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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 44 31
Rank change year-on-year +11 -13 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,160 1,141 2,070
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.23% 4.76% 5.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.18% 5.21% 6.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,125 751 1,217
10th Percentile £400 £400 £419
25th Percentile £461 £475 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £675 £763 £750
90th Percentile £775 £838 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 457 70 359
10th Percentile £52.29 £36.78 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £53.22 £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 £73.46 £70.75 £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 34,973 21,894 31,367
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.68% 91.30% 86.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,266 14,295 20,565
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £510 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,148 929 2,246
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.42 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £46.11 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.98% -20.55% -0.73%
75th Percentile £68.00 £62.24 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.44 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £36.05
% change year-on-year +50.82% -21.82% +0.13%

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 22 May 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 22 May 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 22 May 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 -3 896 £584 -11.48% 775
North of England +23 321 £515 +3.00% 302
South West +20 308 £575 +2.22% 203
South East +20 277 £525 +2.44% 420
East of England +41 222 £495 +1.43% 169
North West +7 148 £500 - 173
Yorkshire +18 119 £513 +4.59% 73
Midlands -37 82 £475 -3.06% 118
West Midlands -18 71 £467 -12.08% 69
North East +18 59 £593 +51.92% 58
East Midlands -29 10 £563 +14.80% 49
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 (2.50%) Confluence
2 45 (2.08%) Apache Spark
3 36 (1.67%) Apache
4 21 (0.97%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.37%) SAS
6 5 (0.23%) CMS
6 5 (0.23%) IIS
6 5 (0.23%) nginx
6 5 (0.23%) SharePoint
7 4 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
7 4 (0.19%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.14%) Camunda
8 3 (0.14%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.093%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.093%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.093%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.093%) WinCC
10 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.046%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.046%) Smallworld
Applications
1 15 (0.69%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.28%) Chatbot
2 6 (0.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.19%) CPLEX
3 4 (0.19%) Simulink
4 2 (0.093%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.093%) CATIA
4 2 (0.093%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.093%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.046%) Adobe After Effects
5 1 (0.046%) Blender
5 1 (0.046%) Maya
5 1 (0.046%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.046%) Notion
5 1 (0.046%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.28%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (0.093%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.093%) LabWindows
3 2 (0.093%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 2 (0.093%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.046%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.046%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.046%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 532 (24.63%) AWS
2 398 (18.43%) Azure
3 195 (9.03%) GCP
4 145 (6.71%) GitHub
5 110 (5.09%) Serverless
6 80 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
7 68 (3.15%) AWS Lambda
8 60 (2.78%) GitHub Actions
9 59 (2.73%) Amazon S3
10 49 (2.27%) OpenShift
11 43 (1.99%) Power Platform
12 38 (1.76%) Azure AKS
13 37 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
14 35 (1.62%) Amazon SQS
15 34 (1.57%) Amazon ECS
16 32 (1.48%) Amazon EC2
16 32 (1.48%) AWS CloudFormation
17 26 (1.20%) SaaS
18 22 (1.02%) Anthropic Claude
19 21 (0.97%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.39%) Software-Defined Radio
2 23 (1.06%) Ethernet
3 19 (0.88%) Wireless
4 15 (0.69%) HTTP
5 14 (0.65%) TCP/IP
6 11 (0.51%) Firewall
7 10 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
8 9 (0.42%) 3GPP
9 7 (0.32%) Network Security
9 7 (0.32%) VPN
10 6 (0.28%) RTP
11 5 (0.23%) Wireshark
12 4 (0.19%) DNS
12 4 (0.19%) Modbus
13 3 (0.14%) Bluetooth
13 3 (0.14%) IPv4
13 3 (0.14%) IPv6
13 3 (0.14%) RS-232
13 3 (0.14%) RS-422
13 3 (0.14%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 126 (5.83%) PostgreSQL
2 70 (3.24%) Relational Database
3 63 (2.92%) SQL Server
4 58 (2.69%) NoSQL
5 49 (2.27%) MongoDB
6 46 (2.13%) Apache Cassandra
7 34 (1.57%) Power BI
8 31 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
9 29 (1.34%) DynamoDB
10 28 (1.30%) BigQuery
10 28 (1.30%) Data Lake
11 26 (1.20%) Big Data
12 24 (1.11%) MySQL
13 23 (1.06%) Metadata
14 20 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
15 16 (0.74%) Amazon Athena
15 16 (0.74%) Pinecone
16 15 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
16 15 (0.69%) Redis
16 15 (0.69%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 212 (9.81%) Git
2 141 (6.53%) Jenkins
3 129 (5.97%) GitLab
4 106 (4.91%) JIRA
5 46 (2.13%) Gradle
5 46 (2.13%) SonarQube
6 33 (1.53%) JUnit
7 31 (1.44%) Rational DOORS
8 30 (1.39%) Rational Rhapsody
9 24 (1.11%) Cucumber
9 24 (1.11%) IntelliJ
10 23 (1.06%) Selenium
11 22 (1.02%) Bitbucket
11 22 (1.02%) Maven
12 19 (0.88%) Cypress.io
13 17 (0.79%) Visual Studio
14 15 (0.69%) Mockito
15 14 (0.65%) Liquibase
16 13 (0.60%) Artifactory
17 12 (0.56%) Claude Code
General
1 354 (16.39%) Finance
2 300 (13.89%) Social Skills
3 125 (5.79%) Analytical Skills
3 125 (5.79%) Banking
4 124 (5.74%) Public Sector
5 91 (4.21%) Aerospace
6 70 (3.24%) Front Office
7 46 (2.13%) Manufacturing
8 38 (1.76%) Law
9 34 (1.57%) Retail
10 33 (1.53%) Investment Banking
11 28 (1.30%) Electronics
11 28 (1.30%) Military
12 24 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
13 22 (1.02%) Telecoms
14 20 (0.93%) Aviation
15 18 (0.83%) Automotive
15 18 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
16 16 (0.74%) Financial Institution
17 13 (0.60%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 1,161 (53.75%) Software Engineer
2 391 (18.10%) Developer
3 372 (17.22%) Senior
4 179 (8.29%) Senior Software Engineer
5 172 (7.96%) Lead
6 161 (7.45%) Embedded Engineer
7 153 (7.08%) Java Engineer
8 150 (6.94%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 124 (5.74%) Java Software Engineer
10 119 (5.51%) C++ Software Engineer
11 111 (5.14%) Java Developer
12 83 (3.84%) Architect
13 73 (3.38%) Senior Developer
14 70 (3.24%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 65 (3.01%) DevOps Engineer
16 64 (2.96%) Full-Stack Engineer
17 63 (2.92%) Software Developer
18 62 (2.87%) Python Developer
19 60 (2.78%) Python Engineer
20 59 (2.73%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 244 (11.30%) React
2 181 (8.38%) Kafka
3 165 (7.64%) Node.js
4 163 (7.55%) Spring
5 159 (7.36%) .NET
6 148 (6.85%) Spring Boot
7 146 (6.76%) REST
8 106 (4.91%) AngularJS
9 96 (4.44%) RESTful
10 75 (3.47%) GraphQL
11 53 (2.45%) Redux
12 48 (2.22%) Middleware
13 46 (2.13%) CSS
14 42 (1.94%) gRPC
14 42 (1.94%) HTML
15 38 (1.76%) JSON
16 34 (1.57%) LangChain
16 34 (1.57%) Next.js
16 34 (1.57%) Playwright
17 33 (1.53%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 222 (10.28%) Cloud Native
2 151 (6.99%) Distributed Systems
3 102 (4.72%) Product Ownership
4 88 (4.07%) Algorithms
5 61 (2.82%) Fixed Income
6 51 (2.36%) AI Agents
7 39 (1.81%) Embedded Systems
8 36 (1.67%) Onboarding
9 35 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
10 30 (1.39%) Derivative
11 29 (1.34%) Robotics
12 28 (1.30%) Data Structures
12 28 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
13 23 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
13 23 (1.06%) Mobile App
14 21 (0.97%) Equities
15 20 (0.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 15 (0.69%) FPGA
16 15 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
17 13 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 190 (8.80%) Linux
2 63 (2.92%) Windows
3 44 (2.04%) Unix
4 24 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (0.97%) Android
6 16 (0.74%) Apple iOS
6 16 (0.74%) Embedded Linux
7 11 (0.51%) FreeRTOS
7 11 (0.51%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.28%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.23%) Debian
10 4 (0.19%) Rocky
10 4 (0.19%) VMS
11 3 (0.14%) Solaris
11 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.093%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.046%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 620 (28.70%) CI/CD
2 591 (27.36%) Agile
3 433 (20.05%) DevOps
4 335 (15.51%) Microservices
5 304 (14.07%) AI
6 237 (10.97%) Test Automation
7 233 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
8 228 (10.56%) Full-Stack Development
9 218 (10.09%) Containerisation
10 194 (8.98%) Infrastructure as Code
11 165 (7.64%) Continuous Improvement
12 162 (7.50%) Observability
13 159 (7.36%) SDLC
14 151 (6.99%) Machine Learning
15 149 (6.90%) TDD
16 147 (6.81%) Mentoring
17 145 (6.71%) Computer Science
18 144 (6.67%) Scrum
19 136 (6.30%) Technical Leadership
20 133 (6.16%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 555 (25.69%) Java
2 543 (25.14%) Python
3 285 (13.19%) SQL
4 273 (12.64%) C#
5 251 (11.62%) TypeScript
6 221 (10.23%) JavaScript
7 216 (10.00%) C++
8 138 (6.39%) Go
9 128 (5.93%) Ada
10 114 (5.28%) C
11 44 (2.04%) Kotlin
12 37 (1.71%) PowerShell
13 34 (1.57%) Rust
14 33 (1.53%) Bash
15 28 (1.30%) Embedded C
16 26 (1.20%) MATLAB
17 22 (1.02%) Scala
18 20 (0.93%) Ruby
19 18 (0.83%) Shell Script
20 17 (0.79%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 522 (24.17%) Security Cleared
2 411 (19.03%) SC Cleared
3 172 (7.96%) Degree
4 84 (3.89%) Computer Science Degree
5 66 (3.06%) DV Cleared
6 36 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (1.39%) Master's Degree
8 20 (0.93%) AWS Certification
9 13 (0.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 11 (0.51%) Azure Certification
11 8 (0.37%) CISSP
11 8 (0.37%) PhD
12 7 (0.32%) ISTQB
12 7 (0.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.28%) CISM
13 6 (0.28%) TOGAF Certification
14 3 (0.14%) Cisco Certification
14 3 (0.14%) HNC
14 3 (0.14%) MBA
14 3 (0.14%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (5.19%) QA
2 47 (2.18%) Def Stans
3 41 (1.90%) Data Quality
4 34 (1.57%) IEC 61508
5 30 (1.39%) Accessibility
6 24 (1.11%) GDPR
7 20 (0.93%) MISRA
8 14 (0.65%) MISRA C
9 11 (0.51%) NCSC
10 9 (0.42%) WCAG
11 7 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 7 (0.32%) NIST
12 6 (0.28%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.23%) DO-178B
13 5 (0.23%) HL7
13 5 (0.23%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.14%) DO-254
15 3 (0.14%) FATCA
15 3 (0.14%) MiFID
System Software
1 304 (14.07%) Docker
2 20 (0.93%) Firmware
3 13 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
5 7 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.28%) Active Directory
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.14%) HDFS
9 2 (0.093%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 360 (16.67%) Kubernetes
2 204 (9.44%) Terraform
3 81 (3.75%) Grafana
4 58 (2.69%) Ansible
5 47 (2.18%) Prometheus
6 34 (1.57%) Argo
7 12 (0.56%) Puppet
8 9 (0.42%) Progress Chef
9 6 (0.28%) Istio
9 6 (0.28%) Kibana
10 5 (0.23%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 4 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
11 4 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.14%) Docker Swarm
12 3 (0.14%) Kubeflow
12 3 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.093%) Cilium
13 2 (0.093%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.093%) Podman
Vendors
1 127 (5.88%) Microsoft
2 73 (3.38%) Google
3 61 (2.82%) Oracle
4 59 (2.73%) Red Hat
5 45 (2.08%) Databricks
6 27 (1.25%) OpenAI
7 22 (1.02%) IBM
8 17 (0.79%) Splunk
9 15 (0.69%) Informatica
10 14 (0.65%) VMware
11 13 (0.60%) ServiceNow
12 12 (0.56%) Foundry
12 12 (0.56%) SAP
12 12 (0.56%) Siemens
13 11 (0.51%) Okta
14 10 (0.46%) ForgeRock
14 10 (0.46%) MathWorks
15 9 (0.42%) Atlassian
15 9 (0.42%) Dynatrace
16 8 (0.37%) PagerDuty