Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in Wales

Software Engineer
UK > Wales

The median Software Engineer daily rate in Wales is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 36 41
Rank change year-on-year -10 +5 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 9 6 7
As % of all contract jobs in Wales 1.49% 1.70% 1.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.62% 1.94% 1.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 5 3
10th Percentile £505 £391 £380
25th Percentile £550 £400 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +41.18% +6.25% -34.43%
75th Percentile £650 £538 £458
90th Percentile £688 £539 £492
UK median daily rate £575 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -8.00% -3.85% +13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £51.25
Median hourly rate £22.00 - £52.50
75th Percentile - - £53.75
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Contract IT Job Roles
Wales

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Wales. 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 Wales with a recognized job title 555 310 372
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.58% 87.82% 90.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 327 214 224
10th Percentile £250 £186 £139
25th Percentile £370 £265 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £400 £431
Median % change year-on-year +16.25% -7.25% -6.76%
75th Percentile £550 £488 £538
90th Percentile £675 £634 £600
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 25 59
10th Percentile £12.71 £13.08 £14.61
25th Percentile £17.83 £15.00 £18.95
Median hourly rate £21.25 £18.51 £25.36
Median % change year-on-year +14.80% -27.01% +39.80%
75th Percentile £36.70 £21.01 £43.75
90th Percentile £54.46 £24.57 £52.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Wales

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Software Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Wales.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in Wales

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in Wales

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in Wales.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in Wales

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in Wales

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in Wales over the 6 months to 4 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in Wales

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in Wales

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in Wales.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in Wales

Software Engineer
Contract Job Locations in Wales

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 Wales region over the 6 months to 4 August 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 Wales -9 8 £600 +41.18% 20
West Wales - 1 £500 - 11
Software Engineer
UK

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Wales

For the 6 months to 4 August 2026, Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Wales region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 9 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 5 (55.56%) Python
2 5 (55.56%) Security Cleared
3 4 (44.44%) CI/CD
3 4 (44.44%) Cloud Run
3 4 (44.44%) Containerisation
3 4 (44.44%) Database Migration
3 4 (44.44%) Docker
3 4 (44.44%) Flask
3 4 (44.44%) GCP
3 4 (44.44%) GitHub
3 4 (44.44%) GitHub Actions
3 4 (44.44%) Google Kubernetes Engine
3 4 (44.44%) Java
3 4 (44.44%) Jinja
3 4 (44.44%) Kubernetes
3 4 (44.44%) Microservices
3 4 (44.44%) Migration
3 4 (44.44%) Performance Tuning
3 4 (44.44%) PostgreSQL
3 4 (44.44%) RESTful
3 4 (44.44%) SC Cleared
3 4 (44.44%) Spring
3 4 (44.44%) Spring Boot
3 4 (44.44%) SQL
3 4 (44.44%) Statistics
3 4 (44.44%) Web Services
4 3 (33.33%) AI
4 3 (33.33%) Generative AI
5 1 (11.11%) Agile

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Wales 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 (44.44%) Cloud Run
1 4 (44.44%) GCP
1 4 (44.44%) GitHub
1 4 (44.44%) GitHub Actions
1 4 (44.44%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (44.44%) PostgreSQL
General
1 5 (55.56%) Public Sector
2 4 (44.44%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (44.44%) Flask
1 4 (44.44%) Jinja
1 4 (44.44%) RESTful
1 4 (44.44%) Spring
1 4 (44.44%) Spring Boot
1 4 (44.44%) Web Services
2 1 (11.11%) Django
2 1 (11.11%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 4 (44.44%) Cloud Native
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 4 (44.44%) CI/CD
2 4 (44.44%) Containerisation
2 4 (44.44%) Database Migration
2 4 (44.44%) Microservices
2 4 (44.44%) Migration
2 4 (44.44%) Performance Tuning
2 4 (44.44%) Statistics
3 3 (33.33%) AI
3 3 (33.33%) Generative AI
4 1 (11.11%) Agile
4 1 (11.11%) Front End Development
4 1 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 5 (55.56%) Python
2 4 (44.44%) Java
2 4 (44.44%) SQL
3 1 (11.11%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 5 (55.56%) Security Cleared
2 4 (44.44%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 4 (44.44%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (44.44%) Kubernetes