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 9 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 114 128
Rank change year-on-year +3 +14 +47
Contract jobs citing Life Science 14 2 1
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 0.69% 0.11% 0.042%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.05% 0.33% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 1 1
10th Percentile £453 - -
25th Percentile £625 £613 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £700 £625 £800
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% -21.88% +52.38%
75th Percentile £788 £638 -
90th Percentile - - -
Central London median daily rate £700 £625 £800
% change year-on-year +12.00% -21.88% +100.00%

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 682 601 713
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 33.73% 33.28% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 492 385 493
10th Percentile £350 £375 £263
25th Percentile £440 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £595
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% -3.36% -4.42%
75th Percentile £675 £696 £703
90th Percentile £799 £800 £837
Central London median daily rate £550 £575 £595
% change year-on-year -4.35% -3.36% -0.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 10
10th Percentile £19.39 - £12.75
25th Percentile £23.66 - £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.50 £31.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.65% +63.16% -49.67%
75th Percentile £50.83 - £41.94
90th Percentile £66.53 - £52.60
Central London median hourly rate £28.00 £31.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year -9.68% +63.16% -45.71%

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 9 March 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%) Azure
3 1 (7.14%) dbt
3 1 (7.14%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 1 (7.14%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (7.14%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 2 (14.29%) Git
2 1 (7.14%) Cypress.io
General
1 7 (50.00%) Pharmaceutical
2 5 (35.71%) Manufacturing
3 1 (7.14%) Dutch Language
3 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%) 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
2 3 (21.43%) Senior Backend Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Senior Developer
2 3 (21.43%) Senior Python Developer
3 2 (14.29%) Data Engineer
4 1 (7.14%) Consultant
4 1 (7.14%) MiFID Project Manager
4 1 (7.14%) Project Manager
4 1 (7.14%) SAP FI Consultant
4 1 (7.14%) SAP FI/CO Consultant
4 1 (7.14%) Snowflake Data Engineer
4 1 (7.14%) Snowflake 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 1 (7.14%) Device Driver
2 1 (7.14%) Genomics
2 1 (7.14%) Reference Data
2 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%) Analytics
4 2 (14.29%) Data Engineering
4 2 (14.29%) Data Pipeline
4 2 (14.29%) TDD
5 1 (7.14%) Agile
5 1 (7.14%) Data Governance
5 1 (7.14%) Data Modelling
5 1 (7.14%) Migration
5 1 (7.14%) Natural Language Processing
5 1 (7.14%) Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (7.14%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (7.14%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 5 (35.71%) Python
2 3 (21.43%) SQL
3 1 (7.14%) C#
3 1 (7.14%) JavaScript
3 1 (7.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 1 (7.14%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (7.14%) Data Quality
1 1 (7.14%) GxP
1 1 (7.14%) MiFID
System Software
1 3 (21.43%) Docker
Vendors
1 4 (28.57%) Google
2 3 (21.43%) SAP
3 1 (7.14%) Databricks