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 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 67 86 100
Rank change year-on-year +19 +14 +33
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 140 77 114
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.96% 2.45% 2.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.53% 2.71% 2.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 42 72
10th Percentile £183 £379 £213
25th Percentile £188 £468 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £363 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -27.50% +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £548 £534 £588
90th Percentile £678 £650 £638
England median daily rate £483 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -10.14% -2.27% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 11
10th Percentile £26.13 - £50.00
25th Percentile £26.75 - £55.00
Median hourly rate £28.50 - £63.00
75th Percentile £30.25 - £67.50
90th Percentile £61.30 - £73.75
England median hourly rate £33.50 £53.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -37.38% -2.73% +5.77%

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 3,961 2,838 4,806
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 83.71% 90.15% 87.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,608 1,743 2,935
10th Percentile £256 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £400 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £509
Median % change year-on-year - -1.77% +1.60%
75th Percentile £600 £611 £614
90th Percentile £691 £675 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 340 105 356
10th Percentile £13.98 £18.32 £13.25
25th Percentile £17.00 £24.18 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.04 £42.88 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.61% -9.73% +5.56%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £63.00
90th Percentile £80.18 £75.30 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -26.37% - -

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 14 February 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 14 February 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 14 February 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 +6 58 £383 -23.50% 46
Berkshire -1 34 £364 -27.25% 21
Hampshire -10 30 £515 -10.43% 29
Buckinghamshire - 18 £445 - 13
West Sussex -5 15 £275 -21.43% 5
Kent +4 14 £205 -18.00% 23
Surrey -21 14 £463 -7.50% 21
Oxfordshire -9 6 £450 -35.71% 15
East Sussex +3 5 £463 +15.63% 4
Home Counties - 3 - -
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 7 (5.00%) Confluence
2 5 (3.57%) Smallworld
3 4 (2.86%) GeoServer
4 3 (2.14%) Apache
5 2 (1.43%) Apache Spark
5 2 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.71%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.71%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.71%) CMS
6 1 (0.71%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (2.86%) SAP ERP
2 2 (1.43%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.71%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.71%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 27 (19.29%) Azure
2 19 (13.57%) AWS
3 13 (9.29%) GitHub
3 13 (9.29%) GitHub Actions
4 9 (6.43%) GCP
5 4 (2.86%) Entra ID
6 3 (2.14%) Amazon EKS
6 3 (2.14%) AWS CloudFormation
6 3 (2.14%) IaaS
6 3 (2.14%) Power Platform
7 2 (1.43%) Amazon EC2
7 2 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
7 2 (1.43%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (1.43%) PowerApps
7 2 (1.43%) SaaS
7 2 (1.43%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 1 (0.71%) Amazon SageMaker
8 1 (0.71%) Azure Machine Learning
8 1 (0.71%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 5 (3.57%) Firewall
1 5 (3.57%) Network Security
2 4 (2.86%) DNS
2 4 (2.86%) TCP/IP
3 3 (2.14%) LAN
3 3 (2.14%) SSH
3 3 (2.14%) VoIP
3 3 (2.14%) WAN
3 3 (2.14%) Wireless
4 2 (1.43%) BGP
4 2 (1.43%) Internet
4 2 (1.43%) IPsec
4 2 (1.43%) OSPF
4 2 (1.43%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (0.71%) 5G
5 1 (0.71%) MGCP
5 1 (0.71%) SCCP
5 1 (0.71%) Software-Defined Networking
5 1 (0.71%) Telepresence
5 1 (0.71%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (8.57%) Relational Database
2 9 (6.43%) MySQL
3 7 (5.00%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (5.00%) SQL Server
4 5 (3.57%) Apache Cassandra
4 5 (3.57%) Couchbase
4 5 (3.57%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (3.57%) GIS
4 5 (3.57%) NoSQL
5 4 (2.86%) Big Data
5 4 (2.86%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (2.86%) QGIS
6 3 (2.14%) Metadata
6 3 (2.14%) Power BI
7 2 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (1.43%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.71%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.71%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.71%) Redis
8 1 (0.71%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 12 (8.57%) Git
2 7 (5.00%) CircleCI
2 7 (5.00%) GitLab
2 7 (5.00%) Gradle
2 7 (5.00%) Jenkins
2 7 (5.00%) JIRA
3 5 (3.57%) JUnit
4 4 (2.86%) Visual Studio
5 2 (1.43%) Cypress.io
5 2 (1.43%) Selenium
6 1 (0.71%) Appium
6 1 (0.71%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.71%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.71%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.71%) Maven
6 1 (0.71%) MLflow
6 1 (0.71%) WebDriver
6 1 (0.71%) XCTest
6 1 (0.71%) XCUITest
General
1 50 (35.71%) Social Skills
2 34 (24.29%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (7.86%) Public Sector
4 7 (5.00%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (4.29%) Finance
5 6 (4.29%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (3.57%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.86%) Military
8 3 (2.14%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.43%) Electronics
9 2 (1.43%) Legal
10 1 (0.71%) Advertising
10 1 (0.71%) Banking
10 1 (0.71%) Law
10 1 (0.71%) Marketing
10 1 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 19 (13.57%) Developer
2 11 (7.86%) Senior
3 10 (7.14%) Analyst
4 9 (6.43%) Technical Support
5 8 (5.71%) Architect
6 7 (5.00%) Senior Developer
7 5 (3.57%) Android Engineer
7 5 (3.57%) Lead
7 5 (3.57%) Software Engineer
8 4 (2.86%) Informatica Developer
8 4 (2.86%) SOC Analyst
8 4 (2.86%) Software Developer
9 3 (2.14%) Data Scientist
9 3 (2.14%) Delivery Manager
9 3 (2.14%) IT Analyst
10 2 (1.43%) Asset Management Analyst
10 2 (1.43%) Data Centre Analyst
10 2 (1.43%) GIS Architect
10 2 (1.43%) Site Engineer
10 2 (1.43%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (10.71%) REST
2 7 (5.00%) RAML
3 6 (4.29%) Kafka
4 5 (3.57%) Android Jetpack
4 5 (3.57%) Dagger
4 5 (3.57%) Jetpack Compose
4 5 (3.57%) OkHttp
4 5 (3.57%) RabbitMQ
4 5 (3.57%) RxJava
4 5 (3.57%) WireMock
5 4 (2.86%) HTML
5 4 (2.86%) React
6 3 (2.14%) CSS
6 3 (2.14%) Node.js
6 3 (2.14%) Pandas
6 3 (2.14%) scikit-learn
6 3 (2.14%) Web Services
7 2 (1.43%) NumPy
7 2 (1.43%) Spring
7 2 (1.43%) Unity (Game Engine)
Miscellaneous
1 13 (9.29%) Management Information System
2 8 (5.71%) Virtual Team
3 7 (5.00%) Legacy Code
4 6 (4.29%) Algorithms
4 6 (4.29%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.57%) Cloud Native
5 5 (3.57%) Data Centre
5 5 (3.57%) Product Ownership
6 4 (2.86%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (2.86%) Cyberattack
6 4 (2.86%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (2.86%) Mobile App
6 4 (2.86%) Security Operations Centre
7 2 (1.43%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.43%) Distributed Computing
7 2 (1.43%) Mixed Reality
7 2 (1.43%) Replication
7 2 (1.43%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.43%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 26 (18.57%) Linux
2 25 (17.86%) Windows
3 13 (9.29%) Unix
4 7 (5.00%) Android
5 4 (2.86%) Windows Server
6 3 (2.14%) Apple iOS
7 2 (1.43%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.71%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
2 33 (23.57%) Agile
3 19 (13.57%) DevOps
4 16 (11.43%) CI/CD
5 15 (10.71%) AI
6 14 (10.00%) Continuous Integration
7 13 (9.29%) Cybersecurity
7 13 (9.29%) Migration
7 13 (9.29%) Software Engineering
8 12 (8.57%) Analytics
8 12 (8.57%) Data Governance
8 12 (8.57%) Data Science
8 12 (8.57%) Open Source
8 12 (8.57%) Process Improvement
9 11 (7.86%) Mathematics
10 10 (7.14%) Collaborative Working
10 10 (7.14%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (7.14%) Decision-Making
10 10 (7.14%) Integration Patterns
10 10 (7.14%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 39 (27.86%) Python
2 18 (12.86%) Java
2 18 (12.86%) SQL
3 17 (12.14%) JavaScript
4 9 (6.43%) Perl
4 9 (6.43%) PowerShell
5 7 (5.00%) Kotlin
6 6 (4.29%) Go
7 4 (2.86%) C#
7 4 (2.86%) Shell Script
8 3 (2.14%) Bash
9 2 (1.43%) Ada
9 2 (1.43%) Assembly Language
9 2 (1.43%) C
9 2 (1.43%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.71%) C++
10 1 (0.71%) Magik
10 1 (0.71%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.71%) Tcl
10 1 (0.71%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 107 (76.43%) Degree
2 81 (57.86%) Computer Science Degree
3 30 (21.43%) Security Cleared
4 22 (15.71%) SC Cleared
5 12 (8.57%) DBS Check
6 11 (7.86%) Master's Degree
7 5 (3.57%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (3.57%) DV Cleared
8 4 (2.86%) CCNP
8 4 (2.86%) CISSP
8 4 (2.86%) CompTIA CySA+
8 4 (2.86%) CompTIA Security+
9 3 (2.14%) AWS Certification
9 3 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (2.14%) CCNA
10 2 (1.43%) Azure Certification
10 2 (1.43%) PMI Certification
10 2 (1.43%) PMP
11 1 (0.71%) GIAC
11 1 (0.71%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.14%) QA
2 9 (6.43%) Data Quality
3 7 (5.00%) GDPR
4 6 (4.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (3.57%) NIST
6 2 (1.43%) HIPAA
6 2 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 19770
6 2 (1.43%) NCSC
6 2 (1.43%) PMO
7 1 (0.71%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.71%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.71%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.71%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.71%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (8.57%) Docker
2 5 (3.57%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.43%) Firmware
4 1 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.71%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.71%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (7.86%) Kubernetes
2 8 (5.71%) Terraform
3 4 (2.86%) Ansible
3 4 (2.86%) Grafana
4 2 (1.43%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.43%) Puppet
5 1 (0.71%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.71%) Istio
5 1 (0.71%) Kubeflow
5 1 (0.71%) linkerd
5 1 (0.71%) Nessus
5 1 (0.71%) Nmap
5 1 (0.71%) vRealize
5 1 (0.71%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 14 (10.00%) Oracle
2 11 (7.86%) Microsoft
3 6 (4.29%) Atlassian
3 6 (4.29%) SAP
3 6 (4.29%) Splunk
4 5 (3.57%) Cisco
5 4 (2.86%) BeyondTrust
5 4 (2.86%) CyberArk
5 4 (2.86%) ESRI
5 4 (2.86%) Informatica
5 4 (2.86%) Intergraph
5 4 (2.86%) ServiceNow
6 3 (2.14%) Google
6 3 (2.14%) Palo Alto
6 3 (2.14%) Snow
7 2 (1.43%) Aruba
7 2 (1.43%) CheckPoint
7 2 (1.43%) PagerDuty
8 1 (0.71%) Dynatrace
8 1 (0.71%) LogRhythm