API Design Contract Job Trends

API Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring API Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 316 380 498
Rank change year-on-year +64 +118 -1
Contract jobs citing API Design 295 161 99
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.80% 0.47% 0.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.91% 0.54% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 181 93 72
10th Percentile £334 £400 £439
25th Percentile £400 £463 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £575 £534
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +7.68% -15.24%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £628
90th Percentile £749 £775 £823
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £520
% change year-on-year -2.06% -6.73% -8.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 1
10th Percentile £61.15 - -
25th Percentile £63.63 £51.25 £64.25
Median hourly rate £109.00 £52.50 £65.50
Median % change year-on-year +107.62% -19.85% -
75th Percentile £119.00 £53.75 £66.75
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £119.00 - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

API Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 32,565 30,055 38,949
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.34% 88.19% 88.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,467 18,359 26,012
10th Percentile £300 £306 £307
25th Percentile £406 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £742 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.80% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,103 978 1,503
10th Percentile £14.55 £15.62 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.94
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -25.29% +24.29%
75th Percentile £49.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.02 £31.52 £44.50
% change year-on-year -26.98% -29.17% +42.58%

API Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing API Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

API Design job vacancy trend in the UK

API Design
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing API Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing API Design

API Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing API Design over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for API Design in the UK

API Design
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing API Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing API Design

API Design
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing API Design over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for API Design in the UK

API Design
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing API Design within the UK over the 6 months to 20 December 2025. 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 +40 247 £505 -12.17% 59
London +43 146 £575 -4.17% 19
UK excluding London +15 106 £475 -2.06% 51
Work from Home +45 92 £488 -7.14% 27
North of England -24 42 £463 -11.78% 26
North West +2 31 £402 -10.67% 17
Wales - 14 £456 -
Midlands -29 12 £358 -44.92% 7
East of England -12 11 £560 -25.33% 3
South West - 11 £600 - 2
South East -38 8 £513 +25.31% 12
Yorkshire -53 8 £475 -13.41% 7
Scotland +9 7 £543 -13.12% 2
West Midlands -27 7 £381 -41.35% 7
East Midlands - 5 £358 -
North East -5 4 £538 - 3
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

API Design
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 15 (5.08%) Confluence
2 14 (4.75%) Anypoint
3 10 (3.39%) Oracle Service Bus
3 10 (3.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 10 (3.39%) WebLogic
4 9 (3.05%) Mule
5 4 (1.36%) Apache
5 4 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (1.02%) CMS
6 3 (1.02%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.68%) Mule ESB
8 1 (0.34%) Documentum
8 1 (0.34%) Drupal
8 1 (0.34%) nginx
8 1 (0.34%) SharePoint
8 1 (0.34%) WordPress
Applications
1 4 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.36%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.34%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 10 (3.39%) Oracle BPM
2 4 (1.36%) Endur
3 3 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.68%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.34%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.34%) Maximo
5 1 (0.34%) TrackWise
Cloud Services
1 127 (43.05%) AWS
2 103 (34.92%) Azure
3 58 (19.66%) GitHub
4 51 (17.29%) GCP
5 47 (15.93%) Serverless
6 29 (9.83%) SaaS
7 26 (8.81%) AWS Lambda
8 24 (8.14%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (6.78%) Amazon ECS
9 20 (6.78%) Apigee
9 20 (6.78%) PaaS
10 18 (6.10%) Amazon EKS
10 18 (6.10%) Azure AKS
11 16 (5.42%) GitHub Copilot
12 14 (4.75%) Azure Functions
13 13 (4.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 13 (4.41%) Amazon S3
13 13 (4.41%) GitHub Actions
14 12 (4.07%) Azure API Management
15 11 (3.73%) AWS Fargate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (3.39%) SSL
2 7 (2.37%) AMQP
2 7 (2.37%) DSL
3 6 (2.03%) Firewall
3 6 (2.03%) HTTP
4 4 (1.36%) HTTPS
5 3 (1.02%) VPN
6 2 (0.68%) VoIP
7 1 (0.34%) Asterisk PBX
7 1 (0.34%) FTP
7 1 (0.34%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (12.88%) NoSQL
2 35 (11.86%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (7.12%) MongoDB
3 21 (7.12%) Relational Database
4 19 (6.44%) DynamoDB
5 18 (6.10%) MySQL
6 16 (5.42%) SQL Server
7 12 (4.07%) Redis
8 10 (3.39%) Amazon RDS
9 9 (3.05%) Amazon Aurora
9 9 (3.05%) DocumentDB
10 8 (2.71%) Oracle Database
11 7 (2.37%) BigQuery
12 6 (2.03%) RDBMS
13 4 (1.36%) Metadata
14 3 (1.02%) Airbyte
15 2 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
15 2 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
16 1 (0.34%) CockroachDB
16 1 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 48 (16.27%) Git
2 47 (15.93%) Jenkins
3 22 (7.46%) JIRA
4 21 (7.12%) GitLab
5 9 (3.05%) Gradle
5 9 (3.05%) Postman
6 8 (2.71%) Maven
7 7 (2.37%) Cypress.io
8 6 (2.03%) MLflow
8 6 (2.03%) SonarQube
8 6 (2.03%) SpecFlow
9 5 (1.69%) JUnit
9 5 (1.69%) SonarLint
10 4 (1.36%) Cucumber
10 4 (1.36%) Jaeger
11 3 (1.02%) Spinnaker
12 2 (0.68%) git-flow
12 2 (0.68%) JMeter
12 2 (0.68%) Selenium
12 2 (0.68%) webpack
General
1 87 (29.49%) Social Skills
2 57 (19.32%) Finance
3 41 (13.90%) Public Sector
4 39 (13.22%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (7.80%) Banking
6 11 (3.73%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (2.03%) Back Office
7 6 (2.03%) Telecoms
8 4 (1.36%) Publishing
9 3 (1.02%) Automotive
9 3 (1.02%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.02%) Retail
10 2 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.68%) Law
10 2 (0.68%) Legal
10 2 (0.68%) Marketing
10 2 (0.68%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 88 (29.83%) Developer
2 75 (25.42%) Architect
3 62 (21.02%) Senior
4 26 (8.81%) Solutions Architect
5 25 (8.47%) Technical Architect
6 24 (8.14%) Java Developer
6 24 (8.14%) Senior Developer
7 21 (7.12%) Consultant
8 17 (5.76%) Lead
9 15 (5.08%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 14 (4.75%) Full-Stack Developer
10 14 (4.75%) Senior Consultant
11 13 (4.41%) Technical Consultant
12 12 (4.07%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 12 (4.07%) Senior Technical Consultant
12 12 (4.07%) Senior Technical Specialist
12 12 (4.07%) Senior Unix Technical Specialist
12 12 (4.07%) Technical Specialist
13 11 (3.73%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 10 (3.39%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (33.56%) RESTful
2 63 (21.36%) Spring Boot
3 61 (20.68%) Node.js
3 61 (20.68%) REST
4 57 (19.32%) Spring
5 53 (17.97%) OAuth
6 45 (15.25%) OAuth2
7 42 (14.24%) Kafka
8 35 (11.86%) GraphQL
9 33 (11.19%) .NET
10 32 (10.85%) JSON
10 32 (10.85%) React
10 32 (10.85%) XML
11 30 (10.17%) JWT
11 30 (10.17%) SOAP
11 30 (10.17%) Swagger
12 25 (8.47%) Playwright
13 23 (7.80%) AngularJS
14 22 (7.46%) OpenAPI
15 19 (6.44%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 56 (18.98%) Cloud Native
2 29 (9.83%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (8.14%) Product Ownership
4 12 (4.07%) Algorithms
4 12 (4.07%) Virtual Team
5 10 (3.39%) Legacy Systems
5 10 (3.39%) Mobile App
6 7 (2.37%) Onboarding
7 6 (2.03%) N-Tier
8 5 (1.69%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.36%) Clustering
9 4 (1.36%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (1.36%) Grid Computing
9 4 (1.36%) Low-Code
10 3 (1.02%) AI Agents
10 3 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.02%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.68%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 21 (7.12%) Linux
2 7 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 7 (2.37%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.02%) Apple iOS
4 2 (0.68%) Android
4 2 (0.68%) Unix
4 2 (0.68%) Windows
5 1 (0.34%) CentOS
5 1 (0.34%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (56.27%) CI/CD
2 145 (49.15%) Agile
2 145 (49.15%) Microservices
3 121 (41.02%) DevOps
4 102 (34.58%) Problem-Solving
5 88 (29.83%) Containerisation
6 78 (26.44%) Test Automation
7 59 (20.00%) Event-Driven
8 55 (18.64%) API Management
9 54 (18.31%) AI
10 53 (17.97%) Mentoring
11 43 (14.58%) Event-Driven Architecture
11 43 (14.58%) Full-Stack Development
11 43 (14.58%) Software Engineering
12 41 (13.90%) Infrastructure as Code
13 39 (13.22%) Machine Learning
14 38 (12.88%) Scrum
15 37 (12.54%) API Integration
16 35 (11.86%) Code Quality
16 35 (11.86%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 91 (30.85%) Java
2 68 (23.05%) Python
3 62 (21.02%) SQL
4 47 (15.93%) TypeScript
5 30 (10.17%) C#
6 29 (9.83%) JavaScript
7 14 (4.75%) Kotlin
8 11 (3.73%) PL/SQL
9 7 (2.37%) DataWeave
10 5 (1.69%) Bicep
11 4 (1.36%) Bash
11 4 (1.36%) PowerShell
11 4 (1.36%) Ruby
11 4 (1.36%) Rust
12 3 (1.02%) Scala
13 2 (0.68%) Korn
13 2 (0.68%) Objective-C
13 2 (0.68%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.68%) Swift
14 1 (0.34%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 70 (23.73%) Security Cleared
2 47 (15.93%) SC Cleared
3 41 (13.90%) Degree
4 23 (7.80%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (4.07%) MCP
6 10 (3.39%) AWS Certification
6 10 (3.39%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (3.05%) Azure Certification
8 7 (2.37%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (1.02%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.68%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.34%) CBAP
11 1 (0.34%) CSPO
11 1 (0.34%) IIBA
11 1 (0.34%) Numerate Degree
11 1 (0.34%) PhD
11 1 (0.34%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.08%) Accessibility
2 14 (4.75%) QA
3 11 (3.73%) EU AI Act
3 11 (3.73%) GDPR
4 10 (3.39%) NIST
5 7 (2.37%) WCAG
6 4 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (1.02%) PSD2
8 2 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.68%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.34%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.34%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 102 (34.58%) Docker
2 1 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 112 (37.97%) Kubernetes
2 57 (19.32%) Terraform
3 20 (6.78%) Ansible
4 7 (2.37%) Grafana
4 7 (2.37%) Prometheus
4 7 (2.37%) SCOM
5 4 (1.36%) Kiali
6 3 (1.02%) Istio
7 2 (0.68%) CloudHub
7 2 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.34%) Argo
8 1 (0.34%) Cilium
8 1 (0.34%) Podman
8 1 (0.34%) Puppet
8 1 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 36 (12.20%) Microsoft
2 23 (7.80%) Oracle
3 22 (7.46%) MuleSoft
4 13 (4.41%) Google
5 11 (3.73%) Foundry
5 11 (3.73%) Salesforce
6 9 (3.05%) Databricks
6 9 (3.05%) Splunk
7 6 (2.03%) Gigya
8 5 (1.69%) SAP
8 5 (1.69%) ServiceNow
9 4 (1.36%) Axway
9 4 (1.36%) webMethods
10 3 (1.02%) Atlassian
10 3 (1.02%) Confluent
10 3 (1.02%) Dynatrace
10 3 (1.02%) Hitachi
10 3 (1.02%) OpenAI
11 2 (0.68%) NVIDIA
11 2 (0.68%) OneLogin