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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 41 35
Rank change year-on-year +2 -6 +7
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 1,818 1,240 1,925
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.05% 4.98% 5.06%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.83% 5.50% 5.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 952 810 1,108
10th Percentile £381 £407 £425
25th Percentile £450 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £675 £750 £738
90th Percentile £788 £838 £800
UK median daily rate £543 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -9.48% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 361 80 323
10th Percentile £52.50 £42.95 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £59.01 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -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 31,205 22,550 33,099
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.68% 90.54% 86.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,990 14,548 21,873
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £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 1,928 809 2,164
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.26 £13.02
25th Percentile £18.80 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £34.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +6.15% -7.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.53
90th Percentile £74.26 £76.44 £71.83
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -10.77% - -7.14%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 -13 793 £600 -8.40% 488
North of England +15 271 £518 -5.91% 288
South West +10 251 £500 -15.25% 296
East of England +31 176 £475 +5.56% 235
South East -1 162 £500 - 492
North West +14 130 £505 -8.18% 132
Midlands -14 102 £500 +4.82% 172
Yorkshire -3 99 £525 - 128
West Midlands -4 85 £500 +4.82% 76
North East +19 47 £488 -18.41% 29
East Midlands -30 17 £500 +1.01% 91
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 (3.30%) Confluence
2 52 (2.86%) Apache
3 49 (2.70%) Apache Spark
4 26 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.72%) WebLogic
6 10 (0.55%) CMS
7 8 (0.44%) JBoss
7 8 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
8 5 (0.28%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.22%) IIS
9 4 (0.22%) nginx
10 3 (0.17%) SAS
10 3 (0.17%) SharePoint
10 3 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.11%) Camunda
11 2 (0.11%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.11%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.11%) WinCC
11 2 (0.11%) WordPress
12 1 (0.055%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 15 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.55%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.11%) Simulink
6 1 (0.055%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.055%) Maya
6 1 (0.055%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.055%) OrCAD
6 1 (0.055%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.11%) LabWindows
1 2 (0.11%) Primavera
2 1 (0.055%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.055%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.055%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 534 (29.37%) AWS
2 326 (17.93%) Azure
3 181 (9.96%) GCP
4 136 (7.48%) Serverless
5 121 (6.66%) GitHub
6 65 (3.58%) Azure DevOps
7 62 (3.41%) GitHub Actions
8 61 (3.36%) AWS Lambda
9 60 (3.30%) Amazon S3
10 46 (2.53%) Azure AKS
11 45 (2.48%) Amazon EKS
11 45 (2.48%) Power Platform
12 43 (2.37%) OpenShift
13 41 (2.26%) AWS CloudFormation
14 37 (2.04%) Azure Functions
15 34 (1.87%) Amazon EC2
15 34 (1.87%) Amazon ECS
16 32 (1.76%) SaaS
17 24 (1.32%) Snowflake
18 23 (1.27%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.21%) Ethernet
2 13 (0.72%) TCP/IP
3 12 (0.66%) Network Security
4 9 (0.50%) Firewall
5 7 (0.39%) Internet
6 5 (0.28%) 3GPP
6 5 (0.28%) Modbus
6 5 (0.28%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.22%) BGP
7 4 (0.22%) HTTP
7 4 (0.22%) RS-232
7 4 (0.22%) RS-485
7 4 (0.22%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.22%) VLAN
7 4 (0.22%) Wireless
8 3 (0.17%) Bluetooth
8 3 (0.17%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.17%) NFC
8 3 (0.17%) PPP
8 3 (0.17%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (6.88%) PostgreSQL
2 73 (4.02%) Apache Cassandra
3 68 (3.74%) MongoDB
4 63 (3.47%) NoSQL
5 53 (2.92%) SQL Server
6 50 (2.75%) Relational Database
7 37 (2.04%) Data Lake
8 34 (1.87%) Amazon RDS
9 32 (1.76%) Power BI
10 31 (1.71%) Big Data
11 29 (1.60%) MySQL
12 28 (1.54%) BigQuery
13 27 (1.49%) Metadata
14 21 (1.16%) Hadoop
15 20 (1.10%) DynamoDB
16 19 (1.05%) Amazon Athena
17 18 (0.99%) Elasticsearch
18 17 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
19 15 (0.83%) Mixpanel
20 12 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 177 (9.74%) Git
2 127 (6.99%) Jenkins
3 117 (6.44%) GitLab
4 102 (5.61%) JIRA
5 32 (1.76%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (1.71%) Selenium
7 29 (1.60%) JUnit
8 27 (1.49%) Cucumber
8 27 (1.49%) Rational Rhapsody
8 27 (1.49%) SonarQube
9 26 (1.43%) Cypress.io
9 26 (1.43%) Gradle
10 24 (1.32%) Bitbucket
10 24 (1.32%) IntelliJ
11 23 (1.27%) Eclipse
12 18 (0.99%) Maven
13 17 (0.94%) Visual Studio
14 15 (0.83%) Liquibase
14 15 (0.83%) Mockito
15 12 (0.66%) Postman
General
1 318 (17.49%) Finance
2 302 (16.61%) Social Skills
3 122 (6.71%) Public Sector
4 115 (6.33%) Banking
5 91 (5.01%) Analytical Skills
6 68 (3.74%) Front Office
7 63 (3.47%) Aerospace
8 43 (2.37%) Electronics
9 33 (1.82%) Law
10 31 (1.71%) Retail
11 29 (1.60%) Financial Institution
11 29 (1.60%) Investment Banking
12 27 (1.49%) Military
13 24 (1.32%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
15 21 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (0.99%) Telecoms
17 17 (0.94%) Pharmaceutical
18 13 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
19 11 (0.61%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 944 (51.93%) Software Engineer
2 354 (19.47%) Senior
3 343 (18.87%) Developer
4 167 (9.19%) Senior Software Engineer
5 145 (7.98%) Lead
6 126 (6.93%) C++ Software Engineer
7 112 (6.16%) Java Engineer
8 102 (5.61%) Embedded Engineer
9 91 (5.01%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 91 (5.01%) Java Software Engineer
10 78 (4.29%) Java Developer
11 74 (4.07%) Senior Developer
12 72 (3.96%) Python Engineer
13 63 (3.47%) Developer/Software Engineer
14 62 (3.41%) Architect
15 61 (3.36%) Python Developer
16 56 (3.08%) Lead Software Engineer
17 55 (3.03%) Data Engineer
18 51 (2.81%) AWS Engineer
18 51 (2.81%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 237 (13.04%) React
2 221 (12.16%) Kafka
3 174 (9.57%) Node.js
4 145 (7.98%) REST
5 136 (7.48%) .NET
6 114 (6.27%) Spring
7 106 (5.83%) RESTful
7 106 (5.83%) Spring Boot
8 92 (5.06%) AngularJS
9 77 (4.24%) gRPC
10 70 (3.85%) GraphQL
11 61 (3.36%) Middleware
12 55 (3.03%) HTML
13 54 (2.97%) Redux
14 52 (2.86%) JSON
15 49 (2.70%) CSS
16 39 (2.15%) FastAPI
16 39 (2.15%) Vue
17 38 (2.09%) Playwright
18 34 (1.87%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 209 (11.50%) Cloud Native
2 126 (6.93%) Distributed Systems
3 89 (4.90%) Product Ownership
4 65 (3.58%) Algorithms
5 63 (3.47%) Fixed Income
6 40 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.87%) Mobile App
8 32 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
9 30 (1.65%) Derivative
10 29 (1.60%) AI Agents
10 29 (1.60%) Equities
11 28 (1.54%) Data Structures
11 28 (1.54%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 28 (1.54%) Onboarding
12 26 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
13 24 (1.32%) Hedge funds
14 22 (1.21%) Embedded Systems
14 22 (1.21%) Public Cloud
15 20 (1.10%) Life Science
16 19 (1.05%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 214 (11.77%) Linux
2 79 (4.35%) Windows
3 57 (3.14%) Unix
4 26 (1.43%) Android
5 20 (1.10%) Apple iOS
6 19 (1.05%) Ubuntu
7 17 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 14 (0.77%) Windows Server
9 6 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.17%) Debian
10 3 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
10 3 (0.17%) VMS
11 2 (0.11%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.11%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.11%) Rocky
11 2 (0.11%) Solaris
11 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.055%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.055%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 572 (31.46%) Agile
2 516 (28.38%) CI/CD
3 369 (20.30%) DevOps
4 309 (17.00%) Microservices
5 264 (14.52%) AI
6 239 (13.15%) Problem-Solving
7 209 (11.50%) Containerisation
8 200 (11.00%) Test Automation
9 188 (10.34%) Full-Stack Development
10 183 (10.07%) Infrastructure as Code
11 169 (9.30%) Machine Learning
12 157 (8.64%) Computer Science
13 154 (8.47%) Mentoring
14 147 (8.09%) Continuous Improvement
15 129 (7.10%) Scrum
16 127 (6.99%) SDLC
17 120 (6.60%) Observability
18 116 (6.38%) Open Source
19 115 (6.33%) TDD
20 114 (6.27%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 525 (28.88%) Python
2 431 (23.71%) Java
3 252 (13.86%) C++
4 246 (13.53%) SQL
5 245 (13.48%) JavaScript
6 233 (12.82%) TypeScript
7 218 (11.99%) C#
8 166 (9.13%) Go
9 120 (6.60%) Ada
10 112 (6.16%) C
11 36 (1.98%) PowerShell
12 33 (1.82%) Shell Script
13 32 (1.76%) Rust
14 29 (1.60%) Bash
14 29 (1.60%) Kotlin
15 25 (1.38%) Embedded C
16 24 (1.32%) Embedded C++
17 19 (1.05%) MATLAB
17 19 (1.05%) Scala
18 16 (0.88%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 413 (22.72%) Security Cleared
2 319 (17.55%) SC Cleared
3 200 (11.00%) Degree
4 88 (4.84%) Computer Science Degree
5 58 (3.19%) Master's Degree
6 57 (3.14%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (1.05%) PhD
9 18 (0.99%) CISSP
10 17 (0.94%) AWS Certification
10 17 (0.94%) CISM
11 15 (0.83%) Azure Certification
11 15 (0.83%) TOGAF Certification
12 11 (0.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 11 (0.61%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 7 (0.39%) ISTQB
14 6 (0.33%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Certification
16 4 (0.22%) HND
16 4 (0.22%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (5.06%) QA
2 55 (3.03%) Def Stans
3 38 (2.09%) IEC 61508
4 37 (2.04%) Data Quality
5 33 (1.82%) Accessibility
6 31 (1.71%) MISRA
7 25 (1.38%) GDPR
8 21 (1.16%) MISRA C
9 18 (0.99%) WCAG
10 14 (0.77%) NIST
11 11 (0.61%) DO-178B
12 10 (0.55%) EU AI Act
13 6 (0.33%) HL7
14 3 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 3 (0.17%) NCSC
14 3 (0.17%) SLA
15 2 (0.11%) FATCA
15 2 (0.11%) PCI DSS
15 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 2 (0.11%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 330 (18.15%) Docker
2 17 (0.94%) Firmware
3 15 (0.83%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (0.61%) Active Directory
6 4 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.17%) HDFS
8 2 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.11%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 352 (19.36%) Kubernetes
2 207 (11.39%) Terraform
3 92 (5.06%) Grafana
4 65 (3.58%) Ansible
5 55 (3.03%) Prometheus
6 23 (1.27%) Puppet
7 22 (1.21%) Argo
8 13 (0.72%) Progress Chef
9 10 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (0.44%) Kibana
11 6 (0.33%) Istio
12 5 (0.28%) HP Quality Center
12 5 (0.28%) Kubeflow
13 4 (0.22%) Data Guard
13 4 (0.22%) Podman
14 3 (0.17%) Docker Swarm
14 3 (0.17%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
15 2 (0.11%) Functional Safety
15 2 (0.11%) rkt
Vendors
1 140 (7.70%) Microsoft
2 65 (3.58%) Google
3 60 (3.30%) Red Hat
4 57 (3.14%) Oracle
5 47 (2.59%) Databricks
6 28 (1.54%) Splunk
7 25 (1.38%) Foundry
8 18 (0.99%) IBM
9 16 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
9 16 (0.88%) VMware
10 14 (0.77%) OpenAI
11 10 (0.55%) Atlassian
11 10 (0.55%) PagerDuty
11 10 (0.55%) Siemens
12 9 (0.50%) Palantir
12 9 (0.50%) SAP
12 9 (0.50%) Software AG
13 8 (0.44%) ANSYS
13 8 (0.44%) ServiceNow
13 8 (0.44%) webMethods