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 16 April 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 6 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 -2 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,214 2,089 2,995
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.79% 16.49% 16.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.78% 17.64% 17.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,556 1,524 2,285
10th Percentile £384 £385 £388
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.96%
75th Percentile £650 £738 £738
90th Percentile £800 £850 £838
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 9
10th Percentile - £39.76 £27.03
25th Percentile £35.00 £47.47 £56.25
Median hourly rate £52.50 £53.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -10.83% +4.35%
75th Percentile £65.63 £56.81 £67.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £59.63 £72.50
England median hourly rate £60.00 £63.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.80% +4.17%

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 16,061 11,840 16,700
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.75% 93.48% 93.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,718 8,107 12,065
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £430 £443
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £508 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 144 342
10th Percentile £18.63 £21.22 £16.00
25th Percentile £24.03 £24.66 £19.65
Median hourly rate £37.25 £35.00 £27.81
Median % change year-on-year +6.43% +25.85% -20.54%
75th Percentile £63.03 £50.75 £44.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £64.63 £64.95
England median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £34.53
% change year-on-year +38.46% -5.88% -21.17%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -2 300 £525 -10.26% 166
South London -2 45 £511 -44.73% 11
West London -23 18 £497 +21.52% 21
East London -6 7 £416 +4.00% 24
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 16 April 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.

1 540 (24.39%) Java
2 537 (24.25%) Agile
3 528 (23.85%) Python
4 507 (22.90%) CI/CD
5 490 (22.13%) SQL
6 470 (21.23%) Azure
7 450 (20.33%) AWS
8 395 (17.84%) Security Cleared
9 384 (17.34%) C#
10 373 (16.85%) JavaScript
11 347 (15.67%) DevOps
12 343 (15.49%) React
13 323 (14.59%) SC Cleared
14 310 (14.00%) .NET
15 289 (13.05%) Docker
16 287 (12.96%) Problem-Solving
17 285 (12.87%) Microservices
18 276 (12.47%) TypeScript
19 274 (12.38%) Full-Stack Development
20 259 (11.70%) Kubernetes
21 246 (11.11%) Microsoft
22 238 (10.75%) Software Engineering
23 233 (10.52%) REST
24 216 (9.76%) AI
25 214 (9.67%) Analytics
26 213 (9.62%) Git
27 208 (9.39%) Kafka
28 204 (9.21%) Power Platform
29 201 (9.08%) Node.js
30 194 (8.76%) RESTful

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 84 (3.79%) SharePoint
2 48 (2.17%) Confluence
3 23 (1.04%) IIS
4 21 (0.95%) Apache
5 18 (0.81%) CMS
6 17 (0.77%) Apache Spark
6 17 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
7 15 (0.68%) HCL Notes
8 13 (0.59%) Mendix
9 11 (0.50%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 9 (0.41%) Ethereum
10 9 (0.41%) JBoss
11 8 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 7 (0.32%) CICS
12 7 (0.32%) WebLogic
13 6 (0.27%) Camunda
13 6 (0.27%) Headless CMS
13 6 (0.27%) WebSphere
14 5 (0.23%) Appian
14 5 (0.23%) Hyperledger
Applications
1 43 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
2 5 (0.23%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.14%) Adobe XD
3 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 47 (2.12%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.90%) Endur
3 14 (0.63%) Temenos T24
4 10 (0.45%) Fidessa
5 6 (0.27%) BusinessWorks
5 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
5 6 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
5 6 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
6 5 (0.23%) BASE24
6 5 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.18%) Findur
7 4 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.18%) ProductWriter
8 3 (0.14%) Oracle 11i
8 3 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
8 3 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.14%) Orchestrade
Cloud Services
1 470 (21.23%) Azure
2 450 (20.33%) AWS
3 204 (9.21%) Power Platform
4 154 (6.96%) GitHub
5 139 (6.28%) Azure DevOps
6 130 (5.87%) Serverless
7 117 (5.28%) Power Automate
8 103 (4.65%) GCP
9 102 (4.61%) PowerApps
10 86 (3.88%) Dynamics 365
11 75 (3.39%) GitHub Actions
12 71 (3.21%) AWS Lambda
13 64 (2.89%) Amazon S3
14 62 (2.80%) Microsoft 365
15 53 (2.39%) Azure Logic Apps
16 50 (2.26%) Entra ID
17 49 (2.21%) Azure Functions
18 48 (2.17%) Azure Service Bus
19 42 (1.90%) Azure AKS
20 37 (1.67%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.26%) HTTP
2 17 (0.77%) FIX Connectivity
3 14 (0.63%) Internet
4 8 (0.36%) Network Security
5 5 (0.23%) CTI
5 5 (0.23%) Multicast
5 5 (0.23%) SMS
5 5 (0.23%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.23%) VoIP
6 4 (0.18%) SSL
7 3 (0.14%) 3GPP
7 3 (0.14%) DNS
7 3 (0.14%) Firewall
7 3 (0.14%) HTTPS
7 3 (0.14%) MVNO
7 3 (0.14%) RTP
7 3 (0.14%) SMPP
8 2 (0.090%) DHCP
8 2 (0.090%) Ethernet
8 2 (0.090%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 164 (7.41%) SQL Server
2 136 (6.14%) PostgreSQL
3 120 (5.42%) Power BI
4 113 (5.10%) Relational Database
5 80 (3.61%) NoSQL
6 71 (3.21%) Oracle Database
7 61 (2.76%) MongoDB
8 39 (1.76%) Data Warehouse
9 36 (1.63%) Apache Cassandra
10 35 (1.58%) DynamoDB
11 28 (1.26%) KDB
11 28 (1.26%) MySQL
12 25 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
13 24 (1.08%) RDBMS
14 23 (1.04%) Data Lake
15 20 (0.90%) Kdb+
15 20 (0.90%) Metadata
16 19 (0.86%) DB2
16 19 (0.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 18 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 213 (9.62%) Git
2 106 (4.79%) Jenkins
3 103 (4.65%) JIRA
4 57 (2.57%) GitLab
5 49 (2.21%) JUnit
6 26 (1.17%) Mockito
7 25 (1.13%) Visual Studio
8 24 (1.08%) Maven
9 22 (0.99%) Bitbucket
10 19 (0.86%) Gradle
11 17 (0.77%) TeamCity
12 16 (0.72%) Cypress.io
13 14 (0.63%) webpack
14 13 (0.59%) Selenium
15 11 (0.50%) Cucumber
15 11 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
15 11 (0.50%) Vite
16 10 (0.45%) Octopus Deploy
16 10 (0.45%) SonarQube
17 8 (0.36%) Android Studio
General
1 600 (27.10%) Finance
2 370 (16.71%) Social Skills
3 312 (14.09%) Banking
4 228 (10.30%) Public Sector
5 222 (10.03%) Front Office
6 145 (6.55%) Analytical Skills
7 117 (5.28%) Investment Banking
8 45 (2.03%) Financial Institution
9 23 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 19 (0.86%) Marketing
12 15 (0.68%) Publishing
13 13 (0.59%) Back Office
13 13 (0.59%) Law
14 12 (0.54%) Local Government
14 12 (0.54%) Telecoms
15 8 (0.36%) Presentation Skills
16 6 (0.27%) Agriculture
16 6 (0.27%) Retail
16 6 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 343 (15.49%) React
2 310 (14.00%) .NET
3 233 (10.52%) REST
4 208 (9.39%) Kafka
5 201 (9.08%) Node.js
6 194 (8.76%) RESTful
7 181 (8.18%) HTML
8 179 (8.08%) Spring
9 165 (7.45%) AngularJS
10 157 (7.09%) CSS
11 147 (6.64%) Spring Boot
12 89 (4.02%) Redux
13 86 (3.88%) .NET Framework
14 85 (3.84%) Web Services
15 70 (3.16%) GraphQL
16 69 (3.12%) SOAP
17 66 (2.98%) JSON
18 57 (2.57%) Vue
19 53 (2.39%) Pandas
20 50 (2.26%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 126 (5.69%) Equities
2 108 (4.88%) Fixed Income
3 107 (4.83%) Derivative
4 94 (4.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 91 (4.11%) Distributed Systems
6 85 (3.84%) Cloud Native
7 69 (3.12%) Algorithms
8 59 (2.66%) Data Structures
9 53 (2.39%) Product Ownership
10 45 (2.03%) Greenfield Project
11 40 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
12 37 (1.67%) AI Agents
13 36 (1.63%) Management Information System
14 35 (1.58%) Hedge funds
15 33 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
15 33 (1.49%) Onboarding
16 28 (1.26%) Low-Code
17 26 (1.17%) Equity Derivative
17 26 (1.17%) Mobile App
18 25 (1.13%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 110 (4.97%) Linux
2 66 (2.98%) Windows
3 57 (2.57%) Unix
4 22 (0.99%) Android
4 22 (0.99%) Apple iOS
4 22 (0.99%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.23%) AIX
5 5 (0.23%) zOS
6 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.090%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.045%) Solaris
8 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 537 (24.25%) Agile
2 507 (22.90%) CI/CD
3 347 (15.67%) DevOps
4 287 (12.96%) Problem-Solving
5 285 (12.87%) Microservices
6 274 (12.38%) Full-Stack Development
7 238 (10.75%) Software Engineering
8 216 (9.76%) AI
9 214 (9.67%) Analytics
10 188 (8.49%) Containerisation
10 188 (8.49%) Test Automation
11 171 (7.72%) Business Intelligence
12 160 (7.23%) Data Modelling
13 140 (6.32%) TDD
14 131 (5.92%) Front End Development
15 123 (5.56%) Unit Testing
16 120 (5.42%) Low Latency
17 118 (5.33%) Scrum
18 116 (5.24%) Design Patterns
19 112 (5.06%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 540 (24.39%) Java
2 528 (23.85%) Python
3 490 (22.13%) SQL
4 384 (17.34%) C#
5 373 (16.85%) JavaScript
6 276 (12.47%) TypeScript
7 83 (3.75%) Go
8 81 (3.66%) PL/SQL
9 72 (3.25%) C++
10 60 (2.71%) T-SQL
11 52 (2.35%) Apex Code
12 41 (1.85%) Shell Script
13 38 (1.72%) Kotlin
14 34 (1.54%) Ruby
15 31 (1.40%) PowerShell
16 27 (1.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 26 (1.17%) VBA
18 19 (0.86%) C
19 14 (0.63%) PHP
19 14 (0.63%) VB
Qualifications
1 395 (17.84%) Security Cleared
2 323 (14.59%) SC Cleared
3 105 (4.74%) Degree
4 42 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 30 (1.36%) DV Cleared
7 17 (0.77%) Master's Degree
8 10 (0.45%) Numerate Degree
9 6 (0.27%) AWS Certification
9 6 (0.27%) Azure Certification
10 5 (0.23%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Developer
11 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.18%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (0.18%) PhD
12 3 (0.14%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.090%) OCP
13 2 (0.090%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.045%) CISSP
14 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (4.83%) QA
2 69 (3.12%) Accessibility
3 37 (1.67%) WCAG
4 33 (1.49%) Data Quality
5 14 (0.63%) GDPR
6 7 (0.32%) ISO 8583
6 7 (0.32%) SLA
7 6 (0.27%) GRC
8 5 (0.23%) HL7
8 5 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.18%) PMO
9 4 (0.18%) SEPA
10 3 (0.14%) ISO 20022
11 2 (0.090%) PSD2
12 1 (0.045%) DICOM
12 1 (0.045%) GAAP
12 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
System Software
1 289 (13.05%) Docker
2 23 (1.04%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.14%) GridGain
3 3 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
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
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) Postfix
5 1 (0.045%) Varnish
5 1 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 259 (11.70%) Kubernetes
2 93 (4.20%) Terraform
3 29 (1.31%) Ansible
3 29 (1.31%) Grafana
4 21 (0.95%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.27%) TIBCO Hawk
7 5 (0.23%) SCCM
8 4 (0.18%) Argo
9 2 (0.090%) CA Endevor
9 2 (0.090%) CloudHub
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
1 246 (11.11%) Microsoft
2 185 (8.36%) Oracle
3 89 (4.02%) Salesforce
4 72 (3.25%) ServiceNow
5 40 (1.81%) Citrix
6 39 (1.76%) SAP
7 37 (1.67%) IBM
8 35 (1.58%) Databricks
9 30 (1.36%) OpenAI
10 26 (1.17%) Adobe
11 25 (1.13%) Google
12 24 (1.08%) MuleSoft
13 20 (0.90%) Guidewire
14 17 (0.77%) Pega
15 15 (0.68%) Foundry
15 15 (0.68%) Lotus
15 15 (0.68%) Sybase
16 14 (0.63%) Temenos
17 13 (0.59%) OpenLink
18 11 (0.50%) ION Trading