Backend Developer Contract Job Trends in London

Backend Developer
England > London

The median Backend Developer daily rate in London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 November 2025.

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

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 331 361 338
Rank change year-on-year +30 -23 +46
Contract jobs requiring a Backend Developer 47 31 90
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.33% 0.19% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.21% 0.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 23 56
10th Percentile £367 £340 £425
25th Percentile £450 £400 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £409 £650
Median % change year-on-year +28.36% -37.08% +5.05%
75th Percentile £650 £523 £702
90th Percentile £778 £595 £825
England median daily rate £533 £405 £563
% change year-on-year +31.64% -28.09% -3.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 3
10th Percentile £57.65 - -
25th Percentile £61.63 - £56.25
Median hourly rate £73.50 - £57.50
75th Percentile £78.75 - £60.63
90th Percentile - - £61.75
England median hourly rate £73.50 - £57.50

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in London. 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 London with a recognized job title 13,004 14,917 18,757
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 93.75% 93.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,617 9,680 13,598
10th Percentile £334 £338 £338
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £550 £563
Median % change year-on-year -2.36% -2.25% -2.14%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £799 £790
England median daily rate £508 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -3.33% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 236 164 218
10th Percentile £17.50 £17.25 £18.11
25th Percentile £21.00 £23.80 £21.75
Median hourly rate £26.54 £37.50 £36.59
Median % change year-on-year -29.24% +2.49% +4.54%
75th Percentile £49.56 £58.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.25 £80.75 £72.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.21
% change year-on-year -37.13% -11.52% +41.28%

Backend Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Backend Developer job vacancy trend in London

Backend Developer
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Backend Developer job vacancies in London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Backend Developer job vacancies in London

Backend Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Backend Developer in London over the 6 months to 23 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Backend Developer in London

Backend Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Backend Developer job vacancies in London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Backend Developer job vacancies in London

Backend Developer
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Backend Developer in London over the 6 months to 23 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Backend Developer in London

Backend Developer
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Backend Developer within the London region over the 6 months to 23 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
Central London +15 9 £650 +30.00% 3
East London - 4 £540 -
South London - 3 £525 - 1
Backend Developer
England

Backend Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 23 November 2025, Backend 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 London region featuring Backend Developer in the job title.

1 24 (51.06%) CI/CD
2 23 (48.94%) Java
3 22 (46.81%) DevOps
3 22 (46.81%) Docker
3 22 (46.81%) Kubernetes
3 22 (46.81%) Microservices
4 20 (42.55%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (42.55%) Python
4 20 (42.55%) SQL
5 19 (40.43%) Agile
6 17 (36.17%) Azure
7 15 (31.91%) Containerisation
7 15 (31.91%) RESTful
8 13 (27.66%) Git
8 13 (27.66%) Software Engineering
9 12 (25.53%) AWS
9 12 (25.53%) Node.js
10 11 (23.40%) Spring
11 10 (21.28%) AI
11 10 (21.28%) GitHub
12 9 (19.15%) Data Pipeline
12 9 (19.15%) GraphQL
12 9 (19.15%) JavaScript
12 9 (19.15%) Spring Boot
12 9 (19.15%) Test Automation
12 9 (19.15%) TypeScript
13 8 (17.02%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (17.02%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (17.02%) Hibernate
13 8 (17.02%) Machine Learning

Backend Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in 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 1 (2.13%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 17 (36.17%) Azure
2 12 (25.53%) AWS
3 10 (21.28%) GitHub
4 8 (17.02%) Azure DevOps
4 8 (17.02%) GitHub Actions
4 8 (17.02%) Serverless
5 7 (14.89%) Azure AKS
6 5 (10.64%) Azure App Service
6 5 (10.64%) Azure Functions
6 5 (10.64%) GCP
7 4 (8.51%) Azure API Management
7 4 (8.51%) Azure Data Factory
7 4 (8.51%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (8.51%) Azure Logic Apps
7 4 (8.51%) Azure Monitor
7 4 (8.51%) Azure Storage
7 4 (8.51%) Entra ID
8 3 (6.38%) Azure Cognitive Services
8 3 (6.38%) Azure Event Grid
8 3 (6.38%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.13%) Network Security
1 1 (2.13%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (14.89%) NoSQL
1 7 (14.89%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (6.38%) Amazon RDS
2 3 (6.38%) MySQL
3 2 (4.26%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (4.26%) Data Lake
3 2 (4.26%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (4.26%) SQL Server
4 1 (2.13%) Apache Cassandra
4 1 (2.13%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (2.13%) Hadoop
4 1 (2.13%) MongoDB
4 1 (2.13%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 13 (27.66%) Git
2 6 (12.77%) Jenkins
3 3 (6.38%) JUnit
3 3 (6.38%) Mockito
4 2 (4.26%) Gradle
4 2 (4.26%) Liquibase
4 2 (4.26%) Maven
5 1 (2.13%) Bitbucket
5 1 (2.13%) Eclipse
5 1 (2.13%) IntelliJ
5 1 (2.13%) JIRA
5 1 (2.13%) JMeter
5 1 (2.13%) NeoLoad
5 1 (2.13%) Postman
5 1 (2.13%) Selenium
5 1 (2.13%) SoapUI
5 1 (2.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 12 (25.53%) Social Skills
2 10 (21.28%) Finance
3 7 (14.89%) Banking
4 4 (8.51%) Pharmaceutical
4 4 (8.51%) Public Sector
5 2 (4.26%) Analytical Skills
5 2 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (4.26%) Front Office
6 1 (2.13%) Financial Institution
6 1 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (2.13%) Legal
6 1 (2.13%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (31.91%) RESTful
2 12 (25.53%) Node.js
3 11 (23.40%) Spring
4 9 (19.15%) GraphQL
4 9 (19.15%) Spring Boot
5 8 (17.02%) Hibernate
6 6 (12.77%) FastAPI
7 5 (10.64%) .NET
7 5 (10.64%) React
8 4 (8.51%) .NET Core
8 4 (8.51%) ActiveMQ
8 4 (8.51%) AngularJS
8 4 (8.51%) PyTorch
8 4 (8.51%) REST
8 4 (8.51%) TensorFlow
9 3 (6.38%) Django
9 3 (6.38%) JSON
9 3 (6.38%) Kafka
9 3 (6.38%) WireMock
9 3 (6.38%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (27.66%) Cloud Native
2 4 (8.51%) AI Agents
2 4 (8.51%) Distributed Systems
3 3 (6.38%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (4.26%) Life Science
4 2 (4.26%) Onboarding
4 2 (4.26%) Virtual Team
5 1 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (2.13%) Genomics
5 1 (2.13%) Linux Command Line
5 1 (2.13%) Mobile App
5 1 (2.13%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.13%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (51.06%) CI/CD
2 22 (46.81%) DevOps
2 22 (46.81%) Microservices
3 20 (42.55%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (40.43%) Agile
5 15 (31.91%) Containerisation
6 13 (27.66%) Software Engineering
7 10 (21.28%) AI
8 9 (19.15%) Data Pipeline
8 9 (19.15%) Test Automation
9 8 (17.02%) Machine Learning
9 8 (17.02%) TDD
10 6 (12.77%) Analytics
10 6 (12.77%) Mentoring
11 5 (10.64%) API Integration
11 5 (10.64%) Front End Development
11 5 (10.64%) Full-Stack Development
12 4 (8.51%) API Design
12 4 (8.51%) Event-Driven
12 4 (8.51%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 23 (48.94%) Java
2 20 (42.55%) Python
2 20 (42.55%) SQL
3 9 (19.15%) JavaScript
3 9 (19.15%) TypeScript
4 5 (10.64%) C#
5 3 (6.38%) Bicep
6 2 (4.26%) Go
6 2 (4.26%) PL/SQL
7 1 (2.13%) Bash
7 1 (2.13%) Kotlin
7 1 (2.13%) PHP
Qualifications
1 4 (8.51%) Security Cleared
2 3 (6.38%) BPSS Clearance
2 3 (6.38%) Computer Science Degree
2 3 (6.38%) Degree
3 2 (4.26%) DBS Check
3 2 (4.26%) SC Cleared
4 1 (2.13%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.26%) Accessibility
1 2 (4.26%) QA
System Software
1 22 (46.81%) Docker
2 2 (4.26%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 22 (46.81%) Kubernetes
2 3 (6.38%) Terraform
3 2 (4.26%) Grafana
3 2 (4.26%) Prometheus
4 1 (2.13%) Ansible
4 1 (2.13%) Kibana
4 1 (2.13%) logstash
Vendors
1 8 (17.02%) Microsoft
2 6 (12.77%) Databricks
3 4 (8.51%) Google
4 3 (6.38%) OpenAI
4 3 (6.38%) Oracle