Java Engineer Contract Job Trends

Java Engineer
UK

The median Java Engineer daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 March 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 342 388 437
Rank change year-on-year +46 +49 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 282 145 151
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.65% 0.49% 0.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.71% 0.53% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 101 96
10th Percentile £366 £325 £400
25th Percentile £420 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £813 £688
90th Percentile £700 £875 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £511 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +8.78% -1.05% -17.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 9 4
10th Percentile - £37.95 £61.38
25th Percentile £52.50 £57.50 £65.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year - -7.14% +6.70%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.75 £72.50
90th Percentile £74.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £66.25
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.89% +0.98%

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 39,756 27,258 41,316
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.98% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,823 17,712 27,111
10th Percentile £313 £300 £273
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.02%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,465 888 2,497
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.10 £21.04 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.49% - -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.92 £77.28 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%

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 18 March 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 18 March 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 18 March 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 -1 240 £537 -10.50% 58
UK excluding London +21 149 £511 +8.78% 38
London -26 114 £550 -8.33% 30
Work from Home -2 75 £525 -32.26% 33
North of England -27 44 £523 +14.21% 17
Midlands -33 27 £469 -10.67% 3
North West -13 26 £478 - 2
West Midlands -30 26 £469 -10.67% 1
Scotland +28 25 £600 +26.32% 3
South East -26 25 £370 -43.08% 11
South West -12 24 £488 -12.56% 4
North East -2 10 £575 +47.44% 5
Yorkshire -55 9 £523 -0.48% 10
Wales -5 2 £388 +96.20%
East of England -21 2 £500 +11.11% 1
East Midlands - 1 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 18 March 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.

1 282 (100.00%) Java
2 140 (49.65%) Software Engineering
3 119 (42.20%) Spring
4 107 (37.94%) Spring Boot
5 89 (31.56%) AWS
6 85 (30.14%) Microservices
7 84 (29.79%) CI/CD
8 83 (29.43%) Kubernetes
9 74 (26.24%) Agile
10 51 (18.09%) DevOps
10 51 (18.09%) Kafka
11 49 (17.38%) Azure
12 48 (17.02%) Docker
12 48 (17.02%) Full-Stack Development
13 44 (15.60%) TDD
14 42 (14.89%) Security Cleared
15 39 (13.83%) SQL
16 38 (13.48%) SC Cleared
17 35 (12.41%) Containerisation
17 35 (12.41%) Python
18 33 (11.70%) React
18 33 (11.70%) Test Automation
19 32 (11.35%) QA
20 31 (10.99%) Jenkins
20 31 (10.99%) Problem-Solving
21 29 (10.28%) GitLab
22 28 (9.93%) Git
22 28 (9.93%) Gradle
23 26 (9.22%) Event-Driven
23 26 (9.22%) JUnit

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 (2.84%) Apache
2 7 (2.48%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.06%) JBoss
3 3 (1.06%) WebLogic
4 2 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.71%) Confluence
4 2 (0.71%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.35%) Camunda
5 1 (0.35%) Ethereum
5 1 (0.35%) Hyperledger
Applications
1 1 (0.35%) Notion
Business Applications
1 2 (0.71%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 89 (31.56%) AWS
2 49 (17.38%) Azure
3 17 (6.03%) AWS Lambda
3 17 (6.03%) Serverless
4 16 (5.67%) Amazon S3
4 16 (5.67%) GCP
5 15 (5.32%) GitHub
6 13 (4.61%) Amazon ECS
7 11 (3.90%) Amazon EC2
7 11 (3.90%) OpenShift
8 8 (2.84%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (2.84%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (2.48%) AWS Step Functions
10 6 (2.13%) Amazon EKS
10 6 (2.13%) Amazon Kinesis
11 5 (1.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 4 (1.42%) AWS CodePipeline
12 4 (1.42%) Cloud Computing
12 4 (1.42%) Snowflake
13 3 (1.06%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.06%) MQTT
2 2 (0.71%) HTTP
3 1 (0.35%) FTP
3 1 (0.35%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.35%) Kerberos
3 1 (0.35%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (9.22%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (8.51%) MongoDB
3 11 (3.90%) Amazon RDS
4 10 (3.55%) MySQL
5 9 (3.19%) Apache Cassandra
5 9 (3.19%) Big Data
5 9 (3.19%) NoSQL
6 8 (2.84%) DynamoDB
7 6 (2.13%) Hadoop
7 6 (2.13%) SQL Server
8 4 (1.42%) Relational Database
9 3 (1.06%) BigQuery
9 3 (1.06%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (1.06%) HBase
10 2 (0.71%) Amazon Athena
10 2 (0.71%) Apache Arrow
10 2 (0.71%) Apache Ignite
10 2 (0.71%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.71%) Dremio
10 2 (0.71%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 31 (10.99%) Jenkins
2 29 (10.28%) GitLab
3 28 (9.93%) Git
3 28 (9.93%) Gradle
4 26 (9.22%) JUnit
5 17 (6.03%) IntelliJ
6 15 (5.32%) Cucumber
7 10 (3.55%) Maven
8 8 (2.84%) Selenium
9 7 (2.48%) JIRA
9 7 (2.48%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (2.13%) Mockito
10 6 (2.13%) SonarQube
11 5 (1.77%) JMeter
12 4 (1.42%) Eclipse
12 4 (1.42%) Postman
13 3 (1.06%) Artifactory
14 2 (0.71%) Cypress.io
14 2 (0.71%) Gatling
14 2 (0.71%) Liquibase
General
1 63 (22.34%) Finance
2 37 (13.12%) Social Skills
3 24 (8.51%) Banking
4 17 (6.03%) Front Office
5 16 (5.67%) Public Sector
6 7 (2.48%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (2.48%) Investment Banking
7 5 (1.77%) Financial Institution
8 4 (1.42%) Law
9 3 (1.06%) Back Office
9 3 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.71%) Retail
11 1 (0.35%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.35%) Military
11 1 (0.35%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 119 (42.20%) Spring
2 107 (37.94%) Spring Boot
3 51 (18.09%) Kafka
4 33 (11.70%) React
5 26 (9.22%) RESTful
6 20 (7.09%) Node.js
7 18 (6.38%) REST
8 17 (6.03%) GraphQL
9 16 (5.67%) Middleware
10 13 (4.61%) Swagger
11 12 (4.26%) Hibernate
11 12 (4.26%) OpenTelemetry
12 11 (3.90%) AngularJS
13 9 (3.19%) Redux
14 8 (2.84%) OpenAPI
15 7 (2.48%) JSON
16 6 (2.13%) AWS CDK
16 6 (2.13%) HTML
16 6 (2.13%) Playwright
17 5 (1.77%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 36 (12.77%) Cloud Native
2 24 (8.51%) Distributed Systems
3 11 (3.90%) Data Protection Act
3 11 (3.90%) Fixed Income
4 8 (2.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 7 (2.48%) Onboarding
6 6 (2.13%) Derivative
7 5 (1.77%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.77%) Product Ownership
7 5 (1.77%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.77%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.42%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (1.42%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.06%) Distributed Architecture
9 3 (1.06%) Equities
9 3 (1.06%) Hedge funds
10 2 (0.71%) Distributed Computing
10 2 (0.71%) Equity Derivative
10 2 (0.71%) Exotic Derivative
Operating Systems
1 20 (7.09%) Linux
2 9 (3.19%) Unix
3 1 (0.35%) SUSE
3 1 (0.35%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.35%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (49.65%) Software Engineering
2 85 (30.14%) Microservices
3 84 (29.79%) CI/CD
4 74 (26.24%) Agile
5 51 (18.09%) DevOps
6 48 (17.02%) Full-Stack Development
7 44 (15.60%) TDD
8 35 (12.41%) Containerisation
9 33 (11.70%) Test Automation
10 31 (10.99%) Problem-Solving
11 26 (9.22%) Event-Driven
12 22 (7.80%) Scrum
13 20 (7.09%) Mentoring
14 19 (6.74%) Clean Code
14 19 (6.74%) Migration
15 18 (6.38%) Observability
15 18 (6.38%) Software Testing
16 17 (6.03%) Code Quality
17 16 (5.67%) Infrastructure as Code
17 16 (5.67%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 282 (100.00%) Java
2 39 (13.83%) SQL
3 35 (12.41%) Python
4 23 (8.16%) TypeScript
5 17 (6.03%) Kotlin
6 16 (5.67%) JavaScript
7 13 (4.61%) Go
8 10 (3.55%) Ada
9 5 (1.77%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.42%) C++
10 4 (1.42%) Scala
11 3 (1.06%) C#
12 2 (0.71%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.35%) Rust
13 1 (0.35%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 42 (14.89%) Security Cleared
2 38 (13.48%) SC Cleared
3 9 (3.19%) Degree
4 5 (1.77%) BPSS Clearance
4 5 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (1.06%) OCP
5 3 (1.06%) Oracle Certification
6 2 (0.71%) DV Cleared
6 2 (0.71%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.35%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (0.35%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (11.35%) QA
2 10 (3.55%) Def Stans
2 10 (3.55%) IEC 61508
3 6 (2.13%) Accessibility
4 3 (1.06%) GDPR
4 3 (1.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.71%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.71%) ISO 15022
5 2 (0.71%) ISO 20022
5 2 (0.71%) WCAG
System Software
1 48 (17.02%) Docker
Systems Management
1 83 (29.43%) Kubernetes
2 23 (8.16%) Terraform
3 18 (6.38%) Grafana
4 7 (2.48%) Ansible
5 6 (2.13%) Argo
6 3 (1.06%) Progress Chef
6 3 (1.06%) Puppet
7 1 (0.35%) Kibana
7 1 (0.35%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 9 (3.19%) Google
1 9 (3.19%) Oracle
2 7 (2.48%) Microsoft
2 7 (2.48%) Splunk
3 5 (1.77%) Red Hat
4 4 (1.42%) Databricks
5 3 (1.06%) IBM
5 3 (1.06%) Solace
5 3 (1.06%) Spotify
5 3 (1.06%) VMware
5 3 (1.06%) webMethods
6 2 (0.71%) Dynatrace
6 2 (0.71%) New Relic
6 2 (0.71%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.35%) Ab Initio
7 1 (0.35%) Actian
7 1 (0.35%) Sonatype
7 1 (0.35%) Teradata
7 1 (0.35%) Veracode
7 1 (0.35%) Virgin Media