Computer Science Contract Job Trends

Computer Science
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Computer Science skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 71 74
Rank change year-on-year -21 +3 +48
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,183 958 1,231
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.76% 3.25% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.21% 3.60% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 738 566 768
10th Percentile £175 £300 £318
25th Percentile £304 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.57% -4.55% -6.14%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £674
90th Percentile £766 £824 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 28 85
10th Percentile £26.75 £26.80 £23.00
25th Percentile £36.25 £30.78 £42.50
Median hourly rate £81.50 £42.75 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +90.64% -22.27% +4.76%
75th Percentile £88.00 £64.31 £66.25
90th Percentile - £82.46 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £81.50 £37.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +117.33% -31.82% +10.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Computer Science 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 36,854 26,627 38,581
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.05% 90.37% 86.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,339 16,995 25,088
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,197 898 2,338
10th Percentile £14.82 £15.48 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.36 £32.50 £31.50
% change year-on-year -15.82% +3.17% -10.00%

Computer Science
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Computer Science job vacancy trend in the UK

Computer Science
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Computer Science
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Computer Science over the 6 months to 13 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Computer Science in the UK

Computer Science
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Computer Science
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Computer Science over the 6 months to 13 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Computer Science in the UK

Computer Science
Top 17 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 within the UK over the 6 months to 13 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 -15 1,046 £475 -9.52% 821
UK excluding London -8 616 £400 -20.00% 606
London -31 454 £553 -7.83% 343
Work from Home -12 280 £510 -9.33% 315
South East +10 191 £350 -30.00% 204
North of England +21 190 £367 -32.21% 120
Yorkshire +15 98 £516 +3.25% 44
Midlands -41 89 £475 +31.40% 86
North West +3 88 £325 -41.02% 60
West Midlands -49 64 £475 +143.59% 50
South West -13 61 £500 -9.09% 68
East of England -34 42 £405 -36.47% 75
Scotland +1 36 £610 +13.49% 46
East Midlands -21 25 £447 +23.65% 36
Wales -16 15 £160 -44.35% 17
North East -12 5 £207 -64.09% 16
Northern Ireland -3 4 £369 -38.54% 7

Computer Science
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 70 (5.92%) Confluence
2 44 (3.72%) Apache Spark
3 34 (2.87%) SharePoint
4 19 (1.61%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (1.52%) Apache
6 14 (1.18%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.51%) Jupyter
8 5 (0.42%) Smallworld
9 4 (0.34%) GeoServer
9 4 (0.34%) IIS
9 4 (0.34%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.25%) Ethereum
10 3 (0.25%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.17%) CMS
11 2 (0.17%) SAS
11 2 (0.17%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 36 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.93%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.42%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.42%) Simulink
6 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.17%) Trello
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 23 (1.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.42%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.34%) Aladdin
4 4 (0.34%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.17%) SAP BPC
6 2 (0.17%) SAP FS
6 2 (0.17%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.085%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.085%) Maximo
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle HRMS
7 1 (0.085%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.085%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.085%) SAP SM
Cloud Services
1 331 (27.98%) Azure
2 211 (17.84%) AWS
3 123 (10.40%) GCP
4 71 (6.00%) GitHub
5 70 (5.92%) Power Platform
6 53 (4.48%) Microsoft 365
7 48 (4.06%) SaaS
8 47 (3.97%) Azure DevOps
9 44 (3.72%) Serverless
10 42 (3.55%) Entra ID
11 30 (2.54%) GitHub Actions
12 22 (1.86%) Azure Data Factory
12 22 (1.86%) IaaS
12 22 (1.86%) Snowflake
13 19 (1.61%) Cloud Computing
14 18 (1.52%) Azure Machine Learning
15 17 (1.44%) AWS CloudFormation
15 17 (1.44%) Power Automate
15 17 (1.44%) PowerApps
16 15 (1.27%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 50 (4.23%) Firewall
2 33 (2.79%) DNS
3 28 (2.37%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.86%) Network Security
5 17 (1.44%) HTTP
6 16 (1.35%) WAN
7 15 (1.27%) BGP
8 14 (1.18%) LAN
9 13 (1.10%) SSH
9 13 (1.10%) VLAN
9 13 (1.10%) Wireless
10 11 (0.93%) DHCP
10 11 (0.93%) VPN
11 10 (0.85%) IPv4
11 10 (0.85%) OSPF
11 10 (0.85%) Skype
12 9 (0.76%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (0.68%) VoIP
14 7 (0.59%) HTTPS
14 7 (0.59%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (6.76%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (4.65%) NoSQL
3 53 (4.48%) Power BI
4 45 (3.80%) Data Warehouse
5 44 (3.72%) Relational Database
5 44 (3.72%) SQL Server
6 41 (3.47%) Big Data
7 35 (2.96%) MySQL
8 26 (2.20%) Tableau
9 23 (1.94%) Hadoop
10 20 (1.69%) Metadata
11 18 (1.52%) MongoDB
12 17 (1.44%) Data Lake
12 17 (1.44%) Elasticsearch
13 11 (0.93%) Redis
13 11 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 10 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
15 8 (0.68%) Snowflake Schema
16 7 (0.59%) KDB
16 7 (0.59%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 101 (8.54%) Git
2 92 (7.78%) JIRA
3 65 (5.49%) Jenkins
4 58 (4.90%) GitLab
5 26 (2.20%) Rational DOORS
6 12 (1.01%) Postman
7 11 (0.93%) Liquibase
7 11 (0.93%) MLflow
7 11 (0.93%) Selenium
8 9 (0.76%) Jaeger
9 8 (0.68%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.68%) CircleCI
9 8 (0.68%) Gradle
10 7 (0.59%) JUnit
11 6 (0.51%) Cypress.io
12 5 (0.42%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.42%) PyCharm
12 5 (0.42%) Visual Studio
13 4 (0.34%) Artifactory
13 4 (0.34%) TeamCity
General
1 523 (44.21%) Social Skills
2 292 (24.68%) Finance
3 257 (21.72%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (9.64%) Banking
5 77 (6.51%) Public Sector
6 47 (3.97%) Marketing
7 45 (3.80%) Documentation Skills
8 43 (3.63%) Aerospace
9 40 (3.38%) Legal
10 37 (3.13%) Presentation Skills
11 36 (3.04%) Influencing Skills
12 33 (2.79%) Financial Institution
13 32 (2.70%) Telecoms
14 30 (2.54%) Front Office
14 30 (2.54%) Organisational Skills
15 27 (2.28%) Electronics
16 23 (1.94%) Manufacturing
17 22 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 21 (1.78%) Investment Banking
19 17 (1.44%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 169 (14.29%) Developer
2 117 (9.89%) Architect
3 95 (8.03%) Lead
4 92 (7.78%) Analyst
5 83 (7.02%) Senior
6 45 (3.80%) Software Engineer
6 45 (3.80%) Solutions Architect
7 40 (3.38%) Data Scientist
8 36 (3.04%) Delivery Manager
9 33 (2.79%) Product Manager
10 32 (2.70%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 30 (2.54%) Python Developer
12 28 (2.37%) Business Analyst
13 27 (2.28%) Technical Support
14 26 (2.20%) Consultant
14 26 (2.20%) Product Delivery Manager
15 23 (1.94%) Java Developer
16 22 (1.86%) Security Engineer
16 22 (1.86%) Systems Delivery Manager
16 22 (1.86%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (8.71%) REST
2 61 (5.16%) RESTful
3 58 (4.90%) React
4 52 (4.40%) .NET
5 44 (3.72%) Kafka
6 42 (3.55%) Middleware
7 40 (3.38%) PyTorch
8 39 (3.30%) TensorFlow
9 38 (3.21%) Elastic Stack
10 34 (2.87%) HTML
10 34 (2.87%) OAuth
11 33 (2.79%) Spring
12 32 (2.70%) JSON
13 31 (2.62%) XML
14 29 (2.45%) Spring Boot
15 28 (2.37%) Node.js
16 27 (2.28%) CSS
16 27 (2.28%) SOAP
17 23 (1.94%) LangChain
18 22 (1.86%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 123 (10.40%) Management Information System
2 98 (8.28%) Algorithms
3 94 (7.95%) Cloud Native
4 79 (6.68%) Product Ownership
5 66 (5.58%) Data Structures
6 57 (4.82%) Distributed Systems
6 57 (4.82%) Onboarding
7 33 (2.79%) Equities
8 31 (2.62%) Virtual Team
9 26 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (2.20%) Derivative
10 24 (2.03%) AI Agents
10 24 (2.03%) Distributed Computing
10 24 (2.03%) Security Posture
11 23 (1.94%) Data Centre
11 23 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
12 22 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
12 22 (1.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 21 (1.78%) Public Cloud
14 19 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 153 (12.93%) Linux
2 129 (10.90%) Windows
3 55 (4.65%) Unix
4 24 (2.03%) Android
5 21 (1.78%) Windows Server
6 18 (1.52%) Mac OS
7 12 (1.01%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (0.59%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.42%) VMS
11 3 (0.25%) Debian
11 3 (0.25%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.17%) Rocky
13 1 (0.085%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.085%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.085%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 378 (31.95%) Problem-Solving
2 325 (27.47%) Agile
3 247 (20.88%) AI
4 239 (20.20%) DevOps
5 237 (20.03%) CI/CD
6 192 (16.23%) Software Engineering
7 157 (13.27%) Microservices
8 151 (12.76%) Continuous Improvement
9 143 (12.09%) Analytics
10 142 (12.00%) Machine Learning
11 136 (11.50%) Containerisation
12 134 (11.33%) Cybersecurity
13 123 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
14 120 (10.14%) Data Science
15 114 (9.64%) Data Governance
16 113 (9.55%) Data Modelling
17 110 (9.30%) Decision-Making
18 108 (9.13%) Mathematics
19 103 (8.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 93 (7.86%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 359 (30.35%) Python
2 209 (17.67%) SQL
3 140 (11.83%) Java
4 90 (7.61%) JavaScript
5 63 (5.33%) PowerShell
6 59 (4.99%) TypeScript
7 48 (4.06%) C#
8 42 (3.55%) Go
9 40 (3.38%) Bash
10 37 (3.13%) C++
11 21 (1.78%) R
12 18 (1.52%) Perl
13 16 (1.35%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.18%) Rust
15 10 (0.85%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.68%) Bicep
16 8 (0.68%) Scala
17 7 (0.59%) Ruby
18 6 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 6 (0.51%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 970 (81.99%) Degree
2 604 (51.06%) Computer Science Degree
3 223 (18.85%) Master's Degree
4 202 (17.08%) Security Cleared
5 124 (10.48%) SC Cleared
6 76 (6.42%) CISSP
7 57 (4.82%) DBS Check
8 55 (4.65%) PhD
9 52 (4.40%) CISM
10 44 (3.72%) Azure Certification
11 36 (3.04%) TOGAF Certification
12 33 (2.79%) PMI Certification
13 31 (2.62%) Microsoft Certification
14 29 (2.45%) AWS Certification
14 29 (2.45%) BPSS Clearance
14 29 (2.45%) Cisco Certification
15 28 (2.37%) DV Cleared
15 28 (2.37%) PMP
16 23 (1.94%) CompTIA Security+
17 18 (1.52%) CompTIA CySA+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (5.92%) QA
2 60 (5.07%) GDPR
3 56 (4.73%) Data Quality
4 50 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 45 (3.80%) NIST
6 22 (1.86%) PCI DSS
7 15 (1.27%) Accessibility
8 14 (1.18%) GRC
9 10 (0.85%) NCSC
10 9 (0.76%) HIPAA
10 9 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 8 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
11 8 (0.68%) DO-254
11 8 (0.68%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.51%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.51%) PSD2
13 5 (0.42%) COBIT
13 5 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 4 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 159 (13.44%) Docker
2 60 (5.07%) Active Directory
3 20 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.10%) Firmware
5 6 (0.51%) VMware NSX
6 3 (0.25%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.17%) KVM
7 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.17%) vSphere
8 1 (0.085%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.085%) HDFS
8 1 (0.085%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.085%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 167 (14.12%) Kubernetes
2 90 (7.61%) Terraform
3 60 (5.07%) Ansible
4 50 (4.23%) Grafana
5 41 (3.47%) Prometheus
6 21 (1.78%) Microsoft Intune
7 16 (1.35%) Puppet
7 16 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (1.10%) Kibana
9 9 (0.76%) Kiali
10 8 (0.68%) Argo
10 8 (0.68%) SCCM
11 5 (0.42%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.34%) SCOM
13 3 (0.25%) Control-M
13 3 (0.25%) Foglight
13 3 (0.25%) Kubeflow
13 3 (0.25%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.25%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.25%) WSUS
Vendors
1 187 (15.81%) Microsoft
2 72 (6.09%) Splunk
3 63 (5.33%) Google
4 58 (4.90%) Oracle
5 51 (4.31%) Databricks
6 50 (4.23%) SAP
7 39 (3.30%) IBM
8 27 (2.28%) ServiceNow
9 25 (2.11%) BiZZdesign
9 25 (2.11%) Cisco
10 22 (1.86%) Informatica
10 22 (1.86%) VMware
11 21 (1.78%) Salesforce
12 18 (1.52%) Palo Alto
13 17 (1.44%) Red Hat
14 15 (1.27%) Okta
15 13 (1.10%) CheckPoint
16 12 (1.01%) Foundry
16 12 (1.01%) OpenAI
16 12 (1.01%) Software AG