Senior Developer Contract Job Trends in England

Senior Developer
UK > England

The median Senior Developer daily rate in England is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 March 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 161 166
Rank change year-on-year -8 +5 -50
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 590 444 549
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.63% 1.76% 1.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.77% 1.89% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 311 396
10th Percentile £400 £425 £410
25th Percentile £455 £511 £483
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -10.42% +4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £656 £736 £725
90th Percentile £888 £850 £850
UK median daily rate £525 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -12.50% +4.35% -8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 14
10th Percentile - - £50.58
25th Percentile £85.00 - £55.20
Median hourly rate £90.00 £77.19 £58.91
Median % change year-on-year +16.60% +31.04% -5.75%
75th Percentile £95.00 - £72.50
90th Percentile - - £79.88
UK median hourly rate £90.00 £77.19 £58.20
% change year-on-year +16.60% +32.62% -6.88%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 33,262 23,431 35,260
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.04% 93.02% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,022 15,153 23,567
10th Percentile £306 £300 £270
25th Percentile £412 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £747
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,172 769 2,276
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.44 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.14 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.03% +7.69% -21.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.61
90th Percentile £75.71 £77.25 £71.81
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £33.40 £32.50
% change year-on-year +3.29% +2.77% -19.93%

Senior Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Senior Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Senior Developer job vacancy trend in England

Senior Developer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in England

Senior Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior Developer in England over the 6 months to 8 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Senior Developer in England

Senior Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in England

Senior Developer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Developer within the England region over the 6 months to 8 March 2026. 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 -9 373 £600 -4.00% 104
North of England -49 60 £525 - 78
South West +26 55 £475 -20.89% 19
South East -30 43 £509 +13.93% 53
North West -36 31 £505 -3.81% 46
Midlands -51 31 £525 +0.72% 21
Yorkshire -47 26 £525 +1.45% 25
East of England -19 23 £500 -23.08% 13
West Midlands -46 22 £525 -4.55% 14
East Midlands -23 9 £520 - 7
North East -6 6 £525 -11.02% 8
Senior Developer
UK

Senior Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 8 March 2026, Senior Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Senior Developer in the job title.

1 183 (31.02%) AWS
2 182 (30.85%) Java
3 174 (29.49%) Agile
4 147 (24.92%) SQL
5 138 (23.39%) CI/CD
6 136 (23.05%) Microservices
7 135 (22.88%) Azure
8 128 (21.69%) Python
9 126 (21.36%) Security Cleared
10 119 (20.17%) DevOps
11 116 (19.66%) SC Cleared
12 115 (19.49%) JavaScript
13 113 (19.15%) Kafka
14 112 (18.98%) Docker
15 107 (18.14%) Kubernetes
16 90 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
17 77 (13.05%) React
18 75 (12.71%) Software Engineering
18 75 (12.71%) Spring
19 74 (12.54%) TDD
20 66 (11.19%) Containerisation
21 65 (11.02%) Scrum
21 65 (11.02%) Spring Boot
22 63 (10.68%) Git
23 60 (10.17%) Test Automation
24 59 (10.00%) .NET
25 56 (9.49%) Open Source
25 56 (9.49%) Oracle
26 55 (9.32%) TypeScript
27 54 (9.15%) Azure DevOps

Senior Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 8 (1.36%) Confluence
2 7 (1.19%) CMS
3 6 (1.02%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.68%) Ethereum
4 4 (0.68%) Headless CMS
4 4 (0.68%) Hyperledger
4 4 (0.68%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.51%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.17%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.17%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) JBoss
7 1 (0.17%) Mendix
7 1 (0.17%) nginx
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Application Server
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.17%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.17%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 13 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.51%) Endur
2 2 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.17%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.17%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.17%) R3 Corda
3 1 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.17%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 183 (31.02%) AWS
2 135 (22.88%) Azure
3 54 (9.15%) Azure DevOps
4 41 (6.95%) GitHub
5 31 (5.25%) Power Platform
6 28 (4.75%) GCP
7 24 (4.07%) Serverless
8 18 (3.05%) Power Automate
9 15 (2.54%) GitHub Actions
9 15 (2.54%) PowerApps
10 13 (2.20%) Amazon EC2
10 13 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
10 13 (2.20%) Azure Service Bus
11 12 (2.03%) Amazon S3
11 12 (2.03%) Amazon SQS
12 11 (1.86%) Copilot Studio
12 11 (1.86%) Dynamics 365
13 10 (1.69%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.69%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (1.69%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.02%) HTTP
2 5 (0.85%) Kerberos
3 2 (0.34%) Firewall
4 1 (0.17%) DNS
4 1 (0.17%) Ethernet
4 1 (0.17%) Internet
4 1 (0.17%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (8.98%) PostgreSQL
2 37 (6.27%) NoSQL
3 36 (6.10%) Relational Database
4 35 (5.93%) Apache Cassandra
4 35 (5.93%) SQL Server
5 33 (5.59%) MongoDB
6 25 (4.24%) Power BI
7 16 (2.71%) DynamoDB
8 11 (1.86%) DB2
9 10 (1.69%) Amazon RDS
9 10 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
10 9 (1.53%) Data Hub
10 9 (1.53%) MySQL
11 7 (1.19%) Oracle BI EE
12 6 (1.02%) Data Lake
12 6 (1.02%) HBase
12 6 (1.02%) Redis
13 5 (0.85%) Oracle Database
14 4 (0.68%) Big Data
14 4 (0.68%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 63 (10.68%) Git
2 34 (5.76%) Oracle APEX
3 33 (5.59%) Jenkins
4 32 (5.42%) JUnit
5 22 (3.73%) GitLab
6 18 (3.05%) JIRA
7 15 (2.54%) Maven
8 14 (2.37%) Mockito
9 10 (1.69%) Gradle
10 9 (1.53%) Cucumber
11 8 (1.36%) Artifactory
11 8 (1.36%) SonarQube
12 6 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
13 5 (0.85%) Bitbucket
13 5 (0.85%) Mocha
14 4 (0.68%) SpecFlow
15 3 (0.51%) Lerna
15 3 (0.51%) Selenium
15 3 (0.51%) webpack
16 2 (0.34%) Gatling
General
1 129 (21.86%) Social Skills
2 118 (20.00%) Finance
3 85 (14.41%) Banking
4 69 (11.69%) Public Sector
5 39 (6.61%) Analytical Skills
6 37 (6.27%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.73%) Front Office
8 12 (2.03%) Financial Institution
9 5 (0.85%) Law
10 4 (0.68%) Health Technology
10 4 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (0.68%) Retail Banking
11 3 (0.51%) Legal
11 3 (0.51%) Military
11 3 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.51%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.34%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (0.34%) Marketing
12 2 (0.34%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (19.15%) Kafka
2 77 (13.05%) React
3 75 (12.71%) Spring
4 65 (11.02%) Spring Boot
5 59 (10.00%) .NET
6 50 (8.47%) REST
7 48 (8.14%) AngularJS
8 47 (7.97%) HTML
8 47 (7.97%) Node.js
9 45 (7.63%) RESTful
10 44 (7.46%) CSS
11 32 (5.42%) gRPC
12 26 (4.41%) Web Services
13 18 (3.05%) .NET Core
14 17 (2.88%) RabbitMQ
15 16 (2.71%) .NET Framework
16 14 (2.37%) Jest
16 14 (2.37%) Pandas
16 14 (2.37%) Redux
17 13 (2.20%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 47 (7.97%) Distributed Systems
2 32 (5.42%) Cloud Native
3 28 (4.75%) Derivative
4 24 (4.07%) Equities
5 20 (3.39%) Product Ownership
6 19 (3.22%) Algorithms
7 18 (3.05%) Market Risk
8 17 (2.88%) Management Information System
9 16 (2.71%) Greenfield Project
10 14 (2.37%) Data Structures
10 14 (2.37%) Fixed Income
11 12 (2.03%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (2.03%) Mobile App
12 8 (1.36%) Equity Derivative
12 8 (1.36%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 7 (1.19%) Onboarding
14 6 (1.02%) AI Agents
15 5 (0.85%) Animation
16 4 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
16 4 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 34 (5.76%) Linux
2 16 (2.71%) Android
3 13 (2.20%) Unix
4 12 (2.03%) Windows
5 9 (1.53%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.85%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.85%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.34%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 174 (29.49%) Agile
2 138 (23.39%) CI/CD
3 136 (23.05%) Microservices
4 119 (20.17%) DevOps
5 90 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
6 75 (12.71%) Software Engineering
7 74 (12.54%) TDD
8 66 (11.19%) Containerisation
9 65 (11.02%) Scrum
10 60 (10.17%) Test Automation
11 56 (9.49%) Open Source
12 53 (8.98%) Analytics
13 52 (8.81%) Full-Stack Development
14 46 (7.80%) SDLC
15 43 (7.29%) Design Patterns
15 43 (7.29%) Mentoring
16 41 (6.95%) Code Quality
17 35 (5.93%) Front End Development
18 34 (5.76%) Unit Testing
18 34 (5.76%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 182 (30.85%) Java
2 147 (24.92%) SQL
3 128 (21.69%) Python
4 115 (19.49%) JavaScript
5 55 (9.32%) TypeScript
6 54 (9.15%) C#
7 46 (7.80%) Go
8 40 (6.78%) PL/SQL
9 23 (3.90%) Kotlin
10 21 (3.56%) Ruby
11 15 (2.54%) C++
12 9 (1.53%) Shell Script
13 6 (1.02%) PowerShell
14 5 (0.85%) PHP
15 4 (0.68%) Bash
15 4 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.68%) VBA
16 3 (0.51%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.51%) Swift
17 2 (0.34%) Elixir
Qualifications
1 126 (21.36%) Security Cleared
2 116 (19.66%) SC Cleared
3 25 (4.24%) Degree
4 13 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.36%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (1.02%) OCP
7 6 (1.02%) Oracle Certification
8 4 (0.68%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.68%) DV Cleared
9 3 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 2 (0.34%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.34%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (0.34%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.17%) CISSP
11 1 (0.17%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.92%) Accessibility
2 18 (3.05%) WCAG
3 12 (2.03%) Data Quality
3 12 (2.03%) QA
4 3 (0.51%) EU AI Act
4 3 (0.51%) GDPR
4 3 (0.51%) NIST
5 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 112 (18.98%) Docker
2 2 (0.34%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.34%) zsh
3 1 (0.17%) OpenAM
3 1 (0.17%) OpenDJ
3 1 (0.17%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 107 (18.14%) Kubernetes
2 25 (4.24%) Terraform
3 17 (2.88%) Grafana
4 9 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.02%) Ansible
6 4 (0.68%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.51%) Kibana
8 1 (0.17%) Argo
8 1 (0.17%) CloudHub
8 1 (0.17%) Control-M
8 1 (0.17%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 56 (9.49%) Oracle
2 32 (5.42%) Microsoft
3 17 (2.88%) Google
3 17 (2.88%) ServiceNow
4 11 (1.86%) Sybase
5 9 (1.53%) Salesforce
6 8 (1.36%) Databricks
7 7 (1.19%) SAP
8 6 (1.02%) Guidewire
9 4 (0.68%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.68%) Pega
10 3 (0.51%) Cognizant
10 3 (0.51%) Dataiku
10 3 (0.51%) Foundry
11 2 (0.34%) Apple
11 2 (0.34%) CA Agile Central
11 2 (0.34%) ForgeRock
11 2 (0.34%) IBM
11 2 (0.34%) New Relic
12 1 (0.17%) BMC