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 6 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 428 307 216
Rank change year-on-year -121 -91 -4
Contract jobs citing Derivative 268 269 426
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.49% 0.82% 1.13%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.42% 2.28% 3.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 157 215 352
10th Percentile £420 £520 £600
25th Percentile £569 £613 £673
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £710 £750 £800
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% -6.25% +14.29%
75th Percentile £788 £825 £888
90th Percentile £890 £988 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £550 £650
% change year-on-year -14.55% -15.38% +10.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 0
10th Percentile £59.13 - -
25th Percentile £63.44 £86.25 -
Median hourly rate £71.25 £87.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% - -
75th Percentile £78.44 £88.75 -
90th Percentile £82.38 - -
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 18,863 11,816 11,456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.52% 36.01% 30.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,255 7,246 6,862
10th Percentile £320 £299 £275
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £518 £526
Median % change year-on-year +1.38% -1.55% -4.36%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £670
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,299 615 417
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.78 £15.57
25th Percentile £17.72 £18.82 £22.50
Median hourly rate £37.50 £28.13 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% -40.79% +5.56%
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.45 £72.50 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £29.14 £57.35
% change year-on-year +28.71% -49.20% +13.09%

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 6 October 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Derivative over the 6 months to 6 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Top 11 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 6 October 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 -131 240 £725 -3.33% 435
London -94 232 £705 -6.00% 413
Work from Home -115 69 £755 +0.67% 106
UK excluding London -95 28 £470 -14.55% 67
Scotland -12 19 £402 -23.43% 24
North of England -71 6 £725 +18.46% 7
Yorkshire -33 5 £725 -
Northern Ireland +3 2 £643 +22.38% 18
Midlands -41 1 - - 1
North West -49 1 £198 -67.65% 6
West Midlands - 1 - -

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 6 (2.24%) Confluence
2 2 (0.75%) Apache
2 2 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.37%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.37%) CMS
Applications
1 5 (1.87%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.37%) LaTeX
3 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (4.10%) Aladdin
2 3 (1.12%) Orchestrade
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle FAH
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle Financials
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle General Ledger
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.37%) Actimize
4 1 (0.37%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.37%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.37%) MultiFonds
4 1 (0.37%) SimCorp Dimension
4 1 (0.37%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 23 (8.58%) Azure
2 17 (6.34%) AWS
3 15 (5.60%) GCP
4 9 (3.36%) ChatGPT
5 7 (2.61%) Anthropic Claude
5 7 (2.61%) GitHub
6 6 (2.24%) GitHub Copilot
7 5 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (1.87%) Snowflake
8 3 (1.12%) Amazon S3
8 3 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
8 3 (1.12%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (1.12%) Power Platform
8 3 (1.12%) Serverless
9 1 (0.37%) Amazon ECS
9 1 (0.37%) npm
9 1 (0.37%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.37%) SaaS
9 1 (0.37%) Yarn
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.10%) FIX Connectivity
2 7 (2.61%) HTTP
3 2 (0.75%) Multicast
4 1 (0.37%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.72%) Relational Database
2 16 (5.97%) MongoDB
3 15 (5.60%) SQL Server
4 14 (5.22%) Metadata
5 9 (3.36%) Db2
6 8 (2.99%) PostgreSQL
6 8 (2.99%) Redis
7 7 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (2.24%) Data Lake
9 5 (1.87%) RDBMS
10 4 (1.49%) KDB
10 4 (1.49%) NoSQL
11 3 (1.12%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (1.12%) Kdb+
11 3 (1.12%) Power BI
12 2 (0.75%) Snowflake Schema
13 1 (0.37%) Data Mining
13 1 (0.37%) PowerCenter
13 1 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 1 (0.37%) SQLPlus
Development Applications
1 20 (7.46%) JIRA
2 9 (3.36%) Git
3 6 (2.24%) Octopus Deploy
4 5 (1.87%) ER Studio
4 5 (1.87%) ERwin
4 5 (1.87%) PowerDesigner
4 5 (1.87%) TeamCity
5 4 (1.49%) Jenkins
6 3 (1.12%) VTune
7 1 (0.37%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.37%) GitLab
7 1 (0.37%) GoogleTest
7 1 (0.37%) Gradle
7 1 (0.37%) Maven
7 1 (0.37%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.37%) webpack
General
1 196 (73.13%) Finance
2 153 (57.09%) Banking
3 133 (49.63%) Front Office
4 101 (37.69%) Investment Banking
5 77 (28.73%) Social Skills
6 41 (15.30%) Analytical Skills
7 20 (7.46%) Financial Institution
8 12 (4.48%) Private Banking
9 9 (3.36%) Back Office
10 8 (2.99%) Legal
11 5 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.87%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.12%) General Ledger
12 3 (1.12%) Public Sector
13 2 (0.75%) Corporate Banking
13 2 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.37%) Agriculture
14 1 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.37%) Legal Technology
14 1 (0.37%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 121 (45.15%) Developer
2 63 (23.51%) Analyst
3 54 (20.15%) Business Analyst
4 45 (16.79%) Senior
5 35 (13.06%) Python Developer
6 30 (11.19%) Front Office Developer
7 27 (10.07%) C# Developer
8 24 (8.96%) Java Developer
9 19 (7.09%) Quantitative Developer
10 13 (4.85%) Electronic Trading Developer
10 13 (4.85%) Project Manager
10 13 (4.85%) Senior Developer
11 11 (4.10%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
11 11 (4.10%) Data Engineer
11 11 (4.10%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
11 11 (4.10%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
11 11 (4.10%) Low Latency Java Developer
11 11 (4.10%) Pricing Developer
12 10 (3.73%) Python Engineer
12 10 (3.73%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (9.70%) FIX Protocol
2 18 (6.72%) React
3 12 (4.48%) NumPy
3 12 (4.48%) WebSockets
4 11 (4.10%) .NET
4 11 (4.10%) Django
4 11 (4.10%) FastAPI
4 11 (4.10%) Pandas
4 11 (4.10%) REST
5 10 (3.73%) Spring
6 9 (3.36%) Kafka
6 9 (3.36%) PySpark
7 8 (2.99%) Flask
7 8 (2.99%) RxJava
8 7 (2.61%) AngularJS
9 5 (1.87%) RESTful
10 4 (1.49%) Middleware
10 4 (1.49%) Next.js
10 4 (1.49%) XML
11 3 (1.12%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 71 (26.49%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 67 (25.00%) Equities
3 57 (21.27%) Fixed Income
4 37 (13.81%) Equity Derivative
5 22 (8.21%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (6.34%) Exotic Derivative
7 16 (5.97%) Algorithms
7 16 (5.97%) Market Risk
7 16 (5.97%) OTC Derivatives
8 13 (4.85%) Credit Risk
8 13 (4.85%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (4.85%) Data Structures
8 13 (4.85%) Hedge funds
8 13 (4.85%) Onboarding
9 11 (4.10%) TWAP
9 11 (4.10%) VWAP
10 10 (3.73%) Management Information System
11 9 (3.36%) Reference Data
12 8 (2.99%) Cloud Native
13 7 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 18 (6.72%) Unix
2 16 (5.97%) Linux
3 2 (0.75%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (19.40%) Problem-Solving
2 46 (17.16%) Agile
2 46 (17.16%) Stakeholder Management
3 40 (14.93%) Analytics
4 37 (13.81%) CI/CD
5 36 (13.43%) Low Latency
6 35 (13.06%) Data Analysis
6 35 (13.06%) User Acceptance Testing
7 34 (12.69%) Software Engineering
8 31 (11.57%) Validation
9 30 (11.19%) Business Analysis
10 29 (10.82%) Electronic Trading
11 28 (10.45%) Microservices
11 28 (10.45%) Multithreading
12 27 (10.07%) Data Modelling
12 27 (10.07%) Risk Management
13 26 (9.70%) AI
13 26 (9.70%) DevOps
13 26 (9.70%) Performance Optimisation
14 25 (9.33%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 101 (37.69%) Python
2 86 (32.09%) SQL
3 69 (25.75%) Java
4 55 (20.52%) C#
5 36 (13.43%) C++
6 19 (7.09%) TypeScript
7 10 (3.73%) Shell Script
8 9 (3.36%) Rust
9 7 (2.61%) PowerShell
10 6 (2.24%) JavaScript
11 5 (1.87%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.49%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.12%) Perl
14 2 (0.75%) Bash
14 2 (0.75%) C
14 2 (0.75%) Scala
15 1 (0.37%) Korn
15 1 (0.37%) Kotlin
15 1 (0.37%) R
15 1 (0.37%) VBA
Qualifications
1 25 (9.33%) Degree
2 12 (4.48%) Master's Degree
3 10 (3.73%) PhD
4 7 (2.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (1.12%) PMI Certification
5 3 (1.12%) PMP
6 2 (0.75%) CFA
6 2 (0.75%) Numerate Degree
6 2 (0.75%) PRINCE2 Certification
6 2 (0.75%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.97%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.73%) MiFID
3 9 (3.36%) EMIR
4 4 (1.49%) QA
5 3 (1.12%) SLA
6 2 (0.75%) Basel III
6 2 (0.75%) COREP
6 2 (0.75%) Dodd-Frank
6 2 (0.75%) FINREP
6 2 (0.75%) GAAP
6 2 (0.75%) IFRS
7 1 (0.37%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 16 (5.97%) Docker
2 1 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (2.24%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.75%) Thomson Reuters DACS
3 1 (0.37%) Control-M
3 1 (0.37%) ITRS Geneos
3 1 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 19 (7.09%) Murex
2 17 (6.34%) Bloomberg
3 9 (3.36%) Sybase
4 8 (2.99%) Calypso
4 8 (2.99%) Oracle
5 7 (2.61%) Databricks
6 5 (1.87%) Charles River
6 5 (1.87%) IBM
7 3 (1.12%) Google
7 3 (1.12%) Microsoft
7 3 (1.12%) SimCorp
8 2 (0.75%) NYFIX
8 2 (0.75%) Refinitiv
8 2 (0.75%) Tradeweb
9 1 (0.37%) BEA
9 1 (0.37%) BMC
9 1 (0.37%) GoldenSource
9 1 (0.37%) Informatica
9 1 (0.37%) ION Trading
9 1 (0.37%) TIBCO