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Which developer roles are most in demand in IT freelance projects?

Of 52,306 analysed IT freelance projects, 15,798 (30%) are engineering projects – projects where something gets built: software, platforms, pipelines, tests. The most requested role: DevOps / Platform Engineer, with 13% of them. Below are all 16 major roles, the skills each one asks for, and how demand shifts from month to month.

By . Data: 52,306 project listings from German IT freelance project boards, May 2026 – October 2026. Published , last updated .

The roles at a glance

Every project counts exactly once – under the role that is its main requirement. If a project asks for, say, C++ and C#, what the title and the required skills put first decides. The percentages refer to all engineering projects. 9.5% of them fit none of the roles, for example mobile apps, Node.js or Go; they are not in the chart, which is why the roles add up to less than 100%. The coloured number on the right is the change of the share from September 2026 to October 2026 in percentage points. Click a role to jump to its skills.

  1. DevOps / Platform Engineer13%−2.9
  2. Test Engineer8.5%+1.9
  3. Data Engineer8.1%−0.1
  4. Java Backend Developer8%−0.6
  5. SAP Developer6.5%+1.7
  6. Security Engineer6.4%+1.4
  7. ML / AI Engineer5.6%+0.4
  8. Low-Code Platform Developer5.5%+0.2
  9. Embedded C/C++ Developer5.2%−0.4
  10. Java Fullstack Developer5.1%+0.2
  11. PLC / Automation Programmer4.4%−0.5
  12. C# / .NET Developer3.9%−0.8
  13. Cloud Solution Architect2.7%0.0
  14. Angular Developer2.7%+0.1
  15. React Developer2.7%−0.5
  16. Python Developer2.3%−0.1

What stands out

Change from the month before

Demand shifts from month to month. The table shows each role's share of the engineering projects in September 2026 and in October 2026, and the change in percentage points, largest rise first. The largest rise: Test Engineer (+1.9 percentage points); the largest drop: DevOps / Platform Engineer (−2.9 percentage points). Single months fluctuate; a shift of less than one percentage point is not a trend yet. Each role's page shows its development over all analysed months.

RoleSeptember 2026October 2026Change from the month before (percentage points)
Test Engineer7.4%9.3%+1.9
SAP Developer6.6%8.3%+1.7
Security Engineer6.5%8%+1.4
ML / AI Engineer6.2%6.5%+0.4
Java Fullstack Developer5%5.2%+0.2
Low-Code Platform Developer5.7%5.9%+0.2
Angular Developer1.9%2%+0.1
Cloud Solution Architect2.6%2.6%0.0
Python Developer2.3%2.3%−0.1
Data Engineer8.6%8.5%−0.1
Embedded C/C++ Developer4.9%4.5%−0.4
PLC / Automation Programmer4.5%4%−0.5
React Developer2%1.5%−0.5
Java Backend Developer8%7.5%−0.6
C# / .NET Developer4.2%3.4%−0.8
DevOps / Platform Engineer15%12%−2.9

What each role asks for

For each role we show its 15 most frequent skills. The bar is the share of the role's projects that mention the skill. Blue skills are typical for the role – it asks for them at least three times as often as engineering projects overall. Grey skills are also in demand in other roles, such as CI/CD or Git. The black tick shows how often the skill is requested across all engineering projects. Languages and soft skills are left out; every role asks for them about equally.

Under each skill: how often the role lists it as required, and its share across all engineering projects.

DevOps / Platform Engineer

13% of engineering projects · 2,028 projects

Typical: Ansible, GitOps, Terraform, Grafana

  1. Kubernetesrequired 52% · all 21%60%
  2. CI/CDrequired 41% · all 27%51%
  3. Linuxrequired 31% · all 10%36%
  4. Terraformrequired 23% · all 7.6%31%
  5. Monitoringrequired 20% · all 8.7%31%
  6. Infrastructure as Coderequired 21% · all 7%28%
  7. Ansiblerequired 20% · all 4.6%27%
  8. DevOpsrequired 20% · all 10%26%
  9. Grafanarequired 17% · all 6.3%26%
  10. Pythonrequired 18% · all 20%25%
  11. Dockerrequired 17% · all 14%23%
  12. Automationrequired 16% · all 7.1%23%
  13. Helmrequired 16% · all 5.3%21%
  14. AWSrequired 16% · all 11%20%
  15. GitOpsrequired 15% · all 3.7%20%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Test Engineer

8.5% of engineering projects · 1,348 projects

Typical: Manual Testing, Test Case Design, ISTQB, Test Management

  1. Test Automationrequired 54% · all 14%69%
  2. Jirarequired 21% · all 11%34%
  3. ISTQBrequired 17% · all 3.2%31%
  4. Test Case Designrequired 23% · all 2.8%28%
  5. CI/CDrequired 20% · all 27%28%
  6. Test Managementrequired 20% · all 3%28%
  7. Testingrequired 18% · all 7.3%24%
  8. Playwrightrequired 16% · all 4.3%23%
  9. Agile Methodsrequired 12% · all 14%22%
  10. Javarequired 14% · all 20%19%
  11. Software Testingrequired 18% · all 2.8%19%
  12. Pythonrequired 15% · all 20%19%
  13. Scrumrequired 7.7% · all 14%18%
  14. Manual Testingrequired 13% · all 1.6%18%
  15. Gitrequired 12% · all 15%17%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Data Engineer

8.1% of engineering projects · 1,281 projects

Typical: Data Warehouse, PySpark, ETL, Microsoft Fabric

  1. SQLrequired 49% · all 12%53%
  2. Data Modelingrequired 39% · all 7%47%
  3. Pythonrequired 36% · all 20%42%
  4. ETLrequired 29% · all 3.6%36%
  5. Data Engineeringrequired 26% · all 3.7%33%
  6. Power BIrequired 21% · all 3.1%27%
  7. Databricksrequired 21% · all 3.5%27%
  8. CI/CDrequired 18% · all 27%26%
  9. Azurerequired 17% · all 9.7%24%
  10. Data Warehouserequired 15% · all 1.9%20%
  11. PySparkrequired 15% · all 1.7%17%
  12. Microsoft Fabricrequired 14% · all 1.7%16%
  13. Data Migrationrequired 12% · all 2.6%16%
  14. Apache Sparkrequired 11% · all 1.8%13%
  15. AWSrequired 10% · all 11%13%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Java Backend Developer

8% of engineering projects · 1,261 projects

Typical: Spring Boot, Maven, Java, Microservices

  1. Javarequired 86% · all 20%92%
  2. Spring Bootrequired 58% · all 12%66%
  3. REST APIsrequired 43% · all 19%49%
  4. Kubernetesrequired 31% · all 21%48%
  5. CI/CDrequired 26% · all 27%41%
  6. Microservicesrequired 29% · all 8%35%
  7. Dockerrequired 23% · all 14%33%
  8. PostgreSQLrequired 18% · all 8.4%30%
  9. Gitrequired 23% · all 15%30%
  10. Scrumrequired 14% · all 14%28%
  11. Mavenrequired 16% · all 4.2%23%
  12. Kafkarequired 13% · all 6.1%23%
  13. Test Automationrequired 15% · all 14%23%
  14. Agile Methodsrequired 12% · all 14%23%
  15. AWSrequired 11% · all 11%23%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

SAP Developer

6.5% of engineering projects · 1,022 projects

Typical: ABAP Objects, ABAP, CDS Views, IDoc

  1. ABAPrequired 61% · all 4.9%70%
  2. SAP S/4HANArequired 30% · all 3.4%42%
  3. SAP BTPrequired 20% · all 2.4%28%
  4. SAP Fiorirequired 17% · all 2.1%28%
  5. ODatarequired 18% · all 2.2%26%
  6. SAPrequired 17% · all 3%24%
  7. SAPUI5required 15% · all 1.7%22%
  8. CDS Viewsrequired 14% · all 1.3%19%
  9. IDocrequired 11% · all 1%14%
  10. REST APIsrequired 11% · all 19%14%
  11. Customizingrequired 11% · all 1.8%14%
  12. SAP MMrequired 9.5% · all 1%14%
  13. Agile Methodsrequired 3.2% · all 14%13%
  14. ABAP Objectsrequired 12% · all 0.9%13%
  15. SAP HANArequired 8.8% · all 1.1%12%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Security Engineer

6.4% of engineering projects · 1,017 projects

Typical: SIEM, Incident Response, ISO 27001, Penetration Testing

  1. IAMrequired 24% · all 3.9%28%
  2. IT Securityrequired 20% · all 3.9%25%
  3. Vulnerability Managementrequired 16% · all 2.1%20%
  4. SIEMrequired 14% · all 1.2%18%
  5. Securityrequired 12% · all 5.1%18%
  6. Cloud Securityrequired 11% · all 2.1%16%
  7. Kubernetesrequired 8.2% · all 21%14%
  8. CI/CDrequired 9.5% · all 27%14%
  9. BSI IT-Grundschutzrequired 8.2% · all 1.6%13%
  10. Active Directoryrequired 11% · all 1.6%13%
  11. Penetration Testingrequired 9.4% · all 1.2%13%
  12. Incident Responserequired 11% · all 1%12%
  13. Documentationrequired 6.8% · all 7.4%12%
  14. ISO 27001required 7.8% · all 1.1%12%
  15. Network Securityrequired 9.8% · all 1.2%12%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

ML / AI Engineer

5.6% of engineering projects · 878 projects

Typical: MLOps, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, LLM, Machine Learning

  1. Pythonrequired 55% · all 20%64%
  2. LLMrequired 40% · all 4.1%45%
  3. Generative AIrequired 27% · all 3%33%
  4. Retrieval-Augmented Generationrequired 26% · all 2.4%32%
  5. Machine Learningrequired 26% · all 2.9%31%
  6. CI/CDrequired 21% · all 27%27%
  7. Prompt Engineeringrequired 18% · all 2.1%22%
  8. Dockerrequired 15% · all 14%22%
  9. Azurerequired 14% · all 9.7%21%
  10. MLOpsrequired 15% · all 1.5%20%
  11. AI Agentsrequired 15% · all 2.5%20%
  12. AIrequired 15% · all 3.9%19%
  13. Kubernetesrequired 11% · all 21%18%
  14. AWSrequired 13% · all 11%17%
  15. SQLrequired 13% · all 12%16%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Low-Code Platform Developer

5.5% of engineering projects · 874 projects

Typical: Power Apps, Dataverse, Power Automate, Microsoft Power Platform

  1. ServiceNowrequired 24% · all 2%25%
  2. REST APIsrequired 20% · all 19%24%
  3. Power Appsrequired 19% · all 1.3%21%
  4. Power Automaterequired 18% · all 1.3%20%
  5. Microsoft Power Platformrequired 18% · all 1.3%20%
  6. JavaScriptrequired 14% · all 8.4%16%
  7. Data Modelingrequired 13% · all 7%16%
  8. Integrationrequired 10% · all 4.7%15%
  9. Agile Methodsrequired 6.3% · all 14%14%
  10. CMDBrequired 12% · all 0.9%14%
  11. Dataverserequired 11% · all 0.9%14%
  12. Scrumrequired 5% · all 14%12%
  13. CI/CDrequired 6.5% · all 27%11%
  14. Governancerequired 6.4% · all 1.9%11%
  15. Power BIrequired 4.5% · all 3.1%10%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Embedded C/C++ Developer

5.2% of engineering projects · 828 projects

Typical: Embedded Linux, Embedded Software Development, C, Embedded Systems

  1. C++required 53% · all 4.4%56%
  2. Embedded Software Developmentrequired 26% · all 2.1%31%
  3. Crequired 27% · all 2.2%30%
  4. Pythonrequired 14% · all 20%25%
  5. Embedded Linuxrequired 14% · all 1.1%17%
  6. Debuggingrequired 14% · all 3.8%16%
  7. Software Architecturerequired 13% · all 8.3%16%
  8. Linuxrequired 13% · all 10%16%
  9. Gitrequired 12% · all 15%14%
  10. Electrical Engineeringrequired 8.8% · all 1.9%12%
  11. CI/CDrequired 8% · all 27%11%
  12. Agile Methodsrequired 6% · all 14%11%
  13. Software Developmentrequired 8.7% · all 6.3%11%
  14. Embedded Systemsrequired 7.9% · all 0.8%11%
  15. Testingrequired 6.2% · all 7.3%10%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Java Fullstack Developer

5.1% of engineering projects · 810 projects

Typical: Spring Boot, Maven, Angular, React

  1. Javarequired 82% · all 20%88%
  2. Spring Bootrequired 63% · all 12%75%
  3. Angularrequired 41% · all 8%49%
  4. Kubernetesrequired 37% · all 21%46%
  5. REST APIsrequired 41% · all 19%46%
  6. TypeScriptrequired 36% · all 14%43%
  7. Dockerrequired 31% · all 14%42%
  8. Scrumrequired 24% · all 14%38%
  9. Reactrequired 30% · all 7%37%
  10. CI/CDrequired 26% · all 27%37%
  11. Gitrequired 28% · all 15%35%
  12. Microservicesrequired 29% · all 8%34%
  13. Agile Methodsrequired 16% · all 14%27%
  14. Mavenrequired 21% · all 4.2%26%
  15. Kafkarequired 18% · all 6.1%26%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

PLC / Automation Programmer

4.4% of engineering projects · 694 projects

Typical: Siemens TIA Portal, PLC Programming, Beckhoff, Siemens

  1. PLC Programmingrequired 58% · all 3.1%63%
  2. Commissioningrequired 43% · all 2.6%51%
  3. Siemens TIA Portalrequired 39% · all 2.1%45%
  4. Automation Technologyrequired 18% · all 1.1%22%
  5. Troubleshootingrequired 12% · all 4.2%17%
  6. Electrical Engineeringrequired 12% · all 1.9%17%
  7. Control Technologyrequired 12% · all 1%15%
  8. Automationrequired 11% · all 7.1%14%
  9. Siemensrequired 8.9% · all 0.6%12%
  10. Problem Analysisrequired 7.5% · all 4.5%12%
  11. Beckhoffrequired 9.5% · all 0.6%12%
  12. Technical Documentationrequired 5.3% · all 6%12%
  13. Drive Technologyrequired 8.2% · all 0.6%12%
  14. HMIrequired 8.2% · all 0.7%11%
  15. Documentationrequired 5.2% · all 7.4%11%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

C# / .NET Developer

3.9% of engineering projects · 619 projects

Typical: Entity Framework Core, ASP.NET Core, .NET, C#

  1. C#required 80% · all 6.3%93%
  2. .NETrequired 69% · all 4.8%80%
  3. REST APIsrequired 31% · all 19%39%
  4. SQL Serverrequired 19% · all 2.9%27%
  5. CI/CDrequired 16% · all 27%27%
  6. Gitrequired 16% · all 15%25%
  7. Azure DevOpsrequired 12% · all 4.8%23%
  8. ASP.NET Corerequired 17% · all 1.1%22%
  9. Entity Framework Corerequired 15% · all 0.9%22%
  10. Azurerequired 16% · all 9.7%21%
  11. Agile Methodsrequired 8.9% · all 14%19%
  12. Software Architecturerequired 11% · all 8.3%19%
  13. Scrumrequired 7.6% · all 14%18%
  14. Angularrequired 10% · all 8%14%
  15. Backend Developmentrequired 7.4% · all 6.3%14%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Cloud Solution Architect

2.7% of engineering projects · 434 projects

Typical: Cloud Architecture, Solution Architecture, Cloud Security, Infrastructure as Code

  1. Azurerequired 40% · all 9.7%42%
  2. CI/CDrequired 30% · all 27%38%
  3. AWSrequired 31% · all 11%38%
  4. Terraformrequired 30% · all 7.6%35%
  5. Kubernetesrequired 26% · all 21%34%
  6. Cloud Architecturerequired 29% · all 3.2%34%
  7. Infrastructure as Coderequired 28% · all 7%33%
  8. Pythonrequired 16% · all 20%22%
  9. Securityrequired 15% · all 5.1%19%
  10. Monitoringrequired 9.9% · all 8.7%16%
  11. IAMrequired 13% · all 3.9%15%
  12. Solution Architecturerequired 9.7% · all 2.1%15%
  13. Dockerrequired 9.9% · all 14%15%
  14. Agile Methodsrequired 6.7% · all 14%15%
  15. Cloud Securityrequired 12% · all 2.1%14%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Angular Developer

2.7% of engineering projects · 420 projects

Typical: Angular, Accessibility, CSS, HTML

  1. Angularrequired 78% · all 8%93%
  2. TypeScriptrequired 58% · all 14%73%
  3. REST APIsrequired 29% · all 19%40%
  4. JavaScriptrequired 28% · all 8.4%36%
  5. CI/CDrequired 17% · all 27%35%
  6. CSSrequired 27% · all 4.3%35%
  7. HTMLrequired 26% · all 4.4%34%
  8. Scrumrequired 12% · all 14%33%
  9. Frontend Developmentrequired 19% · all 4.4%29%
  10. PostgreSQLrequired 17% · all 8.4%27%
  11. Gitrequired 15% · all 15%25%
  12. Code Reviewsrequired 5.7% · all 6.8%21%
  13. Test Automationrequired 12% · all 14%20%
  14. Accessibilityrequired 10% · all 2.2%19%
  15. Software Architecturerequired 7.6% · all 8.3%19%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

React Developer

2.7% of engineering projects · 420 projects

Typical: Next.js, React, Node.js, TypeScript

  1. Reactrequired 78% · all 7%91%
  2. TypeScriptrequired 69% · all 14%83%
  3. REST APIsrequired 36% · all 19%45%
  4. CI/CDrequired 23% · all 27%45%
  5. JavaScriptrequired 27% · all 8.4%32%
  6. Dockerrequired 14% · all 14%27%
  7. Frontend Developmentrequired 15% · all 4.4%24%
  8. Node.jsrequired 17% · all 3.5%24%
  9. Agile Methodsrequired 9% · all 14%23%
  10. Next.jsrequired 18% · all 1%23%
  11. CSSrequired 18% · all 4.3%22%
  12. Playwrightrequired 11% · all 4.3%22%
  13. Gitrequired 17% · all 15%21%
  14. Kubernetesrequired 8.8% · all 21%21%
  15. Scrumrequired 9% · all 14%19%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

Python Developer

2.3% of engineering projects · 370 projects

Typical: FastAPI, Python, Backend Development, PostgreSQL

  1. Pythonrequired 88% · all 20%94%
  2. CI/CDrequired 26% · all 27%35%
  3. REST APIsrequired 27% · all 19%32%
  4. FastAPIrequired 22% · all 1.7%30%
  5. Dockerrequired 18% · all 14%28%
  6. PostgreSQLrequired 18% · all 8.4%26%
  7. Kubernetesrequired 20% · all 21%25%
  8. Gitrequired 20% · all 15%24%
  9. Backend Developmentrequired 17% · all 6.3%21%
  10. TypeScriptrequired 14% · all 14%20%
  11. Software Architecturerequired 11% · all 8.3%17%
  12. SQLrequired 14% · all 12%16%
  13. AWSrequired 14% · all 11%16%
  14. Scrumrequired 9.5% · all 14%15%
  15. Reactrequired 9.2% · all 7%15%

More on the role: monthly trend and related roles →

How to use the data for your profile

  1. Find the role closest to your focus and check your profile against its blue skills: they are what clients in that role look for.
  2. Grey skills with long bars are baseline knowledge many projects take for granted – if you have it, it belongs in your profile.
  3. Roles with a large overlap – such as Java backend and Java fullstack – are often within reach with a few additional skills.

Projectmatch matches new projects against your profile automatically and shows, per project, which of the required skills your profile covers. Try it now.

See also: How remote are IT freelance projects? – remote, hybrid and on-site shares per role and city. And Which skills belong together? Skill clusters from IT freelance projects – which technologies projects ask for together, across all roles. And IT contract length in Germany – how long contracts run per role and when they start. And AI freelance & contract jobs in Germany – how many projects per role have AI at their core. And the Monthly IT freelance market report – which roles gain or lose share month by month.

Method

An AI model assigns each project exactly one role from its title and required skills – the main requirement – or marks it as not an engineering project. Engineering means hands-on work: developing, automating, testing, building platforms. Consulting, project management, administration and functional SAP customizing do not count. The role list was derived from the data: it includes every role that held at least about 2% of the engineering projects when it was introduced.

The skills come from the AI analysis of the project descriptions; spelling variants such as "ReactJS" and "React 18" are merged into one skill. A skill counts as typical for a role when the role's projects mention it at least three times as often as engineering projects overall. The monthly shares refer to the engineering projects first listed in that month; the figures are updated every month.