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 14 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 30 20 23
Rank change year-on-year -10 +3 -5
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 132 180 211
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 5.75% 8.45% 6.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.84% 9.73% 8.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 54 126
10th Percentile £68 £433 £463
25th Percentile £144 £500 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £600 £550
Median % change year-on-year -25.50% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £575 £676 £675
90th Percentile £688 - £725
England median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 56 60
10th Percentile £61.25 £61.00 £48.32
25th Percentile - £62.38 £61.13
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.76% +0.77% -0.76%
75th Percentile - £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process and 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 1,930 1,849 2,631
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 84.06% 86.77% 87.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,134 1,137 1,758
10th Percentile £263 £284 £300
25th Percentile £413 £424 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £727 £725
England median daily rate £506 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.62% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 130 264
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.41 £20.65
25th Percentile £18.87 £47.63 £45.75
Median hourly rate £29.40 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -54.78% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.25
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.90% +18.63%

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 14 December 2025.

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 14 December 2025.

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 14 December 2025. 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 0 111 £400 -27.27% 126
Somerset -1 8 £447 -0.67% 61
Gloucestershire -39 8 £625 -6.37% 119
Dorset +3 2 - - 60
Wiltshire -12 2 £625 -28.57% 46
Devon -8 1 - - 73
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 5 (3.79%) Apache
2 2 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.76%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.76%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (1.52%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 17 (12.88%) AWS
2 10 (7.58%) Azure
3 6 (4.55%) GCP
4 5 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
4 5 (3.79%) npm
5 2 (1.52%) Amazon ECS
5 2 (1.52%) Amazon EKS
5 2 (1.52%) Amazon S3
5 2 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
5 2 (1.52%) Azure AKS
5 2 (1.52%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 2 (1.52%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.52%) OpenShift
5 2 (1.52%) Serverless
6 1 (0.76%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (0.76%) Dagster
6 1 (0.76%) GitHub
6 1 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.76%) IaaS
6 1 (0.76%) Prefect
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.76%) Ethernet
1 1 (0.76%) Internet
1 1 (0.76%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.30%) GIS
1 7 (5.30%) PostgreSQL
2 4 (3.03%) SQL Server
3 3 (2.27%) NoSQL
4 2 (1.52%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (1.52%) ClickHouse
4 2 (1.52%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.52%) MongoDB
4 2 (1.52%) MySQL
5 1 (0.76%) ObjectStore
5 1 (0.76%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 12 (9.09%) GitLab
2 11 (8.33%) Jenkins
3 9 (6.82%) Rational Rhapsody
4 5 (3.79%) Artifactory
5 4 (3.03%) Git
6 2 (1.52%) Bitbucket
6 2 (1.52%) CMake
6 2 (1.52%) JIRA
6 2 (1.52%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.76%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.76%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.76%) GoogleTest
7 1 (0.76%) Gradle
7 1 (0.76%) NUnit
7 1 (0.76%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.76%) Visual Studio
General
1 14 (10.61%) Aerospace
1 14 (10.61%) Social Skills
2 12 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (6.82%) Electronics
4 7 (5.30%) Law
4 7 (5.30%) Public Sector
5 5 (3.79%) Automotive
5 5 (3.79%) Finance
6 4 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (2.27%) Military
8 2 (1.52%) Tech for Good
8 2 (1.52%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.76%) Aviation
9 1 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 83 (62.88%) Software Engineer
2 44 (33.33%) C++ Software Engineer
3 15 (11.36%) Embedded Engineer
3 15 (11.36%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 12 (9.09%) Documentation Officer
4 12 (9.09%) Product Engineer
4 12 (9.09%) Products Support Engineer
4 12 (9.09%) Software Support Engineer
4 12 (9.09%) Support Engineer
5 10 (7.58%) Senior
6 7 (5.30%) Lead
7 6 (4.55%) DevOps Engineer
7 6 (4.55%) Senior Software Engineer
8 5 (3.79%) Data Engineer
9 3 (2.27%) Developer
10 2 (1.52%) Author
10 2 (1.52%) Engineering Manager
10 2 (1.52%) Project Manager
10 2 (1.52%) Senior Manager
10 2 (1.52%) Technical Author
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (22.73%) Middleware
2 16 (12.12%) Qt
3 13 (9.85%) Node.js
4 9 (6.82%) React
5 6 (4.55%) REST
6 4 (3.03%) Apache NiFi
7 3 (2.27%) .NET
8 2 (1.52%) Django
8 2 (1.52%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (1.52%) Express.js
8 2 (1.52%) JDBC
8 2 (1.52%) Next.js
8 2 (1.52%) OAuth
8 2 (1.52%) OAuth2
8 2 (1.52%) Web Services
9 1 (0.76%) AWS CDK
9 1 (0.76%) Bazel
9 1 (0.76%) FastAPI
9 1 (0.76%) GraphQL
9 1 (0.76%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 10 (7.58%) Embedded Systems
2 8 (6.06%) CUDA
3 6 (4.55%) Video\Live Streaming
4 4 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (2.27%) Cloud Native
6 2 (1.52%) Algorithms
6 2 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.52%) Greenfield Project
6 2 (1.52%) IoT
6 2 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.52%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.76%) Contactless
7 1 (0.76%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.76%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.76%) Raspberry Pi
7 1 (0.76%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 23 (17.42%) Linux
2 13 (9.85%) Windows
3 12 (9.09%) Ubuntu
4 3 (2.27%) Android
5 1 (0.76%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.76%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (13.64%) CI/CD
2 16 (12.12%) Agile
3 14 (10.61%) DevOps
3 14 (10.61%) Project Management
4 13 (9.85%) Validation
5 11 (8.33%) Configuration Management
5 11 (8.33%) Software Delivery
5 11 (8.33%) Software Testing
5 11 (8.33%) Systems Engineering
6 9 (6.82%) Problem-Solving
7 8 (6.06%) Collaborative Culture
7 8 (6.06%) Computer Science
7 8 (6.06%) Containerisation
7 8 (6.06%) Integration Testing
7 8 (6.06%) Test Automation
8 7 (5.30%) Project Delivery
8 7 (5.30%) UML
8 7 (5.30%) Workflow
9 6 (4.55%) Continuous Improvement
9 6 (4.55%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 63 (47.73%) C++
2 32 (24.24%) C
3 26 (19.70%) Ada
4 22 (16.67%) JavaScript
5 19 (14.39%) Python
6 12 (9.09%) Shell Script
7 11 (8.33%) TypeScript
8 8 (6.06%) SQL
9 6 (4.55%) C#
9 6 (4.55%) Java
9 6 (4.55%) PowerShell
10 2 (1.52%) Bicep
10 2 (1.52%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.76%) Embedded C++
11 1 (0.76%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 50 (37.88%) Security Cleared
2 42 (31.82%) SC Cleared
3 15 (11.36%) Degree
4 8 (6.06%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (6.06%) DV Cleared
5 2 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.52%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.76%) CISSP
6 1 (0.76%) HND
6 1 (0.76%) MCSE
6 1 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.76%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (16.67%) Def Stans
2 19 (14.39%) MISRA
3 13 (9.85%) IEC 61508
4 10 (7.58%) MISRA C
5 9 (6.82%) DO-178B
6 8 (6.06%) QA
7 1 (0.76%) GDPR
7 1 (0.76%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 12 (9.09%) Docker
2 9 (6.82%) Firmware
3 2 (1.52%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 12 (9.09%) Terraform
2 10 (7.58%) Kubernetes
3 6 (4.55%) Ansible
4 2 (1.52%) Grafana
4 2 (1.52%) Kibana
4 2 (1.52%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.76%) Packer
5 1 (0.76%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 18 (13.64%) Red Hat
2 5 (3.79%) Microsoft
3 3 (2.27%) Google
4 2 (1.52%) Databricks
4 2 (1.52%) NVIDIA
5 1 (0.76%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.76%) IBM
5 1 (0.76%) VMware
5 1 (0.76%) Xamarin