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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 16 8 13
Rank change year-on-year -8 +5 +2
Contract jobs citing Software Engineering 66 115 88
As % of all contract jobs advertised in Bristol 9.10% 12.57% 8.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.87% 15.15% 9.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 10 37
10th Percentile £69 £449 £395
25th Percentile £375 £456 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -6.82% +2.33%
75th Percentile £644 £601 £675
90th Percentile £676 £676 £693
South West median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 64 37
10th Percentile £61.70 £61.25 £60.91
25th Percentile - £65.00 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +7.69% -
75th Percentile £68.00 - £70.00
90th Percentile £68.30 £70.25 £80.50
South West median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -7.14% +7.69% -

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 669 759 938
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 92.28% 82.95% 86.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 337 407 636
10th Percentile £252 £300 £308
25th Percentile £380 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £599 £650
90th Percentile £747 £703 £725
South West median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 141 140 117
10th Percentile £12.82 £49.80 £23.70
25th Percentile £18.87 £65.00 £50.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £70.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -53.57% +7.69% -
75th Percentile £65.00 £72.50 £76.25
90th Percentile £70.00 £77.75 £83.40
South West median hourly rate £25.15 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -62.74% +3.85% +8.62%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Bristol

Job postings citing Software Engineering as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in Bristol.

Job vacancy trend for Software Engineering 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 21 September 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 21 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Engineering in Bristol

Software Engineering
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Bristol 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:

Application Platforms
1 3 (4.55%) Apache
2 1 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 1 (1.52%) Chatbot
1 1 (1.52%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 13 (19.70%) AWS
2 9 (13.64%) Azure
3 5 (7.58%) GCP
3 5 (7.58%) npm
4 3 (4.55%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (3.03%) Amazon EC2
5 2 (3.03%) AWS CloudFormation
5 2 (3.03%) Azure AKS
5 2 (3.03%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 2 (3.03%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.52%) GitHub
6 1 (1.52%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (1.52%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.03%) Ethernet
1 2 (3.03%) TCP/IP
2 1 (1.52%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (9.09%) GIS
1 6 (9.09%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (4.55%) NoSQL
3 2 (3.03%) ClickHouse
3 2 (3.03%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (3.03%) MongoDB
3 2 (3.03%) MySQL
3 2 (3.03%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (6.06%) Git
1 4 (6.06%) Jenkins
2 2 (3.03%) Artifactory
2 2 (3.03%) CMake
2 2 (3.03%) Eclipse
2 2 (3.03%) GitLab
2 2 (3.03%) Visual Studio
3 1 (1.52%) Cypress.io
3 1 (1.52%) GoogleTest
3 1 (1.52%) Gradle
3 1 (1.52%) SonarQube
3 1 (1.52%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (1.52%) webpack
General
1 7 (10.61%) Law
2 6 (9.09%) Social Skills
3 4 (6.06%) Aerospace
4 3 (4.55%) Finance
4 3 (4.55%) Public Sector
5 2 (3.03%) Military
5 2 (3.03%) Tech for Good
6 1 (1.52%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.52%) Aviation
6 1 (1.52%) Banking
6 1 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 25 (37.88%) Software Engineer
2 14 (21.21%) Product Engineer
2 14 (21.21%) Products Support Engineer
2 14 (21.21%) Software Support Engineer
2 14 (21.21%) Support Engineer
3 12 (18.18%) C++ Software Engineer
4 9 (13.64%) Linux Engineer
4 9 (13.64%) Linux Support
4 9 (13.64%) Linux Support Engineer
5 8 (12.12%) Developer
6 6 (9.09%) Documentation Officer
7 4 (6.06%) Architect
7 4 (6.06%) Full-Stack Engineer
7 4 (6.06%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
7 4 (6.06%) Lead
7 4 (6.06%) Software Architect
8 3 (4.55%) C++ Developer
8 3 (4.55%) Data Engineer
8 3 (4.55%) Senior
9 2 (3.03%) C# Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (36.36%) Middleware
2 16 (24.24%) Qt
3 13 (19.70%) React
4 11 (16.67%) Node.js
5 3 (4.55%) REST
5 3 (4.55%) Web Services
6 2 (3.03%) .NET
6 2 (3.03%) Apache NiFi
6 2 (3.03%) Express.js
6 2 (3.03%) Next.js
6 2 (3.03%) Spring
7 1 (1.52%) Bazel
7 1 (1.52%) Boost C++ Libraries
7 1 (1.52%) GraphQL
7 1 (1.52%) Jest
7 1 (1.52%) JWT
7 1 (1.52%) OAuth2
7 1 (1.52%) OpenCV
7 1 (1.52%) RESTful
7 1 (1.52%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 6 (9.09%) Video\Live Streaming
2 3 (4.55%) Cloud Native
3 2 (3.03%) CUDA
3 2 (3.03%) Greenfield Project
3 2 (3.03%) IoT
4 1 (1.52%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (1.52%) Public Cloud
4 1 (1.52%) Raspberry Pi
4 1 (1.52%) Renewable Energy
4 1 (1.52%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 23 (34.85%) Linux
2 14 (21.21%) Ubuntu
3 11 (16.67%) Windows
4 1 (1.52%) Android
4 1 (1.52%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (18.18%) Agile
2 8 (12.12%) DevOps
2 8 (12.12%) Full-Stack Development
2 8 (12.12%) Test Automation
3 7 (10.61%) CI/CD
4 6 (9.09%) Configuration Management
4 6 (9.09%) Information Security
4 6 (9.09%) Project Management
5 5 (7.58%) Mentoring
5 5 (7.58%) Problem-Solving
6 4 (6.06%) Multithreading
6 4 (6.06%) Project Delivery
6 4 (6.06%) SDLC
6 4 (6.06%) Software Architecture
6 4 (6.06%) Software Delivery
7 3 (4.55%) Analytics
7 3 (4.55%) Computer Science
7 3 (4.55%) Continuous Integration
7 3 (4.55%) Microservices
7 3 (4.55%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 40 (60.61%) C++
2 26 (39.39%) JavaScript
3 24 (36.36%) Ada
4 16 (24.24%) C
5 15 (22.73%) TypeScript
6 14 (21.21%) Shell Script
7 12 (18.18%) Python
8 7 (10.61%) SQL
9 6 (9.09%) C#
9 6 (9.09%) Java
10 2 (3.03%) Bicep
10 2 (3.03%) Go
10 2 (3.03%) PowerShell
11 1 (1.52%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 23 (34.85%) Security Cleared
2 18 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 3 (4.55%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (4.55%) Degree
4 1 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (1.52%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (15.15%) Def Stans
1 10 (15.15%) IEC 61508
1 10 (15.15%) MISRA
1 10 (15.15%) MISRA C
2 2 (3.03%) QA
3 1 (1.52%) GDPR
System Software
1 5 (7.58%) Docker
2 2 (3.03%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 6 (9.09%) Terraform
2 4 (6.06%) Kubernetes
3 2 (3.03%) Ansible
3 2 (3.03%) Kibana
Vendors
1 16 (24.24%) Red Hat
2 6 (9.09%) Microsoft
3 2 (3.03%) Databricks
4 1 (1.52%) Cisco
4 1 (1.52%) Genesys
4 1 (1.52%) Google
4 1 (1.52%) NVIDIA
4 1 (1.52%) Salesforce
4 1 (1.52%) Twitter