IBM Contract Job Trends

IBM
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of IBM products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited IBM over the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the International Business Machines Corporation.

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 266 252 215
Rank change year-on-year -14 -37 +84
Contract jobs citing IBM 421 305 461
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.05% 1.07%
As % of the Vendors category 2.12% 2.20% 2.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 238 178 263
10th Percentile £313 £362 £368
25th Percentile £400 £408 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £581 £628 £650
90th Percentile £700 £711 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £460 £463
% change year-on-year -2.17% -0.54% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 6 32
10th Percentile £25.77 - £58.00
25th Percentile £63.13 £24.18 £65.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £24.42 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +186.65% -65.11% +3.70%
75th Percentile £88.00 £28.10 -
90th Percentile - £106.48 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £88.00 £24.42 £70.00
% change year-on-year +260.36% -65.11% +40.00%

All Vendors
UK

IBM falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 19,841 13,863 18,278
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.57% 47.53% 42.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,610 8,683 11,336
10th Percentile £313 £284 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.85% -0.07% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £630
90th Percentile £703 £716 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -1.22% -0.79% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 996 562 1,095
10th Percentile £15.28 £14.84 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.50 £14.41
Median hourly rate £32.36 £25.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.91% +13.33% -48.57%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.13 £57.50
90th Percentile £78.02 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.22 £23.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +22.70% +6.98% -45.67%

IBM
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing IBM relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

IBM job vacancy trend in the UK

IBM
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IBM.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IBM

IBM
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IBM over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IBM.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IBM

IBM
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing IBM over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IBM within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 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 -15 371 £474 -5.25% 74
UK excluding London -23 235 £450 -2.17% 59
London -46 141 £489 -11.14% 19
Work from Home -25 118 £500 - 40
North of England -42 73 £475 +11.76% 10
South West +1 44 £426 -29.00% 13
North West -18 41 £459 +20.47% 4
Midlands -36 41 £402 -12.61% 14
South East -53 41 £438 +133.35% 14
West Midlands -36 36 £400 -13.04% 10
Yorkshire -44 31 £500 -2.44% 6
East of England -24 19 £425 -15.00% 3
Scotland -12 16 £550 +12.36% 4
East Midlands -30 4 £837 +90.33% 4
Wales -12 1 - -
North East -23 1 £375 -10.45%

IBM
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 25 (5.94%) WebSphere
2 21 (4.99%) CICS
2 21 (4.99%) Confluence
3 13 (3.09%) Tomcat
4 12 (2.85%) nginx
5 10 (2.38%) WebLogic
6 9 (2.14%) SharePoint
7 8 (1.90%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (1.43%) WebSphere Application Server
9 5 (1.19%) Anypoint
9 5 (1.19%) JBoss
10 4 (0.95%) Apache
11 3 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.71%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.71%) CMS
12 2 (0.48%) Camunda
12 2 (0.48%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.48%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.48%) SAS
12 2 (0.48%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 6 (1.43%) MS Visio
2 3 (0.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.48%) PlantUML
4 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.24%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 21 (4.99%) Maximo
2 9 (2.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 8 (1.90%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.66%) Temenos T24
5 4 (0.95%) BusinessWorks
5 4 (0.95%) SAP QM
6 3 (0.71%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.71%) SAP EWM
6 3 (0.71%) SAP PM
6 3 (0.71%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.71%) SAP R/3
6 3 (0.71%) SAP WM
7 2 (0.48%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.48%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.48%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.48%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.24%) SAP AFS
8 1 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 1 (0.24%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 78 (18.53%) AWS
2 57 (13.54%) Azure
3 21 (4.99%) OpenShift
4 15 (3.56%) GitHub
5 11 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (2.38%) GCP
7 8 (1.90%) GitHub Copilot
7 8 (1.90%) IBM Watson
7 8 (1.90%) SaaS
8 7 (1.66%) AWS CloudFormation
9 6 (1.43%) Amazon S3
9 6 (1.43%) AWS Lambda
9 6 (1.43%) Azure AKS
9 6 (1.43%) Azure API Management
9 6 (1.43%) Azure Monitor
9 6 (1.43%) Azure Sentinel
9 6 (1.43%) ChatGPT
9 6 (1.43%) Datadog
9 6 (1.43%) Serverless
10 5 (1.19%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.75%) Firewall
2 16 (3.80%) HTTP
2 16 (3.80%) SNMP
3 14 (3.33%) SAN
4 12 (2.85%) VSAN
5 9 (2.14%) Fibre Channel
5 9 (2.14%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.90%) NAS
7 7 (1.66%) VPN
8 6 (1.43%) APPN
8 6 (1.43%) HTTPS
8 6 (1.43%) SNA
9 5 (1.19%) DNS
9 5 (1.19%) iSCSI
10 4 (0.95%) LAN
11 3 (0.71%) MPLS
11 3 (0.71%) Network Security
11 3 (0.71%) SSL
11 3 (0.71%) WAN
12 2 (0.48%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (10.21%) DB2
2 25 (5.94%) DataStage
3 18 (4.28%) SQL Server
4 15 (3.56%) Relational Database
5 14 (3.33%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (2.61%) Oracle Database
7 10 (2.38%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (2.14%) Big Data
9 8 (1.90%) Elasticsearch
10 7 (1.66%) GIS
10 7 (1.66%) Metadata
10 7 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
11 6 (1.43%) MongoDB
12 5 (1.19%) NoSQL
13 4 (0.95%) Amazon Aurora
13 4 (0.95%) Power BI
14 3 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
14 3 (0.71%) Apache Hive
14 3 (0.71%) DynamoDB
14 3 (0.71%) IBM InfoSphere
Development Applications
1 42 (9.98%) Rational DOORS
2 34 (8.08%) JIRA
3 15 (3.56%) Git
4 13 (3.09%) Jenkins
5 11 (2.61%) GitLab
6 8 (1.90%) Ant
6 8 (1.90%) PVCS
7 7 (1.66%) Rational Rhapsody
8 6 (1.43%) IBM UrbanCode
8 6 (1.43%) SoapUI
9 5 (1.19%) JUnit
9 5 (1.19%) Liquibase
10 4 (0.95%) PowerDesigner
10 4 (0.95%) Selenium
11 3 (0.71%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.48%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.48%) Introscope
12 2 (0.48%) JMeter
12 2 (0.48%) REST Assured
12 2 (0.48%) Visual Studio
General
1 96 (22.80%) Finance
2 93 (22.09%) Social Skills
3 70 (16.63%) Banking
4 34 (8.08%) Public Sector
5 32 (7.60%) Analytical Skills
6 29 (6.89%) Aerospace
7 12 (2.85%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.61%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (2.61%) Legal
8 11 (2.61%) Retail
9 8 (1.90%) Electronics
9 8 (1.90%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.66%) Law
11 6 (1.43%) Front Office
12 5 (1.19%) Aviation
12 5 (1.19%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.95%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.71%) Military
Job Titles
1 43 (10.21%) Architect
1 43 (10.21%) Developer
2 41 (9.74%) Analyst
3 26 (6.18%) Delivery Manager
3 26 (6.18%) Product Delivery Manager
3 26 (6.18%) Product Manager
4 23 (5.46%) Software Engineer
5 22 (5.23%) Consultant
6 21 (4.99%) Systems Delivery Manager
6 21 (4.99%) Systems Manager
7 20 (4.75%) Storage Analyst
8 19 (4.51%) Senior
9 17 (4.04%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 16 (3.80%) Data Engineer
11 15 (3.56%) Solutions Architect
12 14 (3.33%) Lead
13 13 (3.09%) Administrator
13 13 (3.09%) Management Consultant
14 11 (2.61%) DevOps Engineer
14 11 (2.61%) z/OS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.74%) Middleware
2 29 (6.89%) REST
3 21 (4.99%) Flash
3 21 (4.99%) Kafka
4 19 (4.51%) XML
5 14 (3.33%) SOAP
6 10 (2.38%) JMS
6 10 (2.38%) JSON
7 9 (2.14%) Spring
8 8 (1.90%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.90%) XSLT
9 7 (1.66%) EJB
9 7 (1.66%) Web Services
9 7 (1.66%) WebSphere MQ
9 7 (1.66%) ZeroMQ
10 6 (1.43%) ISPF
10 6 (1.43%) OpenLayers
10 6 (1.43%) PyTorch
10 6 (1.43%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (1.43%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 77 (18.29%) Mainframe
2 32 (7.60%) Data Centre
3 31 (7.36%) Linux Command Line
4 28 (6.65%) Product Ownership
4 28 (6.65%) Replication
5 27 (6.41%) Data Structures
6 18 (4.28%) Clustering
6 18 (4.28%) Legacy Systems
7 17 (4.04%) VSAM
8 13 (3.09%) Algorithms
8 13 (3.09%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 12 (2.85%) Cloud Native
10 10 (2.38%) BYOD
10 10 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (2.38%) Hybrid Cloud
10 10 (2.38%) IBM Mainframe
10 10 (2.38%) Legacy Applications
10 10 (2.38%) Management Information System
11 9 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
12 8 (1.90%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 97 (23.04%) Linux
2 57 (13.54%) Windows
3 52 (12.35%) zOS
4 43 (10.21%) AIX
5 42 (9.98%) Unix
6 21 (4.99%) Solaris
7 19 (4.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 19 (4.51%) Windows Server
8 11 (2.61%) Windows Server 2008
9 10 (2.38%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (1.90%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.95%) MVS
12 2 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.48%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.24%) Android
13 1 (0.24%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.24%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.24%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.24%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (22.80%) Agile
2 61 (14.49%) Migration
3 53 (12.59%) CI/CD
4 50 (11.88%) Problem-Solving
5 47 (11.16%) Continuous Improvement
6 43 (10.21%) DevOps
6 43 (10.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 42 (9.98%) Roadmaps
8 36 (8.55%) Computer Science
8 36 (8.55%) ETL
8 36 (8.55%) Workflow
9 35 (8.31%) Stakeholder Management
10 34 (8.08%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 32 (7.60%) Performance Tuning
12 31 (7.36%) Configuration Management
12 31 (7.36%) Systems Engineering
12 31 (7.36%) UML
13 29 (6.89%) Test Automation
14 28 (6.65%) ITIL
14 28 (6.65%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 81 (19.24%) SQL
2 69 (16.39%) Python
3 47 (11.16%) Java
4 31 (7.36%) PowerShell
5 22 (5.23%) JCL
5 22 (5.23%) PL/SQL
6 21 (4.99%) COBOL
7 18 (4.28%) Bash
7 18 (4.28%) REXX
8 16 (3.80%) C
9 14 (3.33%) C++
9 14 (3.33%) Search Processing Language
10 13 (3.09%) Perl
11 11 (2.61%) Shell Script
12 10 (2.38%) Ada
12 10 (2.38%) MATLAB
13 8 (1.90%) Assembly Language
14 7 (1.66%) Bicep
14 7 (1.66%) CLIST
14 7 (1.66%) Korn
Qualifications
1 130 (30.88%) Security Cleared
2 79 (18.76%) SC Cleared
3 41 (9.74%) Degree
4 17 (4.04%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (3.56%) DV Cleared
6 12 (2.85%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.38%) CISSP
7 10 (2.38%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (2.14%) CISM
9 8 (1.90%) AWS Certification
10 7 (1.66%) IBM Certification
11 6 (1.43%) Master's Degree
12 5 (1.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 5 (1.19%) ISTQB
12 5 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
13 4 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.71%) CEH
14 3 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.48%) CISMP
15 2 (0.48%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.70%) Data Quality
2 14 (3.33%) QA
3 11 (2.61%) SLA
4 8 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.66%) NIST
6 6 (1.43%) SEPA
7 5 (1.19%) ISO 20022
7 5 (1.19%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.95%) GDPR
9 3 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.48%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.48%) GRC
10 2 (0.48%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.48%) NCSC
10 2 (0.48%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.24%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.24%) IFRS
11 1 (0.24%) IFRS 17
11 1 (0.24%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 15288
System Software
1 39 (9.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 29 (6.89%) NFS
3 23 (5.46%) Docker
4 22 (5.23%) GPFS
4 22 (5.23%) VMware ESXi
5 20 (4.75%) vSphere
6 19 (4.51%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (2.38%) RACF
8 8 (1.90%) Firmware
9 7 (1.66%) Hyper-V
9 7 (1.66%) Time Sharing Option
10 6 (1.43%) KVM
10 6 (1.43%) Oracle RAC
11 4 (0.95%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 3 (0.71%) PowerHA
12 3 (0.71%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.48%) ACF2
13 2 (0.48%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 2 (0.48%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
14 1 (0.24%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 31 (7.36%) Ansible
2 26 (6.18%) Terraform
3 25 (5.94%) Kubernetes
4 20 (4.75%) Tivoli
4 20 (4.75%) vRealize
5 17 (4.04%) Nagios
5 17 (4.04%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.80%) Netcool
7 14 (3.33%) OpenView
7 14 (3.33%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 11 (2.61%) VxRail
9 10 (2.38%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 8 (1.90%) IBM BigFix
11 7 (1.66%) Tivoli NetView
12 6 (1.43%) Oracle RMAN
12 6 (1.43%) vCenter Server
13 5 (1.19%) OMEGAMON
14 4 (0.95%) TIBCO Hawk
15 3 (0.71%) Control-M
15 3 (0.71%) Grafana
Vendors
1 72 (17.10%) Oracle
2 53 (12.59%) VMware
3 35 (8.31%) Cisco
4 33 (7.84%) ServiceNow
5 31 (7.36%) HP
6 24 (5.70%) Microsoft
7 23 (5.46%) BMC
7 23 (5.46%) SAP
7 23 (5.46%) Splunk
8 22 (5.23%) Dell
8 22 (5.23%) SolarWinds
9 21 (4.99%) Red Hat
10 13 (3.09%) Broadcom
10 13 (3.09%) Google
11 11 (2.61%) Brocade
11 11 (2.61%) NetApp
12 10 (2.38%) EMC
12 10 (2.38%) MathWorks
13 8 (1.90%) ANSYS
13 8 (1.90%) AppDynamics