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 1 May 2026.

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

6 months to
1 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 2,251 2,068 3,070
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.70% 16.48% 17.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.68% 17.63% 18.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,585 1,503 2,355
10th Percentile £382 £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 £858 £850
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 8
10th Percentile - £39.76 £44.25
25th Percentile £35.00 £47.47 £56.25
Median hourly rate £52.00 £53.50 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year -2.80% -12.65% +6.52%
75th Percentile £61.56 £56.81 £68.38
90th Percentile £92.88 £59.63 £72.50
England median hourly rate £55.00 £61.00 £63.75
% change year-on-year -9.84% -4.31% +4.08%

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 16,451 11,727 16,626
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.81% 93.48% 93.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,958 8,033 12,023
10th Percentile £350 £341 £325
25th Percentile £425 £431 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £676 £675
90th Percentile £755 £800 £800
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 272 143 336
10th Percentile £18.75 £20.45 £16.01
25th Percentile £24.03 £23.90 £20.02
Median hourly rate £37.25 £34.00 £27.81
Median % change year-on-year +9.56% +22.26% -20.54%
75th Percentile £63.10 £50.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £64.75 £65.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £30.78 £36.31
% change year-on-year +52.70% -15.22% -19.32%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -5 304 £530 -9.40% 161
South London -3 46 £513 -44.59% 5
West London -16 18 £497 +15.72% 13
East London -4 8 £416 -12.42% 17
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 539 (23.94%) Agile
2 537 (23.86%) Java
3 516 (22.92%) Python
4 490 (21.77%) CI/CD
5 487 (21.63%) SQL
6 475 (21.10%) Azure
7 434 (19.28%) AWS
8 417 (18.53%) Security Cleared
9 403 (17.90%) C#
10 375 (16.66%) JavaScript
11 347 (15.42%) SC Cleared
12 346 (15.37%) DevOps
13 325 (14.44%) React
14 318 (14.13%) .NET
15 286 (12.71%) Docker
16 283 (12.57%) Microservices
17 272 (12.08%) Full-Stack Development
18 271 (12.04%) Problem-Solving
19 260 (11.55%) TypeScript
20 251 (11.15%) Kubernetes
21 242 (10.75%) Microsoft
22 236 (10.48%) Software Engineering
23 232 (10.31%) REST
24 214 (9.51%) AI
25 208 (9.24%) Power Platform
26 200 (8.88%) Kafka
27 199 (8.84%) Oracle
28 195 (8.66%) Analytics
29 193 (8.57%) RESTful
30 191 (8.49%) Node.js

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 82 (3.64%) SharePoint
2 48 (2.13%) Confluence
3 25 (1.11%) IIS
4 20 (0.89%) Apache
4 20 (0.89%) CMS
5 18 (0.80%) Apache Spark
6 17 (0.76%) HCL Notes
7 16 (0.71%) Microsoft Exchange
8 15 (0.67%) Mendix
9 11 (0.49%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 9 (0.40%) Ethereum
10 9 (0.40%) JBoss
11 8 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 7 (0.31%) Camunda
12 7 (0.31%) CICS
12 7 (0.31%) WebLogic
13 6 (0.27%) Headless CMS
13 6 (0.27%) SAS
13 6 (0.27%) WebSphere
14 5 (0.22%) Tomcat
Applications
1 41 (1.82%) 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 (0.044%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 47 (2.09%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.89%) Endur
3 12 (0.53%) Temenos T24
4 10 (0.44%) Fidessa
5 7 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
5 7 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.27%) BusinessWorks
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.22%) BASE24
7 5 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
7 5 (0.22%) ProductWriter
8 4 (0.18%) Findur
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
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
1 475 (21.10%) Azure
2 434 (19.28%) AWS
3 208 (9.24%) Power Platform
4 147 (6.53%) GitHub
5 135 (6.00%) Azure DevOps
6 124 (5.51%) Serverless
7 122 (5.42%) Power Automate
8 109 (4.84%) PowerApps
9 103 (4.58%) GCP
10 95 (4.22%) Dynamics 365
11 73 (3.24%) GitHub Actions
12 66 (2.93%) AWS Lambda
13 61 (2.71%) Amazon S3
14 58 (2.58%) Microsoft 365
15 49 (2.18%) Azure Logic Apps
16 48 (2.13%) Azure Service Bus
17 46 (2.04%) Azure Functions
18 44 (1.95%) Entra ID
19 43 (1.91%) Azure AKS
20 36 (1.60%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.29%) HTTP
2 19 (0.84%) FIX Connectivity
3 14 (0.62%) Internet
4 7 (0.31%) Network Security
5 5 (0.22%) SMS
6 4 (0.18%) Multicast
7 3 (0.13%) 3GPP
7 3 (0.13%) HTTPS
7 3 (0.13%) MVNO
7 3 (0.13%) RTP
7 3 (0.13%) SMPP
7 3 (0.13%) SSL
7 3 (0.13%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.089%) CTI
8 2 (0.089%) DNS
8 2 (0.089%) Ethernet
8 2 (0.089%) Firewall
8 2 (0.089%) FTP
8 2 (0.089%) RTMP
8 2 (0.089%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 171 (7.60%) SQL Server
2 133 (5.91%) PostgreSQL
3 118 (5.24%) Power BI
4 111 (4.93%) Relational Database
5 74 (3.29%) Oracle Database
6 66 (2.93%) NoSQL
7 59 (2.62%) MongoDB
8 40 (1.78%) Data Warehouse
9 33 (1.47%) Apache Cassandra
10 29 (1.29%) DynamoDB
10 29 (1.29%) KDB
10 29 (1.29%) MySQL
11 23 (1.02%) Data Lake
12 22 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
13 20 (0.89%) Kdb+
13 20 (0.89%) Redis
14 19 (0.84%) Metadata
14 19 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 18 (0.80%) RDBMS
16 17 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 187 (8.31%) Git
2 109 (4.84%) Jenkins
3 102 (4.53%) JIRA
4 58 (2.58%) GitLab
5 48 (2.13%) JUnit
6 27 (1.20%) Mockito
7 26 (1.16%) Visual Studio
8 24 (1.07%) Maven
9 20 (0.89%) Gradle
9 20 (0.89%) TeamCity
10 19 (0.84%) Bitbucket
11 13 (0.58%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.58%) Selenium
12 12 (0.53%) Octopus Deploy
12 12 (0.53%) SonarQube
13 11 (0.49%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.49%) Vite
13 11 (0.49%) webpack
14 10 (0.44%) Team Foundation Server
15 9 (0.40%) Claude Code
General
1 604 (26.83%) Finance
2 361 (16.04%) Social Skills
3 312 (13.86%) Banking
4 240 (10.66%) Public Sector
5 226 (10.04%) Front Office
6 137 (6.09%) Analytical Skills
7 120 (5.33%) Investment Banking
8 50 (2.22%) Financial Institution
9 26 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 22 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
11 18 (0.80%) Publishing
12 17 (0.76%) 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 7 (0.31%) Retail
18 6 (0.27%) Legal
18 6 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 325 (14.44%) React
2 318 (14.13%) .NET
3 232 (10.31%) REST
4 200 (8.88%) Kafka
5 193 (8.57%) RESTful
6 191 (8.49%) Node.js
7 180 (8.00%) HTML
8 177 (7.86%) Spring
9 158 (7.02%) CSS
10 155 (6.89%) AngularJS
11 145 (6.44%) Spring Boot
12 94 (4.18%) .NET Framework
13 89 (3.95%) Redux
14 82 (3.64%) Web Services
15 74 (3.29%) SOAP
16 69 (3.07%) GraphQL
17 68 (3.02%) JSON
18 55 (2.44%) Vue
19 52 (2.31%) XML
20 49 (2.18%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 121 (5.38%) Equities
2 114 (5.06%) Derivative
3 106 (4.71%) Fixed Income
4 98 (4.35%) Distributed Systems
5 91 (4.04%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 86 (3.82%) Cloud Native
7 59 (2.62%) Algorithms
8 54 (2.40%) Data Structures
9 48 (2.13%) Product Ownership
10 46 (2.04%) Greenfield Project
11 42 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
12 37 (1.64%) AI Agents
12 37 (1.64%) Low-Code
12 37 (1.64%) Management Information System
13 35 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
14 32 (1.42%) Hedge funds
15 31 (1.38%) Onboarding
16 26 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
16 26 (1.16%) Equity Derivative
17 23 (1.02%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 110 (4.89%) Linux
2 64 (2.84%) Windows
3 57 (2.53%) Unix
4 23 (1.02%) Android
5 21 (0.93%) Windows Server
6 17 (0.76%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.22%) AIX
7 5 (0.22%) zOS
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.089%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.044%) Solaris
10 1 (0.044%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 539 (23.94%) Agile
2 490 (21.77%) CI/CD
3 346 (15.37%) DevOps
4 283 (12.57%) Microservices
5 272 (12.08%) Full-Stack Development
6 271 (12.04%) Problem-Solving
7 236 (10.48%) Software Engineering
8 214 (9.51%) AI
9 195 (8.66%) Analytics
10 190 (8.44%) Containerisation
11 181 (8.04%) Test Automation
12 165 (7.33%) Business Intelligence
12 165 (7.33%) Data Modelling
13 134 (5.95%) TDD
14 123 (5.46%) Scrum
15 117 (5.20%) Unit Testing
16 116 (5.15%) Front End Development
17 113 (5.02%) Code Quality
18 112 (4.98%) Design Patterns
18 112 (4.98%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 537 (23.86%) Java
2 516 (22.92%) Python
3 487 (21.63%) SQL
4 403 (17.90%) C#
5 375 (16.66%) JavaScript
6 260 (11.55%) TypeScript
7 80 (3.55%) PL/SQL
8 79 (3.51%) Go
9 66 (2.93%) C++
10 59 (2.62%) T-SQL
11 51 (2.27%) Apex Code
12 42 (1.87%) Shell Script
13 38 (1.69%) Kotlin
14 33 (1.47%) Ruby
15 30 (1.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 30 (1.33%) PowerShell
16 24 (1.07%) VBA
17 18 (0.80%) C
18 17 (0.76%) PHP
19 14 (0.62%) VB
Qualifications
1 417 (18.53%) Security Cleared
2 347 (15.42%) SC Cleared
3 101 (4.49%) Degree
4 39 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 33 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 32 (1.42%) DV Cleared
7 13 (0.58%) Master's Degree
8 8 (0.36%) Numerate Degree
9 7 (0.31%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.31%) Azure Certification
9 7 (0.31%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Developer
10 4 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.18%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (0.18%) PhD
11 2 (0.089%) CTC Cleared
11 2 (0.089%) OCP
11 2 (0.089%) Postgraduate
12 1 (0.044%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (5.11%) QA
2 61 (2.71%) Accessibility
3 35 (1.55%) 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 (0.044%) DICOM
11 1 (0.044%) GAAP
11 1 (0.044%) HIPAA
System Software
1 286 (12.71%) Docker
2 16 (0.71%) 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 (0.044%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.044%) Varnish
5 1 (0.044%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 251 (11.15%) Kubernetes
2 92 (4.09%) Terraform
3 30 (1.33%) Ansible
3 30 (1.33%) Grafana
4 21 (0.93%) Prometheus
5 8 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.27%) TIBCO Hawk
7 5 (0.22%) SCCM
8 4 (0.18%) Argo
9 2 (0.089%) CA Endevor
9 2 (0.089%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.089%) Control-M
9 2 (0.089%) Podman
10 1 (0.044%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.044%) Kibana
10 1 (0.044%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 242 (10.75%) Microsoft
2 199 (8.84%) Oracle
3 81 (3.60%) Salesforce
4 73 (3.24%) ServiceNow
5 41 (1.82%) SAP
6 40 (1.78%) Citrix
7 35 (1.55%) IBM
8 32 (1.42%) Databricks
9 26 (1.16%) OpenAI
10 25 (1.11%) MuleSoft
11 21 (0.93%) Adobe
11 21 (0.93%) 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
16 12 (0.53%) Kofax
16 12 (0.53%) OpenLink
16 12 (0.53%) Temenos