Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in Reading

Software Engineering
Berkshire > Reading

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Reading requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 65 75 51
Rank change year-on-year +10 -24 +25
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 11 16 35
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 1.57% 1.48% 3.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.72% 1.63% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 13 29
10th Percentile £323 £618 £460
25th Percentile £363 £620 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £650 £625
Median % change year-on-year -34.62% +4.00% +6.38%
75th Percentile £438 £663 £663
90th Percentile £559 £669 £668
Berkshire median daily rate £425 £605 £625
% change year-on-year -29.75% -3.20% +6.38%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Reading

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 Reading.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 641 983 963
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 91.31% 90.85% 92.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 443 551 628
10th Percentile £337 £330 £213
25th Percentile £425 £450 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +9.52% -
75th Percentile £609 £650 £615
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £540 £500
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 11 17
10th Percentile £14.75 £29.00 £41.24
25th Percentile £16.66 £49.38 £59.89
Median hourly rate £58.00 £60.46 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -4.06% -4.48% -2.63%
75th Percentile £82.25 £67.21 £65.25
90th Percentile £96.75 £74.87 £66.96
Berkshire median hourly rate £37.28 £59.00 £61.45
% change year-on-year -36.81% -3.98% +21.68%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Reading

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

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Reading

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in Reading

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

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

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in Reading

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Reading over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in Reading

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in Reading

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

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

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Reading 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 (9.09%) CMS
1 1 (9.09%) Confluence
1 1 (9.09%) Drupal
1 1 (9.09%) Gunicorn
1 1 (9.09%) nginx
1 1 (9.09%) WordPress
Applications
1 1 (9.09%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 4 (36.36%) AWS
2 2 (18.18%) Azure
2 2 (18.18%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (18.18%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (9.09%) Redis
2 1 (9.09%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (36.36%) Git
2 1 (9.09%) Android Studio
2 1 (9.09%) Bitbucket
2 1 (9.09%) Jenkins
2 1 (9.09%) Subversion
General
1 6 (54.55%) Social Skills
2 3 (27.27%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (27.27%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 6 (54.55%) Developer
2 3 (27.27%) Android Developer
2 3 (27.27%) Architect
2 3 (27.27%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
2 3 (27.27%) Security Architect
3 2 (18.18%) Senior
3 2 (18.18%) Senior Developer
4 1 (9.09%) Delphi Software Engineer
4 1 (9.09%) Django Developer
4 1 (9.09%) Full-Stack Developer
4 1 (9.09%) Principal Engineer
4 1 (9.09%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (27.27%) Google JAX
1 3 (27.27%) JAX
1 3 (27.27%) jQuery
1 3 (27.27%) PyTorch
1 3 (27.27%) scikit-learn
1 3 (27.27%) TensorFlow
2 2 (18.18%) AngularJS
2 2 (18.18%) Node.js
2 2 (18.18%) React
2 2 (18.18%) Web Services
3 1 (9.09%) .NET
3 1 (9.09%) Bootstrap
3 1 (9.09%) Django
3 1 (9.09%) Middleware
3 1 (9.09%) REST
3 1 (9.09%) RESTful
3 1 (9.09%) Spring
3 1 (9.09%) Spring Boot
3 1 (9.09%) Vue
3 1 (9.09%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 3 (27.27%) Algorithms
2 2 (18.18%) Security Posture
3 1 (9.09%) Legacy Code
3 1 (9.09%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 5 (45.45%) Android
2 2 (18.18%) Apple iOS
2 2 (18.18%) Linux
3 1 (9.09%) Windows
3 1 (9.09%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (54.55%) CI/CD
2 5 (45.45%) DevOps
3 4 (36.36%) Secure Coding
4 3 (27.27%) AI
4 3 (27.27%) Android Development
4 3 (27.27%) Data Pipeline
4 3 (27.27%) Data Protection
4 3 (27.27%) Data Science
4 3 (27.27%) Deep Learning
4 3 (27.27%) LLM
4 3 (27.27%) Machine Learning
4 3 (27.27%) MITRE ATT&CK
4 3 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (27.27%) SDLC
4 3 (27.27%) Security Architecture
4 3 (27.27%) Threat Modelling
4 3 (27.27%) Workflow
5 2 (18.18%) DataOps
5 2 (18.18%) MLOps
5 2 (18.18%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 6 (54.55%) Java
2 3 (27.27%) C
2 3 (27.27%) C++
2 3 (27.27%) JavaScript
2 3 (27.27%) Python
2 3 (27.27%) R
3 2 (18.18%) C#
3 2 (18.18%) SQL
4 1 (9.09%) Bash
4 1 (9.09%) Delphi
4 1 (9.09%) PHP
Qualifications
1 7 (63.64%) Security Cleared
2 4 (36.36%) SC Cleared
3 1 (9.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (9.09%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (27.27%) EU AI Act
1 3 (27.27%) GDPR
1 3 (27.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (18.18%) NIST
3 1 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 3 (27.27%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (36.36%) Kubernetes
2 1 (9.09%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
2 1 (9.09%) Terraform
Vendors
1 1 (9.09%) Atlassian
1 1 (9.09%) Coverity
1 1 (9.09%) Microsoft
1 1 (9.09%) Thales