Software Engineer Contracts

Software Engineer
UK

The median Software Engineer daily rate in the UK is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 February 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 124 110 138
Rank change year-on-year -14 +28 -6
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 646 927 1,338
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.11% 2.09% 1.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.27% 2.24% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 387 471 887
10th Percentile £400 £413 £442
25th Percentile £475 £475 £503
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £600 £588
Median % change year-on-year - +2.13% +2.17%
75th Percentile £713 £725 £675
90th Percentile £850 £788 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% +8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 278 137
10th Percentile £51.25 £46.25 £45.75
25th Percentile £59.00 £52.50 £52.79
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +23.81%
75th Percentile £68.00 £67.38 £70.30
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £71.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +18.18%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 28,495 41,307 63,552
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.87% 93.09% 94.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,642 27,148 44,224
10th Percentile £288 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 809 2,323 1,677
10th Percentile £16.25 £13.15 £13.75
25th Percentile £21.46 £16.50 £18.09
Median hourly rate £34.11 £35.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.54% -9.09% +72.80%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £35.58 £35.00
% change year-on-year -8.64% +1.64% +86.67%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Software Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Software Engineer in the UK

Software Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software Engineer.

Daily rate trend for Software Engineer in the UK

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer over the 6 months to 18 February 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in the UK

Software Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for Software Engineer in the UK

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineer over the 6 months to 18 February 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineer in the UK

Software Engineer
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 18 February 2025. 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 -17 573 £600 -4.00% 1,365
London +24 306 £625 -3.85% 609
UK excluding London -31 297 £500 -4.76% 938
Work from Home -1 260 £625 +4.17% 777
South West +29 106 £583 +5.91% 131
South East -15 53 £513 -2.38% 349
North of England -26 49 £475 -11.46% 161
North West -36 30 £450 -18.18% 91
Scotland +31 28 £500 +17.65% 58
East of England -36 27 £583 +16.50% 158
Midlands +14 16 £463 -7.50% 74
Yorkshire +23 13 £506 +6.58% 32
Northern Ireland +7 11 £325 -51.85% 8
West Midlands +10 8 £475 -5.00% 42
Wales -2 7 £503 +5.79% 24
North East -11 6 - - 38
East Midlands +9 4 £490 +26.45% 27

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 February 2025, Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 631 (97.68%) Software Engineering
2 262 (40.56%) Agile
3 258 (39.94%) Python
4 227 (35.14%) AWS
5 197 (30.50%) JavaScript
6 186 (28.79%) Java
7 180 (27.86%) Finance
8 171 (26.47%) TypeScript
9 144 (22.29%) CI/CD
10 131 (20.28%) React
11 124 (19.20%) Node.js
12 120 (18.58%) Front Office
13 119 (18.42%) Security Cleared
14 114 (17.65%) SQL
15 113 (17.49%) Linux
16 112 (17.34%) GCP
17 106 (16.41%) C++
18 98 (15.17%) Fixed Income
19 97 (15.02%) Kubernetes
20 96 (14.86%) SC Cleared
21 95 (14.71%) Asset Management
21 95 (14.71%) Social Skills
22 91 (14.09%) Git
22 91 (14.09%) Azure
23 89 (13.78%) C#
24 85 (13.16%) PostgreSQL
25 81 (12.54%) Docker
26 79 (12.23%) DevOps
26 79 (12.23%) Fintech
26 79 (12.23%) Problem-Solving

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 56 (8.67%) Apache
2 48 (7.43%) Apache Airflow
3 15 (2.32%) Confluence
4 10 (1.55%) MQSeries
5 7 (1.08%) CMS
5 7 (1.08%) WordPress
6 6 (0.93%) Drupal
7 4 (0.62%) SAS
8 2 (0.31%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.31%) BizTalk Server
8 2 (0.31%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.15%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.15%) WinCC
Applications
1 12 (1.86%) Simulink
2 9 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.15%) CANalyzer
3 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 16 (2.48%) BASE24
2 4 (0.62%) Misys Midas
3 3 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.46%) SAP ERP
3 3 (0.46%) SAP EWM
3 3 (0.46%) SAP GTS
3 3 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.15%) Endur
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle TCA
Cloud Services
1 227 (35.14%) AWS
2 112 (17.34%) GCP
3 91 (14.09%) Azure
4 48 (7.43%) dbt
5 40 (6.19%) GitHub
6 33 (5.11%) Snowflake
7 31 (4.80%) Amazon EC2
7 31 (4.80%) Amazon ECS
8 30 (4.64%) Serverless
9 23 (3.56%) AWS Lambda
10 21 (3.25%) Amazon EKS
11 19 (2.94%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (2.79%) Azure DevOps
13 16 (2.48%) Dagster
14 15 (2.32%) Amazon S3
14 15 (2.32%) AWS CloudFormation
14 15 (2.32%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 14 (2.17%) Power Platform
16 13 (2.01%) Apple Pay
16 13 (2.01%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.01%) ATM
2 11 (1.70%) TCP/IP
3 7 (1.08%) Ethernet
3 7 (1.08%) Internet
4 6 (0.93%) HTTP
5 4 (0.62%) 3GPP
6 3 (0.46%) DNS
6 3 (0.46%) Network Security
6 3 (0.46%) VPN
7 2 (0.31%) 4G
7 2 (0.31%) 5G
7 2 (0.31%) 5G NR
7 2 (0.31%) Firewall
7 2 (0.31%) FTP
7 2 (0.31%) LTE
7 2 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
7 2 (0.31%) SMTP
7 2 (0.31%) Software-Defined Networking
7 2 (0.31%) Wireless
8 1 (0.15%) Link 16
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (13.16%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (7.74%) Amazon Athena
3 48 (7.43%) Apache Arrow
3 48 (7.43%) Apache Iceberg
3 48 (7.43%) Dremio
4 42 (6.50%) Apache Ignite
5 32 (4.95%) SQL Server
6 25 (3.87%) NoSQL
7 24 (3.72%) Data Lake
8 23 (3.56%) Redis
9 22 (3.41%) Relational Database
10 21 (3.25%) MongoDB
11 18 (2.79%) MySQL
12 13 (2.01%) NonStop SQL
13 11 (1.70%) Big Data
13 11 (1.70%) Power BI
14 10 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
15 9 (1.39%) Elasticsearch
15 9 (1.39%) Power Query
16 8 (1.24%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 91 (14.09%) Git
2 46 (7.12%) Jenkins
3 43 (6.66%) JIRA
4 29 (4.49%) Bitbucket
5 25 (3.87%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (3.41%) GitLab
7 16 (2.48%) Visual Studio
8 14 (2.17%) GoogleTest
8 14 (2.17%) TestRail
9 12 (1.86%) Maven
10 10 (1.55%) Cucumber
10 10 (1.55%) Rational Rhapsody
11 9 (1.39%) JUnit
11 9 (1.39%) Subversion
12 8 (1.24%) Eclipse
12 8 (1.24%) Selenium
13 6 (0.93%) Ant
13 6 (0.93%) Bitbucket Server
13 6 (0.93%) SonarQube
13 6 (0.93%) TeamCity
General
1 180 (27.86%) Finance
2 120 (18.58%) Front Office
3 95 (14.71%) Social Skills
4 61 (9.44%) Banking
5 33 (5.11%) Investment Banking
6 31 (4.80%) Public Sector
7 23 (3.56%) Aerospace
8 21 (3.25%) Electronics
9 20 (3.10%) Analytical Skills
10 15 (2.32%) Automotive
10 15 (2.32%) Military
11 13 (2.01%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (1.24%) Retail
14 6 (0.93%) Law
15 5 (0.77%) Financial Institution
15 5 (0.77%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.77%) Wholesale Banking
16 4 (0.62%) Avionics
17 3 (0.46%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 131 (20.28%) React
2 124 (19.20%) Node.js
3 67 (10.37%) .NET
4 62 (9.60%) Redux
5 59 (9.13%) AngularJS
6 56 (8.67%) NumPy
6 56 (8.67%) Pandas
7 55 (8.51%) SciPy
8 51 (7.89%) gRPC
9 46 (7.12%) Vue
10 45 (6.97%) RESTful
11 43 (6.66%) Protocol Buffers
12 38 (5.88%) Kafka
13 35 (5.42%) Spring
14 34 (5.26%) CSS
14 34 (5.26%) HTML
14 34 (5.26%) Web Services
15 32 (4.95%) Spring Boot
16 24 (3.72%) JSON
16 24 (3.72%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 98 (15.17%) Fixed Income
2 44 (6.81%) Equities
3 43 (6.66%) Derivative
4 35 (5.42%) Hedge funds
5 32 (4.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 23 (3.56%) Product Ownership
7 20 (3.10%) Cloud Native
7 20 (3.10%) Greenfield Project
8 12 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
9 11 (1.70%) Algorithms
9 11 (1.70%) ARM Cortex
9 11 (1.70%) Equity Derivative
9 11 (1.70%) Hybrid Cloud
10 10 (1.55%) Replication
11 8 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
12 7 (1.08%) Mobile App
13 6 (0.93%) Legacy Code
13 6 (0.93%) Public Cloud
14 5 (0.77%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 113 (17.49%) Linux
2 31 (4.80%) Windows
3 16 (2.48%) Embedded Linux
3 16 (2.48%) Unix
4 11 (1.70%) Android
4 11 (1.70%) FreeRTOS
5 9 (1.39%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.93%) VxWorks
7 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.15%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 631 (97.68%) Software Engineering
2 262 (40.56%) Agile
3 144 (22.29%) CI/CD
4 95 (14.71%) Asset Management
5 79 (12.23%) DevOps
5 79 (12.23%) Fintech
5 79 (12.23%) Problem-Solving
6 73 (11.30%) Microservices
7 72 (11.15%) Investment Management
8 70 (10.84%) Test Automation
9 58 (8.98%) TDD
10 57 (8.82%) OO
11 56 (8.67%) User Experience
12 53 (8.20%) Code Quality
13 48 (7.43%) Clean Code
14 47 (7.28%) Continuous Integration
15 44 (6.81%) Visualisation
16 43 (6.66%) Full-Stack Development
17 40 (6.19%) Design Patterns
17 40 (6.19%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 258 (39.94%) Python
2 197 (30.50%) JavaScript
3 186 (28.79%) Java
4 171 (26.47%) TypeScript
5 114 (17.65%) SQL
6 106 (16.41%) C++
7 89 (13.78%) C#
8 74 (11.46%) C
9 40 (6.19%) Ada
10 21 (3.25%) Embedded C
11 20 (3.10%) Go
12 18 (2.79%) Kotlin
13 17 (2.63%) PHP
14 15 (2.32%) Bash
14 15 (2.32%) Embedded C++
15 13 (2.01%) MATLAB
15 13 (2.01%) T-SQL
16 10 (1.55%) Scala
17 9 (1.39%) PowerShell
17 9 (1.39%) R
Qualifications
1 119 (18.42%) Security Cleared
2 96 (14.86%) SC Cleared
3 46 (7.12%) Degree
4 34 (5.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 21 (3.25%) DV Cleared
6 5 (0.77%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (0.62%) Numerate Degree
8 3 (0.46%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.31%) SANS
10 1 (0.15%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.15%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.15%) CCNP
10 1 (0.15%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.15%) HND
10 1 (0.15%) OCA
10 1 (0.15%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.15%) RHCA
10 1 (0.15%) RHCE
10 1 (0.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (2.79%) Def Stans
1 18 (2.79%) IEC 61508
2 16 (2.48%) ISO 8583
3 15 (2.32%) MISRA
4 14 (2.17%) MISRA C
4 14 (2.17%) QA
5 13 (2.01%) PSD2
6 8 (1.24%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.77%) DO-178B
8 2 (0.31%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.31%) ISO 26262
9 1 (0.15%) AUTOSAR
9 1 (0.15%) ISO 13485
9 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.15%) MiFID
9 1 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.15%) SLA
9 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 81 (12.54%) Docker
2 5 (0.77%) Firmware
3 2 (0.31%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.15%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 97 (15.02%) Kubernetes
2 38 (5.88%) Terraform
3 22 (3.41%) Ansible
4 5 (0.77%) Progress Chef
5 4 (0.62%) Grafana
5 4 (0.62%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.46%) Istio
6 3 (0.46%) Puppet
7 2 (0.31%) Argo
7 2 (0.31%) Podman
8 1 (0.15%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.15%) Functional Safety
8 1 (0.15%) PowerCLI
8 1 (0.15%) Rancher
8 1 (0.15%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.15%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.15%) WMI
Vendors
1 51 (7.89%) Microsoft
2 30 (4.64%) Google
3 29 (4.49%) Oracle
4 23 (3.56%) IBM
5 13 (2.01%) Databricks
5 13 (2.01%) HP
6 11 (1.70%) Atlassian
6 11 (1.70%) Lauterbach
7 10 (1.55%) Confluent
7 10 (1.55%) MKS
8 6 (0.93%) SAP
8 6 (0.93%) Zend
9 4 (0.62%) Red Hat
10 3 (0.46%) ForgeRock
10 3 (0.46%) Foundry
10 3 (0.46%) Intel
10 3 (0.46%) Ping Identity
10 3 (0.46%) Veracode
10 3 (0.46%) Virgin Media
10 3 (0.46%) Wind River