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 23 June 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 18 12
Rank change year-on-year -3 -6 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 435 255 540
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.04% 8.38% 9.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.69% 9.21% 10.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 297 185 403
10th Percentile £325 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £498 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.02% -0.50% -
75th Percentile £590 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £625 £675
England median daily rate £518 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -1.43% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 16 25
10th Percentile £25.00 - £39.50
25th Percentile £34.01 £32.94 £46.25
Median hourly rate £38.25 £37.24 £58.91
Median % change year-on-year +2.72% -36.78% -14.32%
75th Percentile £60.00 £55.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £67.50 £66.10 £82.67
England median hourly rate £46.18 £40.30 £65.00
% change year-on-year +14.60% -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 5,660 2,769 5,311
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.59% 91.03% 92.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,418 1,814 3,109
10th Percentile £303 £220 £250
25th Percentile £417 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £505
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -0.99% +1.00%
75th Percentile £613 £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 580 200 568
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £12.88
25th Percentile £25.00 £15.55 £18.98
Median hourly rate £50.00 £31.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +61.29% -38.00% -
75th Percentile £79.06 £62.31 £67.86
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £79.13
England median hourly rate £45.00 £29.00 £39.53
% change year-on-year +55.17% -26.63% -10.17%

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 23 June 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 23 June 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 23 June 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 -19 172 £525 +0.77% 42
Hampshire -3 121 £513 +5.67% 43
Berkshire -24 88 £475 -13.64% 19
Buckinghamshire -5 79 £525 +10.53% 13
Surrey +11 60 £513 +7.89% 30
West Sussex +9 42 £461 +19.68% 20
Sussex - 15 £475 - 6
East Sussex 0 12 £525 +40.00% 10
Kent +10 9 £450 -5.26% 16
Oxfordshire -30 5 £625 +51.52% 10
Home Counties - 1 - -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 23 June 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.

1 192 (44.14%) Security Cleared
2 160 (36.78%) SC Cleared
3 95 (21.84%) Azure
4 88 (20.23%) SQL
5 83 (19.08%) Agile
6 78 (17.93%) Java
7 77 (17.70%) .NET
7 77 (17.70%) CI/CD
8 76 (17.47%) Oracle
9 72 (16.55%) DevOps
10 62 (14.25%) Python
11 58 (13.33%) C#
12 56 (12.87%) Git
12 56 (12.87%) JavaScript
13 53 (12.18%) Software Engineering
14 50 (11.49%) Full-Stack Development
15 48 (11.03%) Microservices
15 48 (11.03%) REST
16 46 (10.57%) RESTful
17 45 (10.34%) Problem-Solving
18 41 (9.43%) React
19 40 (9.20%) AWS
19 40 (9.20%) Azure DevOps
20 39 (8.97%) Scrum
21 38 (8.74%) Data Modelling
22 37 (8.51%) Kubernetes
23 36 (8.28%) Analytics
23 36 (8.28%) Business Intelligence
23 36 (8.28%) Microsoft
24 35 (8.05%) Performance Tuning

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 14 (3.22%) Oracle Application Server
2 8 (1.84%) Confluence
3 6 (1.38%) Apache Spark
3 6 (1.38%) CMS
4 5 (1.15%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (1.15%) Umbraco
5 4 (0.92%) IIS
5 4 (0.92%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.69%) Documentum
7 2 (0.46%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.46%) SAS
7 2 (0.46%) WordPress
8 1 (0.23%) Apache
8 1 (0.23%) Appian
8 1 (0.23%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.23%) JBoss
8 1 (0.23%) Kentico
8 1 (0.23%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.23%) WebLogic
Applications
1 9 (2.07%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.46%) Oracle Smart View
2 2 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 13 (2.99%) Siebel CRM
2 10 (2.30%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (1.15%) Oracle 11i
3 5 (1.15%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.46%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.46%) ProductWriter
4 2 (0.46%) SAP HR
4 2 (0.46%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 95 (21.84%) Azure
2 40 (9.20%) AWS
2 40 (9.20%) Azure DevOps
3 27 (6.21%) Power Platform
4 20 (4.60%) GCP
5 19 (4.37%) Serverless
6 18 (4.14%) Dynamics 365
7 15 (3.45%) GitHub
7 15 (3.45%) OpenShift
8 14 (3.22%) OCI
9 12 (2.76%) Power Automate
10 11 (2.53%) Azure Functions
10 11 (2.53%) GitHub Actions
11 10 (2.30%) Amazon S3
12 8 (1.84%) Azure Logic Apps
13 7 (1.61%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (1.61%) Azure Service Bus
13 7 (1.61%) PowerApps
13 7 (1.61%) SaaS
14 6 (1.38%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.61%) BGP
1 7 (1.61%) IPsec
1 7 (1.61%) LAN
1 7 (1.61%) MPLS
1 7 (1.61%) WAN
2 4 (0.92%) HTTPS
3 2 (0.46%) Firewall
3 2 (0.46%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.46%) Wireless
4 1 (0.23%) HTTP
4 1 (0.23%) Tactical Data Link
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (7.36%) PostgreSQL
2 30 (6.90%) Data Warehouse
3 29 (6.67%) Oracle Reports
4 25 (5.75%) SQL Server
5 22 (5.06%) NoSQL
6 19 (4.37%) Oracle ODI
6 19 (4.37%) Power BI
7 17 (3.91%) Relational Database
8 15 (3.45%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 13 (2.99%) MongoDB
10 11 (2.53%) Siebel EIM
11 8 (1.84%) DynamoDB
12 7 (1.61%) Big Data
12 7 (1.61%) MySQL
12 7 (1.61%) Oracle Database
13 5 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (1.15%) GIS
13 5 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 3 (0.69%) DocumentDB
14 3 (0.69%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 56 (12.87%) Git
2 13 (2.99%) Jenkins
3 12 (2.76%) JIRA
4 10 (2.30%) GitLab
4 10 (2.30%) Visual Studio
5 9 (2.07%) Maven
6 8 (1.84%) JUnit
6 8 (1.84%) SonarQube
7 7 (1.61%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.61%) Gradle
8 6 (1.38%) Subversion
9 4 (0.92%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.92%) NUnit
9 4 (0.92%) Postman
9 4 (0.92%) Selenium
10 3 (0.69%) Android Studio
10 3 (0.69%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.46%) fastlane
11 2 (0.46%) Mockito
11 2 (0.46%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 43 (9.89%) Social Skills
2 38 (8.74%) Finance
3 31 (7.13%) Public Sector
4 18 (4.14%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (2.99%) Aerospace
6 10 (2.30%) Manufacturing
7 9 (2.07%) Law
8 8 (1.84%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.61%) Automotive
9 7 (1.61%) Billing
10 5 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.15%) Legal
11 2 (0.46%) Aviation
11 2 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.46%) Retail
12 1 (0.23%) Advertising
12 1 (0.23%) Local Government
12 1 (0.23%) Marketing
12 1 (0.23%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.23%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (17.70%) .NET
2 48 (11.03%) REST
3 46 (10.57%) RESTful
4 41 (9.43%) React
5 30 (6.90%) Kafka
6 27 (6.21%) AngularJS
7 25 (5.75%) JSON
8 24 (5.52%) Spring
9 23 (5.29%) CSS
10 21 (4.83%) .NET Framework
11 20 (4.60%) Spring Boot
12 18 (4.14%) SOAP
13 17 (3.91%) HTML
14 15 (3.45%) .NET Core
14 15 (3.45%) Entity Framework
15 13 (2.99%) OAuth
16 12 (2.76%) ASP.NET
17 11 (2.53%) Swagger
17 11 (2.53%) Web Services
18 10 (2.30%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 23 (5.29%) Data Structures
2 19 (4.37%) Distributed Systems
3 18 (4.14%) Algorithms
4 17 (3.91%) Cloud Native
4 17 (3.91%) Product Ownership
5 14 (3.22%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (2.30%) Mobile App
7 8 (1.84%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.15%) Distributed Architecture
10 4 (0.92%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.69%) CMDB
11 3 (0.69%) FMCG
11 3 (0.69%) Legacy Code
11 3 (0.69%) Onboarding
12 2 (0.46%) AI Agents
12 2 (0.46%) Device Driver
12 2 (0.46%) Embedded Systems
12 2 (0.46%) MicroBlaze
12 2 (0.46%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 15 (3.45%) Linux
2 12 (2.76%) Android
2 12 (2.76%) Windows
3 9 (2.07%) Unix
4 5 (1.15%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.46%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (19.08%) Agile
2 77 (17.70%) CI/CD
3 72 (16.55%) DevOps
4 53 (12.18%) Software Engineering
5 50 (11.49%) Full-Stack Development
6 48 (11.03%) Microservices
7 45 (10.34%) Problem-Solving
8 39 (8.97%) Scrum
9 38 (8.74%) Data Modelling
10 36 (8.28%) Analytics
10 36 (8.28%) Business Intelligence
11 35 (8.05%) Performance Tuning
11 35 (8.05%) Unit Testing
12 30 (6.90%) Containerisation
12 30 (6.90%) ETL
12 30 (6.90%) Test Automation
13 28 (6.44%) Workflow
14 25 (5.75%) Front End Development
15 24 (5.52%) TDD
16 22 (5.06%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 88 (20.23%) SQL
2 78 (17.93%) Java
3 62 (14.25%) Python
4 58 (13.33%) C#
5 56 (12.87%) JavaScript
6 24 (5.52%) TypeScript
7 21 (4.83%) Go
8 11 (2.53%) Kotlin
8 11 (2.53%) PL/SQL
9 9 (2.07%) C
9 9 (2.07%) C++
10 8 (1.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (1.84%) X++
11 5 (1.15%) PHP
12 4 (0.92%) PowerShell
13 3 (0.69%) Apex Code
13 3 (0.69%) Bash
13 3 (0.69%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.69%) Swift
14 2 (0.46%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 192 (44.14%) Security Cleared
2 160 (36.78%) SC Cleared
3 33 (7.59%) DV Cleared
4 12 (2.76%) Degree
5 9 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (0.46%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.23%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.23%) AWS Certified Developer
8 1 (0.23%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.23%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (6.21%) QA
2 6 (1.38%) Accessibility
3 5 (1.15%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.15%) WCAG
4 4 (0.92%) GDPR
5 2 (0.46%) COBIT
5 2 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.46%) NIST
6 1 (0.23%) GRC
System Software
1 30 (6.90%) Docker
2 7 (1.61%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.46%) Firmware
3 2 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (8.51%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.53%) Terraform
3 8 (1.84%) Argo
4 3 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.46%) Grafana
5 2 (0.46%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 1 (0.23%) Ansible
6 1 (0.23%) Podman
Vendors
1 76 (17.47%) Oracle
2 36 (8.28%) Microsoft
3 26 (5.98%) Siebel
4 25 (5.75%) ServiceNow
5 9 (2.07%) Salesforce
6 7 (1.61%) Red Hat
7 6 (1.38%) Atlassian
7 6 (1.38%) SAP
8 5 (1.15%) Blue Prism
8 5 (1.15%) ESRI
8 5 (1.15%) Splunk
9 4 (0.92%) Ab Initio
9 4 (0.92%) Google
9 4 (0.92%) Teradata
10 3 (0.69%) Informatica
11 2 (0.46%) Coverity
11 2 (0.46%) Databricks
11 2 (0.46%) Talend
11 2 (0.46%) Thales
11 2 (0.46%) Virgin Media