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 25 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 76 67 82
Rank change year-on-year -9 +15 +50
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,211 1,157 1,242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.38% 3.19% 2.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.78% 3.67% 3.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 760 680 829
10th Percentile £175 £350 £350
25th Percentile £316 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £561 £550
Median % change year-on-year -15.37% +2.05% -8.33%
75th Percentile £638 £700 £675
90th Percentile £750 £838 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -23.81% +5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 29 33
10th Percentile £26.75 £25.85 £32.32
25th Percentile £29.00 £34.13 £50.00
Median hourly rate £33.50 £50.50 £60.50
Median % change year-on-year -33.66% -16.53% +11.01%
75th Percentile £66.75 £68.75 £72.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £70.25 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £50.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -33.00% -16.67% +31.51%

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 32,027 31,522 40,787
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.46% 86.80% 88.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,051 18,965 27,382
10th Percentile £300 £310 £308
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.41% -3.18%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,103 1,143 1,561
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.22 £14.27
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.15 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +27.14%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -29.69% -26.97% +48.33%

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 25 November 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 25 November 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 25 November 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 1,060 £475 -17.39% 1,027
UK excluding London +13 583 £400 -23.81% 845
London -25 519 £550 -8.33% 367
Work from Home -5 311 £492 -11.19% 591
North of England +6 191 £375 -29.44% 112
South East +36 131 £365 -27.00% 379
Midlands -14 105 £470 -18.26% 80
North West +5 96 £358 -32.83% 75
Yorkshire +18 92 £450 -14.29% 32
West Midlands -16 68 £500 -13.04% 47
South West +5 55 £400 -43.86% 95
East of England -14 52 £450 - 117
Scotland +9 50 £450 -3.74% 50
East Midlands +4 37 £447 +25.56% 32
Wales +5 11 £160 -67.81% 21
North East -11 4 £333 -35.07% 6
Northern Ireland -8 3 - - 14

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 53 (4.38%) Confluence
2 44 (3.63%) SharePoint
3 37 (3.06%) Apache Spark
4 25 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (1.07%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (0.83%) Apache
7 8 (0.66%) Jupyter
8 7 (0.58%) nginx
9 6 (0.50%) IIS
10 5 (0.41%) SAS
10 5 (0.41%) Skype for Business
10 5 (0.41%) Smallworld
11 4 (0.33%) GeoServer
12 3 (0.25%) Ethereum
12 3 (0.25%) Hyperledger
12 3 (0.25%) Luigi
12 3 (0.25%) Moodle
12 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.17%) OpenStack
13 2 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 64 (5.28%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.50%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.50%) Simulink
5 5 (0.41%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.083%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.083%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.083%) InDesign
6 1 (0.083%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.083%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.083%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.083%) Sketch
6 1 (0.083%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 27 (2.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.50%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.41%) SAP PLM
5 4 (0.33%) FLEXCUBE
5 4 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.33%) SAP ERP
5 4 (0.33%) SAP MDG
6 3 (0.25%) Aladdin
6 3 (0.25%) Bloomberg AIM
6 3 (0.25%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.25%) SAP VC
6 3 (0.25%) Temenos T24
7 2 (0.17%) Endur
7 2 (0.17%) Maximo
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.17%) SAP FS
7 2 (0.17%) SAP GRC
7 2 (0.17%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 276 (22.79%) Azure
2 233 (19.24%) AWS
3 133 (10.98%) GCP
4 72 (5.95%) GitHub
5 69 (5.70%) Power Platform
6 68 (5.62%) Serverless
7 52 (4.29%) Microsoft 365
8 43 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
9 41 (3.39%) SaaS
10 28 (2.31%) Entra ID
11 26 (2.15%) GitHub Actions
12 24 (1.98%) Cloud Computing
13 21 (1.73%) Amazon S3
14 19 (1.57%) Amazon ECS
14 19 (1.57%) AWS Lambda
14 19 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
15 18 (1.49%) Snowflake
16 17 (1.40%) Power Automate
17 16 (1.32%) Azure Logic Apps
17 16 (1.32%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 48 (3.96%) Firewall
2 46 (3.80%) DNS
3 32 (2.64%) DHCP
4 24 (1.98%) Wireless
5 23 (1.90%) Network Security
6 21 (1.73%) VPN
7 20 (1.65%) Cisco IOS
7 20 (1.65%) HTTP
8 17 (1.40%) TCP/IP
9 15 (1.24%) SSH
9 15 (1.24%) VoIP
9 15 (1.24%) WAN
10 12 (0.99%) LAN
10 12 (0.99%) PuTTY
10 12 (0.99%) Skype
11 11 (0.91%) VLAN
11 11 (0.91%) WLAN
12 10 (0.83%) BGP
12 10 (0.83%) Internet
13 7 (0.58%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (6.28%) PostgreSQL
2 72 (5.95%) NoSQL
3 60 (4.95%) Relational Database
4 52 (4.29%) Power BI
5 45 (3.72%) Data Warehouse
6 37 (3.06%) SQL Server
7 31 (2.56%) Big Data
8 29 (2.39%) MySQL
9 28 (2.31%) Tableau
10 17 (1.40%) Redis
11 15 (1.24%) Amazon RDS
11 15 (1.24%) Hadoop
12 14 (1.16%) Data Lake
13 13 (1.07%) MongoDB
14 12 (0.99%) RDBMS
15 11 (0.91%) Metadata
16 10 (0.83%) Amazon Athena
17 8 (0.66%) KDB
17 8 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 7 (0.58%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 106 (8.75%) JIRA
2 95 (7.84%) Jenkins
3 94 (7.76%) Git
4 87 (7.18%) GitLab
5 29 (2.39%) Liquibase
6 23 (1.90%) Postman
7 17 (1.40%) Artifactory
8 15 (1.24%) Selenium
8 15 (1.24%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.91%) Bitbucket
10 9 (0.74%) Cucumber
10 9 (0.74%) JUnit
11 8 (0.66%) MLflow
12 7 (0.58%) Cypress.io
12 7 (0.58%) IntelliJ
13 6 (0.50%) Appium
13 6 (0.50%) CircleCI
13 6 (0.50%) PyCharm
14 5 (0.41%) Charles Proxy
14 5 (0.41%) Katalon Studio
General
1 574 (47.40%) Social Skills
2 331 (27.33%) Finance
3 270 (22.30%) Analytical Skills
4 133 (10.98%) Banking
5 61 (5.04%) Public Sector
6 49 (4.05%) Organisational Skills
7 44 (3.63%) Financial Institution
7 44 (3.63%) Front Office
8 42 (3.47%) Marketing
9 36 (2.97%) Investment Banking
9 36 (2.97%) Manufacturing
10 33 (2.73%) Influencing Skills
11 32 (2.64%) Legal
12 28 (2.31%) Telecoms
13 27 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
14 25 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (1.73%) Electronics
16 20 (1.65%) Retail
17 15 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 13 (1.07%) Military
Job Titles
1 239 (19.74%) Developer
2 113 (9.33%) Analyst
3 94 (7.76%) Architect
4 92 (7.60%) Senior
5 81 (6.69%) Lead
6 64 (5.28%) Software Engineer
7 41 (3.39%) Java Developer
8 35 (2.89%) Data Scientist
9 34 (2.81%) Senior Developer
10 33 (2.73%) Consultant
11 32 (2.64%) Solutions Architect
12 30 (2.48%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 30 (2.48%) Business Analyst
12 30 (2.48%) Python Developer
12 30 (2.48%) Python Engineer
13 29 (2.39%) Data Engineer
14 24 (1.98%) IT Support
15 23 (1.90%) Full-Stack Developer
16 21 (1.73%) AWS Engineer
16 21 (1.73%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (10.65%) REST
2 84 (6.94%) RESTful
3 66 (5.45%) .NET
3 66 (5.45%) HTML
4 51 (4.21%) CSS
5 50 (4.13%) React
6 48 (3.96%) Kafka
7 45 (3.72%) Node.js
8 41 (3.39%) Elastic Stack
9 40 (3.30%) JSON
10 38 (3.14%) Middleware
11 37 (3.06%) SOAP
12 36 (2.97%) OAuth
13 34 (2.81%) Web Services
13 34 (2.81%) XML
14 33 (2.73%) TensorFlow
15 30 (2.48%) AngularJS
15 30 (2.48%) Spring
16 29 (2.39%) PyTorch
17 27 (2.23%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 118 (9.74%) Management Information System
2 105 (8.67%) Algorithms
3 82 (6.77%) Cloud Native
4 65 (5.37%) Data Structures
5 63 (5.20%) Distributed Systems
6 57 (4.71%) Product Ownership
7 42 (3.47%) Public Cloud
8 38 (3.14%) Data Protection Act
9 32 (2.64%) Virtual Team
10 28 (2.31%) Derivative
10 28 (2.31%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 28 (2.31%) Mobile App
11 27 (2.23%) Equities
11 27 (2.23%) Security Posture
12 25 (2.06%) Fixed Income
13 23 (1.90%) Data Centre
13 23 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
14 22 (1.82%) Distributed Computing
15 21 (1.73%) Onboarding
16 19 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 151 (12.47%) Linux
2 103 (8.51%) Windows
3 54 (4.46%) Unix
4 25 (2.06%) Android
5 24 (1.98%) Windows Server
6 22 (1.82%) Mac OS
7 17 (1.40%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.66%) Windows 10
9 6 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.25%) VMS
11 2 (0.17%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.083%) CentOS
12 1 (0.083%) Debian
12 1 (0.083%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 398 (32.87%) Problem-Solving
2 364 (30.06%) Agile
3 236 (19.49%) DevOps
4 215 (17.75%) CI/CD
5 198 (16.35%) Software Engineering
6 165 (13.63%) AI
7 143 (11.81%) Microservices
8 138 (11.40%) Analytics
9 136 (11.23%) Containerisation
10 131 (10.82%) Machine Learning
11 118 (9.74%) Data Science
11 118 (9.74%) Mathematics
12 115 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
13 114 (9.41%) Stakeholder Management
14 108 (8.92%) ITIL
15 101 (8.34%) Change Management
16 99 (8.18%) Continuous Improvement
17 96 (7.93%) Decision-Making
18 94 (7.76%) Migration
19 92 (7.60%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 409 (33.77%) Python
2 222 (18.33%) SQL
3 184 (15.19%) Java
4 126 (10.40%) JavaScript
5 66 (5.45%) C#
6 62 (5.12%) TypeScript
7 61 (5.04%) PowerShell
8 59 (4.87%) Go
9 55 (4.54%) C++
10 44 (3.63%) Bash
11 25 (2.06%) R
12 21 (1.73%) Perl
13 19 (1.57%) Ruby
14 14 (1.16%) Kotlin
14 14 (1.16%) Shell Script
15 11 (0.91%) C
15 11 (0.91%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.83%) ABAP
17 9 (0.74%) Apex Code
17 9 (0.74%) PHP
Qualifications
1 976 (80.59%) Degree
2 639 (52.77%) Computer Science Degree
3 230 (18.99%) Master's Degree
4 123 (10.16%) Security Cleared
5 92 (7.60%) SC Cleared
6 75 (6.19%) DBS Check
7 56 (4.62%) CISSP
8 52 (4.29%) PhD
9 45 (3.72%) AWS Certification
10 44 (3.63%) Cisco Certification
11 37 (3.06%) Azure Certification
11 37 (3.06%) Microsoft Certification
12 34 (2.81%) CISM
13 30 (2.48%) PMI Certification
14 27 (2.23%) PMP
15 26 (2.15%) CCNA
16 25 (2.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 25 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
16 25 (2.06%) CCNP
17 22 (1.82%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (6.03%) QA
2 67 (5.53%) GDPR
3 66 (5.45%) Data Quality
4 42 (3.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 27 (2.23%) NIST
6 20 (1.65%) GRC
7 17 (1.40%) Accessibility
8 12 (0.99%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.99%) SLA
9 11 (0.91%) Def Stans
10 9 (0.74%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 8 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
12 7 (0.58%) COBIT
12 7 (0.58%) HIPAA
12 7 (0.58%) PMO
13 6 (0.50%) DO-254
14 5 (0.41%) NCSC
14 5 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 5 (0.41%) SEPA
15 4 (0.33%) MiFID
System Software
1 147 (12.14%) Docker
2 49 (4.05%) Active Directory
3 26 (2.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.58%) VMware NSX
5 6 (0.50%) Firmware
6 5 (0.41%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.33%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.33%) vSphere
8 2 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.083%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.083%) HDFS
9 1 (0.083%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.083%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 138 (11.40%) Kubernetes
2 90 (7.43%) Terraform
3 69 (5.70%) Ansible
4 53 (4.38%) Grafana
5 42 (3.47%) Prometheus
6 16 (1.32%) SCCM
7 14 (1.16%) Puppet
8 9 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.58%) Argo
9 7 (0.58%) CSIRT
9 7 (0.58%) QRadar
10 6 (0.50%) Kibana
10 6 (0.50%) WSUS
11 5 (0.41%) SCOM
12 4 (0.33%) Kustomize
12 4 (0.33%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.33%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.25%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.25%) vRealize
Vendors
1 197 (16.27%) Microsoft
2 71 (5.86%) Splunk
3 68 (5.62%) Google
4 54 (4.46%) SAP
5 51 (4.21%) Cisco
6 48 (3.96%) Oracle
7 46 (3.80%) ServiceNow
8 35 (2.89%) Salesforce
9 31 (2.56%) IBM
9 31 (2.56%) VMware
10 28 (2.31%) Databricks
11 15 (1.24%) Red Hat
12 13 (1.07%) Foundry
12 13 (1.07%) Palo Alto
13 11 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
14 10 (0.83%) Atlassian
14 10 (0.83%) Fortinet
14 10 (0.83%) Informatica
15 9 (0.74%) Citrix
15 9 (0.74%) Pega