Performance Optimisation Contracts

Performance Optimisation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Performance Optimisation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Performance Optimisation 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 252 421 514
Rank change year-on-year +169 +93 +128
Contract jobs citing Performance Optimisation 311 181 199
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.06% 0.42% 0.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.17% 0.48% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 121 123
10th Percentile £400 £400 £330
25th Percentile £435 £475 £418
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £565 £520
Median % change year-on-year -10.04% +8.65% -12.79%
75th Percentile £625 £688 £656
90th Percentile £730 £788 £737
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £538 £500
% change year-on-year -11.63% +7.50% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 4
10th Percentile £22.76 £55.49 £42.24
25th Percentile £23.17 £56.22 £48.60
Median hourly rate £24.80 £57.57 £52.13
Median % change year-on-year -56.92% +10.44% +7.48%
75th Percentile £27.36 £59.04 -
90th Percentile £28.34 £59.85 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.80 £57.57 £52.13
% change year-on-year -56.92% +10.44% +7.48%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Performance Optimisation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,551 37,621 53,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.82% 86.30% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,137 24,254 37,244
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,437 1,746
10th Percentile £14.70 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.50 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.31% -4.83% +49.20%
75th Percentile £62.00 £59.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -23.45% +1.39% +80.00%

Performance Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Performance Optimisation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Performance Optimisation in the UK

Performance Optimisation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Performance Optimisation.

Daily rate trend for Performance Optimisation in the UK

Performance Optimisation
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Performance Optimisation over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Performance Optimisation in the UK

Performance Optimisation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Performance Optimisation.

Hourly rate trend for Performance Optimisation in the UK

Performance Optimisation
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Performance Optimisation 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 +147 260 £525 -4.55% 347
London +124 174 £550 -7.41% 171
Work from Home +95 102 £475 -19.59% 212
UK excluding London +82 97 £475 -11.63% 183
North of England +54 39 £492 +15.76% 76
South East +37 24 £453 -24.58% 29
North West +26 24 £492 +15.76% 53
Yorkshire +24 13 £513 -6.82% 17
Scotland - 12 £440 - 9
South West +33 8 £550 +2.33% 17
Midlands +25 6 £545 -7.23% 31
East of England +37 5 £450 - 14
Northern Ireland - 5 £475 - 4
West Midlands +16 3 £550 +52.78% 21
East Midlands +11 3 £410 -39.82% 10
North East - 1 £430 - 6
Wales - 1 £650 - 5

Performance Optimisation
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 8 (2.57%) SharePoint
2 7 (2.25%) Anypoint
2 7 (2.25%) Confluence
3 6 (1.93%) Apache Spark
4 5 (1.61%) Apache
4 5 (1.61%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.61%) Moodle
4 5 (1.61%) Mule
5 4 (1.29%) SAS
6 3 (0.96%) PowerExchange
6 3 (0.96%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.64%) CMS
7 2 (0.64%) MQSeries
8 1 (0.32%) Gunicorn
8 1 (0.32%) Oracle Service Bus
8 1 (0.32%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.32%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 7 (2.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.29%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.32%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.32%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 4 (1.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.96%) Oracle Assets
2 3 (0.96%) Oracle Cash Management
2 3 (0.96%) Oracle General Ledger
2 3 (0.96%) Oracle Payables
2 3 (0.96%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.64%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.64%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.32%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.32%) BambooHR
4 1 (0.32%) BASE24
4 1 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.32%) iTrent
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.32%) Shopify
4 1 (0.32%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 80 (25.72%) Azure
2 77 (24.76%) AWS
3 36 (11.58%) GCP
4 20 (6.43%) Serverless
5 19 (6.11%) Power Platform
6 17 (5.47%) Azure DevOps
7 16 (5.14%) GitHub
8 12 (3.86%) Amazon S3
9 11 (3.54%) Azure Functions
9 11 (3.54%) Snowflake
10 9 (2.89%) Azure Data Factory
11 8 (2.57%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (2.57%) dbt
12 7 (2.25%) Azure Logic Apps
12 7 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (2.25%) Power Automate
13 6 (1.93%) Dynamics 365
13 6 (1.93%) PowerApps
14 5 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
14 5 (1.61%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.47%) 5G
1 17 (5.47%) LTE
1 17 (5.47%) Radio Access Network
2 16 (5.14%) Firewall
3 13 (4.18%) 4G
4 12 (3.86%) 5G NR
4 12 (3.86%) Network Security
5 11 (3.54%) VPN
6 10 (3.22%) BGP
6 10 (3.22%) OSPF
7 9 (2.89%) HTTPS
7 9 (2.89%) MPLS
7 9 (2.89%) WAN
8 8 (2.57%) TCP/IP
9 6 (1.93%) DNS
10 4 (1.29%) EIGRP
10 4 (1.29%) IPsec
10 4 (1.29%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.96%) DHCP
11 3 (0.96%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (6.43%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (5.79%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (5.47%) Relational Database
4 16 (5.14%) Power BI
5 15 (4.82%) SQL Server
6 14 (4.50%) NoSQL
6 14 (4.50%) Oracle Database
7 12 (3.86%) Data Lake
8 10 (3.22%) Big Data
8 10 (3.22%) Oracle Reports
9 9 (2.89%) MySQL
9 9 (2.89%) RDBMS
9 9 (2.89%) Redis
10 8 (2.57%) Amazon Redshift
10 8 (2.57%) Azure SQL Database
10 8 (2.57%) Hadoop
11 6 (1.93%) BigQuery
11 6 (1.93%) DB2
11 6 (1.93%) Tableau
12 5 (1.61%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 27 (8.68%) Git
2 15 (4.82%) Jenkins
3 10 (3.22%) GitLab
4 9 (2.89%) JIRA
5 5 (1.61%) Bitbucket
5 5 (1.61%) PHPUnit
5 5 (1.61%) Postman
5 5 (1.61%) webpack
6 3 (0.96%) Cypress.io
6 3 (0.96%) JUnit
6 3 (0.96%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.96%) Storybook
7 2 (0.64%) Grunt
7 2 (0.64%) Vite
8 1 (0.32%) Android Studio
8 1 (0.32%) Appium
8 1 (0.32%) Flyway
8 1 (0.32%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.32%) Poetry
8 1 (0.32%) SonarQube
General
1 93 (29.90%) Social Skills
2 57 (18.33%) Finance
3 51 (16.40%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (9.00%) Banking
5 23 (7.40%) Telecoms
6 20 (6.43%) Public Sector
7 11 (3.54%) Investment Banking
8 10 (3.22%) Front Office
8 10 (3.22%) Marketing
9 7 (2.25%) Retail
10 5 (1.61%) Retail Banking
11 4 (1.29%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.96%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.96%) Legal
13 2 (0.64%) Games
13 2 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.32%) Documentation Skills
14 1 (0.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.32%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (31.51%) Developer
2 47 (15.11%) Architect
3 44 (14.15%) Senior
4 22 (7.07%) Senior Developer
5 20 (6.43%) Data Engineer
6 19 (6.11%) Consultant
7 15 (4.82%) Java Developer
7 15 (4.82%) Software Engineer
8 13 (4.18%) Data Architect
9 11 (3.54%) Lead
10 10 (3.22%) Android Developer
11 9 (2.89%) Python Developer
12 7 (2.25%) DevOps Engineer
12 7 (2.25%) Full-Stack Developer
12 7 (2.25%) MuleSoft Developer
12 7 (2.25%) React Developer
13 6 (1.93%) Designer
13 6 (1.93%) GCP Architect
13 6 (1.93%) Solutions Designer
13 6 (1.93%) WAN Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (10.93%) RESTful
2 22 (7.07%) React
3 21 (6.75%) SOAP
4 20 (6.43%) XML
5 19 (6.11%) Kafka
5 19 (6.11%) REST
6 17 (5.47%) .NET
6 17 (5.47%) JSON
7 16 (5.14%) CSS
8 15 (4.82%) AngularJS
8 15 (4.82%) GraphQL
9 13 (4.18%) OAuth
10 12 (3.86%) Node.js
11 11 (3.54%) HTML
11 11 (3.54%) Spring Boot
12 8 (2.57%) Android SDK
12 8 (2.57%) OpenID
12 8 (2.57%) Redux
12 8 (2.57%) Vue
12 8 (2.57%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.07%) Cloud Native
2 19 (6.11%) Mobile App
3 16 (5.14%) Team-Oriented Environment
4 14 (4.50%) Algorithms
5 13 (4.18%) Enterprise Software
6 12 (3.86%) Data Structures
7 11 (3.54%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (2.25%) CMDB
8 7 (2.25%) Hedge funds
8 7 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.93%) PKI
9 6 (1.93%) Taxonomies
10 5 (1.61%) e-Learning
10 5 (1.61%) Fixed Income
10 5 (1.61%) Mainframe
10 5 (1.61%) Management Information System
10 5 (1.61%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 30 (9.65%) Linux
2 14 (4.50%) Android
3 11 (3.54%) Unix
4 6 (1.93%) Windows
5 5 (1.61%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.96%) Embedded Linux
7 3 (0.96%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.96%) zOS
8 2 (0.64%) Rocky
8 2 (0.64%) Solaris
9 1 (0.32%) AIX
9 1 (0.32%) OpenWrt
9 1 (0.32%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (32.48%) Problem-Solving
2 89 (28.62%) CI/CD
3 84 (27.01%) Agile
4 71 (22.83%) DevOps
5 52 (16.72%) Analytics
6 38 (12.22%) High Availability
7 35 (11.25%) Data Pipeline
7 35 (11.25%) Microservices
8 34 (10.93%) Data Modelling
8 34 (10.93%) Mentoring
8 34 (10.93%) Performance Tuning
8 34 (10.93%) Software Engineering
9 30 (9.65%) Infrastructure as Code
10 29 (9.32%) ETL
10 29 (9.32%) Technical Leadership
11 28 (9.00%) Migration
12 26 (8.36%) User Experience
13 25 (8.04%) Business Intelligence
13 25 (8.04%) Containerisation
13 25 (8.04%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 78 (25.08%) Python
2 69 (22.19%) SQL
3 46 (14.79%) Java
4 44 (14.15%) JavaScript
5 18 (5.79%) TypeScript
6 17 (5.47%) C++
7 15 (4.82%) C#
7 15 (4.82%) PowerShell
8 14 (4.50%) Kotlin
9 13 (4.18%) Bash
10 11 (3.54%) PL/SQL
11 9 (2.89%) PHP
11 9 (2.89%) Shell Script
12 8 (2.57%) Scala
13 7 (2.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 6 (1.93%) Go
15 5 (1.61%) C
15 5 (1.61%) DataWeave
15 5 (1.61%) JCL
15 5 (1.61%) Swift
Qualifications
1 51 (16.40%) Security Cleared
2 42 (13.50%) SC Cleared
3 29 (9.32%) Degree
4 14 (4.50%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (2.89%) Master's Degree
6 7 (2.25%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (1.93%) CCNP
7 6 (1.93%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (1.61%) CCIE
9 4 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.96%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.96%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.96%) DV Cleared
11 2 (0.64%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.64%) EMC Certification
11 2 (0.64%) JNCIE
11 2 (0.64%) OCP
11 2 (0.64%) Oracle Certification
11 2 (0.64%) RHCE
11 2 (0.64%) Sun Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.43%) Accessibility
2 11 (3.54%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.89%) GDPR
4 7 (2.25%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.61%) HIPAA
5 5 (1.61%) QA
6 3 (0.96%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.96%) WCAG
7 2 (0.64%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.64%) NCSC
8 1 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.32%) ITGC
8 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 41 (13.18%) Docker
2 7 (2.25%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.32%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.32%) Firmware
4 1 (0.32%) Job Entry Subsystem
4 1 (0.32%) KVM
4 1 (0.32%) Microcode
4 1 (0.32%) NFS
4 1 (0.32%) QEMU
4 1 (0.32%) Samba
4 1 (0.32%) Time Sharing Option
4 1 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.32%) Xen
Systems Management
1 42 (13.50%) Terraform
2 36 (11.58%) Kubernetes
3 30 (9.65%) Ansible
4 7 (2.25%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.93%) NSN NetAct
5 6 (1.93%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 6 (1.93%) Puppet
6 5 (1.61%) Packer
7 4 (1.29%) FortiGate
7 4 (1.29%) Progress Chef
7 4 (1.29%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.96%) Data Guard
9 2 (0.64%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.64%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.64%) Galera Cluster
9 2 (0.64%) Grafana
9 2 (0.64%) Nagios
9 2 (0.64%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.64%) Tivoli NetView
10 1 (0.32%) SELinux
Vendors
1 41 (13.18%) Microsoft
2 34 (10.93%) Oracle
3 16 (5.14%) Databricks
3 16 (5.14%) ServiceNow
4 14 (4.50%) SAP
5 12 (3.86%) Ericsson
6 11 (3.54%) Google
6 11 (3.54%) IBM
6 11 (3.54%) MuleSoft
7 10 (3.22%) Salesforce
8 7 (2.25%) ForgeRock
8 7 (2.25%) Fortinet
9 6 (1.93%) Nokia
9 6 (1.93%) Ping Identity
9 6 (1.93%) Red Hat
10 5 (1.61%) Cisco
10 5 (1.61%) Informatica
11 4 (1.29%) Sybase
12 3 (0.96%) DocuSign
12 3 (0.96%) EMC