Pharmaceutical Contract Job Trends

Pharmaceutical (Pharma)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Pharmaceutical in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Pharmaceutical over the 6 months leading up to 16 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 337 235 291
Rank change year-on-year -102 +56 +19
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 378 367 301
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.70% 1.11% 0.78%
As % of the General category 1.28% 1.75% 1.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 250 171
10th Percentile £302 £365 £400
25th Percentile £388 £485 £467
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -17.39% +4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £688 £625
90th Percentile £675 £764 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £575 £501
% change year-on-year -21.74% +14.89% -0.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 13 16
10th Percentile £16.75 £16.22 £24.50
25th Percentile £33.70 £20.00 £40.00
Median hourly rate £50.25 £51.80 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year -2.98% +1.06% +127.47%
75th Percentile £97.50 £97.50 £60.00
90th Percentile - - £83.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £17.46 £52.50
% change year-on-year +121.80% -66.75% +196.28%

All General Skills
UK

Pharmaceutical falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 29,588 20,993 22,260
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.10% 63.45% 57.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,559 13,056 13,993
10th Percentile £313 £275 £290
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £749 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,243 1,151 1,365
10th Percentile £13.96 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £31.56 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +25.47% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.75 £58.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.79% -41.92% +52.48%

Pharmaceutical
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Pharmaceutical relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Pharmaceutical job vacancy trend in the UK

Pharmaceutical
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Pharmaceutical.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Pharmaceutical over the 6 months to 16 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Pharmaceutical in the UK

Pharmaceutical
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Pharmaceutical.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Pharmaceutical over the 6 months to 16 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Pharmaceutical in the UK

Pharmaceutical
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Pharmaceutical within the UK over the 6 months to 16 August 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 -119 288 £475 -13.64% 297
Work from Home -1 170 £490 -6.67% 95
London -23 154 £525 -12.50% 75
UK excluding London -131 111 £450 -21.74% 251
East of England -44 41 £475 -18.10% 19
South East -60 26 £475 -10.38% 57
North of England -107 23 £425 -32.00% 74
North West -79 14 £450 -28.00% 42
South West -40 13 £334 -55.50% 32
North East -36 6 £200 - 11
Wales -17 4 £175 -42.71% 14
Midlands -48 4 £450 -14.29% 45
Yorkshire -41 3 £463 - 21
East Midlands -19 1 £450 -14.29% 18
West Midlands -53 1 - - 27

Pharmaceutical
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 (2.12%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.32%) IIS
3 4 (1.06%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (1.06%) SAS
4 3 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.53%) Apache
5 2 (0.53%) Confluence
6 1 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.26%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.26%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.26%) CMS
6 1 (0.26%) Mendix
6 1 (0.26%) WinCC
Applications
1 19 (5.03%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.17%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (2.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.85%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (1.06%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.53%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.53%) InDesign
6 2 (0.53%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.26%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 59 (15.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.65%) SAP SD
3 6 (1.59%) SAP EWM
4 4 (1.06%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.06%) SAP IBP
4 4 (1.06%) SAP MM
4 4 (1.06%) TrackWise
5 3 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.79%) SAP CO
5 3 (0.79%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.79%) SAP FI/CO
5 3 (0.79%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.79%) SAP PP
5 3 (0.79%) SAP QM
6 2 (0.53%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.53%) SAP GRC
6 2 (0.53%) SAP GTS
7 1 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.26%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 43 (11.38%) AWS
2 40 (10.58%) Azure
3 20 (5.29%) SaaS
4 17 (4.50%) GCP
5 16 (4.23%) Power Platform
6 15 (3.97%) Snowflake
7 12 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (2.65%) dbt
8 10 (2.65%) GitHub
9 9 (2.38%) Veeva
10 7 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
11 6 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (1.32%) Cloud Run
12 5 (1.32%) Figma
12 5 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (1.06%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (1.06%) Azure AI
13 4 (1.06%) Serverless
14 3 (0.79%) AWS Direct Connect
14 3 (0.79%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.12%) DNS
1 8 (2.12%) Firewall
2 7 (1.85%) VLAN
3 5 (1.32%) DHCP
3 5 (1.32%) HTTPS
3 5 (1.32%) TCP/IP
4 3 (0.79%) WAN
5 2 (0.53%) Network Security
5 2 (0.53%) VPN
5 2 (0.53%) X.21
6 1 (0.26%) AMQP
6 1 (0.26%) HTTP
6 1 (0.26%) NGFW
6 1 (0.26%) SSL
6 1 (0.26%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.23%) Power BI
2 11 (2.91%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (1.59%) Metadata
3 6 (1.59%) Neo4j
3 6 (1.59%) Tableau
4 5 (1.32%) MySQL
4 5 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.06%) NoSQL
5 4 (1.06%) Oracle Database
5 4 (1.06%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.06%) SAP BW
5 4 (1.06%) SAP HANA
6 3 (0.79%) BigQuery
6 3 (0.79%) Data Lake
6 3 (0.79%) Data Mining
6 3 (0.79%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.79%) Semantic Layer
6 3 (0.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 2 (0.53%) Snowflake Schema
7 2 (0.53%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (4.23%) JIRA
2 14 (3.70%) Git
3 5 (1.32%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.79%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.53%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.26%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.26%) GitLab
6 1 (0.26%) LSMW
6 1 (0.26%) Postman
6 1 (0.26%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.26%) Selenium
6 1 (0.26%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.26%) TestRail
6 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 108 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 84 (22.22%) Manufacturing
3 61 (16.14%) Finance
4 57 (15.08%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (3.97%) Marketing
6 13 (3.44%) Legal
6 13 (3.44%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (3.17%) Retail
8 11 (2.91%) Presentation Skills
9 9 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (2.12%) Advertising
11 7 (1.85%) Billing
12 6 (1.59%) Banking
12 6 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.59%) Public Sector
13 5 (1.32%) Automotive
13 5 (1.32%) Health Technology
13 5 (1.32%) Law
13 5 (1.32%) Public Speaking
14 4 (1.06%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 40 (10.58%) Consultant
2 39 (10.32%) Analyst
3 36 (9.52%) Project Manager
4 32 (8.47%) Senior
5 31 (8.20%) Lead
6 25 (6.61%) Business Analyst
6 25 (6.61%) SAP Consultant
7 23 (6.08%) Architect
8 16 (4.23%) Data Engineer
9 15 (3.97%) Developer
10 14 (3.70%) Product Owner
11 10 (2.65%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 8 (2.12%) Data Analyst
12 8 (2.12%) Data Scientist
12 8 (2.12%) Solutions Architect
13 7 (1.85%) SAP Manager
14 6 (1.59%) AWS Engineer
14 6 (1.59%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 6 (1.59%) Network Engineer
14 6 (1.59%) SAP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.50%) REST
2 8 (2.12%) React
3 6 (1.59%) IDoc
3 6 (1.59%) PyTorch
4 5 (1.32%) EDI
4 5 (1.32%) FastAPI
4 5 (1.32%) RESTful
4 5 (1.32%) SOAP
4 5 (1.32%) XML
5 4 (1.06%) .NET
5 4 (1.06%) Hibernate
5 4 (1.06%) Pandas
5 4 (1.06%) SAP Fiori
5 4 (1.06%) SQLAlchemy
6 3 (0.79%) Google JAX
6 3 (0.79%) Jakarta EE
6 3 (0.79%) JAX
6 3 (0.79%) SAP Core Interface
6 3 (0.79%) SAPUI5
6 3 (0.79%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 123 (32.54%) Life Science
2 25 (6.61%) Product Ownership
3 16 (4.23%) FMCG
3 16 (4.23%) LIMS
4 15 (3.97%) Data Structures
5 12 (3.17%) CRISPR
5 12 (3.17%) Operational Technology
6 11 (2.91%) Cloud Native
7 9 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.12%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (2.12%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (1.85%) Biopharmaceutical
9 7 (1.85%) SCADA
10 6 (1.59%) Genomics
10 6 (1.59%) NHS
11 5 (1.32%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 5 (1.32%) Onboarding
12 4 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
12 4 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 21 (5.56%) Windows
2 11 (2.91%) Windows Server
3 3 (0.79%) Linux
4 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.26%) Unix
4 1 (0.26%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (17.99%) AI
1 68 (17.99%) Stakeholder Management
2 66 (17.46%) Agile
3 62 (16.40%) Validation
4 50 (13.23%) Problem-Solving
5 42 (11.11%) Migration
6 41 (10.85%) Continuous Improvement
7 40 (10.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 39 (10.32%) Biotechnology
9 35 (9.26%) ERP
10 33 (8.73%) Roadmaps
11 32 (8.47%) Analytics
12 31 (8.20%) Project Management
13 30 (7.94%) CI/CD
13 30 (7.94%) Data Pipeline
14 29 (7.67%) DevOps
14 29 (7.67%) Workshop Facilitation
15 28 (7.41%) Data Modelling
15 28 (7.41%) Machine Learning
16 26 (6.88%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 60 (15.87%) Python
2 32 (8.47%) SQL
3 12 (3.17%) R
4 8 (2.12%) Java
5 6 (1.59%) ABAP
6 5 (1.32%) JavaScript
7 4 (1.06%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.06%) TypeScript
8 3 (0.79%) C#
9 2 (0.53%) Cypher
9 2 (0.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.26%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.26%) Bicep
10 1 (0.26%) DataWeave
10 1 (0.26%) Gremlin
10 1 (0.26%) Korn
10 1 (0.26%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.26%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.26%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.26%) XQuery
Qualifications
1 48 (12.70%) Degree
2 12 (3.17%) PMI Certification
2 12 (3.17%) PMP
3 9 (2.38%) Security Cleared
4 6 (1.59%) SC Cleared
5 5 (1.32%) CSPO
5 5 (1.32%) Master's Degree
6 4 (1.06%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (0.79%) CISM
7 3 (0.79%) CISSP
7 3 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 2 (0.53%) ACCA
8 2 (0.53%) CIMA
8 2 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.53%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.26%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.26%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (15.34%) GxP
2 21 (5.56%) QA
3 18 (4.76%) GMP
4 17 (4.50%) Data Quality
5 14 (3.70%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 13 (3.44%) GDPR
7 11 (2.91%) GRC
7 11 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (2.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (1.59%) HIPAA
10 5 (1.32%) PCI DSS
10 5 (1.32%) PMO
11 3 (0.79%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.79%) NIST
12 2 (0.53%) GAMP
12 2 (0.53%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.26%) CDISC
13 1 (0.26%) NCSC
13 1 (0.26%) SLA
13 1 (0.26%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 15 (3.97%) Docker
2 9 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.59%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.06%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 1 (0.26%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 13 (3.44%) Terraform
2 9 (2.38%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.06%) SCCM
4 1 (0.26%) Apache Ranger
4 1 (0.26%) Grafana
4 1 (0.26%) Oracle RMAN
4 1 (0.26%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.26%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 1 (0.26%) WSUS
Vendors
1 81 (21.43%) SAP
2 30 (7.94%) Microsoft
3 11 (2.91%) VMware
4 10 (2.65%) Google
4 10 (2.65%) Oracle
5 9 (2.38%) ServiceNow
6 7 (1.85%) Palo Alto
6 7 (1.85%) Rockwell
6 7 (1.85%) Zscaler
7 6 (1.59%) Ariba
7 6 (1.59%) Databricks
7 6 (1.59%) Salesforce
8 5 (1.32%) Citrix
8 5 (1.32%) Foundry
9 4 (1.06%) LabVantage
10 3 (0.79%) Adobe
10 3 (0.79%) Conga
10 3 (0.79%) MuleSoft
10 3 (0.79%) Palantir
10 3 (0.79%) Siemens