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 11 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 16 35
Rank change year-on-year +3 +19 -3
Contract jobs citing Python 246 182 143
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 10.75% 10.98% 5.25%
As % of the Programming Languages category 51.25% 38.32% 26.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 176 106 106
10th Percentile £335 £393 £381
25th Percentile £403 £480 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% - +4.27%
75th Percentile £550 £625 £638
90th Percentile £638 £644 £688
South East median daily rate £492 £550 £530
% change year-on-year -10.55% +3.77% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 4
10th Percentile £26.58 - £52.63
25th Percentile £27.88 - £62.19
Median hourly rate £75.00 - £67.50
75th Percentile £82.00 - £68.13
90th Percentile £84.40 - £69.25
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £61.25 £67.50
% change year-on-year -22.45% -9.26% +50.00%

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 480 475 544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 20.97% 28.67% 19.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 348 302 401
10th Percentile £329 £350 £363
25th Percentile £403 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% - -
75th Percentile £565 £638 £615
90th Percentile £638 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £489 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -3.22% -3.81% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 8 26
10th Percentile £22.93 £54.86 £29.72
25th Percentile £26.80 £55.87 £46.25
Median hourly rate £75.00 £60.25 £52.28
Median % change year-on-year +24.49% +15.24% -19.57%
75th Percentile £81.00 £67.93 £60.28
90th Percentile £83.60 £75.56 £67.50
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £62.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year -12.00% +7.20% +3.67%

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 11 February 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 11 February 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 11 February 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 -4 192 £450 -18.18% 45
Buckinghamshire +3 36 £513 -6.39% 25
Oxfordshire -3 18 £575 +35.29% 53
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 10 (4.07%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.63%) Apache
3 2 (0.81%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.81%) Appian
4 1 (0.41%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.41%) Confluence
4 1 (0.41%) Jupyter
Applications
1 3 (1.22%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.41%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 107 (43.50%) Azure
2 99 (40.24%) AWS
3 54 (21.95%) GCP
4 21 (8.54%) OpenShift
5 16 (6.50%) Azure DevOps
5 16 (6.50%) GitHub
6 13 (5.28%) Serverless
7 12 (4.88%) AWS CloudFormation
8 11 (4.47%) IaaS
9 9 (3.66%) AWS Lambda
9 9 (3.66%) Entra ID
9 9 (3.66%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (3.25%) Power Platform
11 7 (2.85%) Azure AKS
11 7 (2.85%) Azure Machine Learning
12 6 (2.44%) Azure Functions
12 6 (2.44%) Azure Monitor
12 6 (2.44%) Azure Sentinel
13 5 (2.03%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 5 (2.03%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 15 (6.10%) Network Security
2 14 (5.69%) DNS
3 13 (5.28%) BGP
3 13 (5.28%) MPLS
3 13 (5.28%) WAN
4 11 (4.47%) Firewall
5 10 (4.07%) LAN
6 9 (3.66%) Wireshark
7 8 (3.25%) TCP/IP
8 7 (2.85%) SNMP
9 6 (2.44%) TACACS
10 5 (2.03%) OSPF
10 5 (2.03%) Wireless
11 4 (1.63%) DHCP
11 4 (1.63%) VoIP
12 3 (1.22%) 2G
12 3 (1.22%) 5G
12 3 (1.22%) SSH
12 3 (1.22%) SSL
13 2 (0.81%) Mobile Backhaul
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (7.72%) Relational Database
2 15 (6.10%) NoSQL
3 14 (5.69%) MySQL
4 10 (4.07%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (3.66%) SQL Server
6 8 (3.25%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (3.25%) Power BI
7 6 (2.44%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (2.44%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (2.44%) Data Lake
7 6 (2.44%) MongoDB
8 5 (2.03%) Big Data
8 5 (2.03%) Couchbase
9 4 (1.63%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (1.63%) Hadoop
9 4 (1.63%) Tableau
10 2 (0.81%) Data Mining
10 2 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.81%) Metadata
10 2 (0.81%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 19 (7.72%) Jenkins
2 16 (6.50%) Git
3 8 (3.25%) Burp Suite
3 8 (3.25%) Metasploit
4 6 (2.44%) JIRA
5 4 (1.63%) GitLab
6 2 (0.81%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.81%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.81%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.81%) Selenium
6 2 (0.81%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.41%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.41%) JUnit
7 1 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.41%) Storybook
7 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio
General
1 114 (46.34%) Social Skills
2 55 (22.36%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (13.01%) Documentation Skills
4 25 (10.16%) Public Sector
5 7 (2.85%) Finance
6 5 (2.03%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.22%) Billing
7 3 (1.22%) Legal
8 2 (0.81%) Banking
8 2 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.81%) Retail
9 1 (0.41%) Advertising
9 1 (0.41%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.41%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 32 (13.01%) Senior
2 25 (10.16%) SIEM Engineer
3 18 (7.32%) Data Engineer
4 17 (6.91%) Architect
4 17 (6.91%) Developer
5 15 (6.10%) DevOps Engineer
6 13 (5.28%) Tester
7 12 (4.88%) Analyst
8 10 (4.07%) Azure Engineer
9 9 (3.66%) Cloud Engineer
9 9 (3.66%) Technical Support
10 8 (3.25%) Penetration Tester
10 8 (3.25%) Platform Engineer
11 7 (2.85%) AWS Engineer
11 7 (2.85%) IP Specialist
11 7 (2.85%) Python Developer
11 7 (2.85%) Security Engineer
11 7 (2.85%) Senior Data Engineer
11 7 (2.85%) Site Engineer
11 7 (2.85%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (9.76%) LDAP
2 19 (7.72%) REST
3 11 (4.47%) Loki
3 11 (4.47%) PySpark
4 10 (4.07%) NETCONF
5 9 (3.66%) Kafka
5 9 (3.66%) OAuth
5 9 (3.66%) scikit-learn
5 9 (3.66%) YANG
6 8 (3.25%) .NET
6 8 (3.25%) GraphQL
7 7 (2.85%) PyTorch
7 7 (2.85%) React
7 7 (2.85%) TensorFlow
8 6 (2.44%) .NET Core
8 6 (2.44%) Node.js
9 5 (2.03%) JSON
9 5 (2.03%) OAuth2
9 5 (2.03%) OpenID
9 5 (2.03%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 24 (9.76%) Cloud Native
2 22 (8.94%) Onboarding
3 14 (5.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 12 (4.88%) Cyber Security Posture
5 10 (4.07%) Algorithms
5 10 (4.07%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (3.25%) Data Centre
6 8 (3.25%) Virtual Team
7 7 (2.85%) Management Information System
7 7 (2.85%) Operational Technology
7 7 (2.85%) PKI
8 6 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (2.44%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (2.44%) Replication
9 5 (2.03%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (2.03%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.22%) IoT
10 3 (1.22%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.81%) AI Agents
11 2 (0.81%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 70 (28.46%) Linux
2 30 (12.20%) Windows
3 22 (8.94%) Unix
4 8 (3.25%) Kali Linux
4 8 (3.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (2.03%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.81%) VMS
7 1 (0.41%) Debian
7 1 (0.41%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (40.65%) CI/CD
2 82 (33.33%) DevOps
2 82 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
3 71 (28.86%) SIEM
4 60 (24.39%) Cybersecurity
5 35 (14.23%) Infrastructure as Code
6 33 (13.41%) DevSecOps
7 30 (12.20%) Agile
8 28 (11.38%) AI
8 28 (11.38%) Containerisation
9 27 (10.98%) Computer Science
10 25 (10.16%) Test Automation
11 23 (9.35%) Analytics
12 22 (8.94%) Analytical Thinking
12 22 (8.94%) Machine Learning
13 21 (8.54%) Observability
14 20 (8.13%) Data Modelling
14 20 (8.13%) High Availability
15 19 (7.72%) Data Analysis
15 19 (7.72%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 102 (41.46%) PowerShell
2 52 (21.14%) SQL
3 50 (20.33%) Bash
4 29 (11.79%) JavaScript
5 23 (9.35%) Java
6 19 (7.72%) Kusto Query Language
7 14 (5.69%) Shell Script
8 10 (4.07%) Perl
9 8 (3.25%) R
10 7 (2.85%) C#
10 7 (2.85%) PHP
11 6 (2.44%) Go
12 4 (1.63%) Search Processing Language
12 4 (1.63%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.81%) Rust
14 1 (0.41%) C
14 1 (0.41%) C++
14 1 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.41%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 110 (44.72%) Security Cleared
2 88 (35.77%) SC Cleared
3 42 (17.07%) CISSP
4 26 (10.57%) Degree
5 22 (8.94%) CEH
5 22 (8.94%) CISM
6 19 (7.72%) AWS Certification
6 19 (7.72%) Computer Science Degree
7 18 (7.32%) GIAC
8 15 (6.10%) Cisco Certification
9 14 (5.69%) CCIE
10 12 (4.88%) JNCIE
11 9 (3.66%) DV Cleared
12 8 (3.25%) GPEN
12 8 (3.25%) OSCP
13 6 (2.44%) Azure Certification
13 6 (2.44%) GCFA
13 6 (2.44%) GCIA
13 6 (2.44%) GCIH
14 5 (2.03%) CFCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (16.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 39 (15.85%) NIST
3 30 (12.20%) GDPR
4 10 (4.07%) Data Quality
5 9 (3.66%) QA
6 7 (2.85%) HIPAA
7 4 (1.63%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.41%) NCSC
System Software
1 39 (15.85%) Active Directory
2 36 (14.63%) Docker
3 22 (8.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (6.10%) vSphere
5 11 (4.47%) VMware NSX
6 5 (2.03%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.41%) NDS
8 1 (0.41%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 50 (20.33%) Kubernetes
2 39 (15.85%) Terraform
3 37 (15.04%) Ansible
4 19 (7.72%) Argo
4 19 (7.72%) Grafana
4 19 (7.72%) Prometheus
5 14 (5.69%) Kibana
6 11 (4.47%) Kustomize
7 8 (3.25%) Nmap
8 6 (2.44%) vCenter Server
9 3 (1.22%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 3 (1.22%) Nessus
9 3 (1.22%) OpenVAS
9 3 (1.22%) Podman
9 3 (1.22%) Proxmox
9 3 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.81%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.81%) logstash
11 1 (0.41%) Cisco UCCE
11 1 (0.41%) QRadar
Vendors
1 30 (12.20%) Microsoft
2 28 (11.38%) BeyondTrust
2 28 (11.38%) CyberArk
3 25 (10.16%) VMware
4 17 (6.91%) Red Hat
5 16 (6.50%) Splunk
5 16 (6.50%) Tanium
6 14 (5.69%) Databricks
6 14 (5.69%) Oracle
7 13 (5.28%) FireEye
8 10 (4.07%) Cisco
9 7 (2.85%) Fortinet
9 7 (2.85%) Juniper
9 7 (2.85%) LogRhythm
10 6 (2.44%) ArcSight
10 6 (2.44%) F5
10 6 (2.44%) Google
10 6 (2.44%) Pure Storage
11 5 (2.03%) Confluent
11 5 (2.03%) IBM