Automotive Job Trends in the South East

Automotive
England > South East

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Automotive in permanent job vacancies in the South East. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Automotive over the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 164 116 197
Rank change year-on-year -48 +81 -15
Permanent jobs citing Automotive 107 221 99
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 1.03% 2.46% 1.12%
As % of the General category 1.85% 3.95% 1.95%
Number of salaries quoted 57 71 84
10th Percentile £35,000 £32,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £47,500 £38,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £62,500 £71,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £68,750 £75,000 £74,625
England median annual salary £48,720 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -15.27% +4.55% -

All General Skills
South East

Automotive falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring general skills in the South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for general skills 5,785 5,598 5,079
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 55.74% 62.35% 57.70%
Number of salaries quoted 3,119 2,198 3,179
10th Percentile £27,500 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £42,500 £35,795
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,619 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £85,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £54,500 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -9.17% - -4.00%

Automotive
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Automotive relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Automotive job vacancy trend in the South East

Automotive
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Automotive.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Automotive

Automotive
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Automotive in the South East over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Automotive in the South East

Automotive
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Automotive within the South East region over the 6 months to 14 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley -67 37 £55,000 +3.77% 30
Kent -2 22 £45,000 -35.48% 5
Hampshire +32 20 £55,000 +7.32% 16
Surrey -18 18 £40,000 -38.46% 15
Oxfordshire +28 17 £55,000 -24.91% 7
Buckinghamshire -58 14 £55,000 -12.00% 10
West Sussex +5 9 - - 4
Berkshire -20 6 £50,000 - 13
Middlesex - 1 £45,000 - 2
Automotive
England

Automotive
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (0.93%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (6.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (5.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.87%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.93%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.93%) CATIA
4 1 (0.93%) PTC Creo
4 1 (0.93%) Siemens NX
4 1 (0.93%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 7 (6.54%) Azure
2 6 (5.61%) AWS
3 5 (4.67%) SaaS
4 3 (2.80%) Google Workspace
5 2 (1.87%) Azure Data Factory
5 2 (1.87%) Entra ID
6 1 (0.93%) Amazon GuardDuty
6 1 (0.93%) AWS CloudTrail
6 1 (0.93%) GitHub
6 1 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 6 (5.61%) LTE
2 5 (4.67%) Wireless
3 4 (3.74%) 802.11
3 4 (3.74%) VSAT
4 2 (1.87%) DHCP
4 2 (1.87%) DNS
4 2 (1.87%) GSM
5 1 (0.93%) LAN
5 1 (0.93%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.93%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.87%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.93%) BusinessObjects
2 1 (0.93%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (1.87%) Git
2 1 (0.93%) GitLab
2 1 (0.93%) Postman
General
1 30 (28.04%) Electronics
2 25 (23.36%) Social Skills
3 24 (22.43%) Aerospace
3 24 (22.43%) Manufacturing
4 17 (15.89%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (8.41%) Agriculture
6 8 (7.48%) Retail
7 6 (5.61%) Military
8 5 (4.67%) Finance
9 4 (3.74%) Billing
9 4 (3.74%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (2.80%) Telecoms
11 2 (1.87%) Aviation
12 1 (0.93%) Advertising
12 1 (0.93%) Banking
12 1 (0.93%) Marketing
12 1 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.93%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 15 (14.02%) Programmer
2 11 (10.28%) Business Development Manager
2 11 (10.28%) Business Manager
2 11 (10.28%) Development Manager
2 11 (10.28%) Embedded Engineer
2 11 (10.28%) Systems Engineer
3 9 (8.41%) Embedded Firmware Engineer
3 9 (8.41%) Firmware Engineer
3 9 (8.41%) Product Manager
4 8 (7.48%) Senior
5 7 (6.54%) Analyst
6 6 (5.61%) Control Systems Engineer
6 6 (5.61%) Junior
6 6 (5.61%) Junior Systems Engineer
6 6 (5.61%) Support Analyst
6 6 (5.61%) Technical Engineer
7 5 (4.67%) Data Analyst
7 5 (4.67%) Sales Analyst
7 5 (4.67%) Sales Support
7 5 (4.67%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (8.41%) Flash
2 4 (3.74%) 802.1X
2 4 (3.74%) JSON
2 4 (3.74%) OAuth
2 4 (3.74%) REST
2 4 (3.74%) SAML
2 4 (3.74%) SOAP
2 4 (3.74%) XML
3 3 (2.80%) .NET
4 2 (1.87%) ASP.NET
5 1 (0.93%) CSS
5 1 (0.93%) HTML
5 1 (0.93%) React
5 1 (0.93%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 11 (10.28%) Embedded Systems
2 8 (7.48%) Renewable Energy
3 7 (6.54%) Analytical Mindset
4 5 (4.67%) Onboarding
5 4 (3.74%) IoT
5 4 (3.74%) Security Posture
5 4 (3.74%) Social Media
6 3 (2.80%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.87%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.87%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.87%) RISC-V
8 1 (0.93%) FMCG
8 1 (0.93%) GNSS
8 1 (0.93%) Lidar
8 1 (0.93%) PMI
8 1 (0.93%) Robotics
8 1 (0.93%) Self-Driving Car
8 1 (0.93%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.87%) Windows
2 1 (0.93%) Windows Server
2 1 (0.93%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (12.15%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (11.21%) Business Development
2 12 (11.21%) Continuous Improvement
3 10 (9.35%) Collaborative Culture
4 8 (7.48%) Agile
4 8 (7.48%) Customer Service
4 8 (7.48%) Regulatory Compliance
5 7 (6.54%) AI
6 5 (4.67%) Computer Science
6 5 (4.67%) Data Analysis
6 5 (4.67%) Decision-Making
6 5 (4.67%) FMEA
6 5 (4.67%) GTM Strategy
6 5 (4.67%) Machine Learning
6 5 (4.67%) Project Management
6 5 (4.67%) Quality Management
6 5 (4.67%) Roadmaps
6 5 (4.67%) Root Cause Analysis
6 5 (4.67%) Six Sigma
6 5 (4.67%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.28%) C
1 11 (10.28%) Embedded C
2 8 (7.48%) SQL
3 4 (3.74%) VBA
4 2 (1.87%) C#
4 2 (1.87%) C++
4 2 (1.87%) Java
4 2 (1.87%) JavaScript
4 2 (1.87%) Python
Qualifications
1 17 (15.89%) Degree
2 13 (12.15%) Security Cleared
3 10 (9.35%) SC Cleared
4 6 (5.61%) Master's Degree
5 5 (4.67%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (4.67%) Six Sigma Black Belt
5 5 (4.67%) Six Sigma Green Belt
5 5 (4.67%) Six Sigma Master Black Belt
6 4 (3.74%) CCNA
6 4 (3.74%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (3.74%) GCSC
6 4 (3.74%) JNCIA
7 3 (2.80%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.93%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.93%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.93%) CISSP
8 1 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.93%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.93%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.41%) QA
2 7 (6.54%) SLA
3 6 (5.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (4.67%) ISO 13485
4 5 (4.67%) ISO 9001
5 3 (2.80%) NIST
6 2 (1.87%) ISO 9000
6 2 (1.87%) JTAG
7 1 (0.93%) ECSS
7 1 (0.93%) GDPR
System Software
1 11 (10.28%) Firmware
2 9 (8.41%) Embedded Firmware
3 3 (2.80%) Docker
4 1 (0.93%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (3.74%) Single Sign-On
1 4 (3.74%) Terraform
2 3 (2.80%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 6 (5.61%) Siemens
2 5 (4.67%) Microsoft
3 4 (3.74%) Freshdesk
4 3 (2.80%) Google
5 1 (0.93%) Okta
5 1 (0.93%) SAP
5 1 (0.93%) VMware