Performance Optimisation Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Performance Optimisation
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Performance Optimisation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 118 101 138
Rank change year-on-year -17 +37 +32
Contract jobs citing Performance Optimisation 10 23 7
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.49% 1.09% 0.27%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.56% 1.24% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 16 6
10th Percentile £450 £404 -
25th Percentile £479 £408 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £411 £375
Median % change year-on-year +21.73% +9.53% -37.50%
75th Percentile £522 £524 £423
90th Percentile £571 £597 £488
South East median daily rate £550 £510 £405
% change year-on-year +7.84% +25.93% -32.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £59.89
Median hourly rate - - £60.14
75th Percentile - - £60.39
90th Percentile - - -
South East median hourly rate £83.82 - £60.14

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

Performance 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 1,788 1,859 2,335
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 88.38% 88.27% 91.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,153 1,089 1,510
10th Percentile £263 £296 £214
25th Percentile £400 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £638 £615
90th Percentile £650 £688 £695
South East median daily rate £500 £513 £523
% change year-on-year -2.44% -1.91% +1.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 140 58 105
10th Percentile £14.75 £19.14 £17.68
25th Percentile £17.15 £32.90 £25.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.12 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.97% +14.25% +138.10%
75th Percentile £55.00 £63.31 £64.50
90th Percentile £87.41 £71.24 £74.08
South East median hourly rate £22.00 £55.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -60.00% +4.76% +23.01%

Performance Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Performance Optimisation job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Performance Optimisation
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

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

Performance Optimisation
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Performance Optimisation in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Performance Optimisation in the Thames Valley

Performance Optimisation
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Performance Optimisation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Performance Optimisation

Performance 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 Performance Optimisation within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 13 December 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 7 £504 +23.17% 14
Buckinghamshire +2 2 £463 -11.90% 8
Oxfordshire - 1 - - 6
Performance Optimisation
South East

Performance 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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (10.00%) CMS
1 1 (10.00%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 4 (40.00%) AWS
1 4 (40.00%) Azure
1 4 (40.00%) Azure Storage
1 4 (40.00%) GCP
2 1 (10.00%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (10.00%) OneDrive
2 1 (10.00%) Power Automate
2 1 (10.00%) Power Platform
2 1 (10.00%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 4 (40.00%) NAS
1 4 (40.00%) SAN
2 1 (10.00%) DNS
2 1 (10.00%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (10.00%) BusinessObjects
1 1 (10.00%) BusinessObjects Web Intelligence
1 1 (10.00%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 1 (10.00%) Visual Studio
General
1 5 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
1 5 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (20.00%) Advertising
2 2 (20.00%) Marketing
2 2 (20.00%) Presentation Skills
3 1 (10.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 2 (20.00%) Developer
1 2 (20.00%) Marketing Manager
2 1 (10.00%) Administrator
2 1 (10.00%) Applications Developer
2 1 (10.00%) Mobile Applications Developer
2 1 (10.00%) Mobile Developer
2 1 (10.00%) Platform Engineer
2 1 (10.00%) SAP Administrator
2 1 (10.00%) SharePoint Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (10.00%) .NET
1 1 (10.00%) OAuth
1 1 (10.00%) OAuth2
1 1 (10.00%) OpenID
1 1 (10.00%) REST
1 1 (10.00%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 2 (20.00%) Social Media
2 1 (10.00%) Data Structures
2 1 (10.00%) Mobile App
2 1 (10.00%) Private Cloud
2 1 (10.00%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 1 (10.00%) Android
1 1 (10.00%) Apple iOS
1 1 (10.00%) Windows
1 1 (10.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (50.00%) Disaster Recovery
2 4 (40.00%) Storage Management
3 2 (20.00%) B2B
3 2 (20.00%) Content Marketing
3 2 (20.00%) Creative Marketing
3 2 (20.00%) Direct Marketing
3 2 (20.00%) Load Balancing
3 2 (20.00%) Marketing Strategy
3 2 (20.00%) Performance Measurement
3 2 (20.00%) Process Management
3 2 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
4 1 (10.00%) Business Intelligence
4 1 (10.00%) Change Management
4 1 (10.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 1 (10.00%) Performance Monitoring
4 1 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
4 1 (10.00%) Server Management
4 1 (10.00%) Server Monitoring
4 1 (10.00%) Service Delivery
4 1 (10.00%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1 (10.00%) C#
1 1 (10.00%) PowerShell
1 1 (10.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 5 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 5 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 4 (40.00%) AWS Certification
2 4 (40.00%) Azure Certification
3 2 (20.00%) Degree
3 2 (20.00%) Master's Degree
4 1 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (40.00%) GDPR
1 4 (40.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (10.00%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 1 (10.00%) Active Directory
1 1 (10.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (10.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
1 1 (10.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 4 (40.00%) EMC
1 4 (40.00%) NetApp
1 4 (40.00%) Pure Storage
2 2 (20.00%) HP
2 2 (20.00%) Microsoft
3 1 (10.00%) SAP
3 1 (10.00%) VMware
3 1 (10.00%) Xamarin