Software Engineering Contract Job Trends in Bristol

Software Engineering
South West > Bristol

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Bristol requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 13 8
Rank change year-on-year +9 -5 +5
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 195 73 113
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 14.41% 9.97% 12.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.59% 10.86% 15.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 41 20 9
10th Percentile £413 £68 £448
25th Percentile £505 £177 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £456 £525
Median % change year-on-year +15.07% -13.10% -4.55%
75th Percentile £610 £592 £601
90th Percentile £655 £666 £678
South West median daily rate £550 £463 £581
% change year-on-year +18.92% -20.43% +5.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 111 39 61
10th Percentile - £61.25 £61.25
25th Percentile £65.00 - £65.00
Median hourly rate £67.50 £65.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% -7.14% +7.69%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 -
90th Percentile £70.00 £68.15 £70.25
South West median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +2.31% -7.14% +7.69%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Bristol

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 Bristol.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,049 672 743
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 77.53% 91.80% 83.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 537 327 391
10th Percentile £329 £250 £263
25th Percentile £450 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £484 £488
Median % change year-on-year +8.47% -0.72% -7.14%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £590
90th Percentile £688 £747 £725
South West median daily rate £537 £509 £525
% change year-on-year +5.55% -3.05% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 149 136
10th Percentile £20.50 £12.82 £45.88
25th Percentile £46.25 £18.87 £63.44
Median hourly rate £65.00 £32.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +100.00% -53.57% +7.69%
75th Percentile £68.75 £65.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £72.54 £69.00 £77.50
South West median hourly rate £62.00 £25.15 £67.50
% change year-on-year +146.52% -62.74% +9.15%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Bristol

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Bristol

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in Bristol

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing Software Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in Bristol

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Bristol over the 6 months to 8 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Engineering in Bristol

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in Bristol

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing Software Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in Bristol

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Engineering in Bristol over the 6 months to 8 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in Bristol

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Bristol 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 3 (1.54%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (4.10%) Spreadsheet
2 5 (2.56%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (2.56%) Oracle Payroll
Cloud Services
1 9 (4.62%) AWS
2 7 (3.59%) OCI
3 5 (2.56%) Azure
3 5 (2.56%) GCP
4 2 (1.03%) dbt
4 2 (1.03%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (1.03%) Snowflake
5 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (0.51%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.56%) Ethernet
2 4 (2.05%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.51%) DHCP
3 1 (0.51%) DNS
3 1 (0.51%) Network Security
3 1 (0.51%) RS-232
3 1 (0.51%) RS-422
3 1 (0.51%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.08%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (1.03%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 19 (9.74%) Rational Rhapsody
2 17 (8.72%) JIRA
3 8 (4.10%) Rational DOORS
4 7 (3.59%) GitLab
5 5 (2.56%) Visual Studio
6 4 (2.05%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.51%) Git
General
1 17 (8.72%) Social Skills
2 15 (7.69%) Finance
3 10 (5.13%) Aerospace
4 8 (4.10%) Public Sector
5 7 (3.59%) Law
5 7 (3.59%) Military
6 4 (2.05%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (2.05%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.54%) Avionics
8 2 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.03%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.51%) Aviation
9 1 (0.51%) Legal
9 1 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 140 (71.79%) Software Engineer
2 50 (25.64%) C++ Software Engineer
3 37 (18.97%) Embedded Engineer
4 36 (18.46%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 28 (14.36%) Ada Engineer
5 28 (14.36%) Ada Software Engineer
6 15 (7.69%) Applications Engineer
7 14 (7.18%) Lead
8 13 (6.67%) Developer
9 12 (6.15%) PHP Software Engineer
9 12 (6.15%) Software Team Leader
9 12 (6.15%) Team Leader
10 11 (5.64%) Technical Leader
10 11 (5.64%) Technical Team Leader
11 9 (4.62%) C# Software Engineer
11 9 (4.62%) Oracle Developer
12 8 (4.10%) Software Developer
13 7 (3.59%) Qt Software Engineer
14 6 (3.08%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
15 3 (1.54%) Security Assurance Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (6.15%) Qt
1 12 (6.15%) React
2 11 (5.64%) Oracle Fusion
3 9 (4.62%) REST
4 7 (3.59%) Node.js
5 6 (3.08%) Jest
6 5 (2.56%) Quarkus
6 5 (2.56%) Web Services
7 4 (2.05%) Middleware
8 3 (1.54%) .NET
8 3 (1.54%) GraphQL
8 3 (1.54%) Terraform
9 2 (1.03%) Playwright
9 2 (1.03%) Yocto
10 1 (0.51%) Bun
10 1 (0.51%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 11 (5.64%) Algorithms
2 5 (2.56%) Cloud Native
3 3 (1.54%) Embedded Systems
4 2 (1.03%) Device Driver
4 2 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.51%) AI Agents
5 1 (0.51%) Data Structures
5 1 (0.51%) Distributed Systems
5 1 (0.51%) Onboarding
5 1 (0.51%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 19 (9.74%) Linux
2 5 (2.56%) FreeRTOS
3 4 (2.05%) Windows
4 2 (1.03%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (10.77%) UML
2 19 (9.74%) CI/CD
3 16 (8.21%) DevOps
4 15 (7.69%) Multithreading
5 13 (6.67%) Agile
6 12 (6.15%) Requirements Gathering
6 12 (6.15%) Stakeholder Management
7 11 (5.64%) Information Security
7 11 (5.64%) Problem-Solving
7 11 (5.64%) Project Management
7 11 (5.64%) Project Planning
7 11 (5.64%) Validation
8 10 (5.13%) Business Intelligence
8 10 (5.13%) Integration Testing
9 9 (4.62%) Configuration Management
9 9 (4.62%) SDLC
9 9 (4.62%) TDD
10 8 (4.10%) Issue Tracking
10 8 (4.10%) Wealth Management
11 7 (3.59%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 79 (40.51%) C++
2 45 (23.08%) Ada
3 18 (9.23%) C#
4 17 (8.72%) Java
5 14 (7.18%) PHP
6 12 (6.15%) TypeScript
7 11 (5.64%) C
7 11 (5.64%) PL/SQL
7 11 (5.64%) Python
7 11 (5.64%) SQL
8 10 (5.13%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.03%) Rust
10 1 (0.51%) Ada 95
10 1 (0.51%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 35 (17.95%) Security Cleared
2 30 (15.38%) SC Cleared
3 6 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (6.15%) MISRA
1 12 (6.15%) MISRA C
2 10 (5.13%) Def Stans
3 8 (4.10%) IEC 61508
4 6 (3.08%) Accessibility
4 6 (3.08%) WCAG
5 3 (1.54%) QA
6 2 (1.03%) GDPR
6 2 (1.03%) JSP 440
6 2 (1.03%) NCSC
7 1 (0.51%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 8 (4.10%) Docker
2 1 (0.51%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (3.59%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.51%) McAfee ePO
2 1 (0.51%) PTC Integrity
2 1 (0.51%) SolarWinds Orion
2 1 (0.51%) WMI
2 1 (0.51%) WSUS
Vendors
1 13 (6.67%) Oracle
2 8 (4.10%) Microsoft
3 4 (2.05%) IBM
4 1 (0.51%) Cisco
4 1 (0.51%) F5
4 1 (0.51%) Fortinet
4 1 (0.51%) Google
4 1 (0.51%) Green Hills
4 1 (0.51%) MathWorks
4 1 (0.51%) McAfee
4 1 (0.51%) Palo Alto
4 1 (0.51%) PTC
4 1 (0.51%) QinetiQ
4 1 (0.51%) SolarWinds
4 1 (0.51%) Thales