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 10 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 35 26
Rank change year-on-year +26 -9 -4
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 325 97 189
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 9.44% 5.49% 5.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.93% 6.04% 6.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 43 58
10th Percentile £500 £355 £425
25th Percentile £513 £406 £461
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £570 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% - -9.33%
75th Percentile £644 £647 £630
90th Percentile £700 £680 £697
England median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -0.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 185 34 87
10th Percentile £53.53 £62.15 £52.50
25th Percentile - £65.00 £65.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% -3.57% +6.87%
75th Percentile £67.25 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £73.75
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 2,725 1,606 2,703
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 79.15% 90.84% 82.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,464 979 1,694
10th Percentile £325 £215 £244
25th Percentile £413 £375 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £623 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £700
England median daily rate £515 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.96% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 476 169 370
10th Percentile £16.32 £18.13 £13.83
25th Percentile £26.19 £18.87 £28.44
Median hourly rate £57.50 £32.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +76.92% -40.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +67.86% -25.33% +4.17%

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 10 June 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 10 June 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 10 June 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 +14 235 £525 +40.94% 81
Gloucestershire +10 31 £606 -9.21% 53
Dorset +6 16 £550 +15.79% 20
Somerset -4 14 £611 +32.00% 27
Wiltshire -4 14 £575 -1.71% 6
Devon -20 8 £613 +44.12% 9
Cornwall - 3 £750 - 1
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 7 (2.15%) Confluence
2 5 (1.54%) Apache
3 3 (0.92%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.62%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.92%) Simulink
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 40 (12.31%) AWS
2 23 (7.08%) Azure
3 8 (2.46%) GCP
4 5 (1.54%) GitHub
5 4 (1.23%) Serverless
6 3 (0.92%) AWS Lambda
6 3 (0.92%) Entra ID
6 3 (0.92%) OpenShift
7 2 (0.62%) Amazon S3
7 2 (0.62%) Amazon SQS
7 2 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (0.62%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.31%) Amazon EventBridge
8 1 (0.31%) AWS Fargate
8 1 (0.31%) dbt
8 1 (0.31%) Figma
8 1 (0.31%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.31%) Power Automate
8 1 (0.31%) PowerApps
8 1 (0.31%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.15%) TCP/IP
2 6 (1.85%) Ethernet
3 1 (0.31%) AMQP
3 1 (0.31%) Bluetooth
3 1 (0.31%) Firewall
3 1 (0.31%) Network Security
3 1 (0.31%) VPN
3 1 (0.31%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
2 5 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (1.54%) DynamoDB
2 5 (1.54%) MongoDB
3 4 (1.23%) Amazon Aurora
3 4 (1.23%) MySQL
4 3 (0.92%) Apache Cassandra
4 3 (0.92%) Big Data
4 3 (0.92%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.92%) HBase
4 3 (0.92%) NoSQL
4 3 (0.92%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.62%) Power BI
6 1 (0.31%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.31%) Geospatial Data
6 1 (0.31%) GIS
6 1 (0.31%) InfluxDB
6 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 19 (5.85%) Git
2 17 (5.23%) GitLab
3 16 (4.92%) Rational Rhapsody
4 15 (4.62%) Jenkins
5 11 (3.38%) JIRA
6 7 (2.15%) Visual Studio
7 6 (1.85%) Eclipse
8 4 (1.23%) JUnit
8 4 (1.23%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (1.23%) Selenium
9 2 (0.62%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.62%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.31%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.31%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.31%) NUnit
10 1 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 33 (10.15%) Social Skills
2 31 (9.54%) Aerospace
3 16 (4.92%) Finance
4 11 (3.38%) Law
5 10 (3.08%) Military
6 7 (2.15%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (1.85%) Automotive
7 6 (1.85%) Public Sector
8 5 (1.54%) Banking
9 2 (0.62%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (0.62%) Electronics
9 2 (0.62%) Financial Institution
9 2 (0.62%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.62%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.31%) Legal
10 1 (0.31%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 272 (83.69%) Software Engineer
2 62 (19.08%) C++ Software Engineer
3 50 (15.38%) Embedded Engineer
3 50 (15.38%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 30 (9.23%) Ada Engineer
4 30 (9.23%) Ada Software Engineer
5 29 (8.92%) Algorithm Engineer
6 22 (6.77%) Java Engineer
7 21 (6.46%) Java Software Engineer
8 20 (6.15%) Developer
9 18 (5.54%) Senior
10 15 (4.62%) Senior Software Engineer
11 13 (4.00%) Applications Engineer
11 13 (4.00%) C# Software Engineer
12 11 (3.38%) Lead
12 11 (3.38%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
13 10 (3.08%) PHP Software Engineer
14 8 (2.46%) Java Developer
15 6 (1.85%) C Software Engineer
15 6 (1.85%) C/C++ Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (8.62%) Middleware
2 15 (4.62%) Qt
3 14 (4.31%) REST
4 11 (3.38%) Node.js
5 9 (2.77%) React
5 9 (2.77%) Spring Boot
6 7 (2.15%) .NET
7 6 (1.85%) Web Services
8 5 (1.54%) AWS CDK
9 4 (1.23%) GraphQL
9 4 (1.23%) SOAP
9 4 (1.23%) Spring
10 3 (0.92%) Flask
10 3 (0.92%) Jest
10 3 (0.92%) Kafka
11 2 (0.62%) Playwright
11 2 (0.62%) pytest
11 2 (0.62%) Quarkus
11 2 (0.62%) Spring WebFlux
11 2 (0.62%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 43 (13.23%) Algorithms
2 11 (3.38%) Cloud Native
2 11 (3.38%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (3.08%) Legacy Systems
4 8 (2.46%) Embedded Systems
4 8 (2.46%) Product Ownership
5 4 (1.23%) Onboarding
6 3 (0.92%) Clustering
6 3 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (0.62%) AI Agents
7 2 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.62%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.31%) CUDA
8 1 (0.31%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.31%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.31%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.31%) Low-Code
8 1 (0.31%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.31%) Video\Live Streaming
8 1 (0.31%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 46 (14.15%) Linux
2 12 (3.69%) Windows
3 11 (3.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (1.23%) Debian
4 4 (1.23%) Rocky
4 4 (1.23%) Ubuntu
5 3 (0.92%) Embedded Linux
5 3 (0.92%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.31%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.31%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (16.00%) CI/CD
2 39 (12.00%) Agile
3 21 (6.46%) UML
4 20 (6.15%) SDLC
5 19 (5.85%) Problem-Solving
5 19 (5.85%) Technical Leadership
6 18 (5.54%) AI
7 17 (5.23%) Containerisation
7 17 (5.23%) DevOps
7 17 (5.23%) Full-Stack Development
7 17 (5.23%) Test Automation
8 14 (4.31%) SysML
9 13 (4.00%) Microservices
9 13 (4.00%) TDD
10 12 (3.69%) Configuration Management
10 12 (3.69%) Mentoring
10 12 (3.69%) Validation
10 12 (3.69%) Workflow
11 11 (3.38%) Machine Learning
11 11 (3.38%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 91 (28.00%) Ada
2 83 (25.54%) C++
3 52 (16.00%) Java
4 45 (13.85%) Python
5 32 (9.85%) C#
6 25 (7.69%) C
7 24 (7.38%) MATLAB
8 16 (4.92%) JavaScript
9 11 (3.38%) SQL
10 10 (3.08%) PHP
10 10 (3.08%) PowerShell
10 10 (3.08%) TypeScript
11 7 (2.15%) Bash
12 5 (1.54%) Go
13 4 (1.23%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.31%) Fortran
14 1 (0.31%) Scala
14 1 (0.31%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 112 (34.46%) Security Cleared
2 82 (25.23%) SC Cleared
3 21 (6.46%) DV Cleared
4 15 (4.62%) Degree
5 7 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.15%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (1.85%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (0.62%) AWS Certification
7 2 (0.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified Developer
8 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 1 (0.31%) CCNP
8 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.31%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.31%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.31%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.31%) OCA
8 1 (0.31%) RHCA
8 1 (0.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (10.15%) Def Stans
1 33 (10.15%) IEC 61508
2 15 (4.62%) MISRA
3 13 (4.00%) MISRA C
4 11 (3.38%) QA
5 5 (1.54%) NCSC
6 4 (1.23%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.92%) JSP 440
7 3 (0.92%) WCAG
8 2 (0.62%) DO-178B
9 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.31%) DICOM
9 1 (0.31%) GDPR
9 1 (0.31%) HL7
System Software
1 26 (8.00%) Docker
2 4 (1.23%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.62%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.62%) Firmware
4 1 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 22 (6.77%) Kubernetes
2 14 (4.31%) Ansible
3 9 (2.77%) Terraform
4 4 (1.23%) Data Guard
5 3 (0.92%) Functional Safety
5 3 (0.92%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.62%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (0.62%) Grafana
6 2 (0.62%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.62%) Puppet
6 2 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.31%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 10 (3.08%) IBM
1 10 (3.08%) MathWorks
1 10 (3.08%) Oracle
2 7 (2.15%) Microsoft
3 6 (1.85%) Red Hat
4 1 (0.31%) Cloudera
4 1 (0.31%) Databricks
4 1 (0.31%) F5
4 1 (0.31%) Google
4 1 (0.31%) VMware