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 12 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 282 245 305
Rank change year-on-year -37 +60 +18
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 338 321 309
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.93% 1.02% 0.72%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.72% 3.16% 2.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 192 220
10th Percentile £335 £375 £400
25th Percentile £413 £436 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% -13.79%
75th Percentile £738 £676 £725
90th Percentile £1,050 £825 £851
UK excluding London median daily rate £504 £538 £590
% change year-on-year -6.33% -8.90% -12.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 18 15
10th Percentile £33.25 £24.57 £35.00
25th Percentile £57.39 £29.34 £42.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £51.25 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.83% -10.87% +1.13%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.13 £63.52
90th Percentile £78.05 £75.00 £70.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +36.84% +35.71% -38.45%

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 12,412 10,148 13,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.24% 32.20% 30.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,795 6,030 8,796
10th Percentile £281 £263 £263
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £535 £545
Median % change year-on-year -6.45% -1.83% -0.91%
75th Percentile £626 £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 611 312 555
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.13 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £23.30 £18.94
Median hourly rate £27.50 £33.77 £37.75
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% -10.54% +51.00%
75th Percentile £61.25 £64.56 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.75 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -15.38% -23.53% +102.38%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -26 292 £550 -10.20% 528
London -9 162 £650 +4.00% 149
UK excluding London -23 144 £504 -6.33% 453
Work from Home -38 73 £585 +23.16% 234
North of England -33 34 £550 +11.11% 75
East of England -9 30 £345 -43.67% 76
South East -7 26 £550 +6.02% 150
Yorkshire -15 26 £675 - 32
Scotland +2 18 £418 -1.76% 24
South West -21 18 £500 -25.09% 73
West Midlands -24 17 £538 +34.38% 10
Midlands -38 17 £538 +34.38% 45
North West -40 7 £180 -63.64% 32
Wales -4 3 - - 16
North East - 1 £400 - 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 18 (5.33%) Apache Spark
2 15 (4.44%) Apache
3 12 (3.55%) 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 (4.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.37%) Chatbot
3 6 (1.78%) Simulink
4 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.59%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 3 (0.89%) ProductWriter
2 1 (0.30%) Actimize
2 1 (0.30%) Bloomberg AIM
2 1 (0.30%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 72 (21.30%) Azure
2 66 (19.53%) AWS
3 31 (9.17%) Power Platform
4 29 (8.58%) GCP
5 20 (5.92%) Serverless
6 19 (5.62%) GitHub
7 17 (5.03%) Cloud Computing
8 15 (4.44%) Amazon SageMaker
9 13 (3.85%) Azure AKS
10 12 (3.55%) GitHub Copilot
10 12 (3.55%) PaaS
11 11 (3.25%) Amazon S3
11 11 (3.25%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (2.66%) Azure Functions
13 8 (2.37%) Amazon ECS
13 8 (2.37%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (2.37%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (2.37%) Azure Machine Learning
13 8 (2.37%) Snowflake
14 7 (2.07%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.48%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.48%) VPN
2 4 (1.18%) Internet
2 4 (1.18%) S/MIME
2 4 (1.18%) SSL
3 3 (0.89%) HTTP
4 2 (0.59%) 2G
4 2 (0.59%) 5G
4 2 (0.59%) LTE
4 2 (0.59%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.59%) Network Security
4 2 (0.59%) SNMP
4 2 (0.59%) SSH
4 2 (0.59%) VoIP
4 2 (0.59%) Wireless
5 1 (0.30%) Ethernet VPN
5 1 (0.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 1 (0.30%) FIX Connectivity
5 1 (0.30%) IPsec
5 1 (0.30%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (8.58%) Power BI
2 21 (6.21%) NoSQL
3 19 (5.62%) Hadoop
4 18 (5.33%) Relational Database
5 15 (4.44%) KDB
5 15 (4.44%) Tableau
6 14 (4.14%) Kdb+
7 13 (3.85%) Big Data
8 11 (3.25%) Data Mining
9 10 (2.96%) PostgreSQL
10 9 (2.66%) Apache Hive
11 8 (2.37%) Data Lake
12 7 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
12 7 (2.07%) Elasticsearch
12 7 (2.07%) RDBMS
13 5 (1.48%) MySQL
14 4 (1.18%) DB2
14 4 (1.18%) MemSQL
14 4 (1.18%) MongoDB
14 4 (1.18%) Sybase IQ
Development Applications
1 26 (7.69%) Git
2 11 (3.25%) Jenkins
3 10 (2.96%) GitLab
4 9 (2.66%) JIRA
5 8 (2.37%) MLflow
6 5 (1.48%) PyCharm
6 5 (1.48%) QUnit
6 5 (1.48%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.89%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.89%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.89%) Gradle
7 3 (0.89%) JUnit
7 3 (0.89%) Maven
8 2 (0.59%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.59%) GoCD
8 2 (0.59%) Log4j
8 2 (0.59%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.59%) Subversion
8 2 (0.59%) TeamCity
General
1 100 (29.59%) Social Skills
2 66 (19.53%) Finance
3 49 (14.50%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (11.24%) Front Office
5 30 (8.88%) Banking
6 17 (5.03%) Public Sector
7 9 (2.66%) Investment Banking
8 8 (2.37%) Legal
8 8 (2.37%) Manufacturing
8 8 (2.37%) Retail
9 7 (2.07%) Electronics
10 5 (1.48%) Games
10 5 (1.48%) Marketing
10 5 (1.48%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.18%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.18%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.18%) Publishing
12 3 (0.89%) Law
13 2 (0.59%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 100 (29.59%) Developer
2 43 (12.72%) Data Scientist
3 42 (12.43%) Senior
4 30 (8.88%) Software Engineer
5 28 (8.28%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 25 (7.40%) Lead
7 20 (5.92%) Java Developer
7 20 (5.92%) Python Developer
8 19 (5.62%) C++ Developer
8 19 (5.62%) Data Engineer
8 19 (5.62%) Quantitative Developer
8 19 (5.62%) Senior Developer
9 13 (3.85%) Analyst
9 13 (3.85%) Architect
10 11 (3.25%) C++ Quantitative Developer
10 11 (3.25%) Linux Developer
10 11 (3.25%) Low Latency C++ Developer
10 11 (3.25%) Machine Learning Engineer
11 9 (2.66%) Gen AI Engineer
11 9 (2.66%) Robotics Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (13.31%) TensorFlow
2 43 (12.72%) PyTorch
3 36 (10.65%) Pandas
4 34 (10.06%) scikit-learn
5 28 (8.28%) NumPy
6 20 (5.92%) FIX Protocol
7 16 (4.73%) RESTful
8 15 (4.44%) .NET
9 13 (3.85%) Semantic Kernel
10 12 (3.55%) React
11 11 (3.25%) Matplotlib
11 11 (3.25%) REST
12 10 (2.96%) XGBoost
13 9 (2.66%) PySpark
13 9 (2.66%) SQLAlchemy
14 8 (2.37%) FastAPI
14 8 (2.37%) HTML
14 8 (2.37%) XML
15 7 (2.07%) CSS
15 7 (2.07%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 69 (20.41%) Data Structures
2 25 (7.40%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (7.10%) Equities
4 22 (6.51%) Cloud Native
4 22 (6.51%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 19 (5.62%) Derivative
5 19 (5.62%) Fixed Income
6 14 (4.14%) PKI
7 12 (3.55%) Product Ownership
7 12 (3.55%) Robotics
8 11 (3.25%) Distributed Computing
8 11 (3.25%) Equity Derivative
9 10 (2.96%) FPGA
10 8 (2.37%) Clustering
10 8 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (1.78%) Analytical Mindset
12 5 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (1.48%) Mobile App
12 5 (1.48%) Onboarding
12 5 (1.48%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 30 (8.88%) Linux
2 13 (3.85%) 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%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.30%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (48.22%) Machine Learning
2 95 (28.11%) Data Science
3 94 (27.81%) AI
4 87 (25.74%) Computer Science
5 84 (24.85%) Problem-Solving
6 77 (22.78%) Agile
7 58 (17.16%) Analytics
7 58 (17.16%) CI/CD
7 58 (17.16%) LLM
7 58 (17.16%) Software Engineering
8 56 (16.57%) Mathematics
9 50 (14.79%) Data Pipeline
10 48 (14.20%) Visualisation
11 46 (13.61%) Statistics
12 45 (13.31%) Decision-Making
13 44 (13.02%) Data Engineering
14 39 (11.54%) Deep Learning
15 37 (10.95%) Data Visualisation
16 34 (10.06%) Natural Language Processing
17 33 (9.76%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 191 (56.51%) Python
2 66 (19.53%) SQL
3 62 (18.34%) Java
4 41 (12.13%) C++
5 23 (6.80%) C#
6 20 (5.92%) MATLAB
7 17 (5.03%) PowerShell
8 16 (4.73%) Scala
8 16 (4.73%) TypeScript
9 14 (4.14%) Bash
10 13 (3.85%) R
11 11 (3.25%) JavaScript
12 5 (1.48%) Ada
12 5 (1.48%) SystemVerilog
12 5 (1.48%) Tcl
13 4 (1.18%) Go
13 4 (1.18%) Rust
14 2 (0.59%) Kotlin
14 2 (0.59%) Perl
14 2 (0.59%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 81 (23.96%) Degree
2 40 (11.83%) Security Cleared
3 27 (7.99%) Computer Science Degree
4 24 (7.10%) Master's Degree
4 24 (7.10%) SC Cleared
5 13 (3.85%) MCP
6 12 (3.55%) Numerate Degree
6 12 (3.55%) PhD
7 7 (2.07%) CISSP
8 5 (1.48%) CISM
8 5 (1.48%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.48%) GIAC
8 5 (1.48%) HNC
8 5 (1.48%) HND
9 4 (1.18%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.89%) Postgraduate
11 2 (0.59%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.59%) CEH
11 2 (0.59%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (5.33%) NIST
2 14 (4.14%) QA
3 12 (3.55%) EU AI Act
4 10 (2.96%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.37%) PCI DSS
6 7 (2.07%) Accessibility
7 5 (1.48%) DO-254
7 5 (1.48%) FIPS 140-2
8 4 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.89%) GDPR
9 3 (0.89%) SLA
10 2 (0.59%) EMIR
11 1 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.30%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.30%) NCSC
11 1 (0.30%) RMADS
11 1 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 31 (9.17%) 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 32 (9.47%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.92%) Terraform
3 7 (2.07%) Ansible
4 6 (1.78%) Grafana
5 5 (1.48%) Kibana
5 5 (1.48%) logstash
6 4 (1.18%) ITRS Geneos
7 3 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.59%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.59%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.59%) rkt
9 1 (0.30%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.30%) Oracle ZFS
9 1 (0.30%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 39 (11.54%) Microsoft
2 16 (4.73%) Databricks
3 14 (4.14%) Splunk
4 13 (3.85%) Foundry
5 11 (3.25%) Google
6 10 (2.96%) Xilinx
7 9 (2.66%) Thales
8 7 (2.07%) TIBCO
9 6 (1.78%) IBM
9 6 (1.78%) Intel
10 5 (1.48%) Actel
10 5 (1.48%) Altera
10 5 (1.48%) Microsemi
10 5 (1.48%) Solace
11 4 (1.18%) MathWorks
11 4 (1.18%) Oracle
11 4 (1.18%) SAP
12 3 (0.89%) Delphix
12 3 (0.89%) ION Trading
13 2 (0.59%) Dataiku