CAD Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring CAD skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 399 334 312
Rank change year-on-year -65 -22 +33
Contract jobs citing CAD 83 46 53
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.29% 0.30% 0.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.36% 0.34% 0.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 27 12
10th Percentile £354 £348 £314
25th Percentile £453 £420 £344
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £450 £388
Median % change year-on-year +27.78% +16.13% -8.82%
75th Percentile £625 £725 £403
90th Percentile £638 £825 £1,519
UK median daily rate £500 £460 £400
% change year-on-year +8.70% +15.00% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 5 16
10th Percentile £16.33 £31.80 £16.25
25th Percentile £31.94 £34.50 £17.25
Median hourly rate £38.25 £35.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.29% -6.67% +8.70%
75th Percentile £53.75 £35.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £60.38 £50.20 £62.95
UK median hourly rate £39.00 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +11.43% - +1.45%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

CAD falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 22,760 13,612 14,679
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.76% 89.17% 83.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,900 8,181 8,414
10th Percentile £300 £235 £243
25th Percentile £410 £369 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,726 1,446 1,177
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.00 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate £40.08 £22.32 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +79.61% -48.10% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.50 £41.82 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.13 £67.00 £74.60
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.69
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.09% -1.10%

CAD
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing CAD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

CAD job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

CAD
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD

CAD
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CAD in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for CAD in the UK excluding London

CAD
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CAD

CAD
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing CAD in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for CAD in the UK excluding London

CAD
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CAD within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 22 September 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
South East -38 27 £575 +36.09% 147
North of England -73 22 £600 +33.33% 75
North West -57 18 £600 +33.33% 31
South West -27 12 £325 -27.08% 53
Midlands -55 8 £550 -21.43% 78
Scotland - 7 £613 - 15
West Midlands -47 5 £550 +57.14% 52
East of England -30 4 £400 - 59
East Midlands -20 3 £550 -21.43% 27
North East - 3 - - 13
Northern Ireland +6 2 £252 - 2
Yorkshire -45 1 - - 32
Wales - 1 £425 - 8
CAD
UK

CAD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 4 (4.82%) SharePoint
2 2 (2.41%) Confluence
3 1 (1.20%) Kinematics
Applications
1 6 (7.23%) AutoCAD
2 5 (6.02%) CATIA
2 5 (6.02%) Revit
3 4 (4.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (4.82%) Siemens NX
4 3 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (3.61%) Navisworks
4 3 (3.61%) Windchill
5 2 (2.41%) Adobe Illustrator
5 2 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (2.41%) MicroStation
5 2 (2.41%) MS Visio
5 2 (2.41%) Photoshop
5 2 (2.41%) ProjectWise
6 1 (1.20%) ALPHACAM
6 1 (1.20%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (1.20%) Civil 3D
6 1 (1.20%) Maya
6 1 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (1.20%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 11 (13.25%) Teamcenter
2 2 (2.41%) ENOVIA
3 1 (1.20%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 5 (6.02%) Azure
2 4 (4.82%) Azure DevOps
3 3 (3.61%) GCP
3 3 (3.61%) Google App Engine
4 1 (1.20%) AWS
4 1 (1.20%) Azure Data Factory
4 1 (1.20%) Boomi
4 1 (1.20%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.20%) Power Platform
4 1 (1.20%) Smartsheet
4 1 (1.20%) Workato
Communications & Networking
1 2 (2.41%) Ethernet
2 1 (1.20%) MPLS
2 1 (1.20%) RS-232
2 1 (1.20%) SDH
2 1 (1.20%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (7.23%) Metadata
2 1 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (1.20%) DynamoDB
2 1 (1.20%) NoSQL
2 1 (1.20%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (3.61%) Git
1 3 (3.61%) GitLab
1 3 (3.61%) JIRA
2 2 (2.41%) Rational DOORS
General
1 23 (27.71%) Social Skills
2 20 (24.10%) Manufacturing
3 15 (18.07%) Aerospace
4 11 (13.25%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (10.84%) Automotive
6 8 (9.64%) Public Sector
7 7 (8.43%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (4.82%) Advertising
8 4 (4.82%) Electronics
8 4 (4.82%) Finance
9 3 (3.61%) Telecoms
10 1 (1.20%) Avionics
10 1 (1.20%) Banking
10 1 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (1.20%) Legal
10 1 (1.20%) Marketing
10 1 (1.20%) Military
10 1 (1.20%) Retail
Job Titles
1 12 (14.46%) Architect
1 12 (14.46%) Developer
2 11 (13.25%) ServiceNow Developer
3 10 (12.05%) ServiceNow Architect
4 9 (10.84%) Designer
5 7 (8.43%) Delivery Manager
6 6 (7.23%) Design Engineer
6 6 (7.23%) Product Delivery Manager
6 6 (7.23%) Product Manager
7 5 (6.02%) ServiceNow Specialist
7 5 (6.02%) Solutions Architect
8 4 (4.82%) CAD Designer
8 4 (4.82%) Technical Architect
9 3 (3.61%) CAD Modeller
9 3 (3.61%) CAD Specialist
9 3 (3.61%) Lead
9 3 (3.61%) PCB Design Engineer
9 3 (3.61%) Product Specialist
9 3 (3.61%) RF Design Engineer
9 3 (3.61%) RF Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (21.69%) REST
1 18 (21.69%) SOAP
2 7 (8.43%) OAuth
3 4 (4.82%) HTML
3 4 (4.82%) Middleware
4 3 (3.61%) AngularJS
4 3 (3.61%) JSON
4 3 (3.61%) XML
5 1 (1.20%) .NET
5 1 (1.20%) ASP.NET
5 1 (1.20%) ASP.NET Core
5 1 (1.20%) MassTransit
5 1 (1.20%) MIDP
5 1 (1.20%) RabbitMQ
5 1 (1.20%) V-Ray
5 1 (1.20%) Web Services
5 1 (1.20%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 12 (14.46%) CMDB
2 7 (8.43%) Management Information System
3 5 (6.02%) Onboarding
3 5 (6.02%) Virtual Team
4 4 (4.82%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (3.61%) NHS
6 2 (2.41%) Animation
7 1 (1.20%) Analogue Electronics
7 1 (1.20%) CAN bus
7 1 (1.20%) Data Centre
7 1 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (1.20%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (1.20%) GNSS
7 1 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.20%) Lidar
7 1 (1.20%) Photography
7 1 (1.20%) PMI
7 1 (1.20%) Robotics
7 1 (1.20%) Vector Graphics
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (31.33%) Agile
2 24 (28.92%) ITSM
3 23 (27.71%) Problem-Solving
4 17 (20.48%) ITIL
5 16 (19.28%) Stakeholder Management
6 14 (16.87%) Continuous Improvement
7 13 (15.66%) PLM
7 13 (15.66%) Service Management
7 13 (15.66%) Translating Business Requirements
8 11 (13.25%) AI
8 11 (13.25%) Change Management
8 11 (13.25%) Data Modelling
8 11 (13.25%) Digital Engineering
8 11 (13.25%) Scrum
8 11 (13.25%) Validation
9 10 (12.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 9 (10.84%) Project Delivery
11 8 (9.64%) Configuration Management
11 8 (9.64%) Decision-Making
11 8 (9.64%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 17 (20.48%) JavaScript
2 1 (1.20%) C
2 1 (1.20%) C#
2 1 (1.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
2 1 (1.20%) SQL
Qualifications
1 25 (30.12%) Security Cleared
2 24 (28.92%) SC Cleared
3 14 (16.87%) Degree
4 5 (6.02%) PRINCE2 Certification
5 3 (3.61%) DV Cleared
6 2 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (2.41%) PMI Certification
7 1 (1.20%) CCNA
7 1 (1.20%) CCNP
7 1 (1.20%) Chartered Engineer
7 1 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (1.20%) HNC
7 1 (1.20%) HND
7 1 (1.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (1.20%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (14.46%) QA
2 11 (13.25%) Data Quality
3 4 (4.82%) NIST
4 1 (1.20%) ARP4761
4 1 (1.20%) DO-160
4 1 (1.20%) GDPR
4 1 (1.20%) GRC
4 1 (1.20%) ISO 13485
4 1 (1.20%) ISO 19650
4 1 (1.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 1 (1.20%) Firmware
1 1 (1.20%) Virtual Desktop
1 1 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 28 (33.73%) ServiceNow
2 9 (10.84%) Siemens
3 8 (9.64%) Microsoft
4 4 (4.82%) Autodesk
5 2 (2.41%) Adobe
5 2 (2.41%) EMC
6 1 (1.20%) Alias
6 1 (1.20%) AVEVA
6 1 (1.20%) BMC
6 1 (1.20%) BT
6 1 (1.20%) Cisco
6 1 (1.20%) MuleSoft
6 1 (1.20%) Openreach
6 1 (1.20%) Remedy
6 1 (1.20%) TOWER Software
6 1 (1.20%) VMware