Computer Science Degree Contract Job Trends

Computer Science Degree
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Computer Science Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 21 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 201 145 145
Rank change year-on-year -56 0 +146
Contract jobs citing Computer Science Degree 605 568 727
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.38% 1.94% 1.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.09% 6.34% 5.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 394 364 483
10th Percentile £210 £307 £300
25th Percentile £360 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.23% -3.57% -12.50%
75th Percentile £650 £652 £638
90th Percentile £759 £786 £770
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 7 38
10th Percentile £20.50 £35.95 £27.23
25th Percentile £22.85 £42.46 £38.75
Median hourly rate £37.50 £52.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.57% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £82.50 £63.13 £66.25
90th Percentile £87.80 £73.68 £83.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.46 £54.98 £56.25
% change year-on-year -42.78% -2.26% -14.12%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

Computer Science Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 14,787 8,957 13,551
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.73% 30.54% 30.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,750 5,664 8,396
10th Percentile £335 £288 £298
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £719 £714 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,086 476 1,001
10th Percentile £16.17 £18.51 £13.99
25th Percentile £19.93 £24.42 £17.80
Median hourly rate £30.00 £42.50 £38.16
Median % change year-on-year -29.41% +11.39% -26.63%
75th Percentile £67.84 £67.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £84.00 £81.01 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £48.82 £37.50
% change year-on-year -41.62% +30.17% -23.47%

Computer Science Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Computer Science Degree job vacancy trend in the UK

Computer Science Degree
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Computer Science Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Computer Science Degree

Computer Science Degree
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Computer Science Degree over the 6 months to 21 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Computer Science Degree in the UK

Computer Science Degree
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Computer Science Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Computer Science Degree

Computer Science Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Computer Science Degree over the 6 months to 21 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Computer Science Degree in the UK

Computer Science Degree
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Computer Science Degree within the UK over the 6 months to 21 March 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 -51 535 £500 -4.76% 350
UK excluding London -35 291 £475 -5.00% 247
London -47 258 £503 -8.64% 149
Work from Home -25 165 £436 -16.90% 166
North of England -29 91 £412 -28.30% 44
South East -31 80 £413 -17.50% 106
Midlands -48 53 £525 +17.06% 25
Yorkshire -29 47 £525 +5.00% 15
North West -11 44 £363 -48.14% 26
West Midlands -50 43 £500 +11.11% 11
South West -19 26 £580 +49.68% 18
East of England -21 22 £575 +15.00% 50
Scotland +4 20 £601 +23.23% 7
East Midlands -31 10 £545 +21.92% 14
Wales -18 6 £358 +28.83% 10
Northern Ireland -3 3 - - 2

Computer Science Degree
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 38 (6.28%) Confluence
2 26 (4.30%) SharePoint
3 18 (2.98%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.98%) Apache
5 7 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.66%) GeoServer
6 4 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 4 (0.66%) Smallworld
7 3 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.50%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.50%) Ethereum
7 3 (0.50%) Hyperledger
7 3 (0.50%) SAS
8 2 (0.33%) CMS
8 2 (0.33%) IIS
8 2 (0.33%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.33%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
Applications
1 16 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.99%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.33%) Trello
6 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 8 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
3 4 (0.66%) Aladdin
4 3 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.33%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.17%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.17%) Maximo
6 1 (0.17%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle HRMS
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.17%) SAP Travel Management
6 1 (0.17%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 223 (36.86%) Azure
2 163 (26.94%) AWS
3 91 (15.04%) GCP
4 49 (8.10%) GitHub
5 40 (6.61%) Power Platform
6 39 (6.45%) Serverless
7 37 (6.12%) Microsoft 365
8 34 (5.62%) Azure DevOps
9 30 (4.96%) SaaS
10 23 (3.80%) IaaS
11 21 (3.47%) GitHub Actions
12 19 (3.14%) AWS CloudFormation
13 16 (2.64%) Azure AKS
13 16 (2.64%) Azure Data Factory
14 15 (2.48%) Entra ID
15 14 (2.31%) Amazon S3
15 14 (2.31%) PaaS
16 13 (2.15%) Azure Service Bus
16 13 (2.15%) Snowflake
17 12 (1.98%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.46%) TCP/IP
2 23 (3.80%) Firewall
3 22 (3.64%) DNS
4 13 (2.15%) Network Security
5 12 (1.98%) WAN
6 10 (1.65%) HTTP
6 10 (1.65%) LAN
7 9 (1.49%) VPN
7 9 (1.49%) Wireless
8 8 (1.32%) HTTPS
9 7 (1.16%) SSH
10 6 (0.99%) VoIP
11 5 (0.83%) BGP
11 5 (0.83%) CTI
11 5 (0.83%) DMZ
11 5 (0.83%) SAN
11 5 (0.83%) VLAN
12 4 (0.66%) SSL
13 3 (0.50%) IPv4
13 3 (0.50%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (9.59%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (6.94%) NoSQL
3 33 (5.45%) Data Warehouse
3 33 (5.45%) SQL Server
4 31 (5.12%) Power BI
5 28 (4.63%) Relational Database
6 25 (4.13%) Big Data
7 24 (3.97%) MySQL
8 16 (2.64%) Elasticsearch
8 16 (2.64%) Tableau
9 11 (1.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 10 (1.65%) Amazon RDS
10 10 (1.65%) Hadoop
10 10 (1.65%) Metadata
11 9 (1.49%) MongoDB
11 9 (1.49%) Redis
12 7 (1.16%) Apache Cassandra
12 7 (1.16%) Snowflake Schema
12 7 (1.16%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.99%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 75 (12.40%) Git
2 55 (9.09%) JIRA
3 52 (8.60%) Jenkins
4 50 (8.26%) GitLab
5 11 (1.82%) Postman
5 11 (1.82%) Selenium
6 10 (1.65%) Liquibase
7 8 (1.32%) CircleCI
7 8 (1.32%) Gradle
8 7 (1.16%) Bitbucket
9 6 (0.99%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.99%) JUnit
10 4 (0.66%) Artifactory
10 4 (0.66%) Cucumber
10 4 (0.66%) Hardhat
10 4 (0.66%) MLflow
10 4 (0.66%) REST Assured
11 3 (0.50%) Flyway
11 3 (0.50%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.50%) Vite
General
1 293 (48.43%) Social Skills
2 169 (27.93%) Finance
3 147 (24.30%) Analytical Skills
4 79 (13.06%) Banking
5 40 (6.61%) Public Sector
6 28 (4.63%) Presentation Skills
7 24 (3.97%) Marketing
8 18 (2.98%) Front Office
8 18 (2.98%) Legal
9 16 (2.64%) Financial Institution
9 16 (2.64%) Investment Banking
10 15 (2.48%) Documentation Skills
10 15 (2.48%) Organisational Skills
11 12 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (1.98%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.49%) Law
13 8 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.99%) Retail
15 5 (0.83%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.83%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 103 (17.02%) Developer
2 80 (13.22%) Architect
3 58 (9.59%) Analyst
4 57 (9.42%) Lead
5 51 (8.43%) Senior
6 31 (5.12%) Software Engineer
7 30 (4.96%) Solutions Architect
8 29 (4.79%) Technical Support
9 22 (3.64%) Cloud Engineer
10 19 (3.14%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 18 (2.98%) Consultant
11 18 (2.98%) Site Engineer
12 16 (2.64%) AWS Engineer
12 16 (2.64%) SOC Analyst
13 15 (2.48%) Business Analyst
13 15 (2.48%) Cloud Architect
14 14 (2.31%) Java Developer
14 14 (2.31%) Project Manager
14 14 (2.31%) Senior Developer
14 14 (2.31%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (13.55%) REST
2 51 (8.43%) RESTful
3 40 (6.61%) React
4 39 (6.45%) .NET
5 37 (6.12%) Elastic Stack
6 31 (5.12%) Spring
7 26 (4.30%) Middleware
8 25 (4.13%) JSON
8 25 (4.13%) OAuth
9 24 (3.97%) SOAP
10 23 (3.80%) HTML
11 22 (3.64%) XML
12 21 (3.47%) Kafka
12 21 (3.47%) Node.js
13 19 (3.14%) CSS
13 19 (3.14%) Spring Boot
14 18 (2.98%) AngularJS
15 15 (2.48%) JWT
15 15 (2.48%) PyTorch
16 14 (2.31%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 66 (10.91%) Management Information System
2 61 (10.08%) Cloud Native
3 34 (5.62%) Distributed Systems
4 32 (5.29%) Onboarding
5 31 (5.12%) Product Ownership
6 26 (4.30%) Algorithms
7 19 (3.14%) Data Protection Act
7 19 (3.14%) Enterprise Software
7 19 (3.14%) Public Cloud
8 18 (2.98%) Virtual Team
9 17 (2.81%) AI Agents
9 17 (2.81%) Cyberattack
9 17 (2.81%) Security Operations Centre
10 16 (2.64%) Data Structures
11 13 (2.15%) Analytical Mindset
11 13 (2.15%) Derivative
12 12 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
13 11 (1.82%) Security Posture
14 10 (1.65%) Distributed Computing
15 9 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 95 (15.70%) Linux
2 93 (15.37%) Windows
3 39 (6.45%) Unix
4 12 (1.98%) Android
5 8 (1.32%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.16%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.99%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.99%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.83%) VMS
9 4 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.50%) Debian
10 3 (0.50%) Rocky
10 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.17%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 596 (98.51%) Computer Science
2 245 (40.50%) Problem-Solving
3 205 (33.88%) Agile
4 189 (31.24%) CI/CD
5 187 (30.91%) DevOps
6 125 (20.66%) AI
7 111 (18.35%) Microservices
8 105 (17.36%) Software Engineering
9 100 (16.53%) Containerisation
10 84 (13.88%) Analytics
11 77 (12.73%) Infrastructure as Code
12 70 (11.57%) Data Modelling
12 70 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
13 68 (11.24%) Migration
14 63 (10.41%) Continuous Improvement
15 61 (10.08%) Technical Leadership
16 60 (9.92%) Test Automation
17 58 (9.59%) ETL
17 58 (9.59%) Validation
18 57 (9.42%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 214 (35.37%) Python
2 125 (20.66%) SQL
3 107 (17.69%) Java
4 63 (10.41%) JavaScript
5 44 (7.27%) TypeScript
6 41 (6.78%) Go
7 33 (5.45%) C#
8 29 (4.79%) PowerShell
9 25 (4.13%) Bash
10 14 (2.31%) C++
10 14 (2.31%) Perl
10 14 (2.31%) Shell Script
11 10 (1.65%) Kotlin
12 8 (1.32%) R
13 7 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 7 (1.16%) Ruby
13 7 (1.16%) Scala
14 5 (0.83%) Bicep
15 4 (0.66%) Rust
15 4 (0.66%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 605 (100.00%) Degree
2 127 (20.99%) Master's Degree
3 87 (14.38%) Security Cleared
4 59 (9.75%) SC Cleared
5 28 (4.63%) Azure Certification
5 28 (4.63%) CISSP
6 25 (4.13%) Microsoft Certification
7 21 (3.47%) PMI Certification
8 20 (3.31%) CompTIA Security+
8 20 (3.31%) DV Cleared
9 19 (3.14%) CISM
10 18 (2.98%) BPSS Clearance
10 18 (2.98%) PMP
11 17 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (2.81%) CompTIA CySA+
12 16 (2.64%) AWS Certification
13 15 (2.48%) TOGAF Certification
14 8 (1.32%) CCNA
14 8 (1.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (1.16%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (8.60%) QA
2 36 (5.95%) GDPR
3 28 (4.63%) Data Quality
4 17 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 17 (2.81%) NIST
4 17 (2.81%) PCI DSS
5 9 (1.49%) HIPAA
6 7 (1.16%) PSD2
7 6 (0.99%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.83%) ISO 20022
9 3 (0.50%) Basel III
9 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.50%) GAAP
9 3 (0.50%) IFRS
9 3 (0.50%) ISO 8583
9 3 (0.50%) NCSC
9 3 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.50%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.50%) WCAG
System Software
1 118 (19.50%) Docker
2 33 (5.45%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.32%) Firmware
4 7 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.50%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.17%) HDFS
7 1 (0.17%) PowerHA
7 1 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.17%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 129 (21.32%) Kubernetes
2 75 (12.40%) Terraform
3 50 (8.26%) Ansible
4 38 (6.28%) Grafana
5 32 (5.29%) Prometheus
6 20 (3.31%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (2.48%) Puppet
8 12 (1.98%) Kibana
9 7 (1.16%) Argo
10 5 (0.83%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.66%) SCCM
12 3 (0.50%) Control-M
12 3 (0.50%) Foglight
12 3 (0.50%) WSUS
13 2 (0.33%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.33%) logstash
13 2 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
14 1 (0.17%) HP ALM
14 1 (0.17%) Istio
14 1 (0.17%) linkerd
Vendors
1 131 (21.65%) Microsoft
2 59 (9.75%) Splunk
3 46 (7.60%) Oracle
4 40 (6.61%) Google
5 23 (3.80%) Databricks
6 19 (3.14%) SAP
7 17 (2.81%) Salesforce
8 16 (2.64%) ServiceNow
9 14 (2.31%) IBM
10 13 (2.15%) Red Hat
11 12 (1.98%) Software AG
12 10 (1.65%) Atlassian
12 10 (1.65%) Cisco
12 10 (1.65%) Informatica
12 10 (1.65%) MuleSoft
12 10 (1.65%) Palo Alto
13 9 (1.49%) VMware
14 7 (1.16%) Citrix
14 7 (1.16%) Foundry
15 6 (0.99%) Gemalto