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 14 February 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 146 176
Rank change year-on-year -17 +30 -69
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 573 473 513
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.67% 1.82% 1.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.83% 1.95% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 317 378
10th Percentile £401 £425 £423
25th Percentile £455 £513 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £589
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +1.91% -9.42%
75th Percentile £675 £725 £720
90th Percentile £888 £850 £841
UK median daily rate £525 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -12.50% +4.35% -9.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 10
10th Percentile - - £46.15
25th Percentile £85.00 - £56.25
Median hourly rate £90.00 £77.19 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.60% +28.65% -4.00%
75th Percentile £95.00 - £72.50
90th Percentile - - £74.63
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 31,393 24,237 35,417
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.73% 93.02% 93.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,928 15,142 23,779
10th Percentile £300 £300 £273
25th Percentile £409 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,007 710 2,124
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.99 £13.20
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.30 £16.54
Median hourly rate £31.46 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.11% - -6.67%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.73 £60.00
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -9.09% -5.71% -2.23%

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 14 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 14 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 -15 359 £625 - 122
North of England -38 70 £575 +9.52% 81
South West +23 55 £475 -20.83% 29
Yorkshire -34 37 £625 +2.04% 34
South East -29 34 £500 +11.11% 69
North West -33 31 £500 -4.76% 37
Midlands -40 27 £520 -0.48% 28
East of England -21 20 £500 -23.08% 12
West Midlands -39 20 £525 -4.55% 18
North East -9 8 £525 +8.81% 11
East Midlands -22 7 £515 -0.96% 10
Senior Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 195 (34.03%) Java
2 177 (30.89%) Agile
2 177 (30.89%) AWS
3 146 (25.48%) Microservices
3 146 (25.48%) SQL
4 136 (23.73%) Azure
5 134 (23.39%) CI/CD
6 131 (22.86%) Python
7 123 (21.47%) Security Cleared
8 122 (21.29%) Kafka
9 120 (20.94%) DevOps
10 110 (19.20%) Docker
10 110 (19.20%) SC Cleared
11 109 (19.02%) JavaScript
12 104 (18.15%) Kubernetes
12 104 (18.15%) Problem-Solving
13 81 (14.14%) TDD
14 80 (13.96%) Spring
15 75 (13.09%) Software Engineering
16 74 (12.91%) React
17 72 (12.57%) Test Automation
18 68 (11.87%) Spring Boot
19 66 (11.52%) Scrum
20 65 (11.34%) Containerisation
21 63 (10.99%) Git
22 60 (10.47%) Analytics
23 58 (10.12%) Oracle
24 57 (9.95%) .NET
24 57 (9.95%) C#
24 57 (9.95%) 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 12 (2.09%) Confluence
2 6 (1.05%) CMS
3 5 (0.87%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.70%) Ethereum
4 4 (0.70%) Hyperledger
4 4 (0.70%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.52%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.35%) Headless CMS
6 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.17%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.17%) Appian
7 1 (0.17%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) JBoss
7 1 (0.17%) Mendix
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Application Server
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.17%) SAS
7 1 (0.17%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 14 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.52%) Endur
2 2 (0.35%) 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
1 177 (30.89%) AWS
2 136 (23.73%) Azure
3 53 (9.25%) Azure DevOps
4 41 (7.16%) GitHub
5 27 (4.71%) GCP
5 27 (4.71%) Power Platform
6 25 (4.36%) Serverless
7 17 (2.97%) Power Automate
8 14 (2.44%) AWS Lambda
8 14 (2.44%) PowerApps
9 13 (2.27%) Dynamics 365
10 12 (2.09%) Azure Service Bus
11 11 (1.92%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (1.75%) Amazon EC2
12 10 (1.75%) Amazon SQS
13 9 (1.57%) Amazon S3
13 9 (1.57%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (1.57%) Datadog
13 9 (1.57%) SaaS
14 8 (1.40%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.05%) HTTP
2 5 (0.87%) Kerberos
3 2 (0.35%) 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 54 (9.42%) PostgreSQL
2 44 (7.68%) MongoDB
3 38 (6.63%) SQL Server
4 37 (6.46%) Relational Database
5 35 (6.11%) NoSQL
6 32 (5.58%) Apache Cassandra
7 18 (3.14%) Power BI
8 14 (2.44%) DynamoDB
9 11 (1.92%) DB2
10 10 (1.75%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (1.57%) Data Hub
11 9 (1.57%) Data Lake
11 9 (1.57%) MySQL
12 8 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
13 7 (1.22%) Oracle BI EE
13 7 (1.22%) Redis
14 6 (1.05%) HBase
14 6 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 5 (0.87%) Oracle Database
15 5 (0.87%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 63 (10.99%) Git
2 34 (5.93%) Oracle APEX
3 33 (5.76%) Jenkins
4 32 (5.58%) JUnit
5 23 (4.01%) JIRA
6 22 (3.84%) GitLab
6 22 (3.84%) Mockito
7 14 (2.44%) Maven
8 12 (2.09%) Gradle
9 9 (1.57%) Cucumber
10 8 (1.40%) Artifactory
11 7 (1.22%) SonarQube
11 7 (1.22%) Sonatype Nexus
12 6 (1.05%) Mocha
13 5 (0.87%) SpecFlow
14 4 (0.70%) Bitbucket
15 3 (0.52%) Lerna
15 3 (0.52%) Postman
15 3 (0.52%) webpack
16 2 (0.35%) Gatling
General
1 133 (23.21%) Social Skills
2 130 (22.69%) Finance
3 91 (15.88%) Banking
4 66 (11.52%) Public Sector
5 43 (7.50%) Analytical Skills
6 40 (6.98%) Investment Banking
7 23 (4.01%) Front Office
8 12 (2.09%) Financial Institution
9 5 (0.87%) Law
9 5 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (0.70%) Health Technology
10 4 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (0.70%) Military
10 4 (0.70%) Retail Banking
11 3 (0.52%) Legal
11 3 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.52%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (0.35%) Marketing
12 2 (0.35%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (21.29%) Kafka
2 80 (13.96%) Spring
3 74 (12.91%) React
4 68 (11.87%) Spring Boot
5 57 (9.95%) .NET
6 47 (8.20%) Node.js
6 47 (8.20%) REST
7 46 (8.03%) AngularJS
8 45 (7.85%) HTML
9 43 (7.50%) CSS
9 43 (7.50%) RESTful
10 30 (5.24%) gRPC
11 27 (4.71%) Web Services
12 19 (3.32%) .NET Framework
13 16 (2.79%) .NET Core
14 15 (2.62%) JAX-RS
14 15 (2.62%) Jest
15 14 (2.44%) Next.js
15 14 (2.44%) Pandas
15 14 (2.44%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.50%) Distributed Systems
2 39 (6.81%) Cloud Native
3 30 (5.24%) Derivative
4 26 (4.54%) Equities
5 21 (3.66%) Product Ownership
6 20 (3.49%) Algorithms
6 20 (3.49%) Market Risk
7 19 (3.32%) Management Information System
8 16 (2.79%) Greenfield Project
9 15 (2.62%) Data Structures
10 13 (2.27%) Fixed Income
11 12 (2.09%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (1.40%) Equity Derivative
13 8 (1.40%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 7 (1.22%) Onboarding
15 6 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
15 6 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
16 4 (0.70%) AI Agents
16 4 (0.70%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 49 (8.55%) Linux
2 25 (4.36%) Unix
3 16 (2.79%) Android
4 14 (2.44%) Mac OS X
5 9 (1.57%) Apple iOS
5 9 (1.57%) Windows
6 3 (0.52%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.35%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 177 (30.89%) Agile
2 146 (25.48%) Microservices
3 134 (23.39%) CI/CD
4 120 (20.94%) DevOps
5 104 (18.15%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (14.14%) TDD
7 75 (13.09%) Software Engineering
8 72 (12.57%) Test Automation
9 66 (11.52%) Scrum
10 65 (11.34%) Containerisation
11 60 (10.47%) Analytics
12 57 (9.95%) Open Source
13 53 (9.25%) Full-Stack Development
14 47 (8.20%) SDLC
15 41 (7.16%) Mentoring
16 39 (6.81%) Code Quality
17 38 (6.63%) Design Patterns
17 38 (6.63%) Event-Driven
18 35 (6.11%) Risk Management
19 34 (5.93%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 195 (34.03%) Java
2 146 (25.48%) SQL
3 131 (22.86%) Python
4 109 (19.02%) JavaScript
5 57 (9.95%) C#
6 51 (8.90%) TypeScript
7 39 (6.81%) Go
7 39 (6.81%) PL/SQL
8 22 (3.84%) Kotlin
9 19 (3.32%) Ruby
10 16 (2.79%) C++
11 10 (1.75%) Shell Script
12 9 (1.57%) PowerShell
13 8 (1.40%) Bash
14 5 (0.87%) PHP
15 4 (0.70%) VBA
16 3 (0.52%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.52%) Swift
17 2 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 2 (0.35%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 123 (21.47%) Security Cleared
2 110 (19.20%) SC Cleared
3 31 (5.41%) Degree
4 16 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.40%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (1.05%) OCP
7 6 (1.05%) Oracle Certification
8 4 (0.70%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.52%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.52%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 2 (0.35%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (0.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.35%) DV Cleared
11 1 (0.17%) AWS Certified Developer
11 1 (0.17%) CISSP
11 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.36%) Accessibility
2 16 (2.79%) WCAG
3 14 (2.44%) Data Quality
4 11 (1.92%) QA
5 3 (0.52%) EU AI Act
5 3 (0.52%) NIST
6 2 (0.35%) GDPR
7 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 110 (19.20%) Docker
2 5 (0.87%) zsh
3 1 (0.17%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) GridGain
3 1 (0.17%) OpenAM
3 1 (0.17%) OpenDJ
3 1 (0.17%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 104 (18.15%) Kubernetes
2 19 (3.32%) Terraform
3 16 (2.79%) Grafana
4 8 (1.40%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.87%) Ansible
6 4 (0.70%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.52%) Kibana
8 1 (0.17%) Argo
8 1 (0.17%) CloudHub
8 1 (0.17%) Control-M
8 1 (0.17%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 58 (10.12%) Oracle
2 34 (5.93%) Microsoft
3 19 (3.32%) Google
4 12 (2.09%) Sybase
5 11 (1.92%) ServiceNow
6 9 (1.57%) Databricks
7 8 (1.40%) Salesforce
8 6 (1.05%) Guidewire
9 5 (0.87%) SAP
10 4 (0.70%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.70%) Pega
11 3 (0.52%) Cognizant
11 3 (0.52%) Dataiku
11 3 (0.52%) Foundry
12 2 (0.35%) Apple
12 2 (0.35%) CA Agile Central
12 2 (0.35%) Confluent
12 2 (0.35%) IBM
12 2 (0.35%) New Relic
12 2 (0.35%) Red Hat