Cost Optimisation Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Cost Optimization
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Cost Optimisation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 111 123 132
Rank change year-on-year +12 +9 +46
Contract jobs citing Cost Optimisation 3 8 6
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.18% 0.37% 0.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.19% 0.43% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 1 5
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £406 £513 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £525 £450
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +16.67% -5.26%
75th Percentile £534 £538 £638
90th Percentile £604 - £675
South East median daily rate £475 £650 £538
% change year-on-year -26.92% +20.93% -4.44%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

Cost Optimisation 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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,544 1,866 2,435
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 90.93% 85.52% 90.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 945 1,039 1,637
10th Percentile £257 £300 £263
25th Percentile £400 £413 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.92% -2.86% +5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £625
90th Percentile £650 £677 £700
South East median daily rate £500 £510 £523
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.49% +2.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 81 84
10th Percentile £14.60 £18.70 £16.40
25th Percentile £15.59 £30.00 £24.88
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.49 £51.05
Median % change year-on-year -57.00% +14.57% +158.48%
75th Percentile £42.67 £67.00 £66.11
90th Percentile £79.25 £76.99 £74.94
South East median hourly rate £22.35 £58.38 £54.37
% change year-on-year -61.72% +7.37% +86.77%

Cost Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cost Optimisation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Cost Optimisation job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Cost Optimisation
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Cost Optimisation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Cost Optimisation

Cost Optimisation
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cost Optimisation in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Cost Optimisation in the Thames Valley

Cost Optimisation
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cost Optimisation within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 1 October 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
Berkshire +14 2 £413 -21.43% 3
Buckinghamshire -1 1 £650 - 2
Cost Optimisation
South East

Cost Optimisation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Applications
1 2 (66.67%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 2 (66.67%) Power Platform
2 1 (33.33%) AWS
2 1 (33.33%) Azure
2 1 (33.33%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (66.67%) Power BI
General
1 2 (66.67%) Analytical Skills
1 2 (66.67%) Finance
1 2 (66.67%) Telecoms
2 1 (33.33%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) Analyst
1 2 (66.67%) Financial Analyst
2 1 (33.33%) Architect
2 1 (33.33%) Solutions Architect
2 1 (33.33%) Telecoms Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) Middleware
1 1 (33.33%) REST
1 1 (33.33%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Mobile App
1 1 (33.33%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Business Intelligence
1 2 (66.67%) Dashboard Development
1 2 (66.67%) Data Visualisation
1 2 (66.67%) Data-Driven Decision Making
1 2 (66.67%) Decision-Making
1 2 (66.67%) Financial Analysis
1 2 (66.67%) Financial Modelling
1 2 (66.67%) Performance Improvement
1 2 (66.67%) Planning and Forecasting
1 2 (66.67%) Service Delivery
1 2 (66.67%) Stakeholder Management
1 2 (66.67%) Visualisation
2 1 (33.33%) Analytics
2 1 (33.33%) Data Analytics
2 1 (33.33%) Data Protection
2 1 (33.33%) DevOps
2 1 (33.33%) ETL
2 1 (33.33%) Event-Driven Architecture
2 1 (33.33%) Personalization
2 1 (33.33%) Software Architecture
Qualifications
1 2 (66.67%) ACCA
1 2 (66.67%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (33.33%) GDPR
1 1 (33.33%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (33.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (33.33%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 2 (66.67%) Hyperion
1 2 (66.67%) Oracle
1 2 (66.67%) SAP