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 15 January 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 1,994 2,383 2,838
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.88% 16.97% 15.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 14.99% 18.15% 17.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,384 1,627 2,185
10th Percentile £379 £375 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £600
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £750
90th Percentile £800 £850 £850
England median daily rate £500 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -6.54% -2.73% -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 7 13
10th Percentile £35.00 £35.45 £33.03
25th Percentile £40.50 £36.25 £56.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £39.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.03% -35.00% +4.35%
75th Percentile £75.38 £51.63 £72.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £91.90 £73.73
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% - +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 13,299 13,129 16,613
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.57% 93.49% 93.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,823 8,461 11,971
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -1.79% -4.27%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 142 236
10th Percentile £17.98 £20.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £23.55 £23.80 £20.38
Median hourly rate £31.49 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.03% +7.69% -4.41%
75th Percentile £61.25 £53.00 £53.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.55 £71.00
England median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £43.50
% change year-on-year -21.43% -19.54% +24.29%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -8 270 £525 -9.48% 150
South London -13 25 £513 -30.51% 23
West London -25 14 £437 +6.85% 27
East London -5 12 £1,000 +150.00% 22
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 525 (26.33%) SQL
2 518 (25.98%) Agile
3 514 (25.78%) Java
4 476 (23.87%) CI/CD
5 475 (23.82%) Python
6 433 (21.72%) Azure
7 404 (20.26%) AWS
8 383 (19.21%) C#
9 381 (19.11%) Problem-Solving
10 363 (18.20%) JavaScript
11 331 (16.60%) DevOps
12 323 (16.20%) Security Cleared
13 296 (14.84%) .NET
14 291 (14.59%) Microservices
15 289 (14.49%) React
16 280 (14.04%) Docker
17 274 (13.74%) Kubernetes
18 263 (13.19%) Full-Stack Development
18 263 (13.19%) SC Cleared
19 243 (12.19%) Microsoft
20 241 (12.09%) REST
21 234 (11.74%) Analytics
22 223 (11.18%) Git
23 210 (10.53%) Power Platform
24 204 (10.23%) TypeScript
25 198 (9.93%) Software Engineering
26 186 (9.33%) Business Intelligence
27 182 (9.13%) HTML
27 182 (9.13%) Kafka
28 176 (8.83%) 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 61 (3.06%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.01%) Confluence
3 20 (1.00%) CMS
3 20 (1.00%) HCL Notes
4 16 (0.80%) IIS
5 14 (0.70%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 13 (0.65%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 12 (0.60%) Apache Airflow
8 10 (0.50%) Apache
8 10 (0.50%) Mendix
8 10 (0.50%) MQSeries
8 10 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
9 9 (0.45%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
11 6 (0.30%) Ethereum
11 6 (0.30%) Headless CMS
11 6 (0.30%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.30%) WebSphere
12 5 (0.25%) Tomcat
13 4 (0.20%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 57 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.50%) Chatbot
3 7 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.20%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.10%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.050%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.050%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.050%) Trello
Business Applications
1 38 (1.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (0.85%) Endur
3 13 (0.65%) Fidessa
4 12 (0.60%) Oracle EBS
5 10 (0.50%) Oracle ERP
5 10 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
6 9 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Financials
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
9 6 (0.30%) BusinessWorks
9 6 (0.30%) Temenos T24
10 5 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
11 4 (0.20%) Aladdin
11 4 (0.20%) BASE24
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle 11i
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 4 (0.20%) ProductWriter
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
12 3 (0.15%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 433 (21.72%) Azure
2 404 (20.26%) AWS
3 210 (10.53%) Power Platform
4 158 (7.92%) GitHub
5 132 (6.62%) Azure DevOps
6 127 (6.37%) Serverless
7 102 (5.12%) Power Automate
8 100 (5.02%) GCP
9 98 (4.91%) PowerApps
10 74 (3.71%) Dynamics 365
11 72 (3.61%) GitHub Actions
12 66 (3.31%) Azure Logic Apps
13 64 (3.21%) Azure Functions
14 57 (2.86%) AWS Lambda
15 49 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
16 48 (2.41%) Azure Service Bus
17 45 (2.26%) Amazon S3
18 43 (2.16%) Entra ID
19 40 (2.01%) Azure Monitor
20 36 (1.81%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.00%) HTTP
2 11 (0.55%) HTTPS
2 11 (0.55%) Internet
2 11 (0.55%) SSL
3 8 (0.40%) FIX Connectivity
3 8 (0.40%) Network Security
4 7 (0.35%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.25%) CTI
5 5 (0.25%) Firewall
5 5 (0.25%) SMS
5 5 (0.25%) VoIP
6 4 (0.20%) DNS
6 4 (0.20%) Multicast
7 3 (0.15%) 3GPP
7 3 (0.15%) MVNO
7 3 (0.15%) SMPP
8 2 (0.10%) DHCP
8 2 (0.10%) SSH
8 2 (0.10%) tcpdump
8 2 (0.10%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 165 (8.27%) SQL Server
2 134 (6.72%) PostgreSQL
3 133 (6.67%) Power BI
4 119 (5.97%) Relational Database
5 84 (4.21%) NoSQL
6 67 (3.36%) Oracle Database
7 62 (3.11%) MongoDB
8 42 (2.11%) Data Warehouse
9 40 (2.01%) Apache Cassandra
10 31 (1.55%) MySQL
11 27 (1.35%) DB2
12 26 (1.30%) Data Lake
13 25 (1.25%) RDBMS
14 24 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
15 23 (1.15%) KDB
15 23 (1.15%) Oracle Reports
16 22 (1.10%) Azure SQL Database
17 21 (1.05%) DynamoDB
17 21 (1.05%) Kdb+
17 21 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 223 (11.18%) Git
2 93 (4.66%) JIRA
3 92 (4.61%) Jenkins
4 64 (3.21%) GitLab
5 49 (2.46%) JUnit
6 30 (1.50%) Maven
6 30 (1.50%) Visual Studio
7 24 (1.20%) Bitbucket
8 21 (1.05%) Gradle
9 17 (0.85%) Cucumber
10 16 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
11 15 (0.75%) Mockito
11 15 (0.75%) Selenium
12 14 (0.70%) SpecFlow
13 13 (0.65%) TeamCity
13 13 (0.65%) webpack
14 11 (0.55%) Cypress.io
15 10 (0.50%) Android Studio
15 10 (0.50%) SonarQube
15 10 (0.50%) Xcode
General
1 582 (29.19%) Finance
2 449 (22.52%) Social Skills
3 332 (16.65%) Banking
4 183 (9.18%) Front Office
5 171 (8.58%) Public Sector
6 159 (7.97%) Analytical Skills
7 126 (6.32%) Investment Banking
8 60 (3.01%) Financial Institution
9 24 (1.20%) Marketing
10 17 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (0.85%) Law
11 16 (0.80%) Documentation Skills
12 13 (0.65%) Back Office
13 11 (0.55%) General Ledger
14 10 (0.50%) Telecoms
15 9 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
16 8 (0.40%) Billing
16 8 (0.40%) Military
16 8 (0.40%) Private Banking
16 8 (0.40%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 296 (14.84%) .NET
2 289 (14.49%) React
3 241 (12.09%) REST
4 182 (9.13%) HTML
4 182 (9.13%) Kafka
5 176 (8.83%) RESTful
6 173 (8.68%) CSS
7 161 (8.07%) AngularJS
8 159 (7.97%) Node.js
8 159 (7.97%) Spring
9 123 (6.17%) Spring Boot
10 87 (4.36%) JSON
11 86 (4.31%) SOAP
12 75 (3.76%) Web Services
13 73 (3.66%) .NET Framework
13 73 (3.66%) XML
14 65 (3.26%) Vue
15 52 (2.61%) FastAPI
16 51 (2.56%) NumPy
17 50 (2.51%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.47%) Equities
1 109 (5.47%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 102 (5.12%) Derivative
3 96 (4.81%) Cloud Native
4 85 (4.26%) Distributed Systems
5 83 (4.16%) Algorithms
6 72 (3.61%) Data Structures
7 60 (3.01%) Fixed Income
8 57 (2.86%) Product Ownership
9 45 (2.26%) Data Protection Act
10 41 (2.06%) Management Information System
10 41 (2.06%) Mobile App
11 39 (1.96%) Greenfield Project
12 35 (1.76%) Hedge funds
13 31 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
14 30 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
15 28 (1.40%) Low-Code
15 28 (1.40%) Market Risk
16 27 (1.35%) Equity Derivative
17 24 (1.20%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 147 (7.37%) Linux
2 71 (3.56%) Windows
3 51 (2.56%) Unix
4 40 (2.01%) Android
5 34 (1.71%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.85%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.25%) AIX
8 5 (0.25%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.20%) CentOS
10 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.050%) VMS
11 1 (0.050%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.050%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 518 (25.98%) Agile
2 476 (23.87%) CI/CD
3 381 (19.11%) Problem-Solving
4 331 (16.60%) DevOps
5 291 (14.59%) Microservices
6 263 (13.19%) Full-Stack Development
7 234 (11.74%) Analytics
8 198 (9.93%) Software Engineering
9 186 (9.33%) Business Intelligence
10 167 (8.38%) Containerisation
11 165 (8.27%) Test Automation
12 153 (7.67%) Scrum
13 143 (7.17%) AI
14 128 (6.42%) TDD
15 123 (6.17%) Front End Development
16 116 (5.82%) Computer Science
17 115 (5.77%) Design Patterns
18 110 (5.52%) Data Modelling
19 109 (5.47%) Clean Code
20 106 (5.32%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 525 (26.33%) SQL
2 514 (25.78%) Java
3 475 (23.82%) Python
4 383 (19.21%) C#
5 363 (18.20%) JavaScript
6 204 (10.23%) TypeScript
7 120 (6.02%) C++
8 86 (4.31%) PL/SQL
9 62 (3.11%) Go
10 52 (2.61%) Kotlin
11 49 (2.46%) T-SQL
12 38 (1.91%) VB
13 37 (1.86%) Apex Code
14 36 (1.81%) PowerShell
15 32 (1.60%) Ruby
15 32 (1.60%) VBA
16 29 (1.45%) Shell Script
17 28 (1.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 22 (1.10%) PHP
19 20 (1.00%) C
Qualifications
1 323 (16.20%) Security Cleared
2 263 (13.19%) SC Cleared
3 128 (6.42%) Degree
4 64 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (1.35%) Master's Degree
6 20 (1.00%) DV Cleared
7 19 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
8 13 (0.65%) Numerate Degree
9 9 (0.45%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.30%) MCP
10 6 (0.30%) PhD
11 5 (0.25%) AWS Certified Developer
11 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (0.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.20%) Oracle Certification
13 2 (0.10%) Azure Certification
13 2 (0.10%) OCP
13 2 (0.10%) Tableau Certification
14 1 (0.050%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 1 (0.050%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (4.41%) QA
2 58 (2.91%) Accessibility
3 31 (1.55%) Data Quality
4 26 (1.30%) WCAG
5 13 (0.65%) GDPR
6 7 (0.35%) SLA
7 6 (0.30%) ISO 8583
7 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.25%) SEPA
9 3 (0.15%) HL7
9 3 (0.15%) ISO 20022
9 3 (0.15%) MiFID
9 3 (0.15%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.15%) PSD2
10 2 (0.10%) EMIR
10 2 (0.10%) GRC
11 1 (0.050%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.050%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.050%) PMO
System Software
1 280 (14.04%) Docker
2 31 (1.55%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.35%) 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 (0.050%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 274 (13.74%) Kubernetes
2 84 (4.21%) Terraform
3 33 (1.65%) Ansible
4 18 (0.90%) Grafana
5 17 (0.85%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.60%) Argo
8 8 (0.40%) Control-M
9 6 (0.30%) TIBCO Hawk
10 3 (0.15%) 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
12 1 (0.050%) ITRS Geneos
12 1 (0.050%) Microsoft Intune
12 1 (0.050%) Oracle Identity Management
Vendors
1 243 (12.19%) Microsoft
2 174 (8.73%) Oracle
3 65 (3.26%) Salesforce
4 52 (2.61%) ServiceNow
5 38 (1.91%) Databricks
5 38 (1.91%) Google
6 36 (1.81%) IBM
7 28 (1.40%) Adobe
7 28 (1.40%) Citrix
8 26 (1.30%) SAP
9 25 (1.25%) OpenAI
10 22 (1.10%) MuleSoft
11 20 (1.00%) Lotus
11 20 (1.00%) Red Hat
12 19 (0.95%) Sybase
13 14 (0.70%) Solace
14 13 (0.65%) Guidewire
14 13 (0.65%) OpenLink
15 11 (0.55%) ION Trading
16 10 (0.50%) Axway