Senior Developer Contract Job Trends in England

Senior Developer
UK > England

The median Senior Developer daily rate in England is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 February 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 159 156 168
Rank change year-on-year -3 +12 -53
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 589 457 524
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.66% 1.78% 1.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.81% 1.91% 1.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 410 311 382
10th Percentile £400 £425 £413
25th Percentile £456 £513 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £581
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +3.23% -10.58%
75th Percentile £675 £725 £720
90th Percentile £888 £850 £838
UK median daily rate £525 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -12.50% +4.35% -8.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 12
10th Percentile - - £49.36
25th Percentile £85.00 - £55.90
Median hourly rate £90.00 £77.19 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.60% +28.65% -4.00%
75th Percentile £95.00 - £72.81
90th Percentile - - £81.63
UK median hourly rate £90.00 £77.19 £60.00
% change year-on-year +16.60% +28.65% -4.00%

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 32,563 23,895 34,861
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.95% 92.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,678 15,176 23,386
10th Percentile £306 £300 £270
25th Percentile £411 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £748
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,085 729 2,154
10th Percentile £15.18 £16.25 £13.23
25th Percentile £19.00 £22.00 £16.30
Median hourly rate £35.00 £36.00 £34.52
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +4.30% -13.71%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.30 £71.89
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £34.31 £35.00
% change year-on-year -2.35% -1.99% -12.50%

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 27 February 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 27 February 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 -13 368 £600 -4.76% 86
North of England -46 69 £550 +4.76% 57
South West +14 54 £475 -20.89% 18
South East -26 40 £500 +11.92% 48
Yorkshire -42 37 £575 +11.11% 21
North West -31 31 £500 -4.76% 31
Midlands -36 30 £525 +0.48% 23
East of England -25 22 £500 -23.08% 11
West Midlands -37 21 £525 -4.55% 21
East Midlands -19 9 £520 - 2
North East -13 6 £525 -11.02% 6
Senior Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 27 February 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.

1 188 (31.92%) Java
2 183 (31.07%) AWS
3 176 (29.88%) Agile
4 146 (24.79%) SQL
5 142 (24.11%) Microservices
6 141 (23.94%) CI/CD
7 136 (23.09%) Azure
8 132 (22.41%) Python
9 131 (22.24%) Security Cleared
10 120 (20.37%) SC Cleared
11 119 (20.20%) DevOps
12 118 (20.03%) Kafka
13 114 (19.35%) JavaScript
14 112 (19.02%) Docker
15 106 (18.00%) Kubernetes
16 94 (15.96%) Problem-Solving
17 81 (13.75%) TDD
18 77 (13.07%) Software Engineering
18 77 (13.07%) Spring
19 75 (12.73%) React
20 69 (11.71%) Test Automation
21 67 (11.38%) Git
22 66 (11.21%) Containerisation
22 66 (11.21%) Scrum
22 66 (11.21%) Spring Boot
23 58 (9.85%) Analytics
24 57 (9.68%) Oracle
25 56 (9.51%) .NET
25 56 (9.51%) C#
25 56 (9.51%) Open Source

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 10 (1.70%) Confluence
2 7 (1.19%) CMS
3 5 (0.85%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.68%) Ethereum
4 4 (0.68%) Hyperledger
4 4 (0.68%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.51%) Headless CMS
5 3 (0.51%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.17%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.17%) Appian
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 (2.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.51%) Endur
2 2 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
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
Cloud Services
1 183 (31.07%) AWS
2 136 (23.09%) Azure
3 52 (8.83%) Azure DevOps
4 42 (7.13%) GitHub
5 31 (5.26%) Power Platform
6 26 (4.41%) GCP
6 26 (4.41%) Serverless
7 19 (3.23%) Power Automate
8 16 (2.72%) PowerApps
9 15 (2.55%) Azure Service Bus
10 14 (2.38%) AWS Lambda
11 13 (2.21%) Amazon EC2
11 13 (2.21%) Dynamics 365
11 13 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
12 12 (2.04%) Amazon S3
12 12 (2.04%) Amazon SQS
13 10 (1.70%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.70%) Copilot Studio
13 10 (1.70%) Microsoft Copilot
14 9 (1.53%) Amazon EKS
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 56 (9.51%) PostgreSQL
2 37 (6.28%) MongoDB
2 37 (6.28%) SQL Server
3 36 (6.11%) NoSQL
3 36 (6.11%) Relational Database
4 33 (5.60%) Apache Cassandra
5 22 (3.74%) Power BI
6 16 (2.72%) DynamoDB
7 12 (2.04%) DB2
8 10 (1.70%) Amazon RDS
9 9 (1.53%) Data Hub
9 9 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
9 9 (1.53%) MySQL
10 8 (1.36%) Data Lake
11 7 (1.19%) Oracle BI EE
12 6 (1.02%) HBase
12 6 (1.02%) Redis
13 5 (0.85%) Oracle Database
13 5 (0.85%) RDBMS
13 5 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 67 (11.38%) Git
2 34 (5.77%) Jenkins
2 34 (5.77%) Oracle APEX
3 33 (5.60%) JUnit
4 21 (3.57%) GitLab
5 20 (3.40%) JIRA
6 17 (2.89%) Maven
6 17 (2.89%) Mockito
7 11 (1.87%) Gradle
8 9 (1.53%) Cucumber
9 8 (1.36%) Artifactory
9 8 (1.36%) SonarQube
10 7 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (1.02%) SpecFlow
12 5 (0.85%) Mocha
13 4 (0.68%) Bitbucket
14 3 (0.51%) Lerna
14 3 (0.51%) Postman
14 3 (0.51%) Selenium
14 3 (0.51%) webpack
General
1 129 (21.90%) Social Skills
2 122 (20.71%) Finance
3 84 (14.26%) Banking
4 70 (11.88%) Public Sector
5 41 (6.96%) Analytical Skills
6 37 (6.28%) Investment Banking
7 23 (3.90%) Front Office
8 12 (2.04%) 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
1 118 (20.03%) Kafka
2 77 (13.07%) Spring
3 75 (12.73%) React
4 66 (11.21%) Spring Boot
5 56 (9.51%) .NET
6 52 (8.83%) REST
7 50 (8.49%) Node.js
8 47 (7.98%) AngularJS
9 46 (7.81%) HTML
10 44 (7.47%) CSS
11 43 (7.30%) RESTful
12 31 (5.26%) gRPC
13 26 (4.41%) Web Services
14 17 (2.89%) .NET Framework
15 16 (2.72%) .NET Core
15 16 (2.72%) RabbitMQ
16 14 (2.38%) Jest
16 14 (2.38%) Pandas
16 14 (2.38%) Playwright
16 14 (2.38%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 47 (7.98%) Distributed Systems
2 34 (5.77%) Cloud Native
3 29 (4.92%) Derivative
4 25 (4.24%) Equities
5 21 (3.57%) Product Ownership
6 20 (3.40%) Algorithms
7 19 (3.23%) Market Risk
8 18 (3.06%) Management Information System
9 16 (2.72%) Greenfield Project
10 14 (2.38%) Data Structures
11 12 (2.04%) Fixed Income
11 12 (2.04%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (1.36%) Equity Derivative
13 8 (1.36%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 7 (1.19%) Onboarding
15 6 (1.02%) AI Agents
15 6 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
16 5 (0.85%) Linux Command Line
17 4 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 44 (7.47%) Linux
2 20 (3.40%) Unix
3 16 (2.72%) Android
4 11 (1.87%) Windows
5 10 (1.70%) Mac OS X
6 9 (1.53%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.85%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.34%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (29.88%) Agile
2 142 (24.11%) Microservices
3 141 (23.94%) CI/CD
4 119 (20.20%) DevOps
5 94 (15.96%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (13.75%) TDD
7 77 (13.07%) Software Engineering
8 69 (11.71%) Test Automation
9 66 (11.21%) Containerisation
9 66 (11.21%) Scrum
10 58 (9.85%) Analytics
11 56 (9.51%) Open Source
12 53 (9.00%) Full-Stack Development
13 46 (7.81%) SDLC
14 42 (7.13%) Code Quality
14 42 (7.13%) Design Patterns
14 42 (7.13%) Mentoring
15 37 (6.28%) Event-Driven
16 34 (5.77%) Front End Development
16 34 (5.77%) Software Delivery
Programming Languages
1 188 (31.92%) Java
2 146 (24.79%) SQL
3 132 (22.41%) Python
4 114 (19.35%) JavaScript
5 56 (9.51%) C#
6 55 (9.34%) TypeScript
7 43 (7.30%) Go
8 39 (6.62%) PL/SQL
9 23 (3.90%) Kotlin
10 20 (3.40%) Ruby
11 16 (2.72%) C++
12 11 (1.87%) Shell Script
13 9 (1.53%) PowerShell
14 6 (1.02%) Bash
15 5 (0.85%) PHP
16 4 (0.68%) VBA
17 3 (0.51%) Apex Code
17 3 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 3 (0.51%) Swift
18 2 (0.34%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 131 (22.24%) Security Cleared
2 120 (20.37%) SC Cleared
3 28 (4.75%) Degree
4 15 (2.55%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.36%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (1.02%) OCP
7 6 (1.02%) Oracle Certification
8 5 (0.85%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.68%) DV Cleared
10 3 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.51%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 2 (0.34%) AWS Certified Developer
11 2 (0.34%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.17%) CISSP
12 1 (0.17%) Master's Degree
12 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.75%) Accessibility
2 18 (3.06%) WCAG
3 15 (2.55%) Data Quality
4 12 (2.04%) QA
5 3 (0.51%) EU AI Act
5 3 (0.51%) NIST
6 2 (0.34%) GDPR
7 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 112 (19.02%) Docker
2 4 (0.68%) zsh
3 2 (0.34%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.17%) GridGain
4 1 (0.17%) OpenAM
4 1 (0.17%) OpenDJ
4 1 (0.17%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 106 (18.00%) Kubernetes
2 25 (4.24%) Terraform
3 17 (2.89%) 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 57 (9.68%) Oracle
2 34 (5.77%) Microsoft
3 17 (2.89%) Google
4 15 (2.55%) ServiceNow
5 13 (2.21%) Sybase
6 10 (1.70%) Databricks
7 9 (1.53%) Salesforce
8 7 (1.19%) SAP
9 6 (1.02%) Guidewire
10 4 (0.68%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.68%) Pega
11 3 (0.51%) Cognizant
11 3 (0.51%) Dataiku
11 3 (0.51%) Foundry
12 2 (0.34%) Apple
12 2 (0.34%) CA Agile Central
12 2 (0.34%) ForgeRock
12 2 (0.34%) IBM
12 2 (0.34%) New Relic
13 1 (0.17%) Dell