Senior Contract Job Trends in Reading

Senior
Berkshire > Reading

The median Senior daily rate in Reading is £564, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 October 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 22 15
Rank change year-on-year -6 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Senior 76 45 112
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 6.92% 7.63% 10.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.37% 8.38% 11.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 32 42
10th Percentile £425 £355 £434
25th Percentile £449 £423 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £564 £533 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.92% -3.18% -
75th Percentile £638 £600 £666
90th Percentile £648 £636 £735
Berkshire median daily rate £550 £528 £550
% change year-on-year +4.27% -4.09% -4.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 3 4
10th Percentile £66.43 - £56.57
25th Percentile £67.71 £66.25 £57.81
Median hourly rate £71.43 £67.50 £59.78
Median % change year-on-year +5.82% +12.92% -18.95%
75th Percentile £80.43 £81.25 £61.98
90th Percentile £85.03 £88.75 £63.63
Berkshire median hourly rate £71.22 £86.50 £58.49
% change year-on-year -17.67% +47.89% -19.21%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Reading

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Reading. 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 Reading with a recognized job title 1,031 537 972
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.81% 91.02% 89.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 577 353 535
10th Percentile £400 £325 £324
25th Percentile £499 £450 £474
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £570 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% -8.70% +6.48%
75th Percentile £650 £609 £650
90th Percentile £766 £650 £700
Berkshire median daily rate £550 £500 £546
% change year-on-year +9.95% -8.42% +4.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 159 21 30
10th Percentile £29.00 - £48.18
25th Percentile £61.74 £14.75 £56.56
Median hourly rate £81.50 £28.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +185.96% -53.73% -9.08%
75th Percentile £91.31 £65.00 £97.50
90th Percentile £104.10 £68.75 £100.00
Berkshire median hourly rate £75.25 £32.31 £61.55
% change year-on-year +132.90% -47.50% +2.58%

Senior
Job Vacancy Trend in Reading

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

Senior job vacancy trend in Reading

Senior
Daily Rate Trend in Reading

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in Reading.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in Reading

Senior
Daily Rate Histogram in Reading

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior in Reading over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Senior in Reading

Senior
Hourly Rate Trend in Reading

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in Reading.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in Reading

Senior
Hourly Rate Histogram in Reading

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Senior in Reading over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Senior in Reading

Senior Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Reading

For the 6 months to 9 October 2026, Senior 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 Reading region featuring Senior in the job title.

1 36 (47.37%) Security Cleared
2 28 (36.84%) Azure
2 28 (36.84%) DevOps
3 25 (32.89%) SC Cleared
4 23 (30.26%) Agile
5 21 (27.63%) CI/CD
5 21 (27.63%) Stakeholder Management
6 19 (25.00%) Python
7 14 (18.42%) Ansible
7 14 (18.42%) Platform Engineering
8 13 (17.11%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (17.11%) Infrastructure as Code
8 13 (17.11%) Oracle
9 12 (15.79%) Microsoft
10 11 (14.47%) Kubernetes
10 11 (14.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 11 (14.47%) Terraform
11 10 (13.16%) AWS
11 10 (13.16%) Migration
11 10 (13.16%) Roadmaps
11 10 (13.16%) SQL
11 10 (13.16%) Technical Leadership
11 10 (13.16%) Validation
12 9 (11.84%) Bash
12 9 (11.84%) Data Pipeline
12 9 (11.84%) DV Cleared
12 9 (11.84%) Mentoring
12 9 (11.84%) PowerShell
12 9 (11.84%) Test Automation
13 8 (10.53%) Analytics

Senior Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Reading 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 (5.26%) Apache Spark
2 1 (1.32%) Confluence
2 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.32%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (6.58%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (6.58%) Teamcenter
2 2 (2.63%) Primavera
3 1 (1.32%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (1.32%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.32%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 28 (36.84%) Azure
2 13 (17.11%) Azure DevOps
3 10 (13.16%) AWS
4 7 (9.21%) GitHub
5 6 (7.89%) GCP
6 5 (6.58%) Dynamics 365
6 5 (6.58%) GitHub Actions
7 4 (5.26%) OpenShift
8 2 (2.63%) Anthropic Claude
8 2 (2.63%) Azure AI
8 2 (2.63%) Google Gemini
8 2 (2.63%) SaaS
8 2 (2.63%) Salesforce Service Cloud
9 1 (1.32%) Azure AKS
9 1 (1.32%) Azure Databricks
9 1 (1.32%) Entra ID
9 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
9 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (1.32%) SAP Fieldglass
9 1 (1.32%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 5 (6.58%) Firewall
1 5 (6.58%) VPN
2 4 (5.26%) BGP
2 4 (5.26%) DHCP
2 4 (5.26%) DNS
2 4 (5.26%) TCP/IP
2 4 (5.26%) VXLAN
3 3 (3.95%) Ethernet VPN
3 3 (3.95%) Software-Defined Networking
4 2 (2.63%) Network Security
4 2 (2.63%) VSAN
5 1 (1.32%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (1.32%) EIGRP
5 1 (1.32%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 1 (1.32%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 1 (1.32%) HSRP
5 1 (1.32%) Multicast
5 1 (1.32%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.32%) VLAN
5 1 (1.32%) VRRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (6.58%) Oracle Database
2 4 (5.26%) Big Data
3 3 (3.95%) NoSQL
4 2 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (2.63%) Hadoop
4 2 (2.63%) Metadata
4 2 (2.63%) Spark SQL
5 1 (1.32%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (1.32%) BigQuery
5 1 (1.32%) Data Lake
5 1 (1.32%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 5 (6.58%) GitLab
1 5 (6.58%) Jenkins
1 5 (6.58%) JIRA
2 4 (5.26%) Git
3 2 (2.63%) Postman
4 1 (1.32%) Cucumber
4 1 (1.32%) REST Assured
General
1 20 (26.32%) Social Skills
2 15 (19.74%) Aerospace
3 11 (14.47%) Finance
4 7 (9.21%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (9.21%) Influencing Skills
5 5 (6.58%) Marketing
5 5 (6.58%) Telecoms
6 3 (3.95%) Public Sector
7 2 (2.63%) Military
8 1 (1.32%) Advertising
8 1 (1.32%) Automotive
8 1 (1.32%) Billing
8 1 (1.32%) Legal
8 1 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (14.47%) Terraform
2 6 (7.89%) ARM Templates
3 3 (3.95%) Middleware
3 3 (3.95%) PySpark
3 3 (3.95%) React
3 3 (3.95%) REST
4 2 (2.63%) ADO
4 2 (2.63%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (2.63%) CrewAI
4 2 (2.63%) FastAPI
4 2 (2.63%) LangChain
4 2 (2.63%) LangGraph
4 2 (2.63%) Lightning Web Components
4 2 (2.63%) Model Context Protocol
4 2 (2.63%) Semantic Kernel
4 2 (2.63%) SOAP
5 1 (1.32%) 802.1X
5 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (1.32%) Playwright
5 1 (1.32%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 9 (11.84%) Hybrid Cloud
2 5 (6.58%) Product Ownership
3 4 (5.26%) AI Agents
3 4 (5.26%) Management Information System
4 3 (3.95%) Cloud Native
4 3 (3.95%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (3.95%) Distributed Architecture
4 3 (3.95%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.63%) Distributed Applications
5 2 (2.63%) Distributed Computing
5 2 (2.63%) Enterprise Cloud
6 1 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (1.32%) Data Centre
6 1 (1.32%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 6 (7.89%) Linux
2 5 (6.58%) Windows
2 5 (6.58%) Windows Server
3 2 (2.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (2.63%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (36.84%) DevOps
2 23 (30.26%) Agile
3 21 (27.63%) CI/CD
3 21 (27.63%) Stakeholder Management
4 14 (18.42%) Platform Engineering
5 13 (17.11%) Infrastructure as Code
6 11 (14.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 10 (13.16%) Migration
7 10 (13.16%) Roadmaps
7 10 (13.16%) Technical Leadership
7 10 (13.16%) Validation
8 9 (11.84%) Data Pipeline
8 9 (11.84%) Mentoring
8 9 (11.84%) Test Automation
9 8 (10.53%) Analytics
9 8 (10.53%) Continuous Improvement
9 8 (10.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (10.53%) Observability
9 8 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
10 7 (9.21%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 19 (25.00%) Python
2 10 (13.16%) SQL
3 9 (11.84%) Bash
3 9 (11.84%) PowerShell
4 7 (9.21%) Bicep
5 4 (5.26%) Java
6 3 (3.95%) Apex Code
6 3 (3.95%) JavaScript
7 2 (2.63%) Shell Script
7 2 (2.63%) TypeScript
8 1 (1.32%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (47.37%) Security Cleared
2 25 (32.89%) SC Cleared
3 9 (11.84%) DV Cleared
4 8 (10.53%) Degree
5 4 (5.26%) Azure Certification
5 4 (5.26%) Cisco Certification
6 3 (3.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 3 (3.95%) CEH
6 3 (3.95%) CISSP
6 3 (3.95%) CompTIA Security+
6 3 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (3.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (3.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 2 (2.63%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (1.32%) AWS Certification
8 1 (1.32%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 1 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.32%) CCNP
8 1 (1.32%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (10.53%) Data Quality
2 4 (5.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (5.26%) PMO
2 4 (5.26%) QA
3 3 (3.95%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (3.95%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 3 (3.95%) NCSC
3 3 (3.95%) NIST
4 2 (2.63%) GRC
5 1 (1.32%) GDPR
System Software
1 8 (10.53%) Docker
2 6 (7.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (5.26%) Hyper-V
3 4 (5.26%) VMware ESXi
3 4 (5.26%) vSphere
4 2 (2.63%) VMware NSX
5 1 (1.32%) Active Directory
5 1 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 14 (18.42%) Ansible
2 11 (14.47%) Kubernetes
3 3 (3.95%) Istio
4 2 (2.63%) Podman
4 2 (2.63%) vCenter Server
5 1 (1.32%) Check_MK
5 1 (1.32%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.32%) Grafana
5 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.32%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (17.11%) Oracle
2 12 (15.79%) Microsoft
3 8 (10.53%) VMware
4 3 (3.95%) Arista
4 3 (3.95%) Databricks
4 3 (3.95%) Red Hat
4 3 (3.95%) Salesforce
4 3 (3.95%) SAP
4 3 (3.95%) ServiceNow
5 2 (2.63%) Foundry
5 2 (2.63%) OpenAI
6 1 (1.32%) Ariba
6 1 (1.32%) Ceridian
6 1 (1.32%) Cisco
6 1 (1.32%) Ekahau
6 1 (1.32%) F5
6 1 (1.32%) Fortinet
6 1 (1.32%) GoCardless
6 1 (1.32%) Google
6 1 (1.32%) NGA Human Resources