Pharmaceutical Contract Job Trends in London

Pharmaceutical (Pharma)
England > London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Pharmaceutical in contract job vacancies in London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Pharmaceutical over the 6 months leading up to 15 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 290 286 281
Rank change year-on-year -4 -5 +96
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 117 73 110
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.71% 0.56% 0.60%
As % of the General category 1.14% 0.84% 0.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 57 57
10th Percentile £350 £425 £390
25th Percentile £466 £525 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £725 £600
Median % change year-on-year -26.55% +20.83% +14.29%
75th Percentile £688 £880 £675
90th Percentile £836 £1,155 £785
England median daily rate £525 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 8
10th Percentile - - £23.75
25th Percentile £72.50 - £28.56
Median hourly rate £75.00 - £30.16
75th Percentile £77.50 - £40.00
90th Percentile - - £44.58
England median hourly rate £75.00 £32.50 £28.50
% change year-on-year +130.77% +14.04% -5.00%

All General Skills
London

Pharmaceutical falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills in London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 10,272 8,659 11,566
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 62.67% 66.41% 63.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,690 5,753 8,264
10th Percentile £350 £336 £332
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.57% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £668 £700 £694
90th Percentile £782 £825 £800
England median daily rate £500 £525 £531
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.13% -3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 125 262
10th Percentile £17.50 £20.18 £16.00
25th Percentile £20.82 £24.75 £18.45
Median hourly rate £29.02 £35.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.09% +16.67% -6.25%
75th Percentile £49.69 £55.25 £47.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £78.40 £72.20
England median hourly rate £25.00 £30.78 £26.00
% change year-on-year -18.78% +18.38% -23.53%

Pharmaceutical
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Pharmaceutical job vacancy trend in London

Pharmaceutical
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Pharmaceutical.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Pharmaceutical in London over the 6 months to 15 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Pharmaceutical in London

Pharmaceutical
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Pharmaceutical.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Pharmaceutical within the London region over the 6 months to 15 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
Central London -1 12 £738 +42.17% 16
South London - 2 £506 - 2
West London -17 1 £285 -36.67% 5
North London - 1 £400 -
Pharmaceutical
England

Pharmaceutical
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 5 (4.27%) Apache Airflow
1 5 (4.27%) Apache Spark
2 3 (2.56%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.71%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (3.42%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (3.42%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.71%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (11.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (2.56%) SAP EWM
2 3 (2.56%) SAP QM
3 2 (1.71%) SAP CO
3 2 (1.71%) SAP MM
3 2 (1.71%) SAP PP
4 1 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.85%) SAP CS
4 1 (0.85%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.85%) SAP GTS
4 1 (0.85%) SAP IBP
4 1 (0.85%) SAP LE
4 1 (0.85%) SAP MDM
4 1 (0.85%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 1 (0.85%) SAP PM
4 1 (0.85%) SAP PP-PI
4 1 (0.85%) SAP SD
4 1 (0.85%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 21 (17.95%) GCP
2 15 (12.82%) Azure
3 14 (11.97%) AWS
3 14 (11.97%) GitHub
4 11 (9.40%) Cloud Run
5 7 (5.98%) dbt
6 5 (4.27%) Figma
6 5 (4.27%) Power Platform
6 5 (4.27%) SaaS
7 4 (3.42%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 3 (2.56%) Amazon EKS
8 3 (2.56%) Amazon SageMaker
8 3 (2.56%) Azure AKS
8 3 (2.56%) Google Workspace
8 3 (2.56%) Microsoft 365
8 3 (2.56%) Snowflake
9 2 (1.71%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.71%) IaaS
10 1 (0.85%) Azure Storage
10 1 (0.85%) Fivetran
Communications & Networking
1 3 (2.56%) Firewall
1 3 (2.56%) Network Security
2 2 (1.71%) TCP/IP
2 2 (1.71%) VPN
2 2 (1.71%) Wireless
3 1 (0.85%) Cisco ICM
3 1 (0.85%) DHCP
3 1 (0.85%) DNS
3 1 (0.85%) Ethernet
3 1 (0.85%) Junos
3 1 (0.85%) Modbus
3 1 (0.85%) RS-485
3 1 (0.85%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.85%) VLAN
3 1 (0.85%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.27%) BigQuery
1 5 (4.27%) Power BI
2 3 (2.56%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (1.71%) Tableau
4 1 (0.85%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.85%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.85%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.85%) Power Query
4 1 (0.85%) Qlik Sense
4 1 (0.85%) QlikView
4 1 (0.85%) SAP HANA
4 1 (0.85%) Snowflake Schema
4 1 (0.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (13.68%) Git
2 4 (3.42%) JIRA
3 3 (2.56%) Cypress.io
3 3 (2.56%) MLflow
4 1 (0.85%) Hudson
General
1 29 (24.79%) Social Skills
2 23 (19.66%) Finance
3 14 (11.97%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (7.69%) Manufacturing
5 7 (5.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 6 (5.13%) Marketing
7 5 (4.27%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (3.42%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (3.42%) Retail
9 3 (2.56%) Advertising
9 3 (2.56%) Wearables
10 1 (0.85%) Billing
10 1 (0.85%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.85%) Legal
10 1 (0.85%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.85%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 13 (11.11%) Data Engineer
1 13 (11.11%) Senior
2 12 (10.26%) Consultant
3 8 (6.84%) Accountant
3 8 (6.84%) Systems Accountant
4 7 (5.98%) Analyst
4 7 (5.98%) Compliance Manager
4 7 (5.98%) Developer
4 7 (5.98%) Quality Manager
4 7 (5.98%) Risk Manager
4 7 (5.98%) SAP Consultant
5 6 (5.13%) Architect
5 6 (5.13%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
5 6 (5.13%) Business Analyst
5 6 (5.13%) IT Manager
5 6 (5.13%) Project Manager
5 6 (5.13%) Software Engineer
6 5 (4.27%) Backend Developer
6 5 (4.27%) Lead
6 5 (4.27%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (11.97%) FastAPI
2 11 (9.40%) pytest
3 9 (7.69%) LangGraph
4 4 (3.42%) React
5 3 (2.56%) Playwright
5 3 (2.56%) Ray
6 2 (1.71%) IDoc
6 2 (1.71%) PyTorch
7 1 (0.85%) ADO
7 1 (0.85%) Django
7 1 (0.85%) EDI
7 1 (0.85%) Flask
7 1 (0.85%) Kafka
7 1 (0.85%) pydantic
7 1 (0.85%) REST
7 1 (0.85%) SAP Core Interface
7 1 (0.85%) SAP Fiori
7 1 (0.85%) scikit-learn
7 1 (0.85%) SOAP
7 1 (0.85%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 44 (37.61%) Life Science
2 12 (10.26%) Cloud Native
2 12 (10.26%) Genomics
3 11 (9.40%) FMCG
4 8 (6.84%) Product Ownership
5 4 (3.42%) Greenfield Project
5 4 (3.42%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (2.56%) Data Structures
6 3 (2.56%) LIMS
6 3 (2.56%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.71%) Omics
7 2 (1.71%) Pharmacovigilance
8 1 (0.85%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.85%) Algorithms
8 1 (0.85%) Biopharmaceutical
8 1 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.85%) SCADA
8 1 (0.85%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.85%) Apple iOS
1 1 (0.85%) Mac OS
1 1 (0.85%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (30.77%) AI
2 30 (25.64%) Machine Learning
3 25 (21.37%) Agile
4 24 (20.51%) Biotechnology
5 21 (17.95%) Stakeholder Management
6 19 (16.24%) DevOps
7 17 (14.53%) Containerisation
8 16 (13.68%) Test Automation
9 15 (12.82%) Data Science
10 14 (11.97%) Analytics
10 14 (11.97%) Software Engineering
11 13 (11.11%) Data Pipeline
11 13 (11.11%) ERP
11 13 (11.11%) Natural Language Processing
11 13 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 13 (11.11%) Unit Testing
12 12 (10.26%) Data Analysis
12 12 (10.26%) Proteomics
13 11 (9.40%) Continuous Improvement
14 10 (8.55%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 32 (27.35%) Python
2 15 (12.82%) SQL
3 3 (2.56%) JavaScript
3 3 (2.56%) TypeScript
4 2 (1.71%) R
5 1 (0.85%) ABAP
5 1 (0.85%) C
5 1 (0.85%) C++
Qualifications
1 20 (17.09%) Degree
2 8 (6.84%) ACCA
2 8 (6.84%) CIMA
3 3 (2.56%) PMI Certification
3 3 (2.56%) PMP
4 2 (1.71%) CISSP
4 2 (1.71%) CompTIA Security+
4 2 (1.71%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (0.85%) CCA
5 1 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.85%) DBS Check
5 1 (0.85%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (7.69%) GxP
2 6 (5.13%) GMP
3 3 (2.56%) Accessibility
3 3 (2.56%) Data Quality
3 3 (2.56%) QA
4 2 (1.71%) GDPR
4 2 (1.71%) GRC
4 2 (1.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.85%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.85%) ITGC
5 1 (0.85%) MiFID
5 1 (0.85%) PMO
5 1 (0.85%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (15.38%) Docker
2 1 (0.85%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.85%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 7 (5.98%) Kubernetes
2 4 (3.42%) Terraform
3 1 (0.85%) Cisco UCCE
3 1 (0.85%) Cisco UCCX
3 1 (0.85%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.85%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.85%) SCCM
Vendors
1 25 (21.37%) SAP
2 20 (17.09%) Google
3 7 (5.98%) Microsoft
4 5 (4.27%) ServiceNow
5 4 (3.42%) Databricks
6 3 (2.56%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.71%) LabWare
7 2 (1.71%) VMware
7 2 (1.71%) Zscaler
8 1 (0.85%) Adobe
8 1 (0.85%) Apple
8 1 (0.85%) Avaya
8 1 (0.85%) Cisco
8 1 (0.85%) Citrix
8 1 (0.85%) Digital Fuel
8 1 (0.85%) Genesys
8 1 (0.85%) IFS
8 1 (0.85%) Juniper
8 1 (0.85%) MapR
8 1 (0.85%) MuleSoft