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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 71 74
Rank change year-on-year -22 +3 +50
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,141 958 1,237
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.59% 3.30% 2.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.02% 3.64% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 704 565 774
10th Percentile £175 £285 £319
25th Percentile £313 £402 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -5.17%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £800 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -20.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 31 85
10th Percentile £26.75 £27.00 £23.00
25th Percentile £55.75 £30.78 £42.50
Median hourly rate £83.00 £43.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +93.02% -21.82% +4.76%
75th Percentile £88.00 £65.38 £66.25
90th Percentile - £82.25 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.00 £37.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +121.33% -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 37,733 26,318 38,291
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.81% 90.56% 86.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,910 17,091 24,889
10th Percentile £313 £308 £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 £738 £746
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.89% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,221 949 2,344
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.19 £12.85
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.45 £16.00
Median hourly rate £34.50 £32.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.81% -1.54% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £58.69
90th Percentile £76.00 £76.25 £71.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £31.52 £31.80
% change year-on-year -4.82% -0.88% -12.28%

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 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 26 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 26 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 -26 1,002 £485 -7.57% 826
UK excluding London -21 579 £400 -20.00% 618
London -33 450 £550 -8.33% 330
Work from Home -27 276 £525 -6.67% 306
South East -5 182 £400 -20.00% 227
North of England +9 176 £379 -29.99% 115
Yorkshire +7 92 £525 +14.88% 35
Midlands -40 84 £475 +58.33% 84
North West -6 81 £328 -44.54% 59
West Midlands -47 65 £475 +143.59% 51
South West -24 51 £469 -10.67% 56
East of England -30 42 £400 -38.46% 91
Scotland +6 36 £610 +22.00% 34
East Midlands -27 19 £339 -4.92% 33
Wales -21 15 £160 -44.35% 19
Northern Ireland -4 5 £369 -38.54% 9
North East -12 4 £216 -62.52% 21

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 66 (5.78%) Confluence
2 43 (3.77%) Apache Spark
3 29 (2.54%) SharePoint
4 19 (1.67%) Apache
5 17 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
6 16 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.53%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.35%) GeoServer
8 4 (0.35%) OpenStack
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 4 (0.35%) Smallworld
9 3 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.26%) Ethereum
9 3 (0.26%) Hyperledger
9 3 (0.26%) IIS
9 3 (0.26%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.26%) SAS
10 2 (0.18%) CMS
10 2 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 31 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.05%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.53%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.35%) Simulink
7 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.18%) Trello
Business Applications
1 22 (1.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.44%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.35%) Aladdin
4 4 (0.35%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.18%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.088%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.088%) Maximo
6 1 (0.088%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.088%) Oracle HRMS
6 1 (0.088%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.088%) SAP SM
6 1 (0.088%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 323 (28.31%) Azure
2 206 (18.05%) AWS
3 119 (10.43%) GCP
4 67 (5.87%) Power Platform
5 59 (5.17%) GitHub
6 51 (4.47%) SaaS
7 49 (4.29%) Microsoft 365
8 44 (3.86%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (3.77%) Serverless
10 38 (3.33%) Entra ID
11 25 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
12 24 (2.10%) Snowflake
13 23 (2.02%) IaaS
14 20 (1.75%) Azure Data Factory
15 19 (1.67%) AWS CloudFormation
15 19 (1.67%) Azure Machine Learning
15 19 (1.67%) Cloud Computing
16 17 (1.49%) Power Automate
17 16 (1.40%) Azure AKS
17 16 (1.40%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 49 (4.29%) Firewall
2 32 (2.80%) DNS
3 28 (2.45%) TCP/IP
4 21 (1.84%) Network Security
5 17 (1.49%) BGP
5 17 (1.49%) WAN
6 16 (1.40%) HTTP
7 14 (1.23%) LAN
7 14 (1.23%) VLAN
8 12 (1.05%) SSH
9 11 (0.96%) OSPF
9 11 (0.96%) VPN
9 11 (0.96%) Wireless
10 10 (0.88%) IPv4
11 9 (0.79%) HTTPS
12 8 (0.70%) Cisco IOS
12 8 (0.70%) DHCP
12 8 (0.70%) Skype
13 7 (0.61%) SAN
14 6 (0.53%) IPv6
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (6.66%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (4.38%) NoSQL
2 50 (4.38%) Power BI
2 50 (4.38%) Relational Database
3 45 (3.94%) SQL Server
4 44 (3.86%) Data Warehouse
5 40 (3.51%) Big Data
6 35 (3.07%) MySQL
7 25 (2.19%) Tableau
8 24 (2.10%) Hadoop
9 21 (1.84%) Metadata
10 20 (1.75%) MongoDB
11 16 (1.40%) Data Lake
11 16 (1.40%) Elasticsearch
12 12 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 10 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
13 10 (0.88%) Redis
13 10 (0.88%) Snowflake Schema
14 8 (0.70%) Star Schema
15 7 (0.61%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 93 (8.15%) Git
2 90 (7.89%) JIRA
3 64 (5.61%) Jenkins
4 55 (4.82%) GitLab
5 28 (2.45%) Rational DOORS
6 12 (1.05%) MLflow
6 12 (1.05%) Postman
7 11 (0.96%) Selenium
8 10 (0.88%) Liquibase
9 9 (0.79%) Jaeger
10 8 (0.70%) Bitbucket
11 7 (0.61%) CircleCI
11 7 (0.61%) Gradle
12 6 (0.53%) Cypress.io
12 6 (0.53%) JUnit
13 5 (0.44%) Artifactory
13 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
13 5 (0.44%) PyCharm
13 5 (0.44%) Visual Studio
14 4 (0.35%) REST Assured
General
1 481 (42.16%) Social Skills
2 286 (25.07%) Finance
3 243 (21.30%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (9.99%) Banking
5 73 (6.40%) Public Sector
6 49 (4.29%) Aerospace
7 47 (4.12%) Marketing
8 46 (4.03%) Documentation Skills
9 36 (3.16%) Presentation Skills
10 35 (3.07%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (2.98%) Legal
11 34 (2.98%) Telecoms
12 32 (2.80%) Financial Institution
13 30 (2.63%) Front Office
14 28 (2.45%) Electronics
15 23 (2.02%) Investment Banking
15 23 (2.02%) Manufacturing
16 22 (1.93%) Organisational Skills
17 21 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 18 (1.58%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 149 (13.06%) Developer
2 112 (9.82%) Architect
3 98 (8.59%) Lead
4 92 (8.06%) Analyst
5 83 (7.27%) Senior
6 45 (3.94%) Software Engineer
7 42 (3.68%) Solutions Architect
8 40 (3.51%) Data Scientist
9 38 (3.33%) Delivery Manager
10 35 (3.07%) Product Manager
11 31 (2.72%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 29 (2.54%) Python Developer
13 28 (2.45%) Product Delivery Manager
13 28 (2.45%) Technical Support
14 27 (2.37%) Business Analyst
15 25 (2.19%) Consultant
16 24 (2.10%) Data Engineer
16 24 (2.10%) Java Developer
17 23 (2.02%) Cloud Engineer
18 22 (1.93%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (9.03%) REST
2 58 (5.08%) RESTful
3 56 (4.91%) .NET
4 52 (4.56%) React
5 45 (3.94%) Kafka
6 40 (3.51%) Middleware
7 37 (3.24%) Elastic Stack
8 36 (3.16%) PyTorch
9 35 (3.07%) TensorFlow
10 33 (2.89%) Spring Boot
11 32 (2.80%) JSON
12 31 (2.72%) OAuth
12 31 (2.72%) XML
13 29 (2.54%) Spring
14 25 (2.19%) SOAP
15 23 (2.02%) HTML
15 23 (2.02%) Pandas
16 22 (1.93%) LangChain
17 20 (1.75%) Node.js
18 16 (1.40%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 117 (10.25%) Management Information System
2 94 (8.24%) Algorithms
3 85 (7.45%) Cloud Native
4 83 (7.27%) Product Ownership
5 65 (5.70%) Data Structures
6 57 (5.00%) Distributed Systems
6 57 (5.00%) Onboarding
7 32 (2.80%) Equities
7 32 (2.80%) Virtual Team
8 25 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
9 24 (2.10%) AI Agents
9 24 (2.10%) Data Centre
10 23 (2.02%) Derivative
10 23 (2.02%) Distributed Computing
11 22 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
12 21 (1.84%) Analytical Mindset
13 20 (1.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 20 (1.75%) Public Cloud
14 19 (1.67%) Taxonomies
15 17 (1.49%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 155 (13.58%) Linux
2 121 (10.60%) Windows
3 49 (4.29%) Unix
4 22 (1.93%) Android
5 19 (1.67%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.67%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (0.88%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.70%) Windows 10
9 5 (0.44%) VMS
10 4 (0.35%) Debian
10 4 (0.35%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.26%) Rocky
12 2 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.088%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.088%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.088%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 356 (31.20%) Problem-Solving
2 316 (27.70%) Agile
3 252 (22.09%) AI
4 232 (20.33%) CI/CD
5 229 (20.07%) DevOps
6 195 (17.09%) Software Engineering
7 155 (13.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 145 (12.71%) Microservices
9 141 (12.36%) Machine Learning
10 136 (11.92%) Analytics
11 129 (11.31%) Cybersecurity
12 128 (11.22%) Containerisation
13 123 (10.78%) Stakeholder Management
14 118 (10.34%) Data Science
15 111 (9.73%) Data Modelling
16 109 (9.55%) Mathematics
17 107 (9.38%) Decision-Making
18 106 (9.29%) Data Governance
19 103 (9.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 94 (8.24%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 345 (30.24%) Python
2 210 (18.40%) SQL
3 138 (12.09%) Java
4 75 (6.57%) JavaScript
5 58 (5.08%) PowerShell
6 53 (4.65%) C#
7 48 (4.21%) TypeScript
8 41 (3.59%) Bash
9 40 (3.51%) Go
10 39 (3.42%) C++
11 22 (1.93%) R
12 17 (1.49%) Perl
13 14 (1.23%) Rust
14 12 (1.05%) Shell Script
15 10 (0.88%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.70%) C
16 8 (0.70%) Scala
17 7 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 5 (0.44%) Bicep
18 5 (0.44%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 941 (82.47%) Degree
2 577 (50.57%) Computer Science Degree
3 212 (18.58%) Master's Degree
4 198 (17.35%) Security Cleared
5 114 (9.99%) SC Cleared
6 73 (6.40%) CISSP
7 55 (4.82%) PhD
8 49 (4.29%) CISM
9 42 (3.68%) DBS Check
10 40 (3.51%) Azure Certification
11 34 (2.98%) TOGAF Certification
12 32 (2.80%) PMI Certification
13 30 (2.63%) DV Cleared
14 27 (2.37%) Microsoft Certification
14 27 (2.37%) PMP
15 26 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
16 25 (2.19%) AWS Certification
16 25 (2.19%) CompTIA Security+
17 24 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
18 18 (1.58%) CompTIA CySA+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (6.05%) QA
2 57 (5.00%) Data Quality
3 54 (4.73%) GDPR
4 46 (4.03%) NIST
5 45 (3.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 23 (2.02%) PCI DSS
7 17 (1.49%) Accessibility
8 11 (0.96%) GRC
8 11 (0.96%) NCSC
9 10 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 9 (0.79%) HIPAA
11 8 (0.70%) NIST 800
12 7 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
12 7 (0.61%) DO-254
12 7 (0.61%) PSD2
13 5 (0.44%) COBIT
13 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.44%) ISO 20022
13 5 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.44%) SLA
System Software
1 147 (12.88%) Docker
2 57 (5.00%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.14%) Firmware
5 6 (0.53%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.53%) VMware NSX
6 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.18%) Ceph
7 2 (0.18%) KVM
7 2 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.18%) vSphere
8 1 (0.088%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.088%) HDFS
8 1 (0.088%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.088%) Squid
Systems Management
1 156 (13.67%) Kubernetes
2 92 (8.06%) Terraform
3 63 (5.52%) Ansible
4 53 (4.65%) Grafana
5 44 (3.86%) Prometheus
6 22 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
7 17 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
8 15 (1.31%) Puppet
9 12 (1.05%) Kibana
10 9 (0.79%) Kiali
11 6 (0.53%) SCCM
12 5 (0.44%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.35%) Control-M
13 4 (0.35%) Kubeflow
13 4 (0.35%) SCOM
14 3 (0.26%) Foglight
14 3 (0.26%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.26%) PowerCLI
14 3 (0.26%) vCenter Server
15 2 (0.18%) vRealize
Vendors
1 182 (15.95%) Microsoft
2 69 (6.05%) Splunk
3 59 (5.17%) Oracle
4 57 (5.00%) Google
5 48 (4.21%) SAP
6 47 (4.12%) Databricks
7 38 (3.33%) IBM
8 28 (2.45%) ServiceNow
9 25 (2.19%) BiZZdesign
10 24 (2.10%) VMware
11 22 (1.93%) Cisco
12 20 (1.75%) Informatica
13 18 (1.58%) Salesforce
14 17 (1.49%) Palo Alto
15 15 (1.31%) Okta
16 12 (1.05%) CheckPoint
16 12 (1.05%) CyberArk
16 12 (1.05%) MuleSoft
16 12 (1.05%) OpenAI
16 12 (1.05%) Software AG