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 4 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 10 7 14
Rank change year-on-year -3 +7 +1
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 83 94 79
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 10.53% 11.82% 7.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.62% 14.37% 8.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 22 5 25
10th Percentile £68 £460 £370
25th Percentile £69 £475 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -9.09% -2.65%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £680
90th Percentile £661 £600 £702
South West median daily rate £458 £590 £550
% change year-on-year -22.46% +7.27% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 45 43
10th Percentile £61.25 £60.95 £63.00
25th Percentile £63.13 £62.50 £65.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% -3.57% +6.87%
75th Percentile - £70.00 -
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.15 £81.00
South West median hourly rate £65.00 £67.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year -4.06% +4.23% -0.76%

All Process and 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 714 654 908
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 90.61% 82.26% 87.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 363 360 582
10th Percentile £238 £227 £300
25th Percentile £375 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £603 £645
90th Percentile £741 £738 £700
South West median daily rate £517 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -1.57% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 89 124
10th Percentile £13.26 £35.00 £33.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £60.75 £52.19
Median hourly rate £33.50 £67.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -50.37% +3.85% -
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.25 £76.25
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £83.40
South West median hourly rate £25.15 £65.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -61.31% +8.33% -7.69%

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 4 November 2025.

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 4 November 2025.

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 (3.61%) Apache
2 1 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 3 (3.61%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.20%) Chatbot
2 1 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (1.20%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 1 (1.20%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 15 (18.07%) AWS
2 10 (12.05%) Azure
3 6 (7.23%) npm
4 5 (6.02%) GCP
5 4 (4.82%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (2.41%) Amazon EC2
6 2 (2.41%) AWS CloudFormation
6 2 (2.41%) Azure AKS
6 2 (2.41%) Azure Cosmos DB
6 2 (2.41%) Entra ID
7 1 (1.20%) GitHub
7 1 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.20%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.20%) Cisco Nexus
1 1 (1.20%) Ethernet
1 1 (1.20%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (8.43%) PostgreSQL
2 6 (7.23%) GIS
3 3 (3.61%) NoSQL
4 2 (2.41%) ClickHouse
4 2 (2.41%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (2.41%) MongoDB
4 2 (2.41%) MySQL
4 2 (2.41%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (6.02%) Jenkins
1 5 (6.02%) Rational Rhapsody
2 4 (4.82%) Git
3 2 (2.41%) Artifactory
3 2 (2.41%) CMake
3 2 (2.41%) GitLab
4 1 (1.20%) Cypress.io
4 1 (1.20%) Eclipse
4 1 (1.20%) GoogleTest
4 1 (1.20%) Gradle
4 1 (1.20%) SonarQube
4 1 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (1.20%) Visual Studio
4 1 (1.20%) webpack
General
1 9 (10.84%) Law
2 7 (8.43%) Aerospace
3 6 (7.23%) Social Skills
4 5 (6.02%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (6.02%) Finance
5 4 (4.82%) Electronics
5 4 (4.82%) Public Sector
6 3 (3.61%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (2.41%) Tech for Good
8 1 (1.20%) Aviation
8 1 (1.20%) Banking
8 1 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (1.20%) Military
8 1 (1.20%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 42 (50.60%) Software Engineer
2 25 (30.12%) C++ Software Engineer
3 10 (12.05%) Documentation Officer
3 10 (12.05%) Product Engineer
3 10 (12.05%) Products Support Engineer
3 10 (12.05%) Software Support Engineer
3 10 (12.05%) Support Engineer
4 7 (8.43%) Developer
5 6 (7.23%) Embedded Engineer
5 6 (7.23%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 5 (6.02%) Lead
7 4 (4.82%) Full-Stack Engineer
7 4 (4.82%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
7 4 (4.82%) Senior
8 3 (3.61%) Architect
8 3 (3.61%) Data Engineer
8 3 (3.61%) Software Architect
9 2 (2.41%) Engineering Manager
9 2 (2.41%) Senior Developer
9 2 (2.41%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (26.51%) Middleware
2 16 (19.28%) Qt
3 14 (16.87%) React
4 11 (13.25%) Node.js
5 3 (3.61%) REST
6 2 (2.41%) .NET
6 2 (2.41%) Apache NiFi
6 2 (2.41%) Express.js
6 2 (2.41%) Next.js
6 2 (2.41%) Spring
6 2 (2.41%) Web Services
7 1 (1.20%) Boost C++ Libraries
7 1 (1.20%) CSS
7 1 (1.20%) Django
7 1 (1.20%) HTML
7 1 (1.20%) Jest
7 1 (1.20%) JWT
7 1 (1.20%) OAuth
7 1 (1.20%) RESTful
7 1 (1.20%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (7.23%) CUDA
1 6 (7.23%) Video\Live Streaming
2 5 (6.02%) Embedded Systems
3 3 (3.61%) Cloud Native
4 2 (2.41%) Greenfield Project
4 2 (2.41%) IoT
5 1 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.20%) Public Cloud
5 1 (1.20%) Raspberry Pi
5 1 (1.20%) Renewable Energy
5 1 (1.20%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 19 (22.89%) Linux
2 10 (12.05%) Ubuntu
2 10 (12.05%) Windows
3 1 (1.20%) Android
3 1 (1.20%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (15.66%) Agile
2 10 (12.05%) Project Management
3 9 (10.84%) DevOps
3 9 (10.84%) Full-Stack Development
4 8 (9.64%) Test Automation
5 7 (8.43%) CI/CD
5 7 (8.43%) Configuration Management
5 7 (8.43%) Mentoring
6 6 (7.23%) Information Security
6 6 (7.23%) Validation
7 5 (6.02%) Problem-Solving
7 5 (6.02%) Project Delivery
7 5 (6.02%) SDLC
7 5 (6.02%) Software Delivery
7 5 (6.02%) Software Testing
7 5 (6.02%) Systems Engineering
7 5 (6.02%) UML
8 4 (4.82%) Integration Testing
8 4 (4.82%) Multithreading
9 3 (3.61%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 45 (54.22%) C++
2 23 (27.71%) JavaScript
3 20 (24.10%) Ada
4 18 (21.69%) C
5 16 (19.28%) TypeScript
6 13 (15.66%) Python
7 10 (12.05%) Shell Script
8 7 (8.43%) Java
8 7 (8.43%) SQL
9 5 (6.02%) C#
10 2 (2.41%) Bicep
10 2 (2.41%) Go
10 2 (2.41%) MATLAB
10 2 (2.41%) PowerShell
11 1 (1.20%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 33 (39.76%) Security Cleared
2 30 (36.14%) SC Cleared
3 4 (4.82%) Degree
4 3 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (1.20%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (18.07%) Def Stans
2 14 (16.87%) MISRA
3 11 (13.25%) IEC 61508
4 10 (12.05%) MISRA C
5 4 (4.82%) DO-178B
6 2 (2.41%) QA
7 1 (1.20%) GDPR
System Software
1 5 (6.02%) Docker
2 4 (4.82%) Firmware
3 2 (2.41%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (8.43%) Terraform
2 4 (4.82%) Kubernetes
3 2 (2.41%) Ansible
3 2 (2.41%) Kibana
Vendors
1 12 (14.46%) Red Hat
2 5 (6.02%) Microsoft
3 2 (2.41%) Databricks
3 2 (2.41%) NVIDIA
4 1 (1.20%) Cisco
4 1 (1.20%) Genesys
4 1 (1.20%) Google
4 1 (1.20%) Salesforce
4 1 (1.20%) Twitter