Aerospace Contract Job Trends

Aerospace
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Aerospace in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Aerospace over the 6 months leading up to 29 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 219 382 226
Rank change year-on-year +163 -156 +167
Contract jobs citing Aerospace 596 141 454
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 0.49% 1.06%
As % of the General category 2.26% 0.77% 1.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 44 68
10th Percentile £394 £363 £319
25th Percentile £456 £484 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £547 £649
Median % change year-on-year -5.31% -15.76% +23.57%
75th Percentile £675 £628 £700
90th Percentile £719 £669 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £650
% change year-on-year -4.76% -19.23% +30.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 53 262
10th Percentile £28.50 £33.87 £26.60
25th Percentile £40.53 £45.00 £45.00
Median hourly rate £61.00 £57.25 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.56% +14.49% -18.70%
75th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £74.75 £77.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £61.00 £57.37 £50.00
% change year-on-year +6.32% +14.75% -18.70%

All General Skills
UK

Aerospace falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 26,317 18,236 24,705
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 53.80% 63.42% 57.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,939 11,561 15,577
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £760 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.58% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,743 807 1,967
10th Percentile £13.76 £13.50 £12.77
25th Percentile £17.69 £16.79 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -7.41%
75th Percentile £60.00 £55.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £66.84
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.00 £24.28 £28.13
% change year-on-year +19.46% -13.69% +2.27%

Aerospace
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Aerospace relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Aerospace job vacancy trend in the UK

Aerospace
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Aerospace.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Aerospace

Aerospace
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Aerospace over the 6 months to 29 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Aerospace in the UK

Aerospace
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Aerospace.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Aerospace

Aerospace
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Aerospace over the 6 months to 29 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Aerospace in the UK

Aerospace
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Aerospace within the UK over the 6 months to 29 May 2026. 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
UK excluding London +127 558 £500 -4.76% 317
England +151 527 £525 -4.20% 335
South East +73 211 £653 +26.70% 113
South West +51 136 £500 -4.76% 70
Work from Home +34 101 £495 -5.71% 137
East of England +31 92 £496 - 39
North of England -33 56 £74 -87.27% 40
North West -5 44 £452 -22.46% 26
Scotland +18 29 £70 -71.72% 22
Midlands -49 20 £613 +16.67% 33
East Midlands -19 10 £575 - 9
London -83 10 £638 +3.62% 52
North East - 10 £70 - 10
Wales -5 9 - - 3
West Midlands -59 9 - - 24
Northern Ireland +7 5 £447 - 8
Yorkshire - 2 - - 4

Aerospace
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 3 (0.50%) Apache
1 3 (0.50%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.34%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.34%) ThingWorx
3 1 (0.17%) Confluence
3 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.17%) Tomcat
Applications
1 17 (2.85%) Simulink
2 15 (2.52%) CATIA
3 10 (1.68%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.67%) Stateflow
6 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
6 3 (0.50%) Windchill
7 2 (0.34%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.34%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.34%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.17%) FrameMaker
8 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 1 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 15 (2.52%) Teamcenter
2 14 (2.35%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (1.17%) SAP EHS
4 4 (0.67%) SAP EWM
5 3 (0.50%) Primavera
5 3 (0.50%) SAP GRC
6 2 (0.34%) DELMIA
6 2 (0.34%) ENOVIA
6 2 (0.34%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.34%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.34%) SAP MM
6 2 (0.34%) SAP QM
6 2 (0.34%) SAP WM
7 1 (0.17%) Demantra
7 1 (0.17%) SAP CCM
7 1 (0.17%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.17%) SAP FI-GL
7 1 (0.17%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.17%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.17%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 31 (5.20%) Azure
2 14 (2.35%) Azure DevOps
3 13 (2.18%) AWS
4 6 (1.01%) Power Platform
5 5 (0.84%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (0.67%) GCP
7 3 (0.50%) Entra ID
7 3 (0.50%) Google Workspace
7 3 (0.50%) SaaS
8 2 (0.34%) Figma
8 2 (0.34%) Google Sheets
8 2 (0.34%) SuccessFactors
9 1 (0.17%) Azure Functions
9 1 (0.17%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (0.17%) Microsoft 365
9 1 (0.17%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.17%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.17%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.17%) Serverless
9 1 (0.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.01%) Wireless
2 11 (1.85%) Ethernet
3 10 (1.68%) Software-Defined Radio
4 3 (0.50%) DNS
4 3 (0.50%) Firewall
4 3 (0.50%) SpaceWire
5 2 (0.34%) DHCP
5 2 (0.34%) Network Security
5 2 (0.34%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.34%) VPN
6 1 (0.17%) 3GPP
6 1 (0.17%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (0.17%) FTP
6 1 (0.17%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.17%) MPLS
6 1 (0.17%) Multicast
6 1 (0.17%) OSPF
6 1 (0.17%) SAN
6 1 (0.17%) VLAN
6 1 (0.17%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.67%) Power BI
2 3 (0.50%) Hadoop
2 3 (0.50%) NoSQL
2 3 (0.50%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.34%) Big Data
3 2 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.34%) MS Access
3 2 (0.34%) Tableau
4 1 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 51 (8.56%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (2.18%) Git
3 12 (2.01%) GitLab
4 8 (1.34%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.34%) Rational Rhapsody
5 4 (0.67%) JIRA
6 2 (0.34%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.34%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.17%) Hudson
7 1 (0.17%) LabVIEW
7 1 (0.17%) PetaLinux
7 1 (0.17%) Postman
7 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
General
1 138 (23.15%) Manufacturing
2 70 (11.74%) Social Skills
3 43 (7.21%) Aviation
4 38 (6.38%) Finance
5 29 (4.87%) Analytical Skills
6 28 (4.70%) Automotive
7 19 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
8 18 (3.02%) Electronics
9 12 (2.01%) Avionics
10 11 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (1.34%) Military
12 4 (0.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.67%) Legal
12 4 (0.67%) Public Sector
12 4 (0.67%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.50%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.34%) Agriculture
14 2 (0.34%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
15 1 (0.17%) Law
Job Titles
1 70 (11.74%) Software Engineer
2 48 (8.05%) Systems Engineer
3 46 (7.72%) Lead
4 43 (7.21%) Senior
5 39 (6.54%) Product Manager
6 37 (6.21%) Architect
7 36 (6.04%) Embedded Engineer
8 34 (5.70%) Delivery Manager
8 34 (5.70%) Product Delivery Manager
9 32 (5.37%) Principal Engineer
10 29 (4.87%) Systems Manager
10 29 (4.87%) Test Engineer
11 27 (4.53%) Embedded Software Engineer
12 25 (4.19%) Administrator
12 25 (4.19%) Technical Support
13 22 (3.69%) Systems Delivery Manager
14 20 (3.36%) Technical Engineer
15 19 (3.19%) Engineering Manager
15 19 (3.19%) QA Engineer
15 19 (3.19%) Quality Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.52%) Middleware
2 12 (2.01%) LDAP
3 6 (1.01%) REST
4 5 (0.84%) Apache NiFi
5 3 (0.50%) OAuth
5 3 (0.50%) OpenID
5 3 (0.50%) Qt
5 3 (0.50%) SAML
5 3 (0.50%) XML
5 3 (0.50%) Yocto
6 2 (0.34%) .NET
6 2 (0.34%) Flash
6 2 (0.34%) RESTful
6 2 (0.34%) SailPoint
6 2 (0.34%) SAP Fiori
6 2 (0.34%) SOAP
6 2 (0.34%) Unity (Game Engine)
6 2 (0.34%) Unreal Engine
6 2 (0.34%) Web Services
7 1 (0.17%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 42 (7.05%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.86%) Data Structures
3 21 (3.52%) Management Information System
4 19 (3.19%) FPGA
5 15 (2.52%) Operational Technology
6 12 (2.01%) Embedded Systems
7 11 (1.85%) PCIe
7 11 (1.85%) VHDL
8 9 (1.51%) Algorithms
8 9 (1.51%) Self-Motivation
9 8 (1.34%) Data Centre
9 8 (1.34%) Verilog
9 8 (1.34%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.17%) Onboarding
10 7 (1.17%) Security Posture
11 5 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
11 5 (0.84%) SCADA
12 3 (0.50%) Device Driver
12 3 (0.50%) Legacy Applications
12 3 (0.50%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.86%) Linux
2 11 (1.85%) Windows
3 9 (1.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (1.34%) CentOS
5 5 (0.84%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.67%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.34%) Debian
7 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.34%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.17%) Unix
8 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (17.95%) Software Engineering
2 80 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
3 76 (12.75%) Systems Engineering
4 75 (12.58%) Agile
5 67 (11.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 66 (11.07%) Validation
7 63 (10.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 55 (9.23%) Computer Science
8 55 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
9 54 (9.06%) Roadmaps
10 53 (8.89%) Configuration Management
11 50 (8.39%) Cybersecurity
12 42 (7.05%) Programme Management
13 41 (6.88%) PRINCE2
14 38 (6.38%) Scaled Agile Framework
14 38 (6.38%) Verification and Validation
15 36 (6.04%) Change Control
16 35 (5.87%) SysML
16 35 (5.87%) UML
17 32 (5.37%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 41 (6.88%) Ada
2 32 (5.37%) MATLAB
3 29 (4.87%) C
4 22 (3.69%) Python
5 18 (3.02%) C++
6 10 (1.68%) SystemVerilog
7 8 (1.34%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.01%) SQL
9 5 (0.84%) Java
10 3 (0.50%) C#
10 3 (0.50%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.34%) ABAP
11 2 (0.34%) Bash
12 1 (0.17%) Bicep
12 1 (0.17%) Embedded C++
12 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.17%) Tcl
12 1 (0.17%) X++
Qualifications
1 267 (44.80%) Security Cleared
2 153 (25.67%) SC Cleared
3 80 (13.42%) Degree
4 47 (7.89%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (3.36%) DV Cleared
6 14 (2.35%) CISSP
7 11 (1.85%) Chartered Engineer
7 11 (1.85%) NVQ Level 4
8 10 (1.68%) HNC
9 9 (1.51%) Azure Certification
10 7 (1.17%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.17%) PMP
11 5 (0.84%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (0.84%) PMI Certification
12 4 (0.67%) CEH
12 4 (0.67%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
13 3 (0.50%) CISM
13 3 (0.50%) CSPO
13 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (5.54%) QA
2 25 (4.19%) NIST
3 22 (3.69%) Def Stans
4 15 (2.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (1.85%) Data Quality
5 11 (1.85%) IEC 61508
5 11 (1.85%) SLA
6 9 (1.51%) DO-254
7 8 (1.34%) NIST 800
8 7 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.67%) GRC
11 3 (0.50%) GDPR
11 3 (0.50%) ISO 26262
11 3 (0.50%) MIL-STD-1553
11 3 (0.50%) MISRA
11 3 (0.50%) MISRA C
12 2 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.34%) NCSC
13 1 (0.17%) HAZOP
System Software
1 13 (2.18%) Firmware
2 11 (1.85%) Active Directory
3 10 (1.68%) Docker
4 5 (0.84%) Embedded Firmware
5 2 (0.34%) QEMU
5 2 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.17%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 17 (2.85%) Ansible
2 11 (1.85%) Podman
3 8 (1.34%) Check_MK
3 8 (1.34%) Red Hat Satellite
3 8 (1.34%) Terraform
4 7 (1.17%) Kubernetes
5 3 (0.50%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.17%) Argo
7 1 (0.17%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.17%) Grafana
7 1 (0.17%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.17%) Iperf
7 1 (0.17%) Kibana
7 1 (0.17%) logstash
7 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
7 1 (0.17%) Nessus
7 1 (0.17%) Nmap
7 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.17%) SCCM
Vendors
1 58 (9.73%) SAP
2 29 (4.87%) IBM
3 27 (4.53%) Microsoft
4 16 (2.68%) VMware
5 13 (2.18%) ServiceNow
6 11 (1.85%) Red Hat
6 11 (1.85%) Siemens
7 10 (1.68%) Xilinx
8 9 (1.51%) Microsemi
9 7 (1.17%) Altera
10 4 (0.67%) Adobe
10 4 (0.67%) Google
10 4 (0.67%) Lauterbach
11 3 (0.50%) Cisco
11 3 (0.50%) ForgeRock
11 3 (0.50%) Intel
11 3 (0.50%) Okta
11 3 (0.50%) Ping Identity
11 3 (0.50%) PTC
12 2 (0.34%) Palo Alto