Senior Contract Job Trends in Reading

Senior
Berkshire > Reading

The median Senior daily rate in Reading is £518, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 January 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 12 27
Rank change year-on-year -16 +15 -5
Contract jobs requiring a Senior 53 97 78
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 6.83% 11.45% 7.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.29% 12.71% 7.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 30 41
10th Percentile £400 £418 £413
25th Percentile £423 £545 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £550 £533
Median % change year-on-year -5.91% +3.19% +4.51%
75th Percentile £615 £597 £600
90th Percentile £700 £620 £650
Berkshire median daily rate £535 £550 £513
% change year-on-year -2.73% +7.16% +2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 7
10th Percentile £71.50 £63.14 £56.59
25th Percentile £73.75 £65.48 £56.65
Median hourly rate £79.50 £70.17 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +13.30% +20.36% -10.31%
75th Percentile £87.94 £74.07 £60.78
90th Percentile £91.43 £75.94 £63.36
Berkshire median hourly rate £76.70 £61.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +24.72% +5.48% -10.31%

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 727 763 1,001
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.69% 90.08% 93.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 521 423 638
10th Percentile £306 £300 £213
25th Percentile £413 £414 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +7.32% -2.38%
75th Percentile £624 £638 £613
90th Percentile £663 £674 £682
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 4 29
10th Percentile £18.40 £48.22 £40.60
25th Percentile £71.00 £56.81 £52.90
Median hourly rate £90.00 £68.20 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +31.97% +10.71% -5.23%
75th Percentile £96.25 £75.45 £65.00
90th Percentile £106.60 £76.49 £71.13
Berkshire median hourly rate £73.50 £61.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +19.52% +5.48% -10.31%

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 25 January 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 25 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Senior in Reading

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

For the 6 months to 25 January 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 23 (43.40%) Azure
2 17 (32.08%) Agile
2 17 (32.08%) Python
3 16 (30.19%) CI/CD
4 14 (26.42%) DevOps
4 14 (26.42%) PowerShell
4 14 (26.42%) Security Cleared
4 14 (26.42%) Stakeholder Management
5 13 (24.53%) Microsoft
6 10 (18.87%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (18.87%) Bash
6 10 (18.87%) SIEM
7 9 (16.98%) JavaScript
8 8 (15.09%) AWS
8 8 (15.09%) Cybersecurity
8 8 (15.09%) DevSecOps
8 8 (15.09%) Infrastructure as Code
8 8 (15.09%) Kubernetes
8 8 (15.09%) Terraform
9 7 (13.21%) Linux
9 7 (13.21%) Waterfall
9 7 (13.21%) Windows
10 6 (11.32%) Active Directory
10 6 (11.32%) Containerisation
10 6 (11.32%) Docker
10 6 (11.32%) Problem-Solving
10 6 (11.32%) REST
10 6 (11.32%) SC Cleared
11 5 (9.43%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (9.43%) Data Analysis

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 2 (3.77%) Appian
1 2 (3.77%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (3.77%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.89%) Confluence
2 1 (1.89%) IIS
2 1 (1.89%) JBoss
2 1 (1.89%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 1 (1.89%) Smallworld
2 1 (1.89%) Tomcat
2 1 (1.89%) WebLogic
Applications
1 2 (3.77%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (3.77%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (3.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (1.89%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (1.89%) Oracle Payroll
Cloud Services
1 23 (43.40%) Azure
2 10 (18.87%) Azure DevOps
3 8 (15.09%) AWS
4 5 (9.43%) AWS CloudFormation
4 5 (9.43%) GitHub
5 4 (7.55%) Azure Functions
5 4 (7.55%) GitHub Actions
5 4 (7.55%) Serverless
6 3 (5.66%) Azure Monitor
6 3 (5.66%) Entra ID
6 3 (5.66%) GCP
7 2 (3.77%) Azure AKS
7 2 (3.77%) Azure API Management
7 2 (3.77%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (3.77%) Google Workspace
7 2 (3.77%) Microsoft 365
7 2 (3.77%) Oracle CX
7 2 (3.77%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.89%) Contentstack
8 1 (1.89%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 5 (9.43%) Firewall
1 5 (9.43%) TCP/IP
2 4 (7.55%) DHCP
2 4 (7.55%) DNS
3 2 (3.77%) 5G
3 2 (3.77%) Wireless
4 1 (1.89%) Broadband
4 1 (1.89%) Network Security
4 1 (1.89%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.77%) GIS
1 2 (3.77%) Power BI
2 1 (1.89%) Delta Lake
2 1 (1.89%) Oracle Database
2 1 (1.89%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 4 (7.55%) Jenkins
2 3 (5.66%) Git
2 3 (5.66%) JIRA
3 2 (3.77%) Cucumber
3 2 (3.77%) Selenium
General
1 19 (35.85%) Social Skills
2 5 (9.43%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (9.43%) Finance
3 4 (7.55%) Public Sector
4 3 (5.66%) Billing
4 3 (5.66%) Telecoms
5 2 (3.77%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (3.77%) Retail
6 1 (1.89%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.89%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (11.32%) REST
2 4 (7.55%) .NET
2 4 (7.55%) .NET Core
2 4 (7.55%) GraphQL
2 4 (7.55%) React
3 3 (5.66%) ADO
3 3 (5.66%) Node.js
3 3 (5.66%) Web Services
4 2 (3.77%) AngularJS
4 2 (3.77%) ARM Templates
4 2 (3.77%) jQuery
4 2 (3.77%) OAuth
4 2 (3.77%) OAuth2
4 2 (3.77%) OpenID
4 2 (3.77%) SAML
4 2 (3.77%) SOAP
5 1 (1.89%) ASP.NET
5 1 (1.89%) HTML
5 1 (1.89%) Loki
5 1 (1.89%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 6 (11.32%) Onboarding
2 5 (9.43%) Operational Technology
3 4 (7.55%) PKI
4 2 (3.77%) Cloud Native
4 2 (3.77%) IoT
4 2 (3.77%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (3.77%) Management Information System
4 2 (3.77%) Product Ownership
4 2 (3.77%) Virtual Team
5 1 (1.89%) Client/Server
5 1 (1.89%) Distributed Systems
5 1 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.89%) Low-Code
5 1 (1.89%) N-Tier
5 1 (1.89%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 7 (13.21%) Linux
1 7 (13.21%) Windows
2 2 (3.77%) Android
2 2 (3.77%) Apple iOS
2 2 (3.77%) Mac OS
2 2 (3.77%) Unix
3 1 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (1.89%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (32.08%) Agile
2 16 (30.19%) CI/CD
3 14 (26.42%) DevOps
3 14 (26.42%) Stakeholder Management
4 10 (18.87%) SIEM
5 8 (15.09%) Cybersecurity
5 8 (15.09%) DevSecOps
5 8 (15.09%) Infrastructure as Code
6 7 (13.21%) Waterfall
7 6 (11.32%) Containerisation
7 6 (11.32%) Problem-Solving
8 5 (9.43%) Data Analysis
8 5 (9.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 5 (9.43%) Platform Engineering
8 5 (9.43%) SDLC
8 5 (9.43%) SOAR
8 5 (9.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 4 (7.55%) AI
9 4 (7.55%) Process Improvement
9 4 (7.55%) Resource Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (32.08%) Python
2 14 (26.42%) PowerShell
3 10 (18.87%) Bash
4 9 (16.98%) JavaScript
5 4 (7.55%) C#
5 4 (7.55%) Java
5 4 (7.55%) PHP
6 2 (3.77%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (1.89%) Go
7 1 (1.89%) Magik
7 1 (1.89%) SQL
Qualifications
1 14 (26.42%) Security Cleared
2 6 (11.32%) SC Cleared
3 4 (7.55%) AWS Certification
3 4 (7.55%) PMI Certification
4 3 (5.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
4 3 (5.66%) PMP
4 3 (5.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 2 (3.77%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (3.77%) CCSP
5 2 (3.77%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (3.77%) CISM
5 2 (3.77%) CISSP
5 2 (3.77%) GCFA
5 2 (3.77%) GCFE
5 2 (3.77%) GCIH
5 2 (3.77%) GREM
6 1 (1.89%) ACCA
6 1 (1.89%) Degree
6 1 (1.89%) DV Cleared
6 1 (1.89%) ICAEW
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.66%) PMO
2 2 (3.77%) Data Quality
2 2 (3.77%) QA
3 1 (1.89%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.89%) IFRS
3 1 (1.89%) IFRS 9
3 1 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.89%) NIST
3 1 (1.89%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 6 (11.32%) Active Directory
1 6 (11.32%) Docker
2 5 (9.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (7.55%) Hyper-V
4 1 (1.89%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (15.09%) Kubernetes
1 8 (15.09%) Terraform
2 4 (7.55%) Ansible
3 2 (3.77%) EnCase
3 2 (3.77%) FTK
4 1 (1.89%) Argo
4 1 (1.89%) Grafana
4 1 (1.89%) Kustomize
4 1 (1.89%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.89%) SCCM
Vendors
1 13 (24.53%) Microsoft
2 5 (9.43%) Oracle
2 5 (9.43%) VMware
3 2 (3.77%) CrowdStrike
3 2 (3.77%) Darktrace
3 2 (3.77%) LogRhythm
4 1 (1.89%) Aruba
4 1 (1.89%) Cisco
4 1 (1.89%) Databricks
4 1 (1.89%) ESRI
4 1 (1.89%) Fortinet
4 1 (1.89%) Palo Alto
4 1 (1.89%) Red Hat
4 1 (1.89%) ServiceNow