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 2 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 42 35 44
Rank change year-on-year -7 +9 -8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,546 1,619 1,728
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.04% 5.34% 4.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.63% 6.08% 5.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 881 989 1,149
10th Percentile £375 £400 £425
25th Percentile £463 £498 £503
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £611
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -1.80% +1.83%
75th Percentile £688 £788 £738
90th Percentile £825 £869 £810
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 137 221
10th Percentile £46.25 £43.89 £46.18
25th Percentile £55.00 £54.63 £52.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.25 £70.00 £69.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process and 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 27,450 26,620 34,219
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.50% 87.73% 88.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,481 16,323 23,332
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,780 955 1,444
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.22 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.24 £19.11
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.14%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.95 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £43.50
% change year-on-year -23.79% -24.14% +24.29%

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 2 December 2025.

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 2 December 2025.

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 2 December 2025. 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 -6 819 £625 -7.41% 489
North of England -7 217 £525 - 355
East of England +8 135 £525 +15.64% 272
South West -14 125 £450 -25.00% 249
Yorkshire -5 116 £520 -5.45% 115
South East -26 102 £475 -5.00% 629
North West -15 81 £550 +15.79% 205
Midlands -32 77 £525 +10.06% 182
West Midlands -14 62 £525 +10.06% 104
North East +2 23 £488 -18.41% 38
East Midlands -32 15 £450 -8.16% 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 70 (4.53%) Apache
2 65 (4.20%) Apache Airflow
3 53 (3.43%) Confluence
4 33 (2.13%) Apache Spark
5 13 (0.84%) JBoss
6 11 (0.71%) CMS
6 11 (0.71%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.39%) OpenStack
8 4 (0.26%) SAS
8 4 (0.26%) WordPress
9 3 (0.19%) Appian
9 3 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
10 2 (0.13%) IIS
10 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
10 2 (0.13%) nginx
10 2 (0.13%) SharePoint
10 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.065%) CICS
11 1 (0.065%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.065%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 17 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.71%) Chatbot
3 10 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.65%) Simulink
4 3 (0.19%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.065%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.065%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 8 (0.52%) Aladdin
1 8 (0.52%) Temenos T24
2 3 (0.19%) Fidessa
2 3 (0.19%) thinkFolio
3 2 (0.13%) FLEXCUBE
3 2 (0.13%) Oracle BPM
3 2 (0.13%) Primavera
4 1 (0.065%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.065%) ION Anvil
4 1 (0.065%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.065%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 530 (34.28%) AWS
2 267 (17.27%) Azure
3 168 (10.87%) GCP
4 163 (10.54%) Serverless
5 132 (8.54%) GitHub
6 79 (5.11%) GitHub Actions
7 70 (4.53%) AWS Lambda
8 69 (4.46%) Azure DevOps
9 55 (3.56%) Amazon S3
9 55 (3.56%) dbt
10 54 (3.49%) Snowflake
11 46 (2.98%) Power Platform
12 44 (2.85%) Amazon ECS
13 37 (2.39%) Azure AKS
14 33 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
15 32 (2.07%) Amazon EKS
16 30 (1.94%) Azure Functions
17 28 (1.81%) OpenShift
18 27 (1.75%) Amazon EC2
19 24 (1.55%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.88%) Ethernet
2 21 (1.36%) TCP/IP
3 10 (0.65%) Firewall
3 10 (0.65%) Network Security
4 8 (0.52%) Internet
5 7 (0.45%) NFC
5 7 (0.45%) PPP
6 6 (0.39%) Wireless
7 4 (0.26%) HTTP
7 4 (0.26%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.26%) tcpdump
7 4 (0.26%) VPN
8 3 (0.19%) BGP
8 3 (0.19%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.19%) VLAN
9 2 (0.13%) DNS
9 2 (0.13%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.13%) SSH
9 2 (0.13%) SSL
9 2 (0.13%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (7.44%) PostgreSQL
2 89 (5.76%) NoSQL
3 69 (4.46%) Apache Cassandra
3 69 (4.46%) MongoDB
4 52 (3.36%) Data Lake
5 51 (3.30%) Amazon Athena
6 48 (3.10%) SQL Server
7 45 (2.91%) Apache Arrow
7 45 (2.91%) Apache Iceberg
7 45 (2.91%) Dremio
8 38 (2.46%) Big Data
9 37 (2.39%) Relational Database
10 34 (2.20%) Power BI
11 31 (2.01%) Hadoop
12 30 (1.94%) Apache Ignite
13 29 (1.88%) MySQL
14 28 (1.81%) Amazon RDS
15 25 (1.62%) Elasticsearch
16 22 (1.42%) DynamoDB
17 21 (1.36%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 178 (11.51%) Git
2 143 (9.25%) Jenkins
3 103 (6.66%) JIRA
4 102 (6.60%) GitLab
5 36 (2.33%) JUnit
5 36 (2.33%) Selenium
6 35 (2.26%) Eclipse
7 34 (2.20%) Liquibase
8 29 (1.88%) Cypress.io
9 27 (1.75%) Cucumber
10 26 (1.68%) SonarQube
11 25 (1.62%) Visual Studio
12 22 (1.42%) Gradle
13 20 (1.29%) Rational DOORS
14 19 (1.23%) Mockito
15 17 (1.10%) Maven
16 15 (0.97%) Artifactory
17 14 (0.91%) Bitbucket
18 12 (0.78%) Postman
19 11 (0.71%) CircleCI
General
1 342 (22.12%) Finance
2 341 (22.06%) Social Skills
3 155 (10.03%) Banking
4 112 (7.24%) Public Sector
5 98 (6.34%) Front Office
6 87 (5.63%) Analytical Skills
7 79 (5.11%) Investment Banking
8 39 (2.52%) Financial Institution
9 38 (2.46%) Military
10 31 (2.01%) Aerospace
11 25 (1.62%) Electronics
11 25 (1.62%) Law
12 23 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
14 18 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
15 16 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 15 (0.97%) Documentation Skills
17 12 (0.78%) Manufacturing
17 12 (0.78%) Telecoms
18 11 (0.71%) Retail
Job Titles
1 713 (46.12%) Software Engineer
2 337 (21.80%) Developer
3 307 (19.86%) Senior
4 151 (9.77%) Senior Software Engineer
5 122 (7.89%) Lead
6 112 (7.24%) Python Engineer
7 109 (7.05%) C++ Software Engineer
8 89 (5.76%) AWS Engineer
9 83 (5.37%) Java Engineer
10 76 (4.92%) AWS Software Engineer
10 76 (4.92%) Java Software Engineer
10 76 (4.92%) Python Software Engineer
11 69 (4.46%) Java Developer
12 68 (4.40%) Python Developer
13 65 (4.20%) Senior Developer
14 51 (3.30%) Embedded Engineer
15 50 (3.23%) Architect
15 50 (3.23%) Data Engineer
16 49 (3.17%) Developer/Software Engineer
16 49 (3.17%) Embedded Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 232 (15.01%) Kafka
2 220 (14.23%) React
3 176 (11.38%) Node.js
4 144 (9.31%) .NET
5 132 (8.54%) REST
6 112 (7.24%) RESTful
7 107 (6.92%) gRPC
8 95 (6.14%) AngularJS
9 84 (5.43%) Spring
10 79 (5.11%) Pandas
11 78 (5.05%) NumPy
12 67 (4.33%) Spring Boot
13 64 (4.14%) SciPy
14 55 (3.56%) HTML
15 53 (3.43%) FastAPI
15 53 (3.43%) Vue
16 51 (3.30%) JSON
17 45 (2.91%) GraphQL
18 43 (2.78%) CSS
19 41 (2.65%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 179 (11.58%) Cloud Native
2 134 (8.67%) Distributed Systems
3 91 (5.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 84 (5.43%) Fixed Income
5 62 (4.01%) Hedge funds
6 56 (3.62%) Algorithms
7 55 (3.56%) Equities
8 51 (3.30%) Product Ownership
9 43 (2.78%) Data Structures
10 42 (2.72%) Derivative
11 36 (2.33%) Public Cloud
12 34 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
13 33 (2.13%) Greenfield Project
14 32 (2.07%) Virtual Team
15 30 (1.94%) Pricing Data
16 21 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
16 21 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
17 20 (1.29%) Embedded Systems
18 19 (1.23%) Mobile App
19 18 (1.16%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 242 (15.65%) Linux
2 81 (5.24%) Windows
3 50 (3.23%) Unix
4 25 (1.62%) Android
5 20 (1.29%) Ubuntu
6 15 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.65%) Windows Server
8 8 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.39%) FreeRTOS
9 6 (0.39%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.26%) VMS
11 1 (0.065%) Debian
11 1 (0.065%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.065%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.065%) Windows Embedded Compact
11 1 (0.065%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.065%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 606 (39.20%) Agile
2 484 (31.31%) CI/CD
3 353 (22.83%) DevOps
4 302 (19.53%) Microservices
5 225 (14.55%) Problem-Solving
6 208 (13.45%) Containerisation
7 206 (13.32%) Infrastructure as Code
8 183 (11.84%) Test Automation
9 177 (11.45%) AI
10 166 (10.74%) Computer Science
11 157 (10.16%) Mentoring
12 150 (9.70%) TDD
13 143 (9.25%) Scrum
14 139 (8.99%) Full-Stack Development
15 138 (8.93%) Machine Learning
16 112 (7.24%) Open Source
17 108 (6.99%) Clean Code
18 105 (6.79%) Continuous Integration
19 96 (6.21%) Data Pipeline
20 91 (5.89%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 529 (34.22%) Python
2 387 (25.03%) Java
3 279 (18.05%) JavaScript
4 263 (17.01%) SQL
5 261 (16.88%) C++
6 229 (14.81%) C#
7 227 (14.68%) TypeScript
8 149 (9.64%) Go
9 84 (5.43%) C
10 42 (2.72%) Ada
11 31 (2.01%) Rust
11 31 (2.01%) Shell Script
12 29 (1.88%) Bash
13 21 (1.36%) Ruby
14 20 (1.29%) VB
15 18 (1.16%) PowerShell
16 17 (1.10%) PHP
16 17 (1.10%) Scala
17 15 (0.97%) Embedded C++
17 15 (0.97%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 283 (18.31%) Security Cleared
2 232 (15.01%) SC Cleared
3 202 (13.07%) Degree
4 96 (6.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 57 (3.69%) Master's Degree
6 51 (3.30%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.29%) AWS Certification
8 18 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (1.16%) MCP
8 18 (1.16%) PhD
9 16 (1.03%) CISSP
10 14 (0.91%) CISM
11 11 (0.71%) Azure Certification
12 10 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 10 (0.65%) TOGAF Certification
13 7 (0.45%) Postgraduate
14 6 (0.39%) ISTQB
15 4 (0.26%) HND
15 4 (0.26%) Microsoft Certification
16 3 (0.19%) EMC Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (4.92%) QA
2 31 (2.01%) Data Quality
3 27 (1.75%) Accessibility
4 21 (1.36%) Def Stans
5 20 (1.29%) WCAG
6 18 (1.16%) GDPR
7 17 (1.10%) IEC 61508
7 17 (1.10%) MISRA
8 13 (0.84%) EU AI Act
9 12 (0.78%) NIST
10 10 (0.65%) MISRA C
11 8 (0.52%) DO-178B
12 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 5 (0.32%) Software Quality Assurance
14 4 (0.26%) HL7
14 4 (0.26%) ISO 26262
14 4 (0.26%) MiFID
14 4 (0.26%) SLA
15 3 (0.19%) NCSC
15 3 (0.19%) SEPA
System Software
1 350 (22.64%) Docker
2 15 (0.97%) Active Directory
3 10 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
4 9 (0.58%) Firmware
5 6 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
6 3 (0.19%) zsh
7 2 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.065%) KVM
8 1 (0.065%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.065%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 331 (21.41%) Kubernetes
2 211 (13.65%) Terraform
3 79 (5.11%) Grafana
4 75 (4.85%) Ansible
5 63 (4.08%) Prometheus
6 20 (1.29%) Puppet
7 13 (0.84%) Kibana
8 11 (0.71%) Argo
9 9 (0.58%) Progress Chef
10 7 (0.45%) Podman
10 7 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.26%) Functional Safety
12 3 (0.19%) Cilium
12 3 (0.19%) Kubeflow
12 3 (0.19%) Rsyslog
12 3 (0.19%) SCOM
12 3 (0.19%) SELinux
13 2 (0.13%) Packer
13 2 (0.13%) rkt
14 1 (0.065%) Consul
Vendors
1 132 (8.54%) Microsoft
2 57 (3.69%) Google
3 52 (3.36%) Oracle
4 39 (2.52%) Splunk
5 33 (2.13%) Databricks
6 31 (2.01%) Foundry
7 28 (1.81%) Red Hat
8 15 (0.97%) Palantir
9 13 (0.84%) Cloudera
10 12 (0.78%) Atlassian
10 12 (0.78%) BiZZdesign
11 11 (0.71%) SAP
12 10 (0.65%) OpenAI
12 10 (0.65%) Salesforce
12 10 (0.65%) Temenos
13 9 (0.58%) webMethods
14 8 (0.52%) CyberArk
14 8 (0.52%) IBM
14 8 (0.52%) ServiceNow
14 8 (0.52%) VMware