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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 517 458 514
Rank change year-on-year -59 +56 +80
Contract jobs citing Argo 169 99 48
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.30% 0.13%
As % of the Systems Management category 2.78% 2.11% 1.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 60 33
10th Percentile £441 £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 £640 £633
90th Percentile £689 £691 £760
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 6,073 4,684 4,566
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.06% 14.17% 12.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,012 3,030 3,014
10th Percentile £313 £275 £299
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year +4.60% -2.91% -6.36%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £625
90th Percentile £694 £688 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £476 £488
% change year-on-year +5.15% -2.46% -4.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 204 94 59
10th Percentile £18.25 £13.75 £19.88
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £23.80
Median hourly rate £63.48 £25.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +148.94% -32.00% -31.82%
75th Percentile £73.81 £63.00 £63.50
90th Percentile £87.67 £67.18 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.48 £21.39 £37.08
% change year-on-year +196.77% -42.32% -22.47%

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 1 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 1 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 -38 138 £575 - 239
UK excluding London -31 95 £525 -6.67% 100
Work from Home -45 66 £575 -2.13% 99
London -76 54 £625 +2.46% 149
North of England -37 46 £519 -6.70% 24
North East -20 25 £510 -8.31% 6
South East -37 25 £521 +4.20% 34
South West -21 18 £525 -19.11% 16
Yorkshire - 17 £519 - 5
Scotland -13 12 £475 -28.25% 8
East of England - 5 £549 - 10
West Midlands -38 4 £539 +11.66% 2
North West -46 4 - - 13
Midlands -51 4 £539 +11.66% 4
Northern Ireland +5 1 - - 1

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 (9.47%) Confluence
2 1 (0.59%) nginx
2 1 (0.59%) Oracle Coherence
2 1 (0.59%) WebSphere
Cloud Services
1 85 (50.30%) AWS
2 61 (36.09%) GitHub
3 59 (34.91%) Azure
4 54 (31.95%) OpenShift
5 52 (30.77%) GitHub Actions
6 46 (27.22%) Amazon EKS
7 41 (24.26%) GCP
8 21 (12.43%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 19 (11.24%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (10.06%) Amazon S3
11 15 (8.88%) OCI
12 13 (7.69%) Kong
13 9 (5.33%) Amazon MSK
14 8 (4.73%) AWS CloudFormation
14 8 (4.73%) Cloudflare
15 7 (4.14%) Akamai
15 7 (4.14%) AWS Lambda
15 7 (4.14%) Azure AKS
15 7 (4.14%) Serverless
15 7 (4.14%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (7.10%) DNS
2 10 (5.92%) Firewall
3 9 (5.33%) VPN
4 5 (2.96%) HTTP
4 5 (2.96%) SSL
5 3 (1.78%) SAN
6 2 (1.18%) DSL
6 2 (1.18%) NAS
6 2 (1.18%) VSAN
7 1 (0.59%) Calico
7 1 (0.59%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (8.88%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (7.69%) MongoDB
3 10 (5.92%) Redis
4 7 (4.14%) Amazon RDS
5 6 (3.55%) Relational Database
6 5 (2.96%) Hazelcast
6 5 (2.96%) RDBMS
7 3 (1.78%) Data Lake
7 3 (1.78%) MySQL
7 3 (1.78%) Oracle Database
8 2 (1.18%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (1.18%) MariaDB
8 2 (1.18%) Neo4j
8 2 (1.18%) Snowflake Schema
9 1 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.59%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.59%) Power Query
9 1 (0.59%) SQL Server
9 1 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 52 (30.77%) GitLab
2 40 (23.67%) Jenkins
3 33 (19.53%) SonarQube
4 17 (10.06%) Git
5 10 (5.92%) JIRA
5 10 (5.92%) Maven
6 8 (4.73%) Bitbucket
7 5 (2.96%) Gradle
7 5 (2.96%) Snyk
8 4 (2.37%) Artifactory
8 4 (2.37%) Spinnaker
9 3 (1.78%) Robot Framework
9 3 (1.78%) Selenium
9 3 (1.78%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (1.78%) TestRail
10 2 (1.18%) TeamCity
11 1 (0.59%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.59%) JUnit
11 1 (0.59%) Mockito
11 1 (0.59%) PVCS
General
1 25 (14.79%) Public Sector
2 24 (14.20%) Social Skills
3 20 (11.83%) Finance
4 15 (8.88%) Banking
5 6 (3.55%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (1.18%) Billing
6 2 (1.18%) Front Office
6 2 (1.18%) Military
7 1 (0.59%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.59%) Financial Institution
7 1 (0.59%) German Language
7 1 (0.59%) Local Government
7 1 (0.59%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (22.49%) Developer
2 37 (21.89%) DevOps Engineer
3 31 (18.34%) Senior
4 23 (13.61%) Lead
5 20 (11.83%) Java Developer
6 19 (11.24%) Platform Engineer
7 18 (10.65%) Architect
7 18 (10.65%) AWS Engineer
8 13 (7.69%) Senior DevOps
8 13 (7.69%) Senior DevOps Engineer
9 12 (7.10%) Java Engineer
10 10 (5.92%) AWS DevOps
10 10 (5.92%) AWS DevOps Engineer
10 10 (5.92%) Kubernetes Engineer
10 10 (5.92%) SC Cleared Java Developer
11 9 (5.33%) DevSecOps Engineer
12 8 (4.73%) Backend Developer
12 8 (4.73%) Cloud Platform Engineer
12 8 (4.73%) Full-Stack Developer
12 8 (4.73%) GCP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (57.99%) Terraform
2 30 (17.75%) AngularJS
2 30 (17.75%) Kafka
3 28 (16.57%) Quarkus
4 24 (14.20%) OpenTelemetry
5 19 (11.24%) React
6 17 (10.06%) Loki
7 16 (9.47%) OAuth
8 13 (7.69%) OAuth2
9 11 (6.51%) Node.js
9 11 (6.51%) OpenID
9 11 (6.51%) Spring Boot
10 9 (5.33%) Spring
11 8 (4.73%) Express.js
11 8 (4.73%) ModSecurity
11 8 (4.73%) pytest
12 7 (4.14%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (4.14%) RabbitMQ
12 7 (4.14%) SAML
12 7 (4.14%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 50 (29.59%) Cloud Native
2 10 (5.92%) Distributed Systems
3 6 (3.55%) Private Cloud
4 5 (2.96%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.37%) AI Agents
5 4 (2.37%) Algorithms
5 4 (2.37%) Blog
5 4 (2.37%) Data Centre
5 4 (2.37%) Data Structures
5 4 (2.37%) Legacy Applications
5 4 (2.37%) PKI
5 4 (2.37%) Replication
6 3 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (1.78%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.18%) Enterprise Storage
7 2 (1.18%) Fixed Income
7 2 (1.18%) Mobile App
7 2 (1.18%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.18%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 21 (12.43%) Linux
2 5 (2.96%) VMS
2 5 (2.96%) Windows
3 3 (1.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (1.18%) CoreOS
4 2 (1.18%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.59%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (70.41%) CI/CD
2 84 (49.70%) GitOps
3 80 (47.34%) Infrastructure as Code
4 76 (44.97%) DevOps
5 68 (40.24%) Observability
6 59 (34.91%) Agile
7 55 (32.54%) Containerisation
8 54 (31.95%) DevSecOps
9 53 (31.36%) Platform Engineering
10 42 (24.85%) Software Engineering
11 36 (21.30%) Test Automation
12 34 (20.12%) Scrum
13 33 (19.53%) Front End Development
14 31 (18.34%) Sprint Planning
15 30 (17.75%) SDLC
16 28 (16.57%) Runbook
16 28 (16.57%) Secrets Management
16 28 (16.57%) Sprint Review
16 28 (16.57%) Unit Testing
17 24 (14.20%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 67 (39.64%) Python
2 47 (27.81%) Java
3 37 (21.89%) Bash
4 18 (10.65%) Go
5 13 (7.69%) TypeScript
6 11 (6.51%) JavaScript
6 11 (6.51%) SQL
7 8 (4.73%) PowerShell
8 3 (1.78%) Bicep
8 3 (1.78%) C#
8 3 (1.78%) C++
8 3 (1.78%) Groovy
9 2 (1.18%) Cypher
9 2 (1.18%) R
9 2 (1.18%) SHACL
10 1 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.59%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 64 (37.87%) Security Cleared
2 59 (34.91%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.92%) BPSS Clearance
4 7 (4.14%) Azure Certification
5 6 (3.55%) Degree
6 5 (2.96%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (2.96%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.37%) AWS Certification
7 4 (2.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (1.18%) NCDA
9 2 (1.18%) NCIE
9 2 (1.18%) RHCA
9 2 (1.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (0.59%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.59%) CISSP
10 1 (0.59%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.59%) OCP
10 1 (0.59%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.59%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (18.34%) QA
2 8 (4.73%) Accessibility
3 5 (2.96%) PSD2
3 5 (2.96%) SEPA
4 4 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.37%) NIST
5 2 (1.18%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.18%) GDPR
6 1 (0.59%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.59%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.59%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.59%) NCSC
6 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.59%) SOC 2
System Software
1 53 (31.36%) Docker
2 9 (5.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (2.37%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (2.37%) vSphere
4 2 (1.18%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.18%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (1.18%) Ceph
4 2 (1.18%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 2 (1.18%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.18%) NFS
4 2 (1.18%) SRDF
4 2 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 146 (86.39%) Kubernetes
2 64 (37.87%) Grafana
3 42 (24.85%) Prometheus
4 27 (15.98%) Ansible
5 12 (7.10%) Istio
6 9 (5.33%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (4.14%) Kustomize
8 6 (3.55%) Cilium
8 6 (3.55%) Packer
9 4 (2.37%) linkerd
9 4 (2.37%) Progress Chef
9 4 (2.37%) Puppet
9 4 (2.37%) vCenter Server
10 3 (1.78%) Rancher
11 2 (1.18%) EMC NetWorker
11 2 (1.18%) EMC VPLEX
11 2 (1.18%) Nagios
11 2 (1.18%) NetBackup
11 2 (1.18%) SnapMirror
11 2 (1.18%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 44 (26.04%) Red Hat
2 18 (10.65%) Microsoft
3 15 (8.88%) Oracle
4 14 (8.28%) Google
4 14 (8.28%) VMware
5 12 (7.10%) Splunk
6 11 (6.51%) Dynatrace
7 6 (3.55%) ForgeRock
8 4 (2.37%) Pure Storage
9 3 (1.78%) Cisco
9 3 (1.78%) Databricks
9 3 (1.78%) EMC
9 3 (1.78%) Veeam
10 2 (1.18%) 3PAR
10 2 (1.18%) BiZZdesign
10 2 (1.18%) Brocade
10 2 (1.18%) Dell
10 2 (1.18%) IBM
10 2 (1.18%) NetApp
10 2 (1.18%) SolarWinds