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 10 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 12 32
Rank change year-on-year -6 +20 -6
Contract jobs citing Python 243 180 149
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 9.18% 11.55% 5.33%
As % of the Programming Languages category 46.29% 41.57% 27.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 99 109
10th Percentile £335 £358 £379
25th Percentile £403 £491 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £533 £535
Median % change year-on-year -9.62% -0.47% +4.39%
75th Percentile £565 £603 £620
90th Percentile £650 £640 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £533 £525
% change year-on-year -6.10% +1.43% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 8
10th Percentile £27.02 - £59.38
25th Percentile £48.94 - -
Median hourly rate £76.80 - £65.00
75th Percentile £82.88 - £67.50
90th Percentile £84.65 - £68.25
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £61.25 £66.25
% change year-on-year -22.45% -7.55% +66.67%

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 525 433 551
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 19.83% 27.79% 19.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 389 272 389
10th Percentile £314 £325 £350
25th Percentile £403 £424 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £529 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.17% +0.71% +2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £608
90th Percentile £638 £687 £675
South East median daily rate £500 £511 £511
% change year-on-year -2.20% +0.05% -2.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 8 32
10th Percentile £27.45 £27.43 £36.13
25th Percentile £70.00 £46.94 £46.25
Median hourly rate £76.80 £56.75 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +35.34% -2.67% -6.72%
75th Percentile £82.25 £65.62 £65.00
90th Percentile £84.20 £69.09 £67.50
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £57.65 £59.00
% change year-on-year -4.59% -2.30% +7.27%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 10 March 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 -9 185 £465 -12.68% 72
Buckinghamshire +4 39 £513 -5.96% 50
Oxfordshire -2 19 £588 +38.24% 52
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 4 (1.65%) Apache
2 3 (1.23%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.82%) ArcGIS
3 2 (0.82%) Confluence
3 2 (0.82%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.41%) Appian
4 1 (0.41%) Jupyter
Applications
1 5 (2.06%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.41%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 110 (45.27%) Azure
2 91 (37.45%) AWS
3 52 (21.40%) GCP
4 22 (9.05%) Azure DevOps
4 22 (9.05%) GitHub
5 19 (7.82%) OpenShift
6 14 (5.76%) GitHub Actions
7 11 (4.53%) Power Platform
8 10 (4.12%) Entra ID
9 9 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
9 9 (3.70%) IaaS
9 9 (3.70%) Serverless
10 7 (2.88%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (2.88%) Azure Functions
10 7 (2.88%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (2.47%) Azure AKS
11 6 (2.47%) Azure Key Vault
12 5 (2.06%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (2.06%) dbt
13 4 (1.65%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 15 (6.17%) Network Security
2 14 (5.76%) DNS
3 12 (4.94%) Firewall
4 10 (4.12%) TCP/IP
5 9 (3.70%) Wireshark
6 8 (3.29%) BGP
6 8 (3.29%) MPLS
6 8 (3.29%) WAN
7 5 (2.06%) SNMP
8 4 (1.65%) DHCP
8 4 (1.65%) SSL
8 4 (1.65%) TACACS
8 4 (1.65%) VoIP
9 3 (1.23%) LAN
9 3 (1.23%) SSH
9 3 (1.23%) VPN
10 2 (0.82%) 2G
10 2 (0.82%) 5G
10 2 (0.82%) LTE
10 2 (0.82%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (8.23%) Relational Database
2 17 (7.00%) MySQL
3 15 (6.17%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (5.35%) SQL Server
5 11 (4.53%) Data Warehouse
5 11 (4.53%) Power BI
6 9 (3.70%) NoSQL
7 7 (2.88%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (2.88%) Big Data
7 7 (2.88%) Tableau
8 6 (2.47%) MongoDB
9 5 (2.06%) Hadoop
10 4 (1.65%) Data Lake
11 3 (1.23%) Parquet
12 2 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.82%) Data Mining
12 2 (0.82%) Metadata
13 1 (0.41%) Delta Lake
13 1 (0.41%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 24 (9.88%) Git
2 16 (6.58%) Jenkins
3 8 (3.29%) Burp Suite
3 8 (3.29%) Metasploit
4 4 (1.65%) JIRA
5 3 (1.23%) GitLab
5 3 (1.23%) Jaeger
6 1 (0.41%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.41%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.41%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.41%) JUnit
6 1 (0.41%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.41%) Selenium
6 1 (0.41%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.41%) Storybook
6 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio
General
1 112 (46.09%) Social Skills
2 57 (23.46%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (11.93%) Documentation Skills
4 27 (11.11%) Public Sector
5 6 (2.47%) Finance
6 4 (1.65%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.23%) Billing
8 2 (0.82%) Advertising
8 2 (0.82%) Aerospace
8 2 (0.82%) Banking
8 2 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.82%) Legal
8 2 (0.82%) Retail
9 1 (0.41%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.41%) Marketing
9 1 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 41 (16.87%) Senior
2 28 (11.52%) SIEM Engineer
3 24 (9.88%) Developer
4 13 (5.35%) Architect
4 13 (5.35%) DevOps Engineer
4 13 (5.35%) Tester
5 12 (4.94%) Azure Engineer
5 12 (4.94%) Data Engineer
6 11 (4.53%) Analyst
6 11 (4.53%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 10 (4.12%) Python Developer
7 10 (4.12%) Site Engineer
8 9 (3.70%) Technical Support
9 8 (3.29%) Penetration Tester
9 8 (3.29%) Security Engineer
10 7 (2.88%) Azure DevOps Engineer
10 7 (2.88%) Cloud Engineer
10 7 (2.88%) Senior Developer
11 6 (2.47%) Data Scientist
11 6 (2.47%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (10.29%) LDAP
2 17 (7.00%) .NET
2 17 (7.00%) REST
3 14 (5.76%) Loki
4 11 (4.53%) OAuth
5 9 (3.70%) PySpark
5 9 (3.70%) React
6 8 (3.29%) GraphQL
7 7 (2.88%) .NET Core
7 7 (2.88%) NETCONF
7 7 (2.88%) Node.js
7 7 (2.88%) RESTful
8 6 (2.47%) OAuth2
8 6 (2.47%) OpenID
8 6 (2.47%) Pandas
8 6 (2.47%) scikit-learn
8 6 (2.47%) YANG
9 5 (2.06%) JSON
9 5 (2.06%) SAML
9 5 (2.06%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 25 (10.29%) Onboarding
2 22 (9.05%) Cloud Native
3 16 (6.58%) Distributed Systems
4 13 (5.35%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (4.53%) Cyber Security Posture
6 10 (4.12%) Algorithms
7 9 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (3.29%) Operational Technology
8 8 (3.29%) PKI
8 8 (3.29%) Virtual Team
9 7 (2.88%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.88%) Security Posture
10 6 (2.47%) Management Information System
11 5 (2.06%) Data Centre
11 5 (2.06%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (2.06%) Security Operations Centre
12 4 (1.65%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
13 3 (1.23%) IoT
13 3 (1.23%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 67 (27.57%) Linux
2 32 (13.17%) Windows
3 14 (5.76%) Unix
4 10 (4.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (3.29%) Kali Linux
6 6 (2.47%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.82%) VMS
8 1 (0.41%) Debian
8 1 (0.41%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.41%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (40.33%) CI/CD
2 85 (34.98%) Problem-Solving
3 82 (33.74%) DevOps
4 73 (30.04%) SIEM
5 57 (23.46%) Cybersecurity
6 36 (14.81%) Infrastructure as Code
7 35 (14.40%) Agile
8 34 (13.99%) DevSecOps
9 30 (12.35%) AI
9 30 (12.35%) Analytics
10 27 (11.11%) Observability
11 25 (10.29%) Computer Science
11 25 (10.29%) Containerisation
12 23 (9.47%) Machine Learning
12 23 (9.47%) Stakeholder Management
13 22 (9.05%) Data Analysis
13 22 (9.05%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 22 (9.05%) Test Automation
14 20 (8.23%) Analytical Thinking
14 20 (8.23%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 114 (46.91%) PowerShell
2 56 (23.05%) Bash
3 51 (20.99%) SQL
4 27 (11.11%) JavaScript
5 24 (9.88%) Java
5 24 (9.88%) Kusto Query Language
6 16 (6.58%) Go
7 13 (5.35%) C#
8 10 (4.12%) Perl
9 7 (2.88%) PHP
10 6 (2.47%) R
11 5 (2.06%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.65%) TypeScript
13 3 (1.23%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.82%) Bicep
14 2 (0.82%) Rust
15 1 (0.41%) C
15 1 (0.41%) C++
15 1 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 126 (51.85%) Security Cleared
2 104 (42.80%) SC Cleared
3 41 (16.87%) CISSP
4 25 (10.29%) Degree
5 23 (9.47%) CISM
6 21 (8.64%) CEH
7 16 (6.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 16 (6.58%) GIAC
8 14 (5.76%) DV Cleared
9 11 (4.53%) AWS Certification
10 8 (3.29%) Azure Certification
10 8 (3.29%) CCIE
10 8 (3.29%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (3.29%) GPEN
10 8 (3.29%) OSCP
11 6 (2.47%) JNCIE
12 5 (2.06%) GCFA
12 5 (2.06%) GCIA
12 5 (2.06%) GCIH
13 4 (1.65%) CFCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (16.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 38 (15.64%) NIST
3 34 (13.99%) GDPR
4 12 (4.94%) Data Quality
5 6 (2.47%) QA
6 4 (1.65%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.23%) GRC
7 3 (1.23%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.41%) NCSC
8 1 (0.41%) SOC 2
System Software
1 39 (16.05%) Active Directory
2 33 (13.58%) Docker
3 17 (7.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (5.76%) vSphere
5 6 (2.47%) VMware NSX
6 5 (2.06%) Hyper-V
7 3 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.41%) NDS
8 1 (0.41%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 52 (21.40%) Kubernetes
2 32 (13.17%) Terraform
3 26 (10.70%) Ansible
4 23 (9.47%) Grafana
4 23 (9.47%) Prometheus
5 19 (7.82%) Argo
6 13 (5.35%) Kibana
7 11 (4.53%) Kustomize
8 8 (3.29%) Nmap
9 6 (2.47%) vCenter Server
10 5 (2.06%) Rancher
11 3 (1.23%) Istio
11 3 (1.23%) Nessus
11 3 (1.23%) OpenVAS
11 3 (1.23%) Podman
11 3 (1.23%) Proxmox
12 2 (0.82%) Cisco CUCM
12 2 (0.82%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 1 (0.41%) Progress Chef
13 1 (0.41%) Puppet
Vendors
1 38 (15.64%) Microsoft
2 29 (11.93%) BeyondTrust
2 29 (11.93%) CyberArk
3 20 (8.23%) VMware
4 18 (7.41%) Red Hat
5 15 (6.17%) Tanium
6 14 (5.76%) Oracle
7 13 (5.35%) Databricks
8 12 (4.94%) FireEye
9 11 (4.53%) Splunk
10 7 (2.88%) Cisco
10 7 (2.88%) LogRhythm
11 6 (2.47%) Juniper
11 6 (2.47%) Pure Storage
12 5 (2.06%) F5
12 5 (2.06%) Fortinet
13 4 (1.65%) AppDynamics
13 4 (1.65%) ArcSight
13 4 (1.65%) Dynatrace
13 4 (1.65%) Google