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

6 months to
7 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 77 69 79
Rank change year-on-year -8 +10 +50
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,172 1,137 1,231
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.23% 3.18% 2.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.63% 3.64% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 750 672 829
10th Percentile £173 £350 £337
25th Percentile £313 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -14.08% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £700 £694
90th Percentile £750 £849 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £501 £500
% change year-on-year -20.08% +0.10% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 29 33
10th Percentile £26.58 £27.60 £32.32
25th Percentile £29.00 £41.25 £50.00
Median hourly rate £34.25 £52.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.76% -12.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £66.63 £68.75 £68.00
90th Percentile £82.10 £70.25 £79.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £50.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year -33.00% -13.04% +26.03%

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 32,247 31,236 40,271
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.88% 87.47% 88.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,285 18,990 26,947
10th Percentile £300 £308 £310
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
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 2,090 1,084 1,559
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.25 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.19 £18.94
Median hourly rate £25.13 £33.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.86% -22.35% +21.43%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.63 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -30.37% -23.53% +30.77%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -3 1,031 £475 -16.85% 2,544
UK excluding London +12 568 £400 -20.08% 2,405
London -23 502 £533 -11.25% 408
Work from Home -9 305 £474 -14.17% 2,705
North of England +12 187 £375 -28.57% 468
South East +29 134 £348 -30.50% 711
Midlands -11 101 £475 -7.32% 393
Yorkshire +15 93 £450 -14.29% 193
North West +14 91 £358 -31.81% 245
West Midlands -11 69 £500 -13.04% 206
South West -3 52 £463 -33.93% 277
East of England -17 47 £450 -5.26% 398
Scotland +11 46 £450 -4.51% 111
East Midlands -2 32 £447 +25.56% 158
Wales +6 13 £160 -50.39% 51
North East -7 4 £333 -35.07% 31
Northern Ireland -10 3 - - 44

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 (4.52%) Confluence
2 45 (3.84%) SharePoint
3 30 (2.56%) Apache Spark
4 26 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (0.85%) Apache
7 8 (0.68%) Jupyter
8 7 (0.60%) nginx
9 6 (0.51%) IIS
10 5 (0.43%) SAS
10 5 (0.43%) Skype for Business
10 5 (0.43%) Smallworld
11 4 (0.34%) GeoServer
12 3 (0.26%) Ethereum
12 3 (0.26%) Hyperledger
12 3 (0.26%) Luigi
12 3 (0.26%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 2 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 57 (4.86%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.51%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.43%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.43%) Simulink
6 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.085%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.085%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 23 (1.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.77%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.51%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.34%) Aladdin
4 4 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.34%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.26%) Bloomberg AIM
5 3 (0.26%) FLEXCUBE
5 3 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.26%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.26%) SAP PLM
5 3 (0.26%) Temenos T24
6 2 (0.17%) Endur
6 2 (0.17%) Maximo
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
6 2 (0.17%) SAP BPC
6 2 (0.17%) SAP FS
6 2 (0.17%) SAP GRC
6 2 (0.17%) SAP Travel Management
6 2 (0.17%) SAP VC
Cloud Services
1 271 (23.12%) Azure
2 225 (19.20%) AWS
3 131 (11.18%) GCP
4 72 (6.14%) Power Platform
5 69 (5.89%) GitHub
5 69 (5.89%) Serverless
6 52 (4.44%) Microsoft 365
7 41 (3.50%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (2.99%) SaaS
9 27 (2.30%) Entra ID
9 27 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
10 24 (2.05%) Cloud Computing
11 19 (1.62%) AWS Lambda
11 19 (1.62%) Azure Data Factory
11 19 (1.62%) Power Automate
11 19 (1.62%) PowerApps
11 19 (1.62%) Snowflake
12 17 (1.45%) Amazon S3
12 17 (1.45%) Azure Machine Learning
13 16 (1.37%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 43 (3.67%) Firewall
2 41 (3.50%) DNS
3 27 (2.30%) DHCP
4 21 (1.79%) HTTP
5 19 (1.62%) Wireless
6 18 (1.54%) Network Security
6 18 (1.54%) VPN
7 16 (1.37%) Cisco IOS
8 15 (1.28%) SSH
9 14 (1.19%) VoIP
10 13 (1.11%) Skype
10 13 (1.11%) TCP/IP
11 11 (0.94%) WAN
12 10 (0.85%) Internet
13 9 (0.77%) BGP
13 9 (0.77%) LAN
13 9 (0.77%) VLAN
14 8 (0.68%) WLAN
15 7 (0.60%) IPv4
15 7 (0.60%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (6.31%) PostgreSQL
2 69 (5.89%) NoSQL
3 59 (5.03%) Relational Database
4 53 (4.52%) Power BI
5 41 (3.50%) Data Warehouse
6 40 (3.41%) SQL Server
7 30 (2.56%) Big Data
7 30 (2.56%) MySQL
7 30 (2.56%) Tableau
8 15 (1.28%) Redis
9 13 (1.11%) MongoDB
10 12 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
10 12 (1.02%) RDBMS
11 11 (0.94%) Hadoop
11 11 (0.94%) Metadata
12 10 (0.85%) Data Lake
13 9 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
13 9 (0.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 7 (0.60%) Apache Cassandra
14 7 (0.60%) KDB
Development Applications
1 109 (9.30%) JIRA
2 96 (8.19%) Git
3 94 (8.02%) Jenkins
4 82 (7.00%) GitLab
5 29 (2.47%) Liquibase
6 23 (1.96%) Postman
7 16 (1.37%) Artifactory
8 15 (1.28%) Selenium
8 15 (1.28%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.94%) Bitbucket
10 9 (0.77%) Cucumber
10 9 (0.77%) MLflow
11 8 (0.68%) JUnit
12 7 (0.60%) Cypress.io
13 6 (0.51%) Appium
13 6 (0.51%) CircleCI
13 6 (0.51%) IntelliJ
13 6 (0.51%) PyCharm
14 5 (0.43%) SonarQube
14 5 (0.43%) webpack
General
1 556 (47.44%) Social Skills
2 317 (27.05%) Finance
3 258 (22.01%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (10.92%) Banking
5 64 (5.46%) Public Sector
6 42 (3.58%) Financial Institution
7 41 (3.50%) Marketing
8 40 (3.41%) Organisational Skills
9 39 (3.33%) Front Office
10 33 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
10 33 (2.82%) Manufacturing
11 30 (2.56%) Investment Banking
12 29 (2.47%) Telecoms
13 28 (2.39%) Legal
14 25 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
15 23 (1.96%) Presentation Skills
16 22 (1.88%) Electronics
17 17 (1.45%) Retail
18 15 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 13 (1.11%) Military
Job Titles
1 228 (19.45%) Developer
2 108 (9.22%) Analyst
3 96 (8.19%) Architect
4 87 (7.42%) Senior
5 73 (6.23%) Lead
6 62 (5.29%) Software Engineer
7 37 (3.16%) Java Developer
8 36 (3.07%) Data Scientist
8 36 (3.07%) Solutions Architect
9 32 (2.73%) Senior Developer
10 31 (2.65%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 30 (2.56%) Business Analyst
11 30 (2.56%) Python Engineer
12 29 (2.47%) Consultant
13 26 (2.22%) Data Engineer
14 25 (2.13%) IT Support
14 25 (2.13%) Python Developer
15 23 (1.96%) Full-Stack Developer
16 21 (1.79%) AWS Engineer
17 20 (1.71%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 125 (10.67%) REST
2 82 (7.00%) RESTful
3 67 (5.72%) .NET
4 61 (5.20%) HTML
5 52 (4.44%) React
6 46 (3.92%) CSS
7 44 (3.75%) Elastic Stack
8 43 (3.67%) Kafka
9 42 (3.58%) Node.js
10 40 (3.41%) JSON
11 39 (3.33%) SOAP
12 37 (3.16%) Middleware
12 37 (3.16%) OAuth
13 35 (2.99%) TensorFlow
13 35 (2.99%) XML
14 33 (2.82%) PyTorch
15 30 (2.56%) AngularJS
15 30 (2.56%) Spring
15 30 (2.56%) Web Services
16 29 (2.47%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 113 (9.64%) Management Information System
2 98 (8.36%) Algorithms
3 88 (7.51%) Cloud Native
4 61 (5.20%) Distributed Systems
5 56 (4.78%) Data Structures
6 52 (4.44%) Product Ownership
7 41 (3.50%) Public Cloud
8 35 (2.99%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (2.30%) Security Posture
10 26 (2.22%) Equities
10 26 (2.22%) Mobile App
10 26 (2.22%) Virtual Team
11 25 (2.13%) Derivative
12 24 (2.05%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 23 (1.96%) Data Centre
13 23 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
14 22 (1.88%) Onboarding
15 21 (1.79%) Fixed Income
16 19 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
17 18 (1.54%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 156 (13.31%) Linux
2 107 (9.13%) Windows
3 59 (5.03%) Unix
4 26 (2.22%) Android
5 24 (2.05%) Windows Server
6 23 (1.96%) Mac OS
7 17 (1.45%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.68%) Windows 10
9 6 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.34%) VMS
11 2 (0.17%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.085%) CentOS
12 1 (0.085%) Debian
12 1 (0.085%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 386 (32.94%) Problem-Solving
2 353 (30.12%) Agile
3 241 (20.56%) DevOps
4 223 (19.03%) CI/CD
5 190 (16.21%) Software Engineering
6 174 (14.85%) AI
7 145 (12.37%) Microservices
8 140 (11.95%) Containerisation
9 129 (11.01%) Analytics
10 128 (10.92%) Machine Learning
11 114 (9.73%) Cybersecurity
11 114 (9.73%) Data Science
12 113 (9.64%) Mathematics
13 108 (9.22%) Stakeholder Management
14 103 (8.79%) ITIL
15 102 (8.70%) Continuous Improvement
16 96 (8.19%) Change Management
16 96 (8.19%) Decision-Making
17 90 (7.68%) Data Modelling
17 90 (7.68%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 394 (33.62%) Python
2 211 (18.00%) SQL
3 169 (14.42%) Java
4 118 (10.07%) JavaScript
5 64 (5.46%) PowerShell
6 63 (5.38%) TypeScript
7 61 (5.20%) C#
8 59 (5.03%) Go
9 51 (4.35%) Bash
10 49 (4.18%) C++
11 24 (2.05%) R
12 21 (1.79%) Perl
13 16 (1.37%) Ruby
14 14 (1.19%) Kotlin
15 13 (1.11%) Shell Script
16 10 (0.85%) MATLAB
17 9 (0.77%) Apex Code
17 9 (0.77%) C
18 8 (0.68%) ABAP
18 8 (0.68%) Swift
Qualifications
1 948 (80.89%) Degree
2 624 (53.24%) Computer Science Degree
3 232 (19.80%) Master's Degree
4 122 (10.41%) Security Cleared
5 92 (7.85%) SC Cleared
6 66 (5.63%) DBS Check
7 58 (4.95%) CISSP
8 53 (4.52%) PhD
9 41 (3.50%) AWS Certification
10 38 (3.24%) Azure Certification
11 37 (3.16%) Cisco Certification
11 37 (3.16%) Microsoft Certification
12 35 (2.99%) CISM
13 28 (2.39%) PMI Certification
14 25 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
14 25 (2.13%) PMP
15 22 (1.88%) CCNA
16 21 (1.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 21 (1.79%) CCNP
17 19 (1.62%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (6.23%) QA
2 66 (5.63%) Data Quality
2 66 (5.63%) GDPR
3 42 (3.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 27 (2.30%) NIST
5 20 (1.71%) GRC
6 17 (1.45%) Accessibility
7 12 (1.02%) PCI DSS
7 12 (1.02%) SLA
8 11 (0.94%) Def Stans
9 8 (0.68%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 8 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.60%) COBIT
10 7 (0.60%) HIPAA
11 6 (0.51%) PMO
12 5 (0.43%) DO-254
12 5 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.34%) NCSC
13 4 (0.34%) SEPA
14 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
System Software
1 155 (13.23%) Docker
2 50 (4.27%) Active Directory
3 26 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.60%) VMware NSX
5 5 (0.43%) Firmware
5 5 (0.43%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
6 4 (0.34%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.34%) vSphere
7 2 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.085%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.085%) HDFS
8 1 (0.085%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.085%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 140 (11.95%) Kubernetes
2 97 (8.28%) Terraform
3 75 (6.40%) Ansible
4 53 (4.52%) Grafana
5 41 (3.50%) Prometheus
6 17 (1.45%) Puppet
7 16 (1.37%) SCCM
8 9 (0.77%) Kibana
8 9 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.60%) Argo
9 7 (0.60%) CSIRT
10 6 (0.51%) Progress Chef
10 6 (0.51%) QRadar
10 6 (0.51%) WSUS
11 5 (0.43%) SCOM
12 4 (0.34%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.26%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.26%) Kustomize
13 3 (0.26%) vRealize
Vendors
1 195 (16.64%) Microsoft
2 74 (6.31%) Splunk
3 71 (6.06%) Google
4 51 (4.35%) SAP
5 46 (3.92%) Oracle
6 44 (3.75%) Cisco
7 43 (3.67%) ServiceNow
8 37 (3.16%) Salesforce
9 34 (2.90%) Databricks
10 31 (2.65%) VMware
11 28 (2.39%) IBM
12 14 (1.19%) Red Hat
13 12 (1.02%) BiZZdesign
13 12 (1.02%) OpenAI
13 12 (1.02%) Palo Alto
14 11 (0.94%) Informatica
15 10 (0.85%) Foundry
16 9 (0.77%) CheckPoint
16 9 (0.77%) CyberArk
16 9 (0.77%) Workday