C++ Software Engineer Contracts

Software Engineer - C++
UK

The median Software Engineer - C++ daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 485 475 622
Rank change year-on-year -10 +147 +92
Contract jobs requiring a C++ Software Engineer 35 107 96
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.12% 0.25% 0.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.26% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 19 25
10th Percentile £474 £413 £418
25th Percentile £475 £425 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £650
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -26.92% -3.70%
75th Percentile £623 £525 £738
90th Percentile £719 £554 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £463
% change year-on-year +11.11% -2.70% +8.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 59 42
10th Percentile £61.25 £57.50 £58.07
25th Percentile £64.06 £61.25 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - - £67.50
90th Percentile £68.38 £70.00 £76.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +8.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

C++ Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured C++ Software Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for C++ Software Engineer in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing C++ Software Engineer.

Daily rate trend for C++ Software Engineer in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing C++ Software Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for C++ Software Engineer in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing C++ Software Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for C++ Software Engineer in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Top 10 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing C++ Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 -13 31 £500 +5.26% 92
UK excluding London -7 26 £500 +11.11% 77
South West +47 13 £675 - 18
Work from Home +30 13 £819 +77.03% 51
South East +25 8 £500 +5.26% 21
London +34 7 £819 +72.37% 26
North of England +20 2 - - 9
Scotland +10 2 - - 3
North West - 2 - - 5
East of England -17 1 - - 28

C++ Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, C++ Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring C++ Software Engineer in the job title.

1 35 (100.00%) C++
1 35 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 19 (54.29%) Agile
3 18 (51.43%) Linux
4 15 (42.86%) Computer Science
5 14 (40.00%) Degree
5 14 (40.00%) OO
5 14 (40.00%) Git
5 14 (40.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (37.14%) Problem-Solving
6 13 (37.14%) Scrum
7 10 (28.57%) JIRA
7 10 (28.57%) MISRA C
7 10 (28.57%) MISRA
8 9 (25.71%) CI/CD
8 9 (25.71%) Rational DOORS
8 9 (25.71%) Jenkins
8 9 (25.71%) Continuous Integration
8 9 (25.71%) Middleware
8 9 (25.71%) OOD
9 8 (22.86%) Ada
9 8 (22.86%) Java
9 8 (22.86%) Multithreading
9 8 (22.86%) Kanban
9 8 (22.86%) Google
9 8 (22.86%) Bitbucket
9 8 (22.86%) GoogleTest
9 8 (22.86%) IEC 61508
9 8 (22.86%) Qt
9 8 (22.86%) Multithreaded Programming

C++ Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (2.86%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (2.86%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (5.71%) Misys Midas
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.71%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 4 (11.43%) TCP/IP
2 2 (5.71%) Ethernet
3 1 (2.86%) SNMP
3 1 (2.86%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.86%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 14 (40.00%) Git
2 10 (28.57%) JIRA
3 9 (25.71%) Jenkins
3 9 (25.71%) Rational DOORS
4 8 (22.86%) Bitbucket
4 8 (22.86%) GoogleTest
5 7 (20.00%) TestRail
6 3 (8.57%) Eclipse
6 3 (8.57%) Visual Studio
7 1 (2.86%) Robot Framework
General
1 7 (20.00%) Social Skills
2 6 (17.14%) Finance
3 5 (14.29%) Military
4 4 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
5 2 (5.71%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (2.86%) Advertising
6 1 (2.86%) Aerospace
6 1 (2.86%) Aviation
6 1 (2.86%) Financial Institution
6 1 (2.86%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (25.71%) Middleware
2 8 (22.86%) Qt
3 2 (5.71%) Node.js
3 2 (5.71%) Web Services
4 1 (2.86%) CSS
4 1 (2.86%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (17.14%) Algorithms
2 5 (14.29%) Data Structures
2 5 (14.29%) Hedge funds
3 4 (11.43%) Distributed Systems
4 1 (2.86%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 18 (51.43%) Linux
2 7 (20.00%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (11.43%) Windows
4 2 (5.71%) Unix
5 1 (2.86%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 19 (54.29%) Agile
3 15 (42.86%) Computer Science
4 14 (40.00%) OO
5 13 (37.14%) Problem-Solving
5 13 (37.14%) Scrum
6 9 (25.71%) CI/CD
6 9 (25.71%) Continuous Integration
6 9 (25.71%) OOD
7 8 (22.86%) Clean Code
7 8 (22.86%) Kanban
7 8 (22.86%) Multithreaded Programming
7 8 (22.86%) Multithreading
8 7 (20.00%) Design Patterns
8 7 (20.00%) Low Latency
8 7 (20.00%) SOLID
8 7 (20.00%) Storyboarding
8 7 (20.00%) Test Automation
9 5 (14.29%) Algorithmic Trading
9 5 (14.29%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 35 (100.00%) C++
2 8 (22.86%) Ada
2 8 (22.86%) Java
3 7 (20.00%) Python
4 3 (8.57%) JavaScript
5 2 (5.71%) C
5 2 (5.71%) C#
5 2 (5.71%) Go
6 1 (2.86%) Fortran
6 1 (2.86%) MATLAB
6 1 (2.86%) SQL
Qualifications
1 14 (40.00%) Computer Science Degree
1 14 (40.00%) Degree
2 6 (17.14%) Master's Degree
2 6 (17.14%) Security Cleared
3 5 (14.29%) SC Cleared
4 1 (2.86%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (28.57%) MISRA
1 10 (28.57%) MISRA C
2 8 (22.86%) Def Stans
2 8 (22.86%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 1 (2.86%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 2 (5.71%) Istio
1 2 (5.71%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 8 (22.86%) Google
2 3 (8.57%) Atlassian
3 2 (5.71%) Hitachi
3 2 (5.71%) Microsoft
4 1 (2.86%) Intel
4 1 (2.86%) Twitter