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 26 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 72 79
Rank change year-on-year -9 +7 +55
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,158 1,076 1,203
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.11% 3.19% 2.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.54% 3.61% 3.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 750 639 808
10th Percentile £176 £356 £331
25th Percentile £313 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -13.86% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £638 £689 £700
90th Percentile £750 £850 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 29 32
10th Percentile £26.75 £30.17 £33.34
25th Percentile £33.50 £34.13 £50.00
Median hourly rate £49.00 £52.50 £59.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -11.02% +9.26%
75th Percentile £67.00 £68.75 £69.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £70.40 £79.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.25 £43.75 £56.25
% change year-on-year -17.14% -22.22% +9.76%

All Process and 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 32,744 29,791 38,561
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.06% 88.28% 88.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,623 18,168 25,704
10th Percentile £300 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,071 964 1,544
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -25.29% +24.29%
75th Percentile £51.23 £62.59 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.31 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £31.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.16% -30.00% +40.63%

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 26 December 2025.

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 26 December 2025.

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 26 December 2025. 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 -9 1,023 £475 -17.39% 2,811
UK excluding London +14 576 £400 -20.00% 2,533
London -33 479 £545 -9.17% 538
Work from Home -1 295 £456 -20.65% 1,485
North of England +30 192 £384 -26.86% 537
South East +30 138 £325 -35.00% 739
Midlands -27 101 £475 -5.00% 417
Yorkshire +29 100 £450 -16.28% 220
North West +17 89 £358 -31.81% 264
West Midlands -21 68 £500 -13.04% 207
South West +9 57 £425 -37.04% 258
Scotland +9 47 £475 - 128
East of England -30 41 £415 -17.00% 394
East Midlands -4 33 £447 +25.56% 183
Wales +1 11 £160 -67.55% 68
Northern Ireland -8 4 - - 35
North East -10 4 £333 -35.07% 55

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 58 (5.01%) Confluence
2 43 (3.71%) SharePoint
3 29 (2.50%) Apache Spark
4 21 (1.81%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (1.12%) Apache
6 12 (1.04%) Apache Airflow
7 8 (0.69%) Jupyter
8 7 (0.60%) IIS
8 7 (0.60%) nginx
9 5 (0.43%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.43%) Smallworld
10 4 (0.35%) GeoServer
10 4 (0.35%) SAS
11 3 (0.26%) Ethereum
11 3 (0.26%) Hyperledger
11 3 (0.26%) Luigi
11 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.17%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 48 (4.15%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.43%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.43%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.43%) Simulink
5 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.086%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 26 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.35%) Aladdin
3 4 (0.35%) SAP ERP
3 4 (0.35%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.26%) Bloomberg AIM
4 3 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.17%) Maximo
5 2 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
5 2 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.17%) SAP BPC
5 2 (0.17%) SAP CX
5 2 (0.17%) SAP FS
5 2 (0.17%) SAP GRC
5 2 (0.17%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.17%) SAP PLM
5 2 (0.17%) SAP Travel Management
5 2 (0.17%) Temenos T24
6 1 (0.086%) SAP GTS
Cloud Services
1 275 (23.75%) Azure
2 223 (19.26%) AWS
3 128 (11.05%) GCP
4 77 (6.65%) GitHub
5 73 (6.30%) Power Platform
6 69 (5.96%) Serverless
7 50 (4.32%) Microsoft 365
8 40 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
9 39 (3.37%) SaaS
10 31 (2.68%) GitHub Actions
11 26 (2.25%) Entra ID
12 22 (1.90%) Cloud Computing
13 20 (1.73%) Azure Data Factory
14 19 (1.64%) AWS Lambda
14 19 (1.64%) Power Automate
14 19 (1.64%) PowerApps
14 19 (1.64%) Snowflake
15 17 (1.47%) Amazon S3
15 17 (1.47%) Azure Machine Learning
16 16 (1.38%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 46 (3.97%) Firewall
2 40 (3.45%) DNS
3 21 (1.81%) HTTP
3 21 (1.81%) TCP/IP
4 20 (1.73%) Network Security
5 19 (1.64%) DHCP
6 18 (1.55%) VPN
7 17 (1.47%) Wireless
8 16 (1.38%) SSH
9 13 (1.12%) Skype
10 11 (0.95%) VoIP
11 10 (0.86%) BGP
12 9 (0.78%) Cisco IOS
12 9 (0.78%) Internet
12 9 (0.78%) WAN
13 8 (0.69%) LAN
13 8 (0.69%) Unified Communications
14 7 (0.60%) IPv4
14 7 (0.60%) OSPF
14 7 (0.60%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (6.13%) PostgreSQL
2 67 (5.79%) NoSQL
3 59 (5.09%) Relational Database
4 53 (4.58%) Power BI
5 43 (3.71%) Data Warehouse
5 43 (3.71%) SQL Server
6 32 (2.76%) MySQL
7 28 (2.42%) Big Data
7 28 (2.42%) Tableau
8 15 (1.30%) MongoDB
9 12 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
9 12 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
9 12 (1.04%) Redis
10 11 (0.95%) Metadata
10 11 (0.95%) RDBMS
11 10 (0.86%) Data Lake
12 9 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 8 (0.69%) Apache Cassandra
13 8 (0.69%) Hadoop
14 7 (0.60%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 109 (9.41%) JIRA
2 91 (7.86%) Git
3 89 (7.69%) Jenkins
4 84 (7.25%) GitLab
5 29 (2.50%) Liquibase
6 21 (1.81%) Postman
7 18 (1.55%) Artifactory
8 15 (1.30%) Selenium
8 15 (1.30%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.95%) JUnit
10 10 (0.86%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.78%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.69%) CircleCI
12 8 (0.69%) Cucumber
13 7 (0.60%) MLflow
13 7 (0.60%) SonarQube
14 6 (0.52%) Appium
14 6 (0.52%) IntelliJ
14 6 (0.52%) PyCharm
14 6 (0.52%) TeamCity
General
1 547 (47.24%) Social Skills
2 294 (25.39%) Finance
3 253 (21.85%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (11.05%) Banking
5 66 (5.70%) Public Sector
6 44 (3.80%) Financial Institution
7 40 (3.45%) Marketing
8 35 (3.02%) Front Office
9 33 (2.85%) Organisational Skills
10 31 (2.68%) Legal
11 30 (2.59%) Influencing Skills
12 29 (2.50%) Investment Banking
13 28 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
14 26 (2.25%) Manufacturing
15 25 (2.16%) Telecoms
16 23 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
17 22 (1.90%) Electronics
18 13 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 13 (1.12%) Retail
19 11 (0.95%) Military
Job Titles
1 216 (18.65%) Developer
2 101 (8.72%) Analyst
3 100 (8.64%) Architect
4 89 (7.69%) Senior
5 77 (6.65%) Lead
6 59 (5.09%) Software Engineer
7 37 (3.20%) Solutions Architect
8 31 (2.68%) Data Scientist
8 31 (2.68%) Java Developer
9 30 (2.59%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 30 (2.59%) Senior Developer
10 28 (2.42%) Python Engineer
11 27 (2.33%) Business Analyst
11 27 (2.33%) Consultant
12 25 (2.16%) AWS Engineer
13 24 (2.07%) IT Support
13 24 (2.07%) Python Developer
14 23 (1.99%) Data Engineer
14 23 (1.99%) Full-Stack Developer
15 21 (1.81%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 128 (11.05%) REST
2 82 (7.08%) RESTful
3 69 (5.96%) .NET
4 60 (5.18%) HTML
5 53 (4.58%) React
6 49 (4.23%) Elastic Stack
7 46 (3.97%) CSS
8 44 (3.80%) Middleware
9 43 (3.71%) Kafka
10 41 (3.54%) JSON
11 40 (3.45%) Node.js
12 37 (3.20%) SOAP
12 37 (3.20%) XML
13 36 (3.11%) OAuth
14 33 (2.85%) TensorFlow
15 32 (2.76%) PyTorch
16 30 (2.59%) LangChain
17 29 (2.50%) AngularJS
18 27 (2.33%) Spring
19 24 (2.07%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 116 (10.02%) Management Information System
2 94 (8.12%) Algorithms
3 90 (7.77%) Cloud Native
4 65 (5.61%) Distributed Systems
5 56 (4.84%) Data Structures
6 51 (4.40%) Product Ownership
7 38 (3.28%) Public Cloud
8 35 (3.02%) Data Protection Act
9 28 (2.42%) Equities
10 27 (2.33%) Security Posture
11 23 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.99%) Mobile App
12 22 (1.90%) Derivative
12 22 (1.90%) Onboarding
13 21 (1.81%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 20 (1.73%) Data Centre
14 20 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
14 20 (1.73%) Virtual Team
15 18 (1.55%) Distributed Computing
15 18 (1.55%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 172 (14.85%) Linux
2 122 (10.54%) Windows
3 61 (5.27%) Unix
4 28 (2.42%) Android
5 25 (2.16%) Mac OS
5 25 (2.16%) Windows Server
6 17 (1.47%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.78%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.35%) VMS
10 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.086%) Debian
11 1 (0.086%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.086%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 387 (33.42%) Problem-Solving
2 332 (28.67%) Agile
3 252 (21.76%) DevOps
4 232 (20.03%) CI/CD
5 192 (16.58%) Software Engineering
6 177 (15.28%) AI
7 153 (13.21%) Microservices
8 146 (12.61%) Containerisation
9 125 (10.79%) Cybersecurity
10 121 (10.45%) Machine Learning
11 119 (10.28%) Analytics
12 111 (9.59%) Stakeholder Management
13 109 (9.41%) Data Science
14 105 (9.07%) Continuous Improvement
15 104 (8.98%) Mathematics
16 102 (8.81%) Data Modelling
17 97 (8.38%) Decision-Making
18 94 (8.12%) ITIL
19 90 (7.77%) Change Management
19 90 (7.77%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 385 (33.25%) Python
2 206 (17.79%) SQL
3 165 (14.25%) Java
4 119 (10.28%) JavaScript
5 70 (6.04%) TypeScript
6 69 (5.96%) PowerShell
7 68 (5.87%) C#
8 57 (4.92%) Go
9 54 (4.66%) Bash
10 51 (4.40%) C++
11 23 (1.99%) Perl
12 19 (1.64%) R
13 16 (1.38%) Kotlin
14 13 (1.12%) Ruby
15 12 (1.04%) Shell Script
16 9 (0.78%) Apex Code
16 9 (0.78%) C
16 9 (0.78%) MATLAB
17 8 (0.69%) Rust
17 8 (0.69%) Swift
Qualifications
1 943 (81.43%) Degree
2 638 (55.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 236 (20.38%) Master's Degree
4 137 (11.83%) Security Cleared
5 100 (8.64%) SC Cleared
6 62 (5.35%) CISSP
7 56 (4.84%) DBS Check
8 49 (4.23%) PhD
9 41 (3.54%) AWS Certification
9 41 (3.54%) Azure Certification
10 37 (3.20%) CISM
10 37 (3.20%) Microsoft Certification
11 31 (2.68%) Cisco Certification
12 28 (2.42%) PMI Certification
13 26 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
14 25 (2.16%) DV Cleared
15 24 (2.07%) PMP
16 22 (1.90%) TOGAF Certification
17 21 (1.81%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 18 (1.55%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (6.91%) QA
2 69 (5.96%) GDPR
3 62 (5.35%) Data Quality
4 45 (3.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 27 (2.33%) NIST
6 18 (1.55%) GRC
7 16 (1.38%) Accessibility
8 13 (1.12%) PCI DSS
9 11 (0.95%) Def Stans
10 10 (0.86%) SLA
11 8 (0.69%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 8 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
12 7 (0.60%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.43%) DO-254
13 5 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.35%) PMO
14 4 (0.35%) PSD2
15 3 (0.26%) COBIT
15 3 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 164 (14.16%) Docker
2 45 (3.89%) Active Directory
3 25 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.60%) Firmware
4 7 (0.60%) VMware NSX
5 5 (0.43%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
6 4 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.26%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.26%) vSphere
8 2 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.086%) HDFS
9 1 (0.086%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.086%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 154 (13.30%) Kubernetes
2 106 (9.15%) Terraform
3 79 (6.82%) Ansible
4 58 (5.01%) Grafana
5 45 (3.89%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.64%) Puppet
7 16 (1.38%) SCCM
8 12 (1.04%) Kibana
9 9 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
11 7 (0.60%) Argo
11 7 (0.60%) CSIRT
12 6 (0.52%) QRadar
12 6 (0.52%) WSUS
13 5 (0.43%) Kiali
13 5 (0.43%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.43%) SCOM
14 4 (0.35%) vCenter Server
15 3 (0.26%) HP ALM
15 3 (0.26%) vRealize
Vendors
1 191 (16.49%) Microsoft
2 93 (8.03%) Splunk
3 71 (6.13%) Google
4 54 (4.66%) SAP
5 45 (3.89%) Oracle
6 37 (3.20%) Databricks
7 36 (3.11%) Cisco
8 34 (2.94%) Salesforce
9 31 (2.68%) ServiceNow
10 28 (2.42%) VMware
11 27 (2.33%) IBM
12 17 (1.47%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.21%) Palo Alto
14 13 (1.12%) BiZZdesign
14 13 (1.12%) OpenAI
15 12 (1.04%) Informatica
16 11 (0.95%) Foundry
17 10 (0.86%) CheckPoint
17 10 (0.86%) Fortinet
18 9 (0.78%) Atlassian