Hybrid/Remote Distributed Systems Contract Job Trends

Distributed Systems
UK > Work from Home

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Distributed Systems in remote or hybrid contract work. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Distributed Systems over the 6 months leading up to 21 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 195 265 327
Rank change year-on-year +70 +62 +14
Contract jobs citing Distributed Systems 113 66 95
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 1.16% 0.52% 0.47%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 3.30% 1.71% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 50 74
10th Percentile £359 £396 £463
25th Percentile £420 £443 £536
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £650
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -11.54% -3.70%
75th Percentile £622 £708 £725
90th Percentile £750 £926 £768
UK median daily rate £525 £575 £625
% change year-on-year -8.70% -8.00% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 0
10th Percentile £61.40 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £67.00 - -
75th Percentile £83.75 - -
90th Percentile £87.50 - -
UK median hourly rate £67.00 £70.00 £90.00
% change year-on-year -4.29% -22.22% +35.85%

All Generic Skills
Work from Home

Distributed Systems falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with remote or hybrid options requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 3,428 3,851 6,301
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 35.33% 30.41% 31.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,203 2,511 4,508
10th Percentile £329 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -
75th Percentile £650 £688 £675
90th Percentile £804 £850 £775
UK median daily rate £515 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -4.63% -1.82% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 90 141
10th Percentile £14.07 £20.18 £19.99
25th Percentile £24.77 £31.26 £25.71
Median hourly rate £34.00 £64.25 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.08% +22.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.68 £85.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.50 £50.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.00% +12.36% +67.92%

Distributed Systems
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options citing Distributed Systems as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Distributed Systems trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

Distributed Systems
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with Hybrid Work Options

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs with remote work options citing Distributed Systems.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs with remote work options citing Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems
Daily Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Distributed Systems over the 6 months to 21 September 2025.

Distributed Systems daily rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Distributed Systems
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with Hybrid Work Options

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs with remote work options citing Distributed Systems.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs with remote work options citing Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems
Hourly Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Hourly rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Distributed Systems over the 6 months to 21 September 2025.

Distributed Systems hourly rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Distributed Systems
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options 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 4 (3.54%) Apache
2 3 (2.65%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.77%) Confluence
3 2 (1.77%) JBoss
4 1 (0.88%) CICS
4 1 (0.88%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.88%) Oracle Coherence
4 1 (0.88%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (3.54%) Aladdin
1 4 (3.54%) Fidessa
1 4 (3.54%) thinkFolio
2 3 (2.65%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 48 (42.48%) AWS
2 33 (29.20%) Azure
3 20 (17.70%) GCP
4 18 (15.93%) Serverless
5 17 (15.04%) GitHub
6 12 (10.62%) GitHub Actions
7 11 (9.73%) Amazon EC2
8 10 (8.85%) Cloud Computing
9 7 (6.19%) Amazon S3
9 7 (6.19%) Azure Logic Apps
9 7 (6.19%) Azure Service Bus
10 6 (5.31%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 5 (4.42%) Amazon SQS
11 5 (4.42%) AWS Lambda
11 5 (4.42%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (3.54%) Amazon ECS
12 4 (3.54%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 4 (3.54%) Azure Functions
13 3 (2.65%) AWS KMS
13 3 (2.65%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.54%) DNS
2 3 (2.65%) Firewall
2 3 (2.65%) TCP/IP
3 2 (1.77%) MQTT
3 2 (1.77%) SAN
4 1 (0.88%) HTTP
4 1 (0.88%) Multicast
4 1 (0.88%) VoLTE
4 1 (0.88%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (16.81%) PostgreSQL
2 9 (7.96%) Redis
3 8 (7.08%) Amazon RDS
3 8 (7.08%) NoSQL
4 7 (6.19%) DynamoDB
4 7 (6.19%) Oracle Database
5 6 (5.31%) SQL Server
6 4 (3.54%) Amazon Aurora
6 4 (3.54%) Apache Cassandra
6 4 (3.54%) Big Data
6 4 (3.54%) MySQL
7 3 (2.65%) BigQuery
7 3 (2.65%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (2.65%) Hadoop
7 3 (2.65%) MongoDB
7 3 (2.65%) Relational Database
8 2 (1.77%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (1.77%) Flink
8 2 (1.77%) Pinecone
8 2 (1.77%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 20 (17.70%) Git
2 17 (15.04%) Jenkins
3 13 (11.50%) JUnit
4 12 (10.62%) JIRA
4 12 (10.62%) Maven
5 11 (9.73%) Mockito
6 9 (7.96%) SonarQube
7 8 (7.08%) Postman
8 7 (6.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 7 (6.19%) GitLab
9 6 (5.31%) REST Assured
9 6 (5.31%) SoapUI
9 6 (5.31%) Subversion
9 6 (5.31%) Xcode
9 6 (5.31%) XCTest
10 4 (3.54%) Cypress.io
10 4 (3.54%) Liquibase
10 4 (3.54%) Visual Studio
11 3 (2.65%) DbUnit
11 3 (2.65%) jMock
General
1 55 (48.67%) Social Skills
2 38 (33.63%) Finance
3 29 (25.66%) Banking
4 13 (11.50%) Investment Banking
5 8 (7.08%) Public Sector
6 7 (6.19%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (4.42%) Front Office
8 2 (1.77%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.77%) Games
8 2 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (1.77%) Retail
9 1 (0.88%) Agriculture
9 1 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.88%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 32 (28.32%) Developer
2 18 (15.93%) Senior
3 17 (15.04%) Java Developer
4 16 (14.16%) Software Engineer
5 15 (13.27%) Java Engineer
6 11 (9.73%) Python Engineer
7 10 (8.85%) Architect
8 6 (5.31%) Java Software Engineer
8 6 (5.31%) JavaScript Engineer
9 5 (4.42%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 5 (4.42%) Senior Software Engineer
10 4 (3.54%) .NET Architect
10 4 (3.54%) Consultant
10 4 (3.54%) DevOps Engineer
10 4 (3.54%) Investment Banking Java Developer
10 4 (3.54%) Lead
10 4 (3.54%) Systems Engineer
11 3 (2.65%) Backend Developer
11 3 (2.65%) Distributed Systems Engineer
11 3 (2.65%) Software Engineer - Algorithmic Trading
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (23.89%) Kafka
2 25 (22.12%) Spring
3 23 (20.35%) REST
4 19 (16.81%) Spring Boot
5 18 (15.93%) RESTful
6 13 (11.50%) AngularJS
7 12 (10.62%) RabbitMQ
8 11 (9.73%) Node.js
9 9 (7.96%) .NET
9 9 (7.96%) Bootstrap
9 9 (7.96%) CSS
9 9 (7.96%) Elastic Stack
9 9 (7.96%) FIX Protocol
9 9 (7.96%) Hibernate
9 9 (7.96%) HTML
9 9 (7.96%) JPA
9 9 (7.96%) SOAP
9 9 (7.96%) Spring Cloud
9 9 (7.96%) Web Services
10 8 (7.08%) React
Miscellaneous
1 24 (21.24%) Cloud Native
2 12 (10.62%) Algorithms
3 10 (8.85%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (8.85%) Data Structures
4 8 (7.08%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 6 (5.31%) Hedge funds
5 6 (5.31%) Management Information System
6 5 (4.42%) Derivative
6 5 (4.42%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (3.54%) Clustering
7 4 (3.54%) Distributed Computing
7 4 (3.54%) Fixed Income
7 4 (3.54%) Product Ownership
7 4 (3.54%) Virtual Team
8 3 (2.65%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (2.65%) Greenfield Project
8 3 (2.65%) Legacy Code
8 3 (2.65%) Onboarding
8 3 (2.65%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.77%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 23 (20.35%) Linux
2 11 (9.73%) Unix
3 1 (0.88%) Debian
3 1 (0.88%) Ubuntu
3 1 (0.88%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (54.87%) CI/CD
2 55 (48.67%) Microservices
3 54 (47.79%) Agile
4 49 (43.36%) DevOps
5 34 (30.09%) Problem-Solving
6 29 (25.66%) Infrastructure as Code
7 26 (23.01%) Software Engineering
8 23 (20.35%) Computer Science
9 21 (18.58%) Containerisation
10 19 (16.81%) TDD
11 17 (15.04%) Event-Driven
11 17 (15.04%) Machine Learning
11 17 (15.04%) Observability
11 17 (15.04%) Scrum
12 16 (14.16%) Artificial Intelligence
12 16 (14.16%) Mentoring
12 16 (14.16%) Multithreading
13 15 (13.27%) Performance Tuning
13 15 (13.27%) SDLC
14 14 (12.39%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 70 (61.95%) Java
2 44 (38.94%) Python
3 23 (20.35%) SQL
4 17 (15.04%) JavaScript
5 16 (14.16%) C#
6 11 (9.73%) TypeScript
7 10 (8.85%) Go
8 7 (6.19%) Bash
8 7 (6.19%) C++
8 7 (6.19%) Perl
8 7 (6.19%) Shell Script
9 6 (5.31%) Groovy
10 3 (2.65%) PowerShell
11 2 (1.77%) COBOL
11 2 (1.77%) JCL
11 2 (1.77%) Scala
12 1 (0.88%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.88%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.88%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 19 (16.81%) Computer Science Degree
1 19 (16.81%) Degree
2 10 (8.85%) Security Cleared
3 8 (7.08%) SC Cleared
4 7 (6.19%) Master's Degree
5 6 (5.31%) AWS Certification
6 4 (3.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 2 (1.77%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.77%) Server+ Certification
8 1 (0.88%) AWS Certified Developer
8 1 (0.88%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 1 (0.88%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
8 1 (0.88%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.88%) BC Cleared
8 1 (0.88%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (8.85%) QA
2 4 (3.54%) MiFID
3 3 (2.65%) GDPR
4 2 (1.77%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.88%) Data Quality
System Software
1 29 (25.66%) Docker
2 3 (2.65%) Postfix
3 1 (0.88%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 31 (27.43%) Kubernetes
2 22 (19.47%) Prometheus
3 20 (17.70%) Terraform
4 15 (13.27%) Grafana
5 9 (7.96%) Ansible
6 5 (4.42%) ITRS Geneos
7 4 (3.54%) Kibana
8 2 (1.77%) Consul
8 2 (1.77%) logstash
8 2 (1.77%) Progress Chef
8 2 (1.77%) Puppet
9 1 (0.88%) Control-M
9 1 (0.88%) Graphite
Vendors
1 13 (11.50%) Google
2 12 (10.62%) Splunk
3 10 (8.85%) Oracle
4 8 (7.08%) Dynatrace
4 8 (7.08%) Solace
5 7 (6.19%) Microsoft
6 6 (5.31%) CA Agile Central
7 4 (3.54%) Bloomberg
7 4 (3.54%) Portware
7 4 (3.54%) Refinitiv
8 3 (2.65%) Atlassian
8 3 (2.65%) Jaspersoft
8 3 (2.65%) Salesforce
8 3 (2.65%) SAP
9 2 (1.77%) Adobe
9 2 (1.77%) Databricks
9 2 (1.77%) Okta
9 2 (1.77%) OpenAI
9 2 (1.77%) Red Hat
9 2 (1.77%) Sitecore