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 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 33
Rank change year-on-year +7 +13 -2
Contract jobs citing Python 231 174 148
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 10.88% 9.16% 6.14%
As % of the Programming Languages category 50.88% 34.94% 28.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 157 102 110
10th Percentile £335 £400 £325
25th Percentile £410 £476 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - -
75th Percentile £550 £638 £638
90th Percentile £610 £651 £700
South East median daily rate £486 £533 £525
% change year-on-year -8.69% +1.43% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 3
10th Percentile £72.40 - -
25th Percentile £76.00 £27.75 -
Median hourly rate £82.00 £28.50 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +187.72% -57.78% -10.60%
75th Percentile £84.00 £29.25 £68.75
90th Percentile £85.20 - £69.50
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £42.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year +13.10% -37.78% +45.95%

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 454 498 525
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 21.38% 26.22% 21.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 313 316 384
10th Percentile £335 £378 £350
25th Percentile £406 £417 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £543 £525
Median % change year-on-year -12.44% +3.33% -
75th Percentile £560 £638 £616
90th Percentile £620 £673 £688
South East median daily rate £481 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -3.75% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 8 17
10th Percentile £39.25 £45.08 £32.32
25th Percentile £70.00 £55.03 £47.50
Median hourly rate £75.00 £56.75 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.17% +13.49% -23.08%
75th Percentile £82.00 £65.62 £60.39
90th Percentile £84.40 £68.39 £68.50
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £56.75 £57.50
% change year-on-year -3.08% -1.31% -4.17%

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 1 January 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
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 1 January 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 +2 182 £481 -12.50% 84
Buckinghamshire +19 37 £475 -13.64% 28
Oxfordshire -5 12 £525 +13.51% 83
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 (5.19%) OpenStack
2 5 (2.16%) Apache Spark
3 4 (1.73%) Apache
4 2 (0.87%) Appian
4 2 (0.87%) Jupyter
5 1 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.43%) Confluence
5 1 (0.43%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (1.30%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.43%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 98 (42.42%) AWS
1 98 (42.42%) Azure
2 48 (20.78%) GCP
3 20 (8.66%) OpenShift
4 19 (8.23%) Azure DevOps
4 19 (8.23%) GitHub
4 19 (8.23%) Serverless
5 15 (6.49%) AWS Lambda
6 11 (4.76%) AWS CloudFormation
7 10 (4.33%) GitHub Actions
7 10 (4.33%) IaaS
7 10 (4.33%) Power Platform
8 7 (3.03%) Amazon S3
8 7 (3.03%) Amazon SageMaker
8 7 (3.03%) Azure AKS
9 6 (2.60%) AWS Step Functions
9 6 (2.60%) Azure Functions
10 5 (2.16%) Amazon Bedrock
10 5 (2.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 5 (2.16%) ChatGPT
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.93%) Network Security
2 14 (6.06%) BGP
2 14 (6.06%) DNS
2 14 (6.06%) MPLS
2 14 (6.06%) WAN
3 12 (5.19%) LAN
4 11 (4.76%) Firewall
5 8 (3.46%) SNMP
5 8 (3.46%) TACACS
5 8 (3.46%) TCP/IP
6 7 (3.03%) Wireshark
7 6 (2.60%) OSPF
7 6 (2.60%) Wireless
8 4 (1.73%) DHCP
9 3 (1.30%) 2G
9 3 (1.30%) 5G
9 3 (1.30%) SSL
9 3 (1.30%) VoIP
10 2 (0.87%) LTE
10 2 (0.87%) Mobile Backhaul
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.23%) Relational Database
2 13 (5.63%) NoSQL
3 12 (5.19%) Big Data
3 12 (5.19%) MySQL
4 10 (4.33%) Power BI
5 9 (3.90%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (3.03%) Data Lake
6 7 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (2.60%) Amazon Athena
7 6 (2.60%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (2.60%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (2.60%) Hadoop
7 6 (2.60%) MongoDB
7 6 (2.60%) Tableau
8 5 (2.16%) Couchbase
8 5 (2.16%) SQL Server
9 2 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.87%) Data Mining
9 2 (0.87%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.87%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 19 (8.23%) Git
1 19 (8.23%) Jenkins
2 11 (4.76%) JIRA
3 7 (3.03%) Burp Suite
3 7 (3.03%) Metasploit
4 6 (2.60%) GitLab
5 2 (0.87%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.87%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.87%) Robot Framework
5 2 (0.87%) Selenium
5 2 (0.87%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.43%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.43%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.43%) MLflow
6 1 (0.43%) Mocha
6 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio
General
1 113 (48.92%) Social Skills
2 53 (22.94%) Analytical Skills
3 26 (11.26%) Documentation Skills
4 21 (9.09%) Public Sector
5 9 (3.90%) Finance
6 8 (3.46%) Telecoms
7 7 (3.03%) Legal
8 3 (1.30%) Billing
9 2 (0.87%) Banking
9 2 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (0.87%) Retail
10 1 (0.43%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.43%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.43%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 29 (12.55%) Senior
2 19 (8.23%) Architect
2 19 (8.23%) SIEM Engineer
3 17 (7.36%) Developer
4 16 (6.93%) Analyst
4 16 (6.93%) Data Engineer
4 16 (6.93%) DevOps Engineer
5 13 (5.63%) Data Scientist
6 10 (4.33%) Cloud Engineer
6 10 (4.33%) SOC Analyst
7 9 (3.90%) Azure Engineer
7 9 (3.90%) Site Engineer
7 9 (3.90%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 8 (3.46%) IP Specialist
8 8 (3.46%) Platform Engineer
8 8 (3.46%) Python Developer
9 7 (3.03%) AWS Engineer
9 7 (3.03%) Penetration Tester
9 7 (3.03%) Technical Support
9 7 (3.03%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (8.23%) LDAP
2 18 (7.79%) REST
3 17 (7.36%) scikit-learn
4 13 (5.63%) Pandas
4 13 (5.63%) PyTorch
5 12 (5.19%) NumPy
6 10 (4.33%) NETCONF
7 9 (3.90%) GraphQL
7 9 (3.90%) OAuth
7 9 (3.90%) PySpark
7 9 (3.90%) YANG
8 8 (3.46%) .NET
8 8 (3.46%) Kafka
8 8 (3.46%) Loki
8 8 (3.46%) TensorFlow
9 6 (2.60%) .NET Core
9 6 (2.60%) Node.js
9 6 (2.60%) OAuth2
10 5 (2.16%) Hugging Face
10 5 (2.16%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 24 (10.39%) Cloud Native
2 16 (6.93%) Algorithms
2 16 (6.93%) Onboarding
3 15 (6.49%) Hybrid Cloud
4 12 (5.19%) Cyber Security Posture
5 9 (3.90%) Data Centre
6 8 (3.46%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (3.46%) Virtual Team
7 7 (3.03%) PKI
7 7 (3.03%) Security Operations Centre
7 7 (3.03%) Security Posture
8 6 (2.60%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (2.60%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (2.60%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.60%) Replication
9 5 (2.16%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (2.16%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.73%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (1.30%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (1.30%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 61 (26.41%) Linux
2 25 (10.82%) Windows
3 16 (6.93%) Unix
4 8 (3.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (3.03%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.43%) Debian
6 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.43%) VMS
6 1 (0.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (43.29%) CI/CD
2 83 (35.93%) DevOps
3 77 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
4 61 (26.41%) SIEM
5 52 (22.51%) Cybersecurity
6 34 (14.72%) Agile
7 33 (14.29%) Infrastructure as Code
8 29 (12.55%) DevSecOps
8 29 (12.55%) Machine Learning
9 27 (11.69%) Incident Response
10 26 (11.26%) Computer Science
10 26 (11.26%) Containerisation
11 22 (9.52%) AI
11 22 (9.52%) Analytical Thinking
11 22 (9.52%) High Availability
12 21 (9.09%) Data Modelling
13 20 (8.66%) Visualisation
14 19 (8.23%) Data Engineering
14 19 (8.23%) Test Automation
14 19 (8.23%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 88 (38.10%) PowerShell
2 55 (23.81%) SQL
3 47 (20.35%) Bash
4 25 (10.82%) Java
5 21 (9.09%) JavaScript
6 14 (6.06%) Shell Script
7 13 (5.63%) Kusto Query Language
8 10 (4.33%) R
9 7 (3.03%) C#
9 7 (3.03%) Perl
10 6 (2.60%) Go
10 6 (2.60%) PHP
11 4 (1.73%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (1.30%) C
12 3 (1.30%) C++
13 2 (0.87%) Rust
14 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.43%) Ruby
14 1 (0.43%) Scala
Qualifications
1 91 (39.39%) Security Cleared
2 74 (32.03%) SC Cleared
3 42 (18.18%) CISSP
4 26 (11.26%) Degree
5 22 (9.52%) CEH
6 20 (8.66%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (8.66%) GIAC
7 19 (8.23%) AWS Certification
8 18 (7.79%) CISM
9 16 (6.93%) Cisco Certification
10 15 (6.49%) CCIE
11 14 (6.06%) JNCIE
12 10 (4.33%) GCFA
12 10 (4.33%) GCIA
12 10 (4.33%) GCIH
13 8 (3.46%) CFCE
14 7 (3.03%) GPEN
14 7 (3.03%) OSCP
15 6 (2.60%) DV Cleared
16 5 (2.16%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (15.58%) GDPR
2 34 (14.72%) NIST
3 33 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (4.76%) Data Quality
5 10 (4.33%) HIPAA
6 9 (3.90%) QA
7 4 (1.73%) SOC 2
8 3 (1.30%) EU AI Act
9 1 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.43%) GRC
System Software
1 33 (14.29%) Docker
2 29 (12.55%) Active Directory
3 23 (9.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (6.49%) vSphere
5 13 (5.63%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.73%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.43%) NDS
8 1 (0.43%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 51 (22.08%) Kubernetes
2 42 (18.18%) Terraform
3 40 (17.32%) Ansible
4 16 (6.93%) Grafana
5 15 (6.49%) Argo
5 15 (6.49%) Prometheus
6 11 (4.76%) Kibana
7 8 (3.46%) Kustomize
8 7 (3.03%) Nmap
9 6 (2.60%) vCenter Server
10 5 (2.16%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 4 (1.73%) QRadar
12 3 (1.30%) Podman
12 3 (1.30%) Proxmox
12 3 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.87%) logstash
14 1 (0.43%) Cisco CUCM
14 1 (0.43%) Cisco UCCE
14 1 (0.43%) Puppet
14 1 (0.43%) vRealize
Vendors
1 33 (14.29%) Microsoft
2 26 (11.26%) VMware
3 24 (10.39%) Splunk
4 19 (8.23%) BeyondTrust
4 19 (8.23%) CyberArk
5 17 (7.36%) Red Hat
6 14 (6.06%) Databricks
7 12 (5.19%) ArcSight
8 11 (4.76%) Cisco
8 11 (4.76%) Tanium
9 10 (4.33%) FireEye
10 9 (3.90%) LogRhythm
10 9 (3.90%) Oracle
11 8 (3.46%) CrowdStrike
11 8 (3.46%) F5
11 8 (3.46%) Fortinet
11 8 (3.46%) Juniper
12 7 (3.03%) Google
13 6 (2.60%) Pure Storage
14 5 (2.16%) Confluent