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 July 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 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 269 223 235
Rank change year-on-year -46 +12 +32
Contract jobs citing IBM 453 365 449
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.17% 1.03%
As % of the Vendors category 2.14% 2.46% 2.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 256 236 240
10th Percentile £313 £358 £360
25th Percentile £400 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £506 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.21% +1.25% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £649 £641
90th Percentile £672 £688 £753
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £474 £475
% change year-on-year +5.60% -0.32% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 5 39
10th Percentile £25.77 £24.81 £51.40
25th Percentile £53.13 £25.04 £65.00
Median hourly rate £83.00 £25.08 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +231.01% -64.18% +3.70%
75th Percentile £88.00 £72.50 -
90th Percentile - £139.23 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £88.00 £25.08 £70.00
% change year-on-year +250.95% -64.18% +1.82%

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 21,123 14,842 18,645
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.00% 47.46% 42.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,162 9,096 11,591
10th Percentile £313 £281 £270
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £732
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £481 £500
% change year-on-year +3.95% -3.80% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,094 703 1,150
10th Percentile £15.75 £14.84 £12.40
25th Percentile £19.03 £17.33 £14.90
Median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year +35.15% +2.65% -39.64%
75th Percentile £62.00 £53.50 £59.95
90th Percentile £80.08 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.63 £24.00
% change year-on-year +43.61% -5.71% -25.70%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 -52 383 £475 -6.17% 123
UK excluding London -64 244 £500 +5.60% 85
London -52 150 £475 -20.83% 47
Work from Home -67 122 £520 -4.68% 51
North of England -50 92 £514 +20.94% 20
North West -34 48 £459 +10.60% 12
South East -45 45 £413 -17.50% 24
Yorkshire -35 43 £550 +10.00% 4
South West -2 38 £426 -29.00% 13
Midlands -65 28 £400 -8.99% 16
Scotland -15 24 £550 +10.94% 5
West Midlands -56 23 £400 -13.04% 10
East of England -17 14 £425 -22.73% 8
East Midlands -25 4 £837 +101.57% 6
Wales -18 3 £635 +0.40% 2
North East -39 1 £375 -10.45% 4

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 33 (7.28%) WebSphere
2 27 (5.96%) Confluence
3 25 (5.52%) CICS
4 18 (3.97%) Tomcat
5 16 (3.53%) nginx
6 14 (3.09%) SharePoint
7 8 (1.77%) WebLogic
8 7 (1.55%) JBoss
9 5 (1.10%) Apache
9 5 (1.10%) SAS
9 5 (1.10%) WebSphere Application Server
10 4 (0.88%) IIS
11 3 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.66%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.66%) Camunda
11 3 (0.66%) CMS
12 2 (0.44%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.44%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.44%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.44%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.44%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.22%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.22%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 18 (3.97%) Maximo
2 9 (1.99%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 9 (1.99%) Temenos T24
3 5 (1.10%) Cognos Controller
3 5 (1.10%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.66%) SAP R/3
5 2 (0.44%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.22%) HFM
6 1 (0.22%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
6 1 (0.22%) MetaTrader
6 1 (0.22%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.22%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.22%) SAP AFS
6 1 (0.22%) SAP QM
6 1 (0.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 66 (14.57%) AWS
2 48 (10.60%) Azure
3 24 (5.30%) GitHub
4 13 (2.87%) GitHub Copilot
4 13 (2.87%) OpenShift
5 11 (2.43%) ChatGPT
6 10 (2.21%) IBM Watson
7 9 (1.99%) Anthropic Claude
8 8 (1.77%) Amazon S3
8 8 (1.77%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.77%) GCP
9 7 (1.55%) Amazon EKS
9 7 (1.55%) Vertex AI
10 6 (1.32%) Azure AI
11 5 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
12 4 (0.88%) IBM Blueworks
12 4 (0.88%) IBM Cloud
12 4 (0.88%) MinIO
13 3 (0.66%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (0.66%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (5.08%) Firewall
2 20 (4.42%) SSL
3 17 (3.75%) SNMP
4 15 (3.31%) HTTP
5 9 (1.99%) SAN
5 9 (1.99%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.77%) DNS
7 7 (1.55%) VSAN
8 6 (1.32%) Network Security
9 5 (1.10%) Fibre Channel
10 4 (0.88%) APPN
10 4 (0.88%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.88%) LAN
10 4 (0.88%) NAS
10 4 (0.88%) SNA
10 4 (0.88%) WAN
11 3 (0.66%) MPLS
11 3 (0.66%) SSH
11 3 (0.66%) Wireshark
12 2 (0.44%) DWDM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (9.71%) Db2
2 27 (5.96%) Relational Database
3 26 (5.74%) DataStage
4 19 (4.19%) SQL Server
5 14 (3.09%) Metadata
5 14 (3.09%) MongoDB
6 13 (2.87%) Oracle Database
7 11 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
7 11 (2.43%) Elasticsearch
8 10 (2.21%) PostgreSQL
9 9 (1.99%) NoSQL
10 8 (1.77%) Big Data
11 7 (1.55%) GIS
12 4 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.66%) Apache Hive
14 2 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
14 2 (0.44%) BusinessObjects
14 2 (0.44%) IBM InfoSphere
14 2 (0.44%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 37 (8.17%) Rational DOORS
2 35 (7.73%) JIRA
3 21 (4.64%) Jenkins
4 14 (3.09%) GitLab
5 13 (2.87%) Git
6 8 (1.77%) Rational Rhapsody
7 5 (1.10%) Ant
7 5 (1.10%) IBM UrbanCode
7 5 (1.10%) Liquibase
7 5 (1.10%) PowerDesigner
8 4 (0.88%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.88%) JMeter
9 3 (0.66%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.66%) Gradle
9 3 (0.66%) JUnit
9 3 (0.66%) Maven
9 3 (0.66%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.66%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.44%) Artifactory
General
1 131 (28.92%) Finance
2 100 (22.08%) Social Skills
3 91 (20.09%) Banking
4 45 (9.93%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (7.95%) Public Sector
6 29 (6.40%) Aerospace
6 29 (6.40%) Legal
7 16 (3.53%) Retail
8 12 (2.65%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (1.77%) Front Office
9 8 (1.77%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.55%) Military
11 6 (1.32%) Law
12 5 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (0.88%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.66%) Aviation
14 3 (0.66%) Telecoms
15 2 (0.44%) Advertising
15 2 (0.44%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 50 (11.04%) Architect
1 50 (11.04%) Developer
2 46 (10.15%) Analyst
3 29 (6.40%) Senior
4 28 (6.18%) Administrator
5 26 (5.74%) Delivery Manager
5 26 (5.74%) Product Delivery Manager
5 26 (5.74%) Product Manager
6 23 (5.08%) Consultant
7 21 (4.64%) Systems Delivery Manager
7 21 (4.64%) Systems Manager
8 17 (3.75%) Lead
8 17 (3.75%) Solutions Architect
9 15 (3.31%) Software Engineer
10 14 (3.09%) Data Engineer
10 14 (3.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (2.87%) Designer
11 13 (2.87%) Management Consultant
11 13 (2.87%) Middleware Engineer
12 12 (2.65%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (13.91%) Middleware
2 37 (8.17%) REST
3 24 (5.30%) ISPF
4 19 (4.19%) JSON
5 17 (3.75%) Spring Boot
5 17 (3.75%) XML
6 16 (3.53%) Flash
6 16 (3.53%) Kafka
6 16 (3.53%) Spring
7 12 (2.65%) RabbitMQ
8 9 (1.99%) WebSphere MQ
9 8 (1.77%) PyTorch
9 8 (1.77%) SOAP
10 7 (1.55%) EJB
10 7 (1.55%) JDBC
10 7 (1.55%) JMS
10 7 (1.55%) LangChain
10 7 (1.55%) scikit-learn
10 7 (1.55%) ZeroMQ
11 6 (1.32%) J2EE
Miscellaneous
1 97 (21.41%) Mainframe
2 36 (7.95%) Data Centre
3 33 (7.28%) Clustering
4 31 (6.84%) Data Structures
5 29 (6.40%) Product Ownership
6 21 (4.64%) Linux Command Line
6 21 (4.64%) Replication
7 17 (3.75%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (3.31%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 15 (3.31%) VSAM
9 14 (3.09%) Cloud Native
10 12 (2.65%) IBM Mainframe
10 12 (2.65%) Legacy Applications
11 11 (2.43%) Algorithms
12 10 (2.21%) BYOD
12 10 (2.21%) Management Information System
13 9 (1.99%) Equity Derivative
13 9 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
14 8 (1.77%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 7 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 106 (23.40%) Linux
2 67 (14.79%) zOS
3 54 (11.92%) Windows
4 49 (10.82%) Unix
5 42 (9.27%) AIX
6 24 (5.30%) Solaris
7 23 (5.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 20 (4.42%) Windows Server
9 13 (2.87%) Windows Server 2008
10 11 (2.43%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (1.77%) SUSE
11 8 (1.77%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (1.10%) MVS
13 2 (0.44%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.44%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.22%) Apple iOS
14 1 (0.22%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.22%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (20.53%) Agile
2 67 (14.79%) CI/CD
3 56 (12.36%) DevOps
4 54 (11.92%) Migration
5 53 (11.70%) Continuous Improvement
6 50 (11.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 47 (10.38%) Roadmaps
8 46 (10.15%) Problem-Solving
9 45 (9.93%) ITIL
10 39 (8.61%) ETL
11 38 (8.39%) Test Automation
12 37 (8.17%) Stakeholder Management
13 36 (7.95%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 35 (7.73%) Computer Science
14 35 (7.73%) Configuration Management
15 34 (7.51%) AI
15 34 (7.51%) Systems Engineering
16 33 (7.28%) UML
17 32 (7.06%) Change Management
18 30 (6.62%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 89 (19.65%) SQL
2 78 (17.22%) Python
3 66 (14.57%) Java
4 36 (7.95%) PowerShell
5 24 (5.30%) Bash
6 20 (4.42%) COBOL
6 20 (4.42%) JCL
7 19 (4.19%) PL/SQL
8 15 (3.31%) REXX
9 14 (3.09%) Search Processing Language
10 12 (2.65%) C++
11 10 (2.21%) Ada
11 10 (2.21%) Shell Script
12 9 (1.99%) C
12 9 (1.99%) MATLAB
13 8 (1.77%) JavaScript
14 7 (1.55%) Assembly Language
14 7 (1.55%) C#
14 7 (1.55%) Perl
15 6 (1.32%) CLIST
Qualifications
1 124 (27.37%) Security Cleared
2 79 (17.44%) SC Cleared
3 43 (9.49%) Degree
4 13 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (1.32%) AWS Certification
6 6 (1.32%) CISSP
6 6 (1.32%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.10%) IBM Certification
8 4 (0.88%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.66%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.66%) CEH
9 3 (0.66%) CISM
9 3 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (0.66%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.66%) PMP
10 2 (0.44%) CISMP
10 2 (0.44%) CSSLP
10 2 (0.44%) ISTQB
10 2 (0.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (6.62%) Data Quality
2 11 (2.43%) QA
3 9 (1.99%) SLA
4 6 (1.32%) GDPR
4 6 (1.32%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.10%) SEPA
6 4 (0.88%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.44%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.44%) GAAP
7 2 (0.44%) GRC
7 2 (0.44%) IFRS
7 2 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.44%) NCSC
7 2 (0.44%) NIST
8 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 1 (0.22%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.22%) PMO
8 1 (0.22%) TARGET2
8 1 (0.22%) WCAG
System Software
1 29 (6.40%) Docker
2 25 (5.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (5.08%) RACF
4 22 (4.86%) VMware ESXi
5 21 (4.64%) NFS
6 16 (3.53%) GPFS
7 15 (3.31%) Virtual Machines
8 13 (2.87%) vSphere
9 12 (2.65%) Time Sharing Option
10 9 (1.99%) Oracle RAC
11 8 (1.77%) Firmware
12 7 (1.55%) Hyper-V
13 6 (1.32%) KVM
14 3 (0.66%) ACF2
14 3 (0.66%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.66%) PowerHA
15 2 (0.44%) Job Entry Subsystem
15 2 (0.44%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
15 2 (0.44%) VMware NSX
16 1 (0.22%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 29 (6.40%) Ansible
2 23 (5.08%) OMEGAMON
3 21 (4.64%) Tivoli
4 18 (3.97%) Terraform
5 17 (3.75%) Nagios
5 17 (3.75%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.53%) Netcool
7 15 (3.31%) Kubernetes
8 14 (3.09%) OpenView
8 14 (3.09%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (2.65%) vRealize
10 11 (2.43%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 8 (1.77%) IBM BigFix
11 8 (1.77%) Oracle RMAN
12 7 (1.55%) VxRail
13 6 (1.32%) Tivoli NetView
13 6 (1.32%) vCenter Server
14 4 (0.88%) CA Endevor
14 4 (0.88%) Grafana
15 3 (0.66%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 88 (19.43%) Oracle
2 43 (9.49%) VMware
3 30 (6.62%) Microsoft
4 29 (6.40%) Cisco
4 29 (6.40%) Splunk
5 26 (5.74%) SAP
6 25 (5.52%) HP
6 25 (5.52%) Red Hat
7 23 (5.08%) ServiceNow
8 20 (4.42%) BMC
9 19 (4.19%) Dell
10 17 (3.75%) MathWorks
11 16 (3.53%) SolarWinds
12 13 (2.87%) Broadcom
12 13 (2.87%) Brocade
13 12 (2.65%) Google
14 11 (2.43%) Sybase
15 10 (2.21%) Cognos
16 9 (1.99%) Temenos
17 8 (1.77%) Siemens