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 3 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
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 269 231 223
Rank change year-on-year -38 -8 +28
Contract jobs citing IBM 493 381 419
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.93% 1.15% 1.07%
As % of the Vendors category 2.24% 2.44% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 284 250 209
10th Percentile £325 £350 £355
25th Percentile £413 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £649 £644
90th Percentile £675 £706 £755
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £472
% change year-on-year +5.26% +0.64% -5.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 7 32
10th Percentile £25.18 £24.89 £30.05
25th Percentile £65.00 £25.04 £64.69
Median hourly rate £88.00 £57.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.04% -17.86% +3.70%
75th Percentile - £73.75 -
90th Percentile - £118.49 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £88.00 £57.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +53.04% -17.86% +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 21,964 15,619 17,055
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.33% 47.17% 43.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,616 9,561 10,707
10th Percentile £313 £280 £281
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £602 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £705 £731
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £478 £500
% change year-on-year +4.60% -4.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,110 790 856
10th Percentile £15.80 £14.63 £13.58
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.30 £15.62
Median hourly rate £34.86 £25.15 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.61% -10.18% -33.85%
75th Percentile £65.00 £50.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £22.32 £27.00
% change year-on-year +52.30% -17.35% -23.94%

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 3 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 3 August 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 3 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 -49 421 £500 -4.76% 146
UK excluding London -59 255 £500 +5.26% 73
London -21 171 £488 -18.75% 75
Work from Home -73 122 £520 -5.55% 69
North of England -49 89 £520 +10.76% 16
South East -51 57 £450 -18.18% 22
Yorkshire -25 47 £550 +13.10% 8
North West -50 40 £469 +0.75% 7
South West -17 36 £426 -29.00% 13
Midlands -54 32 £419 -5.85% 11
West Midlands -55 28 £413 -13.16% 7
Scotland -13 24 £550 +14.82% 5
East of England -14 14 £625 +13.64% 5
Wales -14 3 £600 -5.14% 3
East Midlands -28 3 - - 4
North East -38 1 £375 -18.92% 1

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 39 (7.91%) WebSphere
2 35 (7.10%) Confluence
3 28 (5.68%) CICS
4 18 (3.65%) SharePoint
5 16 (3.25%) Tomcat
6 14 (2.84%) nginx
7 8 (1.62%) JBoss
7 8 (1.62%) WebLogic
8 5 (1.01%) Apache
8 5 (1.01%) SAS
8 5 (1.01%) WebSphere Application Server
9 4 (0.81%) Camunda
9 4 (0.81%) IIS
10 3 (0.61%) CMS
11 2 (0.41%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.41%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Portal
12 1 (0.20%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.20%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 6 (1.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.41%) PlantUML
3 2 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.20%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.20%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.20%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 21 (4.26%) Maximo
2 12 (2.43%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 9 (1.83%) Temenos T24
4 5 (1.01%) Cognos Controller
4 5 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.61%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
5 3 (0.61%) SAP R/3
6 2 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 2 (0.41%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.20%) Actimize
7 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.20%) HFM
7 1 (0.20%) MetaTrader
7 1 (0.20%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.20%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.20%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 70 (14.20%) AWS
2 60 (12.17%) Azure
3 26 (5.27%) GitHub
4 15 (3.04%) GitHub Copilot
4 15 (3.04%) OpenShift
5 13 (2.64%) GCP
6 12 (2.43%) Anthropic Claude
6 12 (2.43%) ChatGPT
7 10 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (1.83%) IBM Watson
9 8 (1.62%) Amazon S3
10 7 (1.42%) Amazon EKS
11 6 (1.22%) Azure AI
11 6 (1.22%) IBM Blueworks
11 6 (1.22%) Microsoft Copilot
11 6 (1.22%) Vertex AI
12 5 (1.01%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (1.01%) Microsoft 365
13 4 (0.81%) Azure Data Factory
13 4 (0.81%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 23 (4.67%) SSL
2 20 (4.06%) Firewall
3 17 (3.45%) SNMP
4 16 (3.25%) HTTP
5 13 (2.64%) SAN
6 8 (1.62%) DNS
6 8 (1.62%) Network Security
6 8 (1.62%) TCP/IP
7 6 (1.22%) VSAN
8 5 (1.01%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (1.01%) Fibre Channel
8 5 (1.01%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.81%) NAS
10 3 (0.61%) Internet
10 3 (0.61%) SSH
11 2 (0.41%) APPN
11 2 (0.41%) DMZ
11 2 (0.41%) LAN
11 2 (0.41%) SNA
11 2 (0.41%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (9.33%) Db2
2 31 (6.29%) DataStage
3 30 (6.09%) Relational Database
4 18 (3.65%) SQL Server
5 16 (3.25%) Metadata
6 14 (2.84%) MongoDB
7 13 (2.64%) Oracle Database
8 12 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
9 10 (2.03%) PostgreSQL
10 9 (1.83%) Elasticsearch
11 8 (1.62%) NoSQL
12 6 (1.22%) Big Data
12 6 (1.22%) GIS
13 5 (1.01%) Data Lake
14 3 (0.61%) BusinessObjects
14 3 (0.61%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
14 3 (0.61%) IBM InfoSphere
14 3 (0.61%) Power BI
15 2 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
16 1 (0.20%) DataStax
Development Applications
1 52 (10.55%) JIRA
2 42 (8.52%) Rational DOORS
3 23 (4.67%) Jenkins
4 17 (3.45%) GitLab
5 15 (3.04%) Git
6 8 (1.62%) IBM UrbanCode
6 8 (1.62%) Rational Rhapsody
7 6 (1.22%) PowerDesigner
8 5 (1.01%) Liquibase
8 5 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.81%) Ant
9 4 (0.81%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.81%) Gradle
9 4 (0.81%) JMeter
9 4 (0.81%) Zephyr
10 3 (0.61%) JUnit
10 3 (0.61%) Maven
10 3 (0.61%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.61%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.41%) Claude Code
General
1 158 (32.05%) Finance
2 118 (23.94%) Social Skills
3 104 (21.10%) Banking
4 58 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
5 33 (6.69%) Public Sector
6 32 (6.49%) Legal
7 31 (6.29%) Aerospace
8 14 (2.84%) Retail
9 10 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.83%) Military
11 8 (1.62%) Front Office
11 8 (1.62%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.01%) Law
13 5 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 3 (0.61%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.61%) Retail Banking
15 3 (0.61%) Telecoms
16 2 (0.41%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 62 (12.58%) Developer
2 61 (12.37%) Architect
3 51 (10.34%) Analyst
4 35 (7.10%) Senior
5 31 (6.29%) Administrator
6 27 (5.48%) Delivery Manager
6 27 (5.48%) Product Delivery Manager
6 27 (5.48%) Product Manager
7 24 (4.87%) Consultant
8 22 (4.46%) Solutions Architect
9 21 (4.26%) Systems Delivery Manager
9 21 (4.26%) Systems Manager
10 20 (4.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 20 (4.06%) Lead
11 18 (3.65%) Middleware Engineer
12 15 (3.04%) Designer
13 14 (2.84%) CICS Engineer
14 13 (2.64%) Management Consultant
15 12 (2.43%) Software Engineer
15 12 (2.43%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (13.79%) Middleware
2 42 (8.52%) REST
3 25 (5.07%) JSON
4 24 (4.87%) ISPF
4 24 (4.87%) XML
5 21 (4.26%) Kafka
6 17 (3.45%) Spring Boot
7 15 (3.04%) RabbitMQ
8 14 (2.84%) Flash
8 14 (2.84%) Spring
9 12 (2.43%) SOAP
10 9 (1.83%) WebSphere MQ
11 8 (1.62%) Jakarta EE
11 8 (1.62%) OAuth
11 8 (1.62%) SAML
12 7 (1.42%) JDBC
12 7 (1.42%) PyTorch
12 7 (1.42%) Web Services
12 7 (1.42%) ZeroMQ
13 6 (1.22%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 102 (20.69%) Mainframe
2 41 (8.32%) Data Centre
3 37 (7.51%) Clustering
4 33 (6.69%) Data Structures
5 32 (6.49%) Product Ownership
6 21 (4.26%) Replication
7 20 (4.06%) Cloud Native
8 15 (3.04%) Linux Command Line
8 15 (3.04%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 14 (2.84%) IBM Mainframe
10 13 (2.64%) AS400
10 13 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (2.43%) Management Information System
12 11 (2.23%) Hybrid Cloud
12 11 (2.23%) VSAM
13 10 (2.03%) Equity Derivative
13 10 (2.03%) Legacy Applications
14 9 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
14 9 (1.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 9 (1.83%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 101 (20.49%) Linux
2 75 (15.21%) zOS
3 55 (11.16%) Unix
4 46 (9.33%) Windows
5 41 (8.32%) AIX
6 21 (4.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 19 (3.85%) Solaris
8 13 (2.64%) Windows Server
9 10 (2.03%) Windows Server 2008
10 8 (1.62%) SUSE
10 8 (1.62%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (1.42%) MVS
12 4 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.20%) Android
14 1 (0.20%) Apple iOS
14 1 (0.20%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.20%) VMS
14 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (20.28%) Agile
2 72 (14.60%) Migration
3 67 (13.59%) CI/CD
4 62 (12.58%) Continuous Improvement
4 62 (12.58%) DevOps
5 58 (11.76%) Stakeholder Management
6 56 (11.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 52 (10.55%) ITIL
8 49 (9.94%) Problem-Solving
9 48 (9.74%) Roadmaps
10 46 (9.33%) ETL
11 42 (8.52%) Computer Science
11 42 (8.52%) Test Automation
12 39 (7.91%) AI
13 38 (7.71%) Systems Engineering
14 36 (7.30%) Change Management
14 36 (7.30%) Configuration Management
14 36 (7.30%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 36 (7.30%) Scrum
15 34 (6.90%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 90 (18.26%) SQL
2 79 (16.02%) Python
3 63 (12.78%) Java
4 35 (7.10%) PowerShell
5 23 (4.67%) Bash
6 19 (3.85%) JCL
6 19 (3.85%) PL/SQL
7 16 (3.25%) COBOL
8 15 (3.04%) REXX
9 14 (2.84%) Search Processing Language
10 13 (2.64%) C++
11 12 (2.43%) JavaScript
11 12 (2.43%) Shell Script
12 11 (2.23%) Perl
13 10 (2.03%) C
14 9 (1.83%) C#
15 7 (1.42%) Ada
16 6 (1.22%) Assembly Language
16 6 (1.22%) CLIST
17 5 (1.01%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 119 (24.14%) Security Cleared
2 77 (15.62%) SC Cleared
3 49 (9.94%) Degree
4 11 (2.23%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.62%) AWS Certification
6 8 (1.62%) CISSP
7 7 (1.42%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.01%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.01%) CISM
9 4 (0.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (0.81%) CCSP
9 4 (0.81%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.61%) CEH
10 3 (0.61%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.61%) PMP
11 2 (0.41%) CISA
11 2 (0.41%) CISMP
11 2 (0.41%) GCIH
11 2 (0.41%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (6.29%) Data Quality
2 15 (3.04%) QA
3 7 (1.42%) GDPR
3 7 (1.42%) ISO 20022
3 7 (1.42%) SLA
4 5 (1.01%) ISO 15022
4 5 (1.01%) NIST
4 5 (1.01%) SEPA
5 4 (0.81%) GRC
5 4 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.41%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.41%) GAAP
6 2 (0.41%) IFRS
6 2 (0.41%) NCSC
7 1 (0.20%) ISO 26262
7 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
7 1 (0.20%) PMO
7 1 (0.20%) TARGET2
7 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 32 (6.49%) Docker
2 25 (5.07%) RACF
3 23 (4.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (3.65%) NFS
5 16 (3.25%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (2.64%) GPFS
6 13 (2.64%) Virtual Machines
7 12 (2.43%) Firmware
7 12 (2.43%) Time Sharing Option
8 10 (2.03%) vSphere
9 7 (1.42%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (1.42%) PowerHA
10 6 (1.22%) ACF2
11 4 (0.81%) Hyper-V
12 3 (0.61%) Active Directory
12 3 (0.61%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.61%) KVM
13 2 (0.41%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
14 1 (0.20%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 25 (5.07%) Ansible
2 24 (4.87%) OMEGAMON
3 21 (4.26%) Tivoli
4 18 (3.65%) Terraform
5 17 (3.45%) Kubernetes
5 17 (3.45%) Nagios
5 17 (3.45%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.25%) Netcool
7 15 (3.04%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 14 (2.84%) OpenView
8 14 (2.84%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 9 (1.83%) vRealize
10 6 (1.22%) Oracle RMAN
10 6 (1.22%) VxRail
11 5 (1.01%) Grafana
11 5 (1.01%) Tivoli NetView
12 4 (0.81%) CA Endevor
12 4 (0.81%) QRadar
13 3 (0.61%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.61%) IBM BigFix
Vendors
1 91 (18.46%) Oracle
2 39 (7.91%) Microsoft
3 37 (7.51%) VMware
4 30 (6.09%) Splunk
5 28 (5.68%) SAP
6 25 (5.07%) ServiceNow
7 24 (4.87%) Red Hat
8 22 (4.46%) HP
9 21 (4.26%) Cisco
10 18 (3.65%) BMC
11 16 (3.25%) Google
11 16 (3.25%) SolarWinds
12 13 (2.64%) Broadcom
12 13 (2.64%) Brocade
12 13 (2.64%) Dell
12 13 (2.64%) MathWorks
13 12 (2.43%) Cognos
13 12 (2.43%) Sybase
14 9 (1.83%) Informatica
14 9 (1.83%) Temenos