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 29 January 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,070 2,338 2,858
As % of all contract jobs in London 14.01% 16.82% 15.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 15.12% 17.97% 16.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,437 1,584 2,192
10th Percentile £381 £381 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -8.00%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £738
90th Percentile £800 £838 £850
England median daily rate £500 £540 £525
% change year-on-year -7.41% +2.86% -9.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 14
10th Percentile - £35.38 £34.68
25th Percentile £35.00 £36.00 £56.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £38.75 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +41.94% -36.73% +6.52%
75th Percentile £78.75 £41.38 £72.38
90th Percentile £91.75 £51.63 £73.72
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -15.38% +4.00% -

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 13,690 13,011 16,973
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.64% 93.60% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,077 8,349 12,255
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -5.98%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £775
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 219 141 306
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.75 £16.14
25th Percentile £23.65 £24.18 £19.10
Median hourly rate £33.46 £35.00 £29.61
Median % change year-on-year -4.40% +18.20% -14.17%
75th Percentile £63.05 £53.75 £50.63
90th Percentile £76.58 £78.75 £67.00
England median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -14.29% -6.67% +7.14%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 29 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 -5 274 £525 -8.70% 180
South London -8 32 £505 -34.84% 27
West London -23 15 £509 +24.45% 29
East London -2 12 £1,000 +150.00% 25
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 29 January 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.

1 528 (25.51%) SQL
2 522 (25.22%) Agile
3 521 (25.17%) Java
4 497 (24.01%) Python
5 490 (23.67%) CI/CD
6 445 (21.50%) Azure
7 399 (19.28%) AWS
8 387 (18.70%) C#
9 384 (18.55%) Problem-Solving
10 359 (17.34%) JavaScript
11 351 (16.96%) Security Cleared
12 337 (16.28%) DevOps
13 300 (14.49%) React
14 297 (14.35%) .NET
15 294 (14.20%) Microservices
16 290 (14.01%) Docker
17 289 (13.96%) SC Cleared
18 273 (13.19%) Kubernetes
19 270 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
20 252 (12.17%) REST
21 244 (11.79%) Microsoft
22 235 (11.35%) Analytics
23 229 (11.06%) Git
24 216 (10.43%) TypeScript
25 212 (10.24%) Power Platform
26 194 (9.37%) Kafka
26 194 (9.37%) RESTful
26 194 (9.37%) Software Engineering
27 191 (9.23%) Business Intelligence
28 185 (8.94%) Oracle

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 61 (2.95%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.98%) Confluence
3 20 (0.97%) CMS
4 16 (0.77%) HCL Notes
4 16 (0.77%) IIS
5 15 (0.72%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 13 (0.63%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 11 (0.53%) Ethereum
8 10 (0.48%) Mendix
8 10 (0.48%) MQSeries
9 9 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
10 8 (0.39%) Apache
10 8 (0.39%) Apache Spark
10 8 (0.39%) Hyperledger
10 8 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
11 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
12 6 (0.29%) Camunda
12 6 (0.29%) Headless CMS
12 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
12 6 (0.29%) WebSphere
Applications
1 52 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.48%) Chatbot
3 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.097%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.048%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.048%) Trello
Business Applications
1 42 (2.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.87%) Endur
3 13 (0.63%) Fidessa
4 11 (0.53%) Oracle ERP
5 10 (0.48%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
7 7 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
7 7 (0.34%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.29%) BusinessWorks
8 6 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
8 6 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
8 6 (0.29%) Temenos T24
9 5 (0.24%) BASE24
9 5 (0.24%) Oracle EBS R12
9 5 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
10 4 (0.19%) Oracle 11i
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 3 (0.14%) ProductWriter
12 2 (0.097%) Oracle Cash Management
12 2 (0.097%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 445 (21.50%) Azure
2 399 (19.28%) AWS
3 212 (10.24%) Power Platform
4 164 (7.92%) GitHub
5 140 (6.76%) Azure DevOps
6 125 (6.04%) Serverless
7 107 (5.17%) Power Automate
8 96 (4.64%) GCP
8 96 (4.64%) PowerApps
9 80 (3.86%) Dynamics 365
10 72 (3.48%) GitHub Actions
11 68 (3.29%) Azure Logic Apps
12 64 (3.09%) Azure Functions
13 55 (2.66%) AWS Lambda
14 48 (2.32%) Azure Service Bus
14 48 (2.32%) Microsoft 365
15 44 (2.13%) Amazon S3
16 43 (2.08%) Entra ID
17 40 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
18 33 (1.59%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.16%) HTTP
2 11 (0.53%) HTTPS
2 11 (0.53%) Internet
3 10 (0.48%) SSL
4 9 (0.43%) FIX Connectivity
5 8 (0.39%) Network Security
5 8 (0.39%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.24%) CTI
6 5 (0.24%) Firewall
6 5 (0.24%) SMS
6 5 (0.24%) VoIP
7 4 (0.19%) DNS
7 4 (0.19%) Multicast
8 3 (0.14%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.14%) MVNO
8 3 (0.14%) SMPP
9 2 (0.097%) DHCP
9 2 (0.097%) SSH
9 2 (0.097%) tcpdump
9 2 (0.097%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 172 (8.31%) SQL Server
2 137 (6.62%) PostgreSQL
3 133 (6.43%) Power BI
4 121 (5.85%) Relational Database
5 87 (4.20%) NoSQL
6 70 (3.38%) MongoDB
7 68 (3.29%) Oracle Database
8 42 (2.03%) Data Warehouse
9 39 (1.88%) Apache Cassandra
10 34 (1.64%) MySQL
11 27 (1.30%) KDB
12 26 (1.26%) Data Lake
12 26 (1.26%) Kdb+
13 25 (1.21%) RDBMS
14 23 (1.11%) DB2
14 23 (1.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 22 (1.06%) Amazon RDS
15 22 (1.06%) Oracle Reports
15 22 (1.06%) Power Query
16 21 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 229 (11.06%) Git
2 101 (4.88%) JIRA
3 96 (4.64%) Jenkins
4 64 (3.09%) GitLab
5 56 (2.71%) JUnit
6 32 (1.55%) Maven
7 31 (1.50%) Visual Studio
8 24 (1.16%) Gradle
9 22 (1.06%) Bitbucket
10 17 (0.82%) Mockito
11 16 (0.77%) Cucumber
11 16 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
12 14 (0.68%) Selenium
12 14 (0.68%) SpecFlow
13 12 (0.58%) Cypress.io
13 12 (0.58%) webpack
14 11 (0.53%) Android Studio
14 11 (0.53%) SonarQube
14 11 (0.53%) TeamCity
15 10 (0.48%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 585 (28.26%) Finance
2 450 (21.74%) Social Skills
3 341 (16.47%) Banking
4 185 (8.94%) Front Office
5 182 (8.79%) Public Sector
6 159 (7.68%) Analytical Skills
7 130 (6.28%) Investment Banking
8 61 (2.95%) Financial Institution
9 22 (1.06%) Marketing
10 19 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (0.87%) Law
12 15 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
13 10 (0.48%) General Ledger
13 10 (0.48%) Telecoms
14 9 (0.43%) Back Office
14 9 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (0.43%) Retail
15 8 (0.39%) Billing
15 8 (0.39%) Legal
15 8 (0.39%) Private Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 300 (14.49%) React
2 297 (14.35%) .NET
3 252 (12.17%) REST
4 194 (9.37%) Kafka
4 194 (9.37%) RESTful
5 181 (8.74%) HTML
6 171 (8.26%) Spring
7 167 (8.07%) AngularJS
7 167 (8.07%) CSS
8 158 (7.63%) Node.js
9 128 (6.18%) Spring Boot
10 87 (4.20%) SOAP
11 79 (3.82%) .NET Framework
12 78 (3.77%) JSON
13 76 (3.67%) Web Services
14 74 (3.57%) XML
15 62 (3.00%) Vue
16 51 (2.46%) FastAPI
17 50 (2.42%) OAuth
17 50 (2.42%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 116 (5.60%) Equities
2 112 (5.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 104 (5.02%) Derivative
4 96 (4.64%) Cloud Native
5 85 (4.11%) Distributed Systems
6 82 (3.96%) Algorithms
7 70 (3.38%) Data Structures
8 64 (3.09%) Product Ownership
9 59 (2.85%) Fixed Income
10 46 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
11 44 (2.13%) Management Information System
12 43 (2.08%) Greenfield Project
13 40 (1.93%) Mobile App
14 33 (1.59%) Hedge funds
15 32 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
16 31 (1.50%) AI Agents
16 31 (1.50%) Equity Derivative
17 28 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
17 28 (1.35%) Market Risk
18 26 (1.26%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 155 (7.49%) Linux
2 70 (3.38%) Windows
3 60 (2.90%) Unix
4 42 (2.03%) Android
5 37 (1.79%) Apple iOS
6 19 (0.92%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.24%) AIX
8 5 (0.24%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.19%) CentOS
10 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.048%) VMS
11 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.048%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 522 (25.22%) Agile
2 490 (23.67%) CI/CD
3 384 (18.55%) Problem-Solving
4 337 (16.28%) DevOps
5 294 (14.20%) Microservices
6 270 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
7 235 (11.35%) Analytics
8 194 (9.37%) Software Engineering
9 191 (9.23%) Business Intelligence
10 174 (8.41%) Test Automation
11 171 (8.26%) Containerisation
12 161 (7.78%) AI
13 155 (7.49%) Scrum
14 134 (6.47%) TDD
15 129 (6.23%) Front End Development
16 121 (5.85%) Computer Science
17 120 (5.80%) Data Modelling
18 116 (5.60%) Unit Testing
19 115 (5.56%) Design Patterns
20 113 (5.46%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 528 (25.51%) SQL
2 521 (25.17%) Java
3 497 (24.01%) Python
4 387 (18.70%) C#
5 359 (17.34%) JavaScript
6 216 (10.43%) TypeScript
7 120 (5.80%) C++
8 83 (4.01%) PL/SQL
9 64 (3.09%) Go
10 51 (2.46%) Kotlin
11 50 (2.42%) T-SQL
12 41 (1.98%) Apex Code
13 36 (1.74%) PowerShell
13 36 (1.74%) VB
14 35 (1.69%) Ruby
15 33 (1.59%) Shell Script
16 31 (1.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 30 (1.45%) VBA
18 22 (1.06%) Swift
19 21 (1.01%) C
Qualifications
1 351 (16.96%) Security Cleared
2 289 (13.96%) SC Cleared
3 133 (6.43%) Degree
4 63 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 26 (1.26%) Master's Degree
6 24 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
7 20 (0.97%) DV Cleared
8 13 (0.63%) Numerate Degree
9 7 (0.34%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.34%) MCP
10 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (0.24%) Azure Certification
11 5 (0.24%) PhD
12 4 (0.19%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.14%) AWS Certified Developer
13 3 (0.14%) CTC Cleared
14 2 (0.097%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 2 (0.097%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.097%) OCP
14 2 (0.097%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (4.30%) QA
2 56 (2.71%) Accessibility
3 32 (1.55%) Data Quality
4 22 (1.06%) WCAG
5 15 (0.72%) GDPR
6 7 (0.34%) ISO 8583
7 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 6 (0.29%) SLA
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 (0.097%) HL7
12 1 (0.048%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.048%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.048%) MiFID
12 1 (0.048%) PMO
System Software
1 290 (14.01%) Docker
2 31 (1.50%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.29%) zsh
4 5 (0.24%) HDFS
5 3 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.097%) GridGain
6 2 (0.097%) OpenAM
6 2 (0.097%) OpenDJ
6 2 (0.097%) OpenIDM
6 2 (0.097%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.097%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.048%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 273 (13.19%) Kubernetes
2 78 (3.77%) Terraform
3 32 (1.55%) Ansible
4 20 (0.97%) Grafana
5 19 (0.92%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.58%) Argo
8 7 (0.34%) Control-M
9 6 (0.29%) TIBCO Hawk
10 3 (0.14%) Kibana
10 3 (0.14%) Podman
11 2 (0.097%) CloudHub
11 2 (0.097%) Docker Swarm
11 2 (0.097%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.097%) rkt
12 1 (0.048%) CA Endevor
12 1 (0.048%) ITRS Geneos
12 1 (0.048%) Nessus
12 1 (0.048%) Oracle Identity Management
12 1 (0.048%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 244 (11.79%) Microsoft
2 185 (8.94%) Oracle
3 73 (3.53%) Salesforce
4 56 (2.71%) ServiceNow
5 39 (1.88%) Google
6 37 (1.79%) Databricks
7 36 (1.74%) IBM
8 32 (1.55%) SAP
9 29 (1.40%) Citrix
10 28 (1.35%) Adobe
11 27 (1.30%) OpenAI
12 21 (1.01%) MuleSoft
13 19 (0.92%) Red Hat
14 18 (0.87%) Sybase
15 16 (0.77%) Guidewire
15 16 (0.77%) Lotus
16 14 (0.68%) Solace
17 12 (0.58%) OpenLink
18 11 (0.53%) Foundry
18 11 (0.53%) ION Trading