Algorithmic Trading Contracts

Algo Trading
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Algorithmic Trading skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Algorithmic Trading 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 441 503 565
Rank change year-on-year +62 +62 +127
Contract jobs citing Algorithmic Trading 79 79 153
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.27% 0.18% 0.26%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.30% 0.21% 0.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 72 138
10th Percentile £525 £550 £525
25th Percentile £605 £700 £538
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £661 £850 £650
Median % change year-on-year -22.29% +30.77% -13.33%
75th Percentile £819 £1,250 £788
90th Percentile £913 - £974
UK excluding London median daily rate £700 - £450
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
Median hourly rate £75.00 - £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £75.00 - £65.00

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Algorithmic Trading 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Algorithmic Trading
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Algorithmic Trading as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Algorithmic Trading in the UK

Algorithmic Trading
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Algorithmic Trading.

Daily rate trend for Algorithmic Trading in the UK

Algorithmic Trading
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Algorithmic Trading over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Algorithmic Trading in the UK

Algorithmic Trading
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Algorithmic Trading.

Hourly rate trend for Algorithmic Trading in the UK

Algorithmic Trading
Top 6 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Algorithmic Trading within the UK 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
England +53 74 £659 -22.53% 155
London +34 72 £661 -22.29% 152
Work from Home +22 24 £775 -38.00% 48
UK excluding London +68 6 £700 - 53
Scotland - 5 £700 - 1
South West - 1 - -

Algorithmic Trading
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 6 (7.59%) BizTalk Server
2 3 (3.80%) Confluence
3 2 (2.53%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (1.27%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 9 (11.39%) Azure
2 6 (7.59%) AWS
2 6 (7.59%) AWS Lambda
2 6 (7.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
2 6 (7.59%) Azure Logic Apps
2 6 (7.59%) Serverless
3 5 (6.33%) Azure Functions
3 5 (6.33%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 11 (13.92%) FIX Connectivity
2 6 (7.59%) Multicast
3 3 (3.80%) BGP
3 3 (3.80%) HSRP
3 3 (3.80%) IGMP
3 3 (3.80%) OSPF
3 3 (3.80%) VRRP
4 2 (2.53%) Firewall
5 1 (1.27%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (1.27%) EIGRP
5 1 (1.27%) IPsec
5 1 (1.27%) Unicast
5 1 (1.27%) VLAN
5 1 (1.27%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (7.59%) Azure SQL Database
1 6 (7.59%) MongoDB
2 4 (5.06%) KDB
2 4 (5.06%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 17 (21.52%) Git
General
1 33 (41.77%) Finance
2 30 (37.97%) Social Skills
3 24 (30.38%) Banking
4 21 (26.58%) Investment Banking
5 18 (22.78%) Front Office
6 12 (15.19%) Financial Institution
7 7 (8.86%) Analytical Skills
8 4 (5.06%) Corporate Banking
8 4 (5.06%) Retail
8 4 (5.06%) Retail Banking
9 2 (2.53%) Advertising
9 2 (2.53%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (1.27%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 27 (34.18%) Developer
2 16 (20.25%) Java Developer
2 16 (20.25%) Lead
2 16 (20.25%) Software Engineer
3 15 (18.99%) Senior
4 12 (15.19%) Electronic Trading Developer
4 12 (15.19%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
5 10 (12.66%) Algorithm Engineer
6 9 (11.39%) Analyst
7 6 (7.59%) Senior Developer
7 6 (7.59%) Test Analyst
8 5 (6.33%) C++ Software Engineer
8 5 (6.33%) Team Leader
9 4 (5.06%) .NET Developer
9 4 (5.06%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
9 4 (5.06%) C++ Developer
9 4 (5.06%) Principal Engineer
9 4 (5.06%) Quantitative Developer
9 4 (5.06%) Software Engineer - Algorithmic Trading
10 3 (3.80%) MiFID Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (18.99%) FIX Protocol
2 13 (16.46%) .NET
3 10 (12.66%) .NET Core
3 10 (12.66%) Blazor
4 2 (2.53%) AngularJS
4 2 (2.53%) HTML
4 2 (2.53%) HTML5
4 2 (2.53%) Middleware
5 1 (1.27%) Ultra Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 19 (24.05%) Algorithms
1 19 (24.05%) Distributed Systems
2 16 (20.25%) Derivative
2 16 (20.25%) Equities
3 14 (17.72%) Hedge funds
4 9 (11.39%) Data Structures
5 8 (10.13%) TWAP
5 8 (10.13%) VWAP
6 7 (8.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 6 (7.59%) Cloud Native
8 4 (5.06%) Fixed Income
8 4 (5.06%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (3.80%) Renewable Energy
9 3 (3.80%) Solar Panel
9 3 (3.80%) Wiki
10 1 (1.27%) Data Centre
10 1 (1.27%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 23 (29.11%) Linux
2 8 (10.13%) Windows
3 5 (6.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (50.63%) Electronic Trading
2 33 (41.77%) Low Latency
3 30 (37.97%) Market Making
4 27 (34.18%) Software Engineering
5 24 (30.38%) CI/CD
6 19 (24.05%) Agile
7 18 (22.78%) Proprietary Trading
8 14 (17.72%) Multithreading
9 13 (16.46%) Continuous Integration
10 12 (15.19%) Continuous Deployment
10 12 (15.19%) Smart Order Routing
11 11 (13.92%) Problem-Solving
12 10 (12.66%) OO
13 9 (11.39%) Computer Science
13 9 (11.39%) Full-Stack Development
13 9 (11.39%) OOP
14 8 (10.13%) ETRM
14 8 (10.13%) Front End Development
14 8 (10.13%) SDLC
14 8 (10.13%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 35 (44.30%) Python
2 33 (41.77%) Java
3 32 (40.51%) C++
4 14 (17.72%) C
5 12 (15.19%) C#
6 9 (11.39%) JavaScript
7 7 (8.86%) Go
7 7 (8.86%) SQL
8 6 (7.59%) PL/SQL
8 6 (7.59%) T-SQL
9 1 (1.27%) Fortran
9 1 (1.27%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 8 (10.13%) Computer Science Degree
1 8 (10.13%) Degree
1 8 (10.13%) Master's Degree
2 1 (1.27%) SC Cleared
2 1 (1.27%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (7.59%) QA
2 4 (5.06%) MiFID
3 2 (2.53%) SEPA
4 1 (1.27%) Data Quality
Systems Management
1 6 (7.59%) Kubernetes
2 2 (2.53%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 6 (7.59%) MuleSoft
1 6 (7.59%) Oracle
2 3 (3.80%) Cisco
2 3 (3.80%) Murex
3 2 (2.53%) Arista
3 2 (2.53%) Databricks
3 2 (2.53%) Fortinet
4 1 (1.27%) ION Trading
4 1 (1.27%) Microsoft