Computer Science Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Computer Science
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Computer Science skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 69 98 99
Rank change year-on-year +29 +1 +19
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 58 23 40
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 2.80% 1.15% 1.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.19% 1.29% 1.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 14 24
10th Percentile £204 £433 £246
25th Percentile £309 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year -18.32% -3.81% -12.50%
75th Percentile £500 £594 £684
90th Percentile £548 £670 £871
South East median daily rate £330 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -34.00% +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 2
10th Percentile £75.40 - -
25th Percentile £82.00 £27.75 -
Median hourly rate £89.63 £28.50 £32.32
Median % change year-on-year +214.49% -11.82% +70.11%
75th Percentile - £29.25 -
90th Percentile - - -
South East median hourly rate £89.63 £28.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +214.49% -48.18% +168.69%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

Computer Science 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 the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,817 1,784 2,293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 87.74% 88.84% 91.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,183 1,045 1,475
10th Percentile £268 £292 £213
25th Percentile £400 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £638 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% +2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 54 104
10th Percentile £14.75 £18.92 £18.95
25th Percentile £17.40 £29.75 £25.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £49.87
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% +13.80% +137.45%
75th Percentile £56.50 £63.00 £64.63
90th Percentile £89.63 £69.03 £74.37
South East median hourly rate £22.23 £50.00 £53.00
% change year-on-year -55.55% -5.66% +41.33%

Computer Science
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Computer Science relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Computer Science job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Computer Science
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Computer Science.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Computer Science

Computer Science
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Computer Science in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 15 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Computer Science in the Thames Valley

Computer Science
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Computer Science.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Computer Science

Computer Science
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Computer Science within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 15 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
Berkshire +14 39 £425 -15.00% 31
Buckinghamshire +16 12 £326 -34.75% 18
Oxfordshire -10 7 £450 -35.71% 19
Computer Science
South East

Computer Science
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 (8.62%) Smallworld
2 4 (6.90%) Apache
2 4 (6.90%) GeoServer
3 3 (5.17%) Apache Spark
4 2 (3.45%) nginx
5 1 (1.72%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (1.72%) CMS
5 1 (1.72%) Gunicorn
5 1 (1.72%) IIS
5 1 (1.72%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (1.72%) SharePoint
5 1 (1.72%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (3.45%) SAP GRC
2 1 (1.72%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 13 (22.41%) Azure
2 10 (17.24%) AWS
3 7 (12.07%) GCP
4 4 (6.90%) Power Platform
5 2 (3.45%) GitHub
6 1 (1.72%) Amazon ECS
6 1 (1.72%) Amazon S3
6 1 (1.72%) Amazon SageMaker
6 1 (1.72%) Amazon SQS
6 1 (1.72%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (1.72%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (1.72%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.72%) IaaS
6 1 (1.72%) iPaaS
6 1 (1.72%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.72%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (1.72%) PowerApps
6 1 (1.72%) SaaS
6 1 (1.72%) Serverless
6 1 (1.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 8 (13.79%) Wireless
2 6 (10.34%) Firewall
2 6 (10.34%) Network Security
2 6 (10.34%) VPN
3 5 (8.62%) DNS
3 5 (8.62%) TCP/IP
4 4 (6.90%) DHCP
5 2 (3.45%) 5G
5 2 (3.45%) Internet
6 1 (1.72%) Intranet
6 1 (1.72%) LAN
6 1 (1.72%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (1.72%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (1.72%) VoIP
6 1 (1.72%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (15.52%) Relational Database
2 5 (8.62%) Data Warehouse
2 5 (8.62%) GIS
3 4 (6.90%) Big Data
3 4 (6.90%) Geospatial Data
3 4 (6.90%) MySQL
3 4 (6.90%) Power BI
3 4 (6.90%) QGIS
4 3 (5.17%) Hadoop
4 3 (5.17%) Metadata
4 3 (5.17%) Tableau
5 2 (3.45%) Data Lake
5 2 (3.45%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (3.45%) SQL Server
6 1 (1.72%) Amazon Athena
6 1 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (1.72%) Oracle Database
6 1 (1.72%) RDBMS
6 1 (1.72%) Redis
Development Applications
1 5 (8.62%) JIRA
2 4 (6.90%) Git
3 2 (3.45%) GitLab
3 2 (3.45%) Visual Studio
4 1 (1.72%) Appium
4 1 (1.72%) Artifactory
4 1 (1.72%) Burp Suite
4 1 (1.72%) Cypress.io
4 1 (1.72%) Selenium
General
1 34 (58.62%) Social Skills
2 21 (36.21%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (6.90%) Finance
3 4 (6.90%) Organisational Skills
4 3 (5.17%) Aerospace
4 3 (5.17%) Legal
5 2 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (3.45%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.72%) Digital Healthcare
6 1 (1.72%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 10 (17.24%) Developer
2 6 (10.34%) Analyst
2 6 (10.34%) Senior
3 5 (8.62%) Architect
4 4 (6.90%) Data Scientist
4 4 (6.90%) Informatica Developer
4 4 (6.90%) Technical Support
5 3 (5.17%) Network Engineer
5 3 (5.17%) SOC Analyst
5 3 (5.17%) Software Developer
5 3 (5.17%) Support Engineer
6 2 (3.45%) Assembler Developer
6 2 (3.45%) Data Analyst
6 2 (3.45%) GIS Architect
6 2 (3.45%) IT Engineer
6 2 (3.45%) Lead
6 2 (3.45%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 2 (3.45%) Senior Developer
6 2 (3.45%) Service Delivery Engineer
6 2 (3.45%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (10.34%) HTML
2 4 (6.90%) CSS
2 4 (6.90%) Pandas
2 4 (6.90%) REST
2 4 (6.90%) scikit-learn
3 3 (5.17%) NumPy
4 2 (3.45%) JSON
4 2 (3.45%) Node.js
4 2 (3.45%) RESTful
4 2 (3.45%) SOAP
4 2 (3.45%) XML
5 1 (1.72%) CSS3
5 1 (1.72%) Django
5 1 (1.72%) HTML5
5 1 (1.72%) jQuery
5 1 (1.72%) JSR 170
5 1 (1.72%) Matplotlib
5 1 (1.72%) Middleware
5 1 (1.72%) OAuth
5 1 (1.72%) OSGi
Miscellaneous
1 6 (10.34%) Legacy Systems
2 4 (6.90%) Algorithms
2 4 (6.90%) Security Posture
3 3 (5.17%) Analytical Mindset
3 3 (5.17%) Data Centre
3 3 (5.17%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (5.17%) Distributed Computing
3 3 (5.17%) Management Information System
4 2 (3.45%) Cloud Native
4 2 (3.45%) Replication
5 1 (1.72%) AI Agents
5 1 (1.72%) Cyber Threat
5 1 (1.72%) Life Science
5 1 (1.72%) Mobile App
5 1 (1.72%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.72%) Private Cloud
5 1 (1.72%) Reference Data
5 1 (1.72%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (1.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (29.31%) Windows
2 11 (18.97%) Linux
3 7 (12.07%) Mac OS
4 4 (6.90%) Unix
5 1 (1.72%) Kali Linux
5 1 (1.72%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (46.55%) Problem-Solving
2 14 (24.14%) Agile
3 13 (22.41%) DevOps
3 13 (22.41%) Migration
4 12 (20.69%) Decision-Making
5 10 (17.24%) Visualisation
6 9 (15.52%) Data Science
6 9 (15.52%) Machine Learning
7 8 (13.79%) Analytics
7 8 (13.79%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (13.79%) Cybersecurity
7 8 (13.79%) ITIL
8 6 (10.34%) AI
8 6 (10.34%) Data Governance
8 6 (10.34%) Data Migration
8 6 (10.34%) Data Visualisation
8 6 (10.34%) Process Improvement
8 6 (10.34%) SDLC
8 6 (10.34%) Use Case
9 5 (8.62%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 25 (43.10%) Python
2 15 (25.86%) SQL
3 10 (17.24%) Java
3 10 (17.24%) JavaScript
4 6 (10.34%) PowerShell
5 4 (6.90%) Perl
5 4 (6.90%) Shell Script
6 2 (3.45%) Ada
6 2 (3.45%) Assembly Language
6 2 (3.45%) Bash
6 2 (3.45%) C
6 2 (3.45%) C#
6 2 (3.45%) MATLAB
7 1 (1.72%) ABAP
7 1 (1.72%) Magik
Qualifications
1 52 (89.66%) Degree
2 40 (68.97%) Computer Science Degree
3 12 (20.69%) Master's Degree
4 8 (13.79%) Security Cleared
5 7 (12.07%) SC Cleared
6 5 (8.62%) A+ Certification
6 5 (8.62%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (8.62%) CISSP
7 4 (6.90%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (5.17%) CFCE
8 3 (5.17%) DBS Check
8 3 (5.17%) GCFA
8 3 (5.17%) GCIA
8 3 (5.17%) GCIH
8 3 (5.17%) PMP
9 2 (3.45%) AWS Certification
9 2 (3.45%) CCNP
9 2 (3.45%) GIAC
9 2 (3.45%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (3.45%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (17.24%) Data Quality
2 8 (13.79%) GDPR
3 4 (6.90%) QA
4 3 (5.17%) GRC
4 3 (5.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (5.17%) NIST
5 2 (3.45%) HIPAA
6 1 (1.72%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 2 (3.45%) Docker
1 2 (3.45%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (1.72%) VMware NSX
2 1 (1.72%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 2 (3.45%) Terraform
1 2 (3.45%) vCenter Server
2 1 (1.72%) Ansible
2 1 (1.72%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
2 1 (1.72%) FortiGate
2 1 (1.72%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.72%) Nessus
2 1 (1.72%) Nmap
2 1 (1.72%) vRealize
2 1 (1.72%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 11 (18.97%) Microsoft
2 5 (8.62%) Cisco
2 5 (8.62%) Google
2 5 (8.62%) Oracle
2 5 (8.62%) Palo Alto
2 5 (8.62%) ServiceNow
3 4 (6.90%) CheckPoint
3 4 (6.90%) ESRI
3 4 (6.90%) Informatica
3 4 (6.90%) Intergraph
4 3 (5.17%) ArcSight
4 3 (5.17%) LogRhythm
4 3 (5.17%) Splunk
5 2 (3.45%) CrowdStrike
5 2 (3.45%) SAP
6 1 (1.72%) Adobe
6 1 (1.72%) IBM
6 1 (1.72%) Intel
6 1 (1.72%) Red Hat
6 1 (1.72%) VMware