Java Engineer Contract Job Trends

Java Engineer
UK

The median Java Engineer daily rate in the UK is £530, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 June 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 320 329 332
Rank change year-on-year +9 +3 +135
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 349 194 263
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 0.67% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.77% 0.72% 0.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 209 133 173
10th Percentile £382 £380 £413
25th Percentile £450 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £586 £588
Median % change year-on-year -9.56% -0.26% -5.05%
75th Percentile £619 £825 £850
90th Percentile £670 £875 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £473 £500
% change year-on-year +10.58% -5.50% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 52 10 23
10th Percentile £52.50 £55.25 £67.50
25th Percentile £61.25 £62.19 -
Median hourly rate £66.25 £66.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year - -5.36% +6.87%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £76.00 £72.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £66.25 £70.00
% change year-on-year -1.89% -5.36% +6.87%

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 45,608 26,825 40,003
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.39% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,789 17,300 25,804
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £403 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,038 1,097 2,862
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.71% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%

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 6 June 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 6 June 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 6 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 +13 304 £525 -22.22% 91
UK excluding London 0 164 £523 +10.58% 57
London -38 157 £550 -26.67% 49
Work from Home -28 104 £525 -30.00% 44
North of England -21 62 £523 +14.21% 15
South West -3 32 £484 -6.75% 9
North West -17 32 £528 - 7
South East -41 30 £500 -23.08% 10
Yorkshire -47 17 £523 -0.48% 7
Scotland -1 16 £600 +27.66% 6
Midlands -47 15 £600 +14.29% 5
North East -13 14 £478 +22.44% 1
West Midlands -48 14 £600 +14.29% 5
East of England -25 7 £505 -15.83% 5
Wales - 4 £388 - 1
Northern Ireland -2 1 - - 7
East Midlands -25 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 6 June 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.

1 349 (100.00%) Java
2 184 (52.72%) Software Engineering
3 144 (41.26%) Spring
4 131 (37.54%) Spring Boot
5 102 (29.23%) AWS
6 98 (28.08%) Kubernetes
7 97 (27.79%) CI/CD
8 95 (27.22%) Microservices
9 88 (25.21%) Agile
10 77 (22.06%) Docker
11 71 (20.34%) Kafka
11 71 (20.34%) Security Cleared
12 63 (18.05%) SC Cleared
13 58 (16.62%) DevOps
14 57 (16.33%) Full-Stack Development
15 56 (16.05%) SQL
16 48 (13.75%) Azure
17 46 (13.18%) React
18 45 (12.89%) TDD
19 43 (12.32%) Containerisation
20 40 (11.46%) Python
20 40 (11.46%) Test Automation
21 39 (11.17%) PostgreSQL
22 36 (10.32%) Event-Driven
23 34 (9.74%) Jenkins
23 34 (9.74%) Problem-Solving
24 32 (9.17%) QA
24 32 (9.17%) TypeScript
25 30 (8.60%) Gradle
25 30 (8.60%) REST

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 10 (2.87%) Apache Spark
2 4 (1.15%) Apache
2 4 (1.15%) Confluence
3 3 (0.86%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.57%) MQSeries
5 1 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.29%) Apache Pulsar
5 1 (0.29%) Camunda
5 1 (0.29%) Ethereum
5 1 (0.29%) Hyperledger
5 1 (0.29%) nginx
5 1 (0.29%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.29%) Notion
Business Applications
1 2 (0.57%) Payment Gateway
1 2 (0.57%) Shopify
2 1 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 102 (29.23%) AWS
2 48 (13.75%) Azure
3 23 (6.59%) GitHub
4 22 (6.30%) GCP
5 18 (5.16%) Serverless
6 17 (4.87%) AWS Lambda
6 17 (4.87%) GitHub Actions
7 16 (4.58%) OpenShift
8 12 (3.44%) Amazon S3
9 9 (2.58%) Amazon ECS
10 7 (2.01%) Amazon EC2
11 6 (1.72%) AWS Step Functions
12 5 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (1.43%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 4 (1.15%) Amazon SQS
13 4 (1.15%) AWS Fargate
13 4 (1.15%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (1.15%) Cloud Run
14 3 (0.86%) Amazon Kinesis
14 3 (0.86%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.43%) HTTP
2 3 (0.86%) Firewall
2 3 (0.86%) MQTT
2 3 (0.86%) VPN
3 2 (0.57%) Internet
4 1 (0.29%) DNS
4 1 (0.29%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.29%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (11.17%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (5.44%) MongoDB
3 14 (4.01%) SQL Server
4 13 (3.72%) Relational Database
5 12 (3.44%) DynamoDB
5 12 (3.44%) MySQL
6 11 (3.15%) Apache Cassandra
6 11 (3.15%) NoSQL
7 10 (2.87%) Big Data
8 8 (2.29%) Amazon RDS
8 8 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (1.15%) Couchbase
9 4 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.86%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.86%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.86%) Power BI
11 2 (0.57%) HBase
11 2 (0.57%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.57%) Redis
11 2 (0.57%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (9.74%) Jenkins
2 30 (8.60%) Gradle
3 29 (8.31%) Git
4 28 (8.02%) JUnit
5 26 (7.45%) GitLab
6 15 (4.30%) IntelliJ
7 13 (3.72%) SonarQube
8 12 (3.44%) Maven
8 12 (3.44%) Mockito
9 10 (2.87%) JIRA
10 8 (2.29%) Liquibase
11 7 (2.01%) Selenium
12 4 (1.15%) Cucumber
13 3 (0.86%) Flyway
13 3 (0.86%) XCUITest
14 2 (0.57%) Appium
14 2 (0.57%) Artifactory
14 2 (0.57%) Bitbucket
14 2 (0.57%) Gatling
14 2 (0.57%) Katalon Studio
General
1 77 (22.06%) Finance
2 41 (11.75%) Banking
3 30 (8.60%) Social Skills
4 20 (5.73%) Front Office
4 20 (5.73%) Public Sector
5 11 (3.15%) Law
6 10 (2.87%) Financial Institution
7 8 (2.29%) Analytical Skills
8 7 (2.01%) Retail
9 6 (1.72%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.86%) Automotive
10 3 (0.86%) Back Office
10 3 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.86%) Manufacturing
10 3 (0.86%) Military
11 2 (0.57%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.57%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.29%) French Language
12 1 (0.29%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 144 (41.26%) Spring
2 131 (37.54%) Spring Boot
3 71 (20.34%) Kafka
4 46 (13.18%) React
5 30 (8.60%) REST
6 25 (7.16%) RESTful
7 19 (5.44%) AngularJS
7 19 (5.44%) GraphQL
8 18 (5.16%) Middleware
8 18 (5.16%) Node.js
9 15 (4.30%) OpenAPI
9 15 (4.30%) Swagger
10 13 (3.72%) OpenTelemetry
10 13 (3.72%) Quarkus
11 12 (3.44%) Hibernate
12 9 (2.58%) Redux
13 8 (2.29%) Next.js
14 7 (2.01%) FIX Protocol
14 7 (2.01%) Micronaut
14 7 (2.01%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 57 (16.33%) Cloud Native
2 35 (10.03%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (2.87%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (2.87%) Greenfield Project
4 9 (2.58%) Fixed Income
5 7 (2.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 6 (1.72%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (1.43%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.43%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.15%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.15%) TWAP
8 4 (1.15%) VWAP
9 3 (0.86%) Clustering
9 3 (0.86%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.86%) Onboarding
9 3 (0.86%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.86%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.57%) Derivative
10 2 (0.57%) Exotic Derivative
Operating Systems
1 20 (5.73%) Linux
2 9 (2.58%) Unix
3 2 (0.57%) Android
3 2 (0.57%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.29%) Solaris
4 1 (0.29%) SUSE
4 1 (0.29%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
4 1 (0.29%) VMS
4 1 (0.29%) Windows
4 1 (0.29%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (52.72%) Software Engineering
2 97 (27.79%) CI/CD
3 95 (27.22%) Microservices
4 88 (25.21%) Agile
5 58 (16.62%) DevOps
6 57 (16.33%) Full-Stack Development
7 45 (12.89%) TDD
8 43 (12.32%) Containerisation
9 40 (11.46%) Test Automation
10 36 (10.32%) Event-Driven
11 34 (9.74%) Problem-Solving
12 27 (7.74%) Scrum
13 25 (7.16%) Migration
14 24 (6.88%) Observability
15 23 (6.59%) Clean Code
15 23 (6.59%) SDLC
16 22 (6.30%) Code Quality
16 22 (6.30%) Event-Driven Architecture
17 21 (6.02%) AI
17 21 (6.02%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 349 (100.00%) Java
2 56 (16.05%) SQL
3 40 (11.46%) Python
4 32 (9.17%) TypeScript
5 22 (6.30%) JavaScript
5 22 (6.30%) Kotlin
6 11 (3.15%) Ada
6 11 (3.15%) Go
7 7 (2.01%) PL/SQL
8 5 (1.43%) Shell Script
9 3 (0.86%) C#
9 3 (0.86%) C++
9 3 (0.86%) Scala
10 2 (0.57%) Groovy
10 2 (0.57%) Swift
11 1 (0.29%) Korn
11 1 (0.29%) Rust
11 1 (0.29%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 71 (20.34%) Security Cleared
2 63 (18.05%) SC Cleared
3 12 (3.44%) Degree
4 6 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (1.43%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.15%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.29%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (0.29%) Numerate Degree
7 1 (0.29%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (9.17%) QA
2 11 (3.15%) Def Stans
2 11 (3.15%) IEC 61508
3 8 (2.29%) ISO 20022
4 7 (2.01%) GDPR
4 7 (2.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (1.72%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.43%) SEPA
7 3 (0.86%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.57%) ISO 15022
9 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.29%) PSD2
9 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 77 (22.06%) Docker
2 1 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
2 1 (0.29%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
2 1 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 98 (28.08%) Kubernetes
2 22 (6.30%) Terraform
3 16 (4.58%) Grafana
4 12 (3.44%) Argo
5 6 (1.72%) Ansible
6 3 (0.86%) HAProxy
7 2 (0.57%) Kibana
7 2 (0.57%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.29%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.29%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 18 (5.16%) Oracle
2 13 (3.72%) Google
3 11 (3.15%) Microsoft
3 11 (3.15%) Red Hat
4 6 (1.72%) Splunk
4 6 (1.72%) Spotify
5 5 (1.43%) IBM
6 4 (1.15%) Dynatrace
6 4 (1.15%) SAP
7 3 (0.86%) Databricks
7 3 (0.86%) ServiceNow
8 2 (0.57%) Checkmarx
8 2 (0.57%) Confluent
8 2 (0.57%) MKS
8 2 (0.57%) New Relic
8 2 (0.57%) Solace
9 1 (0.29%) Ab Initio
9 1 (0.29%) Adobe
9 1 (0.29%) Teradata
9 1 (0.29%) VMware