CAD Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring CAD skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 344 318 342
Rank change year-on-year -26 +24 +128
Contract jobs citing CAD 45 51 77
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.28% 0.29% 0.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.32% 0.35% 0.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 8 21
10th Percentile £273 £350 £213
25th Percentile £400 £388 £306
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £402 £400
Median % change year-on-year +11.33% +0.38% +6.67%
75th Percentile £619 £437 £575
90th Percentile £745 £869 £638
UK median daily rate £450 £400 £413
% change year-on-year +12.50% -3.03% +15.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 16 15
10th Percentile £31.35 £16.25 £19.20
25th Percentile £33.38 £17.25 £24.12
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +7.14% +100.63%
75th Percentile £35.50 £57.50 £41.88
90th Percentile - £62.95 £45.13
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year - - +48.94%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

CAD falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 14,274 14,473 18,610
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 89.23% 83.66% 88.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,571 8,209 12,251
10th Percentile £225 £245 £255
25th Percentile £368 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £669 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,581 1,005 1,297
10th Percentile £14.13 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.14 £18.50 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.27 £40.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -44.34% -8.88% +65.99%
75th Percentile £40.00 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £72.50 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -37.13% -10.11% +36.92%

CAD
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing CAD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

CAD job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

CAD
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD

CAD
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CAD in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 16 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for CAD in the UK excluding London

CAD
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD

CAD
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CAD within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 16 October 2025. 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
North of England -4 26 £450 +28.57% 33
North West +4 24 £450 +28.57% 22
Midlands -25 10 £700 - 51
East Midlands -4 7 £700 - 11
South West +10 5 £388 -56.63% 23
South East +2 3 £420 +4.61% 43
West Midlands -26 3 £350 - 38
East of England 0 2 £53 - 23
Yorkshire -28 2 £388 - 9
CAD
UK

CAD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 4 (8.89%) Resin
2 2 (4.44%) SharePoint
Applications
1 26 (57.78%) Siemens NX
2 8 (17.78%) PTC Creo
3 4 (8.89%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (8.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (6.67%) AutoCAD
4 3 (6.67%) Fusion 360
5 2 (4.44%) MicroStation
5 2 (4.44%) Navisworks
5 2 (4.44%) Revit
6 1 (2.22%) CATIA
6 1 (2.22%) NASTRAN
6 1 (2.22%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (2.22%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 29 (64.44%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 6 (13.33%) AWS
2 2 (4.44%) Azure
2 2 (4.44%) Azure DevOps
Development Applications
1 2 (4.44%) Git
1 2 (4.44%) Jenkins
1 2 (4.44%) JIRA
General
1 19 (42.22%) Manufacturing
2 17 (37.78%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (26.67%) Aerospace
4 10 (22.22%) Social Skills
5 2 (4.44%) Publishing
6 1 (2.22%) Law
6 1 (2.22%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.22%) Public Sector
6 1 (2.22%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 12 (26.67%) Architect
2 7 (15.56%) Applications Engineer
2 7 (15.56%) Configuration Engineer
3 4 (8.89%) Developer
4 3 (6.67%) CAD Developer
4 3 (6.67%) Consultant
4 3 (6.67%) Mechanical Engineer
4 3 (6.67%) Senior
4 3 (6.67%) Senior Mechanical Engineer
4 3 (6.67%) Solutions Architect
5 2 (4.44%) Automation Analyst
5 2 (4.44%) CAD Designer
5 2 (4.44%) Designer
5 2 (4.44%) Draughtsman
5 2 (4.44%) Infrastructure Architect
5 2 (4.44%) Lead
5 2 (4.44%) Lead Consultant
5 2 (4.44%) PCB Designer
5 2 (4.44%) ServiceNow Consultant
5 2 (4.44%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (20.00%) XML
2 3 (6.67%) CSS
2 3 (6.67%) HTML
3 2 (4.44%) AngularJS
3 2 (4.44%) Bootstrap
3 2 (4.44%) JSON
3 2 (4.44%) REST
3 2 (4.44%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (24.44%) Analytical Mindset
2 7 (15.56%) Onboarding
3 4 (8.89%) 3D Printing
4 2 (4.44%) CMDB
5 1 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (64.44%) PLM
2 12 (26.67%) Knowledge Transfer
3 11 (24.44%) Mentoring
3 11 (24.44%) Use Case
3 11 (24.44%) Visualisation
4 10 (22.22%) Coaching
4 10 (22.22%) Knowledge Management
4 10 (22.22%) Translating Business Requirements
5 9 (20.00%) User Experience
6 8 (17.78%) Stakeholder Management
7 7 (15.56%) Data Governance
7 7 (15.56%) Enterprise Architecture
7 7 (15.56%) Process Improvement
7 7 (15.56%) User Stories
8 6 (13.33%) Problem-Solving
9 5 (11.11%) ITSM
10 4 (8.89%) Data Management
10 4 (8.89%) Prototyping
10 4 (8.89%) Rapid Prototyping
11 3 (6.67%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 3 (6.67%) JavaScript
1 3 (6.67%) Python
2 2 (4.44%) PowerShell
3 1 (2.22%) Tcl
3 1 (2.22%) VBA
Qualifications
1 30 (66.67%) Security Cleared
2 22 (48.89%) SC Cleared
3 7 (15.56%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (4.44%) Degree
4 2 (4.44%) HNC
4 2 (4.44%) HND
5 1 (2.22%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (15.56%) Data Quality
2 2 (4.44%) Accessibility
2 2 (4.44%) QA
Vendors
1 18 (40.00%) Siemens
2 5 (11.11%) Autodesk
2 5 (11.11%) ServiceNow
3 3 (6.67%) Microsoft
3 3 (6.67%) PTC
4 2 (4.44%) EMC
5 1 (2.22%) ANSYS