Performance Optimisation Contracts in the UK excluding London

Performance Optimisation
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Performance Optimisation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Performance Optimisation over the 6 months leading up to 29 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 243 332 394
Rank change year-on-year +89 +62 +80
Contract jobs citing Performance Optimisation 93 65 39
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.72% 0.32% 0.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.80% 0.38% 0.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 40 27
10th Percentile £400 £413 £374
25th Percentile £434 £503 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £544 £450
Median % change year-on-year -12.64% +20.83% -25.00%
75th Percentile £534 £600 £675
90th Percentile £603 £696 -
UK median daily rate £488 £588 £500
% change year-on-year -17.02% +17.50% -16.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 3
Median hourly rate - £55.00 £52.13
Median % change year-on-year - +5.51% +6.39%
UK median hourly rate - £55.00 £52.13
% change year-on-year - +5.51% +6.39%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Performance Optimisation 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 11,664 17,222 20,402
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.66% 83.58% 89.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,264 10,282 14,009
10th Percentile £235 £250 £260
25th Percentile £375 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +3.04%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £690
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 845 2,110 1,238
10th Percentile £13.83 £12.40 £10.63
25th Percentile £16.95 £15.39 £15.22
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -33.82% +8.57% +75.00%
75th Percentile £60.63 £61.30 £64.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £36.50 £36.13
% change year-on-year -24.66% +1.04% +40.67%

Performance Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Performance Optimisation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London

Performance Optimisation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London

Performance Optimisation
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 29 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London

Performance Optimisation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Performance Optimisation in the UK excluding London

Performance Optimisation
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 Performance Optimisation within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 29 May 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 +34 37 £475 +11.76% 555
North West +20 23 £475 +11.76% 260
South East +36 18 £450 -25.00% 656
Yorkshire +19 13 £513 -6.82% 227
Scotland - 12 £463 - 91
Midlands +13 8 £545 -7.23% 465
East of England +36 7 £488 -7.14% 368
South West +28 4 £494 -8.14% 274
West Midlands +16 4 £575 +59.72% 257
East Midlands +7 4 £443 -25.47% 178
Northern Ireland - 4 £475 - 44
Wales - 3 £226 - 73
North East - 1 £430 - 69
Performance Optimisation
UK

Performance Optimisation
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:

Application Platforms
1 5 (5.38%) SharePoint
2 4 (4.30%) Anypoint
2 4 (4.30%) Apache Airflow
2 4 (4.30%) Confluence
2 4 (4.30%) Mule
3 3 (3.23%) Apache Spark
3 3 (3.23%) Moodle
4 2 (2.15%) Apache
4 2 (2.15%) SAS
5 1 (1.08%) CMS
5 1 (1.08%) Gunicorn
5 1 (1.08%) Oracle Service Bus
5 1 (1.08%) Oracle SOA Suite
Business Applications
1 2 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (1.08%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 36 (38.71%) AWS
2 34 (36.56%) Azure
3 16 (17.20%) GCP
4 9 (9.68%) Serverless
5 8 (8.60%) Amazon S3
6 7 (7.53%) AWS Lambda
6 7 (7.53%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (6.45%) GitHub
8 5 (5.38%) GitHub Actions
8 5 (5.38%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (5.38%) Microsoft Purview
8 5 (5.38%) OneDrive
8 5 (5.38%) Power Platform
9 4 (4.30%) Azure Data Factory
9 4 (4.30%) CloudFront
9 4 (4.30%) Google Compute Engine
9 4 (4.30%) Snowflake
10 3 (3.23%) Amazon Cognito
10 3 (3.23%) AWS CloudFormation
10 3 (3.23%) AWS CodePipeline
Communications & Networking
1 6 (6.45%) Firewall
2 5 (5.38%) Network Security
3 4 (4.30%) BGP
3 4 (4.30%) HTTPS
3 4 (4.30%) MPLS
3 4 (4.30%) OSPF
3 4 (4.30%) VLAN
3 4 (4.30%) VPN
4 2 (2.15%) SNA
4 2 (2.15%) TCP/IP
5 1 (1.08%) DWDM
5 1 (1.08%) Kerberos
5 1 (1.08%) SSH
5 1 (1.08%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (8.60%) Data Warehouse
1 8 (8.60%) Relational Database
2 5 (5.38%) Power BI
3 4 (4.30%) Amazon Redshift
3 4 (4.30%) Big Data
3 4 (4.30%) BigQuery
3 4 (4.30%) Data Lake
3 4 (4.30%) Hadoop
3 4 (4.30%) PostgreSQL
3 4 (4.30%) SQL Server
4 3 (3.23%) Amazon Aurora
4 3 (3.23%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (3.23%) Oracle Database
4 3 (3.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 2 (2.15%) Apache Hive
5 2 (2.15%) Essbase
5 2 (2.15%) MongoDB
5 2 (2.15%) Parquet
5 2 (2.15%) Redis
5 2 (2.15%) Sqoop
Development Applications
1 12 (12.90%) Git
2 7 (7.53%) Jenkins
3 5 (5.38%) Storybook
4 4 (4.30%) Cypress.io
4 4 (4.30%) JIRA
4 4 (4.30%) Postman
5 3 (3.23%) PHPUnit
6 2 (2.15%) JUnit
6 2 (2.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (1.08%) Appium
7 1 (1.08%) Bitbucket
7 1 (1.08%) Flyway
7 1 (1.08%) Gerrit
7 1 (1.08%) GitLab
7 1 (1.08%) Grunt
7 1 (1.08%) Liquibase
7 1 (1.08%) MLflow
7 1 (1.08%) SoapUI
7 1 (1.08%) SonarQube
7 1 (1.08%) webpack
General
1 32 (34.41%) Social Skills
2 14 (15.05%) Finance
3 10 (10.75%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (8.60%) Public Sector
5 6 (6.45%) Banking
6 3 (3.23%) Telecoms
7 2 (2.15%) Financial Institution
7 2 (2.15%) Front Office
7 2 (2.15%) Retail
8 1 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.08%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 25 (26.88%) Developer
2 22 (23.66%) Architect
3 14 (15.05%) Data Engineer
4 7 (7.53%) React Developer
5 6 (6.45%) Senior
6 5 (5.38%) Administrator
6 5 (5.38%) DevOps Engineer
7 4 (4.30%) Cloud Engineer
7 4 (4.30%) Designer
7 4 (4.30%) MuleSoft Developer
7 4 (4.30%) Network Designer
7 4 (4.30%) Senior Developer
7 4 (4.30%) Solutions Designer
8 3 (3.23%) Consultant
8 3 (3.23%) ForgeRock Engineer
8 3 (3.23%) Java Developer
8 3 (3.23%) Moodle Developer
8 3 (3.23%) Network Engineer
8 3 (3.23%) Software Engineer
8 3 (3.23%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (17.20%) RESTful
2 10 (10.75%) JSON
2 10 (10.75%) SOAP
2 10 (10.75%) XML
3 8 (8.60%) React
4 7 (7.53%) OAuth
5 5 (5.38%) CSS
5 5 (5.38%) GraphQL
5 5 (5.38%) REST
6 4 (4.30%) .NET
6 4 (4.30%) Jest
6 4 (4.30%) Kafka
6 4 (4.30%) OAuth2
6 4 (4.30%) OpenAPI
6 4 (4.30%) OpenID
6 4 (4.30%) RAML
6 4 (4.30%) Spring
6 4 (4.30%) Swagger
6 4 (4.30%) Web Services
7 3 (3.23%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 5 (5.38%) Data Protection Act
1 5 (5.38%) Hybrid Cloud
2 3 (3.23%) Data Centre
2 3 (3.23%) Data Structures
2 3 (3.23%) e-Learning
2 3 (3.23%) Greenfield Project
2 3 (3.23%) Mainframe
2 3 (3.23%) Mobile App
2 3 (3.23%) NHS
2 3 (3.23%) PKI
2 3 (3.23%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (3.23%) Taxonomies
2 3 (3.23%) VLE
3 2 (2.15%) Device Driver
3 2 (2.15%) Equities
4 1 (1.08%) IBM Mainframe
4 1 (1.08%) LPAR
4 1 (1.08%) STB
4 1 (1.08%) Video\Live Streaming
4 1 (1.08%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 9 (9.68%) Linux
2 3 (3.23%) Unix
2 3 (3.23%) zOS
3 2 (2.15%) Embedded Linux
3 2 (2.15%) Windows
4 1 (1.08%) AIX
4 1 (1.08%) Android
4 1 (1.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.08%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (36.56%) Problem-Solving
2 24 (25.81%) DevOps
3 22 (23.66%) CI/CD
4 21 (22.58%) Agile
5 20 (21.51%) ETL
6 16 (17.20%) Analytics
6 16 (17.20%) Data Pipeline
7 15 (16.13%) Performance Tuning
7 15 (16.13%) Technical Leadership
8 14 (15.05%) Mentoring
9 13 (13.98%) Data Governance
10 12 (12.90%) Data Engineering
11 11 (11.83%) Data Protection
12 10 (10.75%) High Availability
12 10 (10.75%) Infrastructure as Code
12 10 (10.75%) Software Engineering
13 9 (9.68%) Data Science
13 9 (9.68%) Microservices
13 9 (9.68%) Roadmaps
14 8 (8.60%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 21 (22.58%) SQL
2 18 (19.35%) Python
3 10 (10.75%) JavaScript
4 9 (9.68%) PowerShell
5 7 (7.53%) Java
6 5 (5.38%) Scala
7 4 (4.30%) Bash
7 4 (4.30%) DataWeave
7 4 (4.30%) TypeScript
8 3 (3.23%) C++
8 3 (3.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 3 (3.23%) JCL
8 3 (3.23%) PHP
8 3 (3.23%) REXX
9 2 (2.15%) C
9 2 (2.15%) Shell Script
9 2 (2.15%) T-SQL
10 1 (1.08%) ActionScript
10 1 (1.08%) C#
10 1 (1.08%) VBA
Qualifications
1 17 (18.28%) Security Cleared
2 13 (13.98%) SC Cleared
3 12 (12.90%) Degree
4 8 (8.60%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (5.38%) Master's Degree
6 4 (4.30%) CCIE
6 4 (4.30%) CCNP
6 4 (4.30%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (4.30%) JNCIE
6 4 (4.30%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (2.15%) AWS Certification
7 2 (2.15%) Azure Certification
7 2 (2.15%) TOGAF Certification
8 1 (1.08%) AWS Certified Developer
8 1 (1.08%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.08%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (1.08%) OCP
8 1 (1.08%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (1.08%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (6.45%) Data Quality
1 6 (6.45%) GDPR
2 5 (5.38%) Accessibility
3 3 (3.23%) PCI DSS
3 3 (3.23%) WCAG
4 2 (2.15%) Disclosure Scotland
4 2 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (2.15%) QA
5 1 (1.08%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (1.08%) HIPAA
5 1 (1.08%) HL7
5 1 (1.08%) ITGC
5 1 (1.08%) NCSC
5 1 (1.08%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (11.83%) Docker
2 2 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.08%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.08%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (1.08%) Firmware
3 1 (1.08%) Job Entry Subsystem
3 1 (1.08%) KVM
3 1 (1.08%) Microcode
3 1 (1.08%) NFS
3 1 (1.08%) QEMU
3 1 (1.08%) Samba
3 1 (1.08%) Time Sharing Option
3 1 (1.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.08%) Xen
Systems Management
1 13 (13.98%) Terraform
2 9 (9.68%) Kubernetes
3 4 (4.30%) Ansible
4 3 (3.23%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.15%) BMC PATROL
5 2 (2.15%) Nagios
5 2 (2.15%) Tivoli NetView
6 1 (1.08%) Progress Chef
6 1 (1.08%) Puppet
6 1 (1.08%) SELinux
6 1 (1.08%) yum
6 1 (1.08%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 13 (13.98%) Microsoft
2 8 (8.60%) Oracle
3 7 (7.53%) Databricks
3 7 (7.53%) MuleSoft
4 5 (5.38%) Cisco
4 5 (5.38%) IBM
5 4 (4.30%) F5
5 4 (4.30%) Fortinet
5 4 (4.30%) Google
5 4 (4.30%) Red Hat
5 4 (4.30%) SAP
6 3 (3.23%) ForgeRock
6 3 (3.23%) Ping Identity
7 2 (2.15%) BMC
7 2 (2.15%) Commvault
7 2 (2.15%) Informatica
7 2 (2.15%) Salesforce
7 2 (2.15%) Sybase
8 1 (1.08%) EMC
8 1 (1.08%) Perforce