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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 40 32
Rank change year-on-year 0 -8 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,026 1,232 2,005
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.10% 5.01% 5.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.99% 5.50% 6.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,062 816 1,182
10th Percentile £400 £406 £425
25th Percentile £450 £493 £493
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £663 £764 £750
90th Percentile £775 £838 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 446 80 330
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% -2.56%
75th Percentile £70.00 £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 33,845 22,404 32,231
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.18% 91.08% 86.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,654 14,697 21,192
10th Percentile £315 £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 -4.31% -0.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,105 910 2,231
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.70 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £30.62 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.82% -12.53% -6.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £59.22
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £29.07 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.60% -16.94% -6.67%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -12 848 £594 -12.00% 524
North of England +16 291 £500 - 244
South West +15 291 £575 - 172
South East +10 235 £525 +2.44% 357
East of England +36 207 £475 -2.66% 138
North West +4 133 £494 -1.45% 143
Yorkshire +4 111 £518 +3.50% 65
Midlands -25 96 £492 +0.37% 125
West Midlands -17 84 £489 -6.93% 73
North East +23 51 £445 -3.26% 38
East Midlands -38 11 £500 +2.04% 51
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 48 (2.37%) Confluence
2 45 (2.22%) Apache Spark
3 40 (1.97%) Apache
4 22 (1.09%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.44%) CMS
5 9 (0.44%) WebLogic
6 5 (0.25%) IIS
6 5 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
6 5 (0.25%) SharePoint
7 4 (0.20%) JBoss
7 4 (0.20%) nginx
8 3 (0.15%) Camunda
8 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.15%) SAS
9 2 (0.099%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.099%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.099%) Sitecore CMS
9 2 (0.099%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.099%) WinCC
10 1 (0.049%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (0.49%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.20%) Simulink
4 3 (0.15%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.15%) CPLEX
4 3 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.099%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.049%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.049%) Blender
6 1 (0.049%) Maya
6 1 (0.049%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.049%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.049%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.099%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.099%) LabWindows
4 1 (0.049%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.049%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.049%) Primavera
4 1 (0.049%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.049%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 548 (27.05%) AWS
2 382 (18.85%) Azure
3 187 (9.23%) GCP
4 137 (6.76%) GitHub
5 119 (5.87%) Serverless
6 78 (3.85%) Azure DevOps
7 67 (3.31%) AWS Lambda
8 64 (3.16%) Amazon S3
9 60 (2.96%) GitHub Actions
10 49 (2.42%) OpenShift
10 49 (2.42%) Power Platform
11 42 (2.07%) AWS CloudFormation
12 37 (1.83%) Amazon EKS
12 37 (1.83%) Azure AKS
13 36 (1.78%) Amazon ECS
14 30 (1.48%) SaaS
15 28 (1.38%) Amazon EC2
16 27 (1.33%) Amazon SQS
17 26 (1.28%) Azure Functions
18 21 (1.04%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.14%) Ethernet
2 20 (0.99%) Software-Defined Radio
3 14 (0.69%) TCP/IP
4 11 (0.54%) Network Security
5 10 (0.49%) HTTP
5 10 (0.49%) Wireless
6 8 (0.39%) 3GPP
6 8 (0.39%) Firewall
7 5 (0.25%) Modbus
8 4 (0.20%) RS-232
8 4 (0.20%) RS-485
8 4 (0.20%) RTP
8 4 (0.20%) VPN
9 3 (0.15%) Bluetooth
9 3 (0.15%) DNS
9 3 (0.15%) IPv4
9 3 (0.15%) IPv6
9 3 (0.15%) RS-422
9 3 (0.15%) Wireshark
10 2 (0.099%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (6.27%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (3.11%) Relational Database
2 63 (3.11%) SQL Server
3 61 (3.01%) NoSQL
4 56 (2.76%) Apache Cassandra
5 55 (2.71%) MongoDB
6 34 (1.68%) Power BI
7 32 (1.58%) Amazon RDS
8 30 (1.48%) Data Lake
9 27 (1.33%) Big Data
9 27 (1.33%) BigQuery
9 27 (1.33%) MySQL
10 23 (1.14%) DynamoDB
10 23 (1.14%) Metadata
11 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
12 14 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
12 14 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
12 14 (0.69%) Mixpanel
13 13 (0.64%) Amazon Athena
13 13 (0.64%) Redis
Development Applications
1 207 (10.22%) Git
2 133 (6.56%) Jenkins
3 111 (5.48%) GitLab
4 102 (5.03%) JIRA
5 41 (2.02%) SonarQube
6 33 (1.63%) Rational Rhapsody
7 32 (1.58%) JUnit
7 32 (1.58%) Rational DOORS
8 27 (1.33%) Gradle
8 27 (1.33%) IntelliJ
9 23 (1.14%) Bitbucket
9 23 (1.14%) Selenium
10 22 (1.09%) Cucumber
10 22 (1.09%) Cypress.io
11 18 (0.89%) Visual Studio
12 17 (0.84%) Maven
13 16 (0.79%) Eclipse
14 13 (0.64%) Mockito
15 11 (0.54%) Liquibase
16 10 (0.49%) Artifactory
General
1 303 (14.96%) Finance
2 300 (14.81%) Social Skills
3 126 (6.22%) Public Sector
4 110 (5.43%) Banking
5 108 (5.33%) Analytical Skills
6 84 (4.15%) Aerospace
7 65 (3.21%) Front Office
8 37 (1.83%) Electronics
9 35 (1.73%) Law
10 34 (1.68%) Manufacturing
11 33 (1.63%) Retail
12 29 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
13 27 (1.33%) Military
14 26 (1.28%) Investment Banking
15 21 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (1.04%) Telecoms
16 15 (0.74%) Financial Institution
17 13 (0.64%) Documentation Skills
17 13 (0.64%) Legal
18 12 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 1,106 (54.59%) Software Engineer
2 361 (17.82%) Senior
3 349 (17.23%) Developer
4 180 (8.88%) Senior Software Engineer
5 151 (7.45%) Lead
6 146 (7.21%) Embedded Engineer
7 140 (6.91%) Java Engineer
8 134 (6.61%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 123 (6.07%) C++ Software Engineer
10 110 (5.43%) Java Software Engineer
11 89 (4.39%) Java Developer
12 86 (4.24%) Architect
13 68 (3.36%) Senior Developer
14 67 (3.31%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 65 (3.21%) Python Engineer
16 60 (2.96%) Full-Stack Engineer
17 59 (2.91%) Software Developer
18 58 (2.86%) Data Engineer
18 58 (2.86%) Lead Software Engineer
19 56 (2.76%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 227 (11.20%) React
2 190 (9.38%) Kafka
3 170 (8.39%) Node.js
4 145 (7.16%) .NET
5 144 (7.11%) REST
6 137 (6.76%) Spring
7 120 (5.92%) Spring Boot
8 100 (4.94%) AngularJS
9 92 (4.54%) RESTful
10 74 (3.65%) GraphQL
11 56 (2.76%) gRPC
12 53 (2.62%) Middleware
13 52 (2.57%) Redux
14 48 (2.37%) CSS
15 47 (2.32%) HTML
16 40 (1.97%) JSON
17 38 (1.88%) Playwright
18 36 (1.78%) Web Services
19 33 (1.63%) OpenTelemetry
20 30 (1.48%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 212 (10.46%) Cloud Native
2 144 (7.11%) Distributed Systems
3 92 (4.54%) Product Ownership
4 81 (4.00%) Algorithms
5 58 (2.86%) Fixed Income
6 39 (1.92%) AI Agents
7 34 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
8 30 (1.48%) Onboarding
9 29 (1.43%) Embedded Systems
10 26 (1.28%) Data Structures
10 26 (1.28%) Derivative
10 26 (1.28%) Mobile App
11 24 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
12 23 (1.14%) Robotics
13 20 (0.99%) Equities
13 20 (0.99%) Greenfield Project
14 18 (0.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 14 (0.69%) NHS
16 13 (0.64%) Life Science
16 13 (0.64%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 192 (9.48%) Linux
2 69 (3.41%) Windows
3 46 (2.27%) Unix
4 26 (1.28%) Android
5 22 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (0.94%) Apple iOS
7 11 (0.54%) Windows Server
8 9 (0.44%) Embedded Linux
9 8 (0.39%) FreeRTOS
10 6 (0.30%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.25%) Debian
12 4 (0.20%) VMS
13 3 (0.15%) Rocky
14 2 (0.099%) Robot Operating System
14 2 (0.099%) Solaris
14 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
15 1 (0.049%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 583 (28.78%) CI/CD
2 568 (28.04%) Agile
3 415 (20.48%) DevOps
4 320 (15.79%) Microservices
5 272 (13.43%) AI
6 226 (11.15%) Problem-Solving
7 216 (10.66%) Full-Stack Development
8 208 (10.27%) Containerisation
9 207 (10.22%) Infrastructure as Code
10 204 (10.07%) Test Automation
11 155 (7.65%) Computer Science
12 153 (7.55%) Machine Learning
12 153 (7.55%) Observability
13 150 (7.40%) Continuous Improvement
13 150 (7.40%) Mentoring
14 144 (7.11%) SDLC
15 139 (6.86%) Scrum
16 134 (6.61%) TDD
17 131 (6.47%) Technical Leadership
18 118 (5.82%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 527 (26.01%) Python
2 491 (24.23%) Java
3 265 (13.08%) SQL
4 257 (12.69%) C#
5 241 (11.90%) TypeScript
6 228 (11.25%) C++
7 215 (10.61%) JavaScript
8 151 (7.45%) Go
9 131 (6.47%) Ada
10 115 (5.68%) C
11 35 (1.73%) Kotlin
12 33 (1.63%) PowerShell
13 31 (1.53%) Embedded C
14 30 (1.48%) Bash
15 26 (1.28%) MATLAB
16 25 (1.23%) Ruby
17 24 (1.18%) Rust
18 22 (1.09%) Scala
19 21 (1.04%) Shell Script
20 18 (0.89%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 494 (24.38%) Security Cleared
2 385 (19.00%) SC Cleared
3 171 (8.44%) Degree
4 88 (4.34%) Computer Science Degree
5 61 (3.01%) DV Cleared
6 41 (2.02%) Master's Degree
7 31 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (1.18%) AWS Certification
9 14 (0.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 13 (0.64%) Azure Certification
10 13 (0.64%) CISSP
11 12 (0.59%) PhD
12 10 (0.49%) CISM
13 8 (0.39%) ISTQB
13 8 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
14 7 (0.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 4 (0.20%) HND
15 4 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
16 3 (0.15%) Cisco Certification
16 3 (0.15%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (5.68%) QA
2 53 (2.62%) Def Stans
3 40 (1.97%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.88%) IEC 61508
5 26 (1.28%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.23%) GDPR
7 23 (1.14%) MISRA
8 17 (0.84%) MISRA C
9 8 (0.39%) NIST
10 7 (0.35%) DO-178B
10 7 (0.35%) HL7
10 7 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 6 (0.30%) NCSC
11 6 (0.30%) WCAG
12 3 (0.15%) FATCA
13 2 (0.099%) EMIR
13 2 (0.099%) MiFID
13 2 (0.099%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.099%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.099%) SLA
System Software
1 310 (15.30%) Docker
2 18 (0.89%) Firmware
3 16 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (0.35%) Active Directory
6 5 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.15%) HDFS
9 2 (0.099%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 338 (16.68%) Kubernetes
2 214 (10.56%) Terraform
3 86 (4.24%) Grafana
4 56 (2.76%) Ansible
5 49 (2.42%) Prometheus
6 32 (1.58%) Argo
7 17 (0.84%) Puppet
8 12 (0.59%) Progress Chef
9 7 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (0.30%) Istio
11 5 (0.25%) HAProxy
11 5 (0.25%) Kibana
11 5 (0.25%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.20%) Data Guard
12 4 (0.20%) Docker Swarm
12 4 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
13 3 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 2 (0.099%) Consul
14 2 (0.099%) HP ALM
14 2 (0.099%) Podman
Vendors
1 140 (6.91%) Microsoft
2 76 (3.75%) Google
3 59 (2.91%) Oracle
4 55 (2.71%) Red Hat
5 46 (2.27%) Databricks
6 23 (1.14%) IBM
7 22 (1.09%) Splunk
8 20 (0.99%) OpenAI
9 17 (0.84%) VMware
10 14 (0.69%) Foundry
11 13 (0.64%) ServiceNow
12 11 (0.54%) Siemens
13 10 (0.49%) Atlassian
13 10 (0.49%) MathWorks
13 10 (0.49%) PagerDuty
13 10 (0.49%) SAP
14 9 (0.44%) BiZZdesign
14 9 (0.44%) Okta
14 9 (0.44%) Software AG
15 8 (0.39%) Spotify