Developer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Developer
England > South East

The median Developer daily rate in the South East is £520, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 August 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 19 12
Rank change year-on-year -2 -7 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 486 269 465
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.27% 7.62% 9.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.88% 8.40% 10.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 310 200 333
10th Percentile £325 £320 £352
25th Percentile £427 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £669 £625 £650
England median daily rate £515 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 16 11
10th Percentile £32.06 - £35.00
25th Percentile £38.25 £32.94 £54.85
Median hourly rate £55.00 £37.24 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.70% -40.42% -7.41%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £56.25 £68.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £53.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +3.77% -18.46% +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 6,171 3,203 4,517
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 90.71% 92.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,630 2,078 2,776
10th Percentile £303 £208 £250
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 £638
90th Percentile £721 £663 £697
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 740 265 378
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.75 £16.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £15.50 £27.00
Median hourly rate £53.20 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +111.53% -56.15% +16.18%
75th Percentile £73.25 £57.50 £72.33
90th Percentile £86.65 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.65 £25.30 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.58% -43.78% +5.88%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 +11 163 £525 +7.14% 46
Thames Valley -19 163 £525 - 52
Berkshire -31 87 £475 -13.64% 29
Surrey +5 85 £513 -6.82% 31
Buckinghamshire -6 70 £525 +18.24% 12
West Sussex +1 39 £425 +38.66% 15
Kent +6 10 £450 +20.00% 23
Sussex - 10 £538 - 11
East Sussex 0 9 £563 +25.00% 21
Oxfordshire -25 6 £525 +20.00% 11
Middlesex -16 1 - - 7
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 218 (44.86%) Security Cleared
2 176 (36.21%) SC Cleared
3 102 (20.99%) Agile
4 97 (19.96%) SQL
5 91 (18.72%) Azure
6 87 (17.90%) Oracle
7 84 (17.28%) CI/CD
8 77 (15.84%) .NET
9 74 (15.23%) DevOps
10 67 (13.79%) Java
11 62 (12.76%) DV Cleared
12 61 (12.55%) C#
12 61 (12.55%) Software Engineering
13 60 (12.35%) Git
13 60 (12.35%) Python
14 59 (12.14%) REST
15 55 (11.32%) JavaScript
16 52 (10.70%) Analytics
16 52 (10.70%) RESTful
16 52 (10.70%) ServiceNow
17 51 (10.49%) Full-Stack Development
17 51 (10.49%) Scrum
18 49 (10.08%) Data Modelling
19 48 (9.88%) Microservices
20 47 (9.67%) Azure DevOps
20 47 (9.67%) Data Warehouse
20 47 (9.67%) ETL
21 46 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
22 43 (8.85%) Microsoft
23 42 (8.64%) 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 21 (4.32%) Oracle Application Server
2 11 (2.26%) Confluence
3 6 (1.23%) Apache Spark
3 6 (1.23%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (1.03%) CMS
4 5 (1.03%) Documentum
4 5 (1.03%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.82%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.41%) IIS
6 2 (0.41%) SAS
7 1 (0.21%) Apache
7 1 (0.21%) Kentico
7 1 (0.21%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.21%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (1.65%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.41%) Oracle Smart View
2 2 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 15 (3.09%) Siebel CRM
2 10 (2.06%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (1.03%) Oracle 11i
3 5 (1.03%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.41%) ProductWriter
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.21%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.21%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 91 (18.72%) Azure
2 47 (9.67%) Azure DevOps
3 37 (7.61%) AWS
4 30 (6.17%) Power Platform
5 21 (4.32%) GCP
6 20 (4.12%) Serverless
7 19 (3.91%) OpenShift
8 18 (3.70%) Dynamics 365
8 18 (3.70%) Power Automate
9 17 (3.50%) GitHub
10 15 (3.09%) OCI
11 14 (2.88%) PowerApps
12 13 (2.67%) Azure Functions
13 11 (2.26%) Azure Logic Apps
13 11 (2.26%) GitHub Actions
14 10 (2.06%) Azure Monitor
14 10 (2.06%) Entra ID
15 9 (1.85%) SaaS
16 8 (1.65%) Amazon S3
16 8 (1.65%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.47%) BGP
1 12 (2.47%) IPsec
1 12 (2.47%) LAN
1 12 (2.47%) MPLS
1 12 (2.47%) WAN
2 6 (1.23%) HTTPS
3 2 (0.41%) Firewall
3 2 (0.41%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.41%) Wireless
4 1 (0.21%) Broadband
4 1 (0.21%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (9.67%) Data Warehouse
2 34 (7.00%) Oracle Reports
3 29 (5.97%) PostgreSQL
4 26 (5.35%) Oracle ODI
5 24 (4.94%) NoSQL
6 23 (4.73%) SQL Server
7 20 (4.12%) Power BI
8 15 (3.09%) Relational Database
9 12 (2.47%) MongoDB
10 11 (2.26%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 11 (2.26%) Siebel EIM
11 8 (1.65%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (1.44%) Oracle Database
13 6 (1.23%) Big Data
13 6 (1.23%) DataStage
13 6 (1.23%) DynamoDB
14 4 (0.82%) DocumentDB
14 4 (0.82%) GIS
14 4 (0.82%) MySQL
15 3 (0.62%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 60 (12.35%) Git
2 22 (4.53%) JIRA
3 14 (2.88%) Jenkins
4 13 (2.67%) SonarQube
5 10 (2.06%) GitLab
6 8 (1.65%) Visual Studio
7 7 (1.44%) Maven
8 5 (1.03%) Bitbucket
8 5 (1.03%) JUnit
8 5 (1.03%) Subversion
9 4 (0.82%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.82%) Gradle
9 4 (0.82%) NUnit
10 3 (0.62%) Postman
11 2 (0.41%) fastlane
11 2 (0.41%) Mockito
11 2 (0.41%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.21%) Cucumber
12 1 (0.21%) Oracle APEX
12 1 (0.21%) SpecFlow
General
1 40 (8.23%) Social Skills
2 34 (7.00%) Finance
3 29 (5.97%) Public Sector
4 22 (4.53%) Aerospace
5 17 (3.50%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (2.88%) Manufacturing
7 9 (1.85%) Law
7 9 (1.85%) Local Government
7 9 (1.85%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.44%) Automotive
8 7 (1.44%) Billing
9 5 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.03%) Legal
10 4 (0.82%) Police
11 3 (0.62%) Publishing
12 2 (0.41%) Aviation
12 2 (0.41%) Banking
12 2 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (0.41%) Retail
13 1 (0.21%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (15.84%) .NET
2 59 (12.14%) REST
3 52 (10.70%) RESTful
4 37 (7.61%) React
5 30 (6.17%) AngularJS
6 28 (5.76%) Kafka
7 26 (5.35%) JSON
8 25 (5.14%) .NET Framework
9 21 (4.32%) .NET Core
9 21 (4.32%) OAuth
10 20 (4.12%) SOAP
11 19 (3.91%) Entity Framework
11 19 (3.91%) Spring
12 16 (3.29%) CSS
13 15 (3.09%) Spring Boot
14 14 (2.88%) ASP.NET
15 13 (2.67%) HTML
15 13 (2.67%) Quarkus
16 12 (2.47%) Swagger
16 12 (2.47%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.32%) Distributed Systems
2 20 (4.12%) Data Structures
3 17 (3.50%) Algorithms
3 17 (3.50%) Cloud Native
3 17 (3.50%) Product Ownership
4 16 (3.29%) Enterprise Software
5 8 (1.65%) Data Centre
6 6 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.23%) Mobile App
7 5 (1.03%) Onboarding
8 4 (0.82%) AI Agents
8 4 (0.82%) Distributed Architecture
9 3 (0.62%) CMDB
9 3 (0.62%) FMCG
10 2 (0.41%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (0.41%) Device Driver
10 2 (0.41%) Embedded Systems
10 2 (0.41%) MicroBlaze
10 2 (0.41%) RISC-V
10 2 (0.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 20 (4.12%) Linux
2 13 (2.67%) Unix
3 12 (2.47%) Windows
4 5 (1.03%) Android
5 2 (0.41%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.41%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (20.99%) Agile
2 84 (17.28%) CI/CD
3 74 (15.23%) DevOps
4 61 (12.55%) Software Engineering
5 52 (10.70%) Analytics
6 51 (10.49%) Full-Stack Development
6 51 (10.49%) Scrum
7 49 (10.08%) Data Modelling
8 48 (9.88%) Microservices
9 47 (9.67%) ETL
10 46 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
11 41 (8.44%) Unit Testing
12 39 (8.02%) Business Intelligence
12 39 (8.02%) Performance Tuning
12 39 (8.02%) Test Automation
13 28 (5.76%) Workflow
14 26 (5.35%) Containerisation
14 26 (5.35%) SDLC
15 25 (5.14%) CRM
16 24 (4.94%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 97 (19.96%) SQL
2 67 (13.79%) Java
3 61 (12.55%) C#
4 60 (12.35%) Python
5 55 (11.32%) JavaScript
6 25 (5.14%) TypeScript
7 20 (4.12%) Go
8 16 (3.29%) PL/SQL
9 11 (2.26%) C
10 9 (1.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 9 (1.85%) X++
11 8 (1.65%) C++
12 7 (1.44%) PowerShell
13 6 (1.23%) Apex Code
13 6 (1.23%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.82%) Bash
14 4 (0.82%) Bicep
15 3 (0.62%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.62%) VB
16 2 (0.41%) PHP
Qualifications
1 218 (44.86%) Security Cleared
2 176 (36.21%) SC Cleared
3 62 (12.76%) DV Cleared
4 11 (2.26%) Degree
5 7 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.03%) Azure Certification
6 5 (1.03%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.21%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.21%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (6.79%) QA
2 11 (2.26%) Data Quality
3 4 (0.82%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.82%) GDPR
3 4 (0.82%) WCAG
4 1 (0.21%) COBIT
4 1 (0.21%) GRC
4 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.21%) NIST
System Software
1 30 (6.17%) Docker
2 13 (2.67%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.41%) Firmware
3 2 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 42 (8.64%) Kubernetes
2 18 (3.70%) Terraform
3 13 (2.67%) Argo
4 1 (0.21%) Ansible
4 1 (0.21%) Grafana
4 1 (0.21%) Podman
4 1 (0.21%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 87 (17.90%) Oracle
2 52 (10.70%) ServiceNow
3 43 (8.85%) Microsoft
4 28 (5.76%) Siebel
5 16 (3.29%) Salesforce
6 12 (2.47%) Red Hat
7 8 (1.65%) Google
7 8 (1.65%) SAP
8 6 (1.23%) IBM
9 5 (1.03%) Atlassian
9 5 (1.03%) Splunk
10 4 (0.82%) ESRI
11 3 (0.62%) Ab Initio
11 3 (0.62%) MuleSoft
11 3 (0.62%) Teradata
12 2 (0.41%) Blue Prism
12 2 (0.41%) CA Agile Central
12 2 (0.41%) Dynatrace
12 2 (0.41%) HP
12 2 (0.41%) Talend