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

6 months to
9 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 41 37
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 +4
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,693 1,276 1,885
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.09% 4.90% 4.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.81% 5.47% 5.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 864 781 1,087
10th Percentile £378 £419 £425
25th Percentile £450 £502 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £669 £750 £738
90th Percentile £775 £838 £800
UK median daily rate £543 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -9.54% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 340 79 319
10th Percentile £52.50 £36.25 £46.18
25th Percentile £58.47 £56.44 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £72.55 £68.75 £77.60
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +1.56% +2.40% -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 29,128 23,342 33,372
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.51% 89.73% 87.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,638 14,331 22,291
10th Percentile £306 £310 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £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 1,831 740 1,986
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.96 £21.03 £16.54
Median hourly rate £25.47 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.23% - -
75th Percentile £60.13 £64.50 £61.62
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.66 £34.36
% change year-on-year -22.98% -4.95% +5.71%

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 9 February 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 9 February 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 9 February 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 -11 753 £603 -7.31% 612
North of England +7 261 £500 -9.09% 315
South West +6 217 £475 -20.83% 214
East of England +26 168 £475 +5.09% 134
South East +9 147 £488 -2.50% 386
North West +10 119 £500 -9.09% 193
Yorkshire -5 107 £520 -0.95% 87
Midlands -14 85 £525 +5.00% 148
West Midlands -15 73 £525 +8.58% 76
North East +14 38 £488 -18.41% 37
East Midlands -26 12 £475 -5.00% 72
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 60 (3.54%) Confluence
2 52 (3.07%) Apache
3 41 (2.42%) Apache Spark
4 28 (1.65%) Apache Airflow
5 11 (0.65%) CMS
6 10 (0.59%) WebLogic
7 8 (0.47%) JBoss
7 8 (0.47%) Palantir Foundry
8 6 (0.35%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.24%) IIS
9 4 (0.24%) SAS
10 3 (0.18%) Appian
10 3 (0.18%) Sitecore CMS
10 3 (0.18%) WordPress
11 2 (0.12%) Camunda
11 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
12 1 (0.059%) Cloud Foundry
12 1 (0.059%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.059%) Smallworld
Applications
1 16 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.59%) Chatbot
4 6 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.18%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.18%) Simulink
6 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.059%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.059%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.059%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.12%) LabWindows
1 2 (0.12%) Primavera
2 1 (0.059%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.059%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.059%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.059%) Temenos T24
2 1 (0.059%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 502 (29.65%) AWS
2 291 (17.19%) Azure
3 164 (9.69%) GCP
4 151 (8.92%) Serverless
5 119 (7.03%) GitHub
6 67 (3.96%) AWS Lambda
6 67 (3.96%) Azure DevOps
7 65 (3.84%) GitHub Actions
8 62 (3.66%) Amazon S3
9 43 (2.54%) Power Platform
10 41 (2.42%) Amazon ECS
11 40 (2.36%) Amazon EKS
12 39 (2.30%) AWS CloudFormation
12 39 (2.30%) OpenShift
13 38 (2.24%) Azure AKS
14 37 (2.19%) Amazon EC2
14 37 (2.19%) SaaS
15 36 (2.13%) Azure Functions
16 30 (1.77%) Snowflake
17 22 (1.30%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.06%) Ethernet
2 12 (0.71%) Network Security
3 9 (0.53%) Firewall
4 8 (0.47%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.41%) Internet
5 7 (0.41%) Wireless
6 5 (0.30%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.24%) BGP
7 4 (0.24%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.24%) VLAN
8 3 (0.18%) Bluetooth
8 3 (0.18%) HTTP
8 3 (0.18%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.18%) NFC
8 3 (0.18%) PPP
8 3 (0.18%) VPN
9 2 (0.12%) 3GPP
9 2 (0.12%) DNS
9 2 (0.12%) SSH
9 2 (0.12%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (6.26%) PostgreSQL
2 77 (4.55%) Apache Cassandra
3 73 (4.31%) NoSQL
4 65 (3.84%) MongoDB
5 50 (2.95%) Relational Database
5 50 (2.95%) SQL Server
6 37 (2.19%) Amazon RDS
7 35 (2.07%) Data Lake
8 33 (1.95%) MySQL
9 32 (1.89%) Power BI
10 30 (1.77%) Big Data
11 26 (1.54%) BigQuery
11 26 (1.54%) Metadata
12 25 (1.48%) Amazon Athena
13 23 (1.36%) Hadoop
14 19 (1.12%) DynamoDB
14 19 (1.12%) Elasticsearch
15 14 (0.83%) Mixpanel
16 13 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
17 12 (0.71%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 152 (8.98%) Git
2 123 (7.27%) Jenkins
3 117 (6.91%) GitLab
4 99 (5.85%) JIRA
5 38 (2.24%) Selenium
6 32 (1.89%) JUnit
7 31 (1.83%) SonarQube
8 30 (1.77%) Rational DOORS
9 29 (1.71%) Cucumber
9 29 (1.71%) Gradle
10 28 (1.65%) Cypress.io
11 23 (1.36%) Liquibase
12 21 (1.24%) IntelliJ
12 21 (1.24%) Rational Rhapsody
13 20 (1.18%) Maven
14 19 (1.12%) Bitbucket
14 19 (1.12%) Eclipse
14 19 (1.12%) Mockito
15 16 (0.95%) Postman
16 12 (0.71%) Visual Studio
General
1 304 (17.96%) Social Skills
2 290 (17.13%) Finance
3 124 (7.32%) Banking
4 116 (6.85%) Public Sector
5 88 (5.20%) Analytical Skills
6 47 (2.78%) Aerospace
7 44 (2.60%) Front Office
8 40 (2.36%) Investment Banking
9 39 (2.30%) Electronics
10 36 (2.13%) Financial Institution
11 31 (1.83%) Law
12 24 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
13 23 (1.36%) Military
14 21 (1.24%) Retail
15 19 (1.12%) Manufacturing
16 17 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
17 16 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
17 16 (0.95%) Telecoms
18 13 (0.77%) Documentation Skills
19 11 (0.65%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 839 (49.56%) Software Engineer
2 349 (20.61%) Senior
3 318 (18.78%) Developer
4 175 (10.34%) Senior Software Engineer
5 128 (7.56%) C++ Software Engineer
6 119 (7.03%) Lead
7 88 (5.20%) Java Engineer
8 87 (5.14%) Embedded Engineer
9 82 (4.84%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 79 (4.67%) Python Engineer
11 74 (4.37%) Senior Developer
12 73 (4.31%) Java Software Engineer
13 72 (4.25%) Java Developer
14 58 (3.43%) AWS Engineer
15 55 (3.25%) Architect
15 55 (3.25%) Python Developer
16 49 (2.89%) Data Engineer
17 44 (2.60%) DevOps Engineer
18 43 (2.54%) Full-Stack Engineer
18 43 (2.54%) Python Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 208 (12.29%) Kafka
2 207 (12.23%) React
3 143 (8.45%) Node.js
4 133 (7.86%) REST
5 130 (7.68%) .NET
6 113 (6.67%) RESTful
7 104 (6.14%) Spring
8 101 (5.97%) Spring Boot
9 88 (5.20%) AngularJS
10 83 (4.90%) gRPC
11 60 (3.54%) Middleware
12 53 (3.13%) JSON
13 52 (3.07%) HTML
14 48 (2.84%) CSS
15 45 (2.66%) GraphQL
16 43 (2.54%) Playwright
17 40 (2.36%) FastAPI
18 38 (2.24%) Vue
19 36 (2.13%) Pandas
20 35 (2.07%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 202 (11.93%) Cloud Native
2 133 (7.86%) Distributed Systems
3 81 (4.78%) Product Ownership
4 63 (3.72%) Algorithms
5 41 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
6 37 (2.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 34 (2.01%) Fixed Income
8 30 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
9 29 (1.71%) Data Structures
9 29 (1.71%) Hedge funds
10 28 (1.65%) Greenfield Project
11 27 (1.59%) Public Cloud
12 26 (1.54%) Mobile App
13 25 (1.48%) AI Agents
14 24 (1.42%) Equities
15 23 (1.36%) Derivative
15 23 (1.36%) Virtual Team
16 22 (1.30%) Onboarding
17 21 (1.24%) Life Science
18 19 (1.12%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 213 (12.58%) Linux
2 74 (4.37%) Windows
3 53 (3.13%) Unix
4 25 (1.48%) Android
5 18 (1.06%) Ubuntu
6 16 (0.95%) Apple iOS
7 13 (0.77%) Windows Server
8 10 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.18%) VMS
11 2 (0.12%) Debian
11 2 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
11 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.059%) Rocky
12 1 (0.059%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.059%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 533 (31.48%) Agile
2 473 (27.94%) CI/CD
3 338 (19.96%) DevOps
4 304 (17.96%) Microservices
5 239 (14.12%) AI
6 233 (13.76%) Problem-Solving
7 212 (12.52%) Containerisation
8 191 (11.28%) Infrastructure as Code
9 189 (11.16%) Test Automation
10 161 (9.51%) Full-Stack Development
11 160 (9.45%) Computer Science
12 150 (8.86%) Machine Learning
13 144 (8.51%) Mentoring
14 128 (7.56%) Scrum
15 122 (7.21%) Continuous Improvement
16 119 (7.03%) Open Source
17 116 (6.85%) TDD
18 104 (6.14%) SDLC
19 103 (6.08%) Observability
20 100 (5.91%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 477 (28.17%) Python
2 373 (22.03%) Java
3 257 (15.18%) C++
3 257 (15.18%) SQL
4 220 (12.99%) JavaScript
5 201 (11.87%) C#
6 199 (11.75%) TypeScript
7 145 (8.56%) Go
8 105 (6.20%) C
9 96 (5.67%) Ada
10 35 (2.07%) Rust
11 33 (1.95%) Shell Script
12 31 (1.83%) PowerShell
13 26 (1.54%) Bash
14 24 (1.42%) Embedded C++
15 23 (1.36%) Embedded C
16 22 (1.30%) Kotlin
17 20 (1.18%) VB
18 17 (1.00%) MATLAB
18 17 (1.00%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 351 (20.73%) Security Cleared
2 280 (16.54%) SC Cleared
3 203 (11.99%) Degree
4 97 (5.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 64 (3.78%) Master's Degree
6 49 (2.89%) DV Cleared
7 18 (1.06%) BPSS Clearance
7 18 (1.06%) PhD
8 17 (1.00%) AWS Certification
8 17 (1.00%) CISSP
9 16 (0.95%) CISM
10 13 (0.77%) Azure Certification
11 12 (0.71%) TOGAF Certification
12 10 (0.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 9 (0.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.35%) ISTQB
15 5 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Certification
15 5 (0.30%) Postgraduate
16 4 (0.24%) AWS Certified Developer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (4.67%) QA
2 48 (2.84%) Def Stans
3 36 (2.13%) IEC 61508
4 33 (1.95%) Data Quality
5 32 (1.89%) Accessibility
5 32 (1.89%) MISRA
6 22 (1.30%) MISRA C
7 19 (1.12%) GDPR
8 17 (1.00%) WCAG
9 13 (0.77%) NIST
10 11 (0.65%) DO-178B
11 10 (0.59%) EU AI Act
12 6 (0.35%) HL7
13 3 (0.18%) ISO 26262
13 3 (0.18%) NCSC
13 3 (0.18%) SLA
14 2 (0.12%) FATCA
14 2 (0.12%) IEC 62304
14 2 (0.12%) MiFID
14 2 (0.12%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 343 (20.26%) Docker
2 17 (1.00%) Firmware
3 15 (0.89%) Active Directory
4 14 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.059%) KVM
8 1 (0.059%) zsh
Systems Management
1 354 (20.91%) Kubernetes
2 205 (12.11%) Terraform
3 92 (5.43%) Grafana
4 62 (3.66%) Prometheus
5 57 (3.37%) Ansible
6 20 (1.18%) Argo
6 20 (1.18%) Puppet
7 10 (0.59%) Kibana
7 10 (0.59%) Progress Chef
7 10 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.30%) HP Quality Center
8 5 (0.30%) Istio
8 5 (0.30%) Podman
9 4 (0.24%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.18%) Docker Swarm
10 3 (0.18%) HP ALM
10 3 (0.18%) Kubeflow
10 3 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.12%) Functional Safety
11 2 (0.12%) rkt
Vendors
1 131 (7.74%) Microsoft
2 59 (3.48%) Google
3 52 (3.07%) Oracle
4 50 (2.95%) Red Hat
5 44 (2.60%) Databricks
6 30 (1.77%) Splunk
7 28 (1.65%) Foundry
8 16 (0.95%) IBM
9 14 (0.83%) Atlassian
9 14 (0.83%) BiZZdesign
9 14 (0.83%) VMware
10 13 (0.77%) OpenAI
11 9 (0.53%) Palantir
11 9 (0.53%) Software AG
12 8 (0.47%) Cloudera
12 8 (0.47%) CyberArk
12 8 (0.47%) PagerDuty
12 8 (0.47%) SAP
12 8 (0.47%) ServiceNow
12 8 (0.47%) webMethods