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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 45 29
Rank change year-on-year +12 -16 +11
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,230 1,136 2,151
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.31% 4.73% 5.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.25% 5.18% 6.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,165 744 1,254
10th Percentile £400 £400 £419
25th Percentile £463 £475 £489
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £675 £750 £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 462 65 380
10th Percentile £52.29 £43.76 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £57.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £63.25
Median % change year-on-year - +2.77% -2.69%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.46 £74.50 £78.88
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 35,705 21,941 31,586
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.00% 91.32% 85.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,665 14,273 20,637
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.10% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £513 £525
% change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,224 953 2,305
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.84
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.13 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £28.55 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +64.62% -23.21% -0.85%
75th Percentile £68.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.30 £27.97 £36.50
% change year-on-year +51.26% -23.38% -1.35%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -3 934 £575 -11.54% 933
North of England +18 332 £525 +5.00% 309
South West +21 320 £575 +4.55% 206
South East +18 279 £525 +3.65% 346
East of England +36 225 £495 +1.38% 162
North West 0 155 £500 - 211
Yorkshire +11 122 £525 +7.14% 54
Midlands -29 85 £469 -4.29% 124
West Midlands -32 71 £466 -13.48% 67
North East +20 60 £593 +28.80% 45
East Midlands -25 13 £525 +7.14% 57
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 (2.42%) Confluence
2 48 (2.15%) Apache Spark
3 36 (1.61%) Apache
4 25 (1.12%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.36%) SAS
6 6 (0.27%) CMS
6 6 (0.27%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.22%) IIS
7 5 (0.22%) nginx
8 4 (0.18%) Ethereum
8 4 (0.18%) Hyperledger
8 4 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
8 4 (0.18%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.13%) Camunda
9 3 (0.13%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.090%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.090%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.090%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.090%) WinCC
11 1 (0.045%) OpenStack
Applications
1 14 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.27%) Chatbot
2 6 (0.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.18%) CPLEX
3 4 (0.18%) Simulink
4 3 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.090%) CATIA
5 2 (0.090%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.090%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.045%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.045%) Blender
6 1 (0.045%) Maya
6 1 (0.045%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.045%) Notion
6 1 (0.045%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
2 5 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
3 4 (0.18%) Quorum
3 4 (0.18%) R3 Corda
3 4 (0.18%) Ripple
4 2 (0.090%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.090%) LabWindows
4 2 (0.090%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.090%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.045%) Orchestrade
5 1 (0.045%) Sprinklr
5 1 (0.045%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 553 (24.80%) AWS
2 418 (18.74%) Azure
3 199 (8.92%) GCP
4 149 (6.68%) GitHub
5 114 (5.11%) Serverless
6 87 (3.90%) Azure DevOps
7 71 (3.18%) AWS Lambda
8 63 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
9 62 (2.78%) Amazon S3
10 53 (2.38%) OpenShift
11 47 (2.11%) Power Platform
12 38 (1.70%) Azure AKS
13 36 (1.61%) Amazon EKS
13 36 (1.61%) Amazon SQS
14 33 (1.48%) Amazon EC2
14 33 (1.48%) Amazon ECS
15 28 (1.26%) SaaS
16 27 (1.21%) Anthropic Claude
16 27 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
17 23 (1.03%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.35%) Software-Defined Radio
2 24 (1.08%) Ethernet
3 20 (0.90%) Wireless
4 16 (0.72%) TCP/IP
5 15 (0.67%) HTTP
6 11 (0.49%) Firewall
6 11 (0.49%) Wi-Fi
7 10 (0.45%) 3GPP
8 8 (0.36%) Network Security
9 7 (0.31%) RTP
9 7 (0.31%) VPN
10 6 (0.27%) Wireshark
11 4 (0.18%) DNS
11 4 (0.18%) Internet
11 4 (0.18%) Modbus
12 3 (0.13%) Bluetooth
12 3 (0.13%) IPv4
12 3 (0.13%) IPv6
12 3 (0.13%) RS-232
12 3 (0.13%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (5.78%) PostgreSQL
2 72 (3.23%) Relational Database
3 65 (2.91%) SQL Server
4 58 (2.60%) NoSQL
5 49 (2.20%) MongoDB
6 45 (2.02%) Apache Cassandra
7 35 (1.57%) Power BI
8 31 (1.39%) Amazon RDS
8 31 (1.39%) DynamoDB
9 30 (1.35%) BigQuery
9 30 (1.35%) Data Lake
10 29 (1.30%) Big Data
11 24 (1.08%) Metadata
11 24 (1.08%) MySQL
12 23 (1.03%) Data Warehouse
13 16 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
13 16 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
14 15 (0.67%) Amazon Redshift
14 15 (0.67%) Pinecone
14 15 (0.67%) Redis
Development Applications
1 221 (9.91%) Git
2 143 (6.41%) Jenkins
3 133 (5.96%) GitLab
4 109 (4.89%) JIRA
5 49 (2.20%) Gradle
6 46 (2.06%) SonarQube
7 36 (1.61%) JUnit
8 34 (1.52%) Rational DOORS
9 31 (1.39%) Rational Rhapsody
10 24 (1.08%) Cucumber
10 24 (1.08%) IntelliJ
11 23 (1.03%) Selenium
12 22 (0.99%) Visual Studio
13 21 (0.94%) Bitbucket
13 21 (0.94%) Maven
14 17 (0.76%) Cypress.io
14 17 (0.76%) Mockito
15 16 (0.72%) Liquibase
16 13 (0.58%) Artifactory
17 12 (0.54%) Eclipse
General
1 376 (16.86%) Finance
2 323 (14.48%) Social Skills
3 138 (6.19%) Banking
4 135 (6.05%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (5.52%) Public Sector
6 98 (4.39%) Aerospace
7 72 (3.23%) Front Office
8 46 (2.06%) Manufacturing
9 39 (1.75%) Law
10 34 (1.52%) Retail
11 33 (1.48%) Investment Banking
12 27 (1.21%) Military
13 25 (1.12%) Automotive
13 25 (1.12%) Electronics
13 25 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
14 23 (1.03%) Aviation
15 22 (0.99%) Telecoms
16 18 (0.81%) Financial Institution
16 18 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
17 14 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 1,170 (52.47%) Software Engineer
2 410 (18.39%) Developer
3 391 (17.53%) Senior
4 188 (8.43%) Lead
5 184 (8.25%) Senior Software Engineer
6 159 (7.13%) Embedded Engineer
7 157 (7.04%) Java Engineer
8 148 (6.64%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 128 (5.74%) Java Software Engineer
10 121 (5.43%) C++ Software Engineer
11 115 (5.16%) Java Developer
12 91 (4.08%) Architect
13 77 (3.45%) Senior Developer
14 70 (3.14%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 68 (3.05%) Software Developer
16 66 (2.96%) DevOps Engineer
16 66 (2.96%) Python Developer
17 65 (2.91%) Python Engineer
18 64 (2.87%) Full-Stack Engineer
19 61 (2.74%) Lead Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 250 (11.21%) React
2 181 (8.12%) Kafka
3 172 (7.71%) Spring
4 169 (7.58%) Node.js
5 168 (7.53%) .NET
6 159 (7.13%) Spring Boot
7 157 (7.04%) REST
8 107 (4.80%) AngularJS
9 102 (4.57%) RESTful
10 75 (3.36%) GraphQL
11 53 (2.38%) Redux
12 47 (2.11%) CSS
13 46 (2.06%) Middleware
14 45 (2.02%) HTML
15 41 (1.84%) gRPC
16 40 (1.79%) JSON
17 37 (1.66%) Next.js
18 35 (1.57%) Playwright
19 33 (1.48%) LangChain
19 33 (1.48%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 241 (10.81%) Cloud Native
2 157 (7.04%) Distributed Systems
3 109 (4.89%) Product Ownership
4 88 (3.95%) Algorithms
5 62 (2.78%) Fixed Income
6 54 (2.42%) AI Agents
7 39 (1.75%) Embedded Systems
8 36 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
8 36 (1.61%) Onboarding
9 33 (1.48%) Derivative
10 30 (1.35%) Robotics
11 29 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
12 28 (1.26%) Data Structures
13 24 (1.08%) Equities
14 23 (1.03%) Greenfield Project
15 22 (0.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 22 (0.99%) Mobile App
15 22 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
16 17 (0.76%) Enterprise Software
17 16 (0.72%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 189 (8.48%) Linux
2 66 (2.96%) Windows
3 43 (1.93%) Unix
4 25 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 19 (0.85%) Android
6 17 (0.76%) Apple iOS
7 16 (0.72%) Embedded Linux
8 12 (0.54%) Windows Server
9 11 (0.49%) FreeRTOS
10 6 (0.27%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.22%) Debian
12 4 (0.18%) Rocky
12 4 (0.18%) VMS
12 4 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.13%) Solaris
13 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.090%) Robot Operating System
14 2 (0.090%) VxWorks
15 1 (0.045%) Mac OS
15 1 (0.045%) webOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 653 (29.28%) CI/CD
2 623 (27.94%) Agile
3 455 (20.40%) DevOps
4 348 (15.61%) Microservices
5 329 (14.75%) AI
6 253 (11.35%) Test Automation
7 240 (10.76%) Problem-Solving
8 236 (10.58%) Full-Stack Development
9 219 (9.82%) Containerisation
10 200 (8.97%) Infrastructure as Code
11 170 (7.62%) Continuous Improvement
12 169 (7.58%) Observability
12 169 (7.58%) SDLC
13 163 (7.31%) TDD
14 162 (7.26%) Machine Learning
15 155 (6.95%) Scrum
16 154 (6.91%) Mentoring
17 152 (6.82%) Computer Science
18 147 (6.59%) Technical Leadership
19 145 (6.50%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 580 (26.01%) Java
2 569 (25.52%) Python
3 300 (13.45%) SQL
4 282 (12.65%) C#
5 258 (11.57%) TypeScript
6 231 (10.36%) JavaScript
7 216 (9.69%) C++
8 137 (6.14%) Ada
9 136 (6.10%) Go
10 110 (4.93%) C
11 45 (2.02%) Kotlin
12 40 (1.79%) PowerShell
13 32 (1.43%) Rust
14 31 (1.39%) Bash
15 27 (1.21%) Embedded C
16 26 (1.17%) MATLAB
17 23 (1.03%) Scala
18 19 (0.85%) Ruby
19 18 (0.81%) PL/SQL
19 18 (0.81%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 526 (23.59%) Security Cleared
2 416 (18.65%) SC Cleared
3 186 (8.34%) Degree
4 90 (4.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 65 (2.91%) DV Cleared
6 43 (1.93%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (1.39%) Master's Degree
8 22 (0.99%) AWS Certification
9 15 (0.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 11 (0.49%) Azure Certification
11 9 (0.40%) PhD
12 8 (0.36%) CISSP
13 7 (0.31%) ISTQB
13 7 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 6 (0.27%) Chartered Engineer
14 6 (0.27%) CISM
14 6 (0.27%) TOGAF Certification
15 3 (0.13%) Cisco Certification
15 3 (0.13%) MBA
15 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (5.43%) QA
2 46 (2.06%) Def Stans
3 42 (1.88%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.66%) IEC 61508
5 32 (1.43%) Accessibility
6 23 (1.03%) GDPR
7 20 (0.90%) MISRA
8 15 (0.67%) MISRA C
9 11 (0.49%) NCSC
10 8 (0.36%) WCAG
11 7 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 7 (0.31%) NIST
12 6 (0.27%) DO-178B
12 6 (0.27%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.22%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.18%) DO-254
14 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.13%) FATCA
15 3 (0.13%) HL7
15 3 (0.13%) MiFID
System Software
1 312 (13.99%) Docker
2 22 (0.99%) Firmware
3 13 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
5 7 (0.31%) Active Directory
5 7 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.13%) HDFS
8 2 (0.090%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 366 (16.41%) Kubernetes
2 204 (9.15%) Terraform
3 77 (3.45%) Grafana
4 58 (2.60%) Ansible
5 44 (1.97%) Prometheus
6 35 (1.57%) Argo
7 10 (0.45%) Puppet
8 8 (0.36%) Progress Chef
9 6 (0.27%) Istio
9 6 (0.27%) Kibana
9 6 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.22%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.18%) Data Guard
11 4 (0.18%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.18%) HP Quality Center
12 3 (0.13%) Docker Swarm
12 3 (0.13%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.090%) Consul
13 2 (0.090%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.090%) Podman
Vendors
1 131 (5.87%) Microsoft
2 77 (3.45%) Google
3 67 (3.00%) Oracle
4 60 (2.69%) Red Hat
5 47 (2.11%) Databricks
6 31 (1.39%) OpenAI
7 23 (1.03%) IBM
8 17 (0.76%) Splunk
9 15 (0.67%) Informatica
10 13 (0.58%) ServiceNow
10 13 (0.58%) Siemens
10 13 (0.58%) VMware
11 12 (0.54%) Foundry
12 11 (0.49%) Salesforce
12 11 (0.49%) SAP
13 10 (0.45%) ForgeRock
13 10 (0.45%) MathWorks
13 10 (0.45%) Okta
14 9 (0.40%) Dynatrace
15 8 (0.36%) Spotify