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

6 months to
8 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 329 230 282
Rank change year-on-year -99 +52 +28
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 375 375 377
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.72% 1.17% 0.87%
As % of the General category 1.31% 1.86% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 209 261 228
10th Percentile £346 £363 £363
25th Percentile £388 £475 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% +2.44%
75th Percentile £600 £688 £600
90th Percentile £666 £778 £709
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 13 36
10th Percentile £19.43 £16.22 £18.99
25th Percentile £45.25 £19.00 £20.75
Median hourly rate £70.00 £51.80 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +35.15% +71.73% +14.83%
75th Percentile £97.50 £97.50 £55.00
90th Percentile - - £63.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.25 £18.87 £34.25
% change year-on-year +166.30% -44.91% +55.68%

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 28,542 20,146 24,673
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.71% 63.06% 57.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,104 12,653 15,445
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.80% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £473 £489
% change year-on-year +5.81% -3.37% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,968 1,006 1,928
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.48 £12.80
25th Percentile £18.27 £16.37 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.36 £27.22 £31.89
Median % change year-on-year +18.91% -14.65% +6.28%
75th Percentile £61.18 £52.42 £53.75
90th Percentile £80.07 £70.71 £67.87
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £23.00 £31.00
% change year-on-year +39.13% -25.81% +19.46%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -123 279 £500 -9.09% 180
Work from Home +6 169 £475 -9.52% 158
London -17 149 £525 -23.69% 70
UK excluding London -160 101 £500 -9.09% 124
East of England -44 41 £500 -9.09% 20
North of England -115 24 £475 -13.64% 38
South East -52 23 £507 -12.29% 40
North West -86 18 £475 -13.64% 22
South West -33 6 £500 -33.33% 9
Midlands -62 4 £450 -10.00% 12
Wales -20 3 £175 -42.71% 3
North East -37 3 £290 - 3
Yorkshire -39 3 £463 - 13
East Midlands -16 1 £450 -10.00% 6
West Midlands -60 1 - - 6

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 (1.33%) IIS
2 4 (1.07%) SAS
3 3 (0.80%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.80%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.53%) Confluence
4 2 (0.53%) 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%) FactoryTalk
5 1 (0.27%) Mendix
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 24 (6.40%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.87%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.07%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.53%) Adobe Illustrator
5 2 (0.53%) InDesign
5 2 (0.53%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 66 (17.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.67%) SAP SD
3 7 (1.87%) SAP EWM
4 5 (1.33%) SAP MM
5 4 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (1.07%) SAP PM
5 4 (1.07%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.80%) SAP ERP
6 3 (0.80%) SAP QM
7 2 (0.53%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.53%) SAP GTS
7 2 (0.53%) SAP IBP
7 2 (0.53%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.53%) SAP WM
7 2 (0.53%) TrackWise
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.27%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.27%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.27%) SAP MDM
Cloud Services
1 53 (14.13%) AWS
2 37 (9.87%) Azure
3 18 (4.80%) SaaS
4 14 (3.73%) GCP
5 12 (3.20%) Power Platform
6 10 (2.67%) GitHub
7 9 (2.40%) dbt
8 8 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (2.13%) Snowflake
8 8 (2.13%) Veeva
9 6 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
9 6 (1.60%) Figma
10 5 (1.33%) GitHub Actions
11 4 (1.07%) AWS CloudFormation
11 4 (1.07%) Cloud Run
11 4 (1.07%) Google Workspace
11 4 (1.07%) Serverless
12 3 (0.80%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.80%) Amazon SageMaker
12 3 (0.80%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.60%) Firewall
2 5 (1.33%) HTTPS
2 5 (1.33%) VLAN
3 4 (1.07%) DNS
4 3 (0.80%) TCP/IP
4 3 (0.80%) VPN
4 3 (0.80%) WAN
5 2 (0.53%) X.21
6 1 (0.27%) AMQP
6 1 (0.27%) DHCP
6 1 (0.27%) HTTP
6 1 (0.27%) Junos
6 1 (0.27%) Network Security
6 1 (0.27%) NGFW
6 1 (0.27%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.20%) Power BI
2 9 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (1.07%) NoSQL
3 4 (1.07%) Oracle Database
3 4 (1.07%) Tableau
4 3 (0.80%) DynamoDB
4 3 (0.80%) Metadata
4 3 (0.80%) SAP HANA
4 3 (0.80%) SQL Server
4 3 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 2 (0.53%) Amazon QuickSight
5 2 (0.53%) Big Data
5 2 (0.53%) BigQuery
5 2 (0.53%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.53%) MySQL
5 2 (0.53%) Neo4j
5 2 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.53%) SAP BW
5 2 (0.53%) Snowflake Schema
5 2 (0.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 14 (3.73%) JIRA
2 12 (3.20%) Git
3 4 (1.07%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.80%) Cypress.io
4 3 (0.80%) MLflow
5 1 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.27%) ER Studio
5 1 (0.27%) GitLab
5 1 (0.27%) Hudson
5 1 (0.27%) LSMW
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle APEX
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (0.27%) Postman
5 1 (0.27%) ScriptRunner
5 1 (0.27%) Selenium
5 1 (0.27%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.27%) TestRail
5 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio
General
1 94 (25.07%) Social Skills
2 82 (21.87%) Manufacturing
3 73 (19.47%) Finance
4 44 (11.73%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (3.73%) Retail
6 13 (3.47%) Marketing
7 11 (2.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (2.93%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.40%) Advertising
9 8 (2.13%) Legal
9 8 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.87%) Billing
11 6 (1.60%) Public Speaking
12 5 (1.33%) Automotive
12 5 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.33%) Law
13 4 (1.07%) Digital Health
13 4 (1.07%) Health Technology
13 4 (1.07%) Public Sector
14 3 (0.80%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 40 (10.67%) Consultant
1 40 (10.67%) Lead
2 36 (9.60%) Analyst
3 35 (9.33%) Project Manager
4 34 (9.07%) Senior
5 22 (5.87%) SAP Consultant
6 21 (5.60%) Business Analyst
7 18 (4.80%) Data Engineer
8 15 (4.00%) Architect
8 15 (4.00%) Product Owner
9 14 (3.73%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 13 (3.47%) Developer
11 9 (2.40%) AWS Engineer
11 9 (2.40%) Data Scientist
12 6 (1.60%) Accountant
12 6 (1.60%) Data Analyst
12 6 (1.60%) Designer
12 6 (1.60%) Network Engineer
12 6 (1.60%) Snowflake Data Engineer
12 6 (1.60%) Snowflake Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.93%) REST
2 6 (1.60%) IDoc
2 6 (1.60%) React
3 5 (1.33%) EDI
3 5 (1.33%) PyTorch
4 4 (1.07%) FastAPI
4 4 (1.07%) Pandas
4 4 (1.07%) SAP Fiori
4 4 (1.07%) SOAP
5 3 (0.80%) Google JAX
5 3 (0.80%) J2EE
5 3 (0.80%) JAX
5 3 (0.80%) Kafka
5 3 (0.80%) Playwright
5 3 (0.80%) Ray
5 3 (0.80%) RESTful
5 3 (0.80%) SAPUI5
5 3 (0.80%) TensorFlow
5 3 (0.80%) XML
6 2 (0.53%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 101 (26.93%) Life Science
2 22 (5.87%) Product Ownership
3 16 (4.27%) LIMS
4 15 (4.00%) FMCG
5 14 (3.73%) Data Structures
6 13 (3.47%) CRISPR
7 9 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (2.13%) Cloud Native
8 8 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
9 7 (1.87%) Management Information System
10 6 (1.60%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.33%) Biopharmaceutical
11 5 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (1.33%) Genomics
11 5 (1.33%) NHS
12 4 (1.07%) Pharmacovigilance
12 4 (1.07%) Robotics
12 4 (1.07%) Taxonomies
13 3 (0.80%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 12 (3.20%) Windows
2 4 (1.07%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.53%) Linux
4 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.27%) Unix
4 1 (0.27%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (17.07%) AI
2 60 (16.00%) Validation
3 56 (14.93%) Agile
4 53 (14.13%) Stakeholder Management
5 45 (12.00%) ERP
6 39 (10.40%) Biotechnology
6 39 (10.40%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (10.13%) Migration
8 36 (9.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 34 (9.07%) Continuous Improvement
9 34 (9.07%) Roadmaps
10 32 (8.53%) Machine Learning
11 30 (8.00%) DevOps
12 29 (7.73%) Analytics
12 29 (7.73%) Project Management
13 28 (7.47%) CI/CD
14 27 (7.20%) Workshop Facilitation
15 26 (6.93%) Data Governance
15 26 (6.93%) Data Pipeline
16 25 (6.67%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 62 (16.53%) Python
2 31 (8.27%) SQL
3 14 (3.73%) R
4 6 (1.60%) ABAP
4 6 (1.60%) JavaScript
5 4 (1.07%) Java
5 4 (1.07%) TypeScript
6 2 (0.53%) C#
7 1 (0.27%) Bicep
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 41 (10.93%) Degree
2 11 (2.93%) PMI Certification
2 11 (2.93%) PMP
3 7 (1.87%) ACCA
3 7 (1.87%) CIMA
4 5 (1.33%) CSPO
4 5 (1.33%) Master's Degree
4 5 (1.33%) Security Cleared
5 3 (0.80%) CISM
5 3 (0.80%) CISSP
5 3 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (0.80%) SC Cleared
6 2 (0.53%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.53%) HNC
6 2 (0.53%) HND
6 2 (0.53%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 1 (0.27%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (0.27%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.27%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.27%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (14.40%) GxP
2 21 (5.60%) QA
3 16 (4.27%) Data Quality
3 16 (4.27%) GMP
4 11 (2.93%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 11 (2.93%) GDPR
4 11 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (2.67%) GRC
5 10 (2.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 7 (1.87%) PMO
7 5 (1.33%) HIPAA
7 5 (1.33%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.80%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.80%) EU AI Act
8 3 (0.80%) NIST
9 2 (0.53%) GAMP
9 2 (0.53%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.27%) CDISC
10 1 (0.27%) ISO 13485
10 1 (0.27%) ITGC
System Software
1 7 (1.87%) Docker
2 5 (1.33%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.53%) vSphere
5 1 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 12 (3.20%) Terraform
2 7 (1.87%) 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 89 (23.73%) SAP
2 25 (6.67%) Microsoft
3 12 (3.20%) Oracle
4 10 (2.67%) Google
5 7 (1.87%) Databricks
5 7 (1.87%) ServiceNow
6 6 (1.60%) Ariba
7 5 (1.33%) Palo Alto
7 5 (1.33%) Salesforce
7 5 (1.33%) VMware
7 5 (1.33%) Zscaler
8 4 (1.07%) LabVantage
8 4 (1.07%) LabWare
8 4 (1.07%) MuleSoft
8 4 (1.07%) Rockwell
9 3 (0.80%) Adobe
9 3 (0.80%) Conga
9 3 (0.80%) Palantir
9 3 (0.80%) Siemens
10 2 (0.53%) Citrix