Python Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Python
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Python skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 18 31
Rank change year-on-year 0 +13 -7
Contract jobs citing Python 256 142 142
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 8.18% 9.02% 5.33%
As % of the Programming Languages category 43.69% 33.18% 27.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 178 84 105
10th Percentile £349 £350 £342
25th Percentile £400 £443 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.15% -7.09%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £600 £650
South East median daily rate £525 £505 £511
% change year-on-year +3.96% -1.17% -7.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 0 6
10th Percentile £40.62 - £55.63
25th Percentile £43.81 - -
Median hourly rate £52.50 - £65.00
75th Percentile £81.60 - -
90th Percentile £84.00 - £71.25
South East median hourly rate £52.50 £56.25 £65.00
% change year-on-year -6.67% -13.46% +165.74%

All Programming Languages
Thames Valley

Python falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills in the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 586 428 523
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 18.72% 27.19% 19.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 402 257 359
10th Percentile £310 £333 £362
25th Percentile £394 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £650 £693 £650
South East median daily rate £513 £501 £511
% change year-on-year +2.40% -2.05% -2.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 4 28
10th Percentile £26.58 £23.67 £35.41
25th Percentile £43.81 £27.90 £46.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £42.00 £58.49
Median % change year-on-year +30.95% -28.19% +8.82%
75th Percentile £82.25 £59.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.16 £72.03
South East median hourly rate £62.50 £54.88 £62.50
% change year-on-year +13.90% -12.20% +11.14%

Python
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Python job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Python
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

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

Python
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Python in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 3 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Python in the Thames Valley

Python
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

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

Python
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Python in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 3 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Python in the Thames Valley

Python
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 Python within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 3 July 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
Berkshire -4 166 £500 - 57
Oxfordshire +5 46 £592 +41.37% 50
Buckinghamshire -10 44 £525 +31.25% 26
Python
South East

Python
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 14 (5.47%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.56%) Apache Spark
2 4 (1.56%) WebSphere
2 4 (1.56%) WebSphere Application Server
3 2 (0.78%) ArcGIS
3 2 (0.78%) IBM HTTP Server
3 2 (0.78%) JBoss
3 2 (0.78%) Oracle HTTP Server
3 2 (0.78%) WebSphere Portal
4 1 (0.39%) Apache
4 1 (0.39%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (3.52%) CPLEX
2 4 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.17%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.17%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.39%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 118 (46.09%) Azure
2 90 (35.16%) AWS
3 51 (19.92%) GCP
4 21 (8.20%) Entra ID
5 16 (6.25%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (5.08%) OpenShift
7 12 (4.69%) GitHub
8 10 (3.91%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (3.52%) Power Platform
10 7 (2.73%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (2.73%) Azure Monitor
11 6 (2.34%) Azure Machine Learning
11 6 (2.34%) dbt
11 6 (2.34%) Route 53
11 6 (2.34%) SaaS
11 6 (2.34%) Serverless
12 5 (1.95%) Amazon S3
13 4 (1.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 4 (1.56%) Azure Data Factory
13 4 (1.56%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 17 (6.64%) BGP
2 15 (5.86%) Firewall
3 14 (5.47%) MPLS
3 14 (5.47%) WAN
4 13 (5.08%) TCP/IP
5 11 (4.30%) LAN
6 10 (3.91%) DNS
7 8 (3.13%) Wireshark
8 6 (2.34%) 5G
8 6 (2.34%) Diameter Protocol
8 6 (2.34%) DNSSEC
8 6 (2.34%) LTE
8 6 (2.34%) Network Security
8 6 (2.34%) Radio Access Network
8 6 (2.34%) VoLTE
8 6 (2.34%) VoWiFi
9 5 (1.95%) DHCP
9 5 (1.95%) SSH
9 5 (1.95%) VPN
10 4 (1.56%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (11.33%) SQL Server
2 21 (8.20%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (6.64%) NoSQL
4 12 (4.69%) Relational Database
5 10 (3.91%) MongoDB
5 10 (3.91%) MySQL
6 9 (3.52%) Power BI
7 7 (2.73%) Big Data
7 7 (2.73%) Tableau
8 6 (2.34%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (1.95%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (1.56%) Hadoop
11 3 (1.17%) Parquet
12 2 (0.78%) Amazon Athena
12 2 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.78%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.78%) DynamoDB
12 2 (0.78%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.78%) Redis
Development Applications
1 26 (10.16%) Git
2 12 (4.69%) Jenkins
3 7 (2.73%) GitLab
4 6 (2.34%) JIRA
5 4 (1.56%) Jaeger
6 3 (1.17%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.78%) Introscope
7 2 (0.78%) MLflow
8 1 (0.39%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.39%) JMeter
8 1 (0.39%) JUnit
8 1 (0.39%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.39%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.39%) NeoLoad
8 1 (0.39%) Oracle Developer 2000
8 1 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.39%) Storybook
General
1 78 (30.47%) Social Skills
2 45 (17.58%) Public Sector
3 43 (16.80%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (14.45%) Documentation Skills
5 11 (4.30%) Telecoms
6 9 (3.52%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.56%) Military
8 3 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (0.78%) Advertising
9 2 (0.78%) Finance
9 2 (0.78%) Marketing
9 2 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.39%) Banking
Job Titles
1 43 (16.80%) Senior
2 40 (15.63%) Developer
3 31 (12.11%) Python Developer
4 23 (8.98%) Data Engineer
5 21 (8.20%) Architect
6 13 (5.08%) SIEM Engineer
7 11 (4.30%) Senior Data Engineer
8 10 (3.91%) Analyst
8 10 (3.91%) Network Architect
8 10 (3.91%) Platform Engineer
8 10 (3.91%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 9 (3.52%) IAM Specialist
9 9 (3.52%) Site Engineer
10 8 (3.13%) Data Scientist
10 8 (3.13%) Senior Developer
11 7 (2.73%) DBA
12 6 (2.34%) IP Architect
12 6 (2.34%) Tester
13 5 (1.95%) DevOps Engineer
13 5 (1.95%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (8.59%) RESTful
2 20 (7.81%) LDAP
3 19 (7.42%) .NET
4 15 (5.86%) FastAPI
5 13 (5.08%) Kafka
5 13 (5.08%) OAuth
6 12 (4.69%) REST
7 11 (4.30%) Flask
7 11 (4.30%) OAuth2
7 11 (4.30%) PySpark
7 11 (4.30%) SailPoint
7 11 (4.30%) Web Services
8 10 (3.91%) NETCONF
8 10 (3.91%) OpenAPI
8 10 (3.91%) OpenID
8 10 (3.91%) Pandas
8 10 (3.91%) RabbitMQ
8 10 (3.91%) SAML
8 10 (3.91%) Swagger
8 10 (3.91%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 37 (14.45%) Onboarding
2 31 (12.11%) Distributed Systems
3 23 (8.98%) Hybrid Cloud
4 22 (8.59%) Cloud Native
5 19 (7.42%) Algorithms
6 12 (4.69%) Management Information System
7 9 (3.52%) Data Structures
8 7 (2.73%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 7 (2.73%) Greenfield Project
9 6 (2.34%) Data Centre
10 5 (1.95%) Clustering
10 5 (1.95%) Product Ownership
10 5 (1.95%) Security Posture
11 4 (1.56%) AI Agents
11 4 (1.56%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (1.17%) Cyber Security Posture
12 3 (1.17%) Operational Technology
12 3 (1.17%) Private Cloud
12 3 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 62 (24.22%) Linux
2 42 (16.41%) Windows
3 36 (14.06%) Unix
4 12 (4.69%) Windows Server
5 9 (3.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.78%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (0.78%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 1 (0.39%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.39%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.39%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (28.52%) Problem-Solving
2 70 (27.34%) CI/CD
3 69 (26.95%) DevOps
4 55 (21.48%) SIEM
5 53 (20.70%) Analytics
6 41 (16.02%) Runbook
7 36 (14.06%) Agile
7 36 (14.06%) Computer Science
8 34 (13.28%) Cybersecurity
9 31 (12.11%) Change Control
10 30 (11.72%) High Availability
10 30 (11.72%) ITSM
11 28 (10.94%) Machine Learning
12 27 (10.55%) AI
12 27 (10.55%) Data Pipeline
13 26 (10.16%) Data Science
13 26 (10.16%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 25 (9.77%) Infrastructure as Code
15 22 (8.59%) Data Engineering
15 22 (8.59%) Privileged Access Management
Programming Languages
1 101 (39.45%) PowerShell
2 50 (19.53%) SQL
3 40 (15.63%) Bash
4 30 (11.72%) Go
5 21 (8.20%) Java
6 14 (5.47%) C#
6 14 (5.47%) JavaScript
7 12 (4.69%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (3.13%) Perl
9 5 (1.95%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.95%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.56%) Shell Script
11 3 (1.17%) PL/SQL
11 3 (1.17%) R
12 2 (0.78%) Bicep
12 2 (0.78%) Jython
12 2 (0.78%) Scala
13 1 (0.39%) Groovy
13 1 (0.39%) PHP
Qualifications
1 129 (50.39%) Security Cleared
2 107 (41.80%) SC Cleared
3 39 (15.23%) Degree
4 21 (8.20%) CISSP
5 16 (6.25%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (5.47%) DV Cleared
7 13 (5.08%) CCIE
8 12 (4.69%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (4.69%) CISM
9 10 (3.91%) Azure Certification
9 10 (3.91%) JNCIE
10 9 (3.52%) AWS Certification
11 7 (2.73%) RHCE
12 6 (2.34%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
13 4 (1.56%) CEH
13 4 (1.56%) GIAC
14 3 (1.17%) CCNP
14 3 (1.17%) Master's Degree
15 2 (0.78%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (18.75%) NIST
2 47 (18.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (6.64%) Data Quality
3 17 (6.64%) GDPR
4 6 (2.34%) QA
4 6 (2.34%) SLA
5 5 (1.95%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.56%) GRC
7 3 (1.17%) NCSC
8 1 (0.39%) JTAG
System Software
1 48 (18.75%) Active Directory
2 20 (7.81%) Docker
3 2 (0.78%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 2 (0.78%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.39%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 47 (18.36%) Kubernetes
2 29 (11.33%) Terraform
3 26 (10.16%) Ansible
4 10 (3.91%) Grafana
4 10 (3.91%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.34%) Rancher
6 4 (1.56%) Argo
6 4 (1.56%) Istio
7 3 (1.17%) CASB
7 3 (1.17%) Kibana
7 3 (1.17%) Kustomize
7 3 (1.17%) Nessus
7 3 (1.17%) OpenVAS
7 3 (1.17%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.17%) Puppet
7 3 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.78%) CA Wily
8 2 (0.78%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.39%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.39%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 43 (16.80%) Microsoft
2 35 (13.67%) BeyondTrust
2 35 (13.67%) CyberArk
3 22 (8.59%) Oracle
4 19 (7.42%) Databricks
5 12 (4.69%) Google
6 11 (4.30%) Red Hat
7 8 (3.13%) Cisco
7 8 (3.13%) Nokia
8 6 (2.34%) BT
8 6 (2.34%) Ericsson
8 6 (2.34%) F5
8 6 (2.34%) Huawei
8 6 (2.34%) Infoblox
9 5 (1.95%) Juniper
9 5 (1.95%) Tanium
10 4 (1.56%) Arista
10 4 (1.56%) IBM
10 4 (1.56%) OpenAI
10 4 (1.56%) Splunk