Junior Software Engineer Contract Job Trends

Junior Software Engineer
UK

The median Junior Software Engineer daily rate in the UK is £288, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 539 566 661
Rank change year-on-year +27 +95 +191
Contract jobs requiring a Junior Software Engineer 8 3 1
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.024% 0.008% 0.002%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.027% 0.008% 0.002%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 3 1
10th Percentile £273 £314 -
25th Percentile £278 £386 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £288 £513 £250
Median % change year-on-year -43.90% +105.00% -54.34%
75th Percentile £298 £519 £275
90th Percentile £304 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £288 - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £31.25 - -
Median hourly rate £37.50 - -
75th Percentile £43.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 the UK with a recognized job title 29,740 35,350 47,152
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.95% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,772 21,777 32,303
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,564 1,687 1,507
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £52.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

Junior Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Junior Software Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Junior Software Engineer in the UK

Junior Software Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Junior Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Junior Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Junior Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Junior Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Junior Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Junior Software Engineer
Top 7 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Junior Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 16 September 2025. 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
UK excluding London - 8 £288 - 4
England +17 6 £305 -40.49% 6
Work from Home - 5 - - 6
East of England - 5 - -
Scotland - 2 £270 -
North West - 1 £305 -
North of England - 1 £305 - 1

Junior Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2025, Junior Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Junior Software Engineer in the job title.

1 8 (100.00%) Java
1 8 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 6 (75.00%) Oracle
3 5 (62.50%) SAP
3 5 (62.50%) XML
3 5 (62.50%) JSON
3 5 (62.50%) SuccessFactors
3 5 (62.50%) Workday
3 5 (62.50%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (25.00%) CI/CD
4 2 (25.00%) AWS
4 2 (25.00%) Python
5 1 (12.50%) Microsoft
5 1 (12.50%) .NET
5 1 (12.50%) HND
5 1 (12.50%) Linux
5 1 (12.50%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (12.50%) Data Protection
5 1 (12.50%) SC Cleared
5 1 (12.50%) Security Cleared
5 1 (12.50%) Amazon EC2
5 1 (12.50%) Azure
5 1 (12.50%) Bash
5 1 (12.50%) Amazon SQS
5 1 (12.50%) Continuous Improvement
5 1 (12.50%) Process Improvement
5 1 (12.50%) Finance
5 1 (12.50%) Agile
5 1 (12.50%) DevOps
5 1 (12.50%) Coaching

Junior Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Cloud Services
1 5 (62.50%) SuccessFactors
2 2 (25.00%) AWS
3 1 (12.50%) Amazon EC2
3 1 (12.50%) Amazon SQS
3 1 (12.50%) Azure
Development Applications
1 1 (12.50%) GitLab
General
1 1 (12.50%) Finance
1 1 (12.50%) Public Sector
1 1 (12.50%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (62.50%) JSON
1 5 (62.50%) XML
2 1 (12.50%) .NET
2 1 (12.50%) Spring
2 1 (12.50%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 1 (12.50%) Data Protection Act
1 1 (12.50%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 1 (12.50%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 5 (62.50%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (25.00%) CI/CD
4 1 (12.50%) Agile
4 1 (12.50%) Coaching
4 1 (12.50%) Collaborative Culture
4 1 (12.50%) Continuous Improvement
4 1 (12.50%) Data Protection
4 1 (12.50%) DevOps
4 1 (12.50%) Digital Transformation Programme
4 1 (12.50%) Process Improvement
4 1 (12.50%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 8 (100.00%) Java
2 2 (25.00%) Python
3 1 (12.50%) Bash
3 1 (12.50%) C#
3 1 (12.50%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1 (12.50%) BPSS Clearance
1 1 (12.50%) HND
1 1 (12.50%) SC Cleared
1 1 (12.50%) Security Cleared
Systems Management
1 1 (12.50%) Terraform
Vendors
1 6 (75.00%) Oracle
2 5 (62.50%) SAP
2 5 (62.50%) Workday
3 1 (12.50%) Microsoft