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 3 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 295 255 278
Rank change year-on-year -40 +23 +30
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 343 320 367
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.89% 1.04% 0.81%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.61% 3.17% 2.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 185 243
10th Percentile £347 £377 £400
25th Percentile £445 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £565 £609 £575
Median % change year-on-year -7.22% +5.91% -17.86%
75th Percentile £744 £676 £701
90th Percentile £1,050 £820 £848
UK excluding London median daily rate £508 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -7.73% -4.35% -14.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 16 41
10th Percentile £45.53 £24.04 £41.25
25th Percentile £61.56 £29.06 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.44% -18.18% -3.27%
75th Percentile - £59.38 £58.75
90th Percentile £74.73 £73.13 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £42.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +52.94% -22.73% -3.27%

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 13,147 10,079 13,850
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.95% 32.65% 30.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,318 5,964 9,014
10th Percentile £275 £263 £253
25th Percentile £403 £406 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £656 £650
90th Percentile £738 £767 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 627 309 806
10th Percentile £15.13 £19.94 £13.17
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.15 £16.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £32.22
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +8.64% +43.28%
75th Percentile £63.53 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.05 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.55 £32.50 £33.36
% change year-on-year -12.17% -2.56% +57.82%

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 3 February 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 3 February 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 3 February 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 -28 296 £575 -8.08% 328
London 0 168 £650 +3.59% 148
UK excluding London -51 143 £508 -7.73% 245
Work from Home -31 80 £605 +21.00% 116
North of England -47 34 £575 +16.16% 45
East of England -11 27 £345 -45.88% 30
Yorkshire -25 27 £675 - 13
South West -15 26 £500 -25.09% 39
South East -22 22 £593 +14.22% 83
Scotland +4 19 £418 -1.76% 17
West Midlands -28 13 £532 +41.87% 9
Midlands -49 13 £532 +41.87% 25
North West -45 6 £180 -63.64% 24
Wales -9 3 £400 -31.57% 10
Northern Ireland -4 1 - - 3
North East -13 1 £400 -36.00% 8

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 19 (5.54%) Apache Spark
2 15 (4.37%) Apache
3 13 (3.79%) Jupyter
4 9 (2.62%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (2.33%) Apache Pig
6 4 (1.17%) Confluence
7 3 (0.87%) IIS
Applications
1 17 (4.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.33%) Chatbot
3 6 (1.75%) Simulink
4 4 (1.17%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.87%) LaTeX
5 3 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.87%) ProductWriter
2 2 (0.58%) Bloomberg AIM
2 2 (0.58%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.29%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 69 (20.12%) AWS
1 69 (20.12%) Azure
2 31 (9.04%) Power Platform
3 26 (7.58%) GCP
4 22 (6.41%) GitHub
4 22 (6.41%) Serverless
5 19 (5.54%) Cloud Computing
6 18 (5.25%) Amazon SageMaker
7 13 (3.79%) Amazon S3
7 13 (3.79%) AWS Lambda
7 13 (3.79%) Azure AKS
8 12 (3.50%) GitHub Copilot
8 12 (3.50%) PaaS
9 10 (2.92%) Amazon ECS
9 10 (2.92%) Amazon EKS
10 9 (2.62%) Azure Functions
11 8 (2.33%) AWS CloudFormation
11 8 (2.33%) Azure Machine Learning
11 8 (2.33%) Vertex AI
12 7 (2.04%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.46%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.46%) VPN
2 4 (1.17%) HTTP
2 4 (1.17%) Internet
2 4 (1.17%) S/MIME
3 3 (0.87%) Network Security
3 3 (0.87%) SSL
4 2 (0.58%) 5G
4 2 (0.58%) Ethernet VPN
4 2 (0.58%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 2 (0.58%) LAN
4 2 (0.58%) LTE
4 2 (0.58%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.58%) MPLS
4 2 (0.58%) OSPF
4 2 (0.58%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.58%) SNMP
4 2 (0.58%) VoIP
4 2 (0.58%) VXLAN
4 2 (0.58%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (8.45%) Power BI
2 21 (6.12%) NoSQL
3 18 (5.25%) Hadoop
4 15 (4.37%) Relational Database
5 14 (4.08%) KDB
5 14 (4.08%) Kdb+
6 13 (3.79%) Big Data
6 13 (3.79%) Tableau
7 11 (3.21%) Data Mining
8 10 (2.92%) PostgreSQL
9 9 (2.62%) Apache Hive
10 7 (2.04%) Data Lake
10 7 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
10 7 (2.04%) Elasticsearch
10 7 (2.04%) RDBMS
11 5 (1.46%) MySQL
12 3 (0.87%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.87%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.87%) OLTP
13 2 (0.58%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 29 (8.45%) Git
2 11 (3.21%) Jenkins
2 11 (3.21%) MLflow
3 8 (2.33%) GitLab
4 5 (1.46%) Maven
4 5 (1.46%) PyCharm
4 5 (1.46%) QUnit
5 4 (1.17%) Gradle
5 4 (1.17%) JIRA
5 4 (1.17%) JUnit
6 3 (0.87%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.58%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.58%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.58%) GoCD
7 2 (0.58%) IntelliJ
7 2 (0.58%) Log4j
7 2 (0.58%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.58%) Subversion
7 2 (0.58%) TeamCity
General
1 93 (27.11%) Social Skills
2 65 (18.95%) Finance
3 46 (13.41%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (11.66%) Front Office
5 32 (9.33%) Banking
6 18 (5.25%) Public Sector
7 8 (2.33%) Investment Banking
7 8 (2.33%) Retail
8 7 (2.04%) Electronics
9 6 (1.75%) Legal
9 6 (1.75%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.46%) Games
10 5 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.46%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.17%) Aerospace
11 4 (1.17%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.17%) Marketing
11 4 (1.17%) Publishing
12 3 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.87%) Law
Job Titles
1 99 (28.86%) Developer
2 45 (13.12%) Data Scientist
3 44 (12.83%) Senior
4 37 (10.79%) Software Engineer
5 27 (7.87%) Lead
6 26 (7.58%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 22 (6.41%) Python Developer
8 21 (6.12%) Quantitative Developer
9 20 (5.83%) C++ Developer
9 20 (5.83%) Data Engineer
10 19 (5.54%) Java Developer
10 19 (5.54%) Senior Developer
11 16 (4.66%) Algorithm Engineer
12 14 (4.08%) Architect
13 12 (3.50%) C++ Quantitative Developer
13 12 (3.50%) Linux Developer
13 12 (3.50%) Low Latency C++ Developer
14 11 (3.21%) Analyst
14 11 (3.21%) Machine Learning Engineer
15 9 (2.62%) Robotics Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (13.99%) PyTorch
1 48 (13.99%) TensorFlow
2 37 (10.79%) Pandas
3 35 (10.20%) scikit-learn
4 31 (9.04%) NumPy
5 22 (6.41%) FIX Protocol
6 16 (4.66%) RESTful
7 14 (4.08%) .NET
7 14 (4.08%) Model Context Protocol
7 14 (4.08%) REST
8 13 (3.79%) A2A Protocol
8 13 (3.79%) Semantic Kernel
9 11 (3.21%) Matplotlib
9 11 (3.21%) PySpark
10 10 (2.92%) React
10 10 (2.92%) SQLAlchemy
10 10 (2.92%) XGBoost
11 9 (2.62%) FastAPI
11 9 (2.62%) Hugging Face
12 8 (2.33%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 66 (19.24%) Data Structures
2 27 (7.87%) Equities
3 24 (7.00%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (6.71%) Cloud Native
5 22 (6.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 20 (5.83%) Derivative
7 19 (5.54%) Fixed Income
8 13 (3.79%) Robotics
9 11 (3.21%) Equity Derivative
9 11 (3.21%) FPGA
9 11 (3.21%) PKI
10 10 (2.92%) Distributed Computing
10 10 (2.92%) Product Ownership
11 9 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (2.33%) Clustering
13 6 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (1.75%) VHDL
14 5 (1.46%) Mobile App
14 5 (1.46%) Onboarding
14 5 (1.46%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 30 (8.75%) Linux
2 13 (3.79%) Unix
3 3 (0.87%) Android
3 3 (0.87%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.87%) Windows
4 2 (0.58%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.29%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.29%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (49.27%) Machine Learning
2 102 (29.74%) AI
3 98 (28.57%) Data Science
4 83 (24.20%) Computer Science
5 81 (23.62%) Problem-Solving
6 69 (20.12%) Agile
7 64 (18.66%) CI/CD
8 62 (18.08%) Software Engineering
9 58 (16.91%) LLM
10 57 (16.62%) Analytics
10 57 (16.62%) Mathematics
11 55 (16.03%) Data Pipeline
12 48 (13.99%) Statistics
13 45 (13.12%) Deep Learning
13 45 (13.12%) Visualisation
14 42 (12.24%) Data Engineering
15 38 (11.08%) Data Analysis
15 38 (11.08%) Natural Language Processing
16 37 (10.79%) Decision-Making
17 36 (10.50%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 195 (56.85%) Python
2 70 (20.41%) SQL
3 64 (18.66%) Java
4 41 (11.95%) C++
5 28 (8.16%) MATLAB
6 21 (6.12%) C#
7 16 (4.66%) PowerShell
8 15 (4.37%) Scala
9 13 (3.79%) TypeScript
10 12 (3.50%) Bash
11 11 (3.21%) Ada
11 11 (3.21%) R
12 9 (2.62%) JavaScript
13 5 (1.46%) SystemVerilog
13 5 (1.46%) Tcl
14 4 (1.17%) C
14 4 (1.17%) Go
15 3 (0.87%) Rust
16 2 (0.58%) Kotlin
16 2 (0.58%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 77 (22.45%) Degree
2 44 (12.83%) Security Cleared
3 28 (8.16%) SC Cleared
4 25 (7.29%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (6.41%) Master's Degree
6 13 (3.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 13 (3.79%) PhD
7 12 (3.50%) Numerate Degree
8 6 (1.75%) CISSP
8 6 (1.75%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.46%) GIAC
9 5 (1.46%) HNC
9 5 (1.46%) HND
10 4 (1.17%) CISM
11 3 (0.87%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.87%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.87%) Postgraduate
12 2 (0.58%) CEH
12 2 (0.58%) CESG Certified Professional
12 2 (0.58%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.66%) NIST
2 15 (4.37%) QA
3 12 (3.50%) EU AI Act
4 9 (2.62%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.75%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.46%) DO-254
7 4 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (1.17%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.87%) SLA
9 2 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.58%) EMIR
9 2 (0.58%) FIPS 140-2
9 2 (0.58%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.58%) NCSC
9 2 (0.58%) RMADS
10 1 (0.29%) GDPR
System Software
1 34 (9.91%) Docker
2 8 (2.33%) Firmware
3 3 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.29%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.29%) Squid
Systems Management
1 32 (9.33%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.83%) Terraform
3 8 (2.33%) Grafana
4 5 (1.46%) Ansible
4 5 (1.46%) Kibana
4 5 (1.46%) logstash
5 4 (1.17%) ITRS Geneos
6 3 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.58%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.58%) rkt
8 1 (0.29%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.29%) HP Fortify
8 1 (0.29%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.29%) Oracle ZFS
8 1 (0.29%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 39 (11.37%) Microsoft
2 16 (4.66%) Databricks
3 15 (4.37%) Splunk
4 13 (3.79%) Foundry
5 11 (3.21%) Google
6 10 (2.92%) Xilinx
7 9 (2.62%) IBM
8 8 (2.33%) Thales
9 6 (1.75%) TIBCO
10 5 (1.46%) Actel
10 5 (1.46%) Altera
10 5 (1.46%) Intel
10 5 (1.46%) MathWorks
10 5 (1.46%) Microsemi
10 5 (1.46%) Oracle
10 5 (1.46%) Solace
11 4 (1.17%) SAP
12 3 (0.87%) Cognos
12 3 (0.87%) ION Trading
12 3 (0.87%) Sage