Software Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Software Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £525 according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 4 May 2024.

The first table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
4 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 73 138 113
Rank change year-on-year +65 -25 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 536 466 689
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.61% 1.95% 2.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.82% 2.07% 2.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 251 372
10th Percentile £313 £413 £400
25th Percentile £425 £475 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £514
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% +4.72% +14.17%
75th Percentile £600 £595 £625
90th Percentile £688 £675 £680
UK median daily rate £625 £590 £575
% change year-on-year +5.93% +2.61% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 301 115 123
10th Percentile £46.25 £46.25 £43.80
25th Percentile £52.50 £53.75 £48.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +13.04% +27.78%
75th Percentile £70.00 £70.15 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £76.40 £65.25
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £61.25 £57.09
% change year-on-year +2.04% +7.29% +26.87%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies advertised 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 19,029 22,515 29,590
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 94.22% 95.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,619 15,794 20,727
10th Percentile £213 £225 £200
25th Percentile £363 £394 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% +5.26% +11.76%
75th Percentile £598 £600 £575
90th Percentile £688 £688 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £540 £525
% change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,245 1,162 1,474
10th Percentile £12.50 £13.41 £12.24
25th Percentile £15.75 £17.81 £14.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £42.26 £19.52
Median % change year-on-year -5.35% +116.50% +2.74%
75th Percentile £61.30 £65.00 £42.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £60.00
UK median hourly rate £36.50 £45.00 £23.81
% change year-on-year -18.89% +89.04% +5.80%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 4 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate trend for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 4 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
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 Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 4 May 2024. 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
East of England +33 153 £525 +5.00% 130
South East +42 139 £450 -13.88% 197
North of England +59 106 £525 -8.70% 151
South West +15 96 £550 +4.76% 171
North West +56 76 £549 -4.52% 89
Scotland +35 25 £357 -23.44% 76
Yorkshire +17 17 £350 -36.36% 50
North East +16 13 £390 -32.17% 16
Midlands -28 9 £525 -2.42% 130
Wales +11 6 £458 -22.95% 13
West Midlands -26 6 £500 -7.41% 71
East Midlands +16 3 £575 +35.29% 59
Northern Ireland +8 3 £675 - 17
Software Engineer
UK

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 4 May 2024, Software Engineer 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 Software Engineer in the job title.

1 533 (99.44%) Software Engineering
2 171 (31.90%) C
3 169 (31.53%) C++
4 145 (27.05%) Agile
5 106 (19.78%) Linux
6 99 (18.47%) Security Cleared
7 87 (16.23%) C#
8 84 (15.67%) Java
9 82 (15.30%) DevOps
10 79 (14.74%) Social Skills
11 75 (13.99%) Electronics
12 74 (13.81%) Validation
13 73 (13.62%) Continuous Integration
14 68 (12.69%) Python
15 67 (12.50%) SC Cleared
16 64 (11.94%) CI/CD
17 63 (11.75%) TDD
17 63 (11.75%) AWS
18 61 (11.38%) JavaScript
19 55 (10.26%) Aerospace
19 55 (10.26%) Git
19 55 (10.26%) Test Automation
20 54 (10.07%) Embedded C
21 53 (9.89%) Problem-Solving
22 50 (9.33%) Degree
22 50 (9.33%) Computer Science
23 49 (9.14%) Software Testing
23 49 (9.14%) Unit Testing
23 49 (9.14%) Scrum
24 46 (8.58%) Continuous Improvement

Software Engineer 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:

Application Platforms
1 16 (2.99%) Confluence
2 2 (0.37%) Apache
2 2 (0.37%) Apache Solr
2 2 (0.37%) Drupal
3 1 (0.19%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.19%) Ethereum
3 1 (0.19%) MetaMask
3 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.19%) MTS
3 1 (0.19%) nginx
3 1 (0.19%) Tomcat
3 1 (0.19%) WebSphere
Applications
1 23 (4.29%) Simulink
2 16 (2.99%) Stateflow
3 3 (0.56%) Adobe After Effects
3 3 (0.56%) Blender
3 3 (0.56%) Maya
3 3 (0.56%) Photoshop
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Misys Midas
1 1 (0.19%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 63 (11.75%) AWS
2 36 (6.72%) Azure
3 22 (4.10%) GitHub
4 13 (2.43%) GCP
5 11 (2.05%) Serverless
6 8 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (0.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 5 (0.93%) npm
9 4 (0.75%) BrowserStack
10 3 (0.56%) Azure Functions
10 3 (0.56%) Cloud Computing
10 3 (0.56%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.37%) Google App Engine
11 2 (0.37%) IaaS
11 2 (0.37%) Pulumi
12 1 (0.19%) Azure Batch
12 1 (0.19%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 1 (0.19%) GitHub Actions
12 1 (0.19%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 37 (6.90%) Modbus
1 37 (6.90%) RS-422
1 37 (6.90%) RS-485
2 22 (4.10%) Software-Defined Radio
3 13 (2.43%) HTTP
4 12 (2.24%) SNMP
4 12 (2.24%) TCP/IP
5 11 (2.05%) Wi-Fi
6 10 (1.87%) 802.11
7 7 (1.31%) Ethernet
8 6 (1.12%) Wireless
9 5 (0.93%) Internet
9 5 (0.93%) J1939
10 4 (0.75%) Firewall
10 4 (0.75%) Radio Access Network
10 4 (0.75%) VPN
11 3 (0.56%) Link 16
11 3 (0.56%) RS-232
11 3 (0.56%) Tactical Data Link
12 2 (0.37%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.17%) MongoDB
2 14 (2.61%) PostgreSQL
3 12 (2.24%) MySQL
4 8 (1.49%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.12%) SQLite
6 3 (0.56%) BigQuery
6 3 (0.56%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.56%) SQL Server
7 2 (0.37%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.19%) CouchDB
8 1 (0.19%) DB2
8 1 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
8 1 (0.19%) Metadata
8 1 (0.19%) Redis
8 1 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 55 (10.26%) Git
2 43 (8.02%) JIRA
3 42 (7.84%) Jenkins
4 22 (4.10%) Rational DOORS
5 21 (3.92%) Eclipse
6 20 (3.73%) GoogleTest
7 19 (3.54%) GitLab
8 17 (3.17%) Bitbucket
9 15 (2.80%) Visual Studio
10 14 (2.61%) Rational Rhapsody
11 11 (2.05%) Cypress.io
12 10 (1.87%) Robot Framework
12 10 (1.87%) SonarQube
13 9 (1.68%) Selenium
14 7 (1.31%) Cucumber
15 6 (1.12%) Subversion
16 5 (0.93%) Checkstyle
16 5 (0.93%) GCC
16 5 (0.93%) REST Assured
17 4 (0.75%) Artifactory
General
1 79 (14.74%) Social Skills
2 75 (13.99%) Electronics
3 55 (10.26%) Aerospace
4 37 (6.90%) Automotive
5 20 (3.73%) Manufacturing
6 16 (2.99%) Finance
6 16 (2.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (2.61%) Legal
7 14 (2.61%) Military
8 11 (2.05%) Law
9 10 (1.87%) Aviation
9 10 (1.87%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.49%) Analytical Skills
10 8 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.31%) Public Sector
12 5 (0.93%) Multimedia
13 4 (0.75%) Billing
13 4 (0.75%) Games
13 4 (0.75%) Police
14 3 (0.56%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (8.02%) React
2 37 (6.90%) Node.js
2 37 (6.90%) RESTful
3 27 (5.04%) CSS
3 27 (5.04%) HTML
4 23 (4.29%) AngularJS
5 21 (3.92%) REST
6 20 (3.73%) .NET
7 16 (2.99%) Spring
8 14 (2.61%) XML
9 11 (2.05%) Web Services
10 10 (1.87%) 802.1X
10 10 (1.87%) Spring Boot
11 9 (1.68%) .NET Core
11 9 (1.68%) .NET Framework
11 9 (1.68%) Kafka
11 9 (1.68%) Qt
12 8 (1.49%) JSON
13 6 (1.12%) Java EE
13 6 (1.12%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (5.78%) Self-Motivation
2 24 (4.48%) Algorithms
3 17 (3.17%) ARM Cortex
4 10 (1.87%) Embedded Systems
4 10 (1.87%) IoT
5 9 (1.68%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 8 (1.49%) Device Driver
7 6 (1.12%) Linux Command Line
8 5 (0.93%) CAN bus
8 5 (0.93%) Product Ownership
8 5 (0.93%) Renewable Energy
9 4 (0.75%) Augmented Reality
9 4 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (0.75%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.75%) PCIe
9 4 (0.75%) Verilog
9 4 (0.75%) VHDL
10 3 (0.56%) Data Structures
10 3 (0.56%) Virtual Reality
11 2 (0.37%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 106 (19.78%) Linux
2 38 (7.09%) Windows
3 21 (3.92%) FreeRTOS
4 17 (3.17%) Embedded Linux
5 4 (0.75%) Android
5 4 (0.75%) SafeRTOS
5 4 (0.75%) Unix
5 4 (0.75%) VxWorks
6 3 (0.56%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.19%) CentOS
7 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.19%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 533 (99.44%) Software Engineering
2 145 (27.05%) Agile
3 82 (15.30%) DevOps
4 74 (13.81%) Validation
5 73 (13.62%) Continuous Integration
6 64 (11.94%) CI/CD
7 63 (11.75%) TDD
8 55 (10.26%) Test Automation
9 53 (9.89%) Problem-Solving
10 50 (9.33%) Computer Science
11 49 (9.14%) Scrum
11 49 (9.14%) Software Testing
11 49 (9.14%) Unit Testing
12 46 (8.58%) Continuous Improvement
12 46 (8.58%) Verification and Validation
13 40 (7.46%) Pair Programming
13 40 (7.46%) SDLC
14 39 (7.28%) Customer Requirements
15 32 (5.97%) UML
16 28 (5.22%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 171 (31.90%) C
2 169 (31.53%) C++
3 87 (16.23%) C#
4 84 (15.67%) Java
5 68 (12.69%) Python
6 61 (11.38%) JavaScript
7 54 (10.07%) Embedded C
8 35 (6.53%) Ada
9 29 (5.41%) TypeScript
10 28 (5.22%) MATLAB
11 22 (4.10%) SQL
12 19 (3.54%) Perl
13 13 (2.43%) PHP
14 11 (2.05%) Embedded C++
15 10 (1.87%) Bash
15 10 (1.87%) Tcl
16 7 (1.31%) Shell Script
17 6 (1.12%) Go
17 6 (1.12%) PowerShell
18 5 (0.93%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 99 (18.47%) Security Cleared
2 67 (12.50%) SC Cleared
3 50 (9.33%) Degree
4 30 (5.60%) DV Cleared
5 19 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (3.17%) Master's Degree
7 12 (2.24%) PhD
8 2 (0.37%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.37%) HND
9 1 (0.19%) Chartered Engineer
9 1 (0.19%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.61%) MISRA
2 6 (1.12%) AUTOSAR
3 5 (0.93%) JTAG
3 5 (0.93%) MISRA C
4 4 (0.75%) Accessibility
4 4 (0.75%) QA
5 1 (0.19%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 29 (5.41%) Firmware
2 21 (3.92%) Docker
3 5 (0.93%) VirtualBox
4 4 (0.75%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.56%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.56%) zsh
6 2 (0.37%) Active Directory
7 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.19%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (3.73%) Terraform
2 19 (3.54%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.05%) Ansible
4 6 (1.12%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.93%) Docker Swarm
5 5 (0.93%) Grafana
5 5 (0.93%) Podman
6 1 (0.19%) HP ALM
6 1 (0.19%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.19%) Puppet
6 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 27 (5.04%) Google
1 27 (5.04%) IBM
2 22 (4.10%) Microsoft
3 17 (3.17%) Lauterbach
4 15 (2.80%) Atlassian
5 7 (1.31%) Oracle
6 5 (0.93%) NVIDIA
7 4 (0.75%) Intel
8 3 (0.56%) Adobe
8 3 (0.56%) CA Agile Central
8 3 (0.56%) MathWorks
8 3 (0.56%) SAP
8 3 (0.56%) VMware
9 2 (0.37%) Sitecore
9 2 (0.37%) Twitter
9 2 (0.37%) Xamarin
10 1 (0.19%) Greenplum
10 1 (0.19%) QNX
10 1 (0.19%) Splunk
10 1 (0.19%) Wind River