Software Delivery Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Software Delivery
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Software Delivery skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 253 265 260
Rank change year-on-year +12 -5 +39
Contract jobs citing Software Delivery 152 82 142
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.83% 0.56% 0.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.97% 0.64% 0.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 66 103
10th Percentile £373 £424 £400
25th Percentile £450 £488 £443
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £545 £660
Median % change year-on-year -12.76% -17.50% +22.22%
75th Percentile £575 £636 £720
90th Percentile £638 £706 £738
UK median daily rate £478 £550 £605
% change year-on-year -13.18% -9.09% +5.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £61.25 - £57.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £70.00
90th Percentile - - £74.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £35.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +85.71% -41.67% -11.11%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Software Delivery 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 15,663 12,736 17,079
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.61% 87.36% 87.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,586 7,476 10,994
10th Percentile £220 £240 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £690
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,725 730 1,222
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.58 £30.62 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.00% -31.97% +42.45%
75th Percentile £51.21 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.05 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.95
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.05% +25.57%

Software Delivery
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Software Delivery job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Software Delivery
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

Software Delivery
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Delivery in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Delivery in the UK excluding London

Software Delivery
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

Software Delivery
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 Software Delivery within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 30 December 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 +35 48 £475 -21.49% 49
North of England -27 41 £475 -23.23% 84
Yorkshire -20 30 £475 -33.33% 32
Scotland -9 19 £463 -11.90% 17
Midlands -36 19 £575 +9.52% 51
South East -2 18 £480 -12.73% 90
West Midlands -21 14 £575 +15.00% 27
North West -22 7 £500 -4.76% 35
East Midlands -19 5 £475 -22.45% 22
North East -6 4 £525 -19.23% 17
East of England -17 3 £625 -1.96% 46
Wales - 2 £391 - 9
Northern Ireland - 2 £325 - 6
Software Delivery
UK

Software Delivery
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 10 (6.58%) Confluence
2 9 (5.92%) OpenStack
3 2 (1.32%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.66%) Apache
4 1 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.66%) CICS
4 1 (0.66%) CMS
Applications
1 10 (6.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.97%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.66%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 56 (36.84%) Azure
2 39 (25.66%) Azure DevOps
3 25 (16.45%) AWS
4 24 (15.79%) GitHub
5 14 (9.21%) GCP
5 14 (9.21%) GitHub Actions
5 14 (9.21%) OpenShift
6 11 (7.24%) AWS CloudFormation
7 8 (5.26%) Amazon EKS
8 6 (3.95%) Azure AKS
8 6 (3.95%) Microsoft 365
8 6 (3.95%) Pulumi
9 5 (3.29%) Amazon S3
9 5 (3.29%) AWS Lambda
9 5 (3.29%) Datadog
9 5 (3.29%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 5 (3.29%) npm
9 5 (3.29%) Serverless
10 4 (2.63%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 4 (2.63%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 5 (3.29%) Firewall
2 2 (1.32%) Broadband
3 1 (0.66%) HTTP
3 1 (0.66%) Internet
3 1 (0.66%) MQTT
3 1 (0.66%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.97%) Amazon RDS
1 3 (1.97%) MongoDB
1 3 (1.97%) Power BI
1 3 (1.97%) Relational Database
2 2 (1.32%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.66%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.66%) DB2
3 1 (0.66%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 34 (22.37%) Jenkins
2 28 (18.42%) Oracle APEX
3 21 (13.82%) GitLab
3 21 (13.82%) JIRA
4 14 (9.21%) Sonatype Nexus
5 10 (6.58%) Git
6 9 (5.92%) Maven
7 8 (5.26%) Bitbucket
7 8 (5.26%) Postman
8 7 (4.61%) Artifactory
8 7 (4.61%) CircleCI
8 7 (4.61%) Gradle
8 7 (4.61%) SonarQube
9 6 (3.95%) JUnit
9 6 (3.95%) Selenium
9 6 (3.95%) Snyk
10 5 (3.29%) AdminStudio
10 5 (3.29%) InstallShield
10 5 (3.29%) MSI
10 5 (3.29%) webpack
General
1 72 (47.37%) Social Skills
2 34 (22.37%) Finance
3 15 (9.87%) Banking
4 13 (8.55%) Public Sector
5 11 (7.24%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (5.26%) Retail
7 7 (4.61%) Financial Institution
8 6 (3.95%) Marketing
8 6 (3.95%) Telecoms
9 5 (3.29%) Analytical Skills
9 5 (3.29%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.97%) Aerospace
11 2 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (1.32%) Legal
11 2 (1.32%) Police
12 1 (0.66%) Automotive
12 1 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.66%) Law
12 1 (0.66%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 45 (29.61%) Senior
2 33 (21.71%) Developer
3 30 (19.74%) Senior Developer
4 18 (11.84%) Analyst
4 18 (11.84%) DevOps Engineer
5 17 (11.18%) Business Analyst
6 9 (5.92%) Lead
7 8 (5.26%) Project Manager
8 7 (4.61%) Delivery Manager
8 7 (4.61%) Documentation Officer
8 7 (4.61%) Technical Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) Technical Business Analyst
9 6 (3.95%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 6 (3.95%) Technical Manager
10 5 (3.29%) Deployment Engineer
10 5 (3.29%) SC Cleared Deployment Engineer
11 4 (2.63%) Applications Engineer
11 4 (2.63%) Salesforce Analyst
11 4 (2.63%) Salesforce Business Analyst
11 4 (2.63%) Salesforce Trainer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (9.21%) Elastic Stack
2 11 (7.24%) Kafka
3 10 (6.58%) REST
4 9 (5.92%) Spring Boot
5 6 (3.95%) Middleware
6 5 (3.29%) JSON
6 5 (3.29%) OpenTelemetry
6 5 (3.29%) YAML
7 4 (2.63%) React
7 4 (2.63%) VML
8 3 (1.97%) .NET
8 3 (1.97%) Node.js
8 3 (1.97%) RabbitMQ
8 3 (1.97%) Spring
9 2 (1.32%) .NET Framework
9 2 (1.32%) Flash
9 2 (1.32%) OAuth
9 2 (1.32%) Smart Contracts
10 1 (0.66%) JWT
10 1 (0.66%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 15 (9.87%) Product Ownership
2 8 (5.26%) Management Information System
3 7 (4.61%) Distributed Systems
3 7 (4.61%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.29%) Legacy Applications
4 5 (3.29%) Private Cloud
5 4 (2.63%) e-Learning
5 4 (2.63%) Learning Management System
5 4 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.32%) Blockchain
7 2 (1.32%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.32%) PMI
8 1 (0.66%) Cyber Security Posture
8 1 (0.66%) Digital Wallet
8 1 (0.66%) Distributed Architecture
8 1 (0.66%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.66%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.66%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 19 (12.50%) Linux
2 11 (7.24%) Windows
3 7 (4.61%) Unix
4 5 (3.29%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.32%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.66%) Android
6 1 (0.66%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (57.24%) Agile
2 77 (50.66%) DevOps
3 47 (30.92%) CI/CD
3 47 (30.92%) Scrum
4 34 (22.37%) Collaborative Working
5 32 (21.05%) Requirements Analysis
6 29 (19.08%) Software Engineering
6 29 (19.08%) Validation
7 28 (18.42%) Web Application Development
8 26 (17.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 23 (15.13%) Test Automation
10 21 (13.82%) DevSecOps
10 21 (13.82%) Microservices
11 19 (12.50%) Containerisation
11 19 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
11 19 (12.50%) Project Delivery
11 19 (12.50%) SDLC
12 18 (11.84%) Configuration Management
12 18 (11.84%) Project Management
13 17 (11.18%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 35 (23.03%) SQL
2 32 (21.05%) JavaScript
3 28 (18.42%) PL/SQL
4 22 (14.47%) Java
5 15 (9.87%) Python
6 9 (5.92%) PowerShell
7 7 (4.61%) Rust
8 6 (3.95%) Shell Script
9 5 (3.29%) Bash
9 5 (3.29%) VBScript
10 4 (2.63%) Go
11 3 (1.97%) C++
12 2 (1.32%) Solidity
12 2 (1.32%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.66%) C
13 1 (0.66%) C#
13 1 (0.66%) COBOL
13 1 (0.66%) JCL
13 1 (0.66%) Perl
13 1 (0.66%) REXX
Qualifications
1 58 (38.16%) Security Cleared
2 44 (28.95%) SC Cleared
3 12 (7.89%) Degree
4 6 (3.95%) DV Cleared
5 5 (3.29%) PMI Certification
6 4 (2.63%) AWS Certification
6 4 (2.63%) CSPO
7 3 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (1.97%) CCSK
7 3 (1.97%) CISM
7 3 (1.97%) CISSP
7 3 (1.97%) PMP
8 2 (1.32%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 2 (1.32%) CEH
8 2 (1.32%) CISA
8 2 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.32%) MCSA
8 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.32%) OSCP
9 1 (0.66%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.24%) QA
2 5 (3.29%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.97%) NIST
3 3 (1.97%) PCI DSS
3 3 (1.97%) PMO
4 2 (1.32%) Def Stans
4 2 (1.32%) Disclosure Scotland
4 2 (1.32%) GDPR
4 2 (1.32%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.66%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.66%) WCAG
System Software
1 28 (18.42%) Docker
2 5 (3.29%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.29%) Microsoft App-V
3 1 (0.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.66%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.66%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 37 (24.34%) Kubernetes
2 28 (18.42%) Grafana
3 27 (17.76%) Terraform
4 24 (15.79%) Ansible
5 19 (12.50%) Prometheus
6 5 (3.29%) Argo
6 5 (3.29%) Kiali
6 5 (3.29%) Podman
6 5 (3.29%) Progress Chef
6 5 (3.29%) Puppet
6 5 (3.29%) SCCM
7 1 (0.66%) CA Endevor
7 1 (0.66%) Packer
Vendors
1 31 (20.39%) Oracle
2 11 (7.24%) Microsoft
2 11 (7.24%) Splunk
3 6 (3.95%) Google
3 6 (3.95%) Salesforce
4 5 (3.29%) Sonatype
4 5 (3.29%) VMware
5 4 (2.63%) Red Hat
6 3 (1.97%) IBM
7 2 (1.32%) Atlassian
7 2 (1.32%) SAP
8 1 (0.66%) Ariba
8 1 (0.66%) Checkmarx
8 1 (0.66%) Cisco
8 1 (0.66%) Concur
8 1 (0.66%) CyberArk
8 1 (0.66%) Pega
8 1 (0.66%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.66%) Veracode
8 1 (0.66%) Xamarin