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 13 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 188 312 306
Rank change year-on-year +124 -6 +51
Contract jobs citing Aerospace 811 262 280
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.49% 0.80% 0.73%
As % of the General category 2.68% 1.25% 1.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 83 56
10th Percentile £406 £314 £273
25th Percentile £500 £450 £344
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £532
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +3.43% -1.16%
75th Percentile £675 £650 £655
90th Percentile £713 £750 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £515 £463
% change year-on-year +11.65% +11.35% -13.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 505 91 135
10th Percentile £26.25 £22.63 £33.18
25th Percentile £35.54 £41.05 £45.00
Median hourly rate £52.43 £50.49 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.84% +0.97% -11.11%
75th Percentile £75.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £75.00 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £50.49 £50.00
% change year-on-year +3.99% +0.97% -9.09%

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 30,205 20,961 22,292
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.56% 63.68% 57.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,737 12,993 13,480
10th Percentile £313 £275 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £497
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.45% -0.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,464 1,199 1,134
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.69
25th Percentile £16.38 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £29.98 £25.15 £37.39
Median % change year-on-year +19.20% -32.74% +35.96%
75th Percentile £53.87 £49.13 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.50 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £21.35 £37.50
% change year-on-year +40.55% -43.08% +44.23%

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 13 September 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 13 September 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 13 September 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
England +115 750 £575 +4.55% 1,223
UK excluding London +103 744 £575 +11.65% 1,125
South East +85 341 £581 +12.93% 380
South West +25 162 £495 -12.00% 213
Work from Home +36 146 £550 +22.22% 1,019
East of England +16 100 £488 -30.36% 208
North of England -24 80 £600 +33.78% 132
North West -34 55 £600 +33.33% 90
London -90 34 £675 +12.50% 189
Midlands -35 28 £538 +19.44% 93
East Midlands -2 20 £500 -28.57% 31
Scotland -15 18 £438 +525.00% 102
Yorkshire -27 14 - - 19
Wales - 13 - - 25
North East - 11 - - 24
West Midlands -53 7 - - 62
Northern Ireland +4 2 £252 - 11

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 7 (0.86%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.37%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.25%) Apache
3 2 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.25%) Apache Superset
3 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.25%) ThingWorx
4 1 (0.12%) Confluence
4 1 (0.12%) IIS
4 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.12%) Kinematics
4 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
4 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Fuse
4 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 17 (2.10%) Simulink
2 16 (1.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.85%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (1.73%) CATIA
5 10 (1.23%) Windchill
6 9 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
7 4 (0.49%) Stateflow
8 3 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 3 (0.37%) OrCAD
9 2 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.25%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.25%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.12%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.12%) FrameMaker
10 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 22 (2.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.11%) Teamcenter
3 6 (0.74%) Primavera
4 5 (0.62%) SAP GRC
4 5 (0.62%) SAP HR
4 5 (0.62%) SAP Payroll
5 4 (0.49%) SAP EHS
5 4 (0.49%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.37%) SAP FI
6 3 (0.37%) SAP QM
7 2 (0.25%) DELMIA
7 2 (0.25%) ENOVIA
7 2 (0.25%) SAP CO
7 2 (0.25%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.12%) SAP CCM
8 1 (0.12%) SAP FI-GL
8 1 (0.12%) SAP HCM
8 1 (0.12%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 81 (9.99%) Azure
2 34 (4.19%) AWS
3 24 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
4 22 (2.71%) GCP
5 20 (2.47%) Power Platform
6 14 (1.73%) GitHub
7 13 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
7 13 (1.60%) OpenShift
8 8 (0.99%) Entra ID
9 7 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (0.86%) Power Automate
10 6 (0.74%) Azure Functions
10 6 (0.74%) Azure Logic Apps
10 6 (0.74%) Cloud Computing
10 6 (0.74%) Google Workspace
10 6 (0.74%) PowerApps
10 6 (0.74%) Serverless
11 4 (0.49%) Google Sheets
11 4 (0.49%) SaaS
12 3 (0.37%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 18 (2.22%) Wireless
2 14 (1.73%) Ethernet
3 13 (1.60%) DNS
4 12 (1.48%) Software-Defined Radio
5 11 (1.36%) DHCP
5 11 (1.36%) Firewall
6 8 (0.99%) TCP/IP
7 7 (0.86%) VPN
8 3 (0.37%) FTP
8 3 (0.37%) Network Security
8 3 (0.37%) Software-Defined Networking
9 2 (0.25%) HTTP
9 2 (0.25%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.25%) Kerberos
10 1 (0.12%) RS-232
10 1 (0.12%) RS-422
10 1 (0.12%) S/MIME
10 1 (0.12%) SpaceWire
10 1 (0.12%) SSL
10 1 (0.12%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.10%) Power BI
2 13 (1.60%) Metadata
3 11 (1.36%) NoSQL
4 5 (0.62%) Tableau
5 4 (0.49%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (0.49%) MS Access
5 4 (0.49%) SQL Server
6 3 (0.37%) Big Data
6 3 (0.37%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.37%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.25%) Qlik Sense
7 2 (0.25%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.12%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.12%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.12%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.12%) Power Query
8 1 (0.12%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 42 (5.18%) Rational DOORS
2 22 (2.71%) Git
3 12 (1.48%) JIRA
4 11 (1.36%) GitLab
5 9 (1.11%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.37%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.37%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.25%) LabVIEW
7 2 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
8 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.12%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.12%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.12%) PetaLinux
8 1 (0.12%) Postman
8 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 224 (27.62%) Manufacturing
2 133 (16.40%) Social Skills
3 64 (7.89%) Finance
4 45 (5.55%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (4.69%) Aviation
6 35 (4.32%) Electronics
7 34 (4.19%) Avionics
8 26 (3.21%) Automotive
9 23 (2.84%) Influencing Skills
10 17 (2.10%) Public Sector
11 15 (1.85%) Military
11 15 (1.85%) Telecoms
12 12 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
12 12 (1.48%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.62%) Legal
16 4 (0.49%) Law
17 3 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
17 3 (0.37%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 94 (11.59%) Systems Engineer
2 93 (11.47%) Lead
3 53 (6.54%) Software Engineer
4 51 (6.29%) Senior
5 49 (6.04%) Architect
6 43 (5.30%) Delivery Manager
7 40 (4.93%) Test Engineer
8 36 (4.44%) Developer
9 34 (4.19%) Embedded Engineer
9 34 (4.19%) Quality Engineer
10 32 (3.95%) QA Engineer
11 29 (3.58%) Embedded Software Engineer
12 27 (3.33%) Administrator
13 26 (3.21%) Product Manager
14 25 (3.08%) Product Delivery Manager
14 25 (3.08%) Programmer
15 23 (2.84%) Analyst
15 23 (2.84%) Data Engineer
15 23 (2.84%) Test Technician
16 21 (2.59%) Configuration Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (2.96%) Terraform
2 15 (1.85%) Middleware
3 13 (1.60%) LDAP
4 10 (1.23%) AngularJS
5 8 (0.99%) React
5 8 (0.99%) Redux
5 8 (0.99%) Vue
6 7 (0.86%) .NET
6 7 (0.86%) ARM Templates
6 7 (0.86%) Backbone.js
6 7 (0.86%) OAuth
6 7 (0.86%) REST
6 7 (0.86%) SAML
7 5 (0.62%) Web Services
7 5 (0.62%) XML
8 4 (0.49%) OpenID
8 4 (0.49%) Yocto
9 3 (0.37%) RESTful
10 2 (0.25%) Hibernate
10 2 (0.25%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 34 (4.19%) Product Ownership
2 24 (2.96%) Management Information System
2 24 (2.96%) Self-Motivation
3 21 (2.59%) FPGA
4 20 (2.47%) Embedded Systems
5 16 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (1.85%) Data Structures
7 13 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.48%) PCIe
9 11 (1.36%) Cyber Threat
9 11 (1.36%) Virtual Team
10 10 (1.23%) Algorithms
10 10 (1.23%) Onboarding
11 9 (1.11%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.11%) Operational Technology
11 9 (1.11%) VHDL
12 8 (0.99%) Verilog
13 5 (0.62%) Analogue Electronics
13 5 (0.62%) Enterprise Cloud
14 4 (0.49%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 28 (3.45%) Linux
2 20 (2.47%) Windows
3 12 (1.48%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.74%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.62%) CentOS
6 5 (0.62%) FreeRTOS
7 3 (0.37%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.37%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.12%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (15.17%) Stakeholder Management
2 114 (14.06%) Agile
3 100 (12.33%) Continuous Improvement
4 89 (10.97%) Software Engineering
5 75 (9.25%) Roadmaps
6 72 (8.88%) Cybersecurity
7 68 (8.38%) Problem-Solving
8 59 (7.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 53 (6.54%) Validation
10 51 (6.29%) DevOps
10 51 (6.29%) Digital Engineering
11 50 (6.17%) Risk Management
12 48 (5.92%) Technical Leadership
13 46 (5.67%) Systems Engineering
14 45 (5.55%) Digital Transformation Programme
15 41 (5.06%) Computer Science
16 39 (4.81%) CI/CD
16 39 (4.81%) ITIL
17 37 (4.56%) PRINCE2
18 36 (4.44%) Scaled Agile Framework
Programming Languages
1 52 (6.41%) Python
2 30 (3.70%) SQL
3 26 (3.21%) C
4 21 (2.59%) Ada
4 21 (2.59%) MATLAB
4 21 (2.59%) PowerShell
5 16 (1.97%) C++
6 15 (1.85%) Java
6 15 (1.85%) JavaScript
7 11 (1.36%) Bash
8 9 (1.11%) C#
9 8 (0.99%) Bicep
9 8 (0.99%) SystemVerilog
10 4 (0.49%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.49%) X++
11 2 (0.25%) Rust
12 1 (0.12%) Ada 95
12 1 (0.12%) Assembly Language
12 1 (0.12%) Embedded C++
12 1 (0.12%) Scala
Qualifications
1 312 (38.47%) Security Cleared
2 240 (29.59%) SC Cleared
3 109 (13.44%) Degree
4 40 (4.93%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (4.07%) CISSP
6 26 (3.21%) Azure Certification
7 24 (2.96%) DV Cleared
8 16 (1.97%) HNC
9 15 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
10 13 (1.60%) PMP
11 12 (1.48%) Microsoft Certification
11 12 (1.48%) PMI Certification
12 11 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
12 11 (1.36%) CISM
13 10 (1.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 10 (1.23%) Chartered Engineer
13 10 (1.23%) NVQ Level 4
13 10 (1.23%) TOGAF Certification
14 9 (1.11%) CEH
15 8 (0.99%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (5.30%) QA
2 35 (4.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (3.21%) NIST
4 24 (2.96%) Def Stans
5 16 (1.97%) GRC
6 14 (1.73%) Data Quality
6 14 (1.73%) GDPR
7 12 (1.48%) NCSC
8 9 (1.11%) DO-254
8 9 (1.11%) NIST 800
9 8 (0.99%) IEC 61508
9 8 (0.99%) SLA
10 6 (0.74%) ISO 9001
11 5 (0.62%) PMO
12 4 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 3 (0.37%) DO-160
13 3 (0.37%) JSP 440
14 2 (0.25%) ARP4761
14 2 (0.25%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 20 (2.47%) Active Directory
2 16 (1.97%) Docker
3 15 (1.85%) Firmware
4 10 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.86%) Hyper-V
6 6 (0.74%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.25%) vSphere
8 1 (0.12%) IAG
8 1 (0.12%) NFS
Systems Management
1 25 (3.08%) Kubernetes
2 21 (2.59%) Ansible
3 6 (0.74%) Functional Safety
4 4 (0.49%) Grafana
5 3 (0.37%) Check_MK
5 3 (0.37%) Istio
5 3 (0.37%) Jamf Pro
5 3 (0.37%) MOM
5 3 (0.37%) Podman
5 3 (0.37%) Red Hat Satellite
6 2 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.25%) Argo
6 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.12%) PTC Integrity
7 1 (0.12%) RSA Archer
7 1 (0.12%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 85 (10.48%) Microsoft
2 72 (8.88%) SAP
3 23 (2.84%) EMC
4 16 (1.97%) Google
5 13 (1.60%) VMware
6 11 (1.36%) Xilinx
7 8 (0.99%) Red Hat
8 7 (0.86%) Altera
8 7 (0.86%) Microsemi
9 6 (0.74%) Adobe
9 6 (0.74%) IBM
9 6 (0.74%) Intel
9 6 (0.74%) PTC
9 6 (0.74%) ServiceNow
9 6 (0.74%) Siemens
10 5 (0.62%) Oracle
11 4 (0.49%) Okta
11 4 (0.49%) Ping Identity
12 3 (0.37%) Palantir
12 3 (0.37%) Workday