PhD Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil, EngD, Doctorate)
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the West Midlands with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 16 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 - 104
Rank change year-on-year - - -
Contract jobs citing PhD 5 0 4
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 0.16% - 0.21%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.46% - 0.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 0 4
10th Percentile - - £521
25th Percentile £450 - £553
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 - £590
75th Percentile £511 - £610
90th Percentile £534 - -
England median daily rate £626 £638 £600
% change year-on-year -1.76% +6.25% -25.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
West Midlands

PhD falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,077 428 616
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 35.37% 31.59% 31.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 768 293 391
10th Percentile £324 £150 £263
25th Percentile £408 £313 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £490 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% +8.89% -14.29%
75th Percentile £552 £600 £575
90th Percentile £638 £700 £675
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 18 36
10th Percentile £14.00 £17.26 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.20 £18.50 £22.24
Median hourly rate £25.15 £28.18 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.75% -1.12% +42.50%
75th Percentile £67.84 £36.69 £46.56
90th Percentile £75.25 £54.45 £58.75
England median hourly rate £45.46 £50.00 £39.44
% change year-on-year -9.08% +26.79% -24.19%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PhD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

PhD job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

PhD
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing PhD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing PhD

PhD
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing PhD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing PhD

PhD
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PhD within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 16 April 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
Coventry - 4 £450 - 2
Warwickshire - 1 £550 -
PhD
England

PhD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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:

Cloud Services
1 4 (80.00%) Azure
1 4 (80.00%) Azure Machine Learning
1 4 (80.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
1 4 (80.00%) Power Platform
2 1 (20.00%) SuccessFactors
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (80.00%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (80.00%) MLflow
General
1 1 (20.00%) Organisational Skills
1 1 (20.00%) Public Sector
1 1 (20.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (80.00%) Senior
2 2 (40.00%) Analyst
2 2 (40.00%) Data Analyst
2 2 (40.00%) Data Scientist
2 2 (40.00%) Senior Analyst
2 2 (40.00%) Senior Data Analyst
2 2 (40.00%) Senior Data Scientist
Miscellaneous
1 1 (20.00%) e-Learning
1 1 (20.00%) Learning Management System
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (100.00%) AI
2 4 (80.00%) A/B Testing
2 4 (80.00%) Agile
2 4 (80.00%) Business Intelligence
2 4 (80.00%) Computer Science
2 4 (80.00%) CRISP-DM
2 4 (80.00%) Data Science
2 4 (80.00%) Deep Learning
2 4 (80.00%) Experimental Design
2 4 (80.00%) ITIL
2 4 (80.00%) Machine Learning
2 4 (80.00%) Mathematics
2 4 (80.00%) MLOps
2 4 (80.00%) Natural Language Processing
2 4 (80.00%) Service Management
2 4 (80.00%) Software Engineering
2 4 (80.00%) Statistical Modelling
2 4 (80.00%) Statistics
2 4 (80.00%) Thought Leadership
2 4 (80.00%) Time Series Forecasting
Programming Languages
1 4 (80.00%) Python
1 4 (80.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 5 (100.00%) Degree
2 4 (80.00%) Master's Degree
3 1 (20.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (60.00%) Data Quality
2 1 (20.00%) QA
System Software
1 4 (80.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (80.00%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 4 (80.00%) Microsoft
2 3 (60.00%) Databricks