Developer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Developer
England > South East

The median Developer daily rate in the South East is £513, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 July 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 19 12
Rank change year-on-year -1 -7 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 456 269 530
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.17% 8.20% 9.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.81% 9.03% 10.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 315 193 395
10th Percentile £321 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £408 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £576
90th Percentile £650 £625 £665
England median daily rate £515 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -1.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 16 20
10th Percentile £25.00 - £35.00
25th Percentile £34.01 £32.94 £46.25
Median hourly rate £44.13 £37.24 £60.70
Median % change year-on-year +18.50% -38.66% -11.71%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.00 £70.94
90th Percentile £70.00 £66.10 £84.45
England median hourly rate £46.80 £40.30 £65.00
% change year-on-year +16.14% -38.01% +4.00%

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 5,836 2,978 5,258
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.72% 90.79% 92.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,484 1,928 3,103
10th Percentile £303 £214 £250
25th Percentile £422 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £618 £600 £625
90th Percentile £706 £660 £688
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 621 223 524
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.20 £12.88
25th Percentile £25.24 £15.53 £18.69
Median hourly rate £50.00 £28.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.57% -44.00% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £61.18 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +60.71% -30.00% -8.57%

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 5 July 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 5 July 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 5 July 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 -17 173 £525 - 67
Hampshire +2 141 £525 +8.25% 53
Berkshire -22 90 £475 -13.64% 40
Buckinghamshire -6 78 £525 +10.53% 16
Surrey +8 63 £513 -0.29% 33
West Sussex +9 43 £438 +34.77% 14
Sussex - 15 £475 - 6
Kent +5 9 £450 -5.26% 18
East Sussex -2 8 £525 +27.27% 14
Oxfordshire -27 5 £625 +51.52% 11
Home Counties - 1 - -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 5 July 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.

1 207 (45.39%) Security Cleared
2 169 (37.06%) SC Cleared
3 93 (20.39%) Azure
4 90 (19.74%) Agile
4 90 (19.74%) SQL
5 81 (17.76%) Oracle
6 79 (17.32%) Java
7 78 (17.11%) CI/CD
8 76 (16.67%) DevOps
9 71 (15.57%) .NET
10 63 (13.82%) Python
11 59 (12.94%) JavaScript
12 57 (12.50%) Git
13 54 (11.84%) C#
13 54 (11.84%) Software Engineering
14 52 (11.40%) Microservices
15 51 (11.18%) REST
16 49 (10.75%) Problem-Solving
17 48 (10.53%) DV Cleared
17 48 (10.53%) RESTful
18 47 (10.31%) Full-Stack Development
19 43 (9.43%) AWS
19 43 (9.43%) React
20 42 (9.21%) Azure DevOps
21 40 (8.77%) Analytics
21 40 (8.77%) Data Modelling
21 40 (8.77%) Kubernetes
22 39 (8.55%) Scrum
23 37 (8.11%) Performance Tuning
23 37 (8.11%) ServiceNow

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 16 (3.51%) Oracle Application Server
2 6 (1.32%) Apache Spark
2 6 (1.32%) CMS
2 6 (1.32%) Confluence
2 6 (1.32%) Oracle Workflow
3 5 (1.10%) Documentum
3 5 (1.10%) Umbraco
4 4 (0.88%) IIS
5 2 (0.44%) SAS
5 2 (0.44%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.44%) WordPress
6 1 (0.22%) Apache
6 1 (0.22%) Appian
6 1 (0.22%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.22%) JBoss
6 1 (0.22%) Kentico
6 1 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.22%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.22%) WebLogic
Applications
1 9 (1.97%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.44%) Oracle Smart View
2 2 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 15 (3.29%) Siebel CRM
2 10 (2.19%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (1.10%) Oracle 11i
3 5 (1.10%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.44%) ProductWriter
4 2 (0.44%) SAP HR
4 2 (0.44%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 93 (20.39%) Azure
2 43 (9.43%) AWS
3 42 (9.21%) Azure DevOps
4 23 (5.04%) Power Platform
5 22 (4.82%) GCP
6 17 (3.73%) Serverless
7 16 (3.51%) Dynamics 365
7 16 (3.51%) GitHub
7 16 (3.51%) OpenShift
8 15 (3.29%) OCI
9 12 (2.63%) Power Automate
10 11 (2.41%) GitHub Actions
11 10 (2.19%) Amazon S3
12 9 (1.97%) Azure Functions
13 8 (1.75%) Azure Logic Apps
14 7 (1.54%) AWS Lambda
14 7 (1.54%) PowerApps
14 7 (1.54%) SaaS
15 6 (1.32%) Google App Engine
15 6 (1.32%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.97%) BGP
1 9 (1.97%) IPsec
1 9 (1.97%) LAN
1 9 (1.97%) MPLS
1 9 (1.97%) WAN
2 4 (0.88%) HTTPS
3 2 (0.44%) Firewall
3 2 (0.44%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.44%) Wireless
4 1 (0.22%) HTTP
4 1 (0.22%) Tactical Data Link
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (7.24%) Oracle Reports
1 33 (7.24%) PostgreSQL
2 32 (7.02%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (5.04%) SQL Server
4 22 (4.82%) NoSQL
5 21 (4.61%) Oracle ODI
6 17 (3.73%) Relational Database
7 15 (3.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 15 (3.29%) Power BI
8 13 (2.85%) MongoDB
9 11 (2.41%) Siebel EIM
10 8 (1.75%) DynamoDB
11 7 (1.54%) Big Data
11 7 (1.54%) MySQL
11 7 (1.54%) Oracle Database
12 5 (1.10%) GIS
12 5 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 3 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
13 3 (0.66%) DataStage
13 3 (0.66%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 57 (12.50%) Git
2 15 (3.29%) JIRA
3 14 (3.07%) Jenkins
4 10 (2.19%) GitLab
4 10 (2.19%) Maven
4 10 (2.19%) Visual Studio
5 8 (1.75%) JUnit
5 8 (1.75%) SonarQube
6 6 (1.32%) Bitbucket
6 6 (1.32%) Gradle
7 4 (0.88%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.88%) NUnit
7 4 (0.88%) Postman
7 4 (0.88%) Subversion
8 3 (0.66%) Mockito
9 2 (0.44%) fastlane
9 2 (0.44%) Selenium
9 2 (0.44%) SpecFlow
9 2 (0.44%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.22%) Storybook
General
1 41 (8.99%) Social Skills
2 38 (8.33%) Finance
3 30 (6.58%) Public Sector
4 20 (4.39%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (2.85%) Aerospace
6 10 (2.19%) Manufacturing
6 10 (2.19%) Telecoms
7 9 (1.97%) Law
8 7 (1.54%) Automotive
8 7 (1.54%) Billing
9 5 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.10%) Legal
10 3 (0.66%) Local Government
11 2 (0.44%) Police
11 2 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.44%) Publishing
11 2 (0.44%) Retail
12 1 (0.22%) Advertising
12 1 (0.22%) Banking
12 1 (0.22%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (15.57%) .NET
2 51 (11.18%) REST
3 48 (10.53%) RESTful
4 43 (9.43%) React
5 30 (6.58%) Kafka
6 28 (6.14%) AngularJS
7 27 (5.92%) JSON
8 26 (5.70%) Spring
9 24 (5.26%) CSS
10 22 (4.82%) Spring Boot
11 21 (4.61%) .NET Framework
12 20 (4.39%) SOAP
13 18 (3.95%) HTML
14 15 (3.29%) .NET Core
14 15 (3.29%) Entity Framework
14 15 (3.29%) OAuth
15 13 (2.85%) Swagger
16 12 (2.63%) ASP.NET
17 11 (2.41%) OpenAPI
17 11 (2.41%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 23 (5.04%) Data Structures
2 20 (4.39%) Distributed Systems
3 18 (3.95%) Algorithms
3 18 (3.95%) Cloud Native
4 17 (3.73%) Product Ownership
5 15 (3.29%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (1.75%) Data Centre
6 8 (1.75%) Mobile App
7 6 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.10%) Distributed Architecture
9 3 (0.66%) CMDB
9 3 (0.66%) FMCG
9 3 (0.66%) Onboarding
9 3 (0.66%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.44%) AI Agents
10 2 (0.44%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (0.44%) Device Driver
10 2 (0.44%) Embedded Systems
10 2 (0.44%) MicroBlaze
10 2 (0.44%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 19 (4.17%) Linux
2 14 (3.07%) Windows
3 11 (2.41%) Unix
4 8 (1.75%) Android
5 5 (1.10%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.44%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (19.74%) Agile
2 78 (17.11%) CI/CD
3 76 (16.67%) DevOps
4 54 (11.84%) Software Engineering
5 52 (11.40%) Microservices
6 49 (10.75%) Problem-Solving
7 47 (10.31%) Full-Stack Development
8 40 (8.77%) Analytics
8 40 (8.77%) Data Modelling
9 39 (8.55%) Scrum
10 37 (8.11%) Performance Tuning
11 36 (7.89%) ETL
11 36 (7.89%) Unit Testing
12 34 (7.46%) Business Intelligence
13 32 (7.02%) Containerisation
14 31 (6.80%) Test Automation
15 29 (6.36%) Workflow
16 25 (5.48%) TDD
17 24 (5.26%) CRM
17 24 (5.26%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 90 (19.74%) SQL
2 79 (17.32%) Java
3 63 (13.82%) Python
4 59 (12.94%) JavaScript
5 54 (11.84%) C#
6 27 (5.92%) TypeScript
7 21 (4.61%) Go
8 12 (2.63%) PL/SQL
9 11 (2.41%) C
10 9 (1.97%) C++
10 9 (1.97%) Kotlin
11 8 (1.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 8 (1.75%) X++
12 5 (1.10%) PHP
13 4 (0.88%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.88%) Bash
13 4 (0.88%) PowerShell
14 3 (0.66%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.66%) Swift
15 2 (0.44%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 207 (45.39%) Security Cleared
2 169 (37.06%) SC Cleared
3 48 (10.53%) DV Cleared
4 11 (2.41%) Degree
5 8 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (0.44%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.22%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.22%) AWS Certified Developer
8 1 (0.22%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.22%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.70%) QA
2 5 (1.10%) Data Quality
2 5 (1.10%) WCAG
3 4 (0.88%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.88%) GDPR
4 2 (0.44%) COBIT
4 2 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.44%) NIST
5 1 (0.22%) GRC
System Software
1 33 (7.24%) Docker
2 9 (1.97%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.44%) Firmware
3 2 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (8.77%) Kubernetes
2 13 (2.85%) Terraform
3 8 (1.75%) Argo
4 3 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.44%) Grafana
5 2 (0.44%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.22%) Ansible
6 1 (0.22%) Podman
Vendors
1 81 (17.76%) Oracle
2 37 (8.11%) ServiceNow
3 34 (7.46%) Microsoft
4 28 (6.14%) Siebel
5 10 (2.19%) Salesforce
6 8 (1.75%) SAP
7 7 (1.54%) Red Hat
8 6 (1.32%) Google
8 6 (1.32%) Splunk
9 5 (1.10%) Atlassian
9 5 (1.10%) Blue Prism
9 5 (1.10%) ESRI
10 4 (0.88%) Ab Initio
10 4 (0.88%) Teradata
11 3 (0.66%) IBM
11 3 (0.66%) Informatica
12 2 (0.44%) Adobe
12 2 (0.44%) Cognos
12 2 (0.44%) HP
12 2 (0.44%) MuleSoft