CAD Contract Job Trends

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring CAD skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 470 506 568
Rank change year-on-year +36 +62 +211
Contract jobs citing CAD 84 76 95
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.26% 0.20% 0.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.28% 0.23% 0.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 48 26 38
10th Percentile £351 £254 £203
25th Percentile £438 £331 £306
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +13.75% -5.88% +6.25%
75th Percentile £691 £483 £550
90th Percentile £733 £663 £611
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £375 £470
% change year-on-year +20.00% -20.21% +3.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 17 21
10th Percentile £27.38 £16.45 £17.00
25th Percentile £32.25 £17.25 £25.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £35.00
75th Percentile £47.75 £57.50 £45.00
90th Percentile £60.00 £59.50 £48.99
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year - - +61.33%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

CAD 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 29,613 32,988 44,993
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.43% 85.44% 89.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,444 20,723 30,750
10th Percentile £300 £310 £318
25th Percentile £402 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,758 1,607 1,526
10th Percentile £14.20 £14.16 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £18.82 £18.79
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -40.82% +2.41% +49.66%
75th Percentile £47.09 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £77.22
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.63 £43.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -47.37% +14.67% +66.67%

CAD
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing CAD as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for CAD in the UK

CAD
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

CAD
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CAD over the 6 months to 1 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for CAD in the UK

CAD
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

CAD
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing CAD over the 6 months to 1 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for CAD in the UK

CAD
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CAD within the UK over the 6 months to 1 September 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 +36 79 £460 +22.02% 162
UK excluding London +2 53 £450 +20.00% 160
North of England +16 33 £450 +28.57% 33
North West +22 31 £450 +28.57% 21
London +32 24 £600 +54.44% 25
Work from Home +33 21 £456 -29.85% 51
Midlands -12 12 £700 +191.67% 49
East Midlands +1 9 £700 - 19
East of England +3 3 - - 15
West Midlands -18 3 £350 +45.83% 27
South West +20 2 £445 +22.76% 15
South East +11 2 £423 +5.23% 44
Yorkshire -12 2 £388 - 7
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 5

CAD
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 4 (4.76%) Resin
2 2 (2.38%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.19%) Confluence
Applications
1 36 (42.86%) Siemens NX
2 6 (7.14%) PTC Creo
3 5 (5.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (5.95%) Revit
4 4 (4.76%) AutoCAD
4 4 (4.76%) Fusion 360
4 4 (4.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (2.38%) MicroStation
5 2 (2.38%) Navisworks
6 1 (1.19%) CATIA
6 1 (1.19%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (1.19%) MS Visio
6 1 (1.19%) NASTRAN
6 1 (1.19%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (1.19%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 40 (47.62%) Teamcenter
2 3 (3.57%) SAP PLM
3 1 (1.19%) ENOVIA
3 1 (1.19%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (1.19%) SAP VC
Cloud Services
1 9 (10.71%) Azure
2 7 (8.33%) Azure DevOps
3 6 (7.14%) AWS
4 2 (2.38%) SaaS
4 2 (2.38%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 2 (2.38%) Structured Cabling
1 2 (2.38%) Wireless
2 1 (1.19%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.19%) GIS
Development Applications
1 8 (9.52%) JIRA
General
1 21 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
1 21 (25.00%) Manufacturing
2 20 (23.81%) Social Skills
3 12 (14.29%) Aerospace
4 3 (3.57%) Marketing
5 2 (2.38%) Finance
5 2 (2.38%) Pharmaceutical
5 2 (2.38%) Public Sector
5 2 (2.38%) Publishing
6 1 (1.19%) Automotive
6 1 (1.19%) Fire and Rescue
6 1 (1.19%) Games
6 1 (1.19%) Law
6 1 (1.19%) Legal
6 1 (1.19%) Military
6 1 (1.19%) Portuguese Language
6 1 (1.19%) Retail
Job Titles
1 19 (22.62%) Developer
2 16 (19.05%) Architect
2 16 (19.05%) ServiceNow Developer
3 15 (17.86%) Applications Engineer
3 15 (17.86%) Configuration Engineer
4 5 (5.95%) Design Engineer
4 5 (5.95%) Designer
4 5 (5.95%) Solutions Architect
5 4 (4.76%) CAD Developer
5 4 (4.76%) Consultant
5 4 (4.76%) Lead
6 3 (3.57%) CAD Designer
6 3 (3.57%) ServiceNow Consultant
7 2 (2.38%) Coordinator
7 2 (2.38%) Draughtsman
7 2 (2.38%) Infrastructure Architect
7 2 (2.38%) IT Manager
7 2 (2.38%) IT Project Manager
7 2 (2.38%) Security Manager
7 2 (2.38%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (19.05%) XML
2 8 (9.52%) REST
2 8 (9.52%) SOAP
3 7 (8.33%) CSS
3 7 (8.33%) HTML
4 4 (4.76%) RESTful
5 3 (3.57%) AngularJS
6 2 (2.38%) jQuery
7 1 (1.19%) Bootstrap
7 1 (1.19%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 11 (13.10%) Analytical Mindset
2 9 (10.71%) CMDB
3 7 (8.33%) Onboarding
4 4 (4.76%) 3D Printing
5 3 (3.57%) Robotics
6 2 (2.38%) CCTV
6 2 (2.38%) Fibre Optics
7 1 (1.19%) 3D Graphics
7 1 (1.19%) Arduino
7 1 (1.19%) Client/Server
7 1 (1.19%) Derivative
7 1 (1.19%) Digital Signage
7 1 (1.19%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.19%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (1.19%) Management Information System
7 1 (1.19%) Mobile App
7 1 (1.19%) NHS
7 1 (1.19%) Social Media
7 1 (1.19%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.19%) Linux
1 1 (1.19%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (48.81%) PLM
2 19 (22.62%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (20.24%) ITSM
4 16 (19.05%) Data Governance
4 16 (19.05%) User Experience
5 13 (15.48%) Data Management
5 13 (15.48%) Knowledge Transfer
5 13 (15.48%) Use Case
6 12 (14.29%) Agile
6 12 (14.29%) Mentoring
6 12 (14.29%) Visualisation
7 10 (11.90%) Coaching
7 10 (11.90%) Knowledge Management
7 10 (11.90%) Process Improvement
7 10 (11.90%) Translating Business Requirements
8 9 (10.71%) Scrum
8 9 (10.71%) Stakeholder Management
9 8 (9.52%) Data Protection
9 8 (9.52%) Enterprise Architecture
9 8 (9.52%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 16 (19.05%) JavaScript
2 2 (2.38%) Python
3 1 (1.19%) C
3 1 (1.19%) C++
3 1 (1.19%) SQL
3 1 (1.19%) Tcl
3 1 (1.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 38 (45.24%) Security Cleared
2 28 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 7 (8.33%) BPSS Clearance
4 3 (3.57%) Degree
5 2 (2.38%) HNC
5 2 (2.38%) HND
6 1 (1.19%) BICSI Certification
6 1 (1.19%) BICSI RCDD
6 1 (1.19%) DV Cleared
6 1 (1.19%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (19.05%) Data Quality
2 4 (4.76%) Accessibility
2 4 (4.76%) QA
System Software
1 1 (1.19%) Embedded Firmware
1 1 (1.19%) Firmware
1 1 (1.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
Vendors
1 22 (26.19%) Siemens
2 21 (25.00%) ServiceNow
3 6 (7.14%) Autodesk
4 4 (4.76%) Microsoft
5 3 (3.57%) SAP
6 2 (2.38%) Cisco
6 2 (2.38%) Facebook
6 2 (2.38%) Nokia
7 1 (1.19%) ANSYS
7 1 (1.19%) Fujitsu
7 1 (1.19%) Snow