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 18 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 265 285 255
Rank change year-on-year +20 -30 +93
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 359 304 451
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 0.84% 0.97%
As % of the General category 1.61% 1.43% 1.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 156 306
10th Percentile £400 £361 £265
25th Percentile £500 £450 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% - -
75th Percentile £688 £625 £588
90th Percentile £773 £688 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £581 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +10.67% - +7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 21 26
10th Percentile - £19.00 £17.20
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.18 £17.72
Median hourly rate £75.00 £32.50 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +130.77% +62.50% -25.93%
75th Percentile £97.50 £35.00 £43.94
90th Percentile - £55.00 £61.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.87 £28.50 £20.00
% change year-on-year -33.79% +42.50% -25.93%

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 common skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 22,292 21,276 27,859
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 62.98% 59.01% 59.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,958 12,530 18,588
10th Percentile £273 £289 £285
25th Percentile £400 £410 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £483 £500
% change year-on-year -1.66% -3.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,447 796 1,122
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.62 £17.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £24.09 £29.50 £31.58
Median % change year-on-year -18.34% -6.59% +26.32%
75th Percentile £44.94 £55.00 £58.44
90th Percentile £68.20 £70.13 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £27.44 £27.97
% change year-on-year -19.83% -1.89% +27.14%

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 18 November 2025.

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 18 November 2025.

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 18 November 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 +1 293 £575 +4.55% 296
UK excluding London -37 132 £581 +10.67% 181
Work from Home +27 125 £525 -2.33% 124
London +66 118 £588 +6.82% 126
East of England -18 53 £580 +10.48% 24
North of England -69 41 £675 +28.57% 39
North West -43 38 £675 +28.57% 25
South East +21 30 £565 +50.60% 58
South West - 5 £750 - 23
Wales +4 2 £224 - 4
East Midlands -18 2 £525 -12.50% 14
Midlands -36 2 £525 -12.50% 23
Yorkshire -48 2 £325 -5.25% 8
Scotland -1 1 £550 +54.93% 14
North East - 1 - - 7

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 (2.23%) Confluence
2 7 (1.95%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (1.39%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.84%) CMS
5 2 (0.56%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.28%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.28%) Mendix
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.84%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.56%) Adobe After Effects
3 2 (0.56%) Adobe Illustrator
3 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.56%) Photoshop
3 2 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.56%) Weka
4 1 (0.28%) Adobe Premiere
4 1 (0.28%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 97 (27.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (2.51%) SAP MDG
2 9 (2.51%) SAP MM
3 7 (1.95%) SAP CO
4 6 (1.67%) SAP FI
4 6 (1.67%) SAP FI/CO
4 6 (1.67%) SAP PP
5 5 (1.39%) SAP ERP
5 5 (1.39%) SAP EWM
5 5 (1.39%) SAP PLM
5 5 (1.39%) SAP QM
5 5 (1.39%) SAP SD
6 4 (1.11%) SAP IBP
6 4 (1.11%) SAP VC
6 4 (1.11%) SAP WM
7 3 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
8 2 (0.56%) PRMS
8 2 (0.56%) SAP PM
8 2 (0.56%) SAP SCM
8 2 (0.56%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 51 (14.21%) AWS
2 37 (10.31%) Azure
3 28 (7.80%) Power Platform
4 27 (7.52%) GCP
5 21 (5.85%) GitHub
6 14 (3.90%) Snowflake
7 12 (3.34%) Cloud Run
8 6 (1.67%) GitHub Actions
8 6 (1.67%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 6 (1.67%) Veeva
9 5 (1.39%) Amazon S3
9 5 (1.39%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (1.11%) Amazon EC2
10 4 (1.11%) dbt
10 4 (1.11%) Figma
10 4 (1.11%) IaaS
10 4 (1.11%) SuccessFactors
11 3 (0.84%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (0.84%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 3 (0.84%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.79%) Network Security
2 5 (1.39%) Firewall
3 4 (1.11%) Wireless
4 2 (0.56%) BGP
4 2 (0.56%) OSPF
5 1 (0.28%) Cisco ICM
5 1 (0.28%) DHCP
5 1 (0.28%) DNS
5 1 (0.28%) RFID
5 1 (0.28%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.28%) Skype
5 1 (0.28%) SMS
5 1 (0.28%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.28%) VLAN
5 1 (0.28%) VPN
5 1 (0.28%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (7.80%) Power BI
2 16 (4.46%) Data Lake
3 13 (3.62%) SAP HANA
4 11 (3.06%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (1.95%) Electronic Patient Records
6 6 (1.67%) Metadata
7 5 (1.39%) BigQuery
8 4 (1.11%) Tableau
9 3 (0.84%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.56%) Ataccama
10 2 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.56%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.56%) Neo4j
10 2 (0.56%) SAP Data Services
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon Redshift
11 1 (0.28%) KNIME
11 1 (0.28%) Power Query
11 1 (0.28%) Qlik Sense
11 1 (0.28%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 19 (5.29%) Git
2 17 (4.74%) JIRA
3 5 (1.39%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.84%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.56%) CircleCI
5 2 (0.56%) GitLab
5 2 (0.56%) LSMW
5 2 (0.56%) Selenium
6 1 (0.28%) ERwin
6 1 (0.28%) PHPUnit
6 1 (0.28%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.28%) Zephyr
General
1 107 (29.81%) Social Skills
2 72 (20.06%) Finance
3 65 (18.11%) Manufacturing
4 32 (8.91%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (4.18%) Marketing
6 14 (3.90%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (3.90%) Influencing Skills
7 11 (3.06%) Aerospace
8 7 (1.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.67%) Legal
10 4 (1.11%) German Language
10 4 (1.11%) Health Technology
10 4 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.11%) Public Sector
11 3 (0.84%) Wearables
12 2 (0.56%) Billing
12 2 (0.56%) Digital Health
12 2 (0.56%) Digital Healthcare
13 1 (0.28%) Agriculture
13 1 (0.28%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 46 (12.81%) Consultant
2 39 (10.86%) Lead
2 39 (10.86%) SAP Consultant
3 26 (7.24%) Analyst
4 24 (6.69%) Developer
4 24 (6.69%) Project Manager
5 22 (6.13%) Architect
6 18 (5.01%) Accountant
6 18 (5.01%) Systems Accountant
7 17 (4.74%) Data Scientist
7 17 (4.74%) Python Developer
8 13 (3.62%) Data Engineer
8 13 (3.62%) SAP Manager
8 13 (3.62%) Senior
9 12 (3.34%) Business Analyst
9 12 (3.34%) Full-Stack Developer
10 11 (3.06%) Full-Stack Python Developer
10 11 (3.06%) SAP S/4HANA Consultant
11 10 (2.79%) Software Engineer
12 9 (2.51%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.74%) FastAPI
1 17 (4.74%) pytest
2 15 (4.18%) React
2 15 (4.18%) SAP Fiori
3 11 (3.06%) LangGraph
4 5 (1.39%) Playwright
5 4 (1.11%) EDI
5 4 (1.11%) FHIR
6 3 (0.84%) IDoc
6 3 (0.84%) MACH
6 3 (0.84%) pydantic
6 3 (0.84%) SOAP
7 2 (0.56%) Jest
7 2 (0.56%) Next.js
7 2 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.56%) REST
7 2 (0.56%) RESTful
7 2 (0.56%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.56%) SAP PI
7 2 (0.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 62 (17.27%) Life Science
2 22 (6.13%) Genomics
3 17 (4.74%) Cloud Native
4 10 (2.79%) FMCG
4 10 (2.79%) Operational Technology
5 8 (2.23%) Product Ownership
6 7 (1.95%) NHS
7 6 (1.67%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.39%) AI Agents
8 5 (1.39%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.39%) Greenfield Project
8 5 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.39%) LIMS
8 5 (1.39%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.11%) Biopharmaceutical
9 4 (1.11%) Mobile App
10 3 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (0.84%) Marketing Technology
10 3 (0.84%) Onboarding
10 3 (0.84%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 8 (2.23%) Windows
2 6 (1.67%) Apple iOS
3 4 (1.11%) Linux
4 3 (0.84%) Android
4 3 (0.84%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.56%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (18.94%) Stakeholder Management
2 63 (17.55%) AI
3 53 (14.76%) Problem-Solving
4 52 (14.48%) Agile
5 51 (14.21%) Analytics
6 44 (12.26%) Machine Learning
6 44 (12.26%) Project Management
7 42 (11.70%) ERP
8 37 (10.31%) Change Management
8 37 (10.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 37 (10.31%) Validation
9 36 (10.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 32 (8.91%) DevOps
11 31 (8.64%) Data Science
12 28 (7.80%) Biotechnology
12 28 (7.80%) Roadmaps
13 27 (7.52%) Data Governance
13 27 (7.52%) Migration
13 27 (7.52%) User Acceptance Testing
14 26 (7.24%) Matrix Organization
Programming Languages
1 71 (19.78%) Python
2 30 (8.36%) SQL
3 18 (5.01%) R
4 16 (4.46%) TypeScript
5 11 (3.06%) Java
6 7 (1.95%) JavaScript
7 6 (1.67%) ABAP
8 2 (0.56%) Bash
8 2 (0.56%) Ruby
9 1 (0.28%) Korn
9 1 (0.28%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.28%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.28%) PHP
9 1 (0.28%) Scala
9 1 (0.28%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 63 (17.55%) Degree
2 20 (5.57%) ACCA
2 20 (5.57%) CIMA
3 16 (4.46%) Master's Degree
4 14 (3.90%) PMI Certification
4 14 (3.90%) PMP
5 12 (3.34%) Security Cleared
6 9 (2.51%) SC Cleared
7 7 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (1.39%) CCNP
8 5 (1.39%) CCSA
8 5 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.84%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 2 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (0.56%) CISA
10 2 (0.56%) CISM
10 2 (0.56%) CISSP
10 2 (0.56%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (0.56%) SAP Certification
11 1 (0.28%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (9.75%) GxP
2 18 (5.01%) QA
3 14 (3.90%) Data Quality
4 11 (3.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 10 (2.79%) GDPR
5 10 (2.79%) GMP
6 7 (1.95%) APQC
7 6 (1.67%) PMO
8 5 (1.39%) HL7
9 4 (1.11%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 4 (1.11%) Accessibility
9 4 (1.11%) SLA
10 3 (0.84%) NCSC
11 2 (0.56%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.56%) IFRS
12 1 (0.28%) GAMP
12 1 (0.28%) ISO 13485
12 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.28%) MiFID
12 1 (0.28%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 27 (7.52%) Docker
2 5 (1.39%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 3 (0.84%) Lustre
4 2 (0.56%) Active Directory
4 2 (0.56%) GPFS
5 1 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 22 (6.13%) Kubernetes
2 9 (2.51%) Terraform
3 5 (1.39%) Ansible
4 4 (1.11%) SCCM
5 3 (0.84%) Packer
6 2 (0.56%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.56%) Puppet
6 2 (0.56%) Salt
7 1 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.28%) Cisco UCCE
7 1 (0.28%) Cisco UCCX
7 1 (0.28%) NetBackup
7 1 (0.28%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 1 (0.28%) TeamSite
Vendors
1 142 (39.55%) SAP
2 22 (6.13%) Google
3 19 (5.29%) Microsoft
4 15 (4.18%) Ariba
5 10 (2.79%) ServiceNow
6 8 (2.23%) Oracle
6 8 (2.23%) Palo Alto
7 7 (1.95%) Zscaler
8 6 (1.67%) Salesforce
9 5 (1.39%) Cisco
10 3 (0.84%) MEDITECH
10 3 (0.84%) Siemens
10 3 (0.84%) Workday
11 2 (0.56%) Apple
11 2 (0.56%) Cerner
11 2 (0.56%) CyberArk
11 2 (0.56%) Databricks
11 2 (0.56%) Meraki
11 2 (0.56%) Rockwell
11 2 (0.56%) Sparx