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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 70 60
Rank change year-on-year -76 -10 +22
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 1,048 1,173 1,318
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.92% 3.60% 3.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.27% 3.97% 4.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 599 665 805
10th Percentile £175 £178 £344
25th Percentile £200 £331 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% -13.64% -
75th Percentile £600 £630 £688
90th Percentile £738 £750 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £370 £420 £513
% change year-on-year -12.02% -18.05% +0.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 53 42
10th Percentile £21.28 £26.35 £20.12
25th Percentile £28.25 £29.00 £29.88
Median hourly rate £47.10 £33.50 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year +40.60% -34.95% -14.52%
75th Percentile £77.69 £67.00 £68.56
90th Percentile £87.16 £82.40 £70.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £33.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +56.72% -44.17% -

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 46,073 29,551 32,512
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.64% 85.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,867 18,364 19,652
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,200 1,847 1,359
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.25 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.30 £20.06
Median hourly rate £39.75 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.05% -40.82% -1.16%
75th Percentile £65.88 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%

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 29 September 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 29 September 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 29 September 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 -66 951 £465 -2.11% 3,238
UK excluding London -56 548 £370 -12.02% 1,436
London -75 426 £535 +0.47% 2,028
Work from Home -79 242 £514 +11.43% 1,169
South East -22 205 £438 +20.69% 375
North of England -55 142 £442 +5.24% 259
Midlands -49 89 £213 -52.62% 180
Yorkshire -16 75 £363 -5.60% 65
West Midlands -46 59 £213 -54.79% 115
North West -60 56 £525 +21.74% 148
East of England -39 45 £425 -5.56% 183
South West -65 32 £195 -5.57% 180
East Midlands -27 29 £217 -51.34% 65
Scotland -62 28 £400 -11.11% 135
North East -33 12 £195 -57.84% 48
Northern Ireland +5 5 £175 - 105
Wales -19 4 £530 +14.59% 33

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 43 (4.10%) Confluence
2 31 (2.96%) SharePoint
3 22 (2.10%) Apache Spark
4 17 (1.62%) Apache Airflow
5 15 (1.43%) Apache
6 13 (1.24%) IIS
7 10 (0.95%) Camunda
8 8 (0.76%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.67%) CMS
10 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
11 5 (0.48%) SAS
12 4 (0.38%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.38%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.29%) CICS
14 2 (0.19%) ArcGIS
14 2 (0.19%) Cloud Foundry
14 2 (0.19%) Jupyter
14 2 (0.19%) nginx
14 2 (0.19%) Oracle Service Bus
15 1 (0.095%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 40 (3.82%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.15%) MS Visio
4 9 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.67%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.67%) Revit
6 4 (0.38%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.38%) Trello
6 4 (0.38%) Windchill
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe XD
7 2 (0.19%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.19%) Simulink
7 2 (0.19%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 9 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.48%) Workday HCM
3 4 (0.38%) Infor M3
3 4 (0.38%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.29%) Primavera
4 3 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.19%) Actimize
5 2 (0.19%) Aladdin
5 2 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.19%) Temenos T24
5 2 (0.19%) Workfront
6 1 (0.095%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.095%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.095%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.095%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.095%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.095%) SAP CAR
6 1 (0.095%) SAP Forecasting and Replenishment
6 1 (0.095%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 295 (28.15%) Azure
2 190 (18.13%) AWS
3 114 (10.88%) GCP
4 64 (6.11%) Power Platform
5 63 (6.01%) Entra ID
6 57 (5.44%) Microsoft 365
7 55 (5.25%) Azure DevOps
7 55 (5.25%) GitHub
8 45 (4.29%) SaaS
9 37 (3.53%) Serverless
10 29 (2.77%) Snowflake
11 22 (2.10%) AWS Lambda
11 22 (2.10%) PowerApps
12 21 (2.00%) GitHub Actions
12 21 (2.00%) OpenShift
13 18 (1.72%) Amazon EKS
13 18 (1.72%) Microsoft Copilot
13 18 (1.72%) Power Automate
14 16 (1.53%) Dynamics 365
15 15 (1.43%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 45 (4.29%) Firewall
2 40 (3.82%) DNS
3 35 (3.34%) Network Security
4 31 (2.96%) VPN
5 25 (2.39%) TCP/IP
6 20 (1.91%) DHCP
7 16 (1.53%) SSH
8 13 (1.24%) Wireshark
9 12 (1.15%) WAN
10 11 (1.05%) 5G
10 11 (1.05%) HTTP
10 11 (1.05%) Wireless
11 10 (0.95%) 3GPP
11 10 (0.95%) LAN
12 9 (0.86%) VLAN
13 8 (0.76%) Intrusion Detection
14 7 (0.67%) BGP
14 7 (0.67%) MPLS
15 6 (0.57%) OSPF
15 6 (0.57%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (5.15%) PostgreSQL
2 53 (5.06%) SQL Server
3 51 (4.87%) Power BI
4 46 (4.39%) Relational Database
5 39 (3.72%) Metadata
6 28 (2.67%) MongoDB
7 26 (2.48%) MySQL
8 25 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
8 25 (2.39%) NoSQL
9 23 (2.19%) Elasticsearch
10 17 (1.62%) Big Data
11 14 (1.34%) Redis
12 13 (1.24%) Azure SQL Database
12 13 (1.24%) Data Mining
13 12 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
13 12 (1.15%) Tableau
14 11 (1.05%) Data Lake
14 11 (1.05%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.57%) Pinecone
15 6 (0.57%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 101 (9.64%) Git
2 50 (4.77%) Jenkins
2 50 (4.77%) JIRA
3 45 (4.29%) GitLab
4 23 (2.19%) JUnit
5 21 (2.00%) Gradle
5 21 (2.00%) Maven
6 19 (1.81%) Selenium
7 18 (1.72%) SonarQube
8 16 (1.53%) Mockito
9 14 (1.34%) Sonatype Nexus
10 12 (1.15%) Cucumber
10 12 (1.15%) REST Assured
11 10 (0.95%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.95%) SpecFlow
12 9 (0.86%) Bitbucket Server
13 8 (0.76%) TeamCity
13 8 (0.76%) Visual Studio
14 7 (0.67%) Postman
15 6 (0.57%) Cypress.io
General
1 450 (42.94%) Social Skills
2 234 (22.33%) Analytical Skills
3 232 (22.14%) Finance
4 97 (9.26%) Banking
5 67 (6.39%) Public Sector
6 52 (4.96%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (4.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 43 (4.10%) Aerospace
9 39 (3.72%) Manufacturing
10 35 (3.34%) Organisational Skills
11 32 (3.05%) Telecoms
12 30 (2.86%) Influencing Skills
13 26 (2.48%) Marketing
14 22 (2.10%) Front Office
15 20 (1.91%) Military
16 18 (1.72%) Legal
17 17 (1.62%) Presentation Skills
18 14 (1.34%) Retail
19 13 (1.24%) Law
20 12 (1.15%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 162 (15.46%) Developer
2 109 (10.40%) Senior
3 83 (7.92%) Architect
4 71 (6.77%) Lead
5 69 (6.58%) Analyst
6 36 (3.44%) Data Engineer
7 33 (3.15%) Java Developer
8 27 (2.58%) Software Engineer
9 26 (2.48%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 26 (2.48%) Security Engineer
10 25 (2.39%) IT Support
11 24 (2.29%) Senior Developer
12 23 (2.19%) Data Scientist
12 23 (2.19%) Full-Stack Developer
13 21 (2.00%) C# Developer
13 21 (2.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 21 (2.00%) Python Developer
14 20 (1.91%) Solutions Architect
15 19 (1.81%) Consultant
15 19 (1.81%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (8.97%) REST
2 67 (6.39%) React
3 65 (6.20%) Terraform
4 62 (5.92%) HTML
5 60 (5.73%) CSS
6 54 (5.15%) .NET
6 54 (5.15%) Kafka
7 50 (4.77%) RESTful
8 37 (3.53%) OAuth
8 37 (3.53%) Spring Boot
9 35 (3.34%) Spring
10 31 (2.96%) OAuth2
10 31 (2.96%) SOAP
11 29 (2.77%) Middleware
11 29 (2.77%) OpenID
11 29 (2.77%) Web Services
12 27 (2.58%) SAML
13 24 (2.29%) .NET Core
13 24 (2.29%) JSON
14 22 (2.10%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 118 (11.26%) Management Information System
2 78 (7.44%) Cloud Native
3 68 (6.49%) Algorithms
4 64 (6.11%) Onboarding
5 52 (4.96%) Data Structures
5 52 (4.96%) Distributed Systems
5 52 (4.96%) Product Ownership
6 34 (3.24%) AI Agents
7 25 (2.39%) Enterprise Software
8 24 (2.29%) Virtual Team
9 23 (2.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 22 (2.10%) Hybrid Cloud
11 21 (2.00%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.91%) Self-Motivation
13 17 (1.62%) Derivative
14 15 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
14 15 (1.43%) Replication
15 13 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (1.24%) Operational Technology
15 13 (1.24%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 126 (12.02%) Windows
2 118 (11.26%) Linux
3 37 (3.53%) Unix
4 33 (3.15%) Windows Server
5 19 (1.81%) Windows 10
6 17 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (1.15%) Android
8 10 (0.95%) Apple iOS
9 8 (0.76%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.48%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.48%) zOS
11 4 (0.38%) VMS
12 3 (0.29%) Solaris
12 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.19%) Debian
13 2 (0.19%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.19%) MVS
13 2 (0.19%) Rocky
14 1 (0.095%) CentOS
14 1 (0.095%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 323 (30.82%) Problem-Solving
2 266 (25.38%) Agile
3 225 (21.47%) CI/CD
4 214 (20.42%) AI
5 190 (18.13%) DevOps
6 188 (17.94%) Software Engineering
7 178 (16.98%) Stakeholder Management
8 177 (16.89%) Continuous Improvement
9 152 (14.50%) Analytics
10 121 (11.55%) ITIL
11 113 (10.78%) Mathematics
12 110 (10.50%) Cybersecurity
13 108 (10.31%) Scrum
14 106 (10.11%) Test Automation
15 105 (10.02%) Roadmaps
16 95 (9.06%) Machine Learning
16 95 (9.06%) Validation
17 94 (8.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 87 (8.30%) Change Management
19 82 (7.82%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 275 (26.24%) Python
2 201 (19.18%) SQL
3 137 (13.07%) Java
4 97 (9.26%) JavaScript
5 79 (7.54%) PowerShell
6 66 (6.30%) C#
7 47 (4.48%) Bash
8 40 (3.82%) TypeScript
9 25 (2.39%) C++
10 18 (1.72%) Bicep
11 14 (1.34%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.05%) R
12 11 (1.05%) Scala
13 10 (0.95%) Go
14 9 (0.86%) C
14 9 (0.86%) Kotlin
14 9 (0.86%) Perl
15 7 (0.67%) Apex Code
16 6 (0.57%) COBOL
16 6 (0.57%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 797 (76.05%) Degree
2 483 (46.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 184 (17.56%) Security Cleared
4 140 (13.36%) SC Cleared
5 106 (10.11%) Master's Degree
6 51 (4.87%) CISSP
7 50 (4.77%) Azure Certification
7 50 (4.77%) DBS Check
8 42 (4.01%) Microsoft Certification
9 37 (3.53%) CISM
10 36 (3.44%) PhD
11 29 (2.77%) AWS Certification
11 29 (2.77%) Cisco Certification
11 29 (2.77%) DV Cleared
12 23 (2.19%) PMI Certification
12 23 (2.19%) PMP
12 23 (2.19%) TOGAF Certification
13 21 (2.00%) BPSS Clearance
14 18 (1.72%) CISA
15 15 (1.43%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (6.39%) Data Quality
2 64 (6.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 63 (6.01%) QA
4 49 (4.68%) NIST
5 27 (2.58%) GDPR
6 17 (1.62%) GRC
7 15 (1.43%) Accessibility
7 15 (1.43%) HIPAA
7 15 (1.43%) SLA
8 12 (1.15%) PCI DSS
9 8 (0.76%) ISO 9001
9 8 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 8 (0.76%) NCSC
9 8 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 6 (0.57%) ISO 31000
10 6 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 5 (0.48%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.38%) ISO 19650
12 4 (0.38%) NIST 800
12 4 (0.38%) PMO
System Software
1 88 (8.40%) Docker
2 71 (6.77%) Active Directory
3 24 (2.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.76%) Firmware
5 8 (0.76%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.67%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.57%) RACF
8 5 (0.48%) ISA Server
8 5 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.48%) vSphere
9 3 (0.29%) ACF2
9 3 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.29%) Time Sharing Option
9 3 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.19%) NFS
10 2 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.095%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 1 (0.095%) Squid
Systems Management
1 104 (9.92%) Kubernetes
2 34 (3.24%) Ansible
3 27 (2.58%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (2.10%) Prometheus
5 18 (1.72%) Grafana
6 14 (1.34%) SCCM
7 10 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.67%) CASB
9 5 (0.48%) Argo
10 4 (0.38%) Control-M
10 4 (0.38%) Progress Chef
10 4 (0.38%) Puppet
11 3 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
11 3 (0.29%) Cisco Prime
11 3 (0.29%) Istio
11 3 (0.29%) SolarWinds Orion
12 2 (0.19%) Consul
12 2 (0.19%) Kubeflow
12 2 (0.19%) SCOM
12 2 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 203 (19.37%) Microsoft
2 74 (7.06%) Oracle
3 57 (5.44%) Google
4 40 (3.82%) ServiceNow
5 35 (3.34%) Databricks
5 35 (3.34%) IBM
6 34 (3.24%) VMware
7 31 (2.96%) SAP
8 29 (2.77%) Cisco
9 27 (2.58%) Splunk
10 22 (2.10%) Salesforce
11 20 (1.91%) CyberArk
12 18 (1.72%) BeyondTrust
13 17 (1.62%) OpenAI
14 16 (1.53%) Adobe
15 13 (1.24%) Red Hat
16 11 (1.05%) Dynatrace
17 10 (0.95%) CrowdStrike
17 10 (0.95%) F5
17 10 (0.95%) Veracode