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

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 250 249
Rank change year-on-year -44 -1 +121
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 324 310 430
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 0.97% 0.99%
As % of the General category 1.45% 1.58% 1.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 211 166 295
10th Percentile £350 £350 £285
25th Percentile £463 £441 £454
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% +4.48%
75th Percentile £659 £638 £588
90th Percentile £775 £700 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £534 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.71% - +16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 24 21
10th Percentile £18.87 £19.00 £17.25
25th Percentile £34.06 £24.18 £20.00
Median hourly rate £75.00 £32.50 £25.50
Median % change year-on-year +130.77% +27.45% +56.92%
75th Percentile £97.50 £35.00 £60.00
90th Percentile - £84.83 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.87 £32.50 £31.25
% change year-on-year -41.94% +4.00% +108.33%

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 22,421 19,586 25,516
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 60.10% 61.57% 58.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,109 11,683 16,675
10th Percentile £283 £285 £270
25th Percentile £400 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £727 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,372 660 1,289
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.48 £13.48
25th Percentile £16.48 £19.94 £15.75
Median hourly rate £23.00 £27.50 £29.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.36% -5.17% +16.00%
75th Percentile £46.00 £53.75 £56.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.38 £26.50 £27.08
% change year-on-year -19.32% -2.15% +20.37%

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 17 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 17 January 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 17 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 -68 246 £528 -4.09% 343
Work from Home +10 121 £525 -4.55% 129
London +35 110 £575 -4.17% 46
UK excluding London -92 104 £534 +1.71% 339
East of England -33 40 £500 -4.76% 48
North of England -105 29 £540 +0.93% 65
South East -2 26 £565 +165.76% 99
North West -60 26 £558 +2.29% 26
South West - 5 £700 - 50
Scotland +3 3 £550 +54.93% 9
East Midlands -31 2 £525 -12.50% 28
Midlands -42 2 £525 -12.50% 49
Yorkshire -56 2 £325 -5.25% 30
Wales +2 1 £183 - 19
North East -14 1 - - 11

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 (2.16%) Apache Airflow
1 7 (2.16%) Confluence
2 5 (1.54%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.93%) CMS
3 3 (0.93%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.31%) Headless CMS
4 1 (0.31%) Mendix
Applications
1 13 (4.01%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.93%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.62%) Weka
5 1 (0.31%) Adobe After Effects
5 1 (0.31%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.31%) InDesign
5 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.31%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 83 (25.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (2.47%) SAP QM
3 7 (2.16%) SAP CO
3 7 (2.16%) SAP MM
4 6 (1.85%) SAP EWM
4 6 (1.85%) SAP FI
4 6 (1.85%) SAP FI/CO
5 5 (1.54%) SAP MDG
5 5 (1.54%) SAP PP
6 4 (1.23%) SAP WM
7 3 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
7 3 (0.93%) SAP IBP
7 3 (0.93%) SAP PM
7 3 (0.93%) SAP SD
8 2 (0.62%) PRMS
8 2 (0.62%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.62%) SAP PLM
8 2 (0.62%) SAP SCM
9 1 (0.31%) Cerner Millennium
9 1 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 43 (13.27%) AWS
2 39 (12.04%) Azure
3 27 (8.33%) GCP
3 27 (8.33%) Power Platform
4 18 (5.56%) GitHub
5 14 (4.32%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (4.32%) Snowflake
6 12 (3.70%) Cloud Run
7 6 (1.85%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (1.85%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 5 (1.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 5 (1.54%) dbt
8 5 (1.54%) Veeva
9 4 (1.23%) Amazon S3
9 4 (1.23%) Azure Data Factory
9 4 (1.23%) Figma
9 4 (1.23%) IaaS
9 4 (1.23%) SaaS
10 3 (0.93%) Amazon EC2
10 3 (0.93%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.47%) Network Security
2 4 (1.23%) Firewall
2 4 (1.23%) Wireless
3 3 (0.93%) Ethernet
3 3 (0.93%) Modbus
3 3 (0.93%) RS-485
4 2 (0.62%) BGP
4 2 (0.62%) OSPF
5 1 (0.31%) Cisco ICM
5 1 (0.31%) DHCP
5 1 (0.31%) DNS
5 1 (0.31%) RFID
5 1 (0.31%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.31%) SMS
5 1 (0.31%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.31%) Telepresence
5 1 (0.31%) VPN
5 1 (0.31%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.33%) Power BI
2 17 (5.25%) Data Lake
3 11 (3.40%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (2.16%) SAP HANA
5 6 (1.85%) Electronic Patient Records
6 5 (1.54%) BigQuery
7 4 (1.23%) Metadata
7 4 (1.23%) Tableau
8 3 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.93%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.62%) Ataccama
9 2 (0.62%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.62%) Neo4j
9 2 (0.62%) SAP Data Services
10 1 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
10 1 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.31%) Big Data
10 1 (0.31%) KNIME
10 1 (0.31%) Power Query
10 1 (0.31%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 19 (5.86%) Git
2 16 (4.94%) JIRA
3 5 (1.54%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.93%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.62%) CircleCI
5 2 (0.62%) GitLab
5 2 (0.62%) LSMW
5 2 (0.62%) Selenium
6 1 (0.31%) PHPUnit
6 1 (0.31%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.31%) Zephyr
General
1 85 (26.23%) Social Skills
2 69 (21.30%) Manufacturing
3 55 (16.98%) Finance
4 24 (7.41%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (4.01%) Influencing Skills
5 13 (4.01%) Marketing
6 11 (3.40%) Aerospace
7 10 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.54%) Public Sector
10 4 (1.23%) Health Technology
11 3 (0.93%) Digital Health
11 3 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.93%) Retail
11 3 (0.93%) Wearables
12 2 (0.62%) Banking
12 2 (0.62%) Digital Healthcare
12 2 (0.62%) Legal
13 1 (0.31%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 37 (11.42%) Lead
2 31 (9.57%) Consultant
3 25 (7.72%) Analyst
4 24 (7.41%) SAP Consultant
5 20 (6.17%) Developer
6 19 (5.86%) Architect
6 19 (5.86%) Project Manager
7 17 (5.25%) Senior
8 15 (4.63%) Python Developer
9 14 (4.32%) Data Engineer
10 12 (3.70%) Data Scientist
11 11 (3.40%) Full-Stack Developer
12 10 (3.09%) Designer
12 10 (3.09%) Full-Stack Python Developer
12 10 (3.09%) IT Manager
12 10 (3.09%) SAP Manager
12 10 (3.09%) Software Engineer
13 9 (2.78%) Business Analyst
13 9 (2.78%) Data Analytics Specialist
13 9 (2.78%) Quality Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (5.56%) FastAPI
1 18 (5.56%) pytest
2 15 (4.63%) React
3 13 (4.01%) SAP Fiori
4 11 (3.40%) LangGraph
5 6 (1.85%) Playwright
6 3 (0.93%) EDI
6 3 (0.93%) MACH
6 3 (0.93%) pydantic
7 2 (0.62%) FHIR
7 2 (0.62%) IDoc
7 2 (0.62%) Jest
7 2 (0.62%) Next.js
7 2 (0.62%) RESTful
7 2 (0.62%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.62%) SAP PI
7 2 (0.62%) SOAP
8 1 (0.31%) AngularJS
8 1 (0.31%) Flask
8 1 (0.31%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 59 (18.21%) Life Science
2 21 (6.48%) Genomics
3 17 (5.25%) Cloud Native
4 13 (4.01%) FMCG
5 11 (3.40%) Onboarding
6 9 (2.78%) NHS
6 9 (2.78%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.16%) Data Structures
7 7 (2.16%) Operational Technology
8 6 (1.85%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.54%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.54%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (1.54%) LIMS
10 4 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.23%) Management Information System
10 4 (1.23%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.23%) SCADA
10 4 (1.23%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 14 (4.32%) Windows
2 6 (1.85%) Apple iOS
3 4 (1.23%) Linux
3 4 (1.23%) Mac OS
3 4 (1.23%) Windows 10
4 3 (0.93%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (17.59%) AI
2 56 (17.28%) Stakeholder Management
3 52 (16.05%) Agile
4 48 (14.81%) Analytics
5 43 (13.27%) ERP
5 43 (13.27%) Machine Learning
6 41 (12.65%) Continuous Improvement
7 37 (11.42%) Validation
8 35 (10.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 34 (10.49%) DevOps
9 34 (10.49%) Problem-Solving
10 33 (10.19%) Migration
11 28 (8.64%) Biotechnology
12 26 (8.02%) Data Science
13 25 (7.72%) Decision-Making
14 24 (7.41%) Change Management
14 24 (7.41%) Project Management
14 24 (7.41%) Roadmaps
15 23 (7.10%) Test Automation
16 22 (6.79%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 66 (20.37%) Python
2 28 (8.64%) SQL
3 16 (4.94%) TypeScript
4 14 (4.32%) R
5 10 (3.09%) Java
6 7 (2.16%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.93%) ABAP
8 2 (0.62%) Bash
8 2 (0.62%) Ruby
9 1 (0.31%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.31%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.31%) PHP
9 1 (0.31%) Scala
9 1 (0.31%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 51 (15.74%) Degree
2 15 (4.63%) Master's Degree
3 11 (3.40%) ACCA
3 11 (3.40%) CIMA
4 9 (2.78%) A+ Certification
4 9 (2.78%) PMI Certification
4 9 (2.78%) PMP
4 9 (2.78%) Security Cleared
5 6 (1.85%) SC Cleared
6 4 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (0.93%) CCNP
7 3 (0.93%) CCSA
7 3 (0.93%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (0.93%) Six Sigma Green Belt
8 2 (0.62%) CISA
8 2 (0.62%) CISM
8 2 (0.62%) CISSP
8 2 (0.62%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (0.31%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (9.57%) GxP
2 16 (4.94%) GMP
3 15 (4.63%) QA
4 11 (3.40%) Data Quality
4 11 (3.40%) GDPR
5 7 (2.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (1.23%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.23%) PMO
7 3 (0.93%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 3 (0.93%) SLA
8 2 (0.62%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.62%) HL7
8 2 (0.62%) IFRS
8 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.31%) GAMP
9 1 (0.31%) GRC
9 1 (0.31%) IEC 62304
9 1 (0.31%) ISO 13485
9 1 (0.31%) MiFID
9 1 (0.31%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 28 (8.64%) Docker
2 5 (1.54%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 3 (0.93%) Lustre
4 2 (0.62%) GPFS
5 1 (0.31%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 21 (6.48%) Kubernetes
2 9 (2.78%) Terraform
3 5 (1.54%) Ansible
4 3 (0.93%) Packer
4 3 (0.93%) SCCM
5 2 (0.62%) HP ALM
5 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.62%) Puppet
5 2 (0.62%) Salt
6 1 (0.31%) Cisco UCCE
6 1 (0.31%) Cisco UCCX
6 1 (0.31%) NetBackup
6 1 (0.31%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 1 (0.31%) TeamSite
Vendors
1 112 (34.57%) SAP
2 35 (10.80%) Microsoft
3 22 (6.79%) Google
4 11 (3.40%) Ariba
5 7 (2.16%) SOTI
6 6 (1.85%) Palo Alto
6 6 (1.85%) Salesforce
7 5 (1.54%) ServiceNow
7 5 (1.54%) Zscaler
8 4 (1.23%) Cisco
8 4 (1.23%) HP
8 4 (1.23%) Oracle
9 3 (0.93%) Cerner
9 3 (0.93%) Databricks
9 3 (0.93%) IBM
9 3 (0.93%) LabWare
9 3 (0.93%) MEDITECH
10 2 (0.62%) CyberArk
10 2 (0.62%) Meraki
10 2 (0.62%) Rockwell