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 11 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 406 291 195
Rank change year-on-year -115 -96 +19
Contract jobs citing Derivative 280 306 512
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.52% 0.93% 1.31%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.57% 2.66% 4.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 258 440
10th Percentile £450 £537 £600
25th Percentile £600 £623 £663
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 £750 £800
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% -6.25% +10.34%
75th Percentile £825 £825 £888
90th Percentile £894 £988 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £538 £638
% change year-on-year -6.98% -15.69% -7.27%
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 17,859 11,513 11,824
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.44% 34.97% 30.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,838 7,095 7,573
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £770 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 996 555 606
10th Percentile £15.10 £15.13 £12.44
25th Percentile £19.34 £18.87 £18.27
Median hourly rate £43.76 £29.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +48.34% -34.44% +20.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £56.75 £66.88
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £29.33 £45.00
% change year-on-year +49.88% -34.82% +11.23%

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 11 August 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 11 August 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 11 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
England -133 257 £725 -3.33% 155
London -79 249 £725 -3.33% 147
Work from Home -113 88 £775 +3.33% 47
UK excluding London -97 25 £500 -6.98% 21
Scotland -5 16 £450 -10.00% 2
North of England -78 6 £725 +20.23% 6
Yorkshire -42 5 £725 - 1
Northern Ireland +2 2 £625 +25.00% 10
North West -44 1 £198 -67.16% 5
Midlands -55 1 - -
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 5 (1.79%) Confluence
2 1 (0.36%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.36%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (1.43%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 9 (3.21%) Aladdin
2 4 (1.43%) Loan IQ
2 4 (1.43%) Summit
3 3 (1.07%) Advent Geneva
3 3 (1.07%) Orchestrade
4 2 (0.71%) Front Arena
4 2 (0.71%) Global One
5 1 (0.36%) Bloomberg AIM
5 1 (0.36%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.36%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 38 (13.57%) AWS
2 35 (12.50%) Azure
3 28 (10.00%) GCP
4 11 (3.93%) ChatGPT
5 9 (3.21%) Anthropic Claude
6 8 (2.86%) GitHub
6 8 (2.86%) GitHub Copilot
7 7 (2.50%) Power Platform
8 5 (1.79%) Snowflake
9 4 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.07%) Amazon S3
10 3 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (1.07%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 3 (1.07%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (1.07%) Serverless
11 1 (0.36%) Collibra
11 1 (0.36%) npm
11 1 (0.36%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.36%) SaaS
11 1 (0.36%) Yarn
Communications & Networking
1 18 (6.43%) FIX Connectivity
2 8 (2.86%) HTTP
3 1 (0.36%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (7.50%) Relational Database
2 20 (7.14%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (6.79%) Metadata
4 17 (6.07%) MongoDB
4 17 (6.07%) SQL Server
5 13 (4.64%) Redis
6 10 (3.57%) Db2
7 8 (2.86%) RDBMS
7 8 (2.86%) Tableau
8 7 (2.50%) Power BI
9 6 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (1.79%) Data Lake
11 4 (1.43%) NoSQL
12 3 (1.07%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (1.07%) KDB
13 2 (0.71%) Crystal Reports
13 2 (0.71%) Kdb+
13 2 (0.71%) Snowflake Schema
13 2 (0.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 1 (0.36%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 18 (6.43%) JIRA
2 11 (3.93%) Git
3 10 (3.57%) Octopus Deploy
4 8 (2.86%) TeamCity
5 5 (1.79%) ER Studio
5 5 (1.79%) ERwin
5 5 (1.79%) PowerDesigner
6 4 (1.43%) Jenkins
7 3 (1.07%) VTune
8 1 (0.36%) GitLab
8 1 (0.36%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.36%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.36%) webpack
General
1 189 (67.50%) Finance
2 155 (55.36%) Banking
3 153 (54.64%) Front Office
4 116 (41.43%) Investment Banking
5 72 (25.71%) Social Skills
6 39 (13.93%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (5.00%) Financial Institution
8 11 (3.93%) Back Office
9 10 (3.57%) Private Banking
10 9 (3.21%) Legal
11 4 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (1.07%) Public Sector
13 2 (0.71%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.36%) Agriculture
14 1 (0.36%) General Ledger
14 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.36%) Legal Technology
14 1 (0.36%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 144 (51.43%) Developer
2 70 (25.00%) Analyst
3 61 (21.79%) Business Analyst
4 45 (16.07%) Python Developer
5 39 (13.93%) Senior
6 35 (12.50%) Java Developer
7 30 (10.71%) C# Developer
7 30 (10.71%) Front Office Developer
8 21 (7.50%) Software Engineer
9 20 (7.14%) Electronic Trading Developer
9 20 (7.14%) Lead
10 18 (6.43%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
10 18 (6.43%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
10 18 (6.43%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
10 18 (6.43%) Low Latency Java Developer
11 16 (5.71%) Quantitative Developer
12 15 (5.36%) Lead Developer
13 14 (5.00%) Senior Developer
14 12 (4.29%) Python Engineer
15 11 (3.93%) Pricing Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (12.14%) FIX Protocol
2 33 (11.79%) React
3 15 (5.36%) Redux
4 12 (4.29%) .NET
4 12 (4.29%) Node.js
4 12 (4.29%) NumPy
4 12 (4.29%) WebSockets
5 10 (3.57%) Django
5 10 (3.57%) FastAPI
5 10 (3.57%) Kafka
6 9 (3.21%) AngularJS
6 9 (3.21%) Pandas
6 9 (3.21%) REST
7 8 (2.86%) RxJava
7 8 (2.86%) Spring
8 6 (2.14%) Flask
8 6 (2.14%) Middleware
9 5 (1.79%) PySpark
9 5 (1.79%) XML
10 4 (1.43%) Polars
Miscellaneous
1 78 (27.86%) Equities
2 69 (24.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 64 (22.86%) Fixed Income
4 40 (14.29%) Equity Derivative
5 20 (7.14%) Market Risk
6 19 (6.79%) OTC Derivatives
7 18 (6.43%) Algorithms
7 18 (6.43%) Distributed Systems
7 18 (6.43%) TWAP
7 18 (6.43%) VWAP
8 16 (5.71%) Credit Risk
8 16 (5.71%) Data Structures
9 15 (5.36%) Data Protection Act
9 15 (5.36%) Hedge funds
10 14 (5.00%) Exotic Derivative
11 11 (3.93%) Management Information System
12 9 (3.21%) Credit Derivative
12 9 (3.21%) Onboarding
13 8 (2.86%) Cloud Native
13 8 (2.86%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 18 (6.43%) Unix
2 13 (4.64%) Linux
3 1 (0.36%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (23.21%) Agile
2 53 (18.93%) Problem-Solving
3 45 (16.07%) Low Latency
4 40 (14.29%) CI/CD
5 39 (13.93%) Electronic Trading
5 39 (13.93%) Multithreading
6 38 (13.57%) Software Engineering
7 35 (12.50%) User Acceptance Testing
8 33 (11.79%) Risk Management
8 33 (11.79%) Stakeholder Management
9 32 (11.43%) Asset Management
9 32 (11.43%) Data Analysis
10 31 (11.07%) Analytics
10 31 (11.07%) TDD
11 30 (10.71%) DevOps
12 29 (10.36%) Algorithmic Trading
12 29 (10.36%) Microservices
13 28 (10.00%) Validation
14 27 (9.64%) AI
15 26 (9.29%) Business Analysis
Programming Languages
1 120 (42.86%) Python
2 96 (34.29%) SQL
3 80 (28.57%) Java
4 54 (19.29%) C#
5 36 (12.86%) C++
6 33 (11.79%) TypeScript
7 18 (6.43%) JavaScript
8 12 (4.29%) Rust
9 8 (2.86%) PowerShell
10 7 (2.50%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.79%) Perl
12 4 (1.43%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.43%) Scala
13 2 (0.71%) Bash
13 2 (0.71%) F#
13 2 (0.71%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.36%) C
14 1 (0.36%) Korn
14 1 (0.36%) R
14 1 (0.36%) VBA
Qualifications
1 28 (10.00%) Degree
2 13 (4.64%) Computer Science Degree
3 12 (4.29%) Master's Degree
4 10 (3.57%) PhD
5 2 (0.71%) PMI Certification
5 2 (0.71%) PMP
6 1 (0.36%) Numerate Degree
6 1 (0.36%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.00%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.57%) EMIR
2 10 (3.57%) MiFID
2 10 (3.57%) QA
3 2 (0.71%) Basel III
3 2 (0.71%) COREP
3 2 (0.71%) Dodd-Frank
3 2 (0.71%) FINREP
3 2 (0.71%) GAAP
3 2 (0.71%) IFRS
4 1 (0.36%) ISO 20022
4 1 (0.36%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (6.07%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (2.50%) Kubernetes
2 3 (1.07%) ITRS Geneos
3 2 (0.71%) Control-M
4 1 (0.36%) Grafana
4 1 (0.36%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.36%) Terraform
4 1 (0.36%) Thomson Reuters DACS
Vendors
1 28 (10.00%) Murex
2 17 (6.07%) Bloomberg
3 10 (3.57%) Sybase
4 8 (2.86%) Calypso
4 8 (2.86%) Oracle
5 7 (2.50%) Charles River
5 7 (2.50%) IBM
6 3 (1.07%) Advent
6 3 (1.07%) Databricks
6 3 (1.07%) Google
7 2 (0.71%) Microsoft
7 2 (0.71%) SimCorp
8 1 (0.36%) Ab Initio
8 1 (0.36%) Apple
8 1 (0.36%) ION Trading
8 1 (0.36%) NYFIX
8 1 (0.36%) Refinitiv
8 1 (0.36%) Reuters
8 1 (0.36%) Splunk
8 1 (0.36%) Tradeweb