Backend Developer Contract Job Trends in London

Backend Developer
England > London

The median Backend Developer daily rate in London is £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 January 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 317 335 322
Rank change year-on-year +18 -13 +38
Contract jobs requiring a Backend Developer 53 31 74
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.37% 0.22% 0.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.23% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 25 49
10th Percentile £413 £320 £410
25th Percentile £456 £400 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £409 £625
Median % change year-on-year +32.03% -34.56% -3.85%
75th Percentile £625 £523 £700
90th Percentile £753 £655 £825
England median daily rate £540 £405 £520
% change year-on-year +33.33% -22.12% -13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 4
10th Percentile £57.65 - -
25th Percentile £61.63 - £56.25
Median hourly rate £73.50 - £58.75
75th Percentile £78.75 - £65.00
90th Percentile - - £69.50
England median hourly rate £73.50 - £58.75

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 13,233 13,287 16,926
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 93.40% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,794 8,564 12,209
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -1.79% -3.45%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £799 £788
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 149 223
10th Percentile £17.50 £19.58 £17.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £23.80 £21.25
Median hourly rate £31.57 £35.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.80% +2.94% -
75th Percentile £59.69 £53.75 £53.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.75 £71.60
England median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -21.43% -21.35% +28.74%

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 5 January 2026.

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 5 January 2026.

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 5 January 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
Central London +7 12 £600 +11.63% 9
East London - 4 £540 - 1
South London - 3 £525 -
Backend Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 5 January 2026, 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 29 (54.72%) Java
2 28 (52.83%) CI/CD
3 24 (45.28%) DevOps
4 23 (43.40%) Docker
4 23 (43.40%) Microservices
5 20 (37.74%) Agile
5 20 (37.74%) Kubernetes
5 20 (37.74%) SQL
6 19 (35.85%) Problem-Solving
7 18 (33.96%) Containerisation
8 17 (32.08%) Python
9 16 (30.19%) Azure
10 15 (28.30%) JavaScript
11 13 (24.53%) AI
11 13 (24.53%) Node.js
11 13 (24.53%) RESTful
12 12 (22.64%) GitHub
13 11 (20.75%) Git
13 11 (20.75%) React
13 11 (20.75%) Test Automation
13 11 (20.75%) TypeScript
14 10 (18.87%) AngularJS
14 10 (18.87%) Machine Learning
15 9 (16.98%) AWS
15 9 (16.98%) Data Pipeline
15 9 (16.98%) Software Engineering
15 9 (16.98%) Spring
16 8 (15.09%) Azure DevOps
16 8 (15.09%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (15.09%) HTML

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 2 (3.77%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (1.89%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 16 (30.19%) Azure
2 12 (22.64%) GitHub
3 9 (16.98%) AWS
4 8 (15.09%) Azure DevOps
4 8 (15.09%) GitHub Actions
5 7 (13.21%) Azure AKS
6 6 (11.32%) GCP
6 6 (11.32%) Serverless
7 5 (9.43%) Azure App Service
7 5 (9.43%) Azure Functions
7 5 (9.43%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (7.55%) Azure API Management
8 4 (7.55%) Azure Data Factory
8 4 (7.55%) Azure Logic Apps
8 4 (7.55%) Azure Monitor
8 4 (7.55%) Azure Service Bus
8 4 (7.55%) Azure Storage
8 4 (7.55%) Entra ID
9 3 (5.66%) Azure Cognitive Services
9 3 (5.66%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.89%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (13.21%) NoSQL
1 7 (13.21%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (5.66%) Azure SQL Database
2 3 (5.66%) SQL Server
3 2 (3.77%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (3.77%) Data Lake
3 2 (3.77%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (3.77%) MySQL
4 1 (1.89%) Apache Cassandra
4 1 (1.89%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (1.89%) Hadoop
4 1 (1.89%) MongoDB
4 1 (1.89%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 11 (20.75%) Git
2 3 (5.66%) JUnit
2 3 (5.66%) Mockito
3 2 (3.77%) Gradle
3 2 (3.77%) IntelliJ
3 2 (3.77%) Jenkins
3 2 (3.77%) Liquibase
3 2 (3.77%) Maven
4 1 (1.89%) Eclipse
4 1 (1.89%) JIRA
4 1 (1.89%) JMeter
4 1 (1.89%) NeoLoad
4 1 (1.89%) Postman
4 1 (1.89%) Selenium
4 1 (1.89%) SoapUI
4 1 (1.89%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 8 (15.09%) Banking
1 8 (15.09%) Finance
1 8 (15.09%) Social Skills
2 5 (9.43%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (9.43%) Pharmaceutical
3 3 (5.66%) Public Sector
4 2 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (1.89%) Financial Institution
5 1 (1.89%) Front Office
5 1 (1.89%) Investment Banking
5 1 (1.89%) Marketing
5 1 (1.89%) Military
5 1 (1.89%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (24.53%) Node.js
1 13 (24.53%) RESTful
2 11 (20.75%) React
3 10 (18.87%) AngularJS
4 9 (16.98%) Spring
5 8 (15.09%) HTML
6 7 (13.21%) CSS
6 7 (13.21%) FastAPI
6 7 (13.21%) GraphQL
6 7 (13.21%) Spring Boot
7 6 (11.32%) Hibernate
7 6 (11.32%) OSGi
7 6 (11.32%) REST
8 5 (9.43%) .NET
8 5 (9.43%) .NET Core
9 4 (7.55%) ActiveMQ
9 4 (7.55%) Kafka
9 4 (7.55%) PyTorch
9 4 (7.55%) TensorFlow
10 3 (5.66%) JPA
Miscellaneous
1 15 (28.30%) Cloud Native
2 5 (9.43%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (7.55%) AI Agents
4 3 (5.66%) Life Science
5 2 (3.77%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.77%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (3.77%) Onboarding
5 2 (3.77%) Virtual Team
6 1 (1.89%) Algorithms
6 1 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.89%) Genomics
6 1 (1.89%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.89%) NHS
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (52.83%) CI/CD
2 24 (45.28%) DevOps
3 23 (43.40%) Microservices
4 20 (37.74%) Agile
5 19 (35.85%) Problem-Solving
6 18 (33.96%) Containerisation
7 13 (24.53%) AI
8 11 (20.75%) Test Automation
9 10 (18.87%) Machine Learning
10 9 (16.98%) Data Pipeline
10 9 (16.98%) Software Engineering
11 7 (13.21%) Code Quality
12 6 (11.32%) Analytics
12 6 (11.32%) Event-Driven
12 6 (11.32%) Mentoring
12 6 (11.32%) TDD
13 5 (9.43%) API Design
13 5 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
13 5 (9.43%) Migration
13 5 (9.43%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 29 (54.72%) Java
2 20 (37.74%) SQL
3 17 (32.08%) Python
4 15 (28.30%) JavaScript
5 11 (20.75%) TypeScript
6 7 (13.21%) C#
7 4 (7.55%) Bicep
8 2 (3.77%) Kotlin
8 2 (3.77%) PL/SQL
9 1 (1.89%) Bash
9 1 (1.89%) Go
9 1 (1.89%) PHP
Qualifications
1 4 (7.55%) Computer Science Degree
1 4 (7.55%) Degree
1 4 (7.55%) Security Cleared
2 3 (5.66%) BPSS Clearance
3 2 (3.77%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.66%) QA
2 2 (3.77%) Accessibility
2 2 (3.77%) WCAG
System Software
1 23 (43.40%) Docker
2 2 (3.77%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 20 (37.74%) Kubernetes
2 4 (7.55%) Terraform
3 2 (3.77%) Grafana
3 2 (3.77%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.89%) Kibana
4 1 (1.89%) logstash
Vendors
1 8 (15.09%) Microsoft
2 5 (9.43%) Databricks
2 5 (9.43%) Google
3 3 (5.66%) OpenAI
3 3 (5.66%) Oracle
4 2 (3.77%) Adobe