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 4 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 366 239 271
Rank change year-on-year -127 +32 +22
Contract jobs citing Pharmaceutical 354 358 328
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.65% 1.08% 0.86%
As % of the General category 1.15% 1.70% 1.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 238 180
10th Percentile £243 £372 £385
25th Percentile £400 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -11.96% +4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £609
90th Percentile £738 £750 £676
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £581 £525
% change year-on-year -24.70% +10.67% +3.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 12 18
10th Percentile £16.38 £18.87 £21.25
25th Percentile £21.50 £41.66 £26.44
Median hourly rate £40.61 £51.80 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.59% +47.99% +75.00%
75th Percentile £56.56 £97.50 £42.16
90th Percentile £97.50 - £56.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £18.87 £32.50
% change year-on-year +105.19% -41.94% +62.50%

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 30,700 21,001 22,220
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.19% 63.28% 58.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,860 13,046 13,160
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
25th Percentile £420 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £744 £738 £770
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,691 1,238 993
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.51 £14.78
25th Percentile £16.21 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £25.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.67% -28.36% +27.27%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £21.39 £33.00
% change year-on-year +31.32% -35.18% +23.23%

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 4 October 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 4 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Pharmaceutical in the UK

Pharmaceutical
Top 16 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 4 October 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 -127 276 £500 -9.09% 1,262
Work from Home -31 153 £529 +3.73% 776
London -44 145 £525 -4.55% 421
UK excluding London -122 121 £438 -24.70% 1,033
North of England -81 35 £438 -35.19% 219
South East -53 28 £460 -20.83% 215
North West -66 23 £475 -29.63% 126
East of England -54 22 £425 -26.72% 134
South West -24 13 £334 -55.50% 86
Midlands -33 12 £750 +42.86% 142
West Midlands - 7 - - 77
Wales -14 6 £175 -42.71% 70
North East -34 6 £200 - 43
Yorkshire -36 6 £450 +38.46% 50
Scotland -20 5 £515 -6.36% 137
East Midlands -8 3 £750 +42.86% 65

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 8 (2.26%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.41%) IIS
3 4 (1.13%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (1.13%) SAS
4 3 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.56%) Apache
5 2 (0.56%) Confluence
Applications
1 13 (3.67%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.56%) Windchill
6 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 55 (15.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.98%) SAP QM
3 4 (1.13%) SAP FI
3 4 (1.13%) SAP IBP
3 4 (1.13%) SAP SD
3 4 (1.13%) TrackWise
4 3 (0.85%) SAP CO
4 3 (0.85%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
4 3 (0.85%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.85%) SAP PP
5 2 (0.56%) ENOVIA
5 2 (0.56%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.56%) SAP GRC
5 2 (0.56%) SAP GTS
5 2 (0.56%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.28%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 1 (0.28%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 1 (0.28%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.28%) SAP MII
Cloud Services
1 43 (12.15%) Azure
2 38 (10.73%) AWS
3 20 (5.65%) Power Platform
4 18 (5.08%) Azure DevOps
4 18 (5.08%) GCP
4 18 (5.08%) Snowflake
5 16 (4.52%) GitHub
6 13 (3.67%) SaaS
7 11 (3.11%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (2.82%) Microsoft 365
9 9 (2.54%) Veeva
10 8 (2.26%) dbt
11 6 (1.69%) Serverless
12 5 (1.41%) Cloud Run
13 4 (1.13%) Amazon S3
13 4 (1.13%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (1.13%) AWS Lambda
13 4 (1.13%) Azure AI
13 4 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (1.13%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.54%) Firewall
2 8 (2.26%) DNS
3 7 (1.98%) VLAN
4 6 (1.69%) Network Security
5 5 (1.41%) DHCP
5 5 (1.41%) HTTPS
5 5 (1.41%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.85%) WAN
7 2 (0.56%) VPN
7 2 (0.56%) X.21
8 1 (0.28%) CTI
8 1 (0.28%) DMZ
8 1 (0.28%) NGFW
8 1 (0.28%) PBX
8 1 (0.28%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.28%) VoIP
8 1 (0.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.65%) Power BI
2 10 (2.82%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (2.54%) SAP BW
3 9 (2.54%) SAP HANA
4 8 (2.26%) Metadata
4 8 (2.26%) Neo4j
5 6 (1.69%) Relational Database
5 6 (1.69%) Tableau
6 5 (1.41%) MySQL
6 5 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (1.13%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.13%) Data Mining
7 4 (1.13%) NoSQL
7 4 (1.13%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.85%) Amazon Athena
8 3 (0.85%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.85%) DynamoDB
8 3 (0.85%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.56%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 14 (3.95%) Git
2 13 (3.67%) JIRA
3 8 (2.26%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.85%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.85%) GitLab
5 2 (0.56%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.56%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.28%) LSMW
6 1 (0.28%) Postman
6 1 (0.28%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.28%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.28%) TestRail
6 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 115 (32.49%) Social Skills
2 86 (24.29%) Manufacturing
3 57 (16.10%) Finance
4 53 (14.97%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (4.80%) Legal
5 17 (4.80%) Retail
6 13 (3.67%) Marketing
6 13 (3.67%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.82%) Banking
7 10 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
8 8 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.98%) Public Sector
10 5 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.13%) Automotive
11 4 (1.13%) Law
12 3 (0.85%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.85%) Billing
12 3 (0.85%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.85%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 47 (13.28%) Analyst
2 39 (11.02%) Senior
3 36 (10.17%) Consultant
4 35 (9.89%) Architect
5 30 (8.47%) Lead
6 29 (8.19%) Project Manager
7 27 (7.63%) Business Analyst
8 18 (5.08%) SAP Consultant
9 17 (4.80%) Data Engineer
10 13 (3.67%) Developer
11 11 (3.11%) SAP Architect
12 9 (2.54%) Data Analyst
12 9 (2.54%) SAP Manager
12 9 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
13 8 (2.26%) Network Engineer
13 8 (2.26%) Product Owner
14 7 (1.98%) AWS Engineer
14 7 (1.98%) Data Business Analyst
14 7 (1.98%) SAP Analyst
14 7 (1.98%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (6.21%) REST
2 11 (3.11%) Terraform
3 9 (2.54%) SOAP
4 8 (2.26%) React
4 8 (2.26%) SAP Fiori
4 8 (2.26%) SAPUI5
5 6 (1.69%) Kafka
5 6 (1.69%) SAP Basis
5 6 (1.69%) SAP PI
6 5 (1.41%) .NET
6 5 (1.41%) FastAPI
6 5 (1.41%) Middleware
7 4 (1.13%) Hibernate
7 4 (1.13%) PyTorch
7 4 (1.13%) RESTful
7 4 (1.13%) SQLAlchemy
7 4 (1.13%) XML
8 3 (0.85%) EDI
8 3 (0.85%) LangChain
8 3 (0.85%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 138 (38.98%) Life Science
2 23 (6.50%) FMCG
3 20 (5.65%) Cloud Native
3 20 (5.65%) Product Ownership
4 14 (3.95%) LIMS
5 12 (3.39%) Operational Technology
6 11 (3.11%) Data Structures
6 11 (3.11%) Onboarding
7 10 (2.82%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.26%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (2.26%) Biopharmaceutical
8 8 (2.26%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.26%) SCADA
9 7 (1.98%) CRISPR
9 7 (1.98%) Genomics
10 6 (1.69%) AI Agents
10 6 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.69%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (1.69%) NHS
11 5 (1.41%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 24 (6.78%) Windows
2 9 (2.54%) Windows Server
3 5 (1.41%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.28%) Android
4 1 (0.28%) Linux
4 1 (0.28%) VMS
4 1 (0.28%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (25.42%) Stakeholder Management
2 73 (20.62%) AI
3 60 (16.95%) Problem-Solving
4 55 (15.54%) Agile
5 53 (14.97%) Validation
6 48 (13.56%) Analytics
7 47 (13.28%) Continuous Improvement
8 44 (12.43%) Biotechnology
9 40 (11.30%) Roadmaps
10 35 (9.89%) CI/CD
10 35 (9.89%) Migration
11 34 (9.60%) DevOps
12 30 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 29 (8.19%) Machine Learning
14 28 (7.91%) Data Governance
14 28 (7.91%) Decision-Making
15 27 (7.63%) Data Pipeline
15 27 (7.63%) Project Management
16 26 (7.34%) Data Modelling
16 26 (7.34%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 50 (14.12%) Python
2 31 (8.76%) SQL
3 7 (1.98%) Java
4 6 (1.69%) ABAP
4 6 (1.69%) JavaScript
5 5 (1.41%) R
6 4 (1.13%) PowerShell
7 3 (0.85%) C#
7 3 (0.85%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.56%) Cypher
8 2 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.56%) Korn
9 1 (0.28%) Apex Code
9 1 (0.28%) Gremlin
9 1 (0.28%) Groovy
9 1 (0.28%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.28%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 58 (16.38%) Degree
2 13 (3.67%) PMI Certification
3 12 (3.39%) DBS Check
3 12 (3.39%) PMP
3 12 (3.39%) Security Cleared
4 7 (1.98%) SC Cleared
5 6 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (1.69%) Master's Degree
6 5 (1.41%) CSPO
6 5 (1.41%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (1.41%) PhD
7 4 (1.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 4 (1.13%) MCITP
8 3 (0.85%) CAPM
8 3 (0.85%) Chartered Engineer
8 3 (0.85%) CISM
8 3 (0.85%) CISSP
8 3 (0.85%) Postgraduate
9 2 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.56%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (15.25%) GxP
2 28 (7.91%) Data Quality
3 18 (5.08%) QA
4 16 (4.52%) GMP
5 12 (3.39%) 21 CFR Part 11
5 12 (3.39%) GDPR
6 10 (2.82%) GRC
7 9 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 8 (2.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (1.69%) HIPAA
10 5 (1.41%) PCI DSS
10 5 (1.41%) PMO
11 4 (1.13%) NIST
12 2 (0.56%) EU AI Act
12 2 (0.56%) GAMP
12 2 (0.56%) IEC 61508
13 1 (0.28%) CDISC
13 1 (0.28%) COSHH
13 1 (0.28%) NEBOSH
13 1 (0.28%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 16 (4.52%) Docker
2 8 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.69%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.13%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 10 (2.82%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.13%) SCCM
3 2 (0.56%) Functional Safety
4 1 (0.28%) Apache Ranger
4 1 (0.28%) Grafana
4 1 (0.28%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.28%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 1 (0.28%) WSUS
Vendors
1 75 (21.19%) SAP
2 36 (10.17%) Microsoft
3 10 (2.82%) Ariba
4 9 (2.54%) Databricks
4 9 (2.54%) Palo Alto
4 9 (2.54%) VMware
4 9 (2.54%) Zscaler
5 8 (2.26%) Google
5 8 (2.26%) Oracle
6 7 (1.98%) ServiceNow
7 6 (1.69%) Rockwell
7 6 (1.69%) Salesforce
8 5 (1.41%) Cisco
8 5 (1.41%) Citrix
9 4 (1.13%) Foundry
9 4 (1.13%) JD Edwards
9 4 (1.13%) LabVantage
10 3 (0.85%) Conga
11 2 (0.56%) LabWare
11 2 (0.56%) SYSPRO