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

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 76 73
Rank change year-on-year -14 -3 +57
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,123 968 1,222
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.87% 3.11% 2.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.29% 3.48% 3.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 720 555 791
10th Percentile £176 £350 £313
25th Percentile £310 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -11.53% -2.27% -8.33%
75th Percentile £650 £668 £658
90th Percentile £775 £800 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 23 73
10th Percentile £26.50 £30.78 £28.66
25th Percentile £33.50 £33.75 £42.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% -18.18% +4.76%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.25 £67.02
90th Percentile £69.44 £70.30 £74.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £37.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -10.67% -31.82% +4.76%

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 34,126 27,826 38,980
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.15% 89.30% 87.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,616 16,956 25,656
10th Percentile £306 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £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 £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £497 £500
% change year-on-year -3.47% -0.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,067 860 2,108
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £16.45
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +9.38%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.55 £61.31
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £30.88 £35.50
% change year-on-year -19.03% -13.03% +18.89%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -10 984 £475 -13.64% 815
UK excluding London +4 560 £400 -20.00% 582
London -29 457 £548 -4.78% 359
Work from Home -20 277 £475 -17.39% 400
North of England +42 191 £359 -31.62% 95
South East +12 133 £343 -31.50% 217
Yorkshire +24 102 £508 -0.98% 21
Midlands -30 93 £500 - 79
North West +18 85 £328 -37.62% 54
West Midlands -27 66 £525 +5.00% 57
South West +11 59 £520 -20.00% 58
Scotland +2 45 £600 +26.32% 37
East of England -40 37 £528 -12.08% 84
East Midlands -17 27 £447 +25.56% 22
Wales -9 14 £160 -44.83% 15
North East -12 5 £207 -64.09% 20
Northern Ireland -8 4 - - 9

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 61 (5.43%) Confluence
2 39 (3.47%) Apache Spark
3 34 (3.03%) SharePoint
4 21 (1.87%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.42%) Apache
5 16 (1.42%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.62%) Jupyter
7 5 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 5 (0.45%) Smallworld
8 4 (0.36%) GeoServer
8 4 (0.36%) IIS
8 4 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 4 (0.36%) SAS
9 3 (0.27%) Ethereum
9 3 (0.27%) Hyperledger
9 3 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.18%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
11 1 (0.089%) nginx
Applications
1 38 (3.38%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (1.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.80%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.45%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.45%) Simulink
6 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.089%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.089%) Trello
Business Applications
1 24 (2.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (0.89%) 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 CX
6 2 (0.18%) SAP FS
6 2 (0.18%) SAP Travel Management
6 2 (0.18%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.089%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.089%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 1 (0.089%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 1 (0.089%) Maximo
7 1 (0.089%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.089%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 299 (26.63%) Azure
2 202 (17.99%) AWS
3 125 (11.13%) GCP
4 65 (5.79%) Power Platform
5 64 (5.70%) GitHub
6 56 (4.99%) Microsoft 365
7 55 (4.90%) Serverless
8 47 (4.19%) SaaS
9 43 (3.83%) Azure DevOps
10 30 (2.67%) GitHub Actions
11 29 (2.58%) Entra ID
12 21 (1.87%) IaaS
13 20 (1.78%) Azure Data Factory
14 19 (1.69%) Cloud Computing
14 19 (1.69%) Power Automate
14 19 (1.69%) PowerApps
15 18 (1.60%) Azure Machine Learning
15 18 (1.60%) Snowflake
16 15 (1.34%) AWS CloudFormation
16 15 (1.34%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 45 (4.01%) Firewall
2 35 (3.12%) DNS
3 23 (2.05%) Network Security
3 23 (2.05%) TCP/IP
4 20 (1.78%) HTTP
5 14 (1.25%) DHCP
6 13 (1.16%) Skype
7 12 (1.07%) BGP
7 12 (1.07%) Wireless
8 11 (0.98%) LAN
8 11 (0.98%) WAN
9 10 (0.89%) SSH
9 10 (0.89%) VLAN
9 10 (0.89%) VPN
10 9 (0.80%) Cisco IOS
10 9 (0.80%) OSPF
10 9 (0.80%) VoIP
11 8 (0.71%) Internet
12 7 (0.62%) HTTPS
12 7 (0.62%) IPv4
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (6.50%) PostgreSQL
2 59 (5.25%) NoSQL
3 49 (4.36%) Relational Database
4 48 (4.27%) Data Warehouse
5 47 (4.19%) Power BI
6 41 (3.65%) MySQL
7 40 (3.56%) SQL Server
8 36 (3.21%) Big Data
9 26 (2.32%) Tableau
10 20 (1.78%) Elasticsearch
11 18 (1.60%) Hadoop
11 18 (1.60%) Metadata
12 15 (1.34%) Data Lake
13 13 (1.16%) MongoDB
14 11 (0.98%) Redis
15 8 (0.71%) KDB
15 8 (0.71%) Kdb+
15 8 (0.71%) RDBMS
15 8 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 7 (0.62%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 86 (7.66%) Git
2 84 (7.48%) JIRA
3 67 (5.97%) Jenkins
4 60 (5.34%) GitLab
5 22 (1.96%) Liquibase
6 17 (1.51%) Postman
7 12 (1.07%) Selenium
8 9 (0.80%) Jaeger
8 9 (0.80%) MLflow
9 8 (0.71%) Visual Studio
10 7 (0.62%) Bitbucket
11 6 (0.53%) Appium
11 6 (0.53%) CircleCI
11 6 (0.53%) Cypress.io
11 6 (0.53%) XCUITest
12 5 (0.45%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.45%) Charles Proxy
12 5 (0.45%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.45%) Katalon Studio
12 5 (0.45%) PyCharm
General
1 523 (46.57%) Social Skills
2 298 (26.54%) Finance
3 256 (22.80%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (10.51%) Banking
5 68 (6.06%) Public Sector
6 42 (3.74%) Marketing
7 40 (3.56%) Financial Institution
8 39 (3.47%) Documentation Skills
9 35 (3.12%) Organisational Skills
10 34 (3.03%) Legal
11 33 (2.94%) Presentation Skills
12 31 (2.76%) Telecoms
13 30 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
14 28 (2.49%) Front Office
15 25 (2.23%) Electronics
16 24 (2.14%) Manufacturing
17 22 (1.96%) Investment Banking
18 16 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 15 (1.34%) Military
20 13 (1.16%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 190 (16.92%) Developer
2 99 (8.82%) Analyst
3 98 (8.73%) Architect
4 88 (7.84%) Lead
5 83 (7.39%) Senior
6 54 (4.81%) Software Engineer
7 43 (3.83%) Solutions Architect
8 33 (2.94%) Data Scientist
9 30 (2.67%) Technical Support
10 28 (2.49%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 28 (2.49%) Python Developer
11 26 (2.32%) Business Analyst
12 25 (2.23%) IT Support
13 24 (2.14%) Data Engineer
13 24 (2.14%) Java Developer
14 23 (2.05%) Senior Developer
14 23 (2.05%) Site Reliability Engineer
15 22 (1.96%) Consultant
15 22 (1.96%) Site Engineer
16 20 (1.78%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (9.88%) REST
2 71 (6.32%) RESTful
3 57 (5.08%) .NET
4 48 (4.27%) Elastic Stack
5 47 (4.19%) React
6 42 (3.74%) HTML
6 42 (3.74%) Kafka
7 41 (3.65%) Middleware
8 37 (3.29%) OAuth
9 36 (3.21%) JSON
10 33 (2.94%) XML
11 32 (2.85%) CSS
12 31 (2.76%) PyTorch
12 31 (2.76%) SOAP
12 31 (2.76%) TensorFlow
13 30 (2.67%) Spring
14 29 (2.58%) Node.js
14 29 (2.58%) Spring Boot
15 27 (2.40%) LangChain
16 19 (1.69%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 131 (11.67%) Management Information System
2 92 (8.19%) Cloud Native
3 87 (7.75%) Algorithms
4 57 (5.08%) Distributed Systems
5 47 (4.19%) Data Structures
6 45 (4.01%) Product Ownership
7 35 (3.12%) Onboarding
8 30 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
8 30 (2.67%) Equities
8 30 (2.67%) Public Cloud
9 26 (2.32%) Security Posture
10 24 (2.14%) Virtual Team
11 23 (2.05%) Derivative
11 23 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (2.05%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 21 (1.87%) Distributed Computing
13 20 (1.78%) AI Agents
13 20 (1.78%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.69%) Mobile App
15 18 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 165 (14.69%) Linux
2 125 (11.13%) Windows
3 61 (5.43%) Unix
4 22 (1.96%) Windows Server
5 21 (1.87%) Android
6 17 (1.51%) Mac OS
7 12 (1.07%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.89%) Windows 10
9 6 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.36%) VMS
11 2 (0.18%) Debian
11 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.18%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.089%) Embedded Linux
12 1 (0.089%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.089%) Rocky
12 1 (0.089%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 394 (35.08%) Problem-Solving
2 299 (26.63%) Agile
3 237 (21.10%) DevOps
4 220 (19.59%) CI/CD
5 211 (18.79%) AI
6 185 (16.47%) Software Engineering
7 162 (14.43%) Microservices
8 143 (12.73%) Containerisation
9 134 (11.93%) Analytics
10 129 (11.49%) Cybersecurity
11 127 (11.31%) Machine Learning
12 116 (10.33%) Stakeholder Management
13 115 (10.24%) Data Modelling
13 115 (10.24%) Data Science
14 109 (9.71%) Continuous Improvement
15 103 (9.17%) Mathematics
16 97 (8.64%) Data Governance
16 97 (8.64%) Decision-Making
17 89 (7.93%) Infrastructure as Code
18 83 (7.39%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 358 (31.88%) Python
2 208 (18.52%) SQL
3 143 (12.73%) Java
4 104 (9.26%) JavaScript
5 58 (5.16%) TypeScript
6 57 (5.08%) PowerShell
7 51 (4.54%) C#
7 51 (4.54%) Go
8 46 (4.10%) Bash
9 45 (4.01%) C++
10 24 (2.14%) Perl
11 20 (1.78%) R
12 16 (1.42%) Shell Script
13 14 (1.25%) Rust
14 9 (0.80%) Bicep
14 9 (0.80%) C
14 9 (0.80%) Kotlin
15 8 (0.71%) MATLAB
15 8 (0.71%) Ruby
16 7 (0.62%) Scala
Qualifications
1 922 (82.10%) Degree
2 610 (54.32%) Computer Science Degree
3 243 (21.64%) Master's Degree
4 149 (13.27%) Security Cleared
5 110 (9.80%) SC Cleared
6 65 (5.79%) CISSP
7 52 (4.63%) DBS Check
7 52 (4.63%) PhD
8 45 (4.01%) CISM
9 41 (3.65%) Azure Certification
10 34 (3.03%) Microsoft Certification
11 32 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
12 31 (2.76%) AWS Certification
13 30 (2.67%) TOGAF Certification
14 29 (2.58%) PMI Certification
15 27 (2.40%) Cisco Certification
16 26 (2.32%) DV Cleared
17 22 (1.96%) PMP
18 20 (1.78%) CompTIA Security+
19 19 (1.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (6.59%) QA
2 61 (5.43%) GDPR
3 54 (4.81%) Data Quality
4 43 (3.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 28 (2.49%) NIST
6 18 (1.60%) PCI DSS
7 17 (1.51%) GRC
8 16 (1.42%) Accessibility
9 11 (0.98%) Def Stans
10 9 (0.80%) HIPAA
11 7 (0.62%) PSD2
11 7 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.53%) SLA
13 5 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
13 5 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 5 (0.45%) DO-254
13 5 (0.45%) ISO 20022
14 4 (0.36%) NCSC
14 4 (0.36%) Solvency II
System Software
1 162 (14.43%) Docker
2 56 (4.99%) Active Directory
3 23 (2.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.80%) Firmware
5 6 (0.53%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.45%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.36%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.18%) KVM
8 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.089%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.089%) HDFS
9 1 (0.089%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.089%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 164 (14.60%) Kubernetes
2 98 (8.73%) Terraform
3 66 (5.88%) Ansible
4 57 (5.08%) Grafana
5 45 (4.01%) Prometheus
6 20 (1.78%) Puppet
7 17 (1.51%) Microsoft Intune
8 16 (1.42%) Kibana
9 14 (1.25%) SCCM
10 13 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (0.80%) Kiali
12 7 (0.62%) Argo
13 6 (0.53%) WSUS
14 5 (0.45%) Progress Chef
15 4 (0.36%) QRadar
15 4 (0.36%) SCOM
16 3 (0.27%) Control-M
16 3 (0.27%) CSIRT
17 2 (0.18%) Knative
17 2 (0.18%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 182 (16.21%) Microsoft
2 93 (8.28%) Splunk
3 62 (5.52%) Oracle
4 60 (5.34%) Google
5 53 (4.72%) SAP
6 37 (3.29%) Databricks
7 30 (2.67%) Salesforce
8 29 (2.58%) Cisco
9 27 (2.40%) ServiceNow
9 27 (2.40%) VMware
10 23 (2.05%) Informatica
11 20 (1.78%) BiZZdesign
12 17 (1.51%) IBM
13 14 (1.25%) MuleSoft
13 14 (1.25%) Red Hat
14 13 (1.16%) OpenAI
14 13 (1.16%) Palo Alto
15 12 (1.07%) Software AG
16 11 (0.98%) Foundry
16 11 (0.98%) Okta