Derivative Contract Job Trends

Derivatives
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Derivative in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Derivative over the 6 months leading up to 28 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 384 219 205
Rank change year-on-year -165 -14 +31
Contract jobs citing Derivative 257 358 486
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.53% 1.25% 1.14%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.63% 3.65% 3.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 162 315 436
10th Percentile £463 £510 £557
25th Percentile £606 £638 £650
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £729 £725 £750
Median % change year-on-year +0.52% -3.33% +3.45%
75th Percentile £850 £875 £850
90th Percentile £973 £938 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £408 £638
% change year-on-year +22.70% -36.08% -20.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £56.25 - -
Median hourly rate £57.50 - -
75th Percentile £58.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Generic Skills
UK

Derivative falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,759 9,797 12,968
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.27% 34.20% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,727 6,226 8,360
10th Percentile £313 £289 £270
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £749 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 770 393 917
10th Percentile £16.00 £16.19 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.89 £20.00 £15.17
Median hourly rate £41.46 £32.05 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.36% -5.74% +54.55%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.55 £82.25 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £31.76 £32.12
% change year-on-year +41.69% -1.11% +51.06%

Derivative
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Derivative relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Derivative job vacancy trend in the UK

Derivative
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative

Derivative
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Derivative over the 6 months to 28 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative

Derivative
Top 7 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Derivative within the UK over the 6 months to 28 May 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
England -166 236 £733 +1.03% 88
London -94 230 £733 +1.03% 86
Work from Home -134 86 £800 +10.34% 24
UK excluding London -107 20 £500 +22.70% 18
Scotland +3 15 £470 +16.34% 1
East of England - 3 £681 -
Northern Ireland -13 2 £625 +92.31% 6

Derivative
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 5 (1.95%) Confluence
2 3 (1.17%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 1 (0.39%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.39%) WebSphere
Applications
1 12 (4.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.56%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.50%) Aladdin
2 7 (2.72%) Summit
3 5 (1.95%) Loan IQ
3 5 (1.95%) Temenos T24
4 3 (1.17%) Advent Geneva
5 2 (0.78%) Front Arena
5 2 (0.78%) Global One
5 2 (0.78%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.78%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.39%) Bloomberg AIM
6 1 (0.39%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.39%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.39%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.39%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.39%) Orchestrade
Cloud Services
1 50 (19.46%) AWS
2 40 (15.56%) Azure
3 27 (10.51%) GCP
4 11 (4.28%) ChatGPT
5 9 (3.50%) Anthropic Claude
5 9 (3.50%) Power Platform
6 8 (3.11%) GitHub
6 8 (3.11%) GitHub Copilot
7 4 (1.56%) Amazon S3
7 4 (1.56%) AWS Lambda
7 4 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.56%) SaaS
7 4 (1.56%) Serverless
8 3 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (1.17%) Snowflake
9 2 (0.78%) Amazon ECS
9 2 (0.78%) Collibra
9 2 (0.78%) npm
9 2 (0.78%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.78%) Yarn
Communications & Networking
1 19 (7.39%) FIX Connectivity
2 7 (2.72%) HTTP
3 1 (0.39%) RTMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (11.28%) PostgreSQL
2 23 (8.95%) Relational Database
3 20 (7.78%) Metadata
4 14 (5.45%) Redis
5 13 (5.06%) MongoDB
5 13 (5.06%) SQL Server
6 10 (3.89%) DB2
6 10 (3.89%) RDBMS
7 9 (3.50%) Power BI
7 9 (3.50%) Tableau
8 7 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (1.95%) NoSQL
10 4 (1.56%) Data Lake
11 3 (1.17%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.78%) Big Data
12 2 (0.78%) Crystal Reports
12 2 (0.78%) Power Query
12 2 (0.78%) Snowflake Schema
12 2 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 14 (5.45%) Git
1 14 (5.45%) JIRA
2 10 (3.89%) Octopus Deploy
3 7 (2.72%) TeamCity
4 4 (1.56%) ER Studio
4 4 (1.56%) ERwin
4 4 (1.56%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.56%) PowerDesigner
5 3 (1.17%) Bitbucket
5 3 (1.17%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.78%) GitLab
6 2 (0.78%) webpack
7 1 (0.39%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.39%) GoogleTest
7 1 (0.39%) Gradle
7 1 (0.39%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.39%) Maven
7 1 (0.39%) NUnit
7 1 (0.39%) REST Assured
General
1 170 (66.15%) Finance
2 131 (50.97%) Banking
3 123 (47.86%) Front Office
4 104 (40.47%) Investment Banking
5 69 (26.85%) Social Skills
6 42 (16.34%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (4.28%) Financial Institution
8 10 (3.89%) Back Office
9 8 (3.11%) Legal
10 4 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.17%) General Ledger
11 3 (1.17%) Spanish Language
11 3 (1.17%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.78%) Private Banking
13 1 (0.39%) Japanese Language
13 1 (0.39%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.39%) Retail
Job Titles
1 132 (51.36%) Developer
2 57 (22.18%) Analyst
3 53 (20.62%) Business Analyst
4 43 (16.73%) Senior
5 39 (15.18%) Java Developer
6 38 (14.79%) Python Developer
7 25 (9.73%) Lead
8 24 (9.34%) Software Engineer
9 22 (8.56%) Electronic Trading Developer
10 20 (7.78%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
10 20 (7.78%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
10 20 (7.78%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
10 20 (7.78%) Senior Developer
11 19 (7.39%) C# Developer
11 19 (7.39%) Low Latency Java Developer
12 16 (6.23%) Lead Developer
13 15 (5.84%) Front Office Developer
14 14 (5.45%) Lead Software Engineer
15 13 (5.06%) Python Engineer
16 12 (4.67%) Developer/Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (15.18%) React
2 34 (13.23%) FIX Protocol
3 19 (7.39%) Redux
4 16 (6.23%) Node.js
4 16 (6.23%) WebSockets
5 15 (5.84%) Kafka
6 14 (5.45%) .NET
7 8 (3.11%) AngularJS
7 8 (3.11%) HTML
7 8 (3.11%) NumPy
7 8 (3.11%) REST
7 8 (3.11%) RESTful
8 7 (2.72%) HTML5
8 7 (2.72%) Pandas
8 7 (2.72%) XML
9 5 (1.95%) CSS
10 4 (1.56%) RxJava
10 4 (1.56%) Spring
11 3 (1.17%) Loki
11 3 (1.17%) RxJS
Miscellaneous
1 86 (33.46%) Equities
2 55 (21.40%) Fixed Income
3 44 (17.12%) Equity Derivative
3 44 (17.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 25 (9.73%) Market Risk
5 20 (7.78%) Credit Risk
5 20 (7.78%) Distributed Systems
5 20 (7.78%) TWAP
5 20 (7.78%) VWAP
6 19 (7.39%) Algorithms
7 17 (6.61%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (5.84%) OTC Derivatives
9 14 (5.45%) Data Structures
9 14 (5.45%) Management Information System
10 13 (5.06%) Hedge funds
11 8 (3.11%) Exotic Derivative
11 8 (3.11%) Reference Data
12 7 (2.72%) Product Ownership
13 6 (2.33%) Cloud Native
13 6 (2.33%) Credit Derivative
Operating Systems
1 15 (5.84%) Unix
2 7 (2.72%) Linux
3 3 (1.17%) Debian
3 3 (1.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (1.17%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.17%) VMS
4 2 (0.78%) Windows
5 1 (0.39%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (26.46%) Agile
2 52 (20.23%) Risk Management
3 49 (19.07%) Problem-Solving
4 45 (17.51%) Low Latency
5 41 (15.95%) TDD
6 40 (15.56%) Electronic Trading
7 38 (14.79%) CI/CD
8 36 (14.01%) Multithreading
8 36 (14.01%) Software Engineering
9 34 (13.23%) Asset Management
10 30 (11.67%) Analytics
10 30 (11.67%) User Acceptance Testing
11 28 (10.89%) Algorithmic Trading
12 26 (10.12%) Computer Science
13 25 (9.73%) AI
13 25 (9.73%) DevOps
14 24 (9.34%) Data Analysis
14 24 (9.34%) Mathematics
15 23 (8.95%) Stakeholder Management
15 23 (8.95%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 116 (45.14%) Python
2 93 (36.19%) SQL
3 74 (28.79%) Java
4 45 (17.51%) C#
5 37 (14.40%) C++
6 36 (14.01%) TypeScript
7 25 (9.73%) JavaScript
8 10 (3.89%) Rust
9 6 (2.33%) PowerShell
10 5 (1.95%) Perl
10 5 (1.95%) Scala
10 5 (1.95%) Shell Script
11 4 (1.56%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.78%) F#
12 2 (0.78%) VBA
13 1 (0.39%) Bash
13 1 (0.39%) C
13 1 (0.39%) R
13 1 (0.39%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 35 (13.62%) Degree
2 17 (6.61%) Computer Science Degree
3 11 (4.28%) Master's Degree
4 8 (3.11%) Numerate Degree
4 8 (3.11%) PhD
5 2 (0.78%) PMI Certification
5 2 (0.78%) PMP
6 1 (0.39%) CBAP
6 1 (0.39%) FFIEC
6 1 (0.39%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.23%) Data Quality
2 15 (5.84%) QA
3 10 (3.89%) EMIR
4 9 (3.50%) MiFID
5 6 (2.33%) IFRS
6 4 (1.56%) Basel III
7 3 (1.17%) GAAP
8 2 (0.78%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.78%) SLA
9 1 (0.39%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.39%) Dodd-Frank
9 1 (0.39%) IAS 32
9 1 (0.39%) IAS 39
9 1 (0.39%) IFRS 17
9 1 (0.39%) PMO
9 1 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (5.84%) Docker
2 3 (1.17%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 7 (2.72%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.56%) Grafana
3 3 (1.17%) Ansible
3 3 (1.17%) Control-M
3 3 (1.17%) Podman
3 3 (1.17%) Prometheus
3 3 (1.17%) Terraform
4 2 (0.78%) ITRS Geneos
Vendors
1 19 (7.39%) Murex
2 18 (7.00%) Oracle
3 12 (4.67%) Bloomberg
4 10 (3.89%) Sybase
5 8 (3.11%) IBM
6 6 (2.33%) Calypso
6 6 (2.33%) Charles River
7 5 (1.95%) Google
7 5 (1.95%) jBASE
7 5 (1.95%) Temenos
8 4 (1.56%) Microsoft
9 3 (1.17%) Advent
9 3 (1.17%) Apple
9 3 (1.17%) Databricks
9 3 (1.17%) NVIDIA
10 2 (0.78%) Reuters
11 1 (0.39%) Ab Initio
11 1 (0.39%) Informatica
11 1 (0.39%) ION Trading
11 1 (0.39%) Red Hat