Developer Contract Job Trends in London

Developer
England > London

The median Developer daily rate in London is £535, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026.

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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 7 4
Rank change year-on-year -3 -3 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,224 2,021 3,041
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.36% 16.31% 17.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.31% 17.48% 18.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,553 1,461 2,348
10th Percentile £375 £390 £388
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.96% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £750 £750
90th Percentile £800 £850 £850
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 6
10th Percentile - £38.05 £60.00
25th Percentile £35.00 £43.19 £63.63
Median hourly rate £52.00 £53.50 £68.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.80% -21.90% +19.13%
75th Percentile £61.56 £55.25 £72.50
90th Percentile £92.88 - £73.75
England median hourly rate £51.50 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -6.36% -15.38% +1.56%

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 16,705 11,564 16,329
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.81% 93.35% 93.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,078 7,899 11,808
10th Percentile £355 £349 £325
25th Percentile £431 £428 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £679 £688
90th Percentile £758 £800 £800
England median daily rate £513 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 148 319
10th Percentile £19.22 £20.24 £16.00
25th Percentile £25.25 £24.54 £20.02
Median hourly rate £39.00 £34.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.71% +23.64% -21.43%
75th Percentile £63.10 £50.75 £45.62
90th Percentile £76.58 £65.00 £65.23
England median hourly rate £45.00 £30.00 £36.92
% change year-on-year +50.00% -18.73% -17.97%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -4 282 £525 -10.26% 147
South London +5 47 £513 -44.59% 5
West London -23 17 £497 +4.63% 20
East London -10 6 £416 -6.53% 22
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 530 (23.83%) Agile
2 524 (23.56%) Java
3 500 (22.48%) Python
4 478 (21.49%) SQL
5 476 (21.40%) CI/CD
6 450 (20.23%) Azure
7 423 (19.02%) AWS
8 401 (18.03%) Security Cleared
9 393 (17.67%) C#
10 366 (16.46%) JavaScript
11 334 (15.02%) SC Cleared
12 331 (14.88%) DevOps
13 315 (14.16%) React
14 303 (13.62%) .NET
15 278 (12.50%) Docker
16 274 (12.32%) Microservices
17 266 (11.96%) Full-Stack Development
18 240 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
18 240 (10.79%) TypeScript
19 237 (10.66%) REST
20 236 (10.61%) Kubernetes
21 231 (10.39%) Software Engineering
22 226 (10.16%) Microsoft
23 206 (9.26%) AI
24 202 (9.08%) Power Platform
25 192 (8.63%) Kafka
26 189 (8.50%) RESTful
27 185 (8.32%) Containerisation
28 183 (8.23%) Oracle
29 177 (7.96%) 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 70 (3.15%) SharePoint
2 45 (2.02%) Confluence
3 24 (1.08%) IIS
4 23 (1.03%) Apache
5 19 (0.85%) Apache Spark
6 18 (0.81%) CMS
7 16 (0.72%) HCL Notes
8 15 (0.67%) Mendix
9 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Exchange
10 9 (0.40%) Ethereum
11 8 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 8 (0.36%) Anypoint
11 8 (0.36%) Camunda
12 7 (0.31%) Mule
13 6 (0.27%) Appian
13 6 (0.27%) CICS
13 6 (0.27%) JBoss
13 6 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 6 (0.27%) SAS
14 5 (0.22%) Hyperledger
Applications
1 35 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
2 3 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.090%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.090%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.090%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 44 (1.98%) Dynamics CRM
2 19 (0.85%) Endur
3 11 (0.49%) Temenos T24
4 7 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
4 7 (0.31%) ProductWriter
4 7 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
5 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
6 5 (0.22%) BASE24
6 5 (0.22%) Fidessa
6 5 (0.22%) Findur
6 5 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.18%) Orchestrade
8 3 (0.13%) Aladdin
8 3 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 450 (20.23%) Azure
2 423 (19.02%) AWS
3 202 (9.08%) Power Platform
4 136 (6.12%) GitHub
5 128 (5.76%) Azure DevOps
6 121 (5.44%) Serverless
7 119 (5.35%) Power Automate
8 106 (4.77%) PowerApps
9 102 (4.59%) GCP
10 94 (4.23%) Dynamics 365
11 71 (3.19%) AWS Lambda
12 70 (3.15%) GitHub Actions
13 68 (3.06%) Amazon S3
14 50 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
15 45 (2.02%) Amazon EC2
16 42 (1.89%) Azure Service Bus
17 41 (1.84%) Azure Logic Apps
18 39 (1.75%) Azure Functions
19 34 (1.53%) Azure AKS
19 34 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.03%) HTTP
2 19 (0.85%) FIX Connectivity
3 13 (0.58%) Internet
4 8 (0.36%) Multicast
5 7 (0.31%) SMS
6 5 (0.22%) Network Security
7 4 (0.18%) SSL
8 3 (0.13%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.13%) MVNO
8 3 (0.13%) RTP
8 3 (0.13%) SMPP
8 3 (0.13%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.090%) DNS
9 2 (0.090%) Ethernet
9 2 (0.090%) FTP
9 2 (0.090%) RTMP
10 1 (0.045%) 5G
10 1 (0.045%) DHCP
10 1 (0.045%) HTTPS
10 1 (0.045%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 162 (7.28%) SQL Server
2 132 (5.94%) PostgreSQL
3 118 (5.31%) Power BI
4 106 (4.77%) Relational Database
5 67 (3.01%) Oracle Database
6 66 (2.97%) NoSQL
7 55 (2.47%) MongoDB
8 42 (1.89%) Data Warehouse
9 32 (1.44%) KDB
10 30 (1.35%) Amazon RDS
11 29 (1.30%) DynamoDB
12 27 (1.21%) Apache Cassandra
13 25 (1.12%) MySQL
14 21 (0.94%) Redis
15 20 (0.90%) Kdb+
16 19 (0.85%) Metadata
16 19 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 17 (0.76%) Data Lake
17 17 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
18 16 (0.72%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 167 (7.51%) Git
2 105 (4.72%) Jenkins
3 96 (4.32%) JIRA
4 55 (2.47%) GitLab
5 44 (1.98%) JUnit
6 27 (1.21%) Visual Studio
7 23 (1.03%) Maven
7 23 (1.03%) Mockito
8 22 (0.99%) Gradle
9 17 (0.76%) TeamCity
10 15 (0.67%) SonarQube
11 14 (0.63%) Bitbucket
12 12 (0.54%) Cypress.io
12 12 (0.54%) Selenium
13 11 (0.49%) Vite
14 10 (0.45%) Cucumber
14 10 (0.45%) Octopus Deploy
14 10 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
15 9 (0.40%) Claude Code
16 8 (0.36%) webpack
General
1 596 (26.80%) Finance
2 334 (15.02%) Social Skills
3 313 (14.07%) Banking
4 243 (10.93%) Public Sector
5 222 (9.98%) Front Office
6 141 (6.34%) Analytical Skills
7 128 (5.76%) Investment Banking
8 55 (2.47%) Financial Institution
9 28 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 25 (1.12%) Documentation Skills
11 21 (0.94%) Publishing
12 20 (0.90%) Marketing
13 14 (0.63%) Back Office
13 14 (0.63%) Local Government
14 12 (0.54%) Telecoms
15 11 (0.49%) Law
16 10 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
16 10 (0.45%) Retail
17 6 (0.27%) Agriculture
17 6 (0.27%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 315 (14.16%) React
2 303 (13.62%) .NET
3 237 (10.66%) REST
4 192 (8.63%) Kafka
5 189 (8.50%) RESTful
6 176 (7.91%) Node.js
7 173 (7.78%) Spring
8 167 (7.51%) HTML
9 147 (6.61%) AngularJS
10 146 (6.56%) CSS
11 143 (6.43%) Spring Boot
12 92 (4.14%) Redux
13 82 (3.69%) .NET Framework
14 78 (3.51%) Web Services
15 69 (3.10%) GraphQL
16 65 (2.92%) JSON
16 65 (2.92%) SOAP
17 59 (2.65%) Django
18 52 (2.34%) Lightning Web Components
19 50 (2.25%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 121 (5.44%) Derivative
2 110 (4.95%) Equities
3 107 (4.81%) Fixed Income
4 102 (4.59%) Distributed Systems
5 92 (4.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 87 (3.91%) Cloud Native
7 55 (2.47%) Algorithms
8 49 (2.20%) Data Structures
8 49 (2.20%) Greenfield Project
9 44 (1.98%) Product Ownership
10 40 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
11 36 (1.62%) Management Information System
12 35 (1.57%) Low-Code
13 32 (1.44%) AI Agents
14 30 (1.35%) Onboarding
15 29 (1.30%) Equity Derivative
15 29 (1.30%) Hedge funds
16 28 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
17 22 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
17 22 (0.99%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 103 (4.63%) Linux
2 54 (2.43%) Windows
3 52 (2.34%) Unix
4 23 (1.03%) Apple iOS
5 22 (0.99%) Android
6 21 (0.94%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.22%) zOS
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.090%) AIX
10 1 (0.045%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.045%) Solaris
10 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 530 (23.83%) Agile
2 476 (21.40%) CI/CD
3 331 (14.88%) DevOps
4 274 (12.32%) Microservices
5 266 (11.96%) Full-Stack Development
6 240 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
7 231 (10.39%) Software Engineering
8 206 (9.26%) AI
9 185 (8.32%) Containerisation
10 177 (7.96%) Analytics
11 173 (7.78%) Test Automation
12 170 (7.64%) Data Modelling
13 162 (7.28%) Business Intelligence
14 130 (5.85%) TDD
15 120 (5.40%) Scrum
16 113 (5.08%) Front End Development
17 109 (4.90%) Code Quality
17 109 (4.90%) Unit Testing
18 108 (4.86%) Event-Driven
19 107 (4.81%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 524 (23.56%) Java
2 500 (22.48%) Python
3 478 (21.49%) SQL
4 393 (17.67%) C#
5 366 (16.46%) JavaScript
6 240 (10.79%) TypeScript
7 76 (3.42%) Go
8 69 (3.10%) PL/SQL
9 68 (3.06%) C++
10 57 (2.56%) Apex Code
11 56 (2.52%) T-SQL
12 42 (1.89%) Shell Script
13 33 (1.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 29 (1.30%) Kotlin
15 28 (1.26%) Ruby
16 25 (1.12%) PowerShell
17 19 (0.85%) C
18 18 (0.81%) VBA
19 16 (0.72%) PHP
20 13 (0.58%) VB
Qualifications
1 401 (18.03%) Security Cleared
2 334 (15.02%) SC Cleared
3 106 (4.77%) Degree
4 37 (1.66%) DV Cleared
5 36 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 32 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (0.63%) Master's Degree
8 10 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (0.40%) Numerate Degree
10 8 (0.36%) AWS Certification
11 7 (0.31%) Azure Certification
11 7 (0.31%) PhD
12 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Developer
12 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.13%) Oracle Certification
14 2 (0.090%) CTC Cleared
14 2 (0.090%) Postgraduate
15 1 (0.045%) DBS Check
15 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 1 (0.045%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (4.95%) QA
2 58 (2.61%) Accessibility
3 35 (1.57%) Data Quality
4 32 (1.44%) WCAG
5 16 (0.72%) 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%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.18%) PMO
9 4 (0.18%) SEPA
10 2 (0.090%) PSD2
11 1 (0.045%) Basel III
11 1 (0.045%) DICOM
11 1 (0.045%) GAAP
11 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.045%) Solvency II
System Software
1 278 (12.50%) Docker
2 13 (0.58%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.13%) GridGain
3 3 (0.13%) Postfix
4 2 (0.090%) OpenAM
4 2 (0.090%) OpenDJ
4 2 (0.090%) OpenIDM
4 2 (0.090%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.090%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.045%) Apache ZooKeeper
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) HDFS
5 1 (0.045%) Varnish
5 1 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 236 (10.61%) Kubernetes
2 77 (3.46%) Terraform
3 29 (1.30%) Grafana
4 28 (1.26%) Ansible
5 20 (0.90%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.22%) 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
1 226 (10.16%) Microsoft
2 183 (8.23%) Oracle
3 99 (4.45%) Salesforce
4 81 (3.64%) ServiceNow
5 39 (1.75%) Citrix
6 35 (1.57%) SAP
7 28 (1.26%) MuleSoft
8 27 (1.21%) Databricks
9 21 (0.94%) Adobe
9 21 (0.94%) IBM
10 18 (0.81%) OpenAI
11 17 (0.76%) Google
11 17 (0.76%) Guidewire
11 17 (0.76%) Pega
12 16 (0.72%) Lotus
13 13 (0.58%) ForgeRock
14 12 (0.54%) Kofax
14 12 (0.54%) Temenos
14 12 (0.54%) UiPath
15 11 (0.49%) Okta