Developer Contract Job Trends in London

Developer
England > London

The median Developer daily rate in London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 February 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 5 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 -1 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,088 2,233 2,937
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.44% 16.65% 15.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 14.51% 17.79% 17.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,457 1,533 2,239
10th Percentile £382 £382 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £565 £575
Median % change year-on-year -7.08% -1.74% -8.00%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £750
90th Percentile £800 £843 £844
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 7 15
10th Percentile £34.27 £35.45 £36.33
25th Percentile £35.00 £36.25 £56.25
Median hourly rate £50.50 £39.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.49% -37.60% +8.70%
75th Percentile £73.44 £48.50 £72.25
90th Percentile £95.00 £57.75 £73.19
England median hourly rate £61.00 £65.00 £68.05
% change year-on-year -6.15% -4.48% +13.42%

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 14,394 12,552 17,116
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.65% 93.60% 93.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,620 8,146 12,352
10th Percentile £350 £336 £325
25th Percentile £425 £435 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -5.17%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 225 143 337
10th Percentile £18.02 £21.22 £15.98
25th Percentile £23.00 £24.71 £19.00
Median hourly rate £34.50 £37.00 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.77% +29.82% -18.57%
75th Percentile £60.00 £53.75 £47.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £78.68 £65.00
England median hourly rate £33.17 £36.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.86% +2.86% -12.50%

Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Developer job vacancy trend in London

Developer
Daily Rate Trend in London

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in London

Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Developer in London over the 6 months to 23 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Developer in London

Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in London

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in London

Developer
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Developer in London over the 6 months to 23 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Developer in London

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 Developer within the London region over the 6 months to 23 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
Central London -9 263 £525 -8.70% 178
South London 0 44 £508 -45.11% 11
West London -22 15 £509 +24.45% 33
East London -1 9 £813 +103.13% 27
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 23 February 2026, 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 Developer in the job title.

1 523 (25.05%) Java
2 515 (24.66%) Python
3 500 (23.95%) SQL
4 499 (23.90%) Agile
5 482 (23.08%) CI/CD
6 436 (20.88%) Azure
7 420 (20.11%) AWS
8 378 (18.10%) JavaScript
9 373 (17.86%) C#
10 355 (17.00%) Problem-Solving
11 338 (16.19%) Security Cleared
12 330 (15.80%) React
13 320 (15.33%) DevOps
14 285 (13.65%) .NET
15 282 (13.51%) Docker
15 282 (13.51%) Full-Stack Development
15 282 (13.51%) Microservices
16 273 (13.07%) SC Cleared
17 264 (12.64%) Kubernetes
18 243 (11.64%) REST
19 242 (11.59%) TypeScript
20 236 (11.30%) Microsoft
21 231 (11.06%) Analytics
22 217 (10.39%) Git
23 210 (10.06%) Software Engineering
24 201 (9.63%) Kafka
25 195 (9.34%) Power Platform
26 187 (8.96%) Node.js
27 186 (8.91%) RESTful
28 185 (8.86%) HTML

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 63 (3.02%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.96%) Confluence
3 19 (0.91%) CMS
4 17 (0.81%) IIS
5 15 (0.72%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 14 (0.67%) HCL Notes
7 12 (0.57%) Mendix
8 11 (0.53%) Ethereum
9 10 (0.48%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 10 (0.48%) Apache
9 10 (0.48%) MQSeries
10 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
11 8 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
11 8 (0.38%) Headless CMS
11 8 (0.38%) Hyperledger
12 7 (0.34%) Apache Spark
12 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
13 6 (0.29%) JBoss
13 6 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
13 6 (0.29%) WebSphere
Applications
1 50 (2.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.48%) Chatbot
3 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.14%) Adobe XD
5 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.048%) Trello
Business Applications
1 41 (1.96%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.86%) Endur
3 13 (0.62%) Fidessa
4 11 (0.53%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.29%) BusinessWorks
6 6 (0.29%) Temenos T24
7 5 (0.24%) BASE24
7 5 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.19%) Oracle 11i
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Financials
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.14%) ProductWriter
10 2 (0.096%) Aladdin
10 2 (0.096%) Cloudability
10 2 (0.096%) Oracle Assets
10 2 (0.096%) Oracle Cash Management
10 2 (0.096%) Oracle Receivables
10 2 (0.096%) Orchestrade
Cloud Services
1 436 (20.88%) Azure
2 420 (20.11%) AWS
3 195 (9.34%) Power Platform
4 164 (7.85%) GitHub
5 131 (6.27%) Azure DevOps
6 113 (5.41%) Serverless
7 105 (5.03%) GCP
8 99 (4.74%) Power Automate
9 90 (4.31%) PowerApps
10 79 (3.78%) Dynamics 365
11 70 (3.35%) GitHub Actions
12 58 (2.78%) Azure Logic Apps
13 55 (2.63%) Azure Functions
14 53 (2.54%) AWS Lambda
15 48 (2.30%) Amazon S3
16 47 (2.25%) Azure Service Bus
17 46 (2.20%) Entra ID
18 44 (2.11%) Microsoft 365
19 35 (1.68%) Microsoft Copilot
20 34 (1.63%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.10%) HTTP
2 12 (0.57%) Internet
3 11 (0.53%) FIX Connectivity
4 9 (0.43%) HTTPS
5 8 (0.38%) Network Security
5 8 (0.38%) SSL
6 7 (0.34%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.24%) CTI
7 5 (0.24%) Firewall
7 5 (0.24%) SMS
7 5 (0.24%) VoIP
8 4 (0.19%) DNS
9 3 (0.14%) 3GPP
9 3 (0.14%) Multicast
9 3 (0.14%) MVNO
9 3 (0.14%) SMPP
10 2 (0.096%) DHCP
10 2 (0.096%) RTMP
10 2 (0.096%) SSH
11 1 (0.048%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 169 (8.09%) SQL Server
2 142 (6.80%) PostgreSQL
3 124 (5.94%) Power BI
4 119 (5.70%) Relational Database
5 80 (3.83%) NoSQL
6 68 (3.26%) Oracle Database
7 63 (3.02%) MongoDB
8 39 (1.87%) Apache Cassandra
9 36 (1.72%) MySQL
10 33 (1.58%) Data Warehouse
11 25 (1.20%) DB2
11 25 (1.20%) KDB
11 25 (1.20%) RDBMS
12 24 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
12 24 (1.15%) Data Lake
12 24 (1.15%) Kdb+
13 22 (1.05%) DynamoDB
14 21 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 19 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
16 18 (0.86%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 217 (10.39%) Git
2 98 (4.69%) JIRA
3 93 (4.45%) Jenkins
4 62 (2.97%) GitLab
5 56 (2.68%) JUnit
6 31 (1.48%) Visual Studio
7 30 (1.44%) Maven
8 21 (1.01%) Gradle
9 19 (0.91%) Bitbucket
9 19 (0.91%) Mockito
10 16 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
11 15 (0.72%) webpack
12 13 (0.62%) Cucumber
12 13 (0.62%) SonarQube
13 12 (0.57%) Cypress.io
13 12 (0.57%) Selenium
13 12 (0.57%) SpecFlow
14 11 (0.53%) Android Studio
14 11 (0.53%) Team Foundation Server
14 11 (0.53%) TeamCity
General
1 582 (27.87%) Finance
2 416 (19.92%) Social Skills
3 315 (15.09%) Banking
4 204 (9.77%) Front Office
5 185 (8.86%) Public Sector
6 149 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
7 123 (5.89%) Investment Banking
8 58 (2.78%) Financial Institution
9 21 (1.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 20 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (0.96%) Marketing
11 18 (0.86%) Law
12 12 (0.57%) Back Office
13 11 (0.53%) Telecoms
14 9 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
15 8 (0.38%) Billing
15 8 (0.38%) Private Banking
15 8 (0.38%) Retail
16 7 (0.34%) Local Government
16 7 (0.34%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 330 (15.80%) React
2 285 (13.65%) .NET
3 243 (11.64%) REST
4 201 (9.63%) Kafka
5 187 (8.96%) Node.js
6 186 (8.91%) RESTful
7 185 (8.86%) HTML
8 177 (8.48%) CSS
9 170 (8.14%) Spring
10 161 (7.71%) AngularJS
11 127 (6.08%) Spring Boot
12 82 (3.93%) .NET Framework
13 81 (3.88%) SOAP
14 80 (3.83%) Web Services
15 75 (3.59%) JSON
16 71 (3.40%) XML
17 64 (3.07%) Vue
18 57 (2.73%) GraphQL
19 53 (2.54%) Redux
20 48 (2.30%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 120 (5.75%) Equities
2 107 (5.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 103 (4.93%) Derivative
4 86 (4.12%) Cloud Native
5 82 (3.93%) Algorithms
6 80 (3.83%) Fixed Income
7 76 (3.64%) Distributed Systems
8 69 (3.30%) Data Structures
9 62 (2.97%) Product Ownership
10 43 (2.06%) Greenfield Project
11 42 (2.01%) Management Information System
12 40 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
13 39 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
13 39 (1.87%) Mobile App
14 35 (1.68%) AI Agents
15 29 (1.39%) Hedge funds
15 29 (1.39%) Low-Code
16 28 (1.34%) Equity Derivative
17 27 (1.29%) Market Risk
18 25 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 136 (6.51%) Linux
2 69 (3.30%) Windows
3 52 (2.49%) Unix
4 34 (1.63%) Android
5 31 (1.48%) Apple iOS
6 19 (0.91%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.29%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.24%) AIX
8 5 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.19%) CentOS
9 4 (0.19%) zOS
10 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.048%) VMS
11 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 499 (23.90%) Agile
2 482 (23.08%) CI/CD
3 355 (17.00%) Problem-Solving
4 320 (15.33%) DevOps
5 282 (13.51%) Full-Stack Development
5 282 (13.51%) Microservices
6 231 (11.06%) Analytics
7 210 (10.06%) Software Engineering
8 182 (8.72%) AI
9 177 (8.48%) Business Intelligence
10 172 (8.24%) Containerisation
10 172 (8.24%) Test Automation
11 136 (6.51%) Scrum
12 135 (6.47%) TDD
13 129 (6.18%) Front End Development
14 128 (6.13%) Data Modelling
15 117 (5.60%) Design Patterns
16 116 (5.56%) Unit Testing
17 110 (5.27%) Low Latency
18 105 (5.03%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 523 (25.05%) Java
2 515 (24.66%) Python
3 500 (23.95%) SQL
4 378 (18.10%) JavaScript
5 373 (17.86%) C#
6 242 (11.59%) TypeScript
7 108 (5.17%) C++
8 78 (3.74%) PL/SQL
9 73 (3.50%) Go
10 49 (2.35%) T-SQL
11 47 (2.25%) Kotlin
12 39 (1.87%) Apex Code
13 36 (1.72%) PowerShell
13 36 (1.72%) Shell Script
14 33 (1.58%) Ruby
14 33 (1.58%) VB
15 32 (1.53%) VBA
16 26 (1.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 23 (1.10%) C
18 21 (1.01%) PHP
Qualifications
1 338 (16.19%) Security Cleared
2 273 (13.07%) SC Cleared
3 115 (5.51%) Degree
4 49 (2.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (1.29%) DV Cleared
6 24 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
7 22 (1.05%) Master's Degree
8 12 (0.57%) Numerate Degree
9 6 (0.29%) AWS Certification
9 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (0.24%) Azure Certification
10 5 (0.24%) PhD
11 4 (0.19%) Oracle Certification
12 3 (0.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.14%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.096%) AWS Certified Developer
13 2 (0.096%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.096%) OCP
14 1 (0.048%) CISSP
14 1 (0.048%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (4.45%) QA
2 65 (3.11%) Accessibility
3 34 (1.63%) Data Quality
4 29 (1.39%) WCAG
5 14 (0.67%) GDPR
6 7 (0.34%) ISO 8583
6 7 (0.34%) SLA
7 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.24%) SEPA
9 4 (0.19%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.14%) GRC
10 3 (0.14%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.14%) PSD2
11 2 (0.096%) HL7
12 1 (0.048%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.048%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.048%) MiFID
System Software
1 282 (13.51%) Docker
2 29 (1.39%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.19%) HDFS
3 4 (0.19%) zsh
4 3 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.096%) GridGain
5 2 (0.096%) OpenAM
5 2 (0.096%) OpenDJ
5 2 (0.096%) OpenIDM
5 2 (0.096%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.096%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.048%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 264 (12.64%) Kubernetes
2 80 (3.83%) Terraform
3 30 (1.44%) Ansible
4 21 (1.01%) Grafana
5 16 (0.77%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.57%) Argo
8 7 (0.34%) Control-M
9 6 (0.29%) TIBCO Hawk
10 4 (0.19%) SCCM
11 3 (0.14%) Podman
12 2 (0.096%) CloudHub
12 2 (0.096%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.096%) Kibana
12 2 (0.096%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.096%) rkt
13 1 (0.048%) CA Endevor
13 1 (0.048%) Istio
13 1 (0.048%) Nessus
13 1 (0.048%) Oracle Identity Management
Vendors
1 236 (11.30%) Microsoft
2 178 (8.52%) Oracle
3 67 (3.21%) Salesforce
4 61 (2.92%) ServiceNow
5 37 (1.77%) IBM
6 35 (1.68%) Databricks
6 35 (1.68%) SAP
7 33 (1.58%) Google
8 31 (1.48%) Citrix
9 29 (1.39%) OpenAI
10 26 (1.25%) Adobe
11 22 (1.05%) Guidewire
12 20 (0.96%) MuleSoft
13 18 (0.86%) Red Hat
14 17 (0.81%) Sybase
15 14 (0.67%) Lotus
16 13 (0.62%) Foundry
16 13 (0.62%) Solace
17 12 (0.57%) OpenLink
18 11 (0.53%) VMware