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 2 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 328 226 270
Rank change year-on-year -102 +44 +51
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 367 367 372
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 1.19% 0.86%
As % of the General category 1.31% 1.88% 1.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 253 221
10th Percentile £350 £353 £363
25th Percentile £388 £475 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% +3.96%
75th Percentile £600 £688 £600
90th Percentile £672 £796 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 13 37
10th Percentile £18.80 £16.22 £19.24
25th Percentile £48.81 £19.00 £20.75
Median hourly rate £70.00 £51.80 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +35.15% +71.73% +33.87%
75th Percentile £97.50 £97.50 £55.00
90th Percentile - - £63.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £18.87 £40.00
% change year-on-year +191.47% -52.83% +101.41%

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 28,045 19,559 24,774
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.50% 63.16% 57.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,821 12,304 15,501
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.40% -4.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £473 £490
% change year-on-year +5.82% -3.57% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,932 963 1,967
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.47 £12.79
25th Percentile £18.25 £16.46 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.00 £27.35 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year +17.00% -13.75% +3.97%
75th Percentile £60.00 £53.00 £53.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.25 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.78 £23.00 £30.37
% change year-on-year +38.16% -24.27% +20.88%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 -132 273 £500 -9.09% 231
Work from Home -5 163 £475 -9.52% 92
London -18 149 £525 -23.69% 90
UK excluding London -178 95 £475 -13.64% 151
East of England -49 36 £500 -9.09% 29
North of England -108 25 £475 -13.64% 41
South East -45 22 £507 -20.55% 46
North West -87 19 £475 -13.64% 26
South West -32 5 £588 -21.67% 8
Midlands -52 4 £450 -10.00% 16
Wales -17 3 £175 -42.71% 5
North East -30 3 £290 - 2
Yorkshire -42 3 £463 - 13
East Midlands -21 1 £450 -10.00% 8
West Midlands -60 1 - - 8

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 5 (1.36%) IIS
2 4 (1.09%) SAS
3 3 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.82%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.54%) Confluence
4 2 (0.54%) WinCC
5 1 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.27%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.27%) Apache
5 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.27%) CMS
5 1 (0.27%) Mendix
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 24 (6.54%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.91%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.82%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.54%) Adobe Illustrator
5 2 (0.54%) InDesign
5 2 (0.54%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 64 (17.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.72%) SAP SD
3 7 (1.91%) SAP EWM
4 5 (1.36%) SAP MM
5 4 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (1.09%) SAP PM
5 4 (1.09%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.82%) SAP ERP
6 3 (0.82%) SAP QM
7 2 (0.54%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.54%) SAP GTS
7 2 (0.54%) SAP IBP
7 2 (0.54%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.54%) SAP WM
7 2 (0.54%) TrackWise
8 1 (0.27%) Maximo
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.27%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.27%) SAP MDM
Cloud Services
1 52 (14.17%) AWS
2 36 (9.81%) Azure
3 18 (4.90%) SaaS
4 13 (3.54%) GCP
5 12 (3.27%) Power Platform
6 9 (2.45%) dbt
6 9 (2.45%) GitHub
7 8 (2.18%) Snowflake
7 8 (2.18%) Veeva
8 7 (1.91%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
9 6 (1.63%) Figma
10 4 (1.09%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.09%) Cloud Run
10 4 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (1.09%) Google Workspace
10 4 (1.09%) Serverless
11 3 (0.82%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (0.82%) Azure AKS
11 3 (0.82%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.36%) Firewall
1 5 (1.36%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.09%) DNS
2 4 (1.09%) VLAN
3 3 (0.82%) VPN
3 3 (0.82%) WAN
4 2 (0.54%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.54%) X.21
5 1 (0.27%) AMQP
5 1 (0.27%) DHCP
5 1 (0.27%) HTTP
5 1 (0.27%) Junos
5 1 (0.27%) Network Security
5 1 (0.27%) NGFW
5 1 (0.27%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.27%) Power BI
2 8 (2.18%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (1.09%) NoSQL
3 4 (1.09%) Oracle Database
3 4 (1.09%) Tableau
4 3 (0.82%) DynamoDB
4 3 (0.82%) Metadata
4 3 (0.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 2 (0.54%) Amazon QuickSight
5 2 (0.54%) Big Data
5 2 (0.54%) BigQuery
5 2 (0.54%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.54%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.54%) Neo4j
5 2 (0.54%) SAP BW
5 2 (0.54%) SAP HANA
5 2 (0.54%) Snowflake Schema
5 2 (0.54%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.27%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 14 (3.81%) JIRA
2 12 (3.27%) Git
3 3 (0.82%) Cypress.io
3 3 (0.82%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.82%) MLflow
4 1 (0.27%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.27%) ER Studio
4 1 (0.27%) GitLab
4 1 (0.27%) Hudson
4 1 (0.27%) LSMW
4 1 (0.27%) Oracle APEX
4 1 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
4 1 (0.27%) Postman
4 1 (0.27%) ScriptRunner
4 1 (0.27%) Selenium
4 1 (0.27%) SonarQube
4 1 (0.27%) TestRail
4 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio
General
1 88 (23.98%) Social Skills
2 79 (21.53%) Manufacturing
3 73 (19.89%) Finance
4 38 (10.35%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (3.54%) Marketing
6 12 (3.27%) Retail
7 11 (3.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (3.00%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.45%) Advertising
9 8 (2.18%) Legal
9 8 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.91%) Billing
11 6 (1.63%) Public Speaking
12 5 (1.36%) Automotive
12 5 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.36%) Law
13 4 (1.09%) Digital Health
13 4 (1.09%) Health Technology
13 4 (1.09%) Public Sector
14 3 (0.82%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 39 (10.63%) Consultant
1 39 (10.63%) Lead
2 34 (9.26%) Analyst
2 34 (9.26%) Senior
3 33 (8.99%) Project Manager
4 21 (5.72%) SAP Consultant
5 19 (5.18%) Business Analyst
6 18 (4.90%) Data Engineer
7 15 (4.09%) Architect
8 14 (3.81%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 14 (3.81%) Product Owner
9 10 (2.72%) Developer
10 9 (2.45%) AWS Engineer
10 9 (2.45%) Data Scientist
11 7 (1.91%) Accountant
11 7 (1.91%) Systems Accountant
12 6 (1.63%) Data Analyst
12 6 (1.63%) Network Engineer
12 6 (1.63%) Python Developer
12 6 (1.63%) SAP Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.72%) REST
2 6 (1.63%) IDoc
3 5 (1.36%) EDI
3 5 (1.36%) PyTorch
3 5 (1.36%) React
4 4 (1.09%) FastAPI
4 4 (1.09%) Pandas
5 3 (0.82%) Google JAX
5 3 (0.82%) J2EE
5 3 (0.82%) JAX
5 3 (0.82%) Kafka
5 3 (0.82%) Playwright
5 3 (0.82%) Ray
5 3 (0.82%) SAP Fiori
5 3 (0.82%) SOAP
5 3 (0.82%) TensorFlow
5 3 (0.82%) XML
6 2 (0.54%) Middleware
6 2 (0.54%) Web Services
6 2 (0.54%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 95 (25.89%) Life Science
2 21 (5.72%) Product Ownership
3 15 (4.09%) FMCG
3 15 (4.09%) LIMS
4 14 (3.81%) Data Structures
5 13 (3.54%) CRISPR
6 9 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (2.18%) Cloud Native
7 8 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.63%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (1.63%) Management Information System
9 5 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.36%) Genomics
9 5 (1.36%) NHS
9 5 (1.36%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.09%) Biopharmaceutical
10 4 (1.09%) Pharmacovigilance
10 4 (1.09%) Robotics
10 4 (1.09%) Taxonomies
11 3 (0.82%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 11 (3.00%) Windows
2 3 (0.82%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.54%) Linux
4 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.27%) Unix
4 1 (0.27%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (17.17%) AI
2 58 (15.80%) Validation
3 55 (14.99%) Agile
4 50 (13.62%) Stakeholder Management
5 45 (12.26%) ERP
6 37 (10.08%) Migration
7 35 (9.54%) Biotechnology
8 34 (9.26%) Continuous Improvement
8 34 (9.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 33 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
10 32 (8.72%) Machine Learning
11 31 (8.45%) Roadmaps
12 29 (7.90%) DevOps
13 28 (7.63%) Project Management
14 27 (7.36%) Analytics
15 26 (7.08%) Workshop Facilitation
16 25 (6.81%) CI/CD
16 25 (6.81%) Data Pipeline
16 25 (6.81%) Data Science
17 23 (6.27%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 61 (16.62%) Python
2 31 (8.45%) SQL
3 14 (3.81%) R
4 5 (1.36%) ABAP
4 5 (1.36%) JavaScript
5 4 (1.09%) TypeScript
6 3 (0.82%) Java
7 1 (0.27%) Bicep
7 1 (0.27%) C
7 1 (0.27%) C#
7 1 (0.27%) C++
7 1 (0.27%) Cypher
7 1 (0.27%) DataWeave
7 1 (0.27%) Groovy
7 1 (0.27%) MATLAB
7 1 (0.27%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.27%) SHACL
7 1 (0.27%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.27%) XPath
7 1 (0.27%) XQuery
Qualifications
1 38 (10.35%) Degree
2 11 (3.00%) PMI Certification
2 11 (3.00%) PMP
3 8 (2.18%) ACCA
3 8 (2.18%) CIMA
4 5 (1.36%) CSPO
4 5 (1.36%) Master's Degree
4 5 (1.36%) Security Cleared
5 3 (0.82%) CISM
5 3 (0.82%) CISSP
5 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (0.82%) SC Cleared
6 2 (0.54%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.54%) HNC
6 2 (0.54%) HND
6 2 (0.54%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 1 (0.27%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (0.27%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.27%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.27%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (13.62%) GxP
2 20 (5.45%) QA
3 16 (4.36%) GMP
4 15 (4.09%) Data Quality
5 11 (3.00%) GDPR
5 11 (3.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (2.72%) GRC
7 9 (2.45%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 9 (2.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 7 (1.91%) PMO
9 5 (1.36%) HIPAA
9 5 (1.36%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.82%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.82%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.82%) NIST
11 2 (0.54%) GAMP
11 2 (0.54%) NIST 800
12 1 (0.27%) CDISC
12 1 (0.27%) ISO 13485
12 1 (0.27%) ITGC
System Software
1 6 (1.63%) Docker
2 5 (1.36%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.54%) vSphere
4 1 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 12 (3.27%) Terraform
2 7 (1.91%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.27%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.27%) Oracle RMAN
3 1 (0.27%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.27%) WSUS
Vendors
1 87 (23.71%) SAP
2 24 (6.54%) Microsoft
3 12 (3.27%) Oracle
4 10 (2.72%) Google
5 7 (1.91%) Databricks
6 5 (1.36%) Ariba
6 5 (1.36%) LabWare
6 5 (1.36%) Palo Alto
6 5 (1.36%) ServiceNow
6 5 (1.36%) Zscaler
7 4 (1.09%) LabVantage
7 4 (1.09%) Salesforce
7 4 (1.09%) VMware
8 3 (0.82%) Adobe
8 3 (0.82%) Conga
8 3 (0.82%) MuleSoft
8 3 (0.82%) Palantir
8 3 (0.82%) Rockwell
8 3 (0.82%) Siemens
9 2 (0.54%) Citrix