Computer Science Contract Job Trends in the South East

Computer Science
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Computer Science skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 54 83
Rank change year-on-year -15 +29 +14
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 201 131 105
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.04% 3.76% 2.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.77% 4.22% 2.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 131 61 65
10th Percentile £189 £170 £197
25th Percentile £192 £204 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £500 £538
90th Percentile £625 £588 £625
England median daily rate £475 £490 £550
% change year-on-year -3.06% -10.91% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 4 5
10th Percentile £51.25 £76.59 £17.65
25th Percentile £64.88 £84.97 £20.12
Median hourly rate £75.00 £89.63 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.32% +214.49% -52.50%
75th Percentile £83.50 - £62.50
90th Percentile £87.16 - £73.00
England median hourly rate £52.50 £43.50 £50.50
% change year-on-year +20.69% -13.86% -18.55%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Computer Science 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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,333 3,105 3,793
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.56% 89.17% 82.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,207 1,936 2,272
10th Percentile £281 £220 £255
25th Percentile £425 £379 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% -1.14%
75th Percentile £619 £600 £625
90th Percentile £713 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 621 305 254
10th Percentile £13.45 £13.35 £16.08
25th Percentile £17.23 £15.50 £31.44
Median hourly rate £52.43 £21.25 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +146.71% -62.95% +9.24%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.00 £71.86
90th Percentile £87.16 £69.65 £78.75
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -1.91%

Computer Science
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Computer Science relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Computer Science job vacancy trend in the South East

Computer Science
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Computer Science.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Computer Science

Computer Science
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Computer Science in the South East over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Computer Science in the South East

Computer Science
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Computer Science.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Computer Science

Computer Science
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Computer Science in the South East over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Computer Science in the South East

Computer Science
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Computer Science within the South East region over the 6 months to 16 September 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
Thames Valley +15 109 £550 +20.55% 269
Berkshire +6 67 £550 +22.22% 127
Surrey +19 43 £209 +0.72% 65
Oxfordshire -2 27 £559 - 106
Hampshire -39 21 £455 +13.18% 95
Kent - 16 £215 - 20
Buckinghamshire -21 15 £564 +7.52% 39
West Sussex -28 7 £265 -7.99% 59
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 9
East Sussex -17 1 £600 +210.93% 22
Computer Science
England

Computer Science
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 6 (2.99%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.49%) Confluence
2 3 (1.49%) IIS
2 3 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.00%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 12 (5.97%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (3.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.50%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (1.49%) Primavera
1 3 (1.49%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 62 (30.85%) Azure
2 27 (13.43%) AWS
3 23 (11.44%) Entra ID
4 20 (9.95%) GCP
5 16 (7.96%) SaaS
6 7 (3.48%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.99%) Azure Data Factory
7 4 (1.99%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.99%) Power Platform
8 3 (1.49%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 3 (1.49%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (1.49%) GitHub
8 3 (1.49%) OpenShift
8 3 (1.49%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
8 3 (1.49%) Sauce Labs
8 3 (1.49%) Serverless
8 3 (1.49%) Snowflake
8 3 (1.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 1 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (4.48%) DNS
1 9 (4.48%) Firewall
2 8 (3.98%) TCP/IP
2 8 (3.98%) VPN
3 7 (3.48%) Network Security
4 6 (2.99%) DHCP
4 6 (2.99%) SSH
5 5 (2.49%) LAN
5 5 (2.49%) WAN
6 4 (1.99%) BGP
6 4 (1.99%) Cisco Nexus
6 4 (1.99%) OSPF
6 4 (1.99%) Software-Defined Networking
7 3 (1.49%) BIG-IP
7 3 (1.49%) Cisco ASA
7 3 (1.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 3 (1.49%) IPsec
7 3 (1.49%) MPLS
7 3 (1.49%) VLAN
7 3 (1.49%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (7.46%) Metadata
2 13 (6.47%) Relational Database
2 13 (6.47%) SQL Server
3 6 (2.99%) MySQL
3 6 (2.99%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (1.99%) Power BI
5 3 (1.49%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.50%) Apache Iceberg
6 1 (0.50%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.50%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.50%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.50%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (3.98%) Git
2 4 (1.99%) Rational DOORS
3 3 (1.49%) Android Studio
3 3 (1.49%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (1.49%) Eclipse
3 3 (1.49%) JIRA
3 3 (1.49%) Xcode
4 2 (1.00%) GitLab
4 2 (1.00%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.50%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.50%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.50%) JUnit
5 1 (0.50%) Octopus Deploy
5 1 (0.50%) Selenium
5 1 (0.50%) TestNG
5 1 (0.50%) Visual Studio Code
5 1 (0.50%) XCTest
5 1 (0.50%) XCUITest
General
1 65 (32.34%) Social Skills
2 38 (18.91%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (15.92%) Aerospace
3 32 (15.92%) Public Sector
4 19 (9.45%) Documentation Skills
5 13 (6.47%) Finance
5 13 (6.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 12 (5.97%) Military
7 9 (4.48%) Manufacturing
7 9 (4.48%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.49%) Legal
8 5 (2.49%) Marketing
8 5 (2.49%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.00%) Automotive
11 2 (1.00%) Avionics
11 2 (1.00%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 18 (8.96%) Lead
2 17 (8.46%) Senior
3 15 (7.46%) Architect
4 14 (6.97%) Analyst
5 11 (5.47%) Delivery Manager
5 11 (5.47%) IAM Specialist
5 11 (5.47%) Technical Leader
6 10 (4.98%) Change Manager
7 8 (3.98%) Developer
7 8 (3.98%) Product Delivery Manager
7 8 (3.98%) Product Manager
7 8 (3.98%) Support Engineer
8 7 (3.48%) Data Engineer
8 7 (3.48%) Product Owner
8 7 (3.48%) Security Architect
8 7 (3.48%) Technical Engineer
8 7 (3.48%) Technical Support
8 7 (3.48%) Technical Support Engineer
9 6 (2.99%) Information Specialist
9 6 (2.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (8.96%) OAuth
1 18 (8.96%) OpenID
2 17 (8.46%) SailPoint
3 15 (7.46%) OAuth2
4 13 (6.47%) LDAP
4 13 (6.47%) SAML
4 13 (6.47%) Web Services
5 11 (5.47%) React
6 10 (4.98%) CSS
7 8 (3.98%) Terraform
8 7 (3.48%) HTML
9 6 (2.99%) RESTful
10 5 (2.49%) ARM Templates
10 5 (2.49%) Django
11 4 (1.99%) .NET
11 4 (1.99%) AngularJS
11 4 (1.99%) GraphQL
11 4 (1.99%) REST
12 3 (1.49%) Ajax
12 3 (1.49%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 37 (18.41%) Management Information System
2 24 (11.94%) Onboarding
3 18 (8.96%) Product Ownership
4 15 (7.46%) Cloud Native
5 13 (6.47%) Hybrid Cloud
6 11 (5.47%) Data Centre
6 11 (5.47%) Virtual Team
7 6 (2.99%) Mobile App
8 4 (1.99%) Data Structures
8 4 (1.99%) Embedded Systems
8 4 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.99%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.49%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (1.49%) Distributed Architecture
9 3 (1.49%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (1.49%) Driving Licence
9 3 (1.49%) Mobile Payment
9 3 (1.49%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.49%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.49%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 33 (16.42%) Windows
2 32 (15.92%) Linux
3 19 (9.45%) Unix
4 17 (8.46%) Windows Server
5 7 (3.48%) Android
6 4 (1.99%) Apple iOS
7 2 (1.00%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (27.36%) Agile
2 48 (23.88%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (21.39%) ITIL
4 42 (20.90%) Continuous Improvement
5 40 (19.90%) Stakeholder Management
6 39 (19.40%) ITSM
7 35 (17.41%) Roadmaps
8 34 (16.92%) Information Security
9 32 (15.92%) CI/CD
9 32 (15.92%) Cybersecurity
9 32 (15.92%) Service Management
9 32 (15.92%) Software Engineering
10 31 (15.42%) Analytics
11 29 (14.43%) Change Control
12 28 (13.93%) DevOps
13 25 (12.44%) Runbook
14 24 (11.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 23 (11.44%) Change Management
15 23 (11.44%) Mentoring
15 23 (11.44%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 58 (28.86%) Python
2 37 (18.41%) PowerShell
3 20 (9.95%) SQL
4 13 (6.47%) JavaScript
5 12 (5.97%) Java
6 7 (3.48%) Bash
7 5 (2.49%) Bicep
7 5 (2.49%) C
7 5 (2.49%) Perl
8 3 (1.49%) Apex Code
8 3 (1.49%) C#
8 3 (1.49%) C++
8 3 (1.49%) Lua
9 2 (1.00%) Ada
9 2 (1.00%) Shell Script
9 2 (1.00%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.50%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.50%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.50%) Swift
10 1 (0.50%) X++
Qualifications
1 152 (75.62%) Degree
2 89 (44.28%) Security Cleared
3 62 (30.85%) Computer Science Degree
4 60 (29.85%) SC Cleared
5 17 (8.46%) DV Cleared
6 16 (7.96%) Azure Certification
6 16 (7.96%) Microsoft Certification
7 14 (6.97%) Master's Degree
8 12 (5.97%) CISSP
9 10 (4.98%) PMI Certification
9 10 (4.98%) PMP
10 9 (4.48%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (4.48%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (3.98%) AWS Certification
12 6 (2.99%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.49%) CISM
13 5 (2.49%) PRINCE2 Certification
14 4 (1.99%) CCNP
14 4 (1.99%) CCSP
14 4 (1.99%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (16.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 31 (15.42%) NIST
3 16 (7.96%) Data Quality
4 13 (6.47%) QA
5 6 (2.99%) Accessibility
5 6 (2.99%) GRC
6 5 (2.49%) GDPR
6 5 (2.49%) ISO 9001
7 4 (1.99%) NCSC
8 3 (1.49%) ISO 31000
8 3 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 3 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 3 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (1.49%) NIST 800
8 3 (1.49%) PCI DSS
9 2 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.50%) DICOM
10 1 (0.50%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.50%) HL7
10 1 (0.50%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 32 (15.92%) Active Directory
2 12 (5.97%) Docker
3 10 (4.98%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.49%) VMware NSX
5 3 (1.49%) ISA Server
6 2 (1.00%) Hyper-V
6 2 (1.00%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.50%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 12 (5.97%) Kubernetes
2 7 (3.48%) Ansible
3 6 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (2.99%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.99%) CASB
5 3 (1.49%) SCCM
6 2 (1.00%) Istio
7 1 (0.50%) Argo
7 1 (0.50%) vRealize
7 1 (0.50%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 59 (29.35%) Microsoft
2 17 (8.46%) Oracle
3 14 (6.97%) VMware
4 13 (6.47%) CyberArk
5 12 (5.97%) BeyondTrust
6 11 (5.47%) Google
7 10 (4.98%) ServiceNow
8 9 (4.48%) Cisco
9 7 (3.48%) F5
10 6 (2.99%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (2.99%) Splunk
11 5 (2.49%) Salesforce
12 4 (1.99%) Databricks
12 4 (1.99%) IBM
12 4 (1.99%) Palo Alto
13 3 (1.49%) Dell
13 3 (1.49%) ForgeRock
13 3 (1.49%) Qualys
13 3 (1.49%) SolarWinds
13 3 (1.49%) Tripwire