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

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 79 72
Rank change year-on-year -8 -7 +58
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,115 925 1,263
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.80% 3.02% 2.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.22% 3.37% 3.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 710 517 805
10th Percentile £176 £335 £320
25th Percentile £313 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £491 £528 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.92% -4.09% -7.56%
75th Percentile £652 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £800 £783
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £505 £500
% change year-on-year -20.79% +1.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 22 74
10th Percentile £26.20 £30.78 £23.90
25th Percentile £26.75 £33.75 £42.50
Median hourly rate £33.50 £44.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.86% -20.00% +5.77%
75th Percentile £64.00 £60.25 £66.83
90th Percentile £70.50 £70.65 £74.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £37.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -10.67% -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 34,650 27,474 38,981
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.87% 89.55% 87.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,945 16,847 25,520
10th Percentile £310 £306 £300
25th Percentile £409 £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 £479 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -3.23% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,102 836 2,133
10th Percentile £14.55 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -4.41% -1.68%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.78 £35.00
% change year-on-year -18.29% -12.06% +7.69%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -11 977 £478 -9.95% 734
UK excluding London -2 560 £400 -20.79% 570
London -26 447 £550 - 239
Work from Home -13 272 £500 -11.11% 330
North of England +41 189 £371 -29.29% 96
South East +11 138 £361 -27.75% 220
Yorkshire +19 100 £525 +2.44% 27
Midlands -33 92 £500 +15.94% 95
North West +13 85 £328 -38.79% 51
West Midlands -31 66 £525 +5.00% 64
South West +5 60 £520 -16.80% 49
Scotland +5 41 £610 +22.00% 39
East of England -35 37 £528 -15.60% 65
East Midlands -15 26 £447 +25.56% 31
Wales -10 15 £160 -44.35% 15
North East -11 5 £207 -64.09% 20
Northern Ireland -5 4 - - 6

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 64 (5.74%) Confluence
2 41 (3.68%) Apache Spark
3 35 (3.14%) SharePoint
4 21 (1.88%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.43%) Apache
6 15 (1.35%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.54%) Jupyter
8 5 (0.45%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 5 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 5 (0.45%) Smallworld
9 4 (0.36%) GeoServer
9 4 (0.36%) IIS
9 4 (0.36%) Palantir Foundry
9 4 (0.36%) SAS
10 3 (0.27%) Ethereum
10 3 (0.27%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 2 (0.18%) nginx
11 2 (0.18%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 37 (3.32%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.54%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.45%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.45%) Simulink
6 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.090%) Trello
Business Applications
1 23 (2.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (0.90%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.45%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.36%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.27%) 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 (0.090%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.090%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 1 (0.090%) Maximo
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.090%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.090%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.090%) SAP SM
Cloud Services
1 305 (27.35%) Azure
2 208 (18.65%) AWS
3 128 (11.48%) GCP
4 71 (6.37%) GitHub
5 65 (5.83%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.93%) Microsoft 365
7 54 (4.84%) Serverless
8 46 (4.13%) SaaS
9 44 (3.95%) Azure DevOps
10 33 (2.96%) GitHub Actions
11 32 (2.87%) Entra ID
12 21 (1.88%) IaaS
13 19 (1.70%) Azure Data Factory
13 19 (1.70%) Power Automate
13 19 (1.70%) PowerApps
14 18 (1.61%) Cloud Computing
14 18 (1.61%) Snowflake
15 17 (1.52%) AWS CloudFormation
16 16 (1.43%) Azure Machine Learning
17 14 (1.26%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 48 (4.30%) Firewall
2 34 (3.05%) DNS
3 25 (2.24%) Network Security
4 23 (2.06%) TCP/IP
5 19 (1.70%) HTTP
6 14 (1.26%) DHCP
6 14 (1.26%) SSH
7 13 (1.17%) Skype
8 12 (1.08%) BGP
8 12 (1.08%) Wireless
9 11 (0.99%) LAN
9 11 (0.99%) WAN
10 10 (0.90%) VLAN
10 10 (0.90%) VPN
11 9 (0.81%) Cisco IOS
11 9 (0.81%) OSPF
11 9 (0.81%) VoIP
12 7 (0.63%) HTTPS
12 7 (0.63%) Internet
12 7 (0.63%) IPv4
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (7.00%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (5.65%) NoSQL
3 45 (4.04%) Power BI
3 45 (4.04%) Relational Database
4 44 (3.95%) Data Warehouse
5 42 (3.77%) SQL Server
6 39 (3.50%) MySQL
7 38 (3.41%) Big Data
8 23 (2.06%) Tableau
9 20 (1.79%) Elasticsearch
9 20 (1.79%) Hadoop
10 18 (1.61%) Metadata
11 17 (1.52%) Data Lake
12 16 (1.43%) MongoDB
13 11 (0.99%) Redis
14 8 (0.72%) RDBMS
14 8 (0.72%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 7 (0.63%) KDB
15 7 (0.63%) OLAP
15 7 (0.63%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 90 (8.07%) Git
2 87 (7.80%) JIRA
3 71 (6.37%) Jenkins
4 61 (5.47%) GitLab
5 22 (1.97%) Liquibase
6 15 (1.35%) Postman
7 12 (1.08%) Selenium
8 10 (0.90%) MLflow
9 9 (0.81%) CircleCI
9 9 (0.81%) Jaeger
10 8 (0.72%) Bitbucket
10 8 (0.72%) Gradle
10 8 (0.72%) Visual Studio
11 7 (0.63%) JUnit
12 6 (0.54%) Cypress.io
13 5 (0.45%) Appium
13 5 (0.45%) Cucumber
13 5 (0.45%) PyCharm
13 5 (0.45%) XCUITest
14 4 (0.36%) Katalon Studio
General
1 520 (46.64%) Social Skills
2 292 (26.19%) Finance
3 245 (21.97%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (10.67%) Banking
5 69 (6.19%) Public Sector
6 42 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
6 42 (3.77%) Marketing
7 38 (3.41%) Financial Institution
7 38 (3.41%) Organisational Skills
8 33 (2.96%) Presentation Skills
9 32 (2.87%) Influencing Skills
10 31 (2.78%) Legal
11 29 (2.60%) Telecoms
12 28 (2.51%) Front Office
13 25 (2.24%) Electronics
14 23 (2.06%) Manufacturing
15 21 (1.88%) Investment Banking
16 20 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 15 (1.35%) Military
18 13 (1.17%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 185 (16.59%) Developer
2 106 (9.51%) Architect
3 93 (8.34%) Analyst
4 89 (7.98%) Lead
5 85 (7.62%) Senior
6 56 (5.02%) Software Engineer
7 44 (3.95%) Solutions Architect
8 35 (3.14%) Data Scientist
9 30 (2.69%) Technical Support
10 29 (2.60%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 29 (2.60%) Python Developer
11 25 (2.24%) Java Developer
12 23 (2.06%) Business Analyst
12 23 (2.06%) Consultant
12 23 (2.06%) Data Engineer
12 23 (2.06%) IT Support
12 23 (2.06%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 22 (1.97%) Cloud Engineer
13 22 (1.97%) Senior Developer
13 22 (1.97%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (9.96%) REST
2 69 (6.19%) RESTful
3 56 (5.02%) React
4 55 (4.93%) .NET
5 48 (4.30%) Elastic Stack
6 42 (3.77%) Kafka
6 42 (3.77%) Middleware
7 40 (3.59%) HTML
8 35 (3.14%) OAuth
8 35 (3.14%) PyTorch
9 34 (3.05%) JSON
9 34 (3.05%) TensorFlow
10 32 (2.87%) XML
11 31 (2.78%) Spring
12 30 (2.69%) CSS
12 30 (2.69%) SOAP
13 29 (2.60%) Node.js
14 28 (2.51%) Spring Boot
15 25 (2.24%) LangChain
16 21 (1.88%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 129 (11.57%) Management Information System
2 97 (8.70%) Cloud Native
3 86 (7.71%) Algorithms
4 61 (5.47%) Distributed Systems
5 47 (4.22%) Data Structures
6 44 (3.95%) Product Ownership
7 43 (3.86%) Onboarding
8 30 (2.69%) Equities
8 30 (2.69%) Public Cloud
9 27 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
10 25 (2.24%) Security Posture
10 25 (2.24%) Virtual Team
11 23 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
12 22 (1.97%) Derivative
12 22 (1.97%) Distributed Computing
12 22 (1.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 20 (1.79%) AI Agents
13 20 (1.79%) Mobile App
14 19 (1.70%) Data Centre
15 18 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 170 (15.25%) Linux
2 129 (11.57%) Windows
3 63 (5.65%) Unix
4 26 (2.33%) Android
5 25 (2.24%) Windows Server
6 18 (1.61%) Mac OS
7 15 (1.35%) Apple iOS
8 9 (0.81%) Windows 10
9 8 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.45%) VMS
11 2 (0.18%) Debian
11 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.18%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.090%) Embedded Linux
12 1 (0.090%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.090%) Rocky
12 1 (0.090%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 384 (34.44%) Problem-Solving
2 293 (26.28%) Agile
3 242 (21.70%) DevOps
4 227 (20.36%) CI/CD
5 218 (19.55%) AI
6 192 (17.22%) Software Engineering
7 161 (14.44%) Microservices
8 145 (13.00%) Containerisation
9 137 (12.29%) Analytics
10 133 (11.93%) Cybersecurity
11 131 (11.75%) Machine Learning
12 116 (10.40%) Data Science
13 115 (10.31%) Stakeholder Management
14 111 (9.96%) Data Modelling
15 103 (9.24%) Continuous Improvement
15 103 (9.24%) Mathematics
16 100 (8.97%) Data Governance
17 99 (8.88%) Decision-Making
18 94 (8.43%) Infrastructure as Code
19 86 (7.71%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 359 (32.20%) Python
2 208 (18.65%) SQL
3 144 (12.91%) Java
4 103 (9.24%) JavaScript
5 59 (5.29%) TypeScript
6 58 (5.20%) PowerShell
7 52 (4.66%) C#
7 52 (4.66%) Go
8 44 (3.95%) Bash
9 42 (3.77%) C++
10 22 (1.97%) Perl
11 18 (1.61%) R
12 16 (1.43%) Shell Script
13 14 (1.26%) Rust
14 12 (1.08%) Kotlin
15 9 (0.81%) Bicep
16 8 (0.72%) C
16 8 (0.72%) MATLAB
16 8 (0.72%) Ruby
17 7 (0.63%) Scala
Qualifications
1 916 (82.15%) Degree
2 600 (53.81%) Computer Science Degree
3 239 (21.43%) Master's Degree
4 153 (13.72%) Security Cleared
5 114 (10.22%) SC Cleared
6 69 (6.19%) CISSP
7 53 (4.75%) PhD
8 50 (4.48%) CISM
8 50 (4.48%) DBS Check
9 38 (3.41%) Azure Certification
10 36 (3.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 33 (2.96%) Microsoft Certification
11 33 (2.96%) TOGAF Certification
12 30 (2.69%) AWS Certification
13 28 (2.51%) Cisco Certification
14 26 (2.33%) DV Cleared
15 25 (2.24%) PMI Certification
16 21 (1.88%) PMP
17 20 (1.79%) CompTIA Security+
18 19 (1.70%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (6.28%) QA
2 61 (5.47%) GDPR
3 53 (4.75%) Data Quality
4 47 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 33 (2.96%) NIST
6 20 (1.79%) PCI DSS
7 16 (1.43%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.43%) GRC
8 11 (0.99%) Def Stans
9 9 (0.81%) HIPAA
10 8 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
12 5 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 5 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.45%) DO-254
12 5 (0.45%) NCSC
12 5 (0.45%) PSD2
13 4 (0.36%) SLA
13 4 (0.36%) Solvency II
System Software
1 163 (14.62%) Docker
2 61 (5.47%) Active Directory
3 22 (1.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.81%) Firmware
5 5 (0.45%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
5 5 (0.45%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.36%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.18%) HDFS
7 2 (0.18%) KVM
7 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.090%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.090%) PowerHA
Systems Management
1 170 (15.25%) Kubernetes
2 100 (8.97%) Terraform
3 66 (5.92%) Ansible
4 55 (4.93%) Grafana
5 45 (4.04%) Prometheus
6 20 (1.79%) Puppet
7 18 (1.61%) Microsoft Intune
8 16 (1.43%) Kibana
9 13 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (1.08%) SCCM
11 9 (0.81%) Kiali
12 7 (0.63%) Argo
13 6 (0.54%) WSUS
14 5 (0.45%) Progress Chef
15 4 (0.36%) SCOM
16 3 (0.27%) Control-M
17 2 (0.18%) CSIRT
17 2 (0.18%) Knative
17 2 (0.18%) Kubeflow
17 2 (0.18%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 181 (16.23%) Microsoft
2 90 (8.07%) Splunk
3 64 (5.74%) Oracle
4 60 (5.38%) Google
5 52 (4.66%) SAP
6 40 (3.59%) Databricks
7 29 (2.60%) Cisco
8 28 (2.51%) Salesforce
9 25 (2.24%) BiZZdesign
9 25 (2.24%) VMware
10 24 (2.15%) ServiceNow
11 23 (2.06%) Informatica
12 18 (1.61%) IBM
13 16 (1.43%) Red Hat
14 14 (1.26%) MuleSoft
15 13 (1.17%) Palo Alto
16 12 (1.08%) CyberArk
16 12 (1.08%) Fortinet
16 12 (1.08%) OpenAI
16 12 (1.08%) Software AG