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 8 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 11 23 31
Rank change year-on-year +12 +8 -1
Contract jobs citing Python 233 173 156
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 11.52% 8.21% 6.10%
As % of the Programming Languages category 51.10% 32.70% 28.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 158 98 119
10th Percentile £363 £396 £350
25th Percentile £413 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.77% - -
75th Percentile £565 £638 £638
90th Percentile £607 £651 £710
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 1
10th Percentile £71.20 - -
25th Percentile £73.00 £27.75 -
Median hourly rate £79.50 £28.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +178.95% -59.29% -
75th Percentile £84.50 £29.25 -
90th Percentile £85.40 - -
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £42.00 £66.25
% change year-on-year +13.10% -36.60% +24.79%

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 456 529 557
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 22.54% 25.12% 21.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 298 335 421
10th Percentile £340 £382 £350
25th Percentile £408 £421 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -12.16% +4.76% -
75th Percentile £565 £638 £619
90th Percentile £610 £663 £688
South East median daily rate £488 £504 £525
% change year-on-year -3.23% -4.05% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 9 12
10th Percentile £34.13 £34.02 £33.93
25th Percentile £57.19 £52.50 £48.40
Median hourly rate £75.00 £56.75 £52.15
Median % change year-on-year +32.17% +8.82% -9.31%
75th Percentile £81.50 £69.69 £58.96
90th Percentile £84.20 £77.39 £69.04
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £62.50 £57.41
% change year-on-year -12.00% +8.87% -4.32%

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 8 December 2025.

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
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 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
Berkshire +11 181 £492 -10.55% 173
Buckinghamshire +15 42 £502 -8.68% 56
Oxfordshire -10 10 £525 +7.69% 101
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 12 (5.15%) OpenStack
2 5 (2.15%) Apache Spark
3 4 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.29%) Apache
5 2 (0.86%) Appian
5 2 (0.86%) Confluence
5 2 (0.86%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.43%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (1.29%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.86%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.86%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.43%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 100 (42.92%) AWS
2 95 (40.77%) Azure
3 50 (21.46%) GCP
4 22 (9.44%) GitHub
5 20 (8.58%) OpenShift
5 20 (8.58%) Serverless
6 19 (8.15%) Azure DevOps
7 16 (6.87%) AWS Lambda
8 14 (6.01%) Power Platform
9 13 (5.58%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (4.29%) AWS CloudFormation
10 10 (4.29%) IaaS
11 8 (3.43%) Amazon S3
12 7 (3.00%) Amazon SageMaker
12 7 (3.00%) AWS Step Functions
12 7 (3.00%) dbt
13 6 (2.58%) Azure AKS
13 6 (2.58%) Azure Functions
14 5 (2.15%) ChatGPT
14 5 (2.15%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 15 (6.44%) BGP
1 15 (6.44%) MPLS
2 14 (6.01%) WAN
3 13 (5.58%) DNS
4 12 (5.15%) LAN
4 12 (5.15%) TCP/IP
5 11 (4.72%) Firewall
5 11 (4.72%) Network Security
6 8 (3.43%) SNMP
6 8 (3.43%) TACACS
7 7 (3.00%) Wireshark
8 6 (2.58%) OSPF
8 6 (2.58%) SAN
8 6 (2.58%) Wireless
9 4 (1.72%) DHCP
10 3 (1.29%) 2G
10 3 (1.29%) 5G
10 3 (1.29%) SSL
10 3 (1.29%) VoIP
11 2 (0.86%) Mobile Backhaul
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (8.58%) Relational Database
2 16 (6.87%) NoSQL
3 14 (6.01%) Power BI
4 12 (5.15%) Big Data
4 12 (5.15%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (4.29%) MongoDB
5 10 (4.29%) Tableau
6 9 (3.86%) MySQL
7 7 (3.00%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (3.00%) Data Lake
7 7 (3.00%) PostgreSQL
8 6 (2.58%) Amazon Athena
8 6 (2.58%) Amazon Redshift
8 6 (2.58%) Hadoop
9 5 (2.15%) Couchbase
9 5 (2.15%) SQL Server
10 2 (0.86%) Data Mining
10 2 (0.86%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.86%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.86%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 20 (8.58%) Git
2 18 (7.73%) Jenkins
3 13 (5.58%) JIRA
4 7 (3.00%) Burp Suite
4 7 (3.00%) Metasploit
5 6 (2.58%) GitLab
6 2 (0.86%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.86%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.86%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.86%) Selenium
6 2 (0.86%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.43%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.43%) MLflow
7 1 (0.43%) Mocha
General
1 109 (46.78%) Social Skills
2 52 (22.32%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (10.73%) Documentation Skills
4 24 (10.30%) Public Sector
5 14 (6.01%) Telecoms
6 10 (4.29%) Finance
7 8 (3.43%) Legal
8 3 (1.29%) Billing
9 2 (0.86%) Banking
10 1 (0.43%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.43%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.43%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.43%) Retail
Job Titles
1 37 (15.88%) Senior
2 28 (12.02%) Developer
3 21 (9.01%) Architect
4 18 (7.73%) Data Engineer
4 18 (7.73%) DevOps Engineer
5 17 (7.30%) Python Developer
6 15 (6.44%) Analyst
7 14 (6.01%) Data Scientist
8 13 (5.58%) SIEM Engineer
9 12 (5.15%) Senior Developer
10 11 (4.72%) Cloud Engineer
11 10 (4.29%) SOC Analyst
12 9 (3.86%) Senior Python Developer
12 9 (3.86%) Site Engineer
12 9 (3.86%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 8 (3.43%) AWS Engineer
13 8 (3.43%) Azure Engineer
13 8 (3.43%) IP Specialist
13 8 (3.43%) Platform Engineer
14 7 (3.00%) Penetration Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (8.58%) REST
2 19 (8.15%) scikit-learn
3 18 (7.73%) LDAP
4 15 (6.44%) PyTorch
5 14 (6.01%) Pandas
6 13 (5.58%) NumPy
7 11 (4.72%) NETCONF
8 10 (4.29%) PySpark
8 10 (4.29%) TensorFlow
8 10 (4.29%) YANG
9 9 (3.86%) GraphQL
9 9 (3.86%) OAuth
10 8 (3.43%) Kafka
10 8 (3.43%) Loki
11 7 (3.00%) .NET
11 7 (3.00%) FastAPI
11 7 (3.00%) RESTful
12 6 (2.58%) .NET Core
12 6 (2.58%) JSON
12 6 (2.58%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 21 (9.01%) Cloud Native
2 19 (8.15%) Algorithms
3 18 (7.73%) Onboarding
4 15 (6.44%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (3.86%) Data Centre
6 8 (3.43%) Cyber Security Posture
6 8 (3.43%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (3.43%) Virtual Team
7 7 (3.00%) PKI
7 7 (3.00%) Security Operations Centre
7 7 (3.00%) Security Posture
8 6 (2.58%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (2.58%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.58%) Replication
9 5 (2.15%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (2.15%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.72%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (1.29%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (1.29%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 63 (27.04%) Linux
2 27 (11.59%) Windows
3 15 (6.44%) Unix
4 8 (3.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (3.00%) Kali Linux
5 7 (3.00%) Windows Server
6 6 (2.58%) Debian
6 6 (2.58%) Ubuntu
7 5 (2.15%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.43%) CentOS
8 1 (0.43%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (42.92%) CI/CD
2 81 (34.76%) DevOps
3 80 (34.33%) Problem-Solving
4 54 (23.18%) SIEM
5 46 (19.74%) Cybersecurity
6 41 (17.60%) Agile
7 33 (14.16%) Infrastructure as Code
8 30 (12.88%) Data Modelling
8 30 (12.88%) Machine Learning
9 29 (12.45%) Incident Response
10 28 (12.02%) AI
10 28 (12.02%) Containerisation
11 27 (11.59%) DevSecOps
12 26 (11.16%) Data Engineering
13 24 (10.30%) Visualisation
14 23 (9.87%) Computer Science
14 23 (9.87%) High Availability
14 23 (9.87%) Validation
15 22 (9.44%) Data Science
16 21 (9.01%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 76 (32.62%) PowerShell
2 57 (24.46%) SQL
3 43 (18.45%) Bash
4 24 (10.30%) Java
5 19 (8.15%) JavaScript
6 14 (6.01%) Shell Script
7 12 (5.15%) R
8 7 (3.00%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (2.58%) C#
9 6 (2.58%) Go
9 6 (2.58%) PHP
10 4 (1.72%) C
10 4 (1.72%) C++
10 4 (1.72%) Perl
10 4 (1.72%) Search Processing Language
11 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.43%) Ruby
11 1 (0.43%) Scala
Qualifications
1 86 (36.91%) Security Cleared
2 68 (29.18%) SC Cleared
3 36 (15.45%) CISSP
4 27 (11.59%) Degree
5 20 (8.58%) AWS Certification
6 18 (7.73%) CEH
7 17 (7.30%) CISM
7 17 (7.30%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (6.87%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (6.44%) CCIE
9 15 (6.44%) GIAC
10 14 (6.01%) JNCIE
11 11 (4.72%) GCFA
11 11 (4.72%) GCIA
11 11 (4.72%) GCIH
12 10 (4.29%) Master's Degree
13 8 (3.43%) CFCE
13 8 (3.43%) DV Cleared
14 7 (3.00%) GPEN
14 7 (3.00%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (16.31%) GDPR
2 34 (14.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (14.16%) NIST
4 15 (6.44%) Data Quality
5 11 (4.72%) HIPAA
6 10 (4.29%) QA
7 5 (2.15%) EU AI Act
8 4 (1.72%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.86%) GRC
10 1 (0.43%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 30 (12.88%) Docker
2 28 (12.02%) Active Directory
3 23 (9.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (6.44%) vSphere
5 13 (5.58%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.72%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.43%) NDS
8 1 (0.43%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 48 (20.60%) Kubernetes
2 40 (17.17%) Terraform
3 38 (16.31%) Ansible
4 15 (6.44%) Argo
5 11 (4.72%) Grafana
6 10 (4.29%) Prometheus
7 8 (3.43%) Kustomize
8 7 (3.00%) Nmap
9 6 (2.58%) Kibana
9 6 (2.58%) vCenter Server
10 5 (2.15%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 4 (1.72%) QRadar
12 3 (1.29%) Podman
12 3 (1.29%) Proxmox
13 2 (0.86%) logstash
13 2 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
14 1 (0.43%) Cisco CUCM
14 1 (0.43%) Cisco UCCE
14 1 (0.43%) Puppet
14 1 (0.43%) vRealize
Vendors
1 32 (13.73%) Microsoft
2 31 (13.30%) VMware
3 21 (9.01%) Red Hat
3 21 (9.01%) Splunk
4 19 (8.15%) Databricks
5 18 (7.73%) BeyondTrust
5 18 (7.73%) CyberArk
6 12 (5.15%) ArcSight
6 12 (5.15%) Cisco
7 9 (3.86%) LogRhythm
8 8 (3.43%) CrowdStrike
8 8 (3.43%) F5
8 8 (3.43%) Fortinet
8 8 (3.43%) Google
8 8 (3.43%) Juniper
8 8 (3.43%) Virgin Media
9 6 (2.58%) IBM
9 6 (2.58%) Oracle
9 6 (2.58%) Pure Storage
9 6 (2.58%) Tanium