IT freelance and contract market in Germany: projects, developer roles and skills in October 2026
In October 2026, 13,066 new IT freelance projects were listed – 19% more than in September 2026 (10,969). The developer role that gained most is Test Engineer (7.4% → 9.3%); among the skills, GitLab CI/CD (6.7% → 10.2%), Angular (5.1% → 8.2%) and Prometheus (2.8% → 5.5%) gained most. Every month, this report on the German IT freelance and contract market compares developer roles, skills and key figures with the month before, and names a change only when it goes beyond the usual variation.
How many IT freelance projects were listed in October 2026?
Of the 13,066 listings, 3,467 (27%) are engineering projects whose main requirement is a developer role; the others ask for project management, consulting or administration, or lie outside IT. The table shows the history since July 2026, latest month first. On which days and at what time most projects appear: When are IT contracts posted in Germany?; how many of them are freelance and how many employee leasing or employment: Freelance vs employee leasing.
| Month | Listings | Engineering projects | Skills per engineering project | Fully remote | No German needed | 12 months or longer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 13,066 | 3,467 | 19.0 | 41.3% | 6.5% | 39.8% |
| September 2026 | 10,969 | 3,169 | 17.3 | 39.9% | 5.8% | 34.7% |
| August 2026 | 10,226 | 3,155 | 14.6 | 38.0% | 5.8% | 34.0% |
| July 2026 | 10,044 | 3,463 | 15.3 | 37.9% | 5.8% | 31.2% |
Remote, German language, contract length: key figures against the month before
Fully remote: 41.3%, within the usual variation (month before: 39.9%). No German needed: 6.5%, within the usual variation (month before: 5.8%). Contracts of 12 months or longer: up from 34.7% to 39.8%.
| Figure | September 2026 | October 2026 | Change | vs. July + August + September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully remote | 39.9% | 41.3% | +1.4 | ↑ +2.7 |
| No German needed | 5.8% | 6.5% | +0.7 | +0.7 |
| Contracts of 12 months or longer | 34.7% | 39.8% | ↑ +5.1 | ↑ +6.5 |
↑ and ↓ mark changes above the noise thresholds (see method); grey values are within the usual variation. Changes in percentage points.
More in the analyses How remote are IT freelance projects?, English-speaking IT contracts in Germany and IT contract length in Germany.
Which developer roles are in higher demand?
Against September 2026, Test Engineer (7.4% → 9.3%), SAP Developer (6.6% → 8.3%) and Security Engineer (6.5% → 8.0%) gained. DevOps / Platform Engineer (15.3% → 12.4%) lost ground. The table shows each role's share of the engineering projects in September 2026 and October 2026; every role name leads to the role's page.
| Role | September 2026 | October 2026 | Change | vs. July + August + September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps / Platform Engineer | 15.3% | 12.4% | ↓ −2.9 | −1.2 |
| Test Engineer | 7.4% | 9.3% | ↑ +1.9 | +0.8 |
| Data Engineer | 8.6% | 8.5% | −0.1 | +0.6 |
| SAP Developer | 6.6% | 8.3% | ↑ +1.7 | ↑ +1.9 |
| Security Engineer | 6.5% | 8.0% | ↑ +1.4 | ↑ +1.6 |
| Java Backend Developer | 8.0% | 7.5% | −0.6 | −0.1 |
| ML / AI Engineer | 6.2% | 6.5% | +0.4 | ↑ +1.1 |
| Low-Code Platform Developer | 5.7% | 5.9% | +0.2 | +0.3 |
| Java Fullstack Developer | 5.0% | 5.2% | +0.2 | +0.4 |
| Embedded C/C++ Developer | 4.9% | 4.5% | −0.4 | ↓ −1.4 |
| PLC / Automation Programmer | 4.5% | 4.0% | −0.5 | −0.8 |
| C# / .NET Developer | 4.2% | 3.4% | −0.8 | −0.2 |
| Cloud Solution Architect | 2.6% | 2.6% | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Python Developer | 2.3% | 2.3% | −0.1 | −0.2 |
| Angular Developer | 1.9% | 2.0% | +0.1 | −0.2 |
| React Developer | 2.0% | 1.5% | −0.5 | −1.2 |
↑ and ↓ mark changes above the noise thresholds (see method); grey values are within the usual variation. Changes in percentage points.
Which skills each role asks for is shown in Most in-demand developer roles in German IT freelance projects.
In-demand IT skills: which are gaining, which are losing?
In October 2026, clearly more skills were recorded per engineering project on average than in September 2026: 19.0 instead of 17.3. Such a shift can come from how skills are recorded, not only from the listings (see Method). That lifts almost every skill's share, so a skill only counts as more in demand when its share rose by more than this general increase.
Against September 2026, 17 skills gained beyond the usual variation and 14 lost. The largest gains: GitLab CI/CD (6.7% → 10.2%), Angular (5.1% → 8.2%), Prometheus (2.8% → 5.5%), Web Application Development (1.0% → 3.0%) and OAuth2 (2.1% → 4.0%). The clearest losses: Docker (14.9% → 13.2%), Azure (12.0% → 10.0%), TypeScript (11.9% → 9.9%), Monitoring (10.6% → 8.8%) and GitLab (7.6% → 6.3%).
| Skill | September 2026 | October 2026 | Change | adjusted | vs. July + August + September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitLab CI/CD | 6.7% | 10.2% | ↑ +3.5 | +2.9 | ↑ +2.9 |
| Angular | 5.1% | 8.2% | ↑ +3.1 | +2.6 | +1.7 |
| Prometheus | 2.8% | 5.5% | ↑ +2.7 | +2.4 | ↑ +1.9 |
| Web Application Development | 1.0% | 3.0% | ↑ +2.0 | +1.9 | ↑ +1.8 |
| OAuth2 | 2.1% | 4.0% | ↑ +1.9 | +1.7 | ↑ +1.7 |
| Technical Documentation | 5.6% | 7.8% | ↑ +2.3 | +1.7 | ↑ +4.0 |
| PySpark | 1.6% | 3.4% | ↑ +1.8 | +1.6 | ↑ +2.1 |
| ABAP | 4.9% | 7.0% | ↑ +2.1 | +1.6 | ↑ +2.5 |
| AI-assisted Development | 3.0% | 4.9% | ↑ +1.9 | +1.6 | ↑ +2.0 |
| Test Case Design | 1.8% | 3.6% | ↑ +1.8 | +1.6 | +1.1 |
↑ and ↓ mark changes above the noise thresholds (see method); grey values are within the usual variation. Changes in percentage points. Column "adjusted": the change after taking out the general shift; the skills are ranked by it.
| Skill | September 2026 | October 2026 | Change | adjusted | vs. July + August + September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docker | 14.9% | 13.2% | ↓ −1.8 | −3.3 | −1.0 |
| Azure | 12.0% | 10.0% | ↓ −2.0 | −3.2 | +0.6 |
| TypeScript | 11.9% | 9.9% | ↓ −2.0 | −3.2 | ↓ −2.9 |
| Monitoring | 10.6% | 8.8% | ↓ −1.8 | −2.8 | +0.4 |
| GitLab | 7.6% | 6.3% | ↓ −1.3 | −2.0 | ↓ −1.3 |
| Node.js | 3.8% | 2.2% | ↓ −1.7 | −2.0 | ↓ −1.6 |
| OpenShift | 6.5% | 5.2% | ↓ −1.4 | −2.0 | −0.5 |
| Azure DevOps | 6.1% | 4.7% | ↓ −1.3 | −1.9 | +0.2 |
| React | 6.2% | 4.9% | ↓ −1.3 | −1.9 | ↓ −1.8 |
| JUnit | 4.1% | 2.6% | ↓ −1.5 | −1.9 | −0.8 |
↑ and ↓ mark changes above the noise thresholds (see method); grey values are within the usual variation. Changes in percentage points. Column "adjusted": the change after taking out the general shift; the skills are ranked by it.
The analysis Which skills belong together? shows which skills projects ask for together.
Longer trend: roles and skills against earlier months
Against July, August and September 2026 combined, SAP Developer (6.4% → 8.3%), Security Engineer (6.4% → 8.0%) and ML / AI Engineer (5.4% → 6.5%) gained and Embedded C/C++ Developer (6.0% → 4.5%) lost ground. Among the skills, Technical Documentation (3.8% → 7.8%), Relational Databases (1.7% → 4.1%), Interface Development (1.1% → 3.2%), PySpark (1.2% → 3.4%) and Requirements Engineering (2.5% → 4.7%) gained most; TypeScript (12.8% → 9.9%), React (6.7% → 4.9%), GitLab (7.7% → 6.3%), Node.js (3.7% → 2.2%) and CSS (3.7% → 2.4%) lost most clearly.
What this means for IT contractors
- Read single months with care: a month with many listings from one industry shifts the shares. A role or skill that gains over several months is the more reliable signal.
- Use the role and skill shares to sharpen your profile: skills your role often asks for belong visibly in your CV.
- The projects page shows the current listings; Projectmatch automatically matches new projects against your profile. Try it now.
Method
The report counts the IT freelance projects first listed in a month on the German project boards Projectmatch monitors. An AI model reads every description, assigns the project a developer role (see the roles analysis) and records the skills asked for, the remote share, the German requirement and the contract length. Role and skill shares refer to the engineering projects; languages and soft skills are not listed, as they appear in all listings alike. Only months from July 2026 on are analysed, since when every project is read this way.
What counts as a change. Shares vary from month to month even without a real trend: a few dozen listings more or fewer quickly move a small role by a percentage point. The report therefore names a rise or a drop only when all of the following hold:
- At least 100 projects name the role, the skill or the figure in one of the two compared periods.
- The share changes by at least 1 percentage point.
- The change is at least 2 times the random variation expected at this number of listings (a statistical test for the difference of two shares, about 95 % confidence).
- For skills, in addition: the change goes beyond the general shift. How many skills are recorded per project varies – with more detailed listings, but also with the recording itself: since mid-September 2026 the AI model records about a fifth more skills per project on every project board, with descriptions of the same length. In October 2026 it was 19.0 per engineering project on average, in September 2026 17.3. When a fifth more skills are recorded for every project, almost every single skill's share rises by a fifth too, without it being in higher demand. The report takes this general shift out: a skill only counts as more in demand when its share still rose by at least 1 percentage point afterwards, and as less in demand only when it fell accordingly. The rankings order the skills by this adjusted change (column "adjusted").
All other changes are grey in the tables and count as unchanged. The number of listings counts as higher or lower from a difference of 5%; it also depends on how completely the project boards were covered, so the report compares roles and skills only by shares, never by absolute numbers. The longer comparison pools the months July, August and September 2026 and sets them against October 2026; it evens out single-month outliers.
The report is updated every month after the turn of the month. The figures are published under CC BY 4.0: you may use them freely, also commercially, crediting "Projectmatch (projectmatch.io)" and, online, linking to this page.