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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 45 27
Rank change year-on-year +13 -18 +12
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,309 1,173 2,293
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.38% 4.74% 6.12%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.32% 5.19% 7.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,229 778 1,313
10th Percentile £400 £400 £414
25th Percentile £463 £475 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.80%
75th Percentile £675 £775 £763
90th Percentile £788 £838 £875
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 452 62 413
10th Percentile £52.50 £38.08 £46.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £51.44 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.75 £77.50
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 36,560 22,594 31,972
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.16% 91.33% 85.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,106 14,607 20,685
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £415 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.48% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £726 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,294 1,062 2,382
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.10 £16.06
Median hourly rate £47.00 £27.45 £37.75
Median % change year-on-year +71.22% -27.28% +7.09%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £26.27 £37.34
% change year-on-year +67.37% -29.66% +6.69%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 -4 985 £585 -10.00% 1,138
North of England +29 348 £538 +7.50% 748
South West +29 338 £570 +8.57% 407
South East +22 285 £525 +3.65% 830
East of England +37 214 £495 +1.43% 507
North West +5 160 £505 +1.00% 389
Yorkshire +24 123 £525 +7.14% 208
Midlands -23 92 £462 -8.97% 401
West Midlands -19 73 £459 -18.94% 195
North East +18 70 £621 +35.05% 152
East Midlands -17 18 £513 +4.59% 206
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 54 (2.34%) Confluence
2 39 (1.69%) Apache Spark
3 27 (1.17%) Apache
4 26 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.35%) SAS
6 7 (0.30%) CMS
7 6 (0.26%) SharePoint
8 5 (0.22%) nginx
9 4 (0.17%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.17%) Hyperledger
9 4 (0.17%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.13%) Camunda
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.13%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.087%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.087%) IIS
11 2 (0.087%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.087%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.087%) WinCC
12 1 (0.043%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 16 (0.69%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.26%) Chatbot
2 6 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 5 (0.22%) CPLEX
4 4 (0.17%) Simulink
5 2 (0.087%) CATIA
5 2 (0.087%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.087%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.043%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.043%) Blender
6 1 (0.043%) Maya
6 1 (0.043%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.043%) Notion
6 1 (0.043%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
1 6 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
2 5 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.17%) Quorum
3 4 (0.17%) R3 Corda
3 4 (0.17%) Ripple
4 3 (0.13%) Orchestrade
5 2 (0.087%) Aladdin
5 2 (0.087%) LabWindows
5 2 (0.087%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.043%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.043%) Sprinklr
6 1 (0.043%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 566 (24.51%) AWS
2 438 (18.97%) Azure
3 207 (8.96%) GCP
4 168 (7.28%) GitHub
5 120 (5.20%) Serverless
6 96 (4.16%) Azure DevOps
7 78 (3.38%) GitHub Actions
8 76 (3.29%) AWS Lambda
9 63 (2.73%) Amazon S3
10 54 (2.34%) OpenShift
11 46 (1.99%) Power Platform
12 38 (1.65%) Amazon SQS
13 36 (1.56%) Amazon ECS
13 36 (1.56%) Azure AKS
14 35 (1.52%) Amazon EKS
15 34 (1.47%) Anthropic Claude
16 32 (1.39%) Amazon EC2
17 28 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
18 27 (1.17%) SaaS
19 26 (1.13%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.30%) Software-Defined Radio
2 23 (1.00%) Ethernet
3 22 (0.95%) Wireless
4 17 (0.74%) TCP/IP
5 15 (0.65%) HTTP
6 13 (0.56%) Firewall
7 12 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (0.48%) Internet
9 10 (0.43%) 3GPP
10 9 (0.39%) VPN
11 7 (0.30%) Network Security
11 7 (0.30%) RTP
12 6 (0.26%) Wireshark
13 4 (0.17%) DNS
14 3 (0.13%) Bluetooth
14 3 (0.13%) IPv4
14 3 (0.13%) IPv6
14 3 (0.13%) Modbus
14 3 (0.13%) RS-232
14 3 (0.13%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 140 (6.06%) PostgreSQL
2 79 (3.42%) Relational Database
3 66 (2.86%) SQL Server
4 62 (2.69%) NoSQL
5 52 (2.25%) MongoDB
6 35 (1.52%) Apache Cassandra
7 33 (1.43%) DynamoDB
8 32 (1.39%) Power BI
9 30 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
9 30 (1.30%) MySQL
10 28 (1.21%) BigQuery
11 27 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
12 25 (1.08%) Big Data
12 25 (1.08%) Data Lake
13 24 (1.04%) Metadata
14 17 (0.74%) Pinecone
14 17 (0.74%) Redis
15 16 (0.69%) Weaviate
16 15 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
16 15 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 225 (9.74%) Git
2 141 (6.11%) Jenkins
3 123 (5.33%) GitLab
4 110 (4.76%) JIRA
5 53 (2.30%) SonarQube
6 43 (1.86%) Gradle
7 34 (1.47%) JUnit
8 29 (1.26%) Rational DOORS
8 29 (1.26%) Rational Rhapsody
9 23 (1.00%) Visual Studio
10 22 (0.95%) Cucumber
11 21 (0.91%) Bitbucket
11 21 (0.91%) Maven
12 20 (0.87%) Selenium
13 19 (0.82%) IntelliJ
14 16 (0.69%) Cypress.io
14 16 (0.69%) Liquibase
14 16 (0.69%) Mockito
15 13 (0.56%) Claude Code
16 12 (0.52%) Eclipse
General
1 399 (17.28%) Finance
2 350 (15.16%) Social Skills
3 150 (6.50%) Banking
4 140 (6.06%) Analytical Skills
5 136 (5.89%) Public Sector
6 99 (4.29%) Aerospace
7 77 (3.33%) Front Office
8 45 (1.95%) Retail
9 44 (1.91%) Law
9 44 (1.91%) Manufacturing
10 38 (1.65%) Investment Banking
11 26 (1.13%) Military
12 25 (1.08%) Automotive
12 25 (1.08%) Aviation
12 25 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
13 22 (0.95%) Telecoms
14 18 (0.78%) Financial Institution
15 16 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
16 15 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
16 15 (0.65%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 1,174 (50.84%) Software Engineer
2 425 (18.41%) Developer
3 402 (17.41%) Senior
4 207 (8.96%) Lead
5 181 (7.84%) Senior Software Engineer
6 171 (7.41%) Java Engineer
7 146 (6.32%) Embedded Engineer
8 141 (6.11%) Java Software Engineer
9 135 (5.85%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 125 (5.41%) C++ Software Engineer
11 124 (5.37%) Java Developer
12 104 (4.50%) Architect
13 81 (3.51%) Senior Developer
14 75 (3.25%) Software Developer
15 72 (3.12%) Python Developer
16 70 (3.03%) Developer/Software Engineer
17 67 (2.90%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 66 (2.86%) DevOps Engineer
19 65 (2.82%) Python Engineer
20 64 (2.77%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 261 (11.30%) React
2 178 (7.71%) .NET
2 178 (7.71%) Kafka
3 175 (7.58%) Spring
4 166 (7.19%) Node.js
5 163 (7.06%) Spring Boot
6 158 (6.84%) REST
7 108 (4.68%) RESTful
8 107 (4.63%) AngularJS
9 71 (3.07%) GraphQL
10 55 (2.38%) Redux
11 48 (2.08%) CSS
12 47 (2.04%) HTML
13 41 (1.78%) Middleware
14 39 (1.69%) JSON
14 39 (1.69%) Next.js
15 37 (1.60%) LangChain
16 33 (1.43%) Quarkus
16 33 (1.43%) Web Services
17 32 (1.39%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 258 (11.17%) Cloud Native
2 174 (7.54%) Distributed Systems
3 115 (4.98%) Product Ownership
4 92 (3.98%) Algorithms
5 67 (2.90%) Fixed Income
6 61 (2.64%) AI Agents
7 40 (1.73%) Onboarding
8 39 (1.69%) Embedded Systems
9 35 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
10 34 (1.47%) Data Protection Act
10 34 (1.47%) Data Structures
10 34 (1.47%) Derivative
11 28 (1.21%) Robotics
12 27 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
13 26 (1.13%) Equities
13 26 (1.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 22 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
14 22 (0.95%) Greenfield Project
15 20 (0.87%) Mobile App
16 15 (0.65%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 178 (7.71%) Linux
2 56 (2.43%) Windows
3 40 (1.73%) Unix
4 27 (1.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (0.69%) Embedded Linux
6 15 (0.65%) Apple iOS
7 14 (0.61%) Android
8 11 (0.48%) FreeRTOS
9 9 (0.39%) Windows Server
10 7 (0.30%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.22%) Debian
12 4 (0.17%) Rocky
12 4 (0.17%) VMS
12 4 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.13%) Solaris
13 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.087%) VxWorks
15 1 (0.043%) Tizen
15 1 (0.043%) webOS
15 1 (0.043%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 690 (29.88%) CI/CD
2 665 (28.80%) Agile
3 476 (20.61%) DevOps
4 371 (16.07%) AI
5 349 (15.11%) Microservices
6 275 (11.91%) Test Automation
7 249 (10.78%) Problem-Solving
8 244 (10.57%) Full-Stack Development
9 218 (9.44%) Containerisation
10 213 (9.22%) Infrastructure as Code
11 186 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
12 178 (7.71%) SDLC
13 177 (7.67%) Observability
14 175 (7.58%) Machine Learning
15 173 (7.49%) TDD
16 169 (7.32%) Scrum
17 166 (7.19%) Mentoring
18 157 (6.80%) Platform Engineering
19 151 (6.54%) Technical Leadership
20 139 (6.02%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 602 (26.07%) Java
2 593 (25.68%) Python
3 303 (13.12%) SQL
4 293 (12.69%) C#
5 275 (11.91%) TypeScript
6 235 (10.18%) JavaScript
7 216 (9.35%) C++
8 129 (5.59%) Ada
8 129 (5.59%) Go
9 108 (4.68%) C
10 45 (1.95%) Kotlin
11 32 (1.39%) PowerShell
11 32 (1.39%) Rust
12 26 (1.13%) Bash
12 26 (1.13%) MATLAB
13 25 (1.08%) Embedded C
14 23 (1.00%) PL/SQL
14 23 (1.00%) Scala
15 19 (0.82%) Ruby
16 17 (0.74%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 552 (23.91%) Security Cleared
2 445 (19.27%) SC Cleared
3 171 (7.41%) Degree
4 79 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
5 65 (2.82%) DV Cleared
6 49 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
7 27 (1.17%) AWS Certification
7 27 (1.17%) Master's Degree
8 18 (0.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 12 (0.52%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.39%) CISSP
10 9 (0.39%) PhD
11 7 (0.30%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 6 (0.26%) Chartered Engineer
12 6 (0.26%) TOGAF Certification
13 5 (0.22%) CISM
14 4 (0.17%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 4 (0.17%) PMP
15 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 125 (5.41%) QA
2 41 (1.78%) Def Stans
3 38 (1.65%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.60%) Accessibility
5 33 (1.43%) IEC 61508
6 22 (0.95%) GDPR
7 16 (0.69%) MISRA
8 13 (0.56%) MISRA C
9 11 (0.48%) NCSC
9 11 (0.48%) NIST
10 10 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 10 (0.43%) WCAG
11 6 (0.26%) PCI DSS
12 5 (0.22%) GRC
12 5 (0.22%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.17%) DO-178B
13 4 (0.17%) DO-254
13 4 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.13%) FATCA
14 3 (0.13%) HL7
System Software
1 317 (13.73%) Docker
2 20 (0.87%) Firmware
3 10 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
3 10 (0.43%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.30%) Active Directory
4 7 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.17%) Oracle RAC
6 3 (0.13%) HDFS
7 2 (0.087%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 371 (16.07%) Kubernetes
2 215 (9.31%) Terraform
3 66 (2.86%) Grafana
4 57 (2.47%) Ansible
5 40 (1.73%) Argo
6 37 (1.60%) Prometheus
7 7 (0.30%) Puppet
7 7 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.26%) Istio
8 6 (0.26%) Kibana
8 6 (0.26%) Progress Chef
9 5 (0.22%) HAProxy
10 4 (0.17%) Data Guard
10 4 (0.17%) HP Quality Center
11 3 (0.13%) Docker Swarm
11 3 (0.13%) Functional Safety
11 3 (0.13%) Kubeflow
12 2 (0.087%) Cilium
12 2 (0.087%) Consul
12 2 (0.087%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 122 (5.28%) Microsoft
2 78 (3.38%) Google
3 69 (2.99%) Oracle
4 55 (2.38%) Red Hat
5 41 (1.78%) Databricks
6 35 (1.52%) OpenAI
7 21 (0.91%) IBM
8 18 (0.78%) ServiceNow
8 18 (0.78%) Splunk
9 15 (0.65%) Informatica
10 13 (0.56%) Salesforce
11 12 (0.52%) Siemens
12 11 (0.48%) Foundry
13 10 (0.43%) ForgeRock
13 10 (0.43%) MathWorks
13 10 (0.43%) Okta
13 10 (0.43%) VMware
14 9 (0.39%) Checkmarx
14 9 (0.39%) SAP
15 8 (0.35%) Dynatrace