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 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
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 225 232
Rank change year-on-year -39 +7 +14
Contract jobs citing IBM 502 385 417
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.94% 1.16% 1.07%
As % of the Vendors category 2.27% 2.46% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 288 255 206
10th Percentile £342 £344 £354
25th Percentile £413 £408 £418
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £649 £642
90th Percentile £675 £713 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £450
% change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% -14.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 7 31
10th Percentile £25.18 £24.89 £27.00
25th Percentile £65.00 £25.04 £64.38
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 22,146 15,674 16,938
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.52% 47.28% 43.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,674 9,588 10,606
10th Percentile £313 £280 £287
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +1.25% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £606 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £700 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.28% -4.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,158 798 841
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.50 £13.69
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £29.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -13.28% -30.12%
75th Percentile £65.00 £48.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £83.36 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £21.39 £28.00
% change year-on-year +49.60% -23.61% -18.84%

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 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 10 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 10 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 -41 429 £500 -3.61% 175
UK excluding London -57 256 £500 +5.26% 80
London -33 179 £488 -18.07% 87
Work from Home -60 122 £535 -2.73% 88
North of England -41 86 £525 +13.51% 20
South East -50 59 £460 -16.36% 18
Yorkshire -19 48 £541 +11.30% 5
South West -21 36 £426 -29.00% 17
North West -46 36 £468 +8.21% 13
Midlands -57 32 £438 -1.63% 15
West Midlands -47 28 £450 -5.26% 9
Scotland -16 25 £575 +20.04% 4
East of England -15 15 £625 +13.64% 5
Wales -16 3 £600 -5.14% 3
East Midlands -21 3 - - 6
North East -42 1 £375 -18.92% 2

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 (7.77%) WebSphere
2 35 (6.97%) Confluence
3 25 (4.98%) CICS
4 19 (3.78%) SharePoint
5 16 (3.19%) Tomcat
6 14 (2.79%) nginx
7 8 (1.59%) JBoss
7 8 (1.59%) WebLogic
8 5 (1.00%) Apache
8 5 (1.00%) SAS
8 5 (1.00%) WebSphere Application Server
9 4 (0.80%) Camunda
9 4 (0.80%) IIS
10 3 (0.60%) CMS
11 2 (0.40%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.40%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.40%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Portal
12 1 (0.20%) Documentum
12 1 (0.20%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 6 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.40%) PlantUML
3 2 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.20%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.20%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.20%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 21 (4.18%) Maximo
2 13 (2.59%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 9 (1.79%) Temenos T24
4 5 (1.00%) Cognos Controller
4 5 (1.00%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.60%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
5 3 (0.60%) SAP R/3
6 2 (0.40%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 2 (0.40%) 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%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.20%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 74 (14.74%) AWS
2 66 (13.15%) Azure
3 28 (5.58%) GitHub
4 17 (3.39%) GCP
5 15 (2.99%) OpenShift
6 14 (2.79%) GitHub Copilot
7 12 (2.39%) Anthropic Claude
7 12 (2.39%) ChatGPT
8 10 (1.99%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (1.79%) IBM Watson
10 8 (1.59%) Amazon S3
11 7 (1.39%) Amazon EKS
12 6 (1.20%) Azure AI
12 6 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (1.20%) IBM Blueworks
12 6 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
12 6 (1.20%) Vertex AI
13 5 (1.00%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (1.00%) Boomi
13 5 (1.00%) iPaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (4.58%) SSL
2 18 (3.59%) HTTP
3 17 (3.39%) Firewall
3 17 (3.39%) SNMP
4 13 (2.59%) SAN
5 9 (1.79%) Network Security
5 9 (1.79%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.59%) DNS
7 6 (1.20%) VSAN
8 5 (1.00%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (1.00%) Fibre Channel
8 5 (1.00%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.80%) NAS
10 3 (0.60%) APPN
10 3 (0.60%) Internet
10 3 (0.60%) SNA
10 3 (0.60%) SSH
11 2 (0.40%) DMZ
11 2 (0.40%) LAN
11 2 (0.40%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (8.96%) Db2
2 30 (5.98%) Relational Database
3 29 (5.78%) DataStage
4 18 (3.59%) SQL Server
5 16 (3.19%) Metadata
6 14 (2.79%) Oracle Database
7 13 (2.59%) MongoDB
8 12 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
9 9 (1.79%) Elasticsearch
10 8 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
11 7 (1.39%) NoSQL
12 6 (1.20%) Big Data
12 6 (1.20%) GIS
13 5 (1.00%) Data Lake
14 3 (0.60%) IBM InfoSphere
14 3 (0.60%) Power BI
15 2 (0.40%) Amazon Redshift
15 2 (0.40%) BusinessObjects
15 2 (0.40%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
15 2 (0.40%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (10.16%) JIRA
2 42 (8.37%) Rational DOORS
3 27 (5.38%) Jenkins
4 18 (3.59%) Git
4 18 (3.59%) GitLab
5 8 (1.59%) IBM UrbanCode
5 8 (1.59%) Rational Rhapsody
6 7 (1.39%) JMeter
7 6 (1.20%) PowerDesigner
8 5 (1.00%) Liquibase
8 5 (1.00%) Selenium
8 5 (1.00%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.80%) Ant
9 4 (0.80%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.80%) Gradle
9 4 (0.80%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.80%) Zephyr
10 3 (0.60%) JUnit
10 3 (0.60%) LoadRunner
10 3 (0.60%) Maven
General
1 158 (31.47%) Finance
2 114 (22.71%) Social Skills
3 109 (21.71%) Banking
4 60 (11.95%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (6.18%) Aerospace
5 31 (6.18%) Legal
5 31 (6.18%) Public Sector
6 12 (2.39%) Retail
7 9 (1.79%) Military
8 8 (1.59%) Front Office
8 8 (1.59%) Investment Banking
9 7 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.00%) Law
11 5 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.60%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.60%) Retail Banking
13 3 (0.60%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.40%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 66 (13.15%) Developer
2 63 (12.55%) Architect
3 49 (9.76%) Analyst
4 38 (7.57%) Senior
5 31 (6.18%) Administrator
6 27 (5.38%) Delivery Manager
6 27 (5.38%) Product Delivery Manager
6 27 (5.38%) Product Manager
7 24 (4.78%) Consultant
7 24 (4.78%) Solutions Architect
8 23 (4.58%) Lead
9 21 (4.18%) Systems Delivery Manager
9 21 (4.18%) Systems Manager
10 20 (3.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 18 (3.59%) Middleware Engineer
12 14 (2.79%) CICS Engineer
13 13 (2.59%) Management Consultant
14 12 (2.39%) Designer
14 12 (2.39%) Software Engineer
14 12 (2.39%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (13.35%) Middleware
2 46 (9.16%) REST
3 30 (5.98%) XML
4 29 (5.78%) JSON
4 29 (5.78%) Kafka
5 24 (4.78%) ISPF
6 17 (3.39%) RabbitMQ
6 17 (3.39%) Spring Boot
7 15 (2.99%) SOAP
8 14 (2.79%) Spring
9 13 (2.59%) Flash
10 11 (2.19%) OAuth
11 10 (1.99%) SAML
11 10 (1.99%) WebSphere MQ
12 9 (1.79%) OpenAPI
12 9 (1.79%) Swagger
13 8 (1.59%) .NET
13 8 (1.59%) Jakarta EE
13 8 (1.59%) Web Services
14 7 (1.39%) JDBC
Miscellaneous
1 99 (19.72%) Mainframe
2 38 (7.57%) Data Centre
3 35 (6.97%) Clustering
4 34 (6.77%) Product Ownership
5 33 (6.57%) Data Structures
6 22 (4.38%) Cloud Native
7 20 (3.98%) Replication
8 15 (2.99%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 14 (2.79%) AS400
9 14 (2.79%) Linux Command Line
10 13 (2.59%) IBM Mainframe
10 13 (2.59%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (2.39%) Hybrid Cloud
11 12 (2.39%) Management Information System
12 11 (2.19%) Distributed Systems
12 11 (2.19%) Legacy Applications
13 10 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (1.99%) Equity Derivative
13 10 (1.99%) iSeries
14 9 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 98 (19.52%) Linux
2 75 (14.94%) zOS
3 52 (10.36%) Unix
4 45 (8.96%) Windows
5 38 (7.57%) AIX
6 22 (4.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 16 (3.19%) Solaris
8 13 (2.59%) Windows Server
9 10 (1.99%) Windows Server 2008
10 8 (1.59%) SUSE
10 8 (1.59%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (1.39%) MVS
12 4 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.40%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.20%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.20%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.20%) VMS
14 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (20.52%) Agile
2 74 (14.74%) CI/CD
2 74 (14.74%) Migration
3 66 (13.15%) Continuous Improvement
4 65 (12.95%) DevOps
5 59 (11.75%) Stakeholder Management
6 56 (11.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 53 (10.56%) ITIL
8 51 (10.16%) Problem-Solving
9 47 (9.36%) ETL
9 47 (9.36%) Test Automation
10 45 (8.96%) Roadmaps
11 41 (8.17%) Computer Science
12 38 (7.57%) Systems Engineering
13 37 (7.37%) AI
14 36 (7.17%) Change Management
14 36 (7.17%) Configuration Management
14 36 (7.17%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 36 (7.17%) Scrum
15 35 (6.97%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 93 (18.53%) SQL
2 84 (16.73%) Python
3 68 (13.55%) Java
4 35 (6.97%) PowerShell
5 23 (4.58%) Bash
6 20 (3.98%) PL/SQL
7 19 (3.78%) JCL
8 17 (3.39%) JavaScript
9 15 (2.99%) REXX
10 14 (2.79%) C++
10 14 (2.79%) COBOL
10 14 (2.79%) Search Processing Language
11 13 (2.59%) Shell Script
12 11 (2.19%) Perl
13 10 (1.99%) C
13 10 (1.99%) C#
14 7 (1.39%) Ada
15 6 (1.20%) Assembly Language
15 6 (1.20%) CLIST
16 5 (1.00%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 122 (24.30%) Security Cleared
2 81 (16.14%) SC Cleared
3 48 (9.56%) Degree
4 11 (2.19%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (1.59%) AWS Certification
5 8 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (1.59%) CISSP
6 7 (1.39%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.00%) Azure Certification
7 5 (1.00%) CISM
8 4 (0.80%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 4 (0.80%) CCSP
8 4 (0.80%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.60%) CEH
9 3 (0.60%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.60%) PMP
10 2 (0.40%) CISA
10 2 (0.40%) CISMP
10 2 (0.40%) IBM Certification
10 2 (0.40%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.98%) Data Quality
2 14 (2.79%) QA
3 7 (1.39%) GDPR
3 7 (1.39%) ISO 20022
3 7 (1.39%) SLA
4 6 (1.20%) ISO 15022
5 5 (1.00%) NIST
6 4 (0.80%) GRC
6 4 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.80%) SEPA
7 2 (0.40%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.40%) GAAP
7 2 (0.40%) IFRS
7 2 (0.40%) NCSC
8 1 (0.20%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.20%) PMO
8 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 35 (6.97%) Docker
2 25 (4.98%) RACF
3 22 (4.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (3.39%) NFS
5 16 (3.19%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (2.59%) Virtual Machines
7 12 (2.39%) Firmware
7 12 (2.39%) GPFS
7 12 (2.39%) Time Sharing Option
8 10 (1.99%) vSphere
9 7 (1.39%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (1.39%) PowerHA
10 6 (1.20%) ACF2
11 4 (0.80%) Hyper-V
12 3 (0.60%) Active Directory
12 3 (0.60%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.60%) KVM
13 1 (0.20%) SRDF
13 1 (0.20%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 25 (4.98%) Ansible
2 24 (4.78%) OMEGAMON
3 20 (3.98%) Tivoli
4 19 (3.78%) Kubernetes
5 17 (3.39%) Nagios
5 17 (3.39%) Terraform
5 17 (3.39%) ZABBIX
6 16 (3.19%) Netcool
7 15 (2.99%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 14 (2.79%) OpenView
8 14 (2.79%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 9 (1.79%) vRealize
10 6 (1.20%) Grafana
10 6 (1.20%) Oracle RMAN
10 6 (1.20%) Tivoli NetView
10 6 (1.20%) VxRail
11 4 (0.80%) CA Endevor
11 4 (0.80%) QRadar
12 3 (0.60%) IBM BigFix
12 3 (0.60%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 95 (18.92%) Oracle
2 40 (7.97%) Microsoft
3 34 (6.77%) VMware
4 32 (6.37%) Splunk
5 28 (5.58%) SAP
6 24 (4.78%) Red Hat
7 22 (4.38%) HP
7 22 (4.38%) ServiceNow
8 21 (4.18%) Cisco
9 19 (3.78%) Google
10 18 (3.59%) BMC
11 16 (3.19%) SolarWinds
12 13 (2.59%) Broadcom
12 13 (2.59%) Brocade
12 13 (2.59%) Cognos
12 13 (2.59%) Dell
12 13 (2.59%) MathWorks
13 12 (2.39%) Sybase
14 11 (2.19%) Informatica
15 10 (1.99%) Dynatrace