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 19 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 216 365 216
Rank change year-on-year +149 -149 +181
Contract jobs citing Aerospace 557 146 443
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 0.50% 1.04%
As % of the General category 2.17% 0.79% 1.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 97 40 69
10th Percentile £278 £395 £321
25th Percentile £425 £512 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £549 £650
Median % change year-on-year -8.93% -15.54% +23.81%
75th Percentile £675 £629 £700
90th Percentile £713 £675 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £650
% change year-on-year -4.76% -19.23% +30.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 328 57 256
10th Percentile £28.50 £34.30 £25.50
25th Percentile £40.53 £46.30 £45.00
Median hourly rate £59.50 £57.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.48% +15.00% -18.70%
75th Percentile £78.75 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £86.60 £74.25 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £58.04 £50.00
% change year-on-year +3.38% +16.08% -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 25,725 18,470 24,687
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 53.55% 63.25% 57.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,701 11,732 15,577
10th Percentile £310 £285 £275
25th Percentile £411 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.69% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +2.63% -4.62% -0.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,648 796 1,927
10th Percentile £13.95 £13.95 £12.75
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.95 £15.41
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £59.63 £56.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £66.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.96 £24.62 £28.00
% change year-on-year +13.55% -12.06% -3.45%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +111 517 £500 -4.76% 390
England +140 488 £505 -8.01% 383
South East +52 185 £653 +26.70% 128
South West +50 126 £500 -6.54% 87
East of England +30 92 £492 - 57
Work from Home +5 84 £495 -5.71% 121
North of England -31 52 £74 -87.27% 53
North West -13 42 £452 -22.46% 36
Scotland +18 27 £70 -83.53% 28
Midlands -54 20 £613 +16.67% 41
London -66 11 £638 +1.92% 31
Wales -3 10 - - 12
East Midlands -25 10 £575 - 14
West Midlands -54 9 - - 27
North East - 9 £70 - 13
Northern Ireland +3 5 £447 - 4
Yorkshire - 1 - - 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 (0.54%) Apache
1 3 (0.54%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.36%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.36%) ThingWorx
3 1 (0.18%) Confluence
3 1 (0.18%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.18%) Tomcat
Applications
1 14 (2.51%) Simulink
2 13 (2.33%) CATIA
3 10 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.72%) Windchill
6 3 (0.54%) Stateflow
7 2 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.36%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.36%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 1 (0.18%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 15 (2.69%) Teamcenter
2 10 (1.80%) SAP EHS
2 10 (1.80%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.72%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.54%) SAP GRC
5 2 (0.36%) DELMIA
5 2 (0.36%) ENOVIA
5 2 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.36%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.36%) SAP WM
6 1 (0.18%) Demantra
6 1 (0.18%) Primavera
6 1 (0.18%) SAP CCM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.18%) SAP FI-GL
6 1 (0.18%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.18%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.18%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 19 (3.41%) Azure
2 13 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
3 11 (1.97%) AWS
4 6 (1.08%) Power Platform
5 5 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (0.54%) GCP
6 3 (0.54%) Google Workspace
7 2 (0.36%) Figma
7 2 (0.36%) SaaS
7 2 (0.36%) SuccessFactors
8 1 (0.18%) Azure Functions
8 1 (0.18%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (0.18%) Boomi
8 1 (0.18%) Google Sheets
8 1 (0.18%) iPaaS
8 1 (0.18%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.18%) Power Automate
8 1 (0.18%) PowerApps
8 1 (0.18%) Serverless
8 1 (0.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.97%) Ethernet
2 10 (1.80%) Software-Defined Radio
2 10 (1.80%) Wireless
3 4 (0.72%) Firewall
4 3 (0.54%) DNS
4 3 (0.54%) SpaceWire
5 2 (0.36%) DHCP
5 2 (0.36%) Network Security
5 2 (0.36%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.36%) VPN
6 1 (0.18%) 3GPP
6 1 (0.18%) BGP
6 1 (0.18%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (0.18%) FTP
6 1 (0.18%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.18%) MPLS
6 1 (0.18%) OSPF
6 1 (0.18%) SAN
6 1 (0.18%) VLAN
6 1 (0.18%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.72%) Power BI
2 3 (0.54%) Hadoop
2 3 (0.54%) NoSQL
2 3 (0.54%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.36%) Big Data
3 2 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.36%) Tableau
4 1 (0.18%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.18%) MS Access
4 1 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 49 (8.80%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (2.33%) Git
3 11 (1.97%) GitLab
4 8 (1.44%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.44%) Rational Rhapsody
5 4 (0.72%) JIRA
6 2 (0.36%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.36%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.18%) Hudson
7 1 (0.18%) LabVIEW
7 1 (0.18%) PetaLinux
7 1 (0.18%) Postman
7 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
General
1 136 (24.42%) Manufacturing
2 57 (10.23%) Social Skills
3 41 (7.36%) Aviation
4 35 (6.28%) Finance
5 28 (5.03%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (3.95%) Automotive
7 19 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
7 19 (3.41%) Electronics
8 11 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
9 10 (1.80%) Avionics
10 8 (1.44%) Military
11 4 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (0.72%) Legal
11 4 (0.72%) Public Sector
12 3 (0.54%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.36%) Agriculture
13 2 (0.36%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.36%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.18%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 64 (11.49%) Software Engineer
2 48 (8.62%) Systems Engineer
3 42 (7.54%) Senior
4 39 (7.00%) Product Manager
5 34 (6.10%) Delivery Manager
5 34 (6.10%) Product Delivery Manager
6 33 (5.92%) Architect
6 33 (5.92%) Embedded Engineer
6 33 (5.92%) Lead
7 29 (5.21%) Principal Engineer
8 28 (5.03%) Systems Manager
8 28 (5.03%) Technical Support
9 27 (4.85%) Test Engineer
10 24 (4.31%) Embedded Software Engineer
11 23 (4.13%) Administrator
11 23 (4.13%) Technical Engineer
12 22 (3.95%) Support Engineer
12 22 (3.95%) Systems Delivery Manager
13 21 (3.77%) Technical Support Engineer
14 19 (3.41%) Engineering Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.69%) Middleware
2 9 (1.62%) LDAP
3 6 (1.08%) REST
4 5 (0.90%) Apache NiFi
5 3 (0.54%) Qt
6 2 (0.36%) .NET
6 2 (0.36%) Flash
6 2 (0.36%) RESTful
6 2 (0.36%) SAP Fiori
6 2 (0.36%) SOAP
6 2 (0.36%) Unity (Game Engine)
6 2 (0.36%) Unreal Engine
6 2 (0.36%) Web Services
6 2 (0.36%) XML
6 2 (0.36%) Yocto
7 1 (0.18%) AngularJS
7 1 (0.18%) Hibernate
7 1 (0.18%) Kafka
7 1 (0.18%) PostGIS
7 1 (0.18%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 35 (6.28%) Product Ownership
2 23 (4.13%) Data Structures
3 22 (3.95%) Management Information System
4 18 (3.23%) FPGA
5 15 (2.69%) Operational Technology
6 11 (1.97%) Embedded Systems
6 11 (1.97%) PCIe
7 10 (1.80%) VHDL
8 9 (1.62%) Algorithms
9 8 (1.44%) Data Centre
9 8 (1.44%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.26%) Onboarding
10 7 (1.26%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.26%) Verilog
11 5 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
11 5 (0.90%) SCADA
12 3 (0.54%) CAN bus
12 3 (0.54%) Cyber Security Posture
12 3 (0.54%) Legacy Applications
12 3 (0.54%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 22 (3.95%) Linux
2 14 (2.51%) Windows
3 9 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (1.44%) CentOS
5 5 (0.90%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.54%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.36%) Debian
7 2 (0.36%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.36%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.18%) Unix
8 1 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (17.24%) Software Engineering
2 76 (13.64%) Continuous Improvement
3 73 (13.11%) Systems Engineering
4 66 (11.85%) Agile
5 63 (11.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 61 (10.95%) Validation
7 54 (9.69%) Configuration Management
8 52 (9.34%) Computer Science
9 51 (9.16%) Problem-Solving
10 50 (8.98%) Stakeholder Management
11 43 (7.72%) Roadmaps
12 42 (7.54%) PRINCE2
12 42 (7.54%) Programme Management
13 41 (7.36%) Cybersecurity
14 36 (6.46%) Change Control
14 36 (6.46%) Scaled Agile Framework
14 36 (6.46%) Verification and Validation
15 35 (6.28%) SysML
15 35 (6.28%) UML
16 32 (5.75%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 35 (6.28%) Ada
2 29 (5.21%) MATLAB
3 27 (4.85%) C
4 21 (3.77%) Python
5 18 (3.23%) C++
6 9 (1.62%) SystemVerilog
7 8 (1.44%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.08%) SQL
9 5 (0.90%) Java
10 3 (0.54%) C#
10 3 (0.54%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.36%) ABAP
11 2 (0.36%) Bash
12 1 (0.18%) Bicep
12 1 (0.18%) Embedded C++
12 1 (0.18%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.18%) Tcl
12 1 (0.18%) X++
Qualifications
1 251 (45.06%) Security Cleared
2 136 (24.42%) SC Cleared
3 72 (12.93%) Degree
4 49 (8.80%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (3.59%) DV Cleared
6 11 (1.97%) NVQ Level 4
7 10 (1.80%) CISSP
7 10 (1.80%) HNC
8 7 (1.26%) PMP
9 5 (0.90%) Chartered Engineer
9 5 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (0.90%) PMI Certification
10 4 (0.72%) CEH
10 4 (0.72%) Computer Science Degree
10 4 (0.72%) TOGAF Certification
11 3 (0.54%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.36%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.36%) CISM
12 2 (0.36%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (5.03%) QA
2 24 (4.31%) NIST
3 20 (3.59%) Def Stans
4 14 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (1.97%) Data Quality
5 11 (1.97%) SLA
6 9 (1.62%) DO-254
7 8 (1.44%) IEC 61508
7 8 (1.44%) NIST 800
8 7 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.72%) GRC
11 3 (0.54%) GDPR
11 3 (0.54%) ISO 26262
11 3 (0.54%) MIL-STD-1553
11 3 (0.54%) MISRA
11 3 (0.54%) MISRA C
12 2 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.36%) NCSC
13 1 (0.18%) HAZOP
System Software
1 13 (2.33%) Firmware
2 10 (1.80%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.62%) Docker
4 5 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
5 2 (0.36%) QEMU
5 2 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.18%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 16 (2.87%) Ansible
2 11 (1.97%) Podman
3 8 (1.44%) Check_MK
3 8 (1.44%) Red Hat Satellite
4 6 (1.08%) Terraform
5 5 (0.90%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.18%) Argo
6 1 (0.18%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.18%) Grafana
6 1 (0.18%) HP ALM
6 1 (0.18%) Iperf
6 1 (0.18%) Kibana
6 1 (0.18%) logstash
6 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 1 (0.18%) Nessus
6 1 (0.18%) Nmap
6 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.18%) SCCM
6 1 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 56 (10.05%) SAP
2 29 (5.21%) IBM
3 17 (3.05%) Microsoft
4 16 (2.87%) VMware
5 13 (2.33%) ServiceNow
6 12 (2.15%) Red Hat
7 11 (1.97%) Siemens
8 9 (1.62%) Xilinx
9 8 (1.44%) Microsemi
10 7 (1.26%) Altera
11 4 (0.72%) Cisco
11 4 (0.72%) Lauterbach
11 4 (0.72%) PTC
12 3 (0.54%) Adobe
12 3 (0.54%) Google
12 3 (0.54%) Palo Alto
13 2 (0.36%) Fortinet
13 2 (0.36%) Intel
13 2 (0.36%) Remedy
14 1 (0.18%) JD Edwards