Developer Contract Job Trends in London

Developer
England > London

The median Developer daily rate in London is £535, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 October 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 9 4
Rank change year-on-year -10 -5 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,178 1,906 3,017
As % of all contract jobs in London 10.62% 14.24% 18.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.43% 15.38% 19.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,470 1,332 2,096
10th Percentile £400 £375 £375
25th Percentile £435 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £551
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% -0.18% -8.17%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £713
90th Percentile £788 £850 £850
England median daily rate £520 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +1.96% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 9 9
10th Percentile £41.08 £33.06 £35.60
25th Percentile £50.00 £55.00 £36.75
Median hourly rate £53.75 £70.00 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.21% +68.67% -27.83%
75th Percentile £60.25 £78.75 £75.00
90th Percentile £78.63 £84.70 £137.50
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.33%

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 19,058 12,391 15,104
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.95% 92.55% 94.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,335 8,277 9,836
10th Percentile £363 £335 £341
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.92% -0.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £663 £664 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 429 210 171
10th Percentile £16.75 £17.00 £17.25
25th Percentile £21.93 £22.50 £23.98
Median hourly rate £40.00 £27.20 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.06% -25.48% -9.88%
75th Percentile £64.25 £49.13 £59.38
90th Percentile £81.25 £67.75 £80.00
England median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.84% -41.51% -6.89%

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 16 October 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 16 October 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 16 October 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 -11 230 £538 -6.52% 89
South London 0 38 £550 -2.72% 7
East London -3 11 £875 +62.04% 14
West London -39 8 £380 -6.07% 13
North London - 3 £600 - 2
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 16 October 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.

1 598 (27.46%) Agile
2 581 (26.68%) CI/CD
3 561 (25.76%) SQL
4 479 (21.99%) Java
5 447 (20.52%) Python
6 431 (19.79%) Azure
7 416 (19.10%) Security Cleared
8 390 (17.91%) DevOps
9 385 (17.68%) C#
10 372 (17.08%) REST
11 358 (16.44%) SC Cleared
12 348 (15.98%) JavaScript
13 340 (15.61%) AWS
14 324 (14.88%) .NET
15 308 (14.14%) Problem-Solving
16 289 (13.27%) Microsoft
17 288 (13.22%) Microservices
18 274 (12.58%) React
19 265 (12.17%) AI
19 265 (12.17%) Full-Stack Development
20 253 (11.62%) TypeScript
21 248 (11.39%) Power Platform
22 243 (11.16%) Git
23 232 (10.65%) Software Engineering
24 213 (9.78%) Spring
24 213 (9.78%) Test Automation
25 209 (9.60%) Docker
26 204 (9.37%) RESTful
27 202 (9.27%) SQL Server
28 199 (9.14%) 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 73 (3.35%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.65%) Confluence
3 23 (1.06%) CMS
4 22 (1.01%) IIS
5 19 (0.87%) Camunda
6 15 (0.69%) Oracle Workflow
7 14 (0.64%) Anypoint
7 14 (0.64%) Mule
8 12 (0.55%) Ethereum
9 9 (0.41%) Apache Spark
9 9 (0.41%) SAS
10 8 (0.37%) Apache
10 8 (0.37%) nginx
10 8 (0.37%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.28%) Appian
12 5 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
13 4 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.18%) Hyperledger
13 4 (0.18%) Solana
13 4 (0.18%) WordPress
Applications
1 32 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.37%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.14%) Windchill
5 2 (0.092%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.092%) CPLEX
5 2 (0.092%) Sketch
6 1 (0.046%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.046%) Simulink
6 1 (0.046%) S-PLUS
6 1 (0.046%) Trello
Business Applications
1 39 (1.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.83%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.64%) NetSuite
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle Financials
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle General Ledger
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle Receivables
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle Internet Expenses
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle iProcurement
6 6 (0.28%) Aladdin
6 6 (0.28%) Oracle FAH
6 6 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.23%) OpenText MBPM
7 5 (0.23%) Oracle BPM
8 4 (0.18%) Endur
8 4 (0.18%) Findur
8 4 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle EBS R12
8 4 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 431 (19.79%) Azure
2 340 (15.61%) AWS
3 248 (11.39%) Power Platform
4 135 (6.20%) GitHub
5 127 (5.83%) PowerApps
6 124 (5.69%) Azure DevOps
7 122 (5.60%) Power Automate
8 113 (5.19%) Dynamics 365
9 103 (4.73%) GCP
10 99 (4.55%) Serverless
11 71 (3.26%) GitHub Actions
12 57 (2.62%) Microsoft Copilot
13 55 (2.53%) Azure Service Bus
14 47 (2.16%) Copilot Studio
15 45 (2.07%) Azure Functions
15 45 (2.07%) Azure Logic Apps
16 41 (1.88%) Amazon S3
17 35 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
18 34 (1.56%) AWS Lambda
19 33 (1.52%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 20 (0.92%) HTTP
2 12 (0.55%) Internet
3 11 (0.51%) FIX Connectivity
4 6 (0.28%) Multicast
5 4 (0.18%) SMS
5 4 (0.18%) SSL
6 2 (0.092%) 4G
6 2 (0.092%) 5G
6 2 (0.092%) CTI
6 2 (0.092%) DNS
6 2 (0.092%) Intranet
6 2 (0.092%) NFC
6 2 (0.092%) SSH
6 2 (0.092%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.046%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.046%) FTP
7 1 (0.046%) HTTPS
7 1 (0.046%) OpenLDAP
7 1 (0.046%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 202 (9.27%) SQL Server
2 160 (7.35%) Power BI
3 138 (6.34%) PostgreSQL
4 123 (5.65%) Relational Database
5 65 (2.98%) NoSQL
6 61 (2.80%) Data Warehouse
7 58 (2.66%) MongoDB
8 55 (2.53%) Oracle Database
9 43 (1.97%) MySQL
10 38 (1.74%) Redis
11 32 (1.47%) Power Query
12 31 (1.42%) Azure SQL Database
13 28 (1.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 24 (1.10%) KDB
14 24 (1.10%) Star Schema
15 22 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
16 19 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
16 19 (0.87%) DynamoDB
17 18 (0.83%) Data Lake
17 18 (0.83%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 243 (11.16%) Git
2 130 (5.97%) Jenkins
3 95 (4.36%) JIRA
4 84 (3.86%) GitLab
5 52 (2.39%) Gradle
6 49 (2.25%) JUnit
6 49 (2.25%) Maven
7 36 (1.65%) Visual Studio
8 28 (1.29%) Mockito
9 25 (1.15%) SonarQube
10 19 (0.87%) REST Assured
11 18 (0.83%) Cypress.io
12 17 (0.78%) Bitbucket
13 15 (0.69%) Claude Code
13 15 (0.69%) Vite
14 13 (0.60%) Cucumber
15 12 (0.55%) TeamCity
16 11 (0.51%) Storybook
17 10 (0.46%) Visual Studio Code
18 9 (0.41%) Selenium
General
1 652 (29.94%) Finance
2 407 (18.69%) Social Skills
3 391 (17.95%) Banking
4 191 (8.77%) Analytical Skills
5 186 (8.54%) Public Sector
6 176 (8.08%) Front Office
7 171 (7.85%) Investment Banking
8 56 (2.57%) Marketing
9 54 (2.48%) Financial Institution
10 48 (2.20%) Retail
11 40 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 33 (1.52%) Back Office
13 23 (1.06%) Law
14 15 (0.69%) Local Government
14 15 (0.69%) Publishing
15 14 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
16 13 (0.60%) Documentation Skills
17 12 (0.55%) Private Banking
18 11 (0.51%) Manufacturing
19 9 (0.41%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 372 (17.08%) REST
2 324 (14.88%) .NET
3 274 (12.58%) React
4 213 (9.78%) Spring
5 204 (9.37%) RESTful
6 173 (7.94%) Spring Boot
7 155 (7.12%) Kafka
8 152 (6.98%) HTML
9 145 (6.66%) CSS
10 109 (5.00%) Node.js
11 108 (4.96%) SOAP
12 103 (4.73%) AngularJS
13 95 (4.36%) Web Services
14 86 (3.95%) JSON
15 83 (3.81%) Terraform
16 74 (3.40%) XML
17 65 (2.98%) Redux
18 64 (2.94%) Django
19 62 (2.85%) .NET Framework
19 62 (2.85%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 139 (6.38%) Cloud Native
2 106 (4.87%) Distributed Systems
3 103 (4.73%) Derivative
4 86 (3.95%) Product Ownership
5 83 (3.81%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 76 (3.49%) Enterprise Software
7 65 (2.98%) Equities
8 60 (2.75%) Fixed Income
9 53 (2.43%) Data Structures
10 47 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
11 39 (1.79%) AI Agents
11 39 (1.79%) Greenfield Project
12 36 (1.65%) Self-Motivation
13 32 (1.47%) Mobile App
14 31 (1.42%) Low-Code
15 30 (1.38%) Algorithms
16 26 (1.19%) Management Information System
17 22 (1.01%) CMDB
17 22 (1.01%) Onboarding
18 21 (0.96%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 103 (4.73%) Linux
2 71 (3.26%) Unix
3 45 (2.07%) Windows
4 36 (1.65%) Apple iOS
5 20 (0.92%) Android
6 9 (0.41%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.18%) macOS
8 2 (0.092%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.092%) zOS
9 1 (0.046%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.046%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 598 (27.46%) Agile
2 581 (26.68%) CI/CD
3 390 (17.91%) DevOps
4 308 (14.14%) Problem-Solving
5 288 (13.22%) Microservices
6 265 (12.17%) AI
6 265 (12.17%) Full-Stack Development
7 232 (10.65%) Software Engineering
8 213 (9.78%) Test Automation
9 192 (8.82%) Continuous Improvement
10 187 (8.59%) Business Intelligence
11 179 (8.22%) Event-Driven
12 167 (7.67%) Scrum
13 162 (7.44%) Data Modelling
14 160 (7.35%) SDLC
15 147 (6.75%) Analytics
16 145 (6.66%) Containerisation
17 142 (6.52%) Code Quality
18 138 (6.34%) TDD
19 129 (5.92%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 561 (25.76%) SQL
2 479 (21.99%) Java
3 447 (20.52%) Python
4 385 (17.68%) C#
5 348 (15.98%) JavaScript
6 253 (11.62%) TypeScript
7 91 (4.18%) PL/SQL
8 62 (2.85%) T-SQL
9 51 (2.34%) Apex Code
10 48 (2.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 44 (2.02%) Shell Script
12 43 (1.97%) C++
13 37 (1.70%) Kotlin
14 26 (1.19%) Scala
15 25 (1.15%) Bash
16 24 (1.10%) Swift
17 21 (0.96%) PowerShell
18 20 (0.92%) Ruby
19 19 (0.87%) Go
20 16 (0.73%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 416 (19.10%) Security Cleared
2 358 (16.44%) SC Cleared
3 113 (5.19%) Degree
4 62 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (1.84%) DV Cleared
6 31 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
7 19 (0.87%) Master's Degree
8 16 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (0.46%) Azure Certification
9 10 (0.46%) PhD
10 6 (0.28%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 5 (0.23%) Numerate Degree
12 4 (0.18%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.092%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.092%) DBS Check
14 1 (0.046%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.046%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.046%) OCP
14 1 (0.046%) Oracle Certification
14 1 (0.046%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 141 (6.47%) QA
2 65 (2.98%) Accessibility
3 57 (2.62%) Data Quality
4 22 (1.01%) WCAG
5 12 (0.55%) GDPR
6 5 (0.23%) ISO 20022
7 4 (0.18%) GRC
7 4 (0.18%) SEPA
7 4 (0.18%) SLA
8 3 (0.14%) Basel III
8 3 (0.14%) EMIR
8 3 (0.14%) HL7
8 3 (0.14%) MiFID
8 3 (0.14%) Solvency II
9 2 (0.092%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 2 (0.092%) GMP
9 2 (0.092%) GxP
9 2 (0.092%) ISO 13485
9 2 (0.092%) ISO 15022
9 2 (0.092%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 209 (9.60%) Docker
2 8 (0.37%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.18%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (0.092%) Postfix
5 1 (0.046%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 193 (8.86%) Kubernetes
2 29 (1.33%) Grafana
3 28 (1.29%) Ansible
4 21 (0.96%) Prometheus
5 12 (0.55%) Control-M
6 10 (0.46%) Kibana
7 5 (0.23%) Argo
8 4 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.14%) Bosun
9 3 (0.14%) Istio
10 2 (0.092%) CloudHub
11 1 (0.046%) HP Fortify
11 1 (0.046%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 289 (13.27%) Microsoft
2 199 (9.14%) Oracle
3 122 (5.60%) Salesforce
4 93 (4.27%) ServiceNow
5 47 (2.16%) Google
6 44 (2.02%) Databricks
6 44 (2.02%) IBM
7 34 (1.56%) MuleSoft
8 30 (1.38%) Citrix
8 30 (1.38%) UiPath
9 24 (1.10%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
9 24 (1.10%) SAP
10 23 (1.06%) OpenAI
11 13 (0.60%) Adobe
11 13 (0.60%) Splunk
12 11 (0.51%) Sybase
13 10 (0.46%) Avaloq
13 10 (0.46%) ION Trading
13 10 (0.46%) OutSystems
14 9 (0.41%) webMethods