Head of Engineering Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
UK > UK excluding London

The median Head of Engineering daily rate in the UK excluding London is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 364 365 423
Rank change year-on-year +1 +58 +83
Contract jobs requiring a Head of Engineering 3 5 4
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.020% 0.028% 0.018%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.022% 0.030% 0.020%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 5 3
10th Percentile - £470 £520
25th Percentile £525 £600 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £650 £600
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% +8.33% -15.79%
75th Percentile £575 - £694
90th Percentile - - £720
UK median daily rate £588 £750 £1,000
% change year-on-year -21.67% -25.00% +29.03%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 13,685 16,394 20,459
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.84% 92.29% 94.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,409 9,572 13,662
10th Percentile £213 £220 £225
25th Percentile £361 £376 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.35%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £653 £681 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,240 1,451 1,194
10th Percentile £13.27 £14.41 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.17 £19.50 £17.76
Median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
Median % change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%
75th Percentile £51.65 £66.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.24 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
% change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%

Head of Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Head of Engineering in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Head of Engineering in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Head of Engineering job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Head of Engineering job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
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 Head of Engineering within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 15 September 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
South West - 2 £550 - 1
Scotland - 1 - -
Head of Engineering
UK

Head of Engineering Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 15 September 2025, Head of Engineering contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Head of Engineering in the job title.

1 2 (66.67%) Finance
1 2 (66.67%) AWS
1 2 (66.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
1 2 (66.67%) DevOps
1 2 (66.67%) CI/CD
2 1 (33.33%) Containerisation
2 1 (33.33%) Budget Management
2 1 (33.33%) Line Management
2 1 (33.33%) React
2 1 (33.33%) Software Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) SDLC
2 1 (33.33%) Re-Platforming
2 1 (33.33%) Cloud Native
2 1 (33.33%) Programme Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Strategic Thinking
2 1 (33.33%) Commercial Awareness
2 1 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (33.33%) Cloud Enablement
2 1 (33.33%) Next.js
2 1 (33.33%) Technical Leadership
2 1 (33.33%) Project Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Observability
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (33.33%) TypeScript
2 1 (33.33%) Java
2 1 (33.33%) Change Management
2 1 (33.33%) Risk Management
2 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (33.33%) Agile
2 1 (33.33%) Data Protection Act

Head of Engineering Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 2 (66.67%) AWS
2 1 (33.33%) Azure
General
1 2 (66.67%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) Next.js
1 1 (33.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Cloud Native
1 1 (33.33%) Data Protection Act
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) CI/CD
1 2 (66.67%) DevOps
1 2 (66.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (33.33%) Change Management
2 1 (33.33%) Cloud Enablement
2 1 (33.33%) Commercial Awareness
2 1 (33.33%) Containerisation
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (33.33%) Data Protection
2 1 (33.33%) Line Management
2 1 (33.33%) Observability
2 1 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (33.33%) Programme Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Project Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Re-Platforming
2 1 (33.33%) Risk Management
2 1 (33.33%) SDLC
2 1 (33.33%) Software Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Strategic Thinking
2 1 (33.33%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 1 (33.33%) Java
1 1 (33.33%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 1 (33.33%) Security Cleared