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 11 March 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 5 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 -1 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 2,201 2,160 2,999
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.63% 16.69% 16.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 14.72% 17.81% 17.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,549 1,518 2,282
10th Percentile £384 £385 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -8.00%
75th Percentile £650 £713 £750
90th Percentile £800 £850 £849
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 8 13
10th Percentile £33.54 £35.53 £33.03
25th Percentile £35.00 £36.50 £56.25
Median hourly rate £46.00 £40.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -32.92% +4.35%
75th Percentile £57.50 £55.25 £72.50
90th Percentile £95.00 £57.13 £73.42
England median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -2.87% +4.00% -2.34%

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 14,956 12,129 17,048
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.62% 93.70% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,041 8,120 12,298
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £435 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 229 141 345
10th Percentile £18.21 £21.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £22.41 £24.66 £19.38
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £28.75
Median % change year-on-year - +21.74% -17.86%
75th Percentile £60.25 £53.75 £48.56
90th Percentile £76.58 £78.40 £65.00
England median hourly rate £36.32 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +3.77% +7.69% -23.29%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 11 March 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 -7 281 £525 -8.70% 124
South London +1 45 £511 -44.73% 31
West London -17 18 £455 +11.12% 37
East London -7 5 £521 +30.13% 35
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 11 March 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.

1 547 (24.85%) Java
2 543 (24.67%) Python
3 535 (24.31%) Agile
4 526 (23.90%) SQL
5 500 (22.72%) CI/CD
6 487 (22.13%) Azure
7 449 (20.40%) AWS
8 408 (18.54%) JavaScript
9 389 (17.67%) C#
10 383 (17.40%) Security Cleared
11 358 (16.27%) React
12 350 (15.90%) DevOps
13 344 (15.63%) Problem-Solving
14 316 (14.36%) .NET
15 309 (14.04%) SC Cleared
16 292 (13.27%) Docker
17 290 (13.18%) Full-Stack Development
18 283 (12.86%) Microservices
19 273 (12.40%) TypeScript
20 270 (12.27%) Kubernetes
21 245 (11.13%) Microsoft
22 239 (10.86%) REST
23 237 (10.77%) Analytics
24 231 (10.50%) Software Engineering
25 224 (10.18%) Git
26 221 (10.04%) Kafka
27 214 (9.72%) Node.js
28 211 (9.59%) Power Platform
29 200 (9.09%) AI
30 194 (8.81%) HTML

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 73 (3.32%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.86%) Confluence
3 20 (0.91%) CMS
4 18 (0.82%) IIS
5 16 (0.73%) Microsoft Exchange
6 15 (0.68%) HCL Notes
7 13 (0.59%) Mendix
8 11 (0.50%) Apache
8 11 (0.50%) Ethereum
9 10 (0.45%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 10 (0.45%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 9 (0.41%) Apache Spark
10 9 (0.41%) Headless CMS
11 8 (0.36%) Hyperledger
11 8 (0.36%) JBoss
12 7 (0.32%) MQSeries
12 7 (0.32%) WebLogic
13 6 (0.27%) Camunda
13 6 (0.27%) WebSphere
14 5 (0.23%) Appian
Applications
1 48 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.41%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.23%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.14%) Adobe XD
4 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 45 (2.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.82%) Endur
3 13 (0.59%) Fidessa
4 8 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
4 8 (0.36%) Temenos T24
5 7 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.27%) BusinessWorks
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.23%) BASE24
7 5 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle 11i
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.14%) ProductWriter
10 2 (0.091%) Adobe Campaign
10 2 (0.091%) Magento
10 2 (0.091%) Oracle Assets
10 2 (0.091%) Oracle Cash Management
10 2 (0.091%) Oracle General Ledger
10 2 (0.091%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 487 (22.13%) Azure
2 449 (20.40%) AWS
3 211 (9.59%) Power Platform
4 164 (7.45%) GitHub
5 142 (6.45%) Azure DevOps
6 121 (5.50%) Serverless
7 113 (5.13%) GCP
8 110 (5.00%) Power Automate
9 97 (4.41%) PowerApps
10 82 (3.73%) Dynamics 365
11 76 (3.45%) GitHub Actions
12 57 (2.59%) AWS Lambda
13 56 (2.54%) Azure Functions
14 55 (2.50%) Azure Logic Apps
14 55 (2.50%) Microsoft 365
15 54 (2.45%) Amazon S3
16 51 (2.32%) Entra ID
17 48 (2.18%) Azure Service Bus
18 37 (1.68%) Microsoft Copilot
19 36 (1.64%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.09%) HTTP
2 13 (0.59%) FIX Connectivity
3 12 (0.55%) Internet
4 8 (0.36%) Network Security
5 7 (0.32%) SSL
6 6 (0.27%) HTTPS
6 6 (0.27%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.23%) CTI
7 5 (0.23%) Firewall
7 5 (0.23%) SMS
7 5 (0.23%) VoIP
8 3 (0.14%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.14%) DNS
8 3 (0.14%) Multicast
8 3 (0.14%) MVNO
8 3 (0.14%) SMPP
9 2 (0.091%) DHCP
9 2 (0.091%) RTMP
9 2 (0.091%) RTP
9 2 (0.091%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 171 (7.77%) SQL Server
2 151 (6.86%) PostgreSQL
3 134 (6.09%) Power BI
4 119 (5.41%) Relational Database
5 83 (3.77%) NoSQL
6 72 (3.27%) Oracle Database
7 64 (2.91%) MongoDB
8 41 (1.86%) Apache Cassandra
9 38 (1.73%) Data Warehouse
10 34 (1.54%) MySQL
11 26 (1.18%) KDB
11 26 (1.18%) RDBMS
12 25 (1.14%) Data Lake
12 25 (1.14%) Kdb+
13 24 (1.09%) DynamoDB
14 23 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
15 22 (1.00%) DB2
16 21 (0.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 19 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
17 19 (0.86%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 224 (10.18%) Git
2 102 (4.63%) Jenkins
3 100 (4.54%) JIRA
4 63 (2.86%) GitLab
5 57 (2.59%) JUnit
6 30 (1.36%) Maven
6 30 (1.36%) Visual Studio
7 22 (1.00%) Mockito
8 21 (0.95%) Gradle
9 19 (0.86%) Bitbucket
10 16 (0.73%) TeamCity
11 15 (0.68%) Cucumber
11 15 (0.68%) webpack
12 14 (0.64%) Cypress.io
12 14 (0.64%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.64%) Sonatype Nexus
13 13 (0.59%) Android Studio
13 13 (0.59%) Selenium
14 11 (0.50%) Octopus Deploy
14 11 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 616 (27.99%) Finance
2 419 (19.04%) Social Skills
3 321 (14.58%) Banking
4 233 (10.59%) Front Office
5 213 (9.68%) Public Sector
6 157 (7.13%) Analytical Skills
7 122 (5.54%) Investment Banking
8 53 (2.41%) Financial Institution
9 22 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
10 18 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (0.77%) Marketing
12 16 (0.73%) Law
13 12 (0.55%) Back Office
13 12 (0.55%) Local Government
14 11 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
15 10 (0.45%) Telecoms
16 8 (0.36%) Retail
17 7 (0.32%) Pharmaceutical
17 7 (0.32%) Publishing
17 7 (0.32%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 358 (16.27%) React
2 316 (14.36%) .NET
3 239 (10.86%) REST
4 221 (10.04%) Kafka
5 214 (9.72%) Node.js
6 194 (8.81%) HTML
7 192 (8.72%) RESTful
8 179 (8.13%) AngularJS
9 178 (8.09%) Spring
10 172 (7.81%) CSS
11 131 (5.95%) Spring Boot
12 86 (3.91%) Web Services
13 83 (3.77%) .NET Framework
14 79 (3.59%) Redux
15 78 (3.54%) SOAP
16 77 (3.50%) GraphQL
17 72 (3.27%) JSON
18 67 (3.04%) Vue
19 61 (2.77%) XML
20 49 (2.23%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 127 (5.77%) Equities
2 114 (5.18%) Derivative
3 102 (4.63%) Fixed Income
4 99 (4.50%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 81 (3.68%) Algorithms
5 81 (3.68%) Cloud Native
6 78 (3.54%) Distributed Systems
7 72 (3.27%) Data Structures
8 61 (2.77%) Product Ownership
9 46 (2.09%) Greenfield Project
10 41 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
10 41 (1.86%) Mobile App
11 38 (1.73%) AI Agents
12 37 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
12 37 (1.68%) Management Information System
13 32 (1.45%) Hedge funds
14 31 (1.41%) Low-Code
15 30 (1.36%) Equity Derivative
16 27 (1.23%) Market Risk
17 25 (1.14%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 126 (5.72%) Linux
2 68 (3.09%) Windows
3 51 (2.32%) Unix
4 35 (1.59%) Android
5 31 (1.41%) Apple iOS
6 22 (1.00%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.23%) AIX
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.18%) zOS
9 3 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.045%) CentOS
10 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 535 (24.31%) Agile
2 500 (22.72%) CI/CD
3 350 (15.90%) DevOps
4 344 (15.63%) Problem-Solving
5 290 (13.18%) Full-Stack Development
6 283 (12.86%) Microservices
7 237 (10.77%) Analytics
8 231 (10.50%) Software Engineering
9 200 (9.09%) AI
10 186 (8.45%) Business Intelligence
11 178 (8.09%) Containerisation
12 171 (7.77%) Test Automation
13 153 (6.95%) Data Modelling
14 141 (6.41%) TDD
15 131 (5.95%) Front End Development
16 128 (5.82%) Unit Testing
17 127 (5.77%) Scrum
18 122 (5.54%) Design Patterns
19 112 (5.09%) Low Latency
20 108 (4.91%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 547 (24.85%) Java
2 543 (24.67%) Python
3 526 (23.90%) SQL
4 408 (18.54%) JavaScript
5 389 (17.67%) C#
6 273 (12.40%) TypeScript
7 100 (4.54%) C++
8 90 (4.09%) Go
9 75 (3.41%) PL/SQL
10 52 (2.36%) T-SQL
11 51 (2.32%) Kotlin
12 42 (1.91%) Apex Code
13 36 (1.64%) Shell Script
14 35 (1.59%) Ruby
15 33 (1.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 33 (1.50%) PowerShell
16 29 (1.32%) VB
17 28 (1.27%) VBA
18 21 (0.95%) C
19 20 (0.91%) Swift
Qualifications
1 383 (17.40%) Security Cleared
2 309 (14.04%) SC Cleared
3 117 (5.32%) Degree
4 52 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 28 (1.27%) DV Cleared
6 26 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
7 24 (1.09%) Master's Degree
8 12 (0.55%) Numerate Degree
9 6 (0.27%) AWS Certification
9 6 (0.27%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (0.23%) Azure Certification
10 5 (0.23%) PhD
11 4 (0.18%) Oracle Certification
12 3 (0.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.14%) CTC Cleared
13 2 (0.091%) AWS Certified Developer
13 2 (0.091%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.091%) OCP
13 2 (0.091%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (4.36%) QA
2 74 (3.36%) Accessibility
3 35 (1.59%) WCAG
4 33 (1.50%) Data Quality
5 14 (0.64%) GDPR
6 7 (0.32%) ISO 8583
6 7 (0.32%) SLA
7 6 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.23%) SEPA
9 4 (0.18%) GRC
9 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.14%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.14%) PMO
10 3 (0.14%) PSD2
11 2 (0.091%) HL7
12 1 (0.045%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.045%) MiFID
System Software
1 292 (13.27%) Docker
2 28 (1.27%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.14%) HDFS
4 2 (0.091%) OpenAM
4 2 (0.091%) OpenDJ
4 2 (0.091%) OpenIDM
4 2 (0.091%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.091%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.091%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.091%) zsh
5 1 (0.045%) FreeRADIUS
5 1 (0.045%) Oracle RAC
5 1 (0.045%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 270 (12.27%) Kubernetes
2 81 (3.68%) Terraform
3 32 (1.45%) Ansible
4 25 (1.14%) Grafana
5 18 (0.82%) Prometheus
6 12 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.50%) Argo
8 6 (0.27%) TIBCO Hawk
9 5 (0.23%) Control-M
9 5 (0.23%) SCCM
10 2 (0.091%) CloudHub
10 2 (0.091%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.091%) Podman
10 2 (0.091%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.091%) rkt
11 1 (0.045%) CA Endevor
11 1 (0.045%) IBM Guardium
11 1 (0.045%) Kibana
11 1 (0.045%) Nessus
11 1 (0.045%) Oracle Identity Management
Vendors
1 245 (11.13%) Microsoft
2 179 (8.13%) Oracle
3 74 (3.36%) Salesforce
4 64 (2.91%) ServiceNow
5 36 (1.64%) SAP
6 35 (1.59%) Citrix
6 35 (1.59%) Databricks
7 33 (1.50%) IBM
8 32 (1.45%) OpenAI
9 30 (1.36%) Google
10 26 (1.18%) Adobe
11 22 (1.00%) MuleSoft
12 21 (0.95%) Guidewire
13 16 (0.73%) Sybase
14 15 (0.68%) Foundry
14 15 (0.68%) Lotus
15 14 (0.64%) Red Hat
16 12 (0.55%) Pega
17 11 (0.50%) OpenLink
17 11 (0.50%) Solace