PhD Contract Job Trends in the North of England

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

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North of England with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 8 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 196 - -
Rank change year-on-year - - -
Contract jobs citing PhD 10 0 0
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.22% - -
As % of the Qualifications category 0.69% - -
Number of daily rates quoted 6 0 0
10th Percentile £448 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 - -
75th Percentile £584 - -
90th Percentile £600 - -
England median daily rate £625 £650 £700
% change year-on-year -3.85% -7.14% -3.45%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North of England

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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,442 1,087 1,236
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 31.27% 28.70% 26.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 972 607 808
10th Percentile £231 £235 £255
25th Percentile £400 £383 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £493 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.20% -6.10% -
75th Percentile £600 £588 £627
90th Percentile £700 £680 £700
England median daily rate £525 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 70 81
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.85 £16.25
25th Percentile £22.16 £22.35 £28.30
Median hourly rate £45.46 £37.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +22.86% -19.88% +98.97%
75th Percentile £62.49 £55.65 -
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.33 £55.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% -4.76% +16.67%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

PhD job vacancy trend in the North of England

PhD
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing PhD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing PhD

PhD
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PhD in the North of England over the 6 months to 8 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for PhD in the North of England

PhD
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PhD within the North of England region over the 6 months to 8 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
Yorkshire - 10 £537 - 36
PhD
England

PhD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 10 (100.00%) Confluence
Communications & Networking
1 3 (30.00%) Kerberos
Development Applications
1 10 (100.00%) JIRA
General
1 5 (50.00%) Finance
Job Titles
1 7 (70.00%) Architect
1 7 (70.00%) Lead
1 7 (70.00%) Lead Architect
1 7 (70.00%) Lead Solutions Architect
1 7 (70.00%) Solutions Architect
2 5 (50.00%) Lead Security Architect
2 5 (50.00%) Security Architect
2 5 (50.00%) Security Solutions Architect
3 3 (30.00%) Design Engineer
4 1 (10.00%) CyberArk Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (30.00%) OAuth
1 3 (30.00%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 7 (70.00%) Cloud Native
2 3 (30.00%) Management Information System
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (100.00%) Computer Science
1 10 (100.00%) Cryptography
1 10 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
1 10 (100.00%) Identity Access Management
1 10 (100.00%) Incident Response
1 10 (100.00%) SABSA
1 10 (100.00%) Security Operations
1 10 (100.00%) Software Engineering
1 10 (100.00%) Thought Leadership
1 10 (100.00%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
1 10 (100.00%) TOGAF
1 10 (100.00%) UML
1 10 (100.00%) Visualisation
1 10 (100.00%) Vulnerability Management
2 9 (90.00%) Privileged Access Management
2 9 (90.00%) Secrets Management
3 8 (80.00%) Decision-Making
3 8 (80.00%) Technical Debt
4 7 (70.00%) Architectural Patterns
4 7 (70.00%) Dependency Management
Qualifications
1 10 (100.00%) CISM
1 10 (100.00%) CISSP
1 10 (100.00%) Degree
1 10 (100.00%) Master's Degree
1 10 (100.00%) TOGAF Certification
Systems Management
1 3 (30.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 10 (100.00%) BiZZdesign
2 7 (70.00%) Centrify
2 7 (70.00%) CyberArk
3 1 (10.00%) Microsoft