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 4 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 48 82
Rank change year-on-year -11 +34 +20
Contract jobs citing Computer Science 193 128 119
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.32% 4.27% 2.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.08% 4.66% 2.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 55 67
10th Percentile £175 £352 £235
25th Percentile £189 £450 £341
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £275 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -45.00% +11.11% -13.88%
75th Percentile £545 £543 £575
90th Percentile £640 £673 £638
England median daily rate £475 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -9.52% -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 1 10
10th Percentile £49.00 - £54.25
25th Percentile £80.50 £20.85 -
Median hourly rate £84.00 £21.90 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +283.56% -66.31% +217.54%
75th Percentile £88.00 £22.95 £67.38
90th Percentile - - £74.38
England median hourly rate £83.00 £43.75 £55.00
% change year-on-year +89.71% -20.45% +3.41%

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 4,729 2,747 4,675
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.24% 91.54% 84.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,081 1,755 2,737
10th Percentile £280 £254 £250
25th Percentile £406 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - -1.48%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £623
90th Percentile £713 £675 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 432 173 434
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.85 £13.00
25th Percentile £22.79 £15.25 £18.20
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% -41.05% -5.00%
75th Percentile £81.29 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £76.86
England median hourly rate £45.46 £30.00 £36.05
% change year-on-year +51.53% -16.77% -2.97%

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 4 May 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 4 May 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 4 May 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 +16 106 £413 -17.50% 62
Berkshire +13 71 £208 -56.54% 19
Hampshire -20 27 £550 +6.80% 46
Kent +7 20 £205 -39.26% 10
Surrey -14 20 £208 -58.50% 16
Oxfordshire -10 18 £488 -30.36% 32
Buckinghamshire - 17 £593 - 12
West Sussex -13 11 £275 -13.79% 4
Home Counties - 4 - -
East Sussex -16 2 £461 - 9
Middlesex - 1 £198 - 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 3 (1.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.04%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 2 (1.04%) Apache Spark
2 2 (1.04%) CMS
2 2 (1.04%) Confluence
3 1 (0.52%) Apache
3 1 (0.52%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 7 (3.63%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.04%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.52%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.52%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 30 (15.54%) Azure
2 17 (8.81%) AWS
3 10 (5.18%) Entra ID
4 9 (4.66%) GCP
5 8 (4.15%) GitHub
5 8 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
5 8 (4.15%) SaaS
6 5 (2.59%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.07%) Microsoft 365
8 3 (1.55%) Amazon EKS
8 3 (1.55%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (1.04%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (1.04%) Amazon ECS
9 2 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (1.04%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.04%) IaaS
9 2 (1.04%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.04%) PowerApps
9 2 (1.04%) Sauce Labs
9 2 (1.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (3.11%) DNS
2 5 (2.59%) Firewall
2 5 (2.59%) Network Security
2 5 (2.59%) TCP/IP
3 4 (2.07%) LAN
3 4 (2.07%) SSH
3 4 (2.07%) WAN
4 3 (1.55%) BGP
4 3 (1.55%) OSPF
5 2 (1.04%) IPsec
5 2 (1.04%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.52%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (0.52%) DHCP
6 1 (0.52%) Internet
6 1 (0.52%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.52%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.52%) VPN
6 1 (0.52%) VXLAN
6 1 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.52%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (7.25%) Relational Database
2 13 (6.74%) MySQL
3 12 (6.22%) SQL Server
4 5 (2.59%) Power BI
5 3 (1.55%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (1.04%) Big Data
6 2 (1.04%) Hadoop
6 2 (1.04%) Tableau
7 1 (0.52%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.52%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.52%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 28 (14.51%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (3.63%) CircleCI
2 7 (3.63%) Git
2 7 (3.63%) Gradle
3 6 (3.11%) JUnit
4 5 (2.59%) GitLab
4 5 (2.59%) Jenkins
5 4 (2.07%) JIRA
6 2 (1.04%) Android Studio
6 2 (1.04%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (1.04%) Eclipse
6 2 (1.04%) Selenium
6 2 (1.04%) Visual Studio
6 2 (1.04%) Xcode
7 1 (0.52%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.52%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.52%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.52%) MLflow
7 1 (0.52%) XCTest
7 1 (0.52%) XCUITest
General
1 49 (25.39%) Aerospace
2 41 (21.24%) Social Skills
3 22 (11.40%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.81%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (7.77%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (5.70%) Finance
7 9 (4.66%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.59%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.07%) Marketing
9 4 (2.07%) Military
9 4 (2.07%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.55%) Avionics
10 3 (1.55%) Electronics
10 3 (1.55%) Law
10 3 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.04%) Legal
11 2 (1.04%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.52%) Banking
12 1 (0.52%) Humanities
12 1 (0.52%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 32 (16.58%) Product Manager
2 29 (15.03%) Delivery Manager
3 28 (14.51%) Product Delivery Manager
4 22 (11.40%) Systems Delivery Manager
4 22 (11.40%) Systems Manager
5 15 (7.77%) Technical Support
6 12 (6.22%) Lead
7 10 (5.18%) Analyst
7 10 (5.18%) Architect
8 7 (3.63%) Developer
8 7 (3.63%) Senior
9 6 (3.11%) Engineering Manager
9 6 (3.11%) IAM Specialist
9 6 (3.11%) Support Engineer
9 6 (3.11%) Technical Engineer
9 6 (3.11%) Technical Support Engineer
10 5 (2.59%) Android Engineer
10 5 (2.59%) Designer
10 5 (2.59%) IT Manager
10 5 (2.59%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.18%) REST
2 7 (3.63%) RAML
2 7 (3.63%) React
3 6 (3.11%) Android Jetpack
3 6 (3.11%) OAuth
3 6 (3.11%) OAuth2
3 6 (3.11%) SailPoint
3 6 (3.11%) Web Services
4 5 (2.59%) Dagger
4 5 (2.59%) Jetpack Compose
4 5 (2.59%) LDAP
4 5 (2.59%) OkHttp
4 5 (2.59%) OpenID
4 5 (2.59%) RxJava
4 5 (2.59%) SAML
4 5 (2.59%) WireMock
5 4 (2.07%) AngularJS
5 4 (2.07%) CSS
5 4 (2.07%) GraphQL
6 2 (1.04%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (19.17%) Product Ownership
2 23 (11.92%) Data Structures
3 18 (9.33%) Onboarding
4 15 (7.77%) Virtual Team
5 14 (7.25%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.63%) Data Protection Act
6 7 (3.63%) Legacy Code
7 6 (3.11%) Algorithms
7 6 (3.11%) Cloud Native
7 6 (3.11%) Mobile App
8 5 (2.59%) AI Agents
8 5 (2.59%) Cyberattack
8 5 (2.59%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.55%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.55%) PKI
9 3 (1.55%) Taxonomies
10 2 (1.04%) Distributed Systems
10 2 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
10 2 (1.04%) Mixed Reality
10 2 (1.04%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 35 (18.13%) Windows
2 34 (17.62%) Linux
3 24 (12.44%) Unix
4 10 (5.18%) Android
5 8 (4.15%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.55%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.52%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (28.50%) Agile
2 43 (22.28%) Systems Engineering
3 40 (20.73%) Change Control
3 40 (20.73%) Continuous Improvement
4 34 (17.62%) Scaled Agile Framework
5 33 (17.10%) PRINCE2
6 30 (15.54%) Programme Management
7 29 (15.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 28 (14.51%) Configuration Management
8 28 (14.51%) Cybersecurity
9 27 (13.99%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
9 27 (13.99%) Problem-Solving
10 25 (12.95%) Requirements Management
11 23 (11.92%) CI/CD
11 23 (11.92%) ITSM
11 23 (11.92%) SysML
11 23 (11.92%) UML
12 21 (10.88%) AI
12 21 (10.88%) DoDAF
12 21 (10.88%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 42 (21.76%) Python
2 21 (10.88%) Java
3 20 (10.36%) SQL
4 18 (9.33%) JavaScript
4 18 (9.33%) PowerShell
5 13 (6.74%) Perl
6 8 (4.15%) Kotlin
7 3 (1.55%) Bash
7 3 (1.55%) C++
8 2 (1.04%) Ada
8 2 (1.04%) C
8 2 (1.04%) C#
8 2 (1.04%) Go
8 2 (1.04%) R
8 2 (1.04%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.52%) Bicep
9 1 (0.52%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.52%) Swift
9 1 (0.52%) Tcl
9 1 (0.52%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 157 (81.35%) Degree
2 89 (46.11%) Security Cleared
3 68 (35.23%) Computer Science Degree
4 41 (21.24%) SC Cleared
5 8 (4.15%) DV Cleared
6 6 (3.11%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (2.59%) CompTIA CySA+
7 5 (2.59%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (2.59%) Master's Degree
8 4 (2.07%) CCNP
8 4 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (2.07%) DBS Check
8 4 (2.07%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (2.07%) PMI Certification
8 4 (2.07%) PMP
9 3 (1.55%) CCNA
10 2 (1.04%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.52%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 1 (0.52%) Network+ Certification
11 1 (0.52%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (12.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (10.88%) NIST
3 10 (5.18%) QA
4 8 (4.15%) Data Quality
5 7 (3.63%) NIST 800
6 6 (3.11%) NCSC
7 5 (2.59%) Government Security Classifications
7 5 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 3 (1.55%) Accessibility
8 3 (1.55%) DO-254
8 3 (1.55%) IEC 61508
8 3 (1.55%) ISO 26262
8 3 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (0.52%) DICOM
9 1 (0.52%) GDPR
9 1 (0.52%) GRC
9 1 (0.52%) HL7
9 1 (0.52%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.52%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.52%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 19 (9.84%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.15%) Docker
3 2 (1.04%) Firmware
3 2 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.52%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (4.15%) Kubernetes
1 8 (4.15%) Terraform
2 5 (2.59%) Grafana
3 4 (2.07%) Ansible
4 3 (1.55%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.04%) Puppet
5 2 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.52%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.52%) Istio
6 1 (0.52%) Kubeflow
6 1 (0.52%) linkerd
Vendors
1 25 (12.95%) IBM
2 24 (12.44%) Microsoft
3 21 (10.88%) Oracle
4 9 (4.66%) BeyondTrust
4 9 (4.66%) CyberArk
5 8 (4.15%) Splunk
6 5 (2.59%) Cisco
6 5 (2.59%) ServiceNow
7 4 (2.07%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.04%) Adobe
8 2 (1.04%) Aruba
8 2 (1.04%) CheckPoint
8 2 (1.04%) Databricks
8 2 (1.04%) Google
8 2 (1.04%) PagerDuty
8 2 (1.04%) SAP
8 2 (1.04%) VMware
9 1 (0.52%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.52%) Dell
9 1 (0.52%) Fortinet