Master's Degree Contracts

Master's Degree
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Master's Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 14 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 273 230 324
Rank change year-on-year -43 +94 +90
Contract jobs citing Master's Degree 285 450 438
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.96% 1.03% 0.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.10% 3.44% 2.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 179 251 285
10th Percentile £331 £313 £400
25th Percentile £449 £425 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.33%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £800
90th Percentile £805 £800 £950
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% +0.09% +6.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 54 28
10th Percentile £32.52 £20.12 £29.90
25th Percentile £44.81 £31.60 £42.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £55.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.64% +22.22% -
75th Percentile £86.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.05 £83.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.01 £55.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -9.08% +22.22% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

Master's Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 9,197 13,082 15,008
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.04% 29.94% 27.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,677 8,097 9,977
10th Percentile £275 £310 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £527
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.38% +5.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 578 1,114 750
10th Percentile £17.74 £13.99 £15.19
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.35 £21.77
Median hourly rate £30.00 £40.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% -27.27% +23.60%
75th Percentile £63.75 £63.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.90 £41.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year -30.36% -20.95% +50.00%

Master's Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Master's Degree as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Master's Degree.

Daily rate trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 14 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Master's Degree.

Hourly rate trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 14 June 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Master's Degree within the UK over the 6 months to 14 June 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
England -42 228 £575 +4.55% 2,822
London -13 141 £635 +20.95% 1,699
UK excluding London -3 124 £525 -4.55% 1,451
Work from Home +2 95 £525 -4.55% 1,277
Wales +25 27 £309 - 35
South East +21 26 £500 -4.76% 557
South West +28 21 £550 -6.38% 146
North of England 0 18 £580 +2.75% 211
East of England +10 14 £650 +18.18% 194
North West +5 14 £580 -14.20% 115
Scotland +7 11 £515 +14.44% 130
Northern Ireland -6 6 £588 +9.30% 40
Midlands +5 5 £447 -18.73% 159
Yorkshire +1 4 £650 +23.81% 57
West Midlands -4 3 - - 69
East Midlands - 2 £447 - 87

Master's Degree
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:

Application Platforms
1 33 (11.58%) Apache Spark
2 17 (5.96%) Confluence
3 5 (1.75%) SAS
4 3 (1.05%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (1.05%) Apache
4 3 (1.05%) Jupyter
5 2 (0.70%) Camunda
5 2 (0.70%) CMS
5 2 (0.70%) Drupal
5 2 (0.70%) Sitecore CMS
5 2 (0.70%) WordPress
6 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.35%) IBM Domino
6 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.35%) Moodle
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 23 (8.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 17 (5.96%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (3.86%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (3.51%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.70%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.70%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.70%) Trello
6 1 (0.35%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.35%) Camtasia
6 1 (0.35%) CATIA
6 1 (0.35%) InVision
6 1 (0.35%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.35%) Simulink
6 1 (0.35%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 14 (4.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.05%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 1 (0.35%) Bankmaster
3 1 (0.35%) Dynamics AX
3 1 (0.35%) ENOVIA
3 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.35%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.35%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.35%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 72 (25.26%) AWS
2 63 (22.11%) Azure
3 33 (11.58%) GCP
4 13 (4.56%) Power Platform
5 11 (3.86%) GitHub
6 8 (2.81%) Snowflake
7 5 (1.75%) Amazon S3
7 5 (1.75%) Amazon SageMaker
7 5 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (1.40%) Amazon ECS
9 3 (1.05%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.05%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.70%) Asana
10 2 (0.70%) Azure Machine Learning
10 2 (0.70%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (0.70%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.70%) SaaS
10 2 (0.70%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
10 2 (0.70%) Salesforce Service Cloud
10 2 (0.70%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.61%) Firewall
2 8 (2.81%) Network Security
3 6 (2.11%) MPLS
3 6 (2.11%) VPN
4 5 (1.75%) VLAN
5 4 (1.40%) BGP
5 4 (1.40%) OSPF
6 3 (1.05%) 4G
6 3 (1.05%) 5G
6 3 (1.05%) LTE
6 3 (1.05%) SAN
7 2 (0.70%) Cisco ISE
7 2 (0.70%) DOCSIS
7 2 (0.70%) DSL
7 2 (0.70%) GPON
7 2 (0.70%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (0.70%) iSCSI
7 2 (0.70%) Radio Access Network
7 2 (0.70%) VoIP
7 2 (0.70%) xDSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (8.42%) Big Data
2 21 (7.37%) Hadoop
3 16 (5.61%) Tableau
4 13 (4.56%) Power BI
5 10 (3.51%) NoSQL
6 9 (3.16%) Data Lake
6 9 (3.16%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (2.81%) Apache Hive
7 8 (2.81%) PostgreSQL
8 7 (2.46%) MySQL
9 6 (2.11%) Data Mining
10 5 (1.75%) MongoDB
10 5 (1.75%) Relational Database
11 4 (1.40%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.70%) Metadata
12 2 (0.70%) Metadata Repository
12 2 (0.70%) Redis
12 2 (0.70%) SAP HANA
12 2 (0.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (10.53%) JIRA
2 20 (7.02%) Git
3 7 (2.46%) Jenkins
3 7 (2.46%) MLflow
3 7 (2.46%) Selenium
4 6 (2.11%) Bitbucket
5 5 (1.75%) GitLab
6 4 (1.40%) Artifactory
7 3 (1.05%) SpecFlow
8 2 (0.70%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.35%) Axure RP
9 1 (0.35%) CMake
9 1 (0.35%) ERwin
9 1 (0.35%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.35%) MSTest
9 1 (0.35%) NUnit
9 1 (0.35%) ReSharper
9 1 (0.35%) Subversion
9 1 (0.35%) TeamCity
General
1 126 (44.21%) Social Skills
2 105 (36.84%) Finance
3 104 (36.49%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (13.68%) Public Sector
5 30 (10.53%) Presentation Skills
6 29 (10.18%) Banking
7 19 (6.67%) Manufacturing
8 18 (6.32%) Marketing
9 16 (5.61%) Pharmaceutical
10 13 (4.56%) Front Office
10 13 (4.56%) Legal
11 11 (3.86%) Financial Institution
12 10 (3.51%) Telecoms
13 9 (3.16%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (2.81%) Electronics
15 7 (2.46%) Organisational Skills
16 6 (2.11%) Digital Health
17 5 (1.75%) Aerospace
17 5 (1.75%) Welsh Language
18 4 (1.40%) French Language
Job Titles
1 38 (13.33%) Senior
2 29 (10.18%) Developer
3 28 (9.82%) Architect
4 27 (9.47%) Analyst
5 23 (8.07%) Lead
6 17 (5.96%) Machine Learning Engineer
7 16 (5.61%) Project Manager
8 12 (4.21%) Designer
8 12 (4.21%) Virtualisation Engineer
9 11 (3.86%) Software Engineer
10 10 (3.51%) Data Science Developer
10 10 (3.51%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (3.16%) AWS Engineer
11 9 (3.16%) Data Analyst
11 9 (3.16%) Data Scientist
12 8 (2.81%) Senior Developer
13 7 (2.46%) Consultant
14 6 (2.11%) C++ Software Engineer
14 6 (2.11%) Quantitative Developer
14 6 (2.11%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (9.12%) TensorFlow
2 19 (6.67%) Pandas
2 19 (6.67%) PyTorch
3 18 (6.32%) NumPy
4 12 (4.21%) Flash
4 12 (4.21%) scikit-learn
5 11 (3.86%) PySpark
6 10 (3.51%) REST
7 9 (3.16%) Kafka
7 9 (3.16%) LangChain
7 9 (3.16%) Matplotlib
7 9 (3.16%) Seaborn
8 8 (2.81%) HTML
9 7 (2.46%) CSS
9 7 (2.46%) React
10 6 (2.11%) Hugging Face
10 6 (2.11%) OAuth
11 5 (1.75%) AngularJS
12 4 (1.40%) Flask
12 4 (1.40%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 34 (11.93%) Algorithms
2 17 (5.96%) Distributed Computing
3 15 (5.26%) Life Science
4 14 (4.91%) Data Structures
4 14 (4.91%) Distributed Systems
4 14 (4.91%) Management Information System
5 13 (4.56%) Cloud Native
5 13 (4.56%) Derivative
5 13 (4.56%) NHS
6 12 (4.21%) Clustering
7 10 (3.51%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.81%) Hedge funds
8 8 (2.81%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (2.46%) Credit Risk
9 7 (2.46%) Equity Derivative
9 7 (2.46%) Market Risk
10 6 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (1.75%) Cyberattack
11 5 (1.75%) PMI
11 5 (1.75%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 12 (4.21%) Linux
2 8 (2.81%) Windows
3 3 (1.05%) Windows Server
3 3 (1.05%) Windows Server 2012
4 2 (0.70%) Unix
4 2 (0.70%) VMS
5 1 (0.35%) Android
5 1 (0.35%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (50.88%) Computer Science
2 91 (31.93%) Agile
3 87 (30.53%) Problem-Solving
4 60 (21.05%) Machine Learning
5 59 (20.70%) Analytics
6 57 (20.00%) Artificial Intelligence
7 47 (16.49%) Project Management
8 41 (14.39%) Mathematics
9 40 (14.04%) Data Science
10 39 (13.68%) Data Analysis
11 37 (12.98%) DevOps
12 35 (12.28%) Decision-Making
13 34 (11.93%) Risk Management
13 34 (11.93%) Technical Leadership
14 32 (11.23%) Generative AI
14 32 (11.23%) Roadmaps
14 32 (11.23%) Software Engineering
15 31 (10.88%) Stakeholder Management
16 29 (10.18%) Validation
17 28 (9.82%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 106 (37.19%) Python
2 41 (14.39%) Java
3 36 (12.63%) SQL
4 33 (11.58%) C++
5 15 (5.26%) C
5 15 (5.26%) R
6 10 (3.51%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.81%) C#
8 7 (2.46%) Rust
9 6 (2.11%) Shell Script
10 4 (1.40%) SystemVerilog
11 3 (1.05%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.70%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.70%) Ruby
12 2 (0.70%) Scala
13 1 (0.35%) Bash
13 1 (0.35%) PHP
13 1 (0.35%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.35%) PowerShell
13 1 (0.35%) VBA
Qualifications
1 285 (100.00%) Degree
2 75 (26.32%) Computer Science Degree
3 65 (22.81%) PhD
4 25 (8.77%) PMI Certification
5 24 (8.42%) Security Cleared
6 22 (7.72%) PMP
7 21 (7.37%) Cisco Certification
8 19 (6.67%) SC Cleared
9 16 (5.61%) CCNA
10 15 (5.26%) AWS Certification
11 13 (4.56%) MBA
11 13 (4.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 11 (3.86%) Azure Certification
12 11 (3.86%) CISSP
12 11 (3.86%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (3.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 7 (2.46%) CISM
15 6 (2.11%) CCNP
16 5 (1.75%) CISA
16 5 (1.75%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (10.53%) Data Quality
2 14 (4.91%) QA
3 9 (3.16%) GDPR
3 9 (3.16%) NIST
4 8 (2.81%) PMO
5 6 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.75%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.75%) HIPAA
7 4 (1.40%) MiFID
8 3 (1.05%) NIST 800
8 3 (1.05%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.70%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 2 (0.70%) GRC
9 2 (0.70%) OASIS TOSCA
10 1 (0.35%) Basel III
10 1 (0.35%) COBIT
10 1 (0.35%) FINRA
10 1 (0.35%) GxP
10 1 (0.35%) HAZOP
10 1 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 16 (5.61%) Docker
2 14 (4.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (4.21%) VMware ESXi
3 12 (4.21%) VMware NSX
4 4 (1.40%) Firmware
5 3 (1.05%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.35%) Lustre
6 1 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 23 (8.07%) Kubernetes
2 12 (4.21%) vCenter Server
3 8 (2.81%) Terraform
4 4 (1.40%) Ansible
5 3 (1.05%) Grafana
6 2 (0.70%) Amdocs OSS
6 2 (0.70%) Kubeflow
6 2 (0.70%) Kustomize
6 2 (0.70%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.70%) SCOM
6 2 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.35%) CASB
7 1 (0.35%) Hadoop YARN
7 1 (0.35%) Karpenter
7 1 (0.35%) Podman
7 1 (0.35%) QRadar
Vendors
1 29 (10.18%) SAP
2 27 (9.47%) Microsoft
3 23 (8.07%) Cisco
4 19 (6.67%) Google
5 14 (4.91%) VMware
6 13 (4.56%) Atlassian
7 8 (2.81%) Ariba
7 8 (2.81%) Databricks
7 8 (2.81%) Oracle
7 8 (2.81%) Salesforce
8 7 (2.46%) F5
9 5 (1.75%) Adobe
9 5 (1.75%) Workday
10 4 (1.40%) Fortinet
10 4 (1.40%) IBM
10 4 (1.40%) OpenAI
11 3 (1.05%) Cloudera
11 3 (1.05%) Murex
11 3 (1.05%) Splunk
12 2 (0.70%) Calypso
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