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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 296 265 273
Rank change year-on-year -31 +8 +18
Contract jobs citing Algorithms 361 288 383
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.84% 0.98% 0.86%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.54% 2.90% 2.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 163 243
10th Percentile £335 £375 £407
25th Percentile £413 £450 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £590
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +1.69% -9.23%
75th Percentile £738 £675 £725
90th Percentile £1,050 £820 £862
UK excluding London median daily rate £461 £548 £563
% change year-on-year -15.80% -2.67% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 55
10th Percentile £48.40 £22.72 £40.80
25th Percentile £53.53 £32.06 £50.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £52.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.81% -4.55% +29.41%
75th Percentile - £73.13 £58.75
90th Percentile £66.00 £80.56 £66.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +44.44% -18.18% +29.41%

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 14,232 9,917 13,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.23% 33.66% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,946 6,231 8,642
10th Percentile £290 £278 £255
25th Percentile £408 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.71% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
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 670 349 871
10th Percentile £15.48 £16.95 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.27 £15.63
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +16.07% +24.53%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £84.00 £83.20 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.32 £31.76 £26.00
% change year-on-year +14.36% +22.15% +18.18%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -19 298 £550 -9.76% 387
London -4 168 £625 - 119
UK excluding London -74 146 £461 -15.80% 331
Work from Home -18 97 £683 +33.27% 103
South West -9 33 £500 -25.09% 56
East of England -20 30 £345 -46.92% 47
South East -52 27 £568 +13.50% 86
North of England -60 26 £514 -2.10% 58
Yorkshire -38 18 £675 - 19
Scotland +3 16 £402 -5.41% 19
North West -47 7 £180 -64.71% 30
West Midlands -57 7 £525 +41.89% 24
Midlands -63 7 £525 +153.01% 51
Wales -15 6 £400 -31.57% 12
Northern Ireland -1 2 - - 11
North East -13 1 £400 -36.00% 10

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 24 (6.65%) Apache Spark
2 14 (3.88%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (3.32%) Jupyter
4 11 (3.05%) Apache
5 2 (0.55%) Confluence
6 1 (0.28%) Apache Pig
6 1 (0.28%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 17 (4.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.22%) Chatbot
3 6 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.39%) Simulink
5 3 (0.83%) LaTeX
6 1 (0.28%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 4 (1.11%) Bloomberg AIM
1 4 (1.11%) Fidessa
2 3 (0.83%) ProductWriter
3 1 (0.28%) Actimize
3 1 (0.28%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 86 (23.82%) AWS
2 82 (22.71%) Azure
3 34 (9.42%) GCP
4 26 (7.20%) Power Platform
5 24 (6.65%) Serverless
6 23 (6.37%) Cloud Computing
6 23 (6.37%) GitHub
7 18 (4.99%) Amazon SageMaker
8 15 (4.16%) AWS Lambda
9 14 (3.88%) Amazon ECS
10 12 (3.32%) Amazon S3
10 12 (3.32%) Azure AKS
10 12 (3.32%) GitHub Copilot
10 12 (3.32%) PaaS
11 11 (3.05%) Snowflake
12 10 (2.77%) Amazon EKS
13 9 (2.49%) Azure Functions
13 9 (2.49%) Dagster
13 9 (2.49%) Vertex AI
14 8 (2.22%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.39%) Ethernet
1 5 (1.39%) VPN
2 4 (1.11%) Internet
2 4 (1.11%) S/MIME
3 3 (0.83%) Network Security
4 2 (0.55%) 2G
4 2 (0.55%) 5G
4 2 (0.55%) BGP
4 2 (0.55%) BIG-IP
4 2 (0.55%) Ethernet VPN
4 2 (0.55%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 2 (0.55%) Firewall
4 2 (0.55%) HTTP
4 2 (0.55%) IPsec
4 2 (0.55%) LTE
4 2 (0.55%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.55%) MPLS
4 2 (0.55%) OSPF
4 2 (0.55%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.55%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (6.65%) Power BI
2 18 (4.99%) Big Data
3 17 (4.71%) NoSQL
4 16 (4.43%) Tableau
5 14 (3.88%) Hadoop
5 14 (3.88%) Relational Database
6 13 (3.60%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (2.77%) KDB
7 10 (2.77%) Kdb+
8 8 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (1.94%) Data Lake
10 5 (1.39%) MySQL
10 5 (1.39%) RDBMS
10 5 (1.39%) SQL Server
11 4 (1.11%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.83%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.83%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.83%) Pinecone
12 3 (0.83%) Weaviate
13 2 (0.55%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 39 (10.80%) Git
2 12 (3.32%) MLflow
3 9 (2.49%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.94%) GitLab
5 5 (1.39%) PyCharm
6 3 (0.83%) QUnit
6 3 (0.83%) TeamCity
6 3 (0.83%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.55%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.55%) GoCD
7 2 (0.55%) Gradle
7 2 (0.55%) JIRA
7 2 (0.55%) JUnit
7 2 (0.55%) Maven
7 2 (0.55%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.28%) Hardhat
8 1 (0.28%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.28%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.28%) webpack
General
1 103 (28.53%) Social Skills
2 58 (16.07%) Analytical Skills
2 58 (16.07%) Finance
3 35 (9.70%) Front Office
4 31 (8.59%) Banking
5 19 (5.26%) Public Sector
6 9 (2.49%) Retail
7 8 (2.22%) Aerospace
7 8 (2.22%) Electronics
8 7 (1.94%) Investment Banking
8 7 (1.94%) Marketing
9 6 (1.66%) Manufacturing
9 6 (1.66%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.39%) Games
10 5 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.39%) Law
10 5 (1.39%) Legal
10 5 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 102 (28.25%) Developer
2 61 (16.90%) Senior
3 47 (13.02%) Data Scientist
4 42 (11.63%) Software Engineer
5 29 (8.03%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 25 (6.93%) Lead
6 25 (6.93%) Python Developer
7 23 (6.37%) Senior Developer
8 22 (6.09%) Algorithm Engineer
9 21 (5.82%) Quantitative Developer
10 20 (5.54%) C++ Developer
11 18 (4.99%) Architect
12 16 (4.43%) Java Developer
13 12 (3.32%) C++ Quantitative Developer
13 12 (3.32%) Data Engineer
13 12 (3.32%) Linux Developer
13 12 (3.32%) Low Latency C++ Developer
14 11 (3.05%) Gen AI Engineer
15 9 (2.49%) Machine Learning Engineer
15 9 (2.49%) Robotics Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (17.45%) TensorFlow
2 60 (16.62%) PyTorch
3 40 (11.08%) scikit-learn
4 38 (10.53%) Pandas
5 32 (8.86%) NumPy
6 19 (5.26%) .NET
7 17 (4.71%) FIX Protocol
8 15 (4.16%) Model Context Protocol
8 15 (4.16%) RESTful
9 13 (3.60%) A2A Protocol
9 13 (3.60%) PySpark
9 13 (3.60%) React
9 13 (3.60%) REST
9 13 (3.60%) Semantic Kernel
10 12 (3.32%) Matplotlib
11 10 (2.77%) Kafka
11 10 (2.77%) Seaborn
12 9 (2.49%) XGBoost
13 8 (2.22%) FastAPI
13 8 (2.22%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 69 (19.11%) Data Structures
2 29 (8.03%) Equities
3 23 (6.37%) Cloud Native
3 23 (6.37%) Distributed Systems
4 21 (5.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 19 (5.26%) Derivative
6 16 (4.43%) Fixed Income
7 14 (3.88%) Robotics
8 11 (3.05%) Equity Derivative
9 10 (2.77%) Product Ownership
10 9 (2.49%) PKI
11 8 (2.22%) Clustering
11 8 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (2.22%) Distributed Computing
12 7 (1.94%) FPGA
13 6 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (1.66%) Mobile App
13 6 (1.66%) Onboarding
14 5 (1.39%) Greenfield Project
14 5 (1.39%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 25 (6.93%) Linux
2 11 (3.05%) Unix
3 4 (1.11%) Android
4 3 (0.83%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.83%) Windows
5 1 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.28%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.28%) Solaris
5 1 (0.28%) VMS
5 1 (0.28%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 177 (49.03%) Machine Learning
2 116 (32.13%) AI
3 101 (27.98%) Data Science
4 98 (27.15%) Computer Science
5 93 (25.76%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (22.44%) CI/CD
7 72 (19.94%) Software Engineering
8 67 (18.56%) Agile
8 67 (18.56%) Analytics
9 61 (16.90%) Data Pipeline
9 61 (16.90%) LLM
10 56 (15.51%) Mathematics
11 53 (14.68%) Statistics
12 51 (14.13%) Data Engineering
13 42 (11.63%) Data Analysis
13 42 (11.63%) Test Automation
13 42 (11.63%) Visualisation
14 41 (11.36%) Containerisation
14 41 (11.36%) Deep Learning
15 39 (10.80%) Natural Language Processing
Programming Languages
1 205 (56.79%) Python
2 70 (19.39%) SQL
3 55 (15.24%) Java
4 37 (10.25%) C++
5 28 (7.76%) MATLAB
6 23 (6.37%) C#
7 17 (4.71%) R
8 16 (4.43%) Ada
8 16 (4.43%) TypeScript
9 12 (3.32%) JavaScript
9 12 (3.32%) PowerShell
10 11 (3.05%) Bash
11 10 (2.77%) Kotlin
12 9 (2.49%) Go
13 5 (1.39%) C
13 5 (1.39%) SystemVerilog
13 5 (1.39%) Tcl
14 4 (1.11%) Scala
15 3 (0.83%) SPARQL
16 2 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 92 (25.48%) Degree
2 47 (13.02%) Security Cleared
3 29 (8.03%) Computer Science Degree
4 27 (7.48%) SC Cleared
5 26 (7.20%) Master's Degree
6 15 (4.16%) PhD
7 14 (3.88%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 13 (3.60%) Numerate Degree
9 7 (1.94%) DBS Check
10 6 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.66%) DV Cleared
11 5 (1.39%) GIAC
11 5 (1.39%) HNC
11 5 (1.39%) HND
12 4 (1.11%) CISM
12 4 (1.11%) CISSP
13 3 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (0.55%) CCDP
14 2 (0.55%) CCIE
14 2 (0.55%) CESG Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.16%) NIST
2 14 (3.88%) QA
3 12 (3.32%) EU AI Act
4 10 (2.77%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.66%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.39%) DO-254
7 4 (1.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (1.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.83%) SLA
9 2 (0.55%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.55%) NCSC
9 2 (0.55%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.55%) RMADS
10 1 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.28%) GDPR
System Software
1 44 (12.19%) Docker
2 9 (2.49%) Firmware
3 1 (0.28%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.28%) Squid
Systems Management
1 29 (8.03%) Kubernetes
2 21 (5.82%) Terraform
3 8 (2.22%) Grafana
4 4 (1.11%) Ansible
5 3 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.55%) Kibana
6 2 (0.55%) Kubeflow
6 2 (0.55%) logstash
6 2 (0.55%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.55%) rkt
7 1 (0.28%) Data Guard
7 1 (0.28%) HP Fortify
7 1 (0.28%) ITRS Geneos
7 1 (0.28%) Oracle ZFS
Vendors
1 31 (8.59%) Microsoft
2 23 (6.37%) Databricks
3 14 (3.88%) Foundry
4 13 (3.60%) Google
5 10 (2.77%) IBM
6 7 (1.94%) Splunk
7 6 (1.66%) MathWorks
7 6 (1.66%) Thales
7 6 (1.66%) Xilinx
8 5 (1.39%) Actel
8 5 (1.39%) Altera
8 5 (1.39%) Intel
8 5 (1.39%) Microsemi
8 5 (1.39%) SAP
9 4 (1.11%) AppDynamics
9 4 (1.11%) Bloomberg
9 4 (1.11%) Charles River
9 4 (1.11%) ION Trading
9 4 (1.11%) Oracle
9 4 (1.11%) Solace