Lead Software Engineer Contract Job Trends in Portsmouth

Lead Software Engineer
Hampshire > Portsmouth

The median Lead Software Engineer daily rate in Portsmouth is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 March 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 - 38
Rank change year-on-year - - +6
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Software Engineer 2 0 3
As % of all contract jobs in Portsmouth 1.10% - 1.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.15% - 1.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £575 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 - -
75th Percentile £625 - -
90th Percentile - - -
Hampshire median daily rate £600 - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £63.12
Median hourly rate - - £67.79
75th Percentile - - £72.45
90th Percentile - - -
Hampshire median hourly rate - - £67.79
% change year-on-year - - +30.32%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Portsmouth

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Portsmouth. 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 Portsmouth with a recognized job title 174 104 263
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 95.60% 94.55% 91.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 65 61 118
10th Percentile £280 £200 £368
25th Percentile £413 £413 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% +2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £634
90th Percentile £625 £660 £808
Hampshire median daily rate £540 £545 £570
% change year-on-year -0.92% -4.39% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 23 70
10th Percentile £33.67 £25.73 £40.91
25th Percentile £45.21 £31.25 £53.40
Median hourly rate £50.61 £57.75 £61.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.36% -5.33% +2.60%
75th Percentile £55.00 £62.50 £67.02
90th Percentile £60.90 £70.00 £77.17
Hampshire median hourly rate £25.15 £54.94 £48.00
% change year-on-year -54.22% +14.45% -1.03%

Lead Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Portsmouth

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

Lead Software Engineer job vacancy trend in Portsmouth

Lead Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in Portsmouth

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in Portsmouth.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in Portsmouth

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Portsmouth

For the 6 months to 19 March 2026, Lead 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 Portsmouth region featuring Lead Software Engineer in the job title.

1 2 (100.00%) .NET
1 2 (100.00%) Agile
1 2 (100.00%) Architectural Patterns
1 2 (100.00%) AWS
1 2 (100.00%) Azure
1 2 (100.00%) Backlog Refinement
1 2 (100.00%) C#
1 2 (100.00%) C++
1 2 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 2 (100.00%) Design Patterns
1 2 (100.00%) DevOps
1 2 (100.00%) DevSecOps
1 2 (100.00%) Front End Development
1 2 (100.00%) High Availability
1 2 (100.00%) Java
1 2 (100.00%) JavaScript
1 2 (100.00%) Mentoring
1 2 (100.00%) Microservices
1 2 (100.00%) Performance Tuning
1 2 (100.00%) React
1 2 (100.00%) Relational Database
1 2 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Scrum
1 2 (100.00%) Secure Coding
1 2 (100.00%) Security Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Software Architecture
1 2 (100.00%) Software Engineering
1 2 (100.00%) Sprint Planning
1 2 (100.00%) SQL
1 2 (100.00%) Technical Leadership

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Portsmouth 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 (100.00%) AWS
1 2 (100.00%) Azure
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (100.00%) Relational Database
General
1 2 (100.00%) Analytical Skills
1 2 (100.00%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (100.00%) .NET
1 2 (100.00%) React
Miscellaneous
1 2 (100.00%) Analytical Mindset
1 2 (100.00%) Distributed Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Agile
1 2 (100.00%) Architectural Patterns
1 2 (100.00%) Backlog Refinement
1 2 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 2 (100.00%) Design Patterns
1 2 (100.00%) DevOps
1 2 (100.00%) DevSecOps
1 2 (100.00%) Front End Development
1 2 (100.00%) High Availability
1 2 (100.00%) Mentoring
1 2 (100.00%) Microservices
1 2 (100.00%) Performance Tuning
1 2 (100.00%) Scrum
1 2 (100.00%) Secure Coding
1 2 (100.00%) Software Architecture
1 2 (100.00%) Software Engineering
1 2 (100.00%) Sprint Planning
1 2 (100.00%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 2 (100.00%) C#
1 2 (100.00%) C++
1 2 (100.00%) Java
1 2 (100.00%) JavaScript
1 2 (100.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Security Cleared