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

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 42 33
Rank change year-on-year +7 -9 +8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,117 1,206 2,017
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.21% 4.94% 5.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.14% 5.42% 6.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,102 797 1,179
10th Percentile £400 £400 £419
25th Percentile £453 £488 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £669 £775 £750
90th Percentile £775 £838 £850
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 469 83 346
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.60 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £56.44 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -2.56%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -2.45%

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 34,459 22,249 31,937
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.78% 91.20% 86.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,987 14,574 20,950
10th Percentile £319 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,148 932 2,245
10th Percentile £15.36 £14.67 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £30.00 £36.05
Median % change year-on-year +51.53% -16.77% -0.96%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.95
% change year-on-year +43.29% -19.33% +0.42%

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 6 May 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 6 May 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 6 May 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 -5 866 £575 -14.81% 678
South West +16 312 £575 - 190
North of England +20 301 £500 - 322
South East +21 266 £525 +2.44% 415
East of England +39 220 £475 -2.72% 185
North West -2 137 £488 -2.55% 166
Yorkshire +2 114 £513 +2.50% 91
Midlands -32 95 £495 +1.02% 135
West Midlands -12 83 £489 -7.98% 70
North East +25 54 £593 +28.80% 65
East Midlands -34 11 £513 +4.59% 65
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 (2.60%) Confluence
2 45 (2.13%) Apache Spark
3 38 (1.79%) Apache
4 18 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.33%) SAS
6 6 (0.28%) CMS
7 5 (0.24%) IIS
7 5 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.24%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.19%) nginx
8 4 (0.19%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.14%) Camunda
9 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.094%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.094%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.094%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.094%) WinCC
11 1 (0.047%) Cloud Foundry
11 1 (0.047%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.047%) Smallworld
Applications
1 14 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.24%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.19%) CPLEX
4 4 (0.19%) Simulink
5 3 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.094%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.047%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.047%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.047%) Blender
7 1 (0.047%) CATIA
7 1 (0.047%) Maya
7 1 (0.047%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.047%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.047%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.28%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.094%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.094%) LabWindows
3 2 (0.094%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.047%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.047%) Primavera
4 1 (0.047%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.047%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 540 (25.51%) AWS
2 399 (18.85%) Azure
3 190 (8.97%) GCP
4 137 (6.47%) GitHub
5 117 (5.53%) Serverless
6 78 (3.68%) Azure DevOps
7 66 (3.12%) AWS Lambda
8 61 (2.88%) Amazon S3
9 56 (2.65%) GitHub Actions
10 51 (2.41%) OpenShift
10 51 (2.41%) Power Platform
11 40 (1.89%) Amazon EKS
12 39 (1.84%) AWS CloudFormation
13 38 (1.79%) Amazon ECS
13 38 (1.79%) Azure AKS
14 32 (1.51%) Amazon EC2
15 28 (1.32%) Amazon SQS
16 27 (1.28%) SaaS
17 26 (1.23%) Azure Functions
18 20 (0.94%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.32%) Software-Defined Radio
2 25 (1.18%) Ethernet
3 15 (0.71%) Wireless
4 14 (0.66%) TCP/IP
5 12 (0.57%) HTTP
6 10 (0.47%) Network Security
7 8 (0.38%) 3GPP
8 7 (0.33%) Firewall
9 6 (0.28%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (0.24%) Modbus
10 5 (0.24%) RTP
11 4 (0.19%) DNS
11 4 (0.19%) RS-232
11 4 (0.19%) RS-485
11 4 (0.19%) Wireshark
12 3 (0.14%) Bluetooth
12 3 (0.14%) IPv4
12 3 (0.14%) IPv6
12 3 (0.14%) RS-422
12 3 (0.14%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 132 (6.24%) PostgreSQL
2 67 (3.16%) SQL Server
3 66 (3.12%) Relational Database
4 61 (2.88%) NoSQL
5 52 (2.46%) Apache Cassandra
6 50 (2.36%) MongoDB
7 37 (1.75%) Power BI
8 33 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
9 30 (1.42%) Data Lake
10 28 (1.32%) Big Data
11 26 (1.23%) BigQuery
11 26 (1.23%) DynamoDB
11 26 (1.23%) MySQL
12 21 (0.99%) Metadata
13 18 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
14 15 (0.71%) Amazon Athena
14 15 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
15 14 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
15 14 (0.66%) Redis
16 13 (0.61%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 211 (9.97%) Git
2 140 (6.61%) Jenkins
3 118 (5.57%) GitLab
4 109 (5.15%) JIRA
5 45 (2.13%) SonarQube
6 37 (1.75%) Gradle
7 34 (1.61%) JUnit
7 34 (1.61%) Rational DOORS
8 32 (1.51%) Rational Rhapsody
9 25 (1.18%) Cucumber
10 23 (1.09%) Bitbucket
10 23 (1.09%) IntelliJ
11 19 (0.90%) Maven
12 18 (0.85%) Cypress.io
12 18 (0.85%) Selenium
12 18 (0.85%) Visual Studio
13 17 (0.80%) Mockito
14 14 (0.66%) Liquibase
15 12 (0.57%) Artifactory
15 12 (0.57%) Eclipse
General
1 320 (15.12%) Finance
2 305 (14.41%) Social Skills
3 127 (6.00%) Public Sector
4 122 (5.76%) Analytical Skills
5 117 (5.53%) Banking
6 88 (4.16%) Aerospace
7 66 (3.12%) Front Office
8 41 (1.94%) Manufacturing
9 40 (1.89%) Law
10 36 (1.70%) Electronics
11 31 (1.46%) Retail
12 27 (1.28%) Military
13 26 (1.23%) Investment Banking
14 23 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
15 22 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
16 21 (0.99%) Telecoms
17 16 (0.76%) Financial Institution
18 14 (0.66%) Automotive
18 14 (0.66%) Aviation
18 14 (0.66%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 1,148 (54.23%) Software Engineer
2 377 (17.81%) Developer
3 372 (17.57%) Senior
4 180 (8.50%) Senior Software Engineer
5 169 (7.98%) Embedded Engineer
6 162 (7.65%) Lead
7 157 (7.42%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 145 (6.85%) Java Engineer
9 122 (5.76%) C++ Software Engineer
10 117 (5.53%) Java Software Engineer
11 100 (4.72%) Java Developer
12 86 (4.06%) Architect
13 73 (3.45%) Senior Developer
14 66 (3.12%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 64 (3.02%) Full-Stack Engineer
16 60 (2.83%) Data Engineer
17 59 (2.79%) Python Engineer
17 59 (2.79%) Software Developer
18 58 (2.74%) Python Developer
19 57 (2.69%) Lead Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 234 (11.05%) React
2 192 (9.07%) Kafka
3 167 (7.89%) Node.js
4 150 (7.09%) .NET
5 149 (7.04%) Spring
6 144 (6.80%) REST
7 135 (6.38%) Spring Boot
8 106 (5.01%) AngularJS
9 94 (4.44%) RESTful
10 73 (3.45%) GraphQL
11 53 (2.50%) Middleware
11 53 (2.50%) Redux
12 51 (2.41%) gRPC
13 48 (2.27%) CSS
14 46 (2.17%) HTML
15 37 (1.75%) JSON
15 37 (1.75%) Playwright
15 37 (1.75%) Web Services
16 33 (1.56%) OpenTelemetry
17 30 (1.42%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 216 (10.20%) Cloud Native
2 144 (6.80%) Distributed Systems
3 99 (4.68%) Product Ownership
4 83 (3.92%) Algorithms
5 59 (2.79%) Fixed Income
6 43 (2.03%) AI Agents
7 34 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.61%) Embedded Systems
8 33 (1.56%) Onboarding
9 28 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
9 28 (1.32%) Robotics
10 27 (1.28%) Derivative
11 26 (1.23%) Data Structures
11 26 (1.23%) Mobile App
12 20 (0.94%) Equities
12 20 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
13 19 (0.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 15 (0.71%) FPGA
15 13 (0.61%) Life Science
15 13 (0.61%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 196 (9.26%) Linux
2 68 (3.21%) Windows
3 43 (2.03%) Unix
4 25 (1.18%) Android
5 23 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (0.90%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.57%) Embedded Linux
8 10 (0.47%) FreeRTOS
8 10 (0.47%) Windows Server
9 7 (0.33%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.28%) Debian
11 4 (0.19%) Rocky
11 4 (0.19%) VMS
12 2 (0.094%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.094%) Solaris
12 2 (0.094%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.094%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.047%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 592 (27.96%) CI/CD
2 591 (27.92%) Agile
3 420 (19.84%) DevOps
4 330 (15.59%) Microservices
5 288 (13.60%) AI
6 235 (11.10%) Problem-Solving
7 228 (10.77%) Full-Stack Development
8 221 (10.44%) Containerisation
9 215 (10.16%) Test Automation
10 201 (9.49%) Infrastructure as Code
11 159 (7.51%) SDLC
12 157 (7.42%) Observability
13 155 (7.32%) Computer Science
14 154 (7.27%) Continuous Improvement
15 152 (7.18%) Machine Learning
16 148 (6.99%) Mentoring
17 143 (6.75%) Scrum
18 140 (6.61%) Technical Leadership
19 139 (6.57%) TDD
20 124 (5.86%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 536 (25.32%) Python
2 519 (24.52%) Java
3 277 (13.08%) SQL
4 267 (12.61%) C#
5 243 (11.48%) TypeScript
6 225 (10.63%) C++
7 221 (10.44%) JavaScript
8 148 (6.99%) Go
9 134 (6.33%) Ada
10 123 (5.81%) C
11 37 (1.75%) Kotlin
12 35 (1.65%) Embedded C
12 35 (1.65%) PowerShell
13 34 (1.61%) Bash
14 26 (1.23%) MATLAB
15 25 (1.18%) Ruby
15 25 (1.18%) Rust
16 21 (0.99%) Shell Script
17 20 (0.94%) Scala
18 16 (0.76%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 514 (24.28%) Security Cleared
2 402 (18.99%) SC Cleared
3 174 (8.22%) Degree
4 88 (4.16%) Computer Science Degree
5 65 (3.07%) DV Cleared
6 35 (1.65%) Master's Degree
7 32 (1.51%) BPSS Clearance
8 21 (0.99%) AWS Certification
9 13 (0.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 12 (0.57%) CISSP
11 11 (0.52%) Azure Certification
12 10 (0.47%) PhD
13 9 (0.43%) CISM
14 8 (0.38%) TOGAF Certification
15 6 (0.28%) ISTQB
15 6 (0.28%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 4 (0.19%) HND
16 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
17 3 (0.14%) Cisco Certification
17 3 (0.14%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 114 (5.38%) QA
2 51 (2.41%) Def Stans
3 38 (1.79%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.70%) IEC 61508
5 29 (1.37%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.18%) GDPR
7 22 (1.04%) MISRA
8 16 (0.76%) MISRA C
9 9 (0.43%) NCSC
10 8 (0.38%) WCAG
11 7 (0.33%) DO-178B
11 7 (0.33%) HL7
11 7 (0.33%) NIST
12 6 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 4 (0.19%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.14%) EMIR
14 3 (0.14%) FATCA
14 3 (0.14%) JSP 440
14 3 (0.14%) MiFID
System Software
1 309 (14.60%) Docker
2 22 (1.04%) Firmware
3 17 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
6 6 (0.28%) Active Directory
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.14%) HDFS
9 2 (0.094%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 347 (16.39%) Kubernetes
2 210 (9.92%) Terraform
3 89 (4.20%) Grafana
4 63 (2.98%) Ansible
5 51 (2.41%) Prometheus
6 36 (1.70%) Argo
7 16 (0.76%) Puppet
8 12 (0.57%) Progress Chef
9 6 (0.28%) Istio
10 5 (0.24%) HAProxy
10 5 (0.24%) Kibana
11 4 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 4 (0.19%) Docker Swarm
11 4 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
11 4 (0.19%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.094%) Consul
13 2 (0.094%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.094%) Podman
Vendors
1 139 (6.57%) Microsoft
2 75 (3.54%) Google
3 63 (2.98%) Oracle
4 57 (2.69%) Red Hat
5 47 (2.22%) Databricks
6 24 (1.13%) IBM
7 21 (0.99%) OpenAI
8 18 (0.85%) Splunk
8 18 (0.85%) VMware
9 13 (0.61%) Foundry
9 13 (0.61%) Informatica
10 12 (0.57%) SAP
10 12 (0.57%) ServiceNow
11 11 (0.52%) Okta
11 11 (0.52%) Siemens
12 10 (0.47%) Dynatrace
12 10 (0.47%) ForgeRock
12 10 (0.47%) MathWorks
12 10 (0.47%) PagerDuty
13 9 (0.43%) Atlassian