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 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 41 34
Rank change year-on-year +1 -7 +8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,848 1,227 1,931
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.02% 4.97% 5.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.80% 5.48% 5.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 965 805 1,119
10th Percentile £381 £409 £421
25th Percentile £450 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £669 £750 £738
90th Percentile £788 £838 £800
UK median daily rate £548 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.75% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 376 79 320
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.90 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £57.52 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%

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 31,861 22,379 32,986
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.53% 90.57% 86.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,379 14,469 21,822
10th Percentile £313 £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 £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,986 803 2,148
10th Percentile £15.31 £15.25 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.03 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.32 £34.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.12% +6.15% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%

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 14 March 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 14 March 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 14 March 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 -11 798 £600 -7.69% 546
North of England +15 275 £518 -2.36% 242
South West +11 254 £500 -14.53% 219
East of England +38 180 £475 +5.09% 129
South East 0 173 £500 - 332
North West +10 131 £515 -6.36% 112
Midlands -12 102 £500 +4.82% 121
Yorkshire -4 98 £523 -0.48% 97
West Midlands -13 86 £500 +4.82% 70
North East +23 51 £488 - 34
East Midlands -29 16 £506 +3.32% 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 61 (3.30%) Confluence
2 49 (2.65%) Apache
3 48 (2.60%) Apache Spark
4 22 (1.19%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.70%) WebLogic
6 10 (0.54%) CMS
7 8 (0.43%) JBoss
7 8 (0.43%) Palantir Foundry
8 5 (0.27%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.22%) IIS
9 4 (0.22%) nginx
10 3 (0.16%) SAS
10 3 (0.16%) SharePoint
10 3 (0.16%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.11%) Camunda
11 2 (0.11%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.11%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.11%) WinCC
11 2 (0.11%) WordPress
12 1 (0.054%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 15 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.54%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.16%) Simulink
6 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.054%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.054%) Maya
7 1 (0.054%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.054%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.054%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.11%) LabWindows
1 2 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.11%) Primavera
2 1 (0.054%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.054%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.054%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 538 (29.11%) AWS
2 333 (18.02%) Azure
3 183 (9.90%) GCP
4 136 (7.36%) Serverless
5 133 (7.20%) GitHub
6 64 (3.46%) Azure DevOps
7 62 (3.35%) GitHub Actions
8 61 (3.30%) Amazon S3
8 61 (3.30%) AWS Lambda
9 47 (2.54%) Azure AKS
10 46 (2.49%) Power Platform
11 45 (2.44%) OpenShift
12 44 (2.38%) Amazon EKS
13 41 (2.22%) AWS CloudFormation
14 38 (2.06%) Azure Functions
15 34 (1.84%) Amazon EC2
15 34 (1.84%) Amazon ECS
16 31 (1.68%) SaaS
17 25 (1.35%) Datadog
18 24 (1.30%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.14%) Ethernet
2 13 (0.70%) TCP/IP
3 12 (0.65%) Network Security
4 9 (0.49%) Firewall
5 7 (0.38%) Internet
6 5 (0.27%) 3GPP
6 5 (0.27%) Modbus
6 5 (0.27%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.22%) BGP
7 4 (0.22%) HTTP
7 4 (0.22%) RS-232
7 4 (0.22%) RS-485
7 4 (0.22%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.22%) VLAN
7 4 (0.22%) Wireless
8 3 (0.16%) IPv4
8 3 (0.16%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.16%) NFC
8 3 (0.16%) PPP
8 3 (0.16%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (6.66%) PostgreSQL
2 74 (4.00%) Apache Cassandra
3 68 (3.68%) NoSQL
4 65 (3.52%) MongoDB
5 53 (2.87%) Relational Database
6 52 (2.81%) SQL Server
7 36 (1.95%) Data Lake
8 34 (1.84%) Amazon RDS
8 34 (1.84%) Big Data
9 33 (1.79%) Power BI
10 29 (1.57%) BigQuery
11 28 (1.52%) MySQL
12 26 (1.41%) Metadata
13 21 (1.14%) DynamoDB
14 20 (1.08%) Hadoop
15 19 (1.03%) Data Warehouse
16 17 (0.92%) Amazon Athena
17 16 (0.87%) Elasticsearch
18 15 (0.81%) Mixpanel
19 13 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 185 (10.01%) Git
2 129 (6.98%) Jenkins
3 118 (6.39%) GitLab
4 103 (5.57%) JIRA
5 33 (1.79%) Rational DOORS
6 32 (1.73%) JUnit
7 31 (1.68%) Selenium
8 30 (1.62%) Rational Rhapsody
8 30 (1.62%) SonarQube
9 28 (1.52%) Cucumber
10 27 (1.46%) Cypress.io
10 27 (1.46%) Gradle
11 25 (1.35%) IntelliJ
12 24 (1.30%) Bitbucket
13 23 (1.24%) Eclipse
14 18 (0.97%) Maven
15 17 (0.92%) Visual Studio
16 16 (0.87%) Liquibase
17 15 (0.81%) Mockito
18 12 (0.65%) Postman
General
1 311 (16.83%) Finance
2 306 (16.56%) Social Skills
3 120 (6.49%) Public Sector
4 114 (6.17%) Banking
5 98 (5.30%) Analytical Skills
6 66 (3.57%) Front Office
7 62 (3.35%) Aerospace
8 42 (2.27%) Electronics
9 34 (1.84%) Law
10 31 (1.68%) Financial Institution
10 31 (1.68%) Retail
11 30 (1.62%) Investment Banking
12 28 (1.52%) Military
13 26 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
14 23 (1.24%) Manufacturing
15 20 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (1.08%) Telecoms
16 17 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
17 14 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
18 12 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 957 (51.79%) Software Engineer
2 347 (18.78%) Senior
3 338 (18.29%) Developer
4 157 (8.50%) Senior Software Engineer
5 145 (7.85%) Lead
6 123 (6.66%) Java Engineer
7 122 (6.60%) C++ Software Engineer
8 105 (5.68%) Embedded Engineer
9 101 (5.47%) Java Software Engineer
10 93 (5.03%) Embedded Software Engineer
11 75 (4.06%) Java Developer
12 73 (3.95%) Architect
13 72 (3.90%) Python Engineer
13 72 (3.90%) Senior Developer
14 62 (3.35%) Developer/Software Engineer
14 62 (3.35%) Python Developer
15 57 (3.08%) Lead Software Engineer
16 55 (2.98%) Data Engineer
17 49 (2.65%) AWS Engineer
17 49 (2.65%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 236 (12.77%) React
2 219 (11.85%) Kafka
3 168 (9.09%) Node.js
4 146 (7.90%) REST
5 137 (7.41%) .NET
6 120 (6.49%) Spring
7 107 (5.79%) Spring Boot
8 105 (5.68%) RESTful
9 93 (5.03%) AngularJS
10 78 (4.22%) gRPC
11 67 (3.63%) GraphQL
12 65 (3.52%) Middleware
13 55 (2.98%) HTML
14 54 (2.92%) Redux
15 51 (2.76%) JSON
16 49 (2.65%) CSS
17 39 (2.11%) FastAPI
18 38 (2.06%) Playwright
18 38 (2.06%) Vue
19 34 (1.84%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 215 (11.63%) Cloud Native
2 134 (7.25%) Distributed Systems
3 88 (4.76%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.68%) Algorithms
5 62 (3.35%) Fixed Income
6 41 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.84%) Mobile App
8 32 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
9 29 (1.57%) AI Agents
9 29 (1.57%) Derivative
10 28 (1.52%) Data Structures
11 27 (1.46%) Equities
11 27 (1.46%) Greenfield Project
11 27 (1.46%) Onboarding
12 26 (1.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 23 (1.24%) Embedded Systems
14 22 (1.19%) Hedge funds
14 22 (1.19%) Public Cloud
15 20 (1.08%) Life Science
16 19 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 212 (11.47%) Linux
2 78 (4.22%) Windows
3 54 (2.92%) Unix
4 26 (1.41%) Android
5 19 (1.03%) Apple iOS
5 19 (1.03%) Ubuntu
6 18 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 14 (0.76%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.32%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.16%) Debian
9 3 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
9 3 (0.16%) VMS
10 2 (0.11%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.11%) Robot Operating System
10 2 (0.11%) Rocky
10 2 (0.11%) Solaris
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.054%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.054%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 571 (30.90%) Agile
2 529 (28.63%) CI/CD
3 374 (20.24%) DevOps
4 321 (17.37%) Microservices
5 268 (14.50%) AI
6 242 (13.10%) Problem-Solving
7 216 (11.69%) Containerisation
8 207 (11.20%) Test Automation
9 191 (10.34%) Full-Stack Development
10 183 (9.90%) Infrastructure as Code
11 167 (9.04%) Machine Learning
12 165 (8.93%) Computer Science
13 157 (8.50%) Mentoring
14 154 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
15 132 (7.14%) Scrum
16 130 (7.03%) SDLC
17 128 (6.93%) Observability
18 123 (6.66%) TDD
19 118 (6.39%) Technical Leadership
20 116 (6.28%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 533 (28.84%) Python
2 447 (24.19%) Java
3 251 (13.58%) SQL
4 249 (13.47%) C++
5 244 (13.20%) JavaScript
6 230 (12.45%) TypeScript
7 220 (11.90%) C#
8 169 (9.15%) Go
9 121 (6.55%) Ada
10 114 (6.17%) C
11 36 (1.95%) PowerShell
12 33 (1.79%) Shell Script
13 32 (1.73%) Rust
14 31 (1.68%) Bash
15 30 (1.62%) Kotlin
16 26 (1.41%) Embedded C
17 24 (1.30%) Embedded C++
18 21 (1.14%) MATLAB
18 21 (1.14%) Scala
19 18 (0.97%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 424 (22.94%) Security Cleared
2 326 (17.64%) SC Cleared
3 200 (10.82%) Degree
4 92 (4.98%) Computer Science Degree
5 58 (3.14%) DV Cleared
5 58 (3.14%) Master's Degree
6 24 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
7 20 (1.08%) PhD
8 19 (1.03%) AWS Certification
8 19 (1.03%) CISSP
9 17 (0.92%) CISM
10 16 (0.87%) Azure Certification
11 15 (0.81%) TOGAF Certification
12 11 (0.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 11 (0.60%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 7 (0.38%) ISTQB
14 6 (0.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 5 (0.27%) Microsoft Certification
16 4 (0.22%) HND
16 4 (0.22%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (5.14%) QA
2 57 (3.08%) Def Stans
3 40 (2.16%) Data Quality
4 39 (2.11%) IEC 61508
5 33 (1.79%) Accessibility
6 31 (1.68%) MISRA
7 26 (1.41%) GDPR
8 21 (1.14%) MISRA C
9 18 (0.97%) WCAG
10 17 (0.92%) NIST
11 11 (0.60%) DO-178B
12 10 (0.54%) EU AI Act
13 6 (0.32%) HL7
13 6 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 5 (0.27%) NCSC
15 3 (0.16%) SLA
16 2 (0.11%) FATCA
16 2 (0.11%) PCI DSS
16 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 2 (0.11%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 335 (18.13%) Docker
2 18 (0.97%) Firmware
3 15 (0.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.43%) Active Directory
6 4 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
7 3 (0.16%) HDFS
8 2 (0.11%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 364 (19.70%) Kubernetes
2 206 (11.15%) Terraform
3 95 (5.14%) Grafana
4 66 (3.57%) Ansible
5 58 (3.14%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.30%) Argo
7 23 (1.24%) Puppet
8 13 (0.70%) Progress Chef
9 9 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (0.32%) Istio
11 5 (0.27%) HP Quality Center
11 5 (0.27%) Kibana
11 5 (0.27%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.22%) Data Guard
12 4 (0.22%) Podman
13 3 (0.16%) Docker Swarm
13 3 (0.16%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.16%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 2 (0.11%) Functional Safety
14 2 (0.11%) rkt
Vendors
1 142 (7.68%) Microsoft
2 70 (3.79%) Google
3 63 (3.41%) Red Hat
4 58 (3.14%) Oracle
5 47 (2.54%) Databricks
6 28 (1.52%) Splunk
7 26 (1.41%) Foundry
8 19 (1.03%) IBM
9 16 (0.87%) BiZZdesign
9 16 (0.87%) VMware
10 15 (0.81%) OpenAI
11 10 (0.54%) Atlassian
11 10 (0.54%) PagerDuty
11 10 (0.54%) Siemens
12 9 (0.49%) Palantir
12 9 (0.49%) Software AG
13 8 (0.43%) ANSYS
13 8 (0.43%) SAP
13 8 (0.43%) ServiceNow
13 8 (0.43%) webMethods