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 16 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.
| 6 months to 16 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 32 | 43 | 31 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +11 | -12 | +10 |
| Contract jobs citing Software Engineering | 2,789 | 1,422 | 1,814 |
| As % of all contract jobs in England | 5.96% | 5.04% | 5.66% |
| As % of the Processes & Methodologies category | 7.01% | 5.54% | 6.54% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 1,487 | 845 | 1,092 |
| 10th Percentile | £400 | £375 | £405 |
| 25th Percentile | £463 | £463 | £488 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £550 | £575 | £601 |
| Median % change year-on-year | -4.35% | -4.25% | -0.99% |
| 75th Percentile | £688 | £725 | £800 |
| 90th Percentile | £775 | £838 | £888 |
| UK median daily rate | £550 | £550 | £600 |
| % change year-on-year | - | -8.33% | - |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 433 | 132 | 199 |
| 10th Percentile | £51.35 | £44.65 | £46.18 |
| 25th Percentile | £60.33 | £52.50 | £60.00 |
| Median hourly rate | £65.00 | £65.00 | £65.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | -0.76% | +0.77% |
| 75th Percentile | £70.00 | £67.63 | £70.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £76.00 | £74.80 | £75.00 |
| 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.
| 6 months to 16 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills | 39,797 | 25,656 | 27,726 |
| As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England | 85.00% | 90.96% | 86.48% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 24,013 | 16,263 | 16,907 |
| 10th Percentile | £325 | £296 | £313 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £405 | £413 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £510 | £525 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +2.94% | -2.86% | -4.55% |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £625 | £638 |
| 90th Percentile | £738 | £725 | £750 |
| UK median daily rate | £525 | £500 | £525 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.00% | -4.76% | -2.42% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 3,100 | 1,620 | 1,099 |
| 10th Percentile | £13.54 | £14.64 | £15.00 |
| 25th Percentile | £17.25 | £17.87 | £20.30 |
| Median hourly rate | £38.13 | £25.15 | £42.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +51.59% | -40.82% | -5.56% |
| 75th Percentile | £67.25 | £45.00 | £66.80 |
| 90th Percentile | £79.00 | £67.55 | £74.09 |
| UK median hourly rate | £37.24 | £25.15 | £40.00 |
| % change year-on-year | +48.07% | -37.13% | -10.11% |
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 Daily Rate Trend in England
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 16 October 2026.
Software Engineering Hourly Rate Trend in England
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 16 October 2026.
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 16 October 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 | -1 | 1,264 | £600 | -4.00% | 3,299 |
| North of England | +24 | 497 | £520 | +4.00% | 817 |
| South East | +41 | 349 | £525 | +10.53% | 740 |
| South West | +13 | 298 | £550 | +20.22% | 415 |
| North West | +34 | 242 | £550 | +10.00% | 487 |
| East of England | +12 | 209 | £505 | -9.21% | 495 |
| Yorkshire | +6 | 183 | £500 | -2.44% | 205 |
| Midlands | +28 | 149 | £470 | -10.48% | 346 |
| West Midlands | +18 | 107 | £470 | -14.55% | 210 |
| North East | +5 | 74 | £600 | +23.08% | 129 |
| East Midlands | +17 | 41 | £413 | -2.02% | 136 |
| Software Engineering UK |
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Software Engineering Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Processes & Methodologies
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CI/CD | 35.8% | 999 |
| 2 | Agile | 31.2% | 870 |
| 3 | DevOps | 24.7% | 689 |
| 4 | AI | 23.0% | 642 |
| 5 | Test Automation | 16.2% | 452 |
| 6 | Microservices | 15.3% | 426 |
| 7 | Continuous Improvement | 13.7% | 383 |
| 8 | Problem-Solving | 12.5% | 350 |
| 9 | Infrastructure as Code | 12.5% | 349 |
| 10 | Observability | 11.7% | 326 |
| 11 | SDLC | 10.6% | 296 |
| 12 | Stakeholder Management | 10.6% | 295 |
| 13 | Containerisation | 9.8% | 274 |
| 14 | Technical Leadership | 9.3% | 260 |
| 15 | Full-Stack Development | 9.2% | 257 |
| 16 | LLM | 8.9% | 247 |
| 17 | Machine Learning | 8.8% | 245 |
| 18 | Platform Engineering | 8.7% | 243 |
| 19 | Event-Driven | 8.6% | 241 |
| 20 | Scrum | 8.4% | 235 |