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 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 21 15
Rank change year-on-year -7 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 421 267 389
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.41% 7.52% 8.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.03% 8.37% 9.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 271 187 258
10th Percentile £310 £313 £351
25th Percentile £413 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -2.53%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £619
90th Percentile £675 £600 £650
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 30 6
10th Percentile £32.65 £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 £70.00 £57.50 -
90th Percentile - - £76.25
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +6.70%

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 5,985 3,190 4,070
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.12% 89.81% 92.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,401 2,067 2,413
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 £725 £652 £688
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 797 285 273
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.18 £16.00
25th Percentile £20.50 £15.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £48.81 £25.15 £58.49
Median % change year-on-year +94.08% -57.00% +12.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £55.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £86.61 £71.15 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% -0.46%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 +16 151 £525 +10.53% 50
Thames Valley -34 123 £475 -5.00% 143
Surrey +1 78 £580 +5.45% 46
Berkshire -28 73 £460 -12.38% 77
Buckinghamshire -11 44 £525 +23.53% 40
West Sussex +4 40 £425 +47.57% 21
East Sussex +2 12 £325 -21.21% 23
Oxfordshire -26 6 £525 +27.27% 26
Sussex - 6 £625 - 3
Kent -10 4 £450 +33.33% 34
Middlesex -19 1 - - 5
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 October 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.

1 168 (39.90%) Security Cleared
2 133 (31.59%) SC Cleared
3 90 (21.38%) Agile
4 80 (19.00%) SQL
5 75 (17.81%) Azure
6 70 (16.63%) Oracle
7 63 (14.96%) CI/CD
8 61 (14.49%) Software Engineering
9 58 (13.78%) .NET
9 58 (13.78%) DevOps
10 56 (13.30%) DV Cleared
11 54 (12.83%) Java
12 53 (12.59%) Microsoft
13 51 (12.11%) Python
14 50 (11.88%) REST
15 49 (11.64%) C#
15 49 (11.64%) Full-Stack Development
15 49 (11.64%) JavaScript
16 46 (10.93%) Data Warehouse
17 45 (10.69%) RESTful
18 43 (10.21%) Git
18 43 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
19 42 (9.98%) Analytics
19 42 (9.98%) ServiceNow
20 40 (9.50%) Test Automation
21 39 (9.26%) ETL
21 39 (9.26%) Scrum
22 37 (8.79%) Data Modelling
22 37 (8.79%) Kubernetes
22 37 (8.79%) Power Platform

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 10 (2.38%) Confluence
3 6 (1.43%) CMS
3 6 (1.43%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (1.19%) Documentum
5 4 (0.95%) Apache Spark
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 75 (17.81%) Azure
2 37 (8.79%) Power Platform
3 36 (8.55%) Azure DevOps
4 29 (6.89%) AWS
5 22 (5.23%) Power Automate
6 19 (4.51%) GCP
7 18 (4.28%) PowerApps
7 18 (4.28%) Serverless
8 17 (4.04%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (4.04%) GitHub
9 15 (3.56%) 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%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (2.14%) SaaS
14 7 (1.66%) Azure AKS
14 7 (1.66%) Azure API Management
14 7 (1.66%) Azure App Service
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 23 (5.46%) Power BI
3 22 (5.23%) Oracle ODI
4 21 (4.99%) NoSQL
4 21 (4.99%) Oracle Reports
4 21 (4.99%) PostgreSQL
5 20 (4.75%) SQL Server
6 12 (2.85%) Relational Database
7 11 (2.61%) Siebel EIM
8 8 (1.90%) MongoDB
9 7 (1.66%) Azure SQL Database
10 6 (1.43%) DataStage
10 6 (1.43%) DynamoDB
10 6 (1.43%) MySQL
10 6 (1.43%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.95%) Big Data
11 4 (0.95%) BusinessObjects
11 4 (0.95%) Couchbase
11 4 (0.95%) GIS
12 3 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 43 (10.21%) Git
2 20 (4.75%) JIRA
3 11 (2.61%) SonarQube
4 9 (2.14%) Jenkins
5 7 (1.66%) GitLab
6 4 (0.95%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.95%) JUnit
7 3 (0.71%) Gradle
7 3 (0.71%) Maven
7 3 (0.71%) NUnit
8 2 (0.48%) SpecFlow
8 2 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.24%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.24%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.24%) Mockito
9 1 (0.24%) Postman
9 1 (0.24%) PowerBuilder
9 1 (0.24%) Subversion
9 1 (0.24%) Visual Studio
General
1 41 (9.74%) Finance
2 29 (6.89%) Social Skills
3 24 (5.70%) Aerospace
4 21 (4.99%) Public Sector
5 18 (4.28%) 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%) Aviation
11 3 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.71%) Publishing
12 2 (0.48%) Automotive
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 45 (10.69%) RESTful
4 30 (7.13%) React
5 29 (6.89%) AngularJS
6 26 (6.18%) JSON
7 21 (4.99%) .NET Core
8 20 (4.75%) Kafka
8 20 (4.75%) Terraform
9 19 (4.51%) .NET Framework
10 18 (4.28%) SOAP
11 16 (3.80%) CSS
11 16 (3.80%) HTML
11 16 (3.80%) OAuth
11 16 (3.80%) Spring
11 16 (3.80%) Web Services
12 15 (3.56%) Spring Boot
13 14 (3.33%) Entity Framework
14 11 (2.61%) Quarkus
15 10 (2.38%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.04%) Product Ownership
2 16 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
3 14 (3.33%) Data Structures
3 14 (3.33%) Distributed Systems
4 13 (3.09%) Cloud Native
5 12 (2.85%) Algorithms
6 6 (1.43%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.19%) Mobile App
8 4 (0.95%) AI Agents
8 4 (0.95%) Motion Graphics
9 3 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.71%) FMCG
10 2 (0.48%) Animation
10 2 (0.48%) CMDB
10 2 (0.48%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (0.48%) Wiki
11 1 (0.24%) Legacy Code
11 1 (0.24%) MicroBlaze
11 1 (0.24%) RISC-V
11 1 (0.24%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 18 (4.28%) Linux
2 12 (2.85%) Unix
3 6 (1.43%) Windows
4 4 (0.95%) Android
5 3 (0.71%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (21.38%) Agile
2 63 (14.96%) CI/CD
3 61 (14.49%) Software Engineering
4 58 (13.78%) DevOps
5 49 (11.64%) Full-Stack Development
6 43 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
7 42 (9.98%) Analytics
8 40 (9.50%) Test Automation
9 39 (9.26%) ETL
9 39 (9.26%) Scrum
10 37 (8.79%) Data Modelling
11 33 (7.84%) Business Intelligence
11 33 (7.84%) Microservices
12 28 (6.65%) Performance Tuning
13 27 (6.41%) Workflow
14 26 (6.18%) Unit Testing
15 23 (5.46%) CRM
15 23 (5.46%) Front End Development
15 23 (5.46%) SDLC
16 21 (4.99%) Sprint Planning
Programming Languages
1 80 (19.00%) SQL
2 54 (12.83%) Java
3 51 (12.11%) Python
4 49 (11.64%) C#
4 49 (11.64%) JavaScript
5 21 (4.99%) TypeScript
6 12 (2.85%) PL/SQL
7 10 (2.38%) C
8 9 (2.14%) Go
9 8 (1.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (1.90%) PowerShell
9 8 (1.90%) X++
10 5 (1.19%) Apex Code
10 5 (1.19%) Bash
11 4 (0.95%) Bicep
12 3 (0.71%) C++
12 3 (0.71%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.48%) XPath
14 1 (0.24%) Groovy
14 1 (0.24%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 168 (39.90%) Security Cleared
2 133 (31.59%) SC Cleared
3 56 (13.30%) DV Cleared
4 11 (2.61%) Degree
5 6 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.19%) Azure Certification
6 5 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (0.48%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.24%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.24%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (8.31%) 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 24 (5.70%) Docker
2 14 (3.33%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.24%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 37 (8.79%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.61%) 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 11 (2.61%) 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