Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in Hertfordshire

Software Engineering
East of England > Hertfordshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Hertfordshire requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 17 8
Rank change year-on-year +12 -9 +6
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 94 36 73
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 11.37% 8.51% 10.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.09% 9.47% 11.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 1 9
10th Percentile £429 - -
25th Percentile £511 - £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £550 £425
Median % change year-on-year +11.36% +29.41% -32.00%
75th Percentile £703 - £488
90th Percentile £844 - £560
East of England median daily rate £505 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +3.48% -2.40% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 23 59
10th Percentile £57.63 - £60.00
25th Percentile £62.00 - £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £69.38 £67.00 -
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £68.00
East of England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process & Methodology Skills
Hertfordshire

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Hertfordshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 667 380 626
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 80.65% 89.83% 87.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 282 174 203
10th Percentile £200 £261 £203
25th Percentile £406 £446 £306
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £527 £400
Median % change year-on-year -3.13% +31.63% -23.81%
75th Percentile £650 £575 £569
90th Percentile £750 £675 £650
East of England median daily rate £500 £500 £425
% change year-on-year - +17.65% -15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 115 285
10th Percentile £15.99 £16.95 £27.60
25th Percentile £22.63 £30.06 £38.12
Median hourly rate £61.76 £54.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.31% +9.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £77.00 £70.00
East of England median hourly rate £40.00 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% +90.48%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Hertfordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Hertfordshire

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in Hertfordshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Software Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in Hertfordshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Hertfordshire over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in Hertfordshire

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in Hertfordshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Software Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in Hertfordshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in Hertfordshire over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in Hertfordshire

Software Engineering
Contract Job Locations in Hertfordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineering within the Hertfordshire region over the 6 months to 1 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
Stevenage +11 81 £600 - 10
Welwyn Garden City - 4 £850 - 3
Hemel Hempstead -12 3 £650 +18.18% 2
Royston - 3 - - 10
Watford - 3 £450 - 4
Software Engineering
East of England

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Hertfordshire 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 (1.06%) CMS
Applications
1 2 (2.13%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 1 (1.06%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 6 (6.38%) Azure
2 4 (4.26%) Azure AKS
3 3 (3.19%) AWS
3 3 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (2.13%) SaaS
5 1 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
5 1 (1.06%) Boomi
5 1 (1.06%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (1.06%) GitHub
5 1 (1.06%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 20 (21.28%) Software-Defined Radio
2 16 (17.02%) Ethernet
3 8 (8.51%) Wireless
4 5 (5.32%) TCP/IP
5 3 (3.19%) Modbus
5 3 (3.19%) RS-232
5 3 (3.19%) RS-422
5 3 (3.19%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.13%) MySQL
1 2 (2.13%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (2.13%) Redis
1 2 (2.13%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (15.96%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (6.38%) Eclipse
2 6 (6.38%) Visual Studio
3 5 (5.32%) Rational Rhapsody
4 3 (3.19%) Git
5 2 (2.13%) CppUnit
5 2 (2.13%) PVCS
6 1 (1.06%) GitLab
General
1 15 (15.96%) Social Skills
2 14 (14.89%) Aerospace
2 14 (14.89%) Electronics
3 13 (13.83%) Law
4 6 (6.38%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (6.38%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (5.32%) Military
6 4 (4.26%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (3.19%) Manufacturing
7 3 (3.19%) Retail
8 1 (1.06%) Automotive
8 1 (1.06%) Finance
8 1 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 73 (77.66%) Software Engineer
2 39 (41.49%) Embedded Engineer
3 34 (36.17%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 21 (22.34%) C++ Software Engineer
5 20 (21.28%) DSP Engineer
5 20 (21.28%) DSP Software Engineer
6 16 (17.02%) Radio Engineer
7 12 (12.77%) C# Software Engineer
8 9 (9.57%) Ada Engineer
9 8 (8.51%) C Software Engineer
9 8 (8.51%) DSP Embedded Software Engineer
10 7 (7.45%) Ada Software Engineer
11 6 (6.38%) C/C++ Software Engineer
12 4 (4.26%) DevOps Engineer
13 3 (3.19%) Embedded C Engineer
13 3 (3.19%) Embedded C Software Engineer
13 3 (3.19%) Senior
14 2 (2.13%) Python Engineer
14 2 (2.13%) QA Engineer
14 2 (2.13%) Quality Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (5.32%) Node.js
1 5 (5.32%) Web Services
2 4 (4.26%) REST
3 2 (2.13%) Celery
3 2 (2.13%) Django
3 2 (2.13%) JWT
3 2 (2.13%) OAuth
3 2 (2.13%) React
3 2 (2.13%) SOAP
3 2 (2.13%) Vue
4 1 (1.06%) PyTorch
4 1 (1.06%) scikit-learn
4 1 (1.06%) TensorFlow
4 1 (1.06%) XGBoost
4 1 (1.06%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 8 (8.51%) FPGA
1 8 (8.51%) PCIe
2 6 (6.38%) Embedded Systems
2 6 (6.38%) RISC-V
3 3 (3.19%) Cyber Threat
4 2 (2.13%) Cloud Native
4 2 (2.13%) Low-Code
4 2 (2.13%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.06%) CMDB
5 1 (1.06%) Device Driver
5 1 (1.06%) Distributed Computing
5 1 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.06%) Life Science
5 1 (1.06%) Robotics
5 1 (1.06%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 12 (12.77%) Linux
2 9 (9.57%) Windows
3 8 (8.51%) FreeRTOS
4 2 (2.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (2.13%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.06%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (20.21%) Agile
2 14 (14.89%) DevOps
2 14 (14.89%) Validation
3 13 (13.83%) CI/CD
3 13 (13.83%) Continuous Integration
3 13 (13.83%) Software Testing
3 13 (13.83%) Test Automation
4 11 (11.70%) Unit Testing
4 11 (11.70%) Verification and Validation
5 9 (9.57%) TDD
5 9 (9.57%) UML
6 8 (8.51%) Digital Signal Processing
6 8 (8.51%) Problem-Solving
6 8 (8.51%) Signal Processing
6 8 (8.51%) SysML
7 7 (7.45%) Embedded Software Development
8 6 (6.38%) Continuous Improvement
8 6 (6.38%) Digital Twin
8 6 (6.38%) Synthetic Environment
8 6 (6.38%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 43 (45.74%) C++
2 39 (41.49%) C
3 18 (19.15%) Ada
4 16 (17.02%) C#
5 10 (10.64%) Embedded C
6 8 (8.51%) Python
7 6 (6.38%) JavaScript
8 1 (1.06%) Bicep
8 1 (1.06%) Embedded C++
8 1 (1.06%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 14 (14.89%) Security Cleared
2 13 (13.83%) SC Cleared
3 3 (3.19%) DV Cleared
4 2 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (2.13%) Degree
5 1 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (1.06%) Master's Degree
5 1 (1.06%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (11.70%) Def Stans
2 7 (7.45%) QA
3 6 (6.38%) DO-178B
3 6 (6.38%) MISRA
System Software
1 6 (6.38%) Firmware
2 4 (4.26%) Docker
3 2 (2.13%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (4.26%) Kubernetes
2 2 (2.13%) Ansible
2 2 (2.13%) Terraform
Vendors
1 6 (6.38%) Microsoft
2 4 (4.26%) Lauterbach
3 2 (2.13%) MuleSoft
3 2 (2.13%) Remedy
3 2 (2.13%) VMware
4 1 (1.06%) Informatica
4 1 (1.06%) NVIDIA
4 1 (1.06%) Pega
4 1 (1.06%) Salesforce
4 1 (1.06%) SAP
4 1 (1.06%) ServiceNow