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 21 March 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 6 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 -2 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,217 2,111 2,999
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.33% 16.57% 16.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 14.40% 17.69% 17.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,556 1,509 2,296
10th Percentile £382 £385 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -7.26%
75th Percentile £650 £725 £750
90th Percentile £800 £850 £844
England median daily rate £500 £531 £525
% change year-on-year -5.88% +1.19% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 6 12
10th Percentile £34.27 £35.19 £31.37
25th Percentile £35.00 £36.44 £53.75
Median hourly rate £49.25 £46.25 £58.75
Median % change year-on-year +6.49% -21.28% +2.17%
75th Percentile £57.50 £55.25 £68.38
90th Percentile £95.00 £58.38 £72.50
England median hourly rate £62.07 £63.00 £62.00
% change year-on-year -1.48% +1.61% +1.22%

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 15,398 11,935 16,887
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 93.66% 93.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,315 8,083 12,185
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £431 £449
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 241 145 339
10th Percentile £18.25 £21.08 £15.99
25th Percentile £22.00 £24.66 £19.57
Median hourly rate £34.50 £35.89 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.89% +25.93% -18.57%
75th Percentile £60.25 £53.75 £47.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £73.40 £65.00
England median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% -23.53%

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 21 March 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 21 March 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 21 March 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 -4 293 £525 -8.70% 206
South London -2 41 £511 -44.73% 16
West London -22 17 £509 +24.45% 31
East London -9 7 £432 +8.00% 23
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 21 March 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.

1 547 (24.67%) Python
2 544 (24.54%) Java
3 542 (24.45%) Agile
4 519 (23.41%) SQL
5 508 (22.91%) CI/CD
6 494 (22.28%) Azure
7 452 (20.39%) AWS
8 400 (18.04%) JavaScript
9 397 (17.91%) Security Cleared
10 384 (17.32%) C#
11 363 (16.37%) React
12 360 (16.24%) DevOps
13 326 (14.70%) Problem-Solving
14 321 (14.48%) SC Cleared
15 311 (14.03%) .NET
16 296 (13.35%) Docker
17 289 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
18 282 (12.72%) Microservices
19 281 (12.67%) TypeScript
20 269 (12.13%) Kubernetes
21 247 (11.14%) Microsoft
22 244 (11.01%) REST
23 235 (10.60%) Analytics
23 235 (10.60%) Software Engineering
24 232 (10.46%) Git
25 220 (9.92%) Kafka
26 214 (9.65%) Power Platform
27 212 (9.56%) Node.js
28 204 (9.20%) AI
29 194 (8.75%) RESTful

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 83 (3.74%) SharePoint
2 47 (2.12%) Confluence
3 20 (0.90%) CMS
4 19 (0.86%) IIS
5 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Exchange
6 15 (0.68%) Apache
6 15 (0.68%) HCL Notes
7 13 (0.59%) Mendix
8 12 (0.54%) Apache Spark
8 12 (0.54%) Ethereum
9 9 (0.41%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 9 (0.41%) Headless CMS
9 9 (0.41%) JBoss
9 9 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 8 (0.36%) Hyperledger
11 7 (0.32%) WebLogic
12 6 (0.27%) Anypoint
12 6 (0.27%) CICS
12 6 (0.27%) MQSeries
12 6 (0.27%) WebSphere
Applications
1 44 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.32%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.23%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.14%) Adobe XD
4 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 46 (2.07%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.81%) Endur
3 13 (0.59%) Fidessa
4 12 (0.54%) Temenos T24
5 7 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.27%) BusinessWorks
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.23%) BASE24
7 5 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle 11i
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.14%) Findur
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.14%) ProductWriter
10 2 (0.090%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 494 (22.28%) Azure
2 452 (20.39%) AWS
3 214 (9.65%) Power Platform
4 163 (7.35%) GitHub
5 146 (6.59%) Azure DevOps
6 129 (5.82%) Serverless
7 116 (5.23%) Power Automate
8 108 (4.87%) GCP
9 104 (4.69%) PowerApps
10 84 (3.79%) Dynamics 365
11 74 (3.34%) GitHub Actions
12 63 (2.84%) AWS Lambda
13 60 (2.71%) Microsoft 365
14 58 (2.62%) Amazon S3
14 58 (2.62%) Azure Logic Apps
15 57 (2.57%) Azure Functions
16 49 (2.21%) Entra ID
17 48 (2.17%) Azure Service Bus
18 38 (1.71%) Microsoft Copilot
19 36 (1.62%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.04%) HTTP
2 15 (0.68%) FIX Connectivity
3 12 (0.54%) Internet
4 8 (0.36%) Network Security
5 6 (0.27%) SSL
5 6 (0.27%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.23%) CTI
6 5 (0.23%) Firewall
6 5 (0.23%) Multicast
6 5 (0.23%) SMS
6 5 (0.23%) VoIP
7 4 (0.18%) HTTPS
8 3 (0.14%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.14%) DNS
8 3 (0.14%) MVNO
8 3 (0.14%) RTP
8 3 (0.14%) SMPP
9 2 (0.090%) DHCP
9 2 (0.090%) RTMP
9 2 (0.090%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 168 (7.58%) SQL Server
2 144 (6.50%) PostgreSQL
3 131 (5.91%) Power BI
4 121 (5.46%) Relational Database
5 82 (3.70%) NoSQL
6 68 (3.07%) Oracle Database
7 64 (2.89%) MongoDB
8 40 (1.80%) Apache Cassandra
9 39 (1.76%) Data Warehouse
10 31 (1.40%) MySQL
11 28 (1.26%) DynamoDB
11 28 (1.26%) KDB
12 26 (1.17%) RDBMS
13 25 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
13 25 (1.13%) Kdb+
14 23 (1.04%) Data Lake
15 22 (0.99%) DB2
16 19 (0.86%) Metadata
16 19 (0.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 18 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 232 (10.46%) Git
2 107 (4.83%) JIRA
3 105 (4.74%) Jenkins
4 61 (2.75%) GitLab
5 56 (2.53%) JUnit
6 33 (1.49%) Maven
7 30 (1.35%) Visual Studio
8 25 (1.13%) Mockito
9 22 (0.99%) Bitbucket
9 22 (0.99%) Gradle
10 17 (0.77%) TeamCity
11 16 (0.72%) Cypress.io
11 16 (0.72%) webpack
12 15 (0.68%) Cucumber
12 15 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
13 13 (0.59%) Selenium
13 13 (0.59%) SonarQube
14 12 (0.54%) Android Studio
15 11 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
16 10 (0.45%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 604 (27.24%) Finance
2 396 (17.86%) Social Skills
3 327 (14.75%) Banking
4 232 (10.46%) Front Office
5 227 (10.24%) Public Sector
6 157 (7.08%) Analytical Skills
7 120 (5.41%) Investment Banking
8 48 (2.17%) Financial Institution
9 21 (0.95%) Documentation Skills
10 18 (0.81%) Marketing
11 17 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (0.68%) Law
13 12 (0.54%) Local Government
14 11 (0.50%) Back Office
15 10 (0.45%) Publishing
16 9 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (0.41%) Telecoms
17 7 (0.32%) Military
17 7 (0.32%) Pharmaceutical
18 6 (0.27%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 363 (16.37%) React
2 311 (14.03%) .NET
3 244 (11.01%) REST
4 220 (9.92%) Kafka
5 212 (9.56%) Node.js
6 194 (8.75%) RESTful
7 190 (8.57%) HTML
8 181 (8.16%) AngularJS
9 175 (7.89%) Spring
10 170 (7.67%) CSS
11 133 (6.00%) Spring Boot
12 84 (3.79%) Web Services
13 82 (3.70%) .NET Framework
14 81 (3.65%) Redux
15 75 (3.38%) SOAP
16 73 (3.29%) GraphQL
17 70 (3.16%) JSON
18 69 (3.11%) Vue
19 58 (2.62%) XML
20 50 (2.26%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 131 (5.91%) Equities
2 113 (5.10%) Derivative
3 104 (4.69%) Fixed Income
4 95 (4.29%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 88 (3.97%) Cloud Native
6 85 (3.83%) Distributed Systems
7 81 (3.65%) Algorithms
8 68 (3.07%) Data Structures
9 60 (2.71%) Product Ownership
10 45 (2.03%) Greenfield Project
11 40 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
12 38 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
12 38 (1.71%) Mobile App
13 37 (1.67%) Management Information System
14 36 (1.62%) AI Agents
15 33 (1.49%) Hedge funds
16 30 (1.35%) Equity Derivative
17 28 (1.26%) Low-Code
18 27 (1.22%) Onboarding
19 26 (1.17%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 126 (5.68%) Linux
2 66 (2.98%) Windows
3 57 (2.57%) Unix
4 32 (1.44%) Android
5 29 (1.31%) Apple iOS
6 22 (0.99%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.23%) AIX
7 5 (0.23%) zOS
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 542 (24.45%) Agile
2 508 (22.91%) CI/CD
3 360 (16.24%) DevOps
4 326 (14.70%) Problem-Solving
5 289 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
6 282 (12.72%) Microservices
7 235 (10.60%) Analytics
7 235 (10.60%) Software Engineering
8 204 (9.20%) AI
9 184 (8.30%) Test Automation
10 183 (8.25%) Business Intelligence
11 182 (8.21%) Containerisation
12 159 (7.17%) Data Modelling
13 145 (6.54%) TDD
14 138 (6.22%) Front End Development
15 129 (5.82%) Unit Testing
16 123 (5.55%) Low Latency
16 123 (5.55%) Scrum
17 119 (5.37%) Design Patterns
18 108 (4.87%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 547 (24.67%) Python
2 544 (24.54%) Java
3 519 (23.41%) SQL
4 400 (18.04%) JavaScript
5 384 (17.32%) C#
6 281 (12.67%) TypeScript
7 95 (4.29%) C++
8 91 (4.10%) Go
9 75 (3.38%) PL/SQL
10 53 (2.39%) T-SQL
11 48 (2.17%) Kotlin
12 46 (2.07%) Apex Code
13 40 (1.80%) Shell Script
14 38 (1.71%) Ruby
15 32 (1.44%) PowerShell
16 29 (1.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 27 (1.22%) VB
18 26 (1.17%) VBA
19 19 (0.86%) C
20 17 (0.77%) Swift
Qualifications
1 397 (17.91%) Security Cleared
2 321 (14.48%) SC Cleared
3 114 (5.14%) Degree
4 48 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (1.40%) DV Cleared
6 28 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
7 22 (0.99%) Master's Degree
8 12 (0.54%) Numerate Degree
9 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (0.27%) Azure Certification
11 5 (0.23%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.23%) PhD
12 4 (0.18%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.14%) CTC Cleared
14 2 (0.090%) AWS Certified Developer
14 2 (0.090%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.090%) OCP
14 2 (0.090%) Postgraduate
15 1 (0.045%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (4.51%) QA
2 78 (3.52%) Accessibility
3 38 (1.71%) WCAG
4 34 (1.53%) Data Quality
5 15 (0.68%) GDPR
6 8 (0.36%) SLA
7 7 (0.32%) ISO 8583
8 6 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (0.23%) SEPA
10 4 (0.18%) GRC
10 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.18%) PMO
11 3 (0.14%) ISO 20022
11 3 (0.14%) PSD2
12 2 (0.090%) HL7
13 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.045%) MiFID
System Software
1 296 (13.35%) Docker
2 26 (1.17%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.14%) GridGain
3 3 (0.14%) HDFS
4 2 (0.090%) OpenAM
4 2 (0.090%) OpenDJ
4 2 (0.090%) OpenIDM
4 2 (0.090%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.090%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) Oracle RAC
5 1 (0.045%) Postfix
5 1 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.045%) zsh
Systems Management
1 269 (12.13%) Kubernetes
2 86 (3.88%) Terraform
3 31 (1.40%) Ansible
4 27 (1.22%) Grafana
5 18 (0.81%) Prometheus
6 12 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.50%) Argo
8 6 (0.27%) TIBCO Hawk
9 5 (0.23%) SCCM
10 4 (0.18%) Control-M
11 2 (0.090%) CA Endevor
11 2 (0.090%) CloudHub
11 2 (0.090%) Podman
11 2 (0.090%) rkt
12 1 (0.045%) HP ALM
12 1 (0.045%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 247 (11.14%) Microsoft
2 176 (7.94%) Oracle
3 79 (3.56%) Salesforce
4 66 (2.98%) ServiceNow
5 38 (1.71%) SAP
6 35 (1.58%) Citrix
6 35 (1.58%) Databricks
6 35 (1.58%) IBM
7 31 (1.40%) Google
7 31 (1.40%) OpenAI
8 26 (1.17%) Adobe
8 26 (1.17%) MuleSoft
9 20 (0.90%) Guidewire
10 18 (0.81%) Sybase
11 15 (0.68%) Foundry
11 15 (0.68%) Lotus
12 14 (0.63%) Solace
13 13 (0.59%) Pega
13 13 (0.59%) Red Hat
14 12 (0.54%) OpenLink