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 31 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 318 245 220
Rank change year-on-year -73 -25 +143
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 294 332 496
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 1.06% 1.11%
As % of the General category 1.28% 1.71% 1.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 188 193 339
10th Percentile £350 £352 £295
25th Percentile £434 £450 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% +4.76% +4.74%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £575
90th Percentile £750 £730 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £552 £525 £510
% change year-on-year +5.19% +2.94% +13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 23 29
10th Percentile £18.57 £19.00 £17.63
25th Percentile £26.47 £24.18 £20.00
Median hourly rate £75.00 £32.50 £25.50
Median % change year-on-year +130.77% +27.45% +59.38%
75th Percentile £97.50 £35.00 £48.75
90th Percentile - £89.05 £60.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.87 £32.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year -41.94% +51.16% +53.57%

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 22,967 19,471 26,307
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 59.28% 61.92% 58.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,411 11,610 17,070
10th Percentile £286 £284 £265
25th Percentile £400 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £731 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.09% -3.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,400 630 1,545
10th Percentile £13.71 £15.62 £13.16
25th Percentile £16.35 £20.00 £15.17
Median hourly rate £22.50 £28.21 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.23% +8.48% +4.00%
75th Percentile £46.00 £53.75 £55.25
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.85 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £26.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -20.75% +6.00% +11.11%

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 31 January 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 31 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Pharmaceutical in the UK

Pharmaceutical
Top 13 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 31 January 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 -105 218 £530 -3.64% 133
Work from Home +1 116 £525 -4.55% 46
London +2 101 £600 -5.88% 49
UK excluding London -124 91 £552 +5.19% 110
East of England -41 31 £475 -9.52% 13
North of England -102 27 £575 +9.52% 37
South East -12 26 £575 +170.59% 36
North West -69 24 £575 +7.48% 24
South West - 5 £700 - 12
Scotland +5 3 £550 +54.93% 2
Yorkshire -51 2 £325 -5.25% 11
Wales -1 1 £183 - 2
North East -20 1 - - 2

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 7 (2.38%) Confluence
2 6 (2.04%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (1.70%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.02%) CMS
4 3 (1.02%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.34%) Headless CMS
5 1 (0.34%) Mendix
5 1 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 15 (5.10%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.68%) Weka
4 1 (0.34%) Adobe After Effects
4 1 (0.34%) Adobe Illustrator
4 1 (0.34%) InDesign
4 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.34%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.34%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 72 (24.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.38%) SAP MM
2 7 (2.38%) SAP PM
2 7 (2.38%) SAP QM
3 6 (2.04%) SAP PP
4 5 (1.70%) SAP EWM
4 5 (1.70%) SAP MDG
5 4 (1.36%) SAP CO
5 4 (1.36%) SAP WM
6 3 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
6 3 (1.02%) SAP FI
6 3 (1.02%) SAP FI/CO
6 3 (1.02%) SAP SD
7 2 (0.68%) Sage X3
7 2 (0.68%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.68%) SAP IBP
7 2 (0.68%) SAP SCM
8 1 (0.34%) Cerner Millennium
8 1 (0.34%) SAP MDG-M
8 1 (0.34%) SAP PP-PI
Cloud Services
1 35 (11.90%) AWS
2 31 (10.54%) Azure
3 25 (8.50%) GCP
4 17 (5.78%) Power Platform
5 16 (5.44%) GitHub
6 14 (4.76%) Microsoft 365
7 12 (4.08%) Snowflake
8 11 (3.74%) Cloud Run
9 5 (1.70%) dbt
9 5 (1.70%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 5 (1.70%) Veeva
10 4 (1.36%) Figma
10 4 (1.36%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (1.36%) SaaS
11 3 (1.02%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 3 (1.02%) IaaS
12 2 (0.68%) Azure Data Factory
12 2 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (0.68%) OneDrive
12 2 (0.68%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.04%) Network Security
2 4 (1.36%) Firewall
2 4 (1.36%) Wireless
3 3 (1.02%) Ethernet
3 3 (1.02%) Modbus
3 3 (1.02%) RS-485
4 2 (0.68%) BGP
4 2 (0.68%) OSPF
5 1 (0.34%) Cisco ICM
5 1 (0.34%) DHCP
5 1 (0.34%) DNS
5 1 (0.34%) RFID
5 1 (0.34%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.34%) SMS
5 1 (0.34%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.34%) Telepresence
5 1 (0.34%) VPN
5 1 (0.34%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (5.78%) Power BI
2 14 (4.76%) Data Lake
3 7 (2.38%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (1.70%) BigQuery
4 5 (1.70%) Electronic Patient Records
5 4 (1.36%) Metadata
5 4 (1.36%) SAP HANA
6 3 (1.02%) Tableau
7 2 (0.68%) Ataccama
7 2 (0.68%) Neo4j
7 2 (0.68%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.68%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.34%) Big Data
8 1 (0.34%) KNIME
8 1 (0.34%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.34%) Power Query
8 1 (0.34%) Qlik Sense
8 1 (0.34%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 19 (6.46%) Git
2 16 (5.44%) JIRA
3 4 (1.36%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.02%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.68%) GitLab
5 2 (0.68%) LSMW
5 2 (0.68%) Selenium
6 1 (0.34%) CircleCI
6 1 (0.34%) Hudson
6 1 (0.34%) Oracle APEX
6 1 (0.34%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.34%) PHPUnit
6 1 (0.34%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.34%) Zephyr
General
1 76 (25.85%) Social Skills
2 62 (21.09%) Manufacturing
3 52 (17.69%) Finance
4 23 (7.82%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (4.42%) Marketing
6 12 (4.08%) Influencing Skills
7 11 (3.74%) Aerospace
8 10 (3.40%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (2.04%) Public Sector
11 5 (1.70%) Retail
12 4 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (1.02%) Digital Health
13 3 (1.02%) Health Technology
13 3 (1.02%) Wearables
14 2 (0.68%) Banking
14 2 (0.68%) Digital Healthcare
14 2 (0.68%) Legal
14 2 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.34%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 37 (12.59%) Lead
2 28 (9.52%) Consultant
3 20 (6.80%) SAP Consultant
4 17 (5.78%) Analyst
4 17 (5.78%) Architect
4 17 (5.78%) Developer
4 17 (5.78%) Senior
5 15 (5.10%) Project Manager
6 12 (4.08%) Python Developer
7 10 (3.40%) Data Engineer
7 10 (3.40%) Data Scientist
7 10 (3.40%) Designer
8 9 (3.06%) Software Engineer
9 8 (2.72%) Data Analytics Specialist
9 8 (2.72%) Full-Stack Developer
9 8 (2.72%) IT Manager
9 8 (2.72%) IT Support
9 8 (2.72%) Quality Manager
9 8 (2.72%) SAP Financial Specialist
10 7 (2.38%) Full-Stack Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (5.78%) FastAPI
1 17 (5.78%) pytest
2 13 (4.42%) SAP Fiori
3 12 (4.08%) React
4 10 (3.40%) LangGraph
5 6 (2.04%) Playwright
6 3 (1.02%) MACH
6 3 (1.02%) RESTful
7 2 (0.68%) CSS
7 2 (0.68%) EDI
7 2 (0.68%) IDoc
7 2 (0.68%) Jest
7 2 (0.68%) Next.js
7 2 (0.68%) pydantic
7 2 (0.68%) REST
7 2 (0.68%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.68%) SAP PI
7 2 (0.68%) SOAP
8 1 (0.34%) Middleware
8 1 (0.34%) XML Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 50 (17.01%) Life Science
2 18 (6.12%) Genomics
3 16 (5.44%) Cloud Native
3 16 (5.44%) FMCG
4 11 (3.74%) Onboarding
5 8 (2.72%) NHS
5 8 (2.72%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.38%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.04%) Data Structures
7 6 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.70%) Greenfield Project
8 5 (1.70%) LIMS
9 4 (1.36%) AI Agents
9 4 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.36%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.36%) Mobile App
9 4 (1.36%) SCADA
9 4 (1.36%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 14 (4.76%) Windows
2 6 (2.04%) Apple iOS
3 4 (1.36%) Mac OS
3 4 (1.36%) Windows 10
4 3 (1.02%) Android
5 2 (0.68%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (17.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 49 (16.67%) AI
3 48 (16.33%) Agile
4 38 (12.93%) ERP
4 38 (12.93%) Machine Learning
5 36 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
6 35 (11.90%) Analytics
7 34 (11.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 34 (11.56%) Validation
8 33 (11.22%) Problem-Solving
9 31 (10.54%) DevOps
9 31 (10.54%) Migration
10 23 (7.82%) Biotechnology
10 23 (7.82%) Roadmaps
11 22 (7.48%) Test Automation
12 21 (7.14%) Data Governance
12 21 (7.14%) Decision-Making
13 20 (6.80%) Data Science
13 20 (6.80%) Matrix Organization
13 20 (6.80%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 55 (18.71%) Python
2 22 (7.48%) SQL
3 12 (4.08%) TypeScript
4 11 (3.74%) R
5 7 (2.38%) Java
5 7 (2.38%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.68%) ABAP
6 2 (0.68%) Bash
7 1 (0.34%) Ladder Logic
7 1 (0.34%) PHP
7 1 (0.34%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.34%) Ruby
7 1 (0.34%) Scala
7 1 (0.34%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 46 (15.65%) Degree
2 12 (4.08%) Master's Degree
3 9 (3.06%) A+ Certification
4 8 (2.72%) PMI Certification
4 8 (2.72%) PMP
5 7 (2.38%) ACCA
5 7 (2.38%) CIMA
5 7 (2.38%) Security Cleared
6 6 (2.04%) SC Cleared
7 4 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.68%) CISSP
8 2 (0.68%) CompTIA Security+
8 2 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.68%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 1 (0.34%) CCNP
9 1 (0.34%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.34%) ECDL
9 1 (0.34%) HND
9 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.34%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (8.50%) GxP
2 15 (5.10%) GMP
3 14 (4.76%) QA
4 10 (3.40%) Data Quality
5 7 (2.38%) GDPR
6 4 (1.36%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.36%) PMO
7 3 (1.02%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 3 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.02%) SLA
8 1 (0.34%) GAMP
8 1 (0.34%) GRC
8 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.34%) HL7
8 1 (0.34%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.34%) ISO 13485
8 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.34%) ITGC
8 1 (0.34%) MiFID
8 1 (0.34%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 22 (7.48%) Docker
2 3 (1.02%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 2 (0.68%) GPFS
3 2 (0.68%) Lustre
4 1 (0.34%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (4.76%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.38%) Terraform
3 3 (1.02%) Ansible
3 3 (1.02%) SCCM
4 2 (0.68%) HP ALM
4 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.68%) Puppet
4 2 (0.68%) Salt
5 1 (0.34%) Cisco UCCE
5 1 (0.34%) Cisco UCCX
5 1 (0.34%) Packer
5 1 (0.34%) RSA Archer
5 1 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 1 (0.34%) TeamSite
Vendors
1 96 (32.65%) SAP
2 36 (12.24%) Microsoft
3 20 (6.80%) Google
4 7 (2.38%) Ariba
4 7 (2.38%) SOTI
5 6 (2.04%) Oracle
5 6 (2.04%) Salesforce
5 6 (2.04%) ServiceNow
6 4 (1.36%) Cisco
6 4 (1.36%) HP
6 4 (1.36%) Palo Alto
7 3 (1.02%) Cerner
7 3 (1.02%) IBM
7 3 (1.02%) LabWare
7 3 (1.02%) MEDITECH
7 3 (1.02%) Zscaler
8 2 (0.68%) CyberArk
8 2 (0.68%) Databricks
8 2 (0.68%) IFS
8 2 (0.68%) Meraki