Lead Contracts in the City of London

Leader
Central London > City of London

The median Leader daily rate in the City of London is £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 28 32 37
Rank change year-on-year +4 +5 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Lead 118 115 188
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the City of London 6.80% 5.31% 5.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.30% 5.59% 5.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 79 129
10th Percentile £495 £475 £492
25th Percentile £525 £525 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £638 £675
Median % change year-on-year -3.92% -5.56% +8.00%
75th Percentile £725 £800 £750
90th Percentile £800 £905 £888
Central London median daily rate £625 £638 £663
% change year-on-year -1.96% -3.77% +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
Median hourly rate - - £35.00
Central London median hourly rate - - £35.00
% change year-on-year - - -24.48%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 1,617 2,058 3,350
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.15% 95.06% 94.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,011 1,446 2,281
10th Percentile £350 £350 £360
25th Percentile £463 £446 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £551 £600
Median % change year-on-year +4.40% -8.21% +5.26%
75th Percentile £688 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £800 £820
Central London median daily rate £565 £550 £600
% change year-on-year +2.73% -8.33% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 15 23
10th Percentile £22.00 £15.62 £15.50
25th Percentile £23.98 £20.22 £18.50
Median hourly rate £29.58 £23.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.59% -34.29% -7.89%
75th Percentile £47.50 £28.44 £58.75
90th Percentile £89.13 £40.00 £87.64
Central London median hourly rate £28.61 £26.41 £35.00
% change year-on-year +8.35% -24.56% -9.09%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Job postings that featured Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Job vacancy trend for Lead in the City of London

Lead
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Lead in the City of London.

Daily rate trend for Lead in the City of London

Lead
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead in the City of London over the 6 months to 19 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead in the City of London

Lead
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Lead in the City of London.

Hourly rate trend for Lead in the City of London

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the City of London

For the 6 months to 19 May 2025, Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the City of London region featuring Lead in the job title.

1 48 (40.68%) Finance
2 27 (22.88%) Agile
3 25 (21.19%) Social Skills
4 23 (19.49%) Stakeholder Management
5 21 (17.80%) Python
5 21 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
6 20 (16.95%) Azure
6 20 (16.95%) AWS
7 18 (15.25%) Microsoft
8 17 (14.41%) CI/CD
9 16 (13.56%) Project Management
10 15 (12.71%) SQL
10 15 (12.71%) Security Cleared
11 13 (11.02%) SC Cleared
11 13 (11.02%) Java
11 13 (11.02%) DevOps
11 13 (11.02%) Roadmaps
12 12 (10.17%) Analytical Skills
12 12 (10.17%) Change Management
13 11 (9.32%) Technical Leadership
14 10 (8.47%) Public Sector
14 10 (8.47%) Kubernetes
14 10 (8.47%) Terraform
14 10 (8.47%) Mentoring
14 10 (8.47%) JavaScript
14 10 (8.47%) Banking
15 9 (7.63%) Git
15 9 (7.63%) SAP
15 9 (7.63%) Linux
15 9 (7.63%) Business Intelligence

Lead Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the City of London 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 5 (4.24%) Apache Spark
2 3 (2.54%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.69%) Apache
4 1 (0.85%) Confluence
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.85%) MTS
Applications
1 5 (4.24%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (4.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (2.54%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.54%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.85%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.85%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (4.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (2.54%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.85%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.85%) Endur
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.85%) SAP CAR
3 1 (0.85%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.85%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.85%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.85%) SAP PS
3 1 (0.85%) SAP Retail
3 1 (0.85%) SAP SRM
3 1 (0.85%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 20 (16.95%) AWS
1 20 (16.95%) Azure
2 9 (7.63%) Power Platform
3 7 (5.93%) GitHub
4 5 (4.24%) Azure DevOps
4 5 (4.24%) Dynamics 365
4 5 (4.24%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (3.39%) Cloud Computing
5 4 (3.39%) Entra ID
5 4 (3.39%) GCP
6 3 (2.54%) Azure Monitor
6 3 (2.54%) SaaS
6 3 (2.54%) Serverless
6 3 (2.54%) Snowflake
7 2 (1.69%) Amazon Cognito
7 2 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
7 2 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (1.69%) Power Automate
7 2 (1.69%) PowerApps
7 2 (1.69%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.39%) Firewall
2 3 (2.54%) DNS
2 3 (2.54%) TCP/IP
2 3 (2.54%) WAN
3 2 (1.69%) DHCP
3 2 (1.69%) HTTP
3 2 (1.69%) LAN
3 2 (1.69%) VPN
4 1 (0.85%) BGP
4 1 (0.85%) Cisco ASA
4 1 (0.85%) EIGRP
4 1 (0.85%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.85%) Intranet
4 1 (0.85%) OSPF
4 1 (0.85%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.85%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.93%) Power BI
2 4 (3.39%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (1.69%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (1.69%) Big Data
3 2 (1.69%) BigQuery
3 2 (1.69%) Data Lake
3 2 (1.69%) DynamoDB
3 2 (1.69%) Hadoop
3 2 (1.69%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.69%) Snowflake Schema
3 2 (1.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 2 (1.69%) Star Schema
3 2 (1.69%) Tableau
4 1 (0.85%) Apache Hive
4 1 (0.85%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (0.85%) Looker
4 1 (0.85%) MySQL
4 1 (0.85%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 9 (7.63%) Git
2 3 (2.54%) Jenkins
2 3 (2.54%) JIRA
3 2 (1.69%) Maven
4 1 (0.85%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 1 (0.85%) Bitbucket Server
4 1 (0.85%) GitLab
4 1 (0.85%) Gradle
4 1 (0.85%) IntelliJ
4 1 (0.85%) JUnit
4 1 (0.85%) Selenium
4 1 (0.85%) SonarQube
4 1 (0.85%) SpecFlow
General
1 48 (40.68%) Finance
2 25 (21.19%) Social Skills
3 12 (10.17%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (8.47%) Banking
4 10 (8.47%) Public Sector
5 8 (6.78%) Financial Institution
6 6 (5.08%) Retail
7 5 (4.24%) Front Office
8 4 (3.39%) Back Office
9 3 (2.54%) Legal
9 3 (2.54%) Manufacturing
9 3 (2.54%) Marketing
10 2 (1.69%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.69%) Investment Banking
10 2 (1.69%) Law
10 2 (1.69%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.85%) Police
11 1 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (5.93%) .NET
2 6 (5.08%) HTML
3 4 (3.39%) Node.js
3 4 (3.39%) REST
4 3 (2.54%) AngularJS
4 3 (2.54%) CSS
4 3 (2.54%) Kafka
4 3 (2.54%) SOAP
4 3 (2.54%) Spring
4 3 (2.54%) Web Services
5 2 (1.69%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (1.69%) HTML5 Canvas
5 2 (1.69%) JPA
5 2 (1.69%) PySpark
5 2 (1.69%) Spring Boot
5 2 (1.69%) TensorFlow
6 1 (0.85%) ASP.NET Core
6 1 (0.85%) JWT
6 1 (0.85%) React
6 1 (0.85%) web3js
Miscellaneous
1 5 (4.24%) Onboarding
2 4 (3.39%) Analytical Mindset
2 4 (3.39%) CMDB
2 4 (3.39%) Distributed Systems
3 3 (2.54%) Algorithms
3 3 (2.54%) Low-Code
3 3 (2.54%) Product Ownership
4 2 (1.69%) Credit Risk
4 2 (1.69%) Data Centre
4 2 (1.69%) Distributed Computing
4 2 (1.69%) Greenfield Project
4 2 (1.69%) iSeries
4 2 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (1.69%) Mainframe
4 2 (1.69%) Management Information System
4 2 (1.69%) Reinsurance
5 1 (0.85%) Derivative
5 1 (0.85%) Hedge funds
5 1 (0.85%) Legacy Applications
5 1 (0.85%) Online Banking
Operating Systems
1 9 (7.63%) Linux
2 3 (2.54%) Windows
3 2 (1.69%) Unix
4 1 (0.85%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.85%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (22.88%) Agile
2 23 (19.49%) Stakeholder Management
3 21 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
4 17 (14.41%) CI/CD
5 16 (13.56%) Project Management
6 13 (11.02%) DevOps
6 13 (11.02%) Roadmaps
7 12 (10.17%) Change Management
8 11 (9.32%) Technical Leadership
9 10 (8.47%) Mentoring
10 9 (7.63%) Business Intelligence
10 9 (7.63%) Risk Management
11 8 (6.78%) Cloud Security
11 8 (6.78%) Migration
12 7 (5.93%) Analytics
12 7 (5.93%) Artificial Intelligence
12 7 (5.93%) Continuous Improvement
12 7 (5.93%) ERP
12 7 (5.93%) Infrastructure as Code
12 7 (5.93%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 21 (17.80%) Python
2 15 (12.71%) SQL
3 13 (11.02%) Java
4 10 (8.47%) JavaScript
5 6 (5.08%) C
5 6 (5.08%) C++
6 3 (2.54%) Bash
6 3 (2.54%) C#
7 2 (1.69%) Perl
7 2 (1.69%) PowerShell
7 2 (1.69%) Shell Script
7 2 (1.69%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.85%) Apex Code
8 1 (0.85%) Bicep
8 1 (0.85%) Go
8 1 (0.85%) Groovy
8 1 (0.85%) Rust
8 1 (0.85%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 15 (12.71%) Security Cleared
2 13 (11.02%) SC Cleared
3 5 (4.24%) Degree
4 3 (2.54%) Master's Degree
5 2 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.69%) PMI Certification
5 2 (1.69%) PMP
6 1 (0.85%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.85%) CEH
6 1 (0.85%) CISSP
6 1 (0.85%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.85%) GIAC
6 1 (0.85%) GPEN
6 1 (0.85%) GXPN
6 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.85%) OSCP
6 1 (0.85%) PhD
6 1 (0.85%) SAP Certification
6 1 (0.85%) Six Sigma Black Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.54%) Data Quality
1 3 (2.54%) EMIR
1 3 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (2.54%) MiFID
1 3 (2.54%) NIST
1 3 (2.54%) PMO
2 2 (1.69%) Accessibility
2 2 (1.69%) QA
3 1 (0.85%) EU AI Act
3 1 (0.85%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (2.54%) Active Directory
1 3 (2.54%) Docker
2 1 (0.85%) OpenAM
2 1 (0.85%) OpenDJ
2 1 (0.85%) OpenIDM
2 1 (0.85%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (8.47%) Kubernetes
1 10 (8.47%) Terraform
2 3 (2.54%) Argo
3 2 (1.69%) Ansible
3 2 (1.69%) Cilium
4 1 (0.85%) Kibana
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.85%) PingFederate
4 1 (0.85%) SCCM
4 1 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 18 (15.25%) Microsoft
2 9 (7.63%) SAP
3 5 (4.24%) Oracle
3 5 (4.24%) Workday
4 3 (2.54%) Google
4 3 (2.54%) ServiceNow
5 2 (1.69%) Adobe
5 2 (1.69%) Databricks
5 2 (1.69%) Juniper
5 2 (1.69%) Palo Alto
5 2 (1.69%) Salesforce
5 2 (1.69%) Splunk
6 1 (0.85%) Blue Prism
6 1 (0.85%) CyberArk
6 1 (0.85%) Okta
6 1 (0.85%) OutSystems
6 1 (0.85%) Ping Identity
6 1 (0.85%) Ruckus Wireless
6 1 (0.85%) TP-LINK
6 1 (0.85%) UiPath