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 £492, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 132 75 137
Rank change year-on-year -57 +62 -22
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 253 533 471
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.98% 2.57% 1.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.15% 2.77% 2.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 141 258
10th Percentile £325 £313 £413
25th Percentile £413 £425 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -7.06% +4.98%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £590
90th Percentile £660 £688 £675
UK median daily rate £600 £625 £590
% change year-on-year -4.00% +5.93% +2.61%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 294 115
10th Percentile £52.45 £46.25 £46.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £52.50 £53.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +13.04%
75th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £70.15
90th Percentile £68.75 £80.00 £76.40
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £61.25
% change year-on-year +4.00% +2.04% +7.93%

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 11,767 19,240 22,667
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.63% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,552 11,748 15,893
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,243 1,165
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.45
25th Percentile £17.61 £15.75 £18.09
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%
75th Percentile £64.50 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

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 1 May 2025.

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 1 May 2025.

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 1 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
South West +17 61 £600 +9.09% 207
South East -24 55 £575 +27.78% 556
North of England -25 55 £463 -11.90% 429
North West -21 38 £450 -17.88% 247
Midlands +35 22 £438 -16.67% 211
Scotland +11 22 £500 +40.15% 136
East of England -50 18 £583 +16.50% 267
Yorkshire +8 16 £480 +37.14% 115
Northern Ireland +1 12 £325 -51.85% 28
East Midlands +17 10 £475 -17.39% 87
West Midlands +17 9 £450 -10.00% 109
Wales +3 8 £475 +3.83% 33
North East -12 1 - - 70
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, 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.

1 243 (96.05%) Software Engineering
2 88 (34.78%) Agile
3 82 (32.41%) Security Cleared
4 76 (30.04%) Java
5 68 (26.88%) SC Cleared
5 68 (26.88%) AWS
6 61 (24.11%) JavaScript
7 60 (23.72%) Linux
8 58 (22.92%) CI/CD
9 51 (20.16%) SQL
9 51 (20.16%) Python
10 48 (18.97%) C++
11 46 (18.18%) TypeScript
11 46 (18.18%) DevOps
12 44 (17.39%) JIRA
13 41 (16.21%) C#
13 41 (16.21%) Jenkins
14 40 (15.81%) React
14 40 (15.81%) Finance
14 40 (15.81%) Azure
15 39 (15.42%) Test Automation
16 38 (15.02%) Docker
17 37 (14.62%) Problem-Solving
17 37 (14.62%) Git
18 36 (14.23%) Social Skills
19 34 (13.44%) Node.js
20 31 (12.25%) Scrum
20 31 (12.25%) Continuous Integration
21 30 (11.86%) .NET
21 30 (11.86%) Ada

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 20 (7.91%) Confluence
2 7 (2.77%) Apache
3 4 (1.58%) CMS
3 4 (1.58%) Drupal
3 4 (1.58%) WordPress
4 3 (1.19%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.79%) GemFire
6 1 (0.40%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 4 (1.58%) Simulink
2 1 (0.40%) CANalyzer
2 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.19%) SAP ERP
1 3 (1.19%) SAP EWM
1 3 (1.19%) SAP GTS
1 3 (1.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.79%) LabWindows
2 2 (0.79%) Misys Midas
Cloud Services
1 68 (26.88%) AWS
2 40 (15.81%) Azure
3 17 (6.72%) Serverless
4 15 (5.93%) AWS Lambda
5 11 (4.35%) Amazon S3
5 11 (4.35%) GCP
6 9 (3.56%) AWS CloudFormation
6 9 (3.56%) OpenShift
7 7 (2.77%) GitHub
8 6 (2.37%) AWS CodeBuild
9 5 (1.98%) Amazon EC2
9 5 (1.98%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (1.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 4 (1.58%) Amazon SQS
11 3 (1.19%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (1.19%) Apigee
11 3 (1.19%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 3 (1.19%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.19%) Route 53
12 2 (0.79%) Amazon MSK
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.98%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.98%) TCP/IP
2 4 (1.58%) Internet
3 3 (1.19%) 3GPP
3 3 (1.19%) HTTPS
3 3 (1.19%) Wireless
4 1 (0.40%) HTTP
4 1 (0.40%) MQTT
4 1 (0.40%) RS-232
4 1 (0.40%) SAN
4 1 (0.40%) SNMP
4 1 (0.40%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (9.49%) PostgreSQL
1 24 (9.49%) Relational Database
2 15 (5.93%) MySQL
3 14 (5.53%) SQL Server
4 8 (3.16%) MongoDB
4 8 (3.16%) NoSQL
5 4 (1.58%) Amazon Aurora
5 4 (1.58%) DynamoDB
5 4 (1.58%) Oracle Database
5 4 (1.58%) Oracle Database 11g
6 3 (1.19%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.79%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.79%) Apache Ignite
7 2 (0.79%) Big Data
7 2 (0.79%) Flink
7 2 (0.79%) InfluxDB
7 2 (0.79%) Power BI
7 2 (0.79%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.40%) DB2
8 1 (0.40%) GIS
Development Applications
1 44 (17.39%) JIRA
2 41 (16.21%) Jenkins
3 37 (14.62%) Git
4 20 (7.91%) Bitbucket
4 20 (7.91%) GitLab
5 14 (5.53%) GoogleTest
5 14 (5.53%) Rational DOORS
6 13 (5.14%) Eclipse
7 12 (4.74%) Cucumber
8 11 (4.35%) Selenium
8 11 (4.35%) Visual Studio
9 9 (3.56%) JUnit
9 9 (3.56%) REST Assured
10 7 (2.77%) Robot Framework
10 7 (2.77%) TestRail
11 5 (1.98%) Ant
11 5 (1.98%) Gradle
11 5 (1.98%) Liquibase
11 5 (1.98%) Mockito
11 5 (1.98%) SonarQube
General
1 40 (15.81%) Finance
2 36 (14.23%) Social Skills
3 21 (8.30%) Public Sector
4 15 (5.93%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (5.53%) Aerospace
6 11 (4.35%) Front Office
7 10 (3.95%) Law
8 9 (3.56%) Electronics
8 9 (3.56%) Manufacturing
8 9 (3.56%) Telecoms
9 8 (3.16%) Banking
9 8 (3.16%) Military
10 7 (2.77%) Marketing
11 6 (2.37%) Automotive
12 5 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (1.58%) Investment Banking
13 4 (1.58%) Police
13 4 (1.58%) Wholesale Banking
14 3 (1.19%) Games
14 3 (1.19%) Multimedia
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (15.81%) React
2 34 (13.44%) Node.js
3 30 (11.86%) .NET
4 25 (9.88%) Spring Boot
5 22 (8.70%) REST
6 21 (8.30%) Spring
7 20 (7.91%) Middleware
8 18 (7.11%) CSS
9 17 (6.72%) AngularJS
10 16 (6.32%) HTML
11 15 (5.93%) RESTful
12 14 (5.53%) Kafka
12 14 (5.53%) Web Services
13 10 (3.95%) Qt
14 9 (3.56%) Java EE
14 9 (3.56%) SOAP
15 8 (3.16%) JSON
15 8 (3.16%) Swagger
16 7 (2.77%) OpenAPI
17 6 (2.37%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 12 (4.74%) Product Ownership
2 10 (3.95%) Greenfield Project
3 8 (3.16%) Derivative
3 8 (3.16%) Equities
3 8 (3.16%) Equity Derivative
4 5 (1.98%) Algorithms
4 5 (1.98%) Cloud Native
5 4 (1.58%) Legacy Code
5 4 (1.58%) Mobile App
5 4 (1.58%) Public Cloud
6 3 (1.19%) FPGA
6 3 (1.19%) PKI
6 3 (1.19%) Taxonomies
7 2 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (0.79%) Data Structures
7 2 (0.79%) NHS
8 1 (0.40%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.40%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 1 (0.40%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.40%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 60 (23.72%) Linux
2 18 (7.11%) Windows
3 11 (4.35%) Unix
4 7 (2.77%) Embedded Linux
5 3 (1.19%) VxWorks
6 2 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.79%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.40%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.40%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.40%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.40%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 243 (96.05%) Software Engineering
2 88 (34.78%) Agile
3 58 (22.92%) CI/CD
4 46 (18.18%) DevOps
5 39 (15.42%) Test Automation
6 37 (14.62%) Problem-Solving
7 31 (12.25%) Continuous Integration
7 31 (12.25%) Scrum
8 30 (11.86%) Microservices
9 28 (11.07%) Containerisation
9 28 (11.07%) TDD
10 26 (10.28%) OO
11 23 (9.09%) Design Patterns
12 19 (7.51%) Clean Code
12 19 (7.51%) Software Testing
13 18 (7.11%) Migration
14 17 (6.72%) UML
15 16 (6.32%) Infrastructure as Code
16 15 (5.93%) SysML
16 15 (5.93%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 76 (30.04%) Java
2 61 (24.11%) JavaScript
3 51 (20.16%) Python
3 51 (20.16%) SQL
4 48 (18.97%) C++
5 46 (18.18%) TypeScript
6 41 (16.21%) C#
7 30 (11.86%) Ada
8 24 (9.49%) C
9 8 (3.16%) Bash
10 7 (2.77%) PHP
10 7 (2.77%) PL/SQL
11 6 (2.37%) PowerShell
12 5 (1.98%) MATLAB
13 4 (1.58%) Embedded C
14 3 (1.19%) ABAP
14 3 (1.19%) COBOL
14 3 (1.19%) Scala
14 3 (1.19%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.79%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 82 (32.41%) Security Cleared
2 68 (26.88%) SC Cleared
3 22 (8.70%) Degree
4 14 (5.53%) DV Cleared
5 13 (5.14%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (0.79%) CCNP
6 2 (0.79%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (0.79%) OCA
6 2 (0.79%) Oracle Certification
6 2 (0.79%) RHCA
6 2 (0.79%) RHCE
6 2 (0.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (0.40%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.40%) HND
7 1 (0.40%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.11%) Def Stans
1 18 (7.11%) IEC 61508
2 13 (5.14%) MISRA
2 13 (5.14%) MISRA C
3 5 (1.98%) Accessibility
4 3 (1.19%) QA
5 2 (0.79%) DO-178B
5 2 (0.79%) GDPR
5 2 (0.79%) ISO 26262
6 1 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.40%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 38 (15.02%) Docker
2 3 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.40%) Firmware
3 1 (0.40%) GPFS
3 1 (0.40%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 29 (11.46%) Kubernetes
2 21 (8.30%) Terraform
3 12 (4.74%) Ansible
4 6 (2.37%) Docker Swarm
5 5 (1.98%) Grafana
5 5 (1.98%) Podman
6 3 (1.19%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.19%) WMI
7 2 (0.79%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.79%) Puppet
7 2 (0.79%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.40%) PowerCLI
8 1 (0.40%) Veritas Storage Foundation
Vendors
1 22 (8.70%) Google
2 20 (7.91%) Oracle
3 18 (7.11%) Microsoft
4 16 (6.32%) Atlassian
5 9 (3.56%) SAP
6 8 (3.16%) Intel
7 5 (1.98%) ForgeRock
7 5 (1.98%) Ping Identity
8 4 (1.58%) Zend
9 3 (1.19%) Databricks
9 3 (1.19%) Virgin Media
9 3 (1.19%) VMware
9 3 (1.19%) Wind River
10 2 (0.79%) CA Agile Central
10 2 (0.79%) Cisco
10 2 (0.79%) PagerDuty
10 2 (0.79%) Perforce
10 2 (0.79%) Red Hat
10 2 (0.79%) Xamarin
11 1 (0.40%) IBM