Applications Specialist Contract Job Trends

Application Specialist
UK

The median Application Specialist daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 565 503 553
Rank change year-on-year -62 +50 +190
Contract jobs requiring an Applications Specialist 28 33 42
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.076% 0.099% 0.097%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.083% 0.11% 0.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 23 27
10th Percentile £341 £331 £400
25th Percentile £403 £371 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% +1.27%
75th Percentile £563 £550 £643
90th Percentile £588 £590 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £380 £500
% change year-on-year +44.74% -24.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £58.75
Median hourly rate - - £59.50
75th Percentile - - £60.25
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £59.50

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,636 30,890 40,421
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 92.72% 93.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,275 18,962 27,109
10th Percentile £295 £300 £282
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £487 £500
% change year-on-year -2.41% -2.65% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,972 959 1,551
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £14.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £19.15
Median hourly rate £25.47 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.63% -27.78% +41.93%
75th Percentile £58.06 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.97 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.94
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.26% +77.99%

Applications Specialist
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Applications Specialist' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Applications Specialist job vacancy trend in the UK

Applications Specialist
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Applications Specialist job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Applications Specialist job vacancies in the UK

Applications Specialist
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Applications Specialist over the 6 months to 29 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Applications Specialist in the UK

Applications Specialist
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Applications Specialist job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Applications Specialist job vacancies in the UK

Applications Specialist
Top 11 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Applications Specialist within the UK over the 6 months to 29 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 -57 18 £525 +7.14% 20
UK excluding London -52 10 £550 +44.74% 13
Work from Home +3 9 £500 +37.93% 7
London -20 8 £415 -24.55% 7
Midlands -37 7 £550 +28.65% 1
West Midlands -24 6 £550 +28.65% 1
North of England -47 2 - - 6
South East -14 1 £270 -36.47% 5
North West -21 1 - - 2
Yorkshire -44 1 - - 2
East Midlands - 1 - -

Applications Specialist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 December 2025, Applications Specialist contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Applications Specialist in the job title.

1 17 (60.71%) Problem-Solving
2 10 (35.71%) Security Cleared
3 9 (32.14%) Azure
4 8 (28.57%) DV Cleared
5 7 (25.00%) SQL
5 7 (25.00%) Workflow
6 6 (21.43%) Microsoft
6 6 (21.43%) Oracle
7 5 (17.86%) Azure Logic Apps
7 5 (17.86%) ITIL
8 4 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
8 4 (14.29%) Linux
8 4 (14.29%) SQL Server
9 3 (10.71%) Business Intelligence
9 3 (10.71%) CRM
9 3 (10.71%) DevOps
9 3 (10.71%) Oracle Applications
9 3 (10.71%) Power BI
9 3 (10.71%) Power Platform
9 3 (10.71%) PowerShell
9 3 (10.71%) Runbook
10 2 (7.14%) Aderant
10 2 (7.14%) API Management
10 2 (7.14%) Application Security
10 2 (7.14%) Batch Processing
10 2 (7.14%) Collaborative Culture
10 2 (7.14%) Data Modelling
10 2 (7.14%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (7.14%) Degree
10 2 (7.14%) Eclipse

Applications Specialist Skill Set
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 2 (7.14%) Tomcat
2 1 (3.57%) JBoss
2 1 (3.57%) MQSeries
2 1 (3.57%) WebSphere
Business Applications
1 3 (10.71%) Oracle Applications
2 2 (7.14%) Elite 3E
3 1 (3.57%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (3.57%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 9 (32.14%) Azure
2 5 (17.86%) Azure Logic Apps
3 3 (10.71%) Power Platform
4 2 (7.14%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (7.14%) Mimecast
4 2 (7.14%) PaaS
4 2 (7.14%) SaaS
5 1 (3.57%) AWS
5 1 (3.57%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (3.57%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (3.57%) Power Automate
5 1 (3.57%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.57%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (14.29%) SQL Server
2 3 (10.71%) Power BI
3 2 (7.14%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (3.57%) DB2
4 1 (3.57%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (3.57%) KDB
4 1 (3.57%) Kdb+
4 1 (3.57%) Oracle Database
4 1 (3.57%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (7.14%) Eclipse
1 2 (7.14%) Jenkins
2 1 (3.57%) GitLab
2 1 (3.57%) JIRA
General
1 16 (57.14%) Social Skills
2 5 (17.86%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (14.29%) Military
4 3 (10.71%) Finance
5 2 (7.14%) Banking
5 2 (7.14%) Billing
5 2 (7.14%) Investment Banking
5 2 (7.14%) Law
5 2 (7.14%) Legal
6 1 (3.57%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (3.57%) Front Office
6 1 (3.57%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (7.14%) FIX Protocol
1 2 (7.14%) Kafka
1 2 (7.14%) Middleware
1 2 (7.14%) SOAP
1 2 (7.14%) Web Services
2 1 (3.57%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (3.57%) JMS
2 1 (3.57%) REST
2 1 (3.57%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 2 (7.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
1 2 (7.14%) Product Ownership
2 1 (3.57%) Cloud Native
2 1 (3.57%) Derivative
2 1 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
2 1 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (3.57%) Equities
2 1 (3.57%) Fixed Income
2 1 (3.57%) Management Information System
2 1 (3.57%) Mobile App
2 1 (3.57%) Private Cloud
2 1 (3.57%) Reinsurance
2 1 (3.57%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 4 (14.29%) Linux
2 2 (7.14%) Windows
3 1 (3.57%) Android
3 1 (3.57%) Apple iOS
3 1 (3.57%) Unix
3 1 (3.57%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (60.71%) Problem-Solving
2 7 (25.00%) Workflow
3 5 (17.86%) ITIL
4 4 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
5 3 (10.71%) Business Intelligence
5 3 (10.71%) CRM
5 3 (10.71%) DevOps
5 3 (10.71%) Runbook
6 2 (7.14%) API Management
6 2 (7.14%) Application Security
6 2 (7.14%) Batch Processing
6 2 (7.14%) Collaborative Culture
6 2 (7.14%) Data Modelling
6 2 (7.14%) Migration
6 2 (7.14%) Patch Management
6 2 (7.14%) Performance Testing
6 2 (7.14%) Problem Management
7 1 (3.57%) API Development
7 1 (3.57%) Performance Optimisation
7 1 (3.57%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 7 (25.00%) SQL
2 3 (10.71%) PowerShell
3 2 (7.14%) Python
4 1 (3.57%) Bash
4 1 (3.57%) Java
4 1 (3.57%) JavaScript
4 1 (3.57%) Kusto Query Language
4 1 (3.57%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 10 (35.71%) Security Cleared
2 8 (28.57%) DV Cleared
3 2 (7.14%) Degree
4 1 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (3.57%) Master's Degree
4 1 (3.57%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (7.14%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (3.57%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (3.57%) Ansible
1 1 (3.57%) Grafana
1 1 (3.57%) ITRS Geneos
1 1 (3.57%) Kibana
1 1 (3.57%) Kubernetes
1 1 (3.57%) logstash
1 1 (3.57%) Red Hat Satellite
1 1 (3.57%) Terraform
1 1 (3.57%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 6 (21.43%) Microsoft
1 6 (21.43%) Oracle
2 2 (7.14%) Aderant
2 2 (7.14%) Google
2 2 (7.14%) iManage
2 2 (7.14%) Intapp
3 1 (3.57%) Bloomberg
3 1 (3.57%) Calypso
3 1 (3.57%) Dynatrace
3 1 (3.57%) Murex
3 1 (3.57%) Red Hat
3 1 (3.57%) Reuters
3 1 (3.57%) SAP
3 1 (3.57%) ServiceNow
3 1 (3.57%) Solace
3 1 (3.57%) SolarWinds
3 1 (3.57%) Sophis
3 1 (3.57%) Splunk