Technical Leader Contract Job Trends in the South East

Technical Lead
England > South East

The median Technical Lead daily rate in the South East is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 148 147 155
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 +27
Contract jobs requiring a Technical Leader 76 11 27
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.16% 0.31% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.26% 0.35% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 10 23
10th Percentile £446 £271 £483
25th Percentile £575 £307 £521
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £375 £600
Median % change year-on-year +66.67% -37.50% -12.73%
75th Percentile £744 £587 £663
90th Percentile £794 £680 £795
England median daily rate £625 £600 £628
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.38% -5.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £81.26 - -
25th Percentile £81.34 - -
Median hourly rate £82.96 - -
75th Percentile £84.84 - -
90th Percentile £85.09 - -
England median hourly rate £67.50 - £57.50
% change year-on-year - - +18.29%

All Contract IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 6,031 3,157 4,337
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.78% 90.23% 92.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,514 2,032 2,609
10th Percentile £301 £205 £251
25th Percentile £425 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £625
90th Percentile £713 £663 £688
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 752 284 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.75 £16.20
25th Percentile £23.16 £15.50 £30.41
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% -56.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £85.23 £71.50 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +2.86%

Technical Leader
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Technical Leader' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Technical Leader job vacancy trend in the South East

Technical Leader
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Technical Leader job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Technical Leader job vacancies in the South East

Technical Leader
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Technical Leader in the South East over the 6 months to 3 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Technical Leader in the South East

Technical Leader
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Technical Leader job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Technical Leader job vacancies in the South East

Technical Leader
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 Technical Leader within the South East region over the 6 months to 3 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
Thames Valley -9 34 £625 +47.06% 23
Hampshire -11 25 £700 +46.60% 12
Berkshire -7 15 £625 +31.58% 13
Buckinghamshire -27 10 £763 +301.32% 9
Oxfordshire -15 9 £400 - 2
Surrey - 9 £575 - 6
West Sussex -17 7 £600 +110.53% 2
Middlesex - 1 - -
Technical Leader
England

Technical Leader Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 3 September 2026, Technical Leader contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Technical Leader in the job title.

1 36 (47.37%) Security Cleared
2 34 (44.74%) Technical Leadership
3 32 (42.11%) Azure
4 31 (40.79%) Agile
5 23 (30.26%) CI/CD
5 23 (30.26%) Problem-Solving
6 22 (28.95%) DV Cleared
7 21 (27.63%) Stakeholder Management
8 19 (25.00%) DevOps
9 17 (22.37%) AWS
9 17 (22.37%) Roadmaps
10 16 (21.05%) Microsoft
11 14 (18.42%) Software Engineering
12 13 (17.11%) Analytics
12 13 (17.11%) Degree
12 13 (17.11%) Mentoring
12 13 (17.11%) Python
12 13 (17.11%) SC Cleared
12 13 (17.11%) VMware
13 12 (15.79%) GCP
13 12 (15.79%) PowerShell
14 11 (14.47%) Computer Science
14 11 (14.47%) JavaScript
14 11 (14.47%) Kubernetes
14 11 (14.47%) Microservices
14 11 (14.47%) React
14 11 (14.47%) Service Management
15 10 (13.16%) Continuous Improvement
15 10 (13.16%) DevSecOps
15 10 (13.16%) ITSM

Technical Leader Skill Set
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 5 (6.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (2.63%) Apache
2 2 (2.63%) Apache Superset
Applications
1 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (3.95%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (2.63%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (2.63%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 2 (2.63%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 32 (42.11%) Azure
2 17 (22.37%) AWS
3 12 (15.79%) GCP
4 6 (7.89%) Entra ID
4 6 (7.89%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (6.58%) IaaS
6 4 (5.26%) OpenShift
6 4 (5.26%) PaaS
6 4 (5.26%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
7 3 (3.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (2.63%) Azure AKS
8 2 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (2.63%) OCI
8 2 (2.63%) Power Platform
9 1 (1.32%) Adobe Analytics
9 1 (1.32%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 5 (6.58%) Firewall
1 5 (6.58%) LAN
1 5 (6.58%) Unified Communications
1 5 (6.58%) WAN
2 3 (3.95%) BGP
2 3 (3.95%) BIG-IP
2 3 (3.95%) Cisco ASA
2 3 (3.95%) Cisco Firepower
2 3 (3.95%) Cisco Nexus
2 3 (3.95%) DNS
2 3 (3.95%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
2 3 (3.95%) IPsec
2 3 (3.95%) MPLS
2 3 (3.95%) OSPF
2 3 (3.95%) SD-WAN
2 3 (3.95%) TCP/IP
2 3 (3.95%) VLAN
2 3 (3.95%) VPN
3 1 (1.32%) ICMP
3 1 (1.32%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (11.84%) PostgreSQL
1 9 (11.84%) Relational Database
2 2 (2.63%) Power BI
2 2 (2.63%) Redis
Development Applications
1 7 (9.21%) Git
2 2 (2.63%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (1.32%) JIRA
General
1 25 (32.89%) Social Skills
2 12 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (13.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 8 (10.53%) Local Government
5 7 (9.21%) Public Sector
6 4 (5.26%) Aerospace
6 4 (5.26%) Finance
7 3 (3.95%) Marketing
7 3 (3.95%) Telecoms
8 2 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (2.63%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (1.32%) Aviation
9 1 (1.32%) Legal
9 1 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (14.47%) React
2 9 (11.84%) CSS
2 9 (11.84%) HTML
3 8 (10.53%) Terraform
4 7 (9.21%) Django
4 7 (9.21%) OAuth
4 7 (9.21%) OAuth2
4 7 (9.21%) OpenID
4 7 (9.21%) RESTful
5 6 (7.89%) .NET
6 5 (6.58%) Lightning Web Components
7 2 (2.63%) .NET Core
7 2 (2.63%) .NET Framework
7 2 (2.63%) ASP.NET
7 2 (2.63%) ASP.NET Web API
7 2 (2.63%) Entity Framework
7 2 (2.63%) Next.js
8 1 (1.32%) GraphQL
8 1 (1.32%) REST
8 1 (1.32%) UIKit
Miscellaneous
1 9 (11.84%) Cloud Native
1 9 (11.84%) Product Ownership
2 8 (10.53%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (6.58%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
3 5 (6.58%) Distributed Systems
3 5 (6.58%) Private Cloud
4 4 (5.26%) Data Centre
5 2 (2.63%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (2.63%) FMCG
5 2 (2.63%) Public Cloud
6 1 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.32%) Marketing Technology
6 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Licensing
6 1 (1.32%) Mobile App
6 1 (1.32%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.32%) PMI
6 1 (1.32%) Social Media
6 1 (1.32%) Synthetic Data
6 1 (1.32%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 10 (13.16%) Windows
2 9 (11.84%) Windows Server
3 1 (1.32%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (44.74%) Technical Leadership
2 31 (40.79%) Agile
3 23 (30.26%) CI/CD
3 23 (30.26%) Problem-Solving
4 21 (27.63%) Stakeholder Management
5 19 (25.00%) DevOps
6 17 (22.37%) Roadmaps
7 14 (18.42%) Software Engineering
8 13 (17.11%) Analytics
8 13 (17.11%) Mentoring
9 11 (14.47%) Computer Science
9 11 (14.47%) Microservices
9 11 (14.47%) Service Management
10 10 (13.16%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (13.16%) DevSecOps
10 10 (13.16%) ITSM
11 9 (11.84%) Code Quality
11 9 (11.84%) Infrastructure Automation
11 9 (11.84%) Test Automation
12 8 (10.53%) Technology Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 13 (17.11%) Python
2 12 (15.79%) PowerShell
3 11 (14.47%) JavaScript
4 6 (7.89%) C#
5 5 (6.58%) Apex Code
5 5 (6.58%) SQL
6 2 (2.63%) C++
6 2 (2.63%) Java
6 2 (2.63%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.32%) Objective-C
7 1 (1.32%) Swift
Qualifications
1 36 (47.37%) Security Cleared
2 22 (28.95%) DV Cleared
3 13 (17.11%) Degree
3 13 (17.11%) SC Cleared
4 6 (7.89%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (6.58%) CCNP
5 5 (6.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (6.58%) Master's Degree
5 5 (6.58%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 3 (3.95%) AWS Certification
6 3 (3.95%) PMI Certification
7 2 (2.63%) CCIE
7 2 (2.63%) PMP
8 1 (1.32%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 1 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.32%) CCSP
8 1 (1.32%) CISSP
8 1 (1.32%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (1.32%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (11.84%) Accessibility
1 9 (11.84%) QA
2 3 (3.95%) NCSC
3 1 (1.32%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.32%) PMO
System Software
1 10 (13.16%) VMware NSX
2 9 (11.84%) Docker
3 8 (10.53%) vCloud
3 8 (10.53%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (7.89%) Active Directory
5 5 (6.58%) Firmware
6 1 (1.32%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 11 (14.47%) Kubernetes
2 8 (10.53%) Ansible
2 8 (10.53%) SCOM
2 8 (10.53%) vCenter Server
3 2 (2.63%) Grafana
4 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.32%) SCCM
Vendors
1 16 (21.05%) Microsoft
2 13 (17.11%) VMware
3 8 (10.53%) Cisco
4 7 (9.21%) Salesforce
5 3 (3.95%) F5
5 3 (3.95%) Google
5 3 (3.95%) Palo Alto
5 3 (3.95%) SAP
5 3 (3.95%) SolarWinds
6 2 (2.63%) Oracle
7 1 (1.32%) Adobe
7 1 (1.32%) Broadcom
7 1 (1.32%) ServiceNow
7 1 (1.32%) Snow