Algorithms Contract Job Trends

Algorithms
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Algorithms in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Algorithms over the 6 months leading up to 18 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 284 240 312
Rank change year-on-year -44 +72 +15
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 337 329 311
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.91% 1.04% 0.72%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.65% 3.21% 2.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 197 223
10th Percentile £335 £375 £400
25th Percentile £421 £448 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £620
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -3.23% -13.29%
75th Percentile £738 £676 £723
90th Percentile £1,050 £825 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £504 £538 £590
% change year-on-year -6.33% -8.90% -12.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 18 16
10th Percentile £35.25 £24.57 £35.00
25th Percentile £53.53 £29.34 £42.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £48.75 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% -13.33% +2.27%
75th Percentile - £56.56 £63.01
90th Percentile £77.10 £72.38 £70.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +36.84% +5.56% -19.54%

All Generic Skills
UK

Algorithms falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 12,727 10,252 13,355
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.27% 32.29% 30.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,027 6,073 8,768
10th Percentile £276 £263 £260
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £533 £545
Median % change year-on-year -6.27% -2.12% -2.68%
75th Percentile £625 £663 £660
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 612 320 622
10th Percentile £14.26 £18.51 £14.56
25th Percentile £18.25 £23.60 £18.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% - +46.38%
75th Percentile £61.18 £64.81 £61.96
90th Percentile £74.64 £80.75 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.52 £32.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -15.32% -8.45% +69.61%

Algorithms
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Algorithms job vacancy trend in the UK

Algorithms
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Algorithms
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Algorithms over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Algorithms in the UK

Algorithms
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Algorithms
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Algorithms over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Algorithms in the UK

Algorithms
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Algorithms within the UK over the 6 months to 18 January 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 -19 291 £558 -10.80% 561
London -6 164 £650 +4.00% 105
UK excluding London -49 140 £504 -6.33% 545
Work from Home -36 74 £575 +21.05% 247
North of England -38 35 £550 +11.11% 86
East of England -4 28 £345 -43.67% 90
Yorkshire -25 27 £675 - 34
South East -18 22 £593 +14.22% 180
South West -6 21 £500 -25.09% 71
Scotland +2 18 £418 -1.76% 34
West Midlands -28 15 £525 +31.25% 17
Midlands -38 15 £525 +31.25% 61
North West -38 7 £180 -63.45% 36
Wales -6 3 - - 26
North East -13 1 £400 -36.00% 16

Algorithms
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 15 (4.45%) Apache Spark
2 14 (4.15%) Apache
3 13 (3.86%) Jupyter
4 8 (2.37%) Apache Pig
5 6 (1.78%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (1.48%) Confluence
7 3 (0.89%) IIS
8 1 (0.30%) SharePoint
Applications
1 16 (4.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.37%) Chatbot
3 6 (1.78%) Simulink
4 3 (0.89%) LaTeX
4 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.89%) ProductWriter
2 2 (0.59%) Bloomberg AIM
2 2 (0.59%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.30%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 67 (19.88%) Azure
2 62 (18.40%) AWS
3 32 (9.50%) Power Platform
4 27 (8.01%) GCP
5 20 (5.93%) Serverless
6 19 (5.64%) GitHub
7 17 (5.04%) Cloud Computing
8 15 (4.45%) Amazon SageMaker
9 13 (3.86%) Azure AKS
10 12 (3.56%) GitHub Copilot
10 12 (3.56%) PaaS
11 11 (3.26%) Amazon S3
11 11 (3.26%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (2.67%) Amazon ECS
12 9 (2.67%) Amazon EKS
12 9 (2.67%) Azure Functions
13 8 (2.37%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (2.37%) Azure Machine Learning
13 8 (2.37%) Snowflake
14 7 (2.08%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.48%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.48%) VPN
2 4 (1.19%) Internet
2 4 (1.19%) S/MIME
3 3 (0.89%) HTTP
3 3 (0.89%) Network Security
3 3 (0.89%) SSL
4 2 (0.59%) 5G
4 2 (0.59%) Ethernet VPN
4 2 (0.59%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 2 (0.59%) LAN
4 2 (0.59%) LTE
4 2 (0.59%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.59%) MPLS
4 2 (0.59%) OSPF
4 2 (0.59%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.59%) SNMP
4 2 (0.59%) VoIP
4 2 (0.59%) VXLAN
4 2 (0.59%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (8.90%) Power BI
2 19 (5.64%) NoSQL
3 15 (4.45%) Relational Database
3 15 (4.45%) Tableau
4 14 (4.15%) Hadoop
4 14 (4.15%) KDB
4 14 (4.15%) Kdb+
5 11 (3.26%) Data Mining
6 10 (2.97%) Big Data
6 10 (2.97%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (2.67%) Apache Hive
8 8 (2.37%) Data Lake
9 7 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (2.08%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (2.08%) RDBMS
10 5 (1.48%) MySQL
11 3 (0.89%) Geospatial Data
11 3 (0.89%) OLTP
11 3 (0.89%) Spatial Data
11 3 (0.89%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 26 (7.72%) Git
2 11 (3.26%) Jenkins
3 8 (2.37%) GitLab
3 8 (2.37%) MLflow
4 7 (2.08%) JIRA
5 5 (1.48%) PyCharm
5 5 (1.48%) QUnit
6 4 (1.19%) Gradle
6 4 (1.19%) Maven
7 3 (0.89%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.89%) JUnit
7 3 (0.89%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.59%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.59%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.59%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.59%) Log4j
8 2 (0.59%) Mockito
8 2 (0.59%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.59%) Subversion
8 2 (0.59%) TeamCity
General
1 96 (28.49%) Social Skills
2 64 (18.99%) Finance
3 47 (13.95%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (11.57%) Front Office
5 31 (9.20%) Banking
6 15 (4.45%) Public Sector
7 9 (2.67%) Investment Banking
8 8 (2.37%) Legal
8 8 (2.37%) Retail
9 7 (2.08%) Electronics
9 7 (2.08%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.48%) Games
10 5 (1.48%) Marketing
10 5 (1.48%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.19%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.19%) Publishing
12 3 (0.89%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.89%) Law
13 2 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 98 (29.08%) Developer
2 44 (13.06%) Senior
3 40 (11.87%) Data Scientist
4 33 (9.79%) Software Engineer
5 28 (8.31%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 25 (7.42%) Lead
7 21 (6.23%) Python Developer
8 20 (5.93%) Data Engineer
8 20 (5.93%) Quantitative Developer
9 19 (5.64%) C++ Developer
9 19 (5.64%) Java Developer
9 19 (5.64%) Senior Developer
10 14 (4.15%) Architect
11 13 (3.86%) Analyst
12 11 (3.26%) C++ Quantitative Developer
12 11 (3.26%) Linux Developer
12 11 (3.26%) Low Latency C++ Developer
12 11 (3.26%) Machine Learning Engineer
13 10 (2.97%) Algorithm Engineer
14 9 (2.67%) Robotics Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (13.95%) TensorFlow
2 45 (13.35%) PyTorch
3 32 (9.50%) Pandas
3 32 (9.50%) scikit-learn
4 24 (7.12%) NumPy
5 22 (6.53%) FIX Protocol
6 16 (4.75%) RESTful
7 13 (3.86%) .NET
7 13 (3.86%) Semantic Kernel
8 12 (3.56%) REST
9 10 (2.97%) Matplotlib
9 10 (2.97%) React
9 10 (2.97%) XGBoost
10 9 (2.67%) PySpark
10 9 (2.67%) SQLAlchemy
11 8 (2.37%) FastAPI
11 8 (2.37%) Hugging Face
11 8 (2.37%) Kafka
11 8 (2.37%) XML
12 6 (1.78%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (18.99%) Data Structures
2 26 (7.72%) Equities
3 23 (6.82%) Cloud Native
3 23 (6.82%) Distributed Systems
4 22 (6.53%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 20 (5.93%) Derivative
6 18 (5.34%) Fixed Income
7 13 (3.86%) Robotics
8 12 (3.56%) PKI
8 12 (3.56%) Product Ownership
9 11 (3.26%) Equity Derivative
9 11 (3.26%) FPGA
10 10 (2.97%) Distributed Computing
11 8 (2.37%) Clustering
11 8 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (1.78%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (1.78%) VHDL
13 5 (1.48%) Mobile App
13 5 (1.48%) Onboarding
13 5 (1.48%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 29 (8.61%) Linux
2 13 (3.86%) Unix
3 3 (0.89%) Android
3 3 (0.89%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.89%) Windows
4 2 (0.59%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.30%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.30%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (48.07%) Machine Learning
2 97 (28.78%) AI
3 93 (27.60%) Data Science
4 82 (24.33%) Computer Science
5 81 (24.04%) Problem-Solving
6 71 (21.07%) Agile
7 60 (17.80%) Software Engineering
8 59 (17.51%) Analytics
9 57 (16.91%) CI/CD
9 57 (16.91%) Mathematics
10 55 (16.32%) LLM
11 49 (14.54%) Data Pipeline
12 45 (13.35%) Statistics
13 44 (13.06%) Visualisation
14 41 (12.17%) Data Engineering
14 41 (12.17%) Decision-Making
15 40 (11.87%) Deep Learning
16 35 (10.39%) Natural Language Processing
17 34 (10.09%) Data Analysis
17 34 (10.09%) Data Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 189 (56.08%) Python
2 64 (18.99%) SQL
3 63 (18.69%) Java
4 41 (12.17%) C++
5 25 (7.42%) MATLAB
6 21 (6.23%) C#
7 17 (5.04%) Scala
8 16 (4.75%) PowerShell
9 14 (4.15%) TypeScript
10 13 (3.86%) Bash
11 12 (3.56%) R
12 9 (2.67%) JavaScript
13 8 (2.37%) Ada
14 5 (1.48%) SystemVerilog
14 5 (1.48%) Tcl
15 4 (1.19%) C
15 4 (1.19%) Go
15 4 (1.19%) Rust
16 2 (0.59%) Kotlin
16 2 (0.59%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 77 (22.85%) Degree
2 41 (12.17%) Security Cleared
3 26 (7.72%) Computer Science Degree
3 26 (7.72%) SC Cleared
4 23 (6.82%) Master's Degree
5 13 (3.86%) MCP
6 12 (3.56%) Numerate Degree
6 12 (3.56%) PhD
7 6 (1.78%) CISSP
7 6 (1.78%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.48%) GIAC
8 5 (1.48%) HNC
8 5 (1.48%) HND
9 4 (1.19%) CISM
10 3 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.89%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.89%) Postgraduate
11 2 (0.59%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.59%) CCDP
11 2 (0.59%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (5.04%) NIST
2 14 (4.15%) QA
3 12 (3.56%) EU AI Act
4 10 (2.97%) Data Quality
5 7 (2.08%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.48%) DO-254
6 5 (1.48%) PCI DSS
7 4 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.89%) FIPS 140-2
8 3 (0.89%) SLA
9 2 (0.59%) EMIR
9 2 (0.59%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.59%) NCSC
9 2 (0.59%) RMADS
10 1 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.30%) GDPR
10 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 30 (8.90%) Docker
2 8 (2.37%) Firmware
3 3 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.30%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.30%) Squid
Systems Management
1 29 (8.61%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.93%) Terraform
3 7 (2.08%) Ansible
3 7 (2.08%) Grafana
4 5 (1.48%) Kibana
4 5 (1.48%) logstash
5 4 (1.19%) ITRS Geneos
6 3 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.59%) Kubeflow
7 2 (0.59%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.59%) rkt
8 1 (0.30%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.30%) Oracle ZFS
8 1 (0.30%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 39 (11.57%) Microsoft
2 16 (4.75%) Databricks
3 15 (4.45%) Splunk
4 13 (3.86%) Foundry
5 10 (2.97%) Google
5 10 (2.97%) Xilinx
6 8 (2.37%) Thales
7 7 (2.08%) IBM
7 7 (2.08%) TIBCO
8 5 (1.48%) Actel
8 5 (1.48%) Altera
8 5 (1.48%) Intel
8 5 (1.48%) MathWorks
8 5 (1.48%) Microsemi
8 5 (1.48%) Solace
9 4 (1.19%) Oracle
9 4 (1.19%) SAP
10 3 (0.89%) Delphix
11 2 (0.59%) Cognos
11 2 (0.59%) Dataiku