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 30 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 61 59
Rank change year-on-year -22 -2 -11
Contract jobs citing SDLC 57 67 71
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 2.38% 3.57% 3.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.74% 3.80% 3.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 42 46
10th Percentile £407 £425 £419
25th Percentile £520 £528 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £572 £655 £650
Median % change year-on-year -12.67% +0.77% -3.70%
75th Percentile £700 £759 £805
90th Percentile £843 £838 £875
Central London median daily rate £572 £647 £650
% change year-on-year -11.59% -0.46% +4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £57.50 -
Central London median hourly rate - £57.50 -

All Process & 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 2,083 1,763 1,890
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 87.05% 93.98% 91.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,406 1,149 1,284
10th Percentile £368 £331 £363
25th Percentile £456 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £788
Central London median daily rate £550 £550 £575
% change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 22 17
10th Percentile £17.60 £17.57 £19.53
25th Percentile £18.75 £24.66 £20.50
Median hourly rate £19.50 £29.75 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.45% +10.19% -22.86%
75th Percentile £41.25 £54.75 £78.75
90th Percentile £60.78 £63.75 £137.50
Central London median hourly rate £23.16 £31.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year -25.29% +3.33% -14.29%

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 30 July 2026.

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
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 4 (7.02%) Confluence
2 3 (5.26%) SharePoint
3 2 (3.51%) IIS
4 1 (1.75%) Anypoint
4 1 (1.75%) CMS
Business Applications
1 1 (1.75%) Aladdin
1 1 (1.75%) NetSuite
1 1 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
1 1 (1.75%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 14 (24.56%) Azure
2 11 (19.30%) AWS
3 6 (10.53%) Power Platform
4 4 (7.02%) GitHub
5 3 (5.26%) Azure Stack
5 3 (5.26%) GCP
5 3 (5.26%) Power Automate
5 3 (5.26%) PowerApps
6 2 (3.51%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (3.51%) Entra ID
6 2 (3.51%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (3.51%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (1.75%) AtomSphere
7 1 (1.75%) Boomi
7 1 (1.75%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (1.75%) SaaS
7 1 (1.75%) Snowflake
7 1 (1.75%) SuccessFactors
7 1 (1.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.51%) Internet
1 2 (3.51%) Intranet
2 1 (1.75%) DHCP
2 1 (1.75%) DNS
2 1 (1.75%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (8.77%) Relational Database
1 5 (8.77%) SQL Server
2 3 (5.26%) NoSQL
2 3 (5.26%) Oracle Database
2 3 (5.26%) Power BI
2 3 (5.26%) RDBMS
3 2 (3.51%) Metadata
3 2 (3.51%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (3.51%) SQLPlus
4 1 (1.75%) DynamoDB
4 1 (1.75%) MongoDB
4 1 (1.75%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 5 (8.77%) Git
1 5 (8.77%) JIRA
2 3 (5.26%) Jenkins
2 3 (5.26%) Selenium
2 3 (5.26%) Zephyr
3 2 (3.51%) Artifactory
3 2 (3.51%) Bitbucket
3 2 (3.51%) Cypress.io
3 2 (3.51%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 2 (3.51%) TeamCity
3 2 (3.51%) Visual Studio
4 1 (1.75%) JUnit
4 1 (1.75%) REST Assured
General
1 30 (52.63%) Finance
2 25 (43.86%) Social Skills
3 14 (24.56%) Banking
4 10 (17.54%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (12.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (8.77%) Front Office
7 3 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (5.26%) Investment Banking
7 3 (5.26%) Legal
7 3 (5.26%) Public Sector
8 2 (3.51%) Financial Institution
8 2 (3.51%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (3.51%) Local Government
8 2 (3.51%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (1.75%) Back Office
9 1 (1.75%) Law
Job Titles
1 13 (22.81%) Developer
2 10 (17.54%) Senior
3 9 (15.79%) Architect
4 7 (12.28%) Security Engineer
5 6 (10.53%) Analyst
5 6 (10.53%) Senior Security Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) Business Analyst
6 5 (8.77%) Technical Architect
7 4 (7.02%) Applications Engineer
7 4 (7.02%) Full-Stack Developer
7 4 (7.02%) Lead
7 4 (7.02%) Senior Applications Engineer
7 4 (7.02%) Solutions Architect
8 3 (5.26%) Applications Tester
8 3 (5.26%) Full-Stack Engineer
8 3 (5.26%) Java Developer
8 3 (5.26%) Java Engineer
8 3 (5.26%) Project Manager
8 3 (5.26%) Python Engineer
8 3 (5.26%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (17.54%) .NET
2 7 (12.28%) React
2 7 (12.28%) REST
3 6 (10.53%) Middleware
4 5 (8.77%) XML
5 3 (5.26%) ASP.NET
5 3 (5.26%) Playwright
5 3 (5.26%) SOAP
5 3 (5.26%) XSLT
6 2 (3.51%) .NET Framework
6 2 (3.51%) ADO.NET
6 2 (3.51%) Ajax
6 2 (3.51%) JSON
6 2 (3.51%) JWT
6 2 (3.51%) Node.js
6 2 (3.51%) OAuth
6 2 (3.51%) RESTful
6 2 (3.51%) Vue
6 2 (3.51%) Web Services
6 2 (3.51%) XSL
Miscellaneous
1 8 (14.04%) Cloud Native
2 3 (5.26%) Distributed Systems
3 2 (3.51%) Credit Risk
3 2 (3.51%) Derivative
3 2 (3.51%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (3.51%) Fixed Income
3 2 (3.51%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 2 (3.51%) Legacy Systems
3 2 (3.51%) Market Risk
3 2 (3.51%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (3.51%) Virtual Team
4 1 (1.75%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (1.75%) Data Centre
4 1 (1.75%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 1 (1.75%) Hedge funds
4 1 (1.75%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.75%) PKI
4 1 (1.75%) PMI
4 1 (1.75%) Product Ownership
4 1 (1.75%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 8 (14.04%) Linux
1 8 (14.04%) Unix
2 1 (1.75%) Android
2 1 (1.75%) Apple iOS
2 1 (1.75%) Windows
2 1 (1.75%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (47.37%) Agile
2 22 (38.60%) CI/CD
3 15 (26.32%) Stakeholder Management
4 13 (22.81%) Test Automation
5 11 (19.30%) Root Cause Analysis
6 10 (17.54%) Risk Management
7 9 (15.79%) Full-Stack Development
7 9 (15.79%) Software Testing
7 9 (15.79%) TOGAF
8 8 (14.04%) Threat Modelling
9 7 (12.28%) Business Intelligence
9 7 (12.28%) Computer Science
9 7 (12.28%) CRM
9 7 (12.28%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (12.28%) Programme Management
9 7 (12.28%) Regulatory Compliance
9 7 (12.28%) Roadmaps
9 7 (12.28%) Scrum
9 7 (12.28%) Software Engineering
9 7 (12.28%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 14 (24.56%) Python
2 12 (21.05%) SQL
3 10 (17.54%) Java
4 7 (12.28%) C#
5 4 (7.02%) PL/SQL
6 2 (3.51%) C
6 2 (3.51%) JavaScript
6 2 (3.51%) ProC
6 2 (3.51%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.75%) Korn
7 1 (1.75%) Kotlin
7 1 (1.75%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 9 (15.79%) Degree
2 8 (14.04%) Security Cleared
3 6 (10.53%) SC Cleared
4 1 (1.75%) CISM
4 1 (1.75%) CISSP
4 1 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (1.75%) CTC Cleared
4 1 (1.75%) DV Cleared
4 1 (1.75%) Master's Degree
4 1 (1.75%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (21.05%) QA
2 6 (10.53%) GDPR
2 6 (10.53%) SLA
3 2 (3.51%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (1.75%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.75%) Basel III
4 1 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (1.75%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.75%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (1.75%) GRC
4 1 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (1.75%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 3 (5.26%) Active Directory
1 3 (5.26%) Docker
2 1 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (3.51%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 15 (26.32%) Microsoft
2 8 (14.04%) Oracle
3 6 (10.53%) Databricks
3 6 (10.53%) Salesforce
4 4 (7.02%) Sitecore
5 3 (5.26%) SAP
6 1 (1.75%) Atlassian
6 1 (1.75%) Cisco
6 1 (1.75%) Google
6 1 (1.75%) Intapp
6 1 (1.75%) MuleSoft
6 1 (1.75%) Planon
6 1 (1.75%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.75%) VMware
6 1 (1.75%) Workday