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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 390 221 209
Rank change year-on-year -169 -12 +13
Contract jobs citing Derivative 263 358 495
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.53% 1.22% 1.13%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.62% 3.55% 3.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 161 314 441
10th Percentile £450 £494 £588
25th Percentile £600 £638 £650
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 £725 £775
Median % change year-on-year - -6.45% +6.90%
75th Percentile £850 £875 £850
90th Percentile £919 £938 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £681 £408 £638
% change year-on-year +67.12% -36.08% -20.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £56.25 £86.25 -
Median hourly rate £57.50 £87.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -34.29% - -
75th Percentile £58.75 £88.75 -
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 16,187 10,071 13,093
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.44% 34.29% 30.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,944 6,340 8,370
10th Percentile £314 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 812 430 937
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.87 £20.09 £15.39
Median hourly rate £41.97 £33.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.18% -5.71% +56.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.68 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year +38.41% -9.26% +59.09%

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 11 June 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 9 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 June 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 -160 243 £725 - 48
London -96 235 £725 -3.33% 42
Work from Home -137 88 £800 +10.34% 32
UK excluding London -115 21 £681 +67.12% 17
Scotland -7 14 £470 +16.34% 2
East of England - 3 £681 -
Northern Ireland -13 2 £625 +92.31% 5
Yorkshire -52 2 £725 - 2
North of England -84 2 £725 +20.23% 8

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 4 (1.52%) Confluence
2 1 (0.38%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.38%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 1 (0.38%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.38%) WebSphere
Applications
1 8 (3.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.52%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.42%) Aladdin
2 6 (2.28%) Summit
3 5 (1.90%) Loan IQ
3 5 (1.90%) Temenos T24
4 3 (1.14%) Advent Geneva
4 3 (1.14%) Orchestrade
5 2 (0.76%) Front Arena
5 2 (0.76%) Global One
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.38%) Bloomberg AIM
6 1 (0.38%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.38%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.38%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 46 (17.49%) AWS
2 39 (14.83%) Azure
3 27 (10.27%) GCP
4 11 (4.18%) ChatGPT
5 9 (3.42%) Anthropic Claude
5 9 (3.42%) Power Platform
6 8 (3.04%) GitHub
6 8 (3.04%) GitHub Copilot
7 4 (1.52%) SaaS
8 3 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (1.14%) Snowflake
9 2 (0.76%) Collibra
10 1 (0.38%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.38%) IaaS
10 1 (0.38%) npm
10 1 (0.38%) OCI
10 1 (0.38%) PaaS
10 1 (0.38%) Serverless
10 1 (0.38%) Yarn
Communications & Networking
1 20 (7.60%) FIX Connectivity
2 8 (3.04%) HTTP
3 1 (0.38%) RTMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (10.65%) PostgreSQL
2 23 (8.75%) Relational Database
3 20 (7.60%) Metadata
4 15 (5.70%) MongoDB
4 15 (5.70%) Redis
4 15 (5.70%) SQL Server
5 10 (3.80%) Db2
5 10 (3.80%) RDBMS
6 9 (3.42%) Power BI
6 9 (3.42%) Tableau
7 6 (2.28%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (1.52%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.52%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.76%) Crystal Reports
9 2 (0.76%) Power Query
9 2 (0.76%) Snowflake Schema
9 2 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.38%) KDB
10 1 (0.38%) Kdb+
10 1 (0.38%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 15 (5.70%) JIRA
2 13 (4.94%) Git
3 11 (4.18%) Octopus Deploy
4 8 (3.04%) TeamCity
5 4 (1.52%) ER Studio
5 4 (1.52%) ERwin
5 4 (1.52%) PowerDesigner
6 3 (1.14%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.76%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.38%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.38%) GitLab
8 1 (0.38%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.38%) Gradle
8 1 (0.38%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.38%) Maven
8 1 (0.38%) NUnit
8 1 (0.38%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.38%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.38%) webpack
General
1 168 (63.88%) Finance
2 140 (53.23%) Banking
3 133 (50.57%) Front Office
4 114 (43.35%) Investment Banking
5 67 (25.48%) Social Skills
6 40 (15.21%) Analytical Skills
7 10 (3.80%) Back Office
7 10 (3.80%) Legal
8 9 (3.42%) Financial Institution
9 4 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.14%) General Ledger
10 3 (1.14%) Private Banking
10 3 (1.14%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.14%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.38%) Japanese Language
12 1 (0.38%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.38%) Retail
Job Titles
1 139 (52.85%) Developer
2 62 (23.57%) Analyst
3 57 (21.67%) Business Analyst
4 46 (17.49%) Senior
5 40 (15.21%) Java Developer
6 38 (14.45%) Python Developer
7 27 (10.27%) C# Developer
8 24 (9.13%) Lead
8 24 (9.13%) Software Engineer
9 23 (8.75%) Front Office Developer
10 22 (8.37%) Electronic Trading Developer
11 21 (7.98%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
11 21 (7.98%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
12 20 (7.60%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
12 20 (7.60%) Low Latency Java Developer
13 19 (7.22%) Senior Developer
14 17 (6.46%) Lead Developer
15 14 (5.32%) Lead Software Engineer
16 13 (4.94%) Derivatives Business Analyst
16 13 (4.94%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (15.59%) React
2 36 (13.69%) FIX Protocol
3 18 (6.84%) Redux
4 17 (6.46%) WebSockets
5 16 (6.08%) Node.js
6 15 (5.70%) .NET
6 15 (5.70%) Kafka
7 9 (3.42%) RESTful
8 8 (3.04%) AngularJS
8 8 (3.04%) NumPy
8 8 (3.04%) REST
9 7 (2.66%) HTML
9 7 (2.66%) HTML5
9 7 (2.66%) XML
10 6 (2.28%) Middleware
10 6 (2.28%) Pandas
10 6 (2.28%) RxJava
10 6 (2.28%) Spring
11 5 (1.90%) Django
11 5 (1.90%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 81 (30.80%) Equities
2 58 (22.05%) Fixed Income
3 53 (20.15%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 40 (15.21%) Equity Derivative
5 24 (9.13%) Market Risk
6 21 (7.98%) TWAP
6 21 (7.98%) VWAP
7 19 (7.22%) Credit Risk
8 18 (6.84%) Distributed Systems
9 17 (6.46%) Data Structures
10 16 (6.08%) Algorithms
11 15 (5.70%) Data Protection Act
11 15 (5.70%) Management Information System
11 15 (5.70%) OTC Derivatives
12 12 (4.56%) Hedge funds
13 9 (3.42%) Exotic Derivative
14 8 (3.04%) Reference Data
15 6 (2.28%) Credit Derivative
15 6 (2.28%) Product Ownership
16 5 (1.90%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.46%) Unix
2 9 (3.42%) Linux
3 3 (1.14%) Debian
3 3 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (1.14%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.14%) VMS
4 2 (0.76%) Windows
5 1 (0.38%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (26.24%) Agile
2 51 (19.39%) Problem-Solving
3 49 (18.63%) Low Latency
4 43 (16.35%) Risk Management
5 42 (15.97%) Electronic Trading
6 40 (15.21%) Multithreading
6 40 (15.21%) TDD
7 36 (13.69%) Software Engineering
8 35 (13.31%) Asset Management
8 35 (13.31%) CI/CD
9 31 (11.79%) User Acceptance Testing
10 30 (11.41%) Algorithmic Trading
11 27 (10.27%) Analytics
12 25 (9.51%) Computer Science
12 25 (9.51%) DevOps
12 25 (9.51%) Full-Stack Development
12 25 (9.51%) Microservices
13 24 (9.13%) Quantitative Trading
13 24 (9.13%) Stakeholder Management
14 23 (8.75%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 112 (42.59%) Python
2 95 (36.12%) SQL
3 79 (30.04%) Java
4 52 (19.77%) C#
5 38 (14.45%) TypeScript
6 35 (13.31%) C++
7 24 (9.13%) JavaScript
8 11 (4.18%) Rust
9 7 (2.66%) PowerShell
10 6 (2.28%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.90%) Perl
11 5 (1.90%) Scala
12 4 (1.52%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.76%) F#
14 1 (0.38%) Bash
14 1 (0.38%) C
14 1 (0.38%) Korn
14 1 (0.38%) R
14 1 (0.38%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 30 (11.41%) Degree
2 18 (6.84%) Computer Science Degree
3 9 (3.42%) Master's Degree
4 6 (2.28%) PhD
5 4 (1.52%) Numerate Degree
6 2 (0.76%) PMI Certification
6 2 (0.76%) PMP
7 1 (0.38%) CBAP
7 1 (0.38%) FFIEC
7 1 (0.38%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.70%) Data Quality
2 13 (4.94%) QA
3 9 (3.42%) EMIR
4 8 (3.04%) MiFID
5 6 (2.28%) IFRS
6 4 (1.52%) GAAP
7 3 (1.14%) Basel III
8 1 (0.38%) Dodd-Frank
8 1 (0.38%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.38%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.38%) PMO
8 1 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (5.70%) Docker
2 3 (1.14%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 6 (2.28%) Kubernetes
2 3 (1.14%) Ansible
2 3 (1.14%) Control-M
2 3 (1.14%) Grafana
2 3 (1.14%) Podman
2 3 (1.14%) Prometheus
2 3 (1.14%) Terraform
3 2 (0.76%) ITRS Geneos
Vendors
1 20 (7.60%) Murex
2 16 (6.08%) Oracle
3 14 (5.32%) Bloomberg
4 10 (3.80%) Sybase
5 8 (3.04%) IBM
6 6 (2.28%) Calypso
6 6 (2.28%) Charles River
7 5 (1.90%) Google
7 5 (1.90%) jBASE
7 5 (1.90%) Temenos
8 4 (1.52%) Microsoft
9 3 (1.14%) Advent
9 3 (1.14%) Apple
9 3 (1.14%) Databricks
9 3 (1.14%) NVIDIA
10 2 (0.76%) Reuters
11 1 (0.38%) Ab Initio
11 1 (0.38%) Informatica
11 1 (0.38%) ION Trading
11 1 (0.38%) Red Hat