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 6 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 118 - 123
Rank change year-on-year - - +44
Contract jobs citing Life Science 13 0 4
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 0.55% - 0.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.74% - 0.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 0 1
10th Percentile £514 - -
25th Percentile £628 - £743
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £700 - £755
Median % change year-on-year - - +221.28%
75th Percentile £750 - £768
90th Percentile £761 - -
Central London median daily rate £700 - £755
% change year-on-year - - +221.28%

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 749 583 667
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 31.59% 34.33% 30.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 521 367 443
10th Percentile £363 £361 £269
25th Percentile £463 £475 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £700 £711 £693
90th Percentile £795 £817 £838
Central London median daily rate £565 £575 £563
% change year-on-year -1.74% +2.22% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 4 6
10th Percentile £19.05 £18.15 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.71 £20.63 £13.56
Median hourly rate £27.61 £26.50 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.20% +32.50% -61.17%
75th Percentile £55.10 £48.25 £26.25
90th Percentile £66.18 £79.30 £38.63
Central London median hourly rate £29.09 £26.45 £23.00
% change year-on-year +9.97% +15.00% -38.53%

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 6 June 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 1 (7.69%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 2 (15.38%) GCP
2 1 (7.69%) Azure
2 1 (7.69%) Cloud Run
2 1 (7.69%) dbt
2 1 (7.69%) Figma
2 1 (7.69%) GitHub
2 1 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 1 (7.69%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (7.69%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 1 (7.69%) Cypress.io
1 1 (7.69%) Git
General
1 6 (46.15%) Manufacturing
1 6 (46.15%) Pharmaceutical
2 3 (23.08%) Social Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Finance
3 1 (7.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (7.69%) Organisational Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Retail
Job Titles
1 6 (46.15%) Software Engineer
2 5 (38.46%) .NET Software Engineer
2 5 (38.46%) Hardware Engineer
2 5 (38.46%) Integration Engineer
2 5 (38.46%) Software Integration Engineer
3 2 (15.38%) Data Engineer
4 1 (7.69%) Agentic Artificial Intelligence Engineer
4 1 (7.69%) Backend Developer
4 1 (7.69%) Developer
4 1 (7.69%) Full-Stack Engineer
4 1 (7.69%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
4 1 (7.69%) IT Analyst
4 1 (7.69%) Junior Analyst
4 1 (7.69%) Product Owner
4 1 (7.69%) Python Developer
4 1 (7.69%) Senior
4 1 (7.69%) Senior Backend Developer
4 1 (7.69%) Senior Python Developer
4 1 (7.69%) Snowflake Data Engineer
4 1 (7.69%) Snowflake Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (38.46%) .NET
2 2 (15.38%) FastAPI
3 1 (7.69%) gRPC
3 1 (7.69%) LangGraph
3 1 (7.69%) Playwright
3 1 (7.69%) React
3 1 (7.69%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 1 (7.69%) AI Agents
1 1 (7.69%) Analytical Mindset
1 1 (7.69%) Cloud Native
1 1 (7.69%) Device Driver
1 1 (7.69%) Genomics
1 1 (7.69%) Onboarding
1 1 (7.69%) Product Ownership
1 1 (7.69%) Reference Data
1 1 (7.69%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 2 (15.38%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (53.85%) Software Engineering
2 3 (23.08%) AI
2 3 (23.08%) Data Engineering
2 3 (23.08%) Machine Learning
3 2 (15.38%) Agile
3 2 (15.38%) Analytics
3 2 (15.38%) Containerisation
3 2 (15.38%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (15.38%) Data Governance
3 2 (15.38%) Data Pipeline
3 2 (15.38%) DevOps
3 2 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (15.38%) Stakeholder Management
3 2 (15.38%) Test Automation
4 1 (7.69%) Migration
4 1 (7.69%) Programme Management
4 1 (7.69%) Scrum
4 1 (7.69%) TDD
4 1 (7.69%) Validation
4 1 (7.69%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 3 (23.08%) Python
2 2 (15.38%) SQL
3 1 (7.69%) C#
3 1 (7.69%) JavaScript
3 1 (7.69%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 1 (7.69%) CSPO
1 1 (7.69%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (15.38%) GxP
2 1 (7.69%) 21 CFR Part 11
2 1 (7.69%) Data Quality
2 1 (7.69%) QA
System Software
1 2 (15.38%) Docker
2 1 (7.69%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 2 (15.38%) Google
2 1 (7.69%) Databricks
2 1 (7.69%) Microsoft
2 1 (7.69%) SAP