Software Engineering Manager Contract Job Trends

Software Engineering Manager
UK

The median Software Engineering Manager daily rate in the UK is £650, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 September 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
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 537 562 651
Rank change year-on-year +25 +89 +178
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineering Manager 10 7 11
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.031% 0.018% 0.022%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.034% 0.020% 0.023%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 4 6
10th Percentile £516 £652 £519
25th Percentile £522 £655 £568
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £681 £725
Median % change year-on-year -4.59% -6.03% +3.57%
75th Percentile £772 £709 £738
90th Percentile £811 £726 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £650 £534
% change year-on-year -17.31% +21.78% -5.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £57.50
Median hourly rate - - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £62.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £60.00

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 29,740 35,350 47,152
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.95% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,772 21,777 32,303
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,564 1,687 1,507
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £52.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

Software Engineering Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Software Engineering Manager in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineering Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineering Manager job vacancies in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering Manager over the 6 months to 16 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering Manager in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineering Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineering Manager job vacancies in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Top 9 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineering Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 16 September 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
UK excluding London +11 8 £538 -17.31% 29
England +14 7 £650 -4.59% 38
North of England -10 4 £525 -19.23% 10
Yorkshire -12 3 - - 3
Wales - 3 - -
Work from Home +35 2 £788 +13.51% 11
London +26 2 £788 +12.50% 14
North West - 1 £525 - 7
South West - 1 £550 - 1

Software Engineering Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2025, Software Engineering Manager 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 Engineering Manager in the job title.

1 9 (90.00%) Software Engineering
2 6 (60.00%) Agile
3 5 (50.00%) Finance
4 4 (40.00%) Social Skills
4 4 (40.00%) Roadmaps
4 4 (40.00%) Strategic Planning
4 4 (40.00%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 3 (30.00%) Time Management
5 3 (30.00%) People Management
5 3 (30.00%) Scrum
5 3 (30.00%) Change Management
5 3 (30.00%) VB.NET
5 3 (30.00%) .NET
5 3 (30.00%) SQL Server
5 3 (30.00%) IIS
5 3 (30.00%) ASP.NET
5 3 (30.00%) PRINCE2
5 3 (30.00%) MSMQ
5 3 (30.00%) N-Tier
5 3 (30.00%) PMP
5 3 (30.00%) Project Management
5 3 (30.00%) .NET Framework
5 3 (30.00%) Matrix Organization
5 3 (30.00%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (30.00%) Critical Thinking
5 3 (30.00%) Collaborative Working
5 3 (30.00%) Focus Group
5 3 (30.00%) Budgeting
5 3 (30.00%) Influencing Skills

Software Engineering Manager 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 3 (30.00%) IIS
Cloud Services
1 2 (20.00%) AWS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (30.00%) SQL Server
General
1 5 (50.00%) Finance
2 4 (40.00%) Social Skills
3 3 (30.00%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (30.00%) .NET
1 3 (30.00%) .NET Framework
1 3 (30.00%) ASP.NET
1 3 (30.00%) MSMQ
2 1 (10.00%) Next.js
2 1 (10.00%) React
Miscellaneous
1 3 (30.00%) N-Tier
2 1 (10.00%) Cloud Native
2 1 (10.00%) Distributed Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (90.00%) Software Engineering
2 6 (60.00%) Agile
3 4 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 4 (40.00%) Roadmaps
3 4 (40.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 4 (40.00%) Strategic Planning
4 3 (30.00%) Budgeting
4 3 (30.00%) Business Strategy
4 3 (30.00%) Change Management
4 3 (30.00%) Collaborative Working
4 3 (30.00%) Critical Thinking
4 3 (30.00%) Focus Group
4 3 (30.00%) Matrix Organization
4 3 (30.00%) People Management
4 3 (30.00%) PRINCE2
4 3 (30.00%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (30.00%) Project Management
4 3 (30.00%) Scrum
4 3 (30.00%) Time Management
5 2 (20.00%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 3 (30.00%) VB.NET
2 2 (20.00%) Java
3 1 (10.00%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 3 (30.00%) PMP