Developer Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Developer
Central London > City of London

The median Developer daily rate in the City of London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 March 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 5 7
Rank change year-on-year -8 +2 -5
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 251 282 324
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 12.70% 15.47% 13.72%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.51% 16.64% 14.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 181 227
10th Percentile £366 £413 £412
25th Percentile £463 £480 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £688 £775
90th Percentile £749 £838 £843
Central London median daily rate £525 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £36.75 £46.25
Median hourly rate - £38.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year - -18.95% -17.39%
75th Percentile - £40.25 £48.75
90th Percentile - - -
Central London median hourly rate - £40.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year - -15.79% -17.39%

All Contract IT Job Roles
City of London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the City of London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the City of London with a recognized job title 1,858 1,695 2,235
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 94.03% 92.98% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,269 1,043 1,603
10th Percentile £350 £356 £340
25th Percentile £440 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £575 £563
Median % change year-on-year -6.09% +2.22% -5.06%
75th Percentile £675 £684 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £788
Central London median daily rate £550 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 10 19
10th Percentile £18.75 £22.00 £16.15
25th Percentile £20.18 £26.25 £17.97
Median hourly rate £40.64 £35.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.48% +57.78% -35.71%
75th Percentile £52.56 £96.19 £40.00
90th Percentile £60.25 £119.55 £49.05
Central London median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £25.50
% change year-on-year -25.40% +37.25% -21.54%

Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Developer job vacancy trend in the City of London

Developer
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the City of London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the City of London

Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Developer in the City of London over the 6 months to 1 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Developer in the City of London

Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the City of London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the City of London

Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London

For the 6 months to 1 March 2026, Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the City of London region featuring Developer in the job title.

1 75 (29.88%) Java
2 57 (22.71%) Agile
3 54 (21.51%) SQL
4 48 (19.12%) Python
5 41 (16.33%) JavaScript
6 37 (14.74%) Azure
6 37 (14.74%) CI/CD
6 37 (14.74%) Security Cleared
7 35 (13.94%) AWS
7 35 (13.94%) SC Cleared
8 34 (13.55%) C#
9 33 (13.15%) Problem-Solving
10 30 (11.95%) Git
11 29 (11.55%) Microsoft
11 29 (11.55%) React
12 28 (11.16%) .NET
12 28 (11.16%) DevOps
12 28 (11.16%) Microservices
13 27 (10.76%) Scrum
14 26 (10.36%) Full-Stack Development
14 26 (10.36%) HTML
14 26 (10.36%) REST
15 25 (9.96%) Power Platform
16 24 (9.56%) CSS
16 24 (9.56%) TDD
17 23 (9.16%) Analytics
17 23 (9.16%) Docker
17 23 (9.16%) Test Automation
18 21 (8.37%) AngularJS
18 21 (8.37%) GitHub

Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 8 (3.19%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.59%) CMS
2 4 (1.59%) Confluence
3 3 (1.20%) Ethereum
3 3 (1.20%) Hyperledger
4 2 (0.80%) Headless CMS
4 2 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.40%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.40%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.40%) Appian
5 1 (0.40%) Cloud Foundry
5 1 (0.40%) Mendix
5 1 (0.40%) Mule
Applications
1 4 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.80%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 12 (4.78%) Endur
2 8 (3.19%) Fidessa
3 5 (1.99%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.40%) BASE24
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.40%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.40%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.40%) Shopify
4 1 (0.40%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 37 (14.74%) Azure
2 35 (13.94%) AWS
3 25 (9.96%) Power Platform
4 21 (8.37%) GitHub
5 17 (6.77%) GCP
6 8 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
6 8 (3.19%) Dynamics 365
6 8 (3.19%) Serverless
7 7 (2.79%) AWS Lambda
7 7 (2.79%) OpenShift
8 6 (2.39%) GitHub Actions
8 6 (2.39%) Microsoft Copilot
8 6 (2.39%) Power Automate
8 6 (2.39%) PowerApps
9 5 (1.99%) Amazon S3
9 5 (1.99%) Copilot Studio
9 5 (1.99%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (1.59%) Azure AI
10 4 (1.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 3 (1.20%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.80%) HTTP
2 1 (0.40%) DKIM
2 1 (0.40%) DNS
2 1 (0.40%) Firewall
2 1 (0.40%) HTTPS
2 1 (0.40%) RTP
2 1 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (6.37%) Power BI
2 14 (5.58%) SQL Server
3 13 (5.18%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (5.18%) Relational Database
4 8 (3.19%) MongoDB
4 8 (3.19%) MySQL
4 8 (3.19%) NoSQL
5 6 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (2.39%) KDB
5 6 (2.39%) Kdb+
5 6 (2.39%) Redis
5 6 (2.39%) Tick Data
6 5 (1.99%) Tableau
7 4 (1.59%) Metadata
8 3 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (1.20%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.20%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 3 (1.20%) Oracle Database
8 3 (1.20%) Power Query
9 2 (0.80%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 30 (11.95%) Git
2 13 (5.18%) Jenkins
3 10 (3.98%) JIRA
4 7 (2.79%) JUnit
5 6 (2.39%) Maven
6 5 (1.99%) Bitbucket
6 5 (1.99%) Cucumber
6 5 (1.99%) GitLab
6 5 (1.99%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (1.59%) Octopus Deploy
8 3 (1.20%) Cypress.io
8 3 (1.20%) Mockito
8 3 (1.20%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.80%) CocoaPods
9 2 (0.80%) fastlane
9 2 (0.80%) Gatling
9 2 (0.80%) Selenium
9 2 (0.80%) Toad
9 2 (0.80%) webpack
9 2 (0.80%) Xcode
General
1 77 (30.68%) Finance
2 39 (15.54%) Social Skills
3 27 (10.76%) Banking
4 25 (9.96%) Front Office
5 19 (7.57%) Analytical Skills
6 13 (5.18%) Public Sector
7 8 (3.19%) Investment Banking
8 6 (2.39%) Financial Institution
9 4 (1.59%) Back Office
9 4 (1.59%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (1.20%) Law
10 3 (1.20%) Legal
10 3 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.80%) Automotive
11 2 (0.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.40%) Advertising
12 1 (0.40%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (11.55%) React
2 28 (11.16%) .NET
3 26 (10.36%) HTML
3 26 (10.36%) REST
4 24 (9.56%) CSS
5 21 (8.37%) AngularJS
6 19 (7.57%) Spring
7 16 (6.37%) Spring Boot
8 14 (5.58%) RESTful
9 11 (4.38%) Node.js
9 11 (4.38%) SOAP
9 11 (4.38%) Web Services
10 10 (3.98%) JSON
11 8 (3.19%) Kafka
11 8 (3.19%) XML
12 7 (2.79%) Lightning Web Components
13 6 (2.39%) OSGi
14 5 (1.99%) HTML5
14 5 (1.99%) OAuth
15 4 (1.59%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 19 (7.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 13 (5.18%) Equities
3 10 (3.98%) Data Structures
4 9 (3.59%) Derivative
5 8 (3.19%) Cloud Native
6 7 (2.79%) Algorithms
7 5 (1.99%) Fixed Income
7 5 (1.99%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.59%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.59%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.20%) Life Science
9 3 (1.20%) Low-Code
10 2 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.80%) Animation
10 2 (0.80%) Blockchain
10 2 (0.80%) CMDB
10 2 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.80%) Legacy Code
10 2 (0.80%) NHS
10 2 (0.80%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 13 (5.18%) Linux
2 11 (4.38%) Unix
3 6 (2.39%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.59%) Android
5 3 (1.20%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (22.71%) Agile
2 37 (14.74%) CI/CD
3 33 (13.15%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (11.16%) DevOps
4 28 (11.16%) Microservices
5 27 (10.76%) Scrum
6 26 (10.36%) Full-Stack Development
7 24 (9.56%) TDD
8 23 (9.16%) Analytics
8 23 (9.16%) Test Automation
9 21 (8.37%) Low Latency
10 20 (7.97%) AI
10 20 (7.97%) Business Intelligence
11 19 (7.57%) Containerisation
11 19 (7.57%) Unit Testing
12 16 (6.37%) API Development
13 15 (5.98%) Kanban
13 15 (5.98%) Performance Tuning
13 15 (5.98%) Software Engineering
13 15 (5.98%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 75 (29.88%) Java
2 54 (21.51%) SQL
3 48 (19.12%) Python
4 41 (16.33%) JavaScript
5 34 (13.55%) C#
6 18 (7.17%) TypeScript
7 7 (2.79%) Apex Code
7 7 (2.79%) C++
8 6 (2.39%) Kotlin
9 5 (1.99%) Go
9 5 (1.99%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.59%) PHP
10 4 (1.59%) Shell Script
10 4 (1.59%) Swift
11 3 (1.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (1.20%) Objective-C
11 3 (1.20%) PowerShell
11 3 (1.20%) Ruby
12 2 (0.80%) C
12 2 (0.80%) Korn
Qualifications
1 37 (14.74%) Security Cleared
2 35 (13.94%) SC Cleared
3 9 (3.59%) Degree
4 5 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (0.80%) AWS Certification
6 2 (0.80%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (0.40%) AWS Certified Developer
7 1 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (0.40%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.40%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.40%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.40%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.19%) Accessibility
1 8 (3.19%) QA
2 6 (2.39%) WCAG
3 3 (1.20%) ISO 8583
4 2 (0.80%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.80%) GDPR
4 2 (0.80%) ISO 20022
4 2 (0.80%) PSD2
4 2 (0.80%) SEPA
5 1 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 1 (0.40%) SLA
System Software
1 23 (9.16%) Docker
2 1 (0.40%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.40%) GridGain
Systems Management
1 20 (7.97%) Kubernetes
2 12 (4.78%) Ansible
3 11 (4.38%) Terraform
4 3 (1.20%) Grafana
4 3 (1.20%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.80%) Argo
5 2 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 29 (11.55%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.37%) Oracle
3 17 (6.77%) Salesforce
4 9 (3.59%) Google
5 8 (3.19%) OpenLink
5 8 (3.19%) ServiceNow
6 5 (1.99%) Solace
7 4 (1.59%) Axway
8 3 (1.20%) Databricks
8 3 (1.20%) Foundry
8 3 (1.20%) OpenAI
8 3 (1.20%) Qualtrics
8 3 (1.20%) SAP
8 3 (1.20%) Sybase
9 2 (0.80%) Adobe
9 2 (0.80%) Apple
9 2 (0.80%) Confluent
9 2 (0.80%) ION Trading
9 2 (0.80%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.40%) Tradeweb