SDLC Contracts in the UK excluding London

Systems or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring SDLC skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SDLC over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 97 132 112
Rank change year-on-year +35 -20 -16
Contract jobs citing SDLC 331 347 559
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.59% 1.67% 2.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.87% 1.97% 2.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 231 330
10th Percentile £327 £300 £382
25th Percentile £405 £415 £448
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% +4.48%
75th Percentile £580 £641 £600
90th Percentile £638 £706 £700
UK median daily rate £540 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -6.09% -4.17% +5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 20 43
10th Percentile £29.27 £34.11 £46.70
25th Percentile £40.39 £45.60 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £48.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.58% -23.20% +8.70%
75th Percentile £70.63 £51.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.60 £57.50 £65.75
UK median hourly rate £61.25 £48.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +27.60% -20.00% +9.09%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

SDLC falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 11,543 17,602 21,544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.42% 84.74% 89.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,249 10,520 14,947
10th Percentile £235 £250 £255
25th Percentile £375 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £662 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 825 2,048 1,307
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.33 £11.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.28 £16.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%
75th Percentile £64.50 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £72.98
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
% change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%

SDLC
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing SDLC as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for SDLC in the UK excluding London

SDLC
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SDLC in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for SDLC in the UK excluding London

SDLC
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDLC in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SDLC in the UK excluding London

SDLC
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SDLC in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for SDLC in the UK excluding London

SDLC
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SDLC in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SDLC in the UK excluding London

SDLC
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDLC within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
Scotland +38 126 £475 -5.00% 92
North of England +11 86 £471 -0.95% 209
North West +13 60 £466 +3.56% 134
South East +19 50 £538 -9.66% 245
Midlands +25 32 £537 -6.61% 105
Yorkshire +3 22 £520 +4.00% 47
West Midlands +9 20 £580 -14.15% 68
South West +23 17 £625 - 102
East of England +21 11 £600 +9.09% 70
East Midlands +17 11 £515 +15.73% 30
Wales -8 10 £530 +2.91% 17
North East 0 4 £363 - 32
Northern Ireland - 4 £325 - 30
SDLC
UK

SDLC
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 12 (3.63%) Confluence
2 7 (2.11%) Jupyter
2 7 (2.11%) Tomcat
3 6 (1.81%) JBoss
3 6 (1.81%) NetWeaver
3 6 (1.81%) WebSphere
4 5 (1.51%) SharePoint
4 5 (1.51%) WebLogic
5 4 (1.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.91%) Apache
6 3 (0.91%) CICS
7 2 (0.60%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.60%) Appian
7 2 (0.60%) FactoryTalk
8 1 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.30%) Camunda
8 1 (0.30%) CMS
8 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.30%) SAS
Applications
1 6 (1.81%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.51%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.60%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.30%) Adobe Campaign
2 1 (0.30%) BASE24
2 1 (0.30%) IntelliMatch
2 1 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
2 1 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.30%) SAP APO
2 1 (0.30%) SAP CRM
2 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 67 (20.24%) AWS
2 62 (18.73%) Azure
3 21 (6.34%) GCP
4 18 (5.44%) Azure DevOps
4 18 (5.44%) Serverless
5 16 (4.83%) SaaS
6 11 (3.32%) GitHub
7 9 (2.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 9 (2.72%) AWS Lambda
7 9 (2.72%) Cloud Computing
8 8 (2.42%) Amazon S3
9 7 (2.11%) Amazon EC2
9 7 (2.11%) AWS CloudFormation
9 7 (2.11%) Azure Monitor
10 6 (1.81%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 6 (1.81%) Azure Data Factory
10 6 (1.81%) Azure Functions
11 5 (1.51%) Amazon Glacier
11 5 (1.51%) Amazon Kinesis
11 5 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.72%) HTTP
2 5 (1.51%) Firewall
3 2 (0.60%) ATM
3 2 (0.60%) Network Security
3 2 (0.60%) VPN
4 1 (0.30%) Cisco Firepower
4 1 (0.30%) DHCP
4 1 (0.30%) DNS
4 1 (0.30%) Fibre Channel
4 1 (0.30%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.30%) Internet
4 1 (0.30%) Intranet
4 1 (0.30%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (0.30%) iSCSI
4 1 (0.30%) SAN
4 1 (0.30%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (11.48%) Relational Database
2 36 (10.88%) MongoDB
3 33 (9.97%) DB2
4 19 (5.74%) NoSQL
5 15 (4.53%) KDB
5 15 (4.53%) Kdb+
6 12 (3.63%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (3.02%) Oracle Database
7 10 (3.02%) RDBMS
8 9 (2.72%) DynamoDB
8 9 (2.72%) SQL Server
9 7 (2.11%) MySQL
10 6 (1.81%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (1.81%) Apache Cassandra
11 5 (1.51%) Redis
11 5 (1.51%) Siebel EIM
12 4 (1.21%) Neo4j
13 3 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
13 3 (0.91%) IBM InfoSphere
13 3 (0.91%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 53 (16.01%) Git
2 49 (14.80%) JIRA
3 35 (10.57%) JUnit
4 30 (9.06%) Jenkins
5 13 (3.93%) Selenium
6 11 (3.32%) Bitbucket
7 10 (3.02%) Subversion
8 7 (2.11%) GitLab
9 5 (1.51%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.51%) JMeter
9 5 (1.51%) Maven
9 5 (1.51%) Mockito
10 4 (1.21%) Ant
10 4 (1.21%) Postman
10 4 (1.21%) Visual Studio
11 3 (0.91%) MagicDraw
11 3 (0.91%) Visual Studio Code
12 2 (0.60%) Balsamiq
12 2 (0.60%) QARun
12 2 (0.60%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 123 (37.16%) Social Skills
2 120 (36.25%) Finance
3 71 (21.45%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (18.43%) Banking
5 30 (9.06%) Investment Banking
6 20 (6.04%) Front Office
7 17 (5.14%) Public Sector
8 10 (3.02%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (2.42%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.81%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.81%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (1.51%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.51%) Legal
12 4 (1.21%) Marketing
12 4 (1.21%) Wholesale Banking
13 2 (0.60%) Billing
13 2 (0.60%) French Language
13 2 (0.60%) Japanese Language
Job Titles
1 145 (43.81%) Developer
2 45 (13.60%) Java Developer
3 44 (13.29%) Python Developer
4 37 (11.18%) Senior
5 30 (9.06%) Architect
6 26 (7.85%) Analyst
6 26 (7.85%) Lead
7 17 (5.14%) Full-Stack Developer
8 16 (4.83%) Business Analyst
8 16 (4.83%) Senior Developer
9 14 (4.23%) C++ Developer
9 14 (4.23%) Solutions Architect
10 13 (3.93%) Project Manager
11 12 (3.63%) Linux Developer
12 11 (3.32%) Investment Banking C++ Developer
12 11 (3.32%) Senior C++ Developer
12 11 (3.32%) Senior Python Developer
13 10 (3.02%) Software Engineer
14 9 (2.72%) Release Manager
15 8 (2.42%) Oracle Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (13.90%) Spring
2 37 (11.18%) Kafka
3 34 (10.27%) REST
4 29 (8.76%) JMS
4 29 (8.76%) Web Services
5 25 (7.55%) RESTful
5 25 (7.55%) SOAP
6 23 (6.95%) HTML
6 23 (6.95%) Spring Boot
7 22 (6.65%) CSS
8 20 (6.04%) .NET
9 17 (5.14%) Middleware
9 17 (5.14%) React
10 14 (4.23%) AngularJS
11 10 (3.02%) ActiveMQ
11 10 (3.02%) Node.js
11 10 (3.02%) XML
12 7 (2.11%) HTML5
12 7 (2.11%) J2EE
12 7 (2.11%) JDBC
Miscellaneous
1 39 (11.78%) Product Ownership
2 31 (9.37%) Data Structures
3 24 (7.25%) Data Protection Act
4 23 (6.95%) Enterprise Software
5 22 (6.65%) Equities
6 20 (6.04%) Public Cloud
7 18 (5.44%) Algorithms
8 11 (3.32%) Virtual Team
9 9 (2.72%) Equity Derivative
10 8 (2.42%) Derivative
10 8 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
11 7 (2.11%) IoT
11 7 (2.11%) Management Information System
11 7 (2.11%) Private Cloud
12 6 (1.81%) Device Driver
12 6 (1.81%) Embedded Systems
12 6 (1.81%) Legacy Applications
12 6 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.51%) Onboarding
14 4 (1.21%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 82 (24.77%) Linux
2 44 (13.29%) Windows
3 16 (4.83%) Unix
4 4 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.91%) AIX
5 3 (0.91%) Solaris
5 3 (0.91%) zOS
6 1 (0.30%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.30%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.30%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (63.14%) Agile
2 96 (29.00%) Problem-Solving
3 76 (22.96%) CI/CD
4 58 (17.52%) Scrum
5 56 (16.92%) DevOps
6 45 (13.60%) Microservices
7 44 (13.29%) Continuous Improvement
8 41 (12.39%) Containerisation
9 40 (12.08%) Test Automation
10 38 (11.48%) Project Management
10 38 (11.48%) Software Engineering
11 31 (9.37%) Data Protection
12 30 (9.06%) Performance Tuning
13 29 (8.76%) Waterfall
14 28 (8.46%) Multithreading
15 26 (7.85%) Artificial Intelligence
16 24 (7.25%) Full-Stack Development
17 22 (6.65%) Stakeholder Management
18 21 (6.34%) Database Tuning
18 21 (6.34%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 112 (33.84%) Python
2 89 (26.89%) Java
3 87 (26.28%) SQL
4 43 (12.99%) JavaScript
5 27 (8.16%) Shell Script
6 24 (7.25%) C#
7 18 (5.44%) C++
8 17 (5.14%) PL/SQL
9 16 (4.83%) TypeScript
10 10 (3.02%) Perl
11 9 (2.72%) R
12 6 (1.81%) ABAP
12 6 (1.81%) C
12 6 (1.81%) Embedded C
13 5 (1.51%) Go
13 5 (1.51%) PHP
14 3 (0.91%) Bash
14 3 (0.91%) COBOL
14 3 (0.91%) JCL
14 3 (0.91%) Scala
Qualifications
1 32 (9.67%) Degree
2 24 (7.25%) Security Cleared
3 20 (6.04%) SC Cleared
4 8 (2.42%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (1.81%) CISSP
5 6 (1.81%) ISTQB
6 5 (1.51%) Master's Degree
6 5 (1.51%) Oracle Certification
6 5 (1.51%) PMP
7 4 (1.21%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.91%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.91%) CISM
8 3 (0.91%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 2 (0.60%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.60%) CBAP
9 2 (0.60%) CEH
9 2 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (9.67%) QA
2 11 (3.32%) Disclosure Scotland
3 5 (1.51%) PMO
4 4 (1.21%) Data Quality
4 4 (1.21%) NIST
5 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.91%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.91%) Software Quality Assurance
6 1 (0.30%) GDPR
6 1 (0.30%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.30%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 54 (16.31%) Docker
2 6 (1.81%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.81%) Firmware
3 3 (0.91%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.30%) GPFS
4 1 (0.30%) NFS
4 1 (0.30%) Time Sharing Option
4 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 56 (16.92%) Kubernetes
2 13 (3.93%) Terraform
3 4 (1.21%) Ansible
3 4 (1.21%) Grafana
4 3 (0.91%) CASB
4 3 (0.91%) Data Guard
4 3 (0.91%) Failover Clustering
4 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Clustering
4 3 (0.91%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 3 (0.91%) Oracle Flashback
5 2 (0.60%) Kibana
5 2 (0.60%) PTC Integrity
6 1 (0.30%) CA Endevor
6 1 (0.30%) HP ALM
6 1 (0.30%) OPNET
6 1 (0.30%) Podman
6 1 (0.30%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.30%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.30%) RSA Archer
6 1 (0.30%) Veritas Storage Foundation
Vendors
1 39 (11.78%) Oracle
2 31 (9.37%) Microsoft
3 25 (7.55%) Sybase
4 17 (5.14%) ServiceNow
5 14 (4.23%) SAP
6 11 (3.32%) IBM
7 9 (2.72%) Dynatrace
8 8 (2.42%) Google
9 7 (2.11%) Splunk
10 6 (1.81%) Atlassian
10 6 (1.81%) OpenAI
11 5 (1.51%) Siebel
11 5 (1.51%) Zend
12 3 (0.91%) Adobe
12 3 (0.91%) Dell
12 3 (0.91%) DocuSign
12 3 (0.91%) Informatica
12 3 (0.91%) New Relic
12 3 (0.91%) Red Hat
12 3 (0.91%) Salesforce