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 14 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 324 236 278
Rank change year-on-year -88 +42 +32
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 380 366 301
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 1.11% 0.77%
As % of the General category 1.29% 1.75% 1.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 251 173
10th Percentile £304 £365 £400
25th Percentile £388 £485 £471
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 £775 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £578 £501
% change year-on-year -22.08% +15.38% -1.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 13 15
10th Percentile £16.75 £16.22 £23.85
25th Percentile £33.70 £20.00 £40.00
Median hourly rate £50.25 £51.80 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.98% +3.59% +121.93%
75th Percentile £97.50 £97.50 £60.00
90th Percentile - - £70.50
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 29,391 20,891 22,351
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.05% 63.47% 57.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,419 13,009 14,041
10th Percentile £313 £276 £290
25th Percentile £414 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,230 1,139 1,376
10th Percentile £13.95 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.24 £16.30 £17.08
Median hourly rate £31.53 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +25.36% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.63 £58.12
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.32 £38.12
% change year-on-year +45.61% -41.45% +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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -109 290 £483 -12.27% 706
Work from Home +9 171 £495 -5.71% 293
London -19 155 £525 -12.50% 327
UK excluding London -136 112 £450 -22.08% 418
East of England -41 42 £475 -18.10% 63
South East -57 26 £475 -10.38% 108
North of England -96 23 £425 -32.00% 105
North West -79 14 £450 -28.00% 57
South West -38 13 £334 -55.50% 53
North East -39 6 £200 - 20
Wales -18 4 £175 -42.71% 14
Midlands -50 4 £450 -14.29% 56
Yorkshire -37 3 £463 - 28
East Midlands -22 1 £450 -14.29% 19
West Midlands -55 1 - - 37

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 9 (2.37%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.32%) IIS
3 4 (1.05%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (1.05%) 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 (5.00%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (3.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (2.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.84%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (1.05%) 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 60 (15.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.63%) SAP SD
3 6 (1.58%) SAP EWM
4 4 (1.05%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.05%) SAP IBP
4 4 (1.05%) SAP MM
4 4 (1.05%) 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 (11.32%) AWS
2 41 (10.79%) Azure
3 20 (5.26%) SaaS
4 17 (4.47%) GCP
5 16 (4.21%) Power Platform
6 15 (3.95%) Snowflake
7 12 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (2.63%) dbt
8 10 (2.63%) GitHub
8 10 (2.63%) Veeva
9 7 (1.84%) Microsoft 365
10 6 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.32%) Cloud Run
11 5 (1.32%) Figma
11 5 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
12 4 (1.05%) AWS CloudFormation
12 4 (1.05%) Azure AI
12 4 (1.05%) Serverless
13 3 (0.79%) AWS Direct Connect
13 3 (0.79%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.37%) Firewall
2 8 (2.11%) DNS
2 8 (2.11%) VLAN
3 6 (1.58%) TCP/IP
4 5 (1.32%) DHCP
4 5 (1.32%) HTTPS
5 3 (0.79%) Network Security
5 3 (0.79%) VPN
5 3 (0.79%) WAN
6 2 (0.53%) X.21
7 1 (0.26%) AMQP
7 1 (0.26%) HTTP
7 1 (0.26%) Junos
7 1 (0.26%) NGFW
7 1 (0.26%) SSL
7 1 (0.26%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.21%) Power BI
2 11 (2.89%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (1.58%) Metadata
3 6 (1.58%) Neo4j
3 6 (1.58%) Tableau
4 5 (1.32%) MySQL
4 5 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.05%) NoSQL
5 4 (1.05%) Oracle Database
5 4 (1.05%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.05%) SAP BW
5 4 (1.05%) 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 (4.21%) JIRA
2 14 (3.68%) 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
1 109 (28.68%) Social Skills
2 84 (22.11%) Manufacturing
3 62 (16.32%) Finance
4 57 (15.00%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (3.95%) Marketing
6 13 (3.42%) Legal
6 13 (3.42%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (3.16%) Retail
8 11 (2.89%) Presentation Skills
9 9 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (2.11%) Advertising
11 7 (1.84%) Billing
12 6 (1.58%) Banking
12 6 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.58%) 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 (1.05%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 40 (10.53%) Consultant
2 39 (10.26%) Analyst
3 36 (9.47%) Project Manager
4 32 (8.42%) Lead
4 32 (8.42%) Senior
5 25 (6.58%) Business Analyst
5 25 (6.58%) SAP Consultant
6 23 (6.05%) Architect
7 16 (4.21%) Data Engineer
8 15 (3.95%) Developer
9 14 (3.68%) Product Owner
10 10 (2.63%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 8 (2.11%) Data Analyst
11 8 (2.11%) Data Scientist
11 8 (2.11%) Solutions Architect
12 7 (1.84%) Network Engineer
12 7 (1.84%) SAP Manager
13 6 (1.58%) AWS Engineer
13 6 (1.58%) SAP Architect
13 6 (1.58%) Snowflake Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.47%) REST
2 8 (2.11%) React
3 6 (1.58%) IDoc
3 6 (1.58%) 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 (1.05%) .NET
5 4 (1.05%) Hibernate
5 4 (1.05%) Pandas
5 4 (1.05%) SAP Fiori
5 4 (1.05%) 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 (32.37%) Life Science
2 25 (6.58%) Product Ownership
3 16 (4.21%) FMCG
3 16 (4.21%) LIMS
4 15 (3.95%) Data Structures
5 12 (3.16%) CRISPR
5 12 (3.16%) Operational Technology
6 11 (2.89%) Cloud Native
7 9 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (2.11%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (1.84%) Biopharmaceutical
9 7 (1.84%) SCADA
10 6 (1.58%) Genomics
10 6 (1.58%) NHS
11 5 (1.32%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 5 (1.32%) Onboarding
12 4 (1.05%) AI Agents
12 4 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 21 (5.53%) Windows
2 11 (2.89%) 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 69 (18.16%) Stakeholder Management
2 68 (17.89%) AI
3 66 (17.37%) Agile
4 62 (16.32%) Validation
5 50 (13.16%) Problem-Solving
6 42 (11.05%) Migration
7 41 (10.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 40 (10.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 39 (10.26%) Biotechnology
10 36 (9.47%) ERP
11 33 (8.68%) Roadmaps
12 32 (8.42%) Analytics
13 31 (8.16%) Project Management
14 30 (7.89%) CI/CD
14 30 (7.89%) Data Pipeline
15 29 (7.63%) DevOps
15 29 (7.63%) Workshop Facilitation
16 28 (7.37%) Data Modelling
16 28 (7.37%) Machine Learning
17 26 (6.84%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 60 (15.79%) Python
2 32 (8.42%) SQL
3 12 (3.16%) R
4 8 (2.11%) Java
5 6 (1.58%) ABAP
6 5 (1.32%) JavaScript
7 4 (1.05%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.05%) 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%) DataWeave
10 1 (0.26%) Gremlin
10 1 (0.26%) Groovy
10 1 (0.26%) Korn
10 1 (0.26%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.26%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.26%) XPath
10 1 (0.26%) XQuery
Qualifications
1 48 (12.63%) Degree
2 12 (3.16%) PMI Certification
2 12 (3.16%) PMP
3 9 (2.37%) Security Cleared
4 6 (1.58%) SC Cleared
5 5 (1.32%) CSPO
5 5 (1.32%) Master's Degree
6 4 (1.05%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.05%) 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%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (15.26%) GxP
2 21 (5.53%) QA
3 18 (4.74%) GMP
4 17 (4.47%) Data Quality
5 14 (3.68%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 13 (3.42%) GDPR
7 11 (2.89%) GRC
7 11 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (2.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (1.58%) 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%) NEBOSH
13 1 (0.26%) SLA
13 1 (0.26%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 15 (3.95%) Docker
2 10 (2.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.58%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.05%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.53%) vSphere
6 1 (0.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 13 (3.42%) Terraform
2 9 (2.37%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.05%) SCCM
4 1 (0.26%) Apache Ranger
4 1 (0.26%) FortiGate
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 82 (21.58%) SAP
2 31 (8.16%) Microsoft
3 12 (3.16%) VMware
4 10 (2.63%) Google
4 10 (2.63%) Oracle
5 9 (2.37%) ServiceNow
6 7 (1.84%) Palo Alto
6 7 (1.84%) Rockwell
6 7 (1.84%) Zscaler
7 6 (1.58%) Ariba
7 6 (1.58%) Citrix
7 6 (1.58%) Databricks
7 6 (1.58%) Salesforce
8 5 (1.32%) Foundry
9 4 (1.05%) 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