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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 405 257 202
Rank change year-on-year -148 -55 +19
Contract jobs citing Derivative 265 329 501
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.50% 1.01% 1.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.51% 2.92% 3.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 282 439
10th Percentile £450 £537 £594
25th Percentile £573 £627 £666
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 £738 £800
Median % change year-on-year -1.69% -7.81% +10.34%
75th Percentile £850 £830 £888
90th Percentile £897 £939 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £613 £500 £638
% change year-on-year +22.50% -21.57% -20.31%
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 17,509 11,276 12,889
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.25% 34.67% 30.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,724 6,979 8,211
10th Percentile £317 £300 £284
25th Percentile £416 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £630 £648 £663
90th Percentile £749 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 888 538 820
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.33 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.58 £18.87 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +45.32% -19.33% +25.00%
75th Percentile £70.06 £58.46 £63.75
90th Percentile £87.50 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +44.13% -23.75% +4.61%

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 17 July 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 17 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Top 10 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 July 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 -158 244 £725 -3.33% 60
London -89 237 £725 -3.33% 57
Work from Home -122 87 £800 +10.34% 16
UK excluding London -106 23 £613 +22.50% 8
Scotland -5 15 £450 -0.44% 1
Yorkshire -40 5 £725 - 1
North of England -78 5 £725 +20.23% 3
Northern Ireland -7 2 £625 +53.37%
Midlands -58 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 6 (2.26%) Confluence
2 1 (0.38%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.38%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (1.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.51%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (4.15%) Aladdin
2 6 (2.26%) Summit
3 4 (1.51%) Loan IQ
4 3 (1.13%) Advent Geneva
4 3 (1.13%) Orchestrade
5 2 (0.75%) Front Arena
5 2 (0.75%) Global One
6 1 (0.38%) Bloomberg AIM
6 1 (0.38%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 42 (15.85%) AWS
2 36 (13.58%) Azure
3 30 (11.32%) GCP
4 11 (4.15%) ChatGPT
5 9 (3.40%) Anthropic Claude
6 8 (3.02%) GitHub
6 8 (3.02%) GitHub Copilot
7 6 (2.26%) Power Platform
8 5 (1.89%) Snowflake
9 4 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.13%) Amazon S3
10 3 (1.13%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (1.13%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 3 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (1.13%) Serverless
11 2 (0.75%) Collibra
11 2 (0.75%) SaaS
12 1 (0.38%) npm
12 1 (0.38%) OpenShift
12 1 (0.38%) Yarn
Communications & Networking
1 18 (6.79%) FIX Connectivity
2 8 (3.02%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (9.81%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (9.06%) Relational Database
3 20 (7.55%) Metadata
4 18 (6.79%) MongoDB
5 16 (6.04%) SQL Server
6 13 (4.91%) Redis
7 10 (3.77%) Db2
7 10 (3.77%) RDBMS
8 8 (3.02%) Tableau
9 6 (2.26%) Power BI
10 5 (1.89%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (1.51%) Data Lake
11 4 (1.51%) NoSQL
12 3 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
13 2 (0.75%) Crystal Reports
13 2 (0.75%) KDB
13 2 (0.75%) Kdb+
13 2 (0.75%) Snowflake Schema
13 2 (0.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 1 (0.38%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 16 (6.04%) JIRA
2 10 (3.77%) Octopus Deploy
3 9 (3.40%) Git
4 8 (3.02%) TeamCity
5 4 (1.51%) ER Studio
5 4 (1.51%) ERwin
5 4 (1.51%) PowerDesigner
6 3 (1.13%) VTune
7 2 (0.75%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.38%) GitLab
8 1 (0.38%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.38%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.38%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.38%) webpack
General
1 173 (65.28%) Finance
2 142 (53.58%) Banking
2 142 (53.58%) Front Office
3 109 (41.13%) Investment Banking
4 70 (26.42%) Social Skills
5 40 (15.09%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (3.40%) Back Office
6 9 (3.40%) Legal
7 8 (3.02%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.64%) Private Banking
9 4 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.13%) Public Sector
11 2 (0.75%) General Ledger
12 1 (0.38%) Agriculture
12 1 (0.38%) Corporate Banking
12 1 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.38%) Legal Technology
12 1 (0.38%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 134 (50.57%) Developer
2 70 (26.42%) Analyst
3 63 (23.77%) Business Analyst
4 41 (15.47%) Python Developer
5 38 (14.34%) Senior
6 36 (13.58%) Java Developer
7 30 (11.32%) C# Developer
8 28 (10.57%) Front Office Developer
9 25 (9.43%) Lead
10 24 (9.06%) Software Engineer
11 20 (7.55%) Electronic Trading Developer
12 19 (7.17%) Lead Developer
13 18 (6.79%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
13 18 (6.79%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
13 18 (6.79%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
13 18 (6.79%) Low Latency Java Developer
14 14 (5.28%) Lead Software Engineer
14 14 (5.28%) Senior Developer
15 13 (4.91%) Derivatives Business Analyst
16 12 (4.53%) Developer/Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (14.72%) React
2 33 (12.45%) FIX Protocol
3 18 (6.79%) Redux
4 16 (6.04%) Node.js
5 13 (4.91%) .NET
5 13 (4.91%) WebSockets
6 11 (4.15%) Kafka
7 10 (3.77%) NumPy
8 8 (3.02%) Django
8 8 (3.02%) FastAPI
8 8 (3.02%) REST
8 8 (3.02%) RxJava
8 8 (3.02%) Spring
9 7 (2.64%) AngularJS
9 7 (2.64%) Pandas
9 7 (2.64%) XML
10 6 (2.26%) Middleware
11 5 (1.89%) RESTful
12 4 (1.51%) HTML
12 4 (1.51%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 77 (29.06%) Equities
2 62 (23.40%) Fixed Income
3 59 (22.26%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 39 (14.72%) Equity Derivative
5 21 (7.92%) Market Risk
6 18 (6.79%) OTC Derivatives
6 18 (6.79%) TWAP
6 18 (6.79%) VWAP
7 17 (6.42%) Credit Risk
7 17 (6.42%) Data Structures
8 16 (6.04%) Distributed Systems
9 15 (5.66%) Algorithms
10 14 (5.28%) Data Protection Act
10 14 (5.28%) Hedge funds
11 12 (4.53%) Management Information System
12 10 (3.77%) Exotic Derivative
13 8 (3.02%) Cloud Native
14 7 (2.64%) Credit Derivative
14 7 (2.64%) Onboarding
14 7 (2.64%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 19 (7.17%) Unix
2 9 (3.40%) Linux
3 1 (0.38%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (26.42%) Agile
2 55 (20.75%) Problem-Solving
3 45 (16.98%) Low Latency
4 40 (15.09%) Electronic Trading
5 39 (14.72%) Multithreading
6 37 (13.96%) CI/CD
6 37 (13.96%) Software Engineering
7 35 (13.21%) Asset Management
7 35 (13.21%) Risk Management
8 34 (12.83%) User Acceptance Testing
9 32 (12.08%) TDD
10 29 (10.94%) Analytics
10 29 (10.94%) DevOps
11 28 (10.57%) Algorithmic Trading
11 28 (10.57%) Data Analysis
11 28 (10.57%) Stakeholder Management
12 27 (10.19%) Microservices
13 26 (9.81%) AI
13 26 (9.81%) Validation
14 25 (9.43%) Portfolio Management
Programming Languages
1 112 (42.26%) Python
2 95 (35.85%) SQL
3 78 (29.43%) Java
4 53 (20.00%) C#
5 36 (13.58%) TypeScript
6 34 (12.83%) C++
7 21 (7.92%) JavaScript
8 12 (4.53%) Rust
9 7 (2.64%) PowerShell
9 7 (2.64%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.89%) Perl
11 4 (1.51%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.51%) Scala
12 2 (0.75%) F#
12 2 (0.75%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.38%) Bash
13 1 (0.38%) C
13 1 (0.38%) Korn
13 1 (0.38%) R
13 1 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 28 (10.57%) Degree
2 15 (5.66%) Computer Science Degree
3 11 (4.15%) Master's Degree
4 9 (3.40%) PhD
5 1 (0.38%) ISTQB
5 1 (0.38%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.66%) Data Quality
2 12 (4.53%) QA
3 9 (3.40%) EMIR
4 8 (3.02%) MiFID
5 3 (1.13%) IFRS
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
7 1 (0.38%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.38%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (6.79%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (2.64%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.75%) Control-M
2 2 (0.75%) ITRS Geneos
3 1 (0.38%) Grafana
3 1 (0.38%) Prometheus
3 1 (0.38%) Terraform
Vendors
1 25 (9.43%) Murex
2 14 (5.28%) Bloomberg
3 13 (4.91%) Oracle
4 10 (3.77%) Sybase
5 8 (3.02%) Charles River
6 7 (2.64%) Calypso
6 7 (2.64%) IBM
7 3 (1.13%) Advent
7 3 (1.13%) Databricks
7 3 (1.13%) Google
7 3 (1.13%) Microsoft
8 2 (0.75%) SimCorp
9 1 (0.38%) Ab Initio
9 1 (0.38%) Apple
9 1 (0.38%) ION Trading
9 1 (0.38%) Reuters
9 1 (0.38%) Solace