Developer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Developer
England > South East

The median Developer daily rate in the South East is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 21 15
Rank change year-on-year -7 -6 +2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 421 263 395
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.43% 7.48% 8.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.05% 8.33% 9.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 272 183 263
10th Percentile £310 £313 £335
25th Percentile £413 £372 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -2.49%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £619
90th Percentile £675 £620 £650
England median daily rate £520 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +1.96% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 30 6
10th Percentile £32.06 £32.94 £43.13
25th Percentile £43.75 £50.63 -
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year - -15.38% +9.62%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.50 -
90th Percentile £70.00 - £76.25
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.33%

All Contract IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 5,968 3,159 4,134
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.18% 89.85% 92.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,396 2,048 2,455
10th Percentile £300 £204 £245
25th Percentile £425 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £505
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -0.99% +1.00%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £625
90th Percentile £719 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 793 282 278
10th Percentile £15.01 £13.28 £15.99
25th Percentile £21.00 £15.50 £27.00
Median hourly rate £49.00 £25.15 £58.34
Median % change year-on-year +94.83% -56.89% +16.68%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £86.61 £71.48 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% -1.13%

Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Developer job vacancy trend in the South East

Developer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the South East

Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Developer in the South East over the 6 months to 28 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Developer in the South East

Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the South East

Developer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Developer in the South East over the 6 months to 28 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Developer in the South East

Developer
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 Developer within the South East region over the 6 months to 28 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
Hampshire +15 153 £525 +10.53% 38
Thames Valley -29 123 £475 -5.00% 120
Surrey -1 76 £580 +5.45% 31
Berkshire -31 72 £460 -12.38% 75
Buckinghamshire -16 45 £525 +23.53% 33
West Sussex 0 40 £425 +47.57% 17
East Sussex +1 11 £425 +15.65% 12
Sussex - 7 £600 - 5
Oxfordshire -28 6 £525 +27.27% 12
Kent -7 4 £450 +33.33% 26
Middlesex -19 1 - -
Developer
England

Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 28 September 2026, Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Developer in the job title.

1 166 (39.43%) Security Cleared
2 131 (31.12%) SC Cleared
3 88 (20.90%) Agile
4 78 (18.53%) SQL
5 73 (17.34%) Azure
6 70 (16.63%) Oracle
7 61 (14.49%) CI/CD
8 58 (13.78%) .NET
8 58 (13.78%) Software Engineering
9 56 (13.30%) DevOps
9 56 (13.30%) DV Cleared
10 53 (12.59%) Java
10 53 (12.59%) Microsoft
11 50 (11.88%) JavaScript
11 50 (11.88%) REST
12 48 (11.40%) C#
12 48 (11.40%) Python
13 47 (11.16%) Full-Stack Development
14 46 (10.93%) Data Warehouse
15 44 (10.45%) RESTful
16 42 (9.98%) Git
16 42 (9.98%) Problem-Solving
16 42 (9.98%) ServiceNow
17 41 (9.74%) Analytics
18 39 (9.26%) ETL
19 37 (8.79%) Data Modelling
19 37 (8.79%) Scrum
20 36 (8.55%) Kubernetes
20 36 (8.55%) Power Platform
20 36 (8.55%) Test Automation

Developer Skill Set
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 18 (4.28%) Oracle Application Server
2 9 (2.14%) Confluence
3 6 (1.43%) CMS
3 6 (1.43%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (1.19%) Apache Spark
4 5 (1.19%) Documentum
5 4 (0.95%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.95%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.48%) SAS
7 1 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.24%) Apache
7 1 (0.24%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.24%) Kentico
7 1 (0.24%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (1.43%) CPLEX
2 4 (0.95%) Adobe After Effects
3 2 (0.48%) Adobe Illustrator
3 2 (0.48%) Adobe Premiere
3 2 (0.48%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (3.56%) Siebel CRM
2 2 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.48%) ProductWriter
2 2 (0.48%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.24%) Oracle 11i
3 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.24%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.24%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 73 (17.34%) Azure
2 36 (8.55%) Power Platform
3 34 (8.08%) Azure DevOps
4 31 (7.36%) AWS
5 22 (5.23%) Power Automate
6 19 (4.51%) GCP
7 18 (4.28%) Dynamics 365
7 18 (4.28%) PowerApps
7 18 (4.28%) Serverless
8 17 (4.04%) GitHub
9 14 (3.33%) OpenShift
10 13 (3.09%) OCI
11 12 (2.85%) Azure Functions
12 10 (2.38%) Azure Logic Apps
12 10 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (2.14%) SaaS
14 8 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
15 6 (1.43%) Amazon S3
15 6 (1.43%) Azure API Management
15 6 (1.43%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.85%) BGP
1 12 (2.85%) IPsec
1 12 (2.85%) LAN
1 12 (2.85%) MPLS
1 12 (2.85%) WAN
2 6 (1.43%) HTTPS
3 2 (0.48%) Firewall
3 2 (0.48%) X.509
4 1 (0.24%) Broadband
4 1 (0.24%) Network Security
4 1 (0.24%) Software-Defined Radio
4 1 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (10.93%) Data Warehouse
2 22 (5.23%) Oracle ODI
2 22 (5.23%) Power BI
3 21 (4.99%) NoSQL
3 21 (4.99%) Oracle Reports
3 21 (4.99%) PostgreSQL
4 20 (4.75%) SQL Server
5 12 (2.85%) Relational Database
6 11 (2.61%) Siebel EIM
7 8 (1.90%) MongoDB
8 6 (1.43%) DataStage
8 6 (1.43%) DynamoDB
8 6 (1.43%) MySQL
8 6 (1.43%) Oracle Database
9 5 (1.19%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (1.19%) Big Data
10 4 (0.95%) BusinessObjects
10 4 (0.95%) Couchbase
10 4 (0.95%) GIS
11 3 (0.71%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 42 (9.98%) Git
2 19 (4.51%) JIRA
3 9 (2.14%) Jenkins
3 9 (2.14%) SonarQube
4 7 (1.66%) GitLab
5 4 (0.95%) Bitbucket
5 4 (0.95%) JUnit
6 3 (0.71%) Gradle
6 3 (0.71%) Maven
6 3 (0.71%) NUnit
7 2 (0.48%) SpecFlow
7 2 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.24%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.24%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.24%) Mockito
8 1 (0.24%) Postman
8 1 (0.24%) PowerBuilder
8 1 (0.24%) Subversion
8 1 (0.24%) Visual Studio
General
1 41 (9.74%) Finance
2 29 (6.89%) Social Skills
3 26 (6.18%) Aerospace
4 21 (4.99%) Public Sector
5 19 (4.51%) Manufacturing
6 13 (3.09%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (2.14%) Law
7 9 (2.14%) Local Government
7 9 (2.14%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.66%) Billing
9 5 (1.19%) Legal
10 4 (0.95%) Banking
10 4 (0.95%) Police
11 3 (0.71%) Automotive
11 3 (0.71%) Aviation
11 3 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.71%) Publishing
12 2 (0.48%) Retail
13 1 (0.24%) Marketing
13 1 (0.24%) Multimedia
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (13.78%) .NET
2 50 (11.88%) REST
3 44 (10.45%) RESTful
4 29 (6.89%) React
5 27 (6.41%) AngularJS
6 25 (5.94%) JSON
7 21 (4.99%) Kafka
8 20 (4.75%) .NET Core
9 19 (4.51%) Terraform
10 18 (4.28%) .NET Framework
10 18 (4.28%) SOAP
11 17 (4.04%) Spring
12 16 (3.80%) CSS
12 16 (3.80%) HTML
12 16 (3.80%) OAuth
12 16 (3.80%) Web Services
13 15 (3.56%) Spring Boot
14 13 (3.09%) Entity Framework
15 11 (2.61%) ASP.NET
16 10 (2.38%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.04%) Product Ownership
2 16 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
3 14 (3.33%) Cloud Native
3 14 (3.33%) Data Structures
3 14 (3.33%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (2.85%) Algorithms
5 6 (1.43%) Onboarding
6 4 (0.95%) AI Agents
6 4 (0.95%) Mobile App
6 4 (0.95%) Motion Graphics
7 3 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (0.71%) FMCG
8 2 (0.48%) Animation
8 2 (0.48%) CMDB
8 2 (0.48%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.24%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.24%) Legacy Code
9 1 (0.24%) MicroBlaze
9 1 (0.24%) RISC-V
9 1 (0.24%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (4.04%) Linux
2 12 (2.85%) Unix
3 6 (1.43%) Windows
4 4 (0.95%) Android
5 2 (0.48%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (20.90%) Agile
2 61 (14.49%) CI/CD
3 58 (13.78%) Software Engineering
4 56 (13.30%) DevOps
5 47 (11.16%) Full-Stack Development
6 42 (9.98%) Problem-Solving
7 41 (9.74%) Analytics
8 39 (9.26%) ETL
9 37 (8.79%) Data Modelling
9 37 (8.79%) Scrum
10 36 (8.55%) Test Automation
11 33 (7.84%) Microservices
12 32 (7.60%) Business Intelligence
13 28 (6.65%) Performance Tuning
14 27 (6.41%) Workflow
15 24 (5.70%) Unit Testing
16 23 (5.46%) CRM
17 22 (5.23%) Front End Development
18 21 (4.99%) SDLC
19 19 (4.51%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 78 (18.53%) SQL
2 53 (12.59%) Java
3 50 (11.88%) JavaScript
4 48 (11.40%) C#
4 48 (11.40%) Python
5 22 (5.23%) TypeScript
6 12 (2.85%) PL/SQL
7 9 (2.14%) C
7 9 (2.14%) Go
8 8 (1.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 8 (1.90%) X++
9 7 (1.66%) PowerShell
10 5 (1.19%) Apex Code
10 5 (1.19%) Bash
11 3 (0.71%) Bicep
11 3 (0.71%) C++
11 3 (0.71%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.48%) XPath
13 1 (0.24%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.24%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 166 (39.43%) Security Cleared
2 131 (31.12%) SC Cleared
3 56 (13.30%) DV Cleared
4 11 (2.61%) Degree
5 6 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
7 4 (0.95%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.48%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.24%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.24%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (7.84%) QA
2 13 (3.09%) Data Quality
3 4 (0.95%) GDPR
4 3 (0.71%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.48%) WCAG
6 1 (0.24%) GRC
System Software
1 25 (5.94%) Docker
2 12 (2.85%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.24%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 36 (8.55%) Kubernetes
2 9 (2.14%) Argo
3 1 (0.24%) Ansible
3 1 (0.24%) Grafana
3 1 (0.24%) Podman
3 1 (0.24%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 70 (16.63%) Oracle
2 53 (12.59%) Microsoft
3 42 (9.98%) ServiceNow
4 24 (5.70%) Siebel
5 13 (3.09%) Salesforce
6 9 (2.14%) Red Hat
7 8 (1.90%) Google
7 8 (1.90%) SAP
8 7 (1.66%) MuleSoft
9 6 (1.43%) Adobe
9 6 (1.43%) IBM
10 4 (0.95%) ESRI
11 3 (0.71%) Splunk
12 2 (0.48%) Ab Initio
12 2 (0.48%) Talend
12 2 (0.48%) Teradata
12 2 (0.48%) Virgin Media
12 2 (0.48%) Workday
13 1 (0.24%) Databricks
13 1 (0.24%) Snow