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 2 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 65 48
Rank change year-on-year +25 -17 +18
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 333 109 193
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.06% 3.11% 4.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.28% 3.49% 4.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 56 101
10th Percentile £277 £281 £359
25th Percentile £400 £384 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £501 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% +0.10% -3.38%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £638
90th Percentile £692 - £675
England median daily rate £560 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -6.67% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 27 57
10th Percentile £47.00 £49.59 £45.00
25th Percentile £51.25 £51.88 £51.06
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -21.43% +21.74%
75th Percentile £68.55 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £61.02 -
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 5,304 3,126 3,897
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.57% 89.24% 82.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,222 1,943 2,345
10th Percentile £280 £232 £260
25th Percentile £419 £393 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.91% -0.66%
75th Percentile £618 £600 £638
90th Percentile £706 £664 £700
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 607 305 293
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £15.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £22.07 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +137.88% -61.52% +10.08%
75th Percentile £70.00 £51.00 £70.39
90th Percentile £87.83 £69.65 £76.86
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +1.18%

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 2 September 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 2 September 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 2 September 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 +41 136 £525 +2.44% 150
Thames Valley +11 84 £530 +5.89% 256
Surrey -3 56 £513 +7.89% 52
Berkshire +3 47 £538 +7.39% 105
West Sussex +2 36 £280 -2.78% 37
Oxfordshire -4 20 £565 +31.01% 117
Buckinghamshire - 17 £525 - 37
East Sussex - 10 £525 - 27
Middlesex -17 5 £600 -5.51% 3
Kent +3 4 - - 25
Sussex - 2 - - 2
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 2 (0.60%) Apache Airflow
1 2 (0.60%) Apache Spark
1 2 (0.60%) Confluence
2 1 (0.30%) CMS
2 1 (0.30%) IIS
2 1 (0.30%) SAS
Applications
1 8 (2.40%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.20%) CPLEX
3 3 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.30%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.30%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 3 (0.90%) Primavera
1 3 (0.90%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 40 (12.01%) Azure
2 35 (10.51%) AWS
3 26 (7.81%) OpenShift
4 19 (5.71%) GitHub
5 15 (4.50%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (3.60%) GCP
7 11 (3.30%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (2.10%) SaaS
9 5 (1.50%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 4 (1.20%) Snowflake
11 3 (0.90%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (0.90%) Amazon S3
11 3 (0.90%) Azure AKS
11 3 (0.90%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 3 (0.90%) Serverless
12 2 (0.60%) Amazon ECS
12 2 (0.60%) AWS Lambda
12 2 (0.60%) Azure Data Factory
12 2 (0.60%) Datadog
12 2 (0.60%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 21 (6.31%) Wireless
2 10 (3.00%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (0.90%) Network Security
4 2 (0.60%) Broadband
5 1 (0.30%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.91%) PostgreSQL
2 14 (4.20%) NoSQL
2 14 (4.20%) Relational Database
3 7 (2.10%) Data Warehouse
3 7 (2.10%) Metadata
3 7 (2.10%) SQL Server
4 5 (1.50%) DynamoDB
5 4 (1.20%) Amazon Redshift
5 4 (1.20%) Big Data
5 4 (1.20%) Data Lake
5 4 (1.20%) MongoDB
6 3 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (0.90%) Geospatial Data
7 2 (0.60%) Apache Iceberg
7 2 (0.60%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.60%) Power BI
7 2 (0.60%) Redis
8 1 (0.30%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.30%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.30%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 35 (10.51%) Git
2 25 (7.51%) GitLab
3 21 (6.31%) SonarQube
4 17 (5.11%) Jenkins
5 11 (3.30%) LabVIEW
6 5 (1.50%) JIRA
7 3 (0.90%) JUnit
8 2 (0.60%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.60%) Postman
8 2 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.60%) Subversion
8 2 (0.60%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.30%) CMake
9 1 (0.30%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.30%) GoogleTest
9 1 (0.30%) Gradle
9 1 (0.30%) Liquibase
9 1 (0.30%) Mockito
9 1 (0.30%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.30%) tSQLt
General
1 58 (17.42%) Social Skills
2 44 (13.21%) Aerospace
3 29 (8.71%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (8.41%) Finance
5 22 (6.61%) Manufacturing
6 7 (2.10%) Automotive
6 7 (2.10%) Public Sector
7 6 (1.80%) Avionics
8 5 (1.50%) Aviation
8 5 (1.50%) Banking
8 5 (1.50%) Law
9 4 (1.20%) Marketing
10 3 (0.90%) Electronics
10 3 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.60%) Military
11 2 (0.60%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.30%) Advertising
12 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 171 (51.35%) Software Engineer
2 56 (16.82%) Developer
3 44 (13.21%) Embedded Engineer
3 44 (13.21%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 42 (12.61%) Senior
5 26 (7.81%) Lead
6 21 (6.31%) Senior Software Engineer
7 19 (5.71%) Software Developer
8 14 (4.20%) Technical Leader
9 13 (3.90%) Data Engineer
9 13 (3.90%) Engineering Manager
9 13 (3.90%) Java Engineer
10 12 (3.60%) Java Developer
11 11 (3.30%) C++ Software Engineer
11 11 (3.30%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
11 11 (3.30%) Software Manager
12 9 (2.70%) Principal Engineer
12 9 (2.70%) Senior Developer
12 9 (2.70%) Software Engineering Manager
13 8 (2.40%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (8.41%) AngularJS
2 25 (7.51%) Terraform
3 22 (6.61%) .NET
4 21 (6.31%) React
5 19 (5.71%) Quarkus
6 18 (5.41%) REST
7 14 (4.20%) Kafka
8 12 (3.60%) RESTful
9 10 (3.00%) JSON
9 10 (3.00%) Yocto
10 8 (2.40%) WinForms
11 7 (2.10%) Node.js
11 7 (2.10%) WPF
12 6 (1.80%) .NET Core
12 6 (1.80%) FastAPI
12 6 (1.80%) Flask
12 6 (1.80%) GraphQL
13 5 (1.50%) PySpark
13 5 (1.50%) pytest
13 5 (1.50%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 28 (8.41%) Cloud Native
2 21 (6.31%) Product Ownership
3 14 (4.20%) Distributed Systems
4 13 (3.90%) Algorithms
5 12 (3.60%) Embedded Systems
6 10 (3.00%) Data Protection Act
6 10 (3.00%) Device Driver
7 9 (2.70%) Data Structures
7 9 (2.70%) MicroBlaze
7 9 (2.70%) RISC-V
8 6 (1.80%) Social Media
9 5 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.50%) Robotics
10 4 (1.20%) AI Agents
10 4 (1.20%) Onboarding
10 4 (1.20%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.90%) ARM Cortex
11 3 (0.90%) Distributed Architecture
12 2 (0.60%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 32 (9.61%) Linux
2 12 (3.60%) Embedded Linux
3 5 (1.50%) Windows
4 2 (0.60%) Debian
5 1 (0.30%) Android
5 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.30%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (31.23%) Agile
2 73 (21.92%) CI/CD
3 53 (15.92%) DevOps
4 49 (14.71%) Test Automation
5 44 (13.21%) Problem-Solving
6 43 (12.91%) Scrum
7 40 (12.01%) DevSecOps
8 38 (11.41%) Continuous Improvement
9 34 (10.21%) SDLC
10 31 (9.31%) Mentoring
10 31 (9.31%) Unit Testing
11 27 (8.11%) Computer Science
11 27 (8.11%) Microservices
12 26 (7.81%) Sprint Planning
13 25 (7.51%) Containerisation
13 25 (7.51%) Front End Development
13 25 (7.51%) Stakeholder Management
14 24 (7.21%) AI
14 24 (7.21%) Technical Leadership
15 20 (6.01%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 69 (20.72%) Java
2 51 (15.32%) Python
3 40 (12.01%) C
4 36 (10.81%) SQL
5 30 (9.01%) C#
6 29 (8.71%) C++
7 23 (6.91%) TypeScript
8 19 (5.71%) JavaScript
9 15 (4.50%) Go
10 10 (3.00%) Embedded C
11 8 (2.40%) Bash
12 7 (2.10%) PowerShell
13 4 (1.20%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.20%) Scala
14 3 (0.90%) Ada
14 3 (0.90%) Apex Code
15 2 (0.60%) Kotlin
16 1 (0.30%) Embedded C++
16 1 (0.30%) Ruby
16 1 (0.30%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 104 (31.23%) Security Cleared
2 93 (27.93%) SC Cleared
3 31 (9.31%) Degree
4 13 (3.90%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.20%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.20%) DV Cleared
7 3 (0.90%) PMP
7 3 (0.90%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 2 (0.60%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.60%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.60%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.30%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.30%) CCSP
9 1 (0.30%) CISA
9 1 (0.30%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.30%) CISSP
9 1 (0.30%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (9.01%) QA
2 10 (3.00%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.20%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.60%) NIST
4 2 (0.60%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.30%) GRC
5 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.30%) ITGC
5 1 (0.30%) PMO
5 1 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 31 (9.31%) Docker
2 10 (3.00%) Embedded Firmware
2 10 (3.00%) Firmware
3 4 (1.20%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 47 (14.11%) Kubernetes
2 20 (6.01%) Argo
3 13 (3.90%) Ansible
4 5 (1.50%) Grafana
5 4 (1.20%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.60%) Kibana
6 2 (0.60%) Puppet
7 1 (0.30%) CASB
Vendors
1 20 (6.01%) Red Hat
2 12 (3.60%) Microsoft
3 7 (2.10%) Oracle
4 6 (1.80%) SAP
5 5 (1.50%) Databricks
5 5 (1.50%) Salesforce
5 5 (1.50%) Workday
6 4 (1.20%) Google
7 2 (0.60%) Siemens
7 2 (0.60%) Splunk
8 1 (0.30%) Adobe
8 1 (0.30%) Ariba
8 1 (0.30%) CA Agile Central
8 1 (0.30%) Denodo
8 1 (0.30%) Dynatrace
8 1 (0.30%) IBM
8 1 (0.30%) Informatica
8 1 (0.30%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
8 1 (0.30%) VMware