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 £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 March 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 65 102
Rank change year-on-year -28 +37 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Software Developer 18 18 10
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 0.98% 1.71% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.06% 1.89% 0.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 3 8
10th Percentile - £439 £465
25th Percentile £488 £446 £485
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £470 £550
Median % change year-on-year +6.38% -14.55% +7.84%
75th Percentile £580 £506 £600
90th Percentile £740 £506 -
England median daily rate £520 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -5.45% - -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £77.00 - -
Median hourly rate £78.75 - -
75th Percentile £82.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £74.75 - £53.60
% change year-on-year - - -6.78%

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 1,697 954 1,730
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.53% 90.51% 89.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 739 494 885
10th Percentile £190 £225 £225
25th Percentile £325 £350 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% +3.16% -
75th Percentile £591 £600 £563
90th Percentile £675 £692 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 517 136 481
10th Percentile £13.72 £16.59 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.96 £22.75 £15.52
Median hourly rate £23.50 £61.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -61.48% +52.50% +50.94%
75th Percentile £65.00 £73.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £75.25
England median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £34.25
% change year-on-year - +2.19% -14.38%

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
Daily Rate Histogram in the East of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Developer in the East of England over the 6 months to 1 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Developer 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 1 March 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
Cambridgeshire +13 11 £500 +4.44% 10
Hertfordshire -20 4 - - 7
Suffolk -4 2 £700 - 2
Essex - 1 £700 - 8
Software Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 March 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 9 (50.00%) Full-Stack Development
2 6 (33.33%) Software Engineering
3 4 (22.22%) Agile
3 4 (22.22%) Perl
3 4 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
3 4 (22.22%) SQL
3 4 (22.22%) Test Automation
4 3 (16.67%) Java
4 3 (16.67%) Python
4 3 (16.67%) React
4 3 (16.67%) SC Cleared
4 3 (16.67%) Security Cleared
5 2 (11.11%) .NET
5 2 (11.11%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (11.11%) Acceptance Criteria
5 2 (11.11%) AI
5 2 (11.11%) API Design
5 2 (11.11%) API Management
5 2 (11.11%) Azure
5 2 (11.11%) Azure AKS
5 2 (11.11%) Azure Functions
5 2 (11.11%) C
5 2 (11.11%) C#
5 2 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
5 2 (11.11%) Data Architecture
5 2 (11.11%) Data Modelling
5 2 (11.11%) Data Privacy
5 2 (11.11%) Data Strategy
5 2 (11.11%) Data Visualisation
5 2 (11.11%) Deep Learning

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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (5.56%) SAS
Applications
1 2 (11.11%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 2 (11.11%) Azure
1 2 (11.11%) Azure AKS
1 2 (11.11%) Azure Functions
1 2 (11.11%) GitHub
1 2 (11.11%) GitHub Copilot
1 2 (11.11%) PaaS
1 2 (11.11%) Serverless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (11.11%) Metadata
2 1 (5.56%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 2 (11.11%) JIRA
General
1 4 (22.22%) Publishing
2 3 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (5.56%) Banking
3 1 (5.56%) Finance
3 1 (5.56%) Organisational Skills
3 1 (5.56%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (16.67%) React
2 2 (11.11%) .NET
2 2 (11.11%) A2A Protocol
2 2 (11.11%) Model Context Protocol
2 2 (11.11%) PyTorch
2 2 (11.11%) RESTful
2 2 (11.11%) Semantic Kernel
2 2 (11.11%) TensorFlow
3 1 (5.56%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 2 (11.11%) Algorithms
1 2 (11.11%) Cloud Native
1 2 (11.11%) Legacy Systems
1 2 (11.11%) Management Information System
1 2 (11.11%) Product Ownership
1 2 (11.11%) Reference Data
2 1 (5.56%) Credit Risk
2 1 (5.56%) Greenfield Project
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (50.00%) Full-Stack Development
2 6 (33.33%) Software Engineering
3 4 (22.22%) Agile
3 4 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
3 4 (22.22%) Test Automation
4 2 (11.11%) Acceptance Criteria
4 2 (11.11%) API Management
4 2 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
4 2 (11.11%) Data Architecture
4 2 (11.11%) Data Strategy
4 2 (11.11%) Data Visualisation
4 2 (11.11%) LLM
4 2 (11.11%) Machine Learning
4 2 (11.11%) Prompt Engineering
4 2 (11.11%) Prototyping
4 2 (11.11%) Rapid Prototyping
4 2 (11.11%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
4 2 (11.11%) Sprint Review
4 2 (11.11%) User Stories
4 2 (11.11%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 4 (22.22%) Perl
1 4 (22.22%) SQL
2 3 (16.67%) Java
2 3 (16.67%) Python
3 2 (11.11%) C
3 2 (11.11%) C#
3 2 (11.11%) PowerShell
3 2 (11.11%) TypeScript
4 1 (5.56%) R
Qualifications
1 3 (16.67%) SC Cleared
1 3 (16.67%) Security Cleared
2 2 (11.11%) Microsoft Certified Professional
3 1 (5.56%) BPSS Clearance
3 1 (5.56%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (11.11%) EU AI Act
2 1 (5.56%) NIST
Vendors
1 2 (11.11%) Foundry
1 2 (11.11%) Microsoft