Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Software Engineering
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 31 42
Rank change year-on-year +17 +11 +3
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 213 59 41
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 10.32% 5.74% 3.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.20% 6.36% 4.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 32 23
10th Percentile £402 £310 £413
25th Percentile £469 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -13.04%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £575
90th Percentile £734 £688 £650
North West median daily rate £550 £500 £493
% change year-on-year +10.00% +1.42% -10.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 3 2
10th Percentile £62.50 £70.70 £63.20
25th Percentile £65.00 £71.75 £64.25
Median hourly rate £71.00 £79.00 £69.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.13% +13.67% +11.20%
75th Percentile £77.00 £89.75 £73.75
90th Percentile £84.38 £92.90 £74.20
North West median hourly rate £69.00 £70.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -1.43% +64.71% -7.97%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Manchester

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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,746 928 1,020
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 84.59% 90.27% 87.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,025 603 586
10th Percentile £340 £300 £313
25th Percentile £419 £386 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £458 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.69% -3.68% -5.00%
75th Percentile £618 £588 £575
90th Percentile £713 £671 £675
North West median daily rate £500 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 71 35
10th Percentile £19.00 £16.35 £16.34
25th Percentile £34.00 £19.07 £26.93
Median hourly rate £60.50 £22.63 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +167.34% -35.34% +79.49%
75th Percentile £75.00 £33.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £63.75 £73.30
North West median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +88.90% -37.64% +15.21%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

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

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Manchester

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

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

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

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Manchester over the 6 months to 16 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in Manchester

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

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

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

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in Manchester

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in Manchester over the 6 months to 16 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in Manchester

Software Engineering
Contract Job Locations in Manchester

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 Manchester region over the 6 months to 16 October 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
Bury - 6 £744 -
Stockport - 1 - - 3
Bolton - 1 - - 8
Software Engineering
North West

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 (2.35%) Confluence
2 3 (1.41%) Apache
2 3 (1.41%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.94%) CMS
3 2 (0.94%) SAS
4 1 (0.47%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.47%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.47%) nginx
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 107 (50.23%) AWS
2 21 (9.86%) Serverless
3 15 (7.04%) AWS Lambda
4 13 (6.10%) Azure
5 11 (5.16%) Amazon S3
6 10 (4.69%) GitHub
7 9 (4.23%) Amazon ECS
7 9 (4.23%) Anthropic Claude
7 9 (4.23%) GCP
8 8 (3.76%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (3.76%) Google Gemini
9 7 (3.29%) GitHub Copilot
10 6 (2.82%) Amazon EKS
10 6 (2.82%) Amazon SQS
10 6 (2.82%) AWS CloudFormation
10 6 (2.82%) SaaS
11 5 (2.35%) AWS Fargate
12 4 (1.88%) CloudFront
13 3 (1.41%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 3 (1.41%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.35%) HTTP
2 3 (1.41%) Firewall
3 2 (0.94%) Network Security
3 2 (0.94%) VPN
4 1 (0.47%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.47%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (6.10%) NoSQL
2 10 (4.69%) DynamoDB
3 8 (3.76%) MySQL
4 5 (2.35%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (2.35%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.88%) SQL Server
6 3 (1.41%) Elasticsearch
6 3 (1.41%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.94%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.94%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.94%) Data Vault
7 2 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.47%) Chroma
8 1 (0.47%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.47%) Pinecone
8 1 (0.47%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.47%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 25 (11.74%) Git
2 12 (5.63%) Claude Code
3 5 (2.35%) Cucumber
3 5 (2.35%) JIRA
4 4 (1.88%) JUnit
5 3 (1.41%) Jenkins
5 3 (1.41%) Mockito
6 2 (0.94%) CocoaPods
6 2 (0.94%) fastlane
6 2 (0.94%) MSTest
6 2 (0.94%) NUnit
6 2 (0.94%) Selenium
6 2 (0.94%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.94%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.47%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.47%) Gatling
7 1 (0.47%) GitLab
7 1 (0.47%) Gradle
7 1 (0.47%) JMeter
7 1 (0.47%) Maven
General
1 65 (30.52%) Social Skills
2 24 (11.27%) Finance
3 17 (7.98%) Public Sector
4 13 (6.10%) Banking
5 11 (5.16%) Retail
6 8 (3.76%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.82%) Military
8 5 (2.35%) iGaming
9 3 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.47%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.47%) Games
10 1 (0.47%) Health Technology
10 1 (0.47%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.47%) Marketing
10 1 (0.47%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 120 (56.34%) Software Engineer
2 43 (20.19%) Senior
3 34 (15.96%) Java Engineer
4 29 (13.62%) Developer
5 26 (12.21%) Java Software Engineer
6 23 (10.80%) AWS Engineer
6 23 (10.80%) Lead
7 22 (10.33%) Senior Software Engineer
8 17 (7.98%) AWS Software Engineer
8 17 (7.98%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 11 (5.16%) Java Developer
10 10 (4.69%) Embedded Engineer
10 10 (4.69%) Embedded Software Engineer
10 10 (4.69%) Engineering Manager
11 9 (4.23%) Full-Stack Developer
11 9 (4.23%) Lead Software Engineer
11 9 (4.23%) Senior Developer
12 7 (3.29%) Cloud Engineer
12 7 (3.29%) Data Engineer
12 7 (3.29%) Senior Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (25.82%) Spring
1 55 (25.82%) Spring Boot
2 37 (17.37%) REST
3 35 (16.43%) React
4 29 (13.62%) Kafka
5 26 (12.21%) Node.js
6 23 (10.80%) Terraform
7 20 (9.39%) .NET
8 15 (7.04%) RESTful
9 13 (6.10%) Next.js
10 11 (5.16%) Vue
11 8 (3.76%) OAuth
12 6 (2.82%) AngularJS
12 6 (2.82%) AWS CDK
12 6 (2.82%) GraphQL
12 6 (2.82%) Jakarta EE
12 6 (2.82%) Web Services
13 5 (2.35%) OpenID
14 4 (1.88%) PySpark
14 4 (1.88%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 55 (25.82%) Cloud Native
2 33 (15.49%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (5.63%) Onboarding
4 10 (4.69%) AI Agents
4 10 (4.69%) Product Ownership
5 5 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (2.35%) Greenfield Project
6 4 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.88%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (1.41%) Culture of Ownership
7 3 (1.41%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (0.94%) Credit Risk
8 2 (0.94%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (0.94%) Educational Technology
8 2 (0.94%) Mobile App
8 2 (0.94%) Private Cloud
8 2 (0.94%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.47%) CMDB
9 1 (0.47%) Online Gambling
Operating Systems
1 10 (4.69%) Linux
2 4 (1.88%) Android
2 4 (1.88%) Apple iOS
3 3 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (1.41%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (39.91%) CI/CD
2 75 (35.21%) Agile
3 52 (24.41%) Microservices
4 49 (23.00%) Test Automation
5 42 (19.72%) Event-Driven
6 40 (18.78%) DevOps
6 40 (18.78%) Full-Stack Development
7 39 (18.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 38 (17.84%) Infrastructure as Code
9 37 (17.37%) AI
9 37 (17.37%) Event-Driven Architecture
10 36 (16.90%) Observability
11 27 (12.68%) Technical Leadership
12 26 (12.21%) User Experience
13 25 (11.74%) Problem-Solving
14 23 (10.80%) E-Commerce
14 23 (10.80%) SDLC
14 23 (10.80%) Stakeholder Management
14 23 (10.80%) TDD
15 22 (10.33%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 93 (43.66%) Java
2 43 (20.19%) TypeScript
3 33 (15.49%) JavaScript
4 28 (13.15%) Python
5 26 (12.21%) SQL
6 14 (6.57%) C#
7 13 (6.10%) Kotlin
8 5 (2.35%) C++
9 4 (1.88%) Go
9 4 (1.88%) Rust
10 3 (1.41%) Bash
10 3 (1.41%) Objective-C
10 3 (1.41%) Swift
11 2 (0.94%) C
11 2 (0.94%) Scala
12 1 (0.47%) Ada
12 1 (0.47%) COBOL
12 1 (0.47%) Groovy
12 1 (0.47%) Perl
12 1 (0.47%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 17 (7.98%) Security Cleared
2 12 (5.63%) SC Cleared
3 9 (4.23%) Degree
4 7 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (1.88%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 2 (0.94%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (0.94%) TOGAF Certification
8 1 (0.47%) CEH
8 1 (0.47%) CISM
8 1 (0.47%) CISSP
8 1 (0.47%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.47%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.47%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.69%) Accessibility
2 7 (3.29%) QA
3 4 (1.88%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.88%) GDPR
3 4 (1.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.47%) DO-178B
4 1 (0.47%) MISRA
4 1 (0.47%) NIST
System Software
1 37 (17.37%) Docker
2 1 (0.47%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 41 (19.25%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.47%) Istio
2 1 (0.47%) Network Intrusion Detection System
2 1 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 9 (4.23%) Microsoft
2 6 (2.82%) Google
3 3 (1.41%) OpenAI
3 3 (1.41%) SAP
3 3 (1.41%) Unisys
4 2 (0.94%) Databricks
4 2 (0.94%) Informatica
5 1 (0.47%) Adobe
5 1 (0.47%) Apple
5 1 (0.47%) BeyondTrust
5 1 (0.47%) CheckPoint
5 1 (0.47%) Cisco
5 1 (0.47%) CyberArk
5 1 (0.47%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.47%) F5
5 1 (0.47%) Intel
5 1 (0.47%) Okta
5 1 (0.47%) Oracle
5 1 (0.47%) Ping Identity
5 1 (0.47%) ServiceNow