Lead Contracts in the South East

Leader
England > South East

The median Leader daily rate in the South East is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 37 34 38
Rank change year-on-year -3 +4 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Lead 153 273 303
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 5.08% 4.92% 5.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.53% 5.32% 5.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 157 224
10th Percentile £413 £408 £368
25th Percentile £479 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £676
90th Percentile £688 £700 £788
England median daily rate £588 £582 £600
% change year-on-year +0.95% -3.00% +2.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 11 9
10th Percentile £38.25 £18.35 £49.25
25th Percentile £63.48 £22.18 £50.00
Median hourly rate £83.50 £31.00 £57.99
Median % change year-on-year +169.35% -46.54% +65.69%
75th Percentile £89.78 £68.84 £69.50
90th Percentile £91.41 £70.50 £78.07
England median hourly rate £70.00 £62.02 £55.00
% change year-on-year +12.87% +12.76% +57.14%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 2,767 5,133 5,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.84% 92.49% 94.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,823 3,082 3,806
10th Percentile £250 £213 £225
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +2.28%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £606
90th Percentile £663 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 482 241
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.78 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.48 £18.32 £22.16
Median hourly rate £32.50 £47.50 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year -31.58% -1.86% +130.48%
75th Percentile £63.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.86 £75.00
England median hourly rate £30.78 £36.02 £44.77
% change year-on-year -14.55% -19.53% +98.96%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Lead in the South East

Lead
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Lead in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Lead in the South East

Lead
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead in the South East over the 6 months to 2 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead in the South East

Lead
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Lead in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Lead in the South East

Lead
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Lead in the South East over the 6 months to 2 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Lead in the South East

Lead
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 Lead within the South East region over the 6 months to 2 May 2025. 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
Thames Valley +1 97 £575 +4.50% 175
Berkshire -8 72 £600 +4.35% 103
Hampshire +5 28 £600 +3.09% 91
Buckinghamshire +18 16 £508 -7.73% 42
Oxfordshire +2 9 £600 +33.33% 46
Surrey -11 9 £575 +9.00% 57
West Sussex +10 8 £525 - 17
East Sussex +2 8 £588 -7.84% 19
Kent +2 3 £538 +10.26% 34
Sussex +3 2 £700 +55.56% 12
Lead
England

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 2 May 2025, Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Lead in the job title.

1 64 (41.83%) Social Skills
2 38 (24.84%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (20.92%) Agile
4 24 (15.69%) Security Cleared
5 21 (13.73%) SAP
6 20 (13.07%) Oracle
6 20 (13.07%) Project Management
6 20 (13.07%) Cybersecurity
7 19 (12.42%) ITIL
8 18 (11.76%) Stakeholder Management
9 16 (10.46%) Analytics
10 15 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
10 15 (9.80%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (9.80%) Roadmaps
10 15 (9.80%) Finance
10 15 (9.80%) Windows
10 15 (9.80%) SC Cleared
11 14 (9.15%) Project Delivery
12 13 (8.50%) Azure
13 12 (7.84%) ERP
13 12 (7.84%) Service Delivery
13 12 (7.84%) Mentoring
14 11 (7.19%) DevOps
14 11 (7.19%) SAP S/4HANA
14 11 (7.19%) Service Management
14 11 (7.19%) Workflow
14 11 (7.19%) DV Cleared
14 11 (7.19%) Data Integration
14 11 (7.19%) Degree
15 10 (6.54%) Migration

Lead Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (3.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.96%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 2 (1.31%) Apache Solr
3 2 (1.31%) Confluence
3 2 (1.31%) WebLogic
4 1 (0.65%) Anypoint
4 1 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
Applications
1 2 (1.31%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.65%) Adobe Captivate
2 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 11 (7.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (4.58%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (3.27%) Oracle ERP
4 4 (2.61%) SAP ECC
4 4 (2.61%) SAP IBP
5 3 (1.96%) SAP CO
5 3 (1.96%) SAP FI
5 3 (1.96%) SAP FI/CO
5 3 (1.96%) SAP Oil and Gas
6 2 (1.31%) Maximo
6 2 (1.31%) SAP GTS
6 2 (1.31%) SAP SD
7 1 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.65%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.65%) Oracle Payroll
7 1 (0.65%) Primavera
7 1 (0.65%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 13 (8.50%) Azure
2 8 (5.23%) OCI
3 7 (4.58%) Entra ID
4 6 (3.92%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (3.27%) Google Workspace
5 5 (3.27%) PaaS
6 4 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (2.61%) IaaS
7 3 (1.96%) AWS
7 3 (1.96%) Figma
7 3 (1.96%) Oracle CX
7 3 (1.96%) Power Platform
7 3 (1.96%) SaaS
8 2 (1.31%) Azure API Management
8 2 (1.31%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.65%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.65%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.65%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.54%) Firewall
2 6 (3.92%) DHCP
2 6 (3.92%) DNS
3 5 (3.27%) VLAN
3 5 (3.27%) Wi-Fi
4 4 (2.61%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.96%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.65%) 2G
6 1 (0.65%) 3G
6 1 (0.65%) 4G
6 1 (0.65%) 5G
6 1 (0.65%) Network Security
6 1 (0.65%) NGFW
6 1 (0.65%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (0.65%) SSL
6 1 (0.65%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
2 3 (1.96%) Metadata
2 3 (1.96%) MongoDB
3 2 (1.31%) BigQuery
3 2 (1.31%) Oracle Reports
3 2 (1.31%) Power BI
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.65%) Couchbase
4 1 (0.65%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.65%) Electronic Patient Records
4 1 (0.65%) Oracle BI EE
4 1 (0.65%) Qlik Sense
4 1 (0.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (0.65%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (3.92%) JIRA
2 5 (3.27%) Selenium
3 2 (1.31%) GitLab
3 2 (1.31%) Maven
3 2 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.65%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.65%) Git
4 1 (0.65%) JMeter
4 1 (0.65%) JUnit
4 1 (0.65%) Rational DOORS
4 1 (0.65%) TestRail
4 1 (0.65%) VectorCAST
General
1 64 (41.83%) Social Skills
2 15 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
2 15 (9.80%) Finance
3 9 (5.88%) Legal
4 7 (4.58%) Manufacturing
4 7 (4.58%) Presentation Skills
4 7 (4.58%) Public Sector
5 6 (3.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (3.27%) Billing
7 4 (2.61%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.61%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.96%) Marketing
9 2 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.65%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.65%) Electronics
10 1 (0.65%) Front Office
10 1 (0.65%) Military
10 1 (0.65%) Publishing
10 1 (0.65%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.23%) Oracle Fusion
2 6 (3.92%) React
3 5 (3.27%) Kafka
3 5 (3.27%) SOAP
3 5 (3.27%) Web Services
4 4 (2.61%) React Native
5 3 (1.96%) CSS
5 3 (1.96%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (1.96%) HTML
5 3 (1.96%) JBoss Seam
5 3 (1.96%) OAuth
5 3 (1.96%) Redux
5 3 (1.96%) REST
6 2 (1.31%) ADO
6 2 (1.31%) Ajax
6 2 (1.31%) JAXB
6 2 (1.31%) JAX-WS
6 2 (1.31%) JSON
6 2 (1.31%) XML
6 2 (1.31%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.88%) Data Centre
2 6 (3.92%) Product Ownership
3 5 (3.27%) EPoS
3 5 (3.27%) Management Information System
4 4 (2.61%) Enterprise Storage
4 4 (2.61%) Security Operations Centre
4 4 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.96%) Life Science
5 3 (1.96%) Renewable Energy
5 3 (1.96%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.31%) CMDB
6 2 (1.31%) CSOC
6 2 (1.31%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.31%) Podcast
6 2 (1.31%) Reference Data
6 2 (1.31%) Social Media
6 2 (1.31%) Virtual Team
7 1 (0.65%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 15 (9.80%) Windows
2 8 (5.23%) Linux
3 4 (2.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 4 (2.61%) Windows Server
3 4 (2.61%) Windows Server 2019
4 3 (1.96%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (24.84%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (20.92%) Agile
3 20 (13.07%) Cybersecurity
3 20 (13.07%) Project Management
4 19 (12.42%) ITIL
5 18 (11.76%) Stakeholder Management
6 16 (10.46%) Analytics
7 15 (9.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 15 (9.80%) Roadmaps
8 14 (9.15%) Project Delivery
9 12 (7.84%) ERP
9 12 (7.84%) Mentoring
9 12 (7.84%) Service Delivery
10 11 (7.19%) Data Integration
10 11 (7.19%) DevOps
10 11 (7.19%) Service Management
10 11 (7.19%) Workflow
11 10 (6.54%) Migration
11 10 (6.54%) Scrum
11 10 (6.54%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.88%) SQL
2 6 (3.92%) Java
2 6 (3.92%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.61%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.61%) Python
3 4 (2.61%) TypeScript
4 3 (1.96%) ABAP
5 2 (1.31%) XPath
6 1 (0.65%) Bash
6 1 (0.65%) C
6 1 (0.65%) DataWeave
6 1 (0.65%) MATLAB
6 1 (0.65%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (15.69%) Security Cleared
2 15 (9.80%) SC Cleared
3 11 (7.19%) Degree
3 11 (7.19%) DV Cleared
4 4 (2.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.31%) Azure Certification
5 2 (1.31%) CISSP
5 2 (1.31%) ISTQB
5 2 (1.31%) PMI Certification
5 2 (1.31%) PMP
6 1 (0.65%) ACCA
6 1 (0.65%) CISA
6 1 (0.65%) CISM
6 1 (0.65%) ISEB
6 1 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 1 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (0.65%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.65%) PgMP
6 1 (0.65%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.23%) PMO
2 7 (4.58%) QA
3 3 (1.96%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.96%) Def Stans
3 3 (1.96%) NIST
3 3 (1.96%) SLA
4 2 (1.31%) GRC
4 2 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.31%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.65%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.65%) DO-178B
5 1 (0.65%) GDPR
5 1 (0.65%) ISO 22301
5 1 (0.65%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 1 (0.65%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.65%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 6 (3.92%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.65%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.65%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.61%) NetBackup
1 4 (2.61%) Terraform
2 1 (0.65%) CloudHub
2 1 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (13.73%) SAP
2 20 (13.07%) Oracle
3 10 (6.54%) VMware
4 8 (5.23%) Microsoft
5 5 (3.27%) Google
5 5 (3.27%) ServiceNow
6 4 (2.61%) 3PAR
6 4 (2.61%) Dell
6 4 (2.61%) HP
6 4 (2.61%) Red Hat
6 4 (2.61%) Salesforce
6 4 (2.61%) Veritas
7 3 (1.96%) Adobe
7 3 (1.96%) Darktrace
8 2 (1.31%) Cisco
8 2 (1.31%) LogRhythm
8 2 (1.31%) MuleSoft
8 2 (1.31%) Snow
9 1 (0.65%) IBM
9 1 (0.65%) JD Edwards