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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 66 53
Rank change year-on-year +29 -13 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 346 103 158
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.23% 2.91% 3.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.49% 3.28% 4.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 54 85
10th Percentile £280 £278 £352
25th Percentile £400 £356 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £625
90th Percentile £706 - £663
England median daily rate £550 £588 £615
% change year-on-year -6.38% -4.47% +1.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 22 48
10th Percentile £47.82 £51.38 £49.95
25th Percentile £51.25 £52.50 £60.94
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -21.43% +21.74%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £75.00 - -
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 5,330 3,144 3,739
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.51% 88.96% 82.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,165 1,965 2,231
10th Percentile £275 £219 £256
25th Percentile £419 £375 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -1.92%
75th Percentile £615 £588 £625
90th Percentile £709 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 642 310 223
10th Percentile £13.44 £13.48 £16.05
25th Percentile £16.38 £15.91 £30.21
Median hourly rate £49.00 £21.82 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +124.54% -62.05% +9.52%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.00 £70.43
90th Percentile £87.83 £69.65 £78.40
England median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.23% -41.51% -1.94%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 +39 131 £525 +23.53% 215
Thames Valley +26 103 £550 +9.89% 374
Berkshire +11 61 £550 +9.89% 131
Surrey -1 52 £513 +7.89% 67
West Sussex -1 37 £283 -1.91% 60
Oxfordshire -2 27 £625 +44.93% 202
Buckinghamshire - 15 £525 - 42
East Sussex - 10 £525 - 42
Middlesex -14 6 £600 -5.51% 3
Kent +1 4 - - 17
Sussex - 3 £325 - 7
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 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
1 2 (0.58%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.29%) CMS
2 1 (0.29%) Confluence
2 1 (0.29%) IIS
2 1 (0.29%) SAS
Applications
1 8 (2.31%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.87%) CPLEX
2 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.29%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.29%) Simulink
3 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.87%) Primavera
1 3 (0.87%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 44 (12.72%) Azure
2 43 (12.43%) AWS
3 25 (7.23%) OpenShift
4 20 (5.78%) GitHub
5 18 (5.20%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (4.62%) GCP
7 11 (3.18%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (2.02%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 7 (2.02%) SaaS
9 6 (1.73%) Serverless
10 5 (1.45%) Amazon EKS
10 5 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
11 4 (1.16%) Anthropic Claude
11 4 (1.16%) Cloudflare
11 4 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
11 4 (1.16%) Snowflake
11 4 (1.16%) Supabase
12 3 (0.87%) Azure AKS
12 3 (0.87%) Datadog
12 3 (0.87%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 23 (6.65%) Wireless
2 9 (2.60%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (0.87%) Broadband
3 3 (0.87%) Network Security
4 2 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.29%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.65%) PostgreSQL
2 11 (3.18%) NoSQL
3 8 (2.31%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.02%) Metadata
5 6 (1.73%) DynamoDB
6 5 (1.45%) Amazon RDS
6 5 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.16%) MongoDB
7 4 (1.16%) SQL Server
8 3 (0.87%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.58%) Apache Iceberg
9 2 (0.58%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.58%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.58%) Power BI
9 2 (0.58%) Redis
10 1 (0.29%) Big Data
10 1 (0.29%) Couchbase
10 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.29%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 37 (10.69%) Git
2 25 (7.23%) GitLab
3 18 (5.20%) SonarQube
4 14 (4.05%) Jenkins
5 12 (3.47%) LabVIEW
6 5 (1.45%) JIRA
6 5 (1.45%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.58%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.58%) JUnit
7 2 (0.58%) Postman
7 2 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.58%) Subversion
8 1 (0.29%) CMake
8 1 (0.29%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.29%) Gradle
8 1 (0.29%) Maven
8 1 (0.29%) NUnit
8 1 (0.29%) PowerBuilder
8 1 (0.29%) Selenium
8 1 (0.29%) tSQLt
General
1 64 (18.50%) Social Skills
2 52 (15.03%) Aerospace
3 33 (9.54%) Finance
4 25 (7.23%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.65%) Manufacturing
6 11 (3.18%) Automotive
6 11 (3.18%) Public Sector
7 8 (2.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (1.45%) Aviation
8 5 (1.45%) Japanese Language
8 5 (1.45%) Law
9 4 (1.16%) Avionics
9 4 (1.16%) Banking
9 4 (1.16%) Marketing
10 2 (0.58%) Military
10 2 (0.58%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.29%) Electronics
11 1 (0.29%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 162 (46.82%) Software Engineer
2 59 (17.05%) Developer
3 49 (14.16%) Senior
4 46 (13.29%) Embedded Engineer
4 46 (13.29%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 26 (7.51%) Lead
6 22 (6.36%) Senior Software Engineer
7 21 (6.07%) Software Developer
8 16 (4.62%) Technical Leader
9 13 (3.76%) Architect
10 12 (3.47%) Data Engineer
11 10 (2.89%) C++ Software Engineer
11 10 (2.89%) Java Developer
11 10 (2.89%) Principal Engineer
12 9 (2.60%) Engineering Manager
12 9 (2.60%) Java Engineer
12 9 (2.60%) Python Engineer
12 9 (2.60%) Senior Developer
12 9 (2.60%) Software Manager
13 8 (2.31%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (9.25%) Terraform
2 26 (7.51%) AngularJS
3 22 (6.36%) React
4 18 (5.20%) .NET
5 17 (4.91%) REST
6 16 (4.62%) Quarkus
7 14 (4.05%) RESTful
8 13 (3.76%) JSON
9 12 (3.47%) Kafka
10 11 (3.18%) CSS
10 11 (3.18%) HTML
11 10 (2.89%) Node.js
12 9 (2.60%) Yocto
13 8 (2.31%) WinForms
14 7 (2.02%) LDAP
14 7 (2.02%) OpenTofu
14 7 (2.02%) WPF
15 6 (1.73%) .NET Core
15 6 (1.73%) FastAPI
15 6 (1.73%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 27 (7.80%) Cloud Native
2 23 (6.65%) Product Ownership
3 14 (4.05%) AI Agents
4 12 (3.47%) Distributed Systems
5 11 (3.18%) Embedded Systems
6 10 (2.89%) Algorithms
7 9 (2.60%) Device Driver
8 8 (2.31%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.31%) Data Structures
8 8 (2.31%) MicroBlaze
8 8 (2.31%) RISC-V
9 7 (2.02%) Social Media
10 5 (1.45%) Robotics
11 4 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (1.16%) Low-Code
11 4 (1.16%) Management Information System
12 3 (0.87%) ARM Cortex
12 3 (0.87%) Onboarding
12 3 (0.87%) Virtual Team
13 2 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 35 (10.12%) Linux
2 11 (3.18%) Embedded Linux
3 5 (1.45%) Windows
4 2 (0.58%) Debian
5 1 (0.29%) Android
5 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (30.64%) Agile
2 83 (23.99%) CI/CD
3 56 (16.18%) DevOps
4 52 (15.03%) Test Automation
5 46 (13.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 44 (12.72%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (12.43%) Scrum
8 41 (11.85%) Stakeholder Management
9 39 (11.27%) DevSecOps
10 34 (9.83%) SDLC
11 33 (9.54%) AI
11 33 (9.54%) Computer Science
12 32 (9.25%) Roadmaps
13 31 (8.96%) Mentoring
14 30 (8.67%) Technical Leadership
15 29 (8.38%) Validation
16 27 (7.80%) Infrastructure as Code
17 26 (7.51%) Unit Testing
18 23 (6.65%) Containerisation
19 22 (6.36%) Sprint Planning
Programming Languages
1 54 (15.61%) Java
2 51 (14.74%) Python
3 42 (12.14%) C
4 36 (10.40%) SQL
5 29 (8.38%) TypeScript
6 26 (7.51%) C#
7 24 (6.94%) C++
7 24 (6.94%) JavaScript
8 14 (4.05%) Go
9 10 (2.89%) Embedded C
10 7 (2.02%) Bash
11 6 (1.73%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.16%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.87%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.58%) Kotlin
14 2 (0.58%) Scala
15 1 (0.29%) Ada
15 1 (0.29%) Embedded C++
15 1 (0.29%) Ruby
15 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 106 (30.64%) Security Cleared
2 98 (28.32%) SC Cleared
3 37 (10.69%) Degree
4 15 (4.34%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (2.31%) AWS Certification
6 7 (2.02%) Azure Certification
6 7 (2.02%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (1.45%) PMP
8 4 (1.16%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.16%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.87%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 2 (0.58%) CISSP
10 2 (0.58%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 1 (0.29%) CCSP
11 1 (0.29%) CISA
11 1 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.29%) ISTQB
11 1 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (9.25%) QA
2 9 (2.60%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.16%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.16%) NIST
4 3 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.58%) Software Quality Assurance
6 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.29%) GRC
6 1 (0.29%) ITGC
6 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 33 (9.54%) Docker
2 9 (2.60%) Embedded Firmware
2 9 (2.60%) Firmware
3 7 (2.02%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 47 (13.58%) Kubernetes
2 17 (4.91%) Argo
3 15 (4.34%) Ansible
4 5 (1.45%) Grafana
5 4 (1.16%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.58%) Kibana
6 2 (0.58%) Puppet
7 1 (0.29%) CASB
Vendors
1 19 (5.49%) Microsoft
2 18 (5.20%) Red Hat
3 8 (2.31%) Oracle
4 6 (1.73%) Salesforce
5 5 (1.45%) Google
5 5 (1.45%) SAP
5 5 (1.45%) Workday
6 3 (0.87%) Databricks
6 3 (0.87%) Splunk
7 1 (0.29%) Adobe
7 1 (0.29%) Ariba
7 1 (0.29%) CA Agile Central
7 1 (0.29%) Denodo
7 1 (0.29%) Dynatrace
7 1 (0.29%) IBM
7 1 (0.29%) Informatica
7 1 (0.29%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7 1 (0.29%) VMware