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 7 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
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 276 236 221
Rank change year-on-year -40 -15 +89
Contract jobs citing IBM 419 306 462
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.04% 1.06%
As % of the Vendors category 2.11% 2.20% 2.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 175 265
10th Percentile £310 £361 £369
25th Percentile £394 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £581 £626 £650
90th Percentile £705 £715 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £436 £460 £463
% change year-on-year -5.22% -0.54% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 10 32
10th Percentile £25.77 - £58.00
25th Percentile £63.13 - £65.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £24.18 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +189.50% -65.46% +3.70%
75th Percentile £88.00 £28.10 -
90th Percentile - £80.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £88.00 £24.18 £70.00
% change year-on-year +263.94% -65.46% +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 19,867 13,883 18,418
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.65% 47.40% 42.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,619 8,690 11,442
10th Percentile £313 £285 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £516
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -0.21% -1.70%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £630
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 997 570 1,101
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.02
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.10 £14.48
Median hourly rate £31.25 £26.45 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.15% +17.56% -48.57%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.13 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.92 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £24.18 £21.50
% change year-on-year +13.73% +12.47% -45.64%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -25 369 £469 -6.20% 97
UK excluding London -32 232 £436 -5.22% 81
London -38 141 £488 -11.36% 25
Work from Home -19 120 £500 - 64
North of England -38 71 £475 +11.76% 13
South East -33 43 £500 +175.88% 22
South West +1 41 £375 -37.50% 15
Midlands -51 40 £401 -12.83% 14
North West -22 39 £459 +20.47% 4
West Midlands -40 35 £400 -13.04% 9
Yorkshire -43 31 £500 -2.44% 8
East of England -19 20 £425 -15.00% 9
Scotland -13 16 £550 +12.36% 5
East Midlands -29 4 £837 +90.33% 5
Wales -15 1 - - 1
North East -21 1 £375 -10.45% 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 25 (5.97%) WebSphere
2 21 (5.01%) CICS
3 19 (4.53%) Confluence
4 12 (2.86%) Tomcat
5 11 (2.63%) nginx
6 10 (2.39%) WebLogic
7 8 (1.91%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 7 (1.67%) SharePoint
9 6 (1.43%) WebSphere Application Server
10 5 (1.19%) Anypoint
10 5 (1.19%) Apache
10 5 (1.19%) JBoss
11 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.72%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.72%) ArcGIS
11 3 (0.72%) CMS
12 2 (0.48%) Camunda
12 2 (0.48%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.48%) IIS
12 2 (0.48%) MQSeries
Applications
1 6 (1.43%) MS Visio
2 4 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.48%) PlantUML
4 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.24%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 24 (5.73%) Maximo
2 9 (2.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 8 (1.91%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.67%) Temenos T24
5 4 (0.95%) BusinessWorks
5 4 (0.95%) 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%) 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%) MetaTrader
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.24%) SAP AFS
Cloud Services
1 79 (18.85%) AWS
2 59 (14.08%) Azure
3 21 (5.01%) OpenShift
4 15 (3.58%) GitHub
5 11 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (2.39%) GCP
7 9 (2.15%) IBM Watson
8 8 (1.91%) GitHub Copilot
8 8 (1.91%) SaaS
9 7 (1.67%) AWS CloudFormation
9 7 (1.67%) Azure Sentinel
10 6 (1.43%) Amazon S3
10 6 (1.43%) AWS Lambda
10 6 (1.43%) Azure AKS
10 6 (1.43%) Azure API Management
10 6 (1.43%) Azure Monitor
10 6 (1.43%) ChatGPT
10 6 (1.43%) Datadog
10 6 (1.43%) Power Platform
10 6 (1.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.77%) Firewall
2 16 (3.82%) HTTP
2 16 (3.82%) SNMP
3 13 (3.10%) SAN
4 12 (2.86%) VSAN
5 9 (2.15%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.91%) Fibre Channel
7 7 (1.67%) NAS
7 7 (1.67%) 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 (0.72%) 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 43 (10.26%) DB2
2 26 (6.21%) DataStage
3 18 (4.30%) SQL Server
4 16 (3.82%) Relational Database
5 14 (3.34%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (2.86%) Oracle Database
7 9 (2.15%) Big Data
7 9 (2.15%) PostgreSQL
8 8 (1.91%) Elasticsearch
8 8 (1.91%) GIS
8 8 (1.91%) Metadata
8 8 (1.91%) Oracle Reports
9 6 (1.43%) MongoDB
9 6 (1.43%) Power BI
10 5 (1.19%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.95%) Amazon Aurora
12 3 (0.72%) Apache Hive
12 3 (0.72%) IBM InfoSphere
12 3 (0.72%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.72%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 39 (9.31%) Rational DOORS
2 32 (7.64%) JIRA
3 15 (3.58%) Git
4 13 (3.10%) Jenkins
5 11 (2.63%) GitLab
6 8 (1.91%) Ant
6 8 (1.91%) PVCS
7 6 (1.43%) IBM UrbanCode
7 6 (1.43%) SoapUI
8 5 (1.19%) JUnit
8 5 (1.19%) Liquibase
9 4 (0.95%) PowerDesigner
9 4 (0.95%) Rational Rhapsody
9 4 (0.95%) 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 97 (23.15%) Finance
2 90 (21.48%) Social Skills
3 71 (16.95%) Banking
4 33 (7.88%) Public Sector
5 31 (7.40%) Analytical Skills
6 29 (6.92%) Aerospace
7 12 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (2.63%) Legal
8 11 (2.63%) Retail
9 8 (1.91%) Electronics
9 8 (1.91%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.67%) Law
11 6 (1.43%) Front Office
11 6 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (1.19%) Aviation
12 5 (1.19%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.95%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.72%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 45 (10.74%) Architect
2 44 (10.50%) Developer
3 42 (10.02%) Analyst
4 26 (6.21%) Delivery Manager
4 26 (6.21%) Product Delivery Manager
4 26 (6.21%) Product Manager
5 22 (5.25%) Software Engineer
6 21 (5.01%) Consultant
6 21 (5.01%) Systems Delivery Manager
6 21 (5.01%) Systems Manager
7 20 (4.77%) Storage Analyst
8 19 (4.53%) Senior
9 17 (4.06%) Infrastructure Analyst
9 17 (4.06%) Solutions Architect
10 16 (3.82%) Data Engineer
11 14 (3.34%) Lead
12 13 (3.10%) Management Consultant
13 12 (2.86%) Administrator
14 11 (2.63%) DevOps Engineer
14 11 (2.63%) z/OS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.79%) Middleware
2 29 (6.92%) REST
3 21 (5.01%) Flash
3 21 (5.01%) Kafka
4 20 (4.77%) XML
5 14 (3.34%) SOAP
6 11 (2.63%) JSON
7 10 (2.39%) JMS
8 9 (2.15%) XSLT
9 8 (1.91%) Spring
9 8 (1.91%) Spring Boot
10 7 (1.67%) scikit-learn
10 7 (1.67%) Web Services
10 7 (1.67%) WebSphere MQ
10 7 (1.67%) ZeroMQ
11 6 (1.43%) ARM Templates
11 6 (1.43%) EJB
11 6 (1.43%) JDBC
11 6 (1.43%) JSP
11 6 (1.43%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 77 (18.38%) Mainframe
2 31 (7.40%) Linux Command Line
3 30 (7.16%) Data Centre
4 28 (6.68%) Product Ownership
5 27 (6.44%) Data Structures
5 27 (6.44%) Replication
6 18 (4.30%) Clustering
6 18 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
7 17 (4.06%) VSAM
8 14 (3.34%) Algorithms
9 13 (3.10%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 11 (2.63%) Cloud Native
10 11 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (2.39%) BYOD
11 10 (2.39%) Hybrid Cloud
11 10 (2.39%) IBM Mainframe
11 10 (2.39%) Legacy Applications
12 9 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (1.91%) DataPower
13 8 (1.91%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 96 (22.91%) Linux
2 55 (13.13%) Windows
3 52 (12.41%) zOS
4 43 (10.26%) AIX
5 40 (9.55%) Unix
6 20 (4.77%) Solaris
7 18 (4.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (4.30%) Windows Server
8 10 (2.39%) Windows Server 2008
9 9 (2.15%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (2.15%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.95%) MVS
11 2 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.48%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.48%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.48%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.24%) Android
12 1 (0.24%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.24%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (22.91%) Agile
2 62 (14.80%) Migration
3 53 (12.65%) CI/CD
4 49 (11.69%) Problem-Solving
5 46 (10.98%) Continuous Improvement
6 43 (10.26%) DevOps
6 43 (10.26%) Roadmaps
7 42 (10.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 36 (8.59%) ETL
9 34 (8.11%) Computer Science
9 34 (8.11%) Stakeholder Management
10 33 (7.88%) Workflow
11 32 (7.64%) UML
12 31 (7.40%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
12 31 (7.40%) Performance Tuning
13 29 (6.92%) Test Automation
14 28 (6.68%) Configuration Management
14 28 (6.68%) Programme Management
14 28 (6.68%) Scaled Agile Framework
14 28 (6.68%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 81 (19.33%) SQL
2 67 (15.99%) Python
3 46 (10.98%) Java
4 30 (7.16%) PowerShell
5 21 (5.01%) COBOL
5 21 (5.01%) JCL
5 21 (5.01%) PL/SQL
6 17 (4.06%) Bash
6 17 (4.06%) REXX
7 16 (3.82%) C
8 14 (3.34%) C++
8 14 (3.34%) Search Processing Language
9 13 (3.10%) Perl
10 11 (2.63%) Shell Script
11 10 (2.39%) Ada
11 10 (2.39%) MATLAB
12 7 (1.67%) Assembly Language
12 7 (1.67%) Embedded C
12 7 (1.67%) Embedded C++
12 7 (1.67%) Korn
Qualifications
1 127 (30.31%) Security Cleared
2 75 (17.90%) SC Cleared
3 39 (9.31%) Degree
4 17 (4.06%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (3.58%) DV Cleared
6 12 (2.86%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.39%) CISSP
8 9 (2.15%) CISM
9 8 (1.91%) AWS Certification
9 8 (1.91%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.67%) 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 (0.72%) CEH
14 3 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 2 (0.48%) CISMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.73%) Data Quality
2 14 (3.34%) QA
3 11 (2.63%) SLA
4 8 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.67%) 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 (0.72%) 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%) IEC 61508
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 (9.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 29 (6.92%) NFS
3 23 (5.49%) Docker
4 22 (5.25%) GPFS
4 22 (5.25%) VMware ESXi
5 20 (4.77%) vSphere
6 19 (4.53%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (2.39%) RACF
8 7 (1.67%) Firmware
8 7 (1.67%) Hyper-V
9 6 (1.43%) KVM
9 6 (1.43%) Oracle RAC
9 6 (1.43%) Time Sharing Option
10 4 (0.95%) 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 (7.40%) Ansible
2 26 (6.21%) Terraform
3 25 (5.97%) Kubernetes
4 20 (4.77%) Tivoli
4 20 (4.77%) vRealize
5 17 (4.06%) Nagios
5 17 (4.06%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.82%) Netcool
7 14 (3.34%) OpenView
7 14 (3.34%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 11 (2.63%) VxRail
9 9 (2.15%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 8 (1.91%) IBM BigFix
11 7 (1.67%) Tivoli NetView
12 6 (1.43%) Oracle RMAN
12 6 (1.43%) vCenter Server
13 4 (0.95%) OMEGAMON
13 4 (0.95%) TIBCO Hawk
14 3 (0.72%) Control-M
14 3 (0.72%) zSecure
Vendors
1 72 (17.18%) Oracle
2 52 (12.41%) VMware
3 34 (8.11%) Cisco
4 33 (7.88%) ServiceNow
5 31 (7.40%) HP
6 26 (6.21%) Microsoft
7 23 (5.49%) BMC
7 23 (5.49%) SAP
7 23 (5.49%) Splunk
8 22 (5.25%) Dell
8 22 (5.25%) SolarWinds
9 20 (4.77%) Red Hat
10 14 (3.34%) Google
11 12 (2.86%) Broadcom
12 11 (2.63%) NetApp
13 10 (2.39%) Brocade
13 10 (2.39%) EMC
13 10 (2.39%) MathWorks
14 8 (1.91%) ANSYS
14 8 (1.91%) Cognos