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 3 September 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 19 13
Rank change year-on-year -9 -6 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 442 271 439
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.73% 7.75% 9.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.33% 8.58% 10.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 183 317
10th Percentile £310 £316 £355
25th Percentile £413 £387 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.59% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £569 £600
90th Percentile £675 £625 £650
England median daily rate £520 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +1.96% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 33 8
10th Percentile £32.06 £32.94 £30.88
25th Percentile £38.25 £37.80 £49.89
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 - £71.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +9.92%

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 6,031 3,157 4,337
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.78% 90.23% 92.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,514 2,032 2,609
10th Percentile £301 £205 £251
25th Percentile £425 £375 £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 £713 £663 £688
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 752 284 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.75 £16.20
25th Percentile £23.16 £15.50 £30.41
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% -56.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £85.23 £71.50 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +2.86%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +9 162 £525 +7.14% 37
Thames Valley -30 130 £475 -5.09% 78
Surrey -3 80 £546 -0.68% 43
Berkshire -34 70 £460 -13.21% 53
Buckinghamshire -12 53 £525 +16.67% 9
West Sussex +3 37 £425 +47.57% 11
East Sussex +1 11 £525 +44.83% 16
Kent +2 8 £450 +28.57% 25
Oxfordshire -21 7 £425 - 16
Sussex - 7 £600 -
Middlesex -21 1 - - 5
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 3 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.

1 184 (41.63%) Security Cleared
2 144 (32.58%) SC Cleared
3 91 (20.59%) Agile
4 87 (19.68%) SQL
5 84 (19.00%) Oracle
6 77 (17.42%) Azure
7 67 (15.16%) CI/CD
8 64 (14.48%) .NET
8 64 (14.48%) DevOps
9 59 (13.35%) Java
10 58 (13.12%) DV Cleared
11 56 (12.67%) Software Engineering
12 53 (11.99%) C#
13 51 (11.54%) Data Warehouse
14 50 (11.31%) Analytics
14 50 (11.31%) JavaScript
14 50 (11.31%) REST
15 49 (11.09%) Python
16 47 (10.63%) ETL
16 47 (10.63%) Microsoft
17 46 (10.41%) Full-Stack Development
18 44 (9.95%) RESTful
19 43 (9.73%) Data Modelling
19 43 (9.73%) ServiceNow
20 42 (9.50%) Git
20 42 (9.50%) Problem-Solving
21 41 (9.28%) Scrum
22 39 (8.82%) Azure DevOps
22 39 (8.82%) Kubernetes
23 36 (8.14%) Test Automation

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 (4.98%) Oracle Application Server
2 9 (2.04%) Confluence
3 6 (1.36%) 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 8 (1.81%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
3 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (3.39%) Siebel CRM
2 7 (1.58%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (0.68%) Oracle 11i
3 3 (0.68%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.45%) ProductWriter
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.23%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.23%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 77 (17.42%) Azure
2 39 (8.82%) Azure DevOps
3 34 (7.69%) AWS
4 33 (7.47%) Power Platform
5 21 (4.75%) Power Automate
6 19 (4.30%) Dynamics 365
7 17 (3.85%) GCP
7 17 (3.85%) GitHub
7 17 (3.85%) OpenShift
7 17 (3.85%) Serverless
8 16 (3.62%) PowerApps
9 14 (3.17%) OCI
10 12 (2.71%) Azure Functions
11 11 (2.49%) Azure Logic Apps
11 11 (2.49%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
12 8 (1.81%) SaaS
13 6 (1.36%) Amazon S3
13 6 (1.36%) Microsoft 365
13 6 (1.36%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.71%) BGP
1 12 (2.71%) IPsec
1 12 (2.71%) LAN
1 12 (2.71%) MPLS
1 12 (2.71%) 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
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (11.54%) Data Warehouse
2 29 (6.56%) Oracle ODI
3 28 (6.33%) Oracle Reports
4 24 (5.43%) PostgreSQL
5 22 (4.98%) NoSQL
5 22 (4.98%) Power BI
5 22 (4.98%) SQL Server
6 14 (3.17%) Relational Database
7 11 (2.49%) Siebel EIM
8 10 (2.26%) MongoDB
9 6 (1.36%) DataStage
9 6 (1.36%) Oracle Database
10 5 (1.13%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (1.13%) Big Data
10 5 (1.13%) DynamoDB
10 5 (1.13%) MySQL
11 4 (0.90%) DocumentDB
11 4 (0.90%) GIS
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.68%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 42 (9.50%) Git
2 18 (4.07%) JIRA
3 12 (2.71%) Jenkins
3 12 (2.71%) SonarQube
4 7 (1.58%) GitLab
5 5 (1.13%) JUnit
6 4 (0.90%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.90%) Gradle
6 4 (0.90%) NUnit
7 3 (0.68%) Maven
8 2 (0.45%) fastlane
8 2 (0.45%) Mockito
8 2 (0.45%) Postman
8 2 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.45%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.23%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.23%) Crashlytics
9 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.23%) Liquibase
9 1 (0.23%) SpecFlow
General
1 35 (7.92%) Finance
2 30 (6.79%) Social Skills
3 26 (5.88%) Aerospace
4 24 (5.43%) Public Sector
5 18 (4.07%) Manufacturing
6 16 (3.62%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (2.04%) Law
7 9 (2.04%) Local Government
7 9 (2.04%) 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%) Advertising
13 1 (0.23%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (14.48%) .NET
2 50 (11.31%) REST
3 44 (9.95%) RESTful
4 31 (7.01%) React
5 29 (6.56%) AngularJS
6 24 (5.43%) Kafka
7 22 (4.98%) JSON
8 21 (4.75%) .NET Framework
9 19 (4.30%) .NET Core
10 17 (3.85%) Spring
10 17 (3.85%) Terraform
11 16 (3.62%) SOAP
12 15 (3.39%) CSS
12 15 (3.39%) Entity Framework
12 15 (3.39%) OAuth
13 14 (3.17%) ASP.NET
13 14 (3.17%) HTML
14 13 (2.94%) Spring Boot
15 12 (2.71%) Quarkus
15 12 (2.71%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.07%) Data Structures
2 17 (3.85%) Product Ownership
3 16 (3.62%) Algorithms
4 15 (3.39%) Cloud Native
4 15 (3.39%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (3.17%) Distributed Systems
6 7 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (1.58%) Mobile App
7 5 (1.13%) Onboarding
8 4 (0.90%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.68%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.68%) FMCG
10 2 (0.45%) CMDB
10 2 (0.45%) Device Driver
10 2 (0.45%) Distributed Architecture
10 2 (0.45%) Embedded Systems
10 2 (0.45%) MicroBlaze
10 2 (0.45%) RISC-V
10 2 (0.45%) Virtual Team
11 1 (0.23%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 15 (3.39%) Linux
2 13 (2.94%) Unix
3 7 (1.58%) Windows
4 6 (1.36%) Android
5 3 (0.68%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.45%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (20.59%) Agile
2 67 (15.16%) CI/CD
3 64 (14.48%) DevOps
4 56 (12.67%) Software Engineering
5 50 (11.31%) Analytics
6 47 (10.63%) ETL
7 46 (10.41%) Full-Stack Development
8 43 (9.73%) Data Modelling
9 42 (9.50%) Problem-Solving
10 41 (9.28%) Scrum
11 36 (8.14%) Test Automation
12 35 (7.92%) Business Intelligence
12 35 (7.92%) Performance Tuning
13 34 (7.69%) Microservices
14 31 (7.01%) Unit Testing
15 27 (6.11%) CRM
16 26 (5.88%) Workflow
17 23 (5.20%) Front End Development
18 22 (4.98%) Containerisation
19 21 (4.75%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 87 (19.68%) SQL
2 59 (13.35%) Java
3 53 (11.99%) C#
4 50 (11.31%) JavaScript
5 49 (11.09%) Python
6 24 (5.43%) TypeScript
7 16 (3.62%) PL/SQL
8 11 (2.49%) Go
9 9 (2.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 9 (2.04%) X++
10 6 (1.36%) C
10 6 (1.36%) PowerShell
11 5 (1.13%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.90%) Bash
12 4 (0.90%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.90%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.68%) Bicep
13 3 (0.68%) C++
13 3 (0.68%) VB
14 2 (0.45%) PHP
Qualifications
1 184 (41.63%) Security Cleared
2 144 (32.58%) SC Cleared
3 58 (13.12%) DV Cleared
4 11 (2.49%) Degree
5 6 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (1.36%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (0.90%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.23%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.23%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (7.47%) QA
2 12 (2.71%) Data Quality
3 4 (0.90%) GDPR
3 4 (0.90%) WCAG
4 2 (0.45%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.23%) GRC
System Software
1 26 (5.88%) Docker
2 9 (2.04%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.45%) Firmware
3 2 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 39 (8.82%) Kubernetes
2 12 (2.71%) Argo
3 1 (0.23%) Ansible
3 1 (0.23%) Grafana
3 1 (0.23%) Podman
3 1 (0.23%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 84 (19.00%) Oracle
2 47 (10.63%) Microsoft
3 43 (9.73%) ServiceNow
4 28 (6.33%) Siebel
5 16 (3.62%) Salesforce
6 11 (2.49%) Red Hat
7 8 (1.81%) Google
7 8 (1.81%) SAP
8 6 (1.36%) IBM
9 5 (1.13%) MuleSoft
10 4 (0.90%) ESRI
11 3 (0.68%) Splunk
12 2 (0.45%) Ab Initio
12 2 (0.45%) Blue Prism
12 2 (0.45%) Dynatrace
12 2 (0.45%) HP
12 2 (0.45%) Talend
12 2 (0.45%) Teradata
12 2 (0.45%) Virgin Media
13 1 (0.23%) Intel