Distributed Systems Contracts

Distributed Systems
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Distributed Systems in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Distributed Systems over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 306 377 366
Rank change year-on-year +71 -11 +68
Contract jobs citing Distributed Systems 232 230 393
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.79% 0.53% 0.66%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.34% 1.74% 1.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 169 283
10th Percentile £352 £374 £492
25th Percentile £488 £450 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £593 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -1.25% -4.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £763 £725 £750
90th Percentile £838 £838 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £440 £515
% change year-on-year +12.50% -14.56% -6.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 5
10th Percentile £45.55 - -
25th Percentile £55.00 - £79.89
Median hourly rate £55.50 - £84.09
75th Percentile £93.75 - £88.30
90th Percentile - - £89.32
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 - -

All Generic Skills
UK

Distributed Systems falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 9,915 13,252 19,898
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.91% 30.40% 33.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,331 8,505 13,670
10th Percentile £300 £263 £308
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% -
75th Percentile £650 £660 £680
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £496 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.90% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 394 910 640
10th Percentile £16.46 £12.25 £9.80
25th Percentile £21.00 £15.17 £10.63
Median hourly rate £32.05 £30.00 £22.49
Median % change year-on-year +6.83% +33.42% -18.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.66 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.99 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.93 £27.75 £22.00
% change year-on-year +11.46% +26.14% +9.64%

Distributed Systems
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Distributed Systems as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Distributed Systems in the UK

Distributed Systems
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Distributed Systems.

Daily rate trend for Distributed Systems in the UK

Distributed Systems
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Distributed Systems over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Distributed Systems in the UK

Distributed Systems
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Distributed Systems.

Hourly rate trend for Distributed Systems in the UK

Distributed Systems
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Distributed Systems over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Distributed Systems in the UK

Distributed Systems
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Distributed Systems within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 +58 188 £625 -3.85% 451
London +36 143 £695 +2.96% 330
Work from Home +24 61 £575 -8.73% 192
UK excluding London +40 59 £495 +12.50% 148
Scotland +15 30 £509 +16.66% 19
South East +30 10 £383 +34.21% 19
Midlands +29 8 £315 -30.00% 16
West Midlands +19 6 £315 -30.00% 10
North of England +14 5 £537 +7.40% 58
North West +4 4 £544 +3.62% 40
East of England +34 3 £550 -8.33% 15
South West +45 2 £513 -35.94% 8
East Midlands - 2 - - 6
Yorkshire +8 1 £315 -21.25% 12
Northern Ireland - 1 £410 - 10

Distributed Systems
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 13 (5.60%) Apache Spark
2 12 (5.17%) Apache
3 4 (1.72%) Confluence
3 4 (1.72%) nginx
3 4 (1.72%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.72%) Oracle Coherence
4 3 (1.29%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.86%) IIS
5 2 (0.86%) SAS
6 1 (0.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.43%) CMS
6 1 (0.43%) DataSynapse
6 1 (0.43%) Ethereum
6 1 (0.43%) Hyperledger
6 1 (0.43%) JBoss
6 1 (0.43%) MetaMask
6 1 (0.43%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.43%) WebSphere
Applications
1 20 (8.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.43%) Oracle TCA
1 1 (0.43%) R3 Corda
1 1 (0.43%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 85 (36.64%) AWS
2 55 (23.71%) Azure
3 26 (11.21%) Cloud Computing
4 18 (7.76%) GCP
5 14 (6.03%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (5.60%) Azure Monitor
6 13 (5.60%) GitHub
6 13 (5.60%) Serverless
7 12 (5.17%) Amazon S3
8 11 (4.74%) Amazon EC2
9 8 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (3.02%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (2.59%) Amazon ECS
12 5 (2.16%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 5 (2.16%) Azure AKS
12 5 (2.16%) IaaS
13 4 (1.72%) Amazon SQS
13 4 (1.72%) AWS KMS
13 4 (1.72%) Power Platform
13 4 (1.72%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.74%) HTTP
2 9 (3.88%) DNS
3 8 (3.45%) TCP/IP
4 7 (3.02%) FTP
4 7 (3.02%) SMTP
4 7 (3.02%) SSL
5 6 (2.59%) Firewall
6 3 (1.29%) VPN
7 1 (0.43%) HTTPS
7 1 (0.43%) Internet
7 1 (0.43%) Intranet
7 1 (0.43%) LAN
7 1 (0.43%) MQTT
7 1 (0.43%) Multicast
7 1 (0.43%) Network Security
7 1 (0.43%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (15.52%) Apache Cassandra
2 22 (9.48%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (8.19%) NoSQL
3 19 (8.19%) SQL Server
4 16 (6.90%) Big Data
5 10 (4.31%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (4.31%) MongoDB
6 9 (3.88%) Data Lake
7 8 (3.45%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (3.45%) Hadoop
7 8 (3.45%) Relational Database
8 7 (3.02%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (2.16%) DynamoDB
9 5 (2.16%) Redis
10 4 (1.72%) BigQuery
10 4 (1.72%) Data Mining
10 4 (1.72%) MySQL
10 4 (1.72%) Oracle Database
10 4 (1.72%) Parquet
10 4 (1.72%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 38 (16.38%) Git
2 30 (12.93%) Jenkins
3 10 (4.31%) JUnit
4 9 (3.88%) JIRA
5 8 (3.45%) Mockito
6 6 (2.59%) Maven
6 6 (2.59%) SonarQube
7 5 (2.16%) Visual Studio
8 4 (1.72%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 4 (1.72%) Bitbucket Server
8 4 (1.72%) DbUnit
8 4 (1.72%) JMeter
8 4 (1.72%) jMock
9 3 (1.29%) MLflow
9 3 (1.29%) Postman
10 2 (0.86%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.86%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.86%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.86%) SoapUI
10 2 (0.86%) XCTest
General
1 70 (30.17%) Social Skills
2 67 (28.88%) Finance
3 29 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (12.07%) Banking
5 16 (6.90%) Financial Institution
6 15 (6.47%) Public Sector
7 14 (6.03%) Front Office
7 14 (6.03%) Investment Banking
8 3 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.29%) Retail
9 2 (0.86%) Marketing
9 2 (0.86%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.86%) Publishing
10 1 (0.43%) Billing
10 1 (0.43%) Games
10 1 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.43%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 86 (37.07%) Developer
2 42 (18.10%) Senior
3 31 (13.36%) Java Developer
4 28 (12.07%) Python Engineer
5 18 (7.76%) Architect
6 15 (6.47%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 15 (6.47%) C# Developer
7 14 (6.03%) Software Engineer
8 13 (5.60%) Senior Developer
9 11 (4.74%) Lead
9 11 (4.74%) Senior Java Developer
10 9 (3.88%) Data Engineer
10 9 (3.88%) Front Office Developer
10 9 (3.88%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 8 (3.45%) JavaScript Engineer
11 8 (3.45%) Solutions Architect
12 7 (3.02%) Gen AI Engineer
12 7 (3.02%) Platform Engineer
12 7 (3.02%) Site Engineer
13 5 (2.16%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (31.47%) Kafka
2 31 (13.36%) gRPC
3 29 (12.50%) Spring
4 26 (11.21%) REST
5 23 (9.91%) Spring Boot
6 22 (9.48%) RESTful
7 14 (6.03%) Web Services
8 12 (5.17%) .NET
8 12 (5.17%) AngularJS
9 11 (4.74%) Hibernate
10 10 (4.31%) JSON
10 10 (4.31%) React
11 9 (3.88%) HTML
12 8 (3.45%) Elastic Stack
12 8 (3.45%) OpenTelemetry
12 8 (3.45%) SOAP
12 8 (3.45%) YAML
13 6 (2.59%) Bootstrap
13 6 (2.59%) JPA
13 6 (2.59%) Spring Cloud
Miscellaneous
1 24 (10.34%) Cloud Native
2 16 (6.90%) Algorithms
2 16 (6.90%) Management Information System
3 14 (6.03%) Derivative
4 13 (5.60%) Data Structures
4 13 (5.60%) Hedge funds
5 10 (4.31%) Public Cloud
6 9 (3.88%) Distributed Computing
7 8 (3.45%) Equities
8 7 (3.02%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (3.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 7 (3.02%) Virtual Team
9 6 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (2.16%) Equity Derivative
10 5 (2.16%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (1.72%) CMDB
12 3 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (1.29%) Cyber Threat
12 3 (1.29%) Data Centre
12 3 (1.29%) Grid Computing
Operating Systems
1 43 (18.53%) Linux
2 13 (5.60%) Unix
3 5 (2.16%) Windows
4 3 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.29%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.43%) Debian
5 1 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.43%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (37.93%) CI/CD
2 77 (33.19%) Microservices
3 65 (28.02%) Agile
4 59 (25.43%) Software Engineering
5 58 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
6 55 (23.71%) DevOps
7 44 (18.97%) Artificial Intelligence
8 43 (18.53%) Containerisation
9 39 (16.81%) Open Source
10 31 (13.36%) Machine Learning
10 31 (13.36%) Risk Management
11 29 (12.50%) Continuous Integration
12 27 (11.64%) SDLC
13 26 (11.21%) Scrum
13 26 (11.21%) TDD
14 25 (10.78%) Computer Science
15 24 (10.34%) Event-Driven
16 23 (9.91%) Data Security
16 23 (9.91%) Infrastructure as Code
17 21 (9.05%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 122 (52.59%) Python
2 90 (38.79%) Java
3 51 (21.98%) SQL
4 42 (18.10%) Go
5 35 (15.09%) C++
6 31 (13.36%) C#
7 26 (11.21%) JavaScript
8 19 (8.19%) PowerShell
8 19 (8.19%) Shell Script
8 19 (8.19%) TypeScript
9 17 (7.33%) C
10 13 (5.60%) Rust
11 11 (4.74%) Scala
12 8 (3.45%) Clojure
12 8 (3.45%) Perl
13 7 (3.02%) Bicep
13 7 (3.02%) Elixir
13 7 (3.02%) Groovy
14 6 (2.59%) Bash
15 5 (2.16%) Erlang
Qualifications
1 29 (12.50%) Degree
2 17 (7.33%) Computer Science Degree
3 12 (5.17%) Master's Degree
4 11 (4.74%) Security Cleared
5 8 (3.45%) AWS Certification
5 8 (3.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 6 (2.59%) Azure Certification
6 6 (2.59%) SC Cleared
7 5 (2.16%) PhD
8 4 (1.72%) Numerate Degree
9 2 (0.86%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.86%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 2 (0.86%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
9 2 (0.86%) Tableau Certification
10 1 (0.43%) CISSP
10 1 (0.43%) CompTIA CySA+
10 1 (0.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 1 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.43%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.03%) Data Quality
2 3 (1.29%) Accessibility
2 3 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.86%) GDPR
3 2 (0.86%) NIST
3 2 (0.86%) QA
4 1 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.43%) DICOM
4 1 (0.43%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.43%) HL7
4 1 (0.43%) MiFID
System Software
1 82 (35.34%) Docker
2 5 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (1.72%) Postfix
4 3 (1.29%) Platform Symphony
5 2 (0.86%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.43%) Job Entry Subsystem
6 1 (0.43%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 96 (41.38%) Kubernetes
2 24 (10.34%) Terraform
3 20 (8.62%) Grafana
4 16 (6.90%) Prometheus
5 8 (3.45%) Ansible
6 5 (2.16%) Kibana
7 3 (1.29%) ITRS Geneos
8 2 (0.86%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.86%) logstash
8 2 (0.86%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.86%) Puppet
9 1 (0.43%) CASB
9 1 (0.43%) Podman
Vendors
1 20 (8.62%) Oracle
2 17 (7.33%) Splunk
3 13 (5.60%) Microsoft
4 11 (4.74%) Dynatrace
5 10 (4.31%) Google
6 8 (3.45%) TIBCO
7 6 (2.59%) AppDynamics
8 5 (2.16%) IBM
8 5 (2.16%) VMware
9 4 (1.72%) Atlassian
9 4 (1.72%) Jaspersoft
9 4 (1.72%) ServiceNow
10 3 (1.29%) Salesforce
11 2 (0.86%) Adobe
11 2 (0.86%) CA Agile Central
11 2 (0.86%) Databricks
11 2 (0.86%) Sybase
12 1 (0.43%) Confluent
12 1 (0.43%) Okta
12 1 (0.43%) Spotify