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 12 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 23 34
Rank change year-on-year +6 +11 -12
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 219 148 159
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 8.08% 7.89% 5.12%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.93% 8.89% 6.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 47 68
10th Percentile £68 - £454
25th Percentile £376 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £600 £550
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £591 £676 £676
90th Percentile £678 £681 £727
England median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 151 43 63
10th Percentile £61.25 £61.25 £48.35
25th Percentile - £63.75 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £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 2,205 1,664 2,611
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 81.40% 88.70% 84.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,234 1,025 1,681
10th Percentile £275 £225 £270
25th Percentile £409 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -0.94% -2.75%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 388 101 326
10th Percentile £16.62 £19.83 £14.54
25th Percentile £22.73 £47.50 £31.60
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £52.35
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% +24.16% -14.87%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile - £70.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -26.37% - -

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 12 February 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 12 February 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 12 February 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 +4 177 £418 -24.09% 81
Gloucestershire -25 18 £606 -9.21% 63
Dorset +3 12 - - 17
Wiltshire -14 6 £625 -3.85% 12
Somerset -5 5 £430 +10.90% 18
Devon -12 1 - - 11
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 4 (1.83%) Apache
2 1 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
2 1 (0.46%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.37%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.91%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 20 (9.13%) AWS
2 10 (4.57%) Azure
3 5 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (2.28%) npm
4 4 (1.83%) GCP
5 3 (1.37%) OpenShift
6 2 (0.91%) Azure AKS
6 2 (0.91%) Azure Cosmos DB
6 2 (0.91%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.46%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.46%) Figma
7 1 (0.46%) GitHub
7 1 (0.46%) IaaS
7 1 (0.46%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.46%) Bluetooth
1 1 (0.46%) Ethernet
1 1 (0.46%) Internet
1 1 (0.46%) TCP/IP
1 1 (0.46%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.02%) PostgreSQL
2 7 (3.20%) GIS
3 6 (2.74%) MongoDB
4 4 (1.83%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (1.83%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (1.83%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.83%) MySQL
5 3 (1.37%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (0.91%) SQL Server
7 1 (0.46%) ObjectStore
7 1 (0.46%) Power BI
7 1 (0.46%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 14 (6.39%) Rational Rhapsody
2 11 (5.02%) GitLab
3 10 (4.57%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.83%) Git
4 4 (1.83%) Oracle APEX
5 3 (1.37%) Artifactory
5 3 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.91%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.91%) JIRA
7 1 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.46%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.46%) NUnit
7 1 (0.46%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.46%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.46%) Visual Studio
General
1 24 (10.96%) Aerospace
2 14 (6.39%) Social Skills
3 13 (5.94%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (5.48%) Law
5 10 (4.57%) Electronics
6 8 (3.65%) Finance
7 7 (3.20%) Public Sector
8 5 (2.28%) Automotive
9 4 (1.83%) Military
9 4 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.91%) Banking
10 2 (0.91%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.91%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.91%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.46%) Aviation
11 1 (0.46%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.46%) Legal
Job Titles
1 165 (75.34%) Software Engineer
2 70 (31.96%) C++ Software Engineer
3 19 (8.68%) Embedded Engineer
3 19 (8.68%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 15 (6.85%) Algorithm Engineer
5 14 (6.39%) Senior
6 12 (5.48%) Documentation Officer
6 12 (5.48%) Product Engineer
6 12 (5.48%) Products Support Engineer
6 12 (5.48%) Senior Software Engineer
6 12 (5.48%) Software Support Engineer
6 12 (5.48%) Support Engineer
7 8 (3.65%) C Software Engineer
7 8 (3.65%) C/C++ Software Engineer
7 8 (3.65%) Java Engineer
7 8 (3.65%) Java Software Engineer
7 8 (3.65%) Lead
8 7 (3.20%) Developer
8 7 (3.20%) Full-Stack Engineer
8 7 (3.20%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (21.92%) Middleware
2 28 (12.79%) Qt
3 11 (5.02%) Node.js
4 10 (4.57%) React
5 5 (2.28%) Spring Boot
6 4 (1.83%) REST
7 3 (1.37%) .NET
7 3 (1.37%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (0.91%) Apache NiFi
8 2 (0.91%) Express.js
8 2 (0.91%) Next.js
8 2 (0.91%) OAuth
8 2 (0.91%) OAuth2
9 1 (0.46%) .NET Compact Framework
9 1 (0.46%) GraphQL
9 1 (0.46%) JWT
9 1 (0.46%) LangChain
9 1 (0.46%) LangGraph
9 1 (0.46%) OpenID
9 1 (0.46%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 23 (10.50%) Algorithms
2 11 (5.02%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (3.20%) CUDA
4 6 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (2.74%) Video\Live Streaming
5 5 (2.28%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.83%) Product Ownership
6 4 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (0.91%) Cloud Native
7 2 (0.91%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.46%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.46%) Contactless
8 1 (0.46%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 25 (11.42%) Linux
2 13 (5.94%) Ubuntu
3 10 (4.57%) Windows
4 2 (0.91%) Android
5 1 (0.46%) Debian
5 1 (0.46%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.46%) Rocky
5 1 (0.46%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (10.05%) CI/CD
2 17 (7.76%) Agile
3 16 (7.31%) Project Management
3 16 (7.31%) Software Testing
4 14 (6.39%) Validation
5 13 (5.94%) Software Delivery
5 13 (5.94%) Systems Engineering
6 12 (5.48%) Configuration Management
6 12 (5.48%) DevOps
7 11 (5.02%) Full-Stack Development
7 11 (5.02%) Workflow
8 10 (4.57%) Continuous Improvement
8 10 (4.57%) Integration Testing
8 10 (4.57%) Problem-Solving
9 9 (4.11%) AI
10 8 (3.65%) Collaborative Culture
10 8 (3.65%) Mentoring
10 8 (3.65%) Technical Leadership
10 8 (3.65%) Test Automation
10 8 (3.65%) UML
Programming Languages
1 96 (43.84%) C++
2 59 (26.94%) Ada
3 40 (18.26%) C
4 25 (11.42%) Java
5 23 (10.50%) JavaScript
6 19 (8.68%) Python
7 13 (5.94%) MATLAB
8 12 (5.48%) Shell Script
9 10 (4.57%) C#
10 9 (4.11%) SQL
10 9 (4.11%) TypeScript
11 4 (1.83%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.83%) PowerShell
12 2 (0.91%) Bicep
13 1 (0.46%) Embedded C++
13 1 (0.46%) Fortran
13 1 (0.46%) Go
13 1 (0.46%) Scala
Qualifications
1 72 (32.88%) Security Cleared
2 59 (26.94%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.85%) Degree
4 10 (4.57%) DV Cleared
5 6 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.37%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.91%) Postgraduate
8 1 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.46%) CISSP
8 1 (0.46%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.46%) HND
8 1 (0.46%) MCSE
8 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (20.09%) Def Stans
2 33 (15.07%) IEC 61508
3 31 (14.16%) MISRA
4 21 (9.59%) MISRA C
5 10 (4.57%) DO-178B
6 6 (2.74%) QA
7 2 (0.91%) GDPR
8 1 (0.46%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.46%) DICOM
8 1 (0.46%) HL7
8 1 (0.46%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 10 (4.57%) Firmware
2 9 (4.11%) Docker
3 4 (1.83%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.91%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.46%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (4.57%) Kubernetes
2 9 (4.11%) Terraform
3 5 (2.28%) Ansible
4 4 (1.83%) Data Guard
5 3 (1.37%) Grafana
5 3 (1.37%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.91%) Kibana
7 1 (0.46%) Packer
7 1 (0.46%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 17 (7.76%) Red Hat
2 6 (2.74%) IBM
3 5 (2.28%) MathWorks
3 5 (2.28%) Oracle
4 4 (1.83%) Microsoft
5 1 (0.46%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.46%) Databricks
5 1 (0.46%) NVIDIA
5 1 (0.46%) VMware
5 1 (0.46%) Xamarin