Continuous Improvement Contract Job Trends in the South East

Continual Improvement
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Continuous Improvement skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 38 42
Rank change year-on-year +26 +4 +28
Contract jobs citing Continuous Improvement 675 178 199
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 10.20% 5.11% 4.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.69% 5.75% 5.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 384 99 102
10th Percentile £334 £357 £356
25th Percentile £435 £433 £443
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £500 £502
Median % change year-on-year +7.50% -0.40% -9.75%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £638
90th Percentile £700 £650 £651
England median daily rate £520 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +4.00% -5.66% -7.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 15 9
10th Percentile £14.03 £12.50 £13.25
25th Percentile £30.31 £15.13 £25.99
Median hourly rate £66.78 £15.25 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +337.90% -70.95% -10.00%
75th Percentile £85.00 £58.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £87.99 £65.30 £60.73
England median hourly rate £32.00 £24.17 £48.75
% change year-on-year +32.42% -50.43% -25.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Continuous Improvement 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 5,319 3,097 3,735
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.40% 88.84% 82.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,171 1,933 2,227
10th Percentile £275 £220 £257
25th Percentile £422 £375 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -1.92%
75th Percentile £616 £590 £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 639 304 230
10th Percentile £13.45 £13.33 £16.23
25th Percentile £16.59 £15.91 £30.62
Median hourly rate £50.49 £21.82 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +131.34% -61.95% +7.20%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.00 £70.43
90th Percentile £87.83 £69.65 £77.17
England median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -2.39%

Continuous Improvement
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Continuous Improvement job vacancy trend in the South East

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the South East over the 6 months to 24 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the South East

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the South East over the 6 months to 24 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the South East

Continuous Improvement
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 Continuous Improvement within the South East region over the 6 months to 24 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 +22 310 £551 +10.16% 599
Berkshire +26 216 £550 +10.00% 294
Hampshire +19 200 £575 +12.20% 303
Buckinghamshire +5 74 £572 +7.67% 153
Surrey +22 70 £450 -10.00% 169
West Sussex +6 44 £467 +21.30% 104
Middlesex - 24 - - 5
Oxfordshire -11 20 £650 -1.89% 153
Kent +2 9 £405 - 53
East Sussex +3 3 £575 +17.95% 54
Sussex -3 2 £600 - 11
Isle of Wight - 1 £400 - 2
Continuous Improvement
England

Continuous Improvement
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 33 (4.89%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.07%) Confluence
3 4 (0.59%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.30%) Oracle Application Server
4 2 (0.30%) Smallworld
5 1 (0.15%) Apache
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.15%) SharePoint 2010
5 1 (0.15%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 67 (9.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (4.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 26 (3.85%) Microsoft Project
4 15 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.30%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.15%) CINEMA 4D
6 1 (0.15%) Houdini
6 1 (0.15%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.15%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 16 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.74%) Primavera
3 4 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.44%) iTrent
4 3 (0.44%) Maximo
4 3 (0.44%) NEC Housing
4 3 (0.44%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.30%) SAP BRIM
5 2 (0.30%) SAP PSCD
5 2 (0.30%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.15%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.15%) SAP FI-CA
6 1 (0.15%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.15%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 130 (19.26%) Azure
2 100 (14.81%) AWS
3 36 (5.33%) Power Platform
4 32 (4.74%) GCP
5 25 (3.70%) SaaS
6 24 (3.56%) Azure DevOps
6 24 (3.56%) GitHub
7 23 (3.41%) Entra ID
8 18 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
9 15 (2.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 15 (2.22%) Azure Monitor
9 15 (2.22%) Serverless
10 14 (2.07%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (1.93%) OpenShift
12 11 (1.63%) Datadog
13 8 (1.19%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (1.19%) OCI
14 7 (1.04%) Azure AKS
15 6 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.00%) DNS
2 23 (3.41%) Network Security
3 17 (2.52%) Firewall
4 13 (1.93%) LAN
5 11 (1.63%) DHCP
6 10 (1.48%) Broadband
7 9 (1.33%) TCP/IP
8 8 (1.19%) WAN
9 7 (1.04%) SD-WAN
9 7 (1.04%) VPN
9 7 (1.04%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (0.89%) Wireless
11 5 (0.74%) Intranet
11 5 (0.74%) Software-Defined Networking
12 4 (0.59%) DNSSEC
12 4 (0.59%) Radio Access Network
13 3 (0.44%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (0.44%) MQTT
13 3 (0.44%) VLAN
14 2 (0.30%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (4.89%) Power BI
2 17 (2.52%) Metadata
3 16 (2.37%) Relational Database
4 13 (1.93%) Data Warehouse
5 11 (1.63%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.04%) Oracle Reports
6 7 (1.04%) Spark SQL
7 6 (0.89%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.89%) Tableau
8 4 (0.59%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.44%) Big Data
9 3 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.44%) Geospatial Data
9 3 (0.44%) GIS
9 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.44%) Redis
10 2 (0.30%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.30%) Oracle ODI
11 1 (0.15%) Couchbase
11 1 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 32 (4.74%) JIRA
2 31 (4.59%) Git
3 20 (2.96%) GitLab
3 20 (2.96%) Jenkins
4 15 (2.22%) Selenium
5 7 (1.04%) MSI
6 5 (0.74%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.30%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.30%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.15%) ERwin
8 1 (0.15%) Gatling
8 1 (0.15%) Hudson
8 1 (0.15%) Mockito
8 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.15%) Postman
8 1 (0.15%) RStudio
8 1 (0.15%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.15%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.15%) TestRail
General
1 327 (48.44%) Social Skills
2 192 (28.44%) Analytical Skills
3 117 (17.33%) Finance
4 73 (10.81%) Public Sector
5 54 (8.00%) Aerospace
6 48 (7.11%) Organisational Skills
7 33 (4.89%) Influencing Skills
8 27 (4.00%) Manufacturing
9 23 (3.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 21 (3.11%) Retail
10 21 (3.11%) Telecoms
11 18 (2.67%) Legal
12 16 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (2.37%) French Language
12 16 (2.37%) Spanish Language
13 14 (2.07%) Military
13 14 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (1.33%) Electronics
15 8 (1.19%) Games
15 8 (1.19%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 86 (12.74%) Lead
2 82 (12.15%) Analyst
3 63 (9.33%) Senior
4 62 (9.19%) Architect
5 43 (6.37%) Delivery Manager
6 26 (3.85%) Product Manager
7 24 (3.56%) Consultant
8 23 (3.41%) Data Analyst
9 18 (2.67%) IT Manager
9 18 (2.67%) Project Manager
9 18 (2.67%) Service Manager
10 17 (2.52%) Product Delivery Manager
10 17 (2.52%) Senior Manager
11 16 (2.37%) 2nd Line Support
11 16 (2.37%) 2nd Line Technical Support
11 16 (2.37%) Security Analyst
11 16 (2.37%) Technical Support
12 15 (2.22%) Solutions Architect
13 13 (1.93%) Service Owner
14 12 (1.78%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (8.00%) Terraform
2 15 (2.22%) REST
3 11 (1.63%) .NET
3 11 (1.63%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.48%) Kafka
4 10 (1.48%) OAuth
4 10 (1.48%) PySpark
4 10 (1.48%) RESTful
4 10 (1.48%) SOAP
5 8 (1.19%) SAML
6 7 (1.04%) EDI
6 7 (1.04%) Middleware
6 7 (1.04%) OpenID
7 6 (0.89%) JSON
7 6 (0.89%) LDAP
7 6 (0.89%) React
8 5 (0.74%) GraphQL
8 5 (0.74%) HTML
8 5 (0.74%) OAuth2
9 4 (0.59%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 58 (8.59%) Product Ownership
2 38 (5.63%) Cloud Native
2 38 (5.63%) Onboarding
3 33 (4.89%) Management Information System
4 23 (3.41%) Operational Technology
5 18 (2.67%) Hybrid Cloud
5 18 (2.67%) Security Posture
6 15 (2.22%) CMDB
6 15 (2.22%) Data Centre
7 14 (2.07%) Cyber Threat
7 14 (2.07%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.93%) PMI
9 11 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
9 11 (1.63%) Security Operations Centre
9 11 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
9 11 (1.63%) Virtual Team
10 10 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.48%) Social Media
11 8 (1.19%) Animation
11 8 (1.19%) Graphic Design
Operating Systems
1 77 (11.41%) Windows
2 35 (5.19%) Linux
3 23 (3.41%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
5 5 (0.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.30%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.15%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (36.74%) Agile
2 203 (30.07%) Problem-Solving
3 193 (28.59%) Stakeholder Management
4 148 (21.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 125 (18.52%) ITIL
6 106 (15.70%) Roadmaps
7 104 (15.41%) Decision-Making
8 95 (14.07%) DevOps
9 94 (13.93%) Service Delivery
10 93 (13.78%) CI/CD
11 92 (13.63%) Service Management
12 82 (12.15%) Cybersecurity
13 77 (11.41%) Project Delivery
14 74 (10.96%) ITSM
15 73 (10.81%) Change Management
16 72 (10.67%) Validation
17 66 (9.78%) Infrastructure as Code
18 63 (9.33%) AI
18 63 (9.33%) PRINCE2
19 60 (8.89%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 85 (12.59%) Python
2 75 (11.11%) SQL
3 51 (7.56%) PowerShell
4 28 (4.15%) Bash
5 17 (2.52%) Java
6 9 (1.33%) Bicep
7 8 (1.19%) JavaScript
8 7 (1.04%) C#
9 6 (0.89%) Apex Code
9 6 (0.89%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.74%) Go
11 4 (0.59%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.44%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.44%) Rust
13 2 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.30%) Magik
14 1 (0.15%) ABAP
14 1 (0.15%) Groovy
14 1 (0.15%) Perl
14 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 331 (49.04%) Security Cleared
2 183 (27.11%) SC Cleared
3 121 (17.93%) DV Cleared
4 112 (16.59%) Degree
5 37 (5.48%) PMI Certification
6 26 (3.85%) PMP
7 21 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
8 19 (2.81%) Azure Certification
9 17 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (2.37%) CISSP
11 14 (2.07%) ACCA
11 14 (2.07%) AWS Certification
11 14 (2.07%) CIMA
11 14 (2.07%) ITIL Certification
12 11 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
13 9 (1.33%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 8 (1.19%) Master's Degree
15 7 (1.04%) PRINCE2 Certification
16 6 (0.89%) CCNP
16 6 (0.89%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (8.59%) QA
2 52 (7.70%) PMO
3 50 (7.41%) Data Quality
4 31 (4.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 22 (3.26%) NIST
6 19 (2.81%) GDPR
7 18 (2.67%) SLA
8 13 (1.93%) NCSC
9 11 (1.63%) ISO 9001
10 7 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.89%) GRC
12 5 (0.74%) Def Stans
12 5 (0.74%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.59%) ISO 22301
14 2 (0.30%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
14 2 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 2 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 1 (0.15%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 1 (0.15%) ITGC
System Software
1 31 (4.59%) Active Directory
2 26 (3.85%) Docker
2 26 (3.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (1.19%) IAG
4 7 (1.04%) VMware NSX
4 7 (1.04%) vSphere
5 5 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.59%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 50 (7.41%) Kubernetes
2 36 (5.33%) Ansible
3 11 (1.63%) Grafana
4 10 (1.48%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (1.48%) WMI
5 8 (1.19%) Puppet
6 7 (1.04%) Prometheus
6 7 (1.04%) SCCM
7 5 (0.74%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.44%) MOM
9 3 (0.44%) Podman
9 3 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.30%) Argo
10 2 (0.30%) CASB
10 2 (0.30%) CSIRT
10 2 (0.30%) Istio
10 2 (0.30%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.30%) vRealize
10 2 (0.30%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 140 (20.74%) Microsoft
2 45 (6.67%) SAP
2 45 (6.67%) ServiceNow
3 32 (4.74%) VMware
4 25 (3.70%) Oracle
5 17 (2.52%) Databricks
5 17 (2.52%) Salesforce
6 14 (2.07%) Google
7 11 (1.63%) Dynatrace
7 11 (1.63%) Juniper
8 8 (1.19%) Cisco
8 8 (1.19%) Nexthink
8 8 (1.19%) Workday
9 6 (0.89%) Baan
9 6 (0.89%) Red Hat
9 6 (0.89%) Splunk
9 6 (0.89%) Virgin Media
10 5 (0.74%) SolarWinds
11 4 (0.59%) EMC
11 4 (0.59%) Infoblox