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 19 May 2026.

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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 315 337 342
Rank change year-on-year +22 +5 +116
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 338 175 232
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.70% 0.60% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.76% 0.65% 0.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 116 157
10th Percentile £381 £380 £420
25th Percentile £451 £468 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £625 £588
Median % change year-on-year -15.20% +6.38% -2.08%
75th Percentile £625 £825 £850
90th Percentile £671 £875 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +11.17% -6.00% -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 9 16
10th Percentile £52.50 £53.00 £67.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £61.25 £69.38
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year - -7.14% +6.87%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £76.00 £73.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - -7.14% +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 44,361 26,969 39,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.35% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,167 17,560 25,723
10th Percentile £325 £294 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -2.38% -3.40%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,886 1,047 2,672
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.31 £18.13 £16.29
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.38 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -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 19 May 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 19 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Java Engineer in the UK

Java Engineer
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 Java Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 19 May 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 +14 293 £525 -30.00% 82
UK excluding London +2 166 £523 +11.17% 51
London -27 144 £550 -26.67% 48
Work from Home -23 97 £525 -30.00% 44
North of England -16 61 £523 +14.21% 18
South East -41 31 £500 -23.08% 18
North West -17 30 £528 - 10
South West -8 29 £505 -2.65% 4
Midlands -45 21 £470 -10.57% 2
West Midlands -39 20 £470 -10.57% 1
Scotland +7 18 £600 +28.69% 4
Yorkshire -36 17 £523 -0.48% 5
North East -7 15 £478 +22.44% 3
East of England -28 6 £505 -15.83% 1
Wales - 3 £388 - 2
East Midlands -30 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 19 May 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
2 170 (50.30%) Software Engineering
3 137 (40.53%) Spring
4 127 (37.57%) Spring Boot
5 96 (28.40%) Kubernetes
6 93 (27.51%) AWS
7 89 (26.33%) Microservices
8 86 (25.44%) CI/CD
9 79 (23.37%) Agile
10 68 (20.12%) Docker
11 67 (19.82%) Security Cleared
12 62 (18.34%) Kafka
13 60 (17.75%) SC Cleared
14 56 (16.57%) Full-Stack Development
15 55 (16.27%) DevOps
16 50 (14.79%) SQL
17 46 (13.61%) Azure
18 42 (12.43%) React
19 41 (12.13%) Containerisation
20 39 (11.54%) TDD
21 38 (11.24%) Test Automation
22 36 (10.65%) Python
23 35 (10.36%) PostgreSQL
24 34 (10.06%) Event-Driven
25 31 (9.17%) QA
26 30 (8.88%) Problem-Solving
27 29 (8.58%) Gradle
28 28 (8.28%) Jenkins
28 28 (8.28%) TypeScript
29 26 (7.69%) RESTful

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 (2.37%) Apache Spark
2 4 (1.18%) Confluence
3 3 (0.89%) Apache
3 3 (0.89%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.59%) MQSeries
5 1 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.30%) Apache Pulsar
5 1 (0.30%) Camunda
5 1 (0.30%) Ethereum
5 1 (0.30%) Hyperledger
5 1 (0.30%) nginx
5 1 (0.30%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.30%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.30%) Notion
Business Applications
1 2 (0.59%) Shopify
2 1 (0.30%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 93 (27.51%) AWS
2 46 (13.61%) Azure
3 19 (5.62%) GitHub
4 18 (5.33%) GCP
4 18 (5.33%) Serverless
5 17 (5.03%) AWS Lambda
6 15 (4.44%) OpenShift
7 13 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
8 12 (3.55%) Amazon S3
9 11 (3.25%) Amazon ECS
10 8 (2.37%) Amazon EC2
11 6 (1.78%) AWS Step Functions
12 5 (1.48%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (1.18%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (1.18%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 3 (0.89%) Amazon EKS
14 3 (0.89%) Amazon Kinesis
14 3 (0.89%) AWS Fargate
14 3 (0.89%) Cloud Run
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.48%) HTTP
2 3 (0.89%) MQTT
3 2 (0.59%) Firewall
3 2 (0.59%) VPN
4 1 (0.30%) DNS
4 1 (0.30%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.30%) Internet
4 1 (0.30%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.30%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (10.36%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (6.21%) MongoDB
3 13 (3.85%) SQL Server
4 11 (3.25%) DynamoDB
4 11 (3.25%) Relational Database
5 9 (2.66%) Big Data
6 8 (2.37%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (2.37%) MySQL
6 8 (2.37%) NoSQL
7 6 (1.78%) Apache Cassandra
8 4 (1.18%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.89%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.59%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.59%) Redis
11 1 (0.30%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.30%) BigQuery
11 1 (0.30%) Bigtable
11 1 (0.30%) Flink
11 1 (0.30%) HBase
Development Applications
1 29 (8.58%) Gradle
2 28 (8.28%) Jenkins
3 24 (7.10%) GitLab
4 23 (6.80%) Git
5 22 (6.51%) JUnit
6 15 (4.44%) IntelliJ
7 14 (4.14%) SonarQube
8 12 (3.55%) Maven
9 10 (2.96%) Mockito
10 8 (2.37%) JIRA
11 6 (1.78%) Liquibase
12 5 (1.48%) Cucumber
12 5 (1.48%) Selenium
13 3 (0.89%) Artifactory
14 2 (0.59%) Flyway
14 2 (0.59%) Gatling
14 2 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
14 2 (0.59%) TeamCity
14 2 (0.59%) WebDriver
14 2 (0.59%) XCUITest
General
1 66 (19.53%) Finance
2 33 (9.76%) Banking
3 31 (9.17%) Social Skills
4 21 (6.21%) Front Office
5 20 (5.92%) Public Sector
6 10 (2.96%) Law
7 9 (2.66%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.07%) Analytical Skills
8 7 (2.07%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.18%) Retail
10 3 (0.89%) Automotive
10 3 (0.89%) Back Office
10 3 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.59%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.59%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.59%) Military
11 2 (0.59%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.30%) Legal
12 1 (0.30%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 137 (40.53%) Spring
2 127 (37.57%) Spring Boot
3 62 (18.34%) Kafka
4 42 (12.43%) React
5 26 (7.69%) RESTful
6 24 (7.10%) REST
7 18 (5.33%) AngularJS
7 18 (5.33%) GraphQL
7 18 (5.33%) Middleware
7 18 (5.33%) Node.js
8 17 (5.03%) Swagger
9 14 (4.14%) Quarkus
10 13 (3.85%) OpenAPI
10 13 (3.85%) OpenTelemetry
11 9 (2.66%) Redux
12 8 (2.37%) FIX Protocol
12 8 (2.37%) Hibernate
12 8 (2.37%) Next.js
13 6 (1.78%) AWS CDK
13 6 (1.78%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 49 (14.50%) Cloud Native
2 26 (7.69%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (2.96%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (2.66%) Fixed Income
4 9 (2.66%) Greenfield Project
5 8 (2.37%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 6 (1.78%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (1.48%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.48%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (1.18%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.18%) TWAP
8 4 (1.18%) VWAP
9 3 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (0.89%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.89%) Onboarding
9 3 (0.89%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.89%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.59%) Derivative
10 2 (0.59%) Exotic Derivative
10 2 (0.59%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 19 (5.62%) Linux
2 6 (1.78%) Unix
3 1 (0.30%) Android
3 1 (0.30%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.30%) Solaris
3 1 (0.30%) SUSE
3 1 (0.30%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.30%) VMS
3 1 (0.30%) Windows
3 1 (0.30%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
3 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (50.30%) Software Engineering
2 89 (26.33%) Microservices
3 86 (25.44%) CI/CD
4 79 (23.37%) Agile
5 56 (16.57%) Full-Stack Development
6 55 (16.27%) DevOps
7 41 (12.13%) Containerisation
8 39 (11.54%) TDD
9 38 (11.24%) Test Automation
10 34 (10.06%) Event-Driven
11 30 (8.88%) Problem-Solving
12 25 (7.40%) Scrum
13 24 (7.10%) Unit Testing
14 22 (6.51%) Migration
15 21 (6.21%) Clean Code
16 20 (5.92%) Code Quality
16 20 (5.92%) Front End Development
16 20 (5.92%) SDLC
17 19 (5.62%) Observability
18 18 (5.33%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 338 (100.00%) Java
2 50 (14.79%) SQL
3 36 (10.65%) Python
4 28 (8.28%) TypeScript
5 19 (5.62%) JavaScript
6 18 (5.33%) Kotlin
7 12 (3.55%) Go
8 11 (3.25%) Ada
9 5 (1.48%) C++
10 4 (1.18%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.89%) C#
11 3 (0.89%) Scala
12 1 (0.30%) Groovy
12 1 (0.30%) Korn
12 1 (0.30%) Rust
12 1 (0.30%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.30%) Solidity
12 1 (0.30%) Swift
Qualifications
1 67 (19.82%) Security Cleared
2 60 (17.75%) SC Cleared
3 10 (2.96%) Degree
4 5 (1.48%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (1.18%) DV Cleared
6 3 (0.89%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.30%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.30%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (0.30%) Numerate Degree
7 1 (0.30%) OCP
7 1 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
7 1 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (9.17%) QA
2 11 (3.25%) Def Stans
2 11 (3.25%) IEC 61508
3 7 (2.07%) GDPR
3 7 (2.07%) ISO 20022
3 7 (2.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 6 (1.78%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.48%) SEPA
6 3 (0.89%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.59%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 68 (20.12%) 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 96 (28.40%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.92%) Terraform
3 16 (4.73%) Grafana
4 13 (3.85%) Argo
5 6 (1.78%) Ansible
6 3 (0.89%) HAProxy
7 2 (0.59%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.30%) Kibana
8 1 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.30%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 12 (3.55%) Red Hat
2 11 (3.25%) Google
2 11 (3.25%) Microsoft
3 10 (2.96%) Oracle
4 6 (1.78%) Splunk
4 6 (1.78%) Spotify
5 5 (1.48%) IBM
6 4 (1.18%) SAP
7 3 (0.89%) Databricks
7 3 (0.89%) Dynatrace
7 3 (0.89%) Solace
8 2 (0.59%) Checkmarx
8 2 (0.59%) Confluent
8 2 (0.59%) MKS
8 2 (0.59%) New Relic
8 2 (0.59%) ServiceNow
9 1 (0.30%) Ab Initio
9 1 (0.30%) Adobe
9 1 (0.30%) Teradata
9 1 (0.30%) VMware