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

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 41 68 39
Rank change year-on-year +27 -29 +25
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 320 102 221
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.80% 2.93% 4.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.93% 3.25% 5.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 62 122
10th Percentile £280 £325 £381
25th Percentile £400 £431 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £507 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.65% +1.30% -3.85%
75th Percentile £634 £600 £630
90th Percentile £702 £625 £675
England median daily rate £564 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -6.04% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 99 10 60
10th Percentile £46.95 £43.09 £45.00
25th Percentile £48.64 £44.95 £54.27
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 £77.75
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 5,396 3,141 4,113
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.98% 90.08% 82.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,338 1,957 2,488
10th Percentile £280 £250 £255
25th Percentile £414 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.85% +0.31%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £638
90th Percentile £702 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 573 287 327
10th Percentile £15.23 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £26.00 £15.13 £26.03
Median hourly rate £57.79 £21.58 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +167.83% -62.38% +14.70%
75th Percentile £80.00 £50.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £74.25 £76.91
England median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +78.93% -40.82% -

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +32 138 £543 +5.85% 121
Thames Valley -13 81 £530 +6.00% 198
Surrey +9 55 £525 +10.53% 41
Berkshire -10 45 £538 +7.45% 82
West Sussex -5 26 £280 -0.97% 19
Buckinghamshire -22 19 £525 -8.70% 35
Oxfordshire -5 17 £553 +28.12% 83
East Sussex - 10 £525 - 9
Kent +4 4 - - 16
Sussex - 3 £323 - 6
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 Airflow
1 3 (0.94%) Apache Spark
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 (2.50%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.56%) 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 36 (11.25%) Azure
2 31 (9.69%) AWS
3 26 (8.13%) OpenShift
4 16 (5.00%) GitHub
5 13 (4.06%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (3.75%) GCP
7 11 (3.44%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (2.50%) SaaS
9 5 (1.56%) Amazon S3
9 5 (1.56%) Snowflake
10 4 (1.25%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (0.94%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 3 (0.94%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (0.94%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 3 (0.94%) Serverless
12 2 (0.63%) AWS Lambda
12 2 (0.63%) Azure Data Factory
12 2 (0.63%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.63%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.63%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.00%) Wireless
2 5 (1.56%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (0.94%) Network Security
4 2 (0.63%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.31%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (7.50%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (5.63%) NoSQL
3 15 (4.69%) Relational Database
4 8 (2.50%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (2.19%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.88%) Metadata
7 5 (1.56%) Big Data
7 5 (1.56%) DynamoDB
7 5 (1.56%) MongoDB
8 4 (1.25%) Amazon Redshift
8 4 (1.25%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.94%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.63%) Apache Iceberg
10 2 (0.63%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.63%) Power BI
10 2 (0.63%) Redis
11 1 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.31%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.31%) Couchbase
11 1 (0.31%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 36 (11.25%) Git
2 23 (7.19%) SonarQube
3 20 (6.25%) GitLab
4 16 (5.00%) Jenkins
5 8 (2.50%) JIRA
6 5 (1.56%) 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 59 (18.44%) Social Skills
2 48 (15.00%) Aerospace
3 29 (9.06%) Finance
4 26 (8.13%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (6.25%) Manufacturing
6 8 (2.50%) Public Sector
7 7 (2.19%) Avionics
8 6 (1.88%) Law
9 5 (1.56%) Aviation
10 4 (1.25%) Electronics
10 4 (1.25%) Marketing
11 3 (0.94%) Automotive
11 3 (0.94%) Banking
11 3 (0.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.94%) Military
12 2 (0.63%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.31%) Advertising
13 1 (0.31%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 157 (49.06%) Software Engineer
2 62 (19.38%) Developer
3 48 (15.00%) Senior
4 35 (10.94%) Embedded Engineer
4 35 (10.94%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 24 (7.50%) Lead
6 20 (6.25%) Senior Software Engineer
7 19 (5.94%) Software Developer
8 18 (5.63%) Engineering Manager
9 17 (5.31%) Java Engineer
10 15 (4.69%) Software Manager
11 14 (4.38%) Java Developer
11 14 (4.38%) Software Engineering Manager
12 12 (3.75%) Data Engineer
12 12 (3.75%) Senior Developer
13 11 (3.44%) C++ Software Engineer
13 11 (3.44%) Technical Leader
14 10 (3.13%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
15 9 (2.81%) DevOps Engineer
15 9 (2.81%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.38%) AngularJS
2 23 (7.19%) .NET
2 23 (7.19%) React
3 21 (6.56%) Quarkus
4 20 (6.25%) REST
5 16 (5.00%) Kafka
6 15 (4.69%) RESTful
7 11 (3.44%) JSON
8 8 (2.50%) GraphQL
8 8 (2.50%) WinForms
8 8 (2.50%) WPF
9 7 (2.19%) FastAPI
9 7 (2.19%) Flask
9 7 (2.19%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (1.88%) .NET Core
10 6 (1.88%) pytest
10 6 (1.88%) Yocto
11 5 (1.56%) Node.js
11 5 (1.56%) Pandas
11 5 (1.56%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 28 (8.75%) Cloud Native
2 21 (6.56%) Product Ownership
3 16 (5.00%) Algorithms
4 15 (4.69%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (3.75%) Data Structures
6 10 (3.13%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (2.19%) Embedded Systems
8 6 (1.88%) Device Driver
8 6 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.56%) MicroBlaze
9 5 (1.56%) RISC-V
9 5 (1.56%) Robotics
9 5 (1.56%) Social Media
10 4 (1.25%) Onboarding
10 4 (1.25%) 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 (7.50%) Linux
2 8 (2.50%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (1.25%) Windows
4 2 (0.63%) Android
5 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.31%) Unix
5 1 (0.31%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (30.00%) Agile
2 64 (20.00%) CI/CD
3 53 (16.56%) DevOps
4 47 (14.69%) Test Automation
5 43 (13.44%) Scrum
6 42 (13.13%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (11.88%) DevSecOps
8 35 (10.94%) SDLC
9 33 (10.31%) Continuous Improvement
9 33 (10.31%) Unit Testing
10 30 (9.38%) Microservices
11 29 (9.06%) Computer Science
11 29 (9.06%) Sprint Planning
12 28 (8.75%) Front End Development
13 27 (8.44%) Mentoring
14 24 (7.50%) Containerisation
15 21 (6.56%) AI
15 21 (6.56%) Sprint Review
16 20 (6.25%) Technical Leadership
17 19 (5.94%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 77 (24.06%) Java
2 48 (15.00%) Python
3 36 (11.25%) C
4 32 (10.00%) C#
5 30 (9.38%) SQL
6 25 (7.81%) C++
7 22 (6.88%) TypeScript
8 21 (6.56%) JavaScript
9 20 (6.25%) Go
10 10 (3.13%) Embedded C
11 6 (1.88%) Bash
12 5 (1.56%) PowerShell
13 4 (1.25%) Ada
13 4 (1.25%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.25%) Scala
14 3 (0.94%) Apex Code
15 2 (0.63%) Kotlin
16 1 (0.31%) Embedded C++
16 1 (0.31%) Rust
16 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 113 (35.31%) Security Cleared
2 95 (29.69%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.31%) Degree
4 14 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (2.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.25%) 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 (8.13%) QA
2 9 (2.81%) 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 31 (9.69%) Docker
2 5 (1.56%) Embedded Firmware
2 5 (1.56%) Firmware
3 4 (1.25%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 47 (14.69%) Kubernetes
2 22 (6.88%) Argo
3 14 (4.38%) Terraform
4 8 (2.50%) Ansible
5 5 (1.56%) Grafana
6 4 (1.25%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.63%) Kibana
7 2 (0.63%) Puppet
8 1 (0.31%) CASB
8 1 (0.31%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 22 (6.88%) Red Hat
2 7 (2.19%) Microsoft
2 7 (2.19%) Oracle
3 6 (1.88%) SAP
4 5 (1.56%) Databricks
4 5 (1.56%) Google
4 5 (1.56%) Salesforce
4 5 (1.56%) Workday
5 3 (0.94%) Siemens
6 2 (0.63%) CA Agile Central
7 1 (0.31%) Ab Initio
7 1 (0.31%) Adobe
7 1 (0.31%) Ariba
7 1 (0.31%) Dynatrace
7 1 (0.31%) IBM
7 1 (0.31%) Informatica
7 1 (0.31%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7 1 (0.31%) Teradata
7 1 (0.31%) UiPath
7 1 (0.31%) VMware