Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in London

Software Engineering
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 40 30 44
Rank change year-on-year -10 +14 -8
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 834 933 901
As % of all contract jobs in London 5.87% 5.86% 4.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.37% 6.55% 5.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 554 693 683
10th Percentile £400 £444 £463
25th Percentile £500 £550 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £675 £650
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +3.85% -
75th Percentile £750 £825 £788
90th Percentile £850 £888 £850
England median daily rate £550 £600 £611
% change year-on-year -8.33% -1.80% +1.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 7 9
10th Percentile £27.86 £47.95 £40.62
25th Percentile £42.44 £56.34 £40.82
Median hourly rate £61.25 £67.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.26% +12.50% +8.63%
75th Percentile £79.69 £71.13 £65.11
90th Percentile £87.50 £75.22 £73.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process and Methodology Skills
London

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 London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 13,093 14,255 17,622
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 92.17% 89.59% 89.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,612 9,195 12,635
10th Percentile £335 £350 £353
25th Percentile £425 £450 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £568
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% -3.08% -3.81%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £800 £799
England median daily rate £501 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -4.53% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 247 174 238
10th Percentile £18.25 £17.25 £18.55
25th Percentile £24.56 £23.98 £21.50
Median hourly rate £29.50 £37.50 £35.44
Median % change year-on-year -21.33% +5.81% -9.13%
75th Percentile £47.63 £55.56 £60.00
90th Percentile £68.24 £80.75 £75.38
England median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +19.85%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in London

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Software Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in London over the 6 months to 28 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in London

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Software Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in London over the 6 months to 28 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in London

Software Engineering
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 Software Engineering within the London region over the 6 months to 28 November 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
Central London +22 107 £625 +8.70% 74
West London +2 21 £625 +8.70% 19
South London -7 11 £530 -26.13% 10
East London 0 5 £813 +47.39% 13
Software Engineering
England

Software Engineering
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 62 (7.43%) Apache Airflow
2 56 (6.71%) Apache
3 34 (4.08%) Confluence
4 29 (3.48%) Apache Spark
5 7 (0.84%) CMS
6 5 (0.60%) JBoss
7 2 (0.24%) Appian
7 2 (0.24%) Magnolia
7 2 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.24%) WordPress
8 1 (0.12%) CICS
8 1 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.12%) IIS
8 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.12%) nginx
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.12%) SharePoint
8 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 13 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.60%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (0.96%) Aladdin
1 8 (0.96%) Temenos T24
2 3 (0.36%) Fidessa
2 3 (0.36%) FLEXCUBE
2 3 (0.36%) Oracle BPM
2 3 (0.36%) thinkFolio
3 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.12%) ION Anvil
3 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.12%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 333 (39.93%) AWS
2 164 (19.66%) Azure
3 101 (12.11%) GCP
4 81 (9.71%) Serverless
5 77 (9.23%) GitHub
6 57 (6.83%) dbt
7 49 (5.88%) Snowflake
8 46 (5.52%) GitHub Actions
9 37 (4.44%) AWS Lambda
10 33 (3.96%) Power Platform
11 32 (3.84%) Amazon S3
12 28 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
13 21 (2.52%) AWS CloudFormation
14 20 (2.40%) Amazon ECS
14 20 (2.40%) AWS Step Functions
14 20 (2.40%) SaaS
15 15 (1.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 15 (1.80%) Datadog
16 13 (1.56%) Amazon EC2
16 13 (1.56%) Amazon Kinesis
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.72%) Firewall
2 4 (0.48%) Network Security
2 4 (0.48%) tcpdump
3 3 (0.36%) VPN
4 2 (0.24%) HTTP
4 2 (0.24%) HTTPS
4 2 (0.24%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.12%) DNS
5 1 (0.12%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.12%) Internet
5 1 (0.12%) Modbus
5 1 (0.12%) MPLS
5 1 (0.12%) Multicast
5 1 (0.12%) Radio Access Network
5 1 (0.12%) RS-232
5 1 (0.12%) RS-485
5 1 (0.12%) SMS
5 1 (0.12%) Software-Defined Networking
5 1 (0.12%) SSH
5 1 (0.12%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (8.51%) PostgreSQL
2 51 (6.12%) Amazon Athena
3 47 (5.64%) Apache Arrow
3 47 (5.64%) Apache Iceberg
3 47 (5.64%) Data Lake
3 47 (5.64%) Dremio
4 38 (4.56%) NoSQL
5 37 (4.44%) Big Data
6 36 (4.32%) Apache Cassandra
7 32 (3.84%) SQL Server
8 30 (3.60%) Apache Ignite
9 29 (3.48%) Hadoop
10 26 (3.12%) MongoDB
11 25 (3.00%) Power BI
12 24 (2.88%) Relational Database
13 21 (2.52%) Elasticsearch
14 18 (2.16%) MySQL
15 17 (2.04%) Amazon RDS
16 16 (1.92%) Metadata
17 15 (1.80%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 89 (10.67%) Git
2 58 (6.95%) Jenkins
3 44 (5.28%) JIRA
4 32 (3.84%) GitLab
5 18 (2.16%) Cypress.io
6 15 (1.80%) Cucumber
6 15 (1.80%) JUnit
7 13 (1.56%) Gradle
8 12 (1.44%) SonarQube
9 11 (1.32%) TeamCity
10 9 (1.08%) Selenium
11 7 (0.84%) Bitbucket
11 7 (0.84%) Maven
11 7 (0.84%) Mockito
12 6 (0.72%) MLflow
13 5 (0.60%) CircleCI
13 5 (0.60%) Postman
14 3 (0.36%) Lerna
15 2 (0.24%) ESLint
15 2 (0.24%) GoCD
General
1 281 (33.69%) Finance
2 181 (21.70%) Social Skills
3 131 (15.71%) Banking
4 104 (12.47%) Front Office
5 80 (9.59%) Investment Banking
6 50 (6.00%) Analytical Skills
7 48 (5.76%) Public Sector
8 17 (2.04%) Pharmaceutical
9 16 (1.92%) Financial Institution
10 13 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.20%) Back Office
12 9 (1.08%) Retail Banking
13 8 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
13 8 (0.96%) Retail
14 7 (0.84%) Telecoms
15 6 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
15 6 (0.72%) Games
15 6 (0.72%) Military
15 6 (0.72%) Publishing
16 5 (0.60%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 321 (38.49%) Software Engineer
2 252 (30.22%) Developer
3 187 (22.42%) Senior
4 88 (10.55%) Python Engineer
5 82 (9.83%) Senior Software Engineer
6 71 (8.51%) Java Engineer
7 70 (8.39%) Java Software Engineer
8 66 (7.91%) AWS Engineer
9 65 (7.79%) Python Developer
10 64 (7.67%) Python Software Engineer
11 59 (7.07%) AWS Software Engineer
12 57 (6.83%) Lead
13 48 (5.76%) Senior Developer
14 46 (5.52%) Java Developer
15 43 (5.16%) Developer/Software Engineer
16 38 (4.56%) Data Engineer
17 36 (4.32%) AWS Developer
18 34 (4.08%) Senior Java Engineer
18 34 (4.08%) Senior Java Software Engineer
19 32 (3.84%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (19.18%) Kafka
2 156 (18.71%) React
3 106 (12.71%) Node.js
4 76 (9.11%) NumPy
5 75 (8.99%) AngularJS
5 75 (8.99%) Pandas
6 74 (8.87%) gRPC
7 73 (8.75%) .NET
8 66 (7.91%) SciPy
9 52 (6.24%) REST
9 52 (6.24%) RESTful
10 49 (5.88%) Vue
11 46 (5.52%) Spring
12 44 (5.28%) FastAPI
13 41 (4.92%) GraphQL
14 30 (3.60%) CSS
14 30 (3.60%) HTML
14 30 (3.60%) Protocol Buffers
14 30 (3.60%) Spring Boot
15 26 (3.12%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 101 (12.11%) Cloud Native
2 97 (11.63%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 90 (10.79%) Fixed Income
4 70 (8.39%) Distributed Systems
5 64 (7.67%) Hedge funds
6 59 (7.07%) Equities
7 43 (5.16%) Derivative
8 30 (3.60%) Pricing Data
9 29 (3.48%) Data Structures
10 26 (3.12%) Product Ownership
11 25 (3.00%) Algorithms
12 24 (2.88%) Virtual Team
13 20 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
13 20 (2.40%) Greenfield Project
14 15 (1.80%) Genomics
15 14 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
15 14 (1.68%) Onboarding
16 13 (1.56%) AI Agents
16 13 (1.56%) Linux Command Line
16 13 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 107 (12.83%) Linux
2 38 (4.56%) Unix
3 20 (2.40%) Windows
4 14 (1.68%) Android
5 11 (1.32%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.60%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.24%) VMS
9 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.12%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 365 (43.76%) Agile
2 270 (32.37%) CI/CD
3 180 (21.58%) DevOps
4 140 (16.79%) Microservices
5 129 (15.47%) AI
6 119 (14.27%) Problem-Solving
7 116 (13.91%) Infrastructure as Code
8 111 (13.31%) Test Automation
9 102 (12.23%) Machine Learning
10 90 (10.79%) Containerisation
10 90 (10.79%) Full-Stack Development
11 88 (10.55%) Computer Science
12 83 (9.95%) Clean Code
12 83 (9.95%) Mentoring
13 76 (9.11%) Investment Management
14 69 (8.27%) Fintech
15 63 (7.55%) Asset Management
15 63 (7.55%) Data Pipeline
16 61 (7.31%) Open Source
17 60 (7.19%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 373 (44.72%) Python
2 256 (30.70%) Java
3 184 (22.06%) JavaScript
4 170 (20.38%) TypeScript
5 163 (19.54%) SQL
6 132 (15.83%) C#
7 117 (14.03%) C++
8 75 (8.99%) Go
9 28 (3.36%) Rust
10 18 (2.16%) Ruby
11 12 (1.44%) C
12 11 (1.32%) Bash
13 10 (1.20%) PHP
13 10 (1.20%) PowerShell
14 9 (1.08%) Bicep
14 9 (1.08%) PL/SQL
15 8 (0.96%) Kotlin
15 8 (0.96%) Scala
16 7 (0.84%) JSX
17 5 (0.60%) R
Qualifications
1 115 (13.79%) Security Cleared
2 100 (11.99%) Degree
3 98 (11.75%) SC Cleared
4 38 (4.56%) Computer Science Degree
5 35 (4.20%) DV Cleared
6 18 (2.16%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.08%) AWS Certification
7 9 (1.08%) MCP
8 7 (0.84%) PhD
9 6 (0.72%) Azure Certification
9 6 (0.72%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.36%) CISSP
10 3 (0.36%) EMC Certification
10 3 (0.36%) HNC
10 3 (0.36%) HND
10 3 (0.36%) ISTQB
10 3 (0.36%) Postgraduate
11 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.24%) CISM
11 2 (0.24%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (4.20%) QA
2 24 (2.88%) Data Quality
3 11 (1.32%) Accessibility
3 11 (1.32%) GDPR
4 4 (0.48%) MiFID
4 4 (0.48%) SLA
5 3 (0.36%) Def Stans
5 3 (0.36%) IEC 61508
5 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 3 (0.36%) NIST
5 3 (0.36%) SEPA
5 3 (0.36%) WCAG
6 2 (0.24%) EU AI Act
6 2 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.24%) PMO
7 1 (0.12%) EMIR
7 1 (0.12%) GxP
7 1 (0.12%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 182 (21.82%) Docker
2 9 (1.08%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.48%) zsh
4 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.12%) Firmware
4 1 (0.12%) KVM
4 1 (0.12%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 173 (20.74%) Kubernetes
2 92 (11.03%) Terraform
3 33 (3.96%) Grafana
4 27 (3.24%) Prometheus
5 22 (2.64%) Ansible
6 5 (0.60%) Kibana
7 4 (0.48%) Argo
8 3 (0.36%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.36%) Puppet
9 2 (0.24%) Kubeflow
9 2 (0.24%) rkt
10 1 (0.12%) CA Endevor
10 1 (0.12%) Fluentd
10 1 (0.12%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.12%) Packer
10 1 (0.12%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 56 (6.71%) Microsoft
2 40 (4.80%) Oracle
3 35 (4.20%) Google
4 30 (3.60%) Databricks
5 23 (2.76%) Foundry
6 15 (1.80%) Palantir
7 13 (1.56%) Cloudera
8 10 (1.20%) Temenos
9 9 (1.08%) OpenAI
10 6 (0.72%) Salesforce
11 5 (0.60%) Atlassian
11 5 (0.60%) Cisco
11 5 (0.60%) DocuSign
11 5 (0.60%) Dynatrace
11 5 (0.60%) Splunk
12 4 (0.48%) Alteryx
12 4 (0.48%) Murex
13 3 (0.36%) EMC
13 3 (0.36%) Portware
13 3 (0.36%) Red Hat