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

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 290 249 272
Rank change year-on-year -41 +23 +37
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 357 319 363
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.91% 1.02% 0.81%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.68% 3.13% 2.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 180 242
10th Percentile £350 £375 £400
25th Percentile £449 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £567 £609 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.90% +5.91% -17.86%
75th Percentile £750 £676 £700
90th Percentile £1,050 £814 £836
UK excluding London median daily rate £508 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -7.73% -4.35% -14.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 16 41
10th Percentile £46.80 £24.04 £41.25
25th Percentile £53.53 £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 £74.01 £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 13,307 10,190 13,748
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.98% 32.70% 30.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,413 6,056 8,949
10th Percentile £275 £263 £255
25th Percentile £403 £406 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £527
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.28% -4.27%
75th Percentile £625 £656 £650
90th Percentile £738 £769 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 638 308 807
10th Percentile £15.15 £19.93 £13.17
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.06 £16.75
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.00 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year -17.14% +8.98% +44.05%
75th Percentile £63.08 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -10.77% - +54.73%

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 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 6 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 6 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 -14 303 £580 -7.20% 336
London -2 175 £675 +8.00% 140
UK excluding London -57 147 £508 -7.73% 264
Work from Home -40 87 £650 +26.83% 130
North of England -42 34 £575 +16.16% 43
East of England -19 27 £345 -46.92% 27
Yorkshire -31 27 £675 - 14
South West -13 26 £500 -25.09% 46
South East -26 22 £593 +14.22% 88
Scotland +4 20 £418 -1.76% 21
West Midlands -35 13 £532 +41.87% 13
Midlands -47 13 £532 +41.87% 31
Wales -10 6 £400 -31.57% 12
North West -40 6 £180 -63.64% 22
Northern Ireland -5 1 - - 3
North East -13 1 £400 -36.00% 7

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 20 (5.60%) Apache Spark
2 16 (4.48%) Apache
3 13 (3.64%) Jupyter
4 10 (2.80%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (2.24%) Apache Pig
6 4 (1.12%) Confluence
7 3 (0.84%) IIS
Applications
1 17 (4.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.24%) Chatbot
3 6 (1.68%) Simulink
4 4 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.84%) LaTeX
5 3 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (1.12%) ProductWriter
2 3 (0.84%) Bloomberg AIM
2 3 (0.84%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.28%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 76 (21.29%) AWS
2 72 (20.17%) Azure
3 31 (8.68%) Power Platform
4 26 (7.28%) GCP
5 24 (6.72%) Serverless
6 22 (6.16%) GitHub
7 19 (5.32%) Cloud Computing
8 18 (5.04%) Amazon SageMaker
9 15 (4.20%) AWS Lambda
10 14 (3.92%) Amazon S3
11 13 (3.64%) Amazon ECS
11 13 (3.64%) Azure AKS
12 12 (3.36%) GitHub Copilot
12 12 (3.36%) PaaS
13 11 (3.08%) Amazon EKS
14 9 (2.52%) Azure Functions
15 8 (2.24%) AWS CloudFormation
15 8 (2.24%) Azure Machine Learning
15 8 (2.24%) Vertex AI
16 7 (1.96%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.40%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.40%) VPN
2 4 (1.12%) HTTP
2 4 (1.12%) Internet
2 4 (1.12%) S/MIME
3 3 (0.84%) Network Security
3 3 (0.84%) SSL
4 2 (0.56%) 5G
4 2 (0.56%) BGP
4 2 (0.56%) Ethernet VPN
4 2 (0.56%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 2 (0.56%) Firewall
4 2 (0.56%) LTE
4 2 (0.56%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.56%) MPLS
4 2 (0.56%) OSPF
4 2 (0.56%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.56%) SNMP
4 2 (0.56%) VXLAN
4 2 (0.56%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (8.12%) Power BI
2 21 (5.88%) NoSQL
3 19 (5.32%) Hadoop
4 15 (4.20%) Relational Database
5 14 (3.92%) Big Data
5 14 (3.92%) KDB
5 14 (3.92%) Kdb+
6 13 (3.64%) Tableau
7 11 (3.08%) Data Mining
7 11 (3.08%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (2.52%) Apache Hive
9 7 (1.96%) Data Lake
9 7 (1.96%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (1.96%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (1.96%) RDBMS
10 5 (1.40%) MySQL
11 3 (0.84%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.84%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.84%) OLTP
11 3 (0.84%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (8.40%) Git
2 12 (3.36%) Jenkins
3 11 (3.08%) MLflow
4 8 (2.24%) GitLab
5 5 (1.40%) Maven
5 5 (1.40%) PyCharm
5 5 (1.40%) QUnit
6 4 (1.12%) Gradle
6 4 (1.12%) JIRA
6 4 (1.12%) JUnit
7 3 (0.84%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.56%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.56%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.56%) GoCD
8 2 (0.56%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.56%) Log4j
8 2 (0.56%) Mockito
8 2 (0.56%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.56%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.56%) Subversion
General
1 98 (27.45%) Social Skills
2 67 (18.77%) Finance
3 51 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (11.76%) Front Office
5 34 (9.52%) Banking
6 20 (5.60%) Public Sector
7 9 (2.52%) Investment Banking
8 8 (2.24%) Retail
9 7 (1.96%) Electronics
10 6 (1.68%) Legal
10 6 (1.68%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.40%) Aerospace
11 5 (1.40%) Games
11 5 (1.40%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.40%) Marketing
12 4 (1.12%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.12%) Law
12 4 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (1.12%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 104 (29.13%) Developer
2 52 (14.57%) Senior
3 47 (13.17%) Data Scientist
4 37 (10.36%) Software Engineer
5 27 (7.56%) Lead
6 25 (7.00%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 22 (6.16%) Python Developer
7 22 (6.16%) Senior Developer
8 21 (5.88%) Data Engineer
8 21 (5.88%) Quantitative Developer
9 20 (5.60%) C++ Developer
9 20 (5.60%) Java Developer
10 16 (4.48%) Algorithm Engineer
11 14 (3.92%) Architect
12 13 (3.64%) Analyst
13 12 (3.36%) C++ Quantitative Developer
13 12 (3.36%) Linux Developer
13 12 (3.36%) Low Latency C++ Developer
14 11 (3.08%) Machine Learning Engineer
15 9 (2.52%) Robotics Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (13.73%) PyTorch
1 49 (13.73%) TensorFlow
2 38 (10.64%) Pandas
3 35 (9.80%) scikit-learn
4 32 (8.96%) NumPy
5 23 (6.44%) FIX Protocol
6 16 (4.48%) RESTful
7 15 (4.20%) .NET
7 15 (4.20%) REST
8 14 (3.92%) Model Context Protocol
9 13 (3.64%) A2A Protocol
9 13 (3.64%) Semantic Kernel
10 12 (3.36%) React
11 11 (3.08%) Kafka
11 11 (3.08%) Matplotlib
11 11 (3.08%) PySpark
12 10 (2.80%) SQLAlchemy
12 10 (2.80%) XGBoost
13 9 (2.52%) FastAPI
13 9 (2.52%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 69 (19.33%) Data Structures
2 28 (7.84%) Equities
3 27 (7.56%) Distributed Systems
4 24 (6.72%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 23 (6.44%) Cloud Native
6 20 (5.60%) Derivative
6 20 (5.60%) Fixed Income
7 13 (3.64%) Robotics
8 11 (3.08%) Equity Derivative
8 11 (3.08%) FPGA
8 11 (3.08%) PKI
9 10 (2.80%) Distributed Computing
9 10 (2.80%) Product Ownership
10 9 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (2.24%) Clustering
12 6 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (1.68%) Onboarding
12 6 (1.68%) VHDL
13 5 (1.40%) PCIe
13 5 (1.40%) Verilog
Operating Systems
1 30 (8.40%) Linux
2 13 (3.64%) Unix
3 3 (0.84%) Android
3 3 (0.84%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.84%) Windows
4 2 (0.56%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.28%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.28%) Solaris
5 1 (0.28%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 177 (49.58%) Machine Learning
2 108 (30.25%) AI
3 105 (29.41%) Data Science
4 87 (24.37%) Computer Science
5 86 (24.09%) Problem-Solving
6 71 (19.89%) CI/CD
7 69 (19.33%) Agile
8 64 (17.93%) Software Engineering
9 60 (16.81%) Analytics
10 59 (16.53%) Mathematics
11 57 (15.97%) LLM
12 56 (15.69%) Data Pipeline
13 49 (13.73%) Statistics
14 48 (13.45%) Visualisation
15 45 (12.61%) Deep Learning
16 42 (11.76%) Data Engineering
17 41 (11.48%) Data Analysis
18 39 (10.92%) Natural Language Processing
19 38 (10.64%) Decision-Making
20 37 (10.36%) Data Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 203 (56.86%) Python
2 74 (20.73%) SQL
3 70 (19.61%) Java
4 41 (11.48%) C++
5 28 (7.84%) MATLAB
6 21 (5.88%) C#
7 16 (4.48%) PowerShell
8 15 (4.20%) Scala
8 15 (4.20%) TypeScript
9 12 (3.36%) Bash
9 12 (3.36%) R
10 11 (3.08%) Ada
11 9 (2.52%) JavaScript
12 5 (1.40%) Kotlin
12 5 (1.40%) SystemVerilog
12 5 (1.40%) Tcl
13 4 (1.12%) C
13 4 (1.12%) Go
14 3 (0.84%) Rust
15 2 (0.56%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 80 (22.41%) Degree
2 46 (12.89%) Security Cleared
3 30 (8.40%) SC Cleared
4 25 (7.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (6.72%) Master's Degree
6 15 (4.20%) PhD
7 13 (3.64%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 12 (3.36%) Numerate Degree
9 6 (1.68%) CISSP
9 6 (1.68%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.40%) GIAC
10 5 (1.40%) HNC
10 5 (1.40%) HND
11 4 (1.12%) CISM
12 3 (0.84%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (0.84%) DBS Check
12 3 (0.84%) Postgraduate
13 2 (0.56%) CESG Certified Professional
13 2 (0.56%) CHECK Team Leader
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.48%) NIST
2 15 (4.20%) QA
3 12 (3.36%) EU AI Act
4 9 (2.52%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.24%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.40%) DO-254
7 4 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (1.12%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.84%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.84%) SLA
9 2 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.56%) EMIR
9 2 (0.56%) FIPS 140-2
9 2 (0.56%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.56%) NCSC
9 2 (0.56%) RMADS
10 1 (0.28%) GDPR
System Software
1 34 (9.52%) Docker
2 8 (2.24%) Firmware
3 3 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.28%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.28%) Squid
Systems Management
1 32 (8.96%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.60%) Terraform
3 9 (2.52%) Grafana
4 5 (1.40%) Ansible
4 5 (1.40%) Kibana
4 5 (1.40%) logstash
5 4 (1.12%) ITRS Geneos
6 3 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.56%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.56%) rkt
8 1 (0.28%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.28%) HP Fortify
8 1 (0.28%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle ZFS
8 1 (0.28%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 39 (10.92%) Microsoft
2 17 (4.76%) Databricks
3 16 (4.48%) Splunk
4 13 (3.64%) Foundry
5 11 (3.08%) Google
6 10 (2.80%) Xilinx
7 9 (2.52%) IBM
8 8 (2.24%) Thales
9 7 (1.96%) Solace
10 6 (1.68%) Oracle
10 6 (1.68%) TIBCO
11 5 (1.40%) Actel
11 5 (1.40%) Altera
11 5 (1.40%) Intel
11 5 (1.40%) MathWorks
11 5 (1.40%) Microsemi
12 4 (1.12%) ION Trading
12 4 (1.12%) SAP
13 3 (0.84%) Bloomberg
13 3 (0.84%) Cognos