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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 69 41
Rank change year-on-year +29 -28 +18
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 331 104 217
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.90% 2.93% 4.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.05% 3.26% 5.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 60 116
10th Percentile £280 £288 £370
25th Percentile £400 £408 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £507 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.65% +1.30% -3.38%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £632
90th Percentile £699 £626 £673
England median daily rate £555 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -7.50% -4.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 16 61
10th Percentile £47.00 £44.51 £45.00
25th Percentile £48.64 £48.30 £54.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £54.94 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.22% -21.52% +21.74%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.80 £75.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 -
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 5,467 3,189 4,061
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.86% 89.93% 82.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,367 1,990 2,483
10th Percentile £280 £250 £255
25th Percentile £418 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £518
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.39% -0.09%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £638
90th Percentile £703 £670 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 605 296 323
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £21.35 £15.13 £26.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £21.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +155.78% -62.51% +14.70%
75th Percentile £78.75 £50.00 £70.09
90th Percentile £88.00 £70.71 £76.86
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +3.61%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +41 139 £525 +2.44% 157
Thames Valley +8 87 £530 +5.89% 248
Surrey +8 55 £519 +9.21% 60
Berkshire -4 50 £550 +9.89% 100
West Sussex -6 30 £280 -2.78% 25
Oxfordshire -11 19 £553 +28.12% 107
Buckinghamshire -18 18 £525 -8.70% 44
East Sussex - 11 £492 - 21
Kent +3 4 - - 25
Middlesex -15 2 £470 -25.98% 4
Sussex - 2 £323 - 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 (0.91%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.60%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.60%) Confluence
3 1 (0.30%) CMS
3 1 (0.30%) IIS
3 1 (0.30%) SAS
Applications
1 8 (2.42%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.21%) CPLEX
3 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.30%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.30%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 3 (0.91%) Primavera
1 3 (0.91%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 39 (11.78%) Azure
2 32 (9.67%) AWS
3 28 (8.46%) OpenShift
4 17 (5.14%) GitHub
5 14 (4.23%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (3.63%) GCP
7 11 (3.32%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (2.42%) SaaS
9 4 (1.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 4 (1.21%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (1.21%) Amazon S3
9 4 (1.21%) Snowflake
10 3 (0.91%) Amazon ECS
10 3 (0.91%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
10 3 (0.91%) Serverless
11 2 (0.60%) AWS Lambda
11 2 (0.60%) Azure Data Factory
11 2 (0.60%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.60%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.60%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 19 (5.74%) Wireless
2 8 (2.42%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (0.91%) Network Security
4 1 (0.30%) Broadband
4 1 (0.30%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.95%) PostgreSQL
2 16 (4.83%) NoSQL
3 14 (4.23%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.11%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (2.11%) SQL Server
5 6 (1.81%) Metadata
6 5 (1.51%) DynamoDB
7 4 (1.21%) Amazon Redshift
7 4 (1.21%) Big Data
7 4 (1.21%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.21%) MongoDB
8 3 (0.91%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.60%) Apache Iceberg
9 2 (0.60%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.60%) Power BI
9 2 (0.60%) Redis
10 1 (0.30%) Amazon Athena
10 1 (0.30%) Couchbase
10 1 (0.30%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 37 (11.18%) Git
2 24 (7.25%) GitLab
3 23 (6.95%) SonarQube
4 20 (6.04%) Jenkins
5 7 (2.11%) JIRA
5 7 (2.11%) LabVIEW
6 3 (0.91%) JUnit
7 2 (0.60%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.60%) Postman
7 2 (0.60%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.30%) CMake
8 1 (0.30%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.30%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.30%) Gradle
8 1 (0.30%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.30%) Maven
8 1 (0.30%) Selenium
8 1 (0.30%) tSQLt
8 1 (0.30%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 60 (18.13%) Social Skills
2 51 (15.41%) Aerospace
3 29 (8.76%) Finance
4 27 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (6.65%) Manufacturing
6 8 (2.42%) Public Sector
7 7 (2.11%) Avionics
8 5 (1.51%) Aviation
8 5 (1.51%) Banking
8 5 (1.51%) Law
9 4 (1.21%) Automotive
9 4 (1.21%) Electronics
9 4 (1.21%) Marketing
10 3 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.91%) Military
11 2 (0.60%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.30%) Advertising
12 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 164 (49.55%) Software Engineer
2 59 (17.82%) Developer
3 47 (14.20%) Senior
4 39 (11.78%) Embedded Engineer
4 39 (11.78%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 25 (7.55%) Lead
6 20 (6.04%) Senior Software Engineer
7 18 (5.44%) Engineering Manager
7 18 (5.44%) Software Developer
8 16 (4.83%) Java Engineer
9 15 (4.53%) Software Manager
10 14 (4.23%) Software Engineering Manager
11 12 (3.63%) C++ Software Engineer
11 12 (3.63%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.63%) Java Developer
11 12 (3.63%) Technical Leader
12 11 (3.32%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
12 11 (3.32%) Senior Developer
13 9 (2.72%) Principal Engineer
14 8 (2.42%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.06%) AngularJS
2 24 (7.25%) .NET
3 23 (6.95%) React
4 21 (6.34%) Quarkus
4 21 (6.34%) REST
5 15 (4.53%) Kafka
6 13 (3.93%) RESTful
7 9 (2.72%) JSON
7 9 (2.72%) Yocto
8 8 (2.42%) GraphQL
8 8 (2.42%) WinForms
8 8 (2.42%) WPF
9 6 (1.81%) .NET Core
9 6 (1.81%) FastAPI
9 6 (1.81%) Flask
9 6 (1.81%) Node.js
9 6 (1.81%) RabbitMQ
10 5 (1.51%) .NET Framework
10 5 (1.51%) PySpark
10 5 (1.51%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 29 (8.76%) Cloud Native
2 21 (6.34%) Product Ownership
3 15 (4.53%) Distributed Systems
4 14 (4.23%) Algorithms
5 11 (3.32%) Data Protection Act
6 10 (3.02%) Data Structures
6 10 (3.02%) Embedded Systems
7 9 (2.72%) Device Driver
8 7 (2.11%) MicroBlaze
8 7 (2.11%) RISC-V
9 6 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (1.51%) Robotics
10 5 (1.51%) Social Media
11 4 (1.21%) Onboarding
11 4 (1.21%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.91%) AI Agents
12 3 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (0.91%) ARM Cortex
12 3 (0.91%) Distributed Architecture
13 2 (0.60%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 28 (8.46%) Linux
2 11 (3.32%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (1.21%) Windows
4 1 (0.30%) Android
4 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.30%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (30.21%) Agile
2 70 (21.15%) CI/CD
3 54 (16.31%) DevOps
4 48 (14.50%) Test Automation
5 43 (12.99%) DevSecOps
6 42 (12.69%) Scrum
7 41 (12.39%) Problem-Solving
8 36 (10.88%) Continuous Improvement
9 34 (10.27%) SDLC
9 34 (10.27%) Unit Testing
10 30 (9.06%) Microservices
11 29 (8.76%) Computer Science
12 28 (8.46%) Mentoring
12 28 (8.46%) Sprint Planning
13 27 (8.16%) Front End Development
14 24 (7.25%) AI
15 23 (6.95%) Containerisation
15 23 (6.95%) Stakeholder Management
16 22 (6.65%) Technical Leadership
17 21 (6.34%) Sprint Review
Programming Languages
1 74 (22.36%) Java
2 49 (14.80%) Python
3 38 (11.48%) C
4 33 (9.97%) C#
5 32 (9.67%) SQL
6 28 (8.46%) C++
7 22 (6.65%) TypeScript
8 20 (6.04%) JavaScript
9 19 (5.74%) Go
10 10 (3.02%) Embedded C
11 8 (2.42%) Bash
12 7 (2.11%) PowerShell
13 4 (1.21%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.21%) Scala
14 3 (0.91%) Ada
14 3 (0.91%) Apex Code
15 2 (0.60%) Kotlin
16 1 (0.30%) Embedded C++
16 1 (0.30%) MATLAB
16 1 (0.30%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 115 (34.74%) Security Cleared
2 99 (29.91%) SC Cleared
3 33 (9.97%) Degree
4 13 (3.93%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (2.72%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.21%) DV Cleared
7 3 (0.91%) AWS Certification
7 3 (0.91%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 2 (0.60%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.60%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.60%) PMP
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
9 1 (0.30%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (8.16%) QA
2 9 (2.72%) Data Quality
3 3 (0.91%) 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 (9.37%) Docker
2 8 (2.42%) Embedded Firmware
2 8 (2.42%) Firmware
3 4 (1.21%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 48 (14.50%) Kubernetes
2 22 (6.65%) Argo
3 20 (6.04%) Terraform
4 12 (3.63%) Ansible
5 5 (1.51%) Grafana
6 4 (1.21%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.60%) Kibana
7 2 (0.60%) Puppet
8 1 (0.30%) CASB
8 1 (0.30%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 22 (6.65%) Red Hat
2 10 (3.02%) Microsoft
3 7 (2.11%) Oracle
4 6 (1.81%) SAP
5 5 (1.51%) Databricks
5 5 (1.51%) Google
5 5 (1.51%) Salesforce
5 5 (1.51%) Workday
6 3 (0.91%) Siemens
7 2 (0.60%) CA Agile Central
8 1 (0.30%) Adobe
8 1 (0.30%) Ariba
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%) Splunk
8 1 (0.30%) UiPath
8 1 (0.30%) VMware