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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 385 224 211
Rank change year-on-year -161 -13 +6
Contract jobs citing Derivative 264 360 491
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.52% 1.21% 1.12%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.61% 3.51% 3.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 164 314 436
10th Percentile £453 £529 £588
25th Percentile £600 £638 £663
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 £725 £800
Median % change year-on-year - -9.38% +10.34%
75th Percentile £850 £875 £875
90th Percentile £919 £938 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £681 £425 £638
% change year-on-year +60.24% -33.33% -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 16,367 10,268 13,118
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.47% 34.50% 29.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,026 6,438 8,323
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £631 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 845 450 944
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £19.97 £15.24
Median hourly rate £42.71 £32.95 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.63% -7.20% +57.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.80 £81.43 £72.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.91 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.78% -8.84% +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 18 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 18 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 -162 244 £725 -1.69% 80
London -81 235 £725 -3.33% 77
Work from Home -134 88 £800 +10.34% 34
UK excluding London -114 22 £681 +60.24% 31
Scotland -5 14 £470 +16.34% 1
Yorkshire -60 3 £725 - 1
North of England -77 3 £725 +20.23% 5
East of England - 3 £681 -
Northern Ireland -14 2 £625 +83.82% 21

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 7 (2.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.52%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.41%) Aladdin
2 6 (2.27%) Summit
3 5 (1.89%) Loan IQ
3 5 (1.89%) 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%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 44 (16.67%) AWS
2 38 (14.39%) Azure
3 27 (10.23%) GCP
4 11 (4.17%) ChatGPT
5 9 (3.41%) Anthropic Claude
6 8 (3.03%) GitHub
6 8 (3.03%) GitHub Copilot
6 8 (3.03%) Power Platform
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%) Google Kubernetes Engine
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 19 (7.20%) FIX Connectivity
2 8 (3.03%) HTTP
3 1 (0.38%) RTMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (10.98%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (9.09%) Relational Database
3 20 (7.58%) Metadata
4 17 (6.44%) MongoDB
5 16 (6.06%) SQL Server
6 15 (5.68%) Redis
7 10 (3.79%) Db2
7 10 (3.79%) RDBMS
8 8 (3.03%) Power BI
8 8 (3.03%) Tableau
9 6 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (1.52%) Data Lake
10 4 (1.52%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.76%) Crystal Reports
11 2 (0.76%) Power Query
11 2 (0.76%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.38%) KDB
12 1 (0.38%) Kdb+
12 1 (0.38%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 16 (6.06%) JIRA
2 14 (5.30%) Git
3 11 (4.17%) Octopus Deploy
4 8 (3.03%) 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%) VTune
8 1 (0.38%) webpack
General
1 168 (63.64%) Finance
2 138 (52.27%) Banking
3 135 (51.14%) Front Office
4 112 (42.42%) Investment Banking
5 68 (25.76%) Social Skills
6 39 (14.77%) Analytical Skills
7 10 (3.79%) Legal
8 9 (3.41%) Financial Institution
9 8 (3.03%) Back Office
10 4 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.52%) Private Banking
11 3 (1.14%) General Ledger
11 3 (1.14%) Spanish Language
11 3 (1.14%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.38%) Japanese Language
12 1 (0.38%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.38%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 140 (53.03%) Developer
2 60 (22.73%) Analyst
3 55 (20.83%) Business Analyst
4 46 (17.42%) Senior
5 39 (14.77%) Java Developer
6 38 (14.39%) Python Developer
7 31 (11.74%) C# Developer
8 25 (9.47%) Front Office Developer
8 25 (9.47%) Lead
9 24 (9.09%) Software Engineer
10 21 (7.95%) Electronic Trading Developer
11 20 (7.58%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
11 20 (7.58%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
12 19 (7.20%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
12 19 (7.20%) Low Latency Java Developer
13 18 (6.82%) Lead Developer
14 17 (6.44%) Senior Developer
15 14 (5.30%) Lead Software Engineer
16 13 (4.92%) Derivatives Business Analyst
16 13 (4.92%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (15.91%) React
2 35 (13.26%) FIX Protocol
3 18 (6.82%) Redux
4 17 (6.44%) .NET
5 16 (6.06%) Node.js
5 16 (6.06%) WebSockets
6 14 (5.30%) Kafka
7 9 (3.41%) NumPy
8 8 (3.03%) AngularJS
8 8 (3.03%) REST
8 8 (3.03%) RESTful
9 7 (2.65%) RxJava
9 7 (2.65%) Spring
9 7 (2.65%) XML
10 6 (2.27%) Django
10 6 (2.27%) FastAPI
10 6 (2.27%) HTML
10 6 (2.27%) HTML5
10 6 (2.27%) Middleware
10 6 (2.27%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 78 (29.55%) Equities
2 58 (21.97%) Fixed Income
3 53 (20.08%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 40 (15.15%) Equity Derivative
5 23 (8.71%) Market Risk
6 20 (7.58%) TWAP
6 20 (7.58%) VWAP
7 19 (7.20%) Credit Risk
8 18 (6.82%) Distributed Systems
9 17 (6.44%) Data Structures
10 16 (6.06%) OTC Derivatives
11 15 (5.68%) Algorithms
11 15 (5.68%) Data Protection Act
12 14 (5.30%) Hedge funds
12 14 (5.30%) Management Information System
13 10 (3.79%) Exotic Derivative
14 8 (3.03%) Reference Data
15 6 (2.27%) Credit Derivative
15 6 (2.27%) Product Ownership
16 5 (1.89%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.06%) Unix
2 9 (3.41%) 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 (26.14%) Agile
2 52 (19.70%) Problem-Solving
3 48 (18.18%) Low Latency
4 43 (16.29%) Electronic Trading
5 42 (15.91%) Risk Management
6 41 (15.53%) Multithreading
7 38 (14.39%) TDD
8 37 (14.02%) Software Engineering
9 36 (13.64%) CI/CD
10 34 (12.88%) Asset Management
11 30 (11.36%) User Acceptance Testing
12 29 (10.98%) Algorithmic Trading
13 28 (10.61%) Full-Stack Development
14 27 (10.23%) Analytics
14 27 (10.23%) DevOps
15 26 (9.85%) Computer Science
15 26 (9.85%) Microservices
16 23 (8.71%) Fintech
16 23 (8.71%) Quantitative Trading
17 22 (8.33%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 111 (42.05%) Python
2 92 (34.85%) SQL
3 80 (30.30%) Java
4 57 (21.59%) C#
5 39 (14.77%) TypeScript
6 36 (13.64%) C++
7 24 (9.09%) JavaScript
8 12 (4.55%) Rust
9 7 (2.65%) PowerShell
10 5 (1.89%) Perl
10 5 (1.89%) Shell Script
11 4 (1.52%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.52%) Scala
12 2 (0.76%) F#
13 1 (0.38%) Bash
13 1 (0.38%) C
13 1 (0.38%) Korn
13 1 (0.38%) R
13 1 (0.38%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 30 (11.36%) Degree
2 19 (7.20%) Computer Science Degree
3 10 (3.79%) Master's Degree
4 7 (2.65%) PhD
5 3 (1.14%) Numerate Degree
6 1 (0.38%) FFIEC
6 1 (0.38%) ISTQB
6 1 (0.38%) PMI Certification
6 1 (0.38%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.68%) Data Quality
2 13 (4.92%) QA
3 8 (3.03%) EMIR
4 7 (2.65%) MiFID
5 6 (2.27%) 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 17 (6.44%) Docker
2 3 (1.14%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 6 (2.27%) 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 (7.58%) Murex
2 14 (5.30%) Oracle
3 13 (4.92%) Bloomberg
4 10 (3.79%) Sybase
5 8 (3.03%) IBM
6 6 (2.27%) Calypso
6 6 (2.27%) Charles River
7 5 (1.89%) Google
7 5 (1.89%) jBASE
7 5 (1.89%) 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