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 12 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
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 256 214
Rank change year-on-year -21 -42 +86
Contract jobs citing IBM 415 307 471
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 1.05% 1.10%
As % of the Vendors category 2.11% 2.21% 2.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 182 268
10th Percentile £313 £363 £369
25th Percentile £400 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £581 £633 £650
90th Percentile £700 £708 £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 33
10th Percentile £25.77 - £58.50
25th Percentile £58.13 £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% +21.74%

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 19,648 13,868 18,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.36% 47.50% 42.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,454 8,686 11,340
10th Percentile £313 £281 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.49% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £630
90th Percentile £700 £715 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -1.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 998 563 1,095
10th Percentile £15.29 £14.84 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.44 £14.48
Median hourly rate £32.23 £26.04 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.75% +15.73% -47.98%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.81 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £23.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +21.74% +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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -35 365 £474 -5.25% 69
UK excluding London -33 235 £450 -2.17% 53
London -39 136 £490 -12.89% 19
Work from Home -43 117 £500 - 34
North of England -46 73 £475 +11.76% 10
South West +3 44 £426 -29.00% 13
Midlands -32 42 £402 -12.61% 13
North West -20 41 £459 +20.47% 4
South East -44 41 £438 +133.35% 9
West Midlands -43 37 £401 -12.83% 10
Yorkshire -46 31 £500 -2.44% 6
East of England -15 18 £425 -15.00% 2
Scotland -14 16 £550 +12.36% 4
East Midlands -32 4 £837 +90.33% 3
Wales -12 1 - - 1
North East -22 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 23 (5.54%) WebSphere
2 21 (5.06%) Confluence
3 20 (4.82%) CICS
4 13 (3.13%) Tomcat
5 12 (2.89%) nginx
6 9 (2.17%) SharePoint
7 8 (1.93%) WebLogic
8 6 (1.45%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (1.45%) WebSphere Application Server
9 5 (1.20%) Anypoint
9 5 (1.20%) JBoss
10 4 (0.96%) Apache
11 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.72%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.72%) 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 (1.45%) MS Visio
2 3 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.48%) PlantUML
4 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.24%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 22 (5.30%) Maximo
2 9 (2.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 8 (1.93%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.69%) Temenos T24
5 4 (0.96%) SAP QM
6 3 (0.72%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.72%) SAP EWM
6 3 (0.72%) SAP PM
6 3 (0.72%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.72%) SAP R/3
6 3 (0.72%) SAP WM
7 2 (0.48%) BusinessWorks
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%) Cognos Controller
8 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.24%) SAP AFS
Cloud Services
1 78 (18.80%) AWS
2 56 (13.49%) Azure
3 21 (5.06%) OpenShift
4 15 (3.61%) GitHub
5 11 (2.65%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (2.41%) GCP
7 8 (1.93%) GitHub Copilot
7 8 (1.93%) IBM Watson
7 8 (1.93%) SaaS
8 6 (1.45%) Amazon S3
8 6 (1.45%) AWS CloudFormation
8 6 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
8 6 (1.45%) Azure AKS
8 6 (1.45%) Azure API Management
8 6 (1.45%) Azure Monitor
8 6 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (1.45%) ChatGPT
8 6 (1.45%) Datadog
8 6 (1.45%) Serverless
9 5 (1.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.82%) Firewall
2 16 (3.86%) HTTP
2 16 (3.86%) SNMP
3 14 (3.37%) SAN
4 12 (2.89%) VSAN
5 9 (2.17%) Fibre Channel
5 9 (2.17%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.93%) NAS
7 7 (1.69%) VPN
8 6 (1.45%) APPN
8 6 (1.45%) SNA
9 5 (1.20%) DNS
9 5 (1.20%) HTTPS
9 5 (1.20%) iSCSI
10 4 (0.96%) LAN
11 3 (0.72%) MPLS
11 3 (0.72%) Network Security
11 3 (0.72%) SSL
11 3 (0.72%) WAN
12 2 (0.48%) DWDM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (9.64%) DB2
2 24 (5.78%) DataStage
3 16 (3.86%) SQL Server
4 13 (3.13%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (3.13%) Relational Database
5 11 (2.65%) Oracle Database
6 10 (2.41%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (2.17%) Big Data
8 8 (1.93%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (1.69%) GIS
9 7 (1.69%) Metadata
9 7 (1.69%) Oracle Reports
10 6 (1.45%) MongoDB
11 5 (1.20%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.96%) Amazon Aurora
12 4 (0.96%) Power BI
13 3 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.72%) Apache Hive
13 3 (0.72%) DynamoDB
13 3 (0.72%) IBM InfoSphere
Development Applications
1 40 (9.64%) Rational DOORS
2 31 (7.47%) JIRA
3 13 (3.13%) Git
3 13 (3.13%) Jenkins
4 11 (2.65%) GitLab
5 8 (1.93%) Ant
6 7 (1.69%) Rational Rhapsody
7 6 (1.45%) IBM UrbanCode
7 6 (1.45%) PVCS
7 6 (1.45%) SoapUI
8 5 (1.20%) JUnit
8 5 (1.20%) Liquibase
9 4 (0.96%) PowerDesigner
9 4 (0.96%) Selenium
10 3 (0.72%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.48%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.48%) Introscope
11 2 (0.48%) JMeter
11 2 (0.48%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.48%) Visual Studio
General
1 94 (22.65%) Finance
2 92 (22.17%) Social Skills
3 69 (16.63%) Banking
4 34 (8.19%) Public Sector
5 32 (7.71%) Analytical Skills
6 29 (6.99%) Aerospace
7 12 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.65%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (2.65%) Legal
8 11 (2.65%) Retail
9 8 (1.93%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.45%) Electronics
11 6 (1.45%) Front Office
11 6 (1.45%) Law
12 5 (1.20%) Aviation
12 5 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.96%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.96%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.72%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 43 (10.36%) Architect
2 42 (10.12%) Analyst
3 39 (9.40%) Developer
4 26 (6.27%) Delivery Manager
4 26 (6.27%) Product Delivery Manager
4 26 (6.27%) Product Manager
5 22 (5.30%) Consultant
6 21 (5.06%) Software Engineer
6 21 (5.06%) Systems Delivery Manager
6 21 (5.06%) Systems Manager
7 20 (4.82%) Storage Analyst
8 18 (4.34%) Senior
9 17 (4.10%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 15 (3.61%) Data Engineer
10 15 (3.61%) Solutions Architect
11 14 (3.37%) Lead
12 13 (3.13%) Administrator
12 13 (3.13%) Management Consultant
13 11 (2.65%) DevOps Engineer
13 11 (2.65%) z/OS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.88%) Middleware
2 29 (6.99%) REST
3 22 (5.30%) Flash
4 21 (5.06%) Kafka
5 16 (3.86%) XML
6 12 (2.89%) SOAP
7 9 (2.17%) JSON
7 9 (2.17%) Spring
8 8 (1.93%) Spring Boot
9 7 (1.69%) EJB
9 7 (1.69%) JMS
9 7 (1.69%) WebSphere MQ
9 7 (1.69%) ZeroMQ
10 6 (1.45%) JDBC
10 6 (1.45%) JSP
10 6 (1.45%) OpenLayers
10 6 (1.45%) PyTorch
10 6 (1.45%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (1.45%) scikit-learn
10 6 (1.45%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 76 (18.31%) Mainframe
2 32 (7.71%) Data Centre
2 32 (7.71%) Linux Command Line
3 29 (6.99%) Replication
4 27 (6.51%) Data Structures
4 27 (6.51%) Product Ownership
5 18 (4.34%) Clustering
6 16 (3.86%) Legacy Systems
6 16 (3.86%) VSAM
7 13 (3.13%) Algorithms
7 13 (3.13%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 12 (2.89%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.41%) BYOD
9 10 (2.41%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (2.41%) Hybrid Cloud
9 10 (2.41%) Legacy Applications
9 10 (2.41%) Management Information System
10 9 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (2.17%) IBM Mainframe
11 8 (1.93%) DataPower
Operating Systems
1 98 (23.61%) Linux
2 57 (13.73%) Windows
3 51 (12.29%) zOS
4 43 (10.36%) AIX
5 42 (10.12%) Unix
6 21 (5.06%) Solaris
7 19 (4.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 19 (4.58%) Windows Server
8 11 (2.65%) Windows Server 2008
9 10 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (1.93%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.96%) MVS
12 2 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.48%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.24%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.24%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.24%) VMS
13 1 (0.24%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.24%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (22.89%) Agile
2 60 (14.46%) Migration
3 52 (12.53%) CI/CD
4 49 (11.81%) Problem-Solving
5 48 (11.57%) Continuous Improvement
6 44 (10.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 42 (10.12%) DevOps
7 42 (10.12%) Roadmaps
8 36 (8.67%) Computer Science
9 35 (8.43%) ETL
9 35 (8.43%) Stakeholder Management
9 35 (8.43%) Workflow
10 34 (8.19%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 32 (7.71%) Performance Tuning
12 31 (7.47%) Configuration Management
12 31 (7.47%) Systems Engineering
13 29 (6.99%) UML
14 28 (6.75%) ITIL
14 28 (6.75%) Programme Management
14 28 (6.75%) Requirements Management
Programming Languages
1 80 (19.28%) SQL
2 68 (16.39%) Python
3 46 (11.08%) Java
4 31 (7.47%) PowerShell
5 22 (5.30%) PL/SQL
6 21 (5.06%) JCL
7 20 (4.82%) COBOL
8 18 (4.34%) Bash
8 18 (4.34%) REXX
9 14 (3.37%) C
9 14 (3.37%) Search Processing Language
10 13 (3.13%) Perl
11 12 (2.89%) C++
12 11 (2.65%) Shell Script
13 10 (2.41%) Ada
13 10 (2.41%) MATLAB
14 7 (1.69%) Assembly Language
14 7 (1.69%) Bicep
14 7 (1.69%) CLIST
14 7 (1.69%) Korn
Qualifications
1 128 (30.84%) Security Cleared
2 77 (18.55%) SC Cleared
3 41 (9.88%) Degree
4 17 (4.10%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (3.61%) DV Cleared
6 11 (2.65%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.41%) CISSP
7 10 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (2.17%) CISM
9 7 (1.69%) AWS Certification
9 7 (1.69%) IBM Certification
10 6 (1.45%) Master's Degree
11 5 (1.20%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 5 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (0.96%) ISTQB
12 4 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.72%) CEH
13 3 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (0.48%) CCSP
14 2 (0.48%) CISMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.78%) Data Quality
2 13 (3.13%) QA
3 11 (2.65%) SLA
4 8 (1.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.69%) NIST
6 6 (1.45%) SEPA
7 5 (1.20%) ISO 20022
7 5 (1.20%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.96%) GDPR
9 3 (0.72%) 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 37 (8.92%) VMware Infrastructure
2 30 (7.23%) NFS
3 23 (5.54%) Docker
3 23 (5.54%) GPFS
3 23 (5.54%) VMware ESXi
4 21 (5.06%) vSphere
5 17 (4.10%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (2.41%) RACF
7 8 (1.93%) Firmware
8 7 (1.69%) Hyper-V
9 6 (1.45%) KVM
9 6 (1.45%) Oracle RAC
9 6 (1.45%) Time Sharing Option
10 4 (0.96%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 3 (0.72%) PowerHA
11 3 (0.72%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.48%) ACF2
12 2 (0.48%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.48%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
13 1 (0.24%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 31 (7.47%) Ansible
2 25 (6.02%) Kubernetes
2 25 (6.02%) Terraform
3 21 (5.06%) vRealize
4 20 (4.82%) Tivoli
5 17 (4.10%) Nagios
5 17 (4.10%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.86%) Netcool
7 14 (3.37%) OpenView
7 14 (3.37%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 11 (2.65%) VxRail
9 10 (2.41%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 8 (1.93%) IBM BigFix
11 7 (1.69%) Tivoli NetView
12 6 (1.45%) Oracle RMAN
12 6 (1.45%) vCenter Server
13 5 (1.20%) OMEGAMON
14 3 (0.72%) Control-M
14 3 (0.72%) Grafana
14 3 (0.72%) zSecure
Vendors
1 71 (17.11%) Oracle
2 52 (12.53%) VMware
3 36 (8.67%) Cisco
4 34 (8.19%) ServiceNow
5 31 (7.47%) HP
6 23 (5.54%) BMC
6 23 (5.54%) Microsoft
6 23 (5.54%) Splunk
7 22 (5.30%) Dell
7 22 (5.30%) SAP
7 22 (5.30%) SolarWinds
8 21 (5.06%) Red Hat
9 13 (3.13%) Broadcom
9 13 (3.13%) Google
10 11 (2.65%) Brocade
10 11 (2.65%) NetApp
11 10 (2.41%) EMC
11 10 (2.41%) MathWorks
12 8 (1.93%) AppDynamics
13 7 (1.69%) IBM Sterling