SDLC Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Systems or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring SDLC skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 61 50 60
Rank change year-on-year -11 +10 -3
Contract jobs citing SDLC 66 85 94
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 3.71% 4.03% 3.49%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.97% 4.40% 3.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 61 46
10th Percentile £407 £388 £463
25th Percentile £431 £484 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £649 £640 £650
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% -1.54% -
75th Percentile £725 £713 £797
90th Percentile £838 £750 £838
Central London median daily rate £608 £589 £625
% change year-on-year +3.18% -5.80% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile £32.25 - -
25th Percentile £41.25 - £72.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 - £75.00
75th Percentile £73.75 - £77.50
90th Percentile £82.75 - -
Central London median hourly rate £57.50 £35.00 £75.00
% change year-on-year +64.29% -53.33% -7.98%

All Process and Methodology Skills
City of London

SDLC falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,664 1,933 2,418
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 93.43% 91.57% 89.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,171 1,185 1,698
10th Percentile £331 £375 £363
25th Percentile £419 £470 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -
75th Percentile £675 £688 £690
90th Percentile £760 £782 £811
Central London median daily rate £550 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -4.35% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 16 14
10th Percentile £16.96 £16.25 £17.00
25th Percentile £20.18 £25.38 £17.48
Median hourly rate £28.00 £50.00 £32.75
Median % change year-on-year -44.00% +52.67% -35.78%
75th Percentile £44.72 £112.00 £52.88
90th Percentile £63.75 £137.50 £72.25
Central London median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year -21.43% +27.27% -41.33%

SDLC
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

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

SDLC job vacancy trend in the City of London

SDLC
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

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

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

SDLC
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDLC in the City of London over the 6 months to 20 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SDLC in the City of London

SDLC
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

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

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

SDLC
Hourly Rate Histogram in the City of London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SDLC in the City of London over the 6 months to 20 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SDLC in the City of London

SDLC
Contract Job Locations in the City of London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDLC within the City of London region over the 6 months to 20 November 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London Bridge - 1 - -
SDLC
Central London

SDLC
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:

Application Platforms
1 6 (9.09%) Confluence
2 4 (6.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (4.55%) SharePoint
4 1 (1.52%) Apache
4 1 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (1.52%) Apache Spark
4 1 (1.52%) IIS
4 1 (1.52%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (4.55%) MS Visio
3 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (3.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (4.55%) Salesforce CRM
1 3 (4.55%) Workday HCM
2 1 (1.52%) Endur
2 1 (1.52%) Exchequer
2 1 (1.52%) Loan IQ
2 1 (1.52%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 24 (36.36%) Azure
2 11 (16.67%) GCP
3 10 (15.15%) AWS
4 9 (13.64%) Power Platform
5 4 (6.06%) Azure DevOps
5 4 (6.06%) Entra ID
5 4 (6.06%) Google Gemini
5 4 (6.06%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (4.55%) GitHub
6 3 (4.55%) PaaS
6 3 (4.55%) SaaS
7 2 (3.03%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (3.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 2 (3.03%) Serverless
8 1 (1.52%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.52%) Cloud Run
8 1 (1.52%) Collibra
8 1 (1.52%) Nutanix
8 1 (1.52%) Snowflake
8 1 (1.52%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.03%) DNS
1 2 (3.03%) HTTP
1 2 (3.03%) SSL
1 2 (3.03%) TCP/IP
2 1 (1.52%) Firewall
2 1 (1.52%) SAN
2 1 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (10.61%) Power BI
2 5 (7.58%) SQL Server
3 4 (6.06%) MongoDB
4 3 (4.55%) Big Data
4 3 (4.55%) Relational Database
4 3 (4.55%) Tableau
5 2 (3.03%) Apache Cassandra
5 2 (3.03%) BigQuery
5 2 (3.03%) Data Mining
5 2 (3.03%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (3.03%) KDB
5 2 (3.03%) Kdb+
5 2 (3.03%) MySQL
5 2 (3.03%) NoSQL
5 2 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (1.52%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (1.52%) DB2
6 1 (1.52%) MemSQL
6 1 (1.52%) RDBMS
6 1 (1.52%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 11 (16.67%) JIRA
2 4 (6.06%) Git
3 3 (4.55%) Selenium
4 2 (3.03%) Jenkins
4 2 (3.03%) JUnit
4 2 (3.03%) Robot Framework
4 2 (3.03%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (1.52%) Ant
5 1 (1.52%) Bitbucket
5 1 (1.52%) Gradle
5 1 (1.52%) Mockito
5 1 (1.52%) ScriptRunner
5 1 (1.52%) Snyk
5 1 (1.52%) Zephyr
General
1 33 (50.00%) Finance
2 28 (42.42%) Social Skills
3 11 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (12.12%) Banking
4 8 (12.12%) Financial Institution
5 7 (10.61%) Front Office
5 7 (10.61%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (7.58%) Investment Banking
7 4 (6.06%) Legal
7 4 (6.06%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.52%) Back Office
8 1 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.52%) Law
8 1 (1.52%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 13 (19.70%) Developer
2 11 (16.67%) Architect
3 10 (15.15%) Solutions Architect
4 8 (12.12%) Analyst
5 7 (10.61%) Business Analyst
5 7 (10.61%) Senior
6 6 (9.09%) Java Developer
7 5 (7.58%) Consultant
8 4 (6.06%) Technical Analyst
9 3 (4.55%) Data Scientist
9 3 (4.55%) Full-Stack Developer
9 3 (4.55%) Low Latency Java Developer
9 3 (4.55%) Python Engineer
9 3 (4.55%) Technical Business Analyst
10 2 (3.03%) GCP Engineer
10 2 (3.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 2 (3.03%) KDB Developer
10 2 (3.03%) Lead
10 2 (3.03%) Security Engineer
10 2 (3.03%) Technical Writer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (12.12%) .NET
1 8 (12.12%) RESTful
2 6 (9.09%) React
3 4 (6.06%) CSS
3 4 (6.06%) HTML
3 4 (6.06%) REST
4 3 (4.55%) AngularJS
4 3 (4.55%) Kafka
4 3 (4.55%) Lightning Web Components
4 3 (4.55%) Spring
4 3 (4.55%) Web Services
5 2 (3.03%) .NET Framework
5 2 (3.03%) GraphQL
5 2 (3.03%) Hibernate
5 2 (3.03%) HTML5
5 2 (3.03%) OAuth
5 2 (3.03%) OAuth2
5 2 (3.03%) Spring Boot
5 2 (3.03%) Vue
5 2 (3.03%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (9.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 5 (7.58%) Product Ownership
3 4 (6.06%) Derivative
3 4 (6.06%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (6.06%) Market Risk
4 3 (4.55%) Public Cloud
5 2 (3.03%) Algorithms
5 2 (3.03%) CMDB
5 2 (3.03%) Credit Risk
5 2 (3.03%) Distributed Computing
5 2 (3.03%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (3.03%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (3.03%) Private Cloud
5 2 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.52%) e-Learning
6 1 (1.52%) Equities
6 1 (1.52%) Fixed Income
6 1 (1.52%) iSeries
6 1 (1.52%) PACS
6 1 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 5 (7.58%) Unix
2 4 (6.06%) Linux
3 2 (3.03%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (46.97%) Agile
2 20 (30.30%) Problem-Solving
3 18 (27.27%) DevOps
4 16 (24.24%) CI/CD
5 15 (22.73%) Scrum
6 12 (18.18%) Computer Science
7 11 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
8 10 (15.15%) Analytics
8 10 (15.15%) Service Management
9 9 (13.64%) Software Engineering
9 9 (13.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 8 (12.12%) Low Latency
11 7 (10.61%) Continuous Improvement
11 7 (10.61%) Data Science
11 7 (10.61%) ETL
11 7 (10.61%) Requirements Gathering
11 7 (10.61%) Roadmaps
11 7 (10.61%) Scenario Testing
11 7 (10.61%) User Acceptance Testing
12 6 (9.09%) OO
Programming Languages
1 19 (28.79%) Python
2 18 (27.27%) Java
3 17 (25.76%) SQL
4 9 (13.64%) C#
5 4 (6.06%) JavaScript
6 2 (3.03%) C++
6 2 (3.03%) Perl
6 2 (3.03%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.52%) COBOL
7 1 (1.52%) Fortran
7 1 (1.52%) Go
7 1 (1.52%) Groovy
7 1 (1.52%) MATLAB
7 1 (1.52%) R
7 1 (1.52%) RPG
7 1 (1.52%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 17 (25.76%) Degree
2 5 (7.58%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (3.03%) CBAP
3 2 (3.03%) CFA
3 2 (3.03%) CISSP
3 2 (3.03%) ISEB
3 2 (3.03%) SC Cleared
3 2 (3.03%) Security Cleared
4 1 (1.52%) Azure Certification
4 1 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (1.52%) CCNA
4 1 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (1.52%) IIBA
4 1 (1.52%) Master's Degree
4 1 (1.52%) Postgraduate
4 1 (1.52%) Six Sigma Green Belt
4 1 (1.52%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (10.61%) QA
2 6 (9.09%) GDPR
3 3 (4.55%) COBIT
4 2 (3.03%) Basel II
5 1 (1.52%) Data Quality
5 1 (1.52%) ISO 20022
5 1 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (1.52%) PMO
5 1 (1.52%) SEPA
System Software
1 6 (9.09%) Docker
2 1 (1.52%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.52%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 7 (10.61%) Terraform
2 5 (7.58%) Kubernetes
3 2 (3.03%) Ansible
3 2 (3.03%) Progress Chef
4 1 (1.52%) Opsgenie
4 1 (1.52%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.52%) WMI
Vendors
1 14 (21.21%) Microsoft
2 6 (9.09%) Google
3 5 (7.58%) IFS
4 4 (6.06%) Databricks
4 4 (6.06%) Oracle
4 4 (6.06%) Workday
5 3 (4.55%) Salesforce
5 3 (4.55%) ServiceNow
6 2 (3.03%) Atlassian
6 2 (3.03%) F5
7 1 (1.52%) Alteryx
7 1 (1.52%) Avaloq
7 1 (1.52%) Cisco
7 1 (1.52%) Citrix
7 1 (1.52%) FNZ
7 1 (1.52%) IBM
7 1 (1.52%) MuleSoft
7 1 (1.52%) OpenLink
7 1 (1.52%) Remedy
7 1 (1.52%) Spotify