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 25 August 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 18 13
Rank change year-on-year -6 -5 +1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 466 265 450
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.98% 7.51% 9.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.58% 8.32% 10.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 297 181 321
10th Percentile £312 £319 £358
25th Percentile £413 £394 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - -
75th Percentile £600 £569 £600
90th Percentile £671 £625 £650
England median daily rate £518 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +0.98% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 29 9
10th Percentile £32.06 £32.94 £32.25
25th Percentile £38.25 £33.05 £54.85
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year - -15.38% +10.94%
75th Percentile £61.88 £57.50 -
90th Percentile £70.00 - £69.50
England median hourly rate £52.50 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -4.55% -15.38% +10.94%

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 6,147 3,185 4,402
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.02% 90.28% 92.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,596 2,050 2,665
10th Percentile £303 £205 £251
25th Percentile £425 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.91% +3.00%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £634
90th Percentile £718 £675 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 756 289 363
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.75 £16.00
25th Percentile £25.00 £15.50 £27.25
Median hourly rate £52.46 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +108.60% -56.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £71.06 £57.50 £74.31
90th Percentile £86.61 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.23 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.48% -43.94% +2.60%

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 25 August 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 25 August 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 25 August 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 +11 164 £525 +7.14% 28
Thames Valley -25 143 £500 -3.29% 39
Surrey +4 86 £513 -6.82% 21
Berkshire -36 77 £463 -15.91% 24
Buckinghamshire -12 59 £525 +16.67% 6
West Sussex +4 39 £425 +47.57% 8
Kent +1 9 £450 +20.00% 17
Sussex - 9 £600 - 6
East Sussex 0 8 £525 +40.00% 14
Oxfordshire -23 7 £425 - 9
Middlesex -16 1 - - 1
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 25 August 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.

1 198 (42.49%) Security Cleared
2 155 (33.26%) SC Cleared
3 97 (20.82%) Agile
4 90 (19.31%) SQL
5 87 (18.67%) Oracle
6 85 (18.24%) Azure
7 73 (15.67%) CI/CD
8 70 (15.02%) .NET
8 70 (15.02%) DevOps
9 60 (12.88%) Java
10 59 (12.66%) DV Cleared
11 56 (12.02%) Software Engineering
12 55 (11.80%) C#
13 53 (11.37%) REST
14 52 (11.16%) Analytics
14 52 (11.16%) JavaScript
15 51 (10.94%) Python
16 50 (10.73%) Data Warehouse
17 48 (10.30%) Full-Stack Development
17 48 (10.30%) Git
18 47 (10.09%) ETL
18 47 (10.09%) ServiceNow
19 46 (9.87%) Microsoft
19 46 (9.87%) Scrum
20 45 (9.66%) Data Modelling
20 45 (9.66%) RESTful
21 43 (9.23%) Azure DevOps
22 42 (9.01%) Problem-Solving
23 41 (8.80%) Microservices
24 40 (8.58%) Kubernetes

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 (4.72%) Oracle Application Server
2 9 (1.93%) Confluence
3 6 (1.29%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (1.07%) Apache Spark
4 5 (1.07%) CMS
4 5 (1.07%) Documentum
4 5 (1.07%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.86%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.43%) IIS
6 2 (0.43%) SAS
7 1 (0.21%) Apache
7 1 (0.21%) Kentico
7 1 (0.21%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.21%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (1.72%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.43%) Oracle Smart View
3 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (3.22%) Siebel CRM
2 9 (1.93%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.86%) Oracle 11i
3 4 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.43%) ProductWriter
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.21%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.21%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 85 (18.24%) Azure
2 43 (9.23%) Azure DevOps
3 36 (7.73%) AWS
4 33 (7.08%) Power Platform
5 22 (4.72%) Power Automate
6 20 (4.29%) Serverless
7 19 (4.08%) Dynamics 365
8 18 (3.86%) GCP
9 17 (3.65%) GitHub
9 17 (3.65%) OpenShift
9 17 (3.65%) PowerApps
10 15 (3.22%) OCI
11 14 (3.00%) Azure Functions
12 11 (2.36%) Azure Logic Apps
12 11 (2.36%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (1.93%) SaaS
14 7 (1.50%) Amazon S3
14 7 (1.50%) Entra ID
15 6 (1.29%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.58%) BGP
1 12 (2.58%) IPsec
1 12 (2.58%) LAN
1 12 (2.58%) MPLS
1 12 (2.58%) WAN
2 5 (1.07%) HTTPS
3 2 (0.43%) Firewall
3 2 (0.43%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.43%) Wireless
4 1 (0.21%) Broadband
4 1 (0.21%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (10.73%) Data Warehouse
2 30 (6.44%) Oracle ODI
2 30 (6.44%) Oracle Reports
3 25 (5.36%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (5.15%) SQL Server
5 22 (4.72%) NoSQL
6 21 (4.51%) Power BI
7 15 (3.22%) Relational Database
8 12 (2.58%) MongoDB
9 11 (2.36%) Siebel EIM
10 6 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
10 6 (1.29%) DataStage
10 6 (1.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 6 (1.29%) Oracle Database
11 5 (1.07%) Big Data
11 5 (1.07%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.07%) MySQL
12 4 (0.86%) DocumentDB
12 4 (0.86%) GIS
13 3 (0.64%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 48 (10.30%) Git
2 20 (4.29%) JIRA
3 13 (2.79%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.58%) SonarQube
5 8 (1.72%) GitLab
5 8 (1.72%) Visual Studio
6 5 (1.07%) Bitbucket
6 5 (1.07%) JUnit
7 4 (0.86%) Gradle
7 4 (0.86%) Maven
7 4 (0.86%) NUnit
8 3 (0.64%) Postman
9 2 (0.43%) fastlane
9 2 (0.43%) Mockito
9 2 (0.43%) Subversion
9 2 (0.43%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.21%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.21%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.21%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.21%) Liquibase
General
1 34 (7.30%) Social Skills
2 32 (6.87%) Finance
3 27 (5.79%) Public Sector
4 25 (5.36%) Aerospace
5 17 (3.65%) Manufacturing
6 16 (3.43%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (1.93%) Law
7 9 (1.93%) Local Government
7 9 (1.93%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.50%) Automotive
8 7 (1.50%) Billing
9 5 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.07%) Legal
10 4 (0.86%) Police
11 3 (0.64%) Aviation
11 3 (0.64%) Banking
11 3 (0.64%) Publishing
12 2 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (0.43%) Retail
13 1 (0.21%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (15.02%) .NET
2 53 (11.37%) REST
3 45 (9.66%) RESTful
4 34 (7.30%) React
5 29 (6.22%) AngularJS
6 26 (5.58%) Kafka
7 24 (5.15%) JSON
8 23 (4.94%) .NET Framework
9 19 (4.08%) .NET Core
10 18 (3.86%) SOAP
10 18 (3.86%) Spring
11 17 (3.65%) Entity Framework
11 17 (3.65%) OAuth
11 17 (3.65%) Terraform
12 16 (3.43%) CSS
13 14 (3.00%) ASP.NET
13 14 (3.00%) Spring Boot
14 13 (2.79%) HTML
15 12 (2.58%) Swagger
15 12 (2.58%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 18 (3.86%) Data Structures
2 17 (3.65%) Product Ownership
3 16 (3.43%) Algorithms
4 15 (3.22%) Cloud Native
4 15 (3.22%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (3.22%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (1.50%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.29%) Mobile App
7 5 (1.07%) Onboarding
8 4 (0.86%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.64%) Data Centre
9 3 (0.64%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.64%) FMCG
10 2 (0.43%) CMDB
10 2 (0.43%) Device Driver
10 2 (0.43%) Distributed Architecture
10 2 (0.43%) Embedded Systems
10 2 (0.43%) MicroBlaze
10 2 (0.43%) RISC-V
10 2 (0.43%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (3.65%) Linux
2 12 (2.58%) Unix
3 11 (2.36%) Windows
4 4 (0.86%) Android
5 2 (0.43%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.43%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (20.82%) Agile
2 73 (15.67%) CI/CD
3 70 (15.02%) DevOps
4 56 (12.02%) Software Engineering
5 52 (11.16%) Analytics
6 48 (10.30%) Full-Stack Development
7 47 (10.09%) ETL
8 46 (9.87%) Scrum
9 45 (9.66%) Data Modelling
10 42 (9.01%) Problem-Solving
11 41 (8.80%) Microservices
12 38 (8.15%) Unit Testing
13 37 (7.94%) Performance Tuning
14 36 (7.73%) Business Intelligence
15 35 (7.51%) Test Automation
16 27 (5.79%) CRM
16 27 (5.79%) Workflow
17 25 (5.36%) Containerisation
18 22 (4.72%) Front End Development
18 22 (4.72%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 90 (19.31%) SQL
2 60 (12.88%) Java
3 55 (11.80%) C#
4 52 (11.16%) JavaScript
5 51 (10.94%) Python
6 25 (5.36%) TypeScript
7 16 (3.43%) PL/SQL
8 13 (2.79%) Go
9 10 (2.15%) C
10 9 (1.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 9 (1.93%) X++
11 7 (1.50%) C++
12 6 (1.29%) Apex Code
12 6 (1.29%) PowerShell
13 5 (1.07%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.86%) Bash
15 3 (0.64%) Bicep
15 3 (0.64%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.64%) VB
16 2 (0.43%) PHP
Qualifications
1 198 (42.49%) Security Cleared
2 155 (33.26%) SC Cleared
3 59 (12.66%) DV Cleared
4 11 (2.36%) Degree
5 6 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (1.29%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (0.86%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.43%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.21%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.21%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (6.87%) QA
2 11 (2.36%) Data Quality
3 4 (0.86%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.86%) GDPR
3 4 (0.86%) WCAG
4 1 (0.21%) GRC
System Software
1 29 (6.22%) Docker
2 10 (2.15%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.43%) Firmware
3 2 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (8.58%) Kubernetes
2 12 (2.58%) Argo
3 1 (0.21%) Ansible
3 1 (0.21%) Grafana
3 1 (0.21%) Podman
3 1 (0.21%) Prometheus
3 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 87 (18.67%) Oracle
2 47 (10.09%) ServiceNow
3 46 (9.87%) Microsoft
4 28 (6.01%) Siebel
5 17 (3.65%) Salesforce
6 11 (2.36%) Red Hat
7 8 (1.72%) Google
7 8 (1.72%) SAP
8 6 (1.29%) IBM
9 5 (1.07%) MuleSoft
9 5 (1.07%) Splunk
10 4 (0.86%) ESRI
11 2 (0.43%) Ab Initio
11 2 (0.43%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.43%) Blue Prism
11 2 (0.43%) Dynatrace
11 2 (0.43%) HP
11 2 (0.43%) Talend
11 2 (0.43%) Teradata
11 2 (0.43%) Virgin Media