Java Engineer Contract Job Trends

Java Engineer
UK

The median Java Engineer daily rate in the UK is £528, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 July 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 333 334 317
Rank change year-on-year +1 -17 +161
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 358 207 302
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.70% 0.67% 0.70%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.75% 0.73% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 216 147 207
10th Percentile £381 £400 £416
25th Percentile £442 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £586 £600
Median % change year-on-year -9.98% -2.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £613 £825 £850
90th Percentile £668 £875 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +7.73% -3.00% -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 8 28
10th Percentile £61.25 £40.25 £67.13
25th Percentile £65.00 £59.38 -
Median hourly rate £70.00 £67.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% -3.57% +6.87%
75th Percentile - £72.50 -
90th Percentile £77.00 £83.75 £70.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year - -3.57% +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 47,495 28,303 40,138
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.03% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,760 18,119 25,771
10th Percentile £325 £288 £283
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,210 1,268 2,866
10th Percentile £15.72 £13.77 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.41 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £26.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.26% -29.33% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -2 314 £525 -22.22% 81
UK excluding London +14 168 £523 +7.73% 50
London -52 162 £548 -27.00% 48
Work from Home -39 113 £525 -30.00% 44
North of England -23 62 £523 +14.21% 10
South East -40 34 £500 -23.08% 22
South West -4 32 £484 -7.86% 6
North West -20 27 £540 - 5
North East -15 18 £478 +22.44% 1
Yorkshire -33 18 £511 -2.62% 4
Midlands -49 16 £542 +3.14% 1
Scotland +1 15 £600 +26.32% 7
West Midlands -43 14 £600 +14.29% 1
East of England -18 9 £505 -15.83% 4
Wales - 5 £388 -
East Midlands -12 2 £400 +26.98%
Northern Ireland -1 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 358 (100.00%) Java
2 191 (53.35%) Software Engineering
3 144 (40.22%) Spring
4 132 (36.87%) Spring Boot
5 110 (30.73%) CI/CD
6 108 (30.17%) AWS
7 105 (29.33%) Microservices
8 101 (28.21%) Agile
9 97 (27.09%) Kubernetes
10 81 (22.63%) Docker
11 79 (22.07%) Security Cleared
12 78 (21.79%) Kafka
13 71 (19.83%) SC Cleared
14 66 (18.44%) DevOps
15 58 (16.20%) SQL
16 57 (15.92%) Full-Stack Development
17 50 (13.97%) Azure
18 49 (13.69%) Test Automation
19 46 (12.85%) React
20 45 (12.57%) Containerisation
20 45 (12.57%) TDD
21 42 (11.73%) Event-Driven
22 40 (11.17%) Python
23 38 (10.61%) PostgreSQL
24 37 (10.34%) QA
25 35 (9.78%) Jenkins
25 35 (9.78%) JUnit
26 34 (9.50%) Problem-Solving
27 32 (8.94%) TypeScript
28 31 (8.66%) 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 7 (1.96%) Apache Spark
2 4 (1.12%) Apache
3 3 (0.84%) Confluence
3 3 (0.84%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.56%) MQSeries
5 1 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.28%) Apache Pulsar
5 1 (0.28%) Camunda
5 1 (0.28%) Ethereum
5 1 (0.28%) Hyperledger
5 1 (0.28%) nginx
5 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.28%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.28%) Notion
Business Applications
1 2 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.28%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 108 (30.17%) AWS
2 50 (13.97%) Azure
3 26 (7.26%) GitHub
4 24 (6.70%) GCP
5 21 (5.87%) OpenShift
6 20 (5.59%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (4.75%) Serverless
8 16 (4.47%) AWS Lambda
9 12 (3.35%) Amazon S3
10 8 (2.23%) Amazon ECS
11 7 (1.96%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.68%) AWS Step Functions
12 6 (1.68%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 5 (1.40%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (1.40%) Cloud Run
14 4 (1.12%) AWS Fargate
15 3 (0.84%) Amazon Kinesis
15 3 (0.84%) Amazon SQS
15 3 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
15 3 (0.84%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.68%) HTTP
2 4 (1.12%) Firewall
2 4 (1.12%) Internet
2 4 (1.12%) VPN
3 3 (0.84%) MQTT
4 1 (0.28%) DNS
4 1 (0.28%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.28%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.28%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (10.61%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (4.75%) MongoDB
3 16 (4.47%) Relational Database
4 14 (3.91%) MySQL
5 13 (3.63%) NoSQL
5 13 (3.63%) SQL Server
6 11 (3.07%) DynamoDB
7 10 (2.79%) Apache Cassandra
8 8 (2.23%) Big Data
9 7 (1.96%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (1.96%) Elasticsearch
10 6 (1.68%) Couchbase
11 4 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.84%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.84%) Hadoop
12 3 (0.84%) Power BI
13 2 (0.56%) Flink
13 2 (0.56%) HBase
13 2 (0.56%) Oracle Database
13 2 (0.56%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 35 (9.78%) Jenkins
1 35 (9.78%) JUnit
2 29 (8.10%) Git
3 20 (5.59%) Gradle
4 18 (5.03%) SonarQube
5 15 (4.19%) GitLab
6 12 (3.35%) Maven
6 12 (3.35%) Mockito
7 9 (2.51%) JIRA
8 8 (2.23%) Liquibase
9 7 (1.96%) Selenium
10 6 (1.68%) IntelliJ
11 5 (1.40%) Cucumber
12 3 (0.84%) Flyway
12 3 (0.84%) XCUITest
13 2 (0.56%) Appium
13 2 (0.56%) Artifactory
13 2 (0.56%) Gatling
13 2 (0.56%) Katalon Studio
13 2 (0.56%) Postman
General
1 80 (22.35%) Finance
2 44 (12.29%) Banking
3 33 (9.22%) Social Skills
4 21 (5.87%) Public Sector
5 20 (5.59%) Front Office
6 11 (3.07%) Law
7 10 (2.79%) Financial Institution
8 9 (2.51%) Retail
9 8 (2.23%) Analytical Skills
10 5 (1.40%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.40%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.12%) Military
12 3 (0.84%) Automotive
12 3 (0.84%) Back Office
12 3 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.84%) Retail Banking
13 2 (0.56%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.56%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.28%) Legal
14 1 (0.28%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 144 (40.22%) Spring
2 132 (36.87%) Spring Boot
3 78 (21.79%) Kafka
4 46 (12.85%) React
5 31 (8.66%) REST
6 27 (7.54%) RESTful
7 24 (6.70%) AngularJS
8 18 (5.03%) Node.js
8 18 (5.03%) Quarkus
9 17 (4.75%) GraphQL
9 17 (4.75%) Middleware
10 13 (3.63%) OpenAPI
10 13 (3.63%) Swagger
11 12 (3.35%) Hibernate
12 9 (2.51%) Redux
13 8 (2.23%) Next.js
14 7 (1.96%) AWS CDK
14 7 (1.96%) CSS
14 7 (1.96%) FIX Protocol
14 7 (1.96%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 63 (17.60%) Cloud Native
2 44 (12.29%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (2.79%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (2.79%) Greenfield Project
4 9 (2.51%) Fixed Income
5 7 (1.96%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 6 (1.68%) Legacy Applications
6 6 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.40%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.40%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.40%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (1.12%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.12%) TWAP
8 4 (1.12%) VWAP
9 3 (0.84%) Clustering
9 3 (0.84%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.84%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.84%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.56%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.56%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 20 (5.59%) Linux
2 9 (2.51%) Unix
3 2 (0.56%) Android
3 2 (0.56%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.28%) Solaris
4 1 (0.28%) SUSE
4 1 (0.28%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
4 1 (0.28%) Windows
4 1 (0.28%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (53.35%) Software Engineering
2 110 (30.73%) CI/CD
3 105 (29.33%) Microservices
4 101 (28.21%) Agile
5 66 (18.44%) DevOps
6 57 (15.92%) Full-Stack Development
7 49 (13.69%) Test Automation
8 45 (12.57%) Containerisation
8 45 (12.57%) TDD
9 42 (11.73%) Event-Driven
10 34 (9.50%) Problem-Solving
11 30 (8.38%) Scrum
12 29 (8.10%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 29 (8.10%) SDLC
12 29 (8.10%) Unit Testing
13 28 (7.82%) Migration
14 25 (6.98%) Clean Code
15 24 (6.70%) Front End Development
16 23 (6.42%) Observability
17 22 (6.15%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 358 (100.00%) Java
2 58 (16.20%) SQL
3 40 (11.17%) Python
4 32 (8.94%) TypeScript
5 22 (6.15%) JavaScript
6 17 (4.75%) Kotlin
7 11 (3.07%) Ada
7 11 (3.07%) Go
8 7 (1.96%) PL/SQL
9 5 (1.40%) Shell Script
10 4 (1.12%) Groovy
11 3 (0.84%) C#
11 3 (0.84%) C++
11 3 (0.84%) Scala
12 2 (0.56%) Swift
13 1 (0.28%) Korn
13 1 (0.28%) Rust
13 1 (0.28%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 79 (22.07%) Security Cleared
2 71 (19.83%) SC Cleared
3 11 (3.07%) Degree
4 5 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
4 5 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (1.12%) DV Cleared
6 3 (0.84%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.56%) AWS Certification
7 2 (0.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (0.28%) Numerate Degree
8 1 (0.28%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (10.34%) QA
2 11 (3.07%) Def Stans
2 11 (3.07%) IEC 61508
3 8 (2.23%) ISO 20022
4 7 (1.96%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (1.68%) GDPR
6 5 (1.40%) SEPA
7 2 (0.56%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.56%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.56%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.28%) PSD2
System Software
1 81 (22.63%) Docker
2 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
2 1 (0.28%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
2 1 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 97 (27.09%) Kubernetes
2 21 (5.87%) Terraform
3 16 (4.47%) Argo
4 5 (1.40%) Grafana
5 4 (1.12%) Ansible
6 3 (0.84%) HAProxy
7 2 (0.56%) Kibana
8 1 (0.28%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.28%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.28%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 18 (5.03%) Oracle
2 16 (4.47%) Red Hat
3 12 (3.35%) Google
3 12 (3.35%) Microsoft
4 6 (1.68%) Splunk
4 6 (1.68%) Spotify
5 5 (1.40%) IBM
6 4 (1.12%) SAP
7 3 (0.84%) Dynatrace
7 3 (0.84%) ServiceNow
8 2 (0.56%) Checkmarx
8 2 (0.56%) Confluent
8 2 (0.56%) MKS
8 2 (0.56%) Solace
9 1 (0.28%) Ab Initio
9 1 (0.28%) Ariba
9 1 (0.28%) Concur
9 1 (0.28%) Sonatype
9 1 (0.28%) Teradata
9 1 (0.28%) VMware