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 16 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 80 56
Rank change year-on-year +41 -24 +3
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 349 93 148
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.30% 2.57% 3.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.53% 2.89% 4.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 50 77
10th Percentile £282 £272 £357
25th Percentile £372 £328 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £609 £550 £625
90th Percentile £738 £600 £663
England median daily rate £550 £575 £601
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.25% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 22 44
10th Percentile £48.64 - £51.90
25th Percentile £53.34 £52.50 £61.28
Median hourly rate £62.00 £55.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.73% -21.43% +27.27%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £91.31 - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.50
% change year-on-year - -0.76% +0.77%

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 5,347 3,216 3,588
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.21% 88.82% 83.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,077 2,013 2,171
10th Percentile £275 £213 £260
25th Percentile £419 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £622 £588 £625
90th Percentile £713 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 712 334 183
10th Percentile £13.45 £13.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.37 £16.17 £30.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £20.73 £58.49
Median % change year-on-year +117.08% -64.56% +7.58%
75th Percentile £70.00 £40.91 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.35 £69.38 £75.00
England median hourly rate £38.13 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +51.59% -40.82% -5.56%

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 16 October 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 16 October 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 16 October 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 +36 119 £500 +17.65% 60
Thames Valley +50 116 £550 +9.89% 62
Berkshire +26 71 £550 +4.76% 35
Surrey -2 52 £525 +10.53% 27
West Sussex +4 41 £296 +2.60% 16
Oxfordshire 0 31 £625 +38.89% 23
Buckinghamshire - 14 £550 - 9
East Sussex - 7 £430 - 5
Middlesex -15 6 £600 -5.51% 4
Kent - 4 - - 7
Sussex - 3 £325 - 7
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 5
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 (0.86%) Apache Spark
1 3 (0.86%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (0.29%) Apache
3 1 (0.29%) CMS
3 1 (0.29%) Confluence
3 1 (0.29%) Headless CMS
3 1 (0.29%) IIS
3 1 (0.29%) SAS
Applications
1 8 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.57%) CPLEX
4 1 (0.29%) Adobe XD
4 1 (0.29%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 3 (0.86%) Primavera
1 3 (0.86%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 49 (14.04%) Azure
2 45 (12.89%) AWS
3 28 (8.02%) OpenShift
4 24 (6.88%) GitHub
5 20 (5.73%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (4.01%) GCP
7 13 (3.72%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (2.87%) Serverless
9 7 (2.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 7 (2.01%) Power Platform
10 6 (1.72%) Amazon EKS
10 6 (1.72%) AWS Lambda
10 6 (1.72%) SaaS
11 5 (1.43%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (1.15%) Anthropic Claude
12 4 (1.15%) Cloudflare
12 4 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
12 4 (1.15%) Snowflake
12 4 (1.15%) Supabase
13 3 (0.86%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.74%) Wireless
2 10 (2.87%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (0.86%) Broadband
3 3 (0.86%) Network Security
4 2 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.29%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (6.02%) PostgreSQL
2 9 (2.58%) NoSQL
3 8 (2.29%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.01%) Data Lake
4 7 (2.01%) DynamoDB
4 7 (2.01%) Metadata
5 5 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
5 5 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.15%) Power BI
7 3 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.86%) Geospatial Data
7 3 (0.86%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.86%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.57%) Apache Iceberg
8 2 (0.57%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.57%) Neo4j
8 2 (0.57%) Redis
9 1 (0.29%) Amazon Aurora
9 1 (0.29%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 36 (10.32%) Git
2 21 (6.02%) SonarQube
3 19 (5.44%) GitLab
4 12 (3.44%) LabVIEW
5 11 (3.15%) Jenkins
6 5 (1.43%) JIRA
6 5 (1.43%) Visual Studio Code
7 4 (1.15%) Gradle
8 3 (0.86%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.57%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.57%) Postman
9 2 (0.57%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.57%) Subversion
10 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.29%) JUnit
10 1 (0.29%) Maven
10 1 (0.29%) PowerBuilder
10 1 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.29%) tSQLt
General
1 71 (20.34%) Social Skills
2 58 (16.62%) Aerospace
3 41 (11.75%) Finance
4 26 (7.45%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (6.02%) Manufacturing
6 12 (3.44%) Automotive
6 12 (3.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 12 (3.44%) Public Sector
7 9 (2.58%) Japanese Language
8 5 (1.43%) Aviation
8 5 (1.43%) Law
8 5 (1.43%) Marketing
9 4 (1.15%) Avionics
9 4 (1.15%) Banking
10 3 (0.86%) Retail
11 2 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.29%) Electronics
12 1 (0.29%) Military
12 1 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.29%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 143 (40.97%) Software Engineer
2 56 (16.05%) Developer
3 50 (14.33%) Senior
4 41 (11.75%) Embedded Engineer
5 40 (11.46%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 27 (7.74%) Lead
7 22 (6.30%) Senior Software Engineer
7 22 (6.30%) Software Developer
8 20 (5.73%) Architect
9 16 (4.58%) Technical Leader
10 14 (4.01%) Enterprise Architect
11 12 (3.44%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.44%) Java Developer
11 12 (3.44%) Principal Engineer
12 11 (3.15%) Delivery Manager
13 9 (2.58%) C Developer
13 9 (2.58%) C++ Software Engineer
13 9 (2.58%) Linux Developer
13 9 (2.58%) Python Engineer
14 8 (2.29%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (10.32%) Terraform
2 29 (8.31%) AngularJS
3 23 (6.59%) React
4 19 (5.44%) REST
5 17 (4.87%) Quarkus
6 15 (4.30%) .NET
7 12 (3.44%) CSS
7 12 (3.44%) HTML
7 12 (3.44%) JSON
7 12 (3.44%) Kafka
8 11 (3.15%) RESTful
9 10 (2.87%) Node.js
9 10 (2.87%) Yocto
10 9 (2.58%) LDAP
10 9 (2.58%) OpenTofu
10 9 (2.58%) Spring
11 7 (2.01%) Next.js
12 6 (1.72%) .NET Core
12 6 (1.72%) GraphQL
12 6 (1.72%) JSON Schema
Miscellaneous
1 30 (8.60%) Cloud Native
2 29 (8.31%) Product Ownership
3 18 (5.16%) AI Agents
4 11 (3.15%) Data Protection Act
4 11 (3.15%) Embedded Systems
5 10 (2.87%) Device Driver
5 10 (2.87%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (2.58%) MicroBlaze
6 9 (2.58%) RISC-V
7 8 (2.29%) Data Structures
8 7 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (2.01%) Social Media
9 5 (1.43%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.43%) Management Information System
9 5 (1.43%) Robotics
10 4 (1.15%) Low-Code
11 3 (0.86%) ARM Cortex
11 3 (0.86%) AS400
12 2 (0.57%) Clustering
12 2 (0.57%) Digital TV
Operating Systems
1 38 (10.89%) Linux
2 12 (3.44%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (1.15%) Windows
4 2 (0.57%) Debian
5 1 (0.29%) Android
5 1 (0.29%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (33.52%) Agile
2 84 (24.07%) CI/CD
3 63 (18.05%) Test Automation
4 61 (17.48%) DevOps
5 58 (16.62%) Scrum
6 53 (15.19%) Continuous Improvement
7 47 (13.47%) Stakeholder Management
8 45 (12.89%) DevSecOps
8 45 (12.89%) Problem-Solving
9 42 (12.03%) Computer Science
10 40 (11.46%) SDLC
11 38 (10.89%) AI
11 38 (10.89%) Roadmaps
12 35 (10.03%) Validation
13 33 (9.46%) Mentoring
14 31 (8.88%) Technical Leadership
15 30 (8.60%) Digital Engineering
16 29 (8.31%) Infrastructure as Code
17 28 (8.02%) Unit Testing
18 26 (7.45%) Sprint Planning
Programming Languages
1 56 (16.05%) Java
2 48 (13.75%) Python
3 44 (12.61%) SQL
4 41 (11.75%) C
5 29 (8.31%) TypeScript
6 26 (7.45%) JavaScript
7 24 (6.88%) C++
8 19 (5.44%) C#
9 10 (2.87%) Go
10 7 (2.01%) Bash
11 6 (1.72%) Embedded C
11 6 (1.72%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.15%) Kotlin
12 4 (1.15%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.86%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.57%) Ada
14 2 (0.57%) Scala
15 1 (0.29%) Embedded C++
15 1 (0.29%) MATLAB
15 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 116 (33.24%) Security Cleared
2 103 (29.51%) SC Cleared
3 46 (13.18%) Degree
4 21 (6.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (3.72%) DV Cleared
6 9 (2.58%) AWS Certification
6 9 (2.58%) Azure Certification
7 6 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (1.43%) PMP
9 4 (1.15%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.15%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.86%) CISSP
10 3 (0.86%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 3 (0.86%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 1 (0.29%) CCSP
11 1 (0.29%) Chartered Engineer
11 1 (0.29%) CISA
11 1 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (10.89%) QA
2 10 (2.87%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.43%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.15%) NIST
5 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.57%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.29%) GRC
7 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 12207
7 1 (0.29%) ITGC
7 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (10.60%) Docker
2 10 (2.87%) Embedded Firmware
2 10 (2.87%) Firmware
3 9 (2.58%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.57%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 52 (14.90%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.73%) Argo
3 16 (4.58%) Ansible
4 5 (1.43%) Grafana
5 4 (1.15%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.57%) Kibana
6 2 (0.57%) Puppet
7 1 (0.29%) CASB
Vendors
1 26 (7.45%) Microsoft
2 21 (6.02%) Red Hat
3 8 (2.29%) Databricks
3 8 (2.29%) Oracle
4 7 (2.01%) Salesforce
5 5 (1.43%) Workday
6 4 (1.15%) Google
6 4 (1.15%) SAP
7 3 (0.86%) Splunk
8 2 (0.57%) Adobe
8 2 (0.57%) OpenAI
8 2 (0.57%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
9 1 (0.29%) CA Agile Central
9 1 (0.29%) Denodo
9 1 (0.29%) Dynatrace
9 1 (0.29%) IBM
9 1 (0.29%) Informatica
9 1 (0.29%) TOWER Software
9 1 (0.29%) VMware