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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 44 31
Rank change year-on-year +13 -13 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,556 1,353 1,944
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.58% 4.90% 5.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.55% 5.40% 6.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,421 880 1,235
10th Percentile £400 £380 £413
25th Percentile £468 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -4.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £688 £763 £800
90th Percentile £788 £850 £888
UK median daily rate £555 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -3.48% -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 413 82 282
10th Percentile £50.45 £31.99 £47.05
25th Percentile £60.00 £51.81 £56.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.36 £77.25 £77.25
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 39,026 25,062 28,650
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.26% 90.78% 85.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,293 16,024 18,683
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,529 1,392 1,676
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £14.09
25th Percentile £19.85 £17.87 £18.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.27 £70.16 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -37.90% -4.71%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -3 1,160 £600 -7.69% 2,666
North of England +23 391 £538 +7.50% 447
South East +37 319 £525 +2.44% 512
South West +18 312 £550 +10.00% 311
East of England +27 221 £505 +3.43% 274
North West +13 178 £550 +10.00% 276
Yorkshire +18 148 £500 - 96
Midlands -3 112 £464 -8.62% 208
West Midlands -11 83 £461 -19.87% 115
North East +10 70 £650 +42.86% 76
East Midlands +1 28 £513 +14.53% 93
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 55 (2.15%) Confluence
2 48 (1.88%) Apache Spark
3 38 (1.49%) Apache Airflow
4 33 (1.29%) Apache
5 11 (0.43%) CMS
6 10 (0.39%) SAS
7 9 (0.35%) SharePoint
8 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
9 5 (0.20%) Ethereum
9 5 (0.20%) Hyperledger
9 5 (0.20%) nginx
10 4 (0.16%) Apache Solr
11 3 (0.12%) Apache Superset
11 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.12%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.12%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.12%) WordPress
12 2 (0.078%) Apache Pulsar
12 2 (0.078%) Camunda
12 2 (0.078%) IIS
Applications
1 13 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 10 (0.39%) Chatbot
3 7 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (0.23%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.16%) CPLEX
5 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.16%) Simulink
6 3 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.12%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.12%) Trello
7 2 (0.078%) CATIA
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%) Maya
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
1 639 (25.00%) AWS
2 504 (19.72%) Azure
3 261 (10.21%) GCP
4 216 (8.45%) GitHub
5 120 (4.69%) Serverless
6 106 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
7 103 (4.03%) Azure DevOps
8 85 (3.33%) AWS Lambda
9 62 (2.43%) Amazon S3
10 58 (2.27%) OpenShift
11 53 (2.07%) Anthropic Claude
12 47 (1.84%) Amazon EKS
12 47 (1.84%) Power Platform
13 46 (1.80%) Amazon SQS
14 44 (1.72%) Amazon ECS
15 41 (1.60%) GitHub Copilot
16 40 (1.56%) Azure AKS
17 34 (1.33%) Snowflake
18 30 (1.17%) AWS CloudFormation
19 29 (1.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 26 (1.02%) Software-Defined Radio
2 25 (0.98%) Wireless
3 23 (0.90%) Ethernet
4 20 (0.78%) TCP/IP
5 19 (0.74%) Firewall
5 19 (0.74%) Internet
6 16 (0.63%) VPN
7 15 (0.59%) HTTP
8 11 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (0.35%) 3GPP
10 8 (0.31%) RTP
11 7 (0.27%) Network Security
11 7 (0.27%) RS-232
11 7 (0.27%) Wireshark
12 6 (0.23%) RS-485
13 5 (0.20%) DNS
14 4 (0.16%) RS-422
14 4 (0.16%) SSL
15 3 (0.12%) HTTPS
15 3 (0.12%) IPv4
Database & Business Intelligence
1 151 (5.91%) PostgreSQL
2 94 (3.68%) Relational Database
3 82 (3.21%) NoSQL
4 77 (3.01%) SQL Server
5 50 (1.96%) MongoDB
6 43 (1.68%) Data Warehouse
7 38 (1.49%) DynamoDB
8 33 (1.29%) MySQL
8 33 (1.29%) Power BI
9 30 (1.17%) Big Data
10 26 (1.02%) Metadata
11 24 (0.94%) Data Lake
12 22 (0.86%) Redis
13 21 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
13 21 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
14 20 (0.78%) BigQuery
15 19 (0.74%) Pinecone
16 17 (0.67%) Amazon Redshift
16 17 (0.67%) Weaviate
17 14 (0.55%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 272 (10.64%) Git
2 161 (6.30%) Jenkins
3 144 (5.63%) GitLab
4 111 (4.34%) JIRA
5 60 (2.35%) SonarQube
6 36 (1.41%) Gradle
7 35 (1.37%) JUnit
8 26 (1.02%) Claude Code
9 25 (0.98%) Rational DOORS
9 25 (0.98%) Visual Studio
10 21 (0.82%) Selenium
11 20 (0.78%) Rational Rhapsody
12 19 (0.74%) Bitbucket
13 18 (0.70%) Cucumber
14 17 (0.67%) Maven
14 17 (0.67%) Mockito
15 15 (0.59%) Liquibase
16 13 (0.51%) Cypress.io
17 12 (0.47%) Eclipse
17 12 (0.47%) Mocha
General
1 471 (18.43%) Social Skills
2 462 (18.08%) Finance
3 191 (7.47%) Banking
4 183 (7.16%) Analytical Skills
5 174 (6.81%) Public Sector
6 102 (3.99%) Aerospace
7 96 (3.76%) Front Office
8 55 (2.15%) Retail
9 49 (1.92%) Manufacturing
10 46 (1.80%) Investment Banking
11 44 (1.72%) Law
12 31 (1.21%) Telecoms
13 30 (1.17%) Military
14 29 (1.13%) Automotive
15 26 (1.02%) Aviation
15 26 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
16 21 (0.82%) Electronics
16 21 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 20 (0.78%) Marketing
18 17 (0.67%) Legal
Job Titles
1 1,194 (46.71%) Software Engineer
2 476 (18.62%) Developer
3 441 (17.25%) Senior
4 282 (11.03%) Lead
5 182 (7.12%) Senior Software Engineer
6 170 (6.65%) Java Engineer
7 150 (5.87%) Embedded Engineer
8 139 (5.44%) Java Software Engineer
9 138 (5.40%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 124 (4.85%) Java Developer
11 114 (4.46%) C++ Software Engineer
12 108 (4.23%) Python Engineer
13 107 (4.19%) Software Developer
14 106 (4.15%) Architect
15 103 (4.03%) Lead Software Engineer
16 91 (3.56%) Senior Developer
17 85 (3.33%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 84 (3.29%) Data Engineer
19 79 (3.09%) Python Developer
20 76 (2.97%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 270 (10.56%) React
2 208 (8.14%) .NET
3 204 (7.98%) REST
4 192 (7.51%) Spring
5 172 (6.73%) Kafka
5 172 (6.73%) Spring Boot
6 168 (6.57%) Node.js
7 117 (4.58%) RESTful
8 110 (4.30%) AngularJS
9 62 (2.43%) GraphQL
10 50 (1.96%) Django
11 49 (1.92%) Next.js
12 45 (1.76%) Redux
13 44 (1.72%) HTML
14 43 (1.68%) CSS
15 41 (1.60%) Quarkus
16 40 (1.56%) LangChain
17 38 (1.49%) JSON
18 37 (1.45%) FastAPI
19 34 (1.33%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 349 (13.65%) Cloud Native
2 215 (8.41%) Distributed Systems
3 132 (5.16%) Product Ownership
4 88 (3.44%) AI Agents
5 83 (3.25%) Algorithms
6 63 (2.46%) Fixed Income
7 51 (2.00%) Data Structures
8 50 (1.96%) Onboarding
9 47 (1.84%) Embedded Systems
10 41 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
10 41 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
11 34 (1.33%) Derivative
12 33 (1.29%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 32 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
14 31 (1.21%) Self-Motivation
15 29 (1.13%) Equities
16 24 (0.94%) Robotics
17 20 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
18 19 (0.74%) NHS
19 17 (0.67%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 190 (7.43%) Linux
2 58 (2.27%) Windows
3 33 (1.29%) Unix
4 29 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (0.78%) Embedded Linux
6 13 (0.51%) Android
7 11 (0.43%) FreeRTOS
8 10 (0.39%) Apple iOS
9 9 (0.35%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.35%) Windows Server
10 5 (0.20%) Debian
11 4 (0.16%) Rocky
11 4 (0.16%) VMS
11 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.12%) Solaris
12 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.078%) VxWorks
14 1 (0.039%) Tizen
14 1 (0.039%) webOS
14 1 (0.039%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 851 (33.29%) CI/CD
2 801 (31.34%) Agile
3 607 (23.75%) DevOps
4 467 (18.27%) AI
5 389 (15.22%) Microservices
6 344 (13.46%) Test Automation
7 298 (11.66%) Problem-Solving
8 283 (11.07%) Continuous Improvement
9 272 (10.64%) Full-Stack Development
10 271 (10.60%) Infrastructure as Code
11 255 (9.98%) Containerisation
12 224 (8.76%) Observability
13 222 (8.69%) SDLC
14 220 (8.61%) Machine Learning
15 214 (8.37%) Mentoring
16 201 (7.86%) TDD
17 197 (7.71%) Technical Leadership
18 194 (7.59%) Scrum
19 193 (7.55%) Platform Engineering
20 178 (6.96%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 746 (29.19%) Python
2 655 (25.63%) Java
3 340 (13.30%) SQL
4 297 (11.62%) TypeScript
5 296 (11.58%) C#
6 238 (9.31%) JavaScript
7 216 (8.45%) C++
8 115 (4.50%) C
9 111 (4.34%) Go
10 110 (4.30%) Ada
11 62 (2.43%) Kotlin
12 42 (1.64%) Rust
13 39 (1.53%) PowerShell
14 38 (1.49%) Bash
14 38 (1.49%) Scala
15 24 (0.94%) PL/SQL
16 21 (0.82%) Embedded C
17 20 (0.78%) Bicep
17 20 (0.78%) Ruby
18 17 (0.67%) PHP
Qualifications
1 607 (23.75%) Security Cleared
2 509 (19.91%) SC Cleared
3 198 (7.75%) Degree
4 90 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (3.05%) DV Cleared
6 54 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
7 38 (1.49%) Master's Degree
8 35 (1.37%) AWS Certification
9 19 (0.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 19 (0.74%) PhD
10 16 (0.63%) Azure Certification
11 9 (0.35%) CISSP
12 7 (0.27%) ISTQB
13 6 (0.23%) Chartered Engineer
13 6 (0.23%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 6 (0.23%) PMP
14 5 (0.20%) TOGAF Certification
15 4 (0.16%) GIAC
15 4 (0.16%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 157 (6.14%) QA
2 60 (2.35%) Data Quality
3 48 (1.88%) Accessibility
4 25 (0.98%) Def Stans
5 19 (0.74%) GDPR
6 14 (0.55%) IEC 61508
6 14 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (0.55%) NIST
7 13 (0.51%) WCAG
8 12 (0.47%) MISRA
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
1 378 (14.79%) Docker
2 25 (0.98%) Firmware
3 14 (0.55%) 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 (16.74%) Kubernetes
2 253 (9.90%) Terraform
3 80 (3.13%) Ansible
4 58 (2.27%) Grafana
5 42 (1.64%) 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 5 (0.20%) Functional Safety
11 5 (0.20%) HAProxy
11 5 (0.20%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.16%) Consul
13 3 (0.12%) HP Fortify
14 2 (0.078%) Cilium
14 2 (0.078%) Docker Swarm
14 2 (0.078%) Packer
14 2 (0.078%) ZABBIX
15 1 (0.039%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 132 (5.16%) Microsoft
2 95 (3.72%) Google
3 71 (2.78%) Oracle
4 60 (2.35%) Databricks
5 50 (1.96%) Red Hat
6 46 (1.80%) OpenAI
7 21 (0.82%) Salesforce
7 21 (0.82%) Splunk
8 20 (0.78%) Informatica
9 19 (0.74%) ServiceNow
10 18 (0.70%) IBM
11 12 (0.47%) Adobe
11 12 (0.47%) Foundry
12 11 (0.43%) Checkmarx
12 11 (0.43%) SAP
13 10 (0.39%) Dynatrace
13 10 (0.39%) ForgeRock
13 10 (0.39%) Okta
14 9 (0.35%) Siemens
15 8 (0.31%) VMware