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 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 73 79
Rank change year-on-year -12 +6 +56
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,106 996 1,164
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.99% 3.15% 2.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.41% 3.55% 3.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 717 580 777
10th Percentile £175 £350 £327
25th Percentile £313 £450 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £650 £685 £675
90th Percentile £775 £838 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 23 42
10th Percentile £26.63 £28.36 £35.50
25th Percentile £33.50 £33.75 £49.44
Median hourly rate £34.25 £43.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.35% -25.22% +5.99%
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.75 £67.88
90th Percentile £86.32 £68.95 £77.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £36.38 £57.50
% change year-on-year -7.90% -36.74% +9.52%

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 32,475 28,042 37,290
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.84% 88.72% 87.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,506 17,042 24,746
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £744 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,987 893 1,582
10th Percentile £14.52 £15.62 £14.18
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.50 £18.18
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -19.75% +15.71%
75th Percentile £56.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.39 £74.97 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £43.83
% change year-on-year -21.76% -30.52% +51.12%

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 14 January 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 14 January 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 14 January 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 -7 986 £475 -13.64% 1,268
UK excluding London +12 551 £400 -20.00% 1,100
London -36 457 £553 -5.06% 300
Work from Home -7 277 £472 -17.91% 636
North of England +42 185 £360 -31.43% 183
South East +26 135 £318 -36.50% 413
Yorkshire +29 100 £475 -5.00% 65
Midlands -18 100 £496 -0.80% 121
North West +18 83 £350 -33.33% 83
West Midlands -22 67 £525 +5.00% 53
South West +8 59 £500 -24.81% 117
Scotland -2 40 £500 +5.26% 37
East Midlands -8 33 £447 +25.56% 65
East of England -35 32 £403 -26.82% 181
Wales -6 12 £160 -43.86% 50
Northern Ireland -7 4 - - 26
North East -13 3 £216 -57.95% 37

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 56 (5.06%) Confluence
2 40 (3.62%) SharePoint
3 31 (2.80%) Apache Spark
4 20 (1.81%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (1.27%) Apache
6 12 (1.08%) Apache Airflow
7 7 (0.63%) Jupyter
7 7 (0.63%) nginx
8 6 (0.54%) IIS
9 5 (0.45%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.45%) Smallworld
10 4 (0.36%) GeoServer
10 4 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 4 (0.36%) SAS
11 3 (0.27%) Ethereum
11 3 (0.27%) Hyperledger
11 3 (0.27%) Luigi
11 3 (0.27%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.18%) OpenStack
Applications
1 44 (3.98%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.45%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.45%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.45%) Simulink
5 1 (0.090%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.090%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 23 (2.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.36%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.27%) Oracle General Ledger
4 3 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
4 3 (0.27%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.18%) Maximo
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle EBS R12
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.18%) SAP BPC
5 2 (0.18%) SAP CX
5 2 (0.18%) SAP FS
5 2 (0.18%) SAP PLM
5 2 (0.18%) SAP Travel Management
6 1 (0.090%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 269 (24.32%) Azure
2 205 (18.54%) AWS
3 115 (10.40%) GCP
4 69 (6.24%) GitHub
5 68 (6.15%) Power Platform
6 64 (5.79%) Serverless
7 47 (4.25%) Microsoft 365
8 41 (3.71%) SaaS
9 38 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
10 30 (2.71%) GitHub Actions
11 25 (2.26%) Entra ID
12 20 (1.81%) Azure Data Factory
12 20 (1.81%) Cloud Computing
13 19 (1.72%) IaaS
13 19 (1.72%) Power Automate
13 19 (1.72%) PowerApps
13 19 (1.72%) Snowflake
14 18 (1.63%) AWS Lambda
15 16 (1.45%) Azure Machine Learning
16 15 (1.36%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 43 (3.89%) Firewall
2 33 (2.98%) DNS
3 21 (1.90%) HTTP
4 18 (1.63%) Network Security
5 17 (1.54%) DHCP
5 17 (1.54%) TCP/IP
6 15 (1.36%) SSH
6 15 (1.36%) Wireless
7 14 (1.27%) VPN
8 13 (1.18%) Skype
9 11 (0.99%) VoIP
10 9 (0.81%) BGP
10 9 (0.81%) Cisco IOS
10 9 (0.81%) Internet
11 8 (0.72%) LAN
11 8 (0.72%) WAN
12 7 (0.63%) IPv4
12 7 (0.63%) Unified Communications
12 7 (0.63%) VLAN
13 6 (0.54%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (5.79%) NoSQL
2 61 (5.52%) PostgreSQL
3 59 (5.33%) Relational Database
4 48 (4.34%) Power BI
5 41 (3.71%) Data Warehouse
6 38 (3.44%) SQL Server
7 34 (3.07%) MySQL
8 30 (2.71%) Big Data
9 26 (2.35%) Tableau
10 17 (1.54%) Elasticsearch
11 14 (1.27%) MongoDB
12 11 (0.99%) Hadoop
13 10 (0.90%) RDBMS
13 10 (0.90%) Redis
14 9 (0.81%) Metadata
15 8 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
15 8 (0.72%) Apache Cassandra
15 8 (0.72%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 7 (0.63%) Data Lake
16 7 (0.63%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 93 (8.41%) JIRA
2 89 (8.05%) Git
3 74 (6.69%) Jenkins
4 64 (5.79%) GitLab
5 25 (2.26%) Liquibase
6 17 (1.54%) Postman
7 14 (1.27%) Selenium
8 10 (0.90%) Artifactory
8 10 (0.90%) JUnit
8 10 (0.90%) Visual Studio
9 9 (0.81%) Bitbucket
9 9 (0.81%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.72%) CircleCI
11 7 (0.63%) Jaeger
11 7 (0.63%) MLflow
11 7 (0.63%) SonarQube
12 6 (0.54%) Appium
12 6 (0.54%) Cucumber
12 6 (0.54%) TeamCity
13 5 (0.45%) Gradle
General
1 509 (46.02%) Social Skills
2 286 (25.86%) Finance
3 257 (23.24%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (11.21%) Banking
5 66 (5.97%) Public Sector
6 41 (3.71%) Marketing
7 40 (3.62%) Financial Institution
8 33 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
9 32 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
10 31 (2.80%) Legal
11 30 (2.71%) Front Office
12 29 (2.62%) Telecoms
13 27 (2.44%) Investment Banking
13 27 (2.44%) Presentation Skills
14 25 (2.26%) Manufacturing
15 24 (2.17%) Electronics
16 14 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 12 (1.08%) Military
18 11 (0.99%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 200 (18.08%) Developer
2 95 (8.59%) Analyst
3 93 (8.41%) Architect
4 85 (7.69%) Senior
5 76 (6.87%) Lead
6 57 (5.15%) Software Engineer
7 38 (3.44%) Solutions Architect
8 31 (2.80%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 30 (2.71%) Data Scientist
10 29 (2.62%) Senior Developer
11 27 (2.44%) Business Analyst
12 25 (2.26%) IT Support
12 25 (2.26%) Java Developer
12 25 (2.26%) Technical Support
13 24 (2.17%) Consultant
13 24 (2.17%) Python Developer
14 22 (1.99%) Python Engineer
15 21 (1.90%) AWS Engineer
15 21 (1.90%) Data Engineer
15 21 (1.90%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (11.03%) REST
2 78 (7.05%) RESTful
3 59 (5.33%) .NET
4 52 (4.70%) HTML
5 47 (4.25%) Elastic Stack
6 44 (3.98%) Middleware
7 43 (3.89%) React
8 40 (3.62%) JSON
8 40 (3.62%) XML
9 39 (3.53%) CSS
9 39 (3.53%) Kafka
9 39 (3.53%) OAuth
10 36 (3.25%) SOAP
11 32 (2.89%) Node.js
12 31 (2.80%) TensorFlow
13 30 (2.71%) PyTorch
14 28 (2.53%) LangChain
15 25 (2.26%) Spring
16 21 (1.90%) AngularJS
16 21 (1.90%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 117 (10.58%) Management Information System
2 87 (7.87%) Algorithms
3 85 (7.69%) Cloud Native
4 56 (5.06%) Distributed Systems
5 50 (4.52%) Data Structures
5 50 (4.52%) Product Ownership
6 34 (3.07%) Public Cloud
7 28 (2.53%) Data Protection Act
8 27 (2.44%) Equities
9 25 (2.26%) Security Posture
10 23 (2.08%) Derivative
11 22 (1.99%) Mobile App
12 21 (1.90%) Data Centre
12 21 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
12 21 (1.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 21 (1.90%) Onboarding
12 21 (1.90%) Virtual Team
13 19 (1.72%) AI Agents
14 18 (1.63%) Analytical Mindset
14 18 (1.63%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 167 (15.10%) Linux
2 120 (10.85%) Windows
3 62 (5.61%) Unix
4 28 (2.53%) Android
5 24 (2.17%) Windows Server
6 21 (1.90%) Mac OS
7 17 (1.54%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 7 (0.63%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.18%) Debian
9 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.18%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.18%) VMS
10 1 (0.090%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.090%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 372 (33.63%) Problem-Solving
2 315 (28.48%) Agile
3 239 (21.61%) DevOps
4 218 (19.71%) CI/CD
5 186 (16.82%) AI
6 181 (16.37%) Software Engineering
7 147 (13.29%) Microservices
8 134 (12.12%) Containerisation
9 118 (10.67%) Machine Learning
10 114 (10.31%) Analytics
11 113 (10.22%) Cybersecurity
12 107 (9.67%) Stakeholder Management
13 106 (9.58%) Data Modelling
14 103 (9.31%) Continuous Improvement
14 103 (9.31%) Data Science
14 103 (9.31%) Mathematics
15 94 (8.50%) Decision-Making
16 86 (7.78%) Change Management
17 85 (7.69%) Test Automation
18 84 (7.59%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 364 (32.91%) Python
2 198 (17.90%) SQL
3 153 (13.83%) Java
4 115 (10.40%) JavaScript
5 62 (5.61%) PowerShell
6 61 (5.52%) TypeScript
7 58 (5.24%) C#
8 50 (4.52%) Go
9 48 (4.34%) Bash
9 48 (4.34%) C++
10 24 (2.17%) Perl
11 18 (1.63%) R
12 16 (1.45%) Kotlin
13 12 (1.08%) Rust
14 11 (0.99%) Ruby
15 10 (0.90%) Shell Script
16 9 (0.81%) C
16 9 (0.81%) MATLAB
17 8 (0.72%) Apex Code
17 8 (0.72%) Swift
Qualifications
1 908 (82.10%) Degree
2 607 (54.88%) Computer Science Degree
3 230 (20.80%) Master's Degree
4 133 (12.03%) Security Cleared
5 96 (8.68%) SC Cleared
6 58 (5.24%) CISSP
7 52 (4.70%) DBS Check
8 51 (4.61%) PhD
9 37 (3.35%) CISM
10 35 (3.16%) Azure Certification
11 32 (2.89%) AWS Certification
11 32 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
12 28 (2.53%) PMI Certification
13 27 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
13 27 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
14 25 (2.26%) DV Cleared
15 22 (1.99%) PMP
15 22 (1.99%) TOGAF Certification
16 19 (1.72%) ITIL Certification
17 17 (1.54%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (6.51%) QA
2 64 (5.79%) GDPR
3 53 (4.79%) Data Quality
4 42 (3.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 25 (2.26%) NIST
6 16 (1.45%) Accessibility
7 15 (1.36%) GRC
8 13 (1.18%) PCI DSS
9 11 (0.99%) Def Stans
10 9 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 8 (0.72%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 8 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
11 8 (0.72%) SLA
12 6 (0.54%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.45%) DO-254
14 4 (0.36%) PSD2
15 3 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.27%) ISO 19650
15 3 (0.27%) NCSC
15 3 (0.27%) PMO
System Software
1 158 (14.29%) Docker
2 43 (3.89%) Active Directory
3 23 (2.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.81%) Firmware
5 6 (0.54%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.45%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.45%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.18%) KVM
8 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.090%) HDFS
9 1 (0.090%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.090%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 148 (13.38%) Kubernetes
2 94 (8.50%) Terraform
3 70 (6.33%) Ansible
4 55 (4.97%) Grafana
5 42 (3.80%) Prometheus
6 21 (1.90%) Puppet
7 14 (1.27%) Kibana
8 13 (1.18%) SCCM
9 11 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
11 7 (0.63%) Argo
11 7 (0.63%) Kiali
12 6 (0.54%) CSIRT
12 6 (0.54%) QRadar
12 6 (0.54%) WSUS
13 5 (0.45%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.45%) SCOM
14 3 (0.27%) Control-M
14 3 (0.27%) HP ALM
15 2 (0.18%) Knative
Vendors
1 176 (15.91%) Microsoft
2 89 (8.05%) Splunk
3 59 (5.33%) Google
4 51 (4.61%) Oracle
4 51 (4.61%) SAP
5 35 (3.16%) Databricks
6 33 (2.98%) Cisco
7 32 (2.89%) Salesforce
8 27 (2.44%) ServiceNow
9 26 (2.35%) VMware
10 20 (1.81%) IBM
11 17 (1.54%) Red Hat
12 15 (1.36%) Informatica
13 13 (1.18%) BiZZdesign
13 13 (1.18%) MuleSoft
13 13 (1.18%) OpenAI
13 13 (1.18%) Palo Alto
14 11 (0.99%) Foundry
15 10 (0.90%) Atlassian
15 10 (0.90%) Fortinet