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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 28 43
Rank change year-on-year +12 +15 +6
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 199 67 37
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 9.98% 6.71% 3.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.90% 7.47% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 89 42 20
10th Percentile £425 £378 £411
25th Percentile £468 £403 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -2.44% -6.82%
75th Percentile £638 £597 £581
90th Percentile £738 £684 £658
North West median daily rate £550 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 3 2
10th Percentile £62.50 £70.70 £63.20
25th Percentile £64.44 £71.75 £64.25
Median hourly rate £69.00 £79.00 £69.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.66% +13.67% +11.20%
75th Percentile £76.75 £89.75 £73.75
90th Percentile £77.00 £92.90 £74.20
North West median hourly rate £68.24 £64.29 £42.50
% change year-on-year +6.14% +51.27% -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 1,672 897 1,018
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 83.85% 89.88% 87.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 973 583 590
10th Percentile £313 £305 £313
25th Percentile £414 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.55% -1.50%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £592
90th Percentile £700 £678 £688
North West median daily rate £500 £453 £488
% change year-on-year +10.38% -7.08% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 172 67 34
10th Percentile £19.20 £15.49 £15.94
25th Percentile £33.64 £18.97 £22.84
Median hourly rate £60.50 £22.63 £38.75
Median % change year-on-year +167.34% -41.60% +103.95%
75th Percentile £75.00 £35.50 £64.38
90th Percentile £78.63 £64.25 £87.45
North West median hourly rate £46.96 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +86.76% -40.84% +21.43%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 - - 7
Bolton - 1 - - 5
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 4 (2.01%) Confluence
2 3 (1.51%) Apache
2 3 (1.51%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (1.01%) CMS
3 2 (1.01%) SAS
4 1 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.50%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.50%) nginx
Cloud Services
1 105 (52.76%) AWS
2 20 (10.05%) Serverless
3 13 (6.53%) AWS Lambda
4 11 (5.53%) Azure
5 9 (4.52%) Amazon S3
5 9 (4.52%) Anthropic Claude
5 9 (4.52%) GitHub
6 8 (4.02%) GCP
6 8 (4.02%) Google Gemini
7 7 (3.52%) Amazon ECS
7 7 (3.52%) GitHub Actions
7 7 (3.52%) GitHub Copilot
8 6 (3.02%) Amazon SQS
8 6 (3.02%) SaaS
9 5 (2.51%) Amazon EKS
9 5 (2.51%) AWS CloudFormation
9 5 (2.51%) AWS Fargate
10 4 (2.01%) CloudFront
11 3 (1.51%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 3 (1.51%) Amazon ElastiCache
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.51%) HTTP
2 3 (1.51%) Firewall
3 2 (1.01%) VPN
4 1 (0.50%) Network Security
4 1 (0.50%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.53%) NoSQL
2 10 (5.03%) DynamoDB
3 9 (4.52%) MySQL
4 7 (3.52%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (2.51%) Relational Database
6 4 (2.01%) SQL Server
7 3 (1.51%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (1.51%) MongoDB
8 2 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (1.01%) Data Vault
8 2 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.50%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.50%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 22 (11.06%) Git
2 10 (5.03%) Claude Code
3 6 (3.02%) Cucumber
4 5 (2.51%) JIRA
5 4 (2.01%) JUnit
5 4 (2.01%) Selenium
6 3 (1.51%) Mockito
7 2 (1.01%) CocoaPods
7 2 (1.01%) Cypress.io
7 2 (1.01%) fastlane
7 2 (1.01%) GitLab
8 1 (0.50%) Gatling
8 1 (0.50%) Gradle
8 1 (0.50%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.50%) JMeter
8 1 (0.50%) Postman
8 1 (0.50%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.50%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.50%) SonarQube
General
1 57 (28.64%) Social Skills
2 19 (9.55%) Public Sector
3 18 (9.05%) Finance
4 14 (7.04%) Retail
5 8 (4.02%) Banking
6 7 (3.52%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (3.52%) Military
7 3 (1.51%) iGaming
7 3 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.50%) Games
8 1 (0.50%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.50%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.50%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 118 (59.30%) Software Engineer
2 48 (24.12%) Senior
3 30 (15.08%) Developer
3 30 (15.08%) Java Engineer
4 28 (14.07%) Senior Software Engineer
5 26 (13.07%) Java Software Engineer
6 24 (12.06%) Lead
7 21 (10.55%) AWS Engineer
8 17 (8.54%) AWS Software Engineer
9 14 (7.04%) Java Developer
10 11 (5.53%) Full-Stack Developer
10 11 (5.53%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 10 (5.03%) Embedded Engineer
11 10 (5.03%) Embedded Software Engineer
12 9 (4.52%) Lead Software Engineer
12 9 (4.52%) Senior Developer
13 7 (3.52%) Cloud Engineer
13 7 (3.52%) Lead Developer
13 7 (3.52%) Senior Java Engineer
14 6 (3.02%) Engineering Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (26.13%) Spring
2 51 (25.63%) Spring Boot
3 35 (17.59%) React
4 32 (16.08%) REST
5 27 (13.57%) Node.js
6 23 (11.56%) Kafka
7 22 (11.06%) Terraform
8 20 (10.05%) .NET
9 13 (6.53%) Next.js
9 13 (6.53%) RESTful
10 7 (3.52%) AngularJS
10 7 (3.52%) Vue
11 6 (3.02%) AWS CDK
11 6 (3.02%) Jakarta EE
12 4 (2.01%) CSS
12 4 (2.01%) HTML
12 4 (2.01%) MACH
12 4 (2.01%) OpenID
12 4 (2.01%) PySpark
12 4 (2.01%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 60 (30.15%) Cloud Native
2 32 (16.08%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (6.03%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.03%) Product Ownership
5 6 (3.02%) AI Agents
6 5 (2.51%) Greenfield Project
7 4 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.51%) Culture of Ownership
8 3 (1.51%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.51%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.51%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (1.01%) Credit Risk
9 2 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.01%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (1.01%) Educational Technology
9 2 (1.01%) Mobile App
9 2 (1.01%) Private Cloud
10 1 (0.50%) CMDB
10 1 (0.50%) Data Structures
10 1 (0.50%) Online Gambling
Operating Systems
1 10 (5.03%) Linux
2 4 (2.01%) Apple iOS
3 3 (1.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (1.51%) Windows
4 2 (1.01%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (41.21%) CI/CD
2 71 (35.68%) Agile
3 55 (27.64%) Microservices
4 48 (24.12%) Test Automation
5 39 (19.60%) DevOps
6 38 (19.10%) Event-Driven
7 37 (18.59%) Full-Stack Development
8 36 (18.09%) Continuous Improvement
8 36 (18.09%) Event-Driven Architecture
9 34 (17.09%) AI
9 34 (17.09%) Observability
10 33 (16.58%) Infrastructure as Code
11 27 (13.57%) Technical Leadership
12 24 (12.06%) Code Quality
13 23 (11.56%) Problem-Solving
14 22 (11.06%) Decision-Making
14 22 (11.06%) SDLC
14 22 (11.06%) User Experience
15 21 (10.55%) E-Commerce
15 21 (10.55%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 88 (44.22%) Java
2 40 (20.10%) TypeScript
3 29 (14.57%) JavaScript
4 26 (13.07%) Python
5 22 (11.06%) SQL
6 13 (6.53%) Kotlin
7 12 (6.03%) C#
8 5 (2.51%) C++
9 4 (2.01%) Go
9 4 (2.01%) Rust
10 3 (1.51%) Objective-C
10 3 (1.51%) Swift
11 2 (1.01%) Bash
11 2 (1.01%) Scala
12 1 (0.50%) Ada
12 1 (0.50%) C
12 1 (0.50%) Perl
Qualifications
1 19 (9.55%) Security Cleared
2 14 (7.04%) SC Cleared
3 8 (4.02%) Degree
4 7 (3.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.01%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.50%) CEH
8 1 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.50%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.50%) SANS
8 1 (0.50%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.03%) Accessibility
2 9 (4.52%) QA
3 4 (2.01%) GDPR
4 3 (1.51%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.50%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.50%) DO-178B
6 1 (0.50%) MISRA
6 1 (0.50%) NIST
System Software
1 34 (17.09%) Docker
2 1 (0.50%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 38 (19.10%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.50%) Grafana
2 1 (0.50%) Istio
2 1 (0.50%) Network Intrusion Detection System
2 1 (0.50%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 7 (3.52%) Microsoft
2 4 (2.01%) Google
3 3 (1.51%) OpenAI
4 2 (1.01%) Databricks
4 2 (1.01%) Informatica
4 2 (1.01%) SAP
5 1 (0.50%) Adobe
5 1 (0.50%) Apple
5 1 (0.50%) BiZZdesign
5 1 (0.50%) CheckPoint
5 1 (0.50%) Cisco
5 1 (0.50%) F5
5 1 (0.50%) Intel
5 1 (0.50%) Oracle
5 1 (0.50%) ServiceNow