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

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 42 33
Rank change year-on-year +5 -9 +8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,062 1,223 1,991
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.13% 5.00% 5.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.04% 5.49% 6.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,075 809 1,170
10th Percentile £400 £406 £425
25th Percentile £450 £492 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £669 £775 £750
90th Percentile £775 £838 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 458 80 333
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.95 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £54.78 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £69.69 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £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 34,120 22,289 31,993
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.96% 91.13% 86.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,809 14,625 20,976
10th Percentile £318 £310 £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 £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -4.40% -0.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,143 919 2,227
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.74 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.38 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £44.00 £30.45 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.50% -13.00% -6.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £40.25 £29.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +38.08% -16.71% -6.27%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -9 853 £598 -11.41% 649
South West +13 299 £575 - 191
North of England +18 294 £500 - 282
South East +12 252 £525 +2.44% 400
East of England +36 210 £475 -2.72% 159
North West +7 132 £494 -1.45% 159
Yorkshire -6 112 £518 +3.50% 76
Midlands -27 98 £483 +0.17% 129
West Midlands -15 86 £478 -9.98% 72
North East +22 54 £538 +16.85% 47
East Midlands -40 11 £500 +2.04% 56
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 51 (2.47%) Confluence
2 45 (2.18%) Apache Spark
3 38 (1.84%) Apache
4 22 (1.07%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.44%) CMS
6 7 (0.34%) SAS
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
7 5 (0.24%) IIS
7 5 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.24%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.19%) nginx
9 3 (0.15%) Camunda
9 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.097%) JBoss
10 2 (0.097%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.097%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.097%) Sitecore CMS
10 2 (0.097%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.097%) WinCC
11 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 12 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.24%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.19%) Simulink
5 3 (0.15%) CPLEX
5 3 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.097%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.048%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.048%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.048%) Blender
7 1 (0.048%) Maya
7 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.048%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.048%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.097%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.097%) LabWindows
4 1 (0.048%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.048%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.048%) Primavera
4 1 (0.048%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.048%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 547 (26.53%) AWS
2 387 (18.77%) Azure
3 186 (9.02%) GCP
4 141 (6.84%) GitHub
5 120 (5.82%) Serverless
6 78 (3.78%) Azure DevOps
7 69 (3.35%) AWS Lambda
8 66 (3.20%) Amazon S3
9 61 (2.96%) GitHub Actions
10 52 (2.52%) Power Platform
11 51 (2.47%) OpenShift
12 40 (1.94%) AWS CloudFormation
13 38 (1.84%) Azure AKS
14 36 (1.75%) Amazon ECS
14 36 (1.75%) Amazon EKS
15 30 (1.45%) SaaS
16 28 (1.36%) Amazon EC2
17 26 (1.26%) Amazon SQS
17 26 (1.26%) Azure Functions
18 21 (1.02%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.12%) Ethernet
2 22 (1.07%) Software-Defined Radio
3 14 (0.68%) TCP/IP
4 12 (0.58%) Wireless
5 11 (0.53%) Network Security
6 10 (0.48%) HTTP
7 9 (0.44%) 3GPP
8 8 (0.39%) Firewall
9 5 (0.24%) Modbus
9 5 (0.24%) RTP
10 4 (0.19%) RS-232
10 4 (0.19%) RS-485
10 4 (0.19%) VPN
10 4 (0.19%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.15%) Bluetooth
11 3 (0.15%) DNS
11 3 (0.15%) IPv4
11 3 (0.15%) IPv6
11 3 (0.15%) RS-422
11 3 (0.15%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (6.16%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (3.06%) Relational Database
2 63 (3.06%) SQL Server
3 60 (2.91%) NoSQL
4 56 (2.72%) Apache Cassandra
5 53 (2.57%) MongoDB
6 37 (1.79%) Power BI
7 35 (1.70%) Amazon RDS
8 32 (1.55%) Data Lake
9 27 (1.31%) Big Data
10 26 (1.26%) BigQuery
10 26 (1.26%) DynamoDB
10 26 (1.26%) MySQL
11 23 (1.12%) Metadata
12 21 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
13 17 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
14 15 (0.73%) Amazon Athena
15 14 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
16 13 (0.63%) Mixpanel
16 13 (0.63%) Redis
Development Applications
1 208 (10.09%) Git
2 136 (6.60%) Jenkins
3 114 (5.53%) GitLab
4 106 (5.14%) JIRA
5 43 (2.09%) SonarQube
6 33 (1.60%) Rational Rhapsody
7 32 (1.55%) Rational DOORS
8 31 (1.50%) JUnit
9 29 (1.41%) Gradle
10 24 (1.16%) IntelliJ
11 23 (1.12%) Bitbucket
12 22 (1.07%) Cucumber
13 21 (1.02%) Cypress.io
13 21 (1.02%) Selenium
14 18 (0.87%) Visual Studio
15 17 (0.82%) Maven
16 14 (0.68%) Eclipse
16 14 (0.68%) Mockito
17 12 (0.58%) Liquibase
18 11 (0.53%) Artifactory
General
1 307 (14.89%) Finance
2 300 (14.55%) Social Skills
3 127 (6.16%) Public Sector
4 112 (5.43%) Analytical Skills
5 109 (5.29%) Banking
6 85 (4.12%) Aerospace
7 65 (3.15%) Front Office
8 37 (1.79%) Electronics
8 37 (1.79%) Law
8 37 (1.79%) Manufacturing
9 33 (1.60%) Retail
10 27 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
10 27 (1.31%) Military
11 26 (1.26%) Investment Banking
12 21 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
12 21 (1.02%) Telecoms
13 14 (0.68%) Financial Institution
14 13 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
14 13 (0.63%) Legal
15 12 (0.58%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 1,123 (54.46%) Software Engineer
2 363 (17.60%) Senior
3 358 (17.36%) Developer
4 176 (8.54%) Senior Software Engineer
5 154 (7.47%) Embedded Engineer
5 154 (7.47%) Lead
6 142 (6.89%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 137 (6.64%) Java Engineer
8 124 (6.01%) C++ Software Engineer
9 108 (5.24%) Java Software Engineer
10 93 (4.51%) Java Developer
11 86 (4.17%) Architect
12 68 (3.30%) Senior Developer
13 67 (3.25%) Developer/Software Engineer
14 64 (3.10%) Python Engineer
15 62 (3.01%) Data Engineer
16 61 (2.96%) Full-Stack Engineer
17 59 (2.86%) Software Developer
18 58 (2.81%) Lead Software Engineer
19 56 (2.72%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 229 (11.11%) React
2 192 (9.31%) Kafka
3 169 (8.20%) Node.js
4 146 (7.08%) .NET
5 141 (6.84%) REST
6 136 (6.60%) Spring
7 121 (5.87%) Spring Boot
8 100 (4.85%) AngularJS
9 90 (4.36%) RESTful
10 74 (3.59%) GraphQL
11 56 (2.72%) gRPC
12 52 (2.52%) Middleware
12 52 (2.52%) Redux
13 48 (2.33%) CSS
14 45 (2.18%) HTML
15 38 (1.84%) JSON
15 38 (1.84%) Playwright
16 36 (1.75%) Web Services
17 33 (1.60%) OpenTelemetry
18 30 (1.45%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 212 (10.28%) Cloud Native
2 144 (6.98%) Distributed Systems
3 92 (4.46%) Product Ownership
4 82 (3.98%) Algorithms
5 58 (2.81%) Fixed Income
6 40 (1.94%) AI Agents
7 33 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
8 31 (1.50%) Embedded Systems
9 30 (1.45%) Onboarding
10 27 (1.31%) Mobile App
11 26 (1.26%) Data Structures
11 26 (1.26%) Derivative
11 26 (1.26%) Robotics
12 23 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
13 20 (0.97%) Equities
14 19 (0.92%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 19 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
15 14 (0.68%) NHS
16 13 (0.63%) Life Science
16 13 (0.63%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 194 (9.41%) Linux
2 69 (3.35%) Windows
3 44 (2.13%) Unix
4 26 (1.26%) Android
5 23 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (0.92%) Apple iOS
7 11 (0.53%) Embedded Linux
7 11 (0.53%) Windows Server
8 8 (0.39%) FreeRTOS
9 7 (0.34%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.29%) Debian
11 4 (0.19%) Rocky
11 4 (0.19%) VMS
12 2 (0.097%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.097%) Solaris
12 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.048%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 584 (28.32%) CI/CD
2 582 (28.23%) Agile
3 414 (20.08%) DevOps
4 317 (15.37%) Microservices
5 278 (13.48%) AI
6 228 (11.06%) Problem-Solving
7 216 (10.48%) Full-Stack Development
8 211 (10.23%) Containerisation
9 208 (10.09%) Test Automation
10 201 (9.75%) Infrastructure as Code
11 158 (7.66%) Computer Science
12 155 (7.52%) Observability
13 154 (7.47%) Machine Learning
14 149 (7.23%) Continuous Improvement
14 149 (7.23%) Mentoring
15 146 (7.08%) SDLC
16 141 (6.84%) Scrum
17 137 (6.64%) TDD
18 134 (6.50%) Technical Leadership
19 123 (5.97%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 533 (25.85%) Python
2 494 (23.96%) Java
3 269 (13.05%) SQL
4 258 (12.51%) C#
5 241 (11.69%) TypeScript
6 231 (11.20%) C++
7 216 (10.48%) JavaScript
8 151 (7.32%) Go
9 132 (6.40%) Ada
10 120 (5.82%) C
11 34 (1.65%) Kotlin
12 33 (1.60%) Embedded C
12 33 (1.60%) PowerShell
13 31 (1.50%) Bash
14 26 (1.26%) MATLAB
15 25 (1.21%) Ruby
16 24 (1.16%) Rust
17 21 (1.02%) Shell Script
18 20 (0.97%) Scala
19 18 (0.87%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 507 (24.59%) Security Cleared
2 397 (19.25%) SC Cleared
3 174 (8.44%) Degree
4 90 (4.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 61 (2.96%) DV Cleared
6 41 (1.99%) Master's Degree
7 30 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
8 23 (1.12%) AWS Certification
9 14 (0.68%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 13 (0.63%) Azure Certification
10 13 (0.63%) CISSP
10 13 (0.63%) PhD
11 10 (0.48%) CISM
12 8 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
13 7 (0.34%) ISTQB
13 7 (0.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 4 (0.19%) HND
14 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
15 3 (0.15%) Cisco Certification
15 3 (0.15%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 114 (5.53%) QA
2 52 (2.52%) Def Stans
3 41 (1.99%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.79%) IEC 61508
5 26 (1.26%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.21%) GDPR
7 22 (1.07%) MISRA
8 16 (0.78%) MISRA C
9 8 (0.39%) NIST
10 7 (0.34%) DO-178B
10 7 (0.34%) HL7
10 7 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 7 (0.34%) WCAG
11 6 (0.29%) NCSC
12 3 (0.15%) EMIR
12 3 (0.15%) FATCA
12 3 (0.15%) MiFID
12 3 (0.15%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.097%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.097%) SLA
System Software
1 312 (15.13%) Docker
2 20 (0.97%) Firmware
3 16 (0.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (0.34%) Active Directory
5 7 (0.34%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.15%) HDFS
8 2 (0.097%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 341 (16.54%) Kubernetes
2 212 (10.28%) Terraform
3 89 (4.32%) Grafana
4 56 (2.72%) Ansible
5 49 (2.38%) Prometheus
6 33 (1.60%) Argo
7 15 (0.73%) Puppet
8 12 (0.58%) Progress Chef
9 6 (0.29%) Istio
9 6 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.24%) HAProxy
10 5 (0.24%) Kibana
10 5 (0.24%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 4 (0.19%) Docker Swarm
11 4 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
12 3 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.097%) Consul
13 2 (0.097%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.097%) Podman
Vendors
1 140 (6.79%) Microsoft
2 75 (3.64%) Google
3 62 (3.01%) Oracle
4 56 (2.72%) Red Hat
5 47 (2.28%) Databricks
6 24 (1.16%) IBM
7 21 (1.02%) Splunk
8 20 (0.97%) OpenAI
9 17 (0.82%) VMware
10 14 (0.68%) Foundry
11 12 (0.58%) ServiceNow
12 11 (0.53%) Informatica
12 11 (0.53%) Okta
12 11 (0.53%) Siemens
13 10 (0.48%) Atlassian
13 10 (0.48%) Dynatrace
13 10 (0.48%) ForgeRock
13 10 (0.48%) MathWorks
13 10 (0.48%) PagerDuty
13 10 (0.48%) SAP