Java Engineer Contract Job Trends

Java Engineer
UK

The median Java Engineer daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 366 339 298
Rank change year-on-year -27 -41 +184
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 323 225 294
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.69% 0.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.65% 0.75% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 195 166 211
10th Percentile £299 £380 £450
25th Percentile £450 £487 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £607 £725
Median % change year-on-year -13.54% -16.24% +21.85%
75th Percentile £600 £825 £850
90th Percentile £650 £875 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +5.21% -4.00% +3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 6 26
10th Percentile £61.25 £38.75 £66.25
25th Percentile £65.63 £49.38 -
Median hourly rate £70.00 £75.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +7.14% +12.00%
75th Percentile £75.50 £85.63 -
90th Percentile £77.00 £90.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - - +9.38%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 49,522 29,914 36,178
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.26% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,686 18,901 23,122
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,509 1,556 1,977
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.30 £19.59
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%

Java Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Java Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Java Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Java Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Java Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Java Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Java Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Java Engineer over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Java Engineer in the UK

Java Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Java Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Java Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Java Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Java Engineer over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Java Engineer in the UK

Java Engineer
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Java Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 21 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 -33 295 £525 -26.96% 194
UK excluding London -4 152 £505 +5.21% 120
London -81 149 £540 -28.00% 123
Work from Home -88 95 £525 -30.00% 85
North of England -19 67 £523 +67.58% 32
North West -17 33 £560 +83.61% 17
South East -45 29 £500 - 12
Yorkshire -23 20 £500 +56.94% 8
Midlands -36 20 £469 -10.67% 13
South West -33 18 £505 -8.18% 21
West Midlands -41 15 £470 -11.42% 7
North East - 15 £640 - 7
East of England -6 14 £510 -15.00% 5
East Midlands -15 5 £400 +26.98% 6
Scotland -26 4 £550 +18.92% 31
Wales - 4 - - 1
Northern Ireland +1 3 £275 -36.78% 6

Java Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 August 2026, Java Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Java Engineer in the job title.

1 323 (100.00%) Java
2 189 (58.51%) Software Engineering
3 133 (41.18%) CI/CD
4 131 (40.56%) Spring
5 123 (38.08%) Spring Boot
6 112 (34.67%) AWS
7 106 (32.82%) Agile
8 105 (32.51%) Microservices
9 99 (30.65%) Kubernetes
10 84 (26.01%) Docker
11 78 (24.15%) Security Cleared
12 75 (23.22%) Kafka
13 74 (22.91%) DevOps
14 71 (21.98%) SC Cleared
15 70 (21.67%) SQL
16 59 (18.27%) Test Automation
17 47 (14.55%) Full-Stack Development
18 46 (14.24%) Event-Driven
19 44 (13.62%) Azure
19 44 (13.62%) REST
20 43 (13.31%) Containerisation
21 41 (12.69%) PostgreSQL
21 41 (12.69%) Python
22 39 (12.07%) TDD
23 38 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
24 37 (11.46%) Git
25 36 (11.15%) Event-Driven Architecture
25 36 (11.15%) SDLC
26 35 (10.84%) QA
27 34 (10.53%) React

Java Engineer Skill Set
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 8 (2.48%) Apache Spark
2 7 (2.17%) Apache
2 7 (2.17%) WebLogic
3 3 (0.93%) Confluence
4 2 (0.62%) MQSeries
4 2 (0.62%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.31%) Apache Pulsar
5 1 (0.31%) nginx
5 1 (0.31%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.31%) WebSphere
Applications
1 3 (0.93%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (0.62%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 112 (34.67%) AWS
2 44 (13.62%) Azure
3 30 (9.29%) GitHub
4 29 (8.98%) GCP
5 24 (7.43%) GitHub Actions
6 18 (5.57%) OpenShift
7 14 (4.33%) Serverless
8 13 (4.02%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (2.48%) Amazon SQS
10 7 (2.17%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (2.17%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 6 (1.86%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 6 (1.86%) Amazon ECS
11 6 (1.86%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (1.24%) Amazon S3
13 4 (1.24%) Cloud Run
13 4 (1.24%) Snowflake
14 3 (0.93%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 3 (0.93%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.48%) Firewall
1 8 (2.48%) VPN
2 4 (1.24%) HTTP
2 4 (1.24%) Internet
3 1 (0.31%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (12.69%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (6.50%) Relational Database
3 18 (5.57%) NoSQL
4 14 (4.33%) MongoDB
5 13 (4.02%) SQL Server
6 12 (3.72%) MySQL
7 10 (3.10%) DynamoDB
8 9 (2.79%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (2.17%) Couchbase
10 6 (1.86%) Apache Cassandra
10 6 (1.86%) Redis
11 4 (1.24%) Big Data
11 4 (1.24%) Flink
11 4 (1.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.93%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.93%) Power BI
13 2 (0.62%) HBase
13 2 (0.62%) Snowflake Schema
14 1 (0.31%) Delta Lake
14 1 (0.31%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 37 (11.46%) Git
2 32 (9.91%) JUnit
3 28 (8.67%) Jenkins
4 23 (7.12%) GitLab
5 17 (5.26%) SonarQube
6 15 (4.64%) Gradle
6 15 (4.64%) Maven
7 14 (4.33%) Mockito
8 9 (2.79%) JIRA
9 8 (2.48%) Liquibase
10 6 (1.86%) Bitbucket
10 6 (1.86%) Cucumber
11 5 (1.55%) Selenium
12 4 (1.24%) IntelliJ
12 4 (1.24%) TeamCity
13 3 (0.93%) Flyway
13 3 (0.93%) XCUITest
14 2 (0.62%) Gatling
14 2 (0.62%) Katalon Studio
14 2 (0.62%) REST Assured
General
1 88 (27.24%) Finance
2 51 (15.79%) Banking
3 44 (13.62%) Social Skills
4 15 (4.64%) Public Sector
5 14 (4.33%) Front Office
6 10 (3.10%) Law
7 9 (2.79%) Manufacturing
7 9 (2.79%) Retail
8 8 (2.48%) Analytical Skills
9 7 (2.17%) Financial Institution
10 5 (1.55%) Military
11 4 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (1.24%) Retail Banking
12 3 (0.93%) Automotive
12 3 (0.93%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.62%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.62%) Corporate Banking
13 2 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.31%) Back Office
14 1 (0.31%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 131 (40.56%) Spring
2 123 (38.08%) Spring Boot
3 75 (23.22%) Kafka
4 44 (13.62%) REST
5 34 (10.53%) React
6 29 (8.98%) RESTful
7 22 (6.81%) AngularJS
8 21 (6.50%) Terraform
9 17 (5.26%) Quarkus
10 13 (4.02%) Node.js
11 11 (3.41%) Middleware
12 10 (3.10%) GraphQL
12 10 (3.10%) OpenAPI
13 9 (2.79%) Swagger
14 8 (2.48%) AWS CDK
14 8 (2.48%) Next.js
14 8 (2.48%) OAuth
15 7 (2.17%) OAuth2
15 7 (2.17%) Web Services
16 6 (1.86%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 70 (21.67%) Cloud Native
2 50 (15.48%) Distributed Systems
3 14 (4.33%) Greenfield Project
4 8 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
5 7 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (2.17%) Product Ownership
6 6 (1.86%) Data Structures
6 6 (1.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 6 (1.86%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.55%) AI Agents
7 5 (1.55%) Fixed Income
7 5 (1.55%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (1.24%) Legacy Applications
8 4 (1.24%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.24%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (1.24%) TWAP
8 4 (1.24%) VWAP
9 3 (0.93%) Algorithms
9 3 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (5.26%) Linux
2 8 (2.48%) Unix
3 2 (0.62%) Android
3 2 (0.62%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.31%) Solaris
4 1 (0.31%) Windows
4 1 (0.31%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (58.51%) Software Engineering
2 133 (41.18%) CI/CD
3 106 (32.82%) Agile
4 105 (32.51%) Microservices
5 74 (22.91%) DevOps
6 59 (18.27%) Test Automation
7 47 (14.55%) Full-Stack Development
8 46 (14.24%) Event-Driven
9 43 (13.31%) Containerisation
10 39 (12.07%) TDD
11 38 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
12 36 (11.15%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 36 (11.15%) SDLC
13 31 (9.60%) AI
13 31 (9.60%) Scrum
14 30 (9.29%) Unit Testing
15 29 (8.98%) Observability
16 27 (8.36%) Code Quality
17 26 (8.05%) Clean Code
18 25 (7.74%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 323 (100.00%) Java
2 70 (21.67%) SQL
3 41 (12.69%) Python
4 30 (9.29%) TypeScript
5 25 (7.74%) JavaScript
5 25 (7.74%) Kotlin
6 11 (3.41%) Shell Script
7 7 (2.17%) Ada
7 7 (2.17%) Go
8 5 (1.55%) C++
9 4 (1.24%) Groovy
9 4 (1.24%) PL/SQL
9 4 (1.24%) PowerShell
10 3 (0.93%) C#
11 2 (0.62%) Scala
11 2 (0.62%) Swift
12 1 (0.31%) Korn
Qualifications
1 78 (24.15%) Security Cleared
2 71 (21.98%) SC Cleared
3 12 (3.72%) Degree
4 10 (3.10%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (0.93%) DV Cleared
6 3 (0.93%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.31%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (0.31%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (10.84%) QA
2 8 (2.48%) ISO 20022
3 7 (2.17%) Def Stans
3 7 (2.17%) IEC 61508
3 7 (2.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 6 (1.86%) GDPR
5 5 (1.55%) SEPA
6 3 (0.93%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.93%) SLA
7 2 (0.62%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.62%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.31%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.31%) PSD2
System Software
1 84 (26.01%) Docker
2 1 (0.31%) Oracle RAC
2 1 (0.31%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
2 1 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 99 (30.65%) Kubernetes
2 16 (4.95%) Argo
3 5 (1.55%) Ansible
4 4 (1.24%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.93%) HAProxy
5 3 (0.93%) Kibana
6 1 (0.31%) Docker Swarm
6 1 (0.31%) Grafana
6 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
6 1 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.31%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 22 (6.81%) Oracle
2 15 (4.64%) Red Hat
3 13 (4.02%) Microsoft
4 10 (3.10%) Google
5 6 (1.86%) Spotify
6 5 (1.55%) Confluent
6 5 (1.55%) SAP
7 4 (1.24%) Databricks
7 4 (1.24%) IBM
7 4 (1.24%) Splunk
8 3 (0.93%) Checkmarx
8 3 (0.93%) FIS
9 2 (0.62%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.62%) MKS
9 2 (0.62%) ServiceNow
10 1 (0.31%) Ariba
10 1 (0.31%) Concur
10 1 (0.31%) Sonatype
10 1 (0.31%) Veracode
10 1 (0.31%) VMware