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 27 August 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
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 244 218
Rank change year-on-year -24 -26 +24
Contract jobs citing IBM 513 357 430
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.09% 1.11%
As % of the Vendors category 2.29% 2.31% 2.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 302 230 205
10th Percentile £327 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £480
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +14.58% -8.57%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £675 £703 £746
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £481 £450
% change year-on-year +4.00% +6.83% -12.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 8 29
10th Percentile £45.42 £25.04 £27.00
25th Percentile £70.00 £25.12 £61.25
Median hourly rate £88.00 £41.33 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +112.95% -40.96% +7.69%
75th Percentile - £73.13 -
90th Percentile - £107.61 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £88.00 £63.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year +38.04% -8.93% +7.69%

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 22,410 15,468 16,983
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.74% 47.22% 43.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,815 9,456 10,461
10th Percentile £313 £275 £285
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £523
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -4.31% -0.48%
75th Percentile £610 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £700 £726
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,156 806 773
10th Percentile £14.36 £14.59 £13.22
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £15.62
Median hourly rate £29.29 £25.15 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.44% -10.18% -36.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £46.30 £61.60
90th Percentile £83.13 £67.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £21.28 £26.08
% change year-on-year +31.58% -18.40% -34.48%

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 27 August 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 27 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Top 15 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 27 August 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 -19 439 £500 -9.09% 299
UK excluding London -52 254 £500 +4.00% 162
London -7 190 £488 -21.53% 144
Work from Home -56 123 £550 -13.04% 146
North of England -53 87 £514 +14.22% 43
Yorkshire -20 52 £520 +6.83% 19
South East -35 51 £460 -18.22% 38
South West -18 38 £426 -29.00% 28
North West -58 34 £459 +2.00% 20
Midlands -60 31 £450 +2.39% 19
West Midlands -43 28 £450 -21.74% 11
Scotland -16 27 £600 +26.72% 20
East of England -17 17 £625 +13.64% 13
Wales -14 3 £600 -5.14%
East Midlands -29 2 - - 8

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 37 (7.21%) Confluence
2 34 (6.63%) WebSphere
3 23 (4.48%) CICS
3 23 (4.48%) SharePoint
4 14 (2.73%) Tomcat
5 11 (2.14%) nginx
6 8 (1.56%) Camunda
6 8 (1.56%) JBoss
7 7 (1.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (1.17%) WebLogic
9 5 (0.97%) Apache
9 5 (0.97%) SAS
9 5 (0.97%) WebSphere Application Server
10 4 (0.78%) IIS
11 2 (0.39%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.39%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.39%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.39%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.39%) WebSphere Portal
12 1 (0.19%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 7 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 23 (4.48%) Maximo
2 17 (3.31%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 9 (1.75%) Temenos T24
4 5 (0.97%) Cognos Controller
5 3 (0.58%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
6 2 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 1 (0.19%) Actimize
7 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.19%) HFM
7 1 (0.19%) MetaTrader
7 1 (0.19%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.19%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.19%) SAP QM
7 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 77 (15.01%) Azure
2 75 (14.62%) AWS
3 32 (6.24%) GitHub
4 26 (5.07%) GCP
5 20 (3.90%) OpenShift
6 15 (2.92%) GitHub Copilot
7 14 (2.73%) Anthropic Claude
8 12 (2.34%) ChatGPT
9 10 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
10 9 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (1.56%) Amazon S3
12 7 (1.36%) IBM Blueworks
12 7 (1.36%) Microsoft Copilot
13 6 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (1.17%) Azure Service Bus
13 6 (1.17%) Boomi
13 6 (1.17%) IBM Watson
13 6 (1.17%) iPaaS
13 6 (1.17%) Power Platform
14 5 (0.97%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (4.48%) SSL
2 19 (3.70%) HTTP
3 17 (3.31%) SNMP
4 13 (2.53%) SAN
5 10 (1.95%) Firewall
5 10 (1.95%) TCP/IP
6 9 (1.75%) Network Security
7 7 (1.36%) DNS
8 5 (0.97%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (0.97%) VSAN
8 5 (0.97%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.78%) Fibre Channel
9 4 (0.78%) SSH
10 3 (0.58%) APPN
10 3 (0.58%) Internet
10 3 (0.58%) NAS
10 3 (0.58%) SNA
11 2 (0.39%) DMZ
11 2 (0.39%) LAN
11 2 (0.39%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (8.77%) Db2
2 33 (6.43%) Relational Database
3 31 (6.04%) DataStage
4 22 (4.29%) SQL Server
5 18 (3.51%) Oracle Database
6 17 (3.31%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (3.12%) Metadata
8 15 (2.92%) MongoDB
9 9 (1.75%) Elasticsearch
10 8 (1.56%) Tableau
11 7 (1.36%) NoSQL
12 6 (1.17%) Big Data
12 6 (1.17%) GIS
12 6 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
13 5 (0.97%) Data Lake
13 5 (0.97%) Power BI
14 2 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.39%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
14 2 (0.39%) IBM InfoSphere
14 2 (0.39%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 54 (10.53%) JIRA
2 36 (7.02%) Rational DOORS
3 34 (6.63%) Jenkins
4 21 (4.09%) Git
4 21 (4.09%) GitLab
5 15 (2.92%) JMeter
6 12 (2.34%) SonarQube
7 11 (2.14%) LoadRunner
8 10 (1.95%) Rational Rhapsody
9 9 (1.75%) Postman
9 9 (1.75%) SoapUI
9 9 (1.75%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (1.56%) Gradle
10 8 (1.56%) Selenium
11 7 (1.36%) eggPlant
11 7 (1.36%) IBM UrbanCode
11 7 (1.36%) JUnit
11 7 (1.36%) Maven
11 7 (1.36%) REST Assured
12 6 (1.17%) Mockito
General
1 174 (33.92%) Finance
2 125 (24.37%) Banking
3 122 (23.78%) Social Skills
4 66 (12.87%) Analytical Skills
5 29 (5.65%) Legal
6 25 (4.87%) Aerospace
6 25 (4.87%) Public Sector
7 13 (2.53%) Retail
8 10 (1.95%) Military
9 8 (1.56%) Front Office
9 8 (1.56%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.97%) Law
13 3 (0.58%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.58%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.58%) Retail Banking
13 3 (0.58%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.39%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 78 (15.20%) Developer
2 63 (12.28%) Architect
3 48 (9.36%) Analyst
4 43 (8.38%) Senior
5 31 (6.04%) Administrator
6 29 (5.65%) Consultant
7 28 (5.46%) Lead
8 25 (4.87%) Solutions Architect
9 23 (4.48%) Delivery Manager
9 23 (4.48%) Product Delivery Manager
9 23 (4.48%) Product Manager
10 20 (3.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 19 (3.70%) Systems Delivery Manager
11 19 (3.70%) Systems Manager
12 18 (3.51%) Middleware Engineer
13 14 (2.73%) CICS Engineer
13 14 (2.73%) DataStage Developer
14 13 (2.53%) Java Developer
14 13 (2.53%) Management Consultant
15 12 (2.34%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (13.45%) Middleware
2 48 (9.36%) Kafka
3 46 (8.97%) REST
4 39 (7.60%) XML
5 34 (6.63%) JSON
6 27 (5.26%) Spring Boot
7 24 (4.68%) ISPF
8 21 (4.09%) SOAP
9 19 (3.70%) Spring
10 16 (3.12%) RabbitMQ
11 15 (2.92%) HTML
12 14 (2.73%) .NET
12 14 (2.73%) Terraform
13 12 (2.34%) Flash
13 12 (2.34%) OAuth
13 12 (2.34%) Web Services
14 11 (2.14%) SAML
15 9 (1.75%) Swagger
16 8 (1.56%) JWT
16 8 (1.56%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 100 (19.49%) Mainframe
2 33 (6.43%) Clustering
2 33 (6.43%) Data Structures
3 32 (6.24%) Product Ownership
4 29 (5.65%) Data Centre
5 20 (3.90%) Replication
6 19 (3.70%) Cloud Native
7 17 (3.31%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 15 (2.92%) AS400
9 14 (2.73%) Enterprise Software
9 14 (2.73%) Hybrid Cloud
9 14 (2.73%) Legacy Systems
10 13 (2.53%) Distributed Systems
10 13 (2.53%) IBM Mainframe
10 13 (2.53%) Legacy Applications
11 12 (2.34%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (2.14%) iSeries
12 11 (2.14%) Management Information System
13 10 (1.95%) Equity Derivative
13 10 (1.95%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 95 (18.52%) Linux
2 80 (15.59%) zOS
3 56 (10.92%) Unix
4 39 (7.60%) Windows
5 32 (6.24%) AIX
6 19 (3.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (2.14%) Solaris
8 8 (1.56%) SUSE
9 7 (1.36%) MVS
9 7 (1.36%) Windows Server
9 7 (1.36%) Windows Server 2008
10 5 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.39%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.39%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.19%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.19%) VMS
13 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (20.47%) Agile
2 80 (15.59%) CI/CD
3 79 (15.40%) Migration
4 66 (12.87%) DevOps
5 64 (12.48%) Continuous Improvement
6 63 (12.28%) Stakeholder Management
7 58 (11.31%) ITIL
8 57 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
8 57 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 57 (11.11%) Test Automation
9 49 (9.55%) Computer Science
9 49 (9.55%) ETL
10 40 (7.80%) Performance Tuning
11 39 (7.60%) Change Management
11 39 (7.60%) Roadmaps
11 39 (7.60%) Root Cause Analysis
12 38 (7.41%) Scrum
13 37 (7.21%) Configuration Management
13 37 (7.21%) Systems Engineering
14 36 (7.02%) AI
Programming Languages
1 103 (20.08%) SQL
2 94 (18.32%) Python
3 83 (16.18%) Java
4 31 (6.04%) PowerShell
5 30 (5.85%) JavaScript
6 23 (4.48%) JCL
7 22 (4.29%) PL/SQL
8 17 (3.31%) Bash
8 17 (3.31%) C++
9 16 (3.12%) Shell Script
10 15 (2.92%) REXX
11 14 (2.73%) Search Processing Language
12 13 (2.53%) C
13 12 (2.34%) COBOL
14 11 (2.14%) C#
14 11 (2.14%) Perl
15 7 (1.36%) Ada
16 6 (1.17%) Assembly Language
16 6 (1.17%) CLIST
17 5 (0.97%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 128 (24.95%) Security Cleared
2 83 (16.18%) SC Cleared
3 57 (11.11%) Degree
4 18 (3.51%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (1.56%) DV Cleared
6 7 (1.36%) AWS Certification
6 7 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (1.36%) CISSP
7 5 (0.97%) CISM
8 4 (0.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 4 (0.78%) Azure Certification
8 4 (0.78%) CCSP
8 4 (0.78%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (0.78%) ISTQB
8 4 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 3 (0.58%) CIMA
9 3 (0.58%) ISEB
9 3 (0.58%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.58%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.58%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (6.82%) Data Quality
2 17 (3.31%) QA
3 10 (1.95%) ISO 20022
4 8 (1.56%) ISO 15022
5 7 (1.36%) GDPR
6 5 (0.97%) NIST
7 4 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (0.78%) GRC
7 4 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.78%) SEPA
7 4 (0.78%) SLA
8 3 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 19770
9 2 (0.39%) GAAP
9 2 (0.39%) IFRS
10 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.19%) IEC 61508
10 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 1 (0.19%) MIL-STD-1553
10 1 (0.19%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.19%) PMO
System Software
1 38 (7.41%) Docker
2 26 (5.07%) RACF
3 24 (4.68%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (3.12%) NFS
5 14 (2.73%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (2.34%) Time Sharing Option
7 11 (2.14%) Firmware
7 11 (2.14%) GPFS
7 11 (2.14%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (1.95%) vSphere
9 7 (1.36%) ACF2
9 7 (1.36%) PowerHA
10 6 (1.17%) Oracle RAC
11 3 (0.58%) Active Directory
11 3 (0.58%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
12 1 (0.19%) oVirt
12 1 (0.19%) RHEV
12 1 (0.19%) SRDF
12 1 (0.19%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 28 (5.46%) Kubernetes
2 24 (4.68%) OMEGAMON
3 23 (4.48%) Ansible
4 21 (4.09%) Tivoli
5 17 (3.31%) Nagios
5 17 (3.31%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.12%) Netcool
7 14 (2.73%) OpenView
7 14 (2.73%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 14 (2.73%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 9 (1.75%) Grafana
9 8 (1.56%) vRealize
10 6 (1.17%) Tivoli NetView
11 5 (0.97%) Control-M
11 5 (0.97%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.97%) Oracle RMAN
11 5 (0.97%) VxRail
12 4 (0.78%) CA Endevor
12 4 (0.78%) QRadar
13 3 (0.58%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 112 (21.83%) Oracle
2 49 (9.55%) Microsoft
3 36 (7.02%) Splunk
4 35 (6.82%) VMware
5 33 (6.43%) SAP
6 25 (4.87%) ServiceNow
7 22 (4.29%) Red Hat
8 21 (4.09%) Google
9 19 (3.70%) Cisco
10 18 (3.51%) BMC
10 18 (3.51%) Broadcom
10 18 (3.51%) HP
11 16 (3.12%) SolarWinds
12 15 (2.92%) Cognos
13 14 (2.73%) Dynatrace
14 13 (2.53%) MathWorks
15 12 (2.34%) Brocade
15 12 (2.34%) Sybase
16 11 (2.14%) Databricks
17 10 (1.95%) Dell