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 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 21 27
Rank change year-on-year -5 +6 -6
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 154 162 180
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 6.38% 8.00% 6.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 7.72% 9.12% 7.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 49 101
10th Percentile £68 £445 £470
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 97 47 58
10th Percentile - £61.25 £48.32
25th Percentile £61.25 £62.50 £61.25
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 £67.25 £69.25 -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 1,995 1,777 2,502
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 82.68% 87.71% 85.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,174 1,088 1,643
10th Percentile £263 £266 £289
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
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 £725 £720
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 112 268
10th Percentile £15.60 £18.51 £20.18
25th Percentile £20.36 £44.69 £45.75
Median hourly rate £33.50 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -48.46% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £74.40 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +26.76%

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 1 January 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 1 January 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 1 January 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 +2 122 £400 -23.81% 115
Gloucestershire -31 12 £625 -6.37% 60
Somerset +1 8 £447 +6.75% 32
Dorset +5 7 - - 25
Wiltshire -15 4 £625 -28.57% 13
Devon -8 1 - - 7
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 (3.25%) Apache
2 2 (1.30%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.65%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.30%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 19 (12.34%) AWS
2 12 (7.79%) Azure
3 6 (3.90%) GCP
4 5 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
4 5 (3.25%) npm
5 2 (1.30%) Amazon ECS
5 2 (1.30%) Amazon EKS
5 2 (1.30%) Amazon S3
5 2 (1.30%) AWS Lambda
5 2 (1.30%) Azure AKS
5 2 (1.30%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 2 (1.30%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.30%) OpenShift
5 2 (1.30%) Serverless
6 1 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (0.65%) Dagster
6 1 (0.65%) IaaS
6 1 (0.65%) Prefect
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.65%) Bluetooth
1 1 (0.65%) Ethernet
1 1 (0.65%) Internet
1 1 (0.65%) TCP/IP
1 1 (0.65%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.55%) PostgreSQL
2 6 (3.90%) GIS
3 4 (2.60%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.95%) NoSQL
5 2 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (1.30%) ClickHouse
5 2 (1.30%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (1.30%) MongoDB
5 2 (1.30%) MySQL
6 1 (0.65%) ObjectStore
6 1 (0.65%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 13 (8.44%) GitLab
2 11 (7.14%) Jenkins
2 11 (7.14%) Rational Rhapsody
3 5 (3.25%) Artifactory
4 4 (2.60%) Git
5 2 (1.30%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.30%) JIRA
5 2 (1.30%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.65%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.65%) CMake
6 1 (0.65%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.65%) GoogleTest
6 1 (0.65%) NUnit
6 1 (0.65%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.65%) Visual Studio
General
1 17 (11.04%) Aerospace
2 15 (9.74%) Social Skills
3 12 (7.79%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.84%) Electronics
5 8 (5.19%) Law
6 7 (4.55%) Public Sector
7 6 (3.90%) Finance
8 5 (3.25%) Automotive
9 4 (2.60%) Military
9 4 (2.60%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.30%) Tech for Good
10 2 (1.30%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.65%) Aviation
11 1 (0.65%) Banking
11 1 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.65%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.65%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 103 (66.88%) Software Engineer
2 48 (31.17%) C++ Software Engineer
3 16 (10.39%) Embedded Engineer
3 16 (10.39%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 15 (9.74%) Senior
5 12 (7.79%) Documentation Officer
5 12 (7.79%) Product Engineer
5 12 (7.79%) Products Support Engineer
5 12 (7.79%) Software Support Engineer
5 12 (7.79%) Support Engineer
6 11 (7.14%) Senior Software Engineer
7 8 (5.19%) Lead
8 6 (3.90%) DevOps Engineer
9 5 (3.25%) Data Engineer
9 5 (3.25%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 5 (3.25%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
10 4 (2.60%) C Software Engineer
10 4 (2.60%) C/C++ Software Engineer
10 4 (2.60%) Developer
11 3 (1.95%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (21.43%) Middleware
2 19 (12.34%) Qt
3 13 (8.44%) Node.js
4 10 (6.49%) React
5 6 (3.90%) REST
6 4 (2.60%) Apache NiFi
7 3 (1.95%) .NET
7 3 (1.95%) Spring Boot
8 2 (1.30%) Django
8 2 (1.30%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (1.30%) Express.js
8 2 (1.30%) JDBC
8 2 (1.30%) Next.js
8 2 (1.30%) OAuth
8 2 (1.30%) OAuth2
8 2 (1.30%) Web Services
9 1 (0.65%) AWS CDK
9 1 (0.65%) FastAPI
9 1 (0.65%) JWT
9 1 (0.65%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 11 (7.14%) Embedded Systems
2 8 (5.19%) Algorithms
3 7 (4.55%) CUDA
4 5 (3.25%) Video\Live Streaming
5 4 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.60%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.95%) Cloud Native
6 3 (1.95%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.30%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.30%) IoT
7 2 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.30%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.65%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.65%) Contactless
8 1 (0.65%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.65%) Raspberry Pi
8 1 (0.65%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 23 (14.94%) Linux
2 12 (7.79%) Ubuntu
2 12 (7.79%) Windows
3 3 (1.95%) Android
4 1 (0.65%) Embedded Linux
4 1 (0.65%) Robot Operating System
4 1 (0.65%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (13.64%) CI/CD
2 18 (11.69%) Agile
3 15 (9.74%) DevOps
3 15 (9.74%) Project Management
4 13 (8.44%) Validation
5 12 (7.79%) Software Testing
6 11 (7.14%) Configuration Management
6 11 (7.14%) Software Delivery
6 11 (7.14%) Systems Engineering
7 10 (6.49%) Problem-Solving
8 9 (5.84%) Full-Stack Development
9 8 (5.19%) Collaborative Culture
9 8 (5.19%) Computer Science
9 8 (5.19%) Integration Testing
9 8 (5.19%) Workflow
10 7 (4.55%) AI
10 7 (4.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 7 (4.55%) Mentoring
10 7 (4.55%) Test Automation
10 7 (4.55%) UML
Programming Languages
1 69 (44.81%) C++
2 33 (21.43%) C
3 31 (20.13%) Ada
4 22 (14.29%) JavaScript
4 22 (14.29%) Python
5 12 (7.79%) Shell Script
6 11 (7.14%) Java
6 11 (7.14%) TypeScript
7 8 (5.19%) C#
7 8 (5.19%) SQL
8 6 (3.90%) PowerShell
9 3 (1.95%) MATLAB
10 2 (1.30%) Bicep
11 1 (0.65%) Embedded C++
11 1 (0.65%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 56 (36.36%) Security Cleared
2 46 (29.87%) SC Cleared
3 15 (9.74%) Degree
4 8 (5.19%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (5.19%) DV Cleared
5 2 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.30%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.65%) CISSP
6 1 (0.65%) HND
6 1 (0.65%) MCSE
6 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.65%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (16.88%) Def Stans
2 22 (14.29%) MISRA
3 17 (11.04%) IEC 61508
4 13 (8.44%) MISRA C
5 9 (5.84%) DO-178B
6 8 (5.19%) QA
7 1 (0.65%) DICOM
7 1 (0.65%) GDPR
7 1 (0.65%) HL7
7 1 (0.65%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 12 (7.79%) Docker
2 9 (5.84%) Firmware
3 2 (1.30%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 12 (7.79%) Terraform
2 9 (5.84%) Kubernetes
3 6 (3.90%) Ansible
4 2 (1.30%) Grafana
4 2 (1.30%) Kibana
4 2 (1.30%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.65%) Packer
5 1 (0.65%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 18 (11.69%) Red Hat
2 5 (3.25%) Microsoft
3 3 (1.95%) Google
4 2 (1.30%) Databricks
4 2 (1.30%) IBM
4 2 (1.30%) NVIDIA
5 1 (0.65%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.65%) MathWorks
5 1 (0.65%) VMware
5 1 (0.65%) Xamarin