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 27 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 76 71
Rank change year-on-year -14 -5 +54
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,135 951 1,239
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.73% 3.10% 2.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.15% 3.45% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 543 782
10th Percentile £177 £318 £313
25th Percentile £313 £433 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £544
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -2.57% -7.80%
75th Percentile £653 £675 £652
90th Percentile £775 £808 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 25 75
10th Percentile £26.60 £29.07 £22.60
25th Percentile £33.50 £33.75 £41.88
Median hourly rate £55.00 £43.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.91% -21.82% +5.77%
75th Percentile £82.13 £60.75 £67.26
90th Percentile £85.50 £77.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.25 £37.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +52.67% -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 36,013 27,550 38,397
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.71% 89.93% 86.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,879 17,122 25,100
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £411 £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 £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.58% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,136 871 2,197
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.03 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -1.71% -5.53%
75th Percentile £63.32 £63.75 £59.50
90th Percentile £72.96 £75.00 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.64 £35.00
% change year-on-year -20.51% -9.60% -

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 27 February 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 27 February 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 27 February 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 -14 996 £485 -8.80% 550
UK excluding London +5 587 £400 -20.00% 413
London -39 436 £562 -2.30% 209
Work from Home -10 279 £500 -11.11% 224
North of England +31 193 £375 -29.91% 75
South East +13 155 £400 -20.00% 125
Yorkshire +10 101 £525 +5.00% 26
Midlands -34 92 £500 +23.08% 64
North West +12 88 £330 -40.11% 36
West Midlands -32 68 £525 +5.00% 44
South West +5 64 £500 -9.09% 53
East of England -36 41 £500 -20.00% 57
Scotland +9 38 £610 +16.19% 35
East Midlands -19 24 £447 +25.56% 20
Wales -12 15 £160 -44.35% 14
Northern Ireland -6 5 £369 -34.44% 4
North East -15 5 £207 -64.09% 13

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 66 (5.81%) Confluence
2 42 (3.70%) Apache Spark
3 36 (3.17%) SharePoint
4 21 (1.85%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (1.59%) Apache
6 15 (1.32%) Apache Airflow
7 5 (0.44%) Jupyter
7 5 (0.44%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 5 (0.44%) Skype for Business
7 5 (0.44%) Smallworld
8 4 (0.35%) GeoServer
8 4 (0.35%) IIS
8 4 (0.35%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.26%) Ethereum
9 3 (0.26%) Hyperledger
9 3 (0.26%) SAS
10 2 (0.18%) CMS
10 2 (0.18%) nginx
10 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 39 (3.44%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.70%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.44%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.44%) Simulink
6 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.18%) Trello
7 1 (0.088%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 24 (2.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.44%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.35%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.18%) SAP BPC
6 2 (0.18%) SAP FS
6 2 (0.18%) SAP Travel Management
6 2 (0.18%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.088%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.088%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 1 (0.088%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 1 (0.088%) Maximo
7 1 (0.088%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.088%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.088%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 312 (27.49%) Azure
2 211 (18.59%) AWS
3 128 (11.28%) GCP
4 70 (6.17%) GitHub
5 63 (5.55%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.85%) Serverless
7 54 (4.76%) Microsoft 365
8 48 (4.23%) SaaS
9 43 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
10 39 (3.44%) Entra ID
11 31 (2.73%) GitHub Actions
12 21 (1.85%) Azure Data Factory
12 21 (1.85%) IaaS
13 18 (1.59%) Cloud Computing
14 17 (1.50%) AWS CloudFormation
14 17 (1.50%) Power Automate
14 17 (1.50%) PowerApps
14 17 (1.50%) Snowflake
15 16 (1.41%) Azure Machine Learning
16 14 (1.23%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 50 (4.41%) Firewall
2 34 (3.00%) DNS
3 27 (2.38%) TCP/IP
4 24 (2.11%) Network Security
5 18 (1.59%) HTTP
6 15 (1.32%) Wireless
7 14 (1.23%) DHCP
7 14 (1.23%) LAN
7 14 (1.23%) SSH
7 14 (1.23%) WAN
8 13 (1.15%) Skype
8 13 (1.15%) VLAN
9 12 (1.06%) BGP
10 10 (0.88%) VPN
11 9 (0.79%) Cisco IOS
11 9 (0.79%) OSPF
12 8 (0.70%) VoIP
13 7 (0.62%) HTTPS
13 7 (0.62%) Internet
13 7 (0.62%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (6.96%) PostgreSQL
2 62 (5.46%) NoSQL
3 43 (3.79%) Data Warehouse
3 43 (3.79%) Power BI
3 43 (3.79%) Relational Database
4 40 (3.52%) SQL Server
5 39 (3.44%) Big Data
6 38 (3.35%) MySQL
7 22 (1.94%) Tableau
8 21 (1.85%) Hadoop
9 20 (1.76%) Elasticsearch
10 18 (1.59%) Metadata
10 18 (1.59%) MongoDB
11 17 (1.50%) Data Lake
12 11 (0.97%) Redis
13 9 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 8 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
14 8 (0.70%) RDBMS
14 8 (0.70%) Snowflake Schema
15 7 (0.62%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 92 (8.11%) Git
2 87 (7.67%) JIRA
3 69 (6.08%) Jenkins
4 64 (5.64%) GitLab
5 22 (1.94%) Liquibase
6 14 (1.23%) Postman
7 11 (0.97%) Selenium
8 9 (0.79%) Jaeger
8 9 (0.79%) MLflow
9 8 (0.70%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.70%) CircleCI
9 8 (0.70%) Gradle
10 7 (0.62%) JUnit
11 6 (0.53%) Cypress.io
11 6 (0.53%) Rational DOORS
11 6 (0.53%) Visual Studio
12 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.44%) PyCharm
13 4 (0.35%) Appium
13 4 (0.35%) TeamCity
General
1 533 (46.96%) Social Skills
2 291 (25.64%) Finance
3 249 (21.94%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (10.48%) Banking
5 73 (6.43%) Public Sector
6 45 (3.96%) Marketing
7 44 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
8 39 (3.44%) Financial Institution
9 36 (3.17%) Organisational Skills
9 36 (3.17%) Presentation Skills
10 33 (2.91%) Legal
11 32 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (2.29%) Front Office
13 25 (2.20%) Electronics
13 25 (2.20%) Manufacturing
13 25 (2.20%) Telecoms
14 21 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 18 (1.59%) Aerospace
15 18 (1.59%) Investment Banking
16 16 (1.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 172 (15.15%) Developer
2 110 (9.69%) Architect
3 91 (8.02%) Lead
4 89 (7.84%) Analyst
4 89 (7.84%) Senior
5 55 (4.85%) Software Engineer
6 44 (3.88%) Solutions Architect
7 37 (3.26%) Data Scientist
8 30 (2.64%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 29 (2.56%) Technical Support
10 27 (2.38%) Python Developer
11 26 (2.29%) Consultant
12 25 (2.20%) Data Engineer
13 24 (2.11%) Java Developer
14 23 (2.03%) Business Analyst
14 23 (2.03%) Cloud Engineer
14 23 (2.03%) Site Reliability Engineer
15 22 (1.94%) Site Engineer
16 21 (1.85%) IT Support
16 21 (1.85%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (9.87%) REST
2 69 (6.08%) RESTful
3 58 (5.11%) React
4 52 (4.58%) .NET
5 48 (4.23%) Elastic Stack
6 45 (3.96%) Kafka
7 43 (3.79%) Middleware
8 36 (3.17%) HTML
9 35 (3.08%) PyTorch
10 34 (3.00%) TensorFlow
11 33 (2.91%) JSON
11 33 (2.91%) OAuth
12 31 (2.73%) XML
13 30 (2.64%) Spring
14 29 (2.56%) Node.js
14 29 (2.56%) SOAP
14 29 (2.56%) Spring Boot
15 27 (2.38%) CSS
16 23 (2.03%) LangChain
17 20 (1.76%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 129 (11.37%) Management Information System
2 98 (8.63%) Cloud Native
3 89 (7.84%) Algorithms
4 62 (5.46%) Distributed Systems
5 52 (4.58%) Product Ownership
6 48 (4.23%) Onboarding
7 47 (4.14%) Data Structures
8 30 (2.64%) Equities
8 30 (2.64%) Public Cloud
9 28 (2.47%) Data Protection Act
9 28 (2.47%) Security Posture
9 28 (2.47%) Virtual Team
10 23 (2.03%) Analytical Mindset
10 23 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
11 22 (1.94%) Derivative
11 22 (1.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 21 (1.85%) AI Agents
13 20 (1.76%) Distributed Computing
14 19 (1.67%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.67%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 168 (14.80%) Linux
2 133 (11.72%) Windows
3 62 (5.46%) Unix
4 26 (2.29%) Android
5 24 (2.11%) Windows Server
6 19 (1.67%) Mac OS
7 14 (1.23%) Apple iOS
8 9 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (0.70%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.44%) VMS
11 3 (0.26%) Debian
11 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.18%) Rocky
13 1 (0.088%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.088%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.088%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 386 (34.01%) Problem-Solving
2 298 (26.26%) Agile
3 246 (21.67%) DevOps
4 230 (20.26%) CI/CD
5 223 (19.65%) AI
6 193 (17.00%) Software Engineering
7 163 (14.36%) Microservices
8 145 (12.78%) Containerisation
9 141 (12.42%) Analytics
10 137 (12.07%) Cybersecurity
11 133 (11.72%) Machine Learning
12 119 (10.48%) Continuous Improvement
12 119 (10.48%) Stakeholder Management
13 118 (10.40%) Data Science
14 113 (9.96%) Data Modelling
15 106 (9.34%) Decision-Making
15 106 (9.34%) Mathematics
16 104 (9.16%) Data Governance
17 95 (8.37%) Infrastructure as Code
18 90 (7.93%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 358 (31.54%) Python
2 203 (17.89%) SQL
3 144 (12.69%) Java
4 97 (8.55%) JavaScript
5 66 (5.81%) PowerShell
6 56 (4.93%) TypeScript
7 53 (4.67%) Go
8 49 (4.32%) C#
9 44 (3.88%) Bash
10 40 (3.52%) C++
11 20 (1.76%) Perl
11 20 (1.76%) R
12 15 (1.32%) Shell Script
13 14 (1.23%) Rust
14 12 (1.06%) Kotlin
15 9 (0.79%) Bicep
16 7 (0.62%) Ruby
16 7 (0.62%) Scala
17 6 (0.53%) MATLAB
17 6 (0.53%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 939 (82.73%) Degree
2 605 (53.30%) Computer Science Degree
3 236 (20.79%) Master's Degree
4 171 (15.07%) Security Cleared
5 124 (10.93%) SC Cleared
6 73 (6.43%) CISSP
7 55 (4.85%) PhD
8 52 (4.58%) CISM
9 51 (4.49%) DBS Check
10 41 (3.61%) Azure Certification
11 36 (3.17%) TOGAF Certification
12 35 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
12 35 (3.08%) Microsoft Certification
13 32 (2.82%) Cisco Certification
14 31 (2.73%) AWS Certification
15 27 (2.38%) PMI Certification
16 26 (2.29%) DV Cleared
17 23 (2.03%) PMP
18 22 (1.94%) CompTIA Security+
19 21 (1.85%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (6.34%) QA
2 58 (5.11%) GDPR
3 57 (5.02%) Data Quality
4 47 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 36 (3.17%) NIST
6 22 (1.94%) PCI DSS
7 18 (1.59%) GRC
8 16 (1.41%) Accessibility
9 11 (0.97%) Def Stans
10 9 (0.79%) HIPAA
11 8 (0.70%) DO-254
11 8 (0.70%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
13 6 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.53%) NCSC
13 6 (0.53%) PSD2
14 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 4 (0.35%) ISO 20022
15 4 (0.35%) NIST 800
15 4 (0.35%) Solvency II
System Software
1 163 (14.36%) Docker
2 63 (5.55%) Active Directory
3 22 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.15%) Firmware
5 6 (0.53%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.44%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.44%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.26%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.18%) HDFS
8 2 (0.18%) KVM
8 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.088%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.088%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.088%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 169 (14.89%) Kubernetes
2 100 (8.81%) Terraform
3 66 (5.81%) Ansible
4 54 (4.76%) Grafana
5 45 (3.96%) Prometheus
6 21 (1.85%) Microsoft Intune
7 19 (1.67%) Puppet
8 16 (1.41%) Kibana
9 14 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.97%) SCCM
11 9 (0.79%) Kiali
12 7 (0.62%) Argo
13 6 (0.53%) WSUS
14 5 (0.44%) Progress Chef
15 4 (0.35%) SCOM
16 3 (0.26%) Control-M
17 2 (0.18%) FortiGate
17 2 (0.18%) Knative
17 2 (0.18%) logstash
17 2 (0.18%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 184 (16.21%) Microsoft
2 89 (7.84%) Splunk
3 63 (5.55%) Oracle
4 60 (5.29%) Google
5 54 (4.76%) SAP
6 41 (3.61%) Databricks
7 27 (2.38%) Cisco
7 27 (2.38%) ServiceNow
8 25 (2.20%) BiZZdesign
9 24 (2.11%) VMware
10 23 (2.03%) Informatica
10 23 (2.03%) Salesforce
11 21 (1.85%) IBM
12 17 (1.50%) Red Hat
13 16 (1.41%) Palo Alto
14 13 (1.15%) CheckPoint
14 13 (1.15%) Okta
14 13 (1.15%) Software AG
15 12 (1.06%) Foundry
15 12 (1.06%) MuleSoft