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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 44 30
Rank change year-on-year +13 -14 +11
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,468 1,326 2,061
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.50% 4.87% 5.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.45% 5.37% 6.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,358 859 1,309
10th Percentile £400 £385 £405
25th Percentile £465 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £615
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £688 £775 £788
90th Percentile £788 £850 £888
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 418 79 330
10th Percentile £52.20 £38.40 £48.00
25th Percentile £60.63 £55.29 £55.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £78.00 £75.25
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 38,258 24,707 30,336
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.32% 90.66% 85.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,997 15,833 19,804
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £421 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £645
90th Percentile £735 £745 £751
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,373 1,323 1,986
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.22 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.88 £17.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +88.87% -37.13% -6.43%
75th Percentile £69.50 £53.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £83.00 £71.03 £74.22
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -3 1,080 £600 -7.69% 1,355
North of England +28 392 £538 +9.25% 353
South West +23 316 £550 +10.00% 201
South East +23 312 £525 +3.65% 358
East of England +26 221 £505 +3.48% 155
North West +5 187 £550 +10.00% 207
Yorkshire +12 142 £525 +7.14% 92
Midlands -11 104 £463 -5.61% 149
West Midlands -17 80 £459 -17.67% 75
North East +11 68 £650 +41.30% 57
East Midlands -8 23 £513 +7.89% 74
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 57 (2.31%) Confluence
2 45 (1.82%) Apache Spark
3 31 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
4 30 (1.22%) Apache
5 10 (0.41%) CMS
5 10 (0.41%) SAS
6 7 (0.28%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.20%) Ethereum
7 5 (0.20%) Hyperledger
7 5 (0.20%) nginx
8 4 (0.16%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.12%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.12%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.081%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.081%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.081%) IIS
10 2 (0.081%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.081%) WordPress
Applications
1 15 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 8 (0.32%) Chatbot
4 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Excel
5 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 5 (0.20%) CPLEX
7 4 (0.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.16%) Simulink
8 3 (0.12%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.081%) CATIA
9 2 (0.081%) Trello
10 1 (0.041%) Adobe After Effects
10 1 (0.041%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.041%) Blender
10 1 (0.041%) Maya
10 1 (0.041%) Notion
10 1 (0.041%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 7 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
3 5 (0.20%) R3 Corda
4 4 (0.16%) Quorum
4 4 (0.16%) Ripple
5 3 (0.12%) Orchestrade
5 3 (0.12%) Primavera
5 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.081%) Aladdin
6 2 (0.081%) Endur
6 2 (0.081%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.041%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.041%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 617 (25.00%) AWS
2 476 (19.29%) Azure
3 246 (9.97%) GCP
4 190 (7.70%) GitHub
5 120 (4.86%) Serverless
6 96 (3.89%) Azure DevOps
7 93 (3.77%) GitHub Actions
8 80 (3.24%) AWS Lambda
9 62 (2.51%) Amazon S3
10 54 (2.19%) OpenShift
11 47 (1.90%) Power Platform
12 45 (1.82%) Anthropic Claude
13 43 (1.74%) Amazon SQS
14 40 (1.62%) Amazon EKS
15 39 (1.58%) Amazon ECS
16 38 (1.54%) Azure AKS
17 30 (1.22%) Amazon EC2
17 30 (1.22%) GitHub Copilot
18 28 (1.13%) AWS CloudFormation
18 28 (1.13%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 25 (1.01%) Software-Defined Radio
2 24 (0.97%) Wireless
3 23 (0.93%) Ethernet
4 18 (0.73%) Firewall
4 18 (0.73%) TCP/IP
5 16 (0.65%) Internet
6 15 (0.61%) HTTP
7 13 (0.53%) VPN
8 12 (0.49%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (0.36%) 3GPP
9 9 (0.36%) Network Security
10 8 (0.32%) RTP
11 7 (0.28%) Wireshark
12 6 (0.24%) RS-232
13 5 (0.20%) DNS
13 5 (0.20%) RS-485
14 4 (0.16%) RS-422
15 3 (0.12%) HTTPS
15 3 (0.12%) IPv4
15 3 (0.12%) IPv6
Database & Business Intelligence
1 153 (6.20%) PostgreSQL
2 92 (3.73%) Relational Database
3 75 (3.04%) SQL Server
4 72 (2.92%) NoSQL
5 52 (2.11%) MongoDB
6 36 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
7 33 (1.34%) DynamoDB
8 29 (1.18%) MySQL
8 29 (1.18%) Power BI
9 28 (1.13%) Big Data
10 23 (0.93%) BigQuery
11 22 (0.89%) Amazon RDS
11 22 (0.89%) Redis
12 21 (0.85%) Data Lake
12 21 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
12 21 (0.85%) Metadata
13 18 (0.73%) Apache Cassandra
14 17 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
14 17 (0.69%) Pinecone
15 15 (0.61%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 245 (9.93%) Git
2 149 (6.04%) Jenkins
3 129 (5.23%) GitLab
4 110 (4.46%) JIRA
5 57 (2.31%) SonarQube
6 34 (1.38%) Gradle
7 31 (1.26%) JUnit
8 26 (1.05%) Rational DOORS
9 24 (0.97%) Visual Studio
10 23 (0.93%) Rational Rhapsody
11 20 (0.81%) Claude Code
11 20 (0.81%) Selenium
12 19 (0.77%) Cucumber
13 18 (0.73%) Bitbucket
14 16 (0.65%) Liquibase
14 16 (0.65%) Maven
15 14 (0.57%) Mockito
16 12 (0.49%) Cypress.io
16 12 (0.49%) IntelliJ
16 12 (0.49%) Mocha
General
1 443 (17.95%) Finance
2 435 (17.63%) Social Skills
3 171 (6.93%) Banking
4 165 (6.69%) Analytical Skills
5 161 (6.52%) Public Sector
6 107 (4.34%) Aerospace
7 92 (3.73%) Front Office
8 57 (2.31%) Retail
9 45 (1.82%) Manufacturing
10 43 (1.74%) Law
11 42 (1.70%) Investment Banking
12 32 (1.30%) Telecoms
13 29 (1.18%) Automotive
14 28 (1.13%) Military
15 25 (1.01%) Aviation
15 25 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
16 21 (0.85%) Electronics
17 17 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 16 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
18 16 (0.65%) Legal
Job Titles
1 1,193 (48.34%) Software Engineer
2 467 (18.92%) Developer
3 421 (17.06%) Senior
4 266 (10.78%) Lead
5 175 (7.09%) Senior Software Engineer
6 164 (6.65%) Java Engineer
7 146 (5.92%) Embedded Engineer
8 136 (5.51%) Java Software Engineer
9 135 (5.47%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 130 (5.27%) Java Developer
11 123 (4.98%) C++ Software Engineer
12 103 (4.17%) Lead Software Engineer
13 100 (4.05%) Architect
14 97 (3.93%) Python Engineer
15 96 (3.89%) Software Developer
16 84 (3.40%) Senior Developer
17 78 (3.16%) Python Developer
18 75 (3.04%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 75 (3.04%) DevOps Engineer
19 74 (3.00%) Developer/Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 280 (11.35%) React
2 191 (7.74%) .NET
3 182 (7.37%) Node.js
4 180 (7.29%) Spring
5 179 (7.25%) Kafka
6 177 (7.17%) REST
7 162 (6.56%) Spring Boot
8 112 (4.54%) RESTful
9 108 (4.38%) AngularJS
10 76 (3.08%) GraphQL
11 59 (2.39%) Redux
12 47 (1.90%) CSS
12 47 (1.90%) Next.js
13 46 (1.86%) HTML
14 44 (1.78%) Django
15 41 (1.66%) JSON
16 37 (1.50%) Quarkus
17 35 (1.42%) OAuth
17 35 (1.42%) Web Services
18 34 (1.38%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 301 (12.20%) Cloud Native
2 200 (8.10%) Distributed Systems
3 132 (5.35%) Product Ownership
4 81 (3.28%) Algorithms
5 74 (3.00%) Fixed Income
6 68 (2.76%) AI Agents
7 45 (1.82%) Data Structures
8 43 (1.74%) Embedded Systems
8 43 (1.74%) Onboarding
9 42 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
10 34 (1.38%) Derivative
10 34 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
11 33 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
12 32 (1.30%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 32 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
13 28 (1.13%) Equities
14 22 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
15 21 (0.85%) Robotics
16 16 (0.65%) Virtual Team
17 15 (0.61%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 184 (7.46%) Linux
2 57 (2.31%) Windows
3 35 (1.42%) Unix
4 29 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 19 (0.77%) Embedded Linux
6 14 (0.57%) Android
6 14 (0.57%) Apple iOS
7 11 (0.45%) FreeRTOS
8 10 (0.41%) Windows Server
9 8 (0.32%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.16%) Debian
10 4 (0.16%) VMS
10 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.12%) Rocky
11 3 (0.12%) Solaris
11 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.081%) VxWorks
13 1 (0.041%) Tizen
13 1 (0.041%) webOS
13 1 (0.041%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 775 (31.40%) CI/CD
2 768 (31.12%) Agile
3 549 (22.24%) DevOps
4 421 (17.06%) AI
5 362 (14.67%) Microservices
6 321 (13.01%) Test Automation
7 281 (11.39%) Problem-Solving
8 268 (10.86%) Full-Stack Development
9 249 (10.09%) Continuous Improvement
10 245 (9.93%) Infrastructure as Code
11 234 (9.48%) Containerisation
12 208 (8.43%) Machine Learning
13 205 (8.31%) Observability
14 200 (8.10%) Mentoring
15 197 (7.98%) SDLC
15 197 (7.98%) TDD
16 184 (7.46%) Scrum
17 175 (7.09%) Technical Leadership
18 174 (7.05%) Platform Engineering
19 168 (6.81%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 691 (28.00%) Python
2 628 (25.45%) Java
3 317 (12.84%) SQL
4 311 (12.60%) TypeScript
5 289 (11.71%) C#
6 238 (9.64%) JavaScript
7 225 (9.12%) C++
8 125 (5.06%) Go
9 121 (4.90%) Ada
10 114 (4.62%) C
11 50 (2.03%) Kotlin
12 41 (1.66%) Rust
13 33 (1.34%) PowerShell
14 32 (1.30%) Bash
15 31 (1.26%) Scala
16 24 (0.97%) PL/SQL
17 19 (0.77%) Embedded C
18 18 (0.73%) Ruby
19 17 (0.69%) MATLAB
19 17 (0.69%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 585 (23.70%) Security Cleared
2 485 (19.65%) SC Cleared
3 189 (7.66%) Degree
4 81 (3.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 73 (2.96%) DV Cleared
6 54 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
7 35 (1.42%) Master's Degree
8 34 (1.38%) AWS Certification
9 20 (0.81%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 15 (0.61%) Azure Certification
10 15 (0.61%) PhD
11 9 (0.36%) CISSP
12 6 (0.24%) Chartered Engineer
12 6 (0.24%) ISTQB
12 6 (0.24%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 6 (0.24%) PMP
13 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 5 (0.20%) TOGAF Certification
14 4 (0.16%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 4 (0.16%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 148 (6.00%) QA
2 51 (2.07%) Data Quality
3 46 (1.86%) Accessibility
4 31 (1.26%) Def Stans
5 21 (0.85%) GDPR
6 17 (0.69%) IEC 61508
7 15 (0.61%) MISRA
8 14 (0.57%) NIST
9 11 (0.45%) WCAG
10 10 (0.41%) DO-178B
10 10 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 8 (0.32%) NCSC
12 6 (0.24%) GRC
12 6 (0.24%) MISRA C
12 6 (0.24%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.20%) JSP 440
13 5 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.12%) DO-254
14 3 (0.12%) FATCA
15 2 (0.081%) EMIR
System Software
1 347 (14.06%) Docker
2 22 (0.89%) Firmware
3 11 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (0.41%) Active Directory
5 7 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.24%) VMware Infrastructure
7 3 (0.12%) HDFS
8 2 (0.081%) SRDF
9 1 (0.041%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 397 (16.09%) Kubernetes
2 241 (9.76%) Terraform
3 69 (2.80%) Ansible
4 59 (2.39%) Grafana
5 39 (1.58%) Argo
5 39 (1.58%) Prometheus
6 11 (0.45%) Kibana
6 11 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (0.28%) Puppet
8 6 (0.24%) Kubeflow
9 5 (0.20%) HAProxy
9 5 (0.20%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.12%) Consul
10 3 (0.12%) Functional Safety
11 2 (0.081%) Cilium
11 2 (0.081%) Docker Swarm
11 2 (0.081%) HP Fortify
11 2 (0.081%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.081%) Istio
12 1 (0.041%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 126 (5.11%) Microsoft
2 84 (3.40%) Google
3 74 (3.00%) Oracle
4 50 (2.03%) Red Hat
5 42 (1.70%) Databricks
6 37 (1.50%) OpenAI
7 19 (0.77%) Informatica
7 19 (0.77%) Splunk
8 18 (0.73%) IBM
9 17 (0.69%) ServiceNow
10 16 (0.65%) Salesforce
11 15 (0.61%) Foundry
12 12 (0.49%) Adobe
12 12 (0.49%) Siemens
13 11 (0.45%) SAP
14 10 (0.41%) Checkmarx
14 10 (0.41%) ForgeRock
14 10 (0.41%) Okta
15 8 (0.32%) Confluent
15 8 (0.32%) Dynatrace