SDLC Contract Job Trends in the South East

Systems or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring SDLC skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 116 113
Rank change year-on-year -3 -3 -13
Contract jobs citing SDLC 105 38 95
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.67% 1.22% 1.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.06% 1.34% 2.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 22 71
10th Percentile £389 £325 £375
25th Percentile £500 £351 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £575
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -17.39% +6.48%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £650
90th Percentile £720 £587 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £575
% change year-on-year - -8.70% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 5 2
10th Percentile £60.37 - £58.45
25th Percentile £61.87 - £59.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £50.00 £63.51
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -21.27% +15.47%
75th Percentile £70.00 - £65.89
90th Percentile - £53.00 £66.57
England median hourly rate £65.00 £52.50 £51.25
% change year-on-year +23.81% +2.44% -2.38%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

SDLC falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,101 2,844 4,692
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.10% 91.07% 82.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,221 1,770 2,720
10th Percentile £280 £250 £256
25th Percentile £413 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% -0.49%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £634
90th Percentile £700 £666 £700
England median daily rate £520 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 501 228 460
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.43 £13.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £15.12 £18.20
Median hourly rate £53.90 £24.33 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +121.54% -48.78% -5.00%
75th Percentile £82.25 £55.00 £67.14
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.63
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.23 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.32% -33.83% +1.65%

SDLC
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SDLC relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

SDLC job vacancy trend in the South East

SDLC
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing SDLC.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing SDLC

SDLC
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDLC in the South East over the 6 months to 30 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SDLC in the South East

SDLC
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing SDLC.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing SDLC

SDLC
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SDLC in the South East over the 6 months to 30 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SDLC in the South East

SDLC
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 SDLC within the South East region over the 6 months to 30 June 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
Surrey - 36 £511 - 4
Thames Valley -40 27 £548 +21.67% 18
Berkshire -28 18 £545 +12.72% 14
Hampshire -26 17 £698 +32.86% 18
East Sussex - 13 - - 1
Buckinghamshire -35 9 £550 +69.23% 2
West Sussex -11 7 £500 -9.09% 4
Sussex - 1 - - 1
Kent - 1 £625 - 7
Home Counties - 1 - -
SDLC
England

SDLC
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 8 (7.62%) Confluence
2 2 (1.90%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.95%) Appian
3 1 (0.95%) IIS
3 1 (0.95%) JBoss
3 1 (0.95%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 1 (0.95%) Tomcat
3 1 (0.95%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (3.81%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.90%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.95%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 24 (22.86%) Azure
2 18 (17.14%) AWS
2 18 (17.14%) OpenShift
3 7 (6.67%) Azure DevOps
3 7 (6.67%) GCP
4 3 (2.86%) Azure Key Vault
4 3 (2.86%) Azure Monitor
4 3 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (2.86%) Power Platform
4 3 (2.86%) Serverless
5 2 (1.90%) Azure AI
5 2 (1.90%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.90%) GitHub
5 2 (1.90%) GitHub Actions
5 2 (1.90%) Nutanix
5 2 (1.90%) Power Automate
5 2 (1.90%) SaaS
6 1 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
6 1 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (0.95%) Google Sheets
Communications & Networking
1 6 (5.71%) Firewall
2 2 (1.90%) DHCP
2 2 (1.90%) DNS
2 2 (1.90%) HTTPS
2 2 (1.90%) LAN
2 2 (1.90%) Network Security
2 2 (1.90%) TCP/IP
2 2 (1.90%) VLAN
2 2 (1.90%) WAN
2 2 (1.90%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.95%) MQTT
3 1 (0.95%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (0.95%) Big Data
1 1 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
1 1 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (0.95%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 19 (18.10%) SonarQube
2 12 (11.43%) Git
2 12 (11.43%) JIRA
3 7 (6.67%) Visual Studio
4 5 (4.76%) Postman
5 3 (2.86%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (1.90%) GitLab
6 2 (1.90%) Jenkins
6 2 (1.90%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.95%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.95%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.95%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.95%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.95%) JUnit
7 1 (0.95%) Mockito
7 1 (0.95%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.95%) TestRail
7 1 (0.95%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 21 (20.00%) Social Skills
2 7 (6.67%) Finance
2 7 (6.67%) Public Sector
3 6 (5.71%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 4 (3.81%) Aerospace
5 3 (2.86%) Law
6 1 (0.95%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (0.95%) Manufacturing
6 1 (0.95%) Military
6 1 (0.95%) Retail
6 1 (0.95%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 16 (15.24%) Developer
1 16 (15.24%) Software Engineer
2 14 (13.33%) Architect
3 12 (11.43%) Environment Manager
3 12 (11.43%) Programme Manager
3 12 (11.43%) Senior
4 10 (9.52%) Java Engineer
5 8 (7.62%) Analyst
5 8 (7.62%) Java Developer
6 7 (6.67%) Test Engineer
7 6 (5.71%) DevOps Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) Business Analyst
8 5 (4.76%) Java Software Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) Security Architect
8 5 (4.76%) Senior Analyst
8 5 (4.76%) Software Test Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Cloud Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Cybersecurity Architect
9 4 (3.81%) Lecturer
9 4 (3.81%) SC Cleared Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (16.19%) AngularJS
1 17 (16.19%) Quarkus
2 13 (12.38%) .NET
3 11 (10.48%) REST
4 10 (9.52%) RESTful
5 6 (5.71%) OAuth
6 5 (4.76%) LDAP
6 5 (4.76%) OAuth2
6 5 (4.76%) OpenID
6 5 (4.76%) SAML
7 4 (3.81%) SOAP
7 4 (3.81%) Web Services
8 3 (2.86%) Spring
8 3 (2.86%) Spring Boot
8 3 (2.86%) WinForms
9 2 (1.90%) ARM Templates
9 2 (1.90%) Hibernate
9 2 (1.90%) JWT
9 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Graph
10 1 (0.95%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.52%) Product Ownership
2 9 (8.57%) Cloud Native
3 6 (5.71%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (5.71%) Virtual Team
4 5 (4.76%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (2.86%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (2.86%) PKI
6 2 (1.90%) Distributed Architecture
6 2 (1.90%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (0.95%) AI Agents
7 1 (0.95%) Algorithms
7 1 (0.95%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (0.95%) IoT
7 1 (0.95%) N-Tier
7 1 (0.95%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.95%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 8 (7.62%) Linux
2 4 (3.81%) Windows
3 1 (0.95%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (54.29%) Agile
2 39 (37.14%) Scrum
3 37 (35.24%) Test Automation
4 31 (29.52%) DevOps
5 27 (25.71%) Sprint Planning
6 26 (24.76%) Software Engineering
7 24 (22.86%) DevSecOps
7 24 (22.86%) Unit Testing
8 22 (20.95%) CI/CD
9 18 (17.14%) Sprint Review
10 17 (16.19%) Front End Development
11 14 (13.33%) Problem-Solving
12 10 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
12 10 (9.52%) Security Architecture
12 10 (9.52%) Threat Modelling
12 10 (9.52%) User Stories
13 9 (8.57%) AI
13 9 (8.57%) Continuous Improvement
13 9 (8.57%) Microservices
13 9 (8.57%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 30 (28.57%) Java
2 14 (13.33%) Python
3 11 (10.48%) SQL
4 9 (8.57%) C++
5 8 (7.62%) C#
6 7 (6.67%) PowerShell
7 6 (5.71%) C
8 4 (3.81%) Bash
8 4 (3.81%) Rust
8 4 (3.81%) VB.NET
9 3 (2.86%) Ada
9 3 (2.86%) Go
9 3 (2.86%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.95%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.95%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.95%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 57 (54.29%) Security Cleared
2 50 (47.62%) SC Cleared
3 7 (6.67%) Degree
4 6 (5.71%) CISSP
4 6 (5.71%) DV Cleared
5 5 (4.76%) CISM
6 4 (3.81%) DBS Check
7 3 (2.86%) AWS Certification
7 3 (2.86%) GIAC
8 2 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.90%) ISEB
8 2 (1.90%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.90%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (0.95%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.95%) CBAP
9 1 (0.95%) CEH
9 1 (0.95%) CSPO
9 1 (0.95%) ISEB Practitioner
9 1 (0.95%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.95%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (20.00%) QA
2 6 (5.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (4.76%) NIST
4 4 (3.81%) NCSC
5 3 (2.86%) GDPR
6 2 (1.90%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.95%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.95%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.95%) JSP 440
System Software
1 5 (4.76%) Active Directory
1 5 (4.76%) Docker
2 2 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 22 (20.95%) Kubernetes
2 17 (16.19%) Argo
3 9 (8.57%) Terraform
4 4 (3.81%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 4 (3.81%) HP Quality Center
5 1 (0.95%) Ansible
5 1 (0.95%) Grafana
5 1 (0.95%) Nessus
5 1 (0.95%) Nmap
5 1 (0.95%) Podman
5 1 (0.95%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.95%) Puppet
5 1 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 17 (16.19%) Red Hat
2 16 (15.24%) Microsoft
3 2 (1.90%) Citrix
3 2 (1.90%) Oracle
3 2 (1.90%) Sparx
3 2 (1.90%) VMware
4 1 (0.95%) Atlassian
4 1 (0.95%) Checkmarx
4 1 (0.95%) ForgeRock
4 1 (0.95%) Foundry
4 1 (0.95%) Google
4 1 (0.95%) NVIDIA
4 1 (0.95%) Okta
4 1 (0.95%) OpenAI
4 1 (0.95%) Ping Identity
4 1 (0.95%) SAP
4 1 (0.95%) ServiceNow
4 1 (0.95%) Tenable