East Midlands -40 12 £513 +6.22% 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 52 (2.62%) Confluence
2 43 (2.17%) Apache
2 43 (2.17%) Apache Spark
3 17 (0.86%) Apache Airflow
4 10 (0.50%) CMS
5 9 (0.45%) WebLogic
6 6 (0.30%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.25%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.20%) IIS
8 4 (0.20%) JBoss
8 4 (0.20%) nginx
9 3 (0.15%) Camunda
9 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.15%) SAS
10 2 (0.10%) Magnolia
10 2 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.10%) Sitecore CMS
10 2 (0.10%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.10%) WinCC
10 2 (0.10%) WordPress
Applications
1 10 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.20%) Simulink
5 3 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.10%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.050%) Maya
7 1 (0.050%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.050%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.050%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.10%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.10%) LabWindows
3 2 (0.10%) Primavera
4 1 (0.050%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.050%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.050%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.050%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 545 (27.48%) AWS
2 364 (18.36%) Azure
3 177 (8.93%) GCP
4 134 (6.76%) GitHub
5 114 (5.75%) Serverless
6 70 (3.53%) Azure DevOps
7 60 (3.03%) AWS Lambda
8 55 (2.77%) Amazon S3
9 54 (2.72%) GitHub Actions
10 48 (2.42%) OpenShift
10 48 (2.42%) Power Platform
11 41 (2.07%) AWS CloudFormation
12 36 (1.82%) Amazon EKS
12 36 (1.82%) Azure AKS
13 32 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
14 30 (1.51%) SaaS
15 28 (1.41%) Amazon EC2
16 27 (1.36%) Amazon SQS
16 27 (1.36%) Azure Functions
17 20 (1.01%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 25 (1.26%) Ethernet
2 16 (0.81%) Software-Defined Radio
3 14 (0.71%) Network Security
4 13 (0.66%) TCP/IP
5 11 (0.55%) Firewall
6 8 (0.40%) Wireless
7 7 (0.35%) 3GPP
7 7 (0.35%) HTTP
8 5 (0.25%) Modbus
9 4 (0.20%) BGP
9 4 (0.20%) RS-232
9 4 (0.20%) RS-485
9 4 (0.20%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.20%) VLAN
9 4 (0.20%) VPN
10 3 (0.15%) Bluetooth
10 3 (0.15%) IPv4
10 3 (0.15%) IPv6
10 3 (0.15%) RS-422
10 3 (0.15%) RTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 120 (6.05%) PostgreSQL
2 68 (3.43%) Relational Database
3 61 (3.08%) Apache Cassandra
4 59 (2.98%) SQL Server
5 57 (2.87%) NoSQL
6 50 (2.52%) MongoDB
7 35 (1.77%) Power BI
8 31 (1.56%) Data Lake
9 29 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
9 29 (1.46%) MySQL
10 27 (1.36%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.26%) Metadata
12 24 (1.21%) Big Data
13 23 (1.16%) DynamoDB
14 19 (0.96%) Data Warehouse
15 15 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
15 15 (0.76%) Mixpanel
16 14 (0.71%) Amazon Athena
17 13 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
17 13 (0.66%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 202 (10.19%) Git
2 121 (6.10%) Jenkins
3 106 (5.35%) JIRA
4 102 (5.14%) GitLab
5 38 (1.92%) Rational DOORS
5 38 (1.92%) SonarQube
6 35 (1.77%) Rational Rhapsody
7 34 (1.71%) JUnit
8 27 (1.36%) IntelliJ
9 26 (1.31%) Gradle
10 24 (1.21%) Selenium
11 23 (1.16%) Cucumber
12 22 (1.11%) Bitbucket
13 20 (1.01%) Cypress.io
14 17 (0.86%) Eclipse
14 17 (0.86%) Maven
14 17 (0.86%) Visual Studio
15 15 (0.76%) Mockito
16 11 (0.55%) Liquibase
17 9 (0.45%) Artifactory
General
1 307 (15.48%) Finance
2 295 (14.88%) Social Skills
3 126 (6.35%) Public Sector
4 110 (5.55%) Banking
5 107 (5.40%) Analytical Skills
6 80 (4.03%) Aerospace
7 64 (3.23%) Front Office
8 41 (2.07%) Electronics
9 36 (1.82%) Law
10 31 (1.56%) Retail
11 30 (1.51%) Manufacturing
12 28 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
12 28 (1.41%) Military
13 26 (1.31%) Investment Banking
14 23 (1.16%) Telecoms
15 21 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
16 17 (0.86%) Financial Institution
17 13 (0.66%) Documentation Skills
17 13 (0.66%) Legal
18 12 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 1,071 (54.01%) Software Engineer
2 360 (18.15%) Senior
3 352 (17.75%) Developer
4 169 (8.52%) Senior Software Engineer
5 146 (7.36%) Lead
6 138 (6.96%) Embedded Engineer
7 135 (6.81%) Java Engineer
8 127 (6.40%) C++ Software Engineer
9 126 (6.35%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 106 (5.35%) Java Software Engineer
11 85 (4.29%) Java Developer
12 81 (4.08%) Architect
13 71 (3.58%) Senior Developer
14 67 (3.38%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 62 (3.13%) Python Engineer
16 61 (3.08%) Python Developer
17 58 (2.92%) Lead Software Engineer
17 58 (2.92%) Software Developer
18 56 (2.82%) Data Engineer
19 53 (2.67%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 230 (11.60%) React
2 199 (10.04%) Kafka
3 167 (8.42%) Node.js
4 148 (7.46%) .NET
5 141 (7.11%) REST
6 135 (6.81%) Spring
7 119 (6.00%) Spring Boot
8 102 (5.14%) AngularJS
9 92 (4.64%) RESTful
10 72 (3.63%) GraphQL
11 62 (3.13%) gRPC
12 57 (2.87%) Middleware
13 52 (2.62%) Redux
14 46 (2.32%) HTML
15 45 (2.27%) CSS
16 44 (2.22%) JSON
17 38 (1.92%) Playwright
18 37 (1.87%) Web Services
19 34 (1.71%) Vue
20 31 (1.56%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 212 (10.69%) Cloud Native
2 145 (7.31%) Distributed Systems
3 94 (4.74%) Product Ownership
4 79 (3.98%) Algorithms
5 59 (2.98%) Fixed Income
6 34 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
7 33 (1.66%) AI Agents
8 29 (1.46%) Mobile App
9 28 (1.41%) Derivative
9 28 (1.41%) Onboarding
10 27 (1.36%) Data Structures
10 27 (1.36%) Embedded Systems
10 27 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
11 24 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
12 22 (1.11%) Equities
12 22 (1.11%) Robotics
13 21 (1.06%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 15 (0.76%) Hedge funds
15 14 (0.71%) Management Information System
15 14 (0.71%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 197 (9.93%) Linux
2 73 (3.68%) Windows
3 45 (2.27%) Unix
4 26 (1.31%) Android
5 25 (1.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (0.96%) Apple iOS
7 15 (0.76%) Windows Server
8 10 (0.50%) FreeRTOS
9 9 (0.45%) Embedded Linux
9 9 (0.45%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.25%) Debian
11 4 (0.20%) VMS
12 3 (0.15%) Rocky
13 2 (0.10%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.10%) Solaris
13 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.050%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 574 (28.95%) CI/CD
2 570 (28.74%) Agile
3 394 (19.87%) DevOps
4 324 (16.34%) Microservices
5 269 (13.57%) AI
6 239 (12.05%) Problem-Solving
7 211 (10.64%) Containerisation
8 204 (10.29%) Full-Stack Development
9 200 (10.09%) Test Automation
10 197 (9.93%) Infrastructure as Code
11 162 (8.17%) Machine Learning
12 157 (7.92%) Computer Science
13 156 (7.87%) Continuous Improvement
14 153 (7.72%) Mentoring
15 151 (7.61%) Observability
16 137 (6.91%) SDLC
17 133 (6.71%) TDD
18 132 (6.66%) Scrum
19 129 (6.51%) Technical Leadership
20 120 (6.05%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 529 (26.68%) Python
2 484 (24.41%) Java
3 257 (12.96%) SQL
4 250 (12.61%) C#
5 241 (12.15%) C++
6 235 (11.85%) TypeScript
7 213 (10.74%) JavaScript
8 156 (7.87%) Go
9 132 (6.66%) Ada
10 118 (5.95%) C
11 39 (1.97%) PowerShell
12 35 (1.77%) Kotlin
13 33 (1.66%) Bash
14 31 (1.56%) Embedded C
15 28 (1.41%) Rust
16 27 (1.36%) Ruby
17 26 (1.31%) MATLAB
18 22 (1.11%) Shell Script
19 19 (0.96%) Embedded C++
20 17 (0.86%) Scala
Qualifications
1 481 (24.26%) Security Cleared
2 372 (18.76%) SC Cleared
3 179 (9.03%) Degree
4 86 (4.34%) Computer Science Degree
5 62 (3.13%) DV Cleared
6 44 (2.22%) Master's Degree
7 28 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
8 21 (1.06%) AWS Certification
9 15 (0.76%) PhD
10 14 (0.71%) CISSP
11 13 (0.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 13 (0.66%) Azure Certification
12 11 (0.55%) CISM
13 9 (0.45%) TOGAF Certification
14 8 (0.40%) ISTQB
15 7 (0.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 4 (0.20%) HND
16 4 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
17 3 (0.15%) HNC
17 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (5.55%) QA
2 55 (2.77%) Def Stans
3 42 (2.12%) Data Quality
4 40 (2.02%) IEC 61508
5 27 (1.36%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.26%) GDPR
6 25 (1.26%) MISRA
7 19 (0.96%) MISRA C
8 11 (0.55%) WCAG
9 10 (0.50%) NIST
10 7 (0.35%) DO-178B
10 7 (0.35%) HL7
10 7 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 6 (0.30%) NCSC
12 2 (0.10%) EU AI Act
12 2 (0.10%) FATCA
12 2 (0.10%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.10%) PMO
12 2 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.10%) SLA
System Software
1 314 (15.83%) Docker
2 17 (0.86%) Firmware
3 16 (0.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.40%) Active Directory
6 5 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.15%) HDFS
9 2 (0.10%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 345 (17.40%) Kubernetes
2 213 (10.74%) Terraform
3 81 (4.08%) Grafana
4 54 (2.72%) Ansible
5 46 (2.32%) Prometheus
6 30 (1.51%) Argo
7 17 (0.86%) Puppet
8 12 (0.61%) Progress Chef
9 7 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (0.30%) Istio
11 5 (0.25%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.20%) Data Guard
12 4 (0.20%) Docker Swarm
12 4 (0.20%) HAProxy
12 4 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
13 3 (0.15%) Kibana
13 3 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 2 (0.10%) HP ALM
14 2 (0.10%) Podman
15 1 (0.050%) Consul
Vendors
1 140 (7.06%) Microsoft
2 76 (3.83%) Google
3 60 (3.03%) Oracle
4 59 (2.98%) Red Hat
5 49 (2.47%) Databricks
6 23 (1.16%) IBM
7 19 (0.96%) OpenAI
8 17 (0.86%) Foundry
8 17 (0.86%) Splunk
8 17 (0.86%) VMware
9 14 (0.71%) ServiceNow
10 11 (0.55%) Siemens
11 10 (0.50%) Atlassian
11 10 (0.50%) BiZZdesign
11 10 (0.50%) PagerDuty
12 9 (0.45%) MathWorks
12 9 (0.45%) SAP
12 9 (0.45%) Software AG
13 8 (0.40%) ANSYS
13 8 (0.40%) Spotify