Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in the South East

Software Engineering
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 50 35
Rank change year-on-year +5 -15 +19
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 226 114 266
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.98% 3.79% 4.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.88% 4.15% 5.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 65 142
10th Percentile £349 £418 £388
25th Percentile £413 £475 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £501 £548
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -8.58% +0.74%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £644 £688
England median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 18 62
10th Percentile £46.25 £43.91 £45.00
25th Percentile £47.00 £47.87 £47.45
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.88 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.38% -9.88% +12.78%
75th Percentile £68.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.50 £64.52 £73.62
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -2.56%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Software Engineering 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 4,634 2,750 4,817
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.67% 91.54% 85.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,019 1,756 2,812
10th Percentile £285 £254 £225
25th Percentile £408 £402 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - -0.99%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £616
90th Percentile £713 £675 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 418 167 433
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.66 £18.20
Median hourly rate £47.50 £28.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +69.64% -37.78% -5.26%
75th Percentile £81.04 £62.37 £62.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £76.86
England median hourly rate £41.90 £31.70 £34.00
% change year-on-year +32.17% -6.76% -9.33%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in the South East

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in the South East over the 6 months to 17 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in the South East

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in the South East over the 6 months to 17 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in the South East

Software Engineering
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 Software Engineering within the South East region over the 6 months to 17 April 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 +7 93 £600 +13.21% 112
Thames Valley -29 64 £445 -11.09% 97
Surrey +11 43 £494 -1.25% 37
Berkshire -26 40 £488 -2.55% 38
Buckinghamshire -10 19 £361 -33.40% 22
West Sussex 0 10 £280 -20.00% 6
East Sussex - 6 £525 - 12
Oxfordshire -17 5 £575 - 37
Sussex - 3 £323 - 6
Kent -5 2 £550 +15.79% 2
Middlesex - 2 £552 -
Home Counties - 1 - -
Software Engineering
England

Software Engineering
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 7 (3.10%) Confluence
2 3 (1.33%) IIS
3 2 (0.88%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.44%) Apache
4 1 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.44%) CMS
4 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 4 (1.77%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.33%) CPLEX
3 2 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 34 (15.04%) Azure
2 21 (9.29%) AWS
3 15 (6.64%) Serverless
4 14 (6.19%) OpenShift
5 13 (5.75%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (5.75%) GitHub
6 9 (3.98%) Azure Functions
6 9 (3.98%) GCP
7 7 (3.10%) Amazon S3
8 6 (2.65%) Cloud Computing
9 5 (2.21%) Azure API Management
9 5 (2.21%) Azure Data Factory
9 5 (2.21%) Azure Storage
10 4 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (1.77%) AWS Lambda
10 4 (1.77%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.33%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (1.33%) AWS CloudFormation
11 3 (1.33%) Azure AI
11 3 (1.33%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.10%) Software-Defined Radio
2 2 (0.88%) Wireless
3 1 (0.44%) HTTP
3 1 (0.44%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (7.96%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (7.52%) NoSQL
3 14 (6.19%) SQL Server
4 12 (5.31%) Relational Database
5 7 (3.10%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (2.65%) DynamoDB
7 5 (2.21%) Big Data
7 5 (2.21%) MongoDB
8 4 (1.77%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.77%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.88%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.88%) Pinecone
9 2 (0.88%) Weaviate
10 1 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.44%) Parquet
10 1 (0.44%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 27 (11.95%) Git
2 21 (9.29%) Jenkins
3 12 (5.31%) GitLab
3 12 (5.31%) SonarQube
4 7 (3.10%) JIRA
5 5 (2.21%) Bitbucket
6 3 (1.33%) Android Studio
6 3 (1.33%) Subversion
7 2 (0.88%) JUnit
7 2 (0.88%) Selenium
7 2 (0.88%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.44%) Appium
8 1 (0.44%) CMake
8 1 (0.44%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.44%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.44%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.44%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.44%) Mockito
8 1 (0.44%) NUnit
8 1 (0.44%) Rational DOORS
General
1 29 (12.83%) Social Skills
2 24 (10.62%) Aerospace
3 12 (5.31%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (5.31%) Public Sector
4 11 (4.87%) Finance
5 7 (3.10%) Electronics
5 7 (3.10%) Manufacturing
6 4 (1.77%) Law
7 3 (1.33%) Avionics
7 3 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.88%) Military
9 1 (0.44%) Advertising
9 1 (0.44%) Banking
9 1 (0.44%) Legal
9 1 (0.44%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.44%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 117 (51.77%) Software Engineer
2 51 (22.57%) Developer
3 35 (15.49%) Senior
4 17 (7.52%) Embedded Engineer
4 17 (7.52%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 15 (6.64%) Senior Software Engineer
6 14 (6.19%) DevOps Engineer
6 14 (6.19%) Java Developer
7 13 (5.75%) Java Engineer
8 12 (5.31%) Android Developer
8 12 (5.31%) Engineering Manager
8 12 (5.31%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
8 12 (5.31%) Software Engineering Manager
9 11 (4.87%) Lead
10 10 (4.42%) Senior Developer
11 9 (3.98%) Software Manager
12 8 (3.54%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (3.54%) C++ Software Engineer
12 8 (3.54%) Senior Manager
13 6 (2.65%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (11.06%) .NET
2 24 (10.62%) REST
3 16 (7.08%) AngularJS
4 15 (6.64%) React
5 12 (5.31%) JSON
5 12 (5.31%) Quarkus
6 11 (4.87%) Kafka
7 9 (3.98%) RESTful
8 7 (3.10%) WPF
9 6 (2.65%) ARM Templates
9 6 (2.65%) XML
9 6 (2.65%) YAML
10 5 (2.21%) Spring
10 5 (2.21%) Spring Boot
10 5 (2.21%) WinForms
11 4 (1.77%) FastAPI
11 4 (1.77%) Flask
11 4 (1.77%) pytest
11 4 (1.77%) RabbitMQ
11 4 (1.77%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 21 (9.29%) Cloud Native
2 12 (5.31%) Algorithms
3 10 (4.42%) Distributed Systems
4 6 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
5 5 (2.21%) Data Structures
5 5 (2.21%) Mobile App
6 4 (1.77%) Embedded Systems
6 4 (1.77%) Robotics
7 3 (1.33%) Device Driver
7 3 (1.33%) Distributed Architecture
7 3 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.33%) Virtual Team
8 2 (0.88%) AI Agents
8 2 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (0.88%) MicroBlaze
8 2 (0.88%) Mixed Reality
8 2 (0.88%) Onboarding
8 2 (0.88%) RISC-V
8 2 (0.88%) Virtual Reality
9 1 (0.44%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 20 (8.85%) Linux
2 16 (7.08%) Android
3 11 (4.87%) Windows
4 4 (1.77%) Embedded Linux
4 4 (1.77%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.88%) Unix
6 1 (0.44%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.44%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (26.55%) Agile
2 53 (23.45%) CI/CD
3 46 (20.35%) DevOps
4 29 (12.83%) Scrum
5 27 (11.95%) Microservices
6 26 (11.50%) AI
7 25 (11.06%) Test Automation
8 24 (10.62%) Containerisation
9 22 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
9 22 (9.73%) SDLC
10 21 (9.29%) Computer Science
10 21 (9.29%) Unit Testing
11 20 (8.85%) DevSecOps
12 19 (8.41%) Front End Development
13 16 (7.08%) Sprint Planning
14 15 (6.64%) Machine Learning
15 13 (5.75%) Data Pipeline
15 13 (5.75%) Secure Coding
16 12 (5.31%) Sprint Review
16 12 (5.31%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 57 (25.22%) Java
2 53 (23.45%) Python
3 34 (15.04%) C#
4 24 (10.62%) JavaScript
5 22 (9.73%) C++
6 19 (8.41%) SQL
7 16 (7.08%) C
8 14 (6.19%) Go
9 9 (3.98%) Bash
10 8 (3.54%) TypeScript
11 7 (3.10%) Ada
11 7 (3.10%) PowerShell
12 5 (2.21%) Rust
13 4 (1.77%) Embedded C
14 2 (0.88%) R
14 2 (0.88%) Scala
15 1 (0.44%) Embedded C++
15 1 (0.44%) MATLAB
15 1 (0.44%) Shell Script
15 1 (0.44%) Swift
Qualifications
1 91 (40.27%) Security Cleared
2 72 (31.86%) SC Cleared
3 22 (9.73%) Degree
4 13 (5.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (2.21%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.77%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (0.88%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.88%) ISTQB
7 2 (0.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.44%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.52%) QA
2 2 (0.88%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.44%) PMO
System Software
1 26 (11.50%) Docker
2 5 (2.21%) Firmware
3 2 (0.88%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 33 (14.60%) Kubernetes
2 12 (5.31%) Argo
3 7 (3.10%) Terraform
4 5 (2.21%) Ansible
5 3 (1.33%) Grafana
5 3 (1.33%) Puppet
5 3 (1.33%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (0.88%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.44%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.44%) Podman
7 1 (0.44%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.44%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 18 (7.96%) Red Hat
2 13 (5.75%) Microsoft
3 7 (3.10%) Databricks
4 4 (1.77%) Atlassian
4 4 (1.77%) Google
4 4 (1.77%) OpenAI
4 4 (1.77%) Siemens
5 3 (1.33%) Coverity
5 3 (1.33%) Thales
6 2 (0.88%) Ab Initio
6 2 (0.88%) Foundry
6 2 (0.88%) PagerDuty
6 2 (0.88%) SAP
6 2 (0.88%) Teradata
7 1 (0.44%) Apple
7 1 (0.44%) Ariba
7 1 (0.44%) CA Agile Central
7 1 (0.44%) Splunk
7 1 (0.44%) UiPath