Forward Deployed Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South East
Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
England > South East
The median Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) daily rate in the South East is £320, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 November 2026.
The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 12 Nov 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 232 | 178 | - |
| Rank change year-on-year | -54 | - | - |
| Contract Forward Deployed Engineer jobs | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the South East | 0.071% | 0.026% | - |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.078% | 0.029% | - |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 10th Percentile | - | - | - |
| 25th Percentile | - | £625 | - |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £320 | £650 | - |
| Median % change year-on-year | -50.77% | - | - |
| 75th Percentile | - | £675 | - |
| 90th Percentile | £391 | - | - |
| England median daily rate | £613 | £650 | - |
| % change year-on-year | -5.77% | - | - |
All Contract IT Job Roles
South East
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job adverts in the South East matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.
| 6 months to 12 Nov 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract job adverts in the South East matching a recognised job title | 6,436 | 3,505 | 3,785 |
| % of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title | 91.28% | 89.53% | 92.57% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 3,512 | 2,266 | 2,275 |
| 10th Percentile | £283 | £205 | £245 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £380 | £400 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £500 | £510 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.00% | -1.96% | +1.80% |
| 75th Percentile | £625 | £600 | £625 |
| 90th Percentile | £725 | £663 | £684 |
| England median daily rate | £525 | £510 | £525 |
| % change year-on-year | +2.94% | -2.86% | -1.87% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 979 | 351 | 213 |
| 10th Percentile | £15.00 | £13.50 | £16.58 |
| 25th Percentile | £21.00 | £16.04 | £27.00 |
| Median hourly rate | £48.00 | £20.79 | £57.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +130.88% | -63.84% | +11.82% |
| 75th Percentile | £73.25 | £50.50 | £71.90 |
| 90th Percentile | £88.00 | £75.00 | £75.16 |
| England median hourly rate | £41.13 | £25.15 | £40.00 |
| % change year-on-year | +63.52% | -37.13% | -11.11% |
Forward Deployed Engineer 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 Forward Deployed Engineer jobs within the South East region over the 6 months to 12 November 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 |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months |
Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hampshire | - | 5 | £320 | - | |
| Forward Deployed Engineer England |
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Forward Deployed Engineer Skill Set Top 27 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East
For the 6 months to 12 November 2026, Forward Deployed Engineer contract job ads cited 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 Forward Deployed Engineer job ads across the South East region.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | CI/CD | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Cloudflare | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Full-Stack Development | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Git | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Integration Testing | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | JavaScript | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Next.js | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | PostgreSQL | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | SQL | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Supabase | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | TypeScript | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Vitest | 100.0% | 5 |
| 14 | AI | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Anthropic Claude | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | CSS | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | End-to-End Testing | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | GitHub | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | GitHub Copilot | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | HTML | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | QA | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Release Management | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Responsive Web Design | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Software Engineering | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Test Automation | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Validation | 80.0% | 4 |
| 14 | Visual Studio Code | 80.0% | 4 |
Forward Deployed Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Cloud Services
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Cloudflare | 100.0% | 5 |
| 1 | Supabase | 100.0% | 5 |
| 4 | Anthropic Claude | 80.0% | 4 |
| 4 | GitHub | 80.0% | 4 |
| 4 | GitHub Copilot | 80.0% | 4 |