Master's Degree Contracts

Master's Degree
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Master's Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered 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 270 262 314
Rank change year-on-year -8 +52 +116
Contract jobs citing Master's Degree 280 400 488
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.96% 0.92% 0.82%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.11% 2.99% 2.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 242 309
10th Percentile £313 £350 £400
25th Percentile £434 £441 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year +1.82% -8.33% +4.35%
75th Percentile £710 £697 £775
90th Percentile £838 £800 £950
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% +2.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 44 41
10th Percentile £44.31 £23.85 £31.25
25th Percentile £45.00 £38.84 £42.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £55.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.64% +22.22% +68.89%
75th Percentile £83.63 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £86.97 £83.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +9.09% +22.22% +85.64%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

Master's Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 8,989 13,363 16,304
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.75% 30.65% 27.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,678 8,219 10,866
10th Percentile £288 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £707 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £530 £530
% change year-on-year -5.57% - +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 516 1,077 849
10th Percentile £18.13 £13.87 £15.25
25th Percentile £22.00 £17.88 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.72 £40.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.79% -25.93% +29.75%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.60 £68.25
90th Percentile £80.34 £75.25 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.94 £49.57
% change year-on-year +9.92% -17.41% +55.44%

Master's Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Master's Degree as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Master's Degree.

Daily rate trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Master's Degree.

Hourly rate trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Master's Degree 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 -29 224 £580 +5.45% 1,785
London -25 126 £650 +18.18% 1,119
UK excluding London +31 125 £525 -4.55% 762
Work from Home +25 105 £525 -4.55% 1,133
Wales - 30 £305 - 22
South East +21 25 £500 -4.76% 206
South West +43 23 £563 -4.26% 86
North of England +29 20 £580 -14.20% 148
East of England +23 17 £650 -7.14% 112
North West +12 16 £580 -14.20% 82
Scotland +3 6 £550 +15.79% 68
Midlands +13 5 £775 +40.91% 100
Yorkshire +18 4 £325 - 45
West Midlands +4 3 £775 +40.91% 55
Northern Ireland -9 3 £525 -2.33% 28
East Midlands +11 2 £447 - 45

Master's Degree
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 32 (11.43%) Apache Spark
2 17 (6.07%) Confluence
3 4 (1.43%) SAS
4 3 (1.07%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (1.07%) Apache
5 2 (0.71%) CMS
5 2 (0.71%) Drupal
5 2 (0.71%) Sitecore CMS
5 2 (0.71%) WordPress
6 1 (0.36%) IBM Domino
6 1 (0.36%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.36%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 18 (6.43%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (6.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (4.29%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (3.93%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (1.43%) Trello
6 3 (1.07%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.36%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.36%) Camtasia
7 1 (0.36%) CATIA
7 1 (0.36%) InVision
7 1 (0.36%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.36%) Simulink
7 1 (0.36%) Sketch
7 1 (0.36%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 23 (8.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.07%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 2 (0.71%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.36%) Bankmaster
4 1 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.36%) ENOVIA
4 1 (0.36%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.36%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.36%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.36%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.36%) SAP MDG-S
4 1 (0.36%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.36%) SAP R/3
4 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 62 (22.14%) AWS
1 62 (22.14%) Azure
2 29 (10.36%) GCP
3 13 (4.64%) Power Platform
4 8 (2.86%) Snowflake
5 7 (2.50%) GitHub
6 5 (1.79%) Asana
6 5 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.43%) Amazon SageMaker
8 3 (1.07%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.07%) SaaS
8 3 (1.07%) Smartsheet
9 2 (0.71%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (0.71%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.71%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.71%) PaaS
9 2 (0.71%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
9 2 (0.71%) Salesforce Service Cloud
9 2 (0.71%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 15 (5.36%) Firewall
2 5 (1.79%) Network Security
3 4 (1.43%) VPN
4 3 (1.07%) Wireless
5 2 (0.71%) BGP
5 2 (0.71%) Cisco ISE
5 2 (0.71%) Intrusion Detection
5 2 (0.71%) iSCSI
5 2 (0.71%) MPLS
5 2 (0.71%) OSPF
5 2 (0.71%) SAN
5 2 (0.71%) VLAN
6 1 (0.36%) Internet
6 1 (0.36%) MQTT
6 1 (0.36%) SSL
6 1 (0.36%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.93%) Big Data
2 21 (7.50%) Hadoop
3 18 (6.43%) Tableau
4 13 (4.64%) Power BI
5 10 (3.57%) Data Lake
6 9 (3.21%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (2.86%) MySQL
8 7 (2.50%) Apache Hive
9 6 (2.14%) NoSQL
10 5 (1.79%) Metadata
10 5 (1.79%) MongoDB
10 5 (1.79%) Relational Database
11 4 (1.43%) Data Mining
11 4 (1.43%) Metadata Repository
11 4 (1.43%) PostgreSQL
12 3 (1.07%) Oracle Reports
13 2 (0.71%) PowerPivot
13 2 (0.71%) SAP HANA
13 2 (0.71%) SQL Server
14 1 (0.36%) HBase
Development Applications
1 26 (9.29%) JIRA
2 21 (7.50%) Git
3 8 (2.86%) Bitbucket
4 7 (2.50%) Selenium
5 4 (1.43%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.43%) Visual Studio
6 3 (1.07%) Artifactory
6 3 (1.07%) MLflow
6 3 (1.07%) SpecFlow
7 2 (0.71%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.71%) Burp Suite
7 2 (0.71%) ERwin
7 2 (0.71%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.36%) Axure RP
8 1 (0.36%) JMeter
8 1 (0.36%) Maven
8 1 (0.36%) MSTest
8 1 (0.36%) ReSharper
8 1 (0.36%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.36%) TestDirector
General
1 131 (46.79%) Social Skills
2 104 (37.14%) Analytical Skills
3 93 (33.21%) Finance
4 42 (15.00%) Public Sector
5 29 (10.36%) Banking
6 27 (9.64%) Presentation Skills
7 24 (8.57%) Manufacturing
8 23 (8.21%) Marketing
9 18 (6.43%) Pharmaceutical
10 13 (4.64%) Legal
11 12 (4.29%) Financial Institution
12 10 (3.57%) Front Office
13 9 (3.21%) Automotive
14 8 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
15 7 (2.50%) Electronics
15 7 (2.50%) Investment Banking
16 6 (2.14%) Digital Health
16 6 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
16 6 (2.14%) Telecoms
17 5 (1.79%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 41 (14.64%) Senior
2 30 (10.71%) Developer
3 28 (10.00%) Architect
4 25 (8.93%) Lead
5 23 (8.21%) Analyst
6 17 (6.07%) Project Manager
7 13 (4.64%) Data Science Developer
7 13 (4.64%) Machine Learning Engineer
7 13 (4.64%) Senior Developer
8 12 (4.29%) Virtualisation Engineer
9 11 (3.93%) Software Engineer
10 10 (3.57%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (3.21%) Designer
12 8 (2.86%) Data Scientist
12 8 (2.86%) Python Engineer
13 7 (2.50%) Quantitative Developer
14 6 (2.14%) AWS Engineer
14 6 (2.14%) Business Analyst
14 6 (2.14%) C++ Software Engineer
14 6 (2.14%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (7.86%) TensorFlow
2 20 (7.14%) NumPy
2 20 (7.14%) Pandas
3 16 (5.71%) PyTorch
4 14 (5.00%) scikit-learn
5 12 (4.29%) Flash
5 12 (4.29%) Matplotlib
5 12 (4.29%) Seaborn
6 11 (3.93%) PySpark
7 8 (2.86%) HTML
7 8 (2.86%) LangChain
7 8 (2.86%) React
7 8 (2.86%) REST
8 7 (2.50%) CSS
9 5 (1.79%) AngularJS
9 5 (1.79%) Dask
10 4 (1.43%) .NET
10 4 (1.43%) Kafka
10 4 (1.43%) Middleware
10 4 (1.43%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.50%) Algorithms
2 17 (6.07%) Distributed Computing
2 17 (6.07%) Management Information System
3 16 (5.71%) Life Science
4 13 (4.64%) Data Structures
4 13 (4.64%) NHS
5 12 (4.29%) Clustering
5 12 (4.29%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (3.93%) Cloud Native
7 8 (2.86%) Hedge funds
8 7 (2.50%) Derivative
8 7 (2.50%) Industry 4.0
8 7 (2.50%) Manufacturing Execution System
8 7 (2.50%) Product Ownership
9 6 (2.14%) PMI
10 5 (1.79%) Credit Risk
10 5 (1.79%) Cyberattack
10 5 (1.79%) Data Centre
10 5 (1.79%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (1.79%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 12 (4.29%) Linux
2 9 (3.21%) Windows
3 4 (1.43%) Unix
4 3 (1.07%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.07%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (0.71%) Android
5 2 (0.71%) VMS
6 1 (0.36%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (51.07%) Computer Science
2 98 (35.00%) Agile
3 91 (32.50%) Problem-Solving
4 70 (25.00%) Analytics
5 62 (22.14%) Project Management
6 51 (18.21%) Machine Learning
7 48 (17.14%) Artificial Intelligence
7 48 (17.14%) Decision-Making
8 41 (14.64%) Roadmaps
9 40 (14.29%) Data Analysis
10 39 (13.93%) Data Science
11 37 (13.21%) Risk Management
12 35 (12.50%) Continuous Improvement
12 35 (12.50%) Data Modelling
12 35 (12.50%) Mathematics
12 35 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
13 31 (11.07%) DevOps
13 31 (11.07%) Mentoring
13 31 (11.07%) Technical Leadership
14 30 (10.71%) Generative AI
Programming Languages
1 93 (33.21%) Python
2 42 (15.00%) Java
3 34 (12.14%) C++
4 25 (8.93%) SQL
5 16 (5.71%) C
6 14 (5.00%) R
7 9 (3.21%) JavaScript
7 9 (3.21%) Shell Script
8 8 (2.86%) C#
9 7 (2.50%) Rust
10 3 (1.07%) Ruby
11 2 (0.71%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.71%) Bash
11 2 (0.71%) MATLAB
11 2 (0.71%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.71%) Scala
11 2 (0.71%) SystemVerilog
12 1 (0.36%) Go
12 1 (0.36%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.36%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 279 (99.64%) Degree
2 76 (27.14%) Computer Science Degree
3 55 (19.64%) PhD
4 28 (10.00%) PMI Certification
5 27 (9.64%) Security Cleared
6 25 (8.93%) PMP
7 21 (7.50%) Cisco Certification
7 21 (7.50%) SC Cleared
8 20 (7.14%) MBA
9 16 (5.71%) CCNA
10 15 (5.36%) Microsoft Certification
11 14 (5.00%) AWS Certification
11 14 (5.00%) Azure Certification
12 13 (4.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 11 (3.93%) CISSP
14 10 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
15 7 (2.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 6 (2.14%) CISM
17 5 (1.79%) CISA
18 4 (1.43%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (10.71%) Data Quality
2 20 (7.14%) QA
3 12 (4.29%) PMO
4 9 (3.21%) GDPR
5 7 (2.50%) NIST
6 6 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (1.79%) HIPAA
8 4 (1.43%) MiFID
8 4 (1.43%) PCI DSS
9 3 (1.07%) Accessibility
9 3 (1.07%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.71%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 2 (0.71%) GxP
11 1 (0.36%) Basel III
11 1 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 1 (0.36%) COBIT
11 1 (0.36%) GRC
11 1 (0.36%) HAZOP
11 1 (0.36%) ISO 13485
11 1 (0.36%) PMBOK
System Software
1 14 (5.00%) Docker
1 14 (5.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (4.29%) VMware ESXi
2 12 (4.29%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.07%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.07%) Firmware
4 2 (0.71%) Lustre
5 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 20 (7.14%) Kubernetes
2 12 (4.29%) vCenter Server
3 9 (3.21%) Terraform
4 7 (2.50%) MOM
5 3 (1.07%) CASB
6 2 (0.71%) Ansible
6 2 (0.71%) Karpenter
6 2 (0.71%) Podman
6 2 (0.71%) SCOM
7 1 (0.36%) Grafana
7 1 (0.36%) Hadoop YARN
7 1 (0.36%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.36%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 37 (13.21%) SAP
2 29 (10.36%) Microsoft
3 23 (8.21%) Google
4 20 (7.14%) Cisco
5 14 (5.00%) Atlassian
5 14 (5.00%) VMware
6 10 (3.57%) Salesforce
7 9 (3.21%) Ariba
7 9 (3.21%) Databricks
8 8 (2.86%) Oracle
9 7 (2.50%) Rockwell
9 7 (2.50%) Siemens
10 5 (1.79%) Adobe
10 5 (1.79%) Cloudera
10 5 (1.79%) Workday
11 4 (1.43%) F5
12 2 (0.71%) Aruba
12 2 (0.71%) Fortinet
12 2 (0.71%) Imperva
12 2 (0.71%) Sitecore