Software Developer Contract Job Trends in the East of England

Software Developer
England > East of England

The median Software Developer daily rate in the East of England is £505, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 August 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 93 93
Rank change year-on-year +3 0 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Software Developer 26 7 7
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 1.18% 0.55% 0.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.31% 0.64% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 2 4
10th Percentile - - £381
25th Percentile £488 £538 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £575 £475
Median % change year-on-year -12.17% +21.05% -0.42%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £544
90th Percentile - - £578
England median daily rate £515 £533 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% +1.48% +0.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 2
Median hourly rate - £43.30 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year - -45.88% -
England median hourly rate £53.75 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.27% -15.38% +13.20%

All Contract IT Job Roles
East of England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the East of England. 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 East of England with a recognized job title 1,987 1,092 1,402
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.48% 86.39% 87.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 876 504 601
10th Percentile £201 £189 £200
25th Percentile £375 £350 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year - +17.65% -12.82%
75th Percentile £595 £580 £573
90th Percentile £694 £675 £625
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 528 246 465
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.99 £14.48
25th Percentile £17.11 £20.50 £21.37
Median hourly rate £40.00 £43.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -9.47% +43.94%
75th Percentile £67.50 £67.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.25 £70.00
England median hourly rate £43.10 £26.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +65.78% -42.22% +5.88%

Software Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Software Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the East of England.

Software Developer job vacancy trend in the East of England

Software Developer
Daily Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the East of England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the East of England

Software Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the East of England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the East of England

Software Developer
Contract Job Locations in the East of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Developer within the East of England region over the 6 months to 8 August 2026. 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
Essex - 11 £600 - 3
Cambridgeshire +16 10 £500 - 5
Suffolk -7 5 - - 4
Software Developer
England

Software Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England

For the 6 months to 8 August 2026, Software Developer 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 East of England region featuring Software Developer in the job title.

1 20 (76.92%) Software Engineering
2 14 (53.85%) Java
3 13 (50.00%) CI/CD
3 13 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (46.15%) Agile
5 11 (42.31%) DevOps
6 7 (26.92%) Firewall
6 7 (26.92%) Identity Management
6 7 (26.92%) Load Balancing
6 7 (26.92%) VPN
7 6 (23.08%) Full-Stack Development
7 6 (23.08%) GCP
7 6 (23.08%) Git
7 6 (23.08%) Identity Access Management
7 6 (23.08%) Relational Database
7 6 (23.08%) Test Automation
7 6 (23.08%) Web Development
8 5 (19.23%) Ansible
8 5 (19.23%) Collaborative Engineering
8 5 (19.23%) Containerisation
8 5 (19.23%) GitLab
8 5 (19.23%) Gradle
8 5 (19.23%) High Availability
8 5 (19.23%) Microservices
8 5 (19.23%) Secure Coding
8 5 (19.23%) Spring
8 5 (19.23%) Spring Boot
8 5 (19.23%) TDD
8 5 (19.23%) User Stories
9 4 (15.38%) Azure

Software Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England 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:

Cloud Services
1 6 (23.08%) GCP
2 4 (15.38%) Azure
2 4 (15.38%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (3.85%) GitHub
3 1 (3.85%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 7 (26.92%) Firewall
1 7 (26.92%) VPN
2 3 (11.54%) RS-232
2 3 (11.54%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (23.08%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (23.08%) Git
2 5 (19.23%) GitLab
2 5 (19.23%) Gradle
3 3 (11.54%) Team Foundation Server
4 1 (3.85%) Visual Studio
4 1 (3.85%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 15 (57.69%) Manufacturing
2 11 (42.31%) Banking
2 11 (42.31%) Finance
3 6 (23.08%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (15.38%) Social Skills
5 3 (11.54%) Electronics
6 1 (3.85%) Aerospace
6 1 (3.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (3.85%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (19.23%) Spring
1 5 (19.23%) Spring Boot
2 2 (7.69%) React
3 1 (3.85%) CSS
3 1 (3.85%) HTML
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (76.92%) Software Engineering
2 13 (50.00%) CI/CD
2 13 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
3 12 (46.15%) Agile
4 11 (42.31%) DevOps
5 7 (26.92%) Identity Management
5 7 (26.92%) Load Balancing
6 6 (23.08%) Full-Stack Development
6 6 (23.08%) Identity Access Management
6 6 (23.08%) Test Automation
6 6 (23.08%) Web Development
7 5 (19.23%) Collaborative Engineering
7 5 (19.23%) Containerisation
7 5 (19.23%) High Availability
7 5 (19.23%) Microservices
7 5 (19.23%) Secure Coding
7 5 (19.23%) TDD
7 5 (19.23%) User Stories
8 4 (15.38%) Computer Science
9 3 (11.54%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 14 (53.85%) Java
2 3 (11.54%) C
2 3 (11.54%) C++
3 2 (7.69%) JavaScript
4 1 (3.85%) C#
4 1 (3.85%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (15.38%) Degree
2 3 (11.54%) Master's Degree
3 1 (3.85%) Computer Science Degree
System Software
1 3 (11.54%) Embedded Firmware
1 3 (11.54%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 5 (19.23%) Ansible