Life Science Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Life Sciences
Central London > City of London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Life Science in contract job vacancies in the City of London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Life Science over the 6 months leading up to 7 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 114 117 127
Rank change year-on-year +3 +10 +62
Contract jobs citing Life Science 14 2 3
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 0.76% 0.10% 0.12%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.04% 0.33% 0.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 1 3
10th Percentile £625 - £680
25th Percentile £650 £613 £725
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £700 £625 £800
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% -21.88% +18.52%
75th Percentile £788 £638 -
90th Percentile - - -
Central London median daily rate £700 £625 £800
% change year-on-year +12.00% -21.88% +23.08%

All Generic Skills
City of London

Life Science falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 685 610 771
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 37.09% 31.22% 31.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 507 380 510
10th Percentile £354 £375 £307
25th Percentile £441 £475 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £688 £710 £714
90th Percentile £788 £825 £813
Central London median daily rate £550 £591 £600
% change year-on-year -6.86% -1.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 9
10th Percentile £20.30 - -
25th Percentile £22.18 £77.50 £17.00
Median hourly rate £27.75 £85.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -67.35% +240.00% -41.86%
75th Percentile £38.69 £92.50 £36.50
90th Percentile £41.85 - £52.15
Central London median hourly rate £26.11 £55.40 £24.00
% change year-on-year -52.87% +130.81% -42.51%

Life Science
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Life Science relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Life Science job vacancy trend in the City of London

Life Science
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Life Science.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Life Science

Life Science
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Life Science in the City of London over the 6 months to 7 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Life Science in the City of London

Life Science
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Life Science.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Life Science

Life Science
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:

Business Applications
1 2 (14.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (7.14%) SAP CO
2 1 (7.14%) SAP FI
2 1 (7.14%) SAP FI/CO
2 1 (7.14%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 4 (28.57%) GCP
2 2 (14.29%) Cloud Run
2 2 (14.29%) GitHub
3 1 (7.14%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 2 (14.29%) Firewall
1 2 (14.29%) Intrusion Detection
1 2 (14.29%) Modbus
2 1 (7.14%) HTTP
Development Applications
1 2 (14.29%) Git
2 1 (7.14%) Cypress.io
General
1 7 (50.00%) Manufacturing
2 6 (42.86%) Pharmaceutical
3 2 (14.29%) Telecoms
4 1 (7.14%) Dutch Language
4 1 (7.14%) Finance
Job Titles
1 5 (35.71%) .NET Software Engineer
1 5 (35.71%) Hardware Engineer
1 5 (35.71%) Integration Engineer
1 5 (35.71%) Senior
1 5 (35.71%) Software Engineer
1 5 (35.71%) Software Integration Engineer
2 3 (21.43%) Backend Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Python Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Senior Backend Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Senior Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Senior Python Developer
3 2 (14.29%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 2 (14.29%) Security Engineer
3 2 (14.29%) Senior Security Engineer
4 1 (7.14%) MiFID Project Manager
4 1 (7.14%) Network Security Engineer
4 1 (7.14%) SAP CO Consultant
4 1 (7.14%) SAP FI Consultant
4 1 (7.14%) Senior Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (35.71%) .NET
2 4 (28.57%) FastAPI
3 2 (14.29%) LangGraph
4 1 (7.14%) gRPC
4 1 (7.14%) Playwright
4 1 (7.14%) pytest
4 1 (7.14%) React
4 1 (7.14%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 3 (21.43%) Cloud Native
2 2 (14.29%) Insider Threat
2 2 (14.29%) Management Information System
2 2 (14.29%) Operational Technology
2 2 (14.29%) Renewable Energy
2 2 (14.29%) SCADA
2 2 (14.29%) Security Posture
3 1 (7.14%) Data Centre
3 1 (7.14%) Device Driver
3 1 (7.14%) Genomics
3 1 (7.14%) Reference Data
3 1 (7.14%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 1 (7.14%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (57.14%) Software Engineering
2 4 (28.57%) AI
2 4 (28.57%) DevOps
2 4 (28.57%) Machine Learning
2 4 (28.57%) Test Automation
3 3 (21.43%) Code Quality
3 3 (21.43%) Containerisation
3 3 (21.43%) Unit Testing
4 2 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
4 2 (14.29%) Cybersecurity
4 2 (14.29%) Incident Response
4 2 (14.29%) Information Security
4 2 (14.29%) Information Security Management
4 2 (14.29%) Network Architecture
4 2 (14.29%) Network Design
4 2 (14.29%) Patch Management
4 2 (14.29%) Risk Assessment
4 2 (14.29%) Security Management
4 2 (14.29%) TDD
4 2 (14.29%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 4 (28.57%) Python
2 2 (14.29%) SQL
3 1 (7.14%) C#
3 1 (7.14%) JavaScript
3 1 (7.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 3 (21.43%) Degree
2 2 (14.29%) BPSS Clearance
2 2 (14.29%) CCNA
2 2 (14.29%) CCNP
2 2 (14.29%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 2 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
2 1 (7.14%) Data Quality
2 1 (7.14%) MiFID
System Software
1 3 (21.43%) Docker
2 2 (14.29%) Virtual Machines
Vendors
1 4 (28.57%) Google
2 3 (21.43%) SAP
3 2 (14.29%) Rockwell