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 29 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 43 31
Rank change year-on-year +12 -12 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,594 1,364 1,905
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.65% 4.92% 5.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.66% 5.42% 6.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,413 850 1,191
10th Percentile £400 £380 £410
25th Percentile £468 £471 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -4.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £688 £745 £823
90th Percentile £788 £838 £888
UK median daily rate £560 £575 £602
% change year-on-year -2.61% -4.45% +0.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 410 111 253
10th Percentile £51.25 £38.63 £45.41
25th Percentile £60.00 £52.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.51 £75.00 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +1.33%

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 38,963 25,189 28,313
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.89% 90.78% 85.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,049 16,044 18,122
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £632 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £753
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,587 1,471 1,456
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.25 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.87 £18.39
Median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.20% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.03
% change year-on-year +63.02% -40.16% +0.31%

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 29 August 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 29 August 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 29 August 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 -2 1,170 £601 -7.62% 3,776
North of England +26 415 £538 +9.25% 600
South East +24 330 £525 +4.90% 604
South West +18 308 £550 +7.32% 487
East of England +23 215 £505 +1.00% 388
North West +7 192 £550 +10.00% 363
Yorkshire +11 161 £500 +2.04% 151
Midlands +10 120 £459 -16.55% 261
West Midlands 0 83 £460 -20.00% 145
North East +10 67 £650 +41.30% 87
East Midlands +10 36 £435 -8.42% 115
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 53 (2.04%) Confluence
2 52 (2.00%) Apache Spark
3 41 (1.58%) Apache Airflow
4 34 (1.31%) Apache
5 11 (0.42%) CMS
6 9 (0.35%) SharePoint
7 7 (0.27%) SAS
8 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
9 5 (0.19%) Apache Solr
9 5 (0.19%) Camunda
9 5 (0.19%) Ethereum
9 5 (0.19%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.15%) Apache Superset
11 3 (0.12%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.12%) WordPress
12 2 (0.077%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.077%) MQSeries
12 2 (0.077%) nginx
12 2 (0.077%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.077%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 10 (0.39%) Chatbot
2 10 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
3 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.15%) CPLEX
4 4 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.15%) Simulink
5 3 (0.12%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.12%) Trello
6 2 (0.077%) CATIA
6 2 (0.077%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.077%) Notion
7 1 (0.039%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.039%) Blender
7 1 (0.039%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 7 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
1 7 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
2 5 (0.19%) R3 Corda
3 4 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.15%) Quorum
3 4 (0.15%) Ripple
4 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payroll
4 3 (0.12%) Orchestrade
4 3 (0.12%) Primavera
4 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.077%) Aladdin
5 2 (0.077%) Endur
5 2 (0.077%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.039%) Distributed Ledger
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.039%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.039%) Shopify
6 1 (0.039%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 661 (25.48%) AWS
2 524 (20.20%) Azure
3 266 (10.25%) GCP
4 227 (8.75%) GitHub
5 133 (5.13%) Serverless
6 113 (4.36%) GitHub Actions
7 111 (4.28%) Azure DevOps
8 96 (3.70%) AWS Lambda
9 66 (2.54%) Amazon S3
10 61 (2.35%) Anthropic Claude
11 58 (2.24%) OpenShift
12 50 (1.93%) Amazon SQS
13 48 (1.85%) Amazon ECS
14 47 (1.81%) Amazon EKS
14 47 (1.81%) GitHub Copilot
15 45 (1.73%) Power Platform
16 38 (1.46%) Snowflake
17 36 (1.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 33 (1.27%) Azure AKS
19 29 (1.12%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.16%) Software-Defined Radio
2 29 (1.12%) Wireless
3 20 (0.77%) Firewall
4 19 (0.73%) Internet
5 18 (0.69%) HTTP
6 17 (0.66%) VPN
7 13 (0.50%) Ethernet
8 12 (0.46%) TCP/IP
8 12 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
9 7 (0.27%) Network Security
9 7 (0.27%) RTP
9 7 (0.27%) Wireshark
10 6 (0.23%) 3GPP
11 5 (0.19%) DNS
12 4 (0.15%) IPv4
12 4 (0.15%) IPv6
12 4 (0.15%) RS-232
12 4 (0.15%) SSL
13 3 (0.12%) Cisco IPT
13 3 (0.12%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 142 (5.47%) PostgreSQL
2 104 (4.01%) Relational Database
3 87 (3.35%) NoSQL
4 86 (3.32%) SQL Server
5 54 (2.08%) MongoDB
6 49 (1.89%) Data Warehouse
7 41 (1.58%) DynamoDB
8 35 (1.35%) MySQL
9 32 (1.23%) Power BI
10 31 (1.20%) Metadata
11 28 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
11 28 (1.08%) Big Data
12 27 (1.04%) Data Lake
13 26 (1.00%) Redis
14 24 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
15 21 (0.81%) Pinecone
16 20 (0.77%) BigQuery
17 19 (0.73%) Weaviate
18 14 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
19 13 (0.50%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 272 (10.49%) Git
2 158 (6.09%) Jenkins
3 150 (5.78%) GitLab
4 109 (4.20%) JIRA
5 59 (2.27%) SonarQube
6 39 (1.50%) JUnit
7 38 (1.46%) Gradle
8 29 (1.12%) Claude Code
9 26 (1.00%) Selenium
10 25 (0.96%) Rational DOORS
11 23 (0.89%) Rational Rhapsody
12 20 (0.77%) Maven
13 18 (0.69%) Cucumber
13 18 (0.69%) Visual Studio
14 17 (0.66%) Mockito
15 13 (0.50%) Cypress.io
15 13 (0.50%) Liquibase
16 12 (0.46%) LabVIEW
16 12 (0.46%) MLflow
16 12 (0.46%) Snyk
General
1 512 (19.74%) Social Skills
2 456 (17.58%) Finance
3 202 (7.79%) Banking
4 188 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
5 187 (7.21%) Public Sector
6 92 (3.55%) Aerospace
7 84 (3.24%) Front Office
8 49 (1.89%) Investment Banking
8 49 (1.89%) Manufacturing
9 46 (1.77%) Retail
10 42 (1.62%) Law
11 35 (1.35%) Automotive
12 27 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
12 27 (1.04%) Telecoms
13 26 (1.00%) Aviation
14 24 (0.93%) Military
15 20 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 20 (0.77%) Marketing
16 18 (0.69%) Legal
17 17 (0.66%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 1,150 (44.33%) Software Engineer
2 480 (18.50%) Developer
3 463 (17.85%) Senior
4 291 (11.22%) Lead
5 193 (7.44%) Senior Software Engineer
6 175 (6.75%) Java Engineer
7 157 (6.05%) Embedded Engineer
8 147 (5.67%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 139 (5.36%) Java Software Engineer
10 137 (5.28%) Java Developer
11 117 (4.51%) Software Developer
12 109 (4.20%) C++ Software Engineer
13 107 (4.12%) Architect
14 106 (4.09%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 104 (4.01%) Python Engineer
16 95 (3.66%) Senior Developer
17 86 (3.32%) Lead Software Engineer
18 85 (3.28%) Data Engineer
19 79 (3.05%) DevOps Engineer
20 75 (2.89%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 280 (10.79%) Terraform
2 254 (9.79%) React
3 222 (8.56%) Spring
4 218 (8.40%) REST
5 208 (8.02%) .NET
6 206 (7.94%) Spring Boot
7 177 (6.82%) Kafka
8 138 (5.32%) Node.js
9 130 (5.01%) RESTful
10 106 (4.09%) AngularJS
11 60 (2.31%) Django
12 52 (2.00%) Next.js
13 49 (1.89%) CSS
14 48 (1.85%) LangChain
15 47 (1.81%) HTML
16 43 (1.66%) GraphQL
17 41 (1.58%) FastAPI
18 40 (1.54%) JSON
19 39 (1.50%) Quarkus
20 38 (1.46%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 389 (15.00%) Cloud Native
2 237 (9.14%) Distributed Systems
3 133 (5.13%) Product Ownership
4 108 (4.16%) AI Agents
5 84 (3.24%) Algorithms
6 59 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
7 53 (2.04%) Data Structures
8 49 (1.89%) Embedded Systems
8 49 (1.89%) Onboarding
9 45 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
10 40 (1.54%) Fixed Income
11 35 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
12 34 (1.31%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 31 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
14 27 (1.04%) Derivative
14 27 (1.04%) Robotics
15 25 (0.96%) Greenfield Project
16 24 (0.93%) Equities
17 19 (0.73%) NHS
18 18 (0.69%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 175 (6.75%) Linux
2 47 (1.81%) Windows
3 29 (1.12%) Unix
4 23 (0.89%) Embedded Linux
5 22 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.54%) FreeRTOS
7 13 (0.50%) Android
8 8 (0.31%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.31%) Windows Server
9 7 (0.27%) Apple iOS
10 6 (0.23%) Debian
11 3 (0.12%) Rocky
11 3 (0.12%) VMS
12 2 (0.077%) VxWorks
12 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.039%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.039%) Tizen
13 1 (0.039%) webOS
13 1 (0.039%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 882 (34.00%) CI/CD
2 783 (30.19%) Agile
3 618 (23.82%) DevOps
4 523 (20.16%) AI
5 407 (15.69%) Microservices
6 370 (14.26%) Test Automation
7 312 (12.03%) Problem-Solving
8 304 (11.72%) Infrastructure as Code
9 302 (11.64%) Continuous Improvement
10 263 (10.14%) Containerisation
11 258 (9.95%) Full-Stack Development
12 257 (9.91%) Observability
13 254 (9.79%) SDLC
14 218 (8.40%) Machine Learning
15 217 (8.37%) Platform Engineering
16 216 (8.33%) Technical Leadership
17 206 (7.94%) Event-Driven
17 206 (7.94%) Mentoring
18 197 (7.59%) Scrum
19 196 (7.56%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 761 (29.34%) Python
2 671 (25.87%) Java
3 372 (14.34%) SQL
4 287 (11.06%) C#
5 284 (10.95%) TypeScript
6 213 (8.21%) C++
7 208 (8.02%) JavaScript
8 114 (4.39%) C
9 92 (3.55%) Ada
10 89 (3.43%) Go
11 63 (2.43%) Kotlin
12 46 (1.77%) PowerShell
13 42 (1.62%) Bash
14 41 (1.58%) Rust
15 38 (1.46%) Scala
16 24 (0.93%) Ruby
17 23 (0.89%) Embedded C
18 22 (0.85%) PL/SQL
19 21 (0.81%) Bicep
20 18 (0.69%) PHP
Qualifications
1 582 (22.44%) Security Cleared
2 488 (18.81%) SC Cleared
3 208 (8.02%) Degree
4 96 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
5 81 (3.12%) DV Cleared
6 55 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
7 46 (1.77%) Master's Degree
8 34 (1.31%) AWS Certification
9 20 (0.77%) PhD
10 15 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 15 (0.58%) Azure Certification
11 8 (0.31%) CISSP
11 8 (0.31%) PMP
12 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 6 (0.23%) Chartered Engineer
13 6 (0.23%) ISTQB
14 4 (0.15%) GIAC
14 4 (0.15%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 4 (0.15%) MBA
14 4 (0.15%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 164 (6.32%) QA
2 64 (2.47%) Data Quality
3 49 (1.89%) Accessibility
4 25 (0.96%) GDPR
5 18 (0.69%) Def Stans
6 17 (0.66%) MISRA
7 15 (0.58%) NIST
8 14 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 12 (0.46%) WCAG
10 10 (0.39%) DO-178B
11 9 (0.35%) IEC 61508
11 9 (0.35%) NCSC
12 7 (0.27%) GRC
13 6 (0.23%) MISRA C
14 5 (0.19%) HL7
14 5 (0.19%) JSP 440
14 5 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.15%) PCI DSS
16 3 (0.12%) DO-254
16 3 (0.12%) MiFID
System Software
1 389 (15.00%) Docker
2 30 (1.16%) Firmware
3 19 (0.73%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (0.39%) Active Directory
4 10 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.15%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 443 (17.08%) Kubernetes
2 84 (3.24%) Ansible
3 52 (2.00%) Grafana
4 42 (1.62%) Argo
5 38 (1.46%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.42%) Kibana
8 7 (0.27%) Puppet
9 6 (0.23%) Functional Safety
10 5 (0.19%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.15%) Consul
11 4 (0.15%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.12%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.12%) Istio
12 3 (0.12%) Kustomize
12 3 (0.12%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.077%) Cilium
13 2 (0.077%) Docker Swarm
13 2 (0.077%) Packer
13 2 (0.077%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 137 (5.28%) Microsoft
2 94 (3.62%) Google
3 79 (3.05%) Oracle
4 68 (2.62%) Databricks
5 57 (2.20%) OpenAI
6 44 (1.70%) Red Hat
7 25 (0.96%) Salesforce
8 24 (0.93%) Splunk
9 19 (0.73%) IBM
10 18 (0.69%) ServiceNow
11 17 (0.66%) Informatica
12 15 (0.58%) Foundry
13 12 (0.46%) Adobe
13 12 (0.46%) SAP
14 11 (0.42%) Checkmarx
15 9 (0.35%) Dynatrace
16 8 (0.31%) Confluent
17 7 (0.27%) ForgeRock
17 7 (0.27%) Okta
17 7 (0.27%) Solace