Senior Contracts in the South East

Senior
England > South East

The median Senior daily rate in the South East is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 27 17 25
Rank change year-on-year -10 +8 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Senior 223 432 444
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 7.41% 7.77% 7.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.06% 8.40% 8.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 249 304
10th Percentile £375 £412 £350
25th Percentile £475 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% +5.00% -6.98%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £594
90th Percentile £675 £688 £698
England median daily rate £550 £560 £600
% change year-on-year -1.79% -6.67% +3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 44 33
10th Percentile £33.13 £43.07 -
25th Percentile £60.31 £51.26 £42.50
Median hourly rate £62.62 £58.60 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.86% +30.23% +2.86%
75th Percentile £80.11 £65.51 £62.96
90th Percentile £92.14 £70.39 £72.07
England median hourly rate £52.00 £47.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +9.47% +5.56% +25.00%

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 5,141 5,491
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 92.50% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,821 3,084 3,829
10th Percentile £250 £213 £225
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +2.42%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £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 163 481 240
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.78 £18.04
25th Percentile £20.06 £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 £65.16
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.86 £75.00
England median hourly rate £30.62 £36.31 £45.00
% change year-on-year -15.67% -19.32% +100.00%

Senior
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Senior in the South East

Senior
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

Daily rate trend for Senior in the South East

Senior
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior in the South East over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Senior in the South East

Senior
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

Hourly rate trend for Senior in the South East

Senior
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Senior in the South East over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Senior in the South East

Senior
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 Senior within the South East region over the 6 months to 1 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 0 129 £584 +13.90% 672
Berkshire -5 100 £600 +17.07% 334
Hampshire +3 54 £575 -4.17% 380
Buckinghamshire +12 26 £553 +3.03% 200
Surrey -2 23 £500 -4.76% 238
Kent -1 6 £675 +25.00% 192
East Sussex -7 4 £523 +10.00% 114
Oxfordshire -3 3 £625 +25.00% 179
West Sussex -12 3 £373 -21.58% 95
Sussex - 2 - - 34
Home Counties 0 1 - -
Senior
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Senior 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 Senior in the job title.

1 93 (41.70%) Security Cleared
2 56 (25.11%) Azure
3 50 (22.42%) Social Skills
4 48 (21.52%) Agile
5 47 (21.08%) DV Cleared
6 46 (20.63%) SC Cleared
6 46 (20.63%) Public Sector
7 39 (17.49%) Microsoft
8 38 (17.04%) SQL
9 30 (13.45%) Problem-Solving
10 29 (13.00%) Test Automation
11 28 (12.56%) Analytical Skills
12 26 (11.66%) Telecoms
13 24 (10.76%) SaaS
14 23 (10.31%) Degree
14 23 (10.31%) Risk Management
14 23 (10.31%) Decision-Making
14 23 (10.31%) CI/CD
15 22 (9.87%) ITIL
15 22 (9.87%) Business Intelligence
15 22 (9.87%) Information Security
15 22 (9.87%) Finance
15 22 (9.87%) CISM
15 22 (9.87%) Vulnerability Assessment
15 22 (9.87%) Cybersecurity
16 21 (9.42%) JIRA
16 21 (9.42%) DevOps
17 20 (8.97%) Security Architecture
18 19 (8.52%) Analytics
18 19 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management

Senior 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 10 (4.48%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.79%) Confluence
3 2 (0.90%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.90%) WebLogic
4 1 (0.45%) Anypoint
4 1 (0.45%) Apache
4 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.45%) Moodle
4 1 (0.45%) Umbraco
Applications
1 7 (3.14%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.35%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.90%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.90%) Primavera
2 1 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.45%) Infor CloudSuite
2 1 (0.45%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 56 (25.11%) Azure
2 24 (10.76%) SaaS
3 18 (8.07%) Microsoft 365
4 17 (7.62%) AWS
5 13 (5.83%) Power Platform
6 9 (4.04%) Azure DevOps
6 9 (4.04%) PaaS
7 8 (3.59%) IaaS
8 7 (3.14%) OpenShift
9 5 (2.24%) Azure Data Factory
10 4 (1.79%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 4 (1.79%) Entra ID
10 4 (1.79%) Tricentis Tosca
11 3 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (1.35%) Azure Stack
11 3 (1.35%) GCP
11 3 (1.35%) Serverless
12 2 (0.90%) Amazon ECS
12 2 (0.90%) Amazon EKS
12 2 (0.90%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 14 (6.28%) Firewall
2 10 (4.48%) VSAN
3 9 (4.04%) VPN
4 6 (2.69%) Intrusion Detection
4 6 (2.69%) Network Security
5 5 (2.24%) Internet
5 5 (2.24%) Radio Access Network
5 5 (2.24%) VLAN
6 4 (1.79%) 5G
6 4 (1.79%) MPLS
6 4 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (1.35%) 802.11
7 3 (1.35%) BGP
7 3 (1.35%) DNS
7 3 (1.35%) NGFW
7 3 (1.35%) OSPF
7 3 (1.35%) SD-WAN
7 3 (1.35%) TCP/IP
7 3 (1.35%) WAN
7 3 (1.35%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.38%) Power BI
2 8 (3.59%) SQL Server
3 7 (3.14%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (2.69%) Big Data
4 6 (2.69%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.79%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (1.79%) Data Lake
5 4 (1.79%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.79%) Power Query
6 3 (1.35%) Metadata
7 2 (0.90%) MS Access
7 2 (0.90%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.90%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.90%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.45%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.45%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.45%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.45%) NonStop SQL
8 1 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.45%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 21 (9.42%) JIRA
2 15 (6.73%) Git
3 13 (5.83%) Jenkins
4 10 (4.48%) TestRail
5 9 (4.04%) Bitbucket
6 7 (3.14%) GoogleTest
6 7 (3.14%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (1.79%) Cypress.io
7 4 (1.79%) JMeter
7 4 (1.79%) SpecFlow
7 4 (1.79%) Visual Studio Code
8 3 (1.35%) SoapUI
9 2 (0.90%) ERwin
9 2 (0.90%) JUnit
9 2 (0.90%) Mockito
9 2 (0.90%) Moq
9 2 (0.90%) PowerDesigner
9 2 (0.90%) Selenium
9 2 (0.90%) Toad
9 2 (0.90%) Visual Studio
General
1 50 (22.42%) Social Skills
2 46 (20.63%) Public Sector
3 28 (12.56%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (11.66%) Telecoms
5 22 (9.87%) Finance
6 12 (5.38%) Military
7 8 (3.59%) Retail
8 7 (3.14%) Electronics
8 7 (3.14%) Legal
8 7 (3.14%) Marketing
9 6 (2.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (2.69%) Law
10 5 (2.24%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.79%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.79%) Local Government
11 4 (1.79%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.79%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.35%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.90%) Billing
13 2 (0.90%) General Ledger
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (5.38%) Web Services
1 12 (5.38%) XML
2 11 (4.93%) HTML
3 9 (4.04%) CSS
4 7 (3.14%) .NET
5 6 (2.69%) Elastic Stack
5 6 (2.69%) SOAP
6 5 (2.24%) JBoss Seam
6 5 (2.24%) REST
7 4 (1.79%) .NET Core
7 4 (1.79%) AngularJS
7 4 (1.79%) JSON
7 4 (1.79%) PySpark
7 4 (1.79%) React
7 4 (1.79%) RESTful
7 4 (1.79%) YAML
8 3 (1.35%) 802.1X
8 3 (1.35%) ASP.NET
8 3 (1.35%) Kafka
8 3 (1.35%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 18 (8.07%) Hybrid Cloud
1 18 (8.07%) Management Information System
2 10 (4.48%) PKI
2 10 (4.48%) Public Cloud
3 7 (3.14%) Product Ownership
3 7 (3.14%) Self-Motivation
3 7 (3.14%) Video Conferencing
4 5 (2.24%) Algorithms
5 4 (1.79%) Device Driver
5 4 (1.79%) IoT
5 4 (1.79%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.35%) Embedded Systems
6 3 (1.35%) Mobile App
7 2 (0.90%) CESG
7 2 (0.90%) Data Centre
7 2 (0.90%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.90%) Data Structures
7 2 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (0.90%) FPGA
7 2 (0.90%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 19 (8.52%) Linux
2 18 (8.07%) Windows
3 8 (3.59%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.14%) CentOS
4 7 (3.14%) Embedded Linux
4 7 (3.14%) Ubuntu
4 7 (3.14%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (1.35%) Unix
6 2 (0.90%) Android
6 2 (0.90%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.45%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (21.52%) Agile
2 30 (13.45%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (13.00%) Test Automation
4 23 (10.31%) CI/CD
4 23 (10.31%) Decision-Making
4 23 (10.31%) Risk Management
5 22 (9.87%) Business Intelligence
5 22 (9.87%) Cybersecurity
5 22 (9.87%) Information Security
5 22 (9.87%) ITIL
5 22 (9.87%) Vulnerability Assessment
6 21 (9.42%) DevOps
7 20 (8.97%) Security Architecture
8 19 (8.52%) Analytics
8 19 (8.52%) DevSecOps
8 19 (8.52%) Scrum
8 19 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
9 18 (8.07%) Continuous Integration
9 18 (8.07%) Validation
10 17 (7.62%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 38 (17.04%) SQL
2 19 (8.52%) Python
3 16 (7.17%) JavaScript
4 12 (5.38%) C#
4 12 (5.38%) PowerShell
5 8 (3.59%) C++
5 8 (3.59%) Java
5 8 (3.59%) TypeScript
6 3 (1.35%) ABAP
6 3 (1.35%) C
6 3 (1.35%) Embedded C
6 3 (1.35%) T-SQL
6 3 (1.35%) VBA
7 2 (0.90%) Go
7 2 (0.90%) Perl
7 2 (0.90%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.45%) Dart
8 1 (0.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.45%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.45%) XMLA
Qualifications
1 93 (41.70%) Security Cleared
2 47 (21.08%) DV Cleared
3 46 (20.63%) SC Cleared
4 23 (10.31%) Degree
5 22 (9.87%) CISM
6 13 (5.83%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (4.93%) CISSP
8 10 (4.48%) MCSE
8 10 (4.48%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (4.48%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 7 (3.14%) ISEB
10 4 (1.79%) APMP
11 3 (1.35%) ACCA
11 3 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (1.35%) ISTQB
11 3 (1.35%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 2 (0.90%) CCNP
12 2 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.90%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 1 (0.45%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (8.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (7.62%) NCSC
3 12 (5.38%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (4.48%) NIST
5 8 (3.59%) QA
6 5 (2.24%) SLA
7 4 (1.79%) Data Quality
8 3 (1.35%) PMO
9 2 (0.90%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.90%) GDPR
9 2 (0.90%) IFRS
9 2 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.90%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.45%) COBIT
10 1 (0.45%) COSO
10 1 (0.45%) ITGC
System Software
1 18 (8.07%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (4.93%) VMware NSX
3 9 (4.04%) Active Directory
4 7 (3.14%) Docker
4 7 (3.14%) vSphere
5 3 (1.35%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 13 (5.83%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.59%) Terraform
3 7 (3.14%) Ansible
3 7 (3.14%) Nessus
3 7 (3.14%) vCenter Server
4 4 (1.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.90%) Kibana
5 2 (0.90%) SCCM
6 1 (0.45%) CloudHub
6 1 (0.45%) NSN NetAct
6 1 (0.45%) Puppet
Vendors
1 39 (17.49%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.07%) VMware
3 17 (7.62%) Oracle
4 14 (6.28%) Cisco
4 14 (6.28%) SAP
5 11 (4.93%) Palo Alto
6 8 (3.59%) Databricks
7 7 (3.14%) Google
7 7 (3.14%) Red Hat
8 6 (2.69%) Darktrace
9 4 (1.79%) Dynatrace
9 4 (1.79%) Snow
9 4 (1.79%) Splunk
10 3 (1.35%) Adobe
10 3 (1.35%) AirMagnet
10 3 (1.35%) Aruba
10 3 (1.35%) Juniper
10 3 (1.35%) Meraki
10 3 (1.35%) ServiceNow
10 3 (1.35%) webMethods