Software Engineer Contracts in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Software Engineer daily rate in the Thames Valley is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 78 119 133
Rank change year-on-year +41 +14 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Software Engineer 24 26 18
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 1.59% 0.97% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.71% 1.04% 0.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 14 12
10th Percentile £505 - £401
25th Percentile £563 £425 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year +15.00% +2.56% -9.30%
75th Percentile £663 £634 £578
90th Percentile £665 £650 £588
South East median daily rate £575 £450 £523
% change year-on-year +27.78% -13.88% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 1
10th Percentile £32.70 - -
25th Percentile £36.38 - £51.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £65.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.77% +23.81% -
75th Percentile £52.50 - £53.75
90th Percentile £55.50 - -
South East median hourly rate £47.81 £62.50 £58.50
% change year-on-year -23.51% +6.84% +16.42%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the Thames Valley with a recognized job title 1,405 2,505 2,767
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.98% 93.26% 94.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 864 1,430 1,916
10th Percentile £300 £206 £313
25th Percentile £409 £370 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.26%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - +2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 189 76
10th Percentile £14.20 £15.78 £17.31
25th Percentile £16.94 £19.25 £20.75
Median hourly rate £45.65 £45.00 £46.70
Median % change year-on-year +1.44% -3.64% +166.86%
75th Percentile £65.62 £62.50 £66.21
90th Percentile £77.47 £84.57 £79.19
South East median hourly rate £32.50 £47.50 £48.40
% change year-on-year -31.58% -1.86% +130.48%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings that featured Software Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for Software Engineer in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software Engineer in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for Software Engineer in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineer in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software Engineer in the Thames Valley.

Hourly rate trend for Software Engineer in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineer in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
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 Software Engineer within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +33 19 £575 -4.17% 86
Oxfordshire +3 4 - - 67
Buckinghamshire +14 1 - - 70
Software Engineer
South East

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Thames Valley region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 24 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 17 (70.83%) DevOps
3 14 (58.33%) Azure
3 14 (58.33%) Security Cleared
4 13 (54.17%) AWS
4 13 (54.17%) SC Cleared
5 10 (41.67%) Test Automation
6 9 (37.50%) Cucumber
6 9 (37.50%) Software Architecture
6 9 (37.50%) Continuous Integration
6 9 (37.50%) Java EE
6 9 (37.50%) JIRA
6 9 (37.50%) Selenium
6 9 (37.50%) GitLab
6 9 (37.50%) Jenkins
6 9 (37.50%) REST
6 9 (37.50%) Java
6 9 (37.50%) Configuration Management
6 9 (37.50%) Technical Leadership
6 9 (37.50%) REST Assured
7 7 (29.17%) Social Skills
8 6 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (25.00%) Agile
8 6 (25.00%) Software Testing
8 6 (25.00%) Unit Testing
9 5 (20.83%) Kubernetes
9 5 (20.83%) SonarQube
9 5 (20.83%) Ansible
9 5 (20.83%) Docker
9 5 (20.83%) SQL

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 2 (8.33%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 14 (58.33%) Azure
2 13 (54.17%) AWS
3 2 (8.33%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 1 (4.17%) RS-232
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (16.67%) Oracle Database
1 4 (16.67%) Oracle Database 11g
1 4 (16.67%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 9 (37.50%) Cucumber
1 9 (37.50%) GitLab
1 9 (37.50%) Jenkins
1 9 (37.50%) JIRA
1 9 (37.50%) REST Assured
1 9 (37.50%) Selenium
2 5 (20.83%) SonarQube
3 1 (4.17%) Rational DOORS
3 1 (4.17%) VectorCAST
General
1 7 (29.17%) Social Skills
2 6 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (16.67%) Law
3 4 (16.67%) Police
4 3 (12.50%) Aerospace
4 3 (12.50%) Telecoms
5 1 (4.17%) Automotive
5 1 (4.17%) Electronics
5 1 (4.17%) Games
5 1 (4.17%) Public Sector
5 1 (4.17%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (37.50%) Java EE
1 9 (37.50%) REST
2 5 (20.83%) ARM Templates
3 1 (4.17%) Blazor
3 1 (4.17%) CSS
3 1 (4.17%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 2 (8.33%) Mobile App
2 1 (4.17%) Algorithms
2 1 (4.17%) FPGA
2 1 (4.17%) VHDL
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 17 (70.83%) DevOps
3 10 (41.67%) Test Automation
4 9 (37.50%) Configuration Management
4 9 (37.50%) Continuous Integration
4 9 (37.50%) Software Architecture
4 9 (37.50%) Technical Leadership
5 6 (25.00%) Agile
5 6 (25.00%) Software Testing
5 6 (25.00%) Unit Testing
6 5 (20.83%) Containerisation
6 5 (20.83%) Decision-Making
6 5 (20.83%) Infrastructure as Code
7 4 (16.67%) Clean Code
7 4 (16.67%) CRUD
7 4 (16.67%) Data Migration
7 4 (16.67%) Migration
7 4 (16.67%) Performance Tuning
7 4 (16.67%) Prototyping
7 4 (16.67%) Secure Coding
Programming Languages
1 9 (37.50%) Java
2 5 (20.83%) SQL
3 4 (16.67%) C#
3 4 (16.67%) PL/SQL
3 4 (16.67%) Python
4 3 (12.50%) C
4 3 (12.50%) MATLAB
5 1 (4.17%) Embedded C
5 1 (4.17%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 14 (58.33%) Security Cleared
2 13 (54.17%) SC Cleared
3 3 (12.50%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (8.33%) ISO 26262
2 1 (4.17%) DO-178B
System Software
1 5 (20.83%) Docker
Systems Management
1 5 (20.83%) Ansible
1 5 (20.83%) Docker Swarm
1 5 (20.83%) Kubernetes
1 5 (20.83%) Podman
1 5 (20.83%) Terraform
Vendors
1 4 (16.67%) Oracle
2 3 (12.50%) Databricks
2 3 (12.50%) Virgin Media
3 2 (8.33%) Xamarin
4 1 (4.17%) Intel
4 1 (4.17%) Siemens