Software Development Engineer Contract Job Trends in the East of England

Software Development Engineer
England > East of England

The median Software Development Engineer daily rate in the East of England is £675, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 January 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 79 107
Rank change year-on-year -17 +28 -
Contract jobs requiring a Software Development Engineer 3 3 5
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 0.19% 0.28% 0.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.31% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 3 4
10th Percentile - £439 -
25th Percentile £663 £469 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £675 £538 £425
Median % change year-on-year +25.58% +26.47% -
75th Percentile £688 £556 £438
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £475 £600 £425
% change year-on-year -20.83% +41.18% -26.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
Median hourly rate £67.00 - £65.00
England median hourly rate £67.00 - £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +30.00%

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 1,432 975 1,544
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.95% 89.61% 90.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 639 445 844
10th Percentile £187 £225 £200
25th Percentile £325 £320 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £454 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.63% -4.42% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £575
90th Percentile £676 £688 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 433 147 325
10th Percentile £13.54 £16.24 £13.70
25th Percentile £16.06 £21.46 £15.75
Median hourly rate £25.00 £50.00 £39.55
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +26.42% +88.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -21.43% -20.00% +25.00%

Software Development Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

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

Software Development Engineer job vacancy trend in the East of England

Software Development Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the East of England

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

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

Software Development Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the East of England

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

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

Software Development Engineer
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 Development Engineer within the East of England region over the 6 months to 16 January 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
Hertfordshire - 3 £675 -
Software Development Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 16 January 2026, Software Development Engineer 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 Development Engineer in the job title.

1 3 (100.00%) Computer Science
1 3 (100.00%) JavaScript
1 3 (100.00%) Node.js
2 2 (66.67%) .NET
2 2 (66.67%) .NET Framework
2 2 (66.67%) Agile
2 2 (66.67%) AngularJS
2 2 (66.67%) Artifactory
2 2 (66.67%) C#
2 2 (66.67%) CI/CD
2 2 (66.67%) Containerisation
2 2 (66.67%) CSS
2 2 (66.67%) Design Patterns
2 2 (66.67%) Docker
2 2 (66.67%) Full-Stack Development
2 2 (66.67%) GitLab
2 2 (66.67%) HTML
2 2 (66.67%) JIRA
2 2 (66.67%) Kubernetes
2 2 (66.67%) Microservices
2 2 (66.67%) npm
2 2 (66.67%) OOP
2 2 (66.67%) React
2 2 (66.67%) SDLC
2 2 (66.67%) Software Testing
2 2 (66.67%) Svelte
2 2 (66.67%) TDD
2 2 (66.67%) TypeScript
2 2 (66.67%) Visual Studio
2 2 (66.67%) Vue

Software Development Engineer 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 2 (66.67%) npm
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (33.33%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 2 (66.67%) Artifactory
1 2 (66.67%) GitLab
1 2 (66.67%) JIRA
1 2 (66.67%) Visual Studio
General
1 2 (66.67%) Social Skills
2 1 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (33.33%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (100.00%) Node.js
2 2 (66.67%) .NET
2 2 (66.67%) .NET Framework
2 2 (66.67%) AngularJS
2 2 (66.67%) CSS
2 2 (66.67%) HTML
2 2 (66.67%) React
2 2 (66.67%) Svelte
2 2 (66.67%) Vue
3 1 (33.33%) JSON
3 1 (33.33%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 2 (66.67%) Algorithms
1 2 (66.67%) Data Structures
1 2 (66.67%) Distributed Systems
2 1 (33.33%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (33.33%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (33.33%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) Computer Science
2 2 (66.67%) Agile
2 2 (66.67%) CI/CD
2 2 (66.67%) Containerisation
2 2 (66.67%) Design Patterns
2 2 (66.67%) Full-Stack Development
2 2 (66.67%) Microservices
2 2 (66.67%) OOP
2 2 (66.67%) SDLC
2 2 (66.67%) Software Testing
2 2 (66.67%) TDD
3 1 (33.33%) AI
3 1 (33.33%) Customer Experience
3 1 (33.33%) DevOps
3 1 (33.33%) Generative AI
3 1 (33.33%) Identity Management
3 1 (33.33%) Marketing Automation
3 1 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
3 1 (33.33%) Software Engineering
3 1 (33.33%) Webhook
Programming Languages
1 3 (100.00%) JavaScript
2 2 (66.67%) C#
2 2 (66.67%) TypeScript
3 1 (33.33%) C++
3 1 (33.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (33.33%) Degree
1 1 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 1 (33.33%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 2 (66.67%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (66.67%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) Adobe
1 1 (33.33%) Tealium