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 17 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 300 203 212
Rank change year-on-year -97 +9 +46
Contract jobs citing Derivative 282 468 606
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.86% 1.22% 1.22%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.42% 4.03% 3.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 397 540
10th Percentile £520 £600 £525
25th Percentile £613 £663 £585
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £750 £800 £700
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +14.29% -
75th Percentile £825 £888 £844
90th Percentile £988 - £1,000
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £563 £450
% change year-on-year -4.44% +25.00% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £86.25 - -
Median hourly rate £87.50 - £47.73
75th Percentile £88.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £47.73
% change year-on-year - - +47.31%

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 11,672 11,618 16,063
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 35.44% 30.38% 32.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,136 7,126 11,008
10th Percentile £300 £294 £300
25th Percentile £406 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £542 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.02% -1.41% -
75th Percentile £638 £675 £675
90th Percentile £758 £805 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 586 475 447
10th Percentile £15.13 £14.41 £16.78
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.25 £21.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +11.11% +69.81%
75th Percentile £55.00 £70.00 £66.72
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.05 £57.35 £49.00
% change year-on-year -47.60% +17.04% +124.98%

Derivative
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Derivative 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 17 September 2025.

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 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 17 September 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 -82 266 £750 -6.25% 103
London -51 259 £750 -6.25% 94
Work from Home -89 130 £750 -6.25% 40
UK excluding London +9 22 £538 -4.44% 54
Scotland - 8 £525 -
Northern Ireland 0 7 £500 - 8
North of England -11 5 £612 +8.80%
North West -16 3 £612 +8.80%
East Midlands - 2 £600 -
Midlands - 2 £600 -
Yorkshire - 2 - -

Derivative
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 48 (17.02%) Apache
1 48 (17.02%) Apache Airflow
2 12 (4.26%) Confluence
3 5 (1.77%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.42%) HCL Notes
5 2 (0.71%) IIS
6 1 (0.35%) MQSeries
6 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 25 (8.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.35%) Fusion 360
4 1 (0.35%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.35%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 31 (10.99%) Aladdin
2 20 (7.09%) thinkFolio
3 4 (1.42%) Fidessa
4 3 (1.06%) Kondor
5 2 (0.71%) ION MarketView
6 1 (0.35%) Actimize
6 1 (0.35%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.35%) Endur
6 1 (0.35%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.35%) Orchestrade
6 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 72 (25.53%) AWS
2 48 (17.02%) dbt
2 48 (17.02%) Snowflake
3 36 (12.77%) Azure
4 17 (6.03%) Power Platform
5 8 (2.84%) npm
5 8 (2.84%) Yarn
6 5 (1.77%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.42%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 4 (1.42%) Azure Logic Apps
7 4 (1.42%) Azure Service Bus
7 4 (1.42%) Power Automate
7 4 (1.42%) PowerApps
7 4 (1.42%) Serverless
8 2 (0.71%) GCP
8 2 (0.71%) SaaS
9 1 (0.35%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.77%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (17.38%) Data Lake
2 48 (17.02%) Amazon Athena
2 48 (17.02%) Apache Arrow
2 48 (17.02%) Apache Iceberg
2 48 (17.02%) Apache Ignite
2 48 (17.02%) Dremio
3 33 (11.70%) SQL Server
4 20 (7.09%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (6.03%) Power BI
6 10 (3.55%) NoSQL
7 9 (3.19%) Relational Database
8 7 (2.48%) Redis
8 7 (2.48%) Tableau
9 4 (1.42%) DB2
9 4 (1.42%) MongoDB
10 3 (1.06%) MS Access
10 3 (1.06%) Power Query
11 2 (0.71%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.71%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.35%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 12 (4.26%) Git
1 12 (4.26%) JIRA
2 9 (3.19%) Octopus Deploy
3 8 (2.84%) webpack
4 3 (1.06%) JUnit
5 2 (0.71%) Gradle
5 2 (0.71%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.71%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.35%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.35%) GitLab
6 1 (0.35%) Hudson
6 1 (0.35%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.35%) Maven
General
1 229 (81.21%) Finance
2 163 (57.80%) Banking
3 155 (54.96%) Front Office
4 125 (44.33%) Investment Banking
5 63 (22.34%) Social Skills
6 30 (10.64%) Analytical Skills
7 16 (5.67%) Financial Institution
8 9 (3.19%) Back Office
9 6 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.71%) Law
11 2 (0.71%) Legal
12 1 (0.35%) Corporate Banking
12 1 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.35%) Prime Brokerage
12 1 (0.35%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.35%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 98 (34.75%) Developer
2 88 (31.21%) Senior
3 86 (30.50%) Analyst
4 68 (24.11%) Business Analyst
5 49 (17.38%) Software Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) AWS Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) AWS Software Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Java Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Java Software Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Python Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Python Software Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Senior Java Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Senior Java Software Engineer
6 48 (17.02%) Senior Software Engineer
7 31 (10.99%) Senior Developer
8 29 (10.28%) Java Developer
9 25 (8.87%) Business Manager
9 25 (8.87%) Fixed Income Business Analyst
10 23 (8.16%) C# Developer
11 19 (6.74%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (17.38%) NumPy
1 49 (17.38%) Pandas
1 49 (17.38%) Protocol Buffers
2 48 (17.02%) gRPC
2 48 (17.02%) SciPy
3 22 (7.80%) Kafka
4 17 (6.03%) .NET
5 13 (4.61%) React
6 12 (4.26%) FIX Protocol
7 9 (3.19%) CSS
8 7 (2.48%) Middleware
8 7 (2.48%) REST
8 7 (2.48%) Spring
9 6 (2.13%) XML
10 5 (1.77%) .NET Core
10 5 (1.77%) FpML
10 5 (1.77%) RabbitMQ
11 4 (1.42%) .NET Framework
12 3 (1.06%) SOAP
12 3 (1.06%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 116 (41.13%) Fixed Income
2 103 (36.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 88 (31.21%) Equities
4 76 (26.95%) Hedge funds
5 48 (17.02%) Pricing Data
6 31 (10.99%) Equity Derivative
7 28 (9.93%) Market Risk
8 21 (7.45%) Onboarding
9 20 (7.09%) Distributed Systems
10 17 (6.03%) Management Information System
11 16 (5.67%) Product Ownership
12 12 (4.26%) Data Protection Act
13 10 (3.55%) Credit Derivative
13 10 (3.55%) Interest Rate Derivative
14 9 (3.19%) Algorithms
14 9 (3.19%) Credit Risk
14 9 (3.19%) Data Structures
14 9 (3.19%) OTC Derivatives
15 6 (2.13%) Reference Data
16 5 (1.77%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.03%) Linux
2 8 (2.84%) Unix
3 6 (2.13%) Windows
4 1 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (51.06%) Agile
2 75 (26.60%) Asset Management
3 74 (26.24%) Investment Management
4 57 (20.21%) Software Engineering
5 48 (17.02%) Risk Management
6 47 (16.67%) Analytics
7 44 (15.60%) Business Analysis
8 43 (15.25%) Mathematics
9 41 (14.54%) Business Intelligence
10 29 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
11 28 (9.93%) User Acceptance Testing
12 26 (9.22%) Portfolio Management
13 24 (8.51%) TDD
14 23 (8.16%) CI/CD
14 23 (8.16%) Scrum
15 21 (7.45%) Stakeholder Management
16 20 (7.09%) SDLC
17 18 (6.38%) Data Analysis
17 18 (6.38%) Microservices
17 18 (6.38%) Physics
Programming Languages
1 141 (50.00%) Python
2 101 (35.82%) SQL
3 95 (33.69%) Java
4 59 (20.92%) TypeScript
5 58 (20.57%) JavaScript
6 44 (15.60%) C#
7 30 (10.64%) C++
8 4 (1.42%) VBA
9 3 (1.06%) Scala
10 2 (0.71%) Haskell
10 2 (0.71%) Rust
10 2 (0.71%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.35%) Bash
11 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.35%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.35%) Perl
11 1 (0.35%) PowerShell
11 1 (0.35%) VC++
Qualifications
1 37 (13.12%) Degree
2 12 (4.26%) Master's Degree
3 11 (3.90%) Computer Science Degree
4 10 (3.55%) Numerate Degree
5 7 (2.48%) PhD
6 2 (0.71%) PMI Certification
6 2 (0.71%) PMP
7 1 (0.35%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.32%) MiFID
2 12 (4.26%) QA
3 9 (3.19%) Data Quality
4 8 (2.84%) Basel III
5 6 (2.13%) GDPR
6 4 (1.42%) EMIR
7 3 (1.06%) COREP
7 3 (1.06%) SLA
8 2 (0.71%) Dodd-Frank
8 2 (0.71%) PMO
8 2 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.35%) IFRS
9 1 (0.35%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.35%) SEPA
9 1 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 4 (1.42%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (0.71%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.35%) Ansible
2 1 (0.35%) Grafana
2 1 (0.35%) HP ALM
2 1 (0.35%) Terraform
2 1 (0.35%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 25 (8.87%) BISAM
2 21 (7.45%) Calypso
3 16 (5.67%) Charles River
3 16 (5.67%) SimCorp
4 15 (5.32%) Microsoft
5 11 (3.90%) Oracle
6 8 (2.84%) Atlassian
6 8 (2.84%) Bloomberg
6 8 (2.84%) Murex
6 8 (2.84%) Sybase
7 7 (2.48%) Sophis
8 6 (2.13%) Databricks
9 5 (1.77%) Reuters
10 4 (1.42%) ION Trading
10 4 (1.42%) Lotus
10 4 (1.42%) Portware
11 3 (1.06%) Salesforce
12 2 (0.71%) ServiceNow
13 1 (0.35%) Alteryx
13 1 (0.35%) Dynatrace