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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 72 55
Rank change year-on-year +34 -17 +9
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 344 103 152
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.24% 2.90% 3.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.49% 3.25% 4.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 54 79
10th Percentile £281 £274 £357
25th Percentile £400 £340 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £594 £625
90th Percentile £698 £600 £663
England median daily rate £551 £575 £625
% change year-on-year -4.26% -8.00% +2.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 22 48
10th Percentile £48.64 - £49.95
25th Percentile £51.25 £52.50 £60.32
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -21.43% +24.44%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £79.40 - -
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 5,301 3,165 3,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.71% 89.10% 82.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,128 1,975 2,184
10th Percentile £279 £215 £255
25th Percentile £420 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -2.49%
75th Percentile £617 £588 £625
90th Percentile £713 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.64% -2.57% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 650 316 211
10th Percentile £13.44 £13.50 £16.00
25th Percentile £16.34 £16.10 £30.21
Median hourly rate £47.77 £22.35 £58.38
Median % change year-on-year +113.78% -61.72% +7.37%
75th Percentile £69.69 £49.06 £70.84
90th Percentile £87.84 £69.20 £78.75
England median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%

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 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 1 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 1 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 +40 125 £525 +40.00% 212
Thames Valley +23 106 £550 +9.89% 399
Berkshire +13 63 £550 +9.89% 144
Surrey +1 54 £513 +7.89% 73
West Sussex -2 37 £285 -1.04% 60
Oxfordshire -1 28 £625 +44.93% 212
Buckinghamshire - 15 £525 - 45
East Sussex - 9 £492 - 50
Middlesex -14 6 £600 -5.51% 1
Kent -2 4 - - 19
Sussex - 3 £325 - 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 2 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
1 2 (0.58%) Apache Spark
1 2 (0.58%) CMS
2 1 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.29%) Confluence
2 1 (0.29%) Headless CMS
2 1 (0.29%) IIS
2 1 (0.29%) SAS
2 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (2.33%) 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 45 (13.08%) Azure
2 43 (12.50%) AWS
3 26 (7.56%) OpenShift
4 21 (6.10%) GitHub
5 19 (5.52%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (4.65%) GCP
7 11 (3.20%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (2.03%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 7 (2.03%) SaaS
8 7 (2.03%) Serverless
9 5 (1.45%) Amazon EKS
9 5 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
10 4 (1.16%) Anthropic Claude
10 4 (1.16%) Cloudflare
10 4 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
10 4 (1.16%) Snowflake
10 4 (1.16%) Supabase
11 3 (0.87%) Azure AKS
11 3 (0.87%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (0.87%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 24 (6.98%) Wireless
2 9 (2.62%) 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 22 (6.40%) PostgreSQL
2 11 (3.20%) NoSQL
3 8 (2.33%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.03%) Metadata
5 6 (1.74%) 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%) Data Lake
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%) Power BI
9 2 (0.58%) Redis
10 1 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.29%) Big Data
10 1 (0.29%) Couchbase
10 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 36 (10.47%) Git
2 21 (6.10%) GitLab
3 19 (5.52%) SonarQube
4 12 (3.49%) Jenkins
4 12 (3.49%) LabVIEW
5 5 (1.45%) JIRA
5 5 (1.45%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.58%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.58%) Postman
6 2 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.58%) Subversion
7 1 (0.29%) CMake
7 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.29%) GoogleTest
7 1 (0.29%) Gradle
7 1 (0.29%) JUnit
7 1 (0.29%) Maven
7 1 (0.29%) PowerBuilder
7 1 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.29%) tSQLt
General
1 66 (19.19%) Social Skills
2 53 (15.41%) Aerospace
3 36 (10.47%) Finance
4 25 (7.27%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.69%) Manufacturing
6 12 (3.49%) Automotive
7 11 (3.20%) Public Sector
8 9 (2.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.74%) Japanese Language
10 5 (1.45%) Aviation
10 5 (1.45%) Law
11 4 (1.16%) Avionics
11 4 (1.16%) Banking
11 4 (1.16%) Marketing
12 2 (0.58%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.29%) Electronics
13 1 (0.29%) Military
13 1 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.29%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.29%) Retail
Job Titles
1 155 (45.06%) Software Engineer
2 61 (17.73%) Developer
3 48 (13.95%) Senior
4 46 (13.37%) Embedded Engineer
4 46 (13.37%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 24 (6.98%) Lead
6 22 (6.40%) Software Developer
7 20 (5.81%) Senior Software Engineer
8 16 (4.65%) Technical Leader
9 15 (4.36%) Architect
10 12 (3.49%) Data Engineer
10 12 (3.49%) Java Developer
11 10 (2.91%) Principal Engineer
12 9 (2.62%) C++ Software Engineer
12 9 (2.62%) Delivery Manager
12 9 (2.62%) Enterprise Architect
12 9 (2.62%) Python Engineer
12 9 (2.62%) Senior Developer
13 8 (2.33%) C Developer
13 8 (2.33%) Software Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (9.59%) Terraform
2 27 (7.85%) AngularJS
3 24 (6.98%) React
4 18 (5.23%) .NET
4 18 (5.23%) REST
5 17 (4.94%) Quarkus
6 14 (4.07%) RESTful
7 13 (3.78%) JSON
8 12 (3.49%) CSS
8 12 (3.49%) HTML
8 12 (3.49%) Kafka
9 10 (2.91%) Node.js
10 9 (2.62%) Yocto
11 8 (2.33%) LDAP
11 8 (2.33%) OpenTofu
12 7 (2.03%) .NET Core
12 7 (2.03%) Next.js
13 6 (1.74%) FastAPI
13 6 (1.74%) GraphQL
13 6 (1.74%) JSON Schema
Miscellaneous
1 27 (7.85%) Cloud Native
2 25 (7.27%) Product Ownership
3 15 (4.36%) AI Agents
4 11 (3.20%) Distributed Systems
5 10 (2.91%) Algorithms
5 10 (2.91%) Embedded Systems
6 9 (2.62%) Device Driver
7 8 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (2.33%) Data Structures
7 8 (2.33%) MicroBlaze
7 8 (2.33%) RISC-V
8 7 (2.03%) Social Media
9 5 (1.45%) Robotics
10 4 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.16%) Low-Code
10 4 (1.16%) Management Information System
11 3 (0.87%) ARM Cortex
11 3 (0.87%) Onboarding
12 2 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.58%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 35 (10.17%) Linux
2 11 (3.20%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (1.16%) Windows
4 2 (0.58%) Debian
5 1 (0.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (31.69%) Agile
2 80 (23.26%) CI/CD
3 57 (16.57%) DevOps
4 53 (15.41%) Test Automation
5 48 (13.95%) Continuous Improvement
6 47 (13.66%) Scrum
7 43 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
8 42 (12.21%) Stakeholder Management
9 40 (11.63%) DevSecOps
10 36 (10.47%) SDLC
11 35 (10.17%) AI
12 34 (9.88%) Computer Science
12 34 (9.88%) Roadmaps
13 31 (9.01%) Validation
14 30 (8.72%) Mentoring
15 29 (8.43%) Technical Leadership
16 27 (7.85%) Infrastructure as Code
17 25 (7.27%) Unit Testing
18 23 (6.69%) Front End Development
18 23 (6.69%) Sprint Planning
Programming Languages
1 53 (15.41%) Java
2 49 (14.24%) Python
3 43 (12.50%) C
4 38 (11.05%) SQL
5 30 (8.72%) TypeScript
6 26 (7.56%) JavaScript
7 23 (6.69%) C#
7 23 (6.69%) C++
8 12 (3.49%) Go
9 10 (2.91%) Embedded C
10 7 (2.03%) Bash
11 6 (1.74%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.16%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.87%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.58%) Scala
15 1 (0.29%) Ada
15 1 (0.29%) Embedded C++
15 1 (0.29%) MATLAB
15 1 (0.29%) Ruby
15 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 105 (30.52%) Security Cleared
2 97 (28.20%) SC Cleared
3 38 (11.05%) Degree
4 15 (4.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (2.33%) AWS Certification
6 7 (2.03%) Azure Certification
6 7 (2.03%) 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
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (9.88%) QA
2 9 (2.62%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.45%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.16%) NIST
5 3 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.58%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.29%) GRC
7 1 (0.29%) ITGC
7 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 32 (9.30%) Docker
2 9 (2.62%) Embedded Firmware
2 9 (2.62%) Firmware
3 8 (2.33%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 48 (13.95%) Kubernetes
2 18 (5.23%) Argo
3 15 (4.36%) 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 20 (5.81%) Microsoft
2 19 (5.52%) Red Hat
3 8 (2.33%) Oracle
4 6 (1.74%) Salesforce
5 5 (1.45%) Google
5 5 (1.45%) SAP
5 5 (1.45%) Workday
6 4 (1.16%) Databricks
7 3 (0.87%) Splunk
8 2 (0.58%) Adobe
9 1 (0.29%) Ariba
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%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
9 1 (0.29%) VMware