PhD Contracts in the City of London

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil, EngD, Doctorate)
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the City of London with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 3 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 116 124 150
Rank change year-on-year +8 +26 +28
Contract jobs citing PhD 7 3 26
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the City of London 0.40% 0.14% 0.71%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.63% 0.67% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 1 6
10th Percentile - - £781
25th Percentile £738 £813 £813
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £750 £875 £838
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +4.48% -
75th Percentile £822 £938 £875
90th Percentile £929 - £931
Central London median daily rate £750 £875 £838
% change year-on-year -14.29% +4.48% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
City of London

PhD falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the City of London.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 430 446 717
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 24.49% 20.35% 19.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 285 292 416
10th Percentile £404 £376 £363
25th Percentile £459 £450 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £530 £575
Median % change year-on-year +3.77% -7.83% +4.55%
75th Percentile £675 £650 £713
90th Percentile £763 £775 £820
Central London median daily rate £550 £525 £563
% change year-on-year +4.76% -6.67% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 5
10th Percentile £23.62 - £18.06
25th Percentile £26.04 £20.22 £20.22
Median hourly rate £45.33 £20.82 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year +117.75% -59.58% +9.57%
75th Percentile £72.81 £24.20 £53.75
90th Percentile £89.13 £25.88 £71.75
Central London median hourly rate £29.07 £25.99 £51.50
% change year-on-year +11.87% -49.54% +9.57%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Job postings citing PhD as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Job vacancy trend for PhD in the City of London

PhD
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

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

Daily rate trend for PhD in the City of London

PhD
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PhD in the City of London over the 6 months to 3 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for PhD in the City of London

PhD
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

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

Hourly rate trend for PhD in the City of London

PhD
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 (71.43%) Apache Spark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (71.43%) Apache Hive
1 5 (71.43%) Hadoop
2 2 (28.57%) MySQL
3 1 (14.29%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 1 (14.29%) Bitbucket
1 1 (14.29%) Git
1 1 (14.29%) JIRA
1 1 (14.29%) TeamCity
General
1 6 (85.71%) Banking
1 6 (85.71%) Finance
2 5 (71.43%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (57.14%) Financial Institution
4 1 (14.29%) Front Office
4 1 (14.29%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 3 (42.86%) Developer
1 3 (42.86%) Gen AI Specialist
2 1 (14.29%) Artificial Intelligence Specialist
2 1 (14.29%) Data Science Developer
2 1 (14.29%) Data Scientist
2 1 (14.29%) Java Developer
2 1 (14.29%) Lead
2 1 (14.29%) Lead Data Scientist
2 1 (14.29%) Low Latency Java Developer
2 1 (14.29%) Python Developer
2 1 (14.29%) Senior Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (71.43%) PySpark
1 5 (71.43%) TensorFlow
2 1 (14.29%) FIX Protocol
2 1 (14.29%) Protocol Buffers
2 1 (14.29%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 4 (57.14%) Credit Risk
2 3 (42.86%) Algorithms
2 3 (42.86%) Distributed Computing
3 1 (14.29%) Derivative
3 1 (14.29%) Distributed Architecture
3 1 (14.29%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (14.29%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 1 (14.29%) Interest Rate Derivative
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (100.00%) Computer Science
2 6 (85.71%) Mathematics
2 6 (85.71%) Risk Management
3 5 (71.43%) Artificial Intelligence
3 5 (71.43%) Data Science
3 5 (71.43%) Generative AI
3 5 (71.43%) LLM
3 5 (71.43%) Machine Learning
4 4 (57.14%) Credit Risk Management
5 3 (42.86%) Agile
5 3 (42.86%) Analytics
5 3 (42.86%) Data Extraction
5 3 (42.86%) Deep Learning
6 2 (28.57%) Data Analytics
6 2 (28.57%) Personalization
6 2 (28.57%) Statistics
7 1 (14.29%) Financial Modelling
7 1 (14.29%) Monte Carlo Method
7 1 (14.29%) Predictive Modelling
7 1 (14.29%) Statistical Modelling
Programming Languages
1 6 (85.71%) Python
2 5 (71.43%) SQL
3 1 (14.29%) C++
3 1 (14.29%) Java
Qualifications
1 7 (100.00%) Degree
1 7 (100.00%) Master's Degree
2 3 (42.86%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (14.29%) Numerate Degree
System Software
1 1 (14.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (14.29%) Kubernetes