Master's Degree Job Trends in the South East

Master's Degree
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Master's Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 18 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 94 152
Rank change year-on-year +68 +58 -100
Permanent jobs citing Master's Degree 717 181 278
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 5.10% 2.65% 1.72%
As % of the Qualifications category 19.97% 5.51% 5.02%
Number of salaries quoted 60 65 163
10th Percentile £47,500 - £35,200
25th Percentile £52,188 £40,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £55,565 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +34.98% -7.39% -
75th Percentile £88,438 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £85,000
England median annual salary £75,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% +4.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

Master's Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the South East.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 3,590 3,286 5,539
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 25.53% 48.10% 34.35%
Number of salaries quoted 1,561 1,501 3,676
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +7.84% +2.00%
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,700 £83,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £58,497 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +1.73% +4.55% -4.35%

Master's Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Master's Degree job vacancy trend in the South East

Master's Degree
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Master's Degree.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Master's Degree

Master's Degree
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Master's Degree in the South East over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Master's Degree in the South East

Master's Degree
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 Master's Degree within the South East region over the 6 months to 18 April 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
Surrey +69 349 £72,500 +3.57% 102
Kent +38 160 £95,000 - 37
Thames Valley -9 121 £66,250 +50.57% 29
Berkshire +15 69 - - 11
Hampshire +4 47 £75,000 +30.43% 16
Buckinghamshire +8 40 £73,750 -18.06% 10
Middlesex +28 29 - - 1
Oxfordshire -43 12 £62,500 +56.25% 8
Isle of Wight - 8 - -
West Sussex -22 2 - -
East Sussex - 1 £120,000 - 1
Master's Degree
England

Master's Degree
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 16 (2.23%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.70%) IIS
3 4 (0.56%) Confluence
4 3 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.28%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.14%) Camunda
6 1 (0.14%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (2.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (0.42%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 570 (79.50%) Cloud Computing
2 16 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
2 16 (2.23%) Power Platform
2 16 (2.23%) PowerApps
3 15 (2.09%) AWS
4 12 (1.67%) Azure
5 10 (1.39%) Veeva
6 5 (0.70%) Snowflake
7 4 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (0.56%) GCP
8 3 (0.42%) AWS Data Pipeline
8 3 (0.42%) Azure Machine Learning
8 3 (0.42%) Prefect
9 2 (0.28%) Amazon Cognito
9 2 (0.28%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (0.28%) Amazon S3
9 2 (0.28%) AWS Lambda
9 2 (0.28%) Miro
9 2 (0.28%) Serverless
9 2 (0.28%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 570 (79.50%) Internet
2 4 (0.56%) Wireless
3 3 (0.42%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (0.28%) MQTT
4 2 (0.28%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.14%) Profibus
5 1 (0.14%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (2.51%) Metadata
2 16 (2.23%) Power BI
3 8 (1.12%) NoSQL
4 6 (0.84%) Hadoop
5 5 (0.70%) Big Data
5 5 (0.70%) Data Mining
5 5 (0.70%) Tableau
6 4 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.42%) Apache Cassandra
7 3 (0.42%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.42%) MySQL
7 3 (0.42%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.28%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 15 (2.09%) Git
2 8 (1.12%) GitLab
2 8 (1.12%) Visual Studio Code
3 6 (0.84%) JIRA
4 5 (0.70%) MLflow
5 2 (0.28%) Jenkins
General
1 622 (86.75%) Social Skills
2 572 (79.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 571 (79.64%) Banking
4 33 (4.60%) Finance
5 30 (4.18%) Pharmaceutical
6 9 (1.26%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (1.26%) Marketing
6 9 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (0.98%) Electronics
8 6 (0.84%) Automotive
8 6 (0.84%) Manufacturing
9 3 (0.42%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.28%) Retail
10 2 (0.28%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.14%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.14%) Aviation
11 1 (0.14%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.14%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.14%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 469 (65.41%) Lecturer
2 39 (5.44%) Lead
3 29 (4.04%) Senior
4 25 (3.49%) Software Engineer
5 15 (2.09%) Associate Director
6 14 (1.95%) Consultant
7 12 (1.67%) Data Manager
8 11 (1.53%) C++ Software Engineer
8 11 (1.53%) Principal Consultant
8 11 (1.53%) Python Engineer
8 11 (1.53%) Python Software Engineer
8 11 (1.53%) Senior Manager
9 9 (1.26%) Data Steward
10 8 (1.12%) Coordinator
10 8 (1.12%) Data Coordinator
11 6 (0.84%) Embedded Engineer
11 6 (0.84%) Embedded Software Engineer
11 6 (0.84%) Head of IT
11 6 (0.84%) Senior Software Engineer
12 5 (0.70%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (0.70%) Play Framework
2 3 (0.42%) Keras
2 3 (0.42%) Middleware
2 3 (0.42%) scikit-learn
2 3 (0.42%) TensorFlow
3 2 (0.28%) Blazor
3 2 (0.28%) PyTorch
3 2 (0.28%) REST
3 2 (0.28%) SOAP
4 1 (0.14%) Django
4 1 (0.14%) Kafka
4 1 (0.14%) React
4 1 (0.14%) Vue
4 1 (0.14%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 570 (79.50%) IoT
2 64 (8.93%) Life Science
3 24 (3.35%) Management Information System
4 17 (2.37%) Algorithms
5 12 (1.67%) Low-Code
6 11 (1.53%) Hackathon
7 9 (1.26%) Biopharmaceutical
8 5 (0.70%) Cloud Native
8 5 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.56%) ASIC
10 3 (0.42%) LIMS
11 2 (0.28%) Animation
11 2 (0.28%) FPGA
11 2 (0.28%) GNSS
11 2 (0.28%) Operational Technology
12 1 (0.14%) AI Agents
12 1 (0.14%) Distributed Computing
12 1 (0.14%) Pharmacovigilance
12 1 (0.14%) Security Posture
12 1 (0.14%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.98%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 622 (86.75%) AI
2 619 (86.33%) Machine Learning
3 580 (80.89%) User Experience
4 573 (79.92%) Cybersecurity
5 570 (79.50%) Web Development
6 70 (9.76%) Agile
7 64 (8.93%) Data Science
8 63 (8.79%) Computer Science
9 47 (6.56%) Hematology
9 47 (6.56%) Immunology
10 39 (5.44%) Analytics
11 30 (4.18%) Decision-Making
11 30 (4.18%) Roadmaps
12 28 (3.91%) Software Engineering
13 26 (3.63%) Deployment Automation
13 26 (3.63%) Use Case
14 24 (3.35%) Biotechnology
14 24 (3.35%) Data Management
15 23 (3.21%) Project Management
16 22 (3.07%) Digital Transformation Strategy
Programming Languages
1 70 (9.76%) Python
2 28 (3.91%) C++
3 16 (2.23%) VBA
4 13 (1.81%) C#
5 12 (1.67%) SQL
6 9 (1.26%) Java
7 8 (1.12%) Scala
8 6 (0.84%) C
9 5 (0.70%) R
10 4 (0.56%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.42%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.28%) Julia
12 2 (0.28%) MATLAB
13 1 (0.14%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 717 (100.00%) Degree
2 605 (84.38%) PhD
3 572 (79.78%) Postgraduate
4 26 (3.63%) MBA
5 23 (3.21%) SC Cleared
5 23 (3.21%) Security Cleared
6 22 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (1.53%) APMP
8 2 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.14%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.14%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.35%) Accessibility
2 22 (3.07%) Data Quality
3 17 (2.37%) GxP
4 5 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (0.56%) ISO 26262
5 4 (0.56%) QA
6 3 (0.42%) PMO
7 2 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 1 (0.14%) GDPR
8 1 (0.14%) IEC 61131
8 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.14%) NCSC
8 1 (0.14%) NIST
System Software
1 8 (1.12%) Docker
2 2 (0.28%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 4 (0.56%) Functional Safety
1 4 (0.56%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.28%) Ansible
2 2 (0.28%) Kubeflow
2 2 (0.28%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (0.70%) BT
1 5 (0.70%) Databricks
2 2 (0.28%) Agilent
2 2 (0.28%) Microsoft
2 2 (0.28%) PayPal
3 1 (0.14%) Automation Anywhere
3 1 (0.14%) EMC
3 1 (0.14%) HubSpot
3 1 (0.14%) IBM
3 1 (0.14%) IFS
3 1 (0.14%) Pega
3 1 (0.14%) ServiceNow
3 1 (0.14%) UiPath