Cost Optimisation Contracts in the South East

Cost Optimization
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring Cost Optimisation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Cost Optimisation over the 6 months leading up to 14 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 159 177 203
Rank change year-on-year +18 +26 +64
Contract jobs citing Cost Optimisation 4 10 7
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.11% 0.20% 0.12%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.13% 0.25% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 3 6
10th Percentile - £535 £425
25th Percentile £406 £569 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £650 £588
Median % change year-on-year -36.54% +10.64% +2.17%
75th Percentile £559 £681 £675
90th Percentile £644 £685 £694
England median daily rate £525 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -4.55% -8.33% -4.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Cost Optimisation 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 3,163 4,068 4,988
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 89.86% 82.68% 88.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,977 2,484 3,367
10th Percentile £250 £255 £256
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £518
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -0.58% +3.60%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £623
90th Percentile £671 £700 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 294 322 236
10th Percentile £13.50 £15.00 £15.38
25th Percentile £15.13 £26.25 £21.05
Median hourly rate £21.41 £57.35 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -62.67% +14.70% +100.00%
75th Percentile £50.00 £70.14 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.92 £76.86 £75.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% +3.61% +56.60%

Cost Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Cost Optimisation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Cost Optimisation in the South East

Cost Optimisation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Cost Optimisation in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Cost Optimisation in the South East

Cost Optimisation
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cost Optimisation in the South East over the 6 months to 14 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Cost Optimisation in the South East

Cost Optimisation
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 Cost Optimisation within the South East region over the 6 months to 14 August 2025. 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
Berkshire +9 3 £413 -21.43% 3
Thames Valley +3 3 £413 -21.43% 6
Surrey +11 1 - -
Cost Optimisation
England

Cost Optimisation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 2 (50.00%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 2 (50.00%) Azure
1 2 (50.00%) Power Platform
2 1 (25.00%) Azure AKS
2 1 (25.00%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (25.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
2 1 (25.00%) Azure Key Vault
2 1 (25.00%) Azure Monitor
2 1 (25.00%) Azure Sentinel
2 1 (25.00%) Entra ID
2 1 (25.00%) GitHub
2 1 (25.00%) GitHub Actions
2 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 1 (25.00%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (50.00%) Power BI
General
1 3 (75.00%) Analytical Skills
1 3 (75.00%) Finance
2 2 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (50.00%) Telecoms
3 1 (25.00%) Aerospace
3 1 (25.00%) Billing
3 1 (25.00%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (50.00%) Analyst
1 2 (50.00%) Financial Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Architect
2 1 (25.00%) Azure Architect
2 1 (25.00%) DevOps Architect
2 1 (25.00%) Solutions Architect
2 1 (25.00%) Telecoms Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Cloud Native
1 1 (25.00%) Hybrid Cloud
1 1 (25.00%) Legacy Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (75.00%) Financial Analysis
1 3 (75.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 2 (50.00%) Business Intelligence
2 2 (50.00%) Cost Management
2 2 (50.00%) Dashboard Development
2 2 (50.00%) Data Visualisation
2 2 (50.00%) Data-Driven Decision Making
2 2 (50.00%) Decision-Making
2 2 (50.00%) DevOps
2 2 (50.00%) Financial Modelling
2 2 (50.00%) Performance Improvement
2 2 (50.00%) Planning and Forecasting
2 2 (50.00%) Service Delivery
2 2 (50.00%) Visualisation
3 1 (25.00%) Architectural Patterns
3 1 (25.00%) Budgeting
3 1 (25.00%) FinOps
3 1 (25.00%) Infrastructure as Code
3 1 (25.00%) Log Analytics
3 1 (25.00%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 1 (25.00%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 2 (50.00%) ACCA
1 2 (50.00%) Azure Certification
1 2 (50.00%) CIMA
2 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (25.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (25.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (25.00%) Government Security Classifications
1 1 (25.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (25.00%) JSP 440
1 1 (25.00%) NCSC
System Software
1 1 (25.00%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (25.00%) Kubernetes
1 1 (25.00%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (50.00%) Hyperion
1 2 (50.00%) Oracle
1 2 (50.00%) SAP
2 1 (25.00%) Microsoft