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 1 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 71 36
Rank change year-on-year +31 -35 +31
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 318 103 225
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.76% 2.96% 4.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.87% 3.28% 5.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 63 125
10th Percentile £280 £326 £383
25th Percentile £400 £432 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £501 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% +0.10% -2.91%
75th Percentile £628 £600 £630
90th Percentile £694 £623 £673
England median daily rate £563 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -6.25% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 94 10 61
10th Percentile £46.83 £43.09 £45.00
25th Percentile £48.64 £44.95 £54.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £52.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -25.00% +21.74%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.06 £75.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £64.91 £77.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 5,413 3,142 4,182
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.11% 90.21% 82.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,373 1,961 2,521
10th Percentile £280 £250 £262
25th Percentile £413 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.85% +0.39%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £638
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 565 280 338
10th Percentile £15.26 £13.50 £14.85
25th Percentile £25.72 £15.13 £23.06
Median hourly rate £55.00 £21.99 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +150.17% -61.67% +14.70%
75th Percentile £81.05 £51.02 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.14
England median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.03
% change year-on-year +78.93% -40.16% -1.11%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 +35 142 £546 +6.59% 103
Thames Valley -7 76 £528 +5.45% 157
Surrey +10 55 £525 +10.53% 38
Berkshire -13 41 £510 +1.90% 70
West Sussex -3 25 £280 -2.78% 15
Buckinghamshire -17 20 £525 -8.70% 21
Oxfordshire -8 15 £553 +28.12% 67
East Sussex - 10 £525 - 5
Kent +5 4 - - 13
Sussex - 3 £323 - 7
Middlesex -14 2 £470 -25.98% 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 3 (0.94%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.63%) Confluence
3 1 (0.31%) CMS
3 1 (0.31%) IIS
3 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.31%) SAS
Applications
1 8 (2.52%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.57%) CPLEX
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.31%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.31%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 3 (0.94%) Primavera
1 3 (0.94%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 37 (11.64%) Azure
2 30 (9.43%) AWS
3 26 (8.18%) OpenShift
4 16 (5.03%) GitHub
5 13 (4.09%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (4.09%) GCP
6 11 (3.46%) GitHub Actions
7 8 (2.52%) SaaS
8 5 (1.57%) Amazon S3
9 4 (1.26%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (1.26%) Snowflake
10 3 (0.94%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 3 (0.94%) Amazon ECS
10 3 (0.94%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
10 3 (0.94%) Serverless
11 2 (0.63%) AWS Lambda
11 2 (0.63%) Azure AKS
11 2 (0.63%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.63%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.63%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.03%) Wireless
2 5 (1.57%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (0.94%) Network Security
4 2 (0.63%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.31%) Broadband
5 1 (0.31%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (7.55%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (5.66%) NoSQL
3 13 (4.09%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.20%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (2.20%) SQL Server
5 5 (1.57%) Big Data
5 5 (1.57%) DynamoDB
5 5 (1.57%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.26%) Amazon Redshift
6 4 (1.26%) Data Lake
6 4 (1.26%) Metadata
7 3 (0.94%) Geospatial Data
8 2 (0.63%) Apache Iceberg
8 2 (0.63%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.63%) Power BI
8 2 (0.63%) Redis
9 1 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.31%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.31%) Couchbase
9 1 (0.31%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 34 (10.69%) Git
2 23 (7.23%) SonarQube
3 20 (6.29%) GitLab
4 16 (5.03%) Jenkins
5 8 (2.52%) JIRA
6 4 (1.26%) LabVIEW
7 2 (0.63%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.63%) JUnit
7 2 (0.63%) Postman
7 2 (0.63%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.31%) CMake
8 1 (0.31%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.31%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.31%) Mockito
8 1 (0.31%) NUnit
8 1 (0.31%) Selenium
8 1 (0.31%) Subversion
8 1 (0.31%) tSQLt
8 1 (0.31%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 56 (17.61%) Social Skills
2 48 (15.09%) Aerospace
3 29 (9.12%) Finance
4 23 (7.23%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (6.29%) Manufacturing
6 8 (2.52%) Public Sector
7 7 (2.20%) Avionics
8 6 (1.89%) Law
9 5 (1.57%) Aviation
10 3 (0.94%) Automotive
10 3 (0.94%) Banking
10 3 (0.94%) Electronics
10 3 (0.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.94%) Marketing
10 3 (0.94%) Military
11 2 (0.63%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.31%) Advertising
12 1 (0.31%) Legal
12 1 (0.31%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 157 (49.37%) Software Engineer
2 62 (19.50%) Developer
3 47 (14.78%) Senior
4 35 (11.01%) Embedded Engineer
4 35 (11.01%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 24 (7.55%) Lead
6 20 (6.29%) Senior Software Engineer
7 18 (5.66%) Engineering Manager
7 18 (5.66%) Software Developer
8 17 (5.35%) Java Engineer
9 15 (4.72%) Software Manager
10 14 (4.40%) Java Developer
10 14 (4.40%) Software Engineering Manager
11 12 (3.77%) Senior Developer
12 11 (3.46%) C++ Software Engineer
12 11 (3.46%) Technical Leader
13 10 (3.14%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
14 9 (2.83%) DevOps Engineer
15 8 (2.52%) Data Engineer
15 8 (2.52%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.43%) AngularJS
2 25 (7.86%) React
3 22 (6.92%) .NET
4 21 (6.60%) Quarkus
5 20 (6.29%) REST
6 16 (5.03%) Kafka
7 14 (4.40%) RESTful
8 11 (3.46%) JSON
9 8 (2.52%) GraphQL
9 8 (2.52%) WinForms
9 8 (2.52%) WPF
10 7 (2.20%) FastAPI
10 7 (2.20%) Flask
10 7 (2.20%) RabbitMQ
11 6 (1.89%) pytest
11 6 (1.89%) Yocto
12 5 (1.57%) .NET Core
12 5 (1.57%) Node.js
12 5 (1.57%) Pandas
12 5 (1.57%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 28 (8.81%) Cloud Native
2 20 (6.29%) Product Ownership
3 16 (5.03%) Algorithms
4 15 (4.72%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (3.77%) Data Protection Act
6 10 (3.14%) Data Structures
7 7 (2.20%) Embedded Systems
8 6 (1.89%) Device Driver
8 6 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.57%) MicroBlaze
9 5 (1.57%) RISC-V
9 5 (1.57%) Robotics
9 5 (1.57%) Social Media
10 4 (1.26%) Onboarding
10 4 (1.26%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.94%) AI Agents
11 3 (0.94%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.94%) ARM Cortex
11 3 (0.94%) Distributed Architecture
12 2 (0.63%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 24 (7.55%) Linux
2 8 (2.52%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (1.26%) Android
3 4 (1.26%) Windows
4 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.31%) Unix
4 1 (0.31%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (29.87%) Agile
2 65 (20.44%) CI/CD
3 49 (15.41%) DevOps
4 46 (14.47%) Test Automation
5 43 (13.52%) Scrum
6 39 (12.26%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (11.95%) DevSecOps
8 35 (11.01%) SDLC
9 33 (10.38%) Unit Testing
10 30 (9.43%) Front End Development
10 30 (9.43%) Microservices
11 29 (9.12%) Sprint Planning
12 28 (8.81%) Continuous Improvement
13 27 (8.49%) Computer Science
13 27 (8.49%) Containerisation
14 25 (7.86%) Mentoring
15 21 (6.60%) AI
15 21 (6.60%) Sprint Review
16 20 (6.29%) Stakeholder Management
17 18 (5.66%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 76 (23.90%) Java
2 49 (15.41%) Python
3 37 (11.64%) C
4 31 (9.75%) C#
5 27 (8.49%) SQL
6 26 (8.18%) C++
7 22 (6.92%) JavaScript
7 22 (6.92%) TypeScript
8 20 (6.29%) Go
9 10 (3.14%) Embedded C
10 6 (1.89%) Bash
11 5 (1.57%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.26%) Ada
12 4 (1.26%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.26%) Scala
13 3 (0.94%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.63%) Kotlin
15 1 (0.31%) Embedded C++
15 1 (0.31%) Rust
15 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 111 (34.91%) Security Cleared
2 93 (29.25%) SC Cleared
3 31 (9.75%) Degree
4 12 (3.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.26%) DV Cleared
7 3 (0.94%) Azure Certification
7 3 (0.94%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 2 (0.63%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.63%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.31%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.31%) CCSP
9 1 (0.31%) CISA
9 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.31%) CISSP
9 1 (0.31%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (0.31%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (8.18%) QA
2 5 (1.57%) Data Quality
3 3 (0.94%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.63%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.31%) GRC
5 1 (0.31%) ITGC
5 1 (0.31%) NIST
5 1 (0.31%) PMO
5 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 33 (10.38%) Docker
2 5 (1.57%) Embedded Firmware
2 5 (1.57%) Firmware
3 4 (1.26%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 48 (15.09%) Kubernetes
2 22 (6.92%) Argo
3 16 (5.03%) Terraform
4 8 (2.52%) Ansible
5 5 (1.57%) Grafana
6 4 (1.26%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.63%) Kibana
7 2 (0.63%) Puppet
8 1 (0.31%) CASB
8 1 (0.31%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 22 (6.92%) Red Hat
2 7 (2.20%) Oracle
3 6 (1.89%) Microsoft
3 6 (1.89%) SAP
4 5 (1.57%) Workday
5 4 (1.26%) Databricks
5 4 (1.26%) Google
5 4 (1.26%) Salesforce
6 3 (0.94%) Siemens
7 2 (0.63%) CA Agile Central
8 1 (0.31%) Ab Initio
8 1 (0.31%) Adobe
8 1 (0.31%) Ariba
8 1 (0.31%) Denodo
8 1 (0.31%) Dynatrace
8 1 (0.31%) IBM
8 1 (0.31%) Informatica
8 1 (0.31%) Teradata
8 1 (0.31%) UiPath
8 1 (0.31%) VMware