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 4 January 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 1,965 2,407 2,920
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.73% 16.82% 16.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 14.86% 18.01% 17.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,361 1,636 2,248
10th Percentile £377 £375 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £565 £600
Median % change year-on-year -7.08% -5.83% -4.00%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £750
90th Percentile £800 £838 £850
England median daily rate £500 £534 £550
% change year-on-year -6.37% -2.91% -6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 8 13
10th Percentile £34.27 £35.53 £33.03
25th Percentile £47.63 £36.50 £56.25
Median hourly rate £56.25 £40.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.75% -32.92% +4.35%
75th Percentile £77.06 £80.50 £72.50
90th Percentile £79.28 £137.50 £73.73
England median hourly rate £60.00 £65.00 £63.50
% change year-on-year -7.69% +2.36% +5.83%

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 13,226 13,363 16,977
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 93.40% 93.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,788 8,620 12,244
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £559
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -1.61% -3.62%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £799 £788
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 149 224
10th Percentile £17.50 £19.58 £17.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £23.80 £21.44
Median hourly rate £31.57 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.80% - +2.94%
75th Percentile £59.69 £53.75 £54.34
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.75 £72.00
England median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £44.78
% change year-on-year -21.43% -21.83% +33.66%

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 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 4 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 4 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 -8 262 £525 -10.26% 200
South London -18 21 £510 -30.81% 32
West London -23 16 £475 +16.14% 37
East London 0 13 £813 +103.13% 50
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 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.

1 526 (26.77%) Agile
2 524 (26.67%) SQL
3 506 (25.75%) Java
4 468 (23.82%) CI/CD
5 467 (23.77%) Python
6 433 (22.04%) Azure
7 402 (20.46%) AWS
8 387 (19.69%) Problem-Solving
9 380 (19.34%) C#
10 359 (18.27%) JavaScript
11 333 (16.95%) DevOps
12 308 (15.67%) Security Cleared
13 296 (15.06%) .NET
14 290 (14.76%) Microservices
15 281 (14.30%) React
16 272 (13.84%) Docker
17 271 (13.79%) Kubernetes
18 256 (13.03%) Full-Stack Development
19 251 (12.77%) SC Cleared
20 245 (12.47%) Microsoft
21 243 (12.37%) REST
22 233 (11.86%) Analytics
23 232 (11.81%) Git
24 208 (10.59%) Power Platform
25 202 (10.28%) TypeScript
26 198 (10.08%) Software Engineering
27 183 (9.31%) Kafka
28 179 (9.11%) HTML
29 178 (9.06%) Business Intelligence
30 176 (8.96%) 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 62 (3.16%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.88%) Confluence
3 21 (1.07%) CMS
4 18 (0.92%) HCL Notes
5 15 (0.76%) IIS
6 14 (0.71%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 13 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 13 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
8 12 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
9 10 (0.51%) MQSeries
10 9 (0.46%) Apache
10 9 (0.46%) Apache Spark
10 9 (0.46%) Mendix
11 8 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
12 6 (0.31%) Ethereum
12 6 (0.31%) Headless CMS
12 6 (0.31%) WebLogic
12 6 (0.31%) WebSphere
13 5 (0.25%) Anypoint
13 5 (0.25%) Tomcat
Applications
1 58 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.51%) Chatbot
3 7 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.20%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.051%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.051%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.051%) Trello
Business Applications
1 38 (1.93%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (0.81%) Endur
3 15 (0.76%) Oracle EBS
4 11 (0.56%) Oracle Payables
5 10 (0.51%) Oracle Assets
5 10 (0.51%) Oracle EBS R12
5 10 (0.51%) Oracle ERP
6 9 (0.46%) Fidessa
6 9 (0.46%) Oracle General Ledger
7 8 (0.41%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.31%) BusinessWorks
8 6 (0.31%) Temenos T24
9 5 (0.25%) Aladdin
9 5 (0.25%) Magento
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle 11i
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle E-Business Tax
10 4 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
10 4 (0.20%) ProductWriter
11 3 (0.15%) BASE24
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 433 (22.04%) Azure
2 402 (20.46%) AWS
3 208 (10.59%) Power Platform
4 153 (7.79%) GitHub
5 136 (6.92%) Azure DevOps
6 124 (6.31%) Serverless
7 105 (5.34%) GCP
8 103 (5.24%) Power Automate
9 98 (4.99%) PowerApps
10 72 (3.66%) GitHub Actions
11 71 (3.61%) Dynamics 365
12 65 (3.31%) Azure Logic Apps
13 63 (3.21%) Azure Functions
14 55 (2.80%) AWS Lambda
15 53 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
16 46 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
17 44 (2.24%) Amazon S3
17 44 (2.24%) Entra ID
18 40 (2.04%) Azure Monitor
19 37 (1.88%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.02%) HTTP
2 12 (0.61%) SSL
3 11 (0.56%) HTTPS
4 10 (0.51%) Internet
5 7 (0.36%) FIX Connectivity
5 7 (0.36%) Network Security
5 7 (0.36%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.25%) CTI
6 5 (0.25%) Firewall
6 5 (0.25%) Multicast
6 5 (0.25%) VoIP
7 4 (0.20%) SMS
8 3 (0.15%) DNS
9 2 (0.10%) 3GPP
9 2 (0.10%) DHCP
9 2 (0.10%) MVNO
9 2 (0.10%) SMPP
9 2 (0.10%) SSH
9 2 (0.10%) tcpdump
9 2 (0.10%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 166 (8.45%) SQL Server
2 136 (6.92%) PostgreSQL
3 128 (6.51%) Power BI
4 119 (6.06%) Relational Database
5 82 (4.17%) NoSQL
6 67 (3.41%) Oracle Database
7 66 (3.36%) MongoDB
8 40 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
9 38 (1.93%) Apache Cassandra
10 31 (1.58%) MySQL
11 27 (1.37%) DB2
12 26 (1.32%) Data Lake
12 26 (1.32%) RDBMS
13 25 (1.27%) Oracle Reports
14 23 (1.17%) KDB
15 22 (1.12%) Amazon RDS
15 22 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
16 21 (1.07%) Kdb+
16 21 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 20 (1.02%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 232 (11.81%) Git
2 94 (4.78%) JIRA
3 87 (4.43%) Jenkins
4 58 (2.95%) GitLab
5 49 (2.49%) JUnit
6 30 (1.53%) Maven
7 27 (1.37%) Bitbucket
8 26 (1.32%) Visual Studio
9 22 (1.12%) Gradle
10 18 (0.92%) Cucumber
11 16 (0.81%) Mockito
11 16 (0.81%) Selenium
12 15 (0.76%) TeamCity
13 14 (0.71%) SpecFlow
14 13 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
14 13 (0.66%) webpack
15 12 (0.61%) Xcode
16 10 (0.51%) Android Studio
16 10 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
16 10 (0.51%) SonarQube
General
1 590 (30.03%) Finance
2 452 (23.00%) Social Skills
3 327 (16.64%) Banking
4 180 (9.16%) Front Office
5 169 (8.60%) Public Sector
6 156 (7.94%) Analytical Skills
7 127 (6.46%) Investment Banking
8 59 (3.00%) Financial Institution
9 25 (1.27%) Marketing
10 18 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (0.87%) Law
12 15 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
13 14 (0.71%) Back Office
14 12 (0.61%) General Ledger
15 9 (0.46%) Telecoms
16 8 (0.41%) Military
16 8 (0.41%) Private Banking
16 8 (0.41%) Retail
17 7 (0.36%) Billing
17 7 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 296 (15.06%) .NET
2 281 (14.30%) React
3 243 (12.37%) REST
4 183 (9.31%) Kafka
5 179 (9.11%) HTML
6 173 (8.80%) RESTful
7 171 (8.70%) CSS
8 159 (8.09%) AngularJS
9 154 (7.84%) Node.js
10 151 (7.68%) Spring
11 121 (6.16%) Spring Boot
12 90 (4.58%) JSON
13 88 (4.48%) SOAP
14 74 (3.77%) Web Services
14 74 (3.77%) XML
15 70 (3.56%) .NET Framework
16 67 (3.41%) Vue
17 52 (2.65%) FastAPI
17 52 (2.65%) NumPy
17 52 (2.65%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 111 (5.65%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 106 (5.39%) Equities
3 101 (5.14%) Derivative
4 94 (4.78%) Cloud Native
5 85 (4.33%) Distributed Systems
6 80 (4.07%) Algorithms
7 71 (3.61%) Data Structures
8 62 (3.16%) Fixed Income
9 54 (2.75%) Product Ownership
10 46 (2.34%) Data Protection Act
11 40 (2.04%) Greenfield Project
11 40 (2.04%) Management Information System
11 40 (2.04%) Mobile App
12 38 (1.93%) Hedge funds
13 29 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
13 29 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
14 28 (1.42%) Market Risk
15 26 (1.32%) Equity Derivative
15 26 (1.32%) Low-Code
16 24 (1.22%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 147 (7.48%) Linux
2 68 (3.46%) Windows
3 53 (2.70%) Unix
4 38 (1.93%) Android
5 34 (1.73%) Apple iOS
6 14 (0.71%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (0.31%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.25%) AIX
10 4 (0.20%) CentOS
11 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.051%) tvOS
12 1 (0.051%) VMS
12 1 (0.051%) watchOS
12 1 (0.051%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 526 (26.77%) Agile
2 468 (23.82%) CI/CD
3 387 (19.69%) Problem-Solving
4 333 (16.95%) DevOps
5 290 (14.76%) Microservices
6 256 (13.03%) Full-Stack Development
7 233 (11.86%) Analytics
8 198 (10.08%) Software Engineering
9 178 (9.06%) Business Intelligence
10 163 (8.30%) Test Automation
11 159 (8.09%) Containerisation
12 153 (7.79%) Scrum
13 140 (7.12%) AI
14 125 (6.36%) TDD
15 120 (6.11%) Computer Science
15 120 (6.11%) Front End Development
16 115 (5.85%) Clean Code
17 108 (5.50%) Design Patterns
18 107 (5.45%) Data Modelling
18 107 (5.45%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 524 (26.67%) SQL
2 506 (25.75%) Java
3 467 (23.77%) Python
4 380 (19.34%) C#
5 359 (18.27%) JavaScript
6 202 (10.28%) TypeScript
7 118 (6.01%) C++
8 86 (4.38%) PL/SQL
9 58 (2.95%) Go
10 56 (2.85%) Kotlin
11 47 (2.39%) T-SQL
12 39 (1.98%) Apex Code
13 38 (1.93%) VB
14 35 (1.78%) PowerShell
15 33 (1.68%) VBA
16 30 (1.53%) Ruby
16 30 (1.53%) Shell Script
17 25 (1.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 24 (1.22%) PHP
19 21 (1.07%) Swift
Qualifications
1 308 (15.67%) Security Cleared
2 251 (12.77%) SC Cleared
3 126 (6.41%) Degree
4 66 (3.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (1.37%) Master's Degree
6 18 (0.92%) DV Cleared
7 17 (0.87%) BPSS Clearance
8 14 (0.71%) Numerate Degree
9 8 (0.41%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.25%) MCP
10 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (0.25%) PhD
11 4 (0.20%) AWS Certified Developer
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle Certification
12 3 (0.15%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.10%) Azure Certification
13 2 (0.10%) OCP
13 2 (0.10%) Tableau Certification
14 1 (0.051%) DBS Check
14 1 (0.051%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (4.33%) QA
2 55 (2.80%) Accessibility
3 34 (1.73%) Data Quality
4 25 (1.27%) WCAG
5 12 (0.61%) GDPR
6 6 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.25%) ISO 8583
7 5 (0.25%) SEPA
7 5 (0.25%) SLA
8 3 (0.15%) HL7
8 3 (0.15%) ISO 20022
8 3 (0.15%) MiFID
8 3 (0.15%) PSD2
9 2 (0.10%) EMIR
9 2 (0.10%) GRC
9 2 (0.10%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.051%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.051%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.051%) PMO
System Software
1 272 (13.84%) Docker
2 30 (1.53%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.41%) zsh
4 5 (0.25%) HDFS
5 3 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.10%) GridGain
6 2 (0.10%) OpenAM
6 2 (0.10%) OpenDJ
6 2 (0.10%) OpenIDM
6 2 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.10%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.051%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 271 (13.79%) Kubernetes
2 85 (4.33%) Terraform
3 32 (1.63%) Ansible
4 19 (0.97%) Grafana
4 19 (0.97%) Prometheus
5 14 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (0.61%) Argo
7 10 (0.51%) Control-M
8 6 (0.31%) TIBCO Hawk
9 4 (0.20%) Kibana
10 3 (0.15%) Podman
11 2 (0.10%) CloudHub
11 2 (0.10%) Docker Swarm
11 2 (0.10%) Istio
11 2 (0.10%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.10%) Puppet
11 2 (0.10%) rkt
11 2 (0.10%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.051%) Microsoft Intune
12 1 (0.051%) Oracle Identity Management
Vendors
1 245 (12.47%) Microsoft
2 176 (8.96%) Oracle
3 66 (3.36%) Salesforce
4 47 (2.39%) ServiceNow
5 39 (1.98%) Google
6 38 (1.93%) Databricks
7 37 (1.88%) IBM
8 25 (1.27%) Adobe
8 25 (1.27%) Citrix
8 25 (1.27%) OpenAI
8 25 (1.27%) SAP
9 23 (1.17%) MuleSoft
10 20 (1.02%) Red Hat
11 18 (0.92%) Lotus
11 18 (0.92%) Sybase
12 13 (0.66%) OpenLink
12 13 (0.66%) Solace
13 11 (0.56%) Bloomberg
13 11 (0.56%) Guidewire
13 11 (0.56%) Splunk