Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in the East of England

Software Engineer
England > East of England

The median Software Engineer daily rate in the East of England is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 October 2025.

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

6 months to
28 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 34 26 26
Rank change year-on-year -8 0 +26
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 74 82 125
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 5.25% 6.15% 6.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.11% 6.91% 7.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 15 46
10th Percentile £386 £385 -
25th Percentile £441 £450 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £503
Median % change year-on-year - -0.65% -16.13%
75th Percentile £665 £550 £571
90th Percentile £675 £556 £600
England median daily rate £625 £625 £596
% change year-on-year - +4.87% -0.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 28 64
10th Percentile £31.25 £52.50 -
25th Percentile - £62.19 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.00 £67.50 £90.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £77.50 -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.76% +0.77% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 1,211 1,187 1,694
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 85.95% 89.05% 90.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 541 511 998
10th Percentile £188 £220 £194
25th Percentile £350 £310 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £638 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 293 210 282
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.10 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.00 £21.23 £17.72
Median hourly rate £30.00 £47.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -36.84% +6.74% +124.63%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £79.95
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.03 £45.88
% change year-on-year -40.16% -8.39% +58.21%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

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

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the East of England

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the East of England

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

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

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the East of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the East of England over the 6 months to 28 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in the East of England

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the East of England

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

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

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the East of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineer in the East of England over the 6 months to 28 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineer in the East of England

Software 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 Engineer within the East of England region over the 6 months to 28 October 2025. 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 +1 49 £675 +40.48% 88
Cambridgeshire -11 17 £405 -19.00% 66
Essex +1 6 £571 - 15
Bedfordshire -18 1 - - 11
Norfolk - 1 £475 - 11
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 28 October 2025, Software 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 Engineer in the job title.

1 72 (97.30%) Software Engineering
2 36 (48.65%) C++
3 33 (44.59%) Validation
4 31 (41.89%) C#
4 31 (41.89%) Linux
5 30 (40.54%) CI/CD
6 28 (37.84%) Agile
6 28 (37.84%) JavaScript
7 26 (35.14%) Windows
8 23 (31.08%) Unit Testing
9 22 (29.73%) Ethernet
9 22 (29.73%) Node.js
9 22 (29.73%) Visual Studio
10 21 (28.38%) TDD
11 18 (24.32%) Continuous Integration
12 17 (22.97%) Eclipse
12 17 (22.97%) Microsoft
12 17 (22.97%) Synthetic Environment
12 17 (22.97%) TCP/IP
12 17 (22.97%) Verification and Validation
12 17 (22.97%) Visualisation
12 17 (22.97%) Web Services
13 16 (21.62%) Continuous Delivery
13 16 (21.62%) Digital Twin
14 13 (17.57%) Python
14 13 (17.57%) Software Testing
15 12 (16.22%) Problem-Solving
16 11 (14.86%) Java
17 9 (12.16%) C
17 9 (12.16%) MATLAB

Software 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:

Application Platforms
1 4 (5.41%) SAS
2 1 (1.35%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (8.11%) Simulink
2 1 (1.35%) CANalyzer
2 1 (1.35%) Stateflow
Cloud Services
1 5 (6.76%) npm
1 5 (6.76%) SuccessFactors
2 2 (2.70%) Azure
3 1 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
3 1 (1.35%) Amazon ECS
3 1 (1.35%) Amazon S3
3 1 (1.35%) AWS
3 1 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
3 1 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (1.35%) GitHub
3 1 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
3 1 (1.35%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (29.73%) Ethernet
2 17 (22.97%) TCP/IP
3 1 (1.35%) Bluetooth
3 1 (1.35%) HTTP
3 1 (1.35%) MQTT
3 1 (1.35%) SSL
3 1 (1.35%) UWB
3 1 (1.35%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (1.35%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.41%) NoSQL
2 1 (1.35%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 22 (29.73%) Visual Studio
2 17 (22.97%) Eclipse
3 9 (12.16%) Rational DOORS
4 8 (10.81%) Git
5 7 (9.46%) JIRA
6 5 (6.76%) Artifactory
6 5 (6.76%) GitLab
7 3 (4.05%) LabVIEW
8 1 (1.35%) CANoe
8 1 (1.35%) Cypress.io
8 1 (1.35%) Jenkins
8 1 (1.35%) Polyspace
8 1 (1.35%) Selenium
8 1 (1.35%) TestRail
General
1 28 (37.84%) Social Skills
2 17 (22.97%) Military
2 17 (22.97%) Presentation Skills
3 8 (10.81%) Aerospace
4 7 (9.46%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (8.11%) Law
5 6 (8.11%) Manufacturing
6 5 (6.76%) Electronics
6 5 (6.76%) Finance
6 5 (6.76%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (4.05%) Automotive
7 3 (4.05%) Multimedia
8 2 (2.70%) Wearables
9 1 (1.35%) Banking
9 1 (1.35%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.35%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (29.73%) Node.js
2 17 (22.97%) Web Services
3 9 (12.16%) React
4 6 (8.11%) .NET
4 6 (8.11%) .NET Framework
4 6 (8.11%) CSS
4 6 (8.11%) HTML
5 5 (6.76%) AngularJS
5 5 (6.76%) JSON
5 5 (6.76%) Svelte
5 5 (6.76%) Vue
5 5 (6.76%) XML
6 4 (5.41%) RESTful
6 4 (5.41%) Vulkan
7 3 (4.05%) FastAPI
8 2 (2.70%) DirectX
9 1 (1.35%) Entity Framework
9 1 (1.35%) NumPy
9 1 (1.35%) Qt
9 1 (1.35%) SciPy
Miscellaneous
1 10 (13.51%) PCIe
2 9 (12.16%) Algorithms
3 6 (8.11%) FPGA
3 6 (8.11%) State Machine
4 5 (6.76%) Data Structures
4 5 (6.76%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (5.41%) Credit Risk
6 3 (4.05%) CUDA
7 2 (2.70%) 3D Graphics
7 2 (2.70%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
8 1 (1.35%) Augmented Reality
8 1 (1.35%) Smartphone
8 1 (1.35%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 31 (41.89%) Linux
2 26 (35.14%) Windows
3 5 (6.76%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (97.30%) Software Engineering
2 33 (44.59%) Validation
3 30 (40.54%) CI/CD
4 28 (37.84%) Agile
5 23 (31.08%) Unit Testing
6 21 (28.38%) TDD
7 18 (24.32%) Continuous Integration
8 17 (22.97%) Synthetic Environment
8 17 (22.97%) Verification and Validation
8 17 (22.97%) Visualisation
9 16 (21.62%) Continuous Delivery
9 16 (21.62%) Digital Twin
10 13 (17.57%) Software Testing
11 12 (16.22%) Problem-Solving
12 9 (12.16%) Multithreading
12 9 (12.16%) Test Automation
13 8 (10.81%) Computer Science
13 8 (10.81%) Memory Management
13 8 (10.81%) SysML
13 8 (10.81%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 36 (48.65%) C++
2 31 (41.89%) C#
3 28 (37.84%) JavaScript
4 13 (17.57%) Python
5 11 (14.86%) Java
6 9 (12.16%) C
6 9 (12.16%) MATLAB
7 6 (8.11%) Ada
7 6 (8.11%) SQL
7 6 (8.11%) TypeScript
8 5 (6.76%) R
9 4 (5.41%) Shell Script
10 3 (4.05%) Embedded C
11 1 (1.35%) Bourne shell
11 1 (1.35%) Go
11 1 (1.35%) Perl
Qualifications
1 9 (12.16%) SC Cleared
1 9 (12.16%) Security Cleared
2 3 (4.05%) Degree
3 1 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (5.41%) QA
2 3 (4.05%) Software Quality Assurance
3 1 (1.35%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.35%) AUTOSAR
3 1 (1.35%) ISO 26262
3 1 (1.35%) MISRA
3 1 (1.35%) MISRA C
System Software
1 6 (8.11%) Docker
2 1 (1.35%) Embedded Firmware
2 1 (1.35%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (8.11%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.35%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 17 (22.97%) Microsoft
2 6 (8.11%) Oracle
3 5 (6.76%) SAP
3 5 (6.76%) Workday
4 1 (1.35%) QNX