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 25 June 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
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 224 237
Rank change year-on-year -53 +13 +34
Contract jobs citing IBM 442 351 434
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 1.17% 1.00%
As % of the Vendors category 2.12% 2.45% 2.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 254 229 231
10th Percentile £313 £358 £360
25th Percentile £400 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.39% +2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £649 £650
90th Percentile £674 £690 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £484 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +1.79% - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 5 39
10th Percentile £25.77 £24.81 £51.40
25th Percentile £55.00 £25.04 £65.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.08 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +179.16% -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 20,809 14,306 18,571
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.89% 47.50% 42.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,041 8,801 11,540
10th Percentile £313 £280 £270
25th Percentile £413 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £715 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,070 662 1,168
10th Percentile £15.55 £14.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.30 £14.56
Median hourly rate £33.99 £25.40 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +33.82% +5.05% -42.15%
75th Percentile £60.75 £53.75 £59.66
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £23.00 £22.58
% change year-on-year +39.13% +1.86% -39.79%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 -47 380 £475 -7.32% 78
UK excluding London -53 250 £484 +1.79% 55
London -56 142 £488 -18.75% 33
Work from Home -62 119 £514 -5.69% 33
North of England -47 90 £514 +20.94% 12
North West -24 49 £459 +12.36% 7
South West -14 44 £426 -29.00% 10
South East -51 42 £400 -20.00% 14
Yorkshire -39 40 £533 +6.50% 3
Midlands -59 31 £402 -8.53% 8
West Midlands -48 26 £401 -12.83% 4
Scotland -21 22 £550 +10.94% 5
East of England -16 18 £425 -19.05% 6
East Midlands -27 4 £837 +101.57% 4
Wales -11 3 £635 +0.40% 1
North East -37 1 £375 -10.45% 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 30 (6.79%) WebSphere
2 24 (5.43%) Confluence
3 22 (4.98%) CICS
4 18 (4.07%) Tomcat
5 16 (3.62%) nginx
6 11 (2.49%) SharePoint
7 8 (1.81%) WebLogic
8 5 (1.13%) Apache
8 5 (1.13%) SAS
8 5 (1.13%) WebSphere Application Server
9 4 (0.90%) IIS
9 4 (0.90%) JBoss
9 4 (0.90%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 3 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.68%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.68%) Camunda
10 3 (0.68%) CMS
11 2 (0.45%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.45%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.45%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.45%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.23%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.23%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 22 (4.98%) Maximo
2 11 (2.49%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 6 (1.36%) Temenos T24
4 5 (1.13%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.90%) Cognos Controller
6 3 (0.68%) SAP R/3
7 2 (0.45%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.45%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.45%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.45%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.23%) HFM
8 1 (0.23%) IBM Operational Decision Manager
8 1 (0.23%) MetaTrader
8 1 (0.23%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.23%) Oracle General Ledger
8 1 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.23%) SAP AFS
8 1 (0.23%) SAP QM
8 1 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 69 (15.61%) AWS
2 53 (11.99%) Azure
3 23 (5.20%) GitHub
4 18 (4.07%) OpenShift
5 12 (2.71%) Azure DevOps
5 12 (2.71%) GitHub Copilot
6 10 (2.26%) ChatGPT
6 10 (2.26%) GCP
6 10 (2.26%) IBM Watson
7 8 (1.81%) Amazon S3
7 8 (1.81%) Anthropic Claude
8 7 (1.58%) Amazon EKS
8 7 (1.58%) SaaS
8 7 (1.58%) Vertex AI
9 6 (1.36%) Azure AI
9 6 (1.36%) Azure AKS
9 6 (1.36%) Azure Monitor
9 6 (1.36%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (1.13%) Amazon EC2
10 5 (1.13%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 23 (5.20%) Firewall
2 17 (3.85%) SNMP
3 16 (3.62%) SSL
4 15 (3.39%) HTTP
5 9 (2.04%) SAN
5 9 (2.04%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.81%) DNS
7 7 (1.58%) VPN
7 7 (1.58%) VSAN
8 6 (1.36%) Network Security
9 5 (1.13%) Fibre Channel
10 4 (0.90%) APPN
10 4 (0.90%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.90%) LAN
10 4 (0.90%) NAS
10 4 (0.90%) SNA
10 4 (0.90%) WAN
11 3 (0.68%) MPLS
11 3 (0.68%) SSH
11 3 (0.68%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (9.28%) Db2
2 26 (5.88%) DataStage
3 23 (5.20%) Relational Database
4 20 (4.52%) SQL Server
5 14 (3.17%) Metadata
6 13 (2.94%) MongoDB
7 12 (2.71%) Data Warehouse
8 11 (2.49%) Elasticsearch
9 10 (2.26%) Oracle Database
10 9 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
11 8 (1.81%) Big Data
11 8 (1.81%) NoSQL
12 7 (1.58%) GIS
12 7 (1.58%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.68%) Apache Hive
13 3 (0.68%) Power BI
14 2 (0.45%) Amazon Aurora
14 2 (0.45%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.45%) Data Lake
14 2 (0.45%) IBM InfoSphere
Development Applications
1 39 (8.82%) Rational DOORS
2 37 (8.37%) JIRA
3 19 (4.30%) Jenkins
4 14 (3.17%) Git
5 12 (2.71%) GitLab
6 8 (1.81%) Rational Rhapsody
7 5 (1.13%) Ant
7 5 (1.13%) Liquibase
7 5 (1.13%) PowerDesigner
8 4 (0.90%) JMeter
9 3 (0.68%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.68%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.68%) Gradle
9 3 (0.68%) IBM UrbanCode
9 3 (0.68%) JUnit
9 3 (0.68%) Maven
9 3 (0.68%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.68%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.45%) Artifactory
General
1 123 (27.83%) Finance
2 102 (23.08%) Social Skills
3 85 (19.23%) Banking
4 40 (9.05%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (8.14%) Public Sector
6 29 (6.56%) Aerospace
7 26 (5.88%) Legal
8 14 (3.17%) Retail
9 12 (2.71%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (1.81%) Front Office
10 8 (1.81%) Investment Banking
11 7 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.58%) Law
11 7 (1.58%) Military
12 5 (1.13%) Aviation
12 5 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (0.90%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.68%) Telecoms
15 2 (0.45%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 49 (11.09%) Architect
2 43 (9.73%) Analyst
2 43 (9.73%) Developer
3 27 (6.11%) Senior
4 26 (5.88%) Delivery Manager
4 26 (5.88%) Product Delivery Manager
4 26 (5.88%) Product Manager
5 24 (5.43%) Administrator
5 24 (5.43%) Consultant
6 21 (4.75%) Systems Delivery Manager
6 21 (4.75%) Systems Manager
7 18 (4.07%) Lead
7 18 (4.07%) Software Engineer
8 16 (3.62%) Data Engineer
8 16 (3.62%) Solutions Architect
9 15 (3.39%) Storage Analyst
10 13 (2.94%) Management Consultant
11 12 (2.71%) Designer
11 12 (2.71%) DevOps Engineer
11 12 (2.71%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (12.67%) Middleware
2 36 (8.14%) REST
3 19 (4.30%) Flash
3 19 (4.30%) ISPF
4 18 (4.07%) JSON
4 18 (4.07%) Kafka
5 16 (3.62%) Spring Boot
5 16 (3.62%) XML
6 15 (3.39%) Spring
7 12 (2.71%) RabbitMQ
8 8 (1.81%) PyTorch
8 8 (1.81%) SOAP
8 8 (1.81%) WebSphere MQ
9 7 (1.58%) EJB
9 7 (1.58%) JMS
9 7 (1.58%) LangChain
9 7 (1.58%) scikit-learn
9 7 (1.58%) ZeroMQ
10 6 (1.36%) ARM Templates
10 6 (1.36%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 85 (19.23%) Mainframe
2 36 (8.14%) Data Centre
3 29 (6.56%) Clustering
3 29 (6.56%) Data Structures
4 28 (6.33%) Product Ownership
5 24 (5.43%) Linux Command Line
5 24 (5.43%) Replication
6 17 (3.85%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (3.17%) Cloud Native
7 14 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
8 13 (2.94%) VSAM
9 12 (2.71%) Algorithms
9 12 (2.71%) Enterprise Software
9 12 (2.71%) Legacy Applications
9 12 (2.71%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 10 (2.26%) BYOD
10 10 (2.26%) IBM Mainframe
10 10 (2.26%) Management Information System
11 9 (2.04%) Onboarding
12 8 (1.81%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 107 (24.21%) Linux
2 57 (12.90%) zOS
3 53 (11.99%) Windows
4 45 (10.18%) Unix
5 41 (9.28%) AIX
6 24 (5.43%) Solaris
7 22 (4.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 20 (4.52%) Windows Server
9 13 (2.94%) Windows Server 2008
10 11 (2.49%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (1.81%) SUSE
11 8 (1.81%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (1.13%) MVS
13 2 (0.45%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.45%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.23%) Android
14 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.23%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (21.27%) Agile
2 62 (14.03%) CI/CD
3 57 (12.90%) DevOps
4 53 (11.99%) Continuous Improvement
4 53 (11.99%) Migration
5 51 (11.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 46 (10.41%) ITIL
6 46 (10.41%) Problem-Solving
6 46 (10.41%) Roadmaps
7 41 (9.28%) ETL
8 37 (8.37%) Stakeholder Management
8 37 (8.37%) Test Automation
9 36 (8.14%) Computer Science
9 36 (8.14%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
10 35 (7.92%) AI
10 35 (7.92%) Configuration Management
11 34 (7.69%) Systems Engineering
12 33 (7.47%) UML
12 33 (7.47%) Workflow
13 31 (7.01%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 86 (19.46%) SQL
2 77 (17.42%) Python
3 59 (13.35%) Java
4 36 (8.14%) PowerShell
5 24 (5.43%) Bash
6 21 (4.75%) PL/SQL
7 18 (4.07%) COBOL
8 17 (3.85%) JCL
9 15 (3.39%) REXX
10 14 (3.17%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (2.71%) C++
12 11 (2.49%) Ada
13 10 (2.26%) C
13 10 (2.26%) MATLAB
14 9 (2.04%) Shell Script
15 8 (1.81%) Bicep
16 7 (1.58%) Assembly Language
16 7 (1.58%) JavaScript
16 7 (1.58%) Perl
17 6 (1.36%) CLIST
Qualifications
1 126 (28.51%) Security Cleared
2 81 (18.33%) SC Cleared
3 43 (9.73%) Degree
4 13 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (2.49%) CISSP
5 11 (2.49%) DV Cleared
6 10 (2.26%) Azure Certification
6 10 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.81%) AWS Certification
7 8 (1.81%) CISM
8 7 (1.58%) IBM Certification
9 5 (1.13%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 5 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (1.13%) Master's Degree
9 5 (1.13%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.90%) PMI Certification
10 4 (0.90%) PMP
11 3 (0.68%) CEH
12 2 (0.45%) CISMP
12 2 (0.45%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (7.24%) Data Quality
2 11 (2.49%) QA
3 9 (2.04%) SLA
4 7 (1.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.58%) NIST
5 5 (1.13%) GDPR
5 5 (1.13%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.13%) NIST 800
5 5 (1.13%) SEPA
6 3 (0.68%) GAAP
6 3 (0.68%) IFRS
6 3 (0.68%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.45%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.45%) GRC
7 2 (0.45%) NCSC
8 1 (0.23%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 1 (0.23%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.23%) PMO
8 1 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 28 (6.33%) Docker
1 28 (6.33%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (5.43%) NFS
2 24 (5.43%) VMware ESXi
3 19 (4.30%) GPFS
3 19 (4.30%) RACF
4 17 (3.85%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (3.39%) vSphere
6 11 (2.49%) Time Sharing Option
7 9 (2.04%) Oracle RAC
8 8 (1.81%) Firmware
9 7 (1.58%) Hyper-V
10 6 (1.36%) KVM
11 3 (0.68%) ACF2
11 3 (0.68%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.68%) PowerHA
12 2 (0.45%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 2 (0.45%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
12 2 (0.45%) VMware NSX
13 1 (0.23%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 31 (7.01%) Ansible
2 25 (5.66%) Terraform
3 21 (4.75%) Tivoli
4 20 (4.52%) Kubernetes
5 19 (4.30%) OMEGAMON
6 17 (3.85%) Nagios
6 17 (3.85%) ZABBIX
7 16 (3.62%) Netcool
8 14 (3.17%) OpenView
8 14 (3.17%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 14 (3.17%) vRealize
9 11 (2.49%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 8 (1.81%) IBM BigFix
10 8 (1.81%) Oracle RMAN
11 7 (1.58%) VxRail
12 6 (1.36%) Tivoli NetView
12 6 (1.36%) vCenter Server
13 4 (0.90%) Grafana
14 3 (0.68%) Avamar
14 3 (0.68%) Control-M
Vendors
1 89 (20.14%) Oracle
2 46 (10.41%) VMware
3 35 (7.92%) Microsoft
4 31 (7.01%) Cisco
5 30 (6.79%) Red Hat
6 28 (6.33%) SAP
6 28 (6.33%) Splunk
7 27 (6.11%) ServiceNow
8 25 (5.66%) HP
9 20 (4.52%) BMC
10 19 (4.30%) Dell
11 18 (4.07%) MathWorks
12 16 (3.62%) SolarWinds
13 14 (3.17%) Google
14 13 (2.94%) Broadcom
14 13 (2.94%) Brocade
15 10 (2.26%) Sybase
16 8 (1.81%) Cognos
16 8 (1.81%) Siemens
17 7 (1.58%) Informatica