Developer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Developer
England > South East

The median Developer daily rate in the South East is £480, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 December 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 33 20 21
Rank change year-on-year -13 +1 -11
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 251 313 384
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.77% 8.34% 7.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.39% 8.99% 8.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 183 200 274
10th Percentile £313 £361 £350
25th Percentile £400 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £494 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% -1.25% -9.09%
75th Percentile £573 £638 £575
90th Percentile £610 £650 £650
England median daily rate £500 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -6.98% -2.27% -6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 10
10th Percentile - - £49.63
25th Percentile £52.50 £21.25 £50.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £22.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +144.44% -65.38% -1.70%
75th Percentile £57.50 £23.75 £70.00
90th Percentile - - £71.45
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £61.84
% change year-on-year -15.38% +5.11% +3.07%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 3,927 3,482 4,724
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.28% 92.78% 93.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,547 2,177 3,081
10th Percentile £220 £235 £206
25th Percentile £400 £400 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £510
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% - +2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £610
90th Percentile £675 £675 £680
England median daily rate £510 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -2.86% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 367 132 236
10th Percentile £13.75 £18.52 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.50 £24.18 £24.84
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.69 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.09% -19.45% +50.53%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.00 £66.06
90th Percentile £81.40 £73.56 £76.53
England median hourly rate £26.50 £36.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -26.39% -20.00% +38.46%

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 18 December 2025.

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 18 December 2025.

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 18 December 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
Thames Valley -26 105 £490 -10.91% 117
Berkshire -28 77 £500 -9.09% 48
Hampshire -6 63 £463 -1.44% 58
Surrey +30 51 £550 +22.22% 32
Buckinghamshire +6 23 £469 -9.20% 38
Kent +10 12 £338 -15.63% 26
East Sussex -3 10 £450 -18.18% 17
West Sussex -17 7 £488 +15.31% 16
Oxfordshire -17 5 £400 - 32
Middlesex - 3 £594 - 15
Sussex -4 1 £525 - 11
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 18 December 2025, 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 91 (36.25%) Agile
2 73 (29.08%) CI/CD
3 66 (26.29%) SQL
4 64 (25.50%) Java
5 56 (22.31%) Problem-Solving
6 53 (21.12%) AWS
7 49 (19.52%) Security Cleared
8 46 (18.33%) REST
9 44 (17.53%) DevOps
10 43 (17.13%) Azure
11 40 (15.94%) Full-Stack Development
11 40 (15.94%) Software Engineering
12 37 (14.74%) GitHub
13 36 (14.34%) C#
13 36 (14.34%) Microservices
13 36 (14.34%) PostgreSQL
13 36 (14.34%) Python
13 36 (14.34%) SC Cleared
14 35 (13.94%) .NET
14 35 (13.94%) Scrum
14 35 (13.94%) TDD
15 34 (13.55%) Kubernetes
15 34 (13.55%) Spring
16 33 (13.15%) JavaScript
17 32 (12.75%) Jenkins
17 32 (12.75%) RESTful
18 30 (11.95%) React
19 27 (10.76%) Git
20 26 (10.36%) Kafka
20 26 (10.36%) Spring Boot

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 9 (3.59%) Confluence
2 7 (2.79%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.59%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.20%) Apache
4 3 (1.20%) CMS
5 2 (0.80%) nginx
5 2 (0.80%) SharePoint Server
5 2 (0.80%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.40%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.40%) Camunda
6 1 (0.40%) Documentum
6 1 (0.40%) Gunicorn
6 1 (0.40%) HCL Domino
6 1 (0.40%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.40%) Hyperledger
6 1 (0.40%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.40%) Smallworld
6 1 (0.40%) WordPress
Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.20%) Oracle Assets
1 3 (1.20%) Oracle General Ledger
1 3 (1.20%) Oracle Payables
1 3 (1.20%) Oracle Receivables
1 3 (1.20%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 2 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.80%) Maximo
2 2 (0.80%) Oracle Cash Management
2 2 (0.80%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.40%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 53 (21.12%) AWS
2 43 (17.13%) Azure
3 37 (14.74%) GitHub
4 22 (8.76%) GitHub Actions
5 18 (7.17%) GCP
6 17 (6.77%) Azure DevOps
7 13 (5.18%) OpenShift
8 11 (4.38%) Power Platform
9 10 (3.98%) Serverless
10 9 (3.59%) Amazon S3
10 9 (3.59%) OCI
11 8 (3.19%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (3.19%) Datadog
12 7 (2.79%) Azure Logic Apps
12 7 (2.79%) Dynamics 365
13 6 (2.39%) Boomi
14 5 (1.99%) Amazon EC2
14 5 (1.99%) AtomSphere
15 4 (1.59%) AWS CloudFormation
16 3 (1.20%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.99%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.80%) Bluetooth
2 2 (0.80%) HTTP
2 2 (0.80%) VoIP
3 1 (0.40%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.40%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.40%) MQTT
3 1 (0.40%) Network Security
3 1 (0.40%) SAN
3 1 (0.40%) Tactical Data Link
3 1 (0.40%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (14.34%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (7.97%) NoSQL
3 14 (5.58%) Relational Database
4 13 (5.18%) MongoDB
5 12 (4.78%) Oracle Reports
6 10 (3.98%) MySQL
6 10 (3.98%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 10 (3.98%) SQL Server
7 8 (3.19%) HBase
8 6 (2.39%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.99%) Apache Cassandra
9 5 (1.99%) Couchbase
9 5 (1.99%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (1.59%) Oracle Database
10 4 (1.59%) SAP HANA
11 3 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
11 3 (1.20%) BigQuery
11 3 (1.20%) Oracle BI EE
11 3 (1.20%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.80%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 32 (12.75%) Jenkins
2 27 (10.76%) Git
3 22 (8.76%) Cucumber
4 20 (7.97%) JUnit
5 19 (7.57%) Gradle
6 15 (5.98%) Sonatype Nexus
7 12 (4.78%) JIRA
8 10 (3.98%) GitLab
9 9 (3.59%) JMeter
10 8 (3.19%) Artifactory
11 7 (2.79%) Maven
12 5 (1.99%) Android Studio
12 5 (1.99%) Bitbucket
13 4 (1.59%) Subversion
13 4 (1.59%) Visual Studio
14 3 (1.20%) Storybook
15 2 (0.80%) Oracle APEX
15 2 (0.80%) Oracle Forms
15 2 (0.80%) Vite
15 2 (0.80%) WiX
General
1 58 (23.11%) Social Skills
2 33 (13.15%) Finance
3 30 (11.95%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (6.77%) Public Sector
5 6 (2.39%) Telecoms
6 5 (1.99%) Manufacturing
7 4 (1.59%) Banking
7 4 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.59%) Electronics
7 4 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.20%) Aerospace
8 3 (1.20%) Billing
8 3 (1.20%) Marketing
9 2 (0.80%) General Ledger
9 2 (0.80%) Legal
10 1 (0.40%) Automotive
10 1 (0.40%) Aviation
10 1 (0.40%) Health Technology
10 1 (0.40%) Military
10 1 (0.40%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (18.33%) REST
2 35 (13.94%) .NET
3 34 (13.55%) Spring
4 32 (12.75%) RESTful
5 30 (11.95%) React
6 26 (10.36%) Kafka
6 26 (10.36%) Spring Boot
7 22 (8.76%) SOAP
8 21 (8.37%) HTML
9 19 (7.57%) AngularJS
9 19 (7.57%) CSS
10 14 (5.58%) Oracle Fusion
10 14 (5.58%) Web Services
11 13 (5.18%) Node.js
11 13 (5.18%) RabbitMQ
12 10 (3.98%) .NET Core
13 9 (3.59%) Hibernate
14 7 (2.79%) GraphQL
14 7 (2.79%) JSON
14 7 (2.79%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 9 (3.59%) Mobile App
2 7 (2.79%) Cloud Native
2 7 (2.79%) Onboarding
3 6 (2.39%) Data Structures
4 4 (1.59%) Client/Server
5 3 (1.20%) Algorithms
5 3 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (0.80%) Distributed Systems
6 2 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.40%) AS400
7 1 (0.40%) Blockchain
7 1 (0.40%) CMDB
7 1 (0.40%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.40%) EMV
7 1 (0.40%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.40%) FMCG
7 1 (0.40%) IoT
7 1 (0.40%) Java Card
7 1 (0.40%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.40%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 19 (7.57%) Android
2 14 (5.58%) Linux
3 10 (3.98%) Apple iOS
4 6 (2.39%) Windows
5 5 (1.99%) Unix
6 1 (0.40%) CentOS
6 1 (0.40%) Debian
6 1 (0.40%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.40%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (36.25%) Agile
2 73 (29.08%) CI/CD
3 56 (22.31%) Problem-Solving
4 44 (17.53%) DevOps
5 40 (15.94%) Full-Stack Development
5 40 (15.94%) Software Engineering
6 36 (14.34%) Microservices
7 35 (13.94%) Scrum
7 35 (13.94%) TDD
8 23 (9.16%) Data Integration
8 23 (9.16%) Data Modelling
8 23 (9.16%) Test Automation
9 22 (8.76%) Computer Science
10 21 (8.37%) AI
10 21 (8.37%) Workflow
11 20 (7.97%) Business Intelligence
12 19 (7.57%) Acceptance Criteria
12 19 (7.57%) Test Strategy
13 18 (7.17%) CAFM
14 17 (6.77%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 66 (26.29%) SQL
2 64 (25.50%) Java
3 36 (14.34%) C#
3 36 (14.34%) Python
4 33 (13.15%) JavaScript
5 18 (7.17%) VB
6 9 (3.59%) Go
6 9 (3.59%) TypeScript
7 7 (2.79%) Apex Code
7 7 (2.79%) C++
7 7 (2.79%) PL/SQL
7 7 (2.79%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.99%) C
8 5 (1.99%) PowerShell
9 4 (1.59%) ABAP
9 4 (1.59%) Kotlin
9 4 (1.59%) Swift
10 3 (1.20%) Objective-C
10 3 (1.20%) X++
11 2 (0.80%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 49 (19.52%) Security Cleared
2 36 (14.34%) SC Cleared
3 22 (8.76%) Degree
4 19 (7.57%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (3.98%) OCP
5 10 (3.98%) Oracle Certification
6 7 (2.79%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.80%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.40%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.78%) QA
2 6 (2.39%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.59%) GDPR
4 3 (1.20%) SLA
5 1 (0.40%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.40%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 17025
5 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.40%) NIST
System Software
1 22 (8.76%) Docker
2 4 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 34 (13.55%) Kubernetes
2 11 (4.38%) Ansible
3 9 (3.59%) Grafana
4 7 (2.79%) Progress Chef
5 5 (1.99%) Terraform
6 3 (1.20%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.80%) Argo
7 2 (0.80%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 1 (0.40%) Rsyslog
8 1 (0.40%) SCOM
8 1 (0.40%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 25 (9.96%) Oracle
2 22 (8.76%) Microsoft
3 14 (5.58%) Salesforce
4 11 (4.38%) SAP
5 9 (3.59%) VMware
6 8 (3.19%) Databricks
6 8 (3.19%) Virgin Media
7 6 (2.39%) Atlassian
8 4 (1.59%) Apple
8 4 (1.59%) Google
8 4 (1.59%) Informatica
8 4 (1.59%) ServiceNow
9 2 (0.80%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.80%) CA Agile Central
9 2 (0.80%) IFS
9 2 (0.80%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.80%) Teradata
10 1 (0.40%) IBM
10 1 (0.40%) Siemens
10 1 (0.40%) Telerik