Developer Contract Job Trends in London

Developer
England > London

The median Developer daily rate in London is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 May 2026.

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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 7 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,217 1,980 3,052
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.12% 16.39% 17.50%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.05% 17.54% 18.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,553 1,427 2,366
10th Percentile £385 £385 £384
25th Percentile £432 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.52% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £750 £750
90th Percentile £800 £850 £850
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 5
10th Percentile - £29.57 £64.30
25th Percentile £35.00 £32.82 £67.00
Median hourly rate £52.00 £44.08 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.98% -37.04% +16.67%
75th Percentile £61.56 £55.25 £72.50
90th Percentile £92.88 - £74.00
England median hourly rate £50.00 £53.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -6.54% -17.69% -

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 16,983 11,286 16,307
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.81% 93.40% 93.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,246 7,681 11,806
10th Percentile £356 £350 £325
25th Percentile £431 £431 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £680 £682
90th Percentile £760 £800 £800
England median daily rate £515 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.96% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 271 145 319
10th Percentile £19.19 £20.10 £16.02
25th Percentile £25.25 £24.18 £20.22
Median hourly rate £39.50 £30.81 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.23% +12.02% -23.61%
75th Percentile £63.10 £49.75 £45.62
90th Percentile £76.58 £62.30 £65.23
England median hourly rate £45.00 £29.00 £37.18
% change year-on-year +55.17% -22.00% -17.38%

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 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 27 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 27 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 -6 277 £525 -10.26% 107
South London +2 46 £513 -44.59% 4
West London -32 15 £485 +2.11% 19
East London -8 6 £432 -2.94% 14
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 27 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.

1 531 (23.95%) Java
2 525 (23.68%) Agile
3 493 (22.24%) Python
4 476 (21.47%) SQL
5 472 (21.29%) CI/CD
6 444 (20.03%) Azure
7 418 (18.85%) AWS
8 400 (18.04%) Security Cleared
9 381 (17.19%) C#
10 364 (16.42%) JavaScript
11 335 (15.11%) SC Cleared
12 322 (14.52%) DevOps
13 317 (14.30%) React
14 295 (13.31%) .NET
15 267 (12.04%) Microservices
16 264 (11.91%) Docker
16 264 (11.91%) Full-Stack Development
17 246 (11.10%) REST
18 242 (10.92%) TypeScript
19 234 (10.55%) Software Engineering
20 228 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
21 219 (9.88%) Kubernetes
22 218 (9.83%) Microsoft
23 208 (9.38%) AI
24 206 (9.29%) Power Platform
25 189 (8.53%) RESTful
26 183 (8.25%) Kafka
27 177 (7.98%) Oracle
28 176 (7.94%) Node.js
29 175 (7.89%) Analytics

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 69 (3.11%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.98%) Confluence
3 24 (1.08%) IIS
4 23 (1.04%) Apache
5 20 (0.90%) CMS
6 18 (0.81%) Apache Spark
7 16 (0.72%) HCL Notes
8 14 (0.63%) Mendix
9 11 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
10 10 (0.45%) Camunda
10 10 (0.45%) Ethereum
11 9 (0.41%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 9 (0.41%) Anypoint
12 8 (0.36%) CICS
12 8 (0.36%) Mule
13 7 (0.32%) Appian
14 6 (0.27%) Hyperledger
14 6 (0.27%) JBoss
14 6 (0.27%) SAS
15 5 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 33 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.14%) Adobe XD
2 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.090%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.090%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.045%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 42 (1.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (0.77%) Endur
3 11 (0.50%) Temenos T24
4 7 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
4 7 (0.32%) ProductWriter
4 7 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
5 5 (0.23%) BASE24
5 5 (0.23%) Fidessa
5 5 (0.23%) Findur
5 5 (0.23%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (0.18%) Aladdin
6 4 (0.18%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
6 4 (0.18%) Orchestrade
6 4 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
7 3 (0.14%) Distributed Ledger
7 3 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
7 3 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 3 (0.14%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 444 (20.03%) Azure
2 418 (18.85%) AWS
3 206 (9.29%) Power Platform
4 133 (6.00%) GitHub
5 121 (5.46%) Azure DevOps
5 121 (5.46%) Power Automate
6 113 (5.10%) Serverless
7 107 (4.83%) PowerApps
8 100 (4.51%) GCP
9 93 (4.19%) Dynamics 365
10 69 (3.11%) GitHub Actions
11 68 (3.07%) AWS Lambda
12 64 (2.89%) Amazon S3
13 51 (2.30%) Microsoft 365
14 43 (1.94%) Azure Service Bus
15 42 (1.89%) Amazon EC2
16 40 (1.80%) Azure Logic Apps
17 37 (1.67%) Azure Functions
18 34 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
19 31 (1.40%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (0.99%) HTTP
2 19 (0.86%) FIX Connectivity
3 13 (0.59%) Internet
4 8 (0.36%) Multicast
4 8 (0.36%) SMS
5 4 (0.18%) Network Security
6 3 (0.14%) 3GPP
6 3 (0.14%) MVNO
6 3 (0.14%) RTP
6 3 (0.14%) SMPP
6 3 (0.14%) SSL
7 2 (0.090%) Ethernet
7 2 (0.090%) FTP
7 2 (0.090%) RTMP
7 2 (0.090%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.045%) 5G
8 1 (0.045%) DNS
8 1 (0.045%) Firewall
8 1 (0.045%) HTTPS
8 1 (0.045%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 164 (7.40%) SQL Server
2 136 (6.13%) PostgreSQL
3 120 (5.41%) Power BI
4 104 (4.69%) Relational Database
5 63 (2.84%) Oracle Database
6 62 (2.80%) NoSQL
7 53 (2.39%) MongoDB
8 46 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
9 32 (1.44%) KDB
10 29 (1.31%) DynamoDB
11 28 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
12 25 (1.13%) Apache Cassandra
12 25 (1.13%) MySQL
13 21 (0.95%) Redis
14 20 (0.90%) Kdb+
15 19 (0.86%) Metadata
16 17 (0.77%) Data Lake
16 17 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
16 17 (0.77%) Power Query
17 16 (0.72%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 162 (7.31%) Git
2 100 (4.51%) Jenkins
3 91 (4.10%) JIRA
4 48 (2.17%) GitLab
5 43 (1.94%) JUnit
6 26 (1.17%) Maven
7 24 (1.08%) Mockito
7 24 (1.08%) Visual Studio
8 22 (0.99%) Gradle
9 17 (0.77%) TeamCity
10 16 (0.72%) SonarQube
11 14 (0.63%) Bitbucket
12 12 (0.54%) Cypress.io
12 12 (0.54%) Selenium
13 11 (0.50%) Vite
13 11 (0.50%) webpack
14 10 (0.45%) Cucumber
14 10 (0.45%) Octopus Deploy
14 10 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
15 9 (0.41%) Claude Code
General
1 603 (27.20%) Finance
2 329 (14.84%) Social Skills
3 325 (14.66%) Banking
4 239 (10.78%) Public Sector
5 222 (10.01%) Front Office
6 139 (6.27%) Analytical Skills
7 133 (6.00%) Investment Banking
8 57 (2.57%) Financial Institution
9 32 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 26 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
11 23 (1.04%) Marketing
12 20 (0.90%) Publishing
13 14 (0.63%) Back Office
13 14 (0.63%) Local Government
14 12 (0.54%) Telecoms
15 10 (0.45%) Law
15 10 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (0.41%) Manufacturing
16 9 (0.41%) Retail
17 7 (0.32%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 317 (14.30%) React
2 295 (13.31%) .NET
3 246 (11.10%) REST
4 189 (8.53%) RESTful
5 183 (8.25%) Kafka
6 176 (7.94%) Node.js
7 172 (7.76%) Spring
8 164 (7.40%) HTML
9 147 (6.63%) CSS
10 141 (6.36%) AngularJS
10 141 (6.36%) Spring Boot
11 93 (4.19%) Redux
12 82 (3.70%) Web Services
13 80 (3.61%) .NET Framework
14 69 (3.11%) GraphQL
14 69 (3.11%) SOAP
15 68 (3.07%) JSON
16 58 (2.62%) Django
17 55 (2.48%) Lightning Web Components
18 48 (2.17%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 120 (5.41%) Derivative
2 108 (4.87%) Equities
3 106 (4.78%) Fixed Income
4 100 (4.51%) Distributed Systems
5 92 (4.15%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 87 (3.92%) Cloud Native
7 55 (2.48%) Algorithms
8 49 (2.21%) Data Structures
9 47 (2.12%) Greenfield Project
10 45 (2.03%) Product Ownership
11 39 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
12 35 (1.58%) Low-Code
13 34 (1.53%) Management Information System
14 33 (1.49%) AI Agents
15 32 (1.44%) Onboarding
16 30 (1.35%) Hedge funds
17 28 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
18 27 (1.22%) Equity Derivative
19 24 (1.08%) Mobile App
20 22 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 100 (4.51%) Linux
2 50 (2.26%) Windows
3 49 (2.21%) Unix
4 27 (1.22%) Apple iOS
5 21 (0.95%) Android
6 18 (0.81%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.32%) zOS
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.045%) AIX
9 1 (0.045%) Solaris
9 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 525 (23.68%) Agile
2 472 (21.29%) CI/CD
3 322 (14.52%) DevOps
4 267 (12.04%) Microservices
5 264 (11.91%) Full-Stack Development
6 234 (10.55%) Software Engineering
7 228 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
8 208 (9.38%) AI
9 175 (7.89%) Analytics
9 175 (7.89%) Containerisation
9 175 (7.89%) Test Automation
10 169 (7.62%) Data Modelling
11 164 (7.40%) Business Intelligence
12 134 (6.04%) TDD
13 120 (5.41%) Scrum
14 112 (5.05%) Front End Development
15 110 (4.96%) Code Quality
16 106 (4.78%) Event-Driven
16 106 (4.78%) Low Latency
16 106 (4.78%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 531 (23.95%) Java
2 493 (22.24%) Python
3 476 (21.47%) SQL
4 381 (17.19%) C#
5 364 (16.42%) JavaScript
6 242 (10.92%) TypeScript
7 76 (3.43%) Go
8 65 (2.93%) C++
8 65 (2.93%) PL/SQL
9 60 (2.71%) Apex Code
10 54 (2.44%) T-SQL
11 41 (1.85%) Shell Script
12 34 (1.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 29 (1.31%) Kotlin
14 28 (1.26%) Ruby
15 27 (1.22%) PowerShell
16 18 (0.81%) C
16 18 (0.81%) VBA
17 15 (0.68%) Swift
18 13 (0.59%) VB
Qualifications
1 400 (18.04%) Security Cleared
2 335 (15.11%) SC Cleared
3 105 (4.74%) Degree
4 39 (1.76%) DV Cleared
5 35 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
6 30 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (0.63%) Master's Degree
8 11 (0.50%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (0.36%) AWS Certification
9 8 (0.36%) Numerate Degree
10 7 (0.32%) PhD
11 6 (0.27%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Developer
12 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.090%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.090%) Oracle Certification
13 2 (0.090%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.045%) CISSP
14 1 (0.045%) DBS Check
14 1 (0.045%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 108 (4.87%) QA
2 61 (2.75%) Accessibility
3 35 (1.58%) Data Quality
4 31 (1.40%) WCAG
5 16 (0.72%) GDPR
6 7 (0.32%) GRC
6 7 (0.32%) ISO 8583
7 6 (0.27%) SLA
8 4 (0.18%) ISO 20022
8 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
8 4 (0.18%) PMO
8 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.14%) HL7
9 3 (0.14%) SEPA
10 2 (0.090%) Basel III
10 2 (0.090%) PSD2
11 1 (0.045%) DICOM
11 1 (0.045%) GAAP
11 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.045%) Solvency II
System Software
1 264 (11.91%) Docker
2 11 (0.50%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.14%) GridGain
3 3 (0.14%) Postfix
4 2 (0.090%) Apache ZooKeeper
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) HDFS
5 1 (0.045%) Oracle RAC
5 1 (0.045%) Varnish
5 1 (0.045%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 219 (9.88%) Kubernetes
2 76 (3.43%) Terraform
3 27 (1.22%) Grafana
4 26 (1.17%) Ansible
5 18 (0.81%) Prometheus
6 7 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.23%) SCCM
8 2 (0.090%) Argo
8 2 (0.090%) CA Endevor
8 2 (0.090%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.090%) Control-M
9 1 (0.045%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.045%) Kibana
9 1 (0.045%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.045%) Podman
9 1 (0.045%) TIBCO Hawk
Vendors
1 218 (9.83%) Microsoft
2 177 (7.98%) Oracle
3 107 (4.83%) Salesforce
4 82 (3.70%) ServiceNow
5 38 (1.71%) SAP
6 37 (1.67%) Citrix
7 30 (1.35%) MuleSoft
8 26 (1.17%) Databricks
9 23 (1.04%) Adobe
10 18 (0.81%) Google
10 18 (0.81%) IBM
11 17 (0.77%) Guidewire
11 17 (0.77%) Pega
12 16 (0.72%) Lotus
12 16 (0.72%) OpenAI
13 14 (0.63%) Sybase
14 12 (0.54%) Kofax
14 12 (0.54%) Okta
14 12 (0.54%) UiPath
15 11 (0.50%) Temenos