Java Engineer Contract Job Trends

Java Engineer
UK

The median Java Engineer daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 June 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 328 339 339
Rank change year-on-year +11 0 +129
Contract jobs requiring a Java Engineer 341 185 252
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.70% 0.64% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.76% 0.70% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 124 167
10th Percentile £382 £380 £416
25th Percentile £455 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £586 £588
Median % change year-on-year -10.41% -0.26% -6.00%
75th Percentile £623 £825 £850
90th Percentile £670 £875 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +11.17% -6.00% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 10 20
10th Percentile £52.50 £55.25 £67.50
25th Percentile £61.25 £62.19 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £66.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.89% -5.36% +6.87%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £76.00 £72.25 £72.50
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 45,089 26,570 40,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.35% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,438 17,201 25,885
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -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 3,017 1,072 2,851
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.85 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £59.00 £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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -1 297 £525 -22.22% 98
UK excluding London +3 161 £523 +11.17% 60
London -45 152 £548 -27.00% 53
Work from Home -26 103 £525 -30.00% 47
North of England -26 60 £523 +14.21% 14
South West -7 31 £505 -2.65% 12
North West -13 30 £528 - 9
South East -44 27 £513 -21.15% 13
Midlands -41 19 £477 -9.24% 6
West Midlands -42 18 £477 -9.24% 6
Yorkshire -43 17 £523 -0.48% 3
Scotland +9 16 £600 +27.66% 5
North East -17 14 £478 +22.44% 2
East of England -29 7 £505 -15.83% 3
Wales - 3 £388 - 2
Northern Ireland -3 1 - - 6
East Midlands -28 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 3 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.

1 341 (100.00%) Java
2 176 (51.61%) Software Engineering
3 141 (41.35%) Spring
4 128 (37.54%) Spring Boot
5 99 (29.03%) AWS
6 97 (28.45%) Kubernetes
7 94 (27.57%) Microservices
8 89 (26.10%) CI/CD
9 86 (25.22%) Agile
10 73 (21.41%) Docker
11 69 (20.23%) Security Cleared
12 68 (19.94%) Kafka
13 62 (18.18%) SC Cleared
14 57 (16.72%) DevOps
14 57 (16.72%) Full-Stack Development
15 55 (16.13%) SQL
16 46 (13.49%) React
17 44 (12.90%) Azure
18 42 (12.32%) Containerisation
18 42 (12.32%) TDD
19 38 (11.14%) Python
19 38 (11.14%) Test Automation
20 37 (10.85%) PostgreSQL
21 34 (9.97%) Event-Driven
22 33 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
23 32 (9.38%) QA
23 32 (9.38%) TypeScript
24 30 (8.80%) Gradle
24 30 (8.80%) Jenkins
25 28 (8.21%) 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 (2.93%) Apache Spark
2 4 (1.17%) Apache
2 4 (1.17%) Confluence
3 3 (0.88%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.59%) 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 (0.59%) Payment Gateway
1 2 (0.59%) Shopify
2 1 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 99 (29.03%) AWS
2 44 (12.90%) Azure
3 21 (6.16%) GitHub
4 18 (5.28%) GCP
5 17 (4.99%) Serverless
6 16 (4.69%) AWS Lambda
7 15 (4.40%) GitHub Actions
7 15 (4.40%) OpenShift
8 11 (3.23%) Amazon S3
9 9 (2.64%) Amazon ECS
10 7 (2.05%) Amazon EC2
11 6 (1.76%) AWS Step Functions
12 5 (1.47%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (1.17%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (1.17%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 3 (0.88%) Amazon EKS
14 3 (0.88%) Amazon Kinesis
14 3 (0.88%) AWS Fargate
14 3 (0.88%) Cloud Run
14 3 (0.88%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.47%) HTTP
2 3 (0.88%) Firewall
2 3 (0.88%) MQTT
2 3 (0.88%) VPN
3 1 (0.29%) DNS
3 1 (0.29%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.29%) Internet
3 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
3 1 (0.29%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (10.85%) PostgreSQL
2 22 (6.45%) MongoDB
3 14 (4.11%) SQL Server
4 12 (3.52%) Relational Database
5 11 (3.23%) DynamoDB
6 10 (2.93%) Big Data
6 10 (2.93%) NoSQL
7 8 (2.35%) Amazon RDS
7 8 (2.35%) Apache Cassandra
7 8 (2.35%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (2.35%) MySQL
8 4 (1.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.88%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.59%) Flink
10 2 (0.59%) HBase
10 2 (0.59%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.59%) Redis
10 2 (0.59%) Snowflake Schema
11 1 (0.29%) BigQuery
11 1 (0.29%) Bigtable
Development Applications
1 30 (8.80%) Gradle
1 30 (8.80%) Jenkins
2 25 (7.33%) Git
2 25 (7.33%) GitLab
2 25 (7.33%) JUnit
3 15 (4.40%) IntelliJ
4 13 (3.81%) SonarQube
5 12 (3.52%) Maven
5 12 (3.52%) Mockito
6 10 (2.93%) JIRA
7 8 (2.35%) Liquibase
8 7 (2.05%) Selenium
9 4 (1.17%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.88%) Flyway
10 3 (0.88%) XCUITest
11 2 (0.59%) Appium
11 2 (0.59%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.59%) Gatling
11 2 (0.59%) Katalon Studio
11 2 (0.59%) WebDriver
General
1 74 (21.70%) Finance
2 37 (10.85%) Banking
3 28 (8.21%) Social Skills
4 20 (5.87%) Front Office
4 20 (5.87%) Public Sector
5 11 (3.23%) Law
6 10 (2.93%) Financial Institution
7 8 (2.35%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (1.76%) Investment Banking
8 6 (1.76%) Retail
9 3 (0.88%) Automotive
9 3 (0.88%) Back Office
9 3 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (0.88%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.59%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.59%) Military
10 2 (0.59%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.29%) French Language
11 1 (0.29%) Health Technology
11 1 (0.29%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 141 (41.35%) Spring
2 128 (37.54%) Spring Boot
3 68 (19.94%) Kafka
4 46 (13.49%) React
5 28 (8.21%) REST
6 23 (6.74%) RESTful
7 19 (5.57%) AngularJS
7 19 (5.57%) GraphQL
7 19 (5.57%) Swagger
8 18 (5.28%) Middleware
8 18 (5.28%) Node.js
9 15 (4.40%) OpenAPI
10 13 (3.81%) OpenTelemetry
10 13 (3.81%) Quarkus
11 9 (2.64%) Hibernate
11 9 (2.64%) Redux
12 8 (2.35%) Next.js
13 7 (2.05%) FIX Protocol
13 7 (2.05%) Micronaut
14 6 (1.76%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 53 (15.54%) Cloud Native
2 32 (9.38%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (2.93%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (2.93%) Greenfield Project
4 9 (2.64%) Fixed Income
5 7 (2.05%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 6 (1.76%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (1.47%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.47%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.17%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.17%) TWAP
8 4 (1.17%) VWAP
9 3 (0.88%) Clustering
9 3 (0.88%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.88%) Onboarding
9 3 (0.88%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.88%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.59%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.59%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 19 (5.57%) Linux
2 6 (1.76%) Unix
3 2 (0.59%) Android
3 2 (0.59%) 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
1 176 (51.61%) Software Engineering
2 94 (27.57%) Microservices
3 89 (26.10%) CI/CD
4 86 (25.22%) Agile
5 57 (16.72%) DevOps
5 57 (16.72%) Full-Stack Development
6 42 (12.32%) Containerisation
6 42 (12.32%) TDD
7 38 (11.14%) Test Automation
8 34 (9.97%) Event-Driven
9 33 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
10 27 (7.92%) Scrum
11 24 (7.04%) Migration
12 22 (6.45%) Code Quality
12 22 (6.45%) Observability
12 22 (6.45%) SDLC
13 21 (6.16%) Clean Code
13 21 (6.16%) Unit Testing
14 20 (5.87%) Event-Driven Architecture
15 19 (5.57%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 341 (100.00%) Java
2 55 (16.13%) SQL
3 38 (11.14%) Python
4 32 (9.38%) TypeScript
5 20 (5.87%) Kotlin
6 19 (5.57%) JavaScript
7 11 (3.23%) Ada
7 11 (3.23%) Go
8 4 (1.17%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.88%) C#
9 3 (0.88%) C++
9 3 (0.88%) Scala
10 2 (0.59%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.59%) Swift
11 1 (0.29%) Groovy
11 1 (0.29%) Korn
11 1 (0.29%) Rust
11 1 (0.29%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 69 (20.23%) Security Cleared
2 62 (18.18%) SC Cleared
3 12 (3.52%) Degree
4 6 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.17%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.17%) 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 (9.38%) QA
2 11 (3.23%) Def Stans
2 11 (3.23%) IEC 61508
3 8 (2.35%) ISO 20022
4 7 (2.05%) GDPR
4 7 (2.05%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (1.76%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.47%) SEPA
7 3 (0.88%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.59%) ISO 15022
9 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.29%) PSD2
9 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 73 (21.41%) 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 97 (28.45%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.87%) Terraform
3 16 (4.69%) Grafana
4 12 (3.52%) Argo
5 5 (1.47%) Ansible
6 3 (0.88%) HAProxy
7 2 (0.59%) Kibana
7 2 (0.59%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.29%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 14 (4.11%) Oracle
2 11 (3.23%) Microsoft
2 11 (3.23%) Red Hat
3 10 (2.93%) Google
4 6 (1.76%) Splunk
4 6 (1.76%) Spotify
5 5 (1.47%) IBM
6 4 (1.17%) Dynatrace
6 4 (1.17%) SAP
7 3 (0.88%) Databricks
7 3 (0.88%) ServiceNow
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%) Solace
9 1 (0.29%) Ab Initio
9 1 (0.29%) Adobe
9 1 (0.29%) Teradata
9 1 (0.29%) VMware