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 24 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 17 29
Rank change year-on-year -6 +12 -8
Contract jobs citing Python 247 159 139
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 7.60% 9.54% 5.55%
As % of the Programming Languages category 40.89% 36.14% 27.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 164 97 105
10th Percentile £349 £350 £363
25th Percentile £403 £420 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £602 £560 £638
90th Percentile £668 £600 £651
South East median daily rate £538 £500 £501
% change year-on-year +7.50% -0.20% -8.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 0 6
10th Percentile £42.22 - £46.38
25th Percentile £43.81 - -
Median hourly rate £53.75 - £65.00
75th Percentile £80.90 - -
90th Percentile £83.88 - £71.25
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -4.35% -11.54% +36.84%

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 604 440 503
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 18.57% 26.39% 20.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 407 268 352
10th Percentile £313 £350 £363
25th Percentile £400 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £589 £578 £608
90th Percentile £650 £666 £651
South East median daily rate £513 £500 £514
% change year-on-year +2.50% -2.72% -2.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 3 17
10th Percentile £27.45 £22.73 £41.98
25th Percentile £43.81 £25.55 £56.65
Median hourly rate £52.50 £31.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.67% -49.60% +47.06%
75th Percentile £82.25 £43.25 £68.75
90th Percentile £83.75 £49.55 £81.50
South East median hourly rate £60.00 £52.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +14.29% -19.23% +18.18%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 -6 157 £505 +1.00% 43
Oxfordshire +11 48 £592 +39.29% 53
Buckinghamshire -19 42 £525 +23.53% 20
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 13 (5.26%) OpenStack
2 6 (2.43%) Confluence
3 4 (1.62%) Apache Spark
3 4 (1.62%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.62%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (0.81%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.81%) IBM HTTP Server
4 2 (0.81%) JBoss
4 2 (0.81%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (0.81%) WebSphere Portal
5 1 (0.40%) Apache
Applications
1 9 (3.64%) CPLEX
2 5 (2.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.62%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 120 (48.58%) Azure
2 83 (33.60%) AWS
3 42 (17.00%) GCP
4 32 (12.96%) Entra ID
5 23 (9.31%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (5.67%) Azure Monitor
7 13 (5.26%) OpenShift
8 12 (4.86%) GitHub
9 11 (4.45%) Azure Key Vault
10 10 (4.05%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (3.64%) Azure AKS
11 9 (3.64%) Power Platform
12 8 (3.24%) Azure App Service
12 8 (3.24%) SaaS
13 7 (2.83%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (2.43%) Azure Machine Learning
14 6 (2.43%) PaaS
14 6 (2.43%) Route 53
14 6 (2.43%) Serverless
15 5 (2.02%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.48%) BGP
2 15 (6.07%) Firewall
2 15 (6.07%) TCP/IP
3 13 (5.26%) DNS
3 13 (5.26%) MPLS
3 13 (5.26%) WAN
4 10 (4.05%) LAN
5 7 (2.83%) Wireshark
6 6 (2.43%) 5G
6 6 (2.43%) Diameter Protocol
6 6 (2.43%) DNSSEC
6 6 (2.43%) LTE
6 6 (2.43%) Radio Access Network
6 6 (2.43%) SNMP
6 6 (2.43%) SSH
6 6 (2.43%) VoLTE
6 6 (2.43%) VoWiFi
7 5 (2.02%) DHCP
7 5 (2.02%) Network Security
7 5 (2.02%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (12.15%) SQL Server
2 22 (8.91%) NoSQL
3 21 (8.50%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (4.45%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (4.05%) MongoDB
6 9 (3.64%) Power BI
6 9 (3.64%) Relational Database
7 7 (2.83%) Big Data
7 7 (2.83%) MySQL
7 7 (2.83%) Tableau
8 5 (2.02%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (1.62%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (1.62%) Hadoop
9 4 (1.62%) Parquet
10 2 (0.81%) Amazon Athena
10 2 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.81%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.81%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.81%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.81%) Redis
Development Applications
1 32 (12.96%) Git
2 13 (5.26%) Jenkins
3 7 (2.83%) GitLab
3 7 (2.83%) JIRA
4 4 (1.62%) Jaeger
5 3 (1.21%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.81%) Introscope
6 2 (0.81%) MLflow
7 1 (0.40%) JMeter
7 1 (0.40%) JUnit
7 1 (0.40%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.40%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.40%) Oracle Developer 2000
7 1 (0.40%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.40%) Storybook
General
1 69 (27.94%) Social Skills
2 44 (17.81%) Public Sector
3 43 (17.41%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (16.19%) Documentation Skills
5 12 (4.86%) Telecoms
6 9 (3.64%) Aerospace
7 5 (2.02%) Military
8 3 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.21%) Marketing
8 3 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (0.81%) Finance
9 2 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.40%) Advertising
10 1 (0.40%) Banking
Job Titles
1 45 (18.22%) Developer
2 41 (16.60%) Senior
3 31 (12.55%) Python Developer
4 22 (8.91%) Data Engineer
5 21 (8.50%) Architect
6 12 (4.86%) IAM Specialist
7 10 (4.05%) Full-Stack Developer
7 10 (4.05%) Network Architect
7 10 (4.05%) Platform Engineer
8 9 (3.64%) Analyst
8 9 (3.64%) Data Scientist
8 9 (3.64%) Senior Data Engineer
8 9 (3.64%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 8 (3.24%) Senior Developer
9 8 (3.24%) SIEM Engineer
9 8 (3.24%) Site Engineer
10 7 (2.83%) DBA
11 6 (2.43%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (2.43%) Consultant
12 5 (2.02%) IP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (10.53%) RESTful
2 24 (9.72%) .NET
3 22 (8.91%) LDAP
4 21 (8.50%) OAuth
5 18 (7.29%) OpenID
5 18 (7.29%) REST
5 18 (7.29%) SAML
6 15 (6.07%) FastAPI
7 14 (5.67%) OAuth2
7 14 (5.67%) SailPoint
8 13 (5.26%) Kafka
8 13 (5.26%) Web Services
9 11 (4.45%) Flask
10 10 (4.05%) OpenAPI
10 10 (4.05%) Pandas
10 10 (4.05%) RabbitMQ
10 10 (4.05%) Swagger
11 9 (3.64%) NETCONF
11 9 (3.64%) PySpark
11 9 (3.64%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 38 (15.38%) Onboarding
2 25 (10.12%) Distributed Systems
3 22 (8.91%) Cloud Native
3 22 (8.91%) Hybrid Cloud
4 19 (7.69%) Algorithms
5 13 (5.26%) Management Information System
6 9 (3.64%) Data Structures
7 7 (2.83%) Data Centre
7 7 (2.83%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (2.43%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (2.02%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (2.02%) Clustering
9 5 (2.02%) Product Ownership
9 5 (2.02%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.62%) Private Cloud
11 3 (1.21%) AI Agents
11 3 (1.21%) Distributed Architecture
11 3 (1.21%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 59 (23.89%) Linux
2 42 (17.00%) Windows
3 33 (13.36%) Unix
4 13 (5.26%) Windows Server
5 10 (4.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.81%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (0.81%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 1 (0.40%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.40%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (30.36%) DevOps
2 72 (29.15%) CI/CD
3 63 (25.51%) Problem-Solving
4 62 (25.10%) Analytics
5 47 (19.03%) Runbook
5 47 (19.03%) SIEM
6 37 (14.98%) Agile
7 35 (14.17%) Computer Science
7 35 (14.17%) ITSM
8 33 (13.36%) Change Control
9 29 (11.74%) Data Science
9 29 (11.74%) Machine Learning
10 28 (11.34%) Cybersecurity
10 28 (11.34%) Infrastructure as Code
11 26 (10.53%) Data Pipeline
12 25 (10.12%) High Availability
13 24 (9.72%) AI
13 24 (9.72%) Information Security
14 22 (8.91%) Data Engineering
14 22 (8.91%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 102 (41.30%) PowerShell
2 52 (21.05%) SQL
3 42 (17.00%) Bash
4 25 (10.12%) Go
5 19 (7.69%) C#
6 13 (5.26%) Java
7 9 (3.64%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (3.24%) JavaScript
9 5 (2.02%) Bicep
9 5 (2.02%) Perl
9 5 (2.02%) Shell Script
9 5 (2.02%) T-SQL
10 4 (1.62%) TypeScript
11 3 (1.21%) PL/SQL
11 3 (1.21%) R
12 2 (0.81%) Jython
12 2 (0.81%) Scala
13 1 (0.40%) Groovy
13 1 (0.40%) PHP
Qualifications
1 121 (48.99%) Security Cleared
2 100 (40.49%) SC Cleared
3 39 (15.79%) Degree
4 16 (6.48%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (6.07%) CISSP
6 14 (5.67%) Azure Certification
6 14 (5.67%) DV Cleared
7 12 (4.86%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (4.86%) CCIE
8 10 (4.05%) AWS Certification
8 10 (4.05%) CISM
9 9 (3.64%) JNCIE
9 9 (3.64%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (2.83%) RHCE
11 4 (1.62%) CCNP
12 3 (1.21%) CCNA
12 3 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.21%) Master's Degree
13 2 (0.81%) CCSP
13 2 (0.81%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (19.03%) NIST
2 46 (18.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (7.29%) Data Quality
4 15 (6.07%) GDPR
5 7 (2.83%) QA
6 6 (2.43%) SLA
7 5 (2.02%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.62%) GRC
9 3 (1.21%) NCSC
10 1 (0.40%) JTAG
System Software
1 56 (22.67%) Active Directory
2 21 (8.50%) Docker
3 2 (0.81%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 2 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (0.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.81%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.40%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 44 (17.81%) Kubernetes
2 36 (14.57%) Terraform
3 28 (11.34%) Ansible
4 9 (3.64%) Grafana
4 9 (3.64%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.43%) Rancher
6 5 (2.02%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.62%) Istio
7 4 (1.62%) Progress Chef
7 4 (1.62%) Puppet
8 3 (1.21%) Argo
8 3 (1.21%) CASB
9 2 (0.81%) CA Wily
9 2 (0.81%) Kustomize
9 2 (0.81%) Tivoli
10 1 (0.40%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.40%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.40%) Nessus
10 1 (0.40%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.40%) SCOM
Vendors
1 54 (21.86%) Microsoft
2 34 (13.77%) CyberArk
3 33 (13.36%) BeyondTrust
4 20 (8.10%) Oracle
5 18 (7.29%) Databricks
6 11 (4.45%) Google
6 11 (4.45%) Red Hat
7 10 (4.05%) Cisco
8 8 (3.24%) Nokia
9 7 (2.83%) F5
10 6 (2.43%) BT
10 6 (2.43%) Ericsson
10 6 (2.43%) Huawei
10 6 (2.43%) Infoblox
10 6 (2.43%) Juniper
10 6 (2.43%) VMware
11 5 (2.02%) Fortinet
11 5 (2.02%) Splunk
12 4 (1.62%) IBM
12 4 (1.62%) SolarWinds