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 12 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 18 29
Rank change year-on-year -3 +11 -5
Contract jobs citing Python 245 156 141
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 7.93% 9.45% 6.26%
As % of the Programming Languages category 44.30% 36.88% 28.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 158 93 101
10th Percentile £349 £356 £363
25th Percentile £436 £435 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £534 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +6.70% -2.44% -6.82%
75th Percentile £600 £560 £638
90th Percentile £708 £600 £651
South East median daily rate £538 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +7.50% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 0 2
10th Percentile £43.81 - £32.23
25th Percentile £51.25 - £38.94
Median hourly rate £69.61 - £51.75
75th Percentile £77.50 - £65.44
90th Percentile £84.13 - £72.68
South East median hourly rate £67.47 £57.50 £29.00
% change year-on-year +17.34% +98.28% -47.27%

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 553 423 487
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 17.90% 25.64% 21.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 372 254 330
10th Percentile £335 £340 £363
25th Percentile £417 £402 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £531
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% +1.19%
75th Percentile £592 £550 £619
90th Percentile £675 £624 £660
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 2 10
10th Percentile £33.70 £22.00 £34.80
25th Percentile £45.67 £26.88 £56.53
Median hourly rate £68.11 £36.00 £63.93
Median % change year-on-year +89.19% -43.69% +32.09%
75th Percentile £77.50 £45.38 £76.84
90th Percentile £83.66 £50.40 £88.13
South East median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +9.09% -21.43% +26.06%

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 12 September 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 12 September 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 12 September 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 0 172 £525 +5.00% 102
Oxfordshire +9 43 £592 +31.56% 128
Buckinghamshire -29 30 £525 +15.01% 48
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 (5.71%) OpenStack
2 5 (2.04%) Confluence
3 3 (1.22%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.22%) WebSphere
3 3 (1.22%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (0.82%) Apache
4 2 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.82%) Apache Superset
4 2 (0.82%) JBoss
4 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.41%) IBM HTTP Server
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 1 (0.41%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 8 (3.27%) CPLEX
2 5 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.82%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.41%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 124 (50.61%) Azure
2 78 (31.84%) AWS
3 37 (15.10%) GCP
4 33 (13.47%) Entra ID
5 23 (9.39%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (8.98%) OpenShift
7 15 (6.12%) GitHub
8 14 (5.71%) GitHub Actions
9 13 (5.31%) Azure Monitor
10 12 (4.90%) Power Platform
11 10 (4.08%) Serverless
12 8 (3.27%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (3.27%) Azure AKS
12 8 (3.27%) Azure Key Vault
12 8 (3.27%) SaaS
13 7 (2.86%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (2.86%) Azure App Service
14 6 (2.45%) AWS Step Functions
14 6 (2.45%) Azure Data Factory
14 6 (2.45%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 19 (7.76%) DNS
2 18 (7.35%) TCP/IP
3 17 (6.94%) Firewall
4 16 (6.53%) BGP
5 11 (4.49%) DHCP
5 11 (4.49%) WAN
6 10 (4.08%) MPLS
6 10 (4.08%) VPN
7 9 (3.67%) LAN
7 9 (3.67%) Network Security
8 7 (2.86%) Radio Access Network
9 6 (2.45%) 5G
9 6 (2.45%) Diameter Protocol
9 6 (2.45%) DNSSEC
9 6 (2.45%) LTE
9 6 (2.45%) VoLTE
9 6 (2.45%) VoWiFi
9 6 (2.45%) VXLAN
9 6 (2.45%) Wireshark
10 5 (2.04%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.39%) SQL Server
2 18 (7.35%) NoSQL
3 13 (5.31%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (4.90%) Power BI
5 9 (3.67%) MongoDB
5 9 (3.67%) Relational Database
6 7 (2.86%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (1.63%) Amazon Redshift
8 4 (1.63%) Big Data
8 4 (1.63%) MySQL
8 4 (1.63%) Tableau
9 3 (1.22%) GIS
9 3 (1.22%) Hadoop
9 3 (1.22%) Spark SQL
10 2 (0.82%) Amazon Athena
10 2 (0.82%) Metadata
10 2 (0.82%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.82%) Parquet
11 1 (0.41%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 26 (10.61%) Git
2 17 (6.94%) Jenkins
3 12 (4.90%) GitLab
4 6 (2.45%) JIRA
5 2 (0.82%) JMeter
5 2 (0.82%) MLflow
5 2 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.41%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.41%) Introscope
6 1 (0.41%) Jaeger
6 1 (0.41%) LoadRunner
6 1 (0.41%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle Developer 2000
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.41%) Selenium
General
1 80 (32.65%) Social Skills
2 57 (23.27%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (14.69%) Documentation Skills
3 36 (14.69%) Public Sector
4 24 (9.80%) Aerospace
5 14 (5.71%) Telecoms
6 12 (4.90%) Military
7 6 (2.45%) Finance
8 5 (2.04%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.82%) Marketing
10 2 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Advertising
11 1 (0.41%) Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 38 (15.51%) Developer
2 35 (14.29%) Senior
3 29 (11.84%) Data Engineer
4 27 (11.02%) Python Developer
5 21 (8.57%) Architect
6 13 (5.31%) IAM Specialist
7 12 (4.90%) Analyst
7 12 (4.90%) Network Architect
8 11 (4.49%) Data Scientist
8 11 (4.49%) Senior Data Engineer
9 10 (4.08%) Lead
9 10 (4.08%) Systems Engineer
10 9 (3.67%) Platform Engineer
11 8 (3.27%) Full-Stack Developer
12 6 (2.45%) Consultant
12 6 (2.45%) DevSecOps Engineer
12 6 (2.45%) Technical Leader
13 5 (2.04%) Data Analyst
13 5 (2.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 5 (2.04%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (21.22%) Terraform
2 21 (8.57%) REST
3 20 (8.16%) OAuth
3 20 (8.16%) RESTful
4 19 (7.76%) LDAP
5 18 (7.35%) SAML
6 17 (6.94%) OpenID
6 17 (6.94%) PySpark
7 15 (6.12%) .NET
7 15 (6.12%) SailPoint
8 14 (5.71%) OAuth2
8 14 (5.71%) Web Services
9 11 (4.49%) ARM Templates
9 11 (4.49%) FastAPI
10 10 (4.08%) Flask
10 10 (4.08%) NETCONF
11 9 (3.67%) Kafka
12 8 (3.27%) NumPy
12 8 (3.27%) Pandas
12 8 (3.27%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 29 (11.84%) Onboarding
2 27 (11.02%) Hybrid Cloud
3 25 (10.20%) Cloud Native
4 16 (6.53%) Algorithms
5 15 (6.12%) Distributed Systems
6 14 (5.71%) Management Information System
7 11 (4.49%) Data Structures
8 7 (2.86%) AI Agents
8 7 (2.86%) Data Centre
8 7 (2.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 7 (2.86%) Product Ownership
8 7 (2.86%) Security Posture
9 6 (2.45%) Greenfield Project
10 4 (1.63%) Distributed Computing
10 4 (1.63%) Life Science
10 4 (1.63%) Private Cloud
11 3 (1.22%) Cyber Threat
11 3 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.22%) Enterprise Cloud
11 3 (1.22%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 52 (21.22%) Linux
2 39 (15.92%) Windows
3 29 (11.84%) Unix
4 15 (6.12%) Windows Server
5 8 (3.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (32.65%) DevOps
2 75 (30.61%) CI/CD
3 63 (25.71%) Problem-Solving
4 62 (25.31%) Analytics
5 49 (20.00%) Runbook
6 48 (19.59%) Infrastructure as Code
7 39 (15.92%) Agile
8 37 (15.10%) Computer Science
8 37 (15.10%) SIEM
9 34 (13.88%) ITSM
10 32 (13.06%) Change Control
11 31 (12.65%) Platform Engineering
12 30 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
12 30 (12.24%) Data Engineering
12 30 (12.24%) Data Pipeline
13 29 (11.84%) AI
13 29 (11.84%) Cybersecurity
13 29 (11.84%) Data Science
14 27 (11.02%) Machine Learning
15 25 (10.20%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 98 (40.00%) PowerShell
2 59 (24.08%) SQL
3 42 (17.14%) Bash
4 14 (5.71%) Go
5 13 (5.31%) C#
6 12 (4.90%) Java
7 10 (4.08%) Bicep
8 5 (2.04%) Shell Script
9 3 (1.22%) JavaScript
9 3 (1.22%) Perl
9 3 (1.22%) PL/SQL
10 2 (0.82%) Scala
10 2 (0.82%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.41%) Groovy
11 1 (0.41%) Jython
11 1 (0.41%) R
11 1 (0.41%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 116 (47.35%) Security Cleared
2 102 (41.63%) SC Cleared
3 43 (17.55%) Degree
4 21 (8.57%) Cisco Certification
5 18 (7.35%) CISSP
6 15 (6.12%) Azure Certification
7 12 (4.90%) CCIE
8 11 (4.49%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (4.08%) AWS Certification
9 10 (4.08%) JNCIE
10 9 (3.67%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (3.67%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (2.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 6 (2.45%) CEH
12 6 (2.45%) CISM
12 6 (2.45%) DV Cleared
13 5 (2.04%) RHCE
13 5 (2.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 4 (1.63%) CompTIA Security+
15 3 (1.22%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (17.96%) NIST
2 42 (17.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (10.61%) Data Quality
4 9 (3.67%) GDPR
5 7 (2.86%) QA
6 6 (2.45%) NCSC
6 6 (2.45%) SLA
7 3 (1.22%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.41%) GRC
8 1 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.41%) JTAG
8 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 49 (20.00%) Active Directory
2 21 (8.57%) Docker
3 8 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.45%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.82%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.82%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 54 (22.04%) Kubernetes
2 43 (17.55%) Ansible
3 7 (2.86%) Grafana
4 6 (2.45%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (2.04%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.63%) Istio
6 4 (1.63%) QRadar
7 3 (1.22%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.22%) Puppet
8 2 (0.82%) CASB
8 2 (0.82%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.41%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.41%) CA Wily
9 1 (0.41%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.41%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.41%) Rancher
9 1 (0.41%) SCOM
9 1 (0.41%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.41%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 66 (26.94%) Microsoft
2 30 (12.24%) CyberArk
3 26 (10.61%) BeyondTrust
3 26 (10.61%) Databricks
4 17 (6.94%) Oracle
5 15 (6.12%) Google
6 12 (4.90%) Red Hat
6 12 (4.90%) VMware
7 11 (4.49%) Cisco
8 9 (3.67%) Splunk
9 8 (3.27%) Nokia
10 7 (2.86%) F5
11 6 (2.45%) BT
11 6 (2.45%) Ericsson
11 6 (2.45%) Huawei
11 6 (2.45%) Infoblox
12 5 (2.04%) Fortinet
12 5 (2.04%) Juniper
13 3 (1.22%) IBM
13 3 (1.22%) SolarWinds