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 30 September 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 8 4
Rank change year-on-year -10 -4 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,178 1,959 3,061
As % of all contract jobs in London 10.71% 14.65% 19.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.49% 15.79% 20.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,466 1,392 2,140
10th Percentile £400 £375 £375
25th Percentile £435 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% -1.79% -6.67%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £725
90th Percentile £800 £850 £850
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 8
10th Percentile £41.10 £33.06 £35.53
25th Percentile £50.00 £55.00 £36.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £70.00 £51.47
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +36.01% -27.05%
75th Percentile £62.25 £78.75 £90.63
90th Percentile £80.50 £84.70 £137.50
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +6.70%

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 18,957 12,407 15,055
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.24% 92.78% 93.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,263 8,292 9,885
10th Percentile £360 £330 £340
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.92% -0.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £660 £668 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 406 199 175
10th Percentile £17.00 £17.00 £17.35
25th Percentile £21.93 £22.75 £23.98
Median hourly rate £40.00 £28.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.10% -19.57% -6.67%
75th Percentile £63.75 £49.63 £57.50
90th Percentile £81.25 £65.11 £77.75
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% -1.92%

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 30 September 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 30 September 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 30 September 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 -11 241 £538 -6.52% 150
South London +5 39 £550 -1.38% 14
East London -3 11 £875 +62.04% 10
West London -45 5 £380 -6.58% 25
North London - 2 £550 - 3
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 30 September 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.

1 594 (27.27%) Agile
2 577 (26.49%) CI/CD
3 548 (25.16%) SQL
4 494 (22.68%) Java
5 446 (20.48%) Python
6 423 (19.42%) Azure
7 408 (18.73%) Security Cleared
8 386 (17.72%) DevOps
9 382 (17.54%) C#
10 362 (16.62%) REST
11 351 (16.12%) SC Cleared
12 341 (15.66%) AWS
13 333 (15.29%) JavaScript
14 316 (14.51%) .NET
15 295 (13.54%) Problem-Solving
16 291 (13.36%) Microservices
17 278 (12.76%) React
18 271 (12.44%) Microsoft
19 268 (12.30%) Full-Stack Development
20 264 (12.12%) AI
21 262 (12.03%) TypeScript
22 239 (10.97%) Git
23 231 (10.61%) Power Platform
24 226 (10.38%) Software Engineering
25 219 (10.06%) Docker
26 209 (9.60%) Spring
27 203 (9.32%) RESTful
28 201 (9.23%) Test Automation
29 200 (9.18%) Kubernetes
30 194 (8.91%) 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 70 (3.21%) SharePoint
2 40 (1.84%) Confluence
3 26 (1.19%) IIS
4 23 (1.06%) CMS
5 19 (0.87%) Camunda
6 15 (0.69%) Oracle Workflow
7 14 (0.64%) Anypoint
7 14 (0.64%) Mule
8 12 (0.55%) Apache
8 12 (0.55%) Apache Spark
9 11 (0.51%) Ethereum
9 11 (0.51%) SAS
10 10 (0.46%) nginx
11 8 (0.37%) WebLogic
12 6 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
12 6 (0.28%) Appian
13 4 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.18%) Hyperledger
13 4 (0.18%) Tomcat
13 4 (0.18%) WordPress
Applications
1 36 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.14%) Windchill
5 2 (0.092%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.092%) CPLEX
5 2 (0.092%) Sketch
6 1 (0.046%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.046%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.046%) Simulink
6 1 (0.046%) S-PLUS
6 1 (0.046%) Trello
Business Applications
1 40 (1.84%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (0.78%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.64%) NetSuite
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle Financials
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle General Ledger
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle Receivables
5 7 (0.32%) Endur
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle Internet Expenses
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle iProcurement
6 6 (0.28%) Aladdin
6 6 (0.28%) Oracle FAH
6 6 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.23%) OpenText MBPM
7 5 (0.23%) Oracle BPM
7 5 (0.23%) Orchestrade
7 5 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
7 5 (0.23%) ProductWriter
7 5 (0.23%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 423 (19.42%) Azure
2 341 (15.66%) AWS
3 231 (10.61%) Power Platform
4 143 (6.57%) GitHub
5 119 (5.46%) Azure DevOps
5 119 (5.46%) Power Automate
5 119 (5.46%) PowerApps
6 111 (5.10%) Dynamics 365
7 101 (4.64%) Serverless
8 97 (4.45%) GCP
9 75 (3.44%) GitHub Actions
10 51 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
11 50 (2.30%) Microsoft Copilot
12 49 (2.25%) Amazon S3
13 41 (1.88%) Azure Functions
14 40 (1.84%) AWS Lambda
14 40 (1.84%) Azure Logic Apps
14 40 (1.84%) Copilot Studio
15 35 (1.61%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 32 (1.47%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.01%) HTTP
2 14 (0.64%) Internet
3 13 (0.60%) FIX Connectivity
4 4 (0.18%) Multicast
4 4 (0.18%) SMS
4 4 (0.18%) SSL
5 3 (0.14%) FTP
6 2 (0.092%) 4G
6 2 (0.092%) 5G
6 2 (0.092%) CTI
6 2 (0.092%) DNS
6 2 (0.092%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.092%) Intranet
6 2 (0.092%) NFC
6 2 (0.092%) SSH
6 2 (0.092%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.046%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.046%) OpenLDAP
7 1 (0.046%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 190 (8.72%) SQL Server
2 153 (7.02%) Power BI
3 136 (6.24%) PostgreSQL
4 111 (5.10%) Relational Database
5 66 (3.03%) NoSQL
6 59 (2.71%) Data Warehouse
7 58 (2.66%) MongoDB
8 52 (2.39%) Oracle Database
9 42 (1.93%) MySQL
10 37 (1.70%) Redis
11 32 (1.47%) Azure SQL Database
12 31 (1.42%) Power Query
13 27 (1.24%) Elasticsearch
13 27 (1.24%) KDB
14 25 (1.15%) DynamoDB
14 25 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 22 (1.01%) Star Schema
16 19 (0.87%) Kdb+
17 18 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
17 18 (0.83%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 239 (10.97%) Git
2 136 (6.24%) Jenkins
3 96 (4.41%) JIRA
4 80 (3.67%) GitLab
5 49 (2.25%) Gradle
6 47 (2.16%) JUnit
7 45 (2.07%) Maven
8 34 (1.56%) Visual Studio
9 27 (1.24%) Mockito
10 23 (1.06%) SonarQube
11 18 (0.83%) REST Assured
12 17 (0.78%) Bitbucket
12 17 (0.78%) Cypress.io
13 16 (0.73%) Vite
14 12 (0.55%) Claude Code
14 12 (0.55%) TeamCity
15 11 (0.51%) Storybook
16 10 (0.46%) Selenium
17 9 (0.41%) Cucumber
17 9 (0.41%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 635 (29.16%) Finance
2 399 (18.32%) Social Skills
3 376 (17.26%) Banking
4 185 (8.49%) Front Office
4 185 (8.49%) Public Sector
5 174 (7.99%) Analytical Skills
6 163 (7.48%) Investment Banking
7 55 (2.53%) Marketing
8 49 (2.25%) Financial Institution
9 47 (2.16%) Retail
10 41 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 26 (1.19%) Back Office
12 20 (0.92%) Law
13 18 (0.83%) Publishing
14 15 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
15 12 (0.55%) Games
15 12 (0.55%) Private Banking
16 11 (0.51%) Documentation Skills
16 11 (0.51%) Manufacturing
17 10 (0.46%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 362 (16.62%) REST
2 316 (14.51%) .NET
3 278 (12.76%) React
4 209 (9.60%) Spring
5 203 (9.32%) RESTful
6 168 (7.71%) Spring Boot
7 150 (6.89%) HTML
7 150 (6.89%) Kafka
8 144 (6.61%) CSS
9 115 (5.28%) Node.js
10 111 (5.10%) SOAP
11 94 (4.32%) AngularJS
12 91 (4.18%) Web Services
13 87 (3.99%) JSON
14 81 (3.72%) Terraform
15 70 (3.21%) Redux
15 70 (3.21%) XML
16 69 (3.17%) .NET Framework
17 60 (2.75%) OAuth
18 59 (2.71%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 138 (6.34%) Cloud Native
2 105 (4.82%) Derivative
3 104 (4.78%) Distributed Systems
4 87 (3.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 86 (3.95%) Product Ownership
6 69 (3.17%) Equities
7 62 (2.85%) Enterprise Software
7 62 (2.85%) Fixed Income
8 52 (2.39%) Data Structures
9 42 (1.93%) Greenfield Project
10 40 (1.84%) AI Agents
10 40 (1.84%) Legacy Systems
11 35 (1.61%) Algorithms
11 35 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
12 31 (1.42%) Mobile App
13 29 (1.33%) Low-Code
14 28 (1.29%) Management Information System
15 27 (1.24%) Onboarding
16 23 (1.06%) CMDB
17 22 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 97 (4.45%) Linux
2 71 (3.26%) Unix
3 49 (2.25%) Windows
4 34 (1.56%) Apple iOS
5 20 (0.92%) Android
6 10 (0.46%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.092%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.092%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.092%) zOS
8 1 (0.046%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.046%) Solaris
8 1 (0.046%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.046%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 594 (27.27%) Agile
2 577 (26.49%) CI/CD
3 386 (17.72%) DevOps
4 295 (13.54%) Problem-Solving
5 291 (13.36%) Microservices
6 268 (12.30%) Full-Stack Development
7 264 (12.12%) AI
8 226 (10.38%) Software Engineering
9 201 (9.23%) Test Automation
10 180 (8.26%) Continuous Improvement
11 177 (8.13%) Business Intelligence
12 172 (7.90%) Event-Driven
13 169 (7.76%) Scrum
14 158 (7.25%) Containerisation
15 151 (6.93%) Data Modelling
16 145 (6.66%) SDLC
17 143 (6.57%) Code Quality
18 141 (6.47%) Analytics
19 135 (6.20%) TDD
20 125 (5.74%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 548 (25.16%) SQL
2 494 (22.68%) Java
3 446 (20.48%) Python
4 382 (17.54%) C#
5 333 (15.29%) JavaScript
6 262 (12.03%) TypeScript
7 96 (4.41%) PL/SQL
8 65 (2.98%) T-SQL
9 52 (2.39%) Apex Code
10 47 (2.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 43 (1.97%) Shell Script
12 40 (1.84%) Kotlin
13 37 (1.70%) C++
14 25 (1.15%) Scala
15 24 (1.10%) Bash
16 23 (1.06%) Swift
17 21 (0.96%) PowerShell
18 18 (0.83%) PHP
19 16 (0.73%) Ruby
20 15 (0.69%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 408 (18.73%) Security Cleared
2 351 (16.12%) SC Cleared
3 111 (5.10%) Degree
4 60 (2.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 39 (1.79%) DV Cleared
6 33 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
7 17 (0.78%) Master's Degree
8 16 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (0.46%) PhD
10 9 (0.41%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.28%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 5 (0.23%) Numerate Degree
13 4 (0.18%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.092%) CTC Cleared
14 2 (0.092%) DBS Check
15 1 (0.046%) CISSP
15 1 (0.046%) ITIL Certification
15 1 (0.046%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.046%) PMI Certification
15 1 (0.046%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 146 (6.70%) QA
2 66 (3.03%) Accessibility
3 53 (2.43%) Data Quality
4 22 (1.01%) WCAG
5 11 (0.51%) GDPR
6 6 (0.28%) GRC
7 5 (0.23%) HL7
7 5 (0.23%) ISO 20022
8 4 (0.18%) SEPA
9 3 (0.14%) Basel III
9 3 (0.14%) EMIR
9 3 (0.14%) MiFID
9 3 (0.14%) SLA
9 3 (0.14%) Solvency II
10 2 (0.092%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 2 (0.092%) GMP
10 2 (0.092%) GxP
10 2 (0.092%) ISO 13485
10 2 (0.092%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.092%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 219 (10.06%) Docker
2 7 (0.32%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.18%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (0.092%) Postfix
4 2 (0.092%) Varnish
5 1 (0.046%) Oracle RAC
5 1 (0.046%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.046%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 200 (9.18%) Kubernetes
2 28 (1.29%) Grafana
3 27 (1.24%) Ansible
4 21 (0.96%) Prometheus
5 10 (0.46%) Control-M
5 10 (0.46%) Kibana
6 4 (0.18%) Argo
6 4 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.14%) Bosun
7 3 (0.14%) Istio
8 2 (0.092%) CloudHub
9 1 (0.046%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.046%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 271 (12.44%) Microsoft
2 194 (8.91%) Oracle
3 124 (5.69%) Salesforce
4 98 (4.50%) ServiceNow
5 46 (2.11%) IBM
6 43 (1.97%) Databricks
7 41 (1.88%) Google
8 34 (1.56%) Citrix
8 34 (1.56%) MuleSoft
9 26 (1.19%) UiPath
10 25 (1.15%) SAP
11 24 (1.10%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
12 23 (1.06%) OpenAI
13 14 (0.64%) Adobe
14 12 (0.55%) Splunk
15 11 (0.51%) Sybase
15 11 (0.51%) webMethods
16 10 (0.46%) Avaloq
16 10 (0.46%) OutSystems
17 9 (0.41%) ION Trading