IBM Contracts

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 30 April 2025, 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
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 256 230 300
Rank change year-on-year -26 +70 -56
Contract jobs citing IBM 304 457 522
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.04% 1.05% 0.87%
As % of the Vendors category 2.19% 2.47% 2.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 172 261 307
10th Percentile £360 £384 £362
25th Percentile £408 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £650 £616
90th Percentile £718 £750 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £472 £500
% change year-on-year -2.54% -5.60% +3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 31 19
10th Percentile - £57.50 £45.53
25th Percentile - £65.00 £47.50
Median hourly rate £24.18 £70.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year -65.46% +3.70% +56.63%
75th Percentile £28.10 - £72.50
90th Percentile £80.25 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.18 £70.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year -65.46% +40.00% +20.48%

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 13,870 18,503 25,530
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 47.44% 42.44% 42.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,703 11,477 17,115
10th Percentile £288 £263 £273
25th Percentile £406 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.48% -1.43% -
75th Percentile £619 £627 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - +7.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 569 1,097 689
10th Percentile £14.84 £12.08 £15.25
25th Percentile £18.13 £14.48 £19.06
Median hourly rate £27.13 £22.15 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year +22.46% -49.37% +108.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £57.33 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.18 £21.46 £38.50
% change year-on-year +12.67% -44.26% +107.55%

IBM
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for IBM in the UK

IBM
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for IBM in the UK

IBM
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for IBM in the UK

IBM
Hourly Rate Histogram

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

Hourly rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Top 17 Contract 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 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 -21 251 £500 -5.03% 261
UK excluding London -1 147 £460 -2.54% 181
London -10 118 £550 -8.33% 99
Work from Home -8 108 £500 - 123
North of England -1 53 £425 -1.16% 27
South East +34 31 £180 -67.27% 54
Scotland +14 29 £490 -2.10% 18
North West +25 24 £398 -19.51% 15
Yorkshire -27 23 £513 +19.19% 12
Midlands +17 16 £468 +16.08% 38
West Midlands +10 15 £460 +14.21% 11
South West +10 9 £600 -7.69% 30
East of England +26 6 £500 +5.82% 14
North East +3 6 £419 +4.69% 1
Wales - 2 - -
East Midlands +9 1 £480 - 27
Northern Ireland -9 1 - - 4

IBM
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 25 (8.22%) Confluence
2 16 (5.26%) CICS
3 13 (4.28%) WebSphere
4 11 (3.62%) SAS
5 9 (2.96%) JBoss
6 8 (2.63%) MQSeries
7 7 (2.30%) SharePoint
7 7 (2.30%) WebSphere Application Server
8 6 (1.97%) Apache
8 6 (1.97%) WebLogic
9 5 (1.64%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (1.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (1.32%) IIS
11 3 (0.99%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.99%) Documentum
12 2 (0.66%) BizTalk Server
12 2 (0.66%) CMS
12 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
12 2 (0.66%) Tomcat
13 1 (0.33%) WebLogic Portal
Applications
1 10 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.63%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (1.64%) Oracle ERP
2 3 (0.99%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 3 (0.99%) Maximo
2 3 (0.99%) Oracle BPM
2 3 (0.99%) Unica
3 2 (0.66%) Misys Midas
3 2 (0.66%) Oracle 11i
3 2 (0.66%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.33%) Cloudability
4 1 (0.33%) Cognos Business Intelligence
4 1 (0.33%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
Cloud Services
1 63 (20.72%) AWS
2 58 (19.08%) Azure
3 31 (10.20%) GCP
4 12 (3.95%) GitHub
5 10 (3.29%) Nutanix
6 8 (2.63%) IBM Blueworks
6 8 (2.63%) Snowflake
7 7 (2.30%) SaaS
8 6 (1.97%) BigCommerce
8 6 (1.97%) Cloud Computing
9 5 (1.64%) Amazon S3
9 5 (1.64%) Azure API Management
9 5 (1.64%) Collibra
9 5 (1.64%) Power Platform
10 4 (1.32%) Amazon EC2
10 4 (1.32%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (1.32%) IaaS
10 4 (1.32%) OCI
10 4 (1.32%) OpenShift
11 3 (0.99%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 13 (4.28%) HTTPS
1 13 (4.28%) TCP/IP
2 11 (3.62%) SSL
3 9 (2.96%) DNS
3 9 (2.96%) SAN
3 9 (2.96%) SSH
4 6 (1.97%) Network Security
4 6 (1.97%) SNA
5 4 (1.32%) HTTP
5 4 (1.32%) Kerberos
6 3 (0.99%) BGP
6 3 (0.99%) DHCP
6 3 (0.99%) Firewall
6 3 (0.99%) MPLS
6 3 (0.99%) OSPF
6 3 (0.99%) Software-Defined Networking
6 3 (0.99%) VPN
7 2 (0.66%) HSRP
7 2 (0.66%) NetScaler
7 2 (0.66%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (9.54%) DB2
2 16 (5.26%) SQL Server
3 14 (4.61%) Data Warehouse
3 14 (4.61%) Oracle Database
4 12 (3.95%) Relational Database
5 10 (3.29%) RDBMS
6 8 (2.63%) MongoDB
7 6 (1.97%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (1.64%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (1.64%) Hadoop
8 5 (1.64%) IBM InfoSphere
8 5 (1.64%) Metadata
8 5 (1.64%) Power BI
9 4 (1.32%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.99%) Apache Iceberg
10 3 (0.99%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.99%) DataStage
10 3 (0.99%) Flink
10 3 (0.99%) OLAP
10 3 (0.99%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 30 (9.87%) JIRA
2 14 (4.61%) Jenkins
3 12 (3.95%) Git
3 12 (3.95%) GitLab
4 8 (2.63%) TeamCity
5 7 (2.30%) Rational Rhapsody
5 7 (2.30%) Subversion
6 6 (1.97%) Bitbucket
7 5 (1.64%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 5 (1.64%) JUnit
8 3 (0.99%) Ant
8 3 (0.99%) Artifactory
8 3 (0.99%) ERwin
8 3 (0.99%) Maven
8 3 (0.99%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.66%) IBM UrbanCode
9 2 (0.66%) MagicDraw
9 2 (0.66%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.66%) SoapUI
9 2 (0.66%) Toad
General
1 99 (32.57%) Finance
2 92 (30.26%) Social Skills
3 62 (20.39%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (18.42%) Banking
5 15 (4.93%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.95%) Presentation Skills
7 11 (3.62%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.63%) Marketing
9 7 (2.30%) Front Office
10 6 (1.97%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.32%) Private Banking
11 4 (1.32%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.99%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.99%) Electronics
12 3 (0.99%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.99%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.99%) Retail
13 2 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.66%) Law
13 2 (0.66%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 48 (15.79%) Architect
2 34 (11.18%) Developer
3 33 (10.86%) Consultant
3 33 (10.86%) Senior
4 21 (6.91%) Analyst
5 20 (6.58%) Administrator
6 18 (5.92%) Server Engineer
7 16 (5.26%) Solutions Architect
8 15 (4.93%) Senior Consultant
9 14 (4.61%) Software Consultant
9 14 (4.61%) Support Engineer
10 12 (3.95%) Infrastructure Consultant
10 12 (3.95%) Senior Infrastructure Consultant
11 10 (3.29%) Break Fix Engineer
11 10 (3.29%) Programmer
11 10 (3.29%) Systems Programmer
11 10 (3.29%) z/OS Systems Programmer
12 9 (2.96%) Infrastructure Architect
13 8 (2.63%) Server Support
13 8 (2.63%) Server Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (10.53%) Middleware
2 17 (5.59%) Kafka
2 17 (5.59%) XML
3 15 (4.93%) ISPF
4 13 (4.28%) EntireX
5 10 (3.29%) REST
5 10 (3.29%) SOAP
6 9 (2.96%) IBM Integration Bus
7 8 (2.63%) .NET
7 8 (2.63%) RESTful
8 6 (1.97%) OAuth
8 6 (1.97%) Spring Boot
8 6 (1.97%) WebSphere MQ
9 5 (1.64%) LDAP
9 5 (1.64%) Spring
9 5 (1.64%) Web Services
9 5 (1.64%) XSLT
10 4 (1.32%) J2EE
10 4 (1.32%) JSON
10 4 (1.32%) XACML
Miscellaneous
1 62 (20.39%) Mainframe
2 38 (12.50%) Data Centre
3 18 (5.92%) IBM Mainframe
4 16 (5.26%) Clustering
5 15 (4.93%) Product Ownership
6 14 (4.61%) Data Protection Act
6 14 (4.61%) Replication
7 11 (3.62%) AS400
7 11 (3.62%) Management Information System
8 10 (3.29%) Onboarding
9 8 (2.63%) iSeries
10 7 (2.30%) Public Cloud
10 7 (2.30%) Reference Data
11 5 (1.64%) Data Structures
11 5 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
11 5 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
12 4 (1.32%) Distributed Applications
12 4 (1.32%) Grid Computing
12 4 (1.32%) Mobile App
12 4 (1.32%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 66 (21.71%) Linux
2 50 (16.45%) Windows
3 43 (14.14%) Unix
4 36 (11.84%) zOS
5 19 (6.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 19 (6.25%) Solaris
6 17 (5.59%) AIX
7 15 (4.93%) Windows Server
8 9 (2.96%) HPUX
9 6 (1.97%) Oracle Linux
10 4 (1.32%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.66%) Android
11 2 (0.66%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.66%) CentOS
11 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.33%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (25.33%) Problem-Solving
2 53 (17.43%) Agile
3 37 (12.17%) DevOps
4 36 (11.84%) Migration
5 32 (10.53%) Disaster Recovery
6 29 (9.54%) Project Delivery
7 26 (8.55%) CI/CD
7 26 (8.55%) High Availability
7 26 (8.55%) ITIL
8 22 (7.24%) Customer Service
8 22 (7.24%) Project Management
8 22 (7.24%) Roadmaps
8 22 (7.24%) Service Management
9 20 (6.58%) Data Governance
9 20 (6.58%) Performance Tuning
10 19 (6.25%) Problem Management
10 19 (6.25%) Process Improvement
11 17 (5.59%) Break/Fix
11 17 (5.59%) Data Modelling
12 16 (5.26%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 63 (20.72%) Python
2 58 (19.08%) SQL
3 37 (12.17%) Java
4 27 (8.88%) JCL
5 21 (6.91%) Perl
5 21 (6.91%) REXX
6 16 (5.26%) Bash
6 16 (5.26%) PowerShell
7 13 (4.28%) Assembly Language
8 12 (3.95%) ActionScript
8 12 (3.95%) ActionScript 2.0
8 12 (3.95%) Shell Script
9 11 (3.62%) PL/SQL
10 10 (3.29%) C#
10 10 (3.29%) RPG
11 9 (2.96%) CLIST
12 7 (2.30%) C
12 7 (2.30%) COBOL
13 6 (1.97%) C++
14 5 (1.64%) Korn
Qualifications
1 40 (13.16%) Security Cleared
2 34 (11.18%) SC Cleared
3 18 (5.92%) Degree
4 12 (3.95%) IBM Certification
5 11 (3.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (2.63%) CISSP
7 2 (0.66%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (0.66%) CEH
7 2 (0.66%) Dell Certification
7 2 (0.66%) GIAC
7 2 (0.66%) PMP
8 1 (0.33%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (0.33%) CCDE
8 1 (0.33%) CISM
8 1 (0.33%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.33%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.33%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.33%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.89%) SLA
2 15 (4.93%) QA
3 12 (3.95%) GDPR
4 11 (3.62%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (1.64%) GRC
7 4 (1.32%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.99%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.66%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 2 (0.66%) NIST
9 2 (0.66%) SEPA
System Software
1 16 (5.26%) Time Sharing Option
2 15 (4.93%) Docker
3 12 (3.95%) Virtual Machines
3 12 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (3.29%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (2.63%) RACF
6 6 (1.97%) Active Directory
6 6 (1.97%) NFS
7 4 (1.32%) Platform Symphony
8 3 (0.99%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
9 2 (0.66%) ACF2
9 2 (0.66%) GPFS
9 2 (0.66%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 2 (0.66%) Microcode
9 2 (0.66%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.66%) Veritas File System
9 2 (0.66%) Veritas Volume Manager
9 2 (0.66%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.33%) LXC
10 1 (0.33%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 28 (9.21%) Ansible
2 17 (5.59%) Kubernetes
2 17 (5.59%) Tivoli
3 14 (4.61%) Terraform
4 13 (4.28%) QRadar
5 12 (3.95%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 9 (2.96%) Control-M
6 9 (2.96%) OMEGAMON
7 8 (2.63%) Grafana
8 6 (1.97%) EMC NetWorker
8 6 (1.97%) Red Hat Satellite
9 5 (1.64%) Kibana
10 4 (1.32%) ITRS Geneos
10 4 (1.32%) Progress Chef
10 4 (1.32%) Prometheus
10 4 (1.32%) Tivoli NetView
11 3 (0.99%) CA Endevor
11 3 (0.99%) Nagios
11 3 (0.99%) Netcool
11 3 (0.99%) Puppet
Vendors
1 44 (14.47%) Oracle
2 34 (11.18%) HP
3 30 (9.87%) Dell
4 23 (7.57%) Microsoft
5 19 (6.25%) ServiceNow
6 18 (5.92%) VMware
7 17 (5.59%) Red Hat
7 17 (5.59%) Splunk
8 15 (4.93%) Google
9 14 (4.61%) IBM Sterling
9 14 (4.61%) webMethods
10 13 (4.28%) Software AG
11 10 (3.29%) CyberArk
11 10 (3.29%) Dynatrace
11 10 (3.29%) EMC
11 10 (3.29%) TIBCO
12 9 (2.96%) Informatica
12 9 (2.96%) SAP
12 9 (2.96%) Sybase
13 8 (2.63%) Sun