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

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 41 33
Rank change year-on-year +4 -8 +8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 2,081 1,212 2,013
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.16% 4.98% 5.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.07% 5.46% 6.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,087 803 1,185
10th Percentile £400 £403 £423
25th Percentile £453 £489 £493
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £673 £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 461 79 337
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.90 £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% -3.85%
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% -2.56%

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 34,270 22,183 32,209
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.00% 91.18% 86.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,910 14,537 21,121
10th Percentile £318 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £617 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £521 £525
% change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,134 920 2,242
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.75 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.38 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £30.00 £35.68
Median % change year-on-year +50.00% -15.92% -4.85%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £79.35 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £29.07 £35.00
% change year-on-year +42.95% -16.94% -6.17%

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 30 April 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 30 April 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 30 April 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 -11 851 £600 -11.11% 573
South West +14 308 £575 - 167
North of England +14 297 £500 - 246
South East +17 254 £525 +2.44% 354
East of England +36 216 £475 -2.72% 158
North West -1 133 £488 -2.55% 143
Yorkshire +4 115 £519 +3.75% 66
Midlands -26 98 £495 +2.59% 103
West Midlands -13 87 £489 -7.98% 55
North East +22 53 £538 +16.85% 37
East Midlands -33 10 £513 +4.59% 48
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 (2.59%) Confluence
2 47 (2.26%) Apache Spark
3 39 (1.87%) Apache
4 21 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.43%) CMS
6 7 (0.34%) SAS
7 6 (0.29%) WebLogic
8 5 (0.24%) IIS
8 5 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
8 5 (0.24%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.19%) nginx
10 3 (0.14%) Camunda
10 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.096%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.096%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.096%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.096%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.096%) WinCC
12 1 (0.048%) JBoss
12 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 12 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.24%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.19%) Simulink
5 3 (0.14%) CPLEX
5 3 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.096%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.048%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.048%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.048%) Blender
7 1 (0.048%) Maya
7 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.048%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.048%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.096%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.096%) LabWindows
4 1 (0.048%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.048%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.048%) Primavera
4 1 (0.048%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.048%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 545 (26.19%) AWS
2 393 (18.89%) Azure
3 191 (9.18%) GCP
4 142 (6.82%) GitHub
5 118 (5.67%) Serverless
6 78 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
7 67 (3.22%) AWS Lambda
8 66 (3.17%) Amazon S3
9 62 (2.98%) GitHub Actions
10 53 (2.55%) Power Platform
11 52 (2.50%) OpenShift
12 41 (1.97%) AWS CloudFormation
13 38 (1.83%) Azure AKS
14 37 (1.78%) Amazon EKS
15 36 (1.73%) Amazon ECS
16 29 (1.39%) SaaS
17 28 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
18 26 (1.25%) Amazon SQS
18 26 (1.25%) Azure Functions
19 21 (1.01%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 26 (1.25%) Software-Defined Radio
2 25 (1.20%) Ethernet
3 15 (0.72%) Wireless
4 14 (0.67%) TCP/IP
5 11 (0.53%) HTTP
5 11 (0.53%) Network Security
6 9 (0.43%) 3GPP
7 8 (0.38%) Firewall
8 5 (0.24%) Modbus
8 5 (0.24%) RTP
9 4 (0.19%) RS-232
9 4 (0.19%) RS-485
9 4 (0.19%) VPN
9 4 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.19%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.14%) Bluetooth
10 3 (0.14%) DNS
10 3 (0.14%) IPv4
10 3 (0.14%) IPv6
10 3 (0.14%) RS-422
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (6.15%) PostgreSQL
2 64 (3.08%) Relational Database
2 64 (3.08%) SQL Server
3 58 (2.79%) NoSQL
4 54 (2.59%) Apache Cassandra
5 51 (2.45%) MongoDB
6 38 (1.83%) Power BI
7 35 (1.68%) Amazon RDS
8 31 (1.49%) Data Lake
9 27 (1.30%) Big Data
10 26 (1.25%) BigQuery
10 26 (1.25%) MySQL
11 25 (1.20%) DynamoDB
12 21 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
12 21 (1.01%) Metadata
13 17 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
14 15 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
15 14 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
15 14 (0.67%) Redis
16 13 (0.62%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 211 (10.14%) Git
2 136 (6.54%) Jenkins
3 117 (5.62%) GitLab
4 109 (5.24%) JIRA
5 45 (2.16%) SonarQube
6 35 (1.68%) Gradle
7 34 (1.63%) Rational DOORS
8 32 (1.54%) Rational Rhapsody
9 30 (1.44%) JUnit
10 23 (1.11%) Bitbucket
10 23 (1.11%) IntelliJ
11 22 (1.06%) Cucumber
12 20 (0.96%) Cypress.io
13 19 (0.91%) Maven
13 19 (0.91%) Selenium
14 18 (0.86%) Visual Studio
15 14 (0.67%) Mockito
16 13 (0.62%) Eclipse
17 12 (0.58%) Artifactory
17 12 (0.58%) Liquibase
General
1 309 (14.85%) Finance
2 306 (14.70%) Social Skills
3 126 (6.05%) Public Sector
4 114 (5.48%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (5.38%) Banking
6 85 (4.08%) Aerospace
7 66 (3.17%) Front Office
8 38 (1.83%) Law
9 37 (1.78%) Electronics
10 36 (1.73%) Manufacturing
11 32 (1.54%) Retail
12 29 (1.39%) Military
13 27 (1.30%) Investment Banking
14 25 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
15 22 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
16 21 (1.01%) Telecoms
17 15 (0.72%) Financial Institution
18 13 (0.62%) Automotive
18 13 (0.62%) Documentation Skills
19 12 (0.58%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 1,132 (54.40%) Software Engineer
2 365 (17.54%) Senior
3 364 (17.49%) Developer
4 177 (8.51%) Senior Software Engineer
5 160 (7.69%) Embedded Engineer
6 154 (7.40%) Lead
7 148 (7.11%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 141 (6.78%) Java Engineer
9 124 (5.96%) C++ Software Engineer
10 113 (5.43%) Java Software Engineer
11 97 (4.66%) Java Developer
12 87 (4.18%) Architect
13 71 (3.41%) Senior Developer
14 67 (3.22%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 62 (2.98%) Data Engineer
15 62 (2.98%) Python Engineer
16 61 (2.93%) Full-Stack Engineer
17 60 (2.88%) Software Developer
18 58 (2.79%) Lead Software Engineer
19 55 (2.64%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 231 (11.10%) React
2 188 (9.03%) Kafka
3 172 (8.27%) Node.js
4 147 (7.06%) .NET
5 143 (6.87%) REST
6 142 (6.82%) Spring
7 129 (6.20%) Spring Boot
8 101 (4.85%) AngularJS
9 91 (4.37%) RESTful
10 75 (3.60%) GraphQL
11 53 (2.55%) gRPC
12 52 (2.50%) Redux
13 51 (2.45%) Middleware
14 48 (2.31%) CSS
15 44 (2.11%) HTML
16 38 (1.83%) JSON
17 37 (1.78%) Playwright
18 36 (1.73%) Web Services
19 34 (1.63%) OpenTelemetry
20 30 (1.44%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 216 (10.38%) Cloud Native
2 143 (6.87%) Distributed Systems
3 93 (4.47%) Product Ownership
4 83 (3.99%) Algorithms
5 58 (2.79%) Fixed Income
6 41 (1.97%) AI Agents
7 33 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
7 33 (1.59%) Embedded Systems
8 32 (1.54%) Onboarding
9 27 (1.30%) Derivative
10 26 (1.25%) Data Structures
10 26 (1.25%) Mobile App
10 26 (1.25%) Robotics
11 25 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
12 20 (0.96%) Equities
13 19 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
14 18 (0.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 14 (0.67%) FPGA
15 14 (0.67%) NHS
16 13 (0.62%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 196 (9.42%) Linux
2 70 (3.36%) Windows
3 42 (2.02%) Unix
4 26 (1.25%) Android
5 24 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (0.91%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.58%) Embedded Linux
8 11 (0.53%) Windows Server
9 10 (0.48%) FreeRTOS
10 7 (0.34%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.29%) Debian
12 4 (0.19%) Rocky
12 4 (0.19%) VMS
13 2 (0.096%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.096%) Solaris
13 2 (0.096%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.096%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.048%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 588 (28.26%) CI/CD
2 585 (28.11%) Agile
3 419 (20.13%) DevOps
4 323 (15.52%) Microservices
5 278 (13.36%) AI
6 227 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
7 221 (10.62%) Full-Stack Development
8 219 (10.52%) Containerisation
9 213 (10.24%) Test Automation
10 202 (9.71%) Infrastructure as Code
11 160 (7.69%) Observability
12 157 (7.54%) Computer Science
13 153 (7.35%) Machine Learning
13 153 (7.35%) SDLC
14 150 (7.21%) Continuous Improvement
15 146 (7.02%) Mentoring
16 141 (6.78%) TDD
17 140 (6.73%) Scrum
18 135 (6.49%) Technical Leadership
19 122 (5.86%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 535 (25.71%) Python
2 503 (24.17%) Java
3 273 (13.12%) SQL
4 260 (12.49%) C#
5 245 (11.77%) TypeScript
6 230 (11.05%) C++
7 220 (10.57%) JavaScript
8 149 (7.16%) Go
9 133 (6.39%) Ada
10 124 (5.96%) C
11 35 (1.68%) Embedded C
11 35 (1.68%) PowerShell
12 34 (1.63%) Kotlin
13 33 (1.59%) Bash
14 26 (1.25%) MATLAB
15 25 (1.20%) Ruby
16 24 (1.15%) Rust
17 21 (1.01%) Scala
17 21 (1.01%) Shell Script
18 17 (0.82%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 513 (24.65%) Security Cleared
2 400 (19.22%) SC Cleared
3 174 (8.36%) Degree
4 91 (4.37%) Computer Science Degree
5 63 (3.03%) DV Cleared
6 39 (1.87%) Master's Degree
7 30 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (1.15%) AWS Certification
9 14 (0.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 13 (0.62%) Azure Certification
10 13 (0.62%) CISSP
11 12 (0.58%) PhD
12 10 (0.48%) CISM
13 8 (0.38%) TOGAF Certification
14 6 (0.29%) ISTQB
14 6 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 4 (0.19%) HND
15 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
16 3 (0.14%) Cisco Certification
16 3 (0.14%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (5.43%) QA
2 51 (2.45%) Def Stans
3 40 (1.92%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.73%) IEC 61508
5 28 (1.35%) Accessibility
6 27 (1.30%) GDPR
7 22 (1.06%) MISRA
8 16 (0.77%) MISRA C
9 9 (0.43%) NCSC
10 8 (0.38%) NIST
10 8 (0.38%) WCAG
11 7 (0.34%) DO-178B
11 7 (0.34%) HL7
11 7 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 4 (0.19%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.14%) EMIR
13 3 (0.14%) FATCA
13 3 (0.14%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.14%) MiFID
System Software
1 311 (14.94%) Docker
2 21 (1.01%) Firmware
3 16 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.38%) Active Directory
5 8 (0.38%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.14%) HDFS
8 2 (0.096%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 349 (16.77%) Kubernetes
2 212 (10.19%) Terraform
3 91 (4.37%) Grafana
4 62 (2.98%) Ansible
5 51 (2.45%) Prometheus
6 35 (1.68%) Argo
7 16 (0.77%) Puppet
8 12 (0.58%) Progress Chef
9 6 (0.29%) Istio
9 6 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.24%) HAProxy
10 5 (0.24%) Kibana
10 5 (0.24%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 4 (0.19%) Docker Swarm
11 4 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
12 3 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.096%) Consul
13 2 (0.096%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.096%) Podman
Vendors
1 139 (6.68%) Microsoft
2 76 (3.65%) Google
3 60 (2.88%) Oracle
4 58 (2.79%) Red Hat
5 47 (2.26%) Databricks
6 24 (1.15%) IBM
7 21 (1.01%) OpenAI
7 21 (1.01%) Splunk
8 17 (0.82%) VMware
9 13 (0.62%) Foundry
10 12 (0.58%) SAP
10 12 (0.58%) ServiceNow
11 11 (0.53%) Informatica
11 11 (0.53%) Okta
12 10 (0.48%) Atlassian
12 10 (0.48%) Dynatrace
12 10 (0.48%) ForgeRock
12 10 (0.48%) MathWorks
12 10 (0.48%) PagerDuty
12 10 (0.48%) Siemens