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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 45 31
Rank change year-on-year +13 -14 +7
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,554 1,351 1,927
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.59% 4.86% 5.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.57% 5.35% 6.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,403 871 1,218
10th Percentile £400 £375 £406
25th Percentile £468 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -4.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £688 £750 £800
90th Percentile £788 £838 £888
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 411 94 268
10th Percentile £51.25 £38.63 £46.18
25th Percentile £60.00 £52.50 £54.56
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.00 £76.75 £77.50
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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 38,847 25,245 28,472
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.01% 90.81% 85.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,107 16,076 18,544
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.40% -4.53%
75th Percentile £626 £627 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,555 1,444 1,611
10th Percentile £14.28 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.87 £18.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +4.83%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.97
% change year-on-year +67.00% -38.61% -1.28%

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 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 17 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 17 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 -1 1,149 £600 -7.69% 1,722
North of England +26 389 £534 +7.52% 458
South East +28 332 £525 +3.65% 493
South West +16 313 £550 +10.00% 320
East of England +23 218 £505 +3.37% 309
North West +16 176 £540 +8.00% 257
Yorkshire +16 148 £500 - 112
Midlands 0 111 £455 -13.18% 199
West Midlands -15 76 £450 -21.74% 120
North East +10 70 £650 +41.30% 93
East Midlands +2 34 £513 +7.89% 79
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 52 (2.04%) Confluence
2 50 (1.96%) Apache Spark
3 38 (1.49%) Apache Airflow
4 35 (1.37%) Apache
5 11 (0.43%) CMS
6 10 (0.39%) SAS
7 8 (0.31%) SharePoint
8 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
9 5 (0.20%) Apache Solr
9 5 (0.20%) Ethereum
9 5 (0.20%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.16%) Apache Superset
10 4 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.12%) nginx
11 3 (0.12%) WordPress
12 2 (0.078%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.078%) IIS
12 2 (0.078%) MQSeries
12 2 (0.078%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.078%) Tomcat
Applications
1 12 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 10 (0.39%) Chatbot
3 7 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.16%) CPLEX
5 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.16%) Simulink
6 3 (0.12%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.12%) Trello
7 2 (0.078%) CATIA
7 2 (0.078%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 2 (0.078%) Notion
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe After Effects
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) Blender
8 1 (0.039%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 7 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
1 7 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
2 6 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.20%) R3 Corda
4 4 (0.16%) Quorum
4 4 (0.16%) Ripple
5 3 (0.12%) Orchestrade
5 3 (0.12%) Primavera
5 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.078%) Aladdin
6 2 (0.078%) Endur
6 2 (0.078%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.039%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.039%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.039%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.039%) Shopify
7 1 (0.039%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 628 (24.59%) AWS
2 515 (20.16%) Azure
3 258 (10.10%) GCP
4 221 (8.65%) GitHub
5 125 (4.89%) Serverless
6 110 (4.31%) GitHub Actions
7 105 (4.11%) Azure DevOps
8 88 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
9 62 (2.43%) Amazon S3
10 58 (2.27%) OpenShift
11 55 (2.15%) Anthropic Claude
12 49 (1.92%) Power Platform
13 48 (1.88%) Amazon SQS
14 47 (1.84%) Amazon ECS
14 47 (1.84%) Amazon EKS
15 45 (1.76%) GitHub Copilot
16 37 (1.45%) Azure AKS
17 34 (1.33%) Snowflake
18 30 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 29 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.10%) Software-Defined Radio
2 27 (1.06%) Wireless
3 20 (0.78%) Ethernet
4 19 (0.74%) Firewall
4 19 (0.74%) Internet
4 19 (0.74%) TCP/IP
5 15 (0.59%) VPN
6 14 (0.55%) HTTP
7 11 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (0.27%) Network Security
8 7 (0.27%) RTP
8 7 (0.27%) Wireshark
9 6 (0.23%) 3GPP
10 4 (0.16%) DNS
10 4 (0.16%) RS-232
10 4 (0.16%) SSL
11 3 (0.12%) IPv4
11 3 (0.12%) IPv6
11 3 (0.12%) RS-485
12 2 (0.078%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (5.76%) PostgreSQL
2 99 (3.88%) Relational Database
3 81 (3.17%) NoSQL
4 80 (3.13%) SQL Server
5 47 (1.84%) MongoDB
6 44 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
7 38 (1.49%) DynamoDB
8 35 (1.37%) MySQL
9 34 (1.33%) Power BI
10 30 (1.17%) Big Data
11 28 (1.10%) Metadata
12 25 (0.98%) Redis
13 24 (0.94%) Data Lake
14 23 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
15 20 (0.78%) BigQuery
15 20 (0.78%) Pinecone
16 19 (0.74%) Elasticsearch
17 18 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
17 18 (0.70%) Weaviate
18 13 (0.51%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 268 (10.49%) Git
2 167 (6.54%) Jenkins
3 150 (5.87%) GitLab
4 106 (4.15%) JIRA
5 58 (2.27%) SonarQube
6 38 (1.49%) Gradle
6 38 (1.49%) JUnit
7 27 (1.06%) Claude Code
8 25 (0.98%) Rational DOORS
8 25 (0.98%) Visual Studio
9 21 (0.82%) Selenium
10 20 (0.78%) Maven
10 20 (0.78%) Rational Rhapsody
11 18 (0.70%) Bitbucket
12 17 (0.67%) Mockito
13 16 (0.63%) Cucumber
14 14 (0.55%) Liquibase
15 12 (0.47%) Cypress.io
15 12 (0.47%) Eclipse
15 12 (0.47%) Snyk
General
1 479 (18.75%) Social Skills
2 452 (17.70%) Finance
3 189 (7.40%) Banking
4 182 (7.13%) Analytical Skills
5 174 (6.81%) Public Sector
6 101 (3.95%) Aerospace
7 87 (3.41%) Front Office
8 51 (2.00%) Retail
9 48 (1.88%) Manufacturing
10 47 (1.84%) Investment Banking
11 45 (1.76%) Law
12 35 (1.37%) Automotive
13 30 (1.17%) Military
14 28 (1.10%) Telecoms
15 26 (1.02%) Aviation
16 24 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
17 20 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 20 (0.78%) Marketing
18 18 (0.70%) Electronics
18 18 (0.70%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 1,174 (45.97%) Software Engineer
2 467 (18.29%) Developer
3 443 (17.35%) Senior
4 278 (10.88%) Lead
5 186 (7.28%) Senior Software Engineer
6 166 (6.50%) Java Engineer
7 158 (6.19%) Embedded Engineer
8 144 (5.64%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 135 (5.29%) Java Software Engineer
10 125 (4.89%) Java Developer
11 115 (4.50%) C++ Software Engineer
12 112 (4.39%) Software Developer
13 105 (4.11%) Architect
14 104 (4.07%) Python Engineer
15 95 (3.72%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 94 (3.68%) Lead Software Engineer
17 91 (3.56%) Senior Developer
18 84 (3.29%) Data Engineer
19 76 (2.98%) DevOps Engineer
20 73 (2.86%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 261 (10.22%) React
2 213 (8.34%) REST
3 205 (8.03%) .NET
4 195 (7.64%) Spring
5 178 (6.97%) Spring Boot
6 166 (6.50%) Kafka
7 157 (6.15%) Node.js
8 121 (4.74%) RESTful
9 109 (4.27%) AngularJS
10 53 (2.08%) Django
10 53 (2.08%) GraphQL
11 49 (1.92%) Next.js
12 45 (1.76%) HTML
13 43 (1.68%) CSS
14 41 (1.61%) LangChain
15 39 (1.53%) Quarkus
16 38 (1.49%) JSON
17 37 (1.45%) FastAPI
17 37 (1.45%) Web Services
18 34 (1.33%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 352 (13.78%) Cloud Native
2 218 (8.54%) Distributed Systems
3 131 (5.13%) Product Ownership
4 94 (3.68%) AI Agents
5 85 (3.33%) Algorithms
6 54 (2.11%) Data Structures
7 52 (2.04%) Fixed Income
8 51 (2.00%) Embedded Systems
8 51 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
9 48 (1.88%) Onboarding
10 43 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
11 34 (1.33%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 32 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
13 30 (1.17%) Derivative
13 30 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
14 28 (1.10%) Robotics
15 26 (1.02%) Equities
16 21 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
17 19 (0.74%) NHS
18 17 (0.67%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 189 (7.40%) Linux
2 56 (2.19%) Windows
3 33 (1.29%) Unix
4 24 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (0.86%) Embedded Linux
6 13 (0.51%) Android
7 11 (0.43%) FreeRTOS
8 9 (0.35%) Ubuntu
9 8 (0.31%) Windows Server
10 6 (0.23%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.20%) Debian
12 4 (0.16%) Rocky
12 4 (0.16%) VMS
13 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.078%) Solaris
14 2 (0.078%) VxWorks
14 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
15 1 (0.039%) Tizen
15 1 (0.039%) webOS
15 1 (0.039%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 851 (33.32%) CI/CD
2 784 (30.70%) Agile
3 597 (23.38%) DevOps
4 489 (19.15%) AI
5 389 (15.23%) Microservices
6 339 (13.27%) Test Automation
7 302 (11.82%) Problem-Solving
8 285 (11.16%) Continuous Improvement
9 278 (10.88%) Infrastructure as Code
10 260 (10.18%) Full-Stack Development
11 255 (9.98%) Containerisation
12 225 (8.81%) Observability
12 225 (8.81%) SDLC
13 218 (8.54%) Machine Learning
14 205 (8.03%) Mentoring
15 201 (7.87%) Technical Leadership
16 196 (7.67%) Platform Engineering
17 188 (7.36%) Scrum
17 188 (7.36%) TDD
18 187 (7.32%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 744 (29.13%) Python
2 648 (25.37%) Java
3 347 (13.59%) SQL
4 296 (11.59%) TypeScript
5 293 (11.47%) C#
6 227 (8.89%) JavaScript
7 219 (8.57%) C++
8 114 (4.46%) C
9 108 (4.23%) Ada
10 102 (3.99%) Go
11 57 (2.23%) Kotlin
12 43 (1.68%) PowerShell
13 41 (1.61%) Rust
14 39 (1.53%) Bash
14 39 (1.53%) Scala
15 23 (0.90%) PL/SQL
16 22 (0.86%) Embedded C
17 21 (0.82%) Bicep
18 20 (0.78%) Ruby
19 18 (0.70%) PHP
Qualifications
1 599 (23.45%) Security Cleared
2 505 (19.77%) SC Cleared
3 200 (7.83%) Degree
4 90 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 76 (2.98%) DV Cleared
6 55 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
7 42 (1.64%) Master's Degree
8 33 (1.29%) AWS Certification
9 20 (0.78%) PhD
10 17 (0.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 14 (0.55%) Azure Certification
12 8 (0.31%) CISSP
13 7 (0.27%) ISTQB
13 7 (0.27%) PMP
14 6 (0.23%) Chartered Engineer
14 6 (0.23%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 6 (0.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 4 (0.16%) GIAC
15 4 (0.16%) MBA
16 3 (0.12%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 152 (5.95%) QA
2 62 (2.43%) Data Quality
3 48 (1.88%) Accessibility
4 25 (0.98%) Def Stans
5 20 (0.78%) GDPR
6 15 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (0.59%) NIST
7 14 (0.55%) IEC 61508
7 14 (0.55%) MISRA
8 12 (0.47%) WCAG
9 10 (0.39%) DO-178B
10 9 (0.35%) NCSC
11 7 (0.27%) GRC
12 6 (0.23%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.20%) JSP 440
13 5 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.12%) DO-254
14 3 (0.12%) HL7
14 3 (0.12%) MISRA C
14 3 (0.12%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 379 (14.84%) Docker
2 28 (1.10%) Firmware
3 17 (0.67%) Embedded Firmware
4 9 (0.35%) Active Directory
4 9 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
6 3 (0.12%) HDFS
7 2 (0.078%) SRDF
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 428 (16.76%) Kubernetes
2 264 (10.34%) Terraform
3 86 (3.37%) Ansible
4 54 (2.11%) Grafana
5 41 (1.61%) Argo
6 38 (1.49%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (0.43%) Kibana
9 10 (0.39%) Puppet
10 7 (0.27%) Progress Chef
11 6 (0.23%) Functional Safety
11 6 (0.23%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.16%) Consul
12 4 (0.16%) HAProxy
13 3 (0.12%) HP Fortify
13 3 (0.12%) Kustomize
14 2 (0.078%) Cilium
14 2 (0.078%) Docker Swarm
14 2 (0.078%) Packer
14 2 (0.078%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 133 (5.21%) Microsoft
2 91 (3.56%) Google
3 72 (2.82%) Oracle
4 61 (2.39%) Databricks
5 49 (1.92%) OpenAI
6 44 (1.72%) Red Hat
7 23 (0.90%) Salesforce
8 20 (0.78%) Informatica
9 19 (0.74%) ServiceNow
10 18 (0.70%) Splunk
11 17 (0.67%) IBM
12 14 (0.55%) Foundry
13 12 (0.47%) Adobe
13 12 (0.47%) SAP
14 11 (0.43%) Checkmarx
15 10 (0.39%) ForgeRock
15 10 (0.39%) Okta
16 9 (0.35%) Dynatrace
17 8 (0.31%) Confluent
17 8 (0.31%) VMware