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

6 months to
27 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 16 35
Rank change year-on-year +3 +19 -6
Contract jobs citing Python 234 169 144
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 10.79% 10.05% 5.45%
As % of the Programming Languages category 50.98% 36.90% 25.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 170 95 103
10th Percentile £335 £400 £336
25th Percentile £403 £482 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -14.00% - -
75th Percentile £550 £638 £638
90th Percentile £625 £650 £698
South East median daily rate £481 £550 £530
% change year-on-year -12.50% +3.77% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 4
10th Percentile £72.40 - £52.63
25th Percentile £76.00 - £62.19
Median hourly rate £82.00 - £67.50
75th Percentile £84.00 - £68.13
90th Percentile £85.20 - £69.25
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £61.01 £67.50
% change year-on-year -22.14% -9.61% +52.54%

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 459 458 554
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 21.17% 27.23% 20.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 333 287 394
10th Percentile £333 £350 £350
25th Percentile £403 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% - -
75th Percentile £550 £638 £615
90th Percentile £625 £672 £675
South East median daily rate £481 £501 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -4.67% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 8 31
10th Percentile £39.25 £54.86 £32.32
25th Percentile £70.00 £55.87 £46.25
Median hourly rate £75.00 £60.25 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.49% +20.49% -23.08%
75th Percentile £82.00 £67.93 £59.95
90th Percentile £84.40 £75.56 £67.50
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £60.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year -9.09% +3.77% -2.83%

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 27 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 27 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 +3 187 £445 -19.09% 292
Buckinghamshire +10 35 £513 -6.82% 54
Oxfordshire -4 12 £575 +9.52% 76
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 (5.98%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.28%) Apache
3 2 (0.85%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.85%) Appian
4 1 (0.43%) Confluence
4 1 (0.43%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.43%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (1.28%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 101 (43.16%) Azure
2 100 (42.74%) AWS
3 52 (22.22%) GCP
4 21 (8.97%) OpenShift
5 17 (7.26%) GitHub
6 14 (5.98%) Serverless
7 13 (5.56%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (4.70%) AWS CloudFormation
9 10 (4.27%) AWS Lambda
9 10 (4.27%) IaaS
10 9 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (3.42%) Power Platform
12 7 (2.99%) Azure AKS
13 6 (2.56%) Azure Functions
14 5 (2.14%) Azure Machine Learning
14 5 (2.14%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 5 (2.14%) dbt
14 5 (2.14%) Entra ID
14 5 (2.14%) OCI
15 4 (1.71%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 18 (7.69%) Network Security
2 16 (6.84%) BGP
2 16 (6.84%) MPLS
2 16 (6.84%) WAN
3 14 (5.98%) DNS
3 14 (5.98%) LAN
4 10 (4.27%) Firewall
5 8 (3.42%) SNMP
5 8 (3.42%) TACACS
5 8 (3.42%) TCP/IP
5 8 (3.42%) Wireshark
6 6 (2.56%) OSPF
6 6 (2.56%) Wireless
7 4 (1.71%) DHCP
8 3 (1.28%) 2G
8 3 (1.28%) 5G
8 3 (1.28%) SSL
8 3 (1.28%) VoIP
9 2 (0.85%) LTE
9 2 (0.85%) Mobile Backhaul
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.12%) Relational Database
2 13 (5.56%) MySQL
3 12 (5.13%) NoSQL
4 8 (3.42%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (3.42%) Power BI
5 7 (2.99%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (2.56%) Amazon RDS
6 6 (2.56%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (2.56%) Data Lake
7 5 (2.14%) Big Data
7 5 (2.14%) Couchbase
7 5 (2.14%) MongoDB
7 5 (2.14%) SQL Server
8 4 (1.71%) Hadoop
8 4 (1.71%) Tableau
9 2 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.85%) Data Mining
9 2 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.43%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.43%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 19 (8.12%) Jenkins
2 15 (6.41%) Git
3 8 (3.42%) Burp Suite
3 8 (3.42%) Metasploit
4 7 (2.99%) JIRA
5 4 (1.71%) GitLab
6 2 (0.85%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.85%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.85%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.85%) Selenium
6 2 (0.85%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.43%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.43%) JUnit
7 1 (0.43%) Storybook
7 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio
General
1 121 (51.71%) Social Skills
2 56 (23.93%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (11.97%) Documentation Skills
4 20 (8.55%) Public Sector
5 7 (2.99%) Finance
6 5 (2.14%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.28%) Billing
7 3 (1.28%) Legal
8 2 (0.85%) Banking
8 2 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.85%) Retail
9 1 (0.43%) Advertising
9 1 (0.43%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.43%) Digital Healthcare
9 1 (0.43%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 30 (12.82%) Senior
2 24 (10.26%) SIEM Engineer
3 17 (7.26%) Architect
4 16 (6.84%) Data Engineer
4 16 (6.84%) Developer
5 15 (6.41%) DevOps Engineer
6 12 (5.13%) Analyst
6 12 (5.13%) Tester
7 10 (4.27%) Site Engineer
7 10 (4.27%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 9 (3.85%) Azure Engineer
8 9 (3.85%) Cloud Engineer
8 9 (3.85%) IP Specialist
8 9 (3.85%) Technical Support
9 8 (3.42%) Penetration Tester
9 8 (3.42%) Platform Engineer
10 7 (2.99%) AWS Engineer
10 7 (2.99%) IP Architect
10 7 (2.99%) Senior Data Engineer
11 6 (2.56%) IP Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (8.97%) LDAP
2 20 (8.55%) REST
3 12 (5.13%) NETCONF
4 11 (4.70%) YANG
5 10 (4.27%) PySpark
6 9 (3.85%) Loki
7 8 (3.42%) .NET
7 8 (3.42%) GraphQL
7 8 (3.42%) OAuth
8 7 (2.99%) Kafka
8 7 (2.99%) scikit-learn
9 6 (2.56%) .NET Core
10 5 (2.14%) HTML
10 5 (2.14%) Node.js
10 5 (2.14%) OAuth2
10 5 (2.14%) PyTorch
10 5 (2.14%) React
10 5 (2.14%) TensorFlow
11 4 (1.71%) JSON
11 4 (1.71%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 25 (10.68%) Cloud Native
2 17 (7.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (6.84%) Onboarding
4 15 (6.41%) Cyber Security Posture
5 14 (5.98%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (3.85%) Algorithms
6 9 (3.85%) Data Centre
7 8 (3.42%) Virtual Team
8 7 (2.99%) PKI
9 6 (2.56%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (2.56%) Operational Technology
9 6 (2.56%) Replication
10 5 (2.14%) Security Operations Centre
11 4 (1.71%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (1.28%) IoT
12 3 (1.28%) Management Information System
12 3 (1.28%) Security Posture
13 2 (0.85%) Distributed Architecture
13 2 (0.85%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 63 (26.92%) Linux
2 25 (10.68%) Windows
3 18 (7.69%) Unix
4 8 (3.42%) Kali Linux
4 8 (3.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.43%) Debian
5 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.43%) VMS
5 1 (0.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (43.16%) CI/CD
2 81 (34.62%) Problem-Solving
3 77 (32.91%) DevOps
4 62 (26.50%) SIEM
5 56 (23.93%) Cybersecurity
6 33 (14.10%) Infrastructure as Code
7 30 (12.82%) DevSecOps
8 26 (11.11%) Agile
8 26 (11.11%) High Availability
9 25 (10.68%) Analytical Thinking
9 25 (10.68%) Computer Science
9 25 (10.68%) Containerisation
10 24 (10.26%) Test Automation
11 23 (9.83%) AI
12 22 (9.40%) Incident Response
13 21 (8.97%) Threat Detection
14 20 (8.55%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 20 (8.55%) Task Automation
15 19 (8.12%) Data Modelling
15 19 (8.12%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 93 (39.74%) PowerShell
2 48 (20.51%) Bash
2 48 (20.51%) SQL
3 30 (12.82%) Java
4 27 (11.54%) JavaScript
5 16 (6.84%) Kusto Query Language
6 14 (5.98%) Shell Script
7 11 (4.70%) Go
8 9 (3.85%) Perl
9 8 (3.42%) R
10 7 (2.99%) C#
11 6 (2.56%) PHP
12 4 (1.71%) Search Processing Language
13 2 (0.85%) Rust
13 2 (0.85%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.43%) C
14 1 (0.43%) C++
14 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.43%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 102 (43.59%) Security Cleared
2 87 (37.18%) SC Cleared
3 42 (17.95%) CISSP
4 25 (10.68%) CEH
5 24 (10.26%) Degree
6 21 (8.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (8.97%) GIAC
7 19 (8.12%) AWS Certification
7 19 (8.12%) CISM
8 18 (7.69%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (7.26%) CCIE
10 16 (6.84%) JNCIE
11 8 (3.42%) GPEN
11 8 (3.42%) OSCP
12 6 (2.56%) DV Cleared
12 6 (2.56%) GCFA
12 6 (2.56%) GCIA
12 6 (2.56%) GCIH
13 5 (2.14%) CFCE
14 4 (1.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (13.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 31 (13.25%) NIST
2 27 (11.54%) GDPR
3 10 (4.27%) Data Quality
4 9 (3.85%) QA
5 7 (2.99%) HIPAA
6 4 (1.71%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 32 (13.68%) Docker
2 31 (13.25%) Active Directory
3 23 (9.83%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (6.41%) vSphere
5 13 (5.56%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.71%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.43%) NDS
8 1 (0.43%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 52 (22.22%) Kubernetes
2 40 (17.09%) Ansible
3 39 (16.67%) Terraform
4 16 (6.84%) Argo
4 16 (6.84%) Grafana
4 16 (6.84%) Prometheus
5 14 (5.98%) Kibana
6 9 (3.85%) Kustomize
7 8 (3.42%) Nmap
8 6 (2.56%) vCenter Server
9 4 (1.71%) QRadar
10 3 (1.28%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 3 (1.28%) Podman
10 3 (1.28%) Proxmox
10 3 (1.28%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.85%) logstash
11 2 (0.85%) Nessus
11 2 (0.85%) OpenVAS
12 1 (0.43%) Cisco CUCM
12 1 (0.43%) Cisco UCCE
Vendors
1 29 (12.39%) Microsoft
2 26 (11.11%) VMware
3 21 (8.97%) BeyondTrust
3 21 (8.97%) CyberArk
4 19 (8.12%) Splunk
5 17 (7.26%) Red Hat
6 15 (6.41%) Tanium
7 13 (5.56%) Databricks
7 13 (5.56%) FireEye
8 11 (4.70%) Cisco
8 11 (4.70%) Oracle
9 9 (3.85%) ArcSight
10 8 (3.42%) F5
10 8 (3.42%) Fortinet
10 8 (3.42%) Juniper
11 6 (2.56%) LogRhythm
11 6 (2.56%) Pure Storage
12 5 (2.14%) Confluent
12 5 (2.14%) Google
12 5 (2.14%) IBM