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 11 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 71 73
Rank change year-on-year -24 +2 +46
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,146 957 1,245
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.69% 3.25% 2.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.13% 3.59% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 562 775
10th Percentile £177 £305 £313
25th Percentile £313 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -8.19%
75th Percentile £653 £675 £663
90th Percentile £775 £825 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 27 85
10th Percentile £26.75 £26.73 £23.00
25th Percentile £33.50 £30.78 £42.50
Median hourly rate £80.75 £42.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +90.00% -22.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £88.00 £62.00 £66.25
90th Percentile - £82.25 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £81.50 £37.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +117.33% -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 36,632 26,629 38,749
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.08% 90.34% 86.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,216 16,983 25,185
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £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 £725 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.84% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,179 898 2,347
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.57 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £29.61 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.89% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £64.75 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.68 £76.53 £71.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £32.00 £31.80
% change year-on-year -17.02% +0.63% -9.14%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 11 March 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 -17 1,011 £484 -7.81% 827
UK excluding London -13 589 £400 -20.00% 603
London -34 446 £557 -7.17% 351
Work from Home -18 271 £525 -6.67% 320
North of England +19 185 £371 -31.38% 115
South East +2 175 £400 -20.00% 201
Yorkshire +5 95 £525 +5.00% 42
Midlands -44 87 £475 +33.43% 88
North West +2 86 £330 -40.11% 57
West Midlands -42 64 £495 +153.85% 51
South West -4 60 £500 -9.09% 65
East of England -34 39 £475 -25.49% 73
Scotland +5 36 £610 +16.19% 47
East Midlands -23 23 £447 +25.56% 37
Wales -15 15 £160 -44.35% 21
North East -11 5 £207 -64.09% 16
Northern Ireland -5 4 £369 -34.44% 7

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 67 (5.85%) Confluence
2 42 (3.66%) Apache Spark
3 34 (2.97%) SharePoint
4 19 (1.66%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (1.57%) Apache
6 13 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.52%) Jupyter
8 5 (0.44%) Smallworld
9 4 (0.35%) GeoServer
9 4 (0.35%) IIS
9 4 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.35%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.26%) Ethereum
10 3 (0.26%) Hyperledger
10 3 (0.26%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.17%) CMS
11 2 (0.17%) SAS
11 2 (0.17%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 35 (3.05%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.79%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.44%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.44%) Simulink
6 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.17%) Trello
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 22 (1.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.44%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.35%) Aladdin
4 4 (0.35%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.17%) SAP BPC
6 2 (0.17%) SAP FS
6 2 (0.17%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.087%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.087%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 1 (0.087%) Maximo
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.087%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.087%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.087%) SAP SM
Cloud Services
1 323 (28.18%) Azure
2 207 (18.06%) AWS
3 121 (10.56%) GCP
4 71 (6.20%) GitHub
5 66 (5.76%) Power Platform
6 53 (4.62%) Microsoft 365
7 48 (4.19%) SaaS
8 47 (4.10%) Azure DevOps
9 44 (3.84%) Serverless
10 41 (3.58%) Entra ID
11 30 (2.62%) GitHub Actions
12 22 (1.92%) Azure Data Factory
12 22 (1.92%) IaaS
13 21 (1.83%) Snowflake
14 18 (1.57%) Azure Machine Learning
14 18 (1.57%) Cloud Computing
15 17 (1.48%) AWS CloudFormation
16 15 (1.31%) Amazon S3
16 15 (1.31%) Power Automate
16 15 (1.31%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 50 (4.36%) Firewall
2 32 (2.79%) DNS
3 27 (2.36%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.92%) Network Security
5 16 (1.40%) HTTP
5 16 (1.40%) WAN
6 14 (1.22%) BGP
6 14 (1.22%) LAN
7 13 (1.13%) SSH
7 13 (1.13%) VLAN
7 13 (1.13%) Wireless
8 11 (0.96%) DHCP
8 11 (0.96%) VPN
9 10 (0.87%) IPv4
9 10 (0.87%) Skype
10 9 (0.79%) Cisco IOS
10 9 (0.79%) OSPF
11 8 (0.70%) VoIP
12 7 (0.61%) HTTPS
12 7 (0.61%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (7.07%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (4.80%) NoSQL
3 49 (4.28%) Power BI
4 44 (3.84%) Data Warehouse
4 44 (3.84%) Relational Database
5 43 (3.75%) SQL Server
6 39 (3.40%) Big Data
7 35 (3.05%) MySQL
8 24 (2.09%) Tableau
9 22 (1.92%) Hadoop
10 19 (1.66%) Metadata
11 18 (1.57%) Elasticsearch
11 18 (1.57%) MongoDB
12 17 (1.48%) Data Lake
13 11 (0.96%) Redis
14 10 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 9 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
16 8 (0.70%) Snowflake Schema
17 7 (0.61%) RDBMS
17 7 (0.61%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 98 (8.55%) Git
2 90 (7.85%) JIRA
3 65 (5.67%) Jenkins
4 57 (4.97%) GitLab
5 24 (2.09%) Rational DOORS
6 12 (1.05%) Liquibase
6 12 (1.05%) Postman
7 11 (0.96%) MLflow
7 11 (0.96%) Selenium
8 9 (0.79%) Jaeger
9 8 (0.70%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.70%) CircleCI
9 8 (0.70%) Gradle
10 7 (0.61%) JUnit
11 6 (0.52%) Cypress.io
12 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.44%) PyCharm
12 5 (0.44%) Visual Studio
13 4 (0.35%) Artifactory
13 4 (0.35%) Hardhat
General
1 517 (45.11%) Social Skills
2 290 (25.31%) Finance
3 249 (21.73%) Analytical Skills
4 115 (10.03%) Banking
5 77 (6.72%) Public Sector
6 45 (3.93%) Marketing
7 44 (3.84%) Documentation Skills
8 39 (3.40%) Aerospace
9 38 (3.32%) Legal
10 37 (3.23%) Influencing Skills
11 36 (3.14%) Presentation Skills
12 33 (2.88%) Financial Institution
13 31 (2.71%) Organisational Skills
14 30 (2.62%) Front Office
15 28 (2.44%) Telecoms
16 26 (2.27%) Electronics
17 23 (2.01%) Manufacturing
18 21 (1.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 21 (1.83%) Investment Banking
19 17 (1.48%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 169 (14.75%) Developer
2 116 (10.12%) Architect
3 93 (8.12%) Lead
4 86 (7.50%) Analyst
5 85 (7.42%) Senior
6 46 (4.01%) Software Engineer
7 45 (3.93%) Solutions Architect
8 38 (3.32%) Data Scientist
9 35 (3.05%) Delivery Manager
10 32 (2.79%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 31 (2.71%) Product Manager
12 29 (2.53%) Python Developer
13 27 (2.36%) Technical Support
14 26 (2.27%) Business Analyst
15 24 (2.09%) Consultant
15 24 (2.09%) Product Delivery Manager
16 23 (2.01%) Java Developer
17 22 (1.92%) Cloud Engineer
18 21 (1.83%) Security Engineer
18 21 (1.83%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (8.99%) REST
2 61 (5.32%) RESTful
3 58 (5.06%) React
4 52 (4.54%) .NET
5 45 (3.93%) Kafka
6 42 (3.66%) Middleware
7 39 (3.40%) Elastic Stack
8 37 (3.23%) PyTorch
9 36 (3.14%) TensorFlow
10 34 (2.97%) HTML
10 34 (2.97%) OAuth
11 33 (2.88%) Spring
12 32 (2.79%) JSON
13 31 (2.71%) XML
14 29 (2.53%) Node.js
14 29 (2.53%) Spring Boot
15 27 (2.36%) CSS
15 27 (2.36%) SOAP
16 24 (2.09%) LangChain
17 21 (1.83%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 125 (10.91%) Management Information System
2 93 (8.12%) Cloud Native
3 90 (7.85%) Algorithms
4 77 (6.72%) Product Ownership
5 63 (5.50%) Data Structures
6 58 (5.06%) Distributed Systems
7 51 (4.45%) Onboarding
8 33 (2.88%) Equities
9 30 (2.62%) Virtual Team
10 27 (2.36%) Data Protection Act
11 26 (2.27%) Derivative
11 26 (2.27%) Security Posture
12 24 (2.09%) AI Agents
13 23 (2.01%) Data Centre
13 23 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
14 22 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
14 22 (1.92%) Distributed Computing
14 22 (1.92%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 21 (1.83%) Public Cloud
16 18 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 152 (13.26%) Linux
2 127 (11.08%) Windows
3 56 (4.89%) Unix
4 24 (2.09%) Android
5 21 (1.83%) Windows Server
6 18 (1.57%) Mac OS
7 12 (1.05%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (0.61%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.44%) VMS
11 3 (0.26%) Debian
11 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.17%) Rocky
13 1 (0.087%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.087%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.087%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 374 (32.64%) Problem-Solving
2 321 (28.01%) Agile
3 244 (21.29%) AI
4 239 (20.86%) DevOps
5 235 (20.51%) CI/CD
6 190 (16.58%) Software Engineering
7 157 (13.70%) Microservices
8 146 (12.74%) Continuous Improvement
9 140 (12.22%) Analytics
10 139 (12.13%) Machine Learning
11 136 (11.87%) Containerisation
12 131 (11.43%) Cybersecurity
13 120 (10.47%) Stakeholder Management
14 117 (10.21%) Data Science
15 112 (9.77%) Data Modelling
16 111 (9.69%) Data Governance
17 108 (9.42%) Decision-Making
18 107 (9.34%) Mathematics
19 101 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 91 (7.94%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 350 (30.54%) Python
2 203 (17.71%) SQL
3 141 (12.30%) Java
4 91 (7.94%) JavaScript
5 63 (5.50%) PowerShell
6 58 (5.06%) TypeScript
7 48 (4.19%) C#
8 43 (3.75%) Go
9 41 (3.58%) Bash
10 36 (3.14%) C++
11 19 (1.66%) R
12 18 (1.57%) Perl
13 16 (1.40%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.22%) Rust
15 10 (0.87%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.70%) Bicep
16 8 (0.70%) Scala
17 7 (0.61%) Ruby
18 6 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 6 (0.52%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 948 (82.72%) Degree
2 597 (52.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 224 (19.55%) Master's Degree
4 197 (17.19%) Security Cleared
5 122 (10.65%) SC Cleared
6 75 (6.54%) CISSP
7 56 (4.89%) PhD
8 52 (4.54%) CISM
9 51 (4.45%) DBS Check
10 42 (3.66%) Azure Certification
11 36 (3.14%) TOGAF Certification
12 31 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
12 31 (2.71%) Microsoft Certification
13 30 (2.62%) PMI Certification
14 29 (2.53%) Cisco Certification
15 27 (2.36%) AWS Certification
15 27 (2.36%) DV Cleared
16 25 (2.18%) PMP
17 22 (1.92%) CompTIA Security+
18 18 (1.57%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (6.02%) QA
2 59 (5.15%) GDPR
3 54 (4.71%) Data Quality
4 50 (4.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 43 (3.75%) NIST
6 22 (1.92%) PCI DSS
7 16 (1.40%) GRC
8 15 (1.31%) Accessibility
9 10 (0.87%) NCSC
10 9 (0.79%) HIPAA
11 8 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
11 8 (0.70%) Def Stans
11 8 (0.70%) DO-254
11 8 (0.70%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.61%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.52%) PSD2
14 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 4 (0.35%) COBIT
15 4 (0.35%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 159 (13.87%) Docker
2 60 (5.24%) Active Directory
3 20 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.13%) Firmware
5 6 (0.52%) VMware NSX
6 3 (0.26%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.17%) KVM
7 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.17%) vSphere
8 1 (0.087%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.087%) HDFS
8 1 (0.087%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.087%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 167 (14.57%) Kubernetes
2 91 (7.94%) Terraform
3 60 (5.24%) Ansible
4 50 (4.36%) Grafana
5 41 (3.58%) Prometheus
6 21 (1.83%) Microsoft Intune
7 17 (1.48%) Puppet
8 15 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (1.22%) Kibana
10 9 (0.79%) Kiali
11 8 (0.70%) Argo
11 8 (0.70%) SCCM
12 5 (0.44%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.35%) SCOM
14 3 (0.26%) Control-M
14 3 (0.26%) Kubeflow
14 3 (0.26%) PowerCLI
14 3 (0.26%) vCenter Server
14 3 (0.26%) WSUS
15 2 (0.17%) Foglight
Vendors
1 182 (15.88%) Microsoft
2 72 (6.28%) Splunk
3 61 (5.32%) Google
4 57 (4.97%) Oracle
5 49 (4.28%) SAP
6 47 (4.10%) Databricks
7 38 (3.32%) IBM
8 26 (2.27%) ServiceNow
9 25 (2.18%) BiZZdesign
9 25 (2.18%) Cisco
10 22 (1.92%) Informatica
10 22 (1.92%) VMware
11 21 (1.83%) Salesforce
12 18 (1.57%) Palo Alto
13 17 (1.48%) Red Hat
14 14 (1.22%) Okta
15 13 (1.13%) CheckPoint
16 12 (1.05%) Foundry
16 12 (1.05%) OpenAI
16 12 (1.05%) Software AG