Life Science Contracts

Life Sciences
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Life Science in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Life Science over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 380 447 579
Rank change year-on-year +67 +132 +96
Contract jobs citing Life Science 140 154 134
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.48% 0.35% 0.22%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.41% 1.16% 0.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 59 80 46
10th Percentile £400 £363 £214
25th Percentile £500 £463 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% +7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £650 £628 £550
90th Percentile £700 £1,520 £656
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £525 £480
% change year-on-year +14.29% +9.38% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 30 8
10th Percentile £32.05 £23.20 £34.31
25th Percentile £41.25 £32.50 £53.28
Median hourly rate £53.50 £42.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.88% -32.00% -
75th Percentile £63.75 £54.92 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.05 £62.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.75 £42.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +20.83% -6.67% +11.11%

All Generic Skills
UK

Life Science falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 9,915 13,252 19,898
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.91% 30.40% 33.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,331 8,505 13,670
10th Percentile £300 £263 £308
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% -
75th Percentile £650 £660 £680
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £496 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.90% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 394 910 640
10th Percentile £16.46 £12.25 £9.80
25th Percentile £21.00 £15.17 £10.63
Median hourly rate £32.05 £30.00 £22.49
Median % change year-on-year +6.83% +33.42% -18.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.66 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.99 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.93 £27.75 £22.00
% change year-on-year +11.46% +26.14% +9.64%

Life Science
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Life Science as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Life Science in the UK

Life Science
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Life Science.

Daily rate trend for Life Science in the UK

Life Science
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Life Science over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Life Science in the UK

Life Science
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Life Science.

Hourly rate trend for Life Science in the UK

Life Science
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Life Science over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Life Science in the UK

Life Science
Top 11 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Life Science within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 2025. 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 +49 117 £580 +10.48% 337
UK excluding London +42 74 £600 +14.29% 138
Work from Home +43 47 £524 -0.24% 213
East of England +50 43 £600 +14.29% 25
London +34 34 £520 -5.45% 211
South East +36 20 £625 +47.06% 29
North of England +8 13 £580 +10.48% 43
North West -9 13 £580 +10.48% 30
Midlands +23 1 - - 18
Scotland - 1 - - 11
East Midlands - 1 - - 4

Life Science
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (3.57%) CMS
2 2 (1.43%) Confluence
2 2 (1.43%) Headless CMS
2 2 (1.43%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.71%) Apache
3 1 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.71%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.71%) SAS
Applications
1 3 (2.14%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.71%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.71%) PTC Creo
3 1 (0.71%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 67 (47.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (8.57%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 7 (5.00%) SAP PP
4 5 (3.57%) SAP CO
4 5 (3.57%) SAP ERP
4 5 (3.57%) SAP FI
4 5 (3.57%) SAP FI/CO
5 4 (2.86%) SAP LE
6 3 (2.14%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.71%) SAP BPC
7 1 (0.71%) SAP EHS
7 1 (0.71%) SAP MDM
7 1 (0.71%) SAP PLM
7 1 (0.71%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 12 (8.57%) Azure
2 9 (6.43%) AWS
2 9 (6.43%) Power Platform
3 6 (4.29%) Microsoft 365
3 6 (4.29%) Snowflake
4 4 (2.86%) GCP
4 4 (2.86%) GitHub
5 3 (2.14%) Smartsheet
6 2 (1.43%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (1.43%) Veeva
7 1 (0.71%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (0.71%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.71%) Cloud Composer
7 1 (0.71%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.71%) Collibra
7 1 (0.71%) Figma
7 1 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.71%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.86%) Firewall
2 3 (2.14%) LAN
2 3 (2.14%) WAN
3 2 (1.43%) Cisco ISE
4 1 (0.71%) Internet
4 1 (0.71%) Network Security
4 1 (0.71%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (6.43%) Power BI
2 8 (5.71%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (4.29%) Data Lake
4 2 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (1.43%) Big Data
4 2 (1.43%) BigQuery
4 2 (1.43%) Hadoop
4 2 (1.43%) IDMS
4 2 (1.43%) Metadata
5 1 (0.71%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.71%) DTS
5 1 (0.71%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.71%) HBase
5 1 (0.71%) Impala
5 1 (0.71%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.71%) Text Mining
Development Applications
1 10 (7.14%) JIRA
2 5 (3.57%) LoadRunner
2 5 (3.57%) NeoLoad
3 3 (2.14%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.14%) JMeter
4 1 (0.71%) Appium
4 1 (0.71%) Selenium
General
1 59 (42.14%) Social Skills
2 55 (39.29%) Finance
3 54 (38.57%) Pharmaceutical
4 52 (37.14%) Manufacturing
5 14 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (6.43%) Aerospace
7 8 (5.71%) Automotive
7 8 (5.71%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (4.29%) Digital Health
9 5 (3.57%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (2.86%) Agriculture
10 4 (2.86%) Banking
11 3 (2.14%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (1.43%) German Language
12 2 (1.43%) Marketing
12 2 (1.43%) Publishing
12 2 (1.43%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.71%) Games
13 1 (0.71%) Legal
Job Titles
1 27 (19.29%) Lead
2 22 (15.71%) Consultant
3 18 (12.86%) Project Manager
4 15 (10.71%) SAP Consultant
5 13 (9.29%) Analyst
6 12 (8.57%) Senior
7 9 (6.43%) Business Analyst
8 8 (5.71%) Functional Consultant
8 8 (5.71%) SAP Manager
9 7 (5.00%) Architect
10 6 (4.29%) IT Manager
10 6 (4.29%) SAP Architect
10 6 (4.29%) SAP Project Manager
11 5 (3.57%) Desktop Analyst
11 5 (3.57%) Desktop Support
11 5 (3.57%) Desktop Support Analyst
11 5 (3.57%) SAP S/4HANA Consultant
11 5 (3.57%) Senior Consultant
11 5 (3.57%) Supply Chain Consultant
11 5 (3.57%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.43%) CSS
1 2 (1.43%) HTML
1 2 (1.43%) REST
1 2 (1.43%) SAP Basis
2 1 (0.71%) ARM Templates
2 1 (0.71%) GStreamer
2 1 (0.71%) Middleware
2 1 (0.71%) Node.js
2 1 (0.71%) OAuth
2 1 (0.71%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.71%) OpenCL
2 1 (0.71%) OpenID
2 1 (0.71%) SAML
2 1 (0.71%) SAP Fiori
2 1 (0.71%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 21 (15.00%) Renewable Energy
2 9 (6.43%) Management Information System
3 6 (4.29%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (4.29%) Virtual Team
4 5 (3.57%) FMCG
4 5 (3.57%) LIMS
5 3 (2.14%) Algorithms
5 3 (2.14%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.43%) Digital Media
6 2 (1.43%) EPoS
6 2 (1.43%) Learning Management System
6 2 (1.43%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.43%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.43%) PMI
6 2 (1.43%) Taxonomies
7 1 (0.71%) CUDA
7 1 (0.71%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.71%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.71%) Reference Data
7 1 (0.71%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 5 (3.57%) Apple iOS
1 5 (3.57%) Windows
1 5 (3.57%) Windows 10
2 1 (0.71%) Android
2 1 (0.71%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (32.14%) Stakeholder Management
2 38 (27.14%) Migration
3 34 (24.29%) Analytics
4 29 (20.71%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (20.71%) Project Management
5 24 (17.14%) Agile
6 21 (15.00%) Data Governance
7 19 (13.57%) Record to Report
8 18 (12.86%) Quality Management
9 17 (12.14%) Change Management
10 16 (11.43%) Data Design
11 15 (10.71%) Asset Management
12 14 (10.00%) Procure-to-Pay
12 14 (10.00%) Risk Management
12 14 (10.00%) User Experience
13 13 (9.29%) ERP
14 12 (8.57%) Collaborative Working
15 11 (7.86%) Data Management
15 11 (7.86%) Decision-Making
15 11 (7.86%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 8 (5.71%) Python
2 4 (2.86%) SQL
3 3 (2.14%) ABAP
3 3 (2.14%) Java
4 2 (1.43%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.71%) Bicep
5 1 (0.71%) C++
5 1 (0.71%) MATLAB
5 1 (0.71%) R
5 1 (0.71%) Scala
Qualifications
1 38 (27.14%) Degree
2 16 (11.43%) Master's Degree
3 10 (7.14%) PMI Certification
3 10 (7.14%) PMP
3 10 (7.14%) Security Cleared
4 9 (6.43%) SC Cleared
5 5 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (3.57%) PhD
6 3 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.43%) AWS Certification
7 2 (1.43%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.43%) CISM
7 2 (1.43%) CISSP
7 2 (1.43%) SAP Certification
8 1 (0.71%) CCA
8 1 (0.71%) CCNP
8 1 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.71%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.71%) GIAC
8 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (15.00%) Data Quality
2 14 (10.00%) GxP
3 12 (8.57%) QA
4 7 (5.00%) HIPAA
5 5 (3.57%) GDPR
5 5 (3.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (2.86%) PMBOK
7 3 (2.14%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 3 (2.14%) Actionable Recommendations
7 3 (2.14%) PMO
8 1 (0.71%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.71%) GLP
8 1 (0.71%) GMP
8 1 (0.71%) Good Clinical Practice
8 1 (0.71%) GRC
8 1 (0.71%) HAZOP
8 1 (0.71%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.71%) NIST
8 1 (0.71%) SOX 404
System Software
1 7 (5.00%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.71%) HDFS
2 1 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 4 (2.86%) Terraform
2 1 (0.71%) Functional Safety
2 1 (0.71%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 86 (61.43%) SAP
2 22 (15.71%) Ariba
3 15 (10.71%) Microsoft
4 8 (5.71%) Hitachi
5 4 (2.86%) Anaplan
5 4 (2.86%) Hyperion
6 3 (2.14%) Cisco
6 3 (2.14%) Workday
7 2 (1.43%) Aruba
7 2 (1.43%) F5
7 2 (1.43%) Google
7 2 (1.43%) Imperva
7 2 (1.43%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.71%) Databricks
8 1 (0.71%) Foundry
8 1 (0.71%) LabVantage
8 1 (0.71%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.71%) Okta
8 1 (0.71%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.71%) Palantir