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 16 September 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 21 13
Rank change year-on-year -4 -8 +2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 444 260 408
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.71% 7.47% 8.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.33% 8.29% 9.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 179 282
10th Percentile £310 £313 £326
25th Percentile £413 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £555 £619
90th Percentile £675 £625 £650
England median daily rate £520 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +2.97% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 31 6
10th Percentile £32.06 £32.94 £43.13
25th Percentile £38.25 £50.63 -
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year - -15.38% +10.94%
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% +8.62%

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 6,059 3,138 4,241
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.53% 90.12% 92.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,500 2,031 2,534
10th Percentile £305 £204 £250
25th Percentile £431 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £625
90th Percentile £721 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 775 278 317
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.43 £16.00
25th Percentile £21.35 £15.50 £30.41
Median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +98.81% -56.26% +15.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £85.15 £71.95 £80.00
England median hourly rate £44.46 £25.15 £46.18
% change year-on-year +76.76% -45.54% +3.20%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 +13 163 £525 +10.53% 49
Thames Valley -35 127 £475 -5.00% 99
Surrey +2 82 £513 -6.82% 44
Berkshire -33 73 £460 -12.80% 62
Buckinghamshire -11 48 £525 +16.67% 20
West Sussex +5 39 £425 +47.57% 16
East Sussex +2 12 £525 +40.00% 22
Sussex - 7 £600 - 1
Kent -1 6 £450 +35.85% 32
Oxfordshire -21 6 £525 +23.53% 17
Middlesex -18 1 - - 6
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 16 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.

1 180 (40.54%) Security Cleared
2 142 (31.98%) SC Cleared
3 91 (20.50%) Agile
4 86 (19.37%) SQL
5 83 (18.69%) Oracle
6 75 (16.89%) Azure
7 65 (14.64%) CI/CD
8 61 (13.74%) .NET
8 61 (13.74%) DevOps
9 60 (13.51%) Java
10 58 (13.06%) DV Cleared
10 58 (13.06%) Software Engineering
11 51 (11.49%) Data Warehouse
12 50 (11.26%) C#
12 50 (11.26%) Microsoft
13 49 (11.04%) JavaScript
13 49 (11.04%) Python
13 49 (11.04%) REST
14 48 (10.81%) Analytics
15 45 (10.14%) ETL
15 45 (10.14%) Full-Stack Development
16 43 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
16 43 (9.68%) ServiceNow
17 42 (9.46%) Data Modelling
17 42 (9.46%) RESTful
18 41 (9.23%) Scrum
19 40 (9.01%) Git
20 38 (8.56%) Azure DevOps
21 37 (8.33%) Kubernetes
21 37 (8.33%) 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 22 (4.95%) Oracle Application Server
2 9 (2.03%) Confluence
3 6 (1.35%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (1.13%) Apache Spark
4 5 (1.13%) CMS
4 5 (1.13%) Documentum
5 4 (0.90%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.90%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.45%) SAS
7 1 (0.23%) Apache
7 1 (0.23%) Kentico
7 1 (0.23%) WordPress
Applications
1 7 (1.58%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.45%) Adobe After Effects
2 2 (0.45%) Adobe Illustrator
2 2 (0.45%) Adobe Premiere
2 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (3.38%) Siebel CRM
2 5 (1.13%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (0.68%) Oracle 11i
3 3 (0.68%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.45%) ProductWriter
5 1 (0.23%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.23%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.23%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 75 (16.89%) Azure
2 38 (8.56%) Azure DevOps
3 37 (8.33%) Power Platform
4 34 (7.66%) AWS
5 23 (5.18%) Power Automate
6 19 (4.28%) Dynamics 365
7 18 (4.05%) GitHub
7 18 (4.05%) PowerApps
8 17 (3.83%) GCP
8 17 (3.83%) OpenShift
8 17 (3.83%) Serverless
9 13 (2.93%) OCI
10 11 (2.48%) Azure Functions
10 11 (2.48%) Azure Logic Apps
10 11 (2.48%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (2.03%) SaaS
12 8 (1.80%) Azure Monitor
13 6 (1.35%) Amazon S3
13 6 (1.35%) Azure API Management
13 6 (1.35%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.70%) BGP
1 12 (2.70%) IPsec
1 12 (2.70%) LAN
1 12 (2.70%) MPLS
1 12 (2.70%) WAN
2 5 (1.13%) HTTPS
3 2 (0.45%) Firewall
3 2 (0.45%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.45%) Wireless
4 1 (0.23%) Broadband
4 1 (0.23%) Network Security
4 1 (0.23%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (11.49%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (6.31%) Oracle ODI
3 27 (6.08%) Oracle Reports
4 24 (5.41%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (5.41%) Power BI
5 22 (4.95%) NoSQL
6 20 (4.50%) SQL Server
7 12 (2.70%) Relational Database
8 11 (2.48%) Siebel EIM
9 9 (2.03%) MongoDB
10 6 (1.35%) DataStage
10 6 (1.35%) DynamoDB
10 6 (1.35%) Oracle Database
11 5 (1.13%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (1.13%) Big Data
11 5 (1.13%) Couchbase
11 5 (1.13%) MySQL
12 4 (0.90%) GIS
13 3 (0.68%) BusinessObjects
13 3 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 40 (9.01%) Git
2 18 (4.05%) JIRA
3 12 (2.70%) SonarQube
4 11 (2.48%) Jenkins
5 7 (1.58%) GitLab
6 4 (0.90%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.90%) Gradle
6 4 (0.90%) JUnit
7 3 (0.68%) Maven
7 3 (0.68%) NUnit
8 2 (0.45%) fastlane
8 2 (0.45%) Postman
8 2 (0.45%) SpecFlow
8 2 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.23%) Android Studio
9 1 (0.23%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.23%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.23%) Crashlytics
9 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.23%) Mockito
General
1 39 (8.78%) Finance
2 31 (6.98%) Social Skills
3 27 (6.08%) Aerospace
4 24 (5.41%) Public Sector
5 19 (4.28%) Manufacturing
6 16 (3.60%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (2.03%) Law
7 9 (2.03%) Local Government
7 9 (2.03%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.58%) Automotive
8 7 (1.58%) Billing
9 5 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.13%) Legal
10 4 (0.90%) Banking
10 4 (0.90%) Police
11 3 (0.68%) Aviation
11 3 (0.68%) Publishing
12 2 (0.45%) Retail
13 1 (0.23%) Marketing
13 1 (0.23%) Multimedia
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (13.74%) .NET
2 49 (11.04%) REST
3 42 (9.46%) RESTful
4 29 (6.53%) AngularJS
5 28 (6.31%) React
6 26 (5.86%) Kafka
7 23 (5.18%) JSON
8 20 (4.50%) .NET Core
9 19 (4.28%) .NET Framework
10 18 (4.05%) Terraform
11 17 (3.83%) SOAP
11 17 (3.83%) Spring
12 16 (3.60%) OAuth
13 15 (3.38%) Spring Boot
14 14 (3.15%) CSS
14 14 (3.15%) Entity Framework
14 14 (3.15%) HTML
15 13 (2.93%) Web Services
16 12 (2.70%) Quarkus
17 11 (2.48%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 17 (3.83%) Data Structures
1 17 (3.83%) Product Ownership
2 15 (3.38%) Algorithms
2 15 (3.38%) Cloud Native
3 14 (3.15%) Distributed Systems
3 14 (3.15%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (1.58%) Mobile App
5 6 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (1.35%) Onboarding
6 4 (0.90%) AI Agents
7 3 (0.68%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (0.68%) FMCG
8 2 (0.45%) Animation
8 2 (0.45%) CMDB
8 2 (0.45%) Device Driver
8 2 (0.45%) Embedded Systems
8 2 (0.45%) MicroBlaze
8 2 (0.45%) Motion Graphics
8 2 (0.45%) RISC-V
8 2 (0.45%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (3.83%) Linux
2 13 (2.93%) Unix
3 7 (1.58%) Windows
4 6 (1.35%) Android
5 3 (0.68%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.45%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (20.50%) Agile
2 65 (14.64%) CI/CD
3 61 (13.74%) DevOps
4 58 (13.06%) Software Engineering
5 48 (10.81%) Analytics
6 45 (10.14%) ETL
6 45 (10.14%) Full-Stack Development
7 43 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
8 42 (9.46%) Data Modelling
9 41 (9.23%) Scrum
10 37 (8.33%) Test Automation
11 36 (8.11%) Business Intelligence
11 36 (8.11%) Performance Tuning
12 33 (7.43%) Microservices
13 28 (6.31%) Unit Testing
13 28 (6.31%) Workflow
14 27 (6.08%) CRM
15 22 (4.95%) Front End Development
16 21 (4.73%) SDLC
17 20 (4.50%) AI
Programming Languages
1 86 (19.37%) SQL
2 60 (13.51%) Java
3 50 (11.26%) C#
4 49 (11.04%) JavaScript
4 49 (11.04%) Python
5 21 (4.73%) TypeScript
6 15 (3.38%) PL/SQL
7 11 (2.48%) Go
8 9 (2.03%) C
8 9 (2.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 9 (2.03%) X++
9 6 (1.35%) PowerShell
10 5 (1.13%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.90%) Bash
11 4 (0.90%) C++
11 4 (0.90%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.68%) Bicep
12 3 (0.68%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.45%) PHP
13 2 (0.45%) VB
Qualifications
1 180 (40.54%) Security Cleared
2 142 (31.98%) SC Cleared
3 58 (13.06%) DV Cleared
4 12 (2.70%) Degree
5 7 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (1.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 4 (0.90%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.45%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.23%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.23%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (7.66%) QA
2 14 (3.15%) Data Quality
3 4 (0.90%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.90%) GDPR
3 4 (0.90%) WCAG
4 1 (0.23%) GRC
System Software
1 23 (5.18%) Docker
2 11 (2.48%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.45%) Firmware
3 2 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (8.33%) Kubernetes
2 12 (2.70%) Argo
3 1 (0.23%) Ansible
3 1 (0.23%) Grafana
3 1 (0.23%) Podman
3 1 (0.23%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 83 (18.69%) Oracle
2 50 (11.26%) Microsoft
3 43 (9.68%) ServiceNow
4 28 (6.31%) Siebel
5 17 (3.83%) Salesforce
6 11 (2.48%) Red Hat
7 8 (1.80%) Google
7 8 (1.80%) SAP
8 6 (1.35%) IBM
8 6 (1.35%) MuleSoft
9 4 (0.90%) ESRI
10 3 (0.68%) Adobe
10 3 (0.68%) Splunk
11 2 (0.45%) Ab Initio
11 2 (0.45%) Dynatrace
11 2 (0.45%) Talend
11 2 (0.45%) Teradata
11 2 (0.45%) Virgin Media
12 1 (0.23%) Databricks
12 1 (0.23%) Workday