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 26 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 387 276 272
Rank change year-on-year -111 -4 +31
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 313 313 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.96% 0.91%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.74% 2.71% 3.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 181 195 233
10th Percentile £194 £400 £375
25th Percentile £385 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £716 £700 £775
90th Percentile £838 £850 £854
UK excluding London median daily rate £358 £507 £490
% change year-on-year -29.52% +3.63% -2.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 25 31
10th Percentile £56.59 £22.37 £32.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £60.75 £36.38
Median hourly rate £70.00 £67.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.48% +34.00% +53.85%
75th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £84.80 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £72.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -9.72% +30.91% +100.00%

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 18,018 11,535 11,761
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.59% 35.26% 30.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,898 7,083 7,454
10th Percentile £321 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -5.45% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,065 575 570
10th Percentile £14.68 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.87 £18.39
Median hourly rate £41.00 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.67% -33.33% +2.86%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £69.45
90th Percentile £84.60 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -38.78% +7.91%

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 26 August 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 26 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Algorithms in the UK

Algorithms
Top 16 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 26 August 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 -91 279 £575 +4.55% 265
London -63 165 £675 +12.50% 135
UK excluding London -87 123 £358 -29.52% 174
Work from Home -41 92 £625 +25.00% 112
South East -67 37 £428 -14.50% 52
South West -24 27 - - 41
North of England -68 20 £381 -34.45% 20
East of England -42 18 £193 -62.62% 30
North West -45 14 £398 -29.24% 8
Scotland -22 11 £556 +11.10% 20
Midlands -55 8 £213 -58.84% 16
Yorkshire -38 6 £215 -64.12% 7
East Midlands -13 4 £180 -63.41% 11
West Midlands -63 4 £213 -60.47% 5
Northern Ireland -2 1 - -
Wales -16 1 £550 -18.52% 2

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 9 (2.88%) Apache Spark
2 8 (2.56%) Apache Airflow
2 8 (2.56%) Confluence
3 5 (1.60%) Jupyter
4 3 (0.96%) Apache
5 1 (0.32%) CMS
5 1 (0.32%) Ethereum
5 1 (0.32%) IIS
5 1 (0.32%) SAS
5 1 (0.32%) Solana
Applications
1 9 (2.88%) CPLEX
2 5 (1.60%) Simulink
3 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.96%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.32%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (3.19%) SAP IBP
2 6 (1.92%) ProductWriter
3 2 (0.64%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
4 1 (0.32%) SAP APO
4 1 (0.32%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 49 (15.65%) Azure
2 44 (14.06%) GCP
3 36 (11.50%) AWS
4 15 (4.79%) GitHub
5 9 (2.88%) Cloud Computing
6 7 (2.24%) AWS Lambda
6 7 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
6 7 (2.24%) Power Platform
6 7 (2.24%) Serverless
7 6 (1.92%) Amazon EKS
8 5 (1.60%) Google Gemini
8 5 (1.60%) Vertex AI
9 4 (1.28%) Amazon MSK
9 4 (1.28%) Anthropic Claude
9 4 (1.28%) AWS Direct Connect
9 4 (1.28%) Cloudflare
9 4 (1.28%) Dagster
9 4 (1.28%) dbt
9 4 (1.28%) GitHub Actions
9 4 (1.28%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.43%) HTTP
2 7 (2.24%) DNS
2 7 (2.24%) Firewall
3 6 (1.92%) Multicast
4 4 (1.28%) HTTPS
4 4 (1.28%) SSL
5 3 (0.96%) BIG-IP
5 3 (0.96%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 3 (0.96%) Network Security
5 3 (0.96%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.32%) Broadband
6 1 (0.32%) DMZ
6 1 (0.32%) Ethernet
6 1 (0.32%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.32%) S/MIME
6 1 (0.32%) SAN
6 1 (0.32%) VPN
6 1 (0.32%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (6.71%) NoSQL
2 18 (5.75%) MongoDB
3 16 (5.11%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (4.47%) Relational Database
5 11 (3.51%) SQL Server
6 7 (2.24%) Big Data
6 7 (2.24%) KDB
6 7 (2.24%) Power BI
7 6 (1.92%) RDBMS
7 6 (1.92%) Tableau
8 5 (1.60%) Hadoop
9 4 (1.28%) DuckDB
10 3 (0.96%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.96%) MySQL
10 3 (0.96%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.96%) Redis
10 3 (0.96%) Spark SQL
11 2 (0.64%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.64%) Db2
11 2 (0.64%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 33 (10.54%) Git
2 17 (5.43%) GitLab
3 10 (3.19%) Jenkins
4 7 (2.24%) Claude Code
5 5 (1.60%) MLflow
6 4 (1.28%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.96%) JIRA
8 2 (0.64%) JMeter
8 2 (0.64%) Postman
8 2 (0.64%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.32%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.32%) Gradle
9 1 (0.32%) Hardhat
9 1 (0.32%) Maven
9 1 (0.32%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.32%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.32%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 63 (20.13%) Social Skills
2 61 (19.49%) Finance
3 53 (16.93%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (10.54%) Banking
5 16 (5.11%) Investment Banking
6 15 (4.79%) Public Sector
7 14 (4.47%) Front Office
8 11 (3.51%) Aerospace
9 9 (2.88%) Telecoms
10 8 (2.56%) Manufacturing
11 6 (1.92%) Automotive
12 5 (1.60%) Electronics
12 5 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.60%) Law
13 4 (1.28%) Advertising
13 4 (1.28%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.96%) Aviation
14 3 (0.96%) Military
14 3 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.96%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 79 (25.24%) Developer
2 47 (15.02%) Senior
3 34 (10.86%) Software Engineer
4 31 (9.90%) Data Scientist
5 20 (6.39%) Python Developer
6 18 (5.75%) Java Developer
7 17 (5.43%) Algorithm Engineer
8 16 (5.11%) Consultant
9 14 (4.47%) Architect
10 13 (4.15%) C++ Software Engineer
11 12 (3.83%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 12 (3.83%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.83%) Lead
11 12 (3.83%) Senior Developer
12 11 (3.51%) Quantitative Developer
13 10 (3.19%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 10 (3.19%) SAP Consultant
14 9 (2.88%) Machine Learning Engineer
14 9 (2.88%) Software Engineering Manager
14 9 (2.88%) Software Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (9.27%) Kafka
2 27 (8.63%) Pandas
3 24 (7.67%) React
4 22 (7.03%) NumPy
5 20 (6.39%) PyTorch
6 19 (6.07%) JSON
7 17 (5.43%) FIX Protocol
8 14 (4.47%) RESTful
8 14 (4.47%) scikit-learn
8 14 (4.47%) TensorFlow
9 12 (3.83%) PySpark
9 12 (3.83%) WebSockets
10 11 (3.51%) FastAPI
11 10 (3.19%) AngularJS
11 10 (3.19%) Redux
11 10 (3.19%) Spring
12 9 (2.88%) RabbitMQ
12 9 (2.88%) Spring Boot
13 8 (2.56%) Django
13 8 (2.56%) SciPy
Miscellaneous
1 85 (27.16%) Data Structures
2 53 (16.93%) Distributed Systems
3 20 (6.39%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 18 (5.75%) Derivative
5 14 (4.47%) Cloud Native
6 13 (4.15%) AI Agents
6 13 (4.15%) Robotics
7 10 (3.19%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.56%) Equities
8 8 (2.56%) IoT
9 6 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (1.60%) Fixed Income
11 4 (1.28%) Augmented Reality
11 4 (1.28%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (1.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 4 (1.28%) Embedded Systems
11 4 (1.28%) Exotic Derivative
11 4 (1.28%) Onboarding
11 4 (1.28%) OTC Derivatives
11 4 (1.28%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 5 (1.60%) Linux
2 2 (0.64%) Windows
3 1 (0.32%) Android
3 1 (0.32%) Robot Operating System
3 1 (0.32%) Unix
3 1 (0.32%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (31.63%) Machine Learning
2 93 (29.71%) AI
3 88 (28.12%) Software Engineering
4 82 (26.20%) Computer Science
5 62 (19.81%) Problem-Solving
6 59 (18.85%) CI/CD
7 51 (16.29%) Data Science
8 47 (15.02%) Mathematics
9 44 (14.06%) Analytics
10 41 (13.10%) Agile
11 39 (12.46%) Low Latency
12 35 (11.18%) Multithreading
13 33 (10.54%) Containerisation
14 31 (9.90%) Validation
15 30 (9.58%) Microservices
16 29 (9.27%) Observability
17 28 (8.95%) LLM
18 27 (8.63%) Data Analysis
18 27 (8.63%) Data Pipeline
18 27 (8.63%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 136 (43.45%) Python
2 80 (25.56%) Java
3 61 (19.49%) SQL
4 42 (13.42%) C++
5 40 (12.78%) C#
6 29 (9.27%) JavaScript
7 22 (7.03%) TypeScript
8 18 (5.75%) PowerShell
9 15 (4.79%) MATLAB
10 13 (4.15%) Rust
11 11 (3.51%) R
12 7 (2.24%) Ada
12 7 (2.24%) C
13 4 (1.28%) Go
13 4 (1.28%) Scala
13 4 (1.28%) SPARQL
14 3 (0.96%) Embedded C++
14 3 (0.96%) Kotlin
15 1 (0.32%) Shell Script
15 1 (0.32%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 65 (20.77%) Degree
2 36 (11.50%) Security Cleared
3 27 (8.63%) Computer Science Degree
4 24 (7.67%) SC Cleared
5 17 (5.43%) Master's Degree
6 13 (4.15%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (3.83%) DBS Check
8 11 (3.51%) PhD
9 4 (1.28%) CISSP
9 4 (1.28%) Numerate Degree
10 3 (0.96%) CISM
11 2 (0.64%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.32%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 1 (0.32%) CEH
12 1 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.32%) HNC
12 1 (0.32%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.47%) Data Quality
2 7 (2.24%) Accessibility
2 7 (2.24%) NIST
3 5 (1.60%) QA
4 4 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.96%) Automotive SPICE
5 3 (0.96%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.64%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.64%) GDPR
6 2 (0.64%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 2 (0.64%) MISRA
6 2 (0.64%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.32%) DO-254
7 1 (0.32%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.32%) NCSC
System Software
1 29 (9.27%) Docker
2 2 (0.64%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.64%) Apache ZooKeeper
3 1 (0.32%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 25 (7.99%) Kubernetes
2 9 (2.88%) Ansible
3 5 (1.60%) Kubeflow
4 4 (1.28%) Argo
5 3 (0.96%) Functional Safety
5 3 (0.96%) Grafana
6 2 (0.64%) Istio
7 1 (0.32%) Kibana
7 1 (0.32%) logstash
7 1 (0.32%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 16 (5.11%) Microsoft
2 15 (4.79%) Databricks
3 11 (3.51%) SAP
4 8 (2.56%) Google
4 8 (2.56%) OpenAI
4 8 (2.56%) Solace
5 7 (2.24%) IBM
6 5 (1.60%) Dynatrace
6 5 (1.60%) MathWorks
6 5 (1.60%) Splunk
7 4 (1.28%) ForgeRock
7 4 (1.28%) IFS
7 4 (1.28%) Oracle
8 3 (0.96%) F5
9 2 (0.64%) Duck Creek
9 2 (0.64%) Guidewire
10 1 (0.32%) Infor
10 1 (0.32%) Microsemi
10 1 (0.32%) Sitecore
10 1 (0.32%) Xilinx