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 10 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
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 276 253 222
Rank change year-on-year -23 -31 +87
Contract jobs citing IBM 419 308 469
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.05% 1.09%
As % of the Vendors category 2.11% 2.21% 2.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 181 266
10th Percentile £313 £363 £369
25th Percentile £400 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £518
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.38% -1.43%
75th Percentile £582 £628 £650
90th Percentile £700 £708 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £460 £466
% change year-on-year -2.17% -1.34% -6.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 6 33
10th Percentile £25.77 - £58.50
25th Percentile £63.13 £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% +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 19,842 13,967 18,272
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.52% 47.53% 42.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,606 8,750 11,347
10th Percentile £313 £281 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £514 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.72% -0.19% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £622 £630
90th Percentile £701 £716 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -1.01% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 998 565 1,095
10th Percentile £15.29 £14.84 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.50 £14.41
Median hourly rate £32.23 £25.50 £22.30
Median % change year-on-year +26.37% +14.35% -48.89%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.81 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £23.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +22.13% +6.98% -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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -35 369 £475 -5.00% 74
UK excluding London -26 236 £450 -2.17% 58
London -37 138 £495 -10.00% 21
Work from Home -32 118 £500 - 38
North of England -39 73 £475 +11.76% 9
South West -1 44 £426 -29.00% 13
Midlands -42 42 £402 -12.61% 14
North West -21 41 £459 +20.47% 4
South East -52 41 £438 +133.35% 14
West Midlands -37 37 £401 -12.83% 10
Yorkshire -48 31 £500 -2.44% 5
East of England -18 19 £425 -15.00% 3
Scotland -11 16 £550 +12.36% 4
East Midlands -33 4 £837 +90.33% 4
Wales -11 1 - -
North East -23 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 (5.49%) WebSphere
2 21 (5.01%) CICS
2 21 (5.01%) Confluence
3 13 (3.10%) Tomcat
4 12 (2.86%) nginx
5 9 (2.15%) SharePoint
6 8 (1.91%) WebLogic
7 6 (1.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (1.43%) WebSphere Application Server
8 5 (1.19%) Anypoint
8 5 (1.19%) JBoss
9 4 (0.95%) Apache
10 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.72%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.72%) CMS
11 2 (0.48%) Camunda
11 2 (0.48%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.48%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.48%) SAS
11 2 (0.48%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 6 (1.43%) 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 21 (5.01%) 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%) 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%) MetaTrader
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 78 (18.62%) AWS
2 56 (13.37%) Azure
3 21 (5.01%) OpenShift
4 15 (3.58%) GitHub
5 11 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (2.39%) GCP
7 8 (1.91%) GitHub Copilot
7 8 (1.91%) IBM Watson
7 8 (1.91%) SaaS
8 6 (1.43%) Amazon S3
8 6 (1.43%) AWS CloudFormation
8 6 (1.43%) AWS Lambda
8 6 (1.43%) Azure AKS
8 6 (1.43%) Azure API Management
8 6 (1.43%) Azure Monitor
8 6 (1.43%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (1.43%) ChatGPT
8 6 (1.43%) Datadog
8 6 (1.43%) Serverless
9 5 (1.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.77%) Firewall
2 16 (3.82%) HTTP
2 16 (3.82%) SNMP
3 14 (3.34%) SAN
4 12 (2.86%) VSAN
5 9 (2.15%) Fibre Channel
5 9 (2.15%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.91%) 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 41 (9.79%) DB2
2 24 (5.73%) DataStage
3 16 (3.82%) SQL Server
4 13 (3.10%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (3.10%) Relational Database
5 11 (2.63%) Oracle Database
6 10 (2.39%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (2.15%) Big Data
8 8 (1.91%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (1.67%) GIS
9 7 (1.67%) Metadata
9 7 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
10 6 (1.43%) MongoDB
11 5 (1.19%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.95%) Amazon Aurora
12 4 (0.95%) 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 42 (10.02%) Rational DOORS
2 34 (8.11%) 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 7 (1.67%) Rational Rhapsody
8 6 (1.43%) IBM UrbanCode
8 6 (1.43%) SoapUI
9 5 (1.19%) JUnit
9 5 (1.19%) Liquibase
10 4 (0.95%) PowerDesigner
10 4 (0.95%) Selenium
11 3 (0.72%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.48%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.48%) Introscope
12 2 (0.48%) JMeter
12 2 (0.48%) REST Assured
12 2 (0.48%) Visual Studio
General
1 96 (22.91%) Finance
2 93 (22.20%) Social Skills
3 70 (16.71%) Banking
4 34 (8.11%) Public Sector
5 32 (7.64%) 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
12 5 (1.19%) Aviation
12 5 (1.19%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.95%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.72%) Police
Job Titles
1 43 (10.26%) Architect
2 41 (9.79%) Analyst
2 41 (9.79%) Developer
3 26 (6.21%) Delivery Manager
3 26 (6.21%) Product Delivery Manager
3 26 (6.21%) Product Manager
4 23 (5.49%) Software Engineer
5 22 (5.25%) Consultant
6 21 (5.01%) Systems Delivery Manager
6 21 (5.01%) Systems Manager
7 20 (4.77%) Storage Analyst
8 18 (4.30%) Senior
9 17 (4.06%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 15 (3.58%) Data Engineer
10 15 (3.58%) Solutions Architect
11 14 (3.34%) Lead
12 13 (3.10%) Administrator
12 13 (3.10%) Management Consultant
13 11 (2.63%) DevOps Engineer
13 11 (2.63%) z/OS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.79%) Middleware
2 29 (6.92%) REST
3 22 (5.25%) Flash
4 21 (5.01%) Kafka
5 17 (4.06%) XML
6 12 (2.86%) SOAP
7 10 (2.39%) JSON
8 9 (2.15%) Spring
9 8 (1.91%) JMS
9 8 (1.91%) Spring Boot
10 7 (1.67%) EJB
10 7 (1.67%) WebSphere MQ
10 7 (1.67%) ZeroMQ
11 6 (1.43%) ARM Templates
11 6 (1.43%) ISPF
11 6 (1.43%) JDBC
11 6 (1.43%) OpenLayers
11 6 (1.43%) PyTorch
11 6 (1.43%) RabbitMQ
11 6 (1.43%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 77 (18.38%) Mainframe
2 32 (7.64%) Data Centre
2 32 (7.64%) Linux Command Line
3 29 (6.92%) Replication
4 27 (6.44%) Data Structures
4 27 (6.44%) Product Ownership
5 18 (4.30%) Clustering
5 18 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
6 17 (4.06%) VSAM
7 13 (3.10%) Algorithms
7 13 (3.10%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 12 (2.86%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.39%) BYOD
9 10 (2.39%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (2.39%) Hybrid Cloud
9 10 (2.39%) IBM Mainframe
9 10 (2.39%) Legacy Applications
9 10 (2.39%) Management Information System
10 9 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.91%) DataPower
Operating Systems
1 98 (23.39%) Linux
2 57 (13.60%) Windows
3 52 (12.41%) zOS
4 43 (10.26%) AIX
5 42 (10.02%) Unix
6 21 (5.01%) Solaris
7 19 (4.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 19 (4.53%) Windows Server
8 11 (2.63%) Windows Server 2008
9 10 (2.39%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.95%) MVS
12 2 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.48%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.24%) Android
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 97 (23.15%) Agile
2 61 (14.56%) Migration
3 52 (12.41%) CI/CD
4 50 (11.93%) Problem-Solving
5 48 (11.46%) Continuous Improvement
6 43 (10.26%) DevOps
6 43 (10.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 42 (10.02%) Roadmaps
8 36 (8.59%) Computer Science
8 36 (8.59%) Workflow
9 35 (8.35%) ETL
9 35 (8.35%) Stakeholder Management
10 34 (8.11%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 32 (7.64%) Performance Tuning
12 31 (7.40%) Configuration Management
12 31 (7.40%) Systems Engineering
13 29 (6.92%) Test Automation
13 29 (6.92%) UML
14 28 (6.68%) ITIL
14 28 (6.68%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 81 (19.33%) SQL
2 68 (16.23%) Python
3 46 (10.98%) Java
4 31 (7.40%) PowerShell
5 22 (5.25%) JCL
5 22 (5.25%) PL/SQL
6 21 (5.01%) COBOL
7 18 (4.30%) Bash
7 18 (4.30%) REXX
8 16 (3.82%) C
9 14 (3.34%) C++
9 14 (3.34%) Search Processing Language
10 13 (3.10%) Perl
11 11 (2.63%) Shell Script
12 10 (2.39%) Ada
12 10 (2.39%) MATLAB
13 8 (1.91%) Assembly Language
14 7 (1.67%) Embedded C
14 7 (1.67%) Embedded C++
14 7 (1.67%) Korn
Qualifications
1 129 (30.79%) Security Cleared
2 78 (18.62%) SC Cleared
3 41 (9.79%) Degree
4 17 (4.06%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (3.58%) DV Cleared
6 11 (2.63%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.39%) CISSP
7 10 (2.39%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (2.15%) CISM
9 7 (1.67%) AWS Certification
9 7 (1.67%) IBM Certification
10 6 (1.43%) Master's Degree
11 5 (1.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 5 (1.19%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.72%) CEH
13 3 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (0.48%) CISA
14 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%) 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 39 (9.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 30 (7.16%) NFS
3 23 (5.49%) Docker
3 23 (5.49%) GPFS
3 23 (5.49%) VMware ESXi
4 21 (5.01%) vSphere
5 19 (4.53%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (2.39%) RACF
7 8 (1.91%) Firmware
8 7 (1.67%) Hyper-V
8 7 (1.67%) Time Sharing Option
9 6 (1.43%) KVM
9 6 (1.43%) Oracle RAC
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 25 (5.97%) Kubernetes
2 25 (5.97%) Terraform
3 21 (5.01%) vRealize
4 20 (4.77%) Tivoli
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 10 (2.39%) 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 5 (1.19%) OMEGAMON
14 3 (0.72%) Control-M
14 3 (0.72%) Grafana
14 3 (0.72%) zSecure
Vendors
1 71 (16.95%) Oracle
2 54 (12.89%) VMware
3 36 (8.59%) Cisco
4 34 (8.11%) ServiceNow
5 31 (7.40%) HP
6 23 (5.49%) BMC
6 23 (5.49%) Microsoft
6 23 (5.49%) SAP
6 23 (5.49%) Splunk
7 22 (5.25%) Dell
7 22 (5.25%) SolarWinds
8 21 (5.01%) Red Hat
9 13 (3.10%) Broadcom
9 13 (3.10%) Google
10 11 (2.63%) Brocade
10 11 (2.63%) NetApp
11 10 (2.39%) EMC
11 10 (2.39%) MathWorks
12 8 (1.91%) ANSYS
12 8 (1.91%) AppDynamics