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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 364 338 298
Rank change year-on-year -26 -40 +180
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 338 225 305
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.69% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.69% 0.75% 0.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 211 165 216
10th Percentile £363 £400 £445
25th Percentile £453 £493 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £625 £675
Median % change year-on-year -15.20% -7.41% +11.34%
75th Percentile £613 £825 £850
90th Percentile £671 £875 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £493 £500
% change year-on-year +6.09% -1.50% +3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 7 28
10th Percentile £61.25 £39.50 £66.25
25th Percentile £65.63 £53.75 -
Median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 £70.00
75th Percentile - £83.75 -
90th Percentile £76.20 £89.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +3.70% -3.57% +7.69%

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 49,168 30,000 36,945
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.60% 91.47% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,645 19,092 23,906
10th Percentile £331 £284 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,387 1,467 2,179
10th Percentile £15.37 £13.72 £14.05
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.05
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -40.82% -1.16%
75th Percentile £67.86 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.72%

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 31 July 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 31 July 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 31 July 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 -32 304 £525 -30.00% 162
UK excluding London +23 161 £523 +6.09% 64
London -71 154 £545 -27.33% 128
Work from Home -51 108 £525 -30.00% 53
North of England -19 62 £523 +47.47% 11
South East -42 31 £513 - 12
North West -33 28 £555 - 8
Midlands -34 25 £477 -9.24% 14
West Midlands -43 23 £483 -8.87% 12
South West -25 21 £550 +2.33% 9
Yorkshire -34 19 £500 +56.94% 1
North East -28 16 £640 +64.10% 2
East of England -12 13 £538 -10.42%
Scotland -10 9 £588 +25.33% 11
Wales - 5 £375 - 1
East Midlands -12 2 £400 +26.98% 2
Northern Ireland -3 1 - - 6

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

For the 6 months to 31 July 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.

1 338 (100.00%) Java
2 194 (57.40%) Software Engineering
3 130 (38.46%) Spring
4 123 (36.39%) Spring Boot
5 118 (34.91%) CI/CD
6 106 (31.36%) Agile
7 103 (30.47%) AWS
8 100 (29.59%) Kubernetes
9 97 (28.70%) Microservices
10 86 (25.44%) Security Cleared
11 82 (24.26%) Docker
12 77 (22.78%) SC Cleared
13 76 (22.49%) Kafka
14 70 (20.71%) DevOps
15 66 (19.53%) SQL
16 53 (15.68%) Test Automation
17 49 (14.50%) Azure
18 48 (14.20%) Full-Stack Development
19 47 (13.91%) Containerisation
20 43 (12.72%) Python
21 42 (12.43%) PostgreSQL
22 41 (12.13%) Event-Driven
23 40 (11.83%) React
24 39 (11.54%) REST
25 38 (11.24%) Problem-Solving
25 38 (11.24%) TDD
26 37 (10.95%) QA
27 34 (10.06%) Git
27 34 (10.06%) JUnit
27 34 (10.06%) Scrum

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 7 (2.07%) WebLogic
2 6 (1.78%) Apache Spark
3 5 (1.48%) Apache
4 3 (0.89%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.59%) Confluence
5 2 (0.59%) MQSeries
6 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.30%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.30%) nginx
6 1 (0.30%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.30%) WebSphere
Applications
1 3 (0.89%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (0.59%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 103 (30.47%) AWS
2 49 (14.50%) Azure
3 30 (8.88%) GCP
4 28 (8.28%) GitHub
5 24 (7.10%) GitHub Actions
6 19 (5.62%) OpenShift
7 12 (3.55%) Serverless
8 11 (3.25%) AWS Lambda
9 7 (2.07%) Amazon SQS
9 7 (2.07%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 6 (1.78%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 6 (1.78%) Amazon ECS
10 6 (1.78%) Amazon EKS
10 6 (1.78%) Cloud Run
11 5 (1.48%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (1.18%) Amazon S3
13 3 (0.89%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 3 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (0.89%) Azure Service Bus
13 3 (0.89%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.07%) Firewall
1 7 (2.07%) VPN
2 4 (1.18%) HTTP
2 4 (1.18%) Internet
3 3 (0.89%) MQTT
4 1 (0.30%) DNS
4 1 (0.30%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.30%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (12.43%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (5.33%) Relational Database
3 16 (4.73%) MongoDB
4 14 (4.14%) NoSQL
5 12 (3.55%) SQL Server
6 11 (3.25%) DynamoDB
6 11 (3.25%) MySQL
7 10 (2.96%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (1.78%) Apache Cassandra
8 6 (1.78%) Couchbase
8 6 (1.78%) Redis
9 5 (1.48%) Big Data
10 4 (1.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.89%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.89%) Flink
11 3 (0.89%) Power BI
12 2 (0.59%) HBase
12 2 (0.59%) Snowflake Schema
13 1 (0.30%) BigQuery
13 1 (0.30%) Bigtable
Development Applications
1 34 (10.06%) Git
1 34 (10.06%) JUnit
2 28 (8.28%) Jenkins
3 21 (6.21%) GitLab
4 18 (5.33%) SonarQube
5 14 (4.14%) Mockito
6 13 (3.85%) Gradle
6 13 (3.85%) Maven
7 9 (2.66%) JIRA
8 8 (2.37%) Liquibase
9 6 (1.78%) Selenium
10 5 (1.48%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.48%) Cucumber
11 4 (1.18%) IntelliJ
12 3 (0.89%) Flyway
12 3 (0.89%) XCUITest
13 2 (0.59%) Appium
13 2 (0.59%) Artifactory
13 2 (0.59%) Gatling
13 2 (0.59%) Postman
General
1 88 (26.04%) Finance
2 49 (14.50%) Banking
3 32 (9.47%) Social Skills
4 19 (5.62%) Public Sector
5 18 (5.33%) Front Office
6 10 (2.96%) Law
6 10 (2.96%) Retail
7 9 (2.66%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (2.66%) Financial Institution
7 9 (2.66%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.48%) Military
9 3 (0.89%) Automotive
9 3 (0.89%) Back Office
9 3 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (0.89%) Investment Banking
9 3 (0.89%) Retail Banking
10 2 (0.59%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.59%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.30%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 130 (38.46%) Spring
2 123 (36.39%) Spring Boot
3 76 (22.49%) Kafka
4 40 (11.83%) React
5 39 (11.54%) REST
6 29 (8.58%) RESTful
7 24 (7.10%) AngularJS
8 18 (5.33%) Quarkus
9 17 (5.03%) Node.js
10 12 (3.55%) GraphQL
11 11 (3.25%) Middleware
12 10 (2.96%) OpenAPI
13 9 (2.66%) Swagger
14 8 (2.37%) Hibernate
14 8 (2.37%) Next.js
14 8 (2.37%) Redux
15 7 (2.07%) AWS CDK
15 7 (2.07%) Web Services
16 6 (1.78%) JPA
16 6 (1.78%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 66 (19.53%) Cloud Native
2 46 (13.61%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (3.55%) Greenfield Project
4 9 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (2.37%) Fixed Income
6 7 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.78%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 5 (1.48%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
8 5 (1.48%) Legacy Applications
8 5 (1.48%) Linux Command Line
8 5 (1.48%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.18%) AI Agents
9 4 (1.18%) Low-Code
9 4 (1.18%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.18%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.18%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (1.18%) TWAP
9 4 (1.18%) VWAP
10 3 (0.89%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 21 (6.21%) Linux
2 10 (2.96%) Unix
3 2 (0.59%) Android
3 2 (0.59%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.30%) Solaris
4 1 (0.30%) SUSE
4 1 (0.30%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
4 1 (0.30%) Windows
4 1 (0.30%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (57.40%) Software Engineering
2 118 (34.91%) CI/CD
3 106 (31.36%) Agile
4 97 (28.70%) Microservices
5 70 (20.71%) DevOps
6 53 (15.68%) Test Automation
7 48 (14.20%) Full-Stack Development
8 47 (13.91%) Containerisation
9 41 (12.13%) Event-Driven
10 38 (11.24%) Problem-Solving
10 38 (11.24%) TDD
11 34 (10.06%) Scrum
12 33 (9.76%) SDLC
13 32 (9.47%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 30 (8.88%) Unit Testing
15 28 (8.28%) Migration
16 27 (7.99%) Front End Development
17 26 (7.69%) AI
17 26 (7.69%) Observability
18 24 (7.10%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 338 (100.00%) Java
2 66 (19.53%) SQL
3 43 (12.72%) Python
4 32 (9.47%) TypeScript
5 24 (7.10%) JavaScript
6 21 (6.21%) Kotlin
7 11 (3.25%) Shell Script
8 9 (2.66%) Go
9 7 (2.07%) Ada
9 7 (2.07%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.18%) C++
10 4 (1.18%) Groovy
11 3 (0.89%) C#
12 2 (0.59%) Scala
12 2 (0.59%) Swift
13 1 (0.30%) Korn
13 1 (0.30%) PowerShell
13 1 (0.30%) Rust
Qualifications
1 86 (25.44%) Security Cleared
2 77 (22.78%) SC Cleared
3 12 (3.55%) Degree
4 11 (3.25%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (1.48%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.18%) DV Cleared
7 3 (0.89%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.59%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.30%) Numerate Degree
9 1 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (10.95%) QA
2 9 (2.66%) ISO 20022
3 7 (2.07%) Def Stans
3 7 (2.07%) IEC 61508
3 7 (2.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 6 (1.78%) GDPR
5 5 (1.48%) SEPA
6 3 (0.89%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.59%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.59%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.30%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.30%) PSD2
8 1 (0.30%) SLA
System Software
1 82 (24.26%) Docker
2 1 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
2 1 (0.30%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
2 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 100 (29.59%) Kubernetes
2 18 (5.33%) Terraform
3 16 (4.73%) Argo
4 4 (1.18%) Ansible
4 4 (1.18%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.89%) Grafana
5 3 (0.89%) HAProxy
5 3 (0.89%) Kibana
6 1 (0.30%) Docker Swarm
6 1 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
6 1 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.30%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 21 (6.21%) Oracle
2 16 (4.73%) Red Hat
3 12 (3.55%) Microsoft
4 11 (3.25%) Google
5 6 (1.78%) Splunk
5 6 (1.78%) Spotify
6 5 (1.48%) IBM
7 4 (1.18%) SAP
8 3 (0.89%) Checkmarx
8 3 (0.89%) FIS
8 3 (0.89%) ServiceNow
9 2 (0.59%) Confluent
9 2 (0.59%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.59%) MKS
9 2 (0.59%) Solace
10 1 (0.30%) Ariba
10 1 (0.30%) Concur
10 1 (0.30%) Databricks
10 1 (0.30%) Okta
10 1 (0.30%) VMware