Senior Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Senior
UK > UK excluding London

The median Senior daily rate in the UK excluding London is £536, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 August 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 25 23
Rank change year-on-year +8 -2 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Senior 2,379 964 1,227
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 8.70% 6.34% 6.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.45% 7.01% 7.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,438 590 708
10th Percentile £400 £361 £356
25th Percentile £450 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £536 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.28% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £626
90th Percentile £700 £688 £713
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £575
% change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 52 119
10th Percentile £16.62 £33.91 £23.20
25th Percentile £33.99 £40.59 £30.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £57.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +21.05% -2.06%
75th Percentile £75.20 £76.86 £68.13
90th Percentile £86.61 £88.86 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year +9.09% +10.00% -10.81%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 25,181 13,750 16,926
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.11% 90.38% 92.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,223 8,471 10,336
10th Percentile £305 £217 £219
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,004 1,202 1,766
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.35 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.48 £16.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +15.89%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% -

Senior
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Senior' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Senior job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Senior
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Senior
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 7 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Senior in the UK excluding London

Senior
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Senior
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Senior in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 7 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Senior in the UK excluding London

Senior
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 Senior within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 7 August 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
North of England +8 716 £550 +10.00% 813
South East +14 596 £550 +7.00% 827
Midlands +23 464 £525 +0.48% 395
West Midlands +12 343 £525 -1.18% 244
North West +8 336 £575 +15.00% 491
Yorkshire +8 274 £501 +0.10% 228
South West 0 250 £549 +0.05% 366
East of England +21 163 £513 -6.82% 297
Scotland +5 163 £475 +3.26% 271
North East +4 124 £575 +6.09% 95
East Midlands +40 115 £525 +10.53% 151
Wales +11 44 £550 +41.94% 79
Northern Ireland +1 11 £575 +15.00% 93
Senior
UK

Senior Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 7 August 2026, Senior 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 UK excluding London region featuring Senior in the job title.

1 619 (26.02%) Security Cleared
2 521 (21.90%) Agile
3 414 (17.40%) Azure
4 397 (16.69%) CI/CD
5 382 (16.06%) SC Cleared
6 335 (14.08%) DevOps
7 327 (13.75%) Stakeholder Management
8 314 (13.20%) AWS
9 287 (12.06%) Python
10 266 (11.18%) Continuous Improvement
11 256 (10.76%) SQL
12 240 (10.09%) Microsoft
13 226 (9.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 221 (9.29%) AI
15 214 (9.00%) Problem-Solving
16 211 (8.87%) Migration
17 193 (8.11%) Java
18 189 (7.94%) Test Automation
19 181 (7.61%) Terraform
20 178 (7.48%) Software Engineering
20 178 (7.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
21 176 (7.40%) Analytics
22 171 (7.19%) Infrastructure as Code
23 162 (6.81%) DV Cleared
24 160 (6.73%) Decision-Making
25 158 (6.64%) Mentoring
26 154 (6.47%) Linux
27 153 (6.43%) Git
28 146 (6.14%) Roadmaps
29 143 (6.01%) Microservices

Senior Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding 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 74 (3.11%) Confluence
2 32 (1.35%) SharePoint
3 22 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (0.63%) SAS
5 14 (0.59%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 8 (0.34%) WordPress
8 6 (0.25%) Tuxedo
8 6 (0.25%) WebSphere
9 5 (0.21%) CMS
10 4 (0.17%) OpenEdge
11 3 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2010
11 3 (0.13%) IIS
11 3 (0.13%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.084%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.084%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.084%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.084%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.084%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 40 (1.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
3 20 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
4 16 (0.67%) MS Visio
5 14 (0.59%) Adobe Illustrator
5 14 (0.59%) Photoshop
6 11 (0.46%) Adobe After Effects
6 11 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.17%) Simulink
8 3 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
8 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.084%) EngageOne
10 1 (0.042%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.042%) CINEMA 4D
10 1 (0.042%) Houdini
10 1 (0.042%) InDesign
10 1 (0.042%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.042%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 31 (1.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (0.92%) Teamcenter
3 16 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
4 15 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
5 14 (0.59%) Primavera
6 12 (0.50%) NEC Housing
7 10 (0.42%) SAP MM
8 7 (0.29%) NetSuite
9 6 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
10 5 (0.21%) Infor LN
11 4 (0.17%) Sage X3
11 4 (0.17%) Workday HCM
12 3 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
12 3 (0.13%) Maximo
13 2 (0.084%) Oracle ERP
13 2 (0.084%) Remedy AR System
13 2 (0.084%) SAP APO
13 2 (0.084%) SAP IBP
13 2 (0.084%) SAP QM
13 2 (0.084%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 414 (17.40%) Azure
2 314 (13.20%) AWS
3 109 (4.58%) Power Platform
4 108 (4.54%) GitHub
5 105 (4.41%) GCP
6 102 (4.29%) Azure DevOps
7 72 (3.03%) GitHub Actions
8 69 (2.90%) Microsoft 365
9 51 (2.14%) Serverless
10 46 (1.93%) Entra ID
10 46 (1.93%) SaaS
11 39 (1.64%) OCI
12 34 (1.43%) Snowflake
13 33 (1.39%) Azure Data Factory
14 26 (1.09%) Amazon S3
15 25 (1.05%) Power Automate
16 23 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
16 23 (0.97%) Azure Monitor
16 23 (0.97%) SuccessFactors
17 22 (0.92%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 117 (4.92%) Firewall
2 75 (3.15%) WAN
3 69 (2.90%) DNS
4 54 (2.27%) BGP
4 54 (2.27%) VPN
5 49 (2.06%) LAN
6 46 (1.93%) OSPF
7 42 (1.77%) Network Security
8 38 (1.60%) DHCP
9 32 (1.35%) VXLAN
10 31 (1.30%) BIG-IP
10 31 (1.30%) Wi-Fi
11 30 (1.26%) Ethernet VPN
11 30 (1.26%) SD-WAN
11 30 (1.26%) TCP/IP
12 24 (1.01%) VSAN
13 23 (0.97%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 23 (0.97%) Wireless
14 21 (0.88%) SAN
14 21 (0.88%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (3.99%) Power BI
2 77 (3.24%) SQL Server
3 58 (2.44%) Data Warehouse
4 57 (2.40%) Relational Database
5 56 (2.35%) PostgreSQL
6 36 (1.51%) MongoDB
7 34 (1.43%) Oracle Database
8 31 (1.30%) Data Lake
9 28 (1.18%) Metadata
10 24 (1.01%) NoSQL
10 24 (1.01%) RDBMS
11 21 (0.88%) DynamoDB
12 18 (0.76%) MySQL
12 18 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
13 17 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
14 16 (0.67%) Tableau
15 13 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
15 13 (0.55%) Geospatial Data
15 13 (0.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 12 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 153 (6.43%) Git
2 112 (4.71%) JIRA
3 83 (3.49%) GitLab
4 80 (3.36%) Jenkins
5 41 (1.72%) Selenium
6 31 (1.30%) Cucumber
7 29 (1.22%) JUnit
8 23 (0.97%) Mockito
9 22 (0.92%) WebDriver
10 20 (0.84%) Maven
11 19 (0.80%) JMeter
12 17 (0.71%) Postman
13 14 (0.59%) Cypress.io
14 12 (0.50%) SonarQube
15 10 (0.42%) Claude Code
15 10 (0.42%) Oracle Forms
16 7 (0.29%) Gradle
16 7 (0.29%) MSI
16 7 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
17 6 (0.25%) LoadRunner
General
1 447 (18.79%) Social Skills
2 361 (15.17%) Finance
3 336 (14.12%) Public Sector
4 173 (7.27%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (5.13%) Banking
6 57 (2.40%) Legal
6 57 (2.40%) Retail
7 51 (2.14%) Aerospace
8 50 (2.10%) Military
9 46 (1.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 44 (1.85%) Manufacturing
11 43 (1.81%) Local Government
12 39 (1.64%) Telecoms
13 32 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
14 26 (1.09%) Automotive
15 24 (1.01%) Investment Banking
16 23 (0.97%) Documentation Skills
17 22 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
18 20 (0.84%) Marketing
19 19 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (4.46%) REST
2 76 (3.19%) React
3 70 (2.94%) Spring
4 68 (2.86%) .NET
5 56 (2.35%) RESTful
6 55 (2.31%) Spring Boot
7 49 (2.06%) Node.js
8 48 (2.02%) Kafka
9 44 (1.85%) HTML
10 37 (1.56%) CSS
11 30 (1.26%) AngularJS
11 30 (1.26%) Oracle Fusion
11 30 (1.26%) SOAP
12 27 (1.13%) PySpark
12 27 (1.13%) Redux
13 26 (1.09%) JPA
14 23 (0.97%) OAuth
15 22 (0.92%) HTML5
15 22 (0.92%) JSON
15 22 (0.92%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 123 (5.17%) Cloud Native
2 76 (3.19%) Product Ownership
3 74 (3.11%) Data Centre
4 62 (2.61%) PKI
5 57 (2.40%) Hybrid Cloud
6 54 (2.27%) Onboarding
7 53 (2.23%) Management Information System
8 49 (2.06%) Distributed Systems
9 39 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
10 37 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
11 34 (1.43%) Public Cloud
12 29 (1.22%) Clustering
13 28 (1.18%) Data Structures
14 24 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
14 24 (1.01%) Mobile App
14 24 (1.01%) Security Operations Centre
15 21 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
16 20 (0.84%) Animation
16 20 (0.84%) Replication
17 19 (0.80%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 154 (6.47%) Linux
2 139 (5.84%) Windows
3 63 (2.65%) Windows Server
4 37 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 37 (1.56%) Unix
5 27 (1.13%) Android
6 19 (0.80%) Apple iOS
7 11 (0.46%) AIX
7 11 (0.46%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.34%) CentOS
9 6 (0.25%) Mac OS X
9 6 (0.25%) Rocky
10 5 (0.21%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.21%) Windows 10
11 4 (0.17%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.084%) Check Point GAiA
13 2 (0.084%) Data ONTAP
13 2 (0.084%) Solaris
13 2 (0.084%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 521 (21.90%) Agile
2 397 (16.69%) CI/CD
3 335 (14.08%) DevOps
4 327 (13.75%) Stakeholder Management
5 266 (11.18%) Continuous Improvement
6 226 (9.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 221 (9.29%) AI
8 214 (9.00%) Problem-Solving
9 211 (8.87%) Migration
10 189 (7.94%) Test Automation
11 178 (7.48%) Software Engineering
11 178 (7.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 176 (7.40%) Analytics
13 171 (7.19%) Infrastructure as Code
14 160 (6.73%) Decision-Making
15 158 (6.64%) Mentoring
16 146 (6.14%) Roadmaps
17 143 (6.01%) Microservices
18 134 (5.63%) ITIL
19 128 (5.38%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 287 (12.06%) Python
2 256 (10.76%) SQL
3 193 (8.11%) Java
4 114 (4.79%) JavaScript
5 98 (4.12%) PowerShell
6 93 (3.91%) C#
7 69 (2.90%) TypeScript
8 56 (2.35%) Bash
9 24 (1.01%) Bicep
10 23 (0.97%) PL/SQL
11 19 (0.80%) C
12 18 (0.76%) Kotlin
13 12 (0.50%) Go
14 11 (0.46%) Apex Code
14 11 (0.46%) Perl
15 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
15 10 (0.42%) Shell Script
16 9 (0.38%) C++
16 9 (0.38%) PHP
17 8 (0.34%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 619 (26.02%) Security Cleared
2 382 (16.06%) SC Cleared
3 162 (6.81%) DV Cleared
4 135 (5.67%) Degree
5 89 (3.74%) BPSS Clearance
6 35 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
7 27 (1.13%) PMP
8 26 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
8 26 (1.09%) PMI Certification
9 25 (1.05%) CCNP
10 22 (0.92%) ISTQB
11 21 (0.88%) Azure Certification
12 19 (0.80%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (0.63%) ACCA
13 15 (0.63%) CIMA
14 14 (0.59%) AWS Certification
14 14 (0.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 11 (0.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 10 (0.42%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 10 (0.42%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 114 (4.79%) QA
2 98 (4.12%) Data Quality
3 78 (3.28%) Accessibility
4 49 (2.06%) WCAG
5 48 (2.02%) GDPR
6 39 (1.64%) PMO
7 19 (0.80%) NIST
7 19 (0.80%) SLA
8 18 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 17 (0.71%) NCSC
10 16 (0.67%) GRC
11 12 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
11 12 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.21%) DO-254
12 5 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 5 (0.21%) PCI DSS
12 5 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.13%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 141 (5.93%) Docker
2 82 (3.45%) Active Directory
3 81 (3.40%) VMware Infrastructure
4 44 (1.85%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.92%) Hyper-V
5 22 (0.92%) vSphere
6 19 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
6 19 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (0.59%) Oracle RAC
8 8 (0.34%) Firmware
9 5 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.13%) Ceph
10 3 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.084%) FreeRADIUS
11 2 (0.084%) NFS
11 2 (0.084%) Postfix
12 1 (0.042%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.042%) Microsoft App-V
12 1 (0.042%) Squid
12 1 (0.042%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 181 (7.61%) Terraform
2 141 (5.93%) Kubernetes
3 136 (5.72%) Ansible
4 41 (1.72%) Grafana
5 32 (1.35%) Prometheus
6 30 (1.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 17 (0.71%) vCenter Server
8 16 (0.67%) Argo
9 14 (0.59%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.55%) Oracle RMAN
11 11 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
12 10 (0.42%) Data Guard
12 10 (0.42%) SCCM
13 9 (0.38%) NetBackup
14 8 (0.34%) Istio
14 8 (0.34%) Puppet
15 5 (0.21%) PowerCLI
15 5 (0.21%) SCOM
15 5 (0.21%) WSUS
16 4 (0.17%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 240 (10.09%) Microsoft
2 121 (5.09%) Oracle
3 117 (4.92%) SAP
4 107 (4.50%) VMware
5 92 (3.87%) Cisco
6 80 (3.36%) ServiceNow
7 66 (2.77%) Databricks
8 45 (1.89%) Palo Alto
9 43 (1.81%) F5
10 41 (1.72%) Google
11 39 (1.64%) Salesforce
12 26 (1.09%) Juniper
13 25 (1.05%) Adobe
14 24 (1.01%) Arista
14 24 (1.01%) Red Hat
15 22 (0.92%) Ariba
15 22 (0.92%) Aruba
16 21 (0.88%) Citrix
16 21 (0.88%) MuleSoft
17 19 (0.80%) Splunk