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 4 October 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 9 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 -5 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,181 1,947 3,080
As % of all contract jobs in London 10.76% 14.42% 19.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.56% 15.56% 20.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,469 1,380 2,158
10th Percentile £400 £375 £375
25th Percentile £435 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £556
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% -1.12% -7.29%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £713
90th Percentile £800 £850 £850
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 8
10th Percentile £41.10 £33.06 £35.53
25th Percentile £50.00 £55.00 £36.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £70.00 £51.47
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +36.01% -27.05%
75th Percentile £62.25 £78.75 £90.63
90th Percentile £80.50 £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 18,867 12,514 15,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.12% 92.70% 94.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,183 8,360 9,987
10th Percentile £363 £333 £340
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 £663 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 411 206 177
10th Percentile £17.00 £17.00 £17.40
25th Percentile £21.93 £22.75 £24.15
Median hourly rate £40.00 £28.14 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +42.16% -22.91% -3.31%
75th Percentile £64.25 £50.50 £58.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.75 £78.75
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% -4.32%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -10 238 £550 -4.35% 149
South London +3 38 £550 -2.72% 19
East London -3 10 £875 +62.04% 12
West London -41 7 £380 -6.58% 28
North London - 2 £550 - 6
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 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.

1 593 (27.19%) Agile
2 578 (26.50%) CI/CD
3 554 (25.40%) SQL
4 490 (22.47%) Java
5 447 (20.50%) Python
6 423 (19.39%) Azure
7 400 (18.34%) Security Cleared
8 381 (17.47%) C#
8 381 (17.47%) DevOps
9 362 (16.60%) REST
10 344 (15.77%) SC Cleared
11 340 (15.59%) AWS
12 338 (15.50%) JavaScript
13 317 (14.53%) .NET
14 300 (13.76%) Problem-Solving
15 290 (13.30%) Microservices
16 282 (12.93%) React
17 272 (12.47%) Microsoft
18 269 (12.33%) Full-Stack Development
19 266 (12.20%) AI
20 260 (11.92%) TypeScript
21 243 (11.14%) Git
22 237 (10.87%) Power Platform
23 229 (10.50%) Software Engineering
24 215 (9.86%) Docker
25 213 (9.77%) Spring
26 204 (9.35%) RESTful
27 202 (9.26%) Test Automation
28 199 (9.12%) Kubernetes
29 196 (8.99%) 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 71 (3.26%) SharePoint
2 39 (1.79%) Confluence
3 25 (1.15%) IIS
4 23 (1.05%) CMS
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 11 (0.50%) SAS
10 10 (0.46%) Apache Spark
11 9 (0.41%) Apache
12 8 (0.37%) nginx
12 8 (0.37%) WebLogic
13 6 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
13 6 (0.28%) Appian
14 4 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 4 (0.18%) Hyperledger
14 4 (0.18%) Solana
14 4 (0.18%) WordPress
Applications
1 37 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
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%) Microsoft PowerPoint
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 15 (0.69%) 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%) Endur
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
7 5 (0.23%) Orchestrade
7 5 (0.23%) ProductWriter
8 4 (0.18%) Findur
8 4 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 423 (19.39%) Azure
2 340 (15.59%) AWS
3 237 (10.87%) Power Platform
4 140 (6.42%) GitHub
5 122 (5.59%) PowerApps
6 120 (5.50%) Azure DevOps
6 120 (5.50%) Power Automate
7 113 (5.18%) Dynamics 365
8 100 (4.59%) Serverless
9 99 (4.54%) GCP
10 74 (3.39%) GitHub Actions
11 52 (2.38%) Azure Service Bus
11 52 (2.38%) Microsoft Copilot
12 47 (2.15%) Amazon S3
13 43 (1.97%) Azure Functions
14 42 (1.93%) Copilot Studio
15 41 (1.88%) Azure Logic Apps
16 37 (1.70%) AWS Lambda
17 34 (1.56%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 32 (1.47%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 19 (0.87%) HTTP
2 14 (0.64%) Internet
3 12 (0.55%) FIX Connectivity
4 5 (0.23%) Multicast
5 4 (0.18%) SMS
5 4 (0.18%) SSL
6 3 (0.14%) FTP
7 2 (0.092%) 4G
7 2 (0.092%) 5G
7 2 (0.092%) CTI
7 2 (0.092%) DNS
7 2 (0.092%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.092%) Intranet
7 2 (0.092%) NFC
7 2 (0.092%) SSH
7 2 (0.092%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.046%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.046%) OpenLDAP
8 1 (0.046%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 193 (8.85%) SQL Server
2 156 (7.15%) Power BI
3 139 (6.37%) PostgreSQL
4 117 (5.36%) Relational Database
5 66 (3.03%) NoSQL
6 57 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
7 56 (2.57%) MongoDB
8 55 (2.52%) Oracle Database
9 40 (1.83%) MySQL
10 36 (1.65%) Redis
11 33 (1.51%) Azure SQL Database
12 31 (1.42%) Power Query
13 26 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 25 (1.15%) KDB
15 23 (1.05%) Elasticsearch
16 22 (1.01%) Star Schema
17 21 (0.96%) DynamoDB
18 18 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
18 18 (0.83%) Data Lake
18 18 (0.83%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 243 (11.14%) Git
2 135 (6.19%) Jenkins
3 96 (4.40%) JIRA
4 83 (3.81%) GitLab
5 50 (2.29%) Gradle
6 47 (2.15%) JUnit
7 46 (2.11%) Maven
8 34 (1.56%) Visual Studio
9 26 (1.19%) Mockito
10 23 (1.05%) SonarQube
11 18 (0.83%) Cypress.io
11 18 (0.83%) REST Assured
12 17 (0.78%) Bitbucket
13 15 (0.69%) Vite
14 14 (0.64%) Claude Code
15 11 (0.50%) Storybook
15 11 (0.50%) TeamCity
16 10 (0.46%) Cucumber
16 10 (0.46%) Selenium
17 9 (0.41%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 644 (29.53%) Finance
2 404 (18.52%) Social Skills
3 383 (17.56%) Banking
4 183 (8.39%) Front Office
5 182 (8.34%) Public Sector
6 181 (8.30%) Analytical Skills
7 168 (7.70%) Investment Banking
8 56 (2.57%) Marketing
9 48 (2.20%) Financial Institution
10 47 (2.15%) Retail
11 40 (1.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 32 (1.47%) Back Office
13 21 (0.96%) Law
14 17 (0.78%) Publishing
15 15 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (0.55%) Private Banking
17 11 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
17 11 (0.50%) Manufacturing
18 10 (0.46%) Games
18 10 (0.46%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 362 (16.60%) REST
2 317 (14.53%) .NET
3 282 (12.93%) React
4 213 (9.77%) Spring
5 204 (9.35%) RESTful
6 172 (7.89%) Spring Boot
7 153 (7.02%) HTML
7 153 (7.02%) Kafka
8 146 (6.69%) CSS
9 110 (5.04%) Node.js
10 107 (4.91%) SOAP
11 98 (4.49%) AngularJS
12 93 (4.26%) Web Services
13 86 (3.94%) JSON
14 82 (3.76%) Terraform
15 71 (3.26%) XML
16 69 (3.16%) .NET Framework
16 69 (3.16%) Redux
17 62 (2.84%) OAuth
18 60 (2.75%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 136 (6.24%) Cloud Native
2 105 (4.81%) Derivative
3 104 (4.77%) Distributed Systems
4 85 (3.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 84 (3.85%) Product Ownership
6 67 (3.07%) Enterprise Software
6 67 (3.07%) Equities
7 59 (2.71%) Fixed Income
8 54 (2.48%) Data Structures
9 44 (2.02%) Legacy Systems
10 43 (1.97%) Greenfield Project
11 40 (1.83%) AI Agents
12 36 (1.65%) Self-Motivation
13 35 (1.60%) Algorithms
14 31 (1.42%) Mobile App
15 30 (1.38%) Low-Code
16 28 (1.28%) Management Information System
17 26 (1.19%) Onboarding
18 22 (1.01%) CMDB
18 22 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 102 (4.68%) Linux
2 71 (3.26%) Unix
3 47 (2.15%) Windows
4 34 (1.56%) Apple iOS
5 20 (0.92%) Android
6 10 (0.46%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.092%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.092%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.092%) zOS
8 1 (0.046%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.046%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 593 (27.19%) Agile
2 578 (26.50%) CI/CD
3 381 (17.47%) DevOps
4 300 (13.76%) Problem-Solving
5 290 (13.30%) Microservices
6 269 (12.33%) Full-Stack Development
7 266 (12.20%) AI
8 229 (10.50%) Software Engineering
9 202 (9.26%) Test Automation
10 182 (8.34%) Continuous Improvement
11 181 (8.30%) Business Intelligence
12 174 (7.98%) Event-Driven
13 169 (7.75%) Scrum
14 155 (7.11%) Data Modelling
15 150 (6.88%) Containerisation
16 146 (6.69%) SDLC
17 140 (6.42%) Analytics
18 136 (6.24%) Code Quality
18 136 (6.24%) TDD
19 129 (5.91%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 554 (25.40%) SQL
2 490 (22.47%) Java
3 447 (20.50%) Python
4 381 (17.47%) C#
5 338 (15.50%) JavaScript
6 260 (11.92%) TypeScript
7 96 (4.40%) PL/SQL
8 66 (3.03%) T-SQL
9 52 (2.38%) Apex Code
10 48 (2.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 43 (1.97%) Shell Script
12 40 (1.83%) Kotlin
13 39 (1.79%) C++
14 26 (1.19%) Bash
15 25 (1.15%) Scala
16 23 (1.05%) Swift
17 20 (0.92%) PowerShell
18 17 (0.78%) PHP
19 16 (0.73%) Groovy
19 16 (0.73%) VBA
Qualifications
1 400 (18.34%) Security Cleared
2 344 (15.77%) SC Cleared
3 109 (5.00%) Degree
4 60 (2.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 39 (1.79%) DV Cleared
6 31 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
7 18 (0.83%) Master's Degree
8 16 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (0.46%) PhD
10 9 (0.41%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.28%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 5 (0.23%) Numerate Degree
13 4 (0.18%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.092%) CTC Cleared
14 2 (0.092%) DBS Check
15 1 (0.046%) CISSP
15 1 (0.046%) ITIL Certification
15 1 (0.046%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.046%) PMI Certification
15 1 (0.046%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 143 (6.56%) QA
2 68 (3.12%) Accessibility
3 54 (2.48%) Data Quality
4 24 (1.10%) WCAG
5 11 (0.50%) GDPR
6 6 (0.28%) GRC
7 5 (0.23%) ISO 20022
8 4 (0.18%) HL7
8 4 (0.18%) SEPA
9 3 (0.14%) Basel III
9 3 (0.14%) EMIR
9 3 (0.14%) MiFID
9 3 (0.14%) SLA
9 3 (0.14%) Solvency II
10 2 (0.092%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 2 (0.092%) GMP
10 2 (0.092%) GxP
10 2 (0.092%) ISO 13485
10 2 (0.092%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.092%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 215 (9.86%) Docker
2 7 (0.32%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.18%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (0.092%) Postfix
5 1 (0.046%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 199 (9.12%) Kubernetes
2 28 (1.28%) Grafana
3 27 (1.24%) Ansible
4 21 (0.96%) Prometheus
5 11 (0.50%) Control-M
5 11 (0.50%) Kibana
6 4 (0.18%) Argo
6 4 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.14%) Bosun
7 3 (0.14%) Istio
8 2 (0.092%) CloudHub
9 1 (0.046%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.046%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 272 (12.47%) Microsoft
2 196 (8.99%) Oracle
3 126 (5.78%) Salesforce
4 96 (4.40%) ServiceNow
5 45 (2.06%) IBM
6 43 (1.97%) Databricks
7 41 (1.88%) Google
8 34 (1.56%) MuleSoft
9 33 (1.51%) Citrix
10 27 (1.24%) UiPath
11 25 (1.15%) SAP
12 24 (1.10%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
13 23 (1.05%) OpenAI
14 13 (0.60%) Adobe
14 13 (0.60%) Splunk
15 12 (0.55%) Sybase
16 11 (0.50%) webMethods
17 10 (0.46%) Avaloq
17 10 (0.46%) OutSystems
18 9 (0.41%) ION Trading