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 18 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 35 22
Rank change year-on-year +18 -13 -7
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 310 100 195
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 8.33% 5.07% 7.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.69% 5.59% 8.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 40 41
10th Percentile £418 £206 £438
25th Percentile £510 £395 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £675 £683 £676
England median daily rate £550 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +2.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 39 77
10th Percentile £54.07 £61.85 £61.25
25th Percentile £65.00 - £65.00
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% -7.14% +7.69%
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 -
90th Percentile £70.00 £69.00 £73.75
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.50
% change year-on-year - -0.76% +0.77%

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 2,901 1,788 2,221
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 77.94% 90.58% 83.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,634 1,037 1,324
10th Percentile £325 £220 £281
25th Percentile £432 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £638
90th Percentile £725 £706 £705
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 469 244 214
10th Percentile £14.84 £15.08 £18.20
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.51 £48.50
Median hourly rate £62.00 £25.15 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +146.52% -62.74% +4.53%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £72.50
90th Percentile £78.14 £68.53 £75.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -3.37%

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 18 September 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 +12 208 £525 +15.07% 118
Gloucestershire +23 38 £550 -14.56% 165
Somerset -13 24 £470 +4.79% 44
Devon -11 17 £609 +35.28% 19
Dorset - 9 - - 60
Wiltshire -10 5 £575 -1.71% 25
Cornwall - 3 £750 - 3
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 9 (2.90%) Confluence
2 8 (2.58%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.97%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.65%) Apache
Applications
1 9 (2.90%) Spreadsheet
2 4 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.32%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 5 (1.61%) Oracle Payroll
Cloud Services
1 52 (16.77%) AWS
2 38 (12.26%) Azure
3 20 (6.45%) GCP
4 9 (2.90%) Serverless
5 8 (2.58%) OCI
6 6 (1.94%) GitHub
7 4 (1.29%) AWS Lambda
7 4 (1.29%) Entra ID
7 4 (1.29%) Microsoft 365
8 3 (0.97%) Amazon S3
8 3 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
8 3 (0.97%) Azure Functions
8 3 (0.97%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (0.97%) Azure Service Bus
8 3 (0.97%) GitHub Copilot
8 3 (0.97%) PaaS
9 2 (0.65%) Amazon SQS
9 2 (0.65%) dbt
9 2 (0.65%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.65%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.61%) Ethernet
2 4 (1.29%) TCP/IP
3 2 (0.65%) Network Security
4 1 (0.32%) AMQP
4 1 (0.32%) DHCP
4 1 (0.32%) DNS
4 1 (0.32%) Firewall
4 1 (0.32%) RS-232
4 1 (0.32%) RS-422
4 1 (0.32%) SNMP
4 1 (0.32%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.58%) PostgreSQL
2 7 (2.26%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (0.97%) Apache Cassandra
3 3 (0.97%) Big Data
3 3 (0.97%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (0.97%) HBase
3 3 (0.97%) NoSQL
3 3 (0.97%) Relational Database
4 2 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.65%) Pinecone
5 1 (0.32%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.32%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (0.32%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.32%) Chroma
5 1 (0.32%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.32%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
5 1 (0.32%) InfluxDB
5 1 (0.32%) Power BI
5 1 (0.32%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 24 (7.74%) GitLab
2 23 (7.42%) Git
3 22 (7.10%) JIRA
4 18 (5.81%) Rational Rhapsody
5 17 (5.48%) Jenkins
6 7 (2.26%) Rational DOORS
7 6 (1.94%) Visual Studio
8 4 (1.29%) Eclipse
8 4 (1.29%) JUnit
8 4 (1.29%) Selenium
9 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.32%) NUnit
General
1 38 (12.26%) Social Skills
2 19 (6.13%) Aerospace
3 17 (5.48%) Finance
4 16 (5.16%) Public Sector
5 8 (2.58%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (2.26%) Military
7 6 (1.94%) Automotive
7 6 (1.94%) Law
8 4 (1.29%) Banking
8 4 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.97%) Avionics
10 2 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.65%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.32%) Aviation
11 1 (0.32%) Legal
11 1 (0.32%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.32%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 200 (64.52%) Software Engineer
2 57 (18.39%) Developer
3 52 (16.77%) C++ Software Engineer
4 41 (13.23%) Embedded Engineer
5 40 (12.90%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 34 (10.97%) Ada Engineer
6 34 (10.97%) Ada Software Engineer
6 34 (10.97%) Software Developer
7 21 (6.77%) Lead
8 19 (6.13%) Applications Engineer
9 15 (4.84%) Senior
10 13 (4.19%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
10 13 (4.19%) Technical Leader
11 12 (3.87%) PHP Software Engineer
12 11 (3.55%) Software Team Leader
13 10 (3.23%) Senior Software Engineer
13 10 (3.23%) Team Leader
14 9 (2.90%) C# Software Engineer
14 9 (2.90%) Oracle Developer
14 9 (2.90%) Technical Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.13%) Terraform
2 17 (5.48%) React
3 16 (5.16%) REST
4 15 (4.84%) .NET
5 11 (3.55%) Oracle Fusion
5 11 (3.55%) Qt
6 9 (2.90%) Node.js
7 6 (1.94%) AWS CDK
7 6 (1.94%) Jest
8 5 (1.61%) Middleware
8 5 (1.61%) Quarkus
8 5 (1.61%) Web Services
9 4 (1.29%) .NET Framework
9 4 (1.29%) CSS
9 4 (1.29%) GraphQL
9 4 (1.29%) HTML
9 4 (1.29%) Next.js
9 4 (1.29%) Spring
9 4 (1.29%) Spring Boot
10 3 (0.97%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 30 (9.68%) Cloud Native
2 19 (6.13%) Algorithms
3 11 (3.55%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (1.94%) Product Ownership
6 4 (1.29%) Embedded Systems
6 4 (1.29%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 3 (0.97%) Clustering
7 3 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (0.97%) Wiki
8 2 (0.65%) AI Agents
8 2 (0.65%) Device Driver
8 2 (0.65%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.32%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.32%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.32%) Greenfield Project
9 1 (0.32%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.32%) Low-Code
9 1 (0.32%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 38 (12.26%) Linux
2 10 (3.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 9 (2.90%) Windows
4 5 (1.61%) Embedded Linux
4 5 (1.61%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.29%) Android
5 4 (1.29%) FreeRTOS
6 2 (0.65%) Debian
6 2 (0.65%) Rocky
6 2 (0.65%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.32%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (20.00%) CI/CD
2 42 (13.55%) Agile
3 33 (10.65%) DevOps
4 24 (7.74%) SDLC
5 23 (7.42%) Problem-Solving
6 22 (7.10%) Test Automation
6 22 (7.10%) UML
7 21 (6.77%) Containerisation
8 20 (6.45%) Platform Engineering
9 18 (5.81%) Infrastructure as Code
10 17 (5.48%) AI
10 17 (5.48%) Stakeholder Management
11 16 (5.16%) Software Delivery
12 14 (4.52%) Multithreading
12 14 (4.52%) Requirements Gathering
13 13 (4.19%) DevSecOps
13 13 (4.19%) Information Security
13 13 (4.19%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 13 (4.19%) Technical Leadership
14 12 (3.87%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 79 (25.48%) C++
2 61 (19.68%) Ada
3 48 (15.48%) Python
4 40 (12.90%) Java
5 39 (12.58%) C#
6 21 (6.77%) SQL
7 20 (6.45%) TypeScript
8 18 (5.81%) JavaScript
9 17 (5.48%) C
10 14 (4.52%) PHP
11 12 (3.87%) PL/SQL
12 6 (1.94%) MATLAB
13 5 (1.61%) Go
13 5 (1.61%) PowerShell
14 4 (1.29%) Rust
15 2 (0.65%) Kotlin
16 1 (0.32%) Ada 95
16 1 (0.32%) Fortran
16 1 (0.32%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 109 (35.16%) Security Cleared
2 82 (26.45%) SC Cleared
3 24 (7.74%) DV Cleared
4 16 (5.16%) Degree
5 10 (3.23%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (1.94%) Chartered Engineer
8 2 (0.65%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.32%) AWS Certified Developer
9 1 (0.32%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.32%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.87%) IEC 61508
2 11 (3.55%) Def Stans
2 11 (3.55%) MISRA
2 11 (3.55%) MISRA C
3 9 (2.90%) QA
4 7 (2.26%) Accessibility
5 6 (1.94%) WCAG
6 4 (1.29%) NCSC
7 3 (0.97%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.65%) GDPR
9 1 (0.32%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 33 (10.65%) Docker
2 6 (1.94%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 31 (10.00%) Kubernetes
2 14 (4.52%) Ansible
3 3 (0.97%) Functional Safety
3 3 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (0.65%) Docker Swarm
5 1 (0.32%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 1 (0.32%) Grafana
5 1 (0.32%) McAfee ePO
5 1 (0.32%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.32%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.32%) PTC Integrity
5 1 (0.32%) SolarWinds Orion
5 1 (0.32%) WMI
5 1 (0.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 19 (6.13%) Oracle
2 13 (4.19%) Google
3 12 (3.87%) Microsoft
4 7 (2.26%) IBM
5 5 (1.61%) Red Hat
6 4 (1.29%) MathWorks
7 1 (0.32%) Cisco
7 1 (0.32%) Cloudera
7 1 (0.32%) F5
7 1 (0.32%) Fortinet
7 1 (0.32%) Green Hills
7 1 (0.32%) McAfee
7 1 (0.32%) Palo Alto
7 1 (0.32%) PTC
7 1 (0.32%) QinetiQ
7 1 (0.32%) SolarWinds
7 1 (0.32%) Thales