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

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 71 75
Rank change year-on-year -22 +4 +47
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,170 955 1,234
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.74% 3.24% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.18% 3.59% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 729 564 767
10th Percentile £175 £302 £317
25th Percentile £300 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% -4.55% -6.14%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £668
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 78 27 85
10th Percentile £26.75 £26.73 £23.00
25th Percentile £36.25 £30.78 £42.50
Median hourly rate £81.50 £42.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +91.76% -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 36,752 26,590 38,671
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.07% 90.35% 86.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,283 16,983 25,150
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 £744 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,192 900 2,342
10th Percentile £14.82 £15.49 £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 £65.00 £64.79 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.34 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.21 £32.00 £31.50
% change year-on-year -14.97% +1.59% -10.00%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -15 1,034 £475 -9.52% 823
UK excluding London -9 611 £400 -20.00% 603
London -29 447 £553 -7.83% 346
Work from Home -16 272 £525 -6.67% 319
South East +10 189 £355 -29.00% 204
North of England +19 188 £366 -32.35% 121
Yorkshire +7 95 £525 +5.00% 42
North West +3 89 £325 -41.02% 64
Midlands -36 89 £475 +33.43% 87
West Midlands -46 64 £475 +143.59% 50
South West -9 60 £500 -9.09% 61
East of England -34 42 £405 -36.47% 76
Scotland -3 36 £610 +16.19% 47
East Midlands -19 25 £447 +25.56% 37
Wales -15 15 £160 -44.35% 17
North East -12 5 £207 -64.09% 15
Northern Ireland -6 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 (5.73%) Confluence
2 43 (3.68%) Apache Spark
3 34 (2.91%) SharePoint
4 19 (1.62%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (1.54%) Apache
6 13 (1.11%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.51%) Jupyter
8 5 (0.43%) Smallworld
9 4 (0.34%) GeoServer
9 4 (0.34%) IIS
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.34%) 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 (2.99%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.77%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.43%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.43%) Simulink
6 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.17%) Trello
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 23 (1.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.43%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.34%) Aladdin
4 4 (0.34%) 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 (0.085%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.085%) Maximo
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.085%) Oracle HRMS
7 1 (0.085%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.085%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.085%) SAP SM
Cloud Services
1 326 (27.86%) Azure
2 207 (17.69%) AWS
3 122 (10.43%) GCP
4 71 (6.07%) GitHub
5 66 (5.64%) Power Platform
6 53 (4.53%) Microsoft 365
7 49 (4.19%) SaaS
8 47 (4.02%) Azure DevOps
9 44 (3.76%) Serverless
10 42 (3.59%) Entra ID
11 30 (2.56%) GitHub Actions
12 22 (1.88%) Azure Data Factory
12 22 (1.88%) IaaS
12 22 (1.88%) Snowflake
13 19 (1.62%) Cloud Computing
14 18 (1.54%) Azure Machine Learning
15 17 (1.45%) AWS CloudFormation
16 15 (1.28%) Amazon S3
16 15 (1.28%) Power Automate
16 15 (1.28%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 50 (4.27%) Firewall
2 33 (2.82%) DNS
3 28 (2.39%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.88%) Network Security
5 16 (1.37%) HTTP
5 16 (1.37%) WAN
6 14 (1.20%) BGP
6 14 (1.20%) LAN
7 13 (1.11%) SSH
7 13 (1.11%) VLAN
7 13 (1.11%) Wireless
8 11 (0.94%) DHCP
8 11 (0.94%) VPN
9 10 (0.85%) IPv4
9 10 (0.85%) Skype
10 9 (0.77%) Cisco IOS
10 9 (0.77%) OSPF
11 8 (0.68%) VoIP
12 7 (0.60%) HTTPS
12 7 (0.60%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (6.84%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (4.70%) NoSQL
3 49 (4.19%) Power BI
4 44 (3.76%) Data Warehouse
4 44 (3.76%) Relational Database
5 43 (3.68%) SQL Server
6 40 (3.42%) Big Data
7 35 (2.99%) MySQL
8 25 (2.14%) Tableau
9 23 (1.97%) Hadoop
10 19 (1.62%) Metadata
11 18 (1.54%) MongoDB
12 17 (1.45%) Data Lake
12 17 (1.45%) Elasticsearch
13 11 (0.94%) Redis
14 10 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 9 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
16 8 (0.68%) Snowflake Schema
17 7 (0.60%) RDBMS
17 7 (0.60%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 99 (8.46%) Git
2 90 (7.69%) JIRA
3 64 (5.47%) Jenkins
4 56 (4.79%) GitLab
5 26 (2.22%) Rational DOORS
6 12 (1.03%) Postman
7 11 (0.94%) Liquibase
7 11 (0.94%) MLflow
7 11 (0.94%) Selenium
8 9 (0.77%) Jaeger
9 8 (0.68%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.68%) CircleCI
9 8 (0.68%) Gradle
10 7 (0.60%) JUnit
11 6 (0.51%) Cypress.io
12 5 (0.43%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.43%) PyCharm
12 5 (0.43%) Visual Studio
13 4 (0.34%) Artifactory
13 4 (0.34%) TeamCity
General
1 520 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 290 (24.79%) Finance
3 249 (21.28%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (9.74%) Banking
5 77 (6.58%) Public Sector
6 45 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
6 45 (3.85%) Marketing
7 43 (3.68%) Aerospace
8 39 (3.33%) Legal
9 37 (3.16%) Influencing Skills
9 37 (3.16%) Presentation Skills
10 33 (2.82%) Financial Institution
11 31 (2.65%) Organisational Skills
12 30 (2.56%) Front Office
12 30 (2.56%) Telecoms
13 26 (2.22%) Electronics
14 23 (1.97%) Manufacturing
15 21 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 21 (1.79%) Investment Banking
16 18 (1.54%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 168 (14.36%) Developer
2 116 (9.91%) Architect
3 94 (8.03%) Lead
4 88 (7.52%) Analyst
5 83 (7.09%) Senior
6 45 (3.85%) Software Engineer
6 45 (3.85%) Solutions Architect
7 39 (3.33%) Data Scientist
8 36 (3.08%) Delivery Manager
9 33 (2.82%) Product Manager
10 32 (2.74%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 29 (2.48%) Python Developer
12 27 (2.31%) Technical Support
13 26 (2.22%) Business Analyst
13 26 (2.22%) Product Delivery Manager
14 24 (2.05%) Consultant
15 23 (1.97%) Java Developer
16 22 (1.88%) Security Engineer
16 22 (1.88%) Systems Delivery Manager
16 22 (1.88%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (8.72%) REST
2 60 (5.13%) RESTful
3 58 (4.96%) React
4 52 (4.44%) .NET
5 44 (3.76%) Kafka
6 42 (3.59%) Middleware
7 39 (3.33%) PyTorch
8 38 (3.25%) Elastic Stack
8 38 (3.25%) TensorFlow
9 34 (2.91%) HTML
9 34 (2.91%) OAuth
10 33 (2.82%) Spring
11 32 (2.74%) JSON
12 31 (2.65%) XML
13 29 (2.48%) Spring Boot
14 28 (2.39%) Node.js
15 27 (2.31%) CSS
15 27 (2.31%) SOAP
16 23 (1.97%) LangChain
17 21 (1.79%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 123 (10.51%) Management Information System
2 97 (8.29%) Algorithms
3 92 (7.86%) Cloud Native
4 79 (6.75%) Product Ownership
5 66 (5.64%) Data Structures
6 57 (4.87%) Distributed Systems
7 56 (4.79%) Onboarding
8 33 (2.82%) Equities
9 31 (2.65%) Virtual Team
10 26 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (2.22%) Derivative
11 25 (2.14%) Security Posture
12 24 (2.05%) AI Agents
13 23 (1.97%) Data Centre
13 23 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
14 22 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
14 22 (1.88%) Distributed Computing
14 22 (1.88%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 21 (1.79%) Public Cloud
16 18 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 152 (12.99%) Linux
2 129 (11.03%) Windows
3 55 (4.70%) Unix
4 24 (2.05%) Android
5 21 (1.79%) Windows Server
6 18 (1.54%) Mac OS
7 12 (1.03%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (0.60%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.43%) 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 (0.085%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.085%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.085%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 372 (31.79%) Problem-Solving
2 324 (27.69%) Agile
3 244 (20.85%) AI
4 237 (20.26%) DevOps
5 235 (20.09%) CI/CD
6 191 (16.32%) Software Engineering
7 156 (13.33%) Microservices
8 148 (12.65%) Continuous Improvement
9 141 (12.05%) Analytics
10 140 (11.97%) Machine Learning
11 135 (11.54%) Containerisation
12 133 (11.37%) Cybersecurity
13 121 (10.34%) Stakeholder Management
14 117 (10.00%) Data Science
15 113 (9.66%) Data Governance
16 110 (9.40%) Data Modelling
17 109 (9.32%) Decision-Making
18 106 (9.06%) Mathematics
19 101 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 91 (7.78%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 353 (30.17%) Python
2 204 (17.44%) SQL
3 140 (11.97%) Java
4 90 (7.69%) JavaScript
5 63 (5.38%) PowerShell
6 58 (4.96%) TypeScript
7 48 (4.10%) C#
8 42 (3.59%) Go
9 40 (3.42%) Bash
10 37 (3.16%) C++
11 20 (1.71%) R
12 18 (1.54%) Perl
13 16 (1.37%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.20%) Rust
15 10 (0.85%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.68%) Bicep
16 8 (0.68%) Scala
17 7 (0.60%) Ruby
18 6 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 6 (0.51%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 958 (81.88%) Degree
2 599 (51.20%) Computer Science Degree
3 222 (18.97%) Master's Degree
4 201 (17.18%) Security Cleared
5 123 (10.51%) SC Cleared
6 75 (6.41%) CISSP
7 57 (4.87%) DBS Check
8 55 (4.70%) PhD
9 52 (4.44%) CISM
10 42 (3.59%) Azure Certification
11 36 (3.08%) TOGAF Certification
12 31 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
12 31 (2.65%) PMI Certification
13 30 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
14 29 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
15 28 (2.39%) AWS Certification
15 28 (2.39%) DV Cleared
16 26 (2.22%) PMP
17 23 (1.97%) CompTIA Security+
18 18 (1.54%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (5.81%) QA
2 59 (5.04%) GDPR
3 54 (4.62%) Data Quality
4 50 (4.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (3.76%) NIST
6 22 (1.88%) PCI DSS
7 15 (1.28%) Accessibility
7 15 (1.28%) GRC
8 10 (0.85%) NCSC
9 9 (0.77%) HIPAA
10 8 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (0.68%) DO-254
10 8 (0.68%) NIST 800
10 8 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.60%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.51%) PSD2
13 5 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 4 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
14 4 (0.34%) Solvency II
System Software
1 158 (13.50%) Docker
2 60 (5.13%) Active Directory
3 20 (1.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.11%) Firmware
5 6 (0.51%) 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 (0.085%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.085%) HDFS
8 1 (0.085%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.085%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 166 (14.19%) Kubernetes
2 90 (7.69%) Terraform
3 59 (5.04%) Ansible
4 50 (4.27%) Grafana
5 41 (3.50%) Prometheus
6 21 (1.79%) Microsoft Intune
7 16 (1.37%) Puppet
7 16 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (1.11%) Kibana
9 9 (0.77%) Kiali
10 8 (0.68%) Argo
10 8 (0.68%) SCCM
11 5 (0.43%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.34%) SCOM
13 3 (0.26%) Control-M
13 3 (0.26%) Kubeflow
13 3 (0.26%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.26%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.26%) WSUS
14 2 (0.17%) Foglight
Vendors
1 183 (15.64%) Microsoft
2 72 (6.15%) Splunk
3 62 (5.30%) Google
4 57 (4.87%) Oracle
5 50 (4.27%) SAP
6 48 (4.10%) Databricks
7 39 (3.33%) IBM
8 26 (2.22%) ServiceNow
9 25 (2.14%) BiZZdesign
9 25 (2.14%) Cisco
10 22 (1.88%) Informatica
10 22 (1.88%) VMware
11 21 (1.79%) Salesforce
12 18 (1.54%) Palo Alto
13 17 (1.45%) Red Hat
14 15 (1.28%) Okta
15 13 (1.11%) CheckPoint
16 12 (1.03%) Foundry
16 12 (1.03%) OpenAI
16 12 (1.03%) Software AG