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 6 May 2026.

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

6 months to
6 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 2,241 2,068 3,047
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.58% 16.45% 17.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.57% 17.61% 18.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,583 1,504 2,344
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 16,509 11,741 16,509
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.71% 93.40% 93.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,969 8,053 11,937
10th Percentile £350 £341 £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 £676 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £800
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 273 145 336
10th Percentile £18.75 £20.33 £16.01
25th Percentile £24.03 £24.00 £20.02
Median hourly rate £37.50 £34.65 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.23% +26.00% -21.99%
75th Percentile £63.32 £50.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £64.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £30.90 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.09% -15.34% -17.05%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -5 303 £528 -9.83% 150
South London -1 45 £513 -44.59% 6
West London -20 18 £497 +1.95% 18
East London -6 8 £416 -6.53% 19
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 6 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.

1 534 (23.83%) Agile
2 530 (23.65%) Java
3 511 (22.80%) Python
4 490 (21.87%) CI/CD
5 482 (21.51%) SQL
6 469 (20.93%) Azure
7 432 (19.28%) AWS
8 418 (18.65%) Security Cleared
9 396 (17.67%) C#
10 377 (16.82%) JavaScript
11 347 (15.48%) SC Cleared
12 345 (15.39%) DevOps
13 323 (14.41%) React
14 316 (14.10%) .NET
15 283 (12.63%) Docker
16 279 (12.45%) Microservices
17 271 (12.09%) Full-Stack Development
18 260 (11.60%) TypeScript
19 258 (11.51%) Problem-Solving
20 246 (10.98%) Kubernetes
21 238 (10.62%) Microsoft
21 238 (10.62%) Software Engineering
22 234 (10.44%) REST
23 217 (9.68%) AI
24 209 (9.33%) Power Platform
25 198 (8.84%) Oracle
26 197 (8.79%) Kafka
27 188 (8.39%) Analytics
28 187 (8.34%) Containerisation
28 187 (8.34%) 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 80 (3.57%) SharePoint
2 47 (2.10%) Confluence
3 24 (1.07%) IIS
4 20 (0.89%) Apache
5 18 (0.80%) CMS
6 17 (0.76%) Apache Spark
6 17 (0.76%) HCL Notes
7 15 (0.67%) Mendix
8 14 (0.62%) Microsoft Exchange
9 9 (0.40%) Ethereum
9 9 (0.40%) JBoss
10 8 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 8 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 7 (0.31%) Camunda
11 7 (0.31%) CICS
12 6 (0.27%) Anypoint
12 6 (0.27%) SAS
13 5 (0.22%) Appian
13 5 (0.22%) Headless CMS
13 5 (0.22%) Hyperledger
Applications
1 40 (1.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
3 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
3 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 46 (2.05%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.89%) Endur
3 11 (0.49%) Temenos T24
4 8 (0.36%) Fidessa
5 7 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
5 7 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
6 6 (0.27%) ProductWriter
7 5 (0.22%) BASE24
7 5 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
8 4 (0.18%) Findur
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) BusinessWorks
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle 11i
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 469 (20.93%) Azure
2 432 (19.28%) AWS
3 209 (9.33%) Power Platform
4 141 (6.29%) GitHub
5 130 (5.80%) Azure DevOps
6 122 (5.44%) Power Automate
7 121 (5.40%) Serverless
8 109 (4.86%) PowerApps
9 102 (4.55%) GCP
10 94 (4.19%) Dynamics 365
11 71 (3.17%) GitHub Actions
12 66 (2.95%) AWS Lambda
13 63 (2.81%) Amazon S3
14 56 (2.50%) Microsoft 365
15 49 (2.19%) Azure Logic Apps
16 46 (2.05%) Azure Service Bus
17 43 (1.92%) Azure Functions
18 42 (1.87%) Azure AKS
18 42 (1.87%) Entra ID
19 37 (1.65%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.29%) HTTP
2 19 (0.85%) 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 (0.089%) DNS
7 2 (0.089%) Ethernet
7 2 (0.089%) Firewall
7 2 (0.089%) FTP
7 2 (0.089%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.089%) RTMP
8 1 (0.045%) 5G
8 1 (0.045%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 165 (7.36%) SQL Server
2 134 (5.98%) PostgreSQL
3 119 (5.31%) Power BI
4 112 (5.00%) Relational Database
5 73 (3.26%) Oracle Database
6 66 (2.95%) NoSQL
7 59 (2.63%) MongoDB
8 41 (1.83%) Data Warehouse
9 32 (1.43%) Apache Cassandra
10 30 (1.34%) KDB
11 29 (1.29%) DynamoDB
12 28 (1.25%) MySQL
13 22 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
13 22 (0.98%) Data Lake
14 20 (0.89%) RDBMS
15 19 (0.85%) Kdb+
15 19 (0.85%) Metadata
15 19 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 18 (0.80%) Redis
17 17 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 184 (8.21%) Git
2 108 (4.82%) Jenkins
3 101 (4.51%) JIRA
4 58 (2.59%) GitLab
5 48 (2.14%) JUnit
6 26 (1.16%) Mockito
6 26 (1.16%) Visual Studio
7 22 (0.98%) Maven
8 20 (0.89%) Gradle
9 19 (0.85%) TeamCity
10 18 (0.80%) Bitbucket
11 14 (0.62%) Cypress.io
12 13 (0.58%) Selenium
13 12 (0.54%) SonarQube
14 11 (0.49%) Cucumber
15 10 (0.45%) Octopus Deploy
15 10 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
15 10 (0.45%) Vite
15 10 (0.45%) webpack
16 9 (0.40%) Claude Code
General
1 600 (26.77%) Finance
2 354 (15.80%) Social Skills
3 314 (14.01%) Banking
4 239 (10.66%) Public Sector
5 226 (10.08%) Front Office
6 131 (5.85%) Analytical Skills
7 121 (5.40%) Investment Banking
8 53 (2.37%) Financial Institution
9 24 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 22 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
11 18 (0.80%) Publishing
12 16 (0.71%) Marketing
13 14 (0.62%) Back Office
13 14 (0.62%) Local Government
14 13 (0.58%) 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
1 323 (14.41%) React
2 316 (14.10%) .NET
3 234 (10.44%) REST
4 197 (8.79%) Kafka
5 187 (8.34%) RESTful
6 186 (8.30%) Node.js
7 184 (8.21%) HTML
8 174 (7.76%) Spring
9 160 (7.14%) CSS
10 153 (6.83%) AngularJS
11 145 (6.47%) Spring Boot
12 92 (4.11%) Redux
13 90 (4.02%) .NET Framework
14 81 (3.61%) Web Services
15 70 (3.12%) SOAP
16 69 (3.08%) GraphQL
17 66 (2.95%) JSON
18 54 (2.41%) Vue
19 53 (2.37%) Django
20 50 (2.23%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 113 (5.04%) Derivative
1 113 (5.04%) Equities
2 107 (4.77%) Fixed Income
3 99 (4.42%) Distributed Systems
4 88 (3.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 87 (3.88%) Cloud Native
6 54 (2.41%) Algorithms
7 53 (2.37%) Data Structures
8 47 (2.10%) Greenfield Project
8 47 (2.10%) Product Ownership
9 40 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
10 38 (1.70%) Low-Code
11 37 (1.65%) Management Information System
12 36 (1.61%) AI Agents
12 36 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
13 31 (1.38%) Onboarding
14 30 (1.34%) Hedge funds
15 27 (1.20%) Equity Derivative
16 25 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
17 23 (1.03%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 107 (4.77%) Linux
2 63 (2.81%) Windows
3 51 (2.28%) Unix
4 25 (1.12%) Android
5 21 (0.94%) Apple iOS
5 21 (0.94%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.22%) AIX
6 5 (0.22%) zOS
7 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.089%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.045%) Solaris
9 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 534 (23.83%) Agile
2 490 (21.87%) CI/CD
3 345 (15.39%) DevOps
4 279 (12.45%) Microservices
5 271 (12.09%) Full-Stack Development
6 258 (11.51%) Problem-Solving
7 238 (10.62%) Software Engineering
8 217 (9.68%) AI
9 188 (8.39%) Analytics
10 187 (8.34%) Containerisation
11 179 (7.99%) Test Automation
12 167 (7.45%) Data Modelling
13 166 (7.41%) Business Intelligence
14 133 (5.93%) TDD
15 117 (5.22%) Scrum
16 116 (5.18%) Code Quality
16 116 (5.18%) Front End Development
17 113 (5.04%) Unit Testing
18 109 (4.86%) Design Patterns
19 106 (4.73%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 530 (23.65%) Java
2 511 (22.80%) Python
3 482 (21.51%) SQL
4 396 (17.67%) C#
5 377 (16.82%) JavaScript
6 260 (11.60%) TypeScript
7 81 (3.61%) PL/SQL
8 78 (3.48%) Go
9 66 (2.95%) C++
10 59 (2.63%) T-SQL
11 53 (2.37%) Apex Code
12 42 (1.87%) Shell Script
13 39 (1.74%) Kotlin
14 33 (1.47%) Ruby
15 32 (1.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 28 (1.25%) PowerShell
17 21 (0.94%) VBA
18 18 (0.80%) C
19 17 (0.76%) PHP
20 13 (0.58%) VB
Qualifications
1 418 (18.65%) Security Cleared
2 347 (15.48%) SC Cleared
3 99 (4.42%) Degree
4 37 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
5 34 (1.52%) DV Cleared
6 32 (1.43%) 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 (0.089%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.089%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.045%) CISSP
14 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 1 (0.045%) Six Sigma Black Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (5.04%) QA
2 60 (2.68%) Accessibility
3 34 (1.52%) Data Quality
4 31 (1.38%) 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 (0.089%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.089%) PSD2
11 1 (0.045%) DICOM
11 1 (0.045%) GAAP
11 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
System Software
1 283 (12.63%) Docker
2 15 (0.67%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.13%) GridGain
4 2 (0.089%) HDFS
4 2 (0.089%) OpenAM
4 2 (0.089%) OpenDJ
4 2 (0.089%) OpenIDM
4 2 (0.089%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.089%) Postfix
4 2 (0.089%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) Varnish
5 1 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 246 (10.98%) Kubernetes
2 91 (4.06%) Terraform
3 30 (1.34%) Ansible
3 30 (1.34%) Grafana
4 21 (0.94%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.22%) SCCM
7 4 (0.18%) Argo
8 3 (0.13%) CloudHub
8 3 (0.13%) TIBCO Hawk
9 2 (0.089%) CA Endevor
9 2 (0.089%) Control-M
9 2 (0.089%) Podman
10 1 (0.045%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.045%) Kibana
10 1 (0.045%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 238 (10.62%) Microsoft
2 198 (8.84%) Oracle
3 84 (3.75%) Salesforce
4 77 (3.44%) ServiceNow
5 40 (1.78%) SAP
6 39 (1.74%) Citrix
7 33 (1.47%) Databricks
8 30 (1.34%) IBM
9 26 (1.16%) MuleSoft
10 25 (1.12%) OpenAI
11 21 (0.94%) Adobe
12 20 (0.89%) Google
12 20 (0.89%) Guidewire
13 17 (0.76%) Lotus
13 17 (0.76%) Pega
14 15 (0.67%) Foundry
15 13 (0.58%) ForgeRock
15 13 (0.58%) UiPath
16 12 (0.54%) Kofax
16 12 (0.54%) OpenLink