Software Engineering Contracts in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Software Engineering skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Software Engineering over the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 68 47 88
Rank change year-on-year -21 +41 +29
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 33 103 55
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 2.25% 3.90% 1.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.42% 4.52% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 66 34
10th Percentile £348 £442 £402
25th Percentile £416 £485 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £581 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.98% +10.71% +1.20%
75th Percentile £544 £688 £572
90th Percentile £593 - £588
South East median daily rate £507 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -7.91% +4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 9 4
10th Percentile - - £24.42
25th Percentile £30.25 £42.50 £41.54
Median hourly rate £31.50 £55.00 £52.30
Median % change year-on-year -42.73% +5.16% -14.96%
75th Percentile £32.75 £65.00 £57.81
90th Percentile - - £65.13
South East median hourly rate £56.75 £62.50 £57.50
% change year-on-year -9.20% +8.70% +8.49%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,361 2,278 2,586
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 92.90% 86.35% 90.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 850 1,253 1,759
10th Percentile £300 £220 £313
25th Percentile £407 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +2.56%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £606
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £511 £501
% change year-on-year -2.15% +2.10% +0.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 167 69
10th Percentile £14.20 £14.17 £17.25
25th Percentile £14.51 £19.25 £25.95
Median hourly rate £25.23 £45.00 £54.56
Median % change year-on-year -43.94% -17.52% +213.20%
75th Percentile £62.44 £63.85 £73.59
90th Percentile £78.75 £85.65 £79.19
South East median hourly rate £27.88 £47.50 £52.10
% change year-on-year -41.31% -8.83% +137.57%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings citing Software Engineering as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for Software Engineering in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Daily rate trend for Software Engineering in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 30 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Hourly rate trend for Software Engineering in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
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 Engineering within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 30 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 -15 28 £500 -20.63% 896
Oxfordshire -7 3 £431 -4.17% 210
Buckinghamshire +3 2 £525 -4.55% 315
Software Engineering
South East

Software Engineering
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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (3.03%) CMS
1 1 (3.03%) nginx
Cloud Services
1 23 (69.70%) Azure
2 19 (57.58%) AWS
3 5 (15.15%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (12.12%) Serverless
5 3 (9.09%) Amazon EKS
5 3 (9.09%) SaaS
6 2 (6.06%) Azure AKS
6 2 (6.06%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (3.03%) Azure Machine Learning
7 1 (3.03%) GCP
7 1 (3.03%) Power Automate
7 1 (3.03%) Prefect
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.03%) RS-232
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (9.09%) SQL Server
2 1 (3.03%) GIS
2 1 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (3.03%) Redis
Development Applications
1 13 (39.39%) Cucumber
1 13 (39.39%) GitLab
1 13 (39.39%) Jenkins
1 13 (39.39%) JIRA
1 13 (39.39%) REST Assured
1 13 (39.39%) Selenium
2 9 (27.27%) SonarQube
3 2 (6.06%) Git
4 1 (3.03%) CMake
General
1 16 (48.48%) Social Skills
2 11 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (24.24%) Law
4 4 (12.12%) Police
5 3 (9.09%) Telecoms
6 1 (3.03%) Games
6 1 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (3.03%) Retail
6 1 (3.03%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 16 (48.48%) Software Engineer
2 9 (27.27%) Developer
2 9 (27.27%) Java Engineer
2 9 (27.27%) Java Software Engineer
3 4 (12.12%) Java Developer
3 4 (12.12%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Azure Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Azure Software Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Gen AI Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Gen AI Software Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Python Engineer
4 3 (9.09%) Python Software Engineer
5 2 (6.06%) Engineering Manager
6 1 (3.03%) .NET Architect
6 1 (3.03%) AWS Engineer
6 1 (3.03%) AWS Software Engineer
6 1 (3.03%) Delivery Manager
6 1 (3.03%) Python Developer
6 1 (3.03%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (45.45%) REST
2 13 (39.39%) Java EE
3 9 (27.27%) ARM Templates
4 5 (15.15%) .NET
5 3 (9.09%) .NET Framework
5 3 (9.09%) AngularJS
5 3 (9.09%) ASP.NET Web API
6 2 (6.06%) Blazor
6 2 (6.06%) CSS
6 2 (6.06%) HTML
6 2 (6.06%) React
7 1 (3.03%) ASP.NET
7 1 (3.03%) CNTK
7 1 (3.03%) NETCONF
7 1 (3.03%) Next.js
7 1 (3.03%) OpenVINO
7 1 (3.03%) PyTorch
7 1 (3.03%) RESTCONF
7 1 (3.03%) TensorFlow
7 1 (3.03%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 3 (9.09%) Distributed Systems
2 2 (6.06%) Algorithms
2 2 (6.06%) Cloud Native
3 1 (3.03%) Cyberattack
3 1 (3.03%) Device Driver
3 1 (3.03%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (3.03%) FPGA
3 1 (3.03%) IoT
3 1 (3.03%) Life Science
3 1 (3.03%) N-Tier
3 1 (3.03%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 2 (6.06%) Linux
2 1 (3.03%) Android
2 1 (3.03%) Embedded Linux
2 1 (3.03%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (66.67%) DevOps
2 16 (48.48%) Configuration Management
3 15 (45.45%) Test Automation
4 14 (42.42%) Continuous Integration
4 14 (42.42%) Software Architecture
5 13 (39.39%) Infrastructure as Code
5 13 (39.39%) Technical Leadership
6 12 (36.36%) Containerisation
6 12 (36.36%) Problem-Solving
7 10 (30.30%) CI/CD
8 9 (27.27%) Agile
8 9 (27.27%) Decision-Making
9 6 (18.18%) Artificial Intelligence
10 5 (15.15%) Continuous Improvement
10 5 (15.15%) Full-Stack Development
11 3 (9.09%) Code Quality
11 3 (9.09%) CQRS
11 3 (9.09%) Design Patterns
11 3 (9.09%) Machine Learning
11 3 (9.09%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 14 (42.42%) Java
2 10 (30.30%) Python
3 7 (21.21%) C#
3 7 (21.21%) SQL
4 5 (15.15%) JavaScript
5 2 (6.06%) Bicep
5 2 (6.06%) C++
5 2 (6.06%) PowerShell
5 2 (6.06%) TypeScript
6 1 (3.03%) C
6 1 (3.03%) Embedded C
6 1 (3.03%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 14 (42.42%) Security Cleared
2 13 (39.39%) SC Cleared
3 3 (9.09%) Degree
4 1 (3.03%) CCNP
4 1 (3.03%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (3.03%) DV Cleared
4 1 (3.03%) JNCIP
4 1 (3.03%) Master's Degree
System Software
1 11 (33.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 14 (42.42%) Terraform
2 12 (36.36%) Ansible
2 12 (36.36%) Kubernetes
3 9 (27.27%) Docker Swarm
3 9 (27.27%) Podman
Vendors
1 4 (12.12%) Microsoft
2 3 (9.09%) Databricks
2 3 (9.09%) Virgin Media
3 1 (3.03%) Cisco
3 1 (3.03%) Fortinet
3 1 (3.03%) Intel
3 1 (3.03%) OpenAI
3 1 (3.03%) Siemens