Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in the South West

Software Engineering
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 22 45
Rank change year-on-year +8 +23 -20
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 251 126 134
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 8.48% 7.40% 4.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.63% 8.22% 5.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 57 53
10th Percentile £71 £355 £400
25th Percentile £403 £500 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £585 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% +11.43% -12.50%
75th Percentile £606 £663 £688
90th Percentile £644 £688 £747
England median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 172 43 56
10th Percentile £61.25 £61.40 £49.24
25th Percentile - £65.00 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £66.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.26% +2.31% -0.76%
75th Percentile - £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £68.75 -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,362 1,532 2,674
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 79.82% 89.96% 83.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,279 1,010 1,734
10th Percentile £310 £243 £255
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £713
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 420 109 335
10th Percentile £16.62 £18.51 £13.91
25th Percentile £23.50 £50.75 £25.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £47.83
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% +35.90% -22.23%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £67.38
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £32.50 £34.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -4.41% +4.62% -13.33%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in the South West

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Software Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in the South West over the 6 months to 22 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in the South West

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Software Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in the South West over the 6 months to 22 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in the South West

Software Engineering
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 22 March 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
Bristol +5 200 £500 +35.14% 83
Gloucestershire -9 23 £606 +1.00% 69
Dorset +5 13 £550 -18.52% 14
Wiltshire -16 12 £589 -4.66% 14
Somerset -12 2 £413 +6.45% 23
Devon -15 1 - - 14
Software Engineering
England

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 6 (2.39%) Apache
2 3 (1.20%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.80%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.80%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.80%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 15 (5.98%) AWS
2 9 (3.59%) Azure
3 3 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
3 3 (1.20%) GitHub
3 3 (1.20%) OpenShift
4 1 (0.40%) AWS CloudFormation
4 1 (0.40%) Figma
4 1 (0.40%) IaaS
4 1 (0.40%) npm
4 1 (0.40%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.99%) TCP/IP
2 4 (1.59%) Ethernet
3 1 (0.40%) Bluetooth
3 1 (0.40%) Internet
3 1 (0.40%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.99%) PostgreSQL
2 4 (1.59%) Amazon Aurora
2 4 (1.59%) Amazon RDS
2 4 (1.59%) DynamoDB
2 4 (1.59%) MongoDB
2 4 (1.59%) MySQL
3 2 (0.80%) GIS
4 1 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (0.40%) ObjectStore
4 1 (0.40%) Power BI
4 1 (0.40%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 20 (7.97%) Rational Rhapsody
2 14 (5.58%) GitLab
3 13 (5.18%) Jenkins
4 6 (2.39%) Git
5 4 (1.59%) Artifactory
5 4 (1.59%) Eclipse
5 4 (1.59%) JIRA
5 4 (1.59%) Oracle APEX
5 4 (1.59%) Visual Studio
6 3 (1.20%) Bitbucket
6 3 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.80%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.40%) NUnit
8 1 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.40%) SonarQube
General
1 27 (10.76%) Aerospace
2 14 (5.58%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (5.18%) Law
3 13 (5.18%) Social Skills
4 10 (3.98%) Electronics
5 6 (2.39%) Finance
5 6 (2.39%) Military
6 5 (1.99%) Public Sector
7 4 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (0.80%) Banking
8 2 (0.80%) Financial Institution
8 2 (0.80%) Investment Banking
8 2 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.80%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.40%) Automotive
9 1 (0.40%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.40%) Legal
Job Titles
1 206 (82.07%) Software Engineer
2 71 (28.29%) C++ Software Engineer
3 32 (12.75%) Embedded Engineer
3 32 (12.75%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 22 (8.76%) Algorithm Engineer
5 19 (7.57%) Ada Engineer
5 19 (7.57%) Ada Software Engineer
6 16 (6.37%) Java Engineer
6 16 (6.37%) Java Software Engineer
7 12 (4.78%) Senior
8 9 (3.59%) Developer
8 9 (3.59%) Senior Software Engineer
9 8 (3.19%) C Software Engineer
9 8 (3.19%) C# Software Engineer
9 8 (3.19%) C/C++ Software Engineer
10 7 (2.79%) Lead
11 6 (2.39%) Documentation Officer
11 6 (2.39%) Product Engineer
11 6 (2.39%) Products Support Engineer
11 6 (2.39%) Software Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (17.93%) Middleware
2 22 (8.76%) Qt
3 9 (3.59%) REST
4 5 (1.99%) Node.js
4 5 (1.99%) Spring Boot
5 4 (1.59%) SOAP
5 4 (1.59%) Web Services
6 3 (1.20%) Apache NiFi
6 3 (1.20%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.80%) React
7 2 (0.80%) RESTful
8 1 (0.40%) .NET
8 1 (0.40%) .NET Compact Framework
8 1 (0.40%) .NET Framework
8 1 (0.40%) LangChain
8 1 (0.40%) LangGraph
8 1 (0.40%) OAuth
8 1 (0.40%) OAuth2
8 1 (0.40%) OpenID
8 1 (0.40%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 30 (11.95%) Algorithms
2 13 (5.18%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (2.79%) CUDA
4 6 (2.39%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (2.39%) Product Ownership
5 5 (1.99%) Onboarding
6 2 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.40%) AI Agents
7 1 (0.40%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.40%) Contactless
7 1 (0.40%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.40%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.40%) Video\Live Streaming
7 1 (0.40%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 34 (13.55%) Linux
2 11 (4.38%) Windows
3 9 (3.59%) Ubuntu
4 5 (1.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.20%) Debian
5 3 (1.20%) Rocky
6 2 (0.80%) Android
7 1 (0.40%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.40%) Windows Embedded Compact
7 1 (0.40%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (12.75%) CI/CD
2 20 (7.97%) Agile
3 18 (7.17%) UML
4 17 (6.77%) Validation
5 15 (5.98%) Systems Engineering
6 13 (5.18%) Problem-Solving
6 13 (5.18%) Workflow
7 12 (4.78%) DevOps
7 12 (4.78%) Technical Leadership
8 11 (4.38%) Containerisation
8 11 (4.38%) Continuous Improvement
8 11 (4.38%) Integration Testing
9 10 (3.98%) Computer Science
9 10 (3.98%) Project Management
9 10 (3.98%) Software Testing
10 9 (3.59%) AI
10 9 (3.59%) Configuration Management
10 9 (3.59%) Software Delivery
10 9 (3.59%) SysML
10 9 (3.59%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 93 (37.05%) C++
2 79 (31.47%) Ada
3 36 (14.34%) C
4 35 (13.94%) Java
5 27 (10.76%) Python
6 20 (7.97%) MATLAB
7 17 (6.77%) JavaScript
8 15 (5.98%) C#
9 12 (4.78%) PowerShell
10 7 (2.79%) Bash
10 7 (2.79%) SQL
11 6 (2.39%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.59%) PL/SQL
13 3 (1.20%) Go
14 1 (0.40%) Embedded C++
14 1 (0.40%) Scala
14 1 (0.40%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 82 (32.67%) Security Cleared
2 62 (24.70%) SC Cleared
3 15 (5.98%) Degree
4 14 (5.58%) DV Cleared
5 9 (3.59%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.20%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.40%) CCNP
7 1 (0.40%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.40%) CISSP
7 1 (0.40%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.40%) HND
7 1 (0.40%) MCSE
7 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.40%) OCA
7 1 (0.40%) Oracle Certification
7 1 (0.40%) Postgraduate
7 1 (0.40%) RHCA
7 1 (0.40%) RHCE
7 1 (0.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (20.32%) Def Stans
2 40 (15.94%) IEC 61508
3 30 (11.95%) MISRA
4 20 (7.97%) MISRA C
5 10 (3.98%) DO-178B
6 9 (3.59%) QA
7 1 (0.40%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.40%) DICOM
7 1 (0.40%) GDPR
7 1 (0.40%) HL7
7 1 (0.40%) NCSC
System Software
1 12 (4.78%) Docker
2 10 (3.98%) Firmware
3 4 (1.59%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (5.58%) Ansible
1 14 (5.58%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.19%) Terraform
3 4 (1.59%) Data Guard
4 3 (1.20%) Grafana
4 3 (1.20%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.80%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.80%) Puppet
6 1 (0.40%) Packer
6 1 (0.40%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 14 (5.58%) Red Hat
2 8 (3.19%) IBM
3 7 (2.79%) MathWorks
4 5 (1.99%) Microsoft
4 5 (1.99%) Oracle
5 2 (0.80%) VMware
6 1 (0.40%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.40%) Databricks
6 1 (0.40%) NVIDIA
6 1 (0.40%) Xamarin