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 7 May 2026.

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

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 6 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 -2 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,231 2,071 3,073
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.49% 16.51% 17.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.47% 17.68% 18.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,570 1,504 2,364
10th Percentile £388 £385 £385
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £750 £750
90th Percentile £800 £863 £850
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 6
10th Percentile - £39.76 £36.88
25th Percentile £35.00 £47.47 £58.75
Median hourly rate £52.50 £53.50 £64.75
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -17.37% +12.61%
75th Percentile £65.63 £56.81 £71.13
90th Percentile £95.00 £59.63 £72.50
England median hourly rate £55.00 £59.88 £65.00
% change year-on-year -8.14% -7.88% +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 16,557 11,716 16,625
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.73% 93.41% 93.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,989 8,029 12,027
10th Percentile £350 £346 £325
25th Percentile £425 £428 £443
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £680
90th Percentile £755 £800 £800
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 274 145 338
10th Percentile £18.75 £20.33 £16.01
25th Percentile £24.03 £24.00 £20.02
Median hourly rate £37.50 £34.65 £27.66
Median % change year-on-year +8.23% +25.29% -21.55%
75th Percentile £63.26 £50.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £64.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £31.35 £36.50
% change year-on-year +49.94% -14.12% -17.64%

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 7 May 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 7 May 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 7 May 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 -5 299 £525 -10.26% 173
South London -1 46 £513 -44.59% 7
West London -21 18 £497 +1.95% 21
East London -5 7 £416 -6.53% 22
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 7 May 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.

1 530 (23.76%) Agile
2 528 (23.67%) Java
3 510 (22.86%) Python
4 489 (21.92%) CI/CD
5 479 (21.47%) SQL
6 465 (20.84%) Azure
7 431 (19.32%) AWS
8 412 (18.47%) Security Cleared
9 396 (17.75%) C#
10 374 (16.76%) JavaScript
11 342 (15.33%) SC Cleared
12 340 (15.24%) DevOps
13 325 (14.57%) React
14 313 (14.03%) .NET
15 283 (12.68%) Docker
16 277 (12.42%) Microservices
17 272 (12.19%) Full-Stack Development
18 259 (11.61%) TypeScript
19 256 (11.47%) Problem-Solving
20 244 (10.94%) Kubernetes
21 237 (10.62%) Software Engineering
22 235 (10.53%) REST
23 234 (10.49%) Microsoft
24 212 (9.50%) AI
25 207 (9.28%) Power Platform
26 198 (8.87%) Kafka
27 195 (8.74%) Oracle
28 189 (8.47%) Analytics
28 189 (8.47%) RESTful
29 187 (8.38%) Containerisation

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 78 (3.50%) SharePoint
2 45 (2.02%) Confluence
3 23 (1.03%) IIS
4 21 (0.94%) Apache
5 18 (0.81%) CMS
6 17 (0.76%) Apache Spark
7 16 (0.72%) HCL Notes
8 15 (0.67%) Mendix
9 14 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
10 9 (0.40%) Ethereum
10 9 (0.40%) JBoss
11 8 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 8 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 7 (0.31%) Camunda
13 6 (0.27%) CICS
13 6 (0.27%) SAS
14 5 (0.22%) Appian
14 5 (0.22%) Headless CMS
14 5 (0.22%) Hyperledger
14 5 (0.22%) Tomcat
Applications
1 39 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
3 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.090%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 45 (2.02%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.90%) Endur
3 11 (0.49%) Temenos T24
4 7 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
4 7 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
5 6 (0.27%) Fidessa
5 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
5 6 (0.27%) ProductWriter
6 5 (0.22%) BASE24
6 5 (0.22%) Findur
6 5 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.13%) BusinessWorks
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle 11i
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 465 (20.84%) Azure
2 431 (19.32%) AWS
3 207 (9.28%) Power Platform
4 143 (6.41%) GitHub
5 129 (5.78%) Azure DevOps
6 121 (5.42%) Serverless
7 119 (5.33%) Power Automate
8 106 (4.75%) PowerApps
9 101 (4.53%) GCP
10 93 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
11 73 (3.27%) GitHub Actions
12 67 (3.00%) AWS Lambda
13 64 (2.87%) Amazon S3
14 54 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
15 48 (2.15%) Azure Logic Apps
16 45 (2.02%) Azure Service Bus
17 42 (1.88%) Azure AKS
17 42 (1.88%) Azure Functions
18 41 (1.84%) Entra ID
19 36 (1.61%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.30%) HTTP
2 20 (0.90%) FIX Connectivity
3 13 (0.58%) Internet
4 6 (0.27%) Network Security
5 5 (0.22%) Multicast
5 5 (0.22%) SMS
6 3 (0.13%) 3GPP
6 3 (0.13%) MVNO
6 3 (0.13%) RTP
6 3 (0.13%) SMPP
6 3 (0.13%) SSL
6 3 (0.13%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.090%) DNS
7 2 (0.090%) Ethernet
7 2 (0.090%) Firewall
7 2 (0.090%) FTP
7 2 (0.090%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.090%) RTMP
8 1 (0.045%) 5G
8 1 (0.045%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 164 (7.35%) SQL Server
2 135 (6.05%) PostgreSQL
3 119 (5.33%) Power BI
4 113 (5.06%) Relational Database
5 71 (3.18%) Oracle Database
6 66 (2.96%) NoSQL
7 59 (2.64%) MongoDB
8 41 (1.84%) Data Warehouse
9 31 (1.39%) Apache Cassandra
10 30 (1.34%) KDB
11 29 (1.30%) DynamoDB
12 28 (1.26%) MySQL
13 22 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
14 21 (0.94%) Data Lake
15 20 (0.90%) RDBMS
16 19 (0.85%) Kdb+
16 19 (0.85%) Metadata
16 19 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 18 (0.81%) Redis
18 17 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 180 (8.07%) Git
2 108 (4.84%) Jenkins
3 99 (4.44%) JIRA
4 58 (2.60%) GitLab
5 49 (2.20%) JUnit
6 26 (1.17%) Mockito
7 25 (1.12%) Visual Studio
8 22 (0.99%) Maven
9 21 (0.94%) Gradle
10 19 (0.85%) TeamCity
11 16 (0.72%) Bitbucket
12 14 (0.63%) Cypress.io
13 13 (0.58%) Selenium
14 12 (0.54%) SonarQube
15 11 (0.49%) Cucumber
15 11 (0.49%) Vite
16 10 (0.45%) Octopus Deploy
16 10 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
16 10 (0.45%) webpack
17 9 (0.40%) Claude Code
General
1 601 (26.94%) Finance
2 350 (15.69%) Social Skills
3 314 (14.07%) Banking
4 237 (10.62%) Public Sector
5 228 (10.22%) Front Office
6 132 (5.92%) Analytical Skills
7 123 (5.51%) Investment Banking
8 54 (2.42%) Financial Institution
9 25 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 22 (0.99%) Documentation Skills
11 20 (0.90%) Publishing
12 17 (0.76%) Marketing
13 14 (0.63%) Back Office
13 14 (0.63%) Local Government
14 12 (0.54%) Law
15 11 (0.49%) Telecoms
16 9 (0.40%) Presentation Skills
17 8 (0.36%) Retail
18 6 (0.27%) Automotive
18 6 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 325 (14.57%) React
2 313 (14.03%) .NET
3 235 (10.53%) REST
4 198 (8.87%) Kafka
5 189 (8.47%) RESTful
6 185 (8.29%) Node.js
7 181 (8.11%) HTML
8 172 (7.71%) Spring
9 157 (7.04%) CSS
10 152 (6.81%) AngularJS
11 144 (6.45%) Spring Boot
12 93 (4.17%) Redux
13 89 (3.99%) .NET Framework
14 80 (3.59%) Web Services
15 70 (3.14%) SOAP
16 69 (3.09%) GraphQL
17 64 (2.87%) JSON
18 53 (2.38%) Django
19 52 (2.33%) Vue
20 50 (2.24%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 115 (5.15%) Derivative
2 114 (5.11%) Equities
3 107 (4.80%) Fixed Income
4 99 (4.44%) Distributed Systems
5 88 (3.94%) Cloud Native
5 88 (3.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 54 (2.42%) Algorithms
7 53 (2.38%) Data Structures
8 47 (2.11%) Greenfield Project
9 46 (2.06%) Product Ownership
10 40 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
11 39 (1.75%) Management Information System
12 38 (1.70%) Low-Code
13 36 (1.61%) AI Agents
13 36 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
14 32 (1.43%) Hedge funds
15 31 (1.39%) Onboarding
16 27 (1.21%) Equity Derivative
17 25 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
18 24 (1.08%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 108 (4.84%) Linux
2 61 (2.73%) Windows
3 52 (2.33%) Unix
4 24 (1.08%) Android
5 21 (0.94%) Apple iOS
6 20 (0.90%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.22%) AIX
7 5 (0.22%) zOS
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.090%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.045%) Solaris
10 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 530 (23.76%) Agile
2 489 (21.92%) CI/CD
3 340 (15.24%) DevOps
4 277 (12.42%) Microservices
5 272 (12.19%) Full-Stack Development
6 256 (11.47%) Problem-Solving
7 237 (10.62%) Software Engineering
8 212 (9.50%) AI
9 189 (8.47%) Analytics
10 187 (8.38%) Containerisation
11 179 (8.02%) Test Automation
12 169 (7.58%) Data Modelling
13 165 (7.40%) Business Intelligence
14 134 (6.01%) TDD
15 116 (5.20%) Code Quality
16 115 (5.15%) Front End Development
16 115 (5.15%) Scrum
17 109 (4.89%) Unit Testing
18 108 (4.84%) Design Patterns
18 108 (4.84%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 528 (23.67%) Java
2 510 (22.86%) Python
3 479 (21.47%) SQL
4 396 (17.75%) C#
5 374 (16.76%) JavaScript
6 259 (11.61%) TypeScript
7 79 (3.54%) PL/SQL
8 77 (3.45%) Go
9 67 (3.00%) C++
10 57 (2.55%) T-SQL
11 55 (2.47%) Apex Code
12 43 (1.93%) Shell Script
13 38 (1.70%) Kotlin
14 32 (1.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 30 (1.34%) Ruby
16 28 (1.26%) PowerShell
17 21 (0.94%) VBA
18 18 (0.81%) C
19 17 (0.76%) PHP
20 13 (0.58%) VB
Qualifications
1 412 (18.47%) Security Cleared
2 342 (15.33%) SC Cleared
3 98 (4.39%) Degree
4 37 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
5 34 (1.52%) DV Cleared
6 30 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (0.49%) Master's Degree
8 8 (0.36%) Numerate Degree
9 7 (0.31%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.31%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (0.27%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Developer
11 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.18%) PhD
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle Certification
13 2 (0.090%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.090%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.045%) DBS Check
14 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 1 (0.045%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (5.02%) QA
2 57 (2.55%) Accessibility
3 34 (1.52%) Data Quality
4 31 (1.39%) WCAG
5 15 (0.67%) GDPR
6 7 (0.31%) ISO 8583
6 7 (0.31%) SLA
7 6 (0.27%) GRC
8 5 (0.22%) HL7
8 5 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.18%) PMO
9 4 (0.18%) SEPA
10 2 (0.090%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.090%) PSD2
11 1 (0.045%) DICOM
11 1 (0.045%) GAAP
11 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
System Software
1 283 (12.68%) Docker
2 14 (0.63%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.13%) GridGain
4 2 (0.090%) HDFS
4 2 (0.090%) OpenAM
4 2 (0.090%) OpenDJ
4 2 (0.090%) OpenIDM
4 2 (0.090%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.090%) Postfix
4 2 (0.090%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) Varnish
5 1 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 244 (10.94%) Kubernetes
2 90 (4.03%) Terraform
3 30 (1.34%) Grafana
4 29 (1.30%) Ansible
5 21 (0.94%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.22%) SCCM
8 3 (0.13%) Argo
8 3 (0.13%) CloudHub
8 3 (0.13%) TIBCO Hawk
9 2 (0.090%) CA Endevor
9 2 (0.090%) Control-M
9 2 (0.090%) Podman
10 1 (0.045%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.045%) Kibana
10 1 (0.045%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 234 (10.49%) Microsoft
2 195 (8.74%) Oracle
3 87 (3.90%) Salesforce
4 76 (3.41%) ServiceNow
5 39 (1.75%) Citrix
6 38 (1.70%) SAP
7 32 (1.43%) Databricks
8 29 (1.30%) IBM
9 25 (1.12%) MuleSoft
10 24 (1.08%) OpenAI
11 21 (0.94%) Adobe
12 20 (0.90%) Guidewire
13 19 (0.85%) Google
14 17 (0.76%) Pega
15 16 (0.72%) Lotus
16 15 (0.67%) Foundry
17 14 (0.63%) UiPath
18 13 (0.58%) ForgeRock
19 12 (0.54%) Kofax
19 12 (0.54%) OpenLink