PhD Contract Job Trends in Hertfordshire

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil, EngD, Doctorate)
East of England > Hertfordshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Hertfordshire with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 24 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 62 41 -
Rank change year-on-year -21 - -
Contract jobs citing PhD 3 4 0
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 0.45% 1.04% -
As % of the Qualifications category 1.38% 3.10% -
Number of daily rates quoted 1 4 0
10th Percentile - £599 -
25th Percentile £588 £616 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £650 -
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% - -
75th Percentile £663 £675 -
90th Percentile - - -
East of England median daily rate £625 £650 £516
% change year-on-year -3.85% +26.03% -15.76%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Hertfordshire

PhD falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in Hertfordshire.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 217 129 255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 32.44% 33.68% 38.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 42 142
10th Percentile £363 £292 £398
25th Percentile £456 £400 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £535 £600
Median % change year-on-year +2.76% -10.79% +9.09%
75th Percentile £644 £600 £725
90th Percentile £700 £674 £824
East of England median daily rate £500 £463 £523
% change year-on-year +8.11% -11.48% +4.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 52 59
10th Percentile £16.78 £35.00 £26.24
25th Percentile £19.20 £47.50 £42.25
Median hourly rate £42.50 £66.75 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.33% +33.50% -23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £95.00 £84.36
East of England median hourly rate £22.79 £61.25 £30.00
% change year-on-year -62.79% +104.17% +42.86%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend in Hertfordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PhD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire.

PhD job vacancy trend in Hertfordshire

PhD
Daily Rate Trend in Hertfordshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing PhD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing PhD

PhD
Hourly Rate Trend in Hertfordshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing PhD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing PhD

PhD
Contract Job Locations in Hertfordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PhD within the Hertfordshire region over the 6 months to 24 December 2025. 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
Harpenden - 1 - -
Stevenage - 1 - - 4
PhD
East of England

PhD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Hertfordshire 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 1 (33.33%) Apache Spark
Cloud Services
1 2 (66.67%) AWS
1 2 (66.67%) Azure
2 1 (33.33%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (33.33%) Big Data
1 1 (33.33%) GIS
1 1 (33.33%) Hadoop
1 1 (33.33%) Tableau
General
1 1 (33.33%) Agriculture
1 1 (33.33%) Agrochemical
1 1 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
1 1 (33.33%) Data Science Developer
1 1 (33.33%) Data Scientist
1 1 (33.33%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) Matplotlib
1 1 (33.33%) NumPy
1 1 (33.33%) Pandas
1 1 (33.33%) PyTorch
1 1 (33.33%) scikit-learn
1 1 (33.33%) Seaborn
1 1 (33.33%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 2 (66.67%) Algorithms
2 1 (33.33%) IoT
2 1 (33.33%) Video\Live Streaming
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) Data Science
2 2 (66.67%) AI
2 2 (66.67%) Generative AI
2 2 (66.67%) LLM
2 2 (66.67%) Machine Learning
2 2 (66.67%) Reinforcement Learning
2 2 (66.67%) Visualisation
3 1 (33.33%) Analytics
3 1 (33.33%) Biology
3 1 (33.33%) Computer Science
3 1 (33.33%) Data Analysis
3 1 (33.33%) Data Analytics
3 1 (33.33%) Data Ingestion
3 1 (33.33%) Data Munging
3 1 (33.33%) Predictive Analytics
3 1 (33.33%) Predictive Modelling
3 1 (33.33%) Remote Sensing
3 1 (33.33%) Statistical Modelling
3 1 (33.33%) Time Series Analysis
3 1 (33.33%) Time Series Forecasting
Programming Languages
1 2 (66.67%) Python
1 2 (66.67%) R
Qualifications
1 3 (100.00%) Degree
1 3 (100.00%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (66.67%) Data Quality