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 27 January 2026.

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

6 months to
27 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 2,048 2,311 2,900
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.98% 16.85% 15.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 15.10% 18.01% 16.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,417 1,568 2,227
10th Percentile £380 £382 £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 £745
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 13,562 12,834 17,231
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 93.59% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,999 8,227 12,447
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% - -6.38%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £780
England median daily rate £503 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.29% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 140 307
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.68 £16.02
25th Percentile £23.55 £24.09 £19.05
Median hourly rate £34.14 £35.00 £29.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.47% +18.64% -12.77%
75th Percentile £63.10 £51.50 £50.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £78.95 £66.80
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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -7 271 £525 -8.70% 178
South London -8 32 £505 -34.84% 29
West London -25 15 £509 +24.45% 31
East London -2 12 £1,000 +150.00% 24
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 27 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.

1 523 (25.54%) SQL
2 514 (25.10%) Agile
3 513 (25.05%) Java
4 493 (24.07%) Python
5 481 (23.49%) CI/CD
6 437 (21.34%) Azure
7 394 (19.24%) AWS
8 384 (18.75%) C#
9 383 (18.70%) Problem-Solving
10 361 (17.63%) JavaScript
11 347 (16.94%) Security Cleared
12 331 (16.16%) DevOps
13 296 (14.45%) .NET
13 296 (14.45%) React
14 292 (14.26%) Microservices
15 290 (14.16%) Docker
16 284 (13.87%) SC Cleared
17 273 (13.33%) Kubernetes
18 270 (13.18%) Full-Stack Development
19 249 (12.16%) REST
20 242 (11.82%) Microsoft
21 234 (11.43%) Analytics
22 225 (10.99%) Git
23 212 (10.35%) TypeScript
24 210 (10.25%) Power Platform
25 194 (9.47%) Software Engineering
26 189 (9.23%) Kafka
26 189 (9.23%) RESTful
27 188 (9.18%) Business Intelligence
28 179 (8.74%) HTML

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 (2.98%) SharePoint
2 40 (1.95%) Confluence
3 20 (0.98%) CMS
4 16 (0.78%) HCL Notes
4 16 (0.78%) IIS
5 15 (0.73%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 13 (0.63%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 10 (0.49%) Ethereum
7 10 (0.49%) Mendix
7 10 (0.49%) MQSeries
8 9 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
9 8 (0.39%) Apache
9 8 (0.39%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
10 7 (0.34%) Hyperledger
10 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.29%) Camunda
11 6 (0.29%) Headless CMS
11 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
11 6 (0.29%) WebSphere
Applications
1 52 (2.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.49%) Chatbot
3 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.20%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.098%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.049%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.049%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.049%) Trello
Business Applications
1 42 (2.05%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.88%) Endur
3 13 (0.63%) Fidessa
4 11 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
5 10 (0.49%) 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 (0.20%) Oracle 11i
10 4 (0.20%) ProductWriter
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle E-Business Tax
12 2 (0.098%) Oracle Cash Management
12 2 (0.098%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 437 (21.34%) Azure
2 394 (19.24%) AWS
3 210 (10.25%) Power Platform
4 161 (7.86%) GitHub
5 134 (6.54%) Azure DevOps
6 125 (6.10%) Serverless
7 105 (5.13%) Power Automate
8 96 (4.69%) GCP
9 93 (4.54%) PowerApps
10 80 (3.91%) Dynamics 365
11 71 (3.47%) GitHub Actions
12 68 (3.32%) Azure Logic Apps
13 64 (3.13%) Azure Functions
14 55 (2.69%) AWS Lambda
15 48 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
15 48 (2.34%) Microsoft 365
16 44 (2.15%) Amazon S3
17 43 (2.10%) Entra ID
18 40 (1.95%) Azure Monitor
19 33 (1.61%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.07%) HTTP
2 11 (0.54%) HTTPS
2 11 (0.54%) Internet
3 10 (0.49%) SSL
4 9 (0.44%) 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 (0.20%) DNS
7 4 (0.20%) Multicast
8 3 (0.15%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.15%) MVNO
8 3 (0.15%) SMPP
9 2 (0.098%) DHCP
9 2 (0.098%) SSH
9 2 (0.098%) tcpdump
9 2 (0.098%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 165 (8.06%) SQL Server
2 136 (6.64%) PostgreSQL
3 133 (6.49%) Power BI
4 121 (5.91%) Relational Database
5 85 (4.15%) NoSQL
6 68 (3.32%) MongoDB
7 66 (3.22%) Oracle Database
8 42 (2.05%) Data Warehouse
9 39 (1.90%) Apache Cassandra
10 33 (1.61%) MySQL
11 26 (1.27%) Data Lake
11 26 (1.27%) KDB
12 25 (1.22%) Kdb+
12 25 (1.22%) RDBMS
13 23 (1.12%) DB2
14 22 (1.07%) Amazon RDS
14 22 (1.07%) Oracle Reports
14 22 (1.07%) Power Query
14 22 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 21 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 225 (10.99%) Git
2 97 (4.74%) JIRA
3 94 (4.59%) Jenkins
4 64 (3.13%) GitLab
5 54 (2.64%) JUnit
6 32 (1.56%) Maven
7 30 (1.46%) Visual Studio
8 24 (1.17%) Gradle
9 22 (1.07%) Bitbucket
10 16 (0.78%) Cucumber
10 16 (0.78%) Mockito
10 16 (0.78%) Sonatype Nexus
11 14 (0.68%) Selenium
11 14 (0.68%) SpecFlow
12 12 (0.59%) Cypress.io
13 11 (0.54%) Android Studio
13 11 (0.54%) TeamCity
13 11 (0.54%) webpack
14 10 (0.49%) Octopus Deploy
14 10 (0.49%) SonarQube
General
1 577 (28.17%) Finance
2 446 (21.78%) Social Skills
3 337 (16.46%) Banking
4 183 (8.94%) Front Office
5 180 (8.79%) Public Sector
6 159 (7.76%) Analytical Skills
7 128 (6.25%) Investment Banking
8 61 (2.98%) Financial Institution
9 22 (1.07%) Marketing
10 19 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (0.88%) Law
12 14 (0.68%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (0.54%) Telecoms
14 10 (0.49%) General Ledger
15 9 (0.44%) Back Office
15 9 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (0.44%) Retail
16 8 (0.39%) Billing
16 8 (0.39%) Private Banking
17 7 (0.34%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 296 (14.45%) .NET
1 296 (14.45%) React
2 249 (12.16%) REST
3 189 (9.23%) Kafka
3 189 (9.23%) RESTful
4 179 (8.74%) HTML
5 167 (8.15%) Spring
6 165 (8.06%) AngularJS
6 165 (8.06%) CSS
7 159 (7.76%) Node.js
8 124 (6.05%) Spring Boot
9 85 (4.15%) SOAP
10 77 (3.76%) JSON
11 76 (3.71%) .NET Framework
12 75 (3.66%) Web Services
13 72 (3.52%) XML
14 62 (3.03%) Vue
15 51 (2.49%) FastAPI
16 50 (2.44%) NumPy
16 50 (2.44%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 116 (5.66%) Equities
2 108 (5.27%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 104 (5.08%) Derivative
4 96 (4.69%) Cloud Native
5 85 (4.15%) Distributed Systems
6 82 (4.00%) Algorithms
7 70 (3.42%) Data Structures
8 62 (3.03%) Product Ownership
9 58 (2.83%) Fixed Income
10 46 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
11 44 (2.15%) Management Information System
12 41 (2.00%) Greenfield Project
13 40 (1.95%) Mobile App
14 33 (1.61%) Hedge funds
15 31 (1.51%) Equity Derivative
16 30 (1.46%) AI Agents
16 30 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
17 28 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
17 28 (1.37%) Market Risk
18 27 (1.32%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 153 (7.47%) Linux
2 69 (3.37%) Windows
3 59 (2.88%) Unix
4 42 (2.05%) Android
5 37 (1.81%) Apple iOS
6 18 (0.88%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.24%) AIX
8 5 (0.24%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.20%) CentOS
10 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.049%) VMS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.049%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 514 (25.10%) Agile
2 481 (23.49%) CI/CD
3 383 (18.70%) Problem-Solving
4 331 (16.16%) DevOps
5 292 (14.26%) Microservices
6 270 (13.18%) Full-Stack Development
7 234 (11.43%) Analytics
8 194 (9.47%) Software Engineering
9 188 (9.18%) Business Intelligence
10 171 (8.35%) Containerisation
10 171 (8.35%) Test Automation
11 158 (7.71%) AI
12 152 (7.42%) Scrum
13 131 (6.40%) TDD
14 126 (6.15%) Front End Development
15 120 (5.86%) Computer Science
16 119 (5.81%) Data Modelling
17 112 (5.47%) Design Patterns
17 112 (5.47%) Unit Testing
18 111 (5.42%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 523 (25.54%) SQL
2 513 (25.05%) Java
3 493 (24.07%) Python
4 384 (18.75%) C#
5 361 (17.63%) JavaScript
6 212 (10.35%) TypeScript
7 120 (5.86%) C++
8 81 (3.96%) PL/SQL
9 64 (3.13%) Go
10 51 (2.49%) Kotlin
11 47 (2.29%) T-SQL
12 40 (1.95%) Apex Code
13 36 (1.76%) PowerShell
13 36 (1.76%) VB
14 34 (1.66%) Ruby
15 33 (1.61%) Shell Script
16 31 (1.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 30 (1.46%) VBA
18 22 (1.07%) Swift
19 21 (1.03%) C
Qualifications
1 347 (16.94%) Security Cleared
2 284 (13.87%) SC Cleared
3 131 (6.40%) Degree
4 63 (3.08%) Computer Science Degree
5 25 (1.22%) Master's Degree
6 22 (1.07%) BPSS Clearance
7 20 (0.98%) DV Cleared
8 13 (0.63%) Numerate Degree
9 6 (0.29%) AWS Certification
9 6 (0.29%) MCP
9 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (0.24%) PhD
11 4 (0.20%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle Certification
12 3 (0.15%) AWS Certified Developer
13 2 (0.098%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.098%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.098%) OCP
13 2 (0.098%) Tableau Certification
14 1 (0.049%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (4.30%) QA
2 56 (2.73%) Accessibility
3 32 (1.56%) Data Quality
4 22 (1.07%) WCAG
5 15 (0.73%) 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 (0.20%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.15%) GRC
10 3 (0.15%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.15%) PSD2
11 2 (0.098%) HL7
12 1 (0.049%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.049%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.049%) MiFID
12 1 (0.049%) PMO
System Software
1 290 (14.16%) Docker
2 31 (1.51%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.29%) zsh
4 5 (0.24%) HDFS
5 3 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.098%) GridGain
6 2 (0.098%) OpenAM
6 2 (0.098%) OpenDJ
6 2 (0.098%) OpenIDM
6 2 (0.098%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.098%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.049%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 273 (13.33%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.86%) Terraform
3 32 (1.56%) Ansible
4 20 (0.98%) Grafana
5 19 (0.93%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.59%) Argo
8 7 (0.34%) Control-M
9 6 (0.29%) TIBCO Hawk
10 3 (0.15%) Kibana
10 3 (0.15%) Podman
11 2 (0.098%) CloudHub
11 2 (0.098%) Docker Swarm
11 2 (0.098%) Istio
11 2 (0.098%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.098%) rkt
12 1 (0.049%) ITRS Geneos
12 1 (0.049%) Oracle Identity Management
12 1 (0.049%) Puppet
12 1 (0.049%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 242 (11.82%) Microsoft
2 178 (8.69%) Oracle
3 71 (3.47%) Salesforce
4 54 (2.64%) ServiceNow
5 40 (1.95%) Google
6 37 (1.81%) Databricks
7 36 (1.76%) IBM
8 31 (1.51%) SAP
9 28 (1.37%) Adobe
9 28 (1.37%) Citrix
10 27 (1.32%) OpenAI
11 21 (1.03%) MuleSoft
12 19 (0.93%) Red Hat
13 18 (0.88%) Sybase
14 16 (0.78%) Lotus
15 14 (0.68%) Solace
16 13 (0.63%) Guidewire
17 12 (0.59%) OpenLink
18 11 (0.54%) Foundry
18 11 (0.54%) ION Trading