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 6 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 265 274
Rank change year-on-year -29 +9 +17
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 373 295 376
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 0.97% 0.85%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.62% 2.89% 2.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 210 165 245
10th Percentile £335 £374 £408
25th Percentile £427 £450 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £588
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.13% -12.31%
75th Percentile £738 £676 £725
90th Percentile £1,050 £833 £871
UK excluding London median daily rate £504 £550 £560
% change year-on-year -8.41% -1.79% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 48
10th Percentile £48.40 £22.72 £41.03
25th Percentile £53.53 £28.13 £47.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.44% -18.18% -
75th Percentile - £68.13 £59.69
90th Percentile £66.00 £77.60 £69.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +44.44% -18.18% -

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 14,229 10,198 13,445
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.36% 33.45% 30.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,945 6,290 8,635
10th Percentile £285 £275 £256
25th Percentile £406 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £527
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.28% -4.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £768 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 670 342 836
10th Percentile £15.48 £18.14 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.55 £16.25
Median hourly rate £33.50 £32.50 £30.08
Median % change year-on-year +3.08% +8.05% +33.78%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £83.13 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £31.76 £30.00
% change year-on-year +5.48% +5.87% +36.36%

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 6 March 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 6 March 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 6 March 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 -13 309 £568 -7.16% 486
London +10 179 £625 +1.01% 175
UK excluding London -62 150 £504 -8.41% 401
Work from Home -13 100 £638 +19.16% 202
South West -12 32 £500 -25.09% 65
East of England -20 29 £345 -46.92% 78
North of England -59 28 £575 +9.52% 55
South East -38 25 £593 +15.61% 119
Yorkshire -40 21 £675 - 18
Scotland +8 20 £418 -1.76% 23
West Midlands -43 10 £538 +45.27% 22
Midlands -51 10 £538 +159.04% 49
Wales -10 6 £400 -31.57% 17
North West -39 6 £180 -64.71% 28
Northern Ireland -2 2 - - 6
North East -13 1 £400 -36.00% 11

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 22 (5.90%) Apache Spark
2 15 (4.02%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (3.22%) Apache
3 12 (3.22%) Jupyter
4 2 (0.54%) Apache Pig
4 2 (0.54%) Confluence
5 1 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 17 (4.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.14%) Chatbot
3 6 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.34%) Simulink
5 3 (0.80%) LaTeX
6 1 (0.27%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 4 (1.07%) Bloomberg AIM
1 4 (1.07%) Fidessa
1 4 (1.07%) ProductWriter
2 1 (0.27%) Actimize
2 1 (0.27%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 93 (24.93%) AWS
2 82 (21.98%) Azure
3 33 (8.85%) GCP
4 26 (6.97%) Serverless
5 25 (6.70%) Power Platform
6 23 (6.17%) GitHub
7 21 (5.63%) Cloud Computing
8 20 (5.36%) Amazon SageMaker
9 17 (4.56%) AWS Lambda
10 16 (4.29%) Amazon ECS
11 14 (3.75%) Amazon S3
12 13 (3.49%) Azure AKS
13 12 (3.22%) Amazon EKS
13 12 (3.22%) GitHub Copilot
13 12 (3.22%) PaaS
14 10 (2.68%) Dagster
15 9 (2.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 9 (2.41%) Azure Functions
15 9 (2.41%) Snowflake
15 9 (2.41%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.34%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.34%) VPN
2 4 (1.07%) HTTP
2 4 (1.07%) Internet
2 4 (1.07%) S/MIME
3 3 (0.80%) Network Security
4 2 (0.54%) 2G
4 2 (0.54%) 5G
4 2 (0.54%) BGP
4 2 (0.54%) BIG-IP
4 2 (0.54%) Ethernet VPN
4 2 (0.54%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 2 (0.54%) Firewall
4 2 (0.54%) IPsec
4 2 (0.54%) LTE
4 2 (0.54%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.54%) MPLS
4 2 (0.54%) OSPF
4 2 (0.54%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.54%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.17%) Power BI
2 22 (5.90%) NoSQL
3 16 (4.29%) Big Data
3 16 (4.29%) Hadoop
3 16 (4.29%) Relational Database
4 14 (3.75%) Tableau
5 13 (3.49%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (2.95%) KDB
6 11 (2.95%) Kdb+
7 7 (1.88%) Data Lake
7 7 (1.88%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (1.88%) RDBMS
8 5 (1.34%) MySQL
8 5 (1.34%) SQL Server
9 4 (1.07%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (1.07%) Data Mining
9 4 (1.07%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.80%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.80%) Pinecone
10 3 (0.80%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 40 (10.72%) Git
2 13 (3.49%) MLflow
3 10 (2.68%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.88%) GitLab
5 5 (1.34%) PyCharm
6 4 (1.07%) Gradle
6 4 (1.07%) JUnit
6 4 (1.07%) Maven
7 3 (0.80%) QUnit
7 3 (0.80%) TeamCity
7 3 (0.80%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.54%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.54%) GoCD
8 2 (0.54%) JIRA
8 2 (0.54%) Log4j
8 2 (0.54%) Mockito
8 2 (0.54%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.54%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.54%) Subversion
9 1 (0.27%) webpack
General
1 108 (28.95%) Social Skills
2 65 (17.43%) Finance
3 59 (15.82%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (10.19%) Front Office
5 35 (9.38%) Banking
6 21 (5.63%) Public Sector
7 10 (2.68%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.41%) Retail
9 8 (2.14%) Aerospace
10 7 (1.88%) Electronics
10 7 (1.88%) Marketing
11 6 (1.61%) Manufacturing
11 6 (1.61%) Telecoms
12 5 (1.34%) Games
12 5 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.34%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (1.34%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.07%) Police
13 4 (1.07%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 111 (29.76%) Developer
2 62 (16.62%) Senior
3 47 (12.60%) Data Scientist
4 41 (10.99%) Software Engineer
5 30 (8.04%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 26 (6.97%) Lead
7 24 (6.43%) Python Developer
7 24 (6.43%) Senior Developer
8 22 (5.90%) Quantitative Developer
9 21 (5.63%) Algorithm Engineer
9 21 (5.63%) Java Developer
10 20 (5.36%) C++ Developer
11 18 (4.83%) Architect
12 13 (3.49%) Data Engineer
13 12 (3.22%) C++ Quantitative Developer
13 12 (3.22%) Linux Developer
13 12 (3.22%) Low Latency C++ Developer
14 11 (2.95%) Gen AI Engineer
15 10 (2.68%) Analyst
15 10 (2.68%) Machine Learning Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (16.35%) PyTorch
2 60 (16.09%) TensorFlow
3 41 (10.99%) Pandas
4 40 (10.72%) scikit-learn
5 35 (9.38%) NumPy
6 19 (5.09%) .NET
6 19 (5.09%) FIX Protocol
7 17 (4.56%) RESTful
8 16 (4.29%) React
8 16 (4.29%) REST
9 15 (4.02%) Model Context Protocol
10 13 (3.49%) A2A Protocol
10 13 (3.49%) Kafka
10 13 (3.49%) PySpark
10 13 (3.49%) Semantic Kernel
11 12 (3.22%) Hugging Face
12 11 (2.95%) Matplotlib
13 10 (2.68%) FastAPI
13 10 (2.68%) SQLAlchemy
14 9 (2.41%) Seaborn
Miscellaneous
1 79 (21.18%) Data Structures
2 29 (7.77%) Equities
3 24 (6.43%) Cloud Native
3 24 (6.43%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (6.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 21 (5.63%) Derivative
6 17 (4.56%) Fixed Income
7 13 (3.49%) Product Ownership
7 13 (3.49%) Robotics
8 11 (2.95%) Equity Derivative
9 10 (2.68%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (2.41%) Distributed Computing
10 9 (2.41%) FPGA
10 9 (2.41%) PKI
11 8 (2.14%) Clustering
12 7 (1.88%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (1.61%) Mobile App
13 6 (1.61%) Onboarding
14 5 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
14 5 (1.34%) Verilog
Operating Systems
1 26 (6.97%) Linux
2 11 (2.95%) Unix
3 4 (1.07%) Android
4 3 (0.80%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.80%) Windows
5 1 (0.27%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.27%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.27%) Solaris
5 1 (0.27%) VMS
5 1 (0.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (49.60%) Machine Learning
2 121 (32.44%) AI
3 105 (28.15%) Data Science
4 99 (26.54%) Problem-Solving
5 93 (24.93%) Computer Science
6 83 (22.25%) CI/CD
7 74 (19.84%) Software Engineering
8 72 (19.30%) Agile
9 67 (17.96%) Analytics
10 65 (17.43%) LLM
11 61 (16.35%) Data Pipeline
12 57 (15.28%) Mathematics
13 50 (13.40%) Statistics
14 49 (13.14%) Data Engineering
15 45 (12.06%) Deep Learning
16 44 (11.80%) Containerisation
17 43 (11.53%) Visualisation
18 42 (11.26%) Data Analysis
18 42 (11.26%) Test Automation
19 40 (10.72%) Natural Language Processing
Programming Languages
1 208 (55.76%) Python
2 73 (19.57%) SQL
3 62 (16.62%) Java
4 38 (10.19%) C++
5 29 (7.77%) MATLAB
6 25 (6.70%) C#
7 17 (4.56%) TypeScript
8 15 (4.02%) Ada
8 15 (4.02%) R
9 13 (3.49%) PowerShell
10 12 (3.22%) JavaScript
11 11 (2.95%) Bash
12 10 (2.68%) Kotlin
13 9 (2.41%) Go
14 5 (1.34%) C
14 5 (1.34%) Scala
14 5 (1.34%) SystemVerilog
14 5 (1.34%) Tcl
15 3 (0.80%) SPARQL
16 2 (0.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 88 (23.59%) Degree
2 49 (13.14%) Security Cleared
3 29 (7.77%) SC Cleared
4 26 (6.97%) Computer Science Degree
4 26 (6.97%) Master's Degree
5 17 (4.56%) PhD
6 14 (3.75%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 12 (3.22%) Numerate Degree
8 6 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (1.61%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.34%) GIAC
9 5 (1.34%) HNC
9 5 (1.34%) HND
10 4 (1.07%) CISM
10 4 (1.07%) CISSP
11 3 (0.80%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.80%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.54%) CCDP
12 2 (0.54%) CCIE
12 2 (0.54%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.02%) NIST
2 14 (3.75%) QA
3 12 (3.22%) EU AI Act
4 10 (2.68%) Data Quality
5 9 (2.41%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.34%) DO-254
7 4 (1.07%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.80%) SLA
9 2 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.54%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.54%) NCSC
9 2 (0.54%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.54%) RMADS
10 1 (0.27%) EMIR
10 1 (0.27%) GDPR
System Software
1 44 (11.80%) Docker
2 9 (2.41%) Firmware
3 1 (0.27%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.27%) Squid
Systems Management
1 34 (9.12%) Kubernetes
2 21 (5.63%) Terraform
3 10 (2.68%) Grafana
4 4 (1.07%) Ansible
5 3 (0.80%) Kibana
5 3 (0.80%) logstash
5 3 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.54%) ITRS Geneos
6 2 (0.54%) Kubeflow
6 2 (0.54%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.54%) rkt
7 1 (0.27%) Data Guard
7 1 (0.27%) HP Fortify
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle ZFS
Vendors
1 33 (8.85%) Microsoft
2 20 (5.36%) Databricks
3 14 (3.75%) Foundry
4 12 (3.22%) Google
5 9 (2.41%) IBM
5 9 (2.41%) Splunk
6 8 (2.14%) Xilinx
7 6 (1.61%) Thales
8 5 (1.34%) Actel
8 5 (1.34%) Altera
8 5 (1.34%) Intel
8 5 (1.34%) MathWorks
8 5 (1.34%) Microsemi
8 5 (1.34%) Oracle
8 5 (1.34%) SAP
8 5 (1.34%) Solace
9 4 (1.07%) AppDynamics
9 4 (1.07%) Bloomberg
9 4 (1.07%) ION Trading
9 4 (1.07%) TIBCO