PhD Jobs in the South East

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil, EngD, Doctorate)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 208 231 215
Rank change year-on-year +23 -16 +139
Permanent jobs citing PhD 85 165 196
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 0.90% 0.98% 1.36%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.60% 2.85% 3.43%
Number of salaries quoted 33 135 47
10th Percentile £40,000 £33,400 £32,650
25th Percentile £51,250 £40,625 £36,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,810 £58,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.47% -3.33% +33.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £72,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £82,000 £85,000 £91,000
England median annual salary £80,000 £62,500 £75,000
% change year-on-year +28.00% -16.67% +7.14%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

PhD 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 5,302 5,790 5,718
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 56.43% 34.43% 39.53%
Number of salaries quoted 2,445 3,640 2,557
10th Percentile £34,988 £29,750 £28,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £38,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £51,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.65% +3.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £78,750 £82,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - -8.33% +9.09%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing PhD as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for PhD in the South East

PhD
Salary Trend in the South East

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing PhD in the South East.

Salary trend for PhD in the South East

PhD
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing PhD in the South East over the 6 months to 12 May 2025.

Salary histogram for PhD in the South East

PhD
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 PhD within the South East region over the 6 months to 12 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley 0 54 £52,000 -10.34% 44
Berkshire +35 29 £52,000 -10.34% 21
Oxfordshire -21 15 £40,000 -27.27% 21
Hampshire +71 10 £52,500 -2.33% 20
Buckinghamshire +30 10 - - 6
Surrey +27 10 £75,000 +50.00% 23
Isle of Wight - 9 £80,000 -
West Sussex - 1 - -
Middlesex - 1 - - 4
PhD
England

PhD
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 37 (43.53%) Chatbot
2 1 (1.18%) OrCAD
2 1 (1.18%) Pipeline Pilot
Cloud Services
1 3 (3.53%) AWS
1 3 (3.53%) AWS Lambda
1 3 (3.53%) Azure
1 3 (3.53%) GCP
1 3 (3.53%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 3 (3.53%) Broadband
2 1 (1.18%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.35%) Metadata
1 2 (2.35%) RDBMS
1 2 (2.35%) Relational Database
2 1 (1.18%) KNIME
2 1 (1.18%) Pinecone
2 1 (1.18%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 2 (2.35%) Subversion
2 1 (1.18%) Git
2 1 (1.18%) MLflow
2 1 (1.18%) Visual Studio
General
1 29 (34.12%) Analytical Skills
2 6 (7.06%) Social Skills
3 5 (5.88%) Aeronautics
3 5 (5.88%) Aerospace
3 5 (5.88%) Automotive
3 5 (5.88%) Electronics
3 5 (5.88%) Law
3 5 (5.88%) Manufacturing
4 4 (4.71%) Presentation Skills
5 2 (2.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.18%) Finance
6 1 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 37 (43.53%) Trainer
2 14 (16.47%) Software Engineer
3 12 (14.12%) Developer
4 10 (11.76%) Senior
5 9 (10.59%) Software Developer
6 5 (5.88%) Lead
6 5 (5.88%) Performance Engineer
7 4 (4.71%) C++ Software Engineer
7 4 (4.71%) Machine Learning Engineer
7 4 (4.71%) Senior Software Engineer
8 3 (3.53%) Data Scientist
8 3 (3.53%) Lead Developer
9 2 (2.35%) C Developer
9 2 (2.35%) C# Software Engineer
9 2 (2.35%) C/C++ Developer
9 2 (2.35%) C++ Developer
9 2 (2.35%) Lead Software Developer
9 2 (2.35%) Qt Software Engineer
9 2 (2.35%) Senior Developer
9 2 (2.35%) Senior Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.35%) HTML
1 2 (2.35%) Qt
1 2 (2.35%) WinForms
1 2 (2.35%) WPF
2 1 (1.18%) .NET
2 1 (1.18%) PyTorch
2 1 (1.18%) scikit-learn
2 1 (1.18%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 21 (24.71%) Algorithms
2 9 (10.59%) Self-Motivation
3 5 (5.88%) Linux Command Line
3 5 (5.88%) Molecular Biology
4 3 (3.53%) Acoustics
5 2 (2.35%) 3D Graphics
5 2 (2.35%) Data Centre
5 2 (2.35%) Device Driver
5 2 (2.35%) FPGA
5 2 (2.35%) Robotics
5 2 (2.35%) VHDL
6 1 (1.18%) IoT
6 1 (1.18%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.18%) Raspberry Pi
6 1 (1.18%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 22 (25.88%) Linux
2 10 (11.76%) Unix
3 5 (5.88%) Debian
4 4 (4.71%) Windows
5 2 (2.35%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (48.24%) Artificial Intelligence
2 37 (43.53%) Conversational UI
3 30 (35.29%) Physics
4 29 (34.12%) Mathematics
5 26 (30.59%) Chemistry
6 17 (20.00%) Computer Science
7 16 (18.82%) Software Engineering
8 14 (16.47%) Open Source
9 11 (12.94%) Software Testing
10 10 (11.76%) Machine Learning
11 9 (10.59%) Customer Requirements
11 9 (10.59%) SDLC
11 9 (10.59%) Systems Engineering
11 9 (10.59%) Systems Thinking
12 8 (9.41%) Parallel Programming
12 8 (9.41%) Performance Analysis
13 7 (8.24%) Continuous Integration
13 7 (8.24%) Mentoring
13 7 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
13 7 (8.24%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 27 (31.76%) Python
2 22 (25.88%) C++
3 15 (17.65%) C
4 12 (14.12%) Fortran
5 10 (11.76%) Bash
6 4 (4.71%) MATLAB
6 4 (4.71%) R
6 4 (4.71%) TypeScript
7 3 (3.53%) C#
8 2 (2.35%) Java
8 2 (2.35%) JavaScript
8 2 (2.35%) SQL
9 1 (1.18%) Embedded C
9 1 (1.18%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 85 (100.00%) Degree
2 77 (90.59%) Master's Degree
3 12 (14.12%) Security Cleared
4 10 (11.76%) BPSS Clearance
4 10 (11.76%) DV Cleared
5 8 (9.41%) SC Cleared
6 6 (7.06%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (2.35%) Numerate Degree
8 1 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.18%) DBS Check
8 1 (1.18%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (10.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
System Software
1 2 (2.35%) Firmware
2 1 (1.18%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (1.18%) Kubeflow
1 1 (1.18%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 37 (43.53%) PayPal
2 1 (1.18%) ANSYS