Argo Contract Job Trends

Argo
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Argo skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 518 446 511
Rank change year-on-year -72 +65 +71
Contract jobs citing Argo 168 99 49
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.30% 0.13%
As % of the Systems Management category 2.80% 2.10% 1.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 59 34
10th Percentile £443 £402 £450
25th Percentile £513 £513 £482
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £600 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +14.29% -19.23%
75th Percentile £656 £637 £636
90th Percentile £688 £695 £889
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £563 £488
% change year-on-year -6.67% +15.38% -13.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 0 1
10th Percentile £62.50 - -
25th Percentile £69.44 - £57.50
Median hourly rate £70.00 - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £62.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 - -

All Systems Management Skills
UK

Argo falls under the Systems Management category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring systems management skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 6,010 4,714 4,614
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.00% 14.20% 12.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,969 3,050 3,035
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £722
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £479 £491
% change year-on-year +4.44% -2.50% -3.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 205 95 59
10th Percentile £18.25 £14.05 £19.88
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £23.80
Median hourly rate £63.48 £25.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +153.92% -33.33% -31.82%
75th Percentile £73.75 £62.75 £63.50
90th Percentile £87.58 £67.15 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.31 £21.39 £37.08
% change year-on-year +195.97% -42.32% -22.93%

Argo
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Argo job vacancy trend in the UK

Argo
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Argo

Argo
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Argo over the 6 months to 4 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Argo in the UK

Argo
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Argo

Argo
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Argo within the UK over the 6 months to 4 October 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 -59 138 £590 +2.61% 328
UK excluding London -42 91 £525 -6.67% 274
Work from Home -54 66 £588 - 220
London -71 57 £625 +2.46% 130
North of England -32 44 £519 -6.70% 56
North East -22 25 £510 -8.31% 12
South East -38 25 £521 +4.20% 63
South West -19 17 £525 -19.11% 28
Yorkshire - 15 £519 - 22
Scotland -17 11 £450 -32.02% 47
East of England - 5 £549 - 24
North West -41 4 - - 23
West Midlands -45 4 £539 +11.66% 9
Midlands -45 4 £539 +11.66% 20
Northern Ireland +2 1 - - 9

Argo
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 16 (9.52%) Confluence
2 1 (0.60%) nginx
2 1 (0.60%) Oracle Coherence
2 1 (0.60%) WebSphere
Cloud Services
1 86 (51.19%) AWS
2 64 (38.10%) GitHub
3 62 (36.90%) Azure
4 56 (33.33%) GitHub Actions
5 53 (31.55%) OpenShift
6 47 (27.98%) Amazon EKS
7 41 (24.40%) GCP
8 21 (12.50%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 20 (11.90%) Azure DevOps
10 18 (10.71%) Amazon S3
10 18 (10.71%) OCI
11 13 (7.74%) Kong
12 8 (4.76%) Amazon MSK
12 8 (4.76%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (4.76%) Cloudflare
13 7 (4.17%) Akamai
13 7 (4.17%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (4.17%) Azure AKS
13 7 (4.17%) Serverless
13 7 (4.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 11 (6.55%) DNS
2 10 (5.95%) Firewall
3 9 (5.36%) VPN
4 5 (2.98%) HTTP
4 5 (2.98%) SSL
5 3 (1.79%) SAN
6 2 (1.19%) DSL
6 2 (1.19%) NAS
6 2 (1.19%) VSAN
7 1 (0.60%) Calico
7 1 (0.60%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (8.33%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (7.74%) MongoDB
3 9 (5.36%) Redis
4 6 (3.57%) Amazon RDS
4 6 (3.57%) Relational Database
5 5 (2.98%) Hazelcast
5 5 (2.98%) RDBMS
6 3 (1.79%) Data Lake
6 3 (1.79%) MySQL
6 3 (1.79%) Oracle Database
7 2 (1.19%) MariaDB
7 2 (1.19%) Neo4j
7 2 (1.19%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.60%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.60%) Power Query
8 1 (0.60%) SQL Server
8 1 (0.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (30.36%) GitLab
2 39 (23.21%) Jenkins
3 34 (20.24%) SonarQube
4 16 (9.52%) Git
5 10 (5.95%) Maven
6 9 (5.36%) JIRA
7 8 (4.76%) Bitbucket
8 5 (2.98%) Gradle
8 5 (2.98%) Snyk
9 4 (2.38%) Artifactory
9 4 (2.38%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (2.38%) Spinnaker
10 3 (1.79%) Robot Framework
10 3 (1.79%) Selenium
10 3 (1.79%) TestRail
11 2 (1.19%) TeamCity
12 1 (0.60%) Cucumber
12 1 (0.60%) JUnit
12 1 (0.60%) Mockito
12 1 (0.60%) PVCS
General
1 26 (15.48%) Social Skills
2 25 (14.88%) Public Sector
3 19 (11.31%) Finance
4 15 (8.93%) Banking
5 6 (3.57%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (1.79%) Billing
7 2 (1.19%) Front Office
7 2 (1.19%) German Language
7 2 (1.19%) Military
8 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.60%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.60%) Local Government
8 1 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (22.62%) Developer
1 38 (22.62%) DevOps Engineer
2 30 (17.86%) Senior
3 24 (14.29%) Lead
4 20 (11.90%) Java Developer
5 18 (10.71%) Platform Engineer
6 17 (10.12%) Architect
6 17 (10.12%) AWS Engineer
7 13 (7.74%) Senior DevOps
7 13 (7.74%) Senior DevOps Engineer
8 12 (7.14%) Java Engineer
9 10 (5.95%) AWS DevOps
9 10 (5.95%) AWS DevOps Engineer
9 10 (5.95%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 10 (5.95%) Kubernetes Engineer
9 10 (5.95%) SC Cleared Java Developer
10 8 (4.76%) Backend Developer
10 8 (4.76%) Full-Stack Developer
10 8 (4.76%) GCP Engineer
11 7 (4.17%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (60.12%) Terraform
2 30 (17.86%) AngularJS
3 29 (17.26%) Kafka
4 28 (16.67%) Quarkus
5 24 (14.29%) OpenTelemetry
6 20 (11.90%) Loki
7 18 (10.71%) React
8 16 (9.52%) OAuth
9 13 (7.74%) OAuth2
10 11 (6.55%) Node.js
10 11 (6.55%) OpenID
10 11 (6.55%) Spring Boot
11 10 (5.95%) ModSecurity
12 9 (5.36%) Spring
13 8 (4.76%) Express.js
13 8 (4.76%) pytest
14 7 (4.17%) Elastic Stack
14 7 (4.17%) JWT
14 7 (4.17%) RabbitMQ
14 7 (4.17%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 50 (29.76%) Cloud Native
2 10 (5.95%) Distributed Systems
3 6 (3.57%) Private Cloud
4 5 (2.98%) AI Agents
4 5 (2.98%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.38%) Algorithms
5 4 (2.38%) Blog
5 4 (2.38%) Data Centre
5 4 (2.38%) Data Structures
5 4 (2.38%) Legacy Applications
5 4 (2.38%) PKI
5 4 (2.38%) Replication
6 3 (1.79%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.19%) EMC VMAX
7 2 (1.19%) EMC VNX
7 2 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.19%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.19%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.19%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 20 (11.90%) Linux
2 5 (2.98%) VMS
2 5 (2.98%) Windows
3 3 (1.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (1.19%) CoreOS
4 2 (1.19%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.60%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (70.24%) CI/CD
2 85 (50.60%) GitOps
3 82 (48.81%) Infrastructure as Code
4 76 (45.24%) DevOps
5 71 (42.26%) Observability
6 57 (33.93%) Agile
6 57 (33.93%) DevSecOps
7 54 (32.14%) Containerisation
8 50 (29.76%) Platform Engineering
9 42 (25.00%) Software Engineering
10 36 (21.43%) Test Automation
11 34 (20.24%) Scrum
12 33 (19.64%) Front End Development
13 30 (17.86%) Runbook
13 30 (17.86%) SDLC
14 29 (17.26%) Secrets Management
14 29 (17.26%) Sprint Planning
15 28 (16.67%) Sprint Review
15 28 (16.67%) Unit Testing
16 24 (14.29%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 69 (41.07%) Python
2 46 (27.38%) Java
3 41 (24.40%) Bash
4 19 (11.31%) Go
5 13 (7.74%) TypeScript
6 11 (6.55%) SQL
7 10 (5.95%) JavaScript
8 8 (4.76%) PowerShell
9 3 (1.79%) Bicep
9 3 (1.79%) C#
9 3 (1.79%) C++
9 3 (1.79%) Groovy
10 2 (1.19%) Cypher
10 2 (1.19%) R
10 2 (1.19%) SHACL
11 1 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.60%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 66 (39.29%) Security Cleared
2 61 (36.31%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.95%) BPSS Clearance
4 7 (4.17%) Azure Certification
5 6 (3.57%) Degree
6 5 (2.98%) AWS Certification
6 5 (2.98%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (2.98%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (1.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (1.19%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 2 (1.19%) NCDA
9 2 (1.19%) NCIE
9 2 (1.19%) RHCA
9 2 (1.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (0.60%) CISM
10 1 (0.60%) CISSP
10 1 (0.60%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.60%) OSCP
10 1 (0.60%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (18.45%) QA
2 8 (4.76%) Accessibility
3 5 (2.98%) PSD2
3 5 (2.98%) SEPA
4 4 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.38%) NIST
5 2 (1.19%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.19%) GDPR
6 1 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.60%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.60%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.60%) NCSC
6 1 (0.60%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.60%) SOC 2
System Software
1 56 (33.33%) Docker
2 8 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.79%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.79%) vSphere
4 2 (1.19%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.19%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (1.19%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 2 (1.19%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.19%) NFS
4 2 (1.19%) SRDF
4 2 (1.19%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.60%) Ceph
5 1 (0.60%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 144 (85.71%) Kubernetes
2 66 (39.29%) Grafana
3 41 (24.40%) Prometheus
4 26 (15.48%) Ansible
5 12 (7.14%) Istio
6 9 (5.36%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (4.17%) Kustomize
8 6 (3.57%) Cilium
8 6 (3.57%) Packer
9 4 (2.38%) linkerd
9 4 (2.38%) Progress Chef
9 4 (2.38%) Puppet
10 3 (1.79%) Rancher
10 3 (1.79%) vCenter Server
11 2 (1.19%) EMC NetWorker
11 2 (1.19%) EMC VPLEX
11 2 (1.19%) NetBackup
11 2 (1.19%) SnapMirror
11 2 (1.19%) SnapVault
12 1 (0.60%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 43 (25.60%) Red Hat
2 21 (12.50%) Microsoft
3 18 (10.71%) Oracle
4 14 (8.33%) Google
5 12 (7.14%) Splunk
5 12 (7.14%) VMware
6 11 (6.55%) Dynatrace
7 6 (3.57%) ForgeRock
8 3 (1.79%) Cisco
8 3 (1.79%) Databricks
8 3 (1.79%) EMC
8 3 (1.79%) Pure Storage
8 3 (1.79%) Veeam
9 2 (1.19%) BiZZdesign
9 2 (1.19%) Brocade
9 2 (1.19%) Confluent
9 2 (1.19%) Dell
9 2 (1.19%) IBM
9 2 (1.19%) NetApp
9 2 (1.19%) SolarWinds